Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/580

 542 Readings in European History 459. The Chamber of Deputies summons Louis Philippe to the throne. The throne declared vacant. Louis Philippe invited, under certain con- ditions, to become king of France. The Chamber of Deputies, in view of the imperative necessity resulting from the events of July 26, 27, 28, and 29, and the following days, and the general situation ot France due to the violation of the Constitutional Charter ; In view also of the fact that, in consequence of this vio- lation and of the heroic resistance of the citizens of Paris, his Majesty Charles X and his Royal Highness Louis Antoine, the dauphin, and all the members of the older branch of the royal house are at this moment leaving French territory, declares that the throne is vacant in fact and right and that it is indispensable to provide therefor. The Chamber of Deputies declares, secondly, that, in accordance with the wish and in the interest of the French people, the preamble of the Constitutional Charter is sup- pressed as wounding the national dignity, since it appears to grant to Frenchmen the rights which are inherently theirs, 1 and that the following articles of the same charac- ter must be suppressed or modified in the manner below indicated. [Here follows a series of modifications in the charter, intended to preclude the illiberal construction which Charles X had placed upon it.] On condition of the acceptance of these arrangements and propositions, the Chamber of Deputies declares that the general and pressing interest of the French people sum- mons to the throne his Royal Highness Louis Philippe of Orleans, duke of Orleans, lieutenant general of the kingdom, and his descendants forever, from male to male, in order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of women and their descendants. Accordingly his Royal Highness Louis Philippe of Orleans shall be invited to accept and swear to the clauses and engagements above enumerated, and to the observation of the Constitutional Charter including the modifications indicated, and, after having done this in the presence of the assembled chambers, to take the title of King of the French. 1 See above, pp. 538 sqq.