70. The public debt is guaranteed. Every form of engagement made by the State with its creditors is inviolable.

71. The old nobility resume their titles. The new retain theirs. The King makes nobles at will, but he grants to them only ranks and honors, without any exemption from the burdens and duties of society.

72. The Legion of Honor is maintained. The King shall determine its internal regulations and its decoration.

73. The colonies shall be governed by special laws and regulations.

74. The King and his successors shall swear, at the solemnizing of their coronation, to observe faithfully the present Constitutional Charter.

Temporary Articles.

75. The deputies of the departments of France who sat in the Corps-Legislatif at the time of its last adjournment shall continue to sit in the Chamber of Deputies until replaced.

76. The first renewal of a fifth of the Chamber of Deputies shall take place in the year 1816, at the latest, according to the order established in the series.

We command that the present Constitutional Charter, laid before the Senate and the Corps-Legislatif, in conformity with our proclamation of May 2, shall be sent forthwith to the Chamber of Peers and that of the Deputies.

Given at Paris, in the year of grace, 1814, and of our reign the nineteenth.

Signed,

Louis.

94. Proclamation of Napoleon.

March 1, 1815. Duvergier, Lois, XIX, 375-376.

This proclamation, dated on the day of his arrival in France from Elba, is typical of the declarations and addresses made by Napoleon during the course of his journey to Paris. A similar proclamation was addressed to the army. The manner in which the disasters of 1814 are explained and the skill with which appeal is made to the memories of the Empire should be noticed.

904.

REFERENCE. Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, IX, 903

Frenchmen, the defection of the Duke of Castiglione de

livered Lyon without defence to our enemies; the army, of which I had confided to him the command, was, by the number of its battalions, and the bravery and patriotism of the troops who composed it, in a condition to fight the Austrian army which was opposing it and to reach the rear of the left flank of the hostile army which was threatening Paris.

The victories of Champ-Aubert, Montmirail, Château-Thierry, Vauchamp, Mormans, Montereau, Craone, Reims, Arcysur-Aube and Saint-Dizier, the insurrection of the brave peasants of Lorraine, Champagne, Alsace, Franche-Comté and Bourgogne, and the position which I had taken at the rear of the hostile army, separating it from its magazines, its reserve parks, its convoys and all its equipment, had placed it in a desperate position. Frenchmen were never at the point of being more powerful, and the flower of the hostile army was lost beyond recovery; it would have found its grave in those vast countries which it had so pitilessly plundered, but that the treason of the Duke of Raguse gave up the capital and disorganized the army. The unexpected conduct of these two generals, who betrayed at one and the same time their fathereland, their prince and their benefactor, changed the destiny of the war. The disastrous situation of the enemy was such, that at the end of the affair which took place before Paris, they were without ammunition, through separation from their reserve parks.

Under these new and difficult circumstances my heart was torn, but my soul remained steadfast. I only thought of the interest of the fatherland; I exiled myself upon a rock in the midst of the sea; my life was and must still be useful to you. I did not allow the greater part of those who wished to accompany me to share my lot; I thought their presence was useful in France, and I only took with me a handful of valiant men as my guard.

Raised to the throne by your choice, everything that has been done without you is illegitimate. During the last twentyfive years, France has acquired new interests, new institutions, and a new glory, which can only be guaranteed by a national government and by a dynasty born under these new circumstances. A prince who should reign over you, who should be seated upon my throne by the power of the very armies

who have devastated our territory, would seek in vain to support himself by the principles of feudal rights and he could only assure the honor and the rights of a small number of individuals, enemies of the people, who, for twenty-five years past, have condemned them in our national assemblies. Your internal peace and your foreign prestige would be forever lost.

Frenchmen! In my exile I have heard your complaints and your desires: you were claiming that Government of your choice, which alone is legitimate. You were complaining of my long sleep, you reproached me with sacrificing to my own repose the great interests of the fatherland.

I have crossed the seas in the midst of perils of every sort; I arrive among you in order to reclaim my rights, which are yours. Everything which individuals have done, written or said since the taking of Paris, I will forever ignore; that will not in the least influence the recollection which I have of the important services that they have rendered; for there are events of such a nature that they are beyond human organization.

Frenchmen! There is no nation, however small it may be, which has not had the right to withdraw and which may not be withdrawn from the dishonor of obeying a prince imposed upon it by a momentarily victorious enemy. When Charles VII re-entered Paris and overthrew the ephemeral throne of Henry VI, he recognized that he held his throne by the bravery of his soldiers and not from a prince regent of England.

It is also to you alone, and to the brave men of the army, that I consider and shall always consider it glorious to owe everything.

Signed,

NAPOLEON.

95. Decree for Convoking an Extraordinary Assembly.

March 13, 1815. Duvergier, Lois, XIX, 375-376.

This decree is typical of the series issued by Napoleon while at Lyon on his journey to Paris. The list of reasons for dissolving the Senate and Corps-Legislatif contains many of the popular

grievances against the restored Bourbon régime for things actually done or anticipated.

408.

REFERENCES. Fournier, Napoleon, 692; Rose, Napoleon, II,

Napoleon, by the grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, considering that the Chamber of Peers is in part composed of persons who have borne arms against France, and who have an interest in the re-establishment of feudal rights, in the destruction of equality among the different classes, in the setting aside of the sales of the national lands, and, in short, in depriving the people of the rights which they have acquired by twenty-five years of conflict against the enemies of the national glory;

Considering that the powers of the deputies to the CorpsLegislatif have expired, and that, therefore, the Chamber of the Commons has no longer any national character; that a portion of that chamber has shown itself unworthy of the confidence of the nation by adhering to the re-establishment of the feudal nobility, abolished by constitutions that the people have accepted; in causing France to pay debts contracted abroad for the purpose of organizing coalitions and hiring armies against the French people; in giving to the Bourbons the title of legitimate King, thereby declaring that the French people and armies were rebels, and proclaiming that the only good Frenchmen were the Emigrés, who have for twenty-five years rent the bosom of the fatherland and violated all the rights of the people by consecrating the principle that the nation was made for the throne and not the throne for the nation, We have decreed and do decree as follows:

I.

The Chamber of Peers is dissolved.

2. The Chamber of the Commons is dissolved; each of its members summoned and arrived at Paris since the seventh of March is ordered to return to his domicile without delay.

3. The electoral colleges of the departments of the Empire shall meet at Paris during the course of the approaching month of May in extraordinary assembly of the Champ-deMai, for the purpose of taking suitable measures to correct and modify our constitutions in accordance with the interest and the will of the nation, and at the same time to assist at

the coronation of the Empress, our very dear and well beloved wife, and at that of our dear and well beloved son.

96. Declaration of the Powers against Napoleon.

March 13, 1815. British and Foreign State Papers, II, 665.

This declaration was issued by the Congress of Vienna upon learning that Napoleon had left Elba. It shows the precise attitude of the Powers of Europe towards him.

REFERENCES. Fournier, Napoleon, 697-699; Rose, Napoleon, II, 410-411; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, X, 47.

The Powers who have signed the Treaty of Paris reassembled in Congress at Vienna, having been informed of the escape of Napoleon Bonaparte and of his entrance into France with an armed force, owe to their dignity and the interest of social order a solemn Declaration of the sentiments which that event has inspired in them.

In thus violating the convention which established him in the Island of Elba, Bonaparte destroyed the only legal title for his existence. By reappearing in France with projects of disorder and destruction, he has cut himself off from the protection of the law and has shown in the face of the world that there can be neither peace nor truce with him.

Accordingly, the Powers declare that Napoleon Bonaparte is excluded from civil and social relations, and, as an Enemy and Disturber of the tranquility of the World, that he has incurred public vengeance.

At the same time, being firmly resolved to preserve intact the Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, and the arrangements sanctioned by that treaty, as well as those which have been or shall be arranged hereafter in order to complete and consolidate it, they declare that they will employ all their resources and will unite all their efforts in order that the General Peace, the object of the desires of Europe and the constant aim of their labors, may not be again disturbed, and in order to secure themselves from all attempts which may