THE LATE DUO DE BROGUE.*

[SECOND NOTICE.]

Taeotortour the reigns of Louis XVIII. and Charles X., the Duo de Broglie, says the translator of the Souvenirs,—

sat constantly on the benches of the Liberal opposition

in the Houses, and combated firmly though with moderation the retro- grade tendenoies of the Restoration, the measures and the laws which brought discredit upon the name of the House of Bourbon, and eventually lost his crown to Charles X. He displayed in those con- tests a grave and powerful eloquence, sometimes seasoned with cold and biting irony, and much ability in his method of argumentation which secured for him the reputation of having been one of the most eminent of French Parliamentary orators. The brilliant speeches he delivered at that time in defence of the liberty of the press are regarded as amongst the best specimens of his oratory In 1817 he became acquainted with Royer-Collard, De Serve, Camille Jordan, De Barante, Gnizot, and De R6musat, the chiefs of the party known to history under the name of 'doctrinaire,' to whose efforts must be ascribed the progress of Liberal ideas, which in France, daring the Restoration, paved the way for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.'

All this history of constitutions, laws, debates, ministries, triumphs and defeats, theory and practice, with all the human passions and interests, friendships, disappointments, involved in the stormy political life of the time, is told by the Duc de Broglie

• Personal Recollections of the late Due de Broglie. Translated and Batted by Raphael Led. de Beaufort. 2 rola. London: Ward and Downey. 1537.

with an animation which carries us on irresistibly. We may agree with his politics or not—the majority of sensible people generally do—but we must admire his honesty and earnestness, his love for his country, and absence of personal ambition. His own speeches, which are included in the Souvenirs, are also well worth reading.

The excellent party of the Doctrinaires, thoughtful, well. intentioned, constitutional as they were, seem in their early days to have been somewhat obscure and pedantic. We will give a sketch of their views, to be found in the second volume of the Souvenirs; and we will give it in English, so as to justify our former remarks on the translation. The Due de Broglie says :—

"By identifying myself thoroughly with the party of which I now was a member, I only felt its defects all the more. Here is what a good judge, who had no ill.will towards it, says about it It is not wrong to call the Doctrinaires revolutionary metaphysicians. They are revolutionary from moral, noways from political opinions; they have too much sense to wish for what is impracticable; but they are Jacobins by reflection, who reject the old views, just as the Jacobins of 1789 rejected titles and privileges, and they wish to make a clean sweep in philosophy, just as the others wished to do in politics. This canoes them to be obscure. They have a profound dislike for all con- ventional ideas. This is the reason why they give so much offence, because people like new ideas when they are the development of those which one holds already. But these ideas, which come with drums heating and swords drawn, upsetting everything that has existed in order to take its place, these ideas put every one into a rage. The Doctrinaires do not apply the motto of the Revolution- Ote-foi de in vie je en'y meets—to persona; but they apply it to principles, and that also furnishes an element of discord.'" At first sight, one does not very much wonder that ces idees-la mettent tout le monde en fureur, or that it should be said of a leader of the party,—" II alma la peclanterie comme d'autres aiment in grace." Neither, being among Frenchmen, do we marvel at the consequences that fell upon the Doctrinaires, or at the characteristic way in which they put themselves right with their countrymen :— "Lea plaisanteries, comme je Fait dit pins hant, les quolibets plenvaient star le parti doctrinaire; royalietes at liberanx, petits journaux at goes pamphlets e'en donnaient li cceur joie. Poor y cooper court, M. de Rem usat imagine de s'emparer do ces plaisanteries, at de lea pousser I ontrance, afin de mettre lea visors de notre cote, en nous execatant do bonne grAce. II compose, at chaste, de salon en salon, une chanson parfaitement drIb, quo tout Is monde se prit A repeter en riant, et qui, je l'espere, no sera point perdue, bien cyfelle n'ait eke imprimee nulle part. Je n'en ai retenn qua ea pen de vers qui peuvent en donnas quelque idde :— .Aujourd'hui tootle monde pens. En y pensant, je me suis dit Iron parti obsess est en France; II me taut en grand on petit; Or, il en mt nu fort paisible, Qui deign° m'ouvrir en mo,soh Vest us parti tres pen visible, Et presque an etre de samosa.

Avant-bier. quelqu'un my pthente, Le parti si6tait attronp6 ; Tonto Is faction pensante Se tomtit sac us canapé.

Nos Majestes soot ddeiddes, Dit le doyen. Jo noun admets ; Sous In garde de nos idees. Vases placer vos interets; Elms, on suivant notre bounties, Sonvenez-vons de parlor bald; Demander partost Is Ismiere. Sans etre plus clair mid no Sant.

Valles de Is metaphydque Tons lee matins exactement ; Abstenes-vons de la pratique Toute remade etroitement Denten fort de la theame. AfiLl de vivre longsement; On notre abstraite confrerie, Vest in triple eommandement.

Notre moil, qui croft C l'ombre, A beacon dun public discret ; Voss joneres Is role du sombre; Places-vous oar cc tabouret.

— Monsieur, mussel done espdrez-vous, Qne notre regoe noes arrive?

— Monsieur, l'avenir cot a nous.

— MA1811113, paralt pas encore. — N'importe, is temps West pas mar ; Mats ii mendra.—Qnand?—Je l'ignore, Et voila pourquoi Yemenis silr.".

It is impossible here to fol!ow the Duo and his party through those years of Parliamentary struggles, during which defeat was, on the whole, more common than success, though the victories on the reactionary side only went on paving the way for 1830, after which, under Louis Philippe, the Doctrinaires had their day. Through a good part of the Souvenirs, the Duo's recollec- tions are wonderfully brightened by the journal of the Duchesse, which was kept regularly till the end of 1823, when it was stopped by the discovery that two of their own servants were employed by the police to copy it. She was a very clever and agreeable woman, with a great deal of her mother's peculiar talent and charm. She was an eager politician, constantly attending the debates in the Chamber, and intimately acquainted with many of the best-known men of the time. The Due is right when he says of his wife's journal :—" Rien no pent &miler one idee plus exacte de Fetat de la soci6t6, et du mouvement des esprits." We have already given two extracts from the journal. It is full of such clever touches as those that follow :— "H. Ramond, qui eat venn me volt oe matia, se latnentait Bur la dissolution du pays. ' La nation se plaint, diaait-il, des Chambrea et du ministere; tout cola, c'est elle.merne; c'est one !aide qui se plaint

de son " " S'il n'y avait plus personne pour regarder les Francais, Hs n'existeraient plus, tent us no vivant qua pour lea entree." "Le tort de H. Decams, dit N. Garza, o'est de vonloir tonjonre de petits rembdes atm arenas Olson; ii omit quo tout pest

se guerir avec de la tisane." "H. de G— noes a dit area on air do hires de theatre Certainement nous avous fait des concessions cornea opinions; male, quant A nos it:Lei-eta, ni l'on eroit quo noes les minions, on se trompe; qu'on y tonche senlement et Fon versa si noes savona lee defendre ! Le goats etait ei bean, quo j'ai cm gull se trompait de mote, at qu'il voulait dire le contraire." " J'ai caned avec le duo d'Orleans ; nous avons parle dee affaires pnbliques. II me disait dadement : Ce gouvernement.ei ant comma on chapeau stir la tete qui n'entre pas."

To many people, the most interesting part of the Due de Broglie's book will be his wonderfully spirited account of the Revolution of 1830. He was an eye-witness of all those exciting

scenes, after which he became one of Louis Philippe's :Ministers, and this account of his public life ends with the terrible invasion of cholera in 1832. He ceased to be a Minister in 1835, but took a deep and patriotic interest in politics till his death in 1870, disapproving highly of the Revolution in 1848, and also of the Second Empire. His son, one of the most distinguished of living Frenchmen, speaks, in the preface to the Souvenirs, of his father's fortes croyances philosophigues et religicuses ; and no one can read the book without feeling himself in the presence of a thoroughly sincere politician and noble character. The Dee de Broglie appears to have had a strong admiration for English institutions, as they were when he knew them :—" I love England, as the Ultramontanes love Rome." Of his own political opinions he gives an account in the fourth volume of the Souvenirs, after telling the story of the Revolution of July. For his sake, we cannot resist giving the quotation in his own words : it will be found towards the end of the second volume of the translation :—

" Se no anis ni legitimist° ni demoorate as sena (peon attrilme de nos jonrs A cos dean deoominations. Jo n'estime pas qu'il y nit, en politique, des dogmes, c'est.A.dire des principes soperieurs A la raieon

ot Is l'interet social Je ne crois pas au droit divin Je no crois pea qn'une nation appartienne Is use famine, qu'elle lui appartienne corps at biens, time et conscience, comme on troupeau pour en user et on abuser, de Mlle sorb e quo, quoi qua fame cette famine, A quelque extremite qu'elle se poste, de quelque enormite

qu'elle no rende coupable, le droit de regner Jul demons°

Male je ne mils pas davantage Is Is sonverainet6 du peuple

Je no crois pas glean people nit le droit de changer son gonverne- ment wed ii loi plait, comme ii lni plait, nniquement perm quo eela Jut plait. Je no recounais pas A Is majorite plus an d'une nation be droit de se passer see fantaisies en fait de gonvernement ; je ne reconnaitrais pas oe droit A l'imanimite d'une nation, puree quo je no be reconnais I ancno homme en partienlier, puree quo lea hommes out ete places ear oette terre par be Createur, non pour no passer leurs fantaisies, mails pour obeir nun lois dternelles de la justice et de la verit6, pear se condaire en elms meninx et raisonnables, pour tenir leers engagements mood ile en out priv, pour garder bears ser- ments quand its en out prete. Les engagements des peuples envers les gonvernements no soot pas moms sacra pour moi quo cetix des gouvernements euvera les peoples, et be regime du bon plaisir no me pamit ni moms insolent ni moles abject our la place pabliqae quo dune le palais des role."

If these are Doctrinaire opinions, then we rather think that M. de Remusat was something of a prophet in that line of his song,— " Monsieur, l'avenir at Is nous."

In conclusion, we cannot too strongly recommend every one who takes an interest in French character, politics, or history, to read the late Due de Broglie's Personal Recollections, in the original French, or, fettle de mieux, in M. de Beaufort's English translation.