CHAP. Not only was Villèle mortified by this check, but the King also, who, through the daily influence of Madame du Cayla, had come to support his minister with almost as much zeal as he had shown to Decazes. The monarch, moreover, had a personal dislike for Châteaubriand, and, in truth, the viscount had the art of alienating every political friend. His memoirs remain a striking proof of the utter egotism and of the general unamiability which obviously characterised a man absorbed in self. A few days after the rejection of the bill, the "Moniteur" announced that M. de Villèle was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs ad interim, in room of Châteaubriand. A right royalist and incapable émigré, General de Damas, was subsequently appointed to fill the place. Châteaubriand immediately commenced opposition in the press. He found an apt organ in the "Journal des Débats," and whilst the journalists of the Left denounced Villèle and Corbière as the ministers of reaction and sacerdotalism, Châteaubriand depicted them as poor devils without capacity or firmness, mere secretaries to the reactionists and the congregation. The minister, galled and fretted, sought to stem this torrent and take vengeance on the press by prosecuting them before the tribunals under the recent law, for "a tendency to bring contempt on the government." But some of the articles incriminated were merely the announcement of irrefragable facts, such as, that the Home Minister had caused M. Magalon, editor of a liberal paper, to be dragged through the streets handcuffed to a galérien. It was upon this occasion that appeared the first symptoms of the resistance of the judges to the dominant party, and yet the Imperialists and Republicans had been removed, whilst their places, with all new appointments, were filled from the rising Royalists of the bar. Notwithstanding this the old leaven abounded in the Palais de Justice. The judges there, time out of mind, had been jealous of ecclesiastical influence and antagonistic to the priesthood, and now that the court and government showed exclusively sacerdotal leanings, a kind of Jansenist spirit awoke in opposition and animated the judicial breast. The Royal Court acquitted the "Courrier Français." The Courts of Justice thus failing the government, it set up a kind of office, and supplied it with funds for the corruption or purchase of the journals which most galled it. The same agent who had been so successful in introducing Madame du Cayla to the King, was appointed Minister of the Household, and charged with corruption of the press; one is sorry to tell, that his name was La Rochefoucauld. He could only purchase some minor prints, but failed with both "Constitutionnel " and" Quotidienne," the latter a royalist organ. In these straits, and unable to bear the daily torrent of invective, Villèle re-established the censorship, the blank columns caused by it exciting almost as much resentment as the suppressed diatribe. Such writers as Châteaubriand then betook themselves from the columns of the diurnal press to pamphlets, whilst Béranger had always a new song to pour amongst the crowd and demonetise the monarchy. It was immensely to the surprise as well as mortification of Villèle, to find himself outvoted in one of the Chambers, as well as depopularised by the press. He had overridden his liberal enemies by reducing them to a mere fraction in parliament. His more immediate competitors for office, De Serres and the Duc de Richelieu, had died. Decazes seemed forgotten. Villèle remained sole master, so writes M. Guizot. Instead of having to defend himself against a strong opposition of the Left, he found himself in front of one combined with that of the Right. As long as Châteaubriand, remained by his side, Villèle was attacked merely by the extravagance of La Bourdonnaye and Delalot. But CHAP. XLIV. XLIV. CHAP. when that noble writer descended into the arena against the minister, he became the centre of an opposition of all colours, royalist and liberal, ancien régime and jeune France, with both the popular and the aristocratic press on his side. Harassed by such an opposition, Villèle fell into a greater peril than even that which it threatened. He was delivered up without refuge or defence to the influence of his own party. His lay friends were bad enough, but his ecclesiastical followers soon impelled him to measures and to a policy, which terminated by completely depopularising the minister, and finally driving him from power. Louis the Eighteenth has been generally belauded for having kept the monarchy erect, and himself upon the throne as long as he lived. But, in truth, the aged monarch, by giving himself up, towards the end of his reign, to the ultra-royalists, and above all to the ecclesastical party, began to undermine the weak edifice that he himself had raised. He could no doubt have established a constitutional government, if he had tried it, fully and heartily abided by its principles, and accepted its consequences. But the determination not to govern but with a majority in his views, and to make, per fas et nefas, that majority, or the electoral law, which produced it; this was not only begun, but established, by Louis the Eighteenth, and Charles the Tenth did but follow it up. When Villèle chose De Damas and Doudeauville as his brother ministers, and governed in their spirit, he merely preluded by his government to that of Polignac. The King had for some time lost all connection with the outer or popular world. He had no longer a minister or confidant of even the middle party to acquaint him with the public sentiment or the public exigencies. His brother had succeeded in forming a regular investment of the throne. Villèle would have been moderate had he dared, but Villèle was as closely besieged and as much threat XLIV. ened and subjugated as the King. Villèle and Louis CHAP. the Eighteenth used to converse together as to how they could best resist, and what they must necessarily yield to the ultra-royalist demands. Resist or deny them was impossible, for the minister had destroyed alike the middle and liberal party. Opposition to ultra-royalist exigencies could only come from the King. But they had agreed not to importune him; whilst Louis, in turn, fond of his ease, made use of Madame Du Cayla and Villèle as buffers to protect him from the shocks of the exigent party. To her ear the Royalists confided their demands, and Madame du Cayla disclosed them to the King, who, calling Villèle to private council, resisted, yielded, or compromised.* In reality, the Count d'Artois was already King, whilst Louis dreamed away his declining existence, enjoying the brilliant semblance of a court, with all its old etiquette, and from vanity seeking similar enjoyment by being wheeled through the halls of Versailles or the Trianon, or left to repose in his old apartments there, conjuring up the past, and vainly congratulating himself at being the restorer of his race, and the maintainer of its privileges and its rights. The last acts forced upon the dying monarch by Madame du Cayla, and the Justice Minister Peyronnet, were the appointment of a Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs, and the reorganisation of the Council of State by the expulsion of Decazes' friends and the introduction in their place of priests. It was the last occasion upon which Louis the Eighteenth protested against the extreme tendencies of his brother. As the autumn of 1824 advanced, the King fell into almost continued somnolence. His extremities being benumbed, began to mortify. The monarch full of the spirit of the 18th * Lamartine. VOL. V. † Mémoires de l'Abbé Liautard. Ꮓ XLIV. CHAP. century had always treated the ceremonies of religion with respect rather than observance. To arouse him to admit the performance of those befitting his state was difficult. It was, however, managed by the blandishments of Madame du Cayla. After this he bade adieu to his own family, and addressed some warning words to his brother. He recommended to him the Charter as his best heritage, and besought him to preserve it for the sake of his subjects, of himself, and of the young Duc de Bordeaux. On the 16th of September, Louis expired. The Count d'Artois was immediately saluted king by those who thronged the Palace. The first use he made of it was to shut himself up in the royal apartments, and burn or make away with all papers, including, it is supposed, a testament of the late king in favour of Madame du Cayla. This was the recompense for what she had done for the new king's power and cause. Charles the Tenth granted her a life pension of 1,000l. ayear. It was unfortunate for the experiment of restoring the Bourbon dynasty permanently in France that its two representatives belonged to the previous century, and came to the throne imbued with its habits and ideas, not with those of the age over which they were called to reign. Whilst Charles the Tenth had preserved all the besotted ideas of that century, the very ones which had undermined and ruined the throne, Louis the Eighteenth was a fair type of the liberalism which preceded 1789. He had learned either to mock or to treat lightly all the idols of the ancient régime. He ridiculed the pretensions of the ultra-religious, the ultra-monarchical, and even the ultra-moral. But his character was too weak, and his resolve too vacillating, to allow his convictions to extend beyond the negative. He, however, always maintained two things, Legitimacy and the Charter. And had his family allowed him to execute honestly the latter, the nation would have |