CHAP. them and the thorough Royalists, however moderate and constitutional. These circumstances allowed the Villèle party to raise its head once more, and prompted the King to look for the resuscitation of his old Minister, not indeed by himself, but associated with the men and the aims of all the Royalists. If Charles the Tenth had meant by this a reconciliation between Villèle and Châteaubriand, he would have been nearer to success. But far otherwise, he looked to a coalition between Villèle on one side, the Court and Sacerdotal party led by Prince Polignac on the other. This neither Villèle nor the lay Royalists would hearken to. And yet this was the aim that Charles pursued, blinded by his predilection for Polignac and impelled by the Clergy. And the blind thus leading the blind, the inevitable result followed. Martignac was too clear-sighted not to be aware of all this; and he entered upon the year 1829, and made preparation for the parliamentary session, with anything but confidence. If he came to the King, he found him reading Villèle's journal, the Gazette de France, ably edited by Genoude, full of the complaints and arguments of the ultra-faction. When the Minister reproached the Monarch, the latter excused himself by saying it was an old friend and an old habitude. Where the mild and moderate Martignac ought to have found most support was with the Princesses, but the females of the House of Bourbon were more infuriated than their male relatives. The Duchess d'Angoulême breathed counter-revolution and sacerdotalism. Duchess of Berry had made a tour in La Vendée, where she had been welcomed by and responded to sentiments and cries which suited the old civil wars rather than times of peace and reconciliation. and reconciliation. Noble and loyal as was the Count de la Ferronnays, he resigned in disgust. "He saw that nothing could come of so infatuated a royal family. Charles immediately thought of supplying his The place by Prince Polignac, whom he summoned from London, where he was ambassador, for the purpose; but none of the ministers would have aught to do with the Prince, who was consequently obliged for this time to return whence he had come. It sufficiently depicts the ravelled and contradictory state of French politics and constitutionalism to say, that whilst Charles the Tenth was doing his utmost to thrust Prince Polignac into the Cabinet of Martignac, the latter was negotiating with the Left for the accession of two of its members, Casimir Périer and Sebastiani, for whom he offered to find ministries. The King most likely would have consented to let them in at one door, if Polignac was admitted at the other, and Martignac himself would probably have assented to a compromise; but other ministers objected strenuously, and both schemes failed. * Martignac therefore opened the session with the announcement that he had prepared a law for the better and more popular organisation of municipal and departmental councils, being the foundation of those local liberties and independence so earnestly demanded. During the debates on the address in answer to the speech in the Upper Chamber, Prince Polignac took the opportunity to make a profession of political faith. He had been calumniated, he said, in being marked out as the peculiar enemy of representative institutions. Far from this being true, the Prince declared himself attached to the Charter, which he considered as the true and secure port for the country after so many tempests. When Charles the Tenth's political alter ego thus eulogised the Charter, he included a certain article of itthe 14th, which appeared to allow the King the full use of absolute power whenever he might deem it expedient. This was so well understood, that Polignac's * Études, par Prince Polignac. CHAP. XLV. XLV. CHAP. confession of faith was merely looked upon as a menace to Martignac, or a kind of proclamation issued by his rival and eventual successor. After the address, Martignac produced his scheme of municipal councils and administration. These hitherto, according to the system of the Empire, had been conducted on the simple principle of government nomination. The prefect appointed the members of the municipal council, as he did the mayors. Martignac abandoned these powers on the part of the government, and handed them over to the same class which was master of the elections for the Chamber, viz. the highest taxpayers. This, one should think, ought to have satisfied the Royalists, and would have done so two or three years previous. But recent elections had shown that the moneyed class, or that of the highest taxpayers in towns, who at one time returned a Chamber exclusively royalist, had been thrown by Villèle into discontent, liberalism, and opposition. The Royalists no longer trusted the highest taxpayers, because in fact Villèle's government had abused its power, and set the country against it. In 1829 the Royalists therefore rallied back to the standard which they had so lately fought against, that of Villèle, and in the consideration of the new municipal law preferred the system of government nomination to that of election, even by the rich. It was a great oversight of Martignac not to have consulted and made sure of the support of either Royalists or Liberals for his law; for when produced, it found both opposed to it-the Royalists for the reasons stated; the Liberals, though pleased with the principle of election, dissatisfied with the narrow basis of a small class of rich to be the only electors. A commission being appointed to examine the law, Dupin was chosen reporter, and he drew up a satire rather than an encomium upon it. He proposed the substitution of the word elector for that of notable, as it admitted all paying 300 francs amount of taxes to vote both for municipal and departmental councils. Certain orators of the Left went in the discussion much further than Dupin, and accused the minister of seeking to establish an aristocracy of wealth in both town and country. This might be all very well in England, where land was owned by the landlord and tilled by tenants; but in France, where neither class existed, the law could not make or support them. The Royalists finding Martignac so hard pressed and denounced by the Left, abstained from debate and looked on. They well knew that a schism between the government and its Liberal supporters would infallibly produce the overthrow of the former, and consequently it observed with delight the attacks of the Left. Certain members of the party, more sensible and more provident of the consequences, deprecated these attacks, and advised their more furious partisans to accept the benefits of the new law without endangering a semi-liberal government by asking too much. On its part the government was in its private communications equally explicit. Martignac told Sebastiani that the King was determined to make no further concessions, and that if the ministry was tripped up by the Liberals, who ought to have supported it, the King would seize the opportunity to recall and reinstate the Ultras in power.* When making this sad and serious warning, Martignac deserved to be listened to. And it was most necessary, or would have been wise, at such a moment to have supported him. But the body of the Left would make no compromise, and it thus unfortunately contributed to the catastrophe that was about to follow. One of the principal amendments of the Commission, Vaulabelle accuses not only Sebastiani, but Guizot, of having prompted the Liberals to resist on this occasion and support the amend ment which overruled the ministerial CHAP. XLV. XLV. CHAP. which indeed altered the whole nature of the law, was the doing away with the council of district, the intermediate assembly, that the minister insisted on. This was put to the vote on the 8th of April. The ministers were for rejecting the amendment, and accordingly kept their seats, whilst the Left stood up in support of it. It was naturally to be supposed that the Royalists would sit with a ministry against an amendment of which they disapproved. But on this occasion they abstained. And the consequence was that ministers were beaten, and the amendment carried against them by their own friends of the Left. Martignac and his brother ministers instantly left the Hall of Sitting and repaired to the King's presence. "I told you," said Charles the Tenth, "that you could not depend upon those Liberals. There is no use in going any further to please them." In a very short time the ministers resumed their seats in the Chamber, and the moment the tribune was vacant, Martignac ascended it, and announced "that the King withdrew both municipal and departmental laws." The Liberals having turned their backs on the Ministry, the Ministry in retaliation turned their backs upon them, and both remained powerless. Martignac was at the mercy of the King; the latter, however, could not sacrifice him at once. It was necessary to tide over the session, and get the budget voted. There was no difficulty in this—at least no serious difficulty. Opposition limited their efforts to contesting with the Justice Minister, Peyronnet, a sum which he had expended upon his drawing-room. There were some slight and temporary changes in the administration. The real change, the result of the abandonment of Martignac by the Liberals, was deferred till after the prorogation of the Chamber, which took place in the last days of July. We have, thus, still a year to recount of the reign of Charles the Tenth. |