Worlds Best Histories France Vol 7 by M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

M >> M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt >> Worlds Best Histories France Vol 7

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Inspired from other sources than Madame de Stael was, but as ardent in his
opposition to the sovereign master of the destinies of France,
Chateaubriand supported, like her, the flag of an independent spirit and
of genius against the arbitrary will of one man. He manifested this in a
brilliant manner. Already famous by the publication of his _Genius of
Christianity_, he was then writing in the _Mercure_. "Eighteen months
before the publication of the _Martyrs_," says M. Guizot, in his memoirs,
"in August, 1807, I stopped several days in Switzerland, when going to
visit my mother at Nimes, and in the eager confidence of youth, as curious
to see celebrated persons as I was unknown myself, I wrote to Madame de
Stael to ask for the honor of an interview. She invited me to dinner at
Ouchy, near Lausanne, where she then resided. I was seated by her side,
and having come from Paris she questioned me on all passing there, what
people were saying, what occupied the public and the salons. I spoke of an
article by Chateaubriand in the _Mercure_, which attracted attention at
the moment of my leaving. One sentence had particularly struck me, and I
quoted it word for word, for it was fixed in my memory: 'When in the
abject silence the only sound heard is the chain of the slave, and the
voice of the informer, when all tremble before the tyrant, and it is as
dangerous to incur his favor as to merit his displeasure, it seems to be
the historian's duty to avenge the people. The prosperity of Nero is in
vain, Tacitus is already born in the empire, he grows up unknown by the
ashes of Germanicus, and already a just providence has delivered to an
obscure child the glory of the master of the world.' My accent was
doubtless impressive and full of emotion, for I was impressed and moved
myself. Madame de Stael seized me quickly by the arm, saying, 'I am sure
that you would act tragedy admirably; stop with us and take a part in
_Andromaque_.' That was her hobby and amusement of the moment.

"I resisted her kindly suggestion, and the conversation came back to
Chateaubriand and his article, which was much admired, and caused some
anxiety. There was reason to admire it, for the passage was truly
eloquent; and also cause for anxiety, for the _Mercure_ was suppressed
precisely because of that passage. Thus the Emperor Napoleon, conqueror of
Europe, and absolute master of France, thought that he could not suffer it
to be said that his future historian would perhaps be born under his
reign, and felt himself obliged to take the honor of Nero under his
protection. It was scarcely worth while to be such a great man to have
such fears to show, or such clients to protect."

If the emperor pursued with anger the spirit of opposition in the salons,
which he endeavored ceaselessly to rally around him, and if, above all, he
feared their glorious representatives, Madame de Stael and Chateaubriand,
he watched still more harshly the newspapers and the journalists. His
revolutionary origin, and the early habits of his mind had rendered him
hostile to that liberty of the press which flourished under the
Constituent Assembly, withered away under the Legislative Assembly, and
expired during the Terror in a sea of blood. When Daunou wished to insert
the liberty of the press in the constitution of the year VIII., he
encountered great opposition on the part of former Jacobins. They and
their friends had secured the right of saying always what they chose, and
knew the means of preserving what they had acquired at the price of many
massacres; the liberty their adversaries demanded appeared to them
dangerous and unjust. Such has always been in the main the revolutionary
idea, and the Emperor Napoleon had not forgotten this theory and this
arbitrary practice. However, he also knew what might be the influence of
the periodical press, and he endeavored to submit to the discipline of his
will the small number of newspapers which existed under his reign. "Stir
yourself up a little more to sustain public opinion," he wrote to Fouche,
on the 28th April, 1805. "Print several articles, cleverly written, to
deny the march of the Russians, the interview of the Emperor of Russia
with the Emperor of Austria, and those ridiculous reports, phantoms born
of the English fog and spleen. Say to the editors, that if they continue
in their present tone I will pay them off; tell them that I do not judge
them hardly for the bad things they have said, but for the little good
they have said. When they represent France vacillating on the point of
being attacked, I judge that they are neither Frenchmen nor worthy to
write under my reign. It is all very well to say that they only give their
bulletins; they have been told what these bulletins are; and since they
must give false news, why not give them in favor of the public credit and
tranquillity?"

The _Journal des Debats_, in the first rank of the periodical press, under
the intelligent direction of the Bertins, had already been favored with a
special inspector, whose duty was to superintend its editing, and to whom
the proprietors of the paper were forced to pay 12,000 francs a year.
Fouche had menaced the other papers with this measure of discipline, by
ordering them to "put into quarantine all news disagreeable or
disadvantageous to France." This patriotic prudence did not long suffice
for the master. "Let Fievee know that I am very dissatisfied with the
manner in which he edits his paper," he wrote, on the 6th March, 1808. "It
is ridiculous that, contrary to the rules of good sense, he still
continues to believe all that the German papers say to frighten us about
the Russians. It is ridiculous to say that they put 500,000 men in the
field, when, for the coalition itself, Russia only furnished 100,000 men,
while Austria furnished 300,000. It is my intention that he should only
speak of the Russians to humiliate them, to enfeeble their forces, to
prove how their trashy reputation in military matters, and the praises of
their armies, are without foundation." And the same day to Talleyrand: "It
is my intention that the political articles in the _Moniteur_ should be
guided by the foreign relations. And after seeing how they are done for a
month, I shall prohibit the other papers talking politics, otherwise than
by copying the articles of the _Moniteur_."

We have known the dangers and the formidable effects of an unlimited
liberty of the press. Never was it more licentious than when just
recovered from a system arbitrarily oppressive. The fire which appears to
be extinct smoulders under the ashes, to shortly break out with new fury.
The thirty-three years of constitutional regime which France had enjoyed,
powerfully contributed to the moderation of men's acts, and even their
words, at the time of the revolution of 1848. The outburst of invectives
and anger which saluted the fall of the Emperor Napoleon, had been slowly
accumulated during the long silence imposed under his reign.

Arbitrary and despotic will succeeds in creating silence, but not in
breaking it at a given time, and in a specified direction. In vain did
Napoleon institute prizes every ten years; in vain did he demand from the
several classes of the Institute reports on the progress of human thought
since 1789. Literary genius remained deaf to his voice, and the real
talent of several poets of a secondary order, Delille, Esmenard,
Millevoye, Chenedolle, was not sufficient to triumph over the intellectual
apathy which seemed to envelope the people he governed. "When I entered
the world, in 1807," said Guizot, "chaos had reigned for a long time; the
excitement of 1789 had entirely disappeared; and society, being completely
occupied in settling itself, thought no more of the character of its
amusements; the spectacles of force had replaced for it the aspirations
towards liberty. In the midst of the general reaction, the faithful heirs
of the literary salons of the eighteenth century remained the only
strangers in them. The mistakes and disasters of the Revolution had not
made the survivors of that brilliant generation abjure their ideas and
desires; they remained sincerely liberal, but without pressing demands,
and with the reserve of those who have succeeded little and suffered much
in their endeavors after reform and government. They held fast to the
liberty of speech, but did not aspire to power; they detested, and sharply
criticised, despotism, but without doing anything to repress or overturn
it. It was an opposition made by enlightened and independent spectators,
who had no chance and no desire to interfere as actors."

Thus it was that the lassitude of the superior classes, decimated and
ruined by the French revolution and the Terror, inspired by the splendid
and triumphant military despotism, contributed together to keep the public
mind in a weak and supine state, which the sound of the cannon alone
interrupted. I am wrong; the great men, naturalists or mathematicians, who
had sprung up, either young or already ripe, in the era of the French
revolution--Laplace, La Grange, Cuvier--upheld, in the order of their
studies, that scientific superiority of France which has not always kept
pace with literary genius, but which has never ceased to adorn our
country. The personal tastes of the emperor served and encouraged the
learned men, even when their opinions had remained more independent than
suited him. He sometimes reproached Monge, his companion during the
campaign of Egypt, that he had remained in his heart attached to the
Republic. "Well, but!" said the great geometrician, gayly, "your Majesty
turned so short!"

Napoleon had certainly _turned short_, and he expected France to follow
him in the rapid evolution of his thought. Jealous of his right to march
in the van and show the way to all, he indicated to dramatic authors the
draft of their theatrical pieces, and to painters the subject of their
paintings. "Why," he wrote to Fouche, "should you not engage M. Raynouard
to make a tragedy on the transition from the first to the second race?
Instead of being a tyrant, his successor would be the saviour of the
nation. It is in pieces of that kind that the theatre is new, for under
the old regime they would not have been permitted." On the other hand, and
by an unconscious return to that fear of the house of Bourbon which he
always instinctively felt, Napoleon opposed the representation of a
tragedy of Henry IV. "That period is not so remote but that it may awake
the passions. The scene should be more ancient."

The passions sometimes awake easily, at points where no threatening or
danger appeared. Immediately after the consecration and the Concordat,
what could be more natural or simple than a wish to draw up a catechism
for the use of all the schools? The organic articles had declared that
there would be only one liturgy and one catechism for all the churches of
France. At first the court of Rome made no difficulty. The Abbe Emery,
Superior of St. Sulpice, gave an excellent piece of advice to Portalis,
the Minister of Religion. "If I were in the emperor's place," said he, "I
should take purely and simply the catechism of Bossuet, and thus avoid an
immense responsibility." Napoleon had a liking for Bossuet's genius and
doctrine, and the idea pleased him. The new catechism intended to form the
minds and hearts of coming generations was placed under the patronage of
Bossuet, "that celebrated prelate, whose science, talents, and genius have
served the Church and honored the nation," said Portalis in his report.
"The justice which all the bishops of Christendom had rendered to the
memory of this great man, is to us a sufficient guarantee of his accuracy
and authority. The work of the compilers of the new catechism is in
reality but a second copy of Bossuet's work."

The great bishop would certainly have felt some difficulty in recognizing
certain pages of the work so prudently presented under his aegis. Strictly
faithful to the spirit of the Gospel as to the supreme equality of all men
in the presence of God, whatever might occasionally have been his
consideration for the wishes of Louis XIV., Bossuet, when expounding the
fourth commandment, the respect and submission due by children to their
parents, was satisfied with adding,--"What else is commanded to us by the
fourth commandment? To respect all superiors, pastors, kings, magistrates,
and others."

The submission of the subjects of Louis XIV. was known to him, and
therefore that exposition was enough in his time. Portalis was of opinion
that immediately after the French Revolution the principles of respect and
obedience ought to be more exactly defined. "The point is," he wrote to
Napoleon, on the 13th February, 1806, "to attach the conscience of the
people to your Majesty's august person, by whose government and victories
the safety and happiness of France are secured. To recommend subjects
generally to submit to their sovereign would not, in the present
hypothesis, direct that submission towards its proper end. I therefore
thought it necessary to make a clear explanation, and apply the precept in
a precise manner to your Majesty. That will prevent any ambiguity, by
fixing men's hearts and minds upon him who alone can and really ought to
fix their minds and hearts."

Napoleon readily coincided with the pious officiousness of his Minister of
Religion, and undertook to draw up himself the question and answer in the
new catechism. "Is submission to the government of France a dogma of the
Church? Yes; Scripture teaches us that he who resists the powers resists
the order of God; yes, the Church imposes upon us more special duties
towards the government of France, the protector of religion and the
Church; she commands us to love it, cherish it, and he ready for all
sacrifices in its service." The theologians, whom Portalis said he always
distrusted, pointed out that, the Church being universal, her dogmas could
not inculcate respect for a particular government. It was therefore drawn
up afresh, and was so extended that the commentary on the fourth
commandment became longer than the exposition of the principle itself. I
wish to give here the actual text as a curious document of the spirit of
the time.

LESSON VII--_Continuation of the Fourth Commandment_.

_Question._ What are the duties of Christians with reference to the
princes by whom they are governed; and what are our special duties towards
Napoleon I., our emperor?

_Answer._ Christians owe to the princes by whom they are governed, and we
owe specially to Napoleon I., our emperor, love, respect, obedience,
fidelity, military service, the tribute ordered for the preservation and
defence of the empire and his throne; we also owe him fervent prayers for
his health and for the temporal prosperity of the State.

_Q._ Why are we bound to perform all those duties towards our emperor?

_A._ First, because God, who creates empires, and distributes them
according to His will, by loading our emperor with gifts, both in peace
and in war, has established him as our sovereign. Secondly, because our
Lord Jesus Christ, as well by His teaching as His example, has taught us
Himself what we owe to our sovereign: at His birth His parents were
obeying an edict of Caesar Augustus; He paid the prescribed tribute-money;
and just as He has ordered us to render to God the things that are God's,
He has also ordered us to render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's.

_Q._ Are there no special motives which strengthen our attachment to
Napoleon I., our emperor?

_A._ Yes; for it is he whom God has stirred up, during difficult
circumstances, to restore the public worship and holy religion of our
fathers and be its protector. He has brought back and preserved public
order by his profound and active wisdom; he defends the State by his
powerful arm; he became the Lord's anointed by the consecration which he
has received from the sovereign pontiff, head of the Church universal.

_Q._ What ought we to think of those who fail in their duty towards our
emperor?

_A._ According to the apostle Paul they resist the order established by
God Himself, and render themselves worthy of eternal damnation.

_Q._ Are those duties which we owe towards our emperor equally binding
upon us with regard to his legitimate successors in the order established
by the constitution of the Empire?

_A._ Yes, certainly: for we read in the Holy Scripture that God, Lord of
heaven and earth, by a disposition of His supreme will, and by His
providence, gives empires not only to one person individually, but also to
his family.

_Q._ What are our obligations towards our magistrates?

_A._ We ought to honor them, respect them, and obey them, because they are
the depositaries of our emperor's authority.

The catechism was revised and corrected by a theological commission, by
Portalis, by the emperor, and by the cardinal legate himself, in spite of
a formal prohibition which he had received from Rome. "It does not belong
to the secular power to choose or prescribe to the bishops the catechism
which it may prefer," wrote Cardinal Consalvi on the 18th August, 1805.
"His Imperial Majesty has surely no intention of arrogating a faculty
which God trusts exclusively to the Church and Vicar of Jesus Christ."

Caprara had kept the Secretary of State's despatch sealed, and when at
last the text of the catechism appeared, in 1806, it had received his
approbation. By an article in the _Journal de l'Empire_ of the 5th May,
1806, the court of Rome learnt that a catechism was soon to be published,
uniform and obligatory for all the dioceses of France, with the official
approbation of the cardinal legate. A despatch of Cardinal Consalvi,
expressing to Caprara the astonishment and displeasure of the sovereign
pontiff, remained secret and without effect. The influence of the court of
Rome upon their envoy failed before the seductive power, mixed with fear,
which Napoleon had exercised upon Cardinal Caprara since his arrival. The
French bishops were not less troubled than the Pope. "Has the emperor the
right to meddle in those matters?" wrote Aviau, Bishop of Bordeaux, to one
of his friends; "who has given him the mission? To him the things of
earth, to us the things of heaven. Soon, if we let him, he will lay hands
on the censer, and perhaps afterwards wish to ascend the altar."

One modification only was granted, on the demands of the bishops supported
by Cardinal Fesch. In contempt of Bossuet and his teaching, the standing
doctrine of Catholicism, "Out of the Church there is no safety," had been
omitted in the new catechism. That phrase being restored, the catechism,
invested with the approbation of the legate, was published in the
beginning of August, 1808. Placed in the alternative of contradicting or
recalling Caprara, the court of Rome prudently remained silent.
Differences of opinion were now accumulating between the Pope and the
emperor--between the spiritual authority, which still preserved some
pretensions to independence, and the arbitrary will of the conqueror,
resolved to govern the world, Rome included. We at last reach the moment
when the excess of arrogance was about to provoke the effect of contrary
wills. We shall now see the Pope captive, the Spanish people in
insurrection, the climate and deserts of Russia leagued together against
the tyrannical master of Europe. England had never accepted the yoke; and
she had everywhere seconded resistance. For the future, it was not alone
by sea, nor by the assistance of subsidies, that she entered the lists;
Sir Arthur Wellesley was now in his turn to join in the struggle.

A last act of the absolute will of the Emperor Napoleon signalized that
period of the interior government of France which preceded the war in
Spain and the campaigns in Germany and Russia. It was the suppression pure
and simple, by a "senatus-consulte," of the "Tribunate" formerly
instituted with so much pomp, and which had gradually fallen into
insignificance, owing to the successive changes it had undergone, and to
the secrecy imposed on its deliberations. The absolute power could support
neither contradiction nor even the appearance of discussion, however
moderate it might be. The lively remembrance, however, of an eloquent and
daring opposition was still associated with the name of the Tribunate.
Some honored names had survived the great silence. "The abolition of the
Tribunate will be less a change than an improvement in our institutions,"
said M. Boulay de la Meurthe in his report, "because, since the
constitution of the empire the Tribunate only appears useless, out of
place, not in harmony with the times." The Legislative Body formed a place
of refuge to the members of the Tribunate who were in exercise: they took
their places as a right among its ranks, where they were no more heard of,
annihilated by the servitude that reigned around them. Their admission
into the Legislative Body had, however, been graced by an appearance of
liberality: the right of discussion was restored to that assembly.

M. de Fontanes took care beforehand to indicate what spirit was to preside
at their discussions. "These precincts, which have wondered at their
silence, and whose silence is now at an end, will not hear the noisy
tempests of popular harangues. May the tribune be without storms, and may
the only applause be at the triumphs of reason. Above all, may truth
appear there with courage, but with wisdom, and may she shine there with
all her light! A great prince must love her brightness. She alone is
worthy of him, why should he be afraid of her? The more he is looked at,
the more he rises; the more he is judged, the more is he admired." By the
mouth of Carrion-Nisas, the Tribunate thanked the emperor for having
discharged it from its functions. "We believe," said they, "that we have
not so much arrived at the end of our career, as attained the object of
all our efforts, and the recompense of our devotion." Being now certain of
the docility of the great bodies of State, and no longer uneasy about that
of the magistracy, all the obnoxious members having been weeded out by his
orders, the Emperor Napoleon could turn his thoughts abroad. The question
was how to place King Joseph on the throne of Spain.

CHAPTER XI.

GLORY AND ILLUSIONS. SPAIN AND AUSTRIA.

Napoleon did not keep his promise to the Bourbons of Spain. He had not
come to Madrid in order to heal their divisions, and strengthen the
tottering power. One after another, he had drawn all the members of the
royal family to Bayonne, and there, on French soil, had easily consummated
their ruin. It was also on French soil that he made preparations to raise
his brother to the throne. King Joseph was late in arriving, entering
Bayonne only on the 8th June; and already the imperious will and clever
management of the emperor had brought into that town a certain number of
great lords, favorable to the new power from interest or fear. Already
Joseph was proclaimed King of Spain and the Indies; and scarcely had he
had time to put foot to the ground when he was surrounded by Spanish
deputations, which had been carefully prepared by Napoleon's orders. The
king regretted much having to leave Naples. Without foreseeing the
difficulties that awaited him, he loved the gentle, easy life of Italy,
and had not yet forgot the annoyance of taking possession, or the
obstacles to be met by a new regime. The emperor took care to dazzle him
at the outset. The Junta formed at Bayonne prepared a constitution.
Napoleon had collected much information as to the lamentable state of the
administration in Spain. "These papers are necessary to me for the
measures which I have to order," he had written to Murat, who was still in
Madrid, ill and sad; "they are also necessary to me to show some day to
posterity in what state I have found the Spanish monarchy." Useless
precaution of a great mind, who thought to dispose of the future and of
the judgment of posterity, as, till then, he had dazzled or overthrown all
the witnesses of his marvellous career!

Eight days after the arrival of King Joseph at Bayonne, the new
constitution was adopted by the improvised Junta. "It is all that we can
offer you, sire," said imprudently the Duke de l'Infantado, formerly the
most eager accomplice of the Prince of Asturias in his intrigues against
his father; "we are waiting till the nation speaks, and authorizes us to
give freer course to our sentiments." They stopped the duke from saying
any more; the Spanish nation had not been consulted.

The Spanish constitution was prepared generally on the model of the French
constitution. The first article paid homage to the strong religious
feeling of Spain: "The religion of the State is the Catholic religion; no
other is permitted." Several of the ministers chosen by the King Joseph
had been members of the government of Charles IV. After taking the oath to
their new monarch, the Junta first of all went to the Emperor Napoleon at
Marac, to offer their thanks and congratulations.