clamations of joy and hope. The senators, in conjunction with some others, formed a chamber of peers. At the same time was convened the legislative body of the empire, which formed the chamber of deputies; and Louis, who had declared his determination to adopt a liberal constitu tion, granted the charter, which, notwithstanding omissions and imperfections, contained guaranties for liberty. The new constitutional charter was presented to the nation by the king on the 4th of June. It contained the principles of a limited monarchy. The person of the king was declared to be inviolable; the legislative power was vested in him in conjunction with the two chambers. The chamber of deputies was to be composed of deputies chosen by the electoral colleges, one fifth part to be renewed yearly; to be eligible as a deputy, it was necessary to be forty years old, and pay 1000 francs of direct taxes. On the 4th of May Louis created the new ministry, and on the 3d of August a new council of state. The royal orders of the Holy Ghost, of military merit, the order of St. Louis, and that of St. Michael, were revived; the legion of honour received a new decoration (the portrait of Henry IV.), and a new organization, and the order of the silver lily was founded. There were still, however, many prejudices in favour of the abdicated emperor to overcome, and many restless spirits to soothe. It was soon perceived that a great difference of opinion prevailed among the members of the royal family and among the ministers. The honours conferred on the old nobility and the emigrants who had returned with the court, excited great discontent; and the national pride was offended by the public declaration of the king, that he owed his crown to the prince-regent of Great Britain. The army, so long used to war and the rewards which awaited a successful career, was in a state of the highest irritation; the remembrance of him by whom they had so often been led to victory was yet fresh, when they saw their corps dissolved, their dotations, their pay, and their pensions diminished, their importance and their influence destroyed, and they themselves compelled to change their favourite badges for others, on which they had formerly trampled. The holders of the national domains feared to lose them. The people were discontented with the burden of the taxes, the alleviation of which had been promised to them. In this state of public feeling nothing could be more fatal for the royal government than the sudden reappearance of Napoleon on the coast of France, the 1st of March, 1615. These circumstances explain why, without the existence of an actual conspiracy in favour of Napoleon, the measures taken to oppose his progress were unsuccessful; why the army and a great part of the nation declared for him; and why, after a march of eighteen days, which resembled a triumph, he was able to enter Paris without shedding a drop of blood.

The king and his adherents left the country. Napoleon immediately annulled most of the royal ordinances, dissolved the two chambers, and named a new ministry. He declared that he should content himself with the limits of France, as settled by the peace of Paris, and that he would establish his government on liberal principles. But he could not satisfy the expectations of the different parties, much less could he avert the danger of a war with Europe. As soon as the news of Napoleon's landing in France was known at Vienna, the ministers of all the allied powers who were assembled in congress there, denounced him as the enemy and the disturber of the repose of the world, and declared that the powers were firmly resolved to employ all means, and unite all their ef forts, to maintain the treaty of Paris. For this purpose, Austria, Russia, Britian, and Prussia concluded a new treaty, on the basis of that of March 1st, 1814, whereby each power agreed to bring 150,000 men into the field against Napoleon, who, on his part, was indefatigable in making prepara tions for war. At the same time, April 22, he published the additional

act to the constitutions of the empire, and summoned the meeting of the Champ de Mai, which accepted that act, June 1. As we gave in the 'History of England," a succinct account of the operations of the French and allied armies, which ended in the battle of Waterloo, as also the deportation of Napoleon to St. Helena, and the events which immediately followed the second restoration of Louis XVIII., we shall not repeat them in this place, but carry on our narrative to the period when the two chambers passed the law of amnesty proposed by the king, by which all those who had voted for the death of Louis XVI., or had accepted offices from Napoleon, during the "hundred days," were forever banished from the kingdom. With the evacuation of the French territory by foreign troops, which was determined on by the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, the 9th of October, 1818, and accomplished in the course of the same year, was connected the payment of the expenses of the war, and of the individual claims of the subjects of foreign powers on the French government and nation. Here French diplomacy was successful, and a small proportion of the real claims was accepted as a liquidation. France was admitted into alliance with the great European powers, and the French cabinet entered deeply into the continental system. But the return of France to the ancien regime, was far from satisfactory to the bulk of the people; and the government was kept in a continual state of oscillation. now a set of ultra-royalists, and now the liberal party, directing the na tional councils. Under these circumstances much acrimonious discussion took place in the chambers, and the sessions of 1819 and 1820 were agitated by the most violent conflicts. The parties attacked each other with reciprocal accusations, and, in February, 1820, the assassination of the duke of Berri, by Louvel (who, to the last moment of his life, expressed his fierce hatred of the whole Bourbon race) drew forth the most virulent accusations from the extreme right. The minister Decazes re signed, and the duke of Richelieu succeeded him. A new law of election was carried, amid the most violent opposition on the part of the doctrinaires (members who defended a consistent maintenance of the prin ciples of the charte) and the liberals. Many officers of government, by their writings, and in their places as deputies, opposed the new system; so that, with every new ministry, there were numerous dismissions, and many names were even erased from the army rolls for political opinions. It was evident, indeed, that conspirators were employed to excite the troops to a revolt, and some were tried, found guilty, and suffered the penalty due to treason.

The king opened the session of 1823 with a speech announcing the march of 100,000 French troops to Spain. He was alarmed for the safety of France by the revolutionary movements of his neighbours; and this army, which was commanded by the duke of Angoulême, was sent expressly to restore the royal authority. The invaders encountered no effective opposition; the cortes fled before them to Cadiz; and when King Ferdinand approached that city, they permitted him to resume his despotic sway. During the last few years of the reign of Louis XVIII., he was much enfeebled by disease, and, consequently, unable to act with the energy necessary for establishing a firm and, at the same time, a conciliatory government. He died in September, 1824, nine years subsequent to his restoration.

On the accession of Charles X., brother of the deceased king he declared his intention of confirming the charter, appointed the dauphin (duke of Angoulême) as member of the ministerial council, and suppressed the censorship of the public journals. Villèle was his prime minister. In May, 1826, the splendid coronation of Charles took place at Rheims, according to ancient custom, with the addition, however, of the oath of the king to govern according to the charter.

On Lafayette's return from America in 1825, the citizens of Havre having received him with demonstrations of joy, the government manifested their resentment by ordering out the gen d'armes, who charged the multitude with drawn sabres. The influence of the Jesuits was seen in the prosecution of the Constitutionnel and Courrier Francais, two of the best liberal journals. Villèle, who had discernment enough to see to what this fanaticism would lead, and who was, at the same time, obnoxious to the liberals, on account of his anti-constitutional principles, and his operations in the funds, became less secure. The parties assumed a more hostile attitude towards each other. The royalists and the supporters of the Jesuits became more open in the expression of their real sentiments; the liberals became stronger and bolder; and the government assumed a tone ill calculated to conciliate its avowed opponents. On the opening of the session, Dec. 12, 1826, Damas, minister of foreign affairs, informed the chamber that all the continental powers had endeavoured to prevent the interference of Spain in the affairs of Portugal; that France had co-operated with them, had withdrawn her ambassador from Madrid, and had entered into arrangements with England to leave Portugal and Spain to settle their affairs in their own way. Several unpopular measures brought forward by the ministers, were after violent discussions rejected, among which was a proposed law, confirming the liberty of the press. The withdrawal of this by an ordinance was regarded as a popular triumph. This event was followed by the disbanding of the national guards of Paris, a body of 45,000 men, who, at a review at the Champ de Mars, had joined the cries of hatred against the ministry. This was a highly unpopular measure; and Lafitte, Benjamin Constant, and some other members, talked of impeaching the ministers; but Villèle took credit to himself for having ventured upon a step which he knew to be unpopular, but considered necessary. Every proceeding, however, served to show that the ministerial party was gradually losing ground, and that no trifling concessions to their opponents would avail. While Charles was much more resolutely opposed to the prevalence of democratic principles than his brother, and yielded to the councils of priests who were intent on the restoration of the church to the power it possessed some centuries before, the people were taught to believe, and actually dreaded, that a plot was forming to deprive them of the constitutional privileges which they had gained after so long a struggle. Thus the nation became alienated from the court, and the court from the nation; a new ministry was forced upon the king by the popular party, but they had neither the ability nor influence necessary for steering a safe course between the extremes of royal prerogative on one side, and popular encroachment on the other; the consequence was that both parties treated them as drivellers and incapables. In this state of feeling, Charles suddenly dismissed them, and entrusted the formation of a new cabinet to Prince Polignac, when, on August 9, 1839, the following appointments were announced: Prince Polignac, minister of foreign affairs; M. Courvoisier, keeper of the seals and minister of justice; Count Bourmont, minister of war; Count de Bourdonaye, minister of the interior; Baron de Montbel, minister of ecclesiastical affairs and public instruction; and Count Chabrol de Crousol, minister of finance. To these was afterwards added M. d'Haussey, minister of marine and the colonies, in lieu of Admiral Count Rigny, who declined the offered portfolio. The ministry was ultra-royalist; and nothing could convince the democrats of the rectitude of the intentions of either Charles or his ministers. And when it was seen that the king not only favoured the Jesuits and monastic orders, but that he showed a marked dislike to those who had acquired eminence in the revolution, or under Napoleon, and that the rigid court-etiquette of former days was revived, they were ready to believe the most absurd rumours of his intended designs, not merely to crush the rising spirit of lib