FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



261 



ministers, finally led to the decisive step of the 5th 

 of September, when the king dissolved the chamber 

 of deputies. 



The new chamber was opened, November, 4, 1816, 

 with a speech from the king, which described in 

 plain terms the unfavourable condition of France. 

 The budget of 1817 was much greater than that of 



1816, on account of the deficit of the three preceding 

 years. The principal objects discussed in the two 

 chambers related to the electoral colleges, the finan- 

 ces, the, responsibility of the ministers, and the free- 

 dom of the press. The independents and liberals 

 obtained the law of election of Februarys, 1817, and 

 the recruiting law of March 6, 1818, but did not suc- 

 ceed in their attacks on the laws of exception, by 

 which the complete operation of the charter was 

 prevented. Meanwhile, the ultras lost ground, parti- 

 cularly by the discovery of their intrigues in exciting 

 the troubles in Grenoble, 1816, and in Lyons, 1817. 

 The ministers had also the majority in the session of 



1817, which was closed May 16, 1818. The admin- 

 istration, however, oscillated between the contending 

 parties, until the discovery of the white conspiracy, 

 in July, 1818, by which the ultras wished to engage 

 the allies to assist in abolishing the charter, when it 

 inclined more to the liberals and the national party. 

 (See Decazes.) On account of the appearances of 

 permanent tranquillity in the kingdom, the ministry 

 succeeded in obtaining a diminution of the army of 

 occupation one fifth, in the spring of 1817 ; and the 

 financial difficulties of 1817 were obviated by a loan 

 from the Barings in London, and Hope in Amsterdam. 

 The public confidence in the administration of the 

 finances was increased by the admission of French 

 houses in the loan of 1818, who offered more than 

 was wanted, and on better terms than the foreigners. 

 But the new loan of twenty-four millions, which was 

 necessary to effect the complete evacuation of France 

 by the army of occupation in the autumn of 1818, 

 was concluded, at the request of the allies, with the 

 houses of Baring and of Hope, notwithstanding more 

 favourable conditions offered by the French bankers, 

 Lafitte, Casimir-Perrier, and others, who were willing 

 to engage for the whole sum. This circumstance 

 gave such offence in France, that the foreign houses 

 finally relinquished a part of the sum in favour of 

 some of the French houses. With the evacuation of 

 the French territory by the foreign troops, which was 

 determined upon by the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 

 the 9th of October, 1818, and accomplished in the 

 course of the same year, was connected the payment 

 of the expenses of the war, and of the individual 

 <-l;iiiiis of the subjects of foreign powers on the French 

 government and nation. Here the French diplomacy 

 was successful. In the settlement of the matter of 

 liquidations, the amount of which was reduced from 

 1 600 to 1390 millions, the payment of the debt which 

 had been assumed by France, by the treaty of May 

 30, 1814, and acknowledged by the chamber of 1815, 

 as well as by the treaty of November 20, 1815, was 

 postponed until the year 1818; and, as Russia and 

 Wellington were agreed on this point, the other com- 

 missioners were obliged to accept, in payment of 

 these 1390 millions, a rent of sixteen millions and 

 40,000 francs, which, at the market price, corre- 

 sponded to a capital of 275 million francs about the 

 seventh part of their lawful claims. A rent of three 

 millions was granted to Britain in a separate article, 

 to satisfy the claims of British subjects. Finally, the 

 remaining 280 millions were reduced at Aix-la- 

 Chapelle to 265 million francs. France was admit- 

 ted, November 12, into the alliance of the great 

 European powers (see Quadruple Alliance), and con- 

 curred in the declaration of the Christian law of 

 nations, as the new basis of the European policy, at 



Aix-la-Chapelle, November 15, 1818. The old 

 royalist spirit continued to revive in France, and the 

 prime minister, the duke de Richelieu (q. v.) f declared 

 himself against the further development of the con- 

 stitutional system, and against the retaining of the 

 existing mode of election. A schism in the ministry 

 was the consequence, until December, 1818, when 

 the minister Decazes gained a complete victory over 

 the ultras, in the defence of the law of election and 

 the maintenance of liberal principles. 



Louis XVIII. named a new ministry, December 

 28 (the third since 1815), in which the marquis 

 Dessoles (general and peer) succeeded Richelieu as 

 president of the ministerial council ; baron Louis 

 succeeded Corvette in the department of the finan- 

 ces ; marshal StCyr received the department of war; 

 Laine was followed by the count Decazes, in the 

 ministry of the interior (after the suppression of the 

 ministry of the police), and De Serre was made 

 keeper of the seals, and minister of justice. But in 

 the double conflict with the ultra royalists, and the 

 extreme left (see Cote droif), this ministry was over- 

 thrown the 19th of November, 1819. Dessoles, St 

 Cyr, and Louis, who defended the liberal construc- 

 tion of the charter, resigned ; Pasquier, Latour- 

 Maubourg, and Roy succeeded them, and Decazes 

 became prime minister. Decazes, with De Serre 

 and Portalis, concurred with the views of the moder- 

 ate right side, since the liberal party went too far 

 for them in their demands. The new ministry was 

 as violently attacked by the ultra royalists in the 

 chamber (the extreme right), on account of its mo- 

 deration, as by the liberals (on the extreme left). 

 The administration had carried several measures, in 

 opposition to the provisions of the charter, by the 

 second ministry (Richelieu and Laine), the object of 

 which was to overcome the opposition of all parties. 

 Among them were the severe measures against con- 

 structive offences, and the censorship of journals and 

 periodical writings on political subjects. Hence the 

 continued disputes of the liberal journals (the Mi- 

 nerve Franqaise, the Bibliothegue Historique, the 

 Censeur Europeen, &c.^ with the ministerial papers, 

 among which the Journal des Debuts was the most 

 distinguished, and with the papers of the ultra roy- 

 alists, the Qttotidienne, the Conservateur, the Dra- 

 peau blanc, and others, which attacked the charter 

 itself. Able writers, such as Benjamin Constant, 

 Comte, and Dunoyer, wrote for the liberals ; Bonald, 

 Fieve'e, and Chateaubriand for the ultras. As 

 writers often understand the laws differently from the 

 judge and the crown advocate, fines and imprison- 

 ments were often the share of those who wrote on 

 the liberal side. The prevotal courts were abolished 

 at the close of thesession-(1818), and crimes, which, 

 till then, had been under their jurisdiction, were 

 again subjected to the jurisdiction of the assizes. The 

 droit d'aubaine (see Aubaine), which had been re- 

 stored by Napoleon, was abolished in 1819. While 

 this secret reaction of the adherents of the old system 

 (among whom the theocratic party, or the peres de 

 lafoi, endeavoured to undermine the constitutional 

 system by means of missions and schools) was going 

 on, the majority of the nation desired a pure consti- 

 tutional miiiistry, which should fortify the charter by 

 laws, and national institutions resembling it in spirit, 

 and thus frustrate the intrigues of the ultras, who 

 aimed at the restoration of the ancient feudal system 

 the three estates with their privileges, the parlia- 

 ments, and the letires de cachet. A gouvernement 

 occulte was maintained, under the direction of baron 

 Vitrolles, to forward the views of the ultras. Some 

 officers of state abused their power ; the administra- 

 tion of criminal justice suffered gross abuses, and 

 was by no means in accordance with the provisions 



