"My honourable master,
"I had the announcement of your work on the censorship printed yesterday, but the paragraph, consisting of two lines, was struck out by messieurs the censors. M. Capefigue[299] will explain to you why we have not left blanks or dots.
"If God does not come to our aid, all is lost; the Royalty is like unhappy Jerusalem in the hands of the Turks: its children can hardly approach it; to what a cause have we then sacrificed ourselves!
"Michaud."
The Opposition had at last communicated irascibility to the cold temperament of M. de Villèle and rendered despotic the malevolent spirit of M. de Corbière. The latter had removed the Duc de Liancourt[300] from seventeen unpaid offices. The Duc de Liancourt was not a saint, but he was a benevolent man, upon whom philanthropy had bestowed the title of venerable; by the softening influence of Time, old Revolutionaries no longer move except with an epithet, like the gods in Homer: it is always the respectable M. This, it is always the inflexible Citizen That, who, like Achilles, has never eaten broth (ἃ-χὺλος). On the occasion of the scandal that happened at M. de Liancourt's funeral, M. de Sémonville[301] said to us, in the Chamber of Peers:
"Be easy, my lords, such a thing shall never happen again; I will myself conduct you to your last resting-place."
The King, in the month of April 1827, proposed to review the National Guard on the Champ de Mars[302]. Two days before this fatal review, prompted by my zeal, and asking no better than to lay down my arms, I addressed a letter to Charles X., which was handed to him by M. de Blacas, who acknowledged its receipt by this note:
"I did not lose a single moment, monsieur le vicomte, in handing the King the letter which you did me the honour to send me for His Majesty and, if he deigns to entrust me with a reply, I shall show no less alacrity in forwarding it to you.
"Receive, monsieur le vicomte, my most sincere compliments.
"Blacas d'Aulps.
"27 April, 1 p.m."
My letter to the King.
To the King
"Sire,
"Permit a loyal subject, whom moments of agitation will always find at the foot of the throne, to confide to Your Majesty a few reflections which he thinks useful both to the glory of the Crown and the happiness and safety of the King.
"Sire, it is but too true, there is danger within the State, but it is also certain that this danger is nothing if the very principles of government be not thwarted.
"A great secret has been revealed to me, Sire: your ministers have had the misfortune to teach France that the people, which was said no longer to exist, is still quite alive. Paris, during twice twenty-four hours, has evaded authority. The same scenes are being repeated throughout France: the factions will not forget this attempt.
"But popular assemblages, so dangerous under absolute monarchies, because they take place in presence of the Sovereign himself, mean little under the representative monarchy, because they come into contact only with ministers or laws. Between the monarch and the subjects is fixed a barrier that stops everything: the two Chambers and the public institutions. Outside these movements, the King always finds his authority and his sacred Person sheltered.
"But, Sire, there is one condition indispensable to the general safety, and that is to act in the spirit of the institutions: a resistance on the part of your Council to that spirit would make popular movements as dangerous under the representatative monarchy as they are under the absolute monarchy.
"I pass from theory to application:
"Your Majesty is about to appear at the review: you will be received as you should; but it is possible that, amid the cries of 'God Save the King!' you will hear other cries which will express the public opinion of the ministers.
"Furthermore, Sire, it is false to say, as they do, that there is a Republican faction at present; but it is true that there are some partisans of an illegitimate monarchy: now the latter are too clever not to avail themselves of the opportunity and mingle their voices, on the 29th, with that of France to impose upon the public.
"What will the King do? Will he yield his ministers to the popular clamour? That would be to kill the power. Will the King keep his ministers? Those ministers will make all the unpopularity that pursues them fall upon the head of their august master. I am well aware that the King would have the courage to burden himself with a personal sorrow to avoid harm befalling the Monarchy; but it is possible, by the simplest means, to avoid these calamities; permit me, Sire, to tell it to you: it is possible by remaining within the spirit of our institutions; the ministers have lost their majority in the House of Peers and in the nation, the natural consequences of that critical position is their resignation. How, with a sense of their duty, could they persist, by remaining in power, in compromising the Crown? By laying their resignation at the feet of your Majesty they will calm everything, they will end everything; it is no longer the King who yields, it is the ministers who resign in accordance with all the usages and all the principles of representative government The King can afterwards take back those among them whom he will think fit to retain: there are two whom public opinion honours, M. le Duc de Doudeauville[303] and M. le Comte de Chabrol[304].
"The review would in this way lose its disadvantages and be no more than an unmixed triumph. The Session will end peaceably amid blessings showered on the King's head.
"Sire, to dare to write you this letter, I must be very firmly persuaded of the necessity for taking a resolution; a very imperious sense of duty must have prompted me. The ministers are my enemies; I am theirs; I forgive them as a Christian; but I shall never forgive them as a man; in this position, I should never have spoken to the King of their retiring, if the safety of the Monarchy were not at stake.
"I am, etc.,
"Chateaubriand."
Madame la Dauphine and Madame la Duchesse de Berry were insulted on going to the review; the King was generally well received; but one or two companies of the 6th Legion cried:
"Down with the ministers! Down with the Jesuits!" Charles X. was offended, and replied:
"I came to receive homage, and not a lesson."