New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-09-29
FRANCOIS GUIZOT.
SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND CHARAC.

| PUBLIC CAREBR-IIIs POLITICAL CONsIStENCf-
| OCCASIONAL ESSAYS
| lpRon THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF TIE TRIBuNE]
PARIS, Sept i4-At sunset yesterday Francois Gul-
cot died, aged 81 years. he had been in a comatose
state for two or three preceding days, and passed
away without suffering death-bed of pain firmly
borne had secured an ending TO that fulfilled life
almost more fitting to the man. He man to
look fate in the face Chrstianized or, more accu-
rately, Calvinized stole. Descended Of Hugue-
nots presented under the old regime, son Of
Huguenot father guiotned under the Republic OF
the first revolution taken by the pious widowed
mother for the education Of his childhood to Geneva,
his character grew from inherited nature and by
cultivation Of circumstances more in hight than
in breadth indeed. to a singular completeness. Tho
key to its harmony is most readily found In
his Calvinism, which was, mono OF the more or less
improved modern varieties with accommodations,
but the original John Calviu's Calvinsm. 1t under
lies and shapes his political principles his leading
acts as statesman his method Of treating historical
themes, and his style both writer and orator. 1t
was auxiliary to his dogmatism and haughtiness in
the lecture-room and tribune, to his contempt for
popularity and to the purity Of bis private life. 1t
sustained irmness that verged on obstinacy,
confidence in himself nearly equivalent TO an as
sumption Of rnfallbty, and that inordinate esti-
mate of authority, including his own, which so
strongly characterized his views of State policy and
of social needs. Believing that most human beings
are bad by predestinaion, but that choice few are
elected good, he was not likely to recognize the
ability OF right of the masses to govern themselves.
His childish recOllections of the Reign of Terror,
the violent death Of his father may have strength
ened his horror of revolutions, though similar
experiences have produced no such effect on many
eminent Frenchmen--take Louis Blanc for an
instance. His aversion to revolutionary and to
most reformatory measures had larger
origin and deeper base. Because of this We
can understand how the man Of purest private
moralsi should have practiced bribery on scale
over which Wapole might blush with joy. His
vigorous plan in the later years of Louis Philppes
reign was to buy up q majority of deputies by
giving them places and the disposal of places and
the number of offices in France being considerably
larger than the then admitted number of legal
voters the Prime Minister became controller of the
elections and of the Chamber The strenuous way
in which he resisted the moderate enlargement
of the Pays Legal, the boldness with which he
used and bindly trusted in the force of authority
thus obtained up to 23d February 1913, remarkably
exemplfy one of his defects. Guizot was too nearly
fatalist for foresight. Few statesmen of so emf
nent intellectual faculty have shown so little politi-
cal sagacity. While the ferment visible In France
and all Europe was, to most Observers so early at
least as 1S47 premonitory of high tide, If not OF
deuge he seems far as he degned to- it at ALL to
have looked down upon it much in the same mood
as when in the famous session of January 1874. he
looked down from the tribune on the vociferating
opposition IN the Chamber, and hurled at them the
most characteristic phrase that ever fell from his
lips: These insults cannot reach to the level Of
my contempt"
As the man, who after filing for many years
places where pecuniarY fortune could have been
had for the taking, retired from public life with no
more income than paid by his booksellers was
capable as Minister, of Who'll lie bribery in sys-
TEN, so the man, whose Household was an unsullied
sanctuary, could, as Minister Oh that model hus-
band and father Louis Philippe, soil himself with
the Spanish marriages." of which the purpose was
narrowly selfish the execution directly dishonest, tho
results bad in all senses, and the essential plot on
which its success was calculated most infamous.
For the sake of making the Duke de Montpensier
king-consort father of coming king OF Spain, the
austere Guzot did not hesitate to procure for Isa-
bella such husband that there would be reason to
hope that no other than Louis Philippes erandcbid
might one day rule over the Peninsula. To do this
he must impudently lie TO England, at the risk OF
war with that power he the Minister of the policy
of peace at any price," must arouse the dstrust OF
all Europe and the disgust of all decent men. But
the degradation of the marriage tie and the sin were
small price to pay for the further strengthening OK
the throne of the authority partly welded by his
elect self so necessary to the preservation of society,"
Guizot was no Jesuit but with him the great good
to be obtained covered the little, bad means OF OBJ
tanning Throughout those historical writings, bis
General History of Civilization in Europe and the
General History in France. the surest titles OF his
fame, his tendency to subordinate particular facts
vbara pifa
liberal as against the excessive reactonists after
the Restoration, and although not revoutionist
promoter of the downfall Of Charles X, he was
hostile to the early liberal fancies of Pope Plus TX.
A Protestant of Protestants. he became at later
day defender of the temporal power of the reaction
ary Pope The inconsistency here is in Pope Plus
IX not in Francois Guizot, who really did remain
through his long life too consistent with bis one
Interchangeable self. This cast-iron consistency In
moving world Sas his great defect toward the
world he attempted to work in aud rule; but it gives
something of admirable completeness TO his char
acter.
Sublimely confident not so much in himself as in
the principles of which he was the exponent. and
contemptuous of others because Of their erroneous
opinions he had less than the ordinary French
allowance of vanity nor was he OF offensive pride In
social intercourse. As a statesman he cannot rank
high in the second class. IL not by his guidance,
then despite hs guidance constitutional parlia-
mentary government ruinously disgraced and
q dynasty he wouldsserve oyerthrown. OF all his
ministerial works one only has worked great perma-
nent good. The laws on primary education lof
which he was not only principal author, but to the
faithful practical application of which, so long as
he was in power he was vigilantly attentive) were
a great advance for their time and insufficient as
they appear Tin comparison with the better sys-
TENS of popular instruction now operating in neigh
boring countries they would, if they had always