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

SSO

L REG

B'I'ER.

perished to retard the fall of the old regime—it would cause still
greater evils to re-establish it.
Our state of invasion bi a new source of diverse dangers ; some in
part concern the Sovereigns, others, at this moment, shake the
•
power of the King.
The ravage re multiplying, the means of subsistence are ex.
hunting: mid': this point of view public tranquillity has but a
very uncertai' • duration. The word impossible applies to every
thing. Thei re bounds to all evils which cannot be removed, the
contritintioni) jug dried up or suspended, the expences there can
uo longer be i t. This will be a new source of disorder. Will
they recur to Alike contributions? How and by whom can they
exact them ? • 'he most of the persons subject to contribution have
already lost 'ilbeir habitations—it will require an armed force to
complete thia!-Apoit of them ; the collection of every part of the im-
post can oniP take place by combats.
The evil is still aggravated by the prolongation of the stay of the
f reign armies, and yet the Sovereigns will not think of withdraw.
ing them from France before having guarantees of our repose, be.
cause their tranquillity is connected with ours. We must hereafter
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 beep annihilated, public
and pt ivate fortunes all will have been carried off; we shall escape
out of this war as from a sort of shipwreck, at whatever price we
shall have obtained the enjoyment of the King's Government. Will
this moment be that of obedience and love, or that of complaints,
of reproaches and accusations ? The hearts will be embittered—
the passions, 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.
lie who now kills an enemy, but who enriches not himself by the
murder, will one day kill his fellow citizens in the same disposition
of mind. The consequences have not been calculated which must
arise front 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; civilization is suspended; the
inundation of these people will 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 be attempted by your Majesty, afflicting yourself in
common with the people, and in your goodness forgeting nothing
that can console them. There must, however, be expected an °pp•
sition, more pertinacious that in ordinary times, and authority will
be so much the weaker because there is so much the more need of
conciliation. If we were to speak of re-actions, the whole people
would cry out, is there not thong!' of public misfortunes; if we
were to threaten a restraint upon liberty, the people would defend
it with new energy, as the only advantage, of which the enemy
could not deprive them. It is a discontented people, it is an agis
tated 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 of the obstacles. The love, the respect, the confidence
which they inspire are oar principal means of safety, but the des.
tildes of France are not in your bands alone, fatal circumstances
exist which excite fears in the minds of the people, and induce them
to distrust the reigns which will follow that of riff Majesty. They
ask, whether they shall always be governed with the same modera-
tion; whether an inviolable barrier will still be opposed to the per-
secutions of the Nobles, and to the return of the ancient regime;
whether religious differences will always he mingled with the same
toleration ; whether firmness will always be tempered by indulgence
and goodness ? A natural instinct leads ail people to look forward
to the evil and the good which await them, and in their happiness, as
in their disquietude, they always compare the present reign with the
reigns that are to follow. 1 have made this remark because this
circumstance has an inevitable influence on the disposition of the
mind, and is hilst under certain circumstances it renders Govern-
ment more easy, in other cases it creates obstacles 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 home; will the
combats of opinions have ceased; will tyranny be extinct? These
will he a nation sensible and proud, but iniquiet, 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 excite dist ur Latices when it shall
operate as a dispute for or against public opinion. In ordinary

ff

SEPT 10.
•
NATIONAL R
-1 581

times lit le attention is paid to discontent, and it is sy to restrain
the seditious; but in our situation every kind ofigiosition, every
complaint will be a quarrel between the peoplean m government.
The evil will be still more envenomed by the gene isery, our 6
mince= will be ruined : we must reduce the expenseturf., and take
away the subsistence from thousands of families before we caw find
fnuctionaries united to the state of the public mind • we must place
and displace, and at every nomination the opposite, arties will still
be prevent. It is always by the choice of its auxili 'es that antho-
ii
rity suffers to be discovered its most hidden desiglls. After this
come- the inseparable dangers of a national representation, and those
of the liberty of the press, without which, however, there can be no
public liberty. The worst of all the evils will be immorality, that
sad sentare which destroys nations, which vitiates the mind and the
heart, and which extinguishes public spii It. Lastly, we have to
combat on one side the opposition of a numerotsi and formidable
party. who will suffer no authority to repose so long as there shall
be any fears fur public liberty or fur themselves; and, on the other
side, the pretensions of another party whom no concession will sa-
tisfy, who attach themselves to royalty only to share its power, and
who would sap and overturn the throne only because it does not
adopt them for its chief support. ,
I Ai. old not have thought of phasing this afflicting picture before
the eyes of your Majesty, if I had not at the same time to propose
some measures, and a plan of Government, which may contribute to
render our situation supportable.
Government cannot exist without a physical or without a moral
force. The first cannot subsisj without the second, and both tail us.
The manner of forming the army will implicitly decide other qurs
tions. It would lead to a general overthrow. were it left to be con-
jectured, in consequence of this formation, that the Xing had a de-
sign of forming an army against the public liberty. I have already
said that i; seems as it there were two nations in Trance; it must
therefore be promptly decided to rout-Mate them, in order to attach
both, without which a war may be lighted up which cannot be extin-
gnislied, and whatever happens, your Majesty must at least appear to
reivii with the nation.

We ran iits longer have theservices of the ancient army, it mnst
even change the denominations tinder which it has hitherto been
known, in other to break its habits; but would it not he tinfoil,
would it not he-evidently just, in diasolving the corps, to take care
as ',lnch as poioible or the interests of individuals? The disband-
st.l may be managed with prudence, and with a sort of family care.
There would be little danger in the return to society of soldiers or
officers, who themselves ask the alternative of remaining in the
artily; or of quitting it ; a proposition or invitation, might be made
to those who on quitting it would stand in need of any annual pen-
sion to make a declaration to that effect ; and others might be in-
vited to askonly what would be necessary to complete their means
of subsistence. All those who would regret too much quitting the
only profession with whirls they are acquainted, might be retained,
if their fidelity can be relied %poss.
If the Government adopts in all respects wise principles, it will
stand in need of but a small army. It should not, however, be
too much radneed. It w mid then be more easy to give it a good
spirit. Your Majesty foresees many difficulties in diminishing the
household troops. Public opinion witnesses with pain the employ-
ment of the Swiss ; the pay which is given to a foreigner is a means
of subsistence taken from a subject of the State. In.general, and
for a long time, it will be indispensible to reject all measures
agaisrit which there is likely to be any opposition in pnbli,c

two esinstitntionat reeimes very different from each other ;ii) the one
the King grants the least that he ran do=-then every Wog hr comes
an obstacle, because every thing becomes on one side or the other an
()liket of dispute. Several ages were occupied in England in obtain..
lug one after the other its political laws, and this contest very often
overthrew the State. When the space given to the liberty of a
people is restrained, their first care is to fortify immediately what
they have obtained; they snrround it with new works at every new
danger, and finish by making a Wore, citadel. It would be better
to concede the principle at once.
In the second state of Constitutional regime, there is a homoge-
neous and responsible Ministry ; time Monarch, who is the depo-itai y
of all the power and of all the national mejesty. is placed as it were
by means of such a Ministry in an enetosure impeitetrahle to the
shock of all political agitations; the law is equally proposed by the
Chambers and the Government, and the three branches of the leei.-
lature defend with the same came the rights of the people anti the
Hovel prerogatives.
The Constitutional law is formed in the same manner as the ordi-
nary laws, and the basis of the edifice is a constitution in which Is •
scrupulously included all the guarantees of liberty.
Under these different points ot view, I cannot dissemble, that the
new Chamber which is about to be formed may cause disquietude.
There remains no means of safety if it is inn constitutional, and if
the opinions of the ultra-Royalists should prevail.
Under the relations of internal mitt() and pacification, your Ma-
jesty will have great measures to take ; all union will be otterly
impossible with plans of re-actiou. There has been ordoonances of
exile ; your Majesty owed those acts of repression to your own dig-
nity, and every one felt that other circumstances rendered that pu-
nishment necessary. It is certain, however, that the Constitutional
party were afraid they saw in those first acts of at: t ot►ty the colour
of the whole reign, as they might have fancied they saw its princi-
ples in the ordosmances of the Electoral Colleges.
The different ideas which I have had the honour of submitting to
yonr Majesty dater little from those which might have been more
easily adopted in 1814, and the whole world eau joisice of the change
which such a system would have wrought in our situation. and in
that of all Europe, whet evils WOlllll bane been prey/ wed. The
saute Career is now to run, and the same couLeds sic nefore
Heaven seems to have reserved to your 110. sty the gicottsi of ad
glories, that of putting an end to all our revolutions.
In 11114, the men who now agitate us wished also to strike the
past, dreaming neither of the present nor the future. Let us dare
to say that the past has never been of any consideratiott amongst
great princes or great statesmen. except to ;,thiril lessons. The
present and the future ate the only cares of government. It is not
what has been done, but what three is to do. It is not IA hat 1e46
been said, but; what is to be said with which we ought to be prin-
cipally occupied. He-actions ate no longer in our manners, and if'
one drop ot blood runs in a political revolution, there is no cer-
tainty but that torrents will Mow.
If, after the measures which I propose, there should be still some
partial resistances, they may be restrained by vieilatsee and firm-
ness. The latter quality was always that of great King.. Another
quality is, however, superior to that—prudence. Sovereigns. what-
ever maybe their power, are subject to the common law of neces-
sity. There are times when they must traminillize insti ad of excite;
when they most conciliate all, anti promote hope and confidence..
Two doctrines rike opposed—let us begin by deciding which of the
two should be followed; and whether we should remount against the
torrent, or descend easily. If it is wished to remount, there is
nothing to expect from firmness—despotism itself would be pow. r
less.

The bands of the South, and of the revived La Vendee, cannot
he suffered to subsea; they most be no longer considered but as in-
dividuals and fellow-citixeris. The Vendran corps have principles
irreconcilable with the tranquillity of France. an inveterate doe-
trine of absolute power, of the spoliation of national property,
and of the re.establishnient of the ancient regime. The public
fume, therefore, cannot be suffered to be in their hands. It would
t.c an armed faction in the State, which would prevent the grant-
ing of favours and places to those who would be deserving of
therm The Government might summon to its aid some of the
Chiefs, and employ them with success in motoring the countries of
the West to their accustomed order.
The organization of the moral force demands that your Majesty
should adopt a firm and unalterable resolution. The principle
must he acted npon, that public opinion be received as a new de-
"lent in the art of governing, and that it most enter into all its
combinations. France can no longer be governed but by a consti-
tutional regime; the question is no Linger the extent of power—
the great question is to preserve tend to regulate power.
After this (trot resolution, a secood nut be come to. There are

Firmness is Nothing, except in moderation. The immortal Catherine
found that the word jusice was too strong for man, and that she only
could support equity. Once let the limit be establnihed, and e'er) one
will feel that indulgence• for the past cannot extend to the present. The
same firmness under its double relation of force and moderation will
apply itself to all the acts of Government, to all the [ruts of public
order ; it will nqt suffer any deviation, any negligence, all the parts .
will be restrained, all the grievances will be redressed, till the ind►vi-
duals will he punished with severity, oho place themselves iii a state
of hostility towards the Governmen►.
These first successes will not finish here, ere may apprised, Clearer
and nearer to the nioilel of England. With regard to the extent dl our
civil and political liberty, we have the advantage of 14iproximattng to ►t
in our social distinctions, some of which attach theinveives to the forty
and the strength of a Government, and others to the etterior eclat of t
nation. There is nothing saved from the French Hevolation but the.
rights and principles which time has consecrated, in put us in harmony
with all Europe. We must have the mcaus of taking part its ail the