262 



FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



of the charter, in favour of personal liberty. (See 

 Berton's Observations critiques stir la Procedure cri- 

 ninelle d'apret le Code gut regit la France, and 

 Berenger, De la Jttstice criminelle en France, Paris, 

 1818.) The charter had abolished the penalty of 

 confiscation ; but the enormous fines, imposed by the 

 law of November 9, were equivalent to actual con- 

 fiscations. Close confinement (le secret) was a 

 kind of moral torture, which often lasted for years, 

 before an innocent individual was set at liberty. In 

 the prisons, condemned criminals were confounded 

 with those who were merely confined for trial, or 

 sentenced to imprisonment ; the dregs of the people 

 with men detained for political offences. It was 

 also a source of discontent, which existed till the 

 final banishment of the Bourbons, that the nation 

 was not permitted to choose a single magistrate. 

 All officers were appointed by the government, and 

 the councils of the departments declared the wishes 

 of the nation in the name of their departments, 

 without any authority from tliem, so that their voices 

 were often opposed to the opinion of the majority 

 in the departments. Even the national guard, which 

 was not permitted to elect its officers, was not every 

 where composed of proprietors, but often arbitra- 

 rily formed of persons without a residence, and 

 without property ; so that, in several departments, 

 it was merely an armed instrument of a party. 

 This was the reason that so many outrages against 

 the Protestants escaped unpunished in different 

 parts of France. In reading the work of Aig- 

 nan, member of the French academy, De I'Etat 

 des Protestans en France depuis le seizieme Siecle 

 jusqu'd nos Jours, 1818, we find ourselves trans- 

 ported back to the times of the dragoonades. Go- 

 vernment at last put a stop to their outrages ; but 

 the murderers were left unpunished.* The recruit- 

 ing law of St Cyr, which restored equality in the 

 military service, was particularly odious to the 

 friends of aristocratic privileges. The nobility com- 

 plained of persecution, while the state calendar 

 proved that they held seven-eighths of the prefectures 

 and the most important mayoralties ! They were at 

 the head of the military divisions, of the legions, of 

 the gendarmerie, of the tribunals, of the embassies ; 

 and were even to be found in the financial depart- 

 ment ! Hence the complaint, that civil equality did 

 not exist in France, and that the executive power 

 was mostly in the hands of a caste, which remem- 

 bered its lost privileges, and hated the new order of 

 things. In addition to this, the accusations of sedi- 

 tion and treason, the conduct of the missionaries, 

 and the intrigues at the elections of the deputies, 

 inflamed the passions of the people. 



The legislation and administration, sometimes 

 more and sometimes less influenced by the constitu- 

 tional system, are the most important subjects of the 

 domestic history of France. The external policy of 

 France, in the modern European system, was in 

 unison with the internal change. While strict mon- 

 archical principles were gradually gaining strength 

 and influence in all departments of the domestic 

 d ministration, the French cabinet entered more 

 and more deeply into the continental system of the 

 great European powers. The accession of France 

 to the holy alliance, at the congress of Aix-la Cha- 

 pelle (1818), engaged the government in a policy, 

 the tendency of which was to bring the constitution 



* These violences did not cease until March, 181!), when 

 a great number of the inhabitants of thu (Jevennes pro. 

 seated themselves at the city of Nt*mes, with the declara- 

 tioa, " that 30,000 men are rea.ly to descend from the 

 mountain* with the weapon* of despair, if the safety of 

 their brethren require it." The Methodists in England 

 oxerted themselves, at that tinv, in favour of the Frenr.h 

 Protests nts. 



and administration of the country more into aoocr- 

 dance with the absolute principles of the system of 

 stability, as it was called by the sovereigns. The 

 left side in the chamber of deputies, however, strug- 

 gled to obtain a liberal ministry ; while the govern- 

 ment leaned towards the views of the centre, or 

 moderate royalists, and was supported by the majo- 

 rity of the extreme right. The election laws were 

 found too favourable to the liberal party, and the 

 ministry therefore proposed a new election law, for 

 the purpose of giving the richest land-holders the 

 preponderance in the elections of the deputies, and, 

 at the same time, some laws of exception, relative 

 to personal liberty and the liberty of the press 

 (which had been provided for only a short time 

 before, June 9, 1819), for the purpose of checking 

 the expression of public opinion. 



Under these circumstances, the session of 1819 

 (from Nov. 29, 1819, to July 22, 1820) was agitated 

 by the most violent conflicts. The influence of the 

 royalists was manifested in the exclusion of Gre'goire 

 from the chamber, although they did not succeed in 

 having him pronounced unworthy of a seat. The 

 two parties attacked each other with reciprocal accu- 

 sations, and Decazes, the president of the ministry, 

 had already proposed several bills (projets), calculat- 

 ed to gain over the moderate of both sides to the 

 ministry, when the bloody act of a political fanatic 

 (Feb. 13, 1820) , the murder of the duke of Berry (see 

 Louvel), astonished the whole nation, and drew forth 

 the most virulent accusations from the extreme right. 

 M. de Labourdonnaye called upon the chamber to use 

 all means for the suppression of doctrines equally 

 dangerous to the throne and to humanity. The right 

 side was particularly violent in its attacks on Decazes. 

 He brought forward the proj'et of a new law of elec- 

 tion, and of two laws of exception ; but, finding that 

 he had lost the majority, he resigned, Feb. 18. The 

 duke of Richelieu, who was proposed to the king by 

 Decazes himself, succeeded him as president of the 

 ministry (Feb. 20, 1820), and count Simeon as minis- 

 ter of the interior (the fifth ministry). The contest 

 concerning these three projets terminated in the 

 triumph of the absolutists over the liberals ; and 

 their influence was soon perceptible in the legislation 

 and administration. The power of the ministry was 

 gradually increased by the eloquence of Deserre, and 

 (after 1822) by the talents of Villeje. The first law 

 of exception (loi sur la liberte individuelle) of March 

 26, 1820, gave the ministers the power of arresting 

 any individual, on a mere suspicion of treason, by an 

 order signed by three ministers ; the person so arrest- 

 ed was to be brought to trial within three months at 

 the farthest ; the law was to continue in force onlr 

 until the close of the ensuing session. The principal 

 orators of the opposition in vain maintained that the 

 existing laws contained sufficient provisions against 

 seditious designs. The second law of exception, of 

 March 31, 1820 (loi sur la publication des jour naux , 

 ecritsperiodiques, desseins, &c.), restoring the censor- 

 ship, was contested with still greater violence. Both 

 parties were dissatisfied with it. The left side re- 

 minded the ministry of the want of laws regulating 

 the local administrations, the national guard, the 

 jury, &c. Some distinguished members of the centre, 

 who defended a consistent maintenance of the princi- 

 ples of the cliarte (thence called the doctrinaires), 

 had already deserted the ministry before the resignation 

 of Decazes, and co-operated more or less with the 

 left side. On this account, the centre was now dis- 

 tinguished into the left centre and the right centre ; 

 the latter being occupied by moderate royalists 

 of the ministerial party. But Deserre. and Pasquier 

 still commanded a majority of votes in both cham- 

 bers. The law establishing the censorship, which, 



