BOOK IX. time for intrigues and political corruption is gone. That which you have to do you will do openly.' After dwelling on the importance of harmony among the diverse bodies of the State, he declared that it was in order to secure this harmony, by informing the electors as to the candidates who enjoyed the confidence of the Government, that two hundred and sixty-one Deputies, bent on completing the popular victory of December 20, could be returned. He therefore directed the prefects to make known to the electors through their agents the candidates who were officially recommended. I recommend you,' he added, to keep the interests of the State above those of persons. The Government does not scrutinise the political antecedents of the candidates who frankly and sincerely accept the new order of things, but it requests you not to hesitate to warn the people against those who oppose our new institutions. They alone are worthy of the suffrages of the people who will engage to defend the work of their hands. It is understood, however, that you will do nothing that will interfere with the operation of universal suffrage. All candidates must be able to present themselves, without impediment. The Prince President would consider the honour of his Government compromised if the least barrier were set up to the free action of the electors.' Under this new electoral law General Cavaignac and M. Carnot a member of the Provisional Governmenttwo uncompromising opponents of the Prince, were returned by the electors of Paris, and M. Henon, a violent opponent of the new order of things, by those of Lyons. CHAPTER III. GOVERNMENT BY DECREES. THE last of Prince Louis Napoleon's decrees having for their avowed and immediate object the maintenance of public order were those which touched the property of the rich House of Orleans. The decrees of banishment and deportation, which affected the liberty of hosts of men, produced a vehement protest on the part of the defeated and scattered Burgraves. From comfortable quarters in England, Belgium, and Germany they began at once to intrigue again-not for the French people, not for the many thousands of deluded folk whom they had misled to the gates of a prison and then deserted, but for themselves and their chiefs. The journals which they were able to influence were glutted with stories of the monster Louis Napoleon, and were kept silent on the decrees by which, order once settled, he hastened to forgive and set free all who could be let go with safety to the public peace,1 and to despatch commissioners to the provinces to revise the judgments of the mixed commissions and remit punishments with a liberal hand. But when a finger was laid upon the prodigious fortune of that royal speculator' and money 1 A circular of the Minister of the Interior, dated January 29, 1852, addressed to the prefects, directed the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners who had been the mere instruments of insurrec VOL. III. tionary leaders, and whose liberation 2 These commissioners were MM. A A CHAP. IX. BOOK gambler Louis Philippe,' who had himself despoiled both the Bonaparte and the elder Bourbon, and turned the throne-room into a counting-house, the creatures of the House made the welkin ring with their clamour. The famous decreg'of January 22, 1852, which declared the landed property of Louis Philippe annexed to the State domains, have been many times passionately, and very seldom calmly, discussed. These decrees have been described on the one hand as wanton acts of spoliation, and the author of them has been held up to public execration by ingenious Orleanist law-writers (the Orleanists have always commanded the eloquence and the ingenuity of the French bar); and, on the other, they have been justified by reference to ancient as well as recent precedents, and by the extravagant extent of the properties which Louis Philippe had accumulated. It is quite probable that the Prince President of the Republic was not loth to deal to Louis Philippe the measure of justice which Louis XVIII. dealt to his uncle's family in January 1816, and which Louis Philippe extended to his own flesh and blood in April 1832. The Bourbons had compelled the Bonapartes to sell all their property in France 1 M. Jules Janin used to relate a curious instance of the King's love of money. When his Majesty was looking about for a wife for the Duke of Orleans, M. Janin suggested to M. Guizot the Princess Mathilde. She was young, beautiful, and the daughter of Jerome and the Princess of Würtemberg; the Duke's marriage with her would rally the Bonapartists to the King's Government. Struck by Janin's reasoning, M. Guizot spoke to the King, who smiled, and for a moment appeared to approve the idea. Then he suddenly turned upon his Minister: But she has no dot!' 'Sire,' replied Guizot, the Chambers would vote her a handsome dot with enthusiasm.' 'Possibly,' replied the King; but I should be forced to pay her father's debts myself. Let us drop the subject.' Years after, when Janin was made an Academician, and he went to Guizot to thank him for his support, the old statesman said: 'Do you remember, my dear colleague, that we two nearly consolidated the future of the Orleans dynasty and made the restoration of the Imperial family impossible?' within a period of six months; the head of the House of Orleans had deprived the elder branch of his own family of the right to hold property within the French territory. The first decree, of January 22, 1852, declared that such measures were needful to public order and for the public good, and that it was especially necessary to deal with the property of the House of Orleans, since it amounted to the value of twelve millions sterling. The political influence which a prince with such possessions must continue to hold was obvious; and the necessity of diminishing it, if order was to be maintained, was beyond question. One year was allowed to the Orleans family to realise their immense private property-being six months longer than their kinsman had given to the Bonapartes. The property not realised and removed beyond the French territory within the given time was to be dealt with according to the law 1 affecting the possessions of the elder Bourbons passed under the Monarchy of July. 1 A second decree, based on one of September 21, 1790, on laws passed on November 8, 1814, and on January 15, 1825, according to which property possessed by a sovereign on his accession to the throne becomes part of the national domain, annulled Louis Philippe's transfer of his estates to his children, made on August 7, 1830, as a fraudulent transaction, which had aroused public indignation when it first became known, and declared them part of the State domains. It should be borne in mind that when Louis Philippe made over his property, the two Chambers had already elected him king, and that he had only then to swear allegiance to the charter to complete the transaction. He had accepted the kingly office which the Chambers had conferred upon him before the 7th. 1 The law of April 10, 1832. Les Décrets du 22 Janvier 1852. Par M. Reverchon, ancien Maître des Requêtes au Conseil d'État. 355 CHAP III. BOOK IX. He was de facto king. On the other hand, the Chambers had declared, by a law voted on March 2, 1832, that the property which the King had made over to his children was private property. Being king when he executed a transfer of his property to his children (carefully reserving the life-long enjoyment of it for himself), how did he stand before the law, even as interpreted by the most skilful Orleanist lawyers? According to these, as interpreted by M. Reverchon, although the right to hold private property had been restored to the sovereign under Napoleon in 1810, under Louis XVIII. and Charles X., the private property of the sovereign, which he had not disposed of by will, reverted at his death to the State. By the 20th article of the law of August 23, 1814, it was enacted that the private property of the Prince who ascends the throne is on the instant transferred to the State domain. This transfer is 'perpetual and irrevocable.' 1 When Louis XVIII. died, the first article of the Act regulating the new Civil List made over to the State all the properties of the late King of which he had not disposed by will; and all the properties of Charles X., of which he had not previously disposed. The question is then reduced to this: Was Louis Philippe king on August 7, 1830? The supporters of the decree of January 22, 1852, declare that he was; and the opponents of these decrees maintain that he was not; although the two Chambers had conferred the sovereignty on him, and he had accepted it! In the second of these decrees it is asserted that Louis Philippe was king on the 7th, by reason of his acceptance of the sovereignty offered to him on behalf of the nation by 1 Les biens particuliers du prince qui parvient au trône sont, de plein droit et à l'instant même, réunis au domaine de l'État, et l'effet de cette réunion est perpétuel et irrévocable. |