The National Register. — London, England, 1815-09-10 00:00:00

there are drawbacks In the finial of ages awl in the progress of civilization; the understanding itself has its detractors, and when the', te 4 ll to too precipitate and extensile chancel, it gives rise to resist - Ifni+ and continued agitations. The great struale of the Re. volition is opt yet finished by 2.5 years of sublersten; each of the , ancient factions was pot completely extinct when (fife invasion of the Usurper revived the parties, disclosed new o 1,, and made a full discovery of the extent of the factions. • To Speak in the first place only of the simph d erenee of opi• slot; if this difference be extremely wide, it it t a sort of roptere in the State. it is in vain tor authority govern in the sense which it lieljerea prekatent ; another gpilijOr owes across it which also pretends • to be the public opinion ; a rein~ could not he of long continuance if it bail oulithis mindiity in il k . favour, since even the million of the majority would still allow thseetrongest re. its tance to be ke ffi pt np ; on the one side the sacrifiee of their ispi•• pion: will lee thviilt, and on the other impossible. It remains, theiefare. isuf to choose rightly. and to make maim) mid justice triumph over old passions 'mil ancient prejudices. Similar contra rieties Aulitlent e x is t in the other States of Eitrope. but they do not refer to stiCh mitility . interesti, nor unite themselves to so many . • otlier.opposst • . After tkle dAnger comes that of parties, without calculating the Rovali•ts. who are foun4, in the year 1815, to be what they were in 1793: Among the old parties the Republicans and the Constitn tion,,tits still sistniSt; if the Republi cans have not been undeceived with sedan] to all their principles, they have at least discovered the impossibility of applying them, to argreat state. Having thus ceased to be dangerotie to the power of monarchy. they became so to Bouaparte only on account of Ins tyranny, and, with a very few exceptions, linonapartists would be found in the ranks of the Re publicans. This would be to commit a great error ; they are net less opposed to the Government of (tie King, having some di ffi culty in believing that a dynasty that has suffered so much by the revolution, and which has straggled so lung, can prevail upon itself either to par don. to toreet, or to denY its aucieet doctrines by giving sufficient patentees for public libet t ty. This motive alone has recently in duced them to take a part in all the measures that had for object the expulsion of the Boattions ; that an impassable . barrier is raised betweeo the east and the prCsent; that public liberty should be. established on au immutable basis. With these conditions there is nothing to be apprehended from the Republicans ; they would even become the firmestsupporters of the Government. 'the constitutionalists. are only a party to this exception, inas much as they, are oppissed to the Royalists. and defend the rights of the people against them, as they were established during the revolution, for every thing in the last 23 years has not been illusion or crime. A stop has been put to glaring abuses and odious privileges, sage principles have been consecrated, and just barriers opposed to a power which had no restraint but its own discretions. It is not under this point of view that we are in opposition with Europe. What a revolution would not have produced would have been ob tained 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 kind of evidence. Time Constitutionalists revere also the principle of legitimacy' Two ‘lonarchical Constitutions have been framed in France, since 17'89—both have consecrated the principles of a hereditary throne; but because both give the right to succeed to the throne, mist we conclude that it transmits a power without limits ? Does it perpetuate the manner of governing because it perpetuates the dy nasty ? And is there not a distinction to be 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 the principles of the Con stitutionalists. This party, however, and this must not he dissembled, this party, although it does not hesitate to submit, has never ceased during a twelvemonth to be in opposition to the King's Government. In 1814 it wits chiefly the Constitutionalists who censured violently, who attacked incessantly most of the measures and acts of autho rity ; amid when such a struggle has once begun, when the multitude take a part in it, a revolution is not far off. This opposition brcoglit out a number of parties who had never before ahem) them :lrises ft was generally said that the reign of the Bourbons would not be . of long olgration. that a crisis was approaching either from sonic enterprise of the Court, or a movement of the people. Some spoke at that time of tatting a foreign Prince to the throne, others ce.:;lsreil them selves in Avow of the Duke of Orleaus, a gruatet J IP i9 • number still for the Reaet,ey; it seemed that a nor , of mesa. i • vo lution had already taken plate in the militia Hod heat t•, AIM ihis circumstance. added to the treactiesy, explains rl> 11.0 will the eiciiity with which Ruonaparte replaced himself on the throne and the impossibility in which the Court then was of detendioe them selves. In another moment less decisive, nat where liiion.,parte ! pave in hicabdieation, the -awe opposition to Stir Kine's Gii.ern. went was manifested in the Cntistitutional party %%ill' still more force than the former tone. Why can I not avoid lag leg the se de tails before sour Majesty t—But how is it possible to .ave tier %ho. narchy. it we are wet throttattly acquainted with the evil, end with every danger i There is not a foreign Prince but at this moment the party in question would have preferred obtaining or receiving from the hands of the Allied Powers. The prepossession had readied such a height that there was but one exclusion ;...-that of the family of our ancient Kisses. Yotir Majesty cannot help considering as a seditious art, the I)eclaration of the Chamber of Representatives, which tended to regulate the Royal power before the throne was tilled. The truth is, however, that a multitude of Fienclunen participate in the same blindness and the same resistance. because they had the same tears Every one demanded conditions, every one dreaded re-actiona and yen geances ; _they wished guarantees, met against yens Majesty, n hose wisdom and moderation were known, but agai n st the in eninsions so well known and so often announced, of those who, from their access to the throne, may one day have the opportunity, acid per. bane the power, of making them triumph. What nineties milt not this fate! disposition of minds produce/ I have only entered into such painful details to arrive at this eon sequence.—The acts of the Government will be again att•scied; they are so alreetlyi .and this controel, with respect to principles, passes for a right. and even for a duty, when it is exempt now had intentions. Political doctrines are in the present day so stly diffused In France, that the people imagine themselves competent to decide 011 them. A demi liberty, partial conditions appear as insupportable, and tin most ansolute power—they wittild excite the same conunotionsi What I have already said of the putilie spirit of the DePartinents, has sliewn that in some provinces the C•aisti tutional Party prevails more or leas. This same party attract- also snore and more.notice among certain classes of citizeiss. old rich families are in general more devoted to the King; is tin same in the tribunals among the people of the law, and the Welter coin. mercial classes: on the other hand, it is the sweat in:entity of the inferior citizens (petite bourgeoisie), retailers and petty prnpris tor., who are constitutional, because they have had thee greatest wits E in the Revolution. The purchasers of national estates mid the ti males of soldiers mid a great force to that pat ty ; but what gives it more especially an irresistible preponder,nce, is the mass of peasantry, wile are at present very enlightened and in easy cir cumstances, irreeoncileable enemies of the nobles alai clergy, .whose situatiou has been ameliorated by the Revolution. Passion calculates the strength of parties differently, anti arrives in tact at other results. lii such calculations the people pass for nut hieg. I do not include the Buonapartists in the number of partte,s-there are none—there can no longer be any Buonapartists, except in a small portion of the army. It is not from attachment tor the mass of this party, it is still less from fidelity that in the month of Morels a part of France %%as seen to associate themselves for a ~,,, a nt % tin his destinies; he owed his success entirely to our discords, which made him be regarded by some as a liberator, by nte et s tisi in strutnent ; and this instrument gave us mulch ereater reasons r fear than for hope. There can be no party without a chief. !toena il parte has only had three months of a new existence by events which cannot again he renewed. All the remainder of the Biloi„leartists are therefore contbunded in the ranks of the Constitutionalists and Republicans. 1 come to the factions.—lt is principally tinder this point of view that the situation of your Majesty is attended with danger. It is evident that there are two great factions in the State. The one des fends the principles of the Revolution. and the other aims at a cottn. ter-revolution. The force of the two factions may be measnied. In the one there are the Nobles anti the Clerge, the ancient possessors of national estates, the Emigrants. the old Royalists, and all that remains of the Old Parliament.eulightened men, who sincere. Iv, because they have learned nothing for twenty-five years, csount comprehend how their old knonledge shoeld be deficient ; a Certain number also who cannot pardon what they have abhorred or who prefer their repose to every thing, and have no hope of reeniniiig it but in the old regime; lastly, empassioned wtitecs, and nen , ' ilea!, whom a spirit of hatred impels always to violent measures—to ex tremities. In the other party is almost the whole of France-- ! the Coustitstionzali.its and the Republicans, the actual Army and the Ell