Peer of France

“ France, without a disciplined army; France, ruined, reduced to a paper currency, torn by factions, by the civil war which we priests will let loose in the west and south—France will be unable to resist all Europe. But, in order to exasperate the foreign rulers, to excite their hatred, their fury, they must be made to behold the head of Louis XVI rolling at their feet! ”

“ The republic of France; may the shores of Great Britain soon hail the tri-colored standard, and the people rend the air with shouts of 'Long live the republic!' The republic of France; may her navy clear the ocean of pirates, that the common high way of nations may no longer, like the highways of Great Britain, be a receptacle for robbers. The republic of France; may all free nations learn of her to transfer their attachment from men to principles, and from individuals to the people. ”

“ But, Sir, there are some gentlemen in the House who seem to consider it already certain that the ultimate success to which I am looking is unattainable: they suppose us contending only for the restoration of the French monarchy, which they believe to be impracticable, and deny to be desirable for this country. We have been asked in the course of this debate, do you think you can impose monarchy upon France, against the will of the nation? ”

“ England in conscious superiority smiles at a nation which has had seven political revolutions in a hundred years. Republic, then Empire, then a return to the Bourbons, then a limited Monarchy under Louis Philippe, then Republic, followed by Empire again, and now for the third time a Republic!
But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment of her newfound liberties, casts off a form of government as she would an ill-fitting garment. She knows the value of tranquillity — she had it for one thousand years! ”

“ This new triumph of the populace occasioned another change in the constitution by the national assembly: the king being compelled to accede to every thing which they chose to establish. But France was not yet tranquil. The king and the people—except the factionists—became again, in appearance, if not in reality, reconciled; but there was still an under-current of mischief at work, which finally involved the monarch in ruin, Paris in bloodshed, and all Europe in war! ”

“ In 1189, Henry II. of England lay there for a night, very sick, on his way to die at Chinon. The house was then a Commanderie of the Knights-Templar: we know how they perished! In all ages, I think, patriotism in France has shown two sides—two faces, if you will; the one aristocratic, desiring the advancement of the nation by means of an élite, a chosen few, to whose perfection the common sort was to be sacrificed; the other, essentially popular, full of dreams and visions, plotting a general happiness and justice made absolute on earth. ”

“ Beneath the conquering eagles of the Emperor there are men of every shade of political opinion; for the conscription is pitiless. There are Royalists, who love their king and hate the usurper; there are Jacobins, who worship freedom and detest the tyrant; there are stern Republicans—Vendéens, and followers of Moreau: but yet all are Frenchmen. 'La belle France' is the watchword that speaks to every heart, and patriotism is the bond between thousands. You have no share in this; the delusion of national glory can never throw its deception around you. ”

“ And now, looking back on the great career of that great man, no portion of his history can, perhaps, present anything to compare with the splendor of the Consulate. A long succession of victories, the spoils of half Europe, glory to very satiety, had intoxicated the nation. A country flourishing in every element of prosperity; social order restored; a high position amid surrounding nations; and everything that could gratify national ambition obtained,—France stood at the very pinnacle of her greatness. ”

“ The answers of the Emperor, repeated with embellishments, had produced the most profound sensation. The words national glory, liberty, country, so long unknown and proscribed within these walls, resounded on every side. When the emigrants re-appeared, and the most illustrious servants of the state were expelled, to make room for men, who had become strangers to our manners, our institutions, and our triumphs; you would have said, that France existed no longer, that it had passed under the dominion of foreigners. ”

“ The Emperor then, turning toward the electors, said:
"Gentlemen, electors of the colleges of departments and circles;
"Gentlemen, deputies of the armies by sea and land to the Champ de Mai:
"Emperor, consul, soldier, I hold every thing from the people. In prosperity, in adversity; on the field of battle, in the council chamber; on the throne, and in exile; France has been the sole and constant object of my thoughts, and of my actions. ”

“ France seemed to call aloud, to see her eclipsed greatness restored. She had recovered all her energy: an evident proof, that the strength of a nation is always the work of the prince, by whom it is governed. It is he, who enervates the public spirit, and bastardizes his (p. 412) subjects, by the effeminacy of his government: or it is he, who inspires them with the love of their country, with priding themselves in it, and leads them to undertake, whatever can augment its glory and its power. ”

“ Our watchword to-day is extremely simple: to raise in Europe and to carry onward to victory the standard of democracy which has fallen from the hand of France!”
“Such is really your idea of France, your own, and that of all the German left?” ”

“ Yet why should not the education of the young Henry, the future heir of the French monarchy, be conducted in the same spirit as would have been that of the young Napoleon? There exists, indeed, but too much cause why it should be so conducted, as to form a leader fit to head the armies and direct the energies of France. ”

“ Pity and righteousness shall be restored. There shall be a treaty of peace, and all men shall of their own accord return to the King, which King shall weigh justice and administer it unto all men and preserve his subjects in beautiful peace. Henceforth no English foe with the sign of the leopard shall dare to call himself King of France [added by the translator] and adopt the arms of France, which arms are borne by the holy Maid. ”

“ The House will recollect the first professions of the French Republic, which are enumerated, and enumerated truly, in that note. They are tests of every thing which would best recommend a government to the esteem and confidence of foreign powers, and the reverse of every thing which has been the system and practice of France now for near ten years. It is there stated that their first principles were love of peace, aversion to conquest, and respect for the independence of other countries. ”

“ France takes a pleasure in frankly proclaiming this noble end of all her wishes. Jealous of her own independence, the invariable principle of her politics will be the most absolute respect for the independence of other nations. If such be the personal sentiments of your Majesty, as I am happy to persuade myself, the general tranquillity is ensured for a long time to come; and justice, sitting on the confines of states, will be sufficient alone to guard their frontiers. ”

“ Considering what France was under her Kings, what she now is, and how many troubles she has had to endure at the hands of intriguers, the conclusion in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, accepted by all men able to read French History, is surely that France always was, is at heart, and should remain what Great Britain is, and rightly wishes to remain, i.e., a Constitutional Monarchy. ”

“ It was, in reality, a plot, under cover of Catholicism, to introduce absolute monarchy, and to make England a dependency of France, not only by the acceptance of French money, but by submission to a French army. ”

“ The peers of France were higher and less powerful, holding to rank more than to authority, and to precedence more than to domination. There was between them and the Lords that shade of difference which separates vanity from pride. With the peers of France, to take precedence of foreign princes, of Spanish grandees, of Venetian patricians; to see seated on the lower benches the Marshals of France, the Constable and the Admiral of France, were he even Comte de Toulouse and son of Louis XIV.; to draw a distinction between duchies in the male and female line ”

“ We hold our empire and preserve national existence on the condition of being stronger at sea than any other power, and yet France—a formidable rival and possible enemy—was allowed to outstrip us for a time in the construction of ironclads. ”

“ I will only add my wish, that your name may be enrolled among those true friends of France, who, by espousing warmly the cause of this country, have shown themselves to be equally the friends of all human nature. To defend, to assert, and to vindicate the insulted rights of man shall be the solid monument of glory, which his Minister will industriously raise for your royal master. ”

“ Decidedly the primary consideration of so eminent a genius and leader should have been the respect, at least, of the feeling of France, an essentially religious and Conservative land. Proud and impatient, thirsting for a vast but fleeting popularity, he rushed headlong into the ranks of those he dares to call now his "admirable and generous French people." ”

“ France, in spite of professions of friendship, he looked upon as a treacherous neighbour. 'From France,' he said, 'danger may, perhaps, be suspected, if the Protestants, plucking their heads out of the yoke, and labouring to recover their oppressed liberty, deliver the French from all fear and suspicion of the Emperor.' To sacrifice the Protestants, lest the Emperor should be too much weakened, to irritate the quarrels between the Emperor and France, lest either of them should meddle with England, was the ignoble policy of an English liberal Government.—Wotton to Cecil: MS. State Paper Office. ”

“ Unless deliberately ignoring the History of France before 1792, surely no one will contend that a King on the Throne of France will prove a step in advance from complexity to simplicity in settling the internal and foreign difficulties of Europe, unable as we are, to do without France. As to political farceurs, suspicious minds and interested partisans of the Imperial or Republican confraternities, we do not expect to see them accept our views. Calamities never teach wisdom to fools. ”

“ The Emperor would gain much more with the nation by courteously declining to receive foreign opinions upon his own acts and the domestic affairs of France, than by any assurance that Foreign Governments were united in approving a measure about which there existed a considerable difference of opinion in France. ”

“ On his arrival at the door, the King of France began the usual ceremonial, and when he had gone on from genuflexions to kissing the feet, the hand, and the forehead, he stood up, while the first president of the Parliament of Paris, in his turn stepping forward, said in a loud voice:
"Very Holy Father, behold my king ready to offer to your Holiness that oath of obedience that he owes to you; but in France it is customary that he who offers himself as vassal to his lord shall receive in exchange therefor such boons as he may demand. ”

“ The French seem so delighted and dazzled with the lustre of Monarchy, that they cannot bear the thoughts of any qualifying mixture, which might abate its violence, and render its ardour more benign. They chuse to give the splendid machine full play, though it often scorches and threatens to consume themselves and their effects. ”

“ A little time will now inform us, whether France, within its proper limits, is big enough for its ruler, on the one hand, and whether, on the other, the allied powers are either wicked or foolish enough to attempt the forcing on the French a ruler and government which they refuse? ”

“ England seems to rely on our own divisions and on the aggressions of France as sufficient to force us into a change of measures, perhaps war with France, without any previous reparation or relaxation on her part. Of the real views of the French Emperor nothing more is known than what appears on the face of his decrees and in his acts ”

“ France is at your mercy! I will tell you why. The Royalist party have been gaining strength year by year, month by month, minute by minute! Proclaim your intentions boldly. The country will crumble up before you! It would be but a half-hearted resistance. France has not the temperament of a people who will remain for ever faithful to a democratic form of government. At heart she is aristocratic. The old nobility have a life in them which you cannot dream of. I know, for I have tested it. It has been weary waiting, but the time is ripe! France is ready for the cry of ‘Vive le Roi! ”

“ Are France or England for that less the good result of Monarchy? To-day France is the France of French Monarchy, the only difference being that under the First Napoleon the Allies entered Paris on the 6th of July, 1815, and that the fallen Emperor saddled France with the Treaty of Paris (1815) ; the Third Napoleon lost Alsace less Belfort; and that the Third Republic lost a large slice of Lorraine through not coming to terms with Prussia before the capitulation of Metz, French History begins not either from 1870 or 1792; and if men, strangers to History, cannot educate, let them be educated! ”

“ The French Republic cannot permit men, whose connection with the old court of France is a matter of notoriety, to appear in official capacities, and thus to irritate and humble the republican ambassadors, the representatives of the first nation on earth, who, before consulting her policy, knows how to maintain her dignity. ”

“ The principle of Royalty is so powerful in France that during the space of fourteen centuries the French nation has had but three Races of Kings. France should have remained and should again be "the Christian Monarchy." ”