The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-06 00:00:00

No. 11,694.

FRANCE AND THE BOURBONS IN 1830'

(From Le Globe.)
We are now at last approaching the term of the
lamentable polemical contest in which we have for
these eight months past esigaged. Our Parliament
is about to open, and the Royalty must meet the
country face to face. All good men have looked
impatiently forward to this event; for there is no-
thing more humiliating to a great nation than to
have every morning to foresee or to defeat the fol-
lies of a power at once menacing and despicable.
Such an existence is a life of hazard—that is to say,
of anguish and disorder, of distressing illusions, and
of bad passions. Feeling our destiny to depend
upon the turn up of a die, which some weak or
wicked hand may at any moment cast, men become
accustomed to dream of chances, to calculate the
means of defence, and soon after of attack. No-
thing is so near to fear as sedition, and nothing so
much tends to mischief as contempt of authority.
To say nothing of the loss of eight months for
our glory and power abroad, and for the enlight-
ened administration of our affairs at home, a loss
always irreparable, is not the corrupting disquietude
created in society by the mere accession of such a
Ministry sufficient for its condemnation ?
This was on the first day, the first cry of every
voice. Men looked far beyond the mere questions
of constitutional mechanism on which parties might be
about to play their game. Royalty was felt to he
struck at and compromised. The phrase " 1688
and the Stuarts" then resounded; and in fact,
since the period of the Bth of August, the dispute
for Royalist or for Liberal, has existed and does
exist solely on this great and awful idea.
The phrase is perhaps bold, but it is sincere.
When we cherish no after-thought and venture to
intermeddle in the affairs of our country, it is fit to
put aside all vain precautions and to speak frankly.
There are sorrows and dangers enough in civil war-
fare, dangers and depravity enough in the intrigues
and conspiracies which lead to the overthrow of a
throne, not to make us dread to foresee such a state of
things, and yet to make us look at the chances, and,
above all, to make us endeavour to induce those to
look at them who may be able to avert the evil.
The Parliament and the King alone possess this
power. It is, therefore, to the Parliament and the
King that we address ourselves along with all good
citizens, to induce them to consider what at present
s the relative situation of Royalty and Fiance.
For our part we are of opinion that of all the crises
through which we have passed since 1814, the pre-
sent is without contradiction the most decisive for
the House of Bourbon. It is, to reckon rightly,
the fourth attempt at counter-revolution. It is cu-
rious and profitable to observe what part the nation
has performed in all these rash experiments—how it
has been progressively instructed and strengthened,
while the party which is dragging down royalty
with itself has been misled and weakened ;—how
at every counter-revolutionary effort the same me-
lancholy and fatal idea of the separation of the throne
and the country has presented itself, but on each
occasion gathering strength, accepted by a greater
number of minds; at first concealed as a sacred intrigue
or feeling of hostility, afterwards disclosed in public
as an opinion, and thus proceeding, until, if Heaven
avert it not,and if the old enemies of liberty still pro-
ceed farther, this opinion will become the resolution
of a party with popular assent. However, all men
so ardently desire tranquillity and the security of
their interests, that on every occasion when royalty
separates itself from those who compromise it, and
takes the slightest step in the way of a return to-
wards the nation, that moment the hope of fixing
the fate of the Bourbons with a future liberty re-
vives. It is natural to calculate on all the advantages
derivable from their old hereditary succession, the
real goodness and facility of character which en-
deared them to our ancestors : men flatter them-
selves with pleasing plans of a slow and peaceful
reform which shall reduce royalty to its true station,
—namely, that of reigning without governing; a
situation in which the Mince is withdrawn from
the storms of popular disapprobation and the strug-
gles of Parliamentary majorities and minorities. No
one, we apprehend, will deny the tendency of men's
minds to incline alternately, according to the danger
or the security of the charter,—to a change of
dynasty or to the maintenance of the reigning
family. It has appeared at every crisis which we at
preient can call to recollection. Lest it should be
doubted, let us try to sketch, in a few words, arid
with perfect candour, the picture of these crises. If
we do not truly describe the flux and reflux of the
national opinion, we are open to contradiction.
Whoever has lived 30 years in France must recol-
lect under what circumstances the Bourbons returned.
They were forgotten or disregarded by their con-
temporaries. The new generation knew nothing of
their existence, and did not even know their names.
The victories of foreigners smoothed the path for
them, either in consequence of offended national
pride, or the restlessness of old animosities revived
by fear, storms, and wars between the country and
the party which was to arise under the protection
of their throne were foreseen. There was a moment
of hesitation and alarm; but another danger still
more pressing operated on the national will. There
was no longer any head to the empire. The son of
Napoleon was still in the cradle, arid that cradle had
for its protector an Emperor of Austria. The
Bourbons were of our own blood: the Senate of
the Empire, degraded as it was, spoke of condi-
tions and of liberty. The same sentiments were ex-
pressed by the legislative body which had given
vent to the first sigh for the misfortunes of the
country. It was known that conditions would be
agreeable to the head of the family. He was de-
scribed to us as instructed by misfortune, en-
lightened by study and the spectacle of English
liberty, and proud of all our
.recent glories. The
liberal opinions of this Prince at the commencement
of the revolution were recollected. Promises
reached us from all quarters, and the alarm, without
being dissipated,, was calmed. The declaration of
St. Ouen, the octroy of the charter, though it ap-
peared offensive to pure theory, completed the half
convers;on of France. Louis XVIII. began with
some favour a reign which datt.d back 25 years, in
memorial of legitimacy; but around this legitimacy,
which few comprehended, but however was ad-
mitted as an innocent pretension, there soon arose a
cloud of grotesque and insolent legitimacies, the mere
recollection of which is farcical—the old noblesse,
the emigrants, court robes, the ante-chamber digni-
ties of Versailles,corporations, the clergy, LaVendee,
and the Chouans ! It was variety, avidity, and
vengeance in full cry. Some insulated our uniforms
and the titles of our new warriors; others wrapped
themselves up in the pride of their caste, and looked
with disdain on citizens whom they had but lately
courted. In some quarters they established them-

selves as conquerors in a country divided by civil
war, and surrounded themselves with peasantsguilty
of the most atrocious crimes. All demanded, and
even took, what they called their property,—feudal
rights, tithes, places, pensions, decorations, titles.
They soon stifled some favourable presages. The
nation trembled. At that time, animated with one
spirit, still warm with the life of the empire, and
possessing the controul of public affairs and of the
army, she, with an immense power, surrounded a
throne almost foreign. Indignation seized her. A
favourable wind brought back her Emperor. Not-
withstanding the resentment caused by his wars,
his tyranny, and the danger of an invasion, yet he
%vas received as an avenger, as a liberator, as the man