overcome them in the loyalty of his people.1 The surprise and dismay caused on the instant by these words were evident enough through all the usual loyal demonstrations of the occasion.

Address of the Peers.

The Peers replied coldly to this direct appeal, assuring His Majesty that there was indeed nothing to fear from the obstacles of faction, as the government would have the support of both Chambers, and of the great majority of the nation; as the Crown and the charter-the rights of royalty and the liberties of the people - were inseparably connected, and must be transmitted undivided. This was pretty strong in the way of admonition and rebuke; but the Ministry dared not object, for fear of bringing upon themselves something worse, in the form of direct censure. The King, to whom the address was presented on the 9th of March, ventured to congratulate himself on the substance of his sentiments having been so perfectly apprehended.2

The tug of war was in the other Chamber, where, from the first day of the session, the ministers found themselves overpowered by the Liberals, who carried all the appointments of the Chamber. The attendance was very full during the days employed in the preparation of the address. Some paragraphs of this address declared, that the charter supposed, in Address of the order to its working, a concurrence between the mind Deputies. of the sovereign and the interests of his people; that it was the painful duty of the deputies to declare that that concurrence existed no longer, the present Administration ordering all its acts on the supposition of the disaffection of the people, a supposition which the nation had a right to complain of, as injurious to its character, and threatening to its liberties. It was not supposed that the King entertained this distrust. His heart was too noble to admit it. But he could not be further from desiring despotism than his people from desiring anarchy; and he was implored to have the same faith in the loyalty of the nation, as the nation had in the sincerity of his promises. Finally, His Majesty was appealed to, to choose between his faithful and confiding Parliament, and the parties who misapprehended the calm and enlightened mind of the people of France.3

There was doubt as to whether the King would receive this address, though it passed by a majority of 221 to 181. He received it, however, on the 18th of March, at noon. The attendance was more numerous than usual. The President of the Chamber read the address the last the unhappy monarch was ever to receive from his Parliament with a grave and firm voice, which, however, faltered towards the close.

The

King listened with gravity; but, when he delivered the reply which had previously been agreed upon in council, strong emotion was evident in his voice, through the constrained calmness

of his manner. His reply for which the King of England was earnestly listening in his retreat at Windsor, and the British Ministry, because the peace of our country might depend upon it was this: "Sir, I have heard the address which King's reply. you present to me in the name of the Chamber of Deputies. I was justified in relying on the concurrence of the two Chambers, in accomplishing all the good which I contemplated. I am grieved to find that the deputies declare, that, on their part, such concurrence exists no longer. Gentlemen, I announced my intentions in my speech at the opening of the session. These intentions are immutable. The interest of my people forbids my receding from them. My ministers will make my further purposes known to you.'

66

The next day, the Chambers were prorogued to the 1st of September. And where was the King on the next 1st Prorogation. of September? "Long live the King!" cried some on the ministerial side. "Long live the charter!" cried some on the opposite side. Long live the constitution!" shouted a voice from one of the galleries, where the citizens of Paris had crowded in, to see what would happen. The Royalists set up the cry, "Down with faction!" and called upon the President to order the departure of strangers; but the President's authority was at an end now that the session was closed, and the whole assemblage broke up in disorder. There were many heavy hearts in both Chambers, and in every street in Paris. It had not been supposed that the King would stand out to such a point as this. It was the first time that the sovereign had used the power of thus untimely dispersing his Parliament. The budget was not brought forward, nor any provision made for some extraordinary expenses of the time. Every one saw that a dissolution might next be expected, and that this was a rupture which could not be healed. The Liberals, who were virtually conquerors, were sure of their ground; but they were full of solicitude about what was to happen next. The Royalists were merry and confident, looking upon the present crisis as the emancipation of royalty from tutelage.

Dissolution.

After a grand expedition had been sent off to Algiers, which, it was hoped, would divert the attention of the people from politics, and fix it upon military glory, the Chambers were dissolved on the 16th of May, new elections ordered for June and July, and the new Parliament directed to meet on the 3d of August. And where was the King on that 3d of August?

1 Annuaire, 1830, p. 44.

In the elections, the government was beaten at all points. The nation was fond of military glory, as hitherto; and The multitudes enjoyed the spectacle, and the news of the elections. imposing departure of the Algerine expedition. But the political crisis had gone too far to be lost sight of. Finding this, the Ministry not only employed their whole power and influence in endeavoring to carry the elections, but actually instigated the King himself to canvass for votes in a proclamation which was issued on the 14th of June, and which began with the words, "The elections are about to take place throughout the kingdom. Listen to the voice of your King! The voice of the King proceeds to extol the charter and the national institutions; but declares, that, in order to make them available, the royal prerogative must remain unassailed.1 The concluding words are interesting, as the last which this wretched sovereign addressed to his subjects. "Electors! hasten to the place of voting. Let not guilty negligence induce you to absent yourselves! Let one sentiment animate you, one banner be your rallying-point! It is your King who requires this of you: it is a father who summons you. Do your duty, and I will do mine.” Charac

teristic last words!

وو

The government being beaten at all points, what was to be done next? Either the Ministry must resign, and open the way to a new course of policy, or they must choose one of two desperate methods of governing the country, dispensing with a Parliament altogether; or setting aside the electoral laws, and ordaining new ones, in order to obtain an obedient Chamber of Deputies. The government newspapers put out feelers about these latter courses, or audaciously advocated them; but everybody supposed the Administration would not venture upon them, but would resign. Up to the 26th of July, however, there was no appearance of an intention to do any thing but simply meet the new Chambers. The letters of summons to the Peers had been transmitted, and the deputies were travelling towards Paris from all parts of the kingdom. They did not know-and the people along the roads, who were rejoicing in the capture of Algiers, little suspected-what was taking place between the Polignac Ministry and the King.

Up to the last moment, the proposed plan of the Ministry had been to bring forward in the Chambers a popular budget, in which many and great economical reforms would be recommended. Then, they were to excite to the utmost the patriotic pride of the members about the Algerine victories; and they hoped, that, through the blaze of those glories, they might carry, almost unobserved, the restrictive laws of the press, which they were

1 Annuaire, 1830, p. 114.

resolved to obtain. Except their actual conduct, nothing could be more blind and foolish than this plan of procedure, nor more insulting to the French nation, who were thus to be treated like children, bribed to suffer restraint by the exhibition of a glittering toy. Their actual conduct was, however, even worse. Finding it out of the question to meet the Chambers, they still did not think of resigning, but addressed a memorial to the King, Ministers' petitioning and recommending him to set aside the memorial. charter. They had their own sense of duty; and, mistaken, utterly foolish, as it was, they resolved to abide by it. They believed that the monarchical principle was now to be surrendered, or snatched from destruction by a bold hand. They despised the cowardly suggestion of retiring from the contest, and, as they viewed the matter, deserting the King; so they remained beside him, and urged him on to destruction. In ruining their King, and outraging his people, they never felt the smallest doubt that they were discharging a sublime duty. Whatever the King of England might think of this, the British Premier had shown that his sympathy could not go this length. His measures of the preceding year were a practical and most powerful protest against the policy which was unjustly supposed to be instigated, or at least countenanced, by him, because a personal friend of his was responsible for it. Prince Polignac was known to be inaccessible to counsel. It is probable, that, if he had ever obtained any opinion at all from the Duke of Wellington, or had guided himself by the policy of England in her last great crisis, he would not have been the one to overthrow the monarchy of France.

The ministers had discussed, in some of their meetings, a plan of three ordinances, which, being issued by the King, might free the government at once from its two great difficulties, the press and the Chambers. These ordinances were laid before the King in Council, on the 21st of July, together with a memorial which explained their object and their necessity. This memorial declared that there was no provision in the charter for the protection of the periodical press, which had at all times been, from its very nature, nothing but an instrument of disorder and sedition; that it had established a despotism in the Chamber of Deputies, where every man who adhered to the side of order was sure to be insulted by the newspapers; that the Algerine expedition had been endangered by the disclosures and criticisms of the press; that the King's own words and sentiments had been disrespectfully discussed in the journals; that it was for His Majesty to say whether such conduct should go unpunished; that government and the press could not co-exist; and that the prolonged cry of

1 Annuaire, 1830, p. 118.

indignation and terror from all parts of the kingdom against the journals of Paris showed which must give way. So much for the press. As for the other difficulty, the representation, the ministers suggested that the right of government to provide for its own security existed before any laws, and, being founded in the nature of things, must overbear all laws; that the time had arrived for the assertion of this primary right; that all legal resources had been exhausted in vain; and that, if the ordinances proposed were not in accordance with the letter of the laws, they were with the spirit of the charter; and that the Administration did not hesitate to recommend to the King the issuing of the accompanying ordinances, convinced as they were that justice must always prevail. Such was the memorial which was published with the celebrated ordinances of Charles X. and his Polignac Ministry.

These ordinances were three.1 By the first, the liberty of the periodical press was suspended: no journals were to be issued but by the express authorization of government, which must be renewed every three months, and might be withdrawn at any time; and all writings of less than twenty pages of print were to lie under the same conditions. By the second ordinance, the Chamber of Deputies was dissolved, on the ground that means had been used, in various parts of the kingdom, to deceive and mislead the electors, during the late elections. By the third ordinance, means were taken to correct such abuses by setting aside those provisions of the charter which were found inconvenient in their operation; by the power conferred on the King by the charter to consult the security of the State, he lessened the number of deputies, reduced their term of office, and altered their qualification, and the methods of election.

It is scarcely credible, even now, that any government of our day should have conceived of doing such things as these by the mere will of the sovereign; and the question arises, how the government could have gone on thus far, administered by men who now showed themselves destitute of all idea of nationality, law, and the purposes of social organization. These three ordinances, together with some subordinate articles, recalling to the Council some men odious to the people, were countersigned by the six ministers present in Council, and kept profoundly secret till half an hour before midnight of the 25th of July, when they were communicated to the responsible editor of the "Moniteur" paper, for publication in the morning. So profoundly had the secret been kept, that neither the heads of the police nor the soldiery had the least idea that any extraordinary call was likely to be made upon their energies. The ministers had not made the slightest preparation for any awkward reception of their meas

1 Issue of the Ordinances, Annuaire, 1830, p. 120.

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