СНАР. A financial crisis came for the moment to suspend the ministerial one. When the loan for paying the allies was about to be contracted for by the house of Baring, the Paris bankers murmured and insisted on having it themselves. They were gratified, and the demand for the new stock caused it to rise greatly. This was the greater temptation for those who had taken the stock to sell. There ensued a sudden fall of 20 per cent., and a subsequent panic. The finance minister Corvetto was superseded by Count Roy. Louis the Eighteenth has himself left an account of the intrigue of the Duke of Richelieu, in concert with the Royalists, to change the electoral law, and consequently to get rid of M. Decazes. Them anœuvre was difficult, for the strength of parties in the chamber was nearly equal, the Right and Right Centre prevailing, however, over the left, which comprised the decided Liberals, and the Left Centre, including the Doctrinaires. A portion of the regular supporters of the ministry going over to the former would at once change the majority. This was arranged in a coterie, over which the Cardinal de Beaufort presided, and which his friend, the Duke of Richelieu, joined. In consequence, the president, vice-president, and secretaries, of the chamber were all chosen from the Right or ultra-Royalist side. Ravez was preferred as president to De Serres. The Duke of Richelieu resigned, as did Lainé, Molé, and Decazes. The King, smothering his resentment, then asked the Duke to form another ministry, who was ready with his reply, that he was willing to do so, on condition that M. Decazes should not only quit the ministry but the country. This the monarch thought hard, for he had himself procured the recent marriage. of his young minister with the daughter of Count St.Aulaire, and to condemn the newly-married couple to exile was ungenerous. The King, however, deemed the Duke of Richelieu a necessary minister up to the time XLIV. of the evacuation of France by the allies. He there- СНАР. fore subscribed to all his conditions, and M. Decazes was appointed ambassador to St. Petersburg. The Duke of Richelieu then set about forming a ministry, but soon found it impossible. His semi-Liberal colleagues, such as Lainé and Roy, could not agree with Royalists such as Villèle, whom the Duke wished to bring into office. He was compelled to announce to the King his failure in forming a ministry. The ball thus came back into the hands of M. Decazes. He did not, however, assume the post of prime minister, but left it nominally to General Dessolles, a comrade of Moreau, who enjoyed the countenance of Alexander. De Serres became minister of justice. Baron Louis resumed the finance department. Decazes assumed the home office. Freed from timid and reactionary colleagues, the latter embarked at once on a policy which ought and did indeed for a time satisfy even the extreme Liberals. The army, once more entrusted to St.-Cyr, saw its old Imperialist officers reinstated. In the home department, Decazes appointed Liberal prefects, and got rid of the ultra-Royalist functionaries, who had neutralised every conciliatory effort of the Government. Strange to say, it was the chamber of peers that took most offence at this, and now led the way in opposition to Decazes. That minister's programme was to stand by his electoral law. The upper chamber passed a vote condemnatory of it. The minister, supported by the King, replied by the promotion of sixty-three peers, many of them Imperialists; Davoust, Jourdan, Mortier, Moncey, Soult, and Lefebvre were of the number. By this bold measure, the upper chamber was rendered what the lower had become, national. The King was in the same way of thinking. And could the Liberals have observed moderation, and supported Decazes, instead of weakening him by ex XLIV. aggerated demands and capricious attacks, the great problem of a reconciliation between the Bourbons and all that was reasonable of the Revolution might have been accomplished. One of the aims of M. Decazes, a most natural and praiseworthy one, was to complete the institutions of the monarchy. A law for the responsibility of ministers was considered and proposed; it was well meant, but had better been avoided. Another and most essential one for regulating municipal institutions was entrusted for proposal to M. Guizot. A third concerned the press. The object of the minister was the laudable and liberal one of getting rid of the censorship. But in order to this, and to the consequent entrusting of the repression of seditious writings to the tribunals, it was necessary to specify the degrees of crime and misdemeanour, and to fix upon whom the responsibility fell. This made the law appear penal, whilst in reality it was a doing away with restrictions. The jury was introduced as a necessary element in press trials. On the other hand, the great preventive of the censorship was replaced by demanding of all journals the deposit of a large sum as caution money. Notwithstanding the liberal tendency of the measure as a whole, it was fiercely attacked by Benjamin Constant and the orators of the Left. On the other hand, the leading speaker of the ministry, M. de Serres, did not always keep his temper, or refrain from extreme argument. Irritated by the attacks from Royalist as well as Liberal, he dealt sharp repartees to both, which, however victorious in dispute, were fatal to a minister who took his position between two contending parties, able at once, if they would, to overwhelm him. "The majority of all assemblies are sensible and sane," exclaimed M. de Serres, arguing upon the electoral law. "Even the Convention," observed M. de la Bourdonnaye. "Ay, even the Convention," replied M. de Serres, "of which the majority would have gone quite right had it not been intimidated." One of the great merits of the government of M. Decazes was the recall of those exiled by the chamber of 1815. Notwithstanding this, De Serres, speaking of the regicides, declared that they should never be allowed to return to the country. Though it was but a figure of speech, devoid of even truth, for several regicides had been permitted to return to France, it still offended the left, and stamped De Serres as an enemy of the Revolution. It would have been more wise and more generous for both parties to have allowed the subject of regicide to sink into oblivion. The vote for it had proceeded from either the mad fanaticism or the terror of the hour. The former had evaporated, and those who had undergone it were ashamed of the latter. It was therefore an illjudged provocation when the directing committee of liberal electors procured the nomination of Grégoire as deputy for Grenoble. Bishop Grégoire had not indeed voted the King's death in the Convention, being absent, but had written to signify his adherence to the sentence. The ultra-Liberals of Grenoble, in obedience to the Paris committee, gave their votes to Grégoire. But even at Grenoble they did not form the majority, and the regicide was only returned by the aid of Royalist votes,* given in despite of and with the view to injure Decazes and the middle party, as following a policy which led to such returns. The Royalists in Paris and in the chamber were thus offered the pretext and opportunity they sought, of denouncing at once Decazes and his law of election. Whilst the Liberals were thus foolishly tripping up the very ministry that was really doing their work and developing their principles, and whilst the ultra-Royalists denounced it in parliament and in the press, courtiers * Guizot's Memoirs. CHAP. XLIV. CHAP. were endeavouring to undermine Decazes in the King's favour in the same fashion that was practised in the days of Louis the Fifteenth. Louis the Eighteenth, however infirm, was still sufficiently under the influence of old court habits and ideas to desire the appearance, if not the reality, of a mistress. He had at first paid homage to Madame Princeteau, the sister of Decazes; but she was too honest and too bourgeoise to tolerate even the semblance of such a favour, or to profit by it either for her brother or herself. Count Sosthène de la Rochefoucauld introduced a court lady, who was not so delicate, to the King. Madame du Caylus, through her beauty, attained the honour of royal intimacy, with its pecuniary profit and its political influence. M. de la Rochefoucauld in his Memoirs tells the story, and boasts of having acted pimp on the occasion, thus contributing through the new favourite to disenchant the old King with Decazes. The election of Grégoire had in the meantime shaken the confidence of the King, not indeed in his minister, but in his electoral law. When the Count d'Artois came to expostulate with him on such a result, Louis the Eighteenth had admitted that it was dangerous, and should be remedied. Decazes, consequently, in obedience to the King, consented to modify the electoral law. The change, indeed, to which he consented was not important. The elections were to take place no longer in the capital of the department, but in the chief town of the district, thus favouring local and rural interests. This was the principal change; but General Dessolles, Baron Louis, and Marshal St.-Cyr would not acquiesce. It would be a breach with the Liberals. And then, how could the ministry resist the Ultras? They withdrew, and Decazes formed a new ministry, with himself as chief, Pasquier foreign affairs, Roy, and Latour Maubourg. Never had the Bourbons a ministry more decidedly |