Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

political bodies, the bodies judiciary and administrative, This sanguinary law could not possibly be executed.

in the army, in the palace of the king. The Charter has confirmed the sales of this property, and the oaths taken to support the Charter cannot be vain: what is asked of you, is to indemnify those who have been despoiled, to render them tardy justice." The measure was carried on the 27th of April, 1825. The first article of the law was: "Thirty millions of rentes, the capital being taken at a milliard, are appropriated to the indemnity due by the state to the Frenchmen whose landed property, situated in France, or which made a part of the territory of France on the 1st of January, 1792, has been confiscated and alienated in consequence of the laws on the emigrants, persons deported, and persons condemned by revolutionary judgments. This indemnity is final, and in no case shall there be appropriated to this purpose any sum exceeding that which is contained in the present article." * The rentes were 3 per cents.

It was necessary to have a commission for the distribution of the indemnity to the claimants, which gave Villèle the opportunity of creating a number of lucrative places for commissioners, precisely in the English fashion. It is said the claims were settled with great care and with perfect justice. The patriots cried out against the indemnity, and when the law was passed, they accepted their share. The duc de Choiseul got above 1,100,000 francs, and M. de Liancourt, 1,400,000 francs. Lafayette got 450,682 francs. He was now receiving with both hands, for the Congress of the United States had voted him a handsome present for his services in the revolutionary war of North America. Lafayette had generously given them his aid in the time of their difficulty, and the testimonial of the gratitude of the Republicans, though late, was honourable and appropriate. The general saw a people whose revolution was stained with no crime, whose prosperity, the fruit of their successful struggle, was the reward of a happy territorial position and the fortunate combination of power and liberty harmonized. But America received its fundamental organization from the mother country. When it gained its independence, it had only to maintain that which it already possessed.

In this session was passed a law for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanours committed in sacred edifices, or with respect to objects consecrated to the Catholic religion, or other forms of worship legally celebrated in France. Theft committed in "an edifice consecrated to the exercise of the religion, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman," was punished with death. The profanation of the consecrated host, publicly committed, was made punishable with death.§ *Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1825,' Appendix, p. 6. The law consists of twenty-four articles.

This is Capefigue's remark; but it is here adopted,

because it is true.

[ocr errors][merged small]

The

The extravagant character of the extreme royalist party is well characterized by the speech of one of the deputies, M. de Bonald: "A speaker has observed that religion commands men to pardon; true, but it tells power to punish, for, says the apostle, it is not without a purpose that it bears the sword: the Saviour asked for pardon for his murderers, but his Father has not granted it: he has even extended the chastisement to a whole people: as for sacrilege, by a sentence of death you send it before its natural judge." A law was also passed (24th of May) which prescribed the terms on which "religious congregations of females" must for the future be established. The peers amended the law as passed by the deputies, and the deputies accepted the law as amended. By this amendment, no new religious community of women could be established except by virtue of a law. object of the extreme party was to give the king the power of doing this by an ordonnance; which would have made the transition more easy to the establishment of religious communities of men. Villèle had dexterously established the 3 per cents. for the indemnity to the emigrants; and it only remained now to accomplish the conversion of the old debt, as the new stock was already established. This was accomplished by a law of the 1st of May, 1825, though on a less scale than had before been proposed.* The budget was all that remained to be fixed: there was the settlement final of the accounts for 1823, the supplemental credit for 1824, and the budget for 1826. The Chamber voted 100 millions for the expense of the Spanish campaign, which it was supposed might last some time; but though it had been terminated sooner than all expectation, the whole expense was 207 millions. These extraordinary expenses were connected with the affair of Ouvrard; and a resolution of the Chamber of Deputies required the minister to place before the Chambers, as soon as it was completed, the result of the examination into this matter. The expenditure for the year 1826, was estimated at 915,504,499 francs; and the receipts at 924,095,704. The increase of sixteen millions and a half, compared with the expenditure of 1825, arose from a payment of a portion of the indemnity in the manner fixed by the law, and from the increase in the expenditure in some departments of government. There was an increase in the expenditure of the department of religion and public instruction, arising from the establishment of four hundred new chapels (succursales), the repairs of churches, episcopal residences and presbyteries. The bishop of Hermopolis said, when opening the discussion on the budget of his department, that France required 50,000 priests for the service of the Roman Catholic religion, and there were only 35,000, and many of those were bowed down by infirmities; 14,000 of them were

* Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1825,' p. 155, and Appendix, p. 9; and Capefigue, 'Hist. de la Restaurat.,' iii., c. 22.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][subsumed]

above seventy years of age. There were formerly 29,000, and 4,000 of them were unoccupied for want 40,000 parish churches: in 1826 there were only of priests to do the duty.*

The speech of the bishop of Hermopolis (Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1825,' p. 232), on the nature of ecclesiastical power, is worth reading. He maintains that the church has an independent power, and attempts to show it historically. Whatever dissent there may be from the doctrine, the bishop truly described the purpose or end which is

to be aimed at in society, "that every man, under a common protection, may in tranquillity employ his property, his faculties, his person; which in fact constitutes real liberty: let Christianity disappear, and all these temporal advantages disappear with it." The question is, how is this power to be constituted?

CHAPTER XCVI.

THE CORONATION.

THE king's coronation had been announced for the month of May. Louis XVIII. had once officially announced his intention to be crowned, but the state of his health made him give up the design. A commission was appointed to regulate the ceremonial of the coronation of Charles X., and architects were sent to Reims to restore and prepare for the ceremony the noble cathedral, which had the privilege of consecrating the kings of France, as St. Denis had of receiving their bodies. This church had escaped the fury of the Revolution, but it was in a dilapidated state. It was repaired and beautified; its magnificent glass windows and statues were restored. The sacred phial, the ampulla, which contained the holy oil, had been broken on the 6th of October, 1793, by a commissaire of the Convention, but some faithful hands had picked up the fragments and a part of the oil which the vessel contained. The archbishop of Reims effected the transfusion of this precious remnant into some holy chrism, and enclosed it in a new phial. "Accordingly," it was said, "there is no doubt that the holy oil which will flow on the forehead of Charles X. in the solemnity of his consecration, is the same as that which since the time of Clovis has consecrated the French kings." (Moniteur,' 16th of May.) One may imagine how such a solemn announcement would be received by a large part of a nation, in which a consecrated king had been dethroned and beheaded.

The coronation had been announced to the crowned heads of Europe, who sent their representatives to honour the ceremony, ambassadors extraordinary, not political personages, but wealthy nobles who could make a splendid show. Austria sent Esterhazy; and England sent the wealthy duke of Northumberland. The ceremony of the coronation took place on the 29th of May, and began at half-past seven in the evening. It was a splendid pageant, and would furnish matter for a long and tedious description. The holy chrism was applied to seven parts of the king's body by the archbishop of Reims, who after the unction

There is some account of it in the Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1825;' but few people would care to read a description of a coronation, which was more than a week old.

took with both his hands from the altar the crown of Charlemagne, and placed it on the head of the aged king. When the king was seated on his throne, the bells rang, the artillery from the ramparts responded to the musketry of the royal guard; the heralds threw among the people the medals struck for the occasion; and the king's fowlers, according to an old usage, let loose doves and other birds which fluttered and whirled about under the vaulted roofs, dazzled by the splendour of the lights. Such a ceremony was ill-suited to the age. All that could be said for it was that the king had solemnly promised to maintain the Charter.

At this time the religious party tried their strength by instituting proceedings on the ground of " tendency" against the Constitutionnel' and the Courier Français.' The attack was made upon them in the name of religion, which they were charged with tending to bring into disrepute. The cour royale gladly exercised the powers which the law of 1822 had given it, and which the religious party imprudently called into action. The judgment of the court was that there was no ground for the sentence of suspension which the prosecutors had demanded. The judgment was not merely a declaration of the law: it contained an enunciation of principles: it was a protest against the "tendency" of the administration.

The death of general Foy in November was the occasion of a demonstration of public opinion. He and de Serre died about the same time; each of whom had a real esteem for the other. An immense crowd followed the general to his grave in the midst of a driving rain. He died poor, leaving for his children only an honourable name; but a subscription was opened for the purpose of erecting a monument to his memory, and providing for his children. Sums large and small were received: Laffitte gave 50,000 francs, and the duke of Orleans and Casimir Périer each 10,000. The whole subscription amounted to the munificent sum of one million francs. This was a significant fact, and so was the deep-felt, silent sorrow, the order and the quiet behaviour of the immense multitude which attended the funeral of the orator of the people, who was not a man for revolutions, but the champion of constitutional liberty, and left a reputation without stain or

reproach. Laws against sacrilege and the institution | Code Civil (art. 913, &c.), which, as observed, had of religious communities were childish demonstrations produced a great subdivision of landed property, which compared with this.* subdivision some persons considered to be an element

The question of St. Domingo had never yet been of public prosperity, and others as destructive to settled. The island had maintained its independence society and dangerous to the monarchical system. ever since it broke its allegiance to France, but France Peyronnet's proposed measure caused a great sensation had not acknowledged its independence. The acknow- both in Paris and in the departments. It was preledgment was due to Villèle, in whose mind it was sented to the Chamber of Peers on the 10th of February, associated with the idea of improving the industry and 1826, in a speech which contained the chief arguments commerce of France, and with the ultimate design of that can be urged in favour of such a law.* To the acknowledging the independence of the Spanish colo- great astonishment of all parties the Peers rejected the nies. The first step towards this would be for France chief part of the ministerial measure, the droit d'aito acknowledge the independence of her own revolted nesse, by a majority of twenty-six; and all that colony. The cabinet resolved that the acknowledge- remained of the measure was a single article, which ment of the independence of St. Domingo should be established the power of substitution within certain effected by an ordonnance; it determined the amount limits. This was a kind of defeat for the ministry, of indemnity to be paid to the colonists; and required and it was celebrated as such by the liberal party. certain commercial advantages to be secured to French There were illuminations and rejoicings on the occacommerce in St. Domingo.† This year was memor- sion, and some slight disturbance of the peace. The able for the death of the emperor Alexander, a prince minister carried his mutilated plan to the Chamber of who had played a more important part in European Deputies, for he thought even a fragment of it was affairs for the last twelve years than any other crowned worth securing; and it was supported by a majority of head. He died of a fever at Taganrog in the Crimea, 185. The budget fixed the expenses for 1827 at on the 1st of December, and was succeeded by his 915,773,042 francs, and the receipts were estimated at younger brother Nicholas, the present emperor of about a million of francs more. The minister proRussia, who had to put down an insurrection before his posed some diminution of taxation, which, as it affected title was firmly secured. The new emperor wrote to the contribution foncière, was not disagreeable to the Charles X., and told him that he would walk in the royalists, for it gave direct relief to property of which steps of his august brother: he professed the same they considered themselves the representatives, and by fidelity to the engagements contracted by Russia, the diminishing the number of electors, fixed power in the same respect for the rights consecrated by existing hands of the aristocracy. The session closed on the treaties, the same attachment to the conservative maxims of general peace, and the ties which subsisted among the powers.

6th of July. The bishop of Hermopolis, who was attacked for his ecclesiastical budget, made an admission which was more frank than prudent. In his reply to The legislative session was fixed for the 30th of the charge of the encroachments of the priests, of the January, 1826. Among the projects of the ministry congregation, and of the Jesuits, whose name was now was the sanctioning of the independence of St. distinctly pronounced, he said that out of 180 semiDomingo, and a measure which the right had often naries they had only seven, that with such means they called for. It was said that the great subdivision of could not corrupt youth and form them to their doe land in France, which was the result of the law for the trines, and that besides this they were in complete equal distribution of a man's property, would destroy subjection to the bishops. M. de Montlosier, the the monarchy. The remedy proposed was to establish implacable enemy of the Jesuits, appeared with a new the droit d'ainesse, or law of primogeniture, and to pamphlet against them, in which he denounced their allow substitutions. Large estates, it was said, were clandestine existence, and their introduction under the disappearing, the little proprietors were the owners of imperial government under the title of Pères de la Foi. the soil, they were the masters of the elections, and Religious affairs formed a great part of the events of gave them a democratical character. Peyronnet laid the present period. Two of the most zealous prelates, before the council the draft of a law on this matter, the Cardinals Clermont-Tonnerre and Latil, were made which would have produced no great effect perhaps, even ministers of state. The influence of the bishops over if it had become a law. He defended it in the council education was extended, and the colleges of the Jesuits with great talent and vigour, and he became the were gaining strength. The declaration of the bishops favourite minister of the right and of the religious party, of France, of the month of April, 1826, which was who preferred his zeal and courage to the less steady step the work of the bishop of Hermopolis, was the result and wavering attitude of Villèle. Peyronnet's measure of a kind of negociation with the bishops, who by this attacked the principle which was established on the declaration recognized the independence of the king

* Capefigue, 'Hist. de la Restauration,' iii., c. 22.

The law as to the distribution of the indemnity money was passed in the next session, 30th of April, 1826. nuaire Historique, &c., pour 1826,' Appendix, p. 2. indemnity amounted to 150 millions of francs.

'An

The

The different arguments are worth reading. Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1826,' p. 83, &c.

Loi sur les substitutions du 17 Mai,' 1826, Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1826,' Appendix, p. 3.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »