municipalities, the restoration of the National Guard, the press moderately free, a liberal policy towards foreign nations. In fact they wanted nothing that Charles the Tenth in his senses might not have granted, and which he would in reality have found nowise inimical to the fair influence of the clergy and the gradual restoration of the aristocracy, provided neither flung themselves athwart the current and onward sentiments of the age.

Unfortunately all appreciation of measures, or even of tendencies, had been superseded, ever since the fall of Villèle, by the rivalry of persons. Of this indeed Villèle himself set the example. The King followed it by placing his own royal person in the foremost rank of party, and considering the enemies of his ministers as his own. By giving up Polignac and appointing a Périer and Sebastiani ministry, Charles would have yielded nothing save empty ideas of pride. Not so Polignac and Peyronnet: if they were sent adrift, they would have floated down the current of oblivion, and become the nothings they deserved to be. Against this they struggled, and to avoid this they imperilled and lost the monarchy. They would not yield. Prince Polignac proposed to go back fifty years and resuscitate the policy of Calonne. He would convoke an Assembly of Notables. But Chantelauze, the lawyer of the dynasty, was for making use of the 14th article of the Charter, and by virtue of it convoke a new Chamber, to be chosen by a new system of election, and thus get the semblance of parliamentary sanction by a coup d'état. Such was the plan discussed and decided by the Government, and such were the measures foreseen and dreaded by the party or conglomeration of parties in opposition. All these met and were affiliated together in the society Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera. And the frequent question was, what they should do if ordonnances destructive of the Constitution were promulgated. There was but one view as to what was to be done this was to

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resist paying taxes, and enter on a course of passive
resistance. All were prepared to play the Hampden,
nobody the Cromwell. The ministers chuckled on

learning that this was the resolve of their enemies.
They knew very well they could put down the Hampdens,
provided the population of the Paris Faubourgs would but
remain quiet. The Prefect of Police, Mangin, assured
the King and the government that they would.
"Paris

will not stir," was his vehement and fatuous assurance.
One person questioned the justice of this promise.
M. de Vitrolles, once Charles the Tenth's favourite,
but no longer so, intruded into the palace to warn the
King that there existed a silent but dangerous agitation
amongst the masses of the capital, and that, if any violent
measure burst upon the popular mind, there would be
a formidable insurrection. Peyronnet, relying upon the
Prefect of Police and on his own assurance, laughed at
the idea. The Duke de Mortemart, French ambassador
at St. Petersburg, came to Paris expressly to warn
the King not to infringe the Charter. The Czar had
been informed of such intents by Pozzo di Borgo, and
sent Mortemart to warn the French King that he must
not look to the Allies for support if his own rash acts
should hurl him from the throne. The warning of
Nicholas was no more listened to than that of Vitrolles.

On the 11th of July Charles, with his son and the two Princesses, went in state to Notre Dame to attend a Te Deum for De Bourmont's conquest of Algiers. At almost any other moment the population would have greeted the Monarch with enthusiasm and sympathised with his feelings of exultation. Now it was but too evident that any victory of the Crown would be turned against the people. And the royal family in their solitary glass coach were the only persons who displayed any signs of joy or satisfaction.* The Archbishop, Quelen, however, must be excepted. He prognosticated

*The writer witnessed the procession.

that his Majesty would soon have to celebrate another Te Deum for a still more splendid victory-meaning evidently one over his people. The Archbishop was no prophet.

Three or four Ordonnances were drawn up by Chantelauze, and communicated to the ministers assembled on the 24th. They were as follows:

First Ordonnance.-The liberty of the press is suspended. No journal to appear, and no book or pamphlet above or below twenty sheets to be published, without special authorisation.

Second Ordonnance.-The Chamber of Deputies dissolved.

Third Ordonnance.-The future Chamber to be composed solely of Deputies of Departments.

Electors must pay 300 francs land-tax: no other will be counted. By this Ordonnance the Chamber was to be composed of what in England are called county members. They were chosen in France by the highest tax-payers. The final Ordonnance fixed the elections for the coming September.

Such were the Ordonnances proposed on the 24th, and laid on the Council Table at St. Cloud on the 25th of July (Sunday), 1830, for decision. Charles himself presided, and his son, the Duc d'Angoulême, was present. Read over, they were assented to in silence by the ministers. The King was the first to sign them. He hesitated for a moment, and then declaring that nothing was left for him but to sign, did so. His example was followed by all present. And they were then brought to the proprietor of the Moniteur for publication on the following morning. That personage, M. Sauvo, could not believe his eyes. He had lived through many revolutions, and he now rushed to the Chancellor's to be assured of the authenticity of the documents placed in his hands. They were published on the morning of the 26th.

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СНАР.
XXV.

The persons first struck at by these Ordonnances were the members of the press, as well as all who lived by publishing and printing. The offices of the journals became in consequence the first foci of the agitation. Editors and writers met there, whilst the printers with no work before them thronged in the Palais Royal and other places of public resort to mount chairs and read the Ordonnances to the people who gathered round. This took place, as if instinctively, before the Café Foy, on the old ground where Camille Desmoulins had harangued his audience. The printers were not long left alone; for the managers of other trades and manufacturing establishments dismissed their workmen, or gave them the holiday which they hastened to spend in the forums of the day, the places publiques.

Whilst the working classes were at once afoot, there was, indeed, little activity shown by the higher, except by the class of journalists. There were certainly few deputies in Paris. In the month of July, of a very hot summer too, wealthy persons generally quit the capital. Some of the journalists came to Dupin to ask him to sign a protestation. This he declined, being no longer, he said, a deputy then.* But as a lawyer he informed the journalists that they had a right to resist-nay, would deserve to lose their journal if they did not do so. Other legists were found more courageous. M. Debelleyme, Judge in Première Instance, and M. Ganneron, Judge of the Tribunal de Commerce, declared from their seats of judgment the Ordonnances illegal, and not to be obeyed. Bertin de Vaux, Sebastiani, Casimir Périer were in town, but could not decide on any immediate action. Laborde, one of the deputies for Paris, finding no sufficient encouragement amongst his few colleagues, betook himself to the office of the National, where he found editors and journalists in conciliabule. They had

* Memoirs of Dupin.

already resolved to draw up a protest. M. Thiers, editor of the National, took the pen to do this.

They declared "the legal system of government to have been put an end to, and that of brute force substituted. The press was under the protection of the Charter: its rights had been violated. They, the printers and writers, determined to disobey Ordonnances of the kind, and published their journal in despite of them. The Crown had also infringed the Charter by dissolving the Chamber of Deputies ere it had met or been constituted. It was for Deputies to see how they would act. Pressmen would at least stand up for the press." Forty-one signatures were affixed to this bold protest, the first step to the Revolution of July. The principal names were those of Thiers, Mignet, and Carrel, of the National; Cauchois Lemaire and Dumoulin, of the Constitutionnel; Chatelain, of the Courrier Français; Remusat, of the Globe; Baude, Haussman, Dussard, Coste, of the Temps. The Deputies, who met in the same evening to the number of 14 or 15, resolved also to sign a protest; and several drafts of such a document were drawn up, but finally left for the morrow to be decided on. The office of the National continued to be crowded by the most zealous; but even there, M. de Schonen, who was for open resistance, was silenced by Thiers asking "where were the means," as the people showed no signs of stirring.

Nothing therefore took place on the day of the issue of the Ordonnances to alarm the Monarch or the ministers. Polignac's carriage was pelted, indeed, but no more. Still Marmont, who commanded the troops, was in anxiety at having to repress any popular tumult. He complained aloud to his friends of such a duty being forced upon him. He attended a meeting of the Institute, and spoke on the subject to his friend Arago. On Tuesday he was ordered by the King to take such military precautions as were necessary.

These very

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