over his own party, which was owing to his lack of sincerity and truth. By nature and disposition a moderate Royalist, he was prevented from acting as such by men like the Duc de Richelieu, De Serres standing before him as well as Châteaubriand. He was thus obliged to lend himself to the ultra-royalists-not only the lay politicians, but the ecclesiastical ones. Among and over these he could only hold pre-eminence by dissimulation, nor could he counteract their extravagance except by occult and insidious means. In this false position his best aim was always neutralised, and he spent so much time and power in merely holding the helm of this ministerial bark, that he could attain nothing else. He kept afloat-that was all; and instead of conducting the vessel to any safe or honest port, he was driven to windward, and was finally unable to preserve either it, or himself, or the monarchy from wreck. Kings have an instinctive horror of intellectual superiority, that being the only quality to which they must bow, and which is able to put a yoke upon them. Can Charles the Tenth be so much to blame for obeying this instinct, when even Napoleon, himself an intellectual giant, could not bear any who equalled or approached him? Cleverness and ability is the highest range to which politicians who serve a monarch ought to pretend. Villèle had these. His successor, Martignac, had infinitely more. A native of the Gironde, he recalled by the warmth and blandness of his eloquence those celebrated orators of the Revolution who bore the name. Like them he was highly educated, of cultivated and literary intellect, the very contrast of Villèle and Corbière. He was a man of society too, and even of pleasure, which Charles the Tenth in the asceticism of his age chose to frown at. Martignac, a disciple of Lainé, had been to Spain with the French army of intervention, and had brought back from it a horror of ultra-royalism and ultra-sacerdotalism, СНАР. XLV. СНАР. both of which he saw so egregiously developed and illustrated by the government of Ferdinand. That Martignac was the real chief of the ministry, and that he wanted not firmness to maintain that position, was shown at the first meeting of the cabinet council. The King presided, and as usual he opened the business of the day. He did so by declaring that M. de Villèle's policy had been his, and that though compelled to part with the man, he was still influenced by his ideas. Martignac instantly observed that no ministry could face the new Chamber with declarations or sentiments like these. There had been a change of men, and a change of measures was the inevitable The great difficulty with the new ministry was the Royal speech. It was absolutely necessary to announce to the Chambers some liberal measures, contrary to and implicitly condemnatory of the policy of the late administration. To this Charles the Tenth was most adverse. Still even he consented to a compromise, and agreed to promise the partial freedom of education from exclusively sacerdotal control, and at the same time to redeem Villèle's lukewarmness in the cause of Greece by a hearty approbation of the battle of Navarino. As this had been more regretted than approved of by the British government, its acceptation by the French cabinet was more significant. The votes for the presidential chair gave some idea of the composition of the new Chamber. The thoroughly liberal opposition had retained its old number of votes. Joined to the Left Centre or Doctrinaires it mustered nearly half the votes of the Chamber. The Right and Right Centre formed the other half. Parties were thus nearly balanced. La Bourdonnaye and Casimir Périer XLV. were equally put forward as candidates for the presi- CHAP. dentship. The King, at the desire of Martignac, chose Royer Collard. Such homage to the Left Centre was necessary, since in the composition of the new ministry Martignac had altogether left out the Doctrinaires. The debates and votes upon the address were even more insignificant than the presidential election. A paragraph censured the late deplorable system, which had paralysed the good intentions of the Crown. The King was furious on learning the natural consequence of the overthrow of Villèle. He proposed to dissolve the Chamber at once. But Martignac, alarmed, hinted that he could not sign such an ordonnance, and observed that the word of blame was far better than an impeachment, which the late minister might have incurred. The Royal ire was at last appeased. But the ministers felt strongly the necessity of measures directly opposed to the policy of Villèle. In obedience to this they completed their cabinet by separating public instruction from ecclesiastical affairs, and appointing Vatimesnil minister of the former. The Bishop of Beauvais, a liberal prelate, replaced Frayssinous as ecclesiastical minister. And a commission was named to examine into the subject of education, and report what change was requisite to free it from the undue control of the clergy. The first law presented to the Chamber was also a popular one. It was an amplification of what the Peers had lately laboured to establish a certain freedom of election. When the franchise is low, the violence or influence exercised by government or a party on the mob of electors is often treated as a joke. But all the electors of the Restoration were the better classes, paying the highest rate of direct taxes. Injustice done to them, their exclusion from the lists, ministerial * Paul Louis Courrier, though a mount of tax, could never get his name landed proprietor, paying the due ainscribed upon the electoral lists. CHAP. threats or vengeance, uttered or exercised, the arbitrary use of power by the authorities-these extremes, from which Villèle and Corbière did not shrink, formed no small portion of their unpopularity. M. Guizot's chief complaint against Villèle indeed is, that he wore out all the springs and resources of government for no greater end than keeping himself in power, and that he thus left government authority so hated and disrespected that he rendered the task impossible to his successor. Even Martignac, in restoring independence of election, although he thereby increased the popularity of his cabinet, threw away, as his adversaries reproached him, much of the salutary influence of whatever party was entrusted with the government. A new law respecting the press was also a necessary measure, as the censorship could not be maintained. It was accompanied or followed by another which greatly facilitated its working-a law with difficulty wrung from Charles the Tenth, but which the Martignac Cabinet insisted on-the expulsion of the Jesuits not only from public instruction, but from recognised existence in France. The committee appointed to examine this, impartially composed by the minister, had reported, five against four, that the eight great Jesuit colleges were not illegal. This decision by a majority of one was so outrageously contrary to law and the public opinion, that the government was obliged to come forward to reverse it. The King resisted. The ministers told him that his resistance followed by their resignation would infallibly lead to an impeachment and condemnation of M. de Villèle. This staggered Charles the Tenth. He submitted, and a royal ordonnance appeared subjecting the Jesuits' seminary to the control and supervision of the university. This, in other words, was the expulsion of the order. The decree made much noise. It was, however, not really so important as the re-organisation of the system of primary XLV. instruction by the minister Vatimesnil. He established CHAP. a school committee in every commune of nine members, the curé, mayor, and juge de paix, with two assessors nominated by each, forming the council. The governing lay authorities thus outnumbered the ecclesiastical; and as the Martignac ministry meditated a reorganisation of municipalities also, and the introduction into them of more freedom, this reform was really popular and liberal. The expulsion of the Jesuits rendered the legislation concerning the press much more efficient, since it removed from the breasts of the judges and from the courts of law that resistance and opposition to the government which had induced them to absolve the journalists. The judges, indeed, showed at once, by their sentence on Cauchois Lemaire for putting forward the claims of the Duke of Orleans, that they would not tolerate treason. The new law of the press therefore was one of repression by the tribunals, not one of precaution by the censorship or of ruin to publishers and printers. It required responsible gérants of newspapers, and a large cautionnement, establishing heavy fines and punishments on conviction. These two were no longer to fall on men of straw, the gérants being required to own a considerable portion of the property of the paper, or of the money lodged for security. Such a law, however, though so much more liberal than Peyronnet could have devised, still did not satisfy the Left, whose orators denounced it. They found the sum required to be vested as security (8,000l.) infinitely too large, and they also desired the jury to decide in trials of the press. Some of the Royalists supporting the former amendment, it was carried; but the latter was rejected. Indictments for a tendency to do this or that were prohibited, and finally the law passed. A popular act of the Martignac Ministry at this time was the despatch of General Maison to Greece at the |