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MEMOIRS
TO ILLUSTRATE
THE HISTORY OF MY TIME.
BY
F. GUIZOT,
AUTHOR OF 'MEMOIRS OF SIR ROBERT PEEL;' 'HISTORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL,'
ETC. ETC.
VOLUME I.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1858.
PRINTED BY
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON.
CONTENTS
OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
FRANCE BEFORE THE RESTORATION.
1807-1814.
Page
My Reasons for publishing these Memoirs during my Life.--My
Introduction into Society.--My First Acquaintance with
M. de Chateaubriand, M. de Suard, Madame de Stael, M. de Fontanes,
M. Royer-Collard.--Proposal to appoint me Auditor in the Imperial
State Council.--Why the Appointment did not take place.--I enter
the University and begin my Course of Lectures on Modern
History.--Liberal and Royalist Parties.--Characters of the
different Oppositions towards the Close of the Empire.--Attempted
resistance of the Legislative Body.--MM. Laine, Gallois,
Maine-Biran, Raynouard, and Flaugergues.--I leave Paris for
Nismes.--State of Paris and France in March, 1814.--The Restoration
takes place.--I return to Paris, and am appointed Secretary-General
to the Ministry of the Interior. 1
CHAPTER II.
THE RESTORATION.
1814-1815.
Sentiments with which I commenced Public Life.--True Cause and
Character of the Restoration.--Capital Error of the Imperial
Senate.--The Charter suffers from it.--Various Objections to the
the Charter.--Why they were Futile.--Cabinet of King
Louis XVIII.--Unfitness of the Principal Ministers for
Constitutional Government.--M. de Talleyrand.--The
Abbe de Montesquieu.--M. de Blacas.--Louis XVIII.--Principal Affairs
in which I was concerned at that Epoch.--Account of the State of the
Kingdom laid before the Chambers.--Bill respecting the Press.--Decree
for the Reform of Public Instruction.--State of the Government
and the Country.--Their Common Inexperience.--Effects of the Liberal
System.--Estimate of Public Discontent and Conspiracies.--Saying of
Napoleon on the Facility of his Return. 27
CHAPTER III.
THE HUNDRED DAYS.
1815.
I immediately leave the Ministry of the Interior, to resume my
Lectures.--Unsettled Feeling of the Middle Classes on the Return
of Napoleon.--Its Real Causes.--Sentiments of Foreign Nations
and Governments towards Napoleon.--Apparent Reconciliation,
but Real Struggle, between Napoleon and the Liberals.--The
Federates.--Carnot and Fouche.--Demonstration of Liberty
during the Hundred Days, even in the Imperial Palace.--Louis XVIII.
and his Council at Ghent.--The Congress and M. de Talleyrand
at Vienna.--I go to Ghent on the part of the Constitutional
Royalist Committee at Paris.--My Notions and Opinions during this
Journey.--State of Parties at Ghent.--My Conversation with
Louis XVIII.--M. de Blacas.--M. de Chateaubriand.--M. de Talleyrand
returns from Vienna.--Louis XVIII. re-enters France.--Intrigue
planned at Mons and defeated at Cambray.--Blindness and Imbecility of
the Chamber of Representatives.--My Opinion respecting the Admission
of Fouche into the King's Cabinet. 58
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHAMBER OF 1815.
1815-1816.
Fall of M. de Talleyrand and Fouche.--Formation of the
Duke de Richelieu's Cabinet.--My Connection as Secretary-General of
the Administration of Justice with M. de Marbois, Keeper
of the Great Seal.--Meeting and Aspect of the Chamber of
Deputies.--Intentions and Attitude of the Old Royalist
Faction.--Formation, and Composition of a New Royalist
Party.--Struggle of Classes under the cloak of Parties.--Provisional
Laws.--Bill of Amnesty.--The Centre becomes the Government Party, and
the Right, the Opposition.--Questions upon the connection between
the State and the Church.--State of the Government beyond the
Chambers.--Insufficiency of its Resistance to the spirit of
Re-action.--The Duke of Feltri and General Bernard.--Trial of
Marshal Ney.--Controversy between M. de Vitrolles and Me.--Closing
of the Session.--Modifications in the Cabinet.--M. Laine Minister of
the Interior.--I leave the Ministry of Justice and enter the State
Council as Master of Requests.--The Cabinet enters into Contests with
the Right-hand Party.--M. Decazes.--Position of MM. Royer-Collard and
De Serre.--Opposition of M. de Chateaubriand.--The Country declares
against the Chamber of Deputies.--Efforts of M. Decazes to bring
about a Dissolution.--The King determines on it.--Decree of the 5th
of September, 1816. 97
CHAPTER V.
GOVERNMENT OF THE CENTRE.
1816-1821.
Composition of the New Chamber of Deputies.--The Cabinet in a
Majority.--Elements of that Majority, the Centre properly so
called, and the Doctrinarians.--True character of the
Centre.--True character of the Doctrinarians, and real cause of
their Influence.--M. de la Bourdonnaye and M. Royer-Collard at the
Opening of the Session.--Attitude of the Doctrinarians in the
Debate on the Exceptional Laws.--Electoral Law of February
5th, 1817.--The part I took on that occasion.--Of the Actual
and Political Position of the Middle Classes.--Marshal Gouvion
St. Cyr, and his Bill for recruiting the Army, of the 10th
of March, 1818.--Bill respecting the Press, of 1819, and
M. de Serre.--Preparatory Discussion of these Bills in the State
Council.--General Administration of the Country.--Modification of
the Cabinet from 1816 to 1820.--Imperfections of the Constitutional
System.--Errors of Individuals.--Dissensions between the Cabinet and
the Doctrinarians.--The Duke de Richelieu negotiates, at
Aix-la-Chapelle, the entire Retreat of Foreign Troops from
France.--His Situation and Character.--He attacks the Bill on
Elections.--His Fall.--Cabinet of M. Decazes.--His
Political Weakness, notwithstanding his Parliamentary
Success.--Elections of 1819.--Election and Non-admission of
M. Gregoire.--Assassination of the Duke de Berry.--Fall of
M. Decazes.--The Duke de Richelieu resumes Office.--His Alliance
with the Right-hand Party.--Change in the Law of
Elections.--Disorganization of the Centre, and Progress
of the Right-hand Party.--Second Fall of the
Duke de Richelieu.--M. de Villele and the Right-hand Party obtain
Power. 150
CHAPTER VI.
GOVERNMENT OF THE RIGHT-HAND PARTY.
1822-1827.
Position of M. de Villele on assuming Power.--He finds himself
engaged with the Left and the Conspiracies.--Character of the
Conspiracies.--Estimate of their Motives.--Their connection
with some of the Leaders of the Parliamentary
Opposition.--M. de La Fayette.--M. Manuel.--M. D'Argenson.--Their
Attitude in the Chamber of Deputies.--Failure of the Conspiracies,
and Causes thereof.--M. de Villele engaged with his Rivals within
within and by the side of the Cabinet.--The Duke
de Montmorency.--M. de Chateaubriand Ambassador at
London.--Congress of Verona.--M. de Chateaubriand becomes Minister of
Foreign Affairs.--Spanish War.--Examination of its Causes and
Results.--Rupture between M. de Villele and
M. de Chateaubriand.--Fall of M. de Chateaubriand.--M. de Villele
engaged with an Opposition springing from the Right-hand Party.--The
'Journal des Debats' and the Messrs. Bertin.--M. de Villele falls
under the Yoke of the Parliamentary Majority.--Attitude and Influence
of the Ultra-Catholic Party.--Estimate of their conduct.--Attacks to
which they are exposed.--M. de Montlosier.--M. Beranger.--Acuteness
of M. de Villele.--His decline.--His Enemies at the
Court.--Review and Disbanding of the National Guard of
Paris.--Anxiety of Charles X.--Dissolution of the Chamber of
Deputies.--The Elections are Hostile to M. de Villele.--He
retires.--Speech of the Dauphinists to Charles X. 223
CHAPTER VII.
MY OPPOSITION.
1820-1829.
My Retirement at the Maisonnette.--I publish four incidental
Essays on Political Affairs: 1. Of the Government of France
since the Restoration, and of the Ministry in Office (1820); 2.
Of Conspiracies and Political Justice (1821); 3. Of the Resources
of the Government and the Opposition in the actual State of
France (1821); 4. Of Capital Punishment for Political Offences
(1822).--Character and Effects of these Publications.--Limits of
my Opposition.--The Carbonari.--Visit of M. Manuel.--I commence
my Course of Lectures on the History of the Origin of
Representative Government.--Its double Object.--The Abbe
Frayssinous orders its Suspension.--My Historical Labours--on
the History of England; on the History of France; on the Relations
and Mutual Influence of France and England; on the Philosophic
and Literary Tendencies of that Epoch.--The French
Review.--The Globe.--The Elections of 1827.--My Connection
with the Society, 'Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.'--My
Relations with the Administration of M. de Martignac; he
authorizes the Re-opening of my Course of Lectures, and restores
my Title as a State-Councillor.--My Lectures (1828-1830) on
the History of Civilization in Europe and in France.--Their
Effect.--I am elected Deputy for Lisieux (December, 1829). 278
CHAPTER VIII.
ADDRESS OF THE TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE.
1830.
Menacing, and at the same time inactive attitude of the
Ministry.--Lawful Excitement throughout the Country.--Association
for the ultimate Refusal of the non-voted Taxes.--Character and
Views of M. de Polignac.--Manifestations of the Ministerial
Party.--New Aspect of the Opposition.--Opening of the
Session.--Speech of the King.--Address of the Chamber of
Peers.--Preparation of the Address of the Chamber of
Deputies.--Perplexity of the Moderate Party, and of
M. Royer-Collard.--Debate on the Address.--The part taken in it by
M. Berryer and myself.--Presentation of the Address to the
King.--Prorogation of the Session.--Retirement of MM. de Chabrol and
Courvoisier.--Dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies.--My Journey to
Nismes for the Elections.--True Character of the
Elections.--Intentions of Charles X. 330
* * * * *
HISTORIC DOCUMENTS 359
* * * * *
*** This Work has been translated by J. W. Cole, Esq., who also
translated the 'Celebrated Characters' of M. de Lamartine.
MEMOIRS
TO ILLUSTRATE
THE HISTORY OF MY TIME.
CHAPTER I.
FRANCE BEFORE THE RESTORATION.
1807-1814.
MY REASONS FOR PUBLISHING THESE MEMOIRS DURING MY LIFE.--MY
INTRODUCTION INTO SOCIETY.--MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH M. DE
CHATEAUBRIAND, M. SUARD, MADAME DE STAEL, M. DE FONTANES,
M. ROYER-COLLARD.--PROPOSAL TO APPOINT ME AUDITOR IN THE IMPERIAL
STATE COUNCIL.--WHY THE APPOINTMENT DID NOT TAKE PLACE.--I ENTER
THE UNIVERSITY, AND BEGIN MY COURSE OF LECTURES ON MODERN
HISTORY.--LIBERAL AND ROYALIST PARTIES.--CHARACTERS OF THE
DIFFERENT OPPOSITIONS TOWARDS THE CLOSE OF THE EMPIRE.--ATTEMPTED
RESISTANCE OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODY.--MM. LAINE, GALLOIS,
MAINE-BIRAN, RAYNOUARD, AND FLAUGERGUES.--I LEAVE PARIS FOR
NISMES.--STATE OF PARIS AND FRANCE IN MARCH, 1814.--THE RESTORATION
TAKES PLACE.--I RETURN TO PARIS, AND AM APPOINTED SECRETARY-GENERAL
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR.
I adopt a course different from that recently pursued by several of my
contemporaries; I publish my memoirs while I am still here to answer for
what I write. I am not prompted to this by the weariness of inaction, or
by any desire to re-open a limited field for old contentions, in place
of the grand arena at present closed. I have struggled much and ardently
during my life; age and retirement, as far as my own feelings are
concerned, have expanded their peaceful influence over the past. From a
sky profoundly serene, I look back towards an horizon pregnant with many
storms. I have deeply probed my own heart, and I cannot find there any
feeling which envenoms my recollections. The absence of gall permits
extreme candour. Personality alters or deteriorates truth. Being
desirous to speak of my own life, and of the times in which I have
lived, I prefer doing so on the brink, rather than from the depths of
the tomb. This appears to me more dignified as regards myself, while,
with reference to others, it will lead me to be more scrupulous in my
words and opinions. If objections arise, which I can scarcely hope to
escape, at least it shall not be said that I was unwilling to hear them,
and that I have removed myself from the responsibility of what I have
done.
Other reasons, also, have induced this decision. Memoirs, in general,
are either published too soon or too late. If too soon, they are
indiscreet or unimportant; we either reveal what would be better held
back for the present, or suppress details which it would be both
profitable and curious to relate at once. If too late, they lose much of
their opportunity and interest; contemporaries have passed away, and can
no longer profit by the truths which are imparted, or participate in
their recital with personal enjoyment. Such memoirs retain only a moral
and literary value, and excite no feeling beyond idle curiosity.
Although I well know how much experience evaporates in passing from one
generation to another, I cannot believe that it becomes altogether
extinct, or that a correct knowledge of the mistakes of our fathers, and
of the causes of their failures, can be totally profitless to their
descendants. I wish to transmit to those who may succeed me, and who
also will have their trials to undergo, a little of the light I have
derived from mine. I have, alternately, defended liberty against
absolute power, and order against the spirit of revolution,--two leading
causes which, in fact, constitute but one, for their disconnection leads
to the ruin of both. Until liberty boldly separates itself from the
spirit of revolution, and order from absolute power, so long will France
continue to be tossed about from crisis to crisis, and from error to
error. In this is truly comprised the cause of the nation. I am grieved,
but not dismayed, at its reverses. I neither renounce its service, nor
despair of its triumph. Under the severest disappointments, it has ever
been my natural tendency, and for which I thank God as for a blessing,
to preserve great desires, however uncertain or distant might be the
hopes of their accomplishment.
In ancient and in modern times, the greatest of great historians,
Thucydides, Xenophon, Sallust, Caesar, Tacitus, Macchiavelli, and
Clarendon, have written, and some have themselves published, the annals
of the passing age and of the events in which they participated. I do
not venture on such an ambitious work; the day of history has not yet
arrived for us, of complete, free, and unreserved history, either as
relates to facts or men. But my own personal and inward history; what I
have thought, felt, and wished in my connection with the public affairs
of my country; the thoughts, feelings, and wishes of my political
friends and associates, our minds reflected in our actions,--on these
points I can speak freely, and on these I am most desirous to record my
sentiments, that I may be, if not always approved, at least correctly
known and understood. On this foundation, others will hereafter assign
to us our proper places in the history of the age.
I only commenced public life in the year 1814. I had neither served
under the Revolution nor the Empire: a stranger to the first from youth,
and to the second from disposition. Since I have had some share in the
government of men, I have learned to do justice to the Emperor Napoleon.
He was endowed with a genius incomparably active and powerful, much to
be admired for his antipathy to disorder, for his profound instincts in
ruling, and for his energetic rapidity in reconstructing the social
framework. But this genius had no check, acknowledged no limit to its
desires or will, either emanating from Heaven or man, and thus remained
revolutionary while combating revolution: thoroughly acquainted with the
general conditions of society, but imperfectly, or rather, coarsely
understanding the moral necessities of human nature; sometimes
satisfying them with the soundest judgment, and at others depreciating
and insulting them with impious pride. Who could have believed that the
same man who had established the Concordat, and re-opened the churches
in France, would have carried off the Pope from Rome, and kept him a
prisoner at Fontainebleau?
It is going too far to apply the same ill-treatment to philosophers and
Christians, to reason and faith. Amongst the great men of his class,
Napoleon was by far the most necessary for the times. None but himself
could have so quickly and effectually substituted order in place of
anarchy; but no one was so chimerical as to the future, for after having
been master of France and Europe, he suffered Europe to drive him even
from France. His name is greater and more enduring than his actions, the
most brilliant of which, his conquests, disappeared suddenly and for
ever, with himself. In rendering homage to his exalted qualities, I feel
no regret at not having appreciated them until after his death. For me,
under the Empire, there was too much of the arrogance of power, too much
contempt of right, too much revolution, and too little liberty.
It is not that at that period I was much engaged in politics, or
over-impatient for the freedom that should open to me the road I
desired. I associated myself with the Opposition, but it was an
Opposition bearing little resemblance to that which we have seen and
created during the last thirty years. It was formed from the relics of
the philosophic world and liberal aristocracy of the eighteenth century,
the last representatives of the saloons in which all subjects whatever
had been freely proposed and discussed, through the impulse of
inclination, and the gratification of mental indulgence, rather than
from any distinct object of interest or ambition. The errors and
disasters of the Revolution had not led the survivors of that active
generation to renounce their convictions or desires; they remained
sincerely liberal, but without practical or urgent pretension, and with
the reserve of men who had suffered much and succeeded little in their
attempts at legislative reform. They still held to freedom of thought
and speech, but had no aspirations after power. They detested and warmly
criticized despotism, but without any open attempt to repress or
overthrow existing authority. It was the opposition of enlightened and
independent lookers-on, who had neither the opportunity nor inclination
to interfere as actors.
After a long life of fierce contention, I recur with pleasure to the
remembrance of this enchanting society. M. de Talleyrand once said to
me, "Those who were not living in and about the year 1789, know little
of the enjoyments of life." In fact, nothing could exceed the pleasure
of a great intellectual and social movement, which, at that epoch, far
from suspending or disturbing the arrangements of the world, animated
and ennobled them by mingling serious thoughts with frivolous
recreations, and as yet called for no suffering, or no sacrifice, while
it opened to the eyes of men a dazzling and delightful perspective. The
eighteenth century was, beyond all question, the most tempting and
seductive of ages, for it promised to satisfy at once the strength and
weakness of human nature; elevating and enervating the mind at the same
time; flattering alternately the noblest sentiments and the most
grovelling propensities; intoxicating with exalted hopes, and nursing
with effeminate concessions. Thus it has produced, in pellmell
confusion, utopians and egotists, sceptics and fanatics, enthusiasts and
incredulous scoffers, different offspring of the same period, but all
enraptured with the age and with themselves, indulging together in one
common drunkenness on the eve of the approaching chaos.
When I first mixed with the world in 1807, the storm had for a long time
burst; the infatuation of 1789 had completely disappeared. Society,
entirely occupied with its own re-establishment, no longer dreamed of
elevating itself in the midst of mere amusement; exhibitions of force
had superseded impulses towards liberty. Coldness, absence of
fellow-feeling, isolation of sentiment and interests,--in these are
comprised the ordinary course and weary vexations of the world. France,
worn out with errors and strange excesses, eager once more for order and
common sense, fell back into the old track. In the midst of this general
reaction, the faithful inheritors of the literary saloons of the
eighteenth century held themselves aloof from its influence; they alone
preserved two of the noblest and most amiable propensities of their
age--a disinterested taste for pleasures of the mind, and that readiness
of sympathy, that warmth and ardour of curiosity, that necessity for
moral improvement and free discussion, which embellish the social
relations with so much variety and sweetness.
In my own case, I drew from these sources a profitable experience. Led
into the circle I have named, by an incident in my private life, I
entered amongst them very young, perfectly unknown, with no other title
than a little presumed ability, some education, and an ardent taste for
refined pleasures, letters, and good company. I carried with me no ideas
harmonizing with those I found there. I had been brought up at Geneva,
with extremely liberal notions, but in austere habits and religious
convictions entirely opposed to the philosophy of the eighteenth
century, rather than in coincidence with or in admiration of its works
and tendencies. During my residence in Paris, German metaphysics and
literature had been my favourite study; I read Kant and Klopstock,
Herder and Schiller, much more frequently than Condillac and Voltaire.
M. Suard, the Abbe Morellet, the Marquis de Boufflers, the frequenters
of the drawing-rooms of Madame d'Houdetot and of Madame de Rumford, who
received me with extreme complaisance, smiled, and sometimes grew tired
of my Christian traditions and Germanic enthusiasm; but, after all, this
difference of opinion established for me, in their circle, a plea of
interest and favour instead of producing any feeling of illwill or even
of indifference. They knew that I was as sincerely attached to liberty
and the privileges of human intelligence as they were themselves, and
they discovered something novel and independent in my turn of thought,
which inspired both esteem and attraction. At this period, they
constantly supported me with their friendship and interest, without ever
attempting to press or control me on the points on which we disagreed.
From them especially, I have learned to exercise in practical life, that
expanded equity, joined to respect for the freedom of others, which
constitute the character and duty of a truly liberal mind.
This generous disposition manifested itself on every opportunity. In
1809, M. de Chateaubriand published 'The Martyrs.' The success of this
work was at first slow, and strongly disputed. Amongst the disciples of
the eighteenth century and of Voltaire, a great majority treated
M. de Chateaubriand as an enemy, while the more moderate section looked
on him with little favour. They rejected his ideas even when they felt
that they were not called upon to contest them. His style of writing
offended their taste, which was divested of all imagination, and more
refined than grand. My own disposition was entirely opposed to theirs. I
passionately admired M. de Chateaubriand in his ideas and language: that
beautiful compound of religious sentiment and romantic imagination, of
poetry and moral polemics, had so powerfully moved and subdued me, that,
soon after my arrival at Paris in 1806, one of my first literary
fantasies was to address an epistle, in very indifferent verse, to
M. de Chateaubriand, who immediately thanked me in prose, artistically
polished and unassuming. His letter flattered my youth, and 'The
Martyrs' redoubled my zeal. Seeing them so violently attacked, I
resolved to defend them in the 'Publicist,' in which I occasionally
wrote. M. Suard, who conducted that journal, although far from
coinciding with the opinions I had adopted, lent himself most obligingly
to my desire. I have met with very few men of a natural temperament so
gentle and liberal, and with a mind at the same time scrupulously
refined and fastidious. He was much more disposed to criticize than to
admire the talent of M. de Chateaubriand; but he admitted the great
extent of his ability, and on that ground dealt with him gently,
although with delicate irony. Besides which, the talent was full of
independence, and exerted in opposition to the formidable tendencies of
Imperial power. These qualities won largely upon the esteem of M. Suard,
who, in consequence, allowed me an unfettered course in the 'Publicist,'
of which I availed myself to espouse the cause of 'The Martyrs' against
their detractors.
M. de Chateaubriand was deeply affected by this, and hastened to express
his acknowledgments. My articles became the subject of a correspondence
between us, which I still refer to with pleasure.[1] He explained to me
his intentions and motives in the composition of his poem, discussed
with susceptibility and even with some degree of temper concealed under
his gratitude, the strictures mixed with my eulogiums, and finished by
saying: "In conclusion, Sir, you know the tempests raised against my
work, and from whence they proceed. There is another wound, not
exhibited, which is the real source of all this rage. It is that
_Hierocles_ massacres the Christians in the name of _philosophy_ and
_liberty_. Time will do me justice, if my work deserves it, and you will
greatly accelerate this justice by the publication of your articles,
provided you could be induced to change and modify them to a certain
point. Show me my faults, and I will correct them. I only despise those
critics who are as base in their language as in the secret motives which
induce them to speak. I can find neither reason nor principle in the
mouths of those literary mountebanks hired by the police, who dance in
the gutters for the amusement of lacqueys.... I do not give up the hope
of calling to see you, or of receiving you in my hermitage. Honest men
should, particularly at present, unite for mutual consolation; generous
feelings and exalted sentiments become every day so rare, that we ought
to consider ourselves too happy when we encounter them.... Accept, I
entreat you, once more, the assurance of my high consideration, of my
sincere devotion, and if you will permit, of a friendship which we
commence under the auspices of frankness and honour."
Between M. de Chateaubriand and myself, frankness and honour, most
certainly, have never been disturbed throughout our political
controversies; but friendship has not been able to survive them. The
word is too rare and valuable to be hastily pronounced.
When we have lived under a system of real and serious liberty, we feel
both an inclination and a right to smile when we consider what, in other
times, has been classed as factious opposition by the one side, and
courageous resistance by the other. In August, 1807, eighteen months
before the publication of 'The Martyrs,' I stopped some days in
Switzerland, on my way to visit my mother at Nismes; and with the
confident enthusiasm of youth, as anxious to become acquainted with
living celebrities as I was myself unknown, I addressed a letter to
Madame de Stael, requesting the honour of calling upon her. She invited
me to dinner at Ouchy, near Lausanne, where she then resided. I was
placed next to her; I came from Paris; she questioned me as to what was
passing there, how the public were occupied, and what were the topics
of conversation in the saloons. I spoke of an article by
M. de Chateaubriand, in the 'Mercury,' which was making some noise at
the moment of my departure. A particular passage had struck me, which I
quoted according to the text, as it had strongly impressed itself on my
memory. "When, in the silence of abject submission, we hear only the
chains of the slave and the voice of the informer, when all tremble
before the tyrant, and it is as dangerous to incur favour as to merit
disgrace, the historian appears to be charged with the vengeance of
nations. It is in vain that Nero triumphs. Tacitus has been born in the
Empire; he grows up unnoticed near the ashes of Germanicus, and already
uncompromising Providence has handed over to an obscure child the glory
of the master of the world." My tone of voice was undoubtedly excited
and striking, as I was myself deeply moved and arrested by the words.
Madame de Stael, seizing me by the arm, exclaimed, "I am sure you would
make an excellent tragedian; remain with us and take a part in the
'Andromache.'" Theatricals were at that time the prevailing taste and
amusement in her house. I excused myself from her kind conjecture and
proposal, and the conversation returned to M. de Chateaubriand and his
article, which was greatly admired, while at the same time it excited
some apprehension. The admiration was just, for the passage was really
eloquent; neither was the alarm without grounds, for the 'Mercury' was
suppressed precisely on account of this identical paragraph. Thus, the
Emperor Napoleon, conqueror of Europe and absolute master of France,
believed that he could not suffer it to be written that his future
historian might perhaps be born under his reign, and held himself
compelled to take the honour of Nero under his shield. It was a heavy
penalty attached to greatness, to have such apprehensions to exhibit,
and such clients to protect!
Exalted minds, who felt a little for the dignity of human nature, had
sound reason for being discontented with the existing system; they saw
that it could neither establish the happiness nor the permanent
prosperity of France; but it seemed then so firmly established in
general opinion, its power was so universally admitted, and so little
was any change anticipated for the future, that even within the haughty
and narrow circle in which the spirit of opposition prevailed, it
appeared quite natural that young men should enter the service of
Government, the only public career that remained open to them. A lady of
distinguished talent and noble sentiments, who had conceived a certain
degree of friendship for me, Madame de Remusat, was desirous that I
should be named Auditor in the State Council. Her cousin, M. Pasquier,
Prefect of Police, whom I sometimes met at her house, interested himself
in this matter with much cordiality, and, under the advice of my most
intimate friends, I acceded to the proposition, although, at the bottom
of my heart, it occasioned me some uneasiness. It was intended that I
should be attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. M. Pasquier named
me to the Duke of Bassano, then at the head of the department, and to
Count d'Hauterive, Comptroller of the Archives. The Duke sent for me. I
also had an interview with M. d'Hauterive, who possessed a fertile and
ingenious mind, and was kindly disposed towards young men of studious
habits. As a trial of ability, they ordered me to draw up a memorial on
a question respecting which, the Emperor either was, or wished to
appear, deeply interested--the mutual exchange of French and English
prisoners. Many documents on the subject were placed in my hands. I
completed the memorial; and, believing that the Emperor was sincere,
carefully set forward those principles of the law of nations which
rendered the measure desirable, and the mutual concessions necessary for
its accomplishment. My work was duly submitted to the Duke of Bassano. I
have reason to conclude that I had mistaken his object; and that the
Emperor, looking upon the English detained in France as of more
importance than the French confined in England, and believing also that
the number of the latter pressed inconveniently on the English
Government, had no serious intention of carrying out the proposed
exchange. Whatever might be the cause, I heard nothing more either of my
memorial or nomination, a result which caused me little regret.
Another career soon opened to me, more suitable to my views, as being
less connected with the Government. My first attempts at writing,
particularly my Critical Notes on Gibbon's 'History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire,' and the 'Annals of Education,' a periodical
miscellany in which I had touched upon some leading questions of public
and private instruction, obtained for me the notice of literary men.[2]
With gratuitous kindness, M. de Fontanes, Grand Master of the
University, appointed me Assistant Professor to the Chair of History,
occupied by M. de Lacretelle, in the Faculty of Letters in the Academy
of Paris. In a very short time, and before I had commenced my class, as
if he thought he had not done enough to evince his esteem and to attach
me strongly to the University, he divided the Chair, and named me
Titular Professor of Modern History, with a dispensation on account of
age, as I had not yet completed my twenty-fifth year. I began my
lectures at the College of Plessis, in presence of the pupils of the
Normal School, and of a public audience few in number but anxious for
instruction, and with whom modern history, traced up to its remote
sources, the barbarous conquerors of the Roman Empire, presented itself
with an urgent and almost contemporaneous interest. In his conduct
towards me, M. de Fontanes was not entirely actuated by some pages of
mine he had read, or by a few friendly opinions he had heard expressed.
This learned Epicurean, become powerful, and the intellectual favourite
of the most potent Sovereign in Europe, loved literature for itself with
a sincere and disinterested attachment. The truly beautiful touched him
as sensibly as in the days of his early youth and poetical inspirations.
What was still more extraordinary, this refined courtier of a despot,
this official orator, who felt satisfied when he had embellished
flattery with noble eloquence, never failed to acknowledge, and render
due homage to independence. Soon after my appointment, he invited me to
dinner at his country-house at Courbevoie. Seated near him at table, we
talked of studies, of the different modes of teaching, of ancient and
modern classics, with the freedom of old acquaintances, and almost with
the association of fellow-labourers. The conversation turned upon the
Latin poets and their commentators. I spoke with warm praise of the
great edition of Virgil by Heyne, the celebrated professor of the
University of Goettingen, and of the merit of his annotations.
M. de Fontanes fiercely attacked the German scholars. According to him,
they had neither discovered nor added anything to the earlier
commentaries, and Heyne was no better acquainted with Virgil and the
ancients than Pere La Rue. He fulminated against German literature in
the mass, philosophers, poets, historians, or philologists, and
pronounced them all unworthy of attention. I defended them with the
confidence of conviction and youth; when M. de Fontanes, turning to his
neighbour on the other side, said to him, with a smile, "We can never
make these Protestants give in." But, instead of taking offence at my
obstinacy, he was cordially pleased with the frankness of this little
debate. His toleration of my independence was, not long after, subjected
to a more delicate trial.
When I was about to commence my course, in December, 1812, he spoke to
me of my opening address, and insinuated that I ought to insert in it a
sentence or two in praise of the Emperor. It was the custom, he said,
particularly on the establishment of a new professorship, and the
Emperor sometimes demanded from him an account of these proceedings. I
felt unwilling to comply, and told him, I thought this proposal scarcely
consistent. I had to deal exclusively with science, before an audience
of students; how then could I be expected to introduce politics, and,
above all, politics in opposition to my own views? "Do as you please,"
replied M. de Fontanes, with an evident mixture of regard and
embarrassment; "if you are complained of, it will fall upon me, and I
must defend you and myself as well as I can."[3]
He displayed as much clear penetration and good sense as generosity, in
so quickly and gracefully renouncing the proposition he had suggested.
In regard to the master he served, the opposition of the society in
which I lived had in it nothing of practical or immediate importance. It
was purely an opposition of ideas and conversation, without defined plan
or effective influence, earnest in philosophic inquiry, but passive in
political action; disposed to be satisfied with tranquil life, in the
unshackled indulgence of thought and speech.
On entering the University, I found myself in contact with another
opposition, less apparent but more serious, without being, at the
moment, of a more active character. M. Royer-Collard, at that time
Professor of the History of Philosophy, and Dean of the Faculty of
Letters, attached himself to me with warm friendship. We had no previous
acquaintanceship; I was much the younger man; he lived quite out of the
world, within a small circle of selected associates; we were new to each
other, and mutually attractive. He was a man, not of the old system, but
of the old times, whose character had been developed, though not
controlled, by the Revolution, the principles, transactions, and
leading promoters of which he judged with rigid independence, without
losing sight of the primary and national cause. His mind, eminently
liberal, highly cultivated, and supported by solid good sense, was more
original than inventive, profound rather than expanded, more given to
sift thoroughly a single idea than to combine many; too much absorbed
within himself, but exercising a singular power over others by the
commanding weight of his reason, and by an aptitude of imparting, with a
certain solemnity of manner, the unexpected brilliancy of a strong
imagination, continually under the excitement of very lively
impressions. Before being called to teach philosophy, he had never made
this particular branch of science the object or end of his special
study, and throughout our political vicissitudes between 1789 and 1814
he had never taken an important position, or connected himself
prominently with any party. But, in youth, under the influence of the
traditions of Port-Royal, he had received a sound classical and
Christian education; and after the _Reign of Terror_, under the
government of the Directory, he joined the small section of Royalists
who corresponded with Louis XVIII., less to conspire, than to enlighten
the exiled Prince on the true state of the country, and to furnish him
with suggestions equally advantageous for France and the House of
Bourbon, if it were destined that the House of Bourbon and France should
be re-united on some future day. He was therefore decidedly a
spiritualist in philosophy, and a royalist in politics. To restore
independence of mind to man, and right to government, formed the
prevailing desire of his unobtrusive life. "You cannot believe," he
wrote to me in 1823, "that I have ever adopted the word _Restoration_ in
the restricted sense of an individual fact; but I have always regarded,
and still look upon this fact as the expression of a certain system of
society and government, and as the condition on which, under the
circumstances of France, we are to look for order, justice, and liberty;
while, without this condition, disorder, violence, and irremediable
despotism, springing from things and not from men, will be the necessary
consequence of the spirit and doctrines of the Revolution." Passionately
imbued with this conviction, an aggressive philosopher and an expectant
politician, he fought successfully in his chair against the
materialistic school of the eighteenth century, and watched from the
retirement of his study, with anxiety but not without hope, the chances
of the perilous game on which Napoleon daily staked his empire.
By his lofty and intuitive instincts, Napoleon was a spiritualist: men
of his order have flashes of light and impulses of thought, which open
to them the sphere of the most exalted truths. In his hours of better
reflection, spiritualism, reviving under his reign, and sapping the
materialism of the last century, was sympathetic with and agreeable to
his own nature. But the principle of despotism quickly reminded him that
the soul cannot be elevated without enfranchisement, and the
spiritualistic philosophy of M. Royer-Collard then confused him as much
as the sensual ideology of M. de Tracy. It was, moreover, one of the
peculiarities of Napoleon's mind, that his thoughts constantly reverted
to the forgotten Bourbons, well knowing that he had no other
competitors for the throne of France. At the summit of his power he
more than once gave utterance to this impression, which recurred to him
with increased force when he felt the approach of danger. On this
ground, M. Royer-Collard and his friends, with whose opinions and
connections he was fully acquainted, became to him objects of extreme
suspicion and disquietude. Not that their opposition (as he was also
aware) was either active or influential; events were not produced
through such agencies; but therein lay the best-founded presentiments of
the future; and amongst its members were included the most rational
partisans of the prospective Government.
Hitherto they had ventured nothing beyond vague and half-indulged
conversations, when the Emperor himself advanced their views to a
consistence and publicity which they were far from assuming. On the 19th
of December, 1813, he convened together the Senate and the Legislative
Body, and ordered several documents to be laid before them relative to
his negotiations with the Allied Powers, demanding their opinions on the
subject. If he had then really intended to make peace, or felt seriously
anxious to convince France, that the continuance of the war would not
spring from the obstinacy of his own domineering will, there can be no
doubt that he would have found in these two Bodies, enervated as they
were, a strong and popular support. I often saw and talked
confidentially with three of the five members of the Commission of the
Legislative Body, MM. Maine-Biran, Gallois, and Raynouard, and through
them I obtained a correct knowledge of the dispositions of the two
others, MM. Laine and Flaugergues. M. Maine-Biran, who, with
M. Royer-Collard and myself formed a small philosophical association, in
which we conversed freely on all topics, kept us fully informed as to
what passed in the Commission, and even in the Legislative Assembly
itself. Although originally a Royalist (in his youth he had been
enrolled amongst the bodyguards of Louis XVI.), he was unconnected with
any party or intrigue, scrupulously conscientious, even timid when
conviction did not call for the exercise of courage, little inclined to
politics by taste, and, under any circumstances, one of the last men
to form an extreme resolution, or take the initiative in action.
M. Gallois, a man of the world and of letters, a moderate liberal of the
philosophic school of the eighteenth century, occupied himself much more
with his library than with public affairs. He wished to discharge his
duty to his country respectably, without disturbing the peaceful tenor
of his life. M. Raynouard, a native of Provence and a poet, had more
vivacity of manner and language, without being of an adventurous
temperament. It was said that his loud complaints against the tyrannical
abuses of the Imperial Government, would not have prevented him from
being contented with those moderate concessions which satisfy honour for
the present, and excite hope for the future. M. Flaugergues, an honest
Republican, who had put on mourning for the death of Louis XVI.,
uncompromising in temper and character, was capable of energetic but
solitary resolutions, and possessed little influence over his
colleagues, although he talked much. M. Laine, on the contrary, had a
warm and sympathetic heart under a gloomy exterior, and an elevated
mind, without much vigour or originality. He spoke imposingly and
convincingly when moved by his subject; formerly a Republican, he had
paused as a simple partisan of liberal tendencies, and being promptly
acknowledged as the head of the Commission, consented without hesitation
to become its organ. But, like his colleagues, he had no premeditated
hostility or concealed engagement against the Emperor. All were desirous
of conveying to him a true impression of the desires of France;
externally for a pacific policy, and internally for a respect for public
rights and the legal exercise of power. Their Report contained nothing
beyond a guarded expression of these moderate sentiments.
With such men, animated by such views, a perfect understanding was
anything but difficult. Napoleon would not even listen to them. It is
well known how he suddenly suppressed the Report and adjourned the
Legislative Body, and with what rude but intentional violence he
received the Deputies and their Commissioners on the 1st of January,
1814. "Who are you who address me thus? I am the sole representative of
the nation. We are one and inseparable. I have a title, but you have
none.... M. Laine, your mouthpiece, is a dishonest man who corresponds
with England through the Advocate Deseze. I shall keep my eye upon him.
M. Raynouard is a liar." In communicating to the Commission the papers
connected with the negotiation, Napoleon had forbidden his Minister of
Foreign Affairs, the Duke of Vicenza, to include that which specified
the conditions on which the Allied Powers were prepared to treat, not
wishing to pledge himself to any recognized basis. His Minister of
Police, the Duke of Rovigo, took upon himself to carry to extremity the
indiscretion of his anger. "Your words are most imprudent," said he to
the members of the Commission, "when there is a Bourbon in the field."
Thus, in the very crisis of his difficulties, under the most emphatic
warnings from heaven and man, the despot at bay made an empty parade of
absolute power; the vanquished conqueror displayed to the world that the
ostensible negotiations were only a pretext for still trying the chances
of war; the tottering head of the new dynasty proclaimed himself that
the old line was there, ready to supplant him.
The day had arrived when glory could no longer repair the faults which
it still covers. The campaign of 1814, that uninterrupted masterpiece of
skill and heroism, as well on the part of the leader as of his
followers, bore, nevertheless, the ineffaceable stamp of the false
calculations and false position of the Emperor. He wavered continually
between the necessity of protecting Paris, and the passion of
reconquering Europe; anxious to save his throne without sacrificing his
ambition, and changing his tactics at every moment, as a fatal danger or
a favourable change alternately presented itself. God vindicated reason
and justice, by condemning the genius which had so recklessly braved
both, to sink in hesitation and uncertainty, under the weight of its own
incompatible objects and impracticable desires.
While Napoleon in this closing struggle wasted the last remnants of his
fortune and power, he encountered no disappointment or obstacle from any
quarter of France, either from Paris or the departments, the party in
opposition, or the public in general. There was no enthusiasm in his
cause, and little confidence in his success, but no one rose openly
against him; all hostility was comprised in a few unfavourable
expressions, some preparatory announcements, and here and there a change
of side as people began to catch a glimpse of the approaching issue. The
Emperor acted in full liberty, with all the strength that still
pertained to his isolated position, and the moral and physical
exhaustion of the country. Such general apathy was never before
exhibited in the midst of so much national anxiety, or so many
disaffected persons abstaining from action under similar circumstances,
with such numerous partisans ready to renounce the master they still
served with implicit docility. It was an entire nation of wearied
spectators who had long given up all interference in their own fate, and
knew not what catastrophe they were to hope or fear to the terrible game
of which they were the stake.
I grew impatient of remaining a motionless beholder of the shifting
spectacle; and not foreseeing when or how it would terminate, I
determined, towards the middle of March, to repair to Nismes, and pass
some weeks with my mother, whom I had not seen for a considerable time.
I have still before my eyes the aspect of Paris, particularly of the Rue
de Rivoli (then in progress of construction), as I passed along on the
morning of my departure. There were no workmen and no activity;
materials heaped together without being used, deserted scaffoldings,
buildings abandoned for want of money, hands, or confidence, and in
ruins before completion. Everywhere, amongst the people, a discontented
air of uneasy idleness, as if they were equally in want of labour and
repose. Throughout my journey, on the highways, in the towns, and in the
fields, I noticed the same appearance of inactivity and agitation, the
same visible impoverishment of the country; there were more women and
children than men, many young conscripts marching mournfully to their
battalions, sick and wounded soldiers returning to the interior; in
fact, a mutilated and exhausted nation. Side by side with this physical
suffering, I also remarked a great moral perplexity, the uneasiness of
opposing sentiments, an ardent longing for peace, a deadly hatred of
foreign invaders, with alternating feelings, as regarded Napoleon, of
anger and sympathy. By some he was denounced as the author of all their
calamities; by others he was hailed as the bulwark of the country, and
the avenger of her injuries. What struck me as a serious evil, although
I was then far from being able to estimate its full extent, was the
marked inequality of these different expressions amongst the divided
classes of the population. With the affluent and educated, the prominent
feeling was evidently a strong desire for peace, a dislike of the
exigencies and hazards of the Imperial despotism, a calculated
foreshadowing of its fall, and the dawning perspective of another system
of government. The lower orders, on the contrary, only roused themselves
up from lassitude to give way to a momentary burst of patriotic rage, or
to their reminiscences of the Revolution. The Imperial rule had given
them discipline without reform. Appearances were tranquil, but in truth
it might be said of the popular masses as of the emigrants, that they
had forgotten nothing, and learned nothing. There was no moral unity
throughout the land, no common thought or passion, notwithstanding the
common misfortunes and experience. The nation was almost as blindly and
completely divided in its apathy, as it had lately been in its
excitement. I recognized these unwholesome symptoms; but I was young,
and much more disposed to dwell on the hopes than on the perils of the
future. While at Nismes, I soon became acquainted with the events that
had taken place in Paris. M. Royer-Collard wrote to press my return. I
set out on the instant, and a few days after my arrival, I was appointed
Secretary-General to the Ministry of the Interior, which department the
King had just confided to the Abbe de Montesquiou.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: I have inserted, amongst the "Historic Documents" at the
end of the Volume, three of the letters which M. de Chateaubriand
addressed to me, at the time, on this subject. (Historic Documents, No.
I.)]
[Footnote 2: Amongst the "Historic Documents" at the end of this volume,
I have included a letter, addressed to me from Brussels, by the
Count de Lally-Tolendal, on the 'Annals of Education,' in which the
character of the writer and of the time are exhibited with agreeable
frankness. (Hist. Documents, No. II.)]
[Footnote 3: Notwithstanding its imperfections, of which, no one is more
sensible than I am, this address may be read, perhaps, with some little
interest. It was my first historical lecture and first public discourse,
and remains locked up in the Archives of the Faculty of Letters, from
the day when it was delivered, now forty-five years ago. I have added it
to the "Historic Documents" (No. III.).]