Pierre de Coubertin

“ The truth is that the action of the Left was a hundred times more important than that of the Right. One helped to weaken the Restoration, the other did more — it prepared the way for all the moral revolutions to come ; it revived Bonapartism under its most disastrous form ; it did its best to sow the seeds of insubordination in the Army and of insurrection among civilians ”

“ In Italy, however, Naples and Turin arose in revolt to cries of " Vive la Constitution Espagnole de 1812 ! " and in Spain, at the same time, this Constitution, re-established by the Revolutionists, and imposed by them on Ferdinand VII., caused all manner of disorder in the country. Now, in the face of Austria and Russia, who desired to re-establish absolute monarchy all over Europe, France continued to insist that the famous Constitution of 1812 should be replaced by a Charter modelled on the wise principles of her own Charter. Nothing, indeed, could be more desirable. ”

“ This France was destined to be misunderstood during the greater part of the century, to see her dearest wishes set at naught. The Hundred Days, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were to be brought about without her consent, even against her will. It was she who later on was to throw herself into the arms of Louis Napoleon, later yet, to uphold the Third Republic through fear of some other Revolution and desire of political and social stability. She is naturally somewhat apathetic, and suffers herself to be circumvented rather too easily ”

“ It was Talleyrand who moved the Emperor of Russia to favour this idea of restoring the old dynasty to the Throne of France. Talleyrand's great skill consisted in the invariably apt divination of coming events. It was said of him that what Talleyrand thought to-day, everybody would be thinking to-morrow, and nothing could be more true. He comprehended that the French would hail Louis XVIII., because this Prince was the very incarnation of the peace and stability they so greatly needed. ”

“ Still more amazing was the religious policy of the Cabinet. First roughly handled by the Revolution, then severely restricted by Napoleon, religion had been reduced to the level of a public institution, like the Board of Works or the Post Office. A reaction in its favour could not fail to arise ; it arose about 1848, and it might have arisen any time after 1815 but for the disastrous alliance, by which " the throne and the altar " managed to compromise each other. Clergy and noblesse, victims alike of the Revolution, joined together in mutual adulation and support. ”

“ In the Chamber of 1829 parties were more split up than they had ever been before ; they had no leaders, and consequently no discipline. A mischievous and violent Press, that mistook intransigeance for strength and carping for cleverness, picked holes in every clause of the proposed measure, and did its work so thoroughly that failure seemed certain, and the Bill had to be withdrawn. Again, as in the time of Louis XVIII., it was the Government that did its duty and the parties that failed in theirs. History, at least, has avenged Martignac. ”

“ True, the nation was more or less reassured by seeing the magistrature, the Institut, and, above all, the Chamber of Peers — that hereditary and aristocratic power — constituting themselves the defenders of moderation and a wise Liberalism. The Upper Chamber had already mitigated some of the strong measures voted by the Deputies when it forced the Cabinet to withdraw a Draconian law destined to sweep clean, not to say annihilate, the Press. That evening Paris was illuminated amid cries of " Vive le Roi ! Vivent les Pairs ! ”

“ A quarter of a century had passed since the day when the States-General, transformed into the National Assembly, had inaugurated a Revolution which was meant to organise happiness for everybody, with the result that everybody was steeped in glory and tragedy and nobody was happy. More serious still, a general impression existed that all these immense efforts had failed to produce any stability whatever, and that the colossal god so elaborately constructed actually had feet of clay. ”

“ Was not the Army the instrument and, so to speak, the symbol of the Empire ? Only when politicians turn their attention to the Army their aim is more often to unsettle it than to maintain discipline, the more so when we have to do with a party which preaches emancipation, equality, the rights of man, and contempt for the traditional hierarchy.
The reaction which occurred in 1820, at the time of the assassination of the Duc de Berri, seemed to scatter the last remnants of the fitful wisdom of the Left. ”

“ The Restoration might count its cause gained, since the Army would not betray it ; the Army was loyal ! The Liberals were dumb with amazement ; the opposition was apparently to be annihilated, and of military conspiracies nothing more was heard. Carrel himself, when he could form a saner judgment of these things, said later, in writing of the war in Spain : " Probably there never was under the Empire an Army of one hundred thousand men better disciplined, or so well instructed." And Canning gave it the same high praise when he said that no army had ever done so little harm or prevented more. ”

“ It is not with impunity that a nation learns such a lesson of blood and crime as that of '93. The virus must work in her for long after, ready to burst out at any time of disturbance.
But all the same, a great change had passed over France; and Napoleon, stupefied with astonishment, complained that he could "no longer recognise her." Liberal ideas confronted him on every hand. The generals themselves called for a Constitution. ”

“ In her foreign as in her home policy, she showed herself, officially speaking, Liberal. The King soon reaped the advantage of his attitude. While the Duchesse de Berry, on her way through Vendée, Bordelais, and the departments of the south, met with the most flattering reception, Charles X. and the Duc d'Angoulême also made their progress through the east of France. Liberal Alsace gave the King a triumphal welcome ; the journey was one unbroken ovation, and in every town the deputies of the Left took a warm part in the demonstrations. ”

“ Louis XVIII., with his large political sense, at once saw in this France, which was neither reactionary nor Jacobin, the indispensable support of his own throne and that of his successors. But he was aware that time alone would enable him to secure that support, for already, under the very shadow of his throne, a pitched battle was being fought between the reactionaries, known as ultra-Royalists or "ultras" for short, and the Jacobins, who adorned themselves with the inappropriate title of " Liberals." ”

“ Electors [5] , borne along on a path of which they were soon to recognise the danger, sent to the Paris Chamber a majority who, under the pretence of fortifying the Monarchy, were about to call for the most compromising and high-flown solutions of pressing questions. The greater part were rural proprietors, old émigrés, men unused to politics, inexperienced and sometimes ignorant, who belonged to the lower ranks of the nobility and were jealous of the higher — jealous, too, to secure for themselves a preponderance of power, even if the principle of Royalty was to suffer. ”

“ The King found in his ministers the support which he missed in his family. Circumstances in this respect favourable to his crown had gathered round him a whole constellation of remarkable men, distinguished by various titles. These men deserve well at the hands of posterity.
First, there were the born statesmen, such as Kichelieu and Decazes. The European eminence assured to Richelieu, both by his own nobility of character and his friendship with the Emperor of Russia, was of immense benefit to France. ”

“ Men met with the fixed intention of noisily proclaiming their adherence, and exciting others to support the Empire, paralysing by their interference the citizens' goodwill. It was soon seen what manner of men they were; on every hand excesses were committed by them, pillage and revolt and arson, which recalled the worst days of the Revolution ”

“ Thus, after three years and a half (September 1824 to December 1827) of a policy disapproved by the majority, the nation showed no sign of disaffection to the throne. Nothing but a slight coolness in the attitude of the crowd when in the presence of its sovereign — and this chiefly in Paris. But it was quite enough to grieve the monarch. It made him inclined to refuse his support to the proposals of Villèle ; Villèle, who clung to power in a very undignified fashion, to keep himself in office would have thought nothing of another dissolution of the Chamber ”

“ That child-like faith in the stability of the Monarchy had been considerably shaken, for the Monarchy had visibly melted away before a mere military pronunciamiento, although it was supported by the majority of the nation. What earthly security did it then offer ? The Royal Family had lost its prestige, and it was not so popular in the country that it could afford to lose it. The French people were as yet unaware of the political genius and persevering will that were latent in Louis XVIII. ”

“ The military conspiracies had come to an end, the Army was loyal and faithful, the prestige of the nation abroad had considerably increased, and it was about to see the reign of Louis XVIII. close and that of Charles X. begin in peace — an object-lesson not repeated in the course of the century. This happy state of things which restored France to her former high rank among the nations was mainly due to the recent Spanish War.
The foreign policy of the Restoration has been the object of many bitter criticisms. ”

“ He believed himself to be inspired by Heaven in direct answer to prayer. No man in France was more unpopular than he. His very recent profession of attachment to the Charter could not undo the fact that, in 1815, he had refused to support it. Moreover, as everybody was aware of the affection which Charles X. felt for him, the Press had long ago prophesied the formation of a Polignac Ministry, which it represented as an inevitable Coup d'État, a direct attempt on public liberty. ”

“ If a desire for vengeance against the Revolution animated the ultras, if an unquenchable thirst for popularity urged the leaders of the Liberal side to depart from their role and hurl about imprudent language, the doctrinaires were a prey to the most formidable vanity. They had the very highest possible opinion of themselves, and professed to act according to the most superior principles, whereas they were too frequently governed by the suggestions of their amour-propre. ”

“ If any good and useful laws were passed it was owing to the talent of the Ministers, to their frank eloquence, to their individual influence over the Chamber. As for the House of Peers, it showed, as a rule, great wisdom and moderation in its acts and its language, and much was to be hoped from it.
One question still remains : What were the people thinking all the time ? For in order to realise the character of this period, we must bear in mind that the deputies were not the representatives of the people, but of the bourgeois class. ”

“ At the opening of the next Session (January 1829) the Speech from the Throne proved to be a masterpiece of discretion and propriety. From the list of three candidates, presented to him by the deputies, the King again nominated as their president Royer-Collard, the doctrinaire who was the incarnation of fidelity to the Charter. Finally, the Ministry proposed the law so long demanded, which was to organise the Communal and Departmental Councils. Under the Empire these Councils were only composed of members nominated by the Government, and this belated form of legislation was still flourishing. ”

“ Intemperance of language, and a certain inconsequence of action, with an irresistible tendency, if not to form conspiracies of their own, at any rate to denounce other people's, are the distinguishing characteristics of French deputies at the present day. ”

“ All the representatives of the Powers had left Paris, those of Louis XVIII. had ceased to exercise their functions. Abroad Napoleon was surrounded by an absolute quarantine. The King found himself at Gand in the midst of Ambassadors and Ministers, the Council and the Maison Militaire. Talleyrand continued to sit at the Congress of Vienna as the representative of his sovereign. Everything contributed to show that in the eyes of all Napoleon was no better than an adventurer ”

“ This Gallophobia was the natural result of Napoleon's monstrous scheme for subjugating Europe and the entire world ; it has been kept Up till the present day by the shocks and perpetual changes entailed by our policy, and by the fear of the disturbance and complications it may cause to other nations. Few Frenchmen realise how far, even so late as the middle of the century, the "French system" seemed incompatible with the general peace. The Germans of 1815, who had suflfered from it more than any other nation, were anxious to disintegrate France altogether ”

“ Villèle now thought that the time had come to steady his tottering power. He obtained an order from the King for the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies and the creation of no less than seventy-six peers. This last measure was designed to modify the majority in the Upper Chamber.
What happened then is noteworthy. Nothing could better show the amazing and rapid progress of monarchical stability since the death of Louis XVIII. ; it went hand in hand with the development of a political sense in the electoral body. Villèle brought a lively pressure to bear on the electors ”

“ Somebody made the great discovery that Napoleon desired to subjugate the world in order to deliver it. He made war in order to enforce peace, and enlisted men to discipline them in the practice of liberty. ”

“ The most absurd fictions have been invented on this subject, there being no limit to the credulity of the public. But if no historian can take these exaggerations seriously, neither can he accept the disclaimers of the interested party. The truth being that the clergy and the Jesuits interfered enormously, and their pretensions were at times intolerable.
What seems to have roused to the utmost the national discontent was the part that the King took in the religious ceremonies. Louis XVIII. had been more or less sceptical, not to say Voltairian, in his views ”