SOME ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. BY THE IRISH OYSTER-EATER EMILY VON ROSENTHAL-HOW SHE WAS SPIRITED AWAY, *490 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET, AND T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON. To whom Communications (post paid) may be addressed. SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. FRANCE has arrived at another crisis. It is one of no ordinary importance; and the results which will spring from it involve nothing short of the peace or war of the whole world. When we make use of this language, we do so advisedly. It is not for the purpose of rounding a period, or of exciting attention. If the Conservative cause in France shall now be defeated, and if Louis Philippe shall be reduced to accept for ministers men imposed upon him by a majority of the Chamber of Deputies, who will then be not his ministers, but the ministers of a faction:-from that moment there is not only an end to the Charta and to the Royalty of France, and not only will that country then practically be come a republic-but from that hour all the friends of propagandism, war, revolution, anarchy, and mob government, will be let loose-and Europe must be up and defend herself, from the aggressions, insults, bad faith, encroachments, and violence of modern French democrats. We propose, in this article, to establish by indisputable facts the truth of these assertions facts which we have selected from a mass of materials, and to which we could add at pleasure; and facts which will open the eyes of the most unconcerned to the present dangerous and alarming condition not only of France, but of the whole of Europe. The geographical position of France, the character of her people, the general adoption of her language on the Continent, the diffusion of her modern VOL. XLV. NO. CCLXXXII." vile literature, the nature of her political institutions, and of the profitless experiments she has been making in the science of government for the last half century, as well as the influence she exerts over the leaders of the democratic parties of all countries, give an importance to her movements, and a weight to her decisions, which cannot be too constantly felt or too frequently referred to. We invite, then, the best attention of our thinking readers to the following view of the state of France with reference to her elections — such elections having been resorted to by the King of the French as the only and last means for preserving the remains of a monarchy which can date its origin from Pharamond and Clodion, Childeric and Clovis. The defeat of Louis Philippe is the defeat of the French monarchy, and its defeat is nothing short of war to the hilt against all the monarchical institutions of Europe. We approach, then, this subject with natural anxiety and just alarm; we shall exaggerate nothing -but we shall not conceal any facts which are calculated to present, in its true light, the present situation of the country whose decisions and destinies must have so powerful an operation over the futurity of the whole of Europe. For the right understanding of this momentous question, it is necessary to take a rapid review of the events of the last nine years. We shall be as brief as these events will admit-but it is essential to present a resumé, 2 R We shall begin with the overthrow of the Martignac Ministry, and with the appointment of the Polignac Cabinet. In 1829, the French Chamber of Deputies began that struggle which is still going on against the prerogatives of the monarch. The present ambassador to the court of St James's, General Sebastiani, was one of the foremost in the opposition then raised against the right conferred by the Charta of Louis XVIII. on the government, of being exclusively entitled to propose laws to the Chambers. Besides this, the communal and departmental laws presented in that session by the Viscount de Martignac, were so wholly changed by the commission appointed to examine them, that, had they passed in their altered form, there would have been some thousands of little republics established in the very heart, and over the whole surface, of the kingdom of France. "We march in the midst of anarchy!" cried the eloquent and admirable Martignac-but he could not go on. The Chamber of Deputies required the monarchy to yield. The monarchy refused. The bill was withdrawn. A new ministry was named. Prince Polignac and his friends were called on to raise the standard of resistance to the encroachments of democracy, and to the threats of the Extreme Gauche that they would ride their horses rough-shod through the palaces of kings.' The selection of the Polignac administration was intended to demonstrate, not that Charles X. preferred the priests or the Jesuits, as some writers have absurdly imagined, but simply that the crown was well informed as to the character of the opposition which had been got up, as to the objects proposed by the men of the Gauche, and that, being so informed, it had come deliberately and firmly to the resolution to resist. The Polignac Cabinet was not intended by the King, the royal family, or the court, as a cabinet of attack, but simply as one of resistance. None had the least notion of making the Ordinances of July 1830, when that cabinet was named,-nor, indeed, till long after those associations were formed for refusing the payment of taxes, which were nothing short of open, proclaimed rebellion against the Crown, the Chambers, and the Charta. The demands made by the Chamber of Deputies, in 1829, were unjust, inasmuch as they were antimonarchical; and that at the very time when the Charta, so often appealed to by all parties, established a monarchical form of government in the country. Such laws as they required would have vested one hundred thousand small communal republics in the French monarchy, by erecting communal assemblies, in which the affairs of the state were to be brought constantly under the discussion of the mobocracy. These demands originated in a jealousy, if not in a hatred, of the rights and prerogatives of the Throne, as guaranteed by the Charta; and it is only necessary to refer to the journals and pamphlets of that period to be convinced, that the deputies, journalists, and public teachers of the Opposition, levelled all their attacks against the Throne, the King, the monarchy. When the National was prosecuted, on the 10th March, 1830, for its celebrated article, written by Thiers, "Le Roi regne, et ne gouverne pas, it was so prosecuted because the article was anti-monarchical. It is not true that Prince Polignac either hated or feared the press. It is not true that Prince Polignac prosecuted the French journals either for attacks on himself or on his coadjutors ;-the prosecutions instituted were only against journals, and journalists who put forth all the energy of their talent and eloquence to excite the people to hate and to oppose the rights and prerogatives of the Crown. Thus, then, the character of the resistance of Prince Polignac, up to the period of the signing the fatal Ordinances, which led to the rising of the Parisians and the events of July,-was a resistance to the anti-monarchical dispositions, tendencies, and acts of the Chamber of Deputies, press, and political associations. We will not admit, for it is not true, that either Charles X. or the Prince de Polignac had any idea of curtailing or attacking the liberties enjoyed by the French people, under the Charta of 1814, when the Polignac Cabinet was formed. To resist encroachmentto defend the monarchy-to erect barriers against the assaults of democracy-were the only objects proposed;-and these. objects were not only praiseworthy but indispensable, if merely the semblance of a French monarchy was to be preserved in that country. It is a favourite opinion with some writers, that the opposition to the monarchy of Charles X. was founded, not on any dislike on the part of the Chambers, the press, or the associations, to monarchical institutions, but to the alleged "foreign origin" of the government of 1814. As this error has been widely spread, and as its belief by any of our readers would prevent them from rightly understand ing the real character of the continuous opposition of the Gauche to the monarchy, from 1829 to the very hour in which these observations are written; we propose to show the fallacy of this statement. It is said that the origin of all the opposition to Louis XVIII. and Charles X., is to be found in the fact, that they were brought back to France by "foreign bayonets." Now, if this were the case, the anniversary of such an event would necessarily be a day of sadness or of silence. No voice would be heard to rejoice in its return,-and it would be allowed to pass over without notice, even if expressions of regret should not escape from both magistrates and people. But was this really the case? Quite the contrary. Let us look at the facts of history and turn to the official record of France-the Moniteur. And, in order that we may escape from the charge of selecting a period of public history when the people were most favourably disposed towards the Crown and the government, we will turn to the accounts of the proceedings which took place on the 12th April, 1830, the sixteenth anniversary of the return of the Count d'Artois (Charles X.) into the capital. Let it be remembered that, on 12th April, 1830, the country was in a state of unparalleled agitation that the address of the 221 had veen voted-that the King had prorogued the session to 1st September, preparatory to a dissolution, and that from one end of the kingdom to the other the Gauche was plotting against the government and the monarchy. Yet, on this sixteenth anniversary of the return of the Count d'Artois (Charles X.) to Paris, we read the following account of the proceedings of the representatives of the various civil and military orders in the state and the country, all congratulating the King and the nation on that very return. The first president of the Court of Cassation, Count Portalis, accompanied by all the judges and officers of the highest tribunal of the country, said, us. "Sixteen years ago, this very day, your Majesty appeared in the midst of Weary of pursuing, from revolution to revolution, after vain phantoms of liberty, France, after having been obliged to submit to the yoke of despotism in order to crush the efforts and disorders of anarchy, was reduced to the necessity of fighting for her invaded territory. May you, sire, it is the wish of our love, during a long series of years, receive the tribute of the gratitude of the country for the great benefits secured to it by your return. Baron Seguier, the president of the Royal Court (and the president still), accompanied by the judges, the bar, and the officers, approached the foot of the throne, in April 1830!! and said to Charles X., "Le lien resserrè entre votre majestè et la patrie est indestructible; il garantit la grandeur de vos enfans, et la fidelité des notres. "Sire, vous aimez à être aimé ; ce fût le meilleur moyen du vainqueur de la Ligue. Votre royal penchant de famille sera comblé outre mesure par nos cœurs reconnaissans et devoués." And lest it should be said that this was only the language of courtiers; turn to the speech of Count de Chalval, now so popular with even the Gauche, and hear what he said, as prefect of the department of the Seine, representing, on this 16th anniversary of the return of the Bourbons, the whole population of Paris. "As organ of the faithful inhabitants of your good city of Paris, we come, on the return of this joyous day, to pray you to accept the homage of the love, respect, and devotedness of all its population." And finally, "The Society for the Protection of Agriculture" came with its offering of grateful recollection on the 16th anniversary of the entry of the Bourbons" with foreign bayonets;" and no language could be more loyal or respectful. The King replied, "The souvenirs which you recall to my mind produce, I assure you, the liveliest satisfaction; rendered, as they are, |