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A.D.1830, June 26. ACCESSION OF WILLIAM IV.—His present majesty was the third son of George III, and born Aug. 21, 1765. The biography of the king, previous to his accession to the throne, was marked by few memorable incidents. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1779, under the especial charge of captain Digby, in the Royal George, a 98-gun ship. After holding the intermediate commissions, as prince William Henry, he was made rear-admiral of the blue, in 1790, by order in council. He had previously been created a peer of parliament as duke of Clarence. The duke saw no more active service afloat after receiving his flag. He sought employment, however, but his wishes were not gratified, and the only instance, in which the public heard of him in his professional capacity was in 1814, when, as admiral of the fleet, he escorted Louis XVIII. to France.
About 1811, he dissolved a connexion, that had subsisted for twenty years, with Mrs. Jordan, a fascinating actress, who had borne him a family of ten children, eight of whom survived. This painful severance of so long a union had become necessary, in consequence of the new plan of life determined upon by the prince, and, so far as a pecuniary settlement could effect it, was made agreeable to his unhappy partner. The duke was married July 11, 1818, to the daughter of the duke of Saxe Meiningen, Adelaide Louisa, who had been strongly recommended to him by queen Charlotte, on account of her amiable qualities and domestic virtues. In the end of the following year the duchess became the mother of a seven months’ child, the princess Elizabeth, who died in her infancy. On three other occasions, before the end of 1821, the duchess had the misfortune to be prematurely confined.
In 1827, Mr. Canning, then prime-minister, revived the office of lord-high-admiral in the person of the duke of Clarence, after it had been, with one exception, in commission since the death of prince George of Denmark, the consort of Queen Anne. In this office, the duke became popular by promoting 124 lieutenants to the rank of commanders. He resigned in the following year, under the Wellington ministry. No other public event occurred until his accession. Although little was known, either of the political predilections or abilities of the “sailor-king,” as he was called, he soon gained in popular favor by his affable manners, and mixing familiarly with the people, which last contrasted favourably with the secluded life of his predecessor.
28. Meeting of delegates from the trades' unions, held at Manchester to form a national association for the prevention of a reduction in wages. No trade to be admitted a member of this aggregate confederacy that is not regularly organized and united in itself. It is arranged, that so soon as the funds will permit, a newspaper shall be established. The contributions of each member is limited to one penny per week. If their contributions amount to a million, it is calculated that their funds will speedily amount to £1,683,333.
29. POSITION OF PARTIES.—A message was delivered from the king, recommending the despatch of business, and announcing the intended dissolution of parliament. Next day, on the duke of Wellington moving an address to his majesty declaring their willingness to forward the public business, earl Grey moved an amendment to adjourn to give time for the of the civi1 list and the expediency of a regency. Amendment rejected by 100 to 56. An amendment of similar import was moved in the commons, by lord Althorp, and negatived by 185 to 139. These conflicting motions showed that the alliance between the ministers and the whigs had been dissolved. They had served, but received no wages; neither was there a likelihood of their being placed on the ministerial establishment, as the duke was more disposed to make peace with his former colleagues than depend on the volunteer support of the opposition. They had supported him on the same ground that they had supported Mr. Canning, from approval of the liberal portion of his policy, and also under the impression that the waywardness of the late king required to be controlled by a firm man. The same reasons no longer existed, and, moreover, an impression was abroad that the experience the duke had yet had in civil affairs was not such as to qualify him for the permanent government of the country almost in the capacity of dictator.
July 5. CAPTURE OF ALGIERS.—A powerful armament, fitted out by the French to chastise the Algerines, had sailed from Toulon on the 25th May. It consisted of 68 ships of war, besides transports, conveying 30,852 infantry, 534 cavalry, 2,329 artillery, and 1,330 engineers. M Bourmont, minister-of-war, was commander-in-chief, attended by 25 interpreters of the Moorish, Arabic, and Turkish languages. Impeded by contrary winds, the expedition was unable to effect a landing on the African coast till the 14th June. The disembarkation was effected without opposition on the peninsula of Sidi Ferruch, between which and Algiers the enemy occupied a fortified camp with 40,000 men.
Bourmont attacked the camp; the batteries erected were instantly carried; the Turks and Arabs took to flight, abandoning to the French a vast quantity of provisions, several flocks of sheep, and 100 camels. The victors next advanced towards the city of Algiers. It made a feeble resistance, and, July 5th, the dey concluded a treaty for its surrender; stipulating only for his own personal safety and the security of his private property. Laying aside the royal garments he left the palace, and took up his abode in the city as a private individual, and soon after withdrew with his family into Italy. Within 21 days after landing, and with the loss of less than 500 men, in killed and wounded, the French abated the long-standing nuisance of the piratical regency of Algiers.
Except 1500 cannons on the walls, 12 ships of war in the harbour, and the warlike stores in the arsenals, the treasure which was found in the conquered city fell short of the barbaric wealth which had been anticipated by the captors. The expedition had been regarded by Europe as an expedition to chastise an insult; it soon turned out to be a conquest, and marshal Bourmont proceeded to take all the measures necessary to secure Algeria as a French settlement.
15. Remains of George IV. interred at Windsor.
23. Parliament prorogued. The speech delivered by the king to both houses congratulated them on the general tranquillity of Europe. He also expressed his satisfaction at the relief afforded to the people by the repeal of taxes, at the reforms introduced into the judicial establishments of the country, and at the removal of the civil disqualifications which affected numerous classes.
24. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED.—The chief practical measures of the session had been the repeal of the duties on beer and the opening of the beer-trade. Great complaints had existed, first, against the magistrates, as being either partial or corrupt in the exercise of their powers, in the licensing of public-houses; and, secondly, against the monopoly of the large brewers, who, it was alleged, avaled themselves of the proprietorship of many of the ale-houses to force upon the consumers inferior or adulterated beer.The object of the new act was to open the trade. It did not interfere with the power of the magistrates in licensing houses, but it allowed any one to retail beer to be consumed on the premises, merely by taking out a license from the excise.
An attempt was made to get rid of death punishment for forgery, but it was defeated in the house of lords.
An act passed for the amendment of the libel law; it repealed the punishment of banishment for a second offence, but required additional securities from newspaper proprietors to answer for damages.
26. INSURRECTION IN PARIS.—The appointment of the ministry of prince Polignac, last August, was an open declaration war against the liberal party. They prepared for the coming storm by forming an association to resist the payment of taxes by raising subscriptions to indemnify those who might suffer in resisting the exercise of illegal power, and by spirited appeals to the people through the medium of the journals. To the reflecting, the issue of the approaching struggle could never have appeared doubtful. Direct taxes form almost the entire source of the public revenue of France, and a passive resistance to their payment would have greatly embarrassed, if not arrested, the wild design of subverting the national liberties. Nine-tenths of the community were favourable to a constitutional system. The press the people were against ministers; the mercantile and trading c1asses were opposed to them; and to contend against general hostility, government had not a great and devoted army, like Napoleon, to overawe discontent, nor, like former kings, a numerous nobility, wealthy church establishment, and servile municipal corporations. It stood weak and insulated, morally and physically. The relative strength of the parties was attested by the sentiments of the newspapers and the result of the elections.
Unable to resist the opposition in the chamber of deputies, the king had had recourse to a dissolution. All the means government possessed were called into exertion to influence the elections, but they entirely failed. In Paris, where the electors amounted to 8,845, only 1,500 voted for the ministerial candidates, while 7,314 voted for the opposition members. It followed that the newly elected chamber was more inimical to the court this its predecessor; while the public dissatisfaction had been augmented by the unjustifiable means adopted to control the exercise of the elective franchise. The chamber had not yet met, and ministers seemed determined it never should. Having failed in their appeal to public opinion, they determined on the more hazardous experiment of an appeal to force. The plot opened with a report addressed to the king, drawn up by M. Chantelauze, and signed by him and Polignac, D'Haussez, Peyronnet, Montbel, Ranville, and Capelle, recommending the suppression of the press, on account of its seditiousness, which legal prosecutions had been unable to control; and the reconstruction of the chamber of deputies, on the ground of its democratic character. This report appeared in the Moniteur, on the morning of Monday, July 26. On the same day, and in the same paper, appeared the famous ordinances in conformity with the report, dated the 26th, signed by the king and counter-signed by his ministers. By the first ordinance, the liberty of the press is suppressed, and no journal allowed to be published without the authority of the government. By the second, the chamber of deputies, which was to meet August 3rd, is dissolved. By the third, a new scheme of election was introduced, which destroyed the franchises of three-fourths of the electors and reduced the number of deputies from 430 to 258 members. Thus, the constitution was swept away by royal mandates, issued without colour of authority, beyond a manifest perversion of the l4th article of the Charter.
Several hours elapsed before the ordinances were generally known, and then the capital began to display symptoms of rising agitation. The editors and proprietors of the journals assembled, and having resolved that the ordinances were illegal, they determined to publish their papers on the following day. A statement of their views, by thirty-eight persons, the conductors and proprietors of twelve journals, was published in the National. “In the situation in which we are placed,” said they, “obedience ceases to be a duty. We dispensed from obeying. We resist the government in what concerns ourselves. It is for France to determine how far her resistance ought to extend.” Government anticipated a formidable resistance. But military precautions had been taken. The most energetic measures had been adopted by Polignac without consulting his colleagues, but in concert with marshal Marmont, duke of Ragusa, for securing the execution of the ordinances by force of arms. On the day the ordinances were signed, the command of the whole garrison of Paris was given to Marmont. It consisted of 4,750 men of the guards, 4,400 troops of the line, 1,100 men belonging to the veteran battalion, and 1,300 gendarmes making in all, 11,500.
Conformably to their announcement, the journalists prepared to issue their papers On the 27th, when the gendarmerie and other agents of police entered and began scattering the types and breaking the presses, which not being quietly submitted to, crowds speedily collected round the scene of violence. The most resolute resistance was made at the offices of the Temps and the National; they refused admission to the police, and no blacksmith could be found who would pick the locks. At last, the services of an artisan, employed to rivet the manacles of ga1ley-slaves, enabled them to enter. The electors of Paris had met in the spacious room where the association “Aide toi, et le Ciel t'aidera” held its sittings, and with prompt unanimity had determined to oppose force to force, if the ordinances were not immediately withdrawn. The plan of operations was soon decided on. Deputations were to wait on the manufacturers, printers, builders, and other capitalists, requesting them to discharge their work-people, which was done; and on the 27th, 50,000 unemployed workmen were collected in different parts of the capital, in groups, crying Vive la Charte ! in presence of the royal guard. In the course of Tuesday, about thirty deputies, who had arrived in Paris preparatory to the opening of the chamber, met at the house of M. Casimir Perier. They were few in number, but determined and resolved to encourage the rising of the people.
The square of the Palais Royal, the rue St. Honore, and other adjacent streets were the places where the assemblages of the people, on the 27th, were the largest, and became the first scenes of the sanguinary strife that was about to commence. The troops were all under arms; on these points they were numerous, and without any provocation from the people except their cries, the military began to use their arms. A charge of mounted gendarmerie took place, sabreing every body before them, and the infantry of the guards fired several volleys on the unarmed multitude. The first hostile act on the popular side is said to have been a shot discharged from the Hotel Royal by an Englishman, named Foulkes. The fire was returned and Foulkes killed. Reports were spread of others killed or wounded, and of women among the sufferers. Indignant at the wanton shedding of blood, the citizens prepared to act with energy. It was evident a deadly battle was to be fought, and the black flag, which was raised in various quarters, indicated the nature of the coming struggle. The night of the 27th was spent in preparation. The citizens armed themselves in good earnest; pistols, sabres, bayonets, and offensive weapons of every description, were laid hold of. The shops of the armourers were visited, and they carried off the arms and ammunition deposited in an unoccupied barrack. There were known to be 40,000 equipments of the national guard in Paris, which Charles X. had disbanded. In every street men were employed in digging up the large stones with which Paris is paved; part of these were carried to the tops of the houses, and the rest, together with the omnibuses and fiacres, used in constructing across the streets barricades, at successive distances of about fifty paces. Many of the fine trees on the boulevards were thrown across the road, and the lamps demolished or extinguished. By daybreak, on the 28th, the citizens were nearly ready, and soon after nine o'clock shots began to fly. A bonfire at the end of the rue St. Dennis, made of the window shutters of the Quotidienne, was the first open symptom of war. Here and there, a national guard began to be seen in uniform, hastening, amidst the cheers of the people, to the Hotel de Ville. Parties of the cavalry and lancers galloped up and down, and occasionally a man, shot from a window or other retreat, was seen to fall backwards in his seat.
At ten o'clock, Marmont formed six columns of attack; they were preceded by cannon, and directed to concentrate round the Hotel de Ville. For a moment, the populace yielded to the superiority of the artillery and regular troops. They abandoned the open places and large streets, to take shelter behind the barriers and within the houses. From these points they kept up an incessant fire of musquetry, and poured on the troops a shower of paving stones and other destructive missiles. Notwithstanding, some of the advancing columns succeeded in penetrating to the grand centre of attack, the Hotel de Ville. Here the fight was bravely maintained by the national guards. The fire of the defenders from the upper part of the building was unceasing, while the cannon of the assailants thundered from below. It was taken and retaken several times, the Swiss at last remaining masters, but they were forced to abandon their dear-bought conquest next morning.
Amidst the conflicts of the day, Marshal Marmont wrote to Charles X. at the palace of St. Clond, saying, “It is no longer a riot-it is a revolution. It is urgent your majesty take the means of pacification.” The king returned by an aide-de-camp a verbal message to the marshal, urging him “To be firm, to unite his forces in the Carousel and on the place Louis XV., and to act with masses.” The last words Charles twice repeated. The duchess of Berri and the dauphin were with the king, but did not speak. According to the testimony of M. Arago, the astronomer, Marmont's heart was never in the cause for which he was fighting, but, as a soldier, he felt bound to obedience. (Ann. Reg. lxxii. 200.) Count Lobau, general Gerard, and MM. Lafitte, Perrier and Mauguin, with the laudable design of stopping the carnage, waited upon Marmont at his head-quarters, at the Tuileries. They proposed to stop the insurrection by a repeal of the ordinances, the dismissal of the ministers, and the assembly of the chambers. Prince de Polignac, who, with others of the ministers, was in an apartment adjoining to the marshal’s, appeared inclined to listen to these proposals, hesitated, and finished by declaring that the ordinances could not be withdrawn. It only remained, therefore, to continue the bloody strife. In the course of the day, Marmont had declared Paris in a state of siege, which subjected the inhabitants to martial law, and he issued warrants for the arrest of M. Lafitte and some others, but, after his interview with the deputation, recalled the warrants.
The citizens spent the night of the 28th in strengthening their defences, in removing the slain, and providing for the wounded. Reports of fire-arms continued to be heard till midnight, which, with the noise of the breaking up of pavements and the erection of fresh barricades, showed that the struggle was not over. At half-past three in the morning the tocsin began to sound, and cries of Aux armes! were heard in various quarters. On the third day [29th], two regiments of the line joined the people. At ten o'clock, the citizens of St. Jaques, St. Germain, Odeon, and Gros Caillon, excited by the sound of the tocsin from almost all the churches, and by shouts of Vive la Charte ! came forth in arms, the mass amounting to 5,000. They had to combat the defenders of the Louvre and the Tuileries. The attack began in the Garden of Infants. The royal guard permitted the first assailants to approach, and there the contest almost as soon as it was begun, by slaughter of the front rank. Almost at the same instant, fresh assailants drove back the defenders of this important post. In the midst of a constantly rolling fire, the iron railings were broken down. This manoeuvre, which, in the end, made the citizens masters of the Tuileries, with extraordinary resolution and rapidity.
Still resistance was offered, with bloody obstinacy, on other points, particularly the Pavilion of Flora, from which a slaughtering fire had been kept up from seven in the morning on the Pont Royal. As soon as the Pavilion was taken, every article of furniture and thousands of scattered papers, among which were proclamations to the troops, were thrown out of the windows. Twice the palace of the Tuileries was taken and abandoned, but at half-past one the citizens were finally victorious, and two tri-coloured flags were placed on the central pavilion. Marmont, finding all was lost, withdrew his troops, and by three o'clock in the afternoon of the 29th Paris was left entirely at the command of the triumphant population. The national guard was organized, and the veteran of patriotic revolutions, general Lafayette, took the command. In their glorious struggle, the citizens were assisted by some old soldiers of the empire, and the pupils of the Polytechnic School who gallantly led them to the charge, and whose military studies qualified them to direct their operations effectively. The slaughter was great, especially, as might be expected, among the civic combatants, but the prize contended for was worthy the sacrifice. Of the citizens, 390 were killed on the spot, and of 2,500 wounded, 306 died. Of the royal guard, 375 were killed and wounded, and of gendarmes 202. It appeared on subsequent trial of Polignac and his colleagues that the commanders of corps carried about with them written orders to fire on the people without reserve or waiting for directions from the civil power. The soldiers were encouraged to tight by a lavish distribution of money, 974,291 francs having been issued for the purpose by M. Montbel, the minister of finance. During the memorable three days, the weather was uncommonly fine.
30. Charles X. retires to Rambouillet.
31. The Chamber of Deputies voted that the ordinance for their dissolution being contrary to the charter, they are legally constituted. They then resolved that, the safety of the state requiring an immediate governor, Louis Philip, duke of Orleans be requested to accept the office of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. The duke, who had arrived in Paris the preceding night, and who was assisted by the councils of prince Talleyrand, declared his acceptance of the office, and issued a proclamation to the Parisians, conc1uding “The charter will henceforth be a truth.”
Aug. 3. Chambers opened by the lieutenant-general. About 200 deputies were present. The galleries were crowded with peers, general officers of the old army, the diplomatic body, etc. The duke pronounced his speech with an audible voice, and he referred, with emphasis, to violations of the charter, and to guarantees against future encroachments. “Attached,” said he, “by inclination and conviction to the principle of a free government, I accept, beforehand, all the consequences of it.”
5. Mr. Brougham elected member for the county of York. Alluding to the revolution in France, and to the probable policy of the European governments in consequence, he told the electors that “England was bound over in heavy recognizances to keep the peace; a debt of 800 millions was the amount of our recognizances, and he had no fear they would be broken.” Up to the present time the learned gentleman, during his long parliamentary career had sat for one of the nomination boroughs of the whig lords; after his unsuccessful stand for Liverpool, in 1812, he was without a seat for three sessions; but was again brought into the house of commons for lord Darlington's borough of Winchilsea, at the request of earl Grey, and which he continued to represent until returned by the independent constituency of Yorkshire.
NEW FRENCH CHARTER.—In a sitting of the chamber of Deputies it was resolved that on agreeing to certain modifications of the charter of Louis XVIII., the duke of Orleans should be acknowledged sovereign, with right of perpetual succession in his male descendants, in order of primogeniture under the title of the king of the French, the title of “king of France” being abandoned as savouring of feudality; France belonging to Frenchmen, not the king. The preamble and various clauses of the old charter were suppressed; others were altered on important points. No state religion is acknowledged, but the ministers of all sects of christian denominations to be supported at the public expense. The king is the supreme head of the state; he may make regulations necessary to the execution of the laws, but has no suspensive power.
The initiation of laws, their enactment by majorities of the two chambers, with the sanction of the king, the contemporaneous session of the two chambers, the election of a speaker or president, and the settlement of the civil list during the whole reign, are assimilated to the English practice. The sittings of the peers are made public; they were private under the old charter. Deputies to be elected for five years, in lieu of a renewal of one fifth every year. Persons eligible to be elected deputies at 30 years of age in lieu of 40, and electors to vote at 25 in lieu of 30. Lastly, all the peerages created during the reign of Charles, 93 in number, are annulled. The peers took no part in the framing of the new constitution, further than to signify their adhesion to all its articles, with exception of that which disqualified the members of their own body, leaving it to “the high prudence of the prince lieutenant-general.”
9. Louis Philip took the oath faithfully to observe the constitutional charter, in the presence of the chamber of deputies. He then addressed, in a short speech, the assembled peers and deputies, saying that he “had maturely weighed the important duties imposed upon him, and he was conscious of being able to fulfil them.” The hall resounded with acclamations; and the king returned to the Palais Royal, where he gave a grand dinner to the peers, deputies. and others distinguished by talent or social position. At night, Paris was illuminated.
17. Charles X. arrived in England. Meeting at the London Tavern, at which an address, from the pen of Dr. Bowring, to the citizens of Paris, congratulating them on the July revolution, was unanimously agreed to. Henry Warburton, M.P., in the chair.
25. REVOLUTION IN BELGIUM.—The spirit of resistance, which had been awakened by the events in France, visited Brussels with a revolution, no less unexpected and rapid than that which had occurred in Paris. When Belgium was joined to Holland, in 1815, to form the kingdom of the Netherlands, the union was one of convenience on the part of the allied sovereigns, by whom it was negotiated, to raise a powerful bulwark on the frontier of France: it was not attended by any congeniality of habits or interests in the communities who were thus joined together. There were differences of national character, of religion, and, in some measure, of language. The Belgians considered the union compulsory, and the terms of it unequal. They complained that the king himself, a Dutchman and stadtholder of Holland, sacrificed his acquired dominions to his hereditary; that Dutchmen were allowed a monopoly of offices; that they were taxed for Dutch debts and Dutch objects; that their religion, and institutions for education connected with it, was discouraged, that their own language even had been banished from their courts of law; that Belgium, in short, was governed as a conquered province, not as an integral part of an independent national federation!
These grievances had formed the topics of complaint in the liberal newspapers, during the past year, and their editors, MM. Potter, Tielmons, and Bartels, had been the subject of government prosecutions. The catholic priests were also among the discontented. They complained of the nomination by the king of certain high ecclesiastical dignitaries, and of his interference in the catholic seminaries of education. This was nearly the state of affairs, when on the 25th a riot broke out at Brussels, directed against a local tax, enhancing the price of bread. The vengeance of the populace was chiefly directed against the National, a newspaper in the interest of the Dutch party, and against the minister of the interior, M. Van Maanen, whose house was attacked, gutted, and burnt to the ground. The rioters broke into the wine and spirit shops, and obtained a supply of arms from the gun-smiths.
The troops were called out, they fired and blood was shed. But the rioters, instead of being discouraged, became exasperated. The streets were about to become the scene of terrible conflicts, when the military, taught by the recent lesson in Paris of the risks of street warfare with a furious multitude, withdrew, leaving the insurgents masters of the city. A burgher guard, on the plan of the French national guard, was then formed of the middle classes, for the protection of property, a provisional authority established, and communications opened with the government at the Hague. Insurrections speedily followed at Liege, Namur, and other cities, and an unanimous and inveterate spirit of hostility to the union with Holland speedily showed itself through the Netherlands. The prince of Orange repaired to Brussels to receive a representation of grievances; but was not permitted to enter the city accompanied by the troops: he promised to use his good offices with his father and the States-General.
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