sailors became the nucleus of the important French colony of
Algeria (July 4,1830). The design of Charles X. and of his
reactionary Polignac ministry to divert the French people from
domestic grievances to foreign conquest needed the genius and
strength of a Napoleon to ensure success. The mere fact of the
expedition being Under the command of the hated General
Bourmont had made it unpopular. ... So, although the victory
was triumphantly announced throughout France, yet the
elections sent up a majority hostile to the king.
Nevertheless, with his usual blind obstinacy, Charles on the
25th July 1830 issued the famous ordinances which brought
matters to a crisis. The first suspended the liberty of the
press, and placed books under a strict censorship; the second
dissolved the newly-elected Chamber of Deputies; the third
excluded licensed dealers (patentés) from the franchise; the
fourth summoned a new Chamber under the new conditions, every
one of which violated the charter granted by the late king.
The Parisians at once flew to arms, and raised barricades in
the many narrow streets which then favoured street-defence.
Marmont, hated by the people as being the first of Napoleon's
marshals who had treated with the allies, was to quell the
disturbances with some 20,000 troops of the line; but on the
second day's fighting (July 28) the insurgents, aided by the
disbanded National Guards, and veterans of the empire, beat
back the troops; and on the third day the royal troops, cut
off from food and supplies, and exhausted by the heat, gave
way before the tri-colour flag; the defection of two line
regiments left the Louvre unguarded; a panic spread among
other regiments, and soon the tri-colour floated above the
Tuileries. Charles thereupon set the undignified example, soon
to be followed by so many kings and, princes, of giving way
when it was too late. He offered to withdraw the hated
ordinances, but was forced to flee from St. Cloud. He then
tried the last expedient, also doomed to failure, of
abdicating in favour of his little grandson the Duc de
Bordeaux, since better known as the Comte de Chambord.
Retiring slowly with his family to Cherbourg, the baffled
monarch set out for a second and last exile, spent first at
Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and ended at Göritz in Bohemia.
More than 5,000 civilians and 700 soldiers were killed or
wounded in these terrible 'three days' of July 1830, which
ended all attempts to re-establish the tyranny of the old
régime. The victims were appropriately buried in the Place de
la Bastille. They freed not France alone, but dealt a fierce
blow at the system of Metternich."
_J. H. Rose,
Century of Continental History,
chapter 23._
ALSO IN:
_D. Turnbull,
The French Revolution of 1830._
_A. de Lamartine,
The Restoration of Monarchy in France,
books 32-50 (volumes 3-4)._
_E. E. Crowe,
History of the Reigns of Louis XVIII.
and Charles X._
_Prince de Talleyrand,
Memoirs,
part 10 (volumes 3-4)._
_G. L. Dickinson,
Revolution and Reaction in Modern France,
chapter 3._
FRANCE: A. D. 1822:
The Congress of Verona.
French intervention in Spain approved.
See VERONA: THE CONGRESS OF.
FRANCE: A. D. 1823-1827.
Interference in Spain to suppress the revolution and reinstate
King Ferdinand.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1814-1827.
FRANCE: A. D. 1827-1829.
Intervention on behalf of Greece.
Battle of Navarino.
See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.
{1370}
FRANCE: A. D. 1830-1840.
The monarchy renewed under Louis Philippe.
Its steady drift from the constitutional course.
"The Constitutional party set their hopes on Louis Philippe,
Duke of Orleans. This prince, born in 1773, was the son of
that notorious 'Egalité' who during the revolution had ended
his checkered career under the guillotine. His grandmother was
the noble Elizabeth Charlotte, a native of the Palatinate, who
had the misfortune to be the wife of the effeminate Duke of
Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. Louis Philippe was a Bourbon,
like King Charles; but the opposition of several members of
this Orleans branch of the royal house had caused it to be
regarded as a separate family. From his youth up he had
displayed a great deal of popular spirit and common-sense. ...
Seemingly created by his nature and career to be a citizen
king, he had long since, as early as 1814, determined to
accept the throne in case it were offered him." The offer came
in 1830 with the revolution of July. On the 31st of that month
he accepted the office of lieutenant-general of the kingdom,
conferred by the vote of a meeting of fifty delegates. "The
'Society of the Friends of the People' [an organization of the
pronounced republicans], not very well pleased with this result
of the 'great week' [as the week of the revolution was
called], laid before Lafayette, on the following day," their
programme, "and commissioned him to make the duke guarantee
the popular rights therein set forth by his signature. With
this document in his pocket, Lafayette made his ... visit to
Louis Philippe in the Palais Royal. In the course of
conversation he said to him, 'You know that I am a republican,
and consider the American constitution the most perfect.' 'I
am of the same opinion,' replied the duke; 'no one could have
been two years in America and not share that view. But do you
think that that constitution could be adopted in France in its
present condition--with the present state of popular opinion?'
'No,' said Lafayette; 'what France needs is a popular monarchy
surrounded by republican--thoroughly
republican--institutions.' 'There I quite agree with you,'
rejoined Louis Philippe. Enchanted with this political
harmony, the old general considered it unnecessary to present
the programme, and went security to the republicans for the
duke, the patriot, of 1789. ... On the 3d of August the
Chamber was opened by the Duke of Orleans, and the abdication
of the king and dauphin announced. ... The question whether
the constitution was to be changed, and how, gave rise to an
animated contest between radicals and liberals. The confidence
in Louis Philippe was so great, that they were content with a
few improvements. The throne was declared vacant, and Louis
Philippe proclaimed king of the French. ... August 8th, Louis
Philippe appeared in the Palais Bourbon, took the oath to the
constitution, and was thereupon proclaimed king. ... None of
the great monarchs had so difficult a task as Louis Philippe.
If he attached himself to the majority of his people and
showed himself in earnest with 'the republican institutions
which ought to surround the throne,' he had all the
continental powers against him; if he inclined toward the
absolute system of the latter, then not alone the extreme
parties, but also the men of the constitutional monarchy, ...
rose against him. ... His system, which he himself named a
happy medium (juste milieu), would have been a happy medium if
he had struck the middle and kept it; but he gradually swerved
so much toward the right that the middle was far to his left.
From the outset he had three parties against him--Legitimists,
Bonapartists, and Republicans." At intervals, there were
demonstrations and insurrections undertaken in the interest of
each of these. In July, 1835, the assassination of the king
was attempted, by the explosion of an infernal machine, which
killed and wounded sixty people. "The whole Republican party
was unjustly made responsible for this attempt, and new blows
were struck at the juries and the Press. Every Press offence
involving a libel of the king or the administration was to be
tried from this time on before the Court of Peers, and the
composition of that body rendered conviction certain. With
these September laws' the reaction was complete, the power of
the Republicans was broken. Their activity did not cease,
however. Their numerous societies continued to exist in
secret, and to the political affiliated themselves the social
societies, which ... demanded, among other impossibilities,
the abolition of private property. It was these baleful
excrescences which deprived republicanism of all credit, and
outbreaks like that of May 12th, 1839, where a few hundred
members of the 'Society of the Seasons,' with Barbès and
Blanqui at their head, disarmed military posts and proclaimed
the republic, found not the slightest response. The repeated
attempts which were made on the king's life were also
unsuccessful." The relations of Louis Philippe "to foreign
powers became better the more he approximated to their system,
putting restraints upon societies, the Press, and juries, and
energetically crushing popular revolts. Naturally he was by
this very means constantly further estranging the mass of the
people. ... What the Legitimists and Republicans had not
effected--a change of government--the Napoleonids now took in
hand." Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, son of ex-king Louis of
Holland and Hortense Beauharnais, made his appearance among
the soldiers of the garrison at Strasburg, October 30, 1836,
with the expectation that they would proclaim him emperor and
set the example of a rising in his favor. But the attempt was
a wretched failure; Louis Napoleon was arrested and
contemptuously sent out of the country, to America, without
punishment. In 1840 he repeated his undertaking, at Boulogne,
more abortively than in the first instance; was again made
prisoner, and was consigned, this time, to the castle of Ham,
from which he escaped six years later. "All the world laughed
at his folly; but without the scenes of Strasburg and
Boulogne, and the martyrdom of a six years' imprisonment, his
name certainly would not have produced such an effect in the
year 1848."
_W. Miller,
Political History of Recent Times,
sections 7 and 14._
ALSO IN:
_L. Blanc,
History of Ten Years, 1830-1840._
_F. P. Guizot,
Memoirs to Illustrate the History of My Own Time,
volumes 3-4._
FRANCE: A. D. 1831-1832.
Intervention in the Netherlands.
Siege of Antwerp.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1830-1832.
FRANCE: A. D. 1833-1840.
The Turko-Egyptian question and its settlement.
See TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840.
FRANCE: A. D. 1833-1846.
The subjugation of Algeria.
War with Abd-el-Kader.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D.1830-1846.
{1371}
FRANCE: A. D. 1841-1848.
The limited electoral body and its corruption.
Agitation for reform.
The suppressed banquet at Paris and the
revolution which followed.
Abdication and flight of the king.
"The monarchy of Louis Philippe lasted for 18 years. But the
experiment was practicable only so long as the throne rested
on a small body of obedient electors. The qualification for
the franchise was so high that it was held only by 200,000
people. So small a constituency could, be 'managed' by the
skill of M. Guizot and M. Thiers [who were the chief rivals of
the time in political leadership]. It could be 'managed'
through gifts of places, bribes, the influence of local
magnates, and the pressure of public officials. There was
never perhaps so corrupt an electoral body. ... M. Guizot, who
was an austere puritan at home, and who has entered into a
competition with Saint Augustin as a writer of religious
meditations, raised many sneers to the lips of worldlings, not
only by lending his hand to the infamous intrigue of the
Spanish Marriages, but by allowing his subordinates to traffic
in places for the sake of getting votes. His own hands, of
course, were clean; no one spoke a whisper against his
personal purity. But he seemed to have much practical sympathy
with the advice which Pitt, in one of Landor's 'Imaginary
Conversations,' gives to his young disciple Canning. Pecuniary
corruption was the very breath of life to the constitutional
monarchy. The voters were bought as freely as if they had
stood in the market-place. The system admirably suited the
purpose of the little family party of princes and
parliamentary chiefs who ruled the country. But it was as
artificial and fleeting as the sand castles which a child
builds on the edge of the advancing tide."
_J. Macdonell,
France since the First Empire,
pages 172-174._
"The population of France was then 34,000,000, and the
privilege of the political franchise was vested exclusively in
those who paid in direct taxes a sum not less than £8. This
class numbered little more than 200,000. ... The government
had 130,000 places at its disposal, and the use which was made
of these during the 18 years of Louis Philippe's reign was
productive of corruption more widespread and shameless than
France had known since the first revolution. In the scarcely
exaggerated language used by M. de Lamartine, the government
had 'succeeded in making of a nation of citizens a vile band
of beggars.' It was obvious to all who desired the
regeneration of France that reform must begin with the
representation of the people. To this end the liberals
directed much effort. They did not as yet propose universal
suffrage, and their leaders were divided between an extension
of the franchise to all who paid £2 of direct taxes and an
extension, which went no lower than £4. The demand for reform
was resisted by the government. ... Among the leaders of the
liberal party were men of high character and commanding
influence. Arago, Odillon Barrot, Louis Blanc, Thiers,
Lamartine, were formidable assailants for the strongest
government to encounter. Under their guidance the agitation
for reform assumed dimensions exceedingly embarrassing and
even alarming. For once France borrowed from England her
method of political agitation. Reform banquets, attended by
thousands of persons, were held in all the chief towns, and
the pressure of a peaceful public opinion was employed to
obtain the remedy of a great wrong. The police made feeble
attempts to prevent such gatherings, but were ordinarily
unsuccessful. But the king and M. Guizot, strong in the
support of the army and a purchased majority of the deputies,
and apparently little aware of the vehemence of the popular
desire, made no effort to satisfy or propitiate. Louis
Philippe had wisely set a high value on the maintenance of
cordial relations with England. ... The Queen of England
gratified him by a visit [1843], which he returned a few
months after. ... During these visits there was much
conversation regarding a Spanish matter which was then of some
interest. The Spanish government was looking around to find
suitable husbands for their young queen and her sister. The
hands of the princesses were offered to two sons of Louis
Philippe. But ... England looked with disfavour upon a close
alliance between the crowns of France and Spain. The king
would not offend England. He declined the hand of the Spanish
queen, but accepted that of her sister for his fourth son, the
Duc de Montpensier. Queen Victoria and her ministers approved
of that marriage on the condition voluntarily offered by King
Louis, that it should not take place till the Spanish queen
was married and had children. But in a few years the king
violated his pledge, and pressed upon Spain an arrangement
under which the two marriages were celebrated together [1846].
... To Louis Philippe himself the transaction was calamitous.
He had broken his kingly word, and he stood before Europe and
before his own people a dishonoured man. ... Circumstances
made it easy for the opposition to enhance the general
discontent. Many evidences of shameless corruption were at
this time brought to light. ... The crops failed in 1845 and
1846, and prices rose to a famine point. ... The demand for
parliamentary reform became constantly more urgent; but M.
Guizot heeded it not. The reformers took up again their work
of agitation. They announced a great procession and reform
banquet. The police, somewhat hesitatingly, interdicted the
demonstration, and its promoters resolved to submit; but the
people, insufficiently informed of these movements, gathered
for the procession in the early morning. All that day
[February 22, 1848] the streets were thronged, and the
excitement of the people increased from hour to hour; but few
soldiers were seen, and consequently no conflict occurred.
Next morning the strategic points of the city were garrisoned
by a strong force of soldiers and national guards, and the
people saw that the government feared them. Business was
suspended, and the constantly rising agitation foretold
irrepressible tumults. The men of the faubourgs appeared once
more. Towards evening a few barricades were thrown up, and a
few gunsmiths' shops were plundered. Worst of all, the
national guard appeared to sympathize with the people. ... To
appease the angry mob, no measure seemed so hopeful as the
sacrifice of the ministry. Guizot resigned. Thiers and Odillon
Barrot, chiefs of the liberal party, were received into the
cabinet. Marshal Bugeaud was appointed to command the troops.
But before the day closed a disaster had occurred which made
all concession vain. Before one of the public offices there
was stationed a battalion of infantry, around which there
surged an excited crowd. A shot came from the crowd, and was
promptly responded to by a volley which killed or wounded 50
persons.
{1372}
The bodies of the victims were placed on waggons and drawn
along the streets, that the fury of the people might be
excited to the highest pitch. During that sleepless night,
Marshal Bugeaud, skilfully directing the forces which he
commanded, had taken the barricades and effectively checked
the rioters. But in early morning the new ministers ordered
him to desist and withdraw his troops. They deemed it useless
to resist. Concession was, in their view, the only avenue to
tranquillity. The soldiers retired; the crowds pressed on to
the Tuileries." The king, terrified by their approach, was
persuaded to sign an abdication in favor of his grandson, the
Comte de Paris, and to fly in haste, with his family, from the
palace and from Paris. A week later the royal family "reached
the coast and embarked for England, ... their majesties
travelling under the lowly but well-chosen incognito of Mr.
and Mrs. Smith. ... Immediately on the departure of the king,
a provisional government was organized, with M. Lamartine at
its head."
_R. Mackenzie,
The Nineteenth Century,
book 3, chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_F. P. Guizot,
France under Louis Philippe._
_M. Caussidière,
Memoirs,
volume 1._
FRANCE: A. D. 1848 (February-May).
The three months of Provisional Government.
Its extraordinary measures.
Its absolutism.
Creation or the Ateliers Nationaux.
The consequences.
On the morning of February 24th--the morning of the king's
flight--M. de Lamartine, entering the Palais Bourbon, where
the Chamber of Deputies held its meetings, found in the
vestibule seven or eight persons waiting for him. "Who they
were we are not told--or what they were, except that they
belonged to the newspaper press. Even the names of the papers
with which they were connected are not expressly
stated--though the 'National' and 'Réforme' are indicated.
They demanded a secret conference. Lamartine took them into a
distant apartment." There they "proposed to him to substitute
for Louis-Philippe the Comte de Paris as king, and the Duchess
of Orleans as regent, and to place him [Lamartine] over them
minister." "Lamartine does not appear to have been surprised
at the proposal. He does not appear to have doubted the power
of seven or eight journalists to dethrone a king, create a
regent, and appoint a minister! And he was right. The
'National' and the 'Réforme,' whose representatives stood
before him, did more than all this, a couple of hours after.
... He objected to their scheme that such an arrangement would
not last, and declared himself in favour of a republic, based
on universal suffrage; ... they expressed their conviction,
and separated, agreed, apparently, on the course of action to
be pursued.' A few hours later, the Chamber was invaded by a
body of rioters, fresh from the sack of the Tuileries. The
Duchess of Orleans, who had presented herself at the Chamber
with her two children, fled before them. "M. Sauzet, the
President, disappeared. Lamartine [who was speaking] remained
in the tribune, and desired Dupont de l'Eure to take the
vacant chair." Thereupon a Provisional Government was
appointed, in some fashion not clearly detailed. It underwent
certain changes, by unexplained additions, within the
following day or two, but "in the 'Moniteur' of February 27
(the third day of the existence of the Provisional
Government), its members are arranged thus:--MM. Arago, Dupont
de l'Eure, Albert (ouvrier), F. Marrast, F. Flocon, Lamartine,
Marie, L. Blanc, Crémieux, Ledru Rollin, Garnier Pagès. ...
Within two days after its formation it was on the brink of
ruin under an attack from the Terrorists [or Red Republicans,
who assumed the red flag as their standard]. ... The contest
had left the members of the government in a state of mind
which M. de Lamartine thinks peculiarly favourable to wise
legislation. ... 'Every member of the Council sought [he
says], in the depths of his heart and of his intellect, for
some great reform, some great legislative, political, or moral
improvement. Some proposed the instantaneous abolition of
negro slavery. Others, the abolition of the restrictions
imposed by the laws of September upon the press. Some, the
proclamation of fraternity among nations, in order to abolish
war by abolishing conquest. Some, the abolition of the
qualification of electors. And all, the principles of mutual
charity among all classes of citizens. As quickly as these
great democratic truths, rather felt than discussed, were
converted into decrees, they were printed in a press set up at
the door of the council-room, thrown from the windows to the
crowd, and despatched by couriers through the departments.'
... The important decrees, which actually bear date February
25 or 26, and which may therefore be referred to this evening
of instinct, inspiration, and enthusiasm, are these:--The
18th, which sets at liberty all persons detained on political
grounds. The 19th, by which the government--
1, Engages to secure the existence of the operative
(ouvrier) by employment:
2, Engages to secure employment (garantir du travail) to
all citizens:
3, Admits that operatives ought to combine in order to
enjoy the fruits of their labour:
4, And promises to return to the operatives, whose property
it is, the million which will fall in from the civil list.