whilst the Christian elements daily assume greater weight;
these are not yet strong enough to found a dominion of their
own; but, as auxiliaries to a conquering European power, they
would be of high importance. When, after the triumphant
entrance of Paskewitch's army into the capital of Aderbidjan,
Feth Ali Shah trembled on his throne, and submissively
subscribed the conditions of peace dictated to him by the
Russian general, many thought that Russia had been
extraordinarily generous to her humbled foe: she might just
as easily have kept the conquered district of Aderbidjan for
herself, or have compelled the Persian king to give up the
beautiful provinces of Gilan and Masendran. The portion of
Armenia with which she contented herself is no very enticing
possession, either for its size or for its fertility, but it
includes within its limits the Gregorian mother-church; and
its temporal ruler disposes of the spiritual weapons of the
Catholicos and of the synod, whose religious influence
extends whithersoever Armenians dwell. In its last treaty of
peace with Turkey and Persia, the Russian government tacitly
but fully recognised the value of this territory, so sacred
to all Armenians. It was also prudent enough to annex to the
country on the left bank of the Araxes, where Eshmiadzini is
situated, a portion of the territory on the right bank of
that stream, and to secure a part of Ararat itself--the north
side of the mountain, viewed with such holy reverence by the
Armenian people, with the convent of St Jacob, since
overwhelmed by the eruption of 1840. These districts compose
the really classic ground of the Armenian-Gregorian church
history. No spot in the entire Orient is more attractive and
hallowed to the religious feelings of the Armenians--not even
the grave of the Redeemer at Jerusalem, or the renowned
convent of John the Baptist on the eastern Euphrates. The
annual number of pilgrims to Eshmiadzini, although not so
great as when Tavernier and Chardin explored that
neighbourhood, is still very considerable; and at Easter it
is by no means rare to find collected there pious travellers
from the Ganges, the Indus, the Don, the Jordan, and the
Nile. Both the Shah and the Porte well know the importance of
Russian occupation of that territory, as the point where all
the religious sympathies of the Armenians concentrate. As
viceroy of Aderbidjan, Abbas Mirza always made much of the
Catholicos and the synod, and sought to win them to the
Persian interest. And long did the warlike prince urge his
royal father rather once more to try the fortune of arms,
than to suffer a territory to be wrenched from him, less
valuable from the revenue it yielded than from the religious
power it gave over the Christian subjects of Persia."
The treaty of cession concluded, the Shah did all in his power to
discourage the emigration of Armenian Christians into Russian Armenia,
and his example was followed by the Porte; but the labour of both was
in vain. Permission for such emigration was stipulated by the treaty,
and the only real check upon it was mistrust of Russia, whose
intolerant reputation made many Armenian priests suspect an intention
of proselytising. But Russia, cruel and unsparing to her Roman
Catholics, whose spiritual chief is out of the reach of her direct
influence, showed herself tolerant and considerate towards the
Armenian church, in which she discerned, according to Dr Wagner, a
most useful instrument for her projects of future aggrandisement: and,
on occasion of the election of 1843, the Russian government
particularly insisted that the new patriarch should be named by the
voices of all the Armenian congregations in the entire East. Flattered
by this invitation to direct co-operation, the Armenian priesthood of
Constantinople, who, last of all, still recused the authority of the
Eshmiadzini synod, suffered themselves to be won over, and sent their
delegates to the convocation. For Russia it was another triumph, for
Turkey a fresh vexation.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] _Reise nach dem Ararat und dem Hochland Armenien_, von Dr MORITZ
WAGNER. Mit einem Anhange: Beiträge zur Naturgeshichte des Hochlandes
Armenien. Stuttgart und Tübinger, 1848.
[20] _Reise in der Regentschaft Algier in den Jahren 1836-8._ 3
volumes. Leipzig, 1841.
[21] The Armenian Christians abound in traditions respecting Noah and
his ark. We have already mentioned the one relating to Arguri, which
he is said to have founded, and which should therefore have been the
oldest village in the world, up to its destruction in 1840 by an
earthquake and volcanic eruption, of which Dr Wagner gives an
interesting account. The simple and credulous Christians of Armenia
believe that fragments of the ark are still to be found upon Ararat.
[22] This eccentric old soldier and author, who calls himself the
Hermit of Gauting, from the name of an estate he possesses, is not
more remarkable for the oddity of his dress and appearance, than for
the peculiarities and affected roughness of his literary style, and
for the overstrained originality of many of his views. In his own
country he is cited as a contrast to Prince Puckler Muskau, the
dilettante and silver-fork tourist _par excellence_, whose
affectation, by no means less remarkable than that of the baron, is
quite of the opposite description. Von Hallberg's works are numerous,
and of various merit. One of his most recent publications is a
"_Journey through England_," (Stuttgard, 1841.) The chief motive of
his travels is apparently a love of locomotion and novelty. When
travelling with Dr Wagner, he took little interest in his companion's
geological and botanical investigations, and directed his attention to
men rather than to things. After passing the town of Pipis, three
days' journey from Tefflis, the country and climate assumed a very
German aspect, strongly reminding the travellers of the vicinity of
the Hartz Mountains. "It is folly," exclaimed old Baron Hallberg,
almost angrily, "perfect folly, to travel a couple of thousand miles
to visit a country as like Germany as one egg is to another." "I
really pitied the old man, who had daily to support the rude jolting
of the Russian _telega_, besides suffering greatly from the assaults
of vermin, and who found so little matter where with to fill his
journal."--_Reise nach dem Ararat, &c._, p. 15.
LEGITIMACY IN FRANCE.[23]
Under the circumstances of the strange anomaly presented by the actual
condition of France, which never better deserved its title of a
republic without republicans, it may fairly become a matter of
speculation, in how much a return to monarchical institutions
possesses a degree of probability in the future, and, more especially,
how far the principles of legitimacy stand a chance of assuming,
hereafter, a supremacy in France. We say "a matter of speculation," in
as much as the _uncertain_ must ever remain the presiding genius of
the chances of a revolutionary epoch: and, in such times, it would be
more than presumption to attempt to prophesy upon a nation's
destinies. But still there are signs of the times in France, which are
of sufficient importance to be chronicled; curious facts, that cannot
but attract attention; and revelations that possess a deep
interest--all bearing upon the possible restoration of the exiled
prince of the elder branch of the Bourbons; and, as far as regards
this eventuality--and who can any more say it shall not be than they
can say it shall?--the chances appear not so unequal in the balance
held by the hand of fate--they may be considered worthy of notice and
comment.
It would be scarcely correct, however, to speak of such a _possible_
eventuality as the realisation of the prospects of a Legitimate party.
As a _party_, properly so called, in the language of political and
revolutionary struggle, the legitimists of France can scarcely be said
to exist, even although a stanch but small nucleus, professing
decidedly legitimist principles, may be found among a certain body of
men, chiefly belonging to the old families of France, in private life.
During the reign of the Orleans branch, the legitimists gradually
dwindled into comparative obscurity--almost every family which
professed to entertain legitimist opinions having attached itself,
openly or in an underhand manner, to the existing order of things, by
means of some one of its members: and even in the present day they
have pursued the same line of policy--a policy which wears now,
however, a more respectable garb, inasmuch as it is professedly based
upon the seemingly patriotic and disinterested maxim, "_Français avant
tout_," which, in declaring the revolution that caused the fall of
Louis Philippe the work of the "finger of God," and in accepting a
government founded upon a nation's universal suffrage, as preferable
to that of a "usurping king," they have adopted as the device of
chivalry, to influence every action of their lives in such a juncture.
In fact, with this appearance of more straightforward patriotism, they
bide their time in faith and patience, and, with a feeling almost
allied to superstition, repudiate every idea of political intrigue,
much more of any conspiracy against the existing order of things.
But, if this passive position of the old legitimists does not permit
them to assume the attitude of a decided _party_, or even of bearing
properly such a designation, it must not be supposed that the cause of
legitimacy is dead, or even dormant, in France. Far from it. The
present state of legitimacy in France, however, must be studied less
among the avowed legitimists, who have long given themselves the name,
than in the dispersed and floating elements pervading the mass of the
nation. The preference of the great majority of the country for
monarchical institutions, or, at all events, its strong
anti-revolutionary feeling, and aversion to the republican rule, after
the sad experience of much misery and misfortune--and from its despair
of the realisation of that "hope deferred," in the restoration of
confidence and prosperity, which "maketh the heart sick"--are facts
which cannot be denied by any man of unprejudiced feelings and sincere
convictions. By degrees, then, feelings have been latterly assuming a
form favourable to the cause of legitimacy: and that such sentiments
now notoriously exist in the hearts of a great proportion of the
country at large can scarcely be disputed. They are based, it is true,
in no ways, among the mass, upon any political opinions or
philosophical principles--they spring up from a desire of having a
"something" at the head of the state which may be the type of
stability, and thus the representative of confidence, peace, and
restored prosperity: and this "something" is best embodied, in the
minds of men, in the person of a young prince, who represents the
apparently most stable form of monarchical government--that founded on
legitimacy. They arise from no personal attachment to the elder branch
of the Bourbons, or to the Duke of Bordeaux individually, but solely
from a desire to return to monarchical government, and from the
growing conviction that, among the many pretenders to the supreme
power in France, were a monarchy to be established, the sole one who
presents a firmer hope of stability--who represents a principle, and
who thus best offers to be pilot to the _terra firma_ of a "promised
land" to those who are still tossing hither and thither upon the waves
of revolution, with storms eternally menacing a still more complete
shipwreck on the horizon--is he who bases his pretensions upon the
long-scouted theory of legitimacy. To this form of hoped-for
stability, then, men now begin to attach themselves more and more, in
their aspirations for the future; and thus legitimist expectations,
predilections, sympathies--call them what you will--grow, increase,
spread like a banian tree, which still ever plants its dropping
branches, and takes root farther and farther still; and they thus
implant themselves more and more, on all sides, on the soil of the
revolution. We speak here of a great proportion of men _of all
classes_ in France. At the same time, it is very clear that a
conviction is daily gaining more ground, that, in the possible or
probable revolutionary chances, spite of the popularity of the
President in the capital, the _prestige_ more or less attached to his
name, and the party supposed to be connected with his interests, the
balance chiefly lies between the republic as it is and Henry V. Even
the ultra-republicans and Socialists appear to feel this so strongly,
that, in a pamphlet entitled "_La République ou Henri V.--quelques
mots à Bonaparte_," a certain Monsieur Pertus, a violent Socialist and
adherent of the so-called democratic and social republic, has given,
in powerful language, the reasons of the party why the destinies of
France may be supposed to lie between these two alternatives only, and
why Louis Napoleon, should he put forward his pretensions to an
ultimate permanency of power, would probably meet with an utter defeat
from the nation at large. The immediate interests of the younger
Bourbon branch are entirely set out of sight in the political
combinations upon which men speculate in France: adherents they have
none: they exist not in men's minds, much less in their hearts: they
are never spoken of.
It is evident, then, to every observing eye, that the cause of
legitimacy is daily gaining ground in France; although it must be
admitted that, with all this, attachment to the person of the exiled
prince of the elder branch of the Bourbons, to the family, or even to
legitimist principles in theory, has as yet had little to do. But that
even this personal attachment has been growing gradually and steadily
in men's minds, as a natural consequence, may also be seen. To this
latter feeling two men have contributed by their writings--the one a
friend, the other an avowed enemy to the ancient dynasty--and perhaps
the latter far the most powerfully. The strange circumstances, which
have produced results that may have a powerful influence on the future
destinies of the country, are worthy of record. A singular fate has
been attached to the two small books here alluded to, more especially
in the case of that written by a stanch republican, naturally hostile
to monarchies and princes; and, on that account, although it is
posterior in date of publication, it may be as well first to direct
our attention to this latter.
In sight of the struggle, which is continually going on in newspapers,
pamphlets, printed notices, and every other form of publication,
between the Socialists and Red-Republicans on the one hand, and the
"friends of order" on the other--a struggle carried on by the former
not only with the utmost violence and virulence, but with every most
desperate weapon of calumny, falsehood, distorted fact, and perverted
reasoning--in sight of the propagandising efforts, made by these same
men, to demoralise and debauch the army from its allegiance to the
country by every underhand corrupting poison--it is quite "refreshing"
to the spirit, to use a hackneyed phrase, to greet a few words of
conviction in favour of those considered the enemies of the republic,
penned, in spite of previous prepossessions and firm opinions, by an
honest-hearted republican. To men of real and genuine convictions all
honour is due, more especially in the confusion of party intrigue and
reckless personal ambition of these revolutionary times, even although
they be our adversaries: respect may be shown them, even if they
appear to us mistaken. Unhappily, such men seem in France to be but
few. But if we find them firm and honest in the expression of their
convictions, even when in open _opposition_ to their preconceived
notions, and to the direct tendency of their political opinions, a
tribute of especial admiration may be given them. And such a tribute
may be frankly and willingly bestowed upon M. Charles Didier, for his
little book entitled _Une visite au Duc de Bordeaux_,--a book which
has lately excited considerable sensation in France, not so much as a
curious historical document, giving a simple but charming account of
the life, manners, appearance, and attitude in exile of such prominent
historical figures as the Duke of Bordeaux, and that patient and pious
victim of revolutions, the Duchess d'Angoulême; but, in the eyes of
the legitimists, as a striking refutation of various calumnies
attached to the person, as well as the education and opinions of the
young prince, and the highest eulogium of their monarch--in the eyes
of all, as a "feeler," (in spite of the intentions of the author,) in
the obscure chances of the future.
Had not the character of Monsieur Charles Didier stood so high, and
had not his almost rough honesty, and perhaps _naiveté_ of nature,
been so generally acknowledged by rightly-thinking men, doubts might
have been entertained, on the one hand, whether he was really acting
in good faith in his character as a republican; had not his talent,
discernment, and good sense been sufficiently appreciated in public as
well as private life--in his literary and lately political career, as
well as among his acquaintances--suspicions might have been excited,
on the other, that he had been led into delusions by artful manoeuvre.
But neither of these suppositions are admissible. Due credit must be
given to his good faith in the one respect, and to his enlightenment
of mind and clear-sightedness in the other. Such an explanation
becomes necessary for a full appreciation of the contents of this
remarkable little book. To a French reader it would be needless, for
M. Didier is well known.
As has already been said, the sensation produced by this work has been
great: and there can be little doubt that the effect which the
publication will produce must necessarily have a very considerable
influence upon a great portion of the nation, in the present state of
France.
Under such circumstances, and with such probable results, which could
not but be partly apparent to the author himself, the production of
such a book by a well-known, stanch, and honest republican, such as M.
Charles Didier, requires some explanation. It was well known among the
party that M. Didier had been sent upon a _quasi_-diplomatic mission
to Germany, in the first days of the French revolution; it was
afterwards rumoured that, upon some occasion, he had paid a visit to
the members of the exiled family of France in their retreat in
Austria--and, upon these _data_, M. Didier became the object of
various calumnies and misrepresentations. His enemies declared that he
had been sent expressly as a spy upon the ex-royal family. But it was
more especially his _soi-disant_ friends and allies, the republicans
_de la veille_, who attached a host of unfounded misrepresentations to
the objects and results of his journey. While some attacked him as a
traitor, who had betrayed his trust, and deserted his cause, by
caballing with the exiled family, others published accounts in their
journals, as if emanating from his mouth, which affixed not only the
greatest ridicule and scorn to the person and manners of the Duke of
Bordeaux, but the hatred and contempt of all "true patriots" to his
supposed opinions. It was to refute these calumnies, then, and to deny
these perversions of truth, that M. Didier at last found himself
reluctantly compelled to publish a simple account of his "_Visite au
Duc de Bordeaux_." He complains, with much _naiveté_, in a species of
preface, that he has been forced to this step, which he himself looks
upon as an indiscretion, by his own party, since, although the whole
affair appears in his eyes little more than "much ado about nothing,"
by such means alone, in declaring the whole truth, he can establish
simple facts. The very same sentiment, he says--that, probably, of
delicacy--which enjoined his silence at first, now, combined with a
love of truth, enjoins his giving publicity to an account in which he
affirms that all is truth, simple truth, and no more nor less than the
truth. It was as a republican that he presented himself, he goes on to
say, and as a republican that he was received. In support of his
words, although refuting all pretensions to discuss politics, he gives
his republican "_profession de foi_." "I have been thus driven," he
continues, "to paint, from nature, an interior of an exiled family,
which struck me by its politeness and dignity. Such was the task
before me; and I have accomplished it conscientiously, without any
regard for persons, and without any sacrifice of opinion. The prestige
of rank has exercised no influence on me. I have been simply true."
And what has been the result? The supposed friends of M. Didier, the
arch-republicans, have _forced_ him, an ardent republican himself--a
republican _de l'avant-veille_, as he calls himself, but genuine and
sincere--to forward the cause of legitimacy, to publishing an
eulogium, of the most striking description, of the young prince who
represents legitimacy in France. Dreamers might almost see the hand of
Providence in this result of factious calumny.
It is needless, here, to follow M. Didier into the details of the
mission given him by Lamartine, when minister of foreign affairs, of
which he explains neither the cause nor the purposes, although he
dwells at some length upon the cause of his journey through Austria,
Hungary, Croatia, and a part of Germany, and more especially upon the
dates of his progress, probably with the intention of refuting the
calumny which asserted that he was officially sent as a spy upon the
ex-royal family of the elder branch. It may be remarked, however, _en
passant_, that he speaks not over-well of the Austrian revolutionists,
with whom he mixed, and that he readily acknowledges the veritable
anti-revolutionary spirit of the army and the masses. On the
conclusion of his mission, and his return to France by the north of
Italy, he heard by chance, on his passage to Trieste, for the first
time, he declares, that not far from his road lay the chateau of
Frohsdorf, and that this same chateau of Frohsdorf was inhabited by
the exiled family of France. It was only many months afterwards,
however, when he returned to Germany, for his own pleasure and
information, and as "_simple voyageur_," that having received, by
chance, a letter from a friend in Paris for the Duc de Lévis, one of
the faithful adherents attached to the little court of the exiled
Bourbons, he determined to profit by it, in order to visit Frohsdorf
on his way once more from Vienna to the north of Italy. Before
commencing the recital of this passage of his journey, M. Didier again
deprecates any purpose but that of interest and curiosity, and enters
into very minute details, to prove that he made no mystery or
concealment of his intention.
It would lead to too great diffuseness also to enter into M. Didier's
description (however prettily written) of his journey through Baden,
(near Vienna,) Wiener Neustadt; of the deserted and abandoned railroad
from thence to Oldenburg in Hungary, on which "the station-houses
were closed, the signals motionless, and the grass grew between the
rails"--all communication having been cut off on account of the war.
The description, however, of the habitation of the exiled family of
French princes offers a more lively interest in an historical point of
view. We shall quote M. Didier:--