The ministry persuaded the king to sign the fatal Ordonnances of 25th of July, by which the liberty of the press was suspended, the recently elected chamber dissolved, the number of deputies diminished, and the mode of election altered. This open violation of the constitution produced the Revolution of July, 1830.
Some of the royal troops having joined the revolutionists, and the remainder been driven out of the city after three days’ hard fighting (27th—29th of July), Charles X abdicated at Rambouillet on the 2d of August, in favor of his grandson, the Duc de Bordeaux. Several unsuccessful attempts had already been made to proclaim a republic: and on the 30th of July the peers and deputies who happened to be resident at Paris, had met and nominated as regent the Duke of Orleans (descendant of a brother of Louis XIV), by whose representations Charles was induced to quit the kingdom, and seek an asylum in Scotland. On the 7th of August, the Duke of Orleans was proclaimed hereditary “King of the French,” by the chambers, and on the 9th swore fidelity to the charter of 1830, in which the sovereignty of the people was fully recognized. The national guard was reëstablished and placed under the command of Lafayette.
The first care of Louis Philippe was to obtain the recognition of his title by foreign powers; an object which was effected without much difficulty, as he founded his claim on his legitimate right to the throne (the elder branch of the Bourbons having abdicated) rather than the choice of the people. But this disavowal of the principle on which he had been chosen king of the French, however satisfactory to foreign cabinets, was exceedingly distasteful to the people, and the cause of serious disturbances. His ministers, who were repeatedly changed, were engaged in a perpetual contest with the Republicans on the one side, and the adherents of the ancient dynasty (Legitimists or Carlists) on the other.
The Carlists or Legitimists, who considered Henry V the Duke of Bordeaux the rightful sovereign of France, had many adherents, especially in la Vendée, where the Duchesse de Berri, who personally exerted herself on behalf of her son, was arrested and banished the country. On the other hand, the Republicans, endeavored to effect the overthrow of the ministry, if not of the throne itself, by means of societies, trades-unions, conspiracies, and émeutes in Paris, Lyons, and other cities. Several attempts were also made to assassinate the king (Fieschi’s infernal machine, Alibaud, Meunier, Hubert, Darmès, Henry). The appearance of Louis Napoleon, a son of the ex-king of Holland, at Strasburg, in 1837, and at Boulogne in 1840, produced no important results. In order to preserve peace with foreign powers, Louis Philippe adopted a system of non-intervention, which he was compelled to violate on several occasions by the clamors of the opposition party.
The manner in which the mediation of France was employed in a dispute between the Pacha of Egypt and the Porte afforded Thiers an opportunity of attacking the foreign policy of the government so fiercely, that the king was obliged to dismiss his advisers, and form a liberal administration (1840), which well nigh involved France in a war with the four great powers, on account of the Eastern question. Louis Philippe then formed a new administration (Soult-Guizot), which directed all its efforts towards the maintenance of peace, and persuaded the chambers to sanction the fortification of Paris.
The attempts of Louis Philippe to render himself independent of the nation, his selfishness with regard to the Spanish marriage, and the closeness of his political connection with the absolute European powers, had rendered it impossible for him to obtain a majority in the chambers, except by bribery; and as this could only be effected as long as the number of electors was limited, he resisted with his usual obstinacy every proposal for the extension of the franchise. This policy disgusted all who looked to a reformed system of election as the only means of improving the administration, and greatly increased the number of the moderate Republican party.
Even the eyes of those who had been slow to credit the corruption of the government, were at last opened by the trial of two ex-ministers, Cubières and Teste, for bribery, and the desire for reform became universal. An order of the government for the suppression of reform dinners, founded, as they pretended, on a law passed at the beginning of the first revolution (1790), and especially an attempt on the part of the police to prevent by force the holding of a reform banquet at Paris, provoked the opposition party, headed by Odillon Barrot, to propose the impeachment of ministers, a motion which was carried in the chamber of deputies after a stormy debate. The national guard and some of the troops of the line having refused to act against the people who had taken up arms on the 22d of February, Louis Philippe dismissed the Guizot ministry on the 23d, and tranquillity seemed to be completely restored; but on the evening of the same day fresh disturbances broke out, in consequence of some troops stationed in front of the foreign office having fired on the unarmed populace. Throughout the whole of that night the inhabitants of Paris were occupied in constructing barricades, and making preparations for active resistance on the morrow. Meanwhile, however, the king, alarmed at the increasing disaffection of his troops, and fearing an attack on the Tuileries, had abdicated in favor of the Comte de Paris, and quitted his palace, which was immediately plundered by the populace.
The Duchess of Orleans, accompanied by her two sons, having proceeded to the chamber of deputies for the purpose of obtaining their recognition of the Comte de Paris as king, and herself as regent, an armed multitude burst into the hall, and compelled the deputies to sanction the establishment of a provisional government, which proclaimed a republic at the Hôtel de Ville, and again on the Place de la Bastille, subject to the approbation of the great body of the people.
The provisional government commenced its proceedings by calling together the electoral colleges and constituent assembly. The elective franchise was extended to all Frenchmen who had attained their twenty-first year, and all above twenty-five years of age were declared eligible as deputies, of whom about 900 were returned to the chamber. The constituent assembly having met on the 4th of May, and the republic having been again proclaimed, the provisional government dissolved itself, and was succeeded by an executive commission composed of five of its members, Arago, Garnier, Pagès, Marie, Lamartine, and Ledru Rollin. The most formidable opponents of these commissioners were the workmen and the leaders of the communists Barbes, Blanqui, Louis Blanc. The revolutionists of February had pronounced it to be the duty of the state to provide employment for the citizens, and had followed up this declaration by the establishment of national workshops, with a view to the ‘organization of labor.’ The failure of this impracticable scheme produced great discontent among the workmen; and after a fruitless attempt on their part to overthrow the government and extort contributions from the wealthier classes, the workshops were closed, and the men sent into the provinces. A sanguinary struggle ensued, in the course of which the Archbishop of Paris was shot, whilst addressing words of peace to the insurgents from one of the barricades. After four days’ hard fighting the malcontents were utterly defeated by General Cavaignac, formerly governor of Algiers. The city of Paris was then declared in a state of siege, and the powers of the executive commission transferred to Cavaignac, who immediately formed an administration, of which he declared himself president. More than 4000 of the insurgents were banished to the French settlements beyond seas, the national workshops suppressed, and the public clubs placed under the surveillance of the police.
By the new Constitution, France was declared to be a democratic republic, one and indivisible. The legislative authority was committed to a single assembly of 750 members, elected by all Frenchmen who had attained their twenty-first year. All citizens above twenty-five years of age were eligible as representatives, with the exception of paid government functionaries. The executive authority was vested in a ‘President of the Republic,’ who was required by the constitution to be thirty years old, and a native of France. Louis Napoleon was chosen for four years, by the direct suffrages of all the electors, on the 10th of December 1848.