Star. — London, England, 1815-09-08 00:00:00

t_{/j'~T a • 4 P. • 1 1 • • • I • • • • great error ; they are not less opposed to the Govern ment of the King, having some difficulty in believing that a dynaAy that has suffered so much by the re volution and which ha% struggled so long, can pre vail upon itself eit'aet to pardon, to forget, or to deny its ancient doctrines by giving sufficient guarantees for public lib -rte. This motive alone has recency induced them to take a part in all the measures that had for obj , xt the expulsion of . t!te Bdurbons ; that an impasaable barrier is taised bitween the past and the present; that public liberty should be established on an immutable basis. With these conditions there is nothing to be apprehended from the Republicans ; they would even become the firmest supporters of the G' vent:lent. _ rhe Constitution4lists are only a party to this ex ception, in as much as they are opposed to the Royaiits and defend the rights of the people against them, as they wi.;e est.iblistied during the revolution, fix every aurg is the last 25 years has not been illu sion or criqie. A stip has :wen put to slating abuses and odious • privileges, r..ige principles have been consecrated, and just bai:iers opposed to a power which had uo re straint hot i:s o.tn discretion. It is not under this What of vat w that we are in opposition with Europe. What a Revonnion aaoll mt have produced would have been obtained by the progress.of knowledge alone. Now that France is acquainted with her 'rights, how can she be made to retrograde? It must first be in the power of man to destroy and forget his own ideas, to create for himself other truths and another kil.d of evidence. The Constitutionalists revere also the principle of legitimacy. Two Monarchical Constitutions have been framed in France since 1789—both have conse. crated the principle of a hereditary throne; but be cause both gives the right to succeed to the throne. must we conclude that it transmits a power without limits? Does it perpetuate the manner of governing because it perpetuates the dynasty ? And is there not a dioincti.o to he made between the designation of the Prince and the nature of his authority ? The first is undoubtedly regulated by birth ; but the. second can only be regulated by national laws. Such are ti_ principles of the Constitutionalists. This party, however, and this must not be dissein bled—this party, although it dues not hesitate to submit, has never ceased during a twelvemonth to be in opposition to the King's Government. In 1814 it was chiefly the Constitutionalists who censured vio lently, who attacked incessantly•the most of the mea sures and acts of authority; and when such a 'strug gle has once begun, when the multitude take a part in it, a revolution is not far off. This opposition brought out a number of parties who had never before shewn themselves. It was generally said that the reion of the Beurbons would not be of long duration, that a crisis was approaching either from some enter- • prize of the Court, or a movement of the people. Some spoke at that time of calling a foreign Prince: th the throne, others declared themselves in favour of the Duke of Orleans, a greater number still for the Regency ; it seemed that a sort of moral Revolution had already taken place in the minds and hearts, and this circumstance, added to the treachery, ex plains only too well the facility with which Bonaparte replaced himself on the throne, and the impossibility in which the Court then was of defending themselves. In another moment less decisive, that where Bona parte gave in his abdication, the saint: opposition to the King's Government was . manifested in the Con stitutional party with still mote force than the former time. liihy can I not avoid laying these details be fore your Majesty ? But how is it possible to save the Monarchy, it we are not thoroughly acquainted with the evil, and with every danger ? There is not a Iw reign Prince whom at this moment the party in ques tion would not have preferred obtaining or receiving from the hands of the Allied Polders. The prepos session had reached such a height that there wits but one exclusion ;--that of the tamily of our ancient Kings. Your Majesty cannot help considering as a seditious act. 'the. Declaration of the Chamber of Re presintatives. which tended to regulate the royal power before the throne was filled. The truth ;s, bowever, that a multitude of Frenchmen participate in the same blindness and the same resistance, be. cause they had the same fears. Every one demanded conditions ; every. one dreaded re-actions and ven. seances; they wished guarantees, not against your Majesty, whine w isium and moderation were known, but against the pretensions so well known, and so often announced, of those who from their access to the miy one day have the opportunity and per haps the power d making them triumph. What obstacles will not this fatal disposition of minds produce 1 1 have only entered into such pain- Jul details to art ive at this tensequence—The acts of the Govermneitt still be again attacked; they are so already, and this controul, with respect to princi 'ples, p :sus for a right, and even for.;: duty, when it is ezt.iript trom bad intentions. Political doctrines are in the ;sreslnt day so generally diffused in France that the people imagine themselves competent to de. cid.: on them. A detni-liberty, partial conditions, appear as insupportable as the most absolute power; they would excite the same commotions. What I _have already said of the public spirit of the depart ments, has shewn, that in some provinces the Consti. tutional Party prevails more or lass. This same ' party attracts alio more and more potice among cer tain classes of citizens. The old rich families arein general more devoted to the Kings it is the same in the Tribunals, among the people of the law, and the higher commercial classes. On the other hand, it is the great majority of the inferior citizens (petite bear :feu:re), retailers and' petty proprietors, who are con stitutional, because they have had the greatest shoe in the Revolution. The purchasers of national estates and the families of soldiers add a great force to that party; but what' gives it snore especidlly an irresistible preponderance. is the mass of peasantry, who are at present very en. lightened and in easy circumstances, irreconcileable ' enemies of the Nobles and Clergy, whose situation inss been ameliorated by the Revolution. Passion diiculittes the strength ef parties tifferently, and at- I tive.s, in fact, at other results. f n such) calcul at ions, the people pass for' nothing. • ttq pot include the Bonapartiats ip the number of. Faith:* ; there, ate. none, there ;an no longer be an y .oOttapFtiSll, eicept in a small portion of the army. It Is noefresp attachment foe the man of ibis party, 4 is Stil! #o44te *if month Of :4i'r• ‘ . March a pan of Frence . was seM to asSecisto then-' selves for a -moment with his destinies. IL. owed his success entirely,thitur.diideirdli which made hint be regarded by some u witherucr, by others its an. instrumeet ; and this instrument 'gate us much *ea. , ter reasons for fear than,for hops. There can. be no party.without a chief : Bonaparte has only bed three months of a new existence, by events which cannot . again be renewed : all the re .nsains of the Bonipartasts are. thetefore; confounded in the ra*ks of the Constitutienalistsand Republicans. I collie. to the Factionso—lt is principally under this polnt - of view that the situation of your Majesty is attended with danger. It is evident that there are two great factions in the State a the one defends the principles of the Re- volition, and the other aims at a counter-revolution. The force of the two factions may be measured. In the one there are the Nobles and the Clergy, the an. cient possessors of national estates, the Emigrants, the old Royalists, and all that remains of the old Parliaments, enlighten.. 4 men, who sincerely, because they have learned nothing for twenty-five years, can not comprehend how their old knowledge should be deficient 4 a certain number also who cannot pardon what they have abhorred, or who prefer their repose to every thing, and have no hope' of regaining it, but an the old regim.: ; Leidy, impassioned writers, and individuals whom a spirit. of hatred Impels alivays to violent measures, toestremities. In the other party is almost the whole of France. the Constitutionalists and the Republicans, the actual Army and the People, all the discontented classtis, and even a multitude of good Frenchmen, nut less enlightened than attached to the King, but who are convinced that every attempt of counterrevolution, and even a simple tendency to the old regime, would become the signal of an explosion similar to that of ' 1789, and would have the same result. It is no longer a quation of mere °Onion& One of the two factions is in motion--hostilities com mence—La Vendee is organized—troops are raising -in the Soutb, with colours which are nut even royal ; and already bands have made , their appearance in Lznifuedoc and Provence. They seek also to in fluence opinions. Even in the Capital, those who are desirous of a counter-revolution, say so openly, which is a manner of preparing the minds. At a greater distance; the Iligh.floyn Royalist spteads his doctrines, and does not dihsemble Ois projects. The other faction, which looks on the exieution of these projects as impossible, does not yet act. liut will this inaction continue long t. and what WI hap. pen if die combat Commences/ Under such grave circumstances, it becomes my duty to express my unctisguiseiepinion to your Ma. jesty. So long ai France shall be occupied by foreign troops, Their presence may restrain to a certain point the popular party—the Royal Authorities may also by their vigilaiwe retard the danger; but the moment would come when all the obstacles would be borne down : a civiltwar, when the vane of the King is the pretext, may last a little longer, but at length the mass of the people.would be triumphant. . - No person is more convinced tha.i your Majesty,' that it is impossible to return to the old doctrines of the Monarchy. All the elements of the old regime have disappeared. There -was then no national es tates recognized—power was modified ty the man-' ners—it was regulated, as it were, and restrained by habits and usages. If there were no fixed laws, there were maxims of government—there was au invio. lable code of moderation, of mildness, of equity and urbanity—no pat,sioh was let loose —e very person was formed for his situation, or supported it without regret. A single remark may serve to show the dii. ference between that time and ours. An impost, more or less, then constituted the reputation of an Intendant, the glory tif a Minister, .the eclat of a reign. Will it be said that FranCe was only the more happy I It will remain to be 'explained then how the Revolution happened to be prepared in these happy times—but to what purpose these discussions ? The old regime cannot be re-established. The greatest fault which governments can commit is not to distin. guish between what is possible and what is not. To be at war during a whole reign, is not reigning. To conceal nothing on this subject from your Ma jesty, I will still add that no particular conspiracy menaces you at the present moment. Our dangers proceed only from our situation ; but we may con ceive ih thought a conspiracy, of which the success would be infallible, and of which the designs could neither be prevented nor foreseen. It would be that of a Ministry or a party at Court, who froin the grossest error, or the most blind devotion to the Royal cause, should counsel or favour a plan of counter-revolution. Every plan of this nature would overturn the throne again with a Crash. and destroy, perhaps, even our last hope of the 4rtatig of oar I King:. . . . A false remark has often been made on the subject of the old regime, namely, that the French who have supported the tyranny of Bonaparte; would support much more easily the whole exteitt of the royal power. They are here mistaken, in many respects, because the .position of Bonaparte has • never Weee:+ known to foreigners; his tyranny was not our work'' but that of Europe; .it was the Sovereigns who Cen solidated his power by their treaties, their alliances, andeven by their friendships; and even if we had resisted him, the other nations would have ranged themselves under his eagles, or humbled themselves before him. Always more afraid of the interior than 1 foreign countries, he knew well that if he had ow.' mies against the Kings, he had no power against the public opinion. It was by foreign obedience that he endeavoured to bend us under the yoke. He has marched to more than one victory. to have an addi tional means of re-acting on France. A conqueror Without, he was unquiet within—every public as. sembly made him tremble. Lastly, there were al ways in the midst of his Court. end in his Councils, men of courage, who, without disobeying the Mo. narcb, at least braved the despot. . Supposing even that his tyranny had been more patiently supported than it was, ,can the same submission be now ex. peeted ? He contrived to make us forget liberty, by substituting try in Its stead. liVe had nothing to dread under is reigp,. neither from the Clergy; nor, the Nobles, nor the Emigrants, ;f he succeeded it, dein ivit os of several of our rights, for that very reason the public opinion it more strongly bent on now defending them.• . Tour Majesty may judge pi this front what hi s taller, place Within thelase Oftien 1 101 0.• 71 113 5. 182 Pds pf lIIIP have psi sbell t mud • the fall of the old regime.—h weal ;The still greater evil. to re-establish it. Our stab ofbwasion , is a new entree of diverse dangers, sahib' in part concerts the' StiVereigns, others, at this' *Went, shake the power -dis the *King. • Thy ravages are multNYlng, the means of subsist. ence are exhausting; wider this point of view public tranquillity has but a very uncertain duration: The word impossible applies to every thing. There are . ands to all evils which cannot be removed, the contributions being dried up or suspended, the ex pences then can no longer be met. This will be a new source of disorder. Will they recur to warlike contributions ? Mow and by Whom can they exact theta ?* The most of the persons subject to contribu don have already lost their habitations—it will re quire an armed force to complete the spoil of them ; the collection of every part of the impost can only take place. by combat's. The evil is still aggravated by the prolongation of the stay of the foreign armies, and yet the Sovereigns will not think of withdrawing them froin France before having guarantees of our repose, because their tranquillity is connected with ours. We must here- Our be together in peace or in war, in-misfortune or in prosperity. A thousand new obstacles will arise from the state in which they will leave France. Every thing will have been annihilated, public and private fortunes all will have been carried off; we shall escape out of this war as from a sots of shipwreck, at whatever price we shall have obtained the enjoyment of the King's I Government. Will this momeot be that of obedience and love, or that of coMpliints, of reproaches and' accusations ? The hearts will be embittered, the pas- aims, already high, will be still more inflammable. ' War, oppression, the examples of inhumanity, - have always the effect of rendering manners more violent And of producing a new degree of immorality and perversity in the heart of man. He who now kills an enemy, bit who enriches not himself by the murder, will one day kill his fellow. citizens in the same disposition of mind. The conse. qnences have not been calculated Which must arise Ir:mi the assembling of so many people unknown to each other and mixed together. There is no longer either family or country. or laws, in this new world ; eie:lization is suspended ; the inundation of these peo plewill lead every where to a destructive ferment, an afflicting state of things,• the pernicious effects of which we shall not fail to feel. In this afflicting situation of affairs, hitherto without example. what good can he attempted by your Mit jesty, afflicting yourself in common with thepeople, and in you. vodness forgetting nothing iirat car coo. sole them: There :nun, however, be expected an opposition, more pertinacious than in ordinal y times, and authority will be so much the weaker because there is so mush the more need of conciliation. If we'were to speak of re-actions the whole people would cry out, is there not enough of pidgin misfortunes ? if we were to threaten a restraint upon liberty, the people would defend it With 'new energy, as the ()lily advantage of which the enemy could not deprive then). It is a discontented pelple, it is an agitated people that your Majesty will have to govern, . It is true, Sire, that the personal qualities of your Majesty may cause to disappear, or be the means of softening down, a great number ot the obstacles.— The love, the respect, the confidence which they in spire, are our principal means of safety, but the de stinies of France are ant in your hands alone, *alai circumstances exist which excite fears in the minds ot the people, and induce them to distrust the reigns which will follow that of ylitir Majesty. They ask, whether they shall always be governed with the same moderation 1 whether an inviolable barrier will be opposed to the persecutions of the Nobles and to the return of the ancient regime ? whether religious differencei will always be mingled with the same to leration 1 whether firmness will always be tempered by indulgence and goodnlbss 1 A natural instinct leads all people to look forward to the evil and the good which await them, and in their happiness, as in their disquietude, they *liege compare the present reign with the 'reigns that are to follow. I have made this remark because this circumstance has an inevitable influence on the disposition of the mind, and whilst under certain circumstances it renders Go vernment more easy, in other cases k creates ob stacles, and prevents a proper degree of firmness. Let us look forward to the state of France as it will be after the departure of the foreigners. Will it be at peace at h s onte ? will the combat of opinions have ceased 1 will tyranny be extinct I There will be a nation sensible and proud, but unquiet, vain, and jealous ; equality and liberty have made a deep impression upon. the heart. The ancient Nobility and the Clergy, in losing . their property, have lost all aptitude to form again the body politic of the State. Every dispute relative to principles will ex cite.disturbances when it shall operate as a dispute ' for or against.public opinion. In ordinary times, little.attention is paid to discontent, and it is easy to restrain the seditious t.but in our•situation every kind -of opposition, every complaint will be a simnel he ,IIWOH the people • and• the . Goverament. The trill be still more envenomed' by the general misery, our finances will be ruined; we must reduce the ex penditure, and sake away the subsistence from thou sands of families, before we can find functionaries united to the state of the public mind; we must place and displace, and at every nomination the opposite parties will be still present. It is always by the choice. of its auxiliaries that authority suffers its most hidden designs to be discovered: • • After this comes the inseparable dangers of a na tional repreaentatien, and those of die liberty of the press, without which however there can be no ' , ollie liberty. The worst of all die evils will ithrtlins,_ lity, that sad scourge which &strop nations, w!,i,:b vitiates the mind and the heart, and which guishes public spirit. Lastly, we have to cooltut on one side the opposition of a numerous and tor midable party, who wall not suffer authority to repose so long as there shall be any fears for public liberty or for themselves; and, on the other side, the pretensions of *nether party whom no concession will satisfy, who attach themselves to itialty only to share its power; and who would sap and overturn the thr6ne only be. cause it does not adopt them for its chief support. 1 sbotild not have thought of placing this afflicting picture before the eyes of your Majesty, if I bud not at the same time to propose some measures, and a Plan of rvantroment, whtch may coulribute to reactor' , ger skips** 3oponahlo. ~ ._. Government cannot exist without a physic:l rr without a moral force. The first cannot subsist w; k il, out the second, and both fail us. The manner d forming the army will implicitly decide other dons. It would lead to a general overthrow, wer e i t left to be conjectured, in consequence of this tom" Lion, that the King had a d.sign of forming an army against the public liberty. I have already said, that it seems as if therc were two nations in Frince must, therefore, be promptly decided to c ,, nciloo them, in order to attach both, without which a wq may be lighted up which cannot be extinguished, and whatever hippens, your Majesty mast at lea/ appear to reign with the nation. We can ne longer have the services of the ancip rt army, it mast even change the denoMinations und^: which it has hitherto been known, in order to bre.l its habits; but would it not be uselul, would it r , „ be evidently just, in dissolving the corps, to tike as much as possible of the interests of individuals The disbanding may be managed with pri:dence,atJ with a sort of family care. There would be Lk, danger in the return to society of soldiers or htfi:tr., who themselves ask the alternative of rem lilting i s the army, or of quitting it; a proposition Ur invit4. tion might be made to those who on quit I 411 1 4 it wo w stand in need of any annual pension to make a deck. ration to that effect ; and others might he 1. ask only what would be necessary to complete t,, ' means of subsistence. All those who reL too much quitting the on prottbat..e with wl.:: they are acquainted, might be retained, it their lity can be relied upon. If the Government adopts in all respects wise p i ,„, ciples, it will stand in need of hut a small army. It should not, however, be too much reduced. It would then be more easy to give it a good spirit. Your M tjesty foresees many difficulties in diminishing the household troops. Public opinion witnesses with pin the employment of time Swiss ; the pay *deli is given to a foreigner is a means of subsistence taken from - subject of the State. In general, and for a long time, it will be iqdispensible to reject all measures against which there is likely to be any opposition in public opinion. The bands of the South, and of the revived La Vendee, cannot be suffered to subsist; they must be no longer considered but as individuals and fellow. citizens. The. Vendenn corps haie principles int concilable with the tranquillity of France, an inveto raw doctrine of absokuk- power, of the spoliation national property, aid of the re-establishment of the ancient regime. The public force, therefore, cannot be suffered be in their hands. it would be an armed factiter the State. which would prevent the granting of ia• yours and places to those who would be des-rving them. The Gov...mamas might summon to it s 3 , some of the Chiets, and employ them with succe,i, restoring the countries of the West to their 4CCili• tomed order. The organization of the moral force 'demands that your Majesty should adopt a firm and unalterahiets soiutinn. The princiele must be acte..l upon, public ppinion ue received as a new element in ;:t art of governing, and that it must enter into all 3 comtinations. France can no longer be governii but by a constitutional regime ; tpe question is no longer the extent of power—the great quip.g..., ~ • preserve and to regulate power. After this first resolution, a second must be corn: tn. There are two constitutional regimes very diis rent from each other ; in the cne the King grants d least that he can do—then every thing becoi,:es obstacle, because every thing toecomee on one side tht: other an object of dispute. Several ages were oc• copied in England in obtaining, one after the odic its political laws, and this contest very often overthrew the Stare. Wien the space given to the liberty the people.is restra;ned, theit- first care is to tort& immediately what they have iibiained ; it with new works at every aew danger. and finish t making A strong citadel. It would iJe better to col cede the principle at once. In the second state of Constitutional regime, there is a homogeneous and responsible Ministry; the MI mrch, who is the depositat y of all the power and all the national majesty, is placed as it were by means of such a Ministry in an enclosure impenettsble the shock of all political agitations ; the law is equall} proposed by the Chambers and the Government, and the three branches of the legislature defend with the same care the riglits of Ow people and the Roy ' prey( viers. . - The Constitutional law is famed in the same manner as the ordinary laws, and the basis of the edifice is a constitution in which is scrupulously in cluded all the guarantees of liberty. Under these different points of view, I cannot dis• semble, that the new Chamber which is about to formed May cause disquietude. There remain: no lumina of safety it it is not constitutional, and if the opinions of the ultra Royalists 'should prevail. 'Under the relations of internal union and pacific:. tion'your Majesty will have great measures to take all union will be utterly impossible with plans of re. action. There has been ordonnances of exile; ycur Majesty owed those' acts of repression to your Ow dignity, and every one felt that other circumstanc; rendered that punishment necessary. It is cut la however, that the Constitutional party were Air t., they saw in those first acts of authority the coiner the whole reign, as they might have fancied they ' its ptinciples in the ordonnances relative to the 41c , coral Colleges. The different idea; which / have had the howl of submitting to your Majesty differ little from th which might have been more easily a.topted in P . : , and the whole world can judge of the change such a system would have wrought in ~or and in that of all Eurupe what evils would have t' prevented. The same career is now to sun, same councils are before us. IfEavot se,nis to reserved to your Majesty the greatest of all g,oiriA' that of patting an end to all our revolatiorw. In 1814 she men who now agitate us wished AICO to strike the past, dreaming neither of t he ptcsenr nor the future; Let us dare to say that the past h. nf"" been of any consideration amongst grr rf;11C"!, great statesmen, escept to afford lessons. 'Cur Pi e ' sent and the future are the only cares ot Gr.verement. It is not what has been ( t ine, but what theie is 50 ~* It is not what has been said, but what is t o be 'lot with which we ought to be.principallpioecupied• R e. ictionn wino longer in our numers# al4d it cu e 411 • r:r V;IL. rc it CM, 1114 ! itt li tte w Ar bud, L et ie rt nth: rt!,4 5 ,et! :tr., vitt. ould rda- II th,•ir Tr, t 11,i li.'. It ould Your ► the pain ;itica om a long Lures on in ti La Ist be Mow. irre• 'vete. on of DI the . ed to into If ta- w - a IS 3 , 4 csin S that 1)1e to 1, tyi ill ae all 3 i!rnen is no emu: is the es an de it re oc• 1:51111 . , threw rty of ortifr . Ihlll4 !in by / con. there Mr.. nd of ne4ns Wu to luAly and th the Loyal same f the kr in. t dis. :u he Is no Ithe ifica. tAke ; re. your own antes tfr.i;d to of 41c:- 0 04 lit 041 I , • Mtn ASO 11 0 r I fFES r!!, or neat. Jo. ite. 001? V Y,