FRANCE THE EMPIRE Imperialism is an overlordship over nations. It is more than this ; it is, strictly speaking, the representation of both the empire of old Rome and the Holy Roman Empire, with all the high claims involved therein. In this sense, imperialism claims temporal lordship over all the earth, and rears its head side by side with the papacy, which asserts a spiritual headship as wide and as complete. The full theory of neither has ever been realized ; and as time has gone on, both ideas have grown weaker, and pale images of both have sprung up. As tho world has become wider, it has become clear that neither theprinciple of nationality nor that of independence of thought was compatible with either empire or papacy. And, as time has gone OD, the imperial name itself has undergone large modifications. We have seen an empress of India, an emperor of Austria, an emperor of China, an emperor of Mexico, - all names completely wide of the true imperial idea. And the title of " Emperenr des Francais," which Bonaparte now assumed, with acclamation of France, carried in itself a reversal of old ideas, for it affirmed a personal lordship, based on the sovereignty of the people, as expressed by a plObiscito. Bo this as it may be, the power was real, and was wielded with iron will and unscrupulous genius.

The strength of England on the seas soon compelled Napoleon to make his chief attack on Austria, while England and Russia once more drew together against him. In 1805 his grand army penetrated into the valley of the Danube, took Ulm, and in spite of the king of Prussia's accession to the coalition, pushed on as far as to Vienna. Napoleon occupied all the upper and middle Danube valley, and then marched northwards in pursuit of the emperor Francis of Austria, who had fled into Moravia. On the 2d of December 1805 he won the great battle of Austerlitz, which for the time reduced the allies to impotence. Peace followed at Presburg (26th December 1805) between France and Austria, by which that ancient power was parted out among its neighbours.

Two months before this the decisive battle of Trafalgar had finally disposed of the remaining naval force of France and Spain (21st October 1805), and, leaving England in complete security, enabled her to continue without fear her task of obstinate resistance, at the very moment when France seemed to have completely triumphed over the united hostility of continental Europe.

The emperor at once, characteristically guided by his love of grand conceptions and far-reaching combinations, set himself to surround France with a great system of " federa- ' tive states of the empire," in " three compact nations of Italians, Germans, Spaniards." But if he overrated his own constructive genius, he underrated the obstinacy of his enemies, and soon found himself met by a fourth coalition, against which he proposed to build up the Confederacy of the Rhino, and to restore the dependence of the lesser German princes on France, and so to carry out the ideas of Henry IV., of Richelieu and Mazarin. War, however, broke out in a different quarter. The restoration by France of Hanover to England, a part of the series of negotiations which followed the peace of Presburg and the death of Pitt, roused the utmost anger in Prussia, and led to new combinations, as a consequence of which the king of Prussia,' without waiting for .help from England or Russia, rushed ' on war (September 1806). The battle of Jena (14th October 1806) and A uerstadt completely overthrew the Prussian power, and the conquest of Prussia was completed before the end of the year, and before the Russians had time to come up to the succour of their allies. A winter campaign followed, in which the sufferings of the troops and the obstinate resistance of the Russians at Pultusk and Eylau (8th February 1807) arrested the triumphant move. ment of the emperor for a time. In the summer of 1807, having secured the line of the Vistula, he defeated the Russians at Friedland (14th June), and took Konigsberg. The treaty of Tilsit (7th July 1807) followed ; for Russia needed rest, and Napoleon was not sorry to pause. It is the highest point of the emperor's renown. His hand was felt throughout all Europe ; it seemed as if England alone was beyond his power.

The determination of the emperor to rearrange the whole map of Europe, and to assert his power in every quarter, led him to that Spanish war whence sprang the resistance which at last overthrew him. For he decided on subduing the whole Peninsula, including Portugal ; the Portuguese court took flight to Brazil on the approach of Junot, and Charles IV. of Spain abdicated when Murat threatened Madrid. Napoleon at once placed Joseph Bonaparte, a very incompetent person, on the Spanish throne ; and when the Spaniards showed their irritation with him, he too abdicated, and gave place to Murat,'who had married Caroline, sister of the emperor. Then the Spaniards rose in revolt, and that wearing guerilla warfare began which opened the way for the successful arms of England. The capitulation of Baylen ruined for the time the French power in Spain ; Dupont and Vedel were compelled to lay down their arms ; in Portugal England now began to appear, and on 21st August 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley won the battle of Vimiera. When Napoleon found that, as thus in Spain, the peoples rose against him, he ought to have recognized the hollowness of his friendships with the kings. He longed, however, to be one of their comity, as well as to have vassal kings and princes under himself ; to this end he had created a new and high-sounding aristocracy around his throne; for this end when Germany, led by Austria, now began again to move against him, Napoleon drew towards Russia, and was completely duped by the emperor Alexander. Having, as he thought, made all safe on that side, he turned his attention to Spain, and, in spite of guerilla warfare, entered Madrid (4th December 1808). Sir John Moore, who from the west coast had penetrated as far as to Salamanca, was driven back by Soult supported by the emperor, and after the battle of Corunna (14th January 1809), in which lie fought at bay and lost his life, the English had to embark and withdraw. The siege of Saragossa, however, contested with all the tenacity and devotion of the Spanish character, wore out the strength of the French forces, and their tenure of Spain was felt to be most precarious.

Now followed a fifth coalition against Napoleon, whose subjects at home were beginning to show signs of exhaustion. Still, when his army marched into Bavaria, it seemed as strong, as enthusiastic, as well commanded as ever. By splendid combinations and a series of victories, Napoleon swept down the Danube valley, and took Vienna. Ere long he was checked by the terrible battle of Gross Aspern or Essling (21st and 22d May 1809) just below Vienna, in which his victory was purchased at a price he could ill afford. He had to pause, while the Austrian court gathered itself together in Moravia. When he saw this, and felt that all Europe was beginning to move behind him, he too gathered his strength up, and marching against the Austrians defeated them, under the command of the archduke f Charles, in the decisive battle of Wagram (5th and 6th July 1809), - a victory which, while it ruined for the time the military power of Austria, also weakened him to a dangerous point. It was therefore at once followed by the armistice of Znaim, which led, in a short time, to the m hollow peace of Vienna. This agreement broke up the m coalition, handed over to Napoleon the Illyrian provinces' with a part of Tyrol, and gave him an imperial bride in Maria Louisa, daughter of the Austrian emperor. Napoleon at once returned to Paris, to celebrate his marriage, and to organize afresh his vast empire. Nothing escaped his care ; he coerced the press, rearranged finance, which had grown to be a very heavy burden, saw that tho church was duly submissive and duly paid, and held the pope in honourable bondage at Savona. In other parts things went not amiss : the foolish Walcheren expedition mouldered away; in Spain Wellington with difficulty held out against Spanish indolence and corruption, and the genius of Marshal Soult. The lines of Torres Vcdras (1810-1811), which the English general defended against Massena, form the turning-point of the history of Napoleon's triumphs. His last great victory was Essling ; henceforward his successes will bring no lasting good ; his failures will draw him towards his fall. The successful winter in the Torres Vedras lines was followed by Wellington's famous campaign of Almeida, Badajoz, and Ciudad-Rodrigo (1811 - t812), in which the English general separated Soult and Massona, while he secured for himself a splendid base of operations for the future.

But before this, the flattering friendship of Russia had' turned to gall. Ever since the end of 1809 Napoleon had' seen how hollow all was in the north, and at last, early in 1812, war broke out. Napoleon, misled by brilliant schemes, and ever trustful in his star, determined at once to crush the resistance of Russia ; as he had entered Berlin, Madrid, and Vienna, so he would also enter Moscow, and thence at last dictate peace to all the world. He seemed to think lie had two things only to do, " conscrire et prescire," - to summon up and sacrifice the whole youth of France as conscripts, and then to prescribe his own terms to Europe. This terrible blunder cost him his throne. He left his soldiers in Spain to take care of themselves ; though he must have seen that they were almost as much in want of help as that army had been which he so selfishly left behind him in Egypt. With this difficulty in his rear, and the vast distances, huge armies, and terrible climate of Russia before him, he set forth in the spring of 1812 on his famous and fatal march to Moscow. He crossed the Niemen, and reaching Wilna, the capital of Lithuania, halted there to recruit his troops (June 1812), which were: in unusual disorder. Here he proclaimed his sympathy for Poland, while he tried not to offend the Austrians or to unsettle their share of the dismembered kingdom. Negotiations also went on ; the emperor of Russia offered terms, which were refused at once ; Bernadotte, now by election prince-royal of Sweden (21st August 1810), who knew the character of his late master, also had dealings with Napoleon, while at the' same time he made alliance with the czar, and began a sixth coalition against France ; England joined the new league, and Turkey made peace with Russia. Still Napoleon persevered ; he won the hard-fought battle of Smolensk (17th August 1812), though he did not succeed in cutting off the retreat of the Russians, who burnt everything as they withdrew, leaving a desert for the French. The terrible battle of Borodino, one of the hardest struggles in history, gave Napoleon a victory, though the Russians again withdrew in good order (7th September). They did not attempt to defend Moscow, retiring thence, and leaving the capital as "a snare in which the ruin of the foe was inevitable." And so it proved ; the French army entered Moscow in triumph, and Napoleon established himself at the Kremlin (15th September) ; the next day time whole town burst into flames ; after five days nothing was standing save the churches, and perhaps a tenth of the city, It was savage as it was heroic • at any rate, it was completely successful. The emperor Alexander spurned all overtures for peace ; his armies grew more threatening ; the French communications were clearly unsafe ; the winter was not far off ; it looked as if Napoleon might even be shut up in Moscow. The great retreat was inevitable. In the middle of October the French army began to pour out of the gates of Moscow, and then began a running battle at every point. The army bled at every pore, and Ney with the utmost heroism protected the rear. At last Napoleon reached Wilna ; there the worst of the pursuit seemed to be over, and there was both food and raiment ; there he, leaving Murat in command, abandoned the shattered remnants of the grand army, and took flight to France (5th December 1812). The remainder of the retreat was even more ruinous than what had gone before ; it was but a handful out of so great a host that reached the frontiers of France again. Of 450,000 men who set forth, probably not 100,000 returned. In Spain affairs had been almost as bad for France. Early • in 1812 Wellington had taken Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and then advancing into Spain, defeated Marmont and the French at Salamanca (22d July 1812), and occupied Madrid. In the autumn Soult, by able dispositions and a stronger force, compelled him to retreat again to Ciudad Rodrigo. The campaign had shown the weakness of the French occupation, while it had greatly lessened their resources and the part of the Spanish territory at their disposal.

France still worshipped her chief. The new and severe conscription gave him another vast army ; and he set forth to punish Prussia, which had declared war against him, in concert with Russia. The Germans always have honoured this period of their history as a great resurrection, and as the birthtimo of their true national life. The emperor passed through Mainz to Erfurt, and fought his first battle, a severe one, on the plain of Lilt= ; • the defeated Prussians and Russians fell back in good order through Dresden, Napoleon following them hard, defeating. them and Ariving them out of their intrenched camp at Bautzen (20th and 21st May 1813), whence they retreated again in perfect order. It was evident that the temper of Germany had entirely changed since Jena. An armistice, which followed, led to much negotiation at Dresden, where Napoleon's headquarters lay. The upshot of it all was that Austria joined Russia and Prussia, and the war went on. The attack of the allies on Dresden, which lasted two days (26th and 27th August), ended in their repulse and defeat ; Russian supports came up in October, and it was plain that they were going to cut the French communications, and coop Napoleon up in Dresden for the winter. The king of Bavaria at this moment joined the allies, and made the emperor's position still more precarious. He now withdrew from Dresden, and near Leipsic came into collision with his enemies, who were f waiting for him there. On the 16th of October 1813 began one of the decisive battles in the world's history. Napoleon's forces were far outnumbered by those of the allies ; and some of his German troops deserted in the thick of the fight. The battle raged on the 16th and the 18th ; on the 19th Napoleon, completely defeated, began to withdraw. At Haman he overthrew Wrede, and cut a passage for his army ; the victorious emperors followed closely on his heels, and barely half his men reached home. The campaign had broken to pieces the dominance of France in Europe ; and all the imperial creations, the confederation of the Rhine, the kingdom of Westphalia, the Batavian republic, came to an end. George III. resumed the electorate of Hanover ; Austria recovered her lost provinces; in Spain the throne of Joseph Bonaparte fell, for the battle of Vittoria (21st June 1813) had utterly destroyed the power of the French in the peninsula. Wellington drove them out of Spain, and in spite of the vigour and ability of Soult, the two great frontier fortresses of Pampeluna and St Sebastian fell. Wellington entered southern France, and in November threatened Bayonne. Napoleon could only complain, with the tone of an irritated master, that he had been defeated by the treason of his servants, that is, of his German subjects.

On his return to Paris, the emperor found the tone of feeling very much changed. In the legislative body men ventured to denounce his rule ; such outspoken words had not been heard for years. He angrily replied with his " Ntat, c'est moi," " to attack me is to attack the nation," and abruptly closed their session. Henceforth he would rule alone, and alone with the ruins of his armies face the terrible invasion that was coining on. The whole conditions of his warfare changed ; he must now act on the defensive, and bear to see Franco trodden under foot, even as France till now had trodden all Europe under her feet. The allies came in almost without resistance in three armies, - the Austrians from Basel advancing to Langres ; Bliicher with the Prussians crossed the Vosges to Nancy ; the army of the north, Russians and Prussians, came down to Namur, and thence to Leon. In all there were full 200,000 of them, a force quite double that at the emperor's disposal. They all sat on the inner slopes of the mountains which form the northern, north-eastern, and eastern defences of France, awaiting the moment to advance. Napoleon had the one great advantage of the inner line. But after fighting the severe battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, he tried to paralyse the allies by striking at their communications, and so lost his one advantage ; for they, instead of hesitating, marched boldly on for Paris, defeated Mortier and Marmont in the very suburbs, and forced the proud capital to surrender before Napoleon could come up to its defence. The allied emperors were received with cries of " Long live the king," " Long live the emperor Alexander." A provisional government of senators decreed the downfall of Napoleon ; the other constituted bodies followed ; the imperial government was swept away as in an instant. The emperor, amazed at this sudden impulse of the country, abdicated (6th April 1814) on behalf of his son, and finally (11th April) he abdicated completely, offering himself, as he said, a " personal sacrifice" to France. His titles, honours, an ample income, and the island of Elba in full sovereignty, were left to him.

The restoration of the Bourbons followed at once. Louis XVIII. appeared in Paris, the protege of foreign bayonets, and not ashamed to own that he owed his return to English help. Peace followed at once ; France shrank back to her old dimensions, as she had been in 1792, with some slight modifications. Louis XVIII. lastly promulgated a new charter, granting some constitutional rights to his subjects. The document was dated as of the 19th year of his reign, as though Napoleon and the Revolution had never been. The peerage was restored, its numbers now unlimited except by the king's will, who alone could appoint peers ; a chamber of deputies, elected by a limited suffrage, had really but little power, as the king reserved to himself the initiative of all laws • the Roman Catholic religion was declared the faith of the state, and full toleration granted to all dissidents. This was the constitutionalism of the reaction. It showed how far France had travelled from the days of the old regime. There was no question of ancient privileges or of feudal usages; the very name of States-General had disappeared. No reaction, however severe, ever brings timings back to the point from which they had drifted ; France could never again be what she had been under Louis XIV.

A congress at once assembled at Vienna, under Metter-nick's presidency, with a view to a peaceful resettlement of Europe. It was, however, suddenly turned to warlike thoughts by the startling news that Napoleon, leaving Elba, had landed near Cannes (1st March 1815). lie appealed to citizens and soldiers alike ; he appealed to the people ; lie spoke only of peace and liberty, and a popular constitution. The army at once saluted him again as its emperor ; France with a spontaneous plebiscite restored him to his throne, and Louis XVIII. fled to Ghent. Napoleon entered Paris amidst delirious transports of delight. Cooler reflexions soon followed, when the declaration of the allied sovereigns was heard, and troubles began in the old royalist districts. Nor were men better pleased when it was seen that Napoleon returned at once to his old despotic manner of governing ; signs of alienation showed themselves ; the allied armies drew towards the frontiers of France. Blucher, with his Prussians, came down to join Wellington, who had landed in Flanders, and Napoleon hastened up to prevent their union. He sent Ney to encounter and check the English, while he himself tried to destroy the Prussians. He found them at Liguy, where, on June 16, 1815, he defeated them, though Ney was unable to force Quatre Bras, so as to be ready to fall on their flank and complete the rout. The consequence was that Blucher drew off his army unbroken to Wavre ; and Wellington, to keep near him, also fell back to the village of Waterloo, where he could both cover Brussels and await the Prussians. There, on the 18th of June, 1815, took place the battle of Waterloo, in which Napoleon and Ney made their final effort for the empire. The object of Wellington was to hold his ground till Blucher could conic up ; the object of Napoleon was, by detaching Grouchy towards Wavre, to hinder the Prussians, till he could crush the English. Grouchy, however, let himself be deluded by a single Prussian corps, while Bliicher slowly made his way towards Waterloo ; and Wellington's Englishmen and Germans, with heroic tenacity, had held their ground against all attacks. In the afternoon the Prussians began to conic up, and after the repulse of the French guards towards evening, Napoleon knew that all was lost. He entrusted his shattered army to Soult, and fled headlong to Paris. There, finding all hope gone, he once more abdicated, on behalf of his son. He withdrew to Rochefort, hoping to find means of escaping to America ; but the English cruisers rendered this impossible, and he threw himself on the generosity of his hated foes. He was taken on board the Bellerophon, and conveyed as a state prisoner to the island of St Helena, where he lived, the mere shadow of his former self, in a hated and inglorious ease, till death released him in 1821, at the age of fifty-two.

There is a saying attributed to Talleyrand, which hits the prominent characteristics of Napoleon's nature : - " What a pity that so great a man was so ill brought up!" For he had genius and no breeding ; he never shook off the adventurer-element in his life ; nor had he that high sense of honour, truthfulness, and gentleness which go with true nobility of soul. With a frame of iron, Napoleon could endure any hardships ; and in war, in artillery especially and engineering, he stands unrivalled in the world's history. His quick intelligence was altogether scientific in the colder and harder aspects of scientific knowledge. He took no interest in moral sciences or history, or the brighter works of imagination. Throughout we discern in him the precisian, the despot on exact principles. Even when he unbent among his intimate friends, his was "a tyrant's familiarity," with a touch of Oriental ferocity under it. He was ever on the watch against rivals, ever full of distrust, treating great men with a false and feline grace of manner, which seemed to .be expecting a surprise. No one was ever so naturally untrue as he ; he never hesitated to lie and to deceive ; the most important despatches he would readily falsify, if he thought there was anything to be gained by it. There was in him a swiftness of intelligence which answered to his hot and passionate nature ; the true and solid balance was wanting. He could not rest, and knew not when he had achieved success. And this was immediately connected with another Oriental quality, his vast and unmeasured ambition, and the schemes and dreams of a visionary, which led him to the greatest errors of his life, - his expedition to Egypt and his hopes of an Eastern empire, and his terrible attack on Russia. The seine largeness of vision showed itself in his endeavours to reconstruct the map of Europe, and to organize anew the whole of society in France. He could have in his mouth the phrases and cries of the 18th century, and with them he knew how to charm mankind. Yet with this gift, and with his amazing power of influencing his soldiers, who sacrificed themselves in myriads for him with enthusiasm, there was a coldness of moral character which enabled him to abandon those who had given up all for him, and made him show shameless ingratitude towards those who had done him the greatest services. We can gauge a man's character by his complaints against others, for those complaints are always the reflexion of his own characteristics. Napoleon was ever inveighing against the deceit of Alexander, the treachery of the Germans, the perfidy of Pitt, the warfare of savages which he had to face ; and the phrases represent the worst elements in his own character. He was, in fact, the successor and representative of the "18th century despots," the military follower of thePonabals, the Arandas, the Struenzees of the past. He had their unbalanced energies, their fierce resistance to feudalism and the older world, their ready use of benevolent and:enlightened phraseology, their willingness to wade through blood and ruin to their goal, their undying ambition, their restlessness and revolutionary eagerness to reorganize society. Like them, with well-sounding professions, he succeeded in alienating the peoples of Europe, in whose behalf he pretended to be acting. And when they learnt by bitter experience that he had absolutely no love for liberty, and encouraged equality only so long as it was an equality of subjects under his rule, they soon began to war against what was in fact a world-destroying military despotism. When the popular feeling was thoroughly aroused against him in Spain, in Germany, in England, his wonderful career was at last brought to an end.

While Napoleon had held together the enthusiasm of the' French army, and had flattered the national vanity, and had raised a bulwark between the peasant tiller of the soil and his ancient oppressor, the Bourbons came back, having learnt nothing, and under auspices painful to French feeling. The peasant suspected them of wishing to restore noble privilege with the ancient throne ; the army was suspicious if not hostile ; the national feeling was vexed by the patronage of the victorious hosts of Russia, England, and Germany. Paris was treated by them as a conquered capital, the whole country was garrisoned by their armies, and Louis XVIII. was little but their instrument and dependant. The royalist reaction was violent, though not cruel ; the new legislative chambers proved vehemently Legitimist ; Fortche, who had hitherto successfully held his ground, come who might, in his dangerous department of the police, now fell and was exiled ; Talleyrand also was got rid of ; and the duke of Richelieu, grandson of that hoary old sinner who had been at the right hand of Louis XV., became chief minister. Meanwhile, the congress of Vienna had at last (20th November 1815) dictated its terms of peace to France. The "Holy Alliance," of the emperors of Russia and Austria and the king of Prussia, that league of monarchs against the liberties of Europe, compelled France to pay a huge indemnity, to surrender her Rhine fortresses of Philippeville, Sarrelouis, Marieuburg, Landau, and Huningen ; the frontier of Franco was to be garrisoned for five years by a foreign army commanded by a foreign general, and paid by Franco ; this period was cut short in 1818 at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Louis XVIII., who was no mere reactionary, allowed little blood to be shed ; LalaSdoyere, who had led the army in its rally round Napoleon in 1814, and Marshal Ney were the only victims. Murat, taken in an attempt to recover his throne of Naples, was shot by the Italians.

As the chamber of deputies seemed determined to push • the reaction to its utmost limits, Louis XVIII. dissolved it, and, declaring that ho would rule constitutionally in accordance with the charter, rallied round himself all the moderate party, headed by the Duke Decazes. Power came now into the hands of the middle classes, and in 1818 the burgher party ruled. It was supported by the newly-risen Doctrinaires, men who wrote for the press, and began the modern career of French journalism. The chief of these were De Barante, Guizot, and Villemain ; on one side of them were the extremer royalists, headed by the count of Artois ; on the other side stood the new party of the Independents, from whom sprang the men of the " three days of July." Between these Decazes kept up the new "systi;me de bascule," the balance-system, as it was called, allowing now this side and now that to taste the sweets of power, and to make sonic pretence to party-government. In 1820, however, the murder of the duke of Berri, second son of the count of Artois, gave the ultra-royalists an excuse for freeing themselves from a man who kept them somewhat in order. Using the excitement caused by the assassination, they compelled the king to dismiss his favourite minister, and seized the reins of power. They at once modified the constitution in such a way as to secure their majority in the chambers, and prepared to carry matters with a high hand.

Just at this time the extravagant conduct of the reactionary Bourbon princes of Spain and Italy had aroused insurrection and armed resistance everywhere. The people of Spain and Naples declared against arbitrary government, and were at once attacked by those "champions of order," the sovereigns of the Holy Alliance. At their bidding Louis XVIII. also declared war against Spain ; the French Government, being now entirely guided by the count of Artois, was thoroughly in harmony with all that was repressive and reactionary in Europe. In the spring of 1823 the French army, commanded by the duke of Angonhlme, the eldest son of the count of Artois, crossed the Bidassoa and entered Spain. No serious resistance was met with except at Cadiz, and the triumph of the French arms was mercilessly used to crush the Spanish liberties. Ferdinand VII. of Spain returned to Madrid, and ruled henceforth as most absolute, most Catholic sovereign. The duke of Angoulafe was thought by his success and personal bravery to have aroused in the French army an enthusiasm for its old Bourbon masters ; reaction ruled supreme in France; the Jesuits were conspicuous in their delight; and the system of influences, corruption, and manoeuvres, so long the disgrace of French elections, sprang at once into full bloom.

In September 1824 Louis XVIII. died, with his last breath urging the count of Artois to rule prudently and in accordance with the charter. He was one of the best of the Bourbons, a man of ability and learning, fond of literature and science, moderate and loyal in opinion and act, - a far better man than those who surrounded his old age, and drove him into reactionary courses which he could not approve. His successor, the count of Artois, was a very different man. He had been the chief cause of the misfortunes of the monarchy in the Revolution, and Lad both the fine manners and the faults of the old regime. He was tho fourth son of the dauphin, and brother of Louis XVI. and Louis XVIII., and now became king under the title of Charles X. It was speedily seen that now the ultra-royalists would have none to check them ; the new monarch was bigoted, stupid, ignorant ; from the scandals. of his early life to the devotion of his later days there had been but a step ; the sublime is not so near the ridiculous as superstition is to immorality. He was regarded as a mere tool of the Jesuits, and his reign was but a struggle against the more liberal instincts of his country. Now, if ever, it was seen that the old Bourbons "could never learn and never forget." In 1827, the national guard, which had shown itself too free in its cries, was disbanded ; a new chamber of deputies was, in spite of all efforts, strongly opposed to the policy of the king's Government ; a more moderate cabinet followed.

In this year England, France, and Russia joined to put a stop to the quarrel between Turks and Greeks, and their combined fleet under Sir Edward Codrington won the battle of Navarino, and ruined the maritime power of Turkey (20th October 1827). Early in 1828 the French occupied the Morea, and ere long the independence of Greece was accepted by the Ottoman Porte, and a new national life i began in Europe.

In 1829, finding the new ministry too moderate for him, Charles X. dismissed it, and gave the seals to Prince Polignac. This meant war to the knife against all constitutional liberties in France, and was the return to power of all that Frenchmen most feared and disliked. The chambers, supported by popular feeling, stood firm, and carried an address to the throne, which declared that the new ministry did not enjoy their confidence. Thereupon the chambers were dissolved, and the fresh elections which followed were a decisive struggle between liberty and despotism. The success of the expedition to Algiers, in which France vindicated her honour by the capture of the robber-city and the complete defeat of the dey, while she acquired for herself her most flourishing and important colony, brought no relief to the Government in its contest against the people. The new chamber was stronger against the ministry than the late chamber had been. Then Charles X. suddenly attempted the usual coup d'etat, and assumed a kind of provisional dictatorship, which produced at once the five famous ordinances of St Cloud (25th July 1830). These were--(1) the suspension of the liberty of the press ; (2) the dissolution of the new chamber of deputies; (3) a new system of election, so as to secure absolute power to the king; (4) the convocation of a new chamber; (5) some ultra-royalist appointments to the council of state. At this time a young journalist from Marseilles, niers, was editor of the Xationa ; under his fearless leadership the "fourth estate" made its first collective revolt against illegal power, and signed a vigorous protest against the ordinances. It is the beginning of that wholesome influence of the press on modern politics of which the history has yet to be written, because its limits have not yet been reached. Men waited breathlessly to see what steps would follow such an insurrection of opinion against power. On the 27th of July it was announced that Marshal Marmont, although he disapproved of the measures agreed on, and did not sympathize with the five ordinances, had been charged with the defence of the capital. Then insurrection broke out at once, and the " Revolution of the three days of July" began. On the 27th the barricades raised by the citizens were forced and the streets cleared ; on the 28th the insurgents, not abashed by their defeat, seized the Hotel de Ville, and hoisted the tricolour. Marmont, who urged pacification, was ordered by Charles, who kept out of the way, to crush all opposition ruthlessly; before evening his troops had retaken the Hotel de Ville, and most of the important positions. Again lie urged moderation on the king, and the leaders of the revolt offered to lay down arms if the ministers were dismissed and the five ordinances withdrawn. Charles, however, would listen to nothing, and sent orders to Marmont to persevere. On the 29th, however, two regiments fraternized with the people ; and Marmont, paralysed by their defection, and by suspicions as to the fidelity of other troops, gave way. The populace rushed into the Louvre and the Tuileries, sacking and destroying the insignia of Bourbon power. They neither stole nor murdered. Charles X. at St Cloud now offered all he had refused the day before ; of course it was a day too late. Paris had triumphed over the reaction, and the unteachable older Bourbons had to go. The veteran Lafayette was once more named chief of the national guard ; - how much had France seen and done since he had first girded on that same sword! The tricolour flag and cockade reappeared everywhere. Thiers and Mignet issued a proclamation, urging the Parisians to transfer the crown of France to the duke of Orleans, who came up to the capital at once, and declared his ready acceptance of the office of lieutenant-general of the realm. In his first address he assured France that thenceforward the charter should be a reality. On the 2d of August 1830 Charles X., finding that the army had deserted his cause, and that necessity was on him, abdicated in favour of his young grandson Henry duke of Bordeaux, son of the duke of Berri ; the dauphin, who was childless, also renounced his own claims on behalf of his nephew, who was then ten years old. This last representative of the older Bourbons, the last hope of the legitimists of France, lives still, cherishing his claims, and known to modern history as Henry, count of Chambord. Charles withdrew to England, where he died in 1836.

The day after his abdication Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, the representative of the Orleans branch of the Bourbons, son of Philippe Egalite, and great-great-grandson of the Regent Philip, opened the session of the chambers as lieutenant-general of the realm. The charter was carefully revised in a liberal direction, and the crown was offered to the duke and his heirs-male with the title of "King of the French." On the 9th. of August 1830 the new constitutional monarch, ruling, not by divine right, nor by territorial possession, but by the will of the sovereign people, "king of the French," not "king of France,"' king of the tricolour, not of the lilies and the white cockade, took oath faithfully to observe the amended charter. The era of constitutional monarchy seemed at last to have begun in France ; men thought that the fires of the Revolution had died down, that republicanism was discredited, while the follies of the older Bourbons, on the other hand, had been shown to be no longer possible. "The days of July" were hailed as heralding a new epoch of moderate polities ; the "citizen-king," who had carefully shunned the reactionary party, and was by family tradition head of the liberal branch of the Bourbons, should lead France along a new course of decorum and material prosperity. It should be the reign, not of noble and priest, nor of grim artisan and sans•culotte, but of broadcloth burgher, a rule of common sense and constitutional use. Lafayette, who in these later days had sided much with carbonari and republicans, was greatly blamed for lending the support of his name to any monarchical system of government. His excuse ]ay in his belief that, for the time at least, the republicans were but a small minority of the people. The events of subsequent years seemed to prove him right ; yet in the end the stronger beliefs and energies of republicanism were fatal to the throne. Peace at home and abroad, and a constitutional government, allied with such countries as also enjoyed the blessings of a moderate form of polity, especially with England, - these were the chief aims of the reign, as it was worked out by the two antagonistic statesmen, the rivals Thiers and Guizot.

This revolution of the " three glorious days of July " was a part of a general movement throughout a large part of Europe ; for men were weary of the triumphs of reaction. In England these were the days of the Reform agitation which is indissolubly connected with the name of Earl Russell. In Belgium the news of the three days led to a violent insurrection, and the Belgians, who hated the union with the Dutch, threw them off and declared themselves independent ; they bestowed a constitutional crown on Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. When the Dutch refused to deliver up Antwerp and let the Scheldt run free, England and France combined to help the young kingdom ; a strong French army soon forced the Dutch to evacuate Antwerp citadel.

At home the country was still uneasy ; both legitimists and republicans were anxious to embarrass the Government. There were troubles in Paris, at Lyons, at Grenoble, and in La Vendee, where the romantic duchess of Berri kept up the hopes of the old Bourbon party. After a time the Government succeeded in capturing her, and then it came out that she had been for some time secretly married to an Italian gentleman ; this, and the birth of a daughter, discredited the legitimist cause completely ; the duchess was allowed to retire in peace to Palermo. The disturbances at Paris and Lyons were also put clown, and their chief instigators punished. After this the efforts of the dissatisfied took the form of attempts at assassination, and this in turn led in 1836 to the passing of the Laws of Sep, tember, which treated press offences with severity, and regulated strictly the procedure of the law-courts. In this period could be seen a more marked divergence of parties, even among the Orleanists themselves. On the one hand there were the more conservative or reactionary men ; on the other the upholders of the English theory that " the king reigns, but does not govern." At first Louis Philippe had chosen his Government from the former party, which, at the beginning of the reign had embraced not only Casimir Porier, the head of the Government, but Guizot, Thiers, and other men of name in politics and literature. Casimir Porier, vigorous in combat, but not a large-minded statesman, was carried off in 1832 by cholera, then raging fearfully in Paris; and soon after that time the lifelong feud between Guizot and Thiers began. A series of Governments followed one another in quick succession, and without stability ; at last, the cabinet, headed by Marshal Soult, having proved unable to hold its own, a new ministry followed, of which Thiers was the bead (February 1836). The ambitious little statesman, with the fire and heat of the south in him, advocate, newspaper editor, historian, and politician, seemed now to have reached his goal. His ministry, however, lasted but a very few months. He wanted to interfere in the affairs of Spain, while the king refused to change his policy of non-intervention ; the cabinet broke up, and Count Mole, with Guizot as minister of public instruction, succeeded. The new Government had to face the anger of France at the failure of French troops in Algeria before the hill-fort of Constantine, and the agitation which succeeded the strange attempt (October 1836) of Prince Louis Napoleon to arouse imperialist echoes among the troops at Strasburg. Though, when he showed himself and read a proclamation to the soldiers, many replied with shouts of " Vive FEmpereur," the bulk of the troops refused to listen, and he was arrested with his companion, a M. Persigny, and sent on to Paris. The Government treated him leniently, and allowed him to leave France for New York. In 1838 Count Mole, finding the state of parties very uneasy, dissolved the chambers, and fresh elections followed. There had been four chief parties in the Assembly, - the Right, led by the famous conservative lawyer Berryer; the Right Centre, under guidance of Guizot; the Left Centre, headed by Thiers ; and the Left, led by Odillon-Barrot, formerly president of the society "Aide -toi, he ciel t'aidera," an association formed to advance purity and freedom of elections, and a chief motive-power in the revolution of July. This last party, till 1840, was in constant opposition to Government. It was felt that the king, who was obstinate in his opinions, and not very scrupulous, had for some time past been interfering more than was wholesome in electioneering matters ; the system of help to official candidates, the snare of French politics, took large development under him. The elections resulted in a majority for Mol6 and the Government. The other parties, however, made a coalition against him, which, under the leading of Thiers and Guizot, overthrew the ministry in 1839. The parties, however, did not agree well after their victory ; the king was not cordial with them, and chose his ministers so as to exclude the three victorious leaders. In 1840 the king's friends were again defeated. Thiers again became chief minister, and Guizot was sent as ambassador to St James's, where he had a very difficult part to play, in consequence of the state of the Eastern question. The rebellion of Mehemet Ali, the able viceroy of Egypt, against the sultan had aroused no small excitement in Europe. Mehemet was well known in France, where his adventurous career had attracted much attention. Though the French and their allies had destroyed his fleet at Navarino in 1827, he had since (1831-1833) acquired the government of Syria as well as that of Egypt, by the energy of his son Ibrahim Pasha. When the sultan in 1837 endeavoured to reduce his power, he again declared war against him, and Ibrahim once more defeated the Turks, securing Syria for his father. Now arose a great difference between France and England. The French Government wished that both Egypt and Syria should be finally guaranteed to Mehemet ; the English Government, declaring that such a step would be fatal to the Turkish empire, insisted that Syria should be, with some small exceptions, restored to the Porte. In July 1840 England formed a quadruple alliance with Russia, Austria, and Prussia, without communicating at all with Guizot till after the treaty had been actually signed. Napier speedily bombarded and took Beyrout, while Stopford blockaded Alexandria. In one short campaign the Egyptians were easily cleared out of Syria, and Mehemet Ali acquiescing in the power of the stronger, secured his position in Egypt, while he finally restored Syria to the Porte.

In France the irritation was extreme. The nation had watched Mehemet's regeneration of Egypt, a country in which, ever since Bonaparte's expedition, France had seemed to have a special interest ; it was a great shock to her to see her diplomacy rudely foiled, her sympathies neglected, her strength unemployed. Tho restoration to France in 1840 of the ashes of Napoleon, a rash act due to Louis Philippe himself, woke many a slumbering echo of the old national pride ; Napoleon, it was urged, had never let his country fall, as the present Government had done, out of the foremost place in the councils of Europe. The second attempt of Louis Bonaparte to win over the garrison of Boulogne, in spite of the absurdities of the tame eagle, and the utter failure of the venture, added not a little to the popular uneasiness. By shutting up the adventurer in the castle of Ham, the Government made him a martyr, and roused much dormant sympathy for him. The ministry accordingly fell, and Guizot, under the nominal presidency of Marshal Soult, became the real head of the new Government. The step was far from allaying the strong feeling in France ; men accused Guizot of having played the country false while in London ; his bitter antagonism to Thiers seemed to them to be the cause of the humiliation of France. I For the moment, however, the only result was the fortification of Paris, which was begun in 1841.

The annals of France were now tranquil, under the cold administration of Guizot ; party spirit seemed to have died down ; the " Pritchard affair," arising out of the occupation by France of Otaheite, in accordance with a treaty in 1842, aroused again the slumbering irritation between France and England. The English Government had not objected to the treaty between Queen Pomare of Otaheite and the French Government; Mr Pritchard, however, consul, missionary and medical man to the queen, believing that the treaty was bad for the natives, had succeeded in persuading Queen Pomare to repudiate it, and to call on England to support her. Thereon in 1844 the French arrested him, sent him back to England, and occupied the island as its protector. The success of the French arms in Africa also angered the English ; Marshal Bugeaud had vigorously attacked and punished the emperor of Morocco for giving refuge and support to Abd-el-Kader, and the defeated emperor was obliged to sue for peace (September 1846). In 1847 Lamoriciiire succeeded in capturing the picturesque chieftain who had caused France so much trouble, and sent him as a prisoner to France. Lastly, the vexed question of the Spanish marriages, in 1846, in which Louis Philippe succeeded in re-allying the Bourbons of France and Spain by a double marriage, caused very strong feeling in England ; it was felt that Guizot had broken his word in the matter, and that France was taking unfair means of avenging herself for the affront of the quadruple alliance of 1840.

So things stood when 1847 opened with gloomy aspects for the French Government : irritation, want, the feeling that the Government had done little to lessen the commercial and agricultural distress; the desire of a more popular and perhaps more brilliant rule ; the distrust of Guizot's policy, as shown in the risks of the Spanish marriages, by which he had endangered the peace of France for the sake of illusory dynastic advantages ; the consciousness that the king's feelings were not friendly to the people, that his government was selfish, and that he did not hesitate to use corruption and influence in elections, - these things all made affairs seem unsettled and precarious. Gnizot's policy in the affair of the marriages, in his support of the Swiss Soliderbund, which was the resistance of reactionary against popular principles in Switzerland, his appeals to the treaties of 1815, his friendly attitude towards Metternich and Austria, his divergence from the liberal views of Lord Palmerston, his dislike for the patriots of Italy, shocked and alienated all liberal opinion in France, and made the minister completely unpopular. The role of prudence at home and peace abroad, never an heroic one, had been abandoned by Guizot for a system which endangered peace with the neighbours of France and irritated the passions of party at home. Trickery and subterfuge seemed to rule in high places.