Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/656

620 FRANCE [HISTORY. 1830. The three days of July. Charles X. ab- dicates. The count of Cham- borcl. Louis Philippe succeeds. The new constitu tional govern ment. on the 28th the insurgents, not abashed by their defeat, seized the Hotel de Ville, and hoisted the tricolour. Marmonfc, who urged pacification, was ordered by Charles, who kept out of the way, to crush all opposition ruthlessly; before evening his troops had retaken the Hotel de Ville, and most of the important positions. Again he urged moderation on the king, and the leaders of the revolt offered to lay down arms if the ministers were dismissed and the five ordinances withdrawn. Charles, however, would listen to nothing, and sent orders to Marmont to persevere. On the 29th, however, two regiments fraternized with the people ; and Marmont, paralysed by their defection, and by suspicions as to the fidelity of other troops, gave way. The populace rushed into the Louvre and the Tuileries, sacking and destroying the insignia of Bourbon power. They neither stole nor murdered. Charles X. at St Cloud now offered all he had refused the day before ; of course it was a day too late. Paris had triumphed over the reaction, and the unteachable older Bourbons had to go. The veteran La fayette was once more named chief of the national guard ; how much had France seen and done since he had first girded on that same sword ! The tricolour flag and cockade reappeared everywhere. Thiers and Mignet issued a pro clamation, urging the Parisians to transfer the crown of France to the duke of Orleans, who came up to the capital at once, and declared his ready acceptance of the office of lieutenant-general of the realm. In his first address he assured France that thenceforward the charter should be a reality. On the 2d of August 1830 Charles X., finding that the army had deserted his cause, and that necessity was on him, abdicated in favour of his young grandson Henry duke of Bordeaux, son of the duke of Berri ; the dauphin, who was childless, also renounced his own claims on behalf of his nephew, who was then ten years old. This last representative of the older Bourbons, the last hope of the legitimists of France, lives still, cherishing his claims, and known to modern history as Henry, count of Chambord. Charles withdrew to England, where he died in 1836. The day after his abdication Louis Philippe, duko of Orleans, the representative of the Orleans branch of the Bourbons, son of Philippe Egalit6, and great-great-grandson of the Regent Philip, opened the session of the chambers as lieutenant-general of the realm. The charter was care fully revised in a liberal direction, and the crown was offered to the duke and his heirs-male with the title of " King of the French." On the 9th of August 1830 the new con stitutional monarch, ruling, not by divine right, nor by territorial possession, but by the will of the sovereign people, "king of the French," not "king of France," 1 king of the tricolour, not of the lilies and the white cockade, took oath faithfully to observe the amended charter. The era of constitutional monarchy seemed at last to have begun in France ; men thought that the fires of the Revolution had died down, that republicanism was discredited, while the follies of the older Bourbons, on the other hand, had been shown to be no longer possible. " The days of July " were hailed as heralding a new epoch of moderate politics ; the " citizen-king," who had carefully shunned the reactionary party, and was by family tradition head of the liberal branch of the Bourbons, should lead France along a new course of decorum and material prosperity. It should be the reign, not of noble and priest, nor of grim artisan and sans-culotte, but of broadcloth burgher, a rule of common sense and constitutional use. Lafayette, who in these later days had sided much with carbonari and republicans, was greatly blamed for lending the support of his name to any monarchical system of government. His excuse lay in 1 It is a mistake to lay stress on this change of style. In the Actn fads WeslphaliccK (1648) even Louis XIV. is actually styled "Eoi das Francois," not " Roi de France." his belief that, for tho time at least, the republicans were 1830-; but a small minority of the people. The events of subse quent years seemed to prove him right ; yet in the end the stronger beliefs and energies of republicanism were fatal to the throne. Peace at home and abroad, and a constitu tional government, allied with such countries as also enjoyed the blessings of a moderate form of polity, especially with England,- these were the chief aims of the reign, as it was worked out by the two antagonistic statesmen, the rivals Thiers and Guizot. This revolution of the " three glorious days of July " was>chan! a part of a general movement throughout a large part of in Europe ; for men were weary of the triumphs of reaction. Eur l In England these were the days of the Reform agitation which is indissolubly connected with the name of Earl Russell. In Belgium the news of the three days led to a violent insurrection, and the Belgians, who hated the union with the Dutch, threw them off and declared them selves independent ; they bestowed a constitutional crown on Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. When the Dutch re fused to deliver up Antwerp and let the Scheldt run free, England and France combined to help the young kingdom ; a strong French army soon forced the Dutch to evacuate Antwerp citadel. At home the country was still uneasy ; both legitimists Dist . and republicans were anxious to embarrass the Govern- nnce i ment. There were troubles in Paris, at Lyons, at Grenoble, Frar and in La Vendee, where the romantic duchess of Berri kept up the hopes of the old Bourbon party. After a time the Government succeeded in capturing her, and then it came out that she had been for some time secretly married to an Italian gentleman ; this, and the birth of a daughter, discredited the legitimist cause completely ; the duchess was allowed to retire in peace to Palermo. The disturb ances at Paris and Lyons were also put down, and their chief instigators punished. After this the efforts of the dissatisfied took the form of attempts at assassination, and this in turn led in 1830 to the passing of the Laws of Sep tember, which treated press offences with severity, and regulated strictly the procedure of the law-courts. In this period could be seen a more marked divergence of parties, Twr even among the Orleanists themselves. On the one hand part in j there were the more conservative or reactionary men ; on * the other the upholders of the English theory that " the ** king reigns, but does not govern." At first Louis Philippe had chosen his Government from the former party, which, at the beginning of the reign had embraced not only Casimir Perier, the head of the Government, but Guizot, Thiers, and other men of name in politics and literature. Casimir Perier, vigorous in combat, but not a large-minded statesman, was carried off in 1832 by cholera, then raging fearfully in Paris ; and soon after that time the life long feud between Guizot and Thiers began. A series of Thi Governments followed one another in quick succession, and an( | without stability ; at last, the cabinet, headed by Marshal Soult, having proved unable to hold its own, a new ministry followed, of which Thiers was the head (Feb ruary 1836). The ambitious little statesman, with the fire and heat of the south in him, advocate, newspaper editor, historian, and politician, seemed now to have reached his goal. His ministry, however, lasted but a very few months. He wanted to interfere in the affairs of Spain, while the king refused to change his policy of non-interven tion ; the cabinet broke up, and Count Mole, with Guizot as minister of public instruction, succeeded. The new Government had to face the anger of France at the failure of French troops in Algeria before the hill-fort of Con stantino, and the agitation which succeeded the strange attempt (October 183G) of Prince Louis Napoleon to arouse imperialist echoes among the troops at Strasburg. Though,