illusions as to all political effect, and were for some time consoled by the material advantages which comparative tranquillity brought with it; but having been stimulated for party purposes into extravagant speculations, they are now become disaffected upon the complete failure of the hollow expectations, and in this feeling revert to the political deception which, they say, has throughout been practised. Neither of the extremes of Society ever viewed the revolution of July with very favourable eyes. There exists but a shadow of an aristocracy, with broken fortunes and without privileges, but there is still some of the old french spirit to be found, much improved this time by adversity. Country retirement in their own land has done much more for them than exile in foreign parts formerly did. Many of them exercise a most beneficial influence in their own neighbourhood, and when they come to Paris, they are still the fraction of society the most distinguished for varied acquirements and cultivated tastes. In the Clubs, amongst all the young men, and in the principal salons of reception, the tone in general is hostile to the present state of things. This is shown, amongst the most lively, by open ridicule of the court, and with the most respectable by marked alienation from it. To turn from this to a much more serious quarter, from which the system is threatened, I will not repeat to Your Lordship any vague rumours as to the spread of Communism, but merely mention one fact, which shows that a dread on this subject has reached the more orderly amongst the Republicans as well as the Government. The Prefet of Police, on the last day of the fêtes, received intelligence that M. Marrast, the Editor of the National, and some of the theoretical Republicans had held a meeting, with some of the chiefs amongst the Communists, and had persuaded them not to venture anything upon the occasion of these fêtes, ostensibly because the time was not come, but really from a dread of the objects of the cooperation connected with this spirit amongst these classes. I heard another fact which is of serious import. There has been, within the last nine months, withdrawn from the saving Banks of Paris sixteen millions of francs. Under all these circumstances, it is not surprizing that the anniversary of the Three Glorious days should have struck me as a popular fête without any popular feeling. It is a commemoration of that which is felt by those collected to have been a mockery, a periodical rejoicing at that which is treated as the source of perpetual disappointment. I have mixed with crowds in all parts of the world, and of all colours, as well as of all tempers, and I never saw so little joyous a mass as that amongst which I was on foot, at different periods of the days. This, recollecting the supposed constitutional gaiety of the French character, is more remarkable. I felt it to be a subject for serious reflection, when on the last night, at the time of the splendid fireworks from the Place Louis Quinze, one saw that square, so fruitful in fearful recollections of the past, crowded with thousands, who evidently had no sympathy with the rejoicings on the present, and which might soon exercise so dark and doubtful an influence on the future. I am not one of those tho' who take the most desponding view of the future; I still think, that if a change of men was accompanied by timely reforms and by a thorough purification of the channels of administration, that the very alarm at the designs of others, to which I have alluded, might induce many to rally round the framework of the present constitution, who would otherwise in theory go further, but then these reforms, to be successful, must be prompt and sincere. There are other reasons which may temporarily postpone any catastrophe, without in the same way removing its predisposing causes. The present bounteous harvest may remove immediate pressure from all classes. The army is numerous, well distributed, and as yet said to be well disposed, but this must be the last resource of a dynasty which sprang from a popular insurrection, and should the movement of the people be general, and the throne only defended by the troops, one knows that the ultimate result must be either anarchy or military despotism, and in either case the system which struggled into life within the barricades would leave to posterity no other monument than the fortifications with which it surrounded Paris. The mobility of the French character always renders it difficult to speculate upon the future, but I have given Your Lordship, only in too much detail, the grounds upon which I think there is serious cause for uneasiness, in the present state of the public mind, and I have only to beg Your Lordship to accept my sincere apologies, at having been led to do it at such an unconscionable length. NORMANBY. (F. O., Archives, France, vol. 320.) III. Les relations littéraires. Stendhal. Le théâtre anglais à Paris. 28 34 . 38 CHAPITRE II. — L'INDÉPENDANCE BELGE (1830-1832) I. Talleyrand, ambassadeur en Angleterre. La Conférence de 52 52 II. Palmerston et Talleyrand. Le protocole d'indépendance. Les missions du comie de Flahaut. III. La neutralité belge. L'élection du Roi IV. Casimir Perier. L'Entente Cordiale. Les dix-huit articles. V. L'intervention française et l'affaire des forteresses. Les vingtquatre articles. L'expédition d'Anvers. Avenir de l'Entente. 1. Conditions générales de l'Entente franco-anglaise. Les obstacles 91 II. Le rapprochement commercial. Accord sur le droit de tonnage (1832). Mission de Bowring et essai d'accord douanier (1833). 105 III. Projet d'alliance politique et commerciale. Chute de Broglie. 115 |