followed by a new suspension. All attempts to purchase in whole, or in part, having failed, it was sought to put this threat into execution. "Sell yourself, or die," was the principle now proceeded upon.

M. Merilhon then endeavoured to show, that the particular charges against the Courier were altogether vexatious. It was truly singular, that the articles respecting the war in Spain, and the elections, though they appeared at a time when these events were passing, and the public mind was in a ferment respecting them, should have appeared without the slightest animadversion; and that now, when everything was quiet, they should be brought forward in a mass, to overwhelm their authors. If the information of the Courier, taken from the English papers, had proved sometimes erroneous, the veracity of the bulletins themselves had not been always proverbial. In regard to Riego, the Courier had merely repelled the charge of his having met death like a coward; this surely was not a question on which the peace of France could depend. On the subject of Morillo, Ballasteros, and Abisbal, since they were all three exiled and unfortunate, he would not enlarge; but he himself, and he believed every honest man, shared the opinion of the Courier in respect to them. The Courier had denounced the frauds committed in the elections; but other papers had done the same in the very same words, without being prosecuted. A noble peer, Baron Montalembert, had represented these proceedings as a deplorable scandal, sufficient, if they were continued, to corrupt a whole nation. M. Bordeau, one of the first magistrates in the royal court of Rennes, had denounced them to the Chamber of Deputies. Statements from other magistrates of the highest rank, had been laid before the Chamber of Deputies. M. Villele himself had repelled any idea of participation in these

shameful proceedings, and thrown the blame on the subaltern agents. The abuses disclosed by the Courier were but too real; and in that case to proclaim them was not to trouble the public peace; no! it was to fulfil a sacred duty.

In reply to these observations, the King's advocate solemnly declared, that the present prosecution had no connexion with the late affairs of the journals. It had been determined upon, at the end of the war in Spain, with the view of proving, that opposition in the journals gave them no right to insult the national glory, and range themselves under the banners of the enemy. He maintained, that a charge like the present, founded upon the general tendency of journals, and to be judged according to plain principles of equity, was alone sufficient to repress their abuses. A succession of charges, founded upon single and special grounds, would soon fatigue public opinion, and even the courts, and would render the repressive power odious or weak. It was but too well known, how easily an able and experienced pen, with the resources of a language so pliant and so rich in equivocal phrases, could cover fine allusions, irony, concealed meanings; the very points became significant. These forms of expression roused and fixed the attention, made the epigram more cutting, raillery more piquant, malignity more bitter. To leave these allusions unpunished, would render every repressive measure vain and illusory.

After a hearing of four days, the President astonished the public by the annunciation,-" The court is divided." No judgment was in consequence delivered.

At the same time, ministers were baffled in their attempt to prevent the re-appearance of the Aristarque, a royalist opposition journal, discontinued some time before, but now revived un

der the auspices of La Bourdonnaye. We need not enter into the legal minutia of the question; it is sufficient to observe, that the suspension was not considered by the court so complete as to subject the Aristarque to the law of 1822, rendering a royal licence necessary for the setting on foot any new journal.

M. Villele, seeing all his attempts to subjugate the public press baffled, and all the mean and dishonourable arts exposed, by which he had attempted to effect that object, determined to cut the knot which he was unable to untie. Immediately on the rising of the Chambers, a decree was issued, re-establishing the censorship. This step, by the law of 1822, ministers were empowered to take, in the event of any emergency occurring which appeared to them to render it necessary; and the measure could be continued till a month after the next meeting of the Chambers. No such necessity was perceived by the public; but of it ministers were constituted the sole judges. The measure, however, served very ill the views with which it was adopted. Chateaubriand instantly produced a pamphlet, denouncing the unconstitutional and pernicious character of this and the whole train of measures pursued by ministers with regard to the press. This pamphlet had an immense circulation, and was followed by pamphlet upon pamphlet, which, in the absence of other forms of discussion, were eagerly devoured. The opposition journals came forth deformed with rueful gaps, left by the passages condemned by the censors, and which the editors were unable or indisposed to fill up. These excited the curiosity of the public, for whom it was an amusement to inquire what was the nature of the paragraphs thus mercilessly swept away. Free discussion had become so much a necessary to the French public, that

the absence of it was unwelcome almost to every class; for even the ministerial journals lost their interest, when there was nothing for them on the other side to discuss or to oppose. M. Villele, in short, felt a stronger tide of unpopularity setting in against him, than could have been produced by the efforts of the most active opposition press.

A different object soon came to absorb the attention of the French public. Since the return of Louis XVIII., his life had been only a long sickness. By constant care, and notwithstanding repeated alarms, it had been prolonged to the present period; but, on the 12th of September, a bulletin was issued, stating, that his old and fixed maladies had experienced for some days a sensible increase; that the state of his health was visibly altered; a severe cold was felt in the extremities; in short, that his end was approaching. On the 16th, he breathed his last. This prince had enjoyed the esteem of Europe. In very peculiar and difficult circumstances, he had steered a prudent and temperate course. His chief faults were indolence and gluttony, not very princely ones; and the unfortunate publication of his memoirs precludes the idea of his possessing any lofty intellectual qualities. At a period, however, when the object was rather to apply an opiate to the violent agitations of the public mind, the want of anything stirring and energetic in his nature was perhaps rather well-timed. He set out with a pretty large portion of general information, and even of liberal ideas; and the unparalleled series of suffering and wrong to which he was witness, never transported him beyond the limits of moderation, or inspired those violent enmities and extreme opinions, which they rendered elsewhere too prevalent. This disposition led him perseveringly to follow the difficult

course of striking a medium between the violent factions into which his kingdom was divided; a course which, even when violently driven from it, he still adhered to as closely as possible. The last measures of his reign, however unjustifiable, were forgiven to him, because he was evidently hurried into them contrary to his natural temper, by counsellors who were forced upon him.

The new King ascended the throne with a reputation not altogether so pure. In his youth, he had been accounted the gayest of that too gay circle in which he moved; and the extreme to which he carried the thoughtless, unprincipled, and extravagant habits which are learned in that school, was even alleged as one of the operating causes of revolution. Years and sorrows had since passed over his head, enough to sober the wildest temper. So far as can hitherto be observed, their influence appears to have been salutary. He seems to have corrected these first extremes, and at the same time to have retained those easy, liberal, and graceful habits, which form an ornament of royalty, and are calculated for carrying him smoothly through that somewhat rugged path, which a King of France has still to traverse.

In the replies which Charles X. made to the numerous addresses now poured in, there was observed, amid the formal and conventional character of such documents, a spontaneous expression of liberal sentiment, which imposed flattering hopes of a constitutional reign. In the determination expressed to "continue" the reign of his predecessor, there was a particular reference to the institutions which had emanated from that monarch. An amiable temper was also shown in his introducing into the council the Duke d'Angouleme, who, as nearest heir to the crown, stood in a

position usually productive of a jealousy, which the closest ties of blood cannot allay. That prince, too, however faithfully he had executed the purposes of the Holy Alliance, in reimposing despotism upon Spain, was supposed, from what he observed in that country, to have returned imbued with a certain portion of liberal sentiment. Accordingly, this spirit influenced, in a very decided manner, several of the leading transactions of the new reign. The faculty of law at Grenoble, which had been suppressed several years before, on account of the political spirit alleged to prevail in it, was reinstated in its functions. This was followed by a much more important measure,—the removal of the censorship on the journals. The friends of ministers now held out, that its revival had been merely a temporary step, taken with the view of allaying those agitations, which the foreseen demise of the sovereign might be apprehended as likely to occasion. Without inquiring how far this was the probable motive, or actual tendency, of the measure, it may be observed, that the temporary suspension of this grand privilege, marked as it was by public reprobation, and general joy at its removal, tended to confirm more than ever the French nation in its possession.

Amid the first celebration of the new reign, with that parade of homage and courtesy which still continued characteristic of Frenchmen, all distinction of party seemed lost. Above all, the royalists out of power sought to distinguish themselves by a display of the most fervent attachment. Chateaubriand hastily put forth a pamphlet, "Le Roi est mort! Vive le Roi!" in which incense was lavished on the King and the house of Bourbon, with a profusion bordering on servility. Rumour was busy as to changes probable or expected in the cabinet. After a short

time, however, it became evident, that the King was prepared to adhere to the counsellors and the system of his predecessor. The royalists out of power, as they lost hope, gradually relapsed into opposition; and all parties, in a short time, resumed the attitude which they had previously occupied.

The King called a meeting of the Chambers before the end of December, but as it would be obviously inconvenient to make a section of its proceedings, we shall reserve the entire consideration of them till the following volume.

M

VOL. XVII. PART I.

ceedings.

SPAIN began the present year in the same enslaved, anarchical, and distracted state, to which she had been reduced by the triumph of the French arms, and the restoration of Ferdinand to absolute power-nor did there appear any prospect or means of her being able to emerge, or even avoid sinking deeper into it. Almost all the intelligent and industrious part of her population, those which would have roused her out of her slumbering apathy, and assimilated her condition to that of the more improved nations, were now become a persecuted and degraded caste, and were either begging their bread in a foreign land, pining in the depth of dungeons, or agitated by the perpetual dread of confiscation or death. Although there is much in the personal character of Ferdinand, which it is impossible to regard without detestation, we are yet obliged to confess, that the guilt of the tyrannical and oppressive system which he adopted, was shared by a large body of the Spanish nation. Of these, there was even a numerous class, to whom the principles of Ferdinand appeared too liberal, and his

sway too mild, and to whom nothing appeared satisfactory, short of an indiscriminate proscription of all who had any concern in the support of the constitutional cause. A natural propensity to violence, and the covetous desire of satiating themselves with the plunder of the liberals, many of whom were substantial citizens, greatly fanned the flame of their furious loyalty. Although the name of the Absolute King was used as a rallying cry, it was rather as a name under which every kind of violence might be committed with impunity, than that they were at all ready to yield obedience even to him, when his directions went to check them in their career. The only mitigation of disorder, was the partial one produced by the presence of French troops, who sometimes interfered to prevent outrages that were manifestly illegal, or open violations, under their eye, of the conventions which they had concluded with the Spanish generals. As their instructions, however, inculcated a strict adherence to the monarchical principle, and the abstract tenets of the Holy Alliance, and as they held themselves