which comprised men of all political parties, to whose prosperity internal tranquillity is indispensable, from whose pockets are principally extracted the expenses of war, and to whom revolution is almost certain ruin. Their selection appears to have been influenced by the necessity they felt in providing a government for France, before its internal tranquillity and prosperity had been sacrificed by an interregnum, or its borders menaced with foreign invasion, rather than by any personal regard for their new sovereign. It was in fact a political bargain: the French nation agreed to take him as a King, with powers limited by a Charter, and he accepted the throne on those terms; but to a large portion of the people the arrangement was unsatisfactory.

The establishment of a republic was not then practicable. Scarcely fifteen years had elapsed since the fall of the despotism which raised itself on the ruins of the former republic; the remembrance of former sufferings was not sufficiently effaced to prevent a dread of their recurrence; a state of unnatural exertion had been succeeded by repose; new interests had arisen from a continuance of peace, and political strife had not then a sufficient degree of intensity to organize a party powerful enough to effect a change in the form of government. The new dynasty was installed with but little opposition: the only real difficulty arose from the republicans, who, although violent and enthusiastic, were not sufficiently numerous to render themselves formidable, and were actually powerless for want of organization. "Assembled at the house of one Lointier, the restaurateur, they deliberated with arms in their hands. Political science, knowledge of business, position, reputation, great fortunes-all these things they wanted; this was their weakness, but was also their strength. Inasmuch as they could brave everything, they could obtain everything. Their convictions were intractable, because men must have studied much, and have much political experience, to arrive at doubt; they felt the less hesitation, as they took but little account of obstacles, and prepared as they were for death, they were thereby prepared for command."

This is M. Blanc's account of the republicans of 1830, and the paradoxical assertions and inconclusive results plainly

point out the object and purpose of his work. Their demands were embodied in a proclamation of which the following is the substance :—

"That the State religion should be abolished; that a President should be substituted for a King; that universal suffrage in one degree, or in two degrees, should be established. This was the whole extent of the changes then contemplated by the most daring innovators." "This proclamation fixes very precisely the limit at which the most adventurous spirits stopped in 1830, excepting, however, some few disciples of St. Simon."

The latter at this period were contemptible in point of numbers, and the whole might have been comfortably lodged in a moderate-sized Penitentiary or Lunatic Asylum; for it was not until a later period that they mustered in sufficient force to form a society under père Enfantin, which was soon broken up on his being consigned to jail as a licentious impostor. Even the more dangerous, because more speciously disguised, theories of Fourier, and the Socialists, were not then in vogue. The intelligence of 1830 had not arrived at that point.

The demands of the republicans of that day by no means came up to M. Louis Blanc's views, for speaking of them he says:

"But would society be more happy when the right of morally directing it should have been

wrested from the State? Would the overthrow of royalty suffice to hinder thenceforth the existence of tyranny in the civil relations between the capitalist and the laborer? Whether was universal suffrage to be proclaimed as a recognition of a metaphysical right, or as a certain means of arriving at a change in the whole system of social order? Such questions were too profound for the times, and more than one tempest was destined to break forth before any one should think of solving them. In 1830, no one even thought of propounding them."

No imperial party existed at that time. his wishes or his belief in this party arena, "Whilst every one was seeking to realize hardly were a few voices heard uttering the name of the Emperor, in a city which had so long echoed to that sound." remained then the aristocracy. Suspected and jealously watched, they possessed at that moment no power whatever; indeed

There

they were scarcely looked upon as an integral part of the political system, or consulted on the proposed arrangements. The great body of them were attached by ties of personal regard as well as interest to the fallen dynasty: those whose position was owing to hereditary descent, were naturally averse to a change, the principles of which might be expected to extend, and probably become fatal to their own privileges; and the same feeling would be entertained by others, in whom the pride of recent elevation was gratified by the thought that their honors would be the inheritance of their posterity.

The prevailing party, consisting of men of various shades of political opinion, were not agreed on the principles or details of the constitution to be adopted. Some looked more to the durability and strength of the government, and others to the predominance of their class, views and predilections. These dissensions led the republicans to hope they might be able to make a successful effort, and with this view they endeavored to obtain the concurrence of Lafayette; but they were disappointed, and the projected attempt was given up. A constitution, formed by the Chamber of Deputies, and acceded to by the peerage, was completed early in the month of August, and Louis Philippe exchanged the title of Lieutenant-general for that of King, and henceforth began his stormy reign.

The state of Europe was at this time critical. A revolution had broken out in the neighboring kingdom of Belgium, and the French people panted for its " re-annexation." Our space will not afford a detail sufficiently explanatory of the state of other countries; we will therefore give an extract from M. Louis Blanc, from which sufficient for the present purpose can be gathered, as also the views of the ultra democrats in France, on the subject of foreign policy:

"Thus, then, to recapitulate. Russia engaged in projects too vast for its resources; Prussia at variance with the Rhenish provinces; Austria threatened by the spirit of liberty in Germany, and by the spirit of independence in Italy; England irresolute, uneasy and impoPortugal and Spain, each on the eve of a

ccession; Italy, Belgium and Poland,

the treaties of 1815, and ready to

rise at the first signal. Such was the state of Europe when it was startled and dazzled by the revolution of July.

grounds for a boundless ambition, and any "Data like these afforded Frenchmen just power worthy of governing them had evidently the means in its hands of governing the world through them. Events called on them to assume the patronage of Constantinople, and gave France, with the re-establishment of the Sultan, the means of saving Poland. The uniforms of the French officers glittering on the summits of the Alps were enough for the independence of Italy. To the Belgians, France could offer, as the price of a fraternal union, the substitution of the tri-color flag for the odious flag of the House of Orange, and her markets not less opulent than those of the Dutch colonies. By declaring strongly for Don Pedro, France would have forced the English to contract an execrable alliance with Don Miguel, and would have sapped their dishonored dominion in Lisbon. It was easy for France to obtain a moral hold over Spain, for all she had to do was to set on against two monarchical factions, eager for mutual extinction, the Spanish refugees, invoking the magic remembrance of the Cortes of 1820.

"It was assuredly a marvellous combination of circumstances which made the salvation of all the oppressed nations depend to such a degree on the aggrandizement of France! The moral grandeur and the material importance of wish to reassure the Kings of Europe, all idea the result, were here blended together; and all of fearing them, showed not only egotism, but puerility, pettiness of views, and feebleness of mind."`

The reasons which rendered it advisable for France to extend "fraternity," to these oppressed nations, and to obtain that sublime height of "moral grandeur," are se pure and disinterested, according to M Louis Blanc, that we cannot help extracting them :

"And then nothing was ready in the interior for large reforms and lofty enterprises: it was for that exuberance of life which the revolution therefore necessary to find some outlet abroad had just created in French society. To bar. against so many unoccupied passions, the useful and glorious career opened to them by destiny, was to force them to expend their erergies in plots and agitations. None but mes of hopeless mediocrity could fail to see that to shun foreign war at any price, was to prepare the elements for civil war. The sceptre was offered to France, and to refuse it might cause much more than to seize it."

This is the very sublime of cold, self

been the adequate expression of all the noble passions, or of all the legitimate interests of France; but it was the only language that could have been held becomingly and judiciously, in a monarchical and bourgeois point of view. Had war broken out in this case, royalty would have found support within and without; it would have engaged in its favor the popularity acquired by a show of energy; and far from exposing itself to the assaults of the democratic spirit, it would have turned its own weapons against it.”

These, however, were not the views of the successful parties to the revolution of 1830, nor of the government that arose from it, which for more than seventeen years preserved peace in Europe, although at times hardly pressed by a party clamor

ous for war.

No sooner had the King become seated on the throne, and the confusion incident to the short struggle ceased, than political clubs were organized in considerable numbers, among which the republicans were the most prominent. Insubordination and political prosecutions commenced with the reign. The Chamber of Peers was made a tribunal for the trial of political offenders, which gave to it an unfortunate degree of unpopularity; for hereditary descent having been abolished, the peers were looked upon as mere instruments of the crown; and the accused were thought, by their partisans, not so much brought to trial, as delivered over to their enemies for the purpose of punishment. The republicans soon began to increase in numbers and boldness, and their plans to be laid for an early outbreak. By the month of December following the revolution, they had become formidable, although their leaders as yet wanted experience. They had contrived to effect for themselves a strong position in the National Guard, and fully aware that their strength would suffer from a dispersion, they confined themselves principally to the artillery of that body, distinct portions of which were said to be under their control. The disaffection of a part of that force was manifest at the trial of the ministers of Charles X., when the populace, indignant at the leniency of the sentence, seemed resolved on an émeute; but the firmness of a majority and the presence of the troops of the line, brought the disaffected to prudence, and

Jed rising was thus prevented. sequent period they obtained a

footing among the regular soldiery, and their clubs, which at first had been unconnected, became in regular and constant communication; and from the head-quarters at Paris, delegates were sent to various provincial towns, particularly to Lyons, a place where the elements of revolt appear to exist in an eminent degree. On the 2d of January, 1832, Armand Carrel, in the National, pronounced openly for a republic, and a few days after Garnier Pages entered the Chamber of Deputies as an avowed advocate of those principles; and from this time, although considerable irresolution was manifest in their actions, perhaps the result of prudence, they were no longer without leaders of reputation.

We have thus attempted an account of the rise of the party which has lately assumed the direction of affairs in France, but our limits will not afford space to trace them through their numerous risings and the prosecutions which followed; nor can we pursue the policy of the other parties in the state up to the time of the late change; but must be content with stating that in the early period of his reign, Louis Philippe appeared to act on the principle of attempting to conciliate the various existing parties; which policy was changed for one more vigorous, and by which internal commotions were thought to have been put down by force. During these two periods the throne had the support of the party by whom it was established, but this apparent union vanished on the restoration of tranquillity, and the difference of views and opinions entertained by its various sections, led to its disorganization, and to parliamentary and wordy conflicts which increased in bitterness and exasperation until at last they brought about the recent revolution.

For a considerable period prior to February last, the opposition or liberal party had been engaged in a grand movement for the extension of the electoral franchise. Meetings had been held in various parts of the country, under the name of Reform banquets, and great demonstrations were made for the purpose of effecting the proposed change. The King and the government, however, were firm in their resistance, and they were supported by a majority in the Chambers. To overcome this resistance, and to awe the government into com