Their partisans, their emissaries, their known agents (M. de Vitrolles and others) had a.s.serted, that the King, ascribing the revolution of the 20th of March to the faults of his ministry, would shut his eyes to all that had pa.s.sed; and that a general absolution would be the pledge of his return, and of his reconciliation with the French. This consolatory a.s.sertion had already surmounted the repugnance of many; when the proclamations of the 25th and 28th of June, issued at Cambray, made their appearance[87]. These in fact acknowledged, that the ministers of the King had committed faults; but, far from promising a complete oblivion of those committed by his subjects, one of them, the work of the Duke of Feltre, on the contrary announced, "that the King, whose potent allies had cleared the way for him to his dominions, by dispersing _the satellites of the tyrant_, was hastening to return to them, to carry the existing laws into execution against the guilty."
[Footnote 87: They were published by order of the chamber.]
Information was soon brought by the commissioners, returned from the head quarters of the allies, and confirmed by the reports of MM.
Tromeling and Macirone, that Blucher and Wellington, already taking advantage of our weakness, openly declared, that the authority of the chambers and of the committee was illegal; and that the best thing they could do would be, to give in their resignations, and proclaim Louis XVIII.
All the good effected by the cajolery of M. Fouche, and the hope of a happy reconciliation, now disappeared. Consternation seized the weak-minded; indignation, men of a generous spirit. The committee, disappointed of the hope of obtaining Napoleon II., or the Duke of Orleans; who, according to the expression of the Duke of Wellington, would have been only an usurper of a good family; could no longer disguise from itself, that it was the intention of the foreign powers, to restore Louis XVIII. to the throne; but it had imagined, that his re-establishment would be the subject of an agreement between the nation, the allied monarchs, and Louis.
When it was acquainted with the language held by the enemy"s generals, it foresaw, that the independence of the powers of the state, stipulated by the convention, would not be respected; and it deliberated, whether it would not be proper for it and the chambers, to retire behind the Loire with the army. This measure, worthy of the firmness of M. Carnot, who proposed it, was strongly combated by the Duke of Otranto. He declared, that this step would ruin France; "that the greater part of the generals would not a.s.sent to it, and that he himself would be the first, to refuse to quit Paris. That it was at Paris the whole must be decided: and that it was the duty of the committee to remain there, to protect the high interests confided to it, and contend for them to the last extremity."
The committee gave up the idea; not out of deference to the observations of M. Fouche, for he had lost all his empire over it; but because it was convinced on reflection, that things had gone too far, for any benefit to be expected from this desperate step. It would probably have rekindled the foreign war, and a civil war; and, though the soldiers might be depended on, their leaders could no longer be so, with the same security. Some, as General Senechal, had been stopped at the advanced posts, when going over to the Bourbons. Others had openly declared themselves in favour of Louis. The greater number appeared inflexible: but this difference of opinion had brought on distrust and dissensions; and in political wars all is lost, when there is a divergency of wills and opinions. Besides it would have been necessary, since the committee persisted in rejecting Napoleon, to place at the head of the army some other chief, whose name, sacred to glory, might serve as a stay and rallying point: and on whom could the choice of the committee fall[88]?
[Footnote 88: Events have justified the prudence of the marshals; but I am not judging of events, I am relating them.]
Marshal Ney had been the first, to give the alarm, and despair of the safety of the country[89].
[Footnote 89: On the 23d of June, M. Carnot, after having delivered to the chamber of peers Napoleon"s act of abdication, entered into some details of the state of the army. Marshal Ney rose, and said ... "What you have just heard is false, entirely false; Marshal Grouchy and the Duke of Dalmatia cannot a.s.semble sixty thousand men.... Marshal Grouchy has been unable to rally more than seven or eight thousand; Marshal Soult could not maintain his post at Rocroy; you have no longer _any means_ of saving the country, but by negotiations." M.
Carnot and General Flahaut immediately refuted this imprudent negation. General Drouot completely refuted the marshal in the following sitting.... "I have heard with regret," said he, "what had been said to diminish the glory of our armies, exaggerate our disasters, or depreciate our resources. I will say what I think, what I fear, and what I hope. On my frankness you may depend.
My attachment to the Emperor cannot be doubted: but before all things, and above all things, I love my country." The general then gave a true and authenticated account of the battles of Ligny and Mont St. Jean; and, after having justified the Emperor from the faults, indirectly attempted to be imputed to him, continued: "Such are the particulars of this fatal day. It ought to have crowned the glory of the French army, destroyed all the vain hopes of the enemy, and perhaps soon given a peace to France.... But heaven decided otherwise....
Though our losses are considerable, still our situation is not desperate: the resources yet left us are great, if we will employ them with energy ... such a catastrophe should not discourage a nation great and n.o.ble like ours.... After the battle of Cannae, the Roman senate voted thanks to their vanquished general, because he had not despaired of the safety of the republic; and laboured incessantly, to furnish him with the means of repairing the disasters of which he had been the cause.... On an occasion less critical, would the representatives of the nation suffer themselves to be depressed? Or would they forget the dangers of their country, and waste their hours in ill-timed debates, instead of having recourse to a remedy, that should ensure the safety of France?"]
Marshal Soult had relinquished his command.
Marshal Ma.s.sena, worn out by victories, had no longer the bodily strength, that circ.u.mstances required.
Marshal Macdonald, deaf to the shout of war raised by his old companions in arms, had suffered his sword, to remain peaceably in its scabbard.
Marshal Jourdan was on the Rhine.
Marshal Mortier had been seized with the gout at Beaumont.
Marshal Suchet had displayed irresolution and repugnance from the beginning.
In fine, Marshals Davoust and Grouchy no longer possessed the confidence of the army.
The committee, therefore, it is grating to the pride of a Frenchman to confess it, would not have known to whose hands the fate of France might be entrusted; and the part it took, that of waiting the issue of events in the capital, if not the most dignified, was at least the wisest and most prudent.
The representatives of the people, on their part, far from showing themselves docile to the advice of Wellington and of Blucher, displayed with more energy than ever the principles and sentiments that animated them. They collected round the tri-coloured flag; and, though the army had laid down its weapons, they were still resolved to contend in defence of liberty, and the independence of the nation.
On the very day when the convention of Paris was notified to them by the government, they exposed, in a new bill of rights, the fundamental principles of a const.i.tution, which alone, in their opinion, could satisfy the wishes of the public: and declared, that the prince called to reign over them should not ascend the throne, till he had given his sanction to this bill and taken an oath to observe it, and cause it to be observed.
Informed almost immediately by sinister rumours, that soon they would be no longer allowed to deliberate, they resolved, on the motion of M.
Dupont de l"Eure, solemnly to express their last will in a kind of political testament, drawn up in the following words.
"_Declaration of the Chamber of Representatives._
"The troops of the allied powers are about to occupy the capital.
"The chamber of representatives will nevertheless continue to sit amid the inhabitants of Paris, to which place the express will of the people has sent its proxies.
"But, under the present serious circ.u.mstances, the chamber of representatives owes it to itself, owes it to France and to Europe, to make a declaration of its sentiments and principles.
"It declares, therefore, that it makes a solemn appeal to the fidelity and patriotism of the national guard of Paris, charged with the protection of the national representatives.
"It declares, that it reposes itself with the highest confidence on the moral principles, honour, and magnanimity, of the allied powers, and on their respect for the independence of the nation, positively expressed in their manifestoes.
"It declares, that the government of France, whoever may be its head, ought to unite in its favour the wishes of the nation, legally expressed; and form arrangements with the other governments, in order to become a common bond and guarantee of peace between France and Europe.
"It declares, that a monarch cannot offer any real guarantees, if he do not swear to the observance of a const.i.tution, formed by the deliberations of the national representatives, and accepted by the people. Accordingly any government, that has no other t.i.tle than the acclamations and will of a party, or is imposed on it by force; any government, that does not adopt the national colours, and does not guarantee,
"The liberties of the citizens;
"Equality of rights, civil and political;
"The liberty of the press;
"Freedom of religious worship;
"The representative system;
"Free a.s.sent to levies and taxes;
"The responsibility of ministers;
"The irrevocability of sales of national property, from whatever source originating;
"The inviolability of property;
"The abolition of t.i.tles, of the old and new hereditary n.o.bility, and of feudal claims;
"The abolition of all confiscation of property, the complete oblivion of opinions and votes given up to the present day;
"The inst.i.tution of the legion of honour;
"The recompenses due to the officers and soldiers;
"The succour due to their widows and children;
"The inst.i.tution of a jury; the indefeasibleness of the office of judge;
"The payment of the public debt;
"Would not ensure the tranquillity of France and of Europe.
"If the fundamental principles, announced in this declaration, should be disregarded or violated, the representatives of the French people, acquitting themselves this day of a sacred duty, enter their protest beforehand, in the face of the whole world, against violence and usurpation. They entrust they maintenance of the arrangements, which they now proclaim, to all good Frenchmen, to all generous hearts, to all enlightened minds, to all men jealous of liberty, and, in fine, to future generations."
This sublime protest was considered by the a.s.sembly as a funeral monument, erected to patriotism and fidelity. All the members arose, and adopted it spontaneously, with shouts a thousand times repeated of "Long live the nation! Liberty for ever!" It was resolved, that it should be sent immediately to the chamber of peers: "It must be made known," said M. Dupin, "that the whole of the national representation shares the n.o.ble sentiments expressed in this declaration. It must be made known to all worthy and reasonable men, the friends of judicious liberty, that their wishes have found interpreters here, and that force itself cannot prevent us from uttering them."