England, but openly and unblushingly, to carry the elections of the ministerial candidates. From there being no provision for the publication of the electoral lists, an immense power was vested in the hands of the prefects, who were enabled to falsify the lists almost at pleasure, and to add or erase names of parties whether they paid or did not pay the requisite amount of taxes. This facility was abused to a disgraceful extent, though, from over-confidence, not so much perhaps as would otherwise have been the case. On the other hand were the two oppositions straining every nerve by secret organisation to influence votes; and when either found that it was not sufficiently strong to carry its own candidates, compacts were entered into for splitting the votes, so that an equal number of each was returned. Thus the ultra-Royalist was elected by the same suffrages as the ultraLiberal, and Labourdonnaye would represent the same constituency as Constant or Lafayette.

The struggle first commenced in the arrondissemental colleges. At Paris, whose example has always so much weight with the rest of France, all the Liberal candidates were elected, eight in number, including Dupont (de l'Eure), Laffitte, Perier, Constant, Royer-Collard, and Baron Louis. In the departments success was more chequered, but the defeat of the Ministerialists was complete. The counter-opposition kept its ground, the gains being on the side of the Liberals, who obtained a large majority of the returns from the lower colleges. This result electrified the country, as it astounded the minister and his partisans. Most of the inhabitants of Paris illuminated their houses, and crowds traversed the streets breaking the windows of those unlighted. In the Rue St Denis a terrible commotion took place; numbers of windows and lamps were smashed, many householders maltreated, and the rioters left undisturbed for several hours. At length the police appeared with a body of gendarmerie, who were received with a volley of stones, and driven back. Reinforcements arrived, and the insurgents were dispersed. But they quickly rallied, and began to form BARRICADES, from behind which they defended themselves, and repulsed the military. The officers hesitated to give the word to fire; some companies refused to act; the troops at last advanced, poured in successive volleys of musketry, and stormed the barricades. Above twenty persons were killed or wounded, many of them being mere boys. This first attempt at barricades was made on the evening of the 19th of November. It was renewed on the following days, and on the 20th and 21st full sixty more of the people fell, when, being utterly routed, tranquillity was finally restored.

This disastrous affray was charged by the opposition papers to the machinations of the police, acting under instructions from the minister. It is possible to suppose that these imputations

were in some measure well-founded. Villele was of so reckless and desperate a character, that in order to influence the elections of the department, he might avail himself even of an insurrection; and by frightening the timid with the idea of revolution, still hope to obtain a majority of Royalist returns. It is certain that exaggerated reports of the affair were circulated by telegraph through the provinces; and the prefects had fresh instructions to transfer the ministerial suffrages to Royalists of any shade, if by such means the Liberals could be defeated. Both the minister and the king were in an agony of fear at the prospect of an actual Liberal majority, and devoutly trusted that if the Congregation were destined to fall, at least the ark of Royalism might be preserved. As for Villele, he saw clearly enough that little chance remained for him; yet little as that chance was, he resolved to exhaust it. He thought that by sacrificing the most unpopular of his colleagues, Peyronnet and Corbiere, he might make an approximation towards the left, and become the head of a quasi-Liberal cabinet: he whose name and system were covered with such an indelible opprobrium and detestation! Repulsed with scorn in that quarter, he turned even to the bitterest of his foes, Labourdonnaye, and sought to form an amalgamation between the counter-opposition and the constitutional Royalists, thrusting aside altogether his old friends of the Congregation, who indeed were well-nigh extinguished in the Chamber. But all these miserable attempts at conciliation failed, and the day at length arrived when Villele perceived that his doom was sealed. The only favourable resource left him was to nominate his successors, and this was a task attended with the greatest difficulties; but in his position, menaced by an impeachment, it was his only hope of safety, and he exerted himself with untiring efforts during the whole month of December to form a suitable combination.

A combination he certainly effected, but one of a very strange and heterogeneous character. The principal expression of the new cabinet, so to speak, was Martignac, appointed minister of the interior. He belonged to the centre-right, and had hitherto been a supporter of Villele, who had appointed him to accompany the army into Spain in a high civil capacity. With him were associated Portalis, as keeper of the seals; Count de la Ferronays, as minister of foreign affairs; Viscount de Caux, as minister of war; Viscount St Cricq, as president of the Board of Trade and Colonies; and Count Roy, as minister of finance. Frayssinous and Chabrol remained in their former posts, as ministers of public instruction and of marine; but they shortly afterwards retired, and gave place to Vatimesnil and Hyde de Neuville. La Ferronays had just returned from an embassy to Russia, and his name was scarcely known in France. Few personal ties existed be

tween any of the new ministers; and they were for the most part, if not unknown, at least strangers to each other. Conditions were mutually imposed both by the retiring and by the acceding ministers. Villele stipulated for himself and his colleagues that they should be protected by all the weight of ministerial power from an impeachment; and Martignac insisted that, in order to prevent them from becoming opposition leaders in the Chamber of Deputies, Villele, Peyronnet, and Corbiere should all accept peerages. Villele was extremely loth to be extinguished in the House of Peers; but the condition being made imperative, he with a bad grace was obliged to yield. As usual with regard to retiring ministers, all three of them were created secretaries of state and privy-councillors, to which honorary designation a salary of 20,000 francs was attached.

Thus was the Martignac administration launched into existence on the 4th of January 1828, a perfect enigma to the public, and evidently designed by Villele to fill the temporary void until circumstances were favourable for his own resumption of office.

CHAPTER XXI.

FORMATION OF THE MARTIGNAC MINISTRY-AFFAIRS OF GREECE AND TURKEY-RUSSIAN INVASION-DISMISSAL OF MARTIGNAC, AND FORMATION OF THE POLIGNAC MINISTRY-EXPEDITION TO ALGIERS-ORDINANCES OF JULY-REVOLUTION OF 1830-1828 to 1830.

The first meeting of the new cabinet took place on the evening of the 4th of January. Except with Martignac, the king was not acquainted with any of the new ministers. He accosted all of them, however, very graciously, and addressed to each some winning expressions. But he rather surprised them when he spoke to them collectively. Gentlemen,' he said, 'it is proper I make it known to you that I part from M. de Villele with regret; opinion has been wrong with regard to him: his system was mine.' This declaration completely confounded them, and not one of them uttered a word, for they had an idea that if they had superseded Villele for any purpose at all, it was precisely to change his violent, rotten, and implacable system. The words of the king at the same time show how truly blind and infatuated a man he was-how totally incapable of appreciating the march of events. But it was necessary for Martignac to be ready with some programme for the opening of the Chambers, fixed to take place on the 5th of February, although the complexion of the new Chamber of Deputies was so doubtful, that it could not be predicated with any certainty what precise policy might be best adapted to knit together a compact majority. Accordingly the speech from the throne was vague and general in its language, and contained little more definite than the usual eulogy on the Charter-which, from frequent repetitions, was becoming somewhat stale and threadbare.

After the wretched experiment of Villele, and its equally wretched failure, it is undoubted that nothing but a government, strong in influence and character, could have saved the monarchy of the Restoration from destruction, or the monarch himself from the effects of his own egregious caducity; and such a government that selfish and unprincipled minister had taken especial care to ignore. The one that he had set up was, on the contrary, the weakest that could be imagined, having no real support either in the Chambers or in the confidence of the king. It was in the dilemma of having to fashion its principles and its policy accord

ing to the shifting exigencies of expediency. The country having decided so emphatically against Villele, it was natural that the new ministry should seek to dissociate itself from his system; but what other was it to adopt?-ultra-Royalism or Liberalism? for such were the two shades most strongly defined in the Chamber. It sought to trim between the two, inclining, from the force of circumstances, to the Liberal side, but ever dependent on the leaders of different fractions for support to its measures. The left and the extreme-left as yet acted in concert, not forming an absolute majority of the Chamber; and if the minister could combine with them a portion of the centre-right, constituting the moderate Royalists, he might contrive to carry on the government. Such was the course he adopted, for the Liberals were at the moment inclined to favour an approximation of this nature, since they knew all the difficulties surrounding the ministry from the secret hostility of the court. Consequently, by such a combination Royer-Collard, who had been returned by no less than seven electoral colleges, was elected president of the Chamber, such a nomination marking expressively the prevailing tone of its constitution. But if the ministry reposed on no large and distinctive basis, neither was it regarded with animosity, nor did it excite that virulence of opposition which had been displayed towards Villele. It passed through the ordeal of the session in comparative quietude, the only measures that were passed of any importance being a law for the prevention of frauds in the preparation of the electoral lists, and for their annual revision and publication; and another for the regulation of the press, which was the most liberal that had been yet adopted, as it abolished the censorship altogether, as well as the right of suspension by the courts of justice, and permitted the establishment of new journals without a previous license, upon the deposit of caution-money, and the registration of responsible editors. This law broke in upon the monopoly which had been hitherto possessed by the existing journals, and which rendered them such a very valuable property; investing them, moreover, with the importance of actual powers in the State. A considerable part of the session was consumed in investigations into the conduct of the prefects during the late elections, which resulted in a complete exposure of their oppressive and fraudulent practices. The dismissal of these guilty functionaries was urgently demanded by the Liberal party, but as strenuously resisted by the king, who was encouraged in his opposition by all the arts of court intrigue. Martignac was obliged to compromise the point: a great many prefects were displaced, but in some instances they were merely removed to other departments, and the remainder were provided with equivalent appointments, greatly to the indignation of incensed and ardent reformers.