Rochecotte, December 2, 1836.—The Archbishop's letter concerning the convocation of the clergy is a bad one, because of its fault-finding, which is an unsuitable characteristic in an ecclesiastic whose finest quality is evangelical simplicity; but we must also admit that he must have been shocked by the attempt to influence the clergy directly, and that the prohibition of prayers instituted by the Church is somewhat too revolutionary, and I wish we could reform revolutionary ways more definitely. We cling to them out of fear, and this timidity, which is too obvious, brings us into isolation abroad and encourages enemies at home.
The Duc d'Angoulême will certainly style himself Louis XIX. and his wife the Queen; she wished it to be so. However, immediately after the death of Charles X. they sent all the insignia of royalty into the room of the Duc de Bordeaux, declaring that even if events were favourable they never wished to reign in France. In any case the notifications were issued under the incognito title of Comte de Marnes. The young Prince is called Monseigneur at Goritz. He and his sister are staying with his uncle and aunt.
M. de Polignac wrote to M. Molé after the death of Charles X., saying positively that he would be grateful to the King of the French for permission to leave Ham, and thus obtained his permit. M. Peyronnet wrote in charcoal on his prison wall, "I ask mercy only from God," which I think he had hardly the right to say, since he left his prison in very lively spirits. He would not see M. de Polignac again, even at the last moment.
Rochecotte, December 15, 1836.—I shall certainly leave here to-morrow evening, and shall be at Paris in the afternoon of the day following.
[The two correspondents whose letters furnish material for these memoirs spent a few months together at Paris, so that the memoirs were interrupted, and recommenced in 1837.]
CHAPTER II
1837
Paris, April 17, 1837.—The new Ministry, which entered upon office the day before yesterday, and is destined to immortalise the date of April 15, as different Governments are designated by such dates, will have a stern conflict to wage, and I hope, for the sake of its leader, M. Molé, that it will emerge with honour from the struggle. The Journal de Paris offers a frank Doctrinaire opposition; the Journal des Débats pronounces a funeral oration over the last Ministry and offers peace and support to the new one. All this promises neither reality, sincerity, fidelity, nor stability, and I hardly know to whom or to what it is reasonable to trust in the sphere of political relations. M. Royer-Collard came to see me this morning before going to the Chamber of Deputies; he did not seem to think that the new Ministry would survive one session.[ [57]
M. Thiers came to dine with us, among other guests, and talked largely, as usual. He came from the Chamber, where they had in vain awaited the official proclamation of the new Ministry which had been announced. The King was to take the Electress,[ [58] who is at Paris at this moment incognito as the Comtesse d'Arco, to visit Versailles, but as the council lasted from ten in the morning till five in the afternoon the King was unable to go out or the Ministers to appear before the Chamber. The incident produced a bad effect upon the Electress, who is said to be irritable and scornful.