The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-06-28


But the Liberal cause acquired some strength
by the discussions which broke out among the
Ministers themselves. Chateaubriand, then Min
lister for Foreign Affairs, quarelled with Villee;
but the former, although supported by many per
sons of great influence had nevertheless to yield
to the latter, who enjoyed the support of still
more powerful men, After the resignation of
Chateaubriand, he and his friends united with
Che small band of Liberals, in opposing the re-
dictionary and despotic course of the Villele Min
istry.
We thus find France, at the death of Louis
XVIII, which took place September 10th, 1924,
in very humiliating position, as far as it con-
cerned its internal affairs-being, indeed, des-
politically ruled by narrow-minded though Wig
orous Minister, whose power was based upon
the support of all those who preferred their own
interests to the welfare of the whole people, and
whose aid he had to purchase by administering
rich food to their foul passions and sordid appe-
tites.
Louis XVIII, who possessed many personal
merits, and whose heart was inclined to midness
aud benevolence, was succeeded TO the throne
by his brother, the Prince of Artois, under the
name of Charles X, whose disposition was much
more despotic, and consequently more In har-
mony with the views of the Ultras.
STILL the beginning of his reign held out
hopes of a happier state of things; for he abol-
ished the odious censure on journals and other
publications, by an edict of September 10Th
only four DAYS after his brothers death-and
seemed thus to evince the resolution OF main
tanning the spirit of the Constitution. But
those who had Landed him to the skies, and an
| ticipated from him the restitution of freedom
to France, were doomed to find out that their
! applause had been too premature, and their
hopes but vain dreams.
a., L. &c Daoapn har plap for INDIAN
nifying the emigrants was brought forth, by
which the nation was to take upon itself a new
! debt of thousand millions of francs, In order
| to be paid to those of whom the greatest part
| had carried arms against France, in union with
! its foreign foes. Still, as the majority of the
| members of the Chambers were interested In
this indemnifcation, the resolution was adopted.
| But there were not wanting many other
proofs that France continued to remain the
| prey of the Ultras, to whom belonged the great
body of the ancient nobility, and almost all
the higher as we'll as a considerable portion of
the lower clergy. The general mourning, how
ever, which took place on the death of the noble
| champion of Freedom General Foy, which de-
porable event happened on the 18th of Novem-
| Der, 1925, proved that the Freuch nation CRATE
! fully remembered his able defence of its rights
| in the Chamber, whore his spirited eloquence
| had so often pleaded their cause, and rebuked
| the minions Of kingcraft and the shameful ad-
vocates of aristocratic and priestly cupidlty
| But a people that has the manly courage to
acknowledge. in the face of its oppressors, It's
Indebtedness to its benefactors, seldom wants
the spirit, ultimately to avenge its sufferings
and recover its freedom.
George III, King of Great Britain, died on
the 18th of January, 1920. He was succeeded
by his oldest son, then at the age of hfty-eight
years. who, under the title of Prince Regent,
had for many years exercised the royal author
ity, on account of the Kings mental illness.
The first days of the reign of George " wit
messed violent outbreaks of popular discomfort
against the Ministers, as alleged enemies of the
liberty of the nation. But these disturbances
were, with much severity, suppressed by Lord
| Castlereagh and his colleagues, all belonging
to the Tory party, who thus became still more
odious to the great body of the people of Great
Britain and Ireland.
| The scandalous process OF divorce against
the Queen, publicly transacted before the Par
| Lament, increased in the highest degree the
public displeasure, and showed in the most
palpable manner the abandoned character of
the King, whose debaucheries were generally
known, and the INSCRIPTIONS principles of his
Minister'S Hence the nation sympathized
greatly with their intended victim, who was
ably and eloquently defended by Brougham,
and who, whether guilty of any frailty or not,
was certainly the most pure of the contending
parties.
The Ministers continued, meanwhile, their
anti-liberal course, until the suicide of Lord
Castlereagh brought on change in the Cabi-
net favorable to the cause of freedom. Castle
reagh, who had been altogether devoted to the
HOLY Alliance, was succeeded by the famous
Canning, whose far-sighted eye saw clearly
that the interests of England were intimately
connected with the preservation of at least
some degree of liberty. By recognising, on
June Ist, 1925, the independence of the Span
ish Colonies, which in 1928 had assumed repub-
lican forms of government, Canning became
very odious to the Allied Princes, and an OBJ
ect of the most scandalous vituperations on
the part of their admirers.
By the means of his eloquence and the zeal
of his supporters, Canning succeeded in getting,
on the 2lst of April, 1925, the bill for the emanci
patton of the Catholics adopted by the House of
Commons; but this just bill was, on the 10Th of
the subsequent May, defeated in the House of
Lords, by the bigotry and stubborn opposition
to all reforms on the part Of the Bishops and
high Tory Lords.
In Prussia, the King, and his Minister, Won
Stein, had already, in 1903, promised the peo-
pie of that country Constitution. The same
promise was renewed in 1911, by the then Pre-
mier, Hardenberg. In 1915, the King, by an
ordinance, dated May I'd, promised to establish
a House of Representatives, whose sphere of
action should extend "to all that concerned
the legislation and public taxation" But none
of these promises were accomplished, nor the
promise given in the 18th article of the Fed
eral act Still, the arbitrary rule of the King
was not exercised with such severity as to
provoke armed resistance on the part Of
the nation. The Government was conducted
rather with somewhat of patriarchal mildness,
and the momentary seventies in which it in
dulged were borne with patience by the peo-
pie, who were not accustomed to enjoy the
rights of freemen.
!, The course of policy which the Emperor
Francis, of Austria, as King of Hungary,
pursued, relative to that country, created a
great deal of discomfort, as was made mani
fest by several instructions of the Hungarian
peasantry, and especially by the threatening
attitude assumed by many of the grandees Of
the kingdom, during the sitting of the Diet of
1920. These signs of a revolutionary spirit
were, however, suppressed--still, not without
difhculty-by a mixture of artful compliance
, and rigorous severity.
But it was in the Austrian dominions in
Italy where the greatest degree of oppression
was exercised, and where the Liberal party was
, prosecuted with the most rigor. There. IA in
Naples, many of the champions of the popular
. cause were loaded with chains, and thrown in
E dark and unhealthy dungeons; and, after hav
, ing undergone all the humiliations revengeful
ingenuity could invent, in the course of their
protracted trials. some were sentenced to i'm
prsonment for life, or for long series of years