FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



265 



and grand-master of the university, who had been 

 intrusted with the new ministry of public worship. 

 Louis XVIII. died the 16th September, and his 

 brother, Charles X., ascended the throne. The king 

 declared his intention of confirming the charter, 

 appointed the dauphin (duke of Angouleme) a mem- 

 ber of tlie ministerial council, and suppressed (Sept. 

 29) the censorship of the public journals. The count 

 de Clermont-Tonnere was appointed minister of war; 

 the duke Doudeauville, minister of the royal palace; 

 i'.nd baron Damas, minister of foreign affairs. Ville'le 

 secured the confidence of the king, by his prudent 

 administration, and by his concessions to the aristo- 

 cratical and theocratical spirit. Chateaubriand con- 

 tinued, by his organ, the Journal des Debats, to be a 

 most eloquent opponent of his measures. 



In the session of 1825 (from Dec. 22, 1824, to 

 June 13, 1825), the triumph of Villele was complete. 

 The bill for the indemnification of the emigrants, by 

 granting 1,000,000,000 francs in rentes, as an indem- 

 nity for their estates, the proceeds of the sale of which 

 had been deposited in the public treasury, and that 

 for the reduction of rentes, now passed. Both mea- 

 sures were loudly condemned by the nation, which 

 became more and more opposed to the policy of the 

 government. A law was also passed punishing 

 sacrilege (the profanation of sacred places and uten- 

 sils) with death. The civil list of the king was fixed 

 at 25,000,000 annually, for life ; the appanage of the 

 royal family at 7,000,000. The duke of Orleans 

 received the title of royal highness. Immediately 

 after the acceptance of the budget for 1826, the 

 splendid coronation of the king, Charles X., took 

 place (May 29) at Rheims, according to ancient cus- 

 tom, with the addition, however, of the oath of the 

 king, to govern according to the charte. The king 

 had already acknowledged the independence of Hayti, 

 by the ordinance of April 17, 1825. Commercial 

 intercourse with the Spanish American republics was 

 also permitted, but without a recognition of their 

 independence, to which Spain refused to accede. A 

 preliminary treaty of commerce was concluded with 

 Great Britain, and a treaty of commerce and amity 

 with the empire of Brazil (Oct. 4, 1826). In the 

 session of 1826 (opened Jan. 31st, and closed July 

 6th), the ministry was strengthened in the chamber 

 of peers by the nomination of thirty-one new peers. 

 The bill establishing the right of primogeniture and 

 entails (substitutions) was passed, however, only 

 after striking out the provisions on the former point, 

 in which the nation discerned the foundation of a 

 new aristocracy, and the destruction of a legal 

 equality of all citizens. It was rejected by the peers 

 ou the 8th April, 1826. The public attention was 

 most attracted by the trial of Ouvrard. When the 

 French army, in the Spanish campaign, had reached 

 Bayonne, the duke of Angouleme found the supplies 

 of food and clothing deficient. In this emergency, 

 Ouvrard stepped in, and, by large advances of 

 money, saved the army. The terms of his contract 

 were exorbitant, and he succeeded in effecting it by 

 extensive bribery, which, however, was not the only 

 shameful part of the transaction. Double rations 

 were drawn for 100,000 men, because the troops, 

 whilst employed in the Spanish war. still remained 

 on the rolls at home, and the allowances for pay 

 were made in the same ratio. This was one of the 

 causes of the enormous expense of the campaign, 

 stated in the American Annual Reg. at 397,000,000 

 fr. ; in the German Con. Lex. at 207,827,000. Vil- 

 Itsle, on the first report of the business, had Ouvrard 

 arrested ; but he soon repented this step, when Ouv- 

 rard was tried by the cour royale, and then by the 

 peers, because the more the matter was investigated, 

 the more fraud appeared, and the more persons were 



found to be implicated. At length the ministry 

 induced the peers to give up the trial without con- 

 victing the peers implicated; but this step was taken 

 too late to conceal from the nation a scene of detest- 

 able abuses. An effect not unlike this was pro- 

 duced by the count Montlosier's denunciation of the 

 Jesuits, who were re-establishing themselves in 

 France, contrary to law. (See Jesuits, and Ultra- 

 montanists.) The court of appeal, at Paris, declared 

 itself incompetent to decide on this subject ; but the 

 abbe de la Mennais was condemned and punished for 

 his attack upon the privileges of the Gallican church, 

 as established by the declaration of 1682. 



On Lafayette's return from America in 1825, the 

 citizens of Havre having received him with some de- 

 monstrations of joy, the government manifested their 

 resentment by ordering out the gendarmes, win* 

 charged the multitude with drawn sabres. The in- 

 fluence of the Jesuits was seen in the prosecution of 

 the Constitutionnel and Courrier Fran^ais, two of the 

 best liberal journals. Ville'le, who had discernment 

 enough to see to what this fanaticism would lead, 

 and who was, at the same time, obnoxious to the li- 

 berals, on account of his anti-constitutional princi- 

 ples, and his operations in the funds, became less 

 secure. The parties assumed a more hostile attitude 

 towards each other. The royalists and the suppor- 

 ters of the Jesuits became more open in the expres- 

 sion of their real sentiments ; the liberals became 

 stronger and bolder ; and the government assumed 

 more and more the character of an institution sup- 

 ported by force and intrigue, and not forming an 

 integrant part of the nation. The state of Portugal, 

 South America, and Greece, contributed to increase 

 the agitation. The session of 1827 was opened De- 

 cember 12, 1826. Damas, minister of foreign affairs 

 informed the chamber that all the continental powers 

 had endeavoured to prevent the interference of 

 Spain in the affairs of Portugal ; that France had co- 

 operated with them, had withdrawn her ambassador 

 from Madrid, and had entered into arrangements 

 with Britain to leave Portugal and Spain to settle 

 their affairs in their own way. M. de Montlosier 

 presented a petition to the chamber of peers, pray- 

 ing that the laws against the Jesuits might be put 

 in force. After a violent discussion, the petition was 

 referred to the president of the council of ministers. 

 A popular triumph, of greater importance, was the 

 result of the discussions concerning the liberty of the 

 press. The bill proposed by the ministers was adopted 

 by a majority of 233 against 134, in the chamber of 

 deputies, but the majority of the peers being found to 

 be opposed to it, the project was withdrawn by an 

 ordinance of April 27, 1827. Paris was filled with re- 

 joicings. Illuminations, fireworks, &c., testified the 

 triumph of the opposition. This event was followed by 

 the disbanding of the national guards of Paris, a body 

 of 45,000 men, who, at a review (April 29), in the 

 Champ de Mars, had joined the cries of hatred 

 against the ministry. This was a highly unpopular 

 measure. Lafitte, Benjamin Constant, Casimir-Per- 

 rier, and two other members, declared themselves 

 ready to impeach the ministers, during the discussion 

 of the budget for 1828. Vill&le, however, took credit 

 to himself for having ventured on a step which he 

 knew to be unpopular, but considered necessary. 

 The supplies for 1826 amounted to 983,940,:i50 

 francs. The excess of income over this expenditure 

 was 5,119,365 francs. Villile congratulated the 

 nation that there should be an excess, after many 

 extraordinary expenses. M. Hyde de Neuville, for- 

 merly French minister in the United States, having 

 accused the French ambassador at Madrid of conni- 

 vance in the Spanish invasion of Portugal, his own 

 name was immediately struck from the roll of am- 



