in the Chamber. Circular letters were addressed
to the prefects and heads of the Prcvotal Courts,
recommending the greatest moderation in pros-
ecutions. At the same time, the sentiments of
the Emperor Alexander were asked on the sub-
ject, through the medium of Count Pozzo di
Borgo; and the king had the satisfaction of re
ceiving an autograph letter from that monarch,
in which he said, that, "in the in- , _ ,,
c .1 r- . e .L 1 Emperor Al
terest ol the Government ot the exander to
King of France, it appeared to him Duke de Rich
that a dissolution of the Chamber elieu, Aug. 5,
of Deputies would be attended by 1%^^^^^'- '"
beneficial results." i
Fortified by such support, the famous ordin-
ance of September 5 was prepared, 130.
and promulgated in the Monitcur, Ordinance of
without any one but its immediate ^^P*- ^' ^*''^'
authors in the cabinet being aware of what was
in contemplation. It was written out in the
afternoon of the 4th, signed at eight in the even-
ing, and immediately sent to the printing-office
of the Monitcur, where it appeared to the aston-
ished inhabitants of Paris the following morning.
The Count d'Artois and the other members of
the royal family were in entire ignorance of what
was going forward. This important state paper,
by the mere authority of the king, reduced the
number of deputies from 394, their existing num-
ber, to 2G0, the number specified in the charter,
and raised the age required in deputies to forty
years. New electoral colleges were constituted,
in terms of the ordinance of 21st July, 1S15 :
those of arrondissements were directed to meet
on the 25th September ; those of departments
on the 5th October. The presidents of colleges
were named in the ordinance, and embraced
Camille Jourdan, Andre de la Lozere, Royer
CoUard, and a number of others, all of the mod-
erate or constitutional party, their appointment
indicating, in the most unequivocal manner, the
wish of the government that the Chambers
should be elected of moderate men, equally re-
moved from the extremes on either side. The
Duke de Richelieu, though he acquiesced in the
dissolution and ordinance, was yet not without
his misgivings as to the influence of the new
electoral system upon the future fate of France ;
and accordingly he said, in his circular to the
prefects with the writ for the new election —
"Do your utmost to prevent true Jacobins being
returned in the new Chamber- -that would aliu-
isie I
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
91
gelhcr defeat our intentions. No party men
JMon. Sent.5 — that Ought to be our object; but
ISlfiiCap. iv. if they can not be avoided, ultra-
358, 3C0; Lac. Royalists are better than Revolu-
No words can describe the consternation of
133. the royal family, the majority of the
Consterna- Chamber, and the extreme Royal-
tion of the ul- j^jg throughout France, when 'the
tra-Rovalists, ,, = ^ r i i-
and dismissa sudden announcement oi the disso-
of Chateau- lution of the legislative body, and
briand. j^e convocation of a new one, chosen
under a different electoral system, fell upon
them. The Duke de Richelieu undertook the
dilFicult task of announcing it to the Count d'Ar-
tois; that prince was in despair at the intelli-
gence, prophesied the fall of the monarchy, and
openly accused M. Decazes of betraying the
throne. The Duchess d'Angoulcme positively
refused to see any of the ministers on the sub-
ject ; the duke, her husband, was more moder-
ate; and the Duke de Berri testified satisl'action
on the occasion. The court was in the deepest
affliction at the intelligence ; they could not have
been more so if the monarchy had been swept
away — which, indeed, was generally prophesied
as the inevitable result of the measure. The
Royalist press throughout France broke forth
into the most violent invectives against the min-
!>iry, whom they represented as having usurped
the royal authority, coerced the king, and deliv-
ered over France, bound hand and foot, to the
Revolutionists. Chateaubriand gave vent to the
general feeling of the Royalists in an eloquent
* " Depuis noire retoiir dans nos etats, chaque jour
nous a dcmontre cette verite, proclamec par nous dans
une occasion solennelle. qu' a cote de I'avantage d'ame-
liorer, est le danger d'innover. Nous nous sonimes
convain(;us, que les besoins et les coeurs de nos sujets se
reunissaicnt pour conserver intacte cette charte eonstitu-
tionelle, base du droit public en France et garantie du
rcpos general. Nous avons en consequence juge neces-
saire de reduire le nombre des deputes au nornbre deter-
mine par la charte, et de n'y appeler que des hommcs de
quarante ans. Mais pour operer legalement cette reduc-
lion, il est devenu indispensable de convoquer de nouvcau
les colleges electoraux, afin de proceder a I'election d'une
nouvelle Chanibre des Deputes. A ces causes, nos min-
islres entcndus, nous avons ordonne et ordonnons ce qui
suit. 1. Aucun des articles de la charte ne sera casse.
M. La Chambre des Deputes est dissoute. HI. Le nom-
bre des deputes des departements est fixe conformemKnt
a I'Art. 33 de la charte, suivant le tableau ci-joint. Lctj
colleges electoraux d'arrondissement et de departement
etant composes tels qu'ils ont cte reconnus et tels qu'ils
nnt ete completes par notre ordoiin.ince du 21 .luillet.
IfeI5. Les colleges electoraux d'arrondisst^ment se re-
uniront le 25 Septembre de cette aniiee. Chacuii d'eux
Clira un nombre de candidats 6gal au iioiribre de di piilcs
du di'parleinent. Les colleges electoraux de dt |)art(iiicMt
en ri uriiroiit le 4 Octobre. Chacuu d'cux choisira au
moins la nioities deputes parmi les candidats presents
par les colleges d'arrondis.scment. Si le nombre des
deputes du departement est impair, Ic partage sc lera a
I'avantage de la portion qui doit ttre choisic parmi les
candidats. Toute election oil n'assistera pas la moitib
iiu rnoiris des membrcs des colleges sera nulle. La nia-
jorite tvidvnte parmi les membrcs iirescns est n^ccssaire
pour la validite des elections des deputes. Si les col-
leges d'arrondissemcnts n'avaicnt pas complete IV'Icrtion
•ies candidats (|U'i1h peuveiit choisir, le college du d^parte-
iHtiit n'en procederait jras moiiis a son oji^ration ; les
proc<''s verbaux des elections seront examines a la f :iinm-
lirc des Disputes, qui prononcera sur la regularit6 des
t Icrlions. Les deputy's elus seronl tenus de produire a
la chambre leur acte do naissanre constatanl (ju'ils sont
iigis de 40 ans, et un extrait d'ordresdijment legalise par
le prefet constatant qu'ils payent au moins 1000 francs
(X'lO) de contributions directes. La cession de IhlO
B'ouvrira le 4 Nov. de la prescntc aniiee. Les disposi-
tions de rordoiinanre du 13 Juillel 1815, conlrniries ;i la
lifOKrn'e, sont T(:\(>i\\mK."- Monitair, Mt Sejii. lilC
<:»rtnovE, i"-. Vih. 3(1.
Vol. i.-(;
and impassioned pc tscrip . to his celcLraved
pamphlet published at that time, in which, not
content with violently assailing the measure, he
threw doubts on the unrestricted consent of the
king to it. Louis was extremely indignant at
this imputation, which, in addition to an attack
on the ministry, amounted to a reflection on his
personal firmness ; and the consequence wu'
that a decree appeared next day in the Monileut .
by which the name of Chateaubriand was erased
from the list of privy councilors. But this mea^•
ure of severity against so very eminent a man
only augmented his influence, and that of h.s
pamphlet, which was immense, and materially
atfected the return of members for the next
Chamber. •* He lost not only his i Moniteur
situation in the privy council, but Sept. 12, 1810;
the salary attached to it, which re- Cap. iv. 364,
J 1 L- La.' • » 365; Lac. li.
duced him to such straits, ni point g3 '
of finance, that he was obliged to
sell his country house and books, reserving only
a little Homer in Greek, on the margin of which
were some translations he had made of the lines
of the immortal bard. But he lost neither his
spirit nor his influence from becoming poor,
though he now walked to the Chamber of Peers,
or went in a hackney coach when it rained.
•■ In my popular equipage," says he, " undei
the protection of the mob which surroundctt
the carriage, I regained for myself the rights
of the working class, to which 1 2 chateaub
now belonged ; from the height Memoires
of my chariot I ruled the train of d'outre Tom
kings." ^ be,vii.227.
The royal ordinance of 5th September, 1810.
wrought so great a change in the j3^
electoral body and composition of Great effects
the Chamber of Deputies in France, of this ordip
that it was equivalent in eflect to a ''"'^'''
revolution, and is generally considered by the
Royalist party as the main cause of the over-
throw of the elder branch of the house of Bour-
bon. It will appear in the succeeding volumes
of this work how this eflect was worked out;
but, in the mean tiine, there are two observa-
tions which arc suggested by the tenor ol' that
decree itself. The first is, that the great re-
duction in the number of deputies — from oUl to
2G0 — operated to the prejudice of the rural dis-
tricts, and proportionally augmented the influ-
* Chateaubriand's postscript commenced with these
words ; "La Chambre de Deputes est dissoute ! Cela
ne m'etonne pas. C'est le systeme des inti^rets r6volu-
tioniiaires qui marche. Je ii'ai donnc ricn a changer a
cet ecrit. J'avais pr
fois annonc^. Cette mesure ministcrielle sauvera, dit
on, la monarchie legitime. Dissoudre la seule Assemblce,
(jui depuis 1789 ait nianifeste des scntimeiis purenient
Koyalistes, c'est, a mon avis, une etrange maiiiere de
sauvcr la monarchie. . . . Et que vent d'ailleurs le Hoi ?
S'il etait permis de penetrcr dans les secrets de sa haute
sapesse, ne pourroit-on pas presumer, qu'en laissant
constilutionnellement toute liberie d'action et d'opinion
a ces ministres respimsnbUs, il a jiorto ses regards ]dus
loin qu'eux. II a peut-etre juge quo la France satislaile
lui rcnverrait les memos Deputes dont il etait salisfait;
que Ton aurait une Chambre Nouvelle nussi Hoyaljste
que ladernicre bien queconvoqut'c sur d'nutres prjiicipi.s,
et qu'alors il n'y aurait iilns nioyen do nier la v6rilal)le
opinion de la France." 'I'heordinaiiceof the king was in
these words : " Le Vicomtede Chateaubriand ayaiil,ilans
un ecrit imprim6, elev6 des
sonndle manifi'slee par notre ordonnancn du 5 du present
mois, nous ordonnons ce qui suit. — Le Vicomte de Cha-
teaubriand cessera, des ce jour, d'etre compris an noni-
'■re de nos Ministres d'Etat.— ,",0111.;."— j)/o»)V,t(r, 12
>.•) t. 1816; I,a Motinr'-liir .ni'on la Charte ((Euvres des
Cliateituhriaiid. wui. 131. 44o>
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
[Chap. Ill
ence ol tho towns. Nearly the whole of the
members struck oil" hiid been eleoteil lor depart-
ments, ehielly in tho south of France, nnil they
were sele-.-led lor destruetion, beeauso they had
proved tho most nnmanaiieabie. Tiie second,
liiat in the departments which still retained tho
priviiepe ofsendinj^ members to Parliament, tho
ri<:ht of votinjj was confined lo o)ic class onVy,
nnd that a very limited one. By tho ordinance
of J.^ih of July, ISl.'j, under which tho dissolved
I'iiamber had been elected, a variety of persons,
us members of tho Letrion of Honor, and oflicial
lunclionaries, were admitted to the franchise;
I. lit by the ordinance of 5lh September, ISIO,
these were all swept away ; and the sufl'rage
was confined to one single class, viz., persons
pitying 300 franes, or £12 of direct taxes. The
direct taxes are so very heavy in France, that
this payment implies a very ditlerent class from
what it would in Great Britain ; it denotes
)>crsons having from 2500 to 3500 francs (from
£100 to £140) a year. The total number of
persons entitled to the suilVage in France on
this payment was about 80,000, of whom 00,000
paid from 300 to 500 franes (£12 to £20) of yearly
t!ixcs. Thus the government of France, under
this electoral system, was devolved upon 00,000
persons of one description only — that is, small
shopkeepers in towns, and small proprietors in
the country. They, too, were for the most part
holders of the national domains — persons en-
riched by the revolution, and resolute to sup-
jiort the gains it had brought them. The im-
mense body of peasant proprietors, several mill-
ions in number, and the working classes in
towns on the one hand, and the whole body of
affluent or highly educated persons on the other,
were, to all practical purposes, unrepresented.
This is not the representative system ; it is ir-
responsible class government of the worst kind.
Tho representative system is founded on the en-
.ire representation, not of mere numbers, but of
classes of society: mere numbers have no tend-
ency to induce this, or rather they induce the
very reverse, viz., class government of the low-
est ranks of society. An unrestricted feudal
aristocracy is a great evil ; but an unrestricted
burgher aristocracy is a still greater.
Another circumstance worthy of note, and
which appears not a little strange
The whole ^° °"^ accustomed to English ideas,
Chambers is, that in all the changes made on
were elected the electoral system in France, the
nance.^ *"^ '" ^'°y"^ authority alone was inter-
posed. The Chamber, which sat
from July, 1815, to September, 1810, was elected
under the royal ordinance of 13th July, 1815,
which added 134 members to it ; that of 1816
and 1817, and all the subsequent ones, under the
royal ordinance of 5th September, 1816, which
took them away. Supposing that a royal ordi-
nance was a matter of necessity in the disas-
trous state of the country in 1815, when there
'jios no legislature in existence, the same can
not be said of the royal ordinance of 5th Sep-
tember, 1816, issued when a legislature was act-
ually sitting, and the concurrence of the three
branches of the legislature might have been ob-
tained for any organic change which appeared
necessary. It is remarkable, too, that ail class-
es acquiesced without objection in this great
stretch of the royal prerogative, so subversive
of any thing like real constitutional government ;
and, with the Liberal jtarty, in particular, it was
the subject of the highest possible cxultation.nnd
eulogium — a striking contrast to their conduct
in July, 1830, when they made a similar exer-
cise of tho royal authority a pretext for over-
turning the throne.
Tho parliamentary and social history ol
Franco during 1815 and 1816 is y^c
worthy of jiarticular attention from Rcflectionsnn
all who consider history, not mere- tlia reaction ol
ly as the amusement of a passing '*'
hour, but as a source of political instruction, and
the subject of serious thought. Long as the pre-
ceding chapter has been, it could neither have
been shortened nor divided, for it embraces one
subject, and that one of the most fruitful in polit-
ical lessons which history has preserved — the
Reaction ov 1815. The Revolution had work-
ed out its inevitable and appropriate result; its
sins had been visited by their natural conse-
quences ; and conquest, ignominy, and sulfer-
ing, had closed a career commenced in selfish-
ness, ambition, and crime. With the usual dis-
position of mankind to ascribe the punishment o[
their sins to any thing but those sins themselves,
they now rushed into the opposite extreme ; and
the last leaders of the Revolution were as much
the object of unanimous horror and detestation
as the first had been of triumph and enthusiasm.
All persons with right feeling must regret the
measures of severity adopted on the second res-
toration, and the heroic blood shed on the scaf-
fold in consequence of the treason previously
committed ; but, in truth, it was unavoidable.
The people, by an overwhelming majority, de-
manded victims, as so many scapegoats to bear
the sins of the community; and the legislature,
which compelled the government to select them,
was but the mouthpiece of a nation which, in a
voice of thunder, demanded their punishment.
In this terrible and tragic reaction, another
circumstance is very remarkable. jg-
It was forced by the nation upon wiiich was
the sovereign. Louis XVIII. was forced by the
constitutionally humane, and he was "o^ernmeiu'*
too much versed in revolutions not
to know what violent reactions noble blood shed
on the scaflbld scarce ever fails to produce.
Every one of the victims of 1815 were forced
from the humanity of the government by tho
violence of the people. This is a very remark-
able circumstance, and well worthy of consider-
ation, for it points to the principal danger to be
apprehended under a popular form of govern-
ment. Those intrusted with power are invari-
ably more inclined to moderation than those who
only by their votes or their clamor seek to con-
trol their measures. The reason is, that the
former feels its responsibilities, and are made
acquainted with its difficulties ; whereas the lat-
ter are actuated only by ambition or passion,
unfettered by experience or a sense of duty.
Paucity of number in the former case induces a
sense of responsibility ; in the latter it extin-
guishes it. Destructive measures — ruin to na-
tional security or freedom — are much more to be
apprehended, in a popular government, from tht
legislature than from the executive. Respons-
ibility checks the excesses of the last ; the ab-
sence of it lets loose the passions of the first. It
is a common saying that patriots generally t)»-
ISlC]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
9-)
come corruptt'il when they are taken into admin-
istration, ami that there is nothing so like a Tory
in power as a Whig in power; and the fact is
certain, but the reason commonly assigned for it
is not the true one. It is not so much that they
it was terminated by a list of capital comvic-
tions of unequaled paucity. Onlv ]3g
six persons suflered on the scalToid Expedience o(
overall France for a rebellion which abolishing en-
dethroned the king, cau.sed the con- 'ireiy the pun
. r.i. . in 1 II ishment of
are corrupted by the sweets of power, as that j quest of the country, and fixed adebt death u) pure
they
with Its responsibilities
"Where," says M. de Tocqueville, "shall a
person persecuted by the majority
Tlio greatest in America fly for redress ? To the
iniquities of legislature? — it is elected by the
the period majority. To a jury? — it is the
leTbyTuJies!" j''"''''''"^ commitiee of the majority/''
Impartial justice must confess that
the year 1815 in France was no exception to this
rule; nay, that it furnishes the strongest con-
firmation of it. The worst judicial acts which
stained the Royalist reaction in that country
were perpetrated by the agency of juries. It
was juries who, in 1815, screened from justice
every one of the criminals, however clearly
proved to be guilt}'^, who were implicated in the
frightful Royalist excesses in the south of France
in that year; it was juries who, in the next, term-
inated contemptible conspiracies with a long
array of criminals executed on the scaffold. The
truth is, juries are, and have been in every age,
the judicial committee of the majority, and nei-
ther more nor less. As such they have fre-
quently rescued persons, prosecuted for oflenses
interesting to the majority, from the hands of
oppression; but they have in many more, when
the majority itself was in power, committed the
most atrocious judicial iniquities. In one year,
juries perpetrated the long catalogue of judicial
murders consequent on the Popish Plot; in an-
other they were the instruments of the equally
unjust and sanguinary vengeance of the Rye
House. The whole state trials of England — the
most appalling collection, as Hallam has observed,
of judicial iniquities which the history of the
world can exhibit — were conducted by means
of juries. The whole murders of the Convention
were sanctioned by the verdict of juries. No one
in Great Britain need be told how little chance
there is of justice being done in Ireland by a
Catholic jury on a Catholic offender, or by an
Orange jury on a Protestant. The reason in all
these cases is one and the same, and it is this :
Undivided responsibility is a check upon a single
judge in a court composed of a small number
of judges; — but there is no such check upon ju-
ries, the names of whoso members arc scarcely
ever known, or, if known, speedily forgotten;
and in whom, even at the moment of committing
iniquity, numbers shelter the perpetrators. Jei-
eries himself would never have perpetrated the
enormities which have forever blasted his name,
if he had not been sheltered in the verdict, at
least, by the concurring iniquity of his juries.
The treason fur which Ncy and Labedoycre
Buffered, was clearly proved, and it brought
The English historians justly con- '"'^nses.
gratulate themselves on the increasing humanity
of the age, when the Jacobite rebellion of 171.5,
which was confined to Scotland and the northern
counties of England, and never for one mouuiit
endangered either the country or the thidiio,
was only chastised by the execution of two-amJ-
twenty. There can be no doubt, therefore, that
the rebellion of 1S15 was, according to all the
settled maxims of European law, not only clearly
proved against all the persons who suffered for
their participation in it, but, on the whole, most
leniently dealt with. Yet we can not read the
account of the execution of Ney and Labedoj'-
ere without deep regret ; and that regret will
be shared by the generous and the humane to
the end of time. The reason is, that purely
POLITICAL OFFENSES SHOULD KOT BE PUNISHED
WITH DEATH ; banishment or transportation are
their appropriate penalties. Death should be
reserved for great moral crimes, concerning
which all mankind are agreed — as murder, fire'^
raising, or violent robbery — and not extended to
acts such as those of treason, which originate,
not in moral wrong, but in difference of political
opinion, and are sometimes justified by necessity,
or rewarded by the highest fortune or lasting
admiration of mankind.
The feelings of mankind have never stigma-
tized mere treason as a moral ci'ime, ijg
so often has it arisen from noble I3anishmenv
though mistaken motives. Many is its proper
families are proud of an ancestor Punishment,
who lost his head on the scaffold for his acces-
sion to a revolt, but none ever pointed with ex-
ultation to one executed for murder or house-
breaking. Transportation to a distant country,
under certification of death in case of return, is
the true mode of dealing with acts which, with-
out the intermixture of baser crimes or motives,
tend only to change the government. The per-
sons engaged in them should bo considered as
domestic enemies, to be made prisoners, and
treated according to the laws of wai-, if in their
insurrection they conform to its usages. If they
do otherwise, and begin with pillage and confla-
gration, by all means treat them as ])irates and
enemies of the human race. To go farther, and
shed their blood on the scadbld, though their
conduct hasnotdegeneiatcd into such atrocities,
but has been confined to the limits of legitimate
warfare, is the same injustice and the same er-
ror as to burn for heresy. Opinion is not the
proper object of punishment — it is acts only
that arc; and the appropriate punishmert for
acts tending to dispossess the governmciil is to
evils of an unexampled amount on France; and I dispossess the person attempting it
100
H 1 S T O U V O !•' E r U O I' E.
[Chap. IV
CHAPTER IV.
90MESTIC HISTORY 01" EN'CL.^ND, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OK 1817 TO THE REPEAL OF THE UANI
RESTRICTION ACT IN 1819.
The study, aod still more Hie composition of
1. the histon' of an important and ani-
Vii-issitudes niatinLT era in human affairs, is apt
■ess ch'iTn ^^ iiitiui-'e the belief that the tale is
of events in ^*^ close when the principal actors
liuinan af- have disappeared from the stage,
fairs. and the curtain has fallen on the
great catastrophe in which the drama has ter-
minated. We are interested in it as we are in
i novel or romance, which has a beginning, a
middle, and an end ; forgetting that in real life
events grow in a perpetual chain, and share in
the undying succession of the human race. No
sooner are the transactions of one period brought