Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/283

Rh of the chamber of deputies, of the royalist party, and of the successive Governments of Louis XVIII., was extremely opposed to the views of Guizot and his friends. Then it was that they endeavoured by their writings and by their speeches to apply broader principles of parlia mentary government to France, and to found the party which was known by the title of the &quot; Doctrinaires.&quot; The opinions of the doctrinaires had more of the rigour of a sect than the elasticity of a political party. Adhering to the great principles of liberty and toleration, they were sternly opposed to the anarchical traditions of the Revolu tion. They knew that the elements of anarchy were still fermenting in the country ; these they hoped to subdue, not by reactionary measures, but by the firm application of the power of a limited constitution, based on the suffrages of the middle class and defended by the highest literary talent of the times. Their motives were honourable. Their views were philosophical. But they were opposed alike to the democratical spirit of the age, to the military traditions of the empire, and to the bigotry and absolutism of the court. The fate of such a party might be foreseen. They lived by a policy of resistance ; they perished by another revolution. They are remembered more for their constant opposition to popular demands than by the ser vices they undoubtedly rendered to the cause of temperate freedom. In the eyes of this celebrated party, and in the sanguine spirit of the times, the French Revolution had run its course. It had exhausted the popular excesses of the con vention and the military despotism of the empire. The victory of the Revolution over the arbitrary powers of the crown and the unjust privileges of the aristocracy was com plete. Power was transferred to the middle classes of society, and their leaders hoped to establish en the basis of a limited suffrage all the essential rights and liberties of a free people. They hoped at the same time, by the diffusion of education amongst the people, to qualify them more and more for the exercise of these rights. They combated the reactionary and intolerant influence of the church. They opposed the high prerogative doctrines of the ministers of the crown. Their policy was described by the term &quot;juste milieu&quot; a via media between royal authority and popular government. In those days none foresaw that they were building on the sand, and that before another generation had passed away, their scientific structure of government would crumble into ruins, and France would again traverse the dreary cycle of popular revolutions and imperial despotism. In 1821, when the reaction was at its height after the murder of the Due de Berri, and the fall of the ministry of Due Decazes, Guizot s relations to the Government of M. de Villele became decidedly hostile. He was deprived of all his offices, and in 1825 even his course of lectures was interdicted. During the five succeeding years he played an important part among the leaders of the liberal opposition to the Govern ment of Charles X., although he had not yet entered parliament, and this was also the time of his greatest literary activity. Within this period he published his lectures on representative government ; a work on capital punishment for political offences ; a collection of memoirs of the history of England in 26 volumes, and of memoirs of the history of France in 31 volumes -, rand a revised transla tion of Shakespeare. The most remarkable work from his own pen was the first part of his History of the English Revolution from the Accession of Charles I. to that of Charles II; a book of great merit and impartiality, which he re sumed and completed during his exile in England after 1 848. The Martignac administration restored Guizot in 1828 to his professor s chair and to the council of state. Then it was that he delivered the celebrated courses of lectures which raised his reputation as an historian to the highest point of fame, and placed him amongst the best writers of France and of Europe. These lectures formed the basis of his general History of Civilization in Europe, and of his History of Civilization in France. Our space does not allow us to offer any remark on these well-known publica tions. But they must ever be regarded as classics of modern historical research, and precursors of the great advance in the treatment of modern history which has marked the last half century. Hitherto Guizot s fame rested on his merits as a writer on public affairs and as a lecturer on modern history. He had attained the age of forty-three before he entered upon the full display of his oratorical strength. In January 1830 he was elected for the first time by the town of Lisieux to the chamber of deputies, and he retained that seat during the whole of his political life, that is, for eighteen years. The moment was critical for a representative of liberal principles and an aspirant for power. The Polignac ministry had engaged in a mortal contest between Charles X. and the national legislature, and the election of a popular man of letters by an important constituency was hailed as a triumph of the liberal cause. Guizot immediately assumed an important position in the representative assembly, and the first speech he delivered was in defence of the celebrated address of the 221, in answer to the menacing speech from the throne, which was followed by the dissolution of the chamber, and was the precursor of another revolution. On his return ing to Paris from Nimes on the 27th July, the fall of Charles X. was already imminent. Guizot was called upon by his friends Casimir Perier, Laffitte, Yillemain, and Dupin to draw up the protest of the liberal deputies against the royal ordinances of July, whilst he applied himself with them to control the revolutionary character of the late con test. Personally, Guizot was always of opinion that it was a grsat misfortune for the cause of parliamentary govern ment in France that the infatuation and ineptitude of Charles X. and Prince Polignac rendered a change in the hereditary line of succession inevitable. The chamber of deputies assumed the powers of a convention, and placed the duke of Orleans on the throne. A ministry was formed under M. Laffitte, and although it comprised the great names of Count Mold, Marshal Gerard, Casimir Pe&quot;rier, and the Due de Broglie, the department of the interior, then the most difficult and important in the state, was allotted to Guizot. Nor was his an inactive administration. The waves of the great tempest which had just passed over France were to be stilled, the lives of the fallen ministers to be saved, stability to be given to the throne, confidence in the maintenance of peace to Europe ; and, although the Laffitte cabinet was of short duration, these objects were attained. In 1831 Casimir Perier formed a more vigorous and compact administration, which was terminated in May 1832 by his death ; the summer of that year was marked by a formidable republican rising in Paris, and it was not till the llth October 1832 that a stable Govern ment was formed, in which Marshal Soult was first minister, the Due de Broglie took the foreign office, Thiers the home department, and Guizot contented himself with the department of public instruction. This ministry, which lasted for nearly four years, was by far the ablest and most comprehensive that ever served Louis Philippe ; it combined men of the highest talents and character, and it rendered incalculable services to the nation and the crown. Guizot, however, was already marked with the stigma of unpopularity by the more advanced liberal parry. He remained unpopular all his life, &quot; not,&quot; said he, &quot; that I court unpopularity, but that I think nothing about it.&quot; Yet never were his great abilities more useful to his