A LETTER FROM IVRIS, ON FRENCH POLITICS.
jAt a recent meeting of the Conservative Club, the following resolution was passed unutiimously--" Moved by Lord STUART DE ROTHSAY, late Ambassador at Paris, seconded by Lord HEYTESBURY, lute Ambassador at St. Petersburg, That the able and deeply interesting Report on French Politics, just delivered to the Club by a distinguished member, be printed for general circulation.") [Continued from last week's SPECTATOR.] SINCE kings are men, it is not easy in most cases to distinguish between the man and the king; but in the instance of Lewis PHILIP this distinction is ready-made, every act of the king being in fiat contradiction to the whole life of the man. Young EGALITE, the republican soldier of 93, the teacher earning his bread by labour when PITT would have given him a pension for the asking; the restored prince, siding with the Liberals, abjuring the proper pomp of his rank, trudging about Paris with his umbrella, and, worst of all, sending the princes his sons' to a dirty day-school along with the sons of tradesmen and attornies,—did I, did we, not hate him! Unjustly, though; for, even if when a youth he sincerely believed in the rights of man, it is plain that his democratic professions after the Restoration were mere professions—a blind for Conservative purposes. As Duke of ORLEANS, he played a part for which we hated him, when we ought to have loved him for playing that part. If he had not passed for an honest man, of simple tastes, kind temper, and democratic opinions, cheap government would have been tried, at least, in France : I say it emphatically, and will prove it in a few words. For about a week after the Three Days' the French nation was in a fit of generous enthusiasm, produced by the gallantry of the Parisian workmen, their astonishing victory, and still more wonderful moderation. On the 1st of August, a hardened old jobber of the Empire was known to shed tears and say—" Henceforth I will believe in virtue; the people, so brave and gentle, must be considered this time." It seemed as if human nature, as well as the government of France, had undergone a revolution. Thieves had wholly neglected the finest opportunity for stealing ; a rabble had conquered an army ; boys had shown the skill of practised generals; a detested king bad been dethroned by force, and then conducted to the frontier with every mark of respectful compassion; the greatest danger bad produced no fear; power had not been in the least abused; money had lost its value ; the most deeply injured bad not thought of vengeance, but had embraced those with whom they were just before engaged in mortal combat, and who bad slain their fathers, brothers, and children. The heroic people, all France exclaimed, they must be considered this time. Well might we shake for our cause; well might the dear Duke carry his chin in his waistcoat pocket, and PEEL perspire at every pore; for the greatness of the populace had infected the higher ranks,—who commonly, as I have said before, timid, servile, and mercenary, now forgot the reign of terror, respected their inferiors with a kind of tender admiration, and felt ashamed of their own usual greediness for a share of the budget. So that, truly, one cannot tell what might have happened, if LEWIS PHILIP had not been the first political jockey of our time. I do not believe that the generous sentiments which prevailed amongst the respect able classes at the beginning of August 1830, would have lasted even through the month ; but I do say, that, whilst the fit wason, a mode of government might have been adopted, which would by degrees have so altered the nature of respectable Frenchmen, and the condition of their inferiors, as to render permanent democracy possible at least. Suppose for a moment that all Frenchmen had been allowed to vote for members of Parliament, and that the budget had been cut down to the American standard : in that case the lowest wretches would have had a motive for acquiring political knowledge, while their superiors would have had no motive for holding them in a state of ignorance and degradation. What sort of a Reform Bill should we have had, what kind of a budget should we have now, if the Three Days of July had ended in popular and cheap government? Verily we had a narrow es cape. It was a race between Aristocracy and Democracy, which LEWIS PHILIP gained by letting LAFAYETTE take the lead. Never was there finer jockeyship. In no other way could that race have been won for us, nor in that way by any other man. The thing to be feared being, that LAFAYETTE should take advantage of the national frenzy and establish real representation, the question was, how to stop him for a week, that is, until the respectable classes should return to their ordinary state of mind. His inclinations being known, and his power for the moment unbounded, only one step offered any chance of success—to cheat the old re publican—to make him believe that be had gained his point, even whilst he was losing it. This step was taken by LEWIS PHILIP; and it succeeded, because the character of the man was an assurance that the king would keep his word. By a series of the most ingenious tricks, he persuaded the Republicans that, if they would consent to a monarchy, it should be "surrounded by. republican institutions." I have not time to describe the whole 'fraud, but the nature of it is fully explained by the following anecdote. • 'While it was yet uncertain whether the son of EGALITE would twear.a crown, somebody proposed that the future king should be scalled...Philip the Seventh; but 'to this LAFAYETTE objected, say ing, the title of the King of the Barricades ought to express the popular origin of his dynasty, and if ORLEANS be called Philip the Seventh, it will appear as if he had derived the crown from his ancestors : let him, therefore, be called Lewis Philip the .First. The Duke, affecting to think this question very important, took time to consider of it, and then wrote to LAFAYETTE the following words—" You have gained your point." What a mighty point to gain ! If our WILLIAM the Third had but thought of it, he would probably have chosen to be called William the First, in order the more to identify himself with our glorious revolution. Lewis PHILIP might, consequently, have written with great truth to LAFAYETTE—" I have gained my point." Indeed, some of his admirers boast that it was he who raised the question, as a trap for the hero of two worlds. But however that may be, when I reflect on this artifice, and others of a like sort, by which LEWIS PHILIP duped the Republicans, I am tempted to apostrophize them, saying—Oh fox ! thy craft would have been more admirable but for the extreme simplicity of the geese. Oh geese ! how despicable would be your simplicity if the fox had been less crafty ! To the professions of the man ORLEANS we are indebted for the preservation of Aristocracy in France ; but this is not more plain than that King LEWIS PHILIP has belied all those professions. Ile pretended to dislike the pomp of a court; yet his kingly establishment, removed in due season from the Palais Royal to the Tuileries, is as grand and costly as the great NAPOLEON'S. The " very dear General " LAFAYETTE, whom he used to embrace in public, he now treats with open scorn. He has cut his " bosom friend" L Anne, who, the richest man in France, became poor in putting the crown on his bead. Witness further his attachment to PERIER, a very PITT by nature,—stiff, wilful, and severe ; his fretful anxiety to be on good terms with METTERNICH ; his glee at the marriage of his daughter with a king, and his longing to have a queen for his daughter-in-law; his intimacy with the hottest partisans of the Restoration; the skill with which be works the high police of NAPOLEON, getting up a conspiracy, a riot, or even a shot at himself, whenever an event of that kind is wanted to frighten his cowardly subjects; his stern bearing to the populace of Paris, when, excited by his FOUCHE, they tried for another Three Days; the severity with which he has pursued them, especially such ragamuffins as wore the cross of July ; his "noble workmen," his "heroes of the barricades," sent in strings to the galleys ; his libellers fined, imprisoned, and harassed unto death ; the few romantic fools persecuted, the many prudent reckoners satisfied and honoured; every generous sentiment repressed, every selfish propensity encouraged; not a single Destructive movement that I can discover, but act after act of the most Conservative character. The King of the French, I say, differs from the Duke of ORLEANS like HOBHOUSE in from HonHouse out.
Louts PHILIP'S system of government, which he has called the juste milieu, remains to be described. I have said that it deserves the affection of our Club; let me add, that in my humble opinion, formed after patient inquiry and anxious reflection, the success of the Conservative cause throughout Europe, and especially in England, depends on a right understanding by Conservatives of the juste milieu system of government.
The blindest of us must see that this is the age of change, reform, and revolution; but what of that, provided changes, reforms, and revolutions may be so managed as to prove favourable rather than hurtful to Conservative objects? Wise men judge of all things, not from passing appearances, but by ultimate results. The French budget is greater since the late revolution than it was before, nay is greater in consequence of that revolution. Who, then, can doubt that revolution might be useful to the higher orders in many despotic states; or that, with common skill, we, the Conservatives, the Aristocracy of England, may gain instead of losing by the late change in our constitution ? It is beautiful to behold how tamely a people will submit to any government which seems to have been founded by themselves ! No man that could avoid it would let another man flog him with cords three times a day; yet how many devout Catholics have been proud and happy so to flog themselves! In the next place, under an old government there are but two parties,—those who seek, and those who resist change ; a simple state of atElirs, which affords but small scope for the more refined arts of government: whereas a revolution, and still more a reform, if properly managed, almost inevitably creates three parties,—those who would restore the past, those who are content with the present, and those who want further change ; a state of things which brings into full play the grand principle or art of ruling by division. Moreover, as nations, or great masses, are naturally inert, lilt disposed to change except when violently excited, so a slight change generally satisfies most people ; and thus a new government not only is cheerfully supported by the majority of the respectable classes, but may obtain from its supporters the greatest sacrifices of principle and money, by playing off against them first one, then the other, and at times both of the extreme minorities in opposition. Thus it was that our immortal WILLIAM governed England for the benefit of a small number by means of revolutionary cries, and (pray observe this) by means of two angry oppositions. The beauty of the juste milieu system is, that its real ends are hidden by the semblance of opposite ends, and that the Government is assisted by its bitterest enemies.. As a revolution enabled our Dutch WILLIAM, assisted by the Catholics and Puritans who hated him, to laytheToundation of that system which has raised for the Aristocracy 800,000,0001.
in 140 years, besides the yearly budget, so the fifty million budgetpower of Lnwrs PHILIP depends in some measure on the revolu
tionary character of his Charter a truth, and more on the existence of the Carlist and Republican factions. The French, having had a glorious revolution, believing (the dupes !) that they have gained solid advantages by banishing some of the Bourbons and abolishing the hereditary peerage, would cheerfully pay dear for their whistle even if they were all of one mind; but, as it is, when, by means of two small minorities, opposed to each other and to the Government, the great majority are kept in a state of uneasiness, the nation are willing to pay, from fright, much more than could be got out of them in quiet times. Now then, I ask of the Club, which is best—Legitimacy, with its dangerous Opposition and small uncertain budget, or the Revolutionary Juste. Milieu, with its two Oppositions productive of a budget at once great and safe ?
[To be CONCLUDED next week.]
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