YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

MEMOIRS

GENERAL LAFAYETTE,

VOL. I.

LONDON:
G. SCHULZE, 13, POLAND STREET.

MUmAIL ILiAWMCKM TT'.

Ij(mdmi>. .Tfohiwhedi fa/ 'JbvcAarZ IjewMty, o, .7r/cw2fwr$niaftm< Street?7.

MEMOIRS

GENERAL LAFAYETTE

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1830.

BY B. SARRANS,

SECRETARY TO GENERAL LAFATETTE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
(late colburn and bentley,)
1832.

CONTENTS

THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

Page

Lafayette at La Grange — A Glance at the Politics of the Re
storation — Progress of the Counter Revolution — Villele Ad
ministration — Polignac Administration — The Administra
tion of the 8 th of August — Situation of France at the
Publication of the Ordinances of the 25th of July . .241
CHAPTER II.
Effect produced by the Ordinances — Appearance of Paris —
Alarming calm during the 26th — Conduct of the Press —
Meeting of the Journalists at the house of M . Dupin. — First
meeting of the Deputies at the house of M. de Laborde —
Courage of that Representative — Fears of M. Perier —
Meeting of the 27th at M. Perier's — Collective and indivi
dual conduct of the Deputies at that meeting . . .261
CHAPTER III.
Arrival of Lafayette in Paris — His first measures — The re
sistance of the People becomes general — First meeting of
Deputies at M. Audry de Puyraveau's. — Conduct and
Speeches of Messieurs Lafayette, Mauguin, Lafitte, Charles

Yl CONTENTS.

Pag«

Dupin, Sebastiani, Guizot, Puyraveau, &c— A Committee
despatched to the Duke of Bagusa— M. Pener secretly
proposes giving some millions to Marmont— First meeting
at M. Berard's— Dereliction of the Popular Cause hy near
ly all the Deputies present — Various Conflicts — Weakness
of Messieurs Villemain, Sebastiani, Bertin-de-Vaux — Se
cond Meeting at M. Audry de Puyraveau's — The Patriot
Deputies no more than eight — Night of the 28th and 29th. 278
CHAPTER IV.
Battle in the Morning of 29th — Aspect of Paris — Heroism,
Probity, and Humanity of the Patriots — Lafayette sur
rounded hy Royal troops — Meeting at M. Lafitte's — Vic
tory declares for the People — The Deputies who were con
verted to the cause of Liberty by this news — Aspect of M.
Lafitte's Hotel — Some private details — Lafayette repairs to
the Hotel de Ville — Picture of this new Head-Quarters
Installation of the Municipal Committee — Its first Mea
sures — Proclamation of Lafayette to the Army. . .292
CHAPTER V.
The Orleanist party— M. Lafiitte at its head— His efforts
during thirteen years to place the Duke of Orleans on the
throne — His secret communications with Neuilly, in the
night of Tuesday, and the subsequent days  The Duke
of Orleans passes the night in a kiosk in the centre of his
park, to avoid the emissaries of St. Cloud — The arrival of
envoys from Charles X at the Hotel de Ville, and the
meeting at Laffitte's — Their reception — Meeting at M
Laffitte's on Friday— The presence of some Peers— The
deputation meet at the Palais Bourbon — They call the Duk

CONTENTS. Vll
Page
of Orleans to the lieutenancy of the kingdom — He does not
a cept it till after a secret consultation with the Prince
de Talleyrand — Anecdote . . . . .311
CHAPTER VI.
Repugnance of the Hotel de Ville to the nomination of the
Duke of Orleans as Lieutenant-General — Advice of La
fayette in these circumstances. — His wishes for the Con
vocation of the Primary Assemblies — Why he did not pro
claim the Republic — Idem, Henry V, with a Regency which
was offered him — Idem, Napoleon II — Letter of Joseph
Bonaparte to Lafayette — Answer of Lafayette . . 327
CHAPTER VII.
Lafayette adopts two great measures — The Hotel de Ville
and the Chamber of Deputies on the 2nd August — La
fayette insists that every step taken shall be provisionally —
Order of the day — The visit of the Duke of Orleans to
the Hotel de Ville — Opposition to the Lieutenant Gene
ralship — The popular throne with republican institutions —
Charles X wishes to retire to La Vendee — The expedition
to Rambouillet  348
CHAPTER VIII.
Fresh irritation in Paris — Opening of the Session of 1830
— Lafayette preserves the independence of the chamber —
His influence gives umbrage to the new government —
He declares himself against the hereditary peerage — His
tory of the Charte-Berard — It is wished that the abdica
tion of Charles X and the Dauphin should be the principle
on which the throne is pronounced vacant — Secret do
cument and curious details on this subject . . . 36i

Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.

Page

Vain hopes— Lafayette objects to the new King taking the
name of Philippe V— Enthronement of Louis- Philippe-
Why Lafayette accepted the command of the national
guard— What he did for that institution — Review of the
29th of August, 1830 — The moment for Europe to ask for
peace, and for France to grant it . . . . .377
CHAPTER X.
Motives which divert the Attention of Lafayette from the
Formation of the King's Council — He demands the Eman
cipation of People of Colour — He presents to the King the
Persons condemned for Political Offences — Conduct of
Power towards those brave Men . . . .389
CHAPTER XI.
Influence of the Revolution of July on the Nations of Eu
rope — It extends over both Worlds — Sympathy of Eng
land—Two systems of Foreign Politics divide the Patriots
— Non-interference as understood by Lafayette — System
of the Doctrinaires — Consequences. . . . .395
CHAPTER XII.
Continuation of the preceding — Notification of the Accession
of Louis-Philip — Insolence of the Emperor Nicholas and
the Duke of Modena — Lafayette in his Relations with
Diplomacy — Certain Cabinets send a Diplomatic Agent to
him personally — His interview with that Agent  His sys
tem of Non-interference developed . .

PREFACE.

In the following Work, it is my intention to
speak of political affairs, and of the political men
in the midst of whom we live. I shall speak of
them as if they no longer existed, or as if they
were far removed from us.
I shall describe things as they appeared to me —
as I saw them. I shall tell nothing but the truth,
but I shall tell the whole truth.
The nature of the facts which I mean to dis-
close requires that I should frankly explain the
source whence I have drawn my information.
The facts to which I refer are comprehended
in that part of this Work which treats of the Revo
lution of July. The rest has already had its place
in the domain of history.

X PREFACE.
I therefore trust that the readers of my book,
will not rashly doubt its veracity, or attribute its
appearance to any one to whom the conception of
the work does not belong.
The truth is, and I confess it at once, that I
have been guilty of an indiscretion, perhaps it will
be said of an abuse of confidence ; however, I am
proud to say my conscience tells me that in this
matter, I have only done what my duty as a good
citizen required me to do.
In fact, unpublished letters, private thoughts,
communications within closed doors, form the
principal part of this Work ; and many of these
letters, these thoughts, these communications have
reference to two men whom the Revolution of July
first invested with the new destinies of France.
But it will be asked how did such information —
for the information is most important, reach me,
a humble journalist ? -A few words on my indivi
dual position, before and after the Revolution of
July will suffice I hope to explain this enigma.
Honored from early youth with the inestimable
friendship of Lafayette I had long been in the
habit of collecting from his lips, or extracting
from his written recollections, notes on the most

PREFACE. XI
important circumstances, and most characteristic
traits of his long and noble career.
My object was to supply in some measure the
immense chasm which the absence of his me
moirs may leave in the annals of our country ;
for neither anxiety for his future fame, the
interest of history, or the urgent solicitations of
his friends have hitherto induced him to devote
himself to so important a labour. Some expla
nations on points of his political life, little, or
imperfectly understood, some corrections of his
torical errors, are all that our most earnest
requests could ever obtain from his patriotism,
which being altogether real and disinterested allows
but few considerations of self to mix with it.
The notes to which I allude lay scattered in my
portfolio, when the explosion of the three days
placed Lafayette for the second time at the head
of a great revolution.
That momentous event rendered the relations,
which, through the kindness of the General had
been established between him and me, more fre
quent and intimate, especially when to crown that
kindness he did me the honour to appoint me his
aide-de-camp. As the friend and aide-de-camp of
Lafayette from the days of the Hotel-de-Ville to the

Xll PREFACE.
day on which he resigned the command of the^ Na
tional Guard, it will easily be conceived that my
opportunities of observation were great. What I
saw, and what I heard, will form the subject of my
present Work.
Meanwhile my appointment imposed on me only
duties for the occasion : my situation as writer was
not changed, my views continued the same as be
fore, and the desire of sketching the character of
the great citizen whom I had before my eyes, na
turally increased with the new facilities which my
temporary position near his person afforded.
Moreover I felt that the events which were about
to develope themselves would become the culmi
nating point, the soul of my Work. Half a cen
tury and two revolutions were, I then believed, to
be wound up in the space of a few weeks. A king
and a court, monarchical legitimacy, and the so
vereignty of the people, slavery and liberty, were
once again to be brought face to face. Salutary
lessons might arise out of this conflict. I was a
writer by profession ; these lessons were my sub
ject, and I seized upon them for the benefit of my
country. I accordingly enriched myself with all the papers,
the existence of which my accidental functions

PREFACE. Xlll
revealed to me. I filled my tablets and my memory
with all the historical information which continual
communication with the individuals then at the
head of authority, placed within my reach.
My connections, as the reader will perceive
on perusing my book, were not confined to the
circle of the staff of the National Guard. Other
distinguished persons also honored me with
their confidence. Thus, for example, I was in
debted to a well known friend of the imperial
family for the possession of Prince Joseph's Cor
respondence with General Lafayette ; — to chance
for the three letters from the General to Louis
Philippe, and to various members of the Cabinet
of the 3rd of November for the discovery of some
private scenes of high interest.
These, and these alone, are the sources from
which I have obtained a knowledge of the poli
tical events, which I now communicate to my
fellow citizens. Future leisure will perhaps ena
ble me to submit to their indulgence the fruits
of longer and more important investigations.
Have I abused the confidence of M. Lafayette,
or of any other person ? I see no reason to fear
that I have. My book reveals nothing that was

XIV PREFACE.
confided to me. I tell only what I have seen,
read, and heard :— neither more nor less.
Shall I be so unfortunate as to displease the
General by my frankness? Certainly not; for he,
who all his life adopted the maxim of thinking
aloud, and of keeping as far as regarded himself
nothing secret from the public, can take umbrage
only at falsehood. I tell the truth.
If, however, contrary to my expectation, these
Volumes should cause the least dissatisfaction to
the man whom I revere more than any other in
France, I should be deeply grieved, though I
should derive some consolation from the very con
sciousness of the sacrifice I have made tp the per
formance of a duty : for there are duties to which
every thing, even the friendship of a great man,
ought to be sacrificed.
General Lafayette and some other eminent in
dividuals may blame my indiscretion; but their
honesty is my guarantee that they will not deny a
single fact which concerns them in this work. One
word more. In taking a rapid survey of the
great revolutions which have changed the face of
the modern world; on looking back upon those
stormy and difficult times which have effected the

PRFACE. XV
regeneration of one hemisphere, and prepared that
of another, Lafayette appears to me the highest and
purest personification of the principle of order and li
berty. In America, as in Europe, in all times and in
all places, I have found him upright and respected,
wherever liberty needed support, weakness help,
justice courage, the execution of the laws devoted-
ness and energy, in short, wherever the people
wished to gain possession of their primitive so
vereignty. In the course of my task, I have been led into
more sinuosities than I at first formed any idea of.
But is it my fault if all the circumstances of the
life of such a man are interesting to liberty ; if
every incident of his history has in it something
which imperiously subdues and commands ; —
something in short, which forbids the writer
detaching a single stone from the magnificent
structure ?
This must be my excuse for the pages I have
devoted to the events preceding the Revolution of
July, and also for my ample developement, of the
parliamentary opinions of Lafayette during the
two last sessions. On the one hand, these events
were linked to the Revolution, and I conceived it
my duty to trace, without curtailment, the succes-

XVI PREFACE.

sion of causes which brought about that great
catastrophe ; on the other hand, these opinions are
so many correlations, the absence of which would
have rendered the plan of my Work incomplete.

4-

INTRODUCTION.

" In spite of his faults, which are the honorable
faults of virtue, Lafayette affords the example of
all that a great citizen ought to be. Whether
adorned with civic crowns, or persecuted by re
volutionary proscription — whether loaded with the
chains of the despots whom he unflinchingly ac
cused, or doomed to ' unjustifiable obscurity, — the
serenity of a pure conscience has left him only the
wrongs of his country to deplore."
Lacuetelle the Elder.
If we explore the annals of the world and
consult history, no spectacle more wonderful
than that afforded by the present aspect of
affairs claims our attention. The day predicted
h
VOL. I. B

INTRODUCTION.

by the Apocalypse when all are to speak, without
being understood, seems to have arrived in France.
Parties vie one with another in artifice. One
affects confidence in the midst of alarm, another,
joy, when overwhelmed with grief; — one, which
lives only on its fond recollections of the past,
pretends to plead for the future, and another
yields to existing things only to arrive the
more surely at things which do not exist. In
terested policy every where takes place of ho
nesty and energy, and the spirit of expectation
and disguise overrules all circumstances.
All this is unworthy of the France of July
1830. However, events are crowding on and
the moment approaching when it is necessary
that opinions should be defined in clear and
precise terms.
It is this multiplicity of interests and views
which I have endeavoured to describe in the
present work. My object is to develope truth
without ornament, and to simplify, if possible,
the complex situation in which we were placed
by the great event of 1830.
The error produced by this general confusion,
consists in believing, or causing to be believed,
that the revolution of July took France by sur-

INTRODUCTION. 6
prise, that it plunged her into embarrassment
and endangered her very existence, because, it
is alleged, France had not risen to the level of
that event.
No doubt France entered upon a new era
on the 29th of July, 1830. But our past his
tory presents no fact whose consequence may
not be traced in that revolution. The elective
monarchy of the second race, the military mo
narchy of Clovis, the monastic monarchy of
the Thierrys and the Childerics, the imperial
sceptre of Charlemagne, the feudal monarchy,
(a sort of federal republican oligarchy), the
monarchy of the States of Philippe-le-Bel, the
monarchy of the Parliaments, the absolute mo
narchy of Louis XIV, the representative mo
narchy of Louis XVI, the convention, Bona
parte and the Bourbons, have carried us,
through every species of royalty to the pro
gram of the Hotel-de- Ville.
The revolution of July is, therefore, the triumph
of the progressive civilization of France : — it is the
unravelling event, destined to prepare the cata
strophe of the great drama, of which the first four
acts were performed in three different ages: —
b 2

4 INTRODUCTION.
these acts were the League, the Fronde, the
Revolution of 1789 and the Empire.
The Ligue, by opposing the purified worship
of protestantism to the catholic spirit; the
Fronde, by wishing to ape the English parlia
ments ; the revolution of 1789, first by attempt
ing English and American experiments and
next by indulging in all the madness of the
forum and the market-place, had, at bottom,
only one object in view : namely, to substitute
equality for privileges, and obedience to the
laws for the authority of individuals.
But at all these different periods, the spirit
of reformation committed a mortal error, that
of losing sight of its starting point, and sZtting
up as its models, systems which had decayed
in the revolutions of history ; as though society
could be reformed otherwise than with the
ideas of the age in which it exists.
These are the rocks on which have split by
turns, the four reorganizations which France
has attempted since 1793. The first, that in
which endeavours were made to establish, by
the guillotine, the institutions of the Greeks
and Romans, was a retrograde conception, and

INTRODUCTION. 5
consequently, radically erroneous. It would be
about as wise to force manhood to resume the
habiliments of childhood. Despotism, as might
naturally be expected, took its revenge.
Bonaparte, in wishing to revive the empire
of Charlemagne, hazarded the second experi
ment. This was less absurd than the first, in
asmuch as it revived recollections less remote,
and was undertaken by a powerful genius and
supported by a nation enamoured of glory. And
yet the Napoleon edifice fell, because it was
founded on two iniquitous principles : — the sub
jugation of France by a man, and the subju
gation of Europe by France.
The third experiment, that which replaced
a fatal dynasty on the throne, tended to import
to France the political constitution of England.
This attempt proved as vain as the two former,
not so much because the restoration denied to
France the actual liberty which Great Britain
enjoyed, but because the spirit of France de
manded a system very superior to that which
was imposed by conquest on a nation insulated
from all others, and which is in reality nothing
but an artful modification of the theological
and feudal system, having for its object to

6 INTRODUCTION.
make the aristocracy rule through royalty. Now
this was contrary to the precedents of French
civilization, contrary to the march of political
intelligence among the people during forty years,
and to the prevailing sentiment of equality,
which tends incessantly to diminish not only
the virtual power of every aristocracy, but like
wise privileges of every denomination.
Thus, from the origin of the French mo
narchy, to the revolution of July, we sketched
out all the known forms of government, without
being able to secure any one of them, because
all were to us exotic creations, imitations de
void of analogy with respect to manners, wants,
or time.
Suddenly the ordonnances of Charles X
caused a commotion ; this commotion produced
an insurrection and the insurrection a revolution.
Out Of this revolution arose a new principle : ,
that of popular monarchy, surrounded by repub
lican institutions ; and the people were told : this
is the best of republics.
The people who had courage to fight and
ability to conquer, had the generosity to cede
the victory to those who had not fought : they
put faith in the best of republics.

INTRODUCTION.

The best of republics!. .. .This was untrue.
It would have been more just to have said : the
arrangement most compatible, on the one hand,
with the spirit of equality, which is spreading
over the world ; and on the other, with the pre
judices left in France, by the false republic ; in
other words, the arrangement best calculated to
fill up the interval of ages, without checking the
natural course of events.
A monarchy with republican forms and insti
tutions, was therefore the system best suited to
the various shades of opinion, which brought
about the revolution of July ; I may almost say
the best suited to the present political circum
stances of Europe ; for, if the dissolution of the old
monarchies is every where manifest, owing either
to their weakness, or their crimes ; if democracy
is fermenting on all sides, it would be an
abuse of generalization to pretend, that re
publican tendencies, have alone caused the de
struction of all the thrones, which have fallen
within two years.
The spirit of democracy has, no doubt,
largely contributed to these revolutions, but it
is evident, that they were determined by glaring
faults and unwise conflicts. Charles X, Wil-

8 INTRODUCTION,
liam, Don Pedro, the Czarewitch, and the Duke
of Brunswick, might have averted the storms
that assailed them ; and the facility with which
their subjects have adopted new monarchical
forms, seems at least, to prove that the incom
patibility, between the two principles, has not
yet arrived at its extreme point.
France, accordingly, adopted popular monar
chy surrounded by republican institutions ; and
even those who had nothing to lose, enthusias
tically greeted an arrangement, calculated to
preserve everything. This phenomenon struck
terror in the minds of privileged men. They
beheld in it, a degree of civilization which proved
that democracy might plant itself in a bed, where
it would one day thrive and flourish unim
peded by obstacles, or misfortunes. They then
endeavoured to anathemize republican institutions-
These words, said they, signify nothing more than
jacquerie, jacobinism, faubouriens, canaille^ war
and scaffolds. Thus, the most noble of human
conceptions— the republic— became, in the hands
of the enemies, of the revolution of July a
moveable scarecrow, by the aid of which they
succeeded in alarming the new dynasty and a
part of the nation, (which once more mistook the

INTRODUCTION.

spirit of the age) respecting the necessary
operation of the representative mechanism. They
traced back all the phases of the first revolution,
carefully omitting the principle of 1789; they
pourtrayed 1793, concealed beneath the disguise
of republican institutions, and ready a second time,
to devour the monarchy. Finally, all interests,
founded on error, and all old prejudices com
bined to check the progress of the revolution
of July ; and from that moment nothing was
heard, but a long anathema against republics
and republicans, who wished once again to level
social inequalities.
To restore the words Republican Institutions
to their true signification, I have undertaken to
write the political life of the only man who has
taken part in the three revolutions of 1776, 1789
and 1830. I have chosen Lafayette as the most
perfect personification of the system of 1789
joined to the American doctrines, which must
not be confounded with the Greek or Roman
masquerade, represented in the convention.
These two things are not to be compared.
What then is indicated by the idea of Franklin
and Washington in reference to the republi
can institutions, with which Lafayette wished
to surround the citizen monarchy ? Nothing more

10 INTRODUCTION.
than the progress of time, and the triumphs of
human liberty. This system has, in reality, no
object, and has produced no result, but what is
good. Here religion, philosophy and politics are
all united ; all indicate the same reason and the
same good sense ; it is the realized tendency of
a whole nation towards liberty, and the full de
velopement of its powers ; it is, in other words,
the equal distribution of taxes, the equal admis
sibility of the citizens to public employments,
freedom of religious worship, the liberty of the
press, personal liberty, national representation,
trial by jury, and the responsibility of the depo
sitaries of power, all guaranteed and brought
into action.
This is what General Lafayette wished to es
tablish, without confining himself to the exter
nal forms of the American system, nor to the
governmental mechanism of the United States.
Such are the republican institutions which he
wished to groupe round the citizen monarchy,
that unique privilege, which, being assented to
by all, was no longer a privilege.
Will it still be said that this fusion was im
practicable ? It may be so now, but it was not
then. What was demanded by the program of the

INTRODUCTION. 11
Hotel-de-Ville, that was subversive of the mo
narchical principle ?
An electoral law, which should not value at so
many crowns, that knowledge which changes the
face of the world : — this law exists in England,
in Holland, in Belgium and in Sweden.
A municipal law which should not make no
tables nominated by notables : — there are in Eu
rope despotic governments, which grant to their
subjects this right which the monarchy of July
believes lo be incompatible with its existence.
Councils of Departments elected by the citizens
at large, and invested with the power of super
intending local interests : — what was there anti-
royal in this ?
An organization of the national guard, which
should not preclude the formation of rural batta
lions, and not leave to the caprice of power, the
election of superior chiefs : — was this organization
hostile to monarchy ?
The emancipation of public education from the
dominion of universities : monarchy exists in the
one half of Europe conjointly with this liberty.
A liberty of the press, not rendered an abso
lute monopoly by fiscal demands: — monarchy
exists in England, where these restraints do not
exist.

12 INTRODUCTION.
A ministerial responsibility which should not
be without means of application, and which
should not be confined to cases of concussion and
treason : — was this attacking Louis-Philippe ?
A civil list commensurate with the simplicity
of a popular throne : — to propose less than twelve
millions for Louis-Philippe ; was this to conspire
against his royalty ?
A peerage which should have its origin in elec
tion, and which should represent something be
sides abuses and antiquated prejudices :— what
had the young monarchy, that monarchy which
originated with the people, in common with those
prejudices and abuses?
Judges who should not have Louis-Philippe on
their tongues and Charles X in their hearts : —
who appeared to be more interested in this re
form than Louis-Philippe ?
The abolition of the tax on salt, the diminu
tion of the tax on wines and spirits, the abolition
of the lottery, the tax on gaming tables, and
other taxes repugnant to morality :— surely Louis-
Philippe, born among the people, could cherish
no sympathy for these political impurities !
Finally, to exact respect abroad, and to main
tain the proper attitude of a nation whose liberty
and independence were destined to be long threat-

INTRODUCTION. 13
ened: — could the endeavour to save France betray
a wish to destroy the royalty of Louis-Philippe ?
Such are the republican institutions which La
fayette would have adapted to circumstances : —
the monarchy of the barricades, founded upon
and identified with popular interests ; nothing
more. In this way Lafayette and France un-
stood the program of the Hotel-de-Ville, which
is now represented as containing the germ of all
crimes and calamities.
Calamities!.... Look at the United-States.
Crimes ! . . . . Examine the life of Lafayette, the
type incarnate of republican institutions. What
patriotic head rises above his ? Who, during
fifty-six years has more cordially detested crime
and attacked injustice? Who has more honorably
enjoyed the glory of the dungeon ?* Who has
exercised greater influence over the various fac-
* " In the prisons of Olmutz, like a pinnacle of integrity,
he still remained firm in his attachment to the same principles.
He is a man whose views and conduct are perfectly upright.
Whoever has observed him, may know before hand and with cer
tainty what will be his course under any circumstances .... It is
a singular phenomenon that a character like that of M. de La
fayette should have developed itself in the foremost rank of
French gentlemen." — Mme. de Stael.

14 INTRODUCTION.
tions which have attempted to usurp the national
sovereignty? Where, as Lacretelle asks, is the
republican, who to be faithful to his oaths, sa
crificed himself like Lafayette for the defence of
a king ? Who has done more for the maintenance
of order and liberty ? Who has shewn more sym
pathy and attachment to the rights of human
nature ? Who braved and harassed Bonaparte by
the inflexibility of his principles ? Where is the
reputation sprung from the cause of the people,
which fills the world with so much glory and
commands such universal respect?
Such is the great citizen whom the adversaries
of royalty surrounded with republican institutions
represent, on the one hand, as an object of ter
ror, and on the other, as a feeble man whose
only merit is a superannuated fidelity to calami
tous Utopias.
You who have endured so many vices and
crimes, can you not endure, for a brief space,
the virtues of Lafayette !

!L A IF1 AYE T TIE.,
'79 l

MEMOIRS

GENERAL LAFAYETTE

THE REVOLUTION OF 1830.

Lafayette (M. P. J. R. Y. Gilbert Motier)
was born at Chavaniac, in Auvergne, on the 6th
of September, 1757. Although his family was
distinguished both in war and literature, and
had produced many warriors, who had fought
and died in the field of honor, yet the road, com
mon to all, which Lafayette followed, places him
in the rank of those men, who owe their eleva
tion solely to themselves. His uncle was slain
in Italy, while young; his father at Minden. He
lost his mother at an early age. After completing

16 MEMOIRS
his studies at the college of the Plessis, he mar
ried, when sixteen years old, the daughter of
the Duke d'Ayen, Mile, de Noailles, who was
younger than himself, and who afterwards be
came so justly celebrated for her virtues, her
courage and conjugal affection. The credit,
which the Noailles enjoyed at court, secured
for Lafayette a distinguished post, if he chose to
accept it. The offer was made ; and was reso
lutely rejected by him. His refusal, at an age
so accessible to the seductions of power, was the
result of his innate sense of liberty ; and perhaps
it will not be considered trifling to relate here a
characteristic anecdote, which his professor of
rhetoric, afterwards the superintendant of a Ly
ceum at Paris, was fond of telling. Being di
rected to paint a composition, the subject of
which was, a fiery stallion made quiet and obe
dient by the shadow of the whip, the young La
fayette painted the horse in the act of throwing
off his rider and recovering his liberty.
The news of the American insurrection against
British oppression, decided his course of ac
tion. The measures which Lafayette took in
favour of the American cause were conceived
and conducted with great prudence and ability.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 17
" Before he had embarked from France,"
says Dr. Ramsay*, " intelligence arrived in Eu-
' rope, that the American insurgents, reduced
* to the number of 2000 men. were fleeing
' through Jersey, before a British force of
' 30, 000. These unsatisfactory accounts so
' completely destroyed what slight credit Ame-
' rica possessed in Europe, at the commence-
' ment of the year 1777, that the American
' commissioners at Paris, although they had
' before encouraged Lafayette's design, were
' not able to procure a vessel to enable him to
' carry it into execution. Under these circum-
' stances they thought it but honest to dissuade
' him from the present prosecution of his pe-
' rilous enterprize. It was in vain that they
' acted so candid a part ; his zeal to serve a
' distressed country was not abated by her mis-
' fortunes. ' Hitherto,'1 said he to them, with an
' energy which real patriotism could alone ins-
' pire, ' I have done no more than wish success to
' your cause : I now go to serve it. The more it
' has fallen in public opinion, the greater will be
' the effect of my departure. Since you cannot pro-
* History of the American Revolution.
VOL. I C

18 MEMOIRS
" cure a vessel, I will purchase and fit out one at
" my own expense; and 1 will also undertake to
"transmit any despatches you may desire to the
" Congress.' Having accordingly embarked in
" a vessel, which he purchased for the purpose,
" he arrived in Charlestown early in 1777, and
"soon after joined the American army. Com
" gress at once resolved that he should have the
" rank of Major-general in the army, a post
" which he would only accept under two condi-
'-' tions, which are evidences of his noble and
" generous feelings. The one was, that he should
" be allowed to serve at his own expense: and
" the other, that he should be permitted to com-
" mence his career of arms in the character of
" a volonteer."
The courts of London and Versailles, whose
disapprobation and interdiction he disregarded, in
vain attempted to intercept his passage, which was
affected with no less boldness than success. Being
stopped at Port Passage, where his vessel was
obliged to put in, he succeeded in repassing the
frontier and soon putting again to sea. But learn
ing that despatches had been sent out to the sta
tions in the West Indies, with orders to seize him,
he ventured on the direct course to the insur-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 19
gent coast at that time covered with English

non

?

cruisers; thus justifying the motto, cur
which he had assumed on his departure.
Lafayette was wounded in the first battle
(Brandywine ;) but this did not prevent him
from performing, at that memorable engagement,
a great service to the cause of the independence,
by rallying the troops at the bridge of Chester.
A short time after this misfortune, he joined
General Greene in the Jerseys, and beat, with
a few militia men, a corps of English and Hes
sians. This success procured him the command
of a division. Being appointed in the course
of the ensuing winter, Commander in Chief in
the north — a command, which a stupid cabal
against Washington had succeeded in making
independent of that great man, Lafayette re
fused to accept the post, but on the express
condition of being subordinate to him.* Forced
from want of means to abandon the attack of
Canada, he received the thanks of the Con
gress for the devotion and zeal which he dis
played in those circumstances. He then de-
* It will be seen by reference to the American historians
that, at that period "so critical for Washington, the fidelity of
his young friend, was both determined and useful.
c 2

20 MEMOIRS
fended a vast frontier with a handful of
men;-opposed the English influence in a
great council of savage tribes; and received,
throughout the extent of his command, the
oath then prescribed of renunciation of allegiance
to the King of Great Britain, and of Fidelity to
the United States.
At the opening of the campaign, to which he
was called by Washington, Lafayette succeeded
by his manoeuvres in bringing off without loss,
a body of two thousand four hundred men, who
with their cannons had been surrounded at Ba-
renhill, by the English army commanded by
Generals Howe and Clinton. He commanded,
in the battle gained at Monmouth, at first an
advance-guard and afterwards the second line of
the army. From thence he conducted a de
tachment, intended to second the movements of
the Comte d'Estaing, conformably to the trea
ty of alliance which public opinion, to whose
manifestation the departure of Lafayette had
not a little contributed, had induced the ca
binet of Versailles to conclude with the insur
gents. Indeed, the contemporaneous accounts
shew pretty plainly to what a degree the inte
rest for the young Lafayette had been excited,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 21
and the effect which it produced upon public
opinion. Thus, when the Ambassadors of the
United States, accompanied by all the Ame
ricans present in the capital, appeared for the
first time at court, they thought it necessary
to pay a visit to the young wife of Lafayette,
for the purpose of performing an act of solemn
homage to her.
At the attack of Rhode Island, Lafayette com
manded the left wing of Sullivan's Army. The
memoirs of the time, and particularly the " Life
of Washington" written by Mr. Marshall, shew
with what zeal he defended his countrymen on
the occasion of the retreat of the French squadron
to Boston, and how his influence likewise served
to check the first germs of misunderstanding
between the two nations. Returning rapidly
from Boston, in order to the evacuation of Rhode
Island, he successfully effected the re-embar
kation of the rear-guard. On this occasion the
Congress voted him fresh thanks. A short time
afterwards, the Commissioners sent to America
by England, but rejected by the Congress, having
indulged in expressions insulting to France, the
young Lafayette sent a challenge to their presi
dent Lord Carlisle, which his lordship did not

22 MEMOIRS
accept. He afterwards addressed the Congress,
and asked for leave to visit his native country.
Resolutions extremely honorable to him were
passed, accompanied by private instructions, and
an express order was sent to the ambassadors
in Europe, to consult in every matter with Lafa
yette. The Congress voted him a sword, which
was delivered to him by Franklin. On it were
engraved several of his memorable exploits, and
he was himself represented as wounding the Bri
tish lion, and receiving a laurel from America,
delivered from her chains.
Thus Lafayette, having first discovered and
repressed, near the coast of France, a conspira
cy formed on board an American frigate, by
some English prisoners, whom his dislike of the
impressment of seamen had induced him to admit
into the crew of the frigate, revisited his country,
after two years of absence and of battles. He was
at this time twenty-two years of age. Lafayette
was received with enthusiasm by the public and
even by the court. The traces of this double
popularity of the young republican soldier are
perceptible in all the memoirs of the epoch*. He
* See the memoirs of Madame Campan, and the verses of
Gaston and Bayard, copied by the hand of the Queen ; the journal

- : par Casmsuuit

¦%',

4-^c^a^.^ .^J^ss.^a^

i^eticz^ /£¦ a^

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 23
made no other use of the general good opinion,
but to serve the cause of the Americans, He
prepared, in concert with Paul Jones, an expe
dition, having for its object to make the maritime
English towns contribute to the advantage of the
United States. This expedition had for its foun
dation, the grand project of a descent on Eng
land. Having obtained a situation in the staff
of the Marshal de Vaux, he never ceased to so
licit succours for America; and although he had
been told at Philadelphia not to make any appli
cation for troops for the interior of the United
States, he exceeded his instructions, foreseeing
of her foster-brother Weber : see also the contemporaneous ac
counts of the hommage paid by Voltaire at the height of his glory
to the young Madame de Lafayette; the poem, presented by Ce-
rutti to the Emperor Joseph during his travels, • in which the fol
lowing verse is to-be found :
" Lafayette a vingt ans d'unmonde elait I'appui."
When also we consider the allusions at the theatres, the testimony
of enthusiasm in the commercial towns, at Bordeaux, at Marseilles,
it is not to be wondered at, that the feeling, excited by his de
parture, contrasting strongly with the decided disapprobation of
his conduct expressed by the two governments of London and
Versailles, should have had a great influence on public opinion at
this period.

24 MEMOIRS
that it would not be long before the propriety of
his conduct in this point would be acknowledged.
At last, after many conferences with the minis
ters of Louis XVI, it was decided that a squadron
should be sent to Rhode island, and that a corps,
commanded by Rochambeau, should be placed
at the disposal of Washington. Franklin and
Lafayette also obtained a loan of several millions.
Finally, he arrived in a French frigate at Boston,
where in spite of the ignorance of the people,
with respect to the measures, which he had been
the means of effecting, he was received with
enthusiasm by the population, whose affection
and confidence, which he had already secured,
he has since preserved during a period of no less
than fifty-four years.
During the campaign of 1783, Lafayette com
manded the light infantry, (a chosen division,
which considered itself as especially associated
with his fortune) and also the dragoons, who
formed the advance guard of the Americans. He
accompanied Washington to the interview with
the French generals ; and had nearly become
with him the victim of Arnold's treason. The
following winter, he marched upon Portsmouth,
in Virginia, on purpose to assist at an attack,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 25
concerted with the French ; but which failed in
consequence of the unfortunate result of M.
Destouche's naval action. On returning towards
the north, Lafayette met a courier from Wash
ington, bringing him intelligence that the enemy
were about to proceed with all their force to
Virginia, and directing him to defend, as long as
possible that state, on the security of which de
pended the fate of all the southern portion of the
United-States. The feeble corps which he com
manded stood in want of every thing. However,
he borrowed what was requisite upon the credit
of his own name. The women worked for the
troops, who in their turn served without pay. He
prevented desertion by appealing to the honor
and affection of the soldiers : and by making dis
missal a punishment.
His first endeavor was to reach Richmond, the
capital of that state, by forced marches, because
all the magazines were placed there. These he
had the satisfaction of preserving, by arriving a
few hours before the enemy. It was then that
Lord Cornwallis, who was very superior in point
of numbers, and had the internal navigation at his
command, wrote to London, that " the boy
could not escape him."

26 MEMOIRS
; We will not follow the American historians.
through the details of this five months' campaign.
The great events of the last war have diminished
the interest of the advantages gained at this
period, which, though doubtlessly important,
were obtained by feeble means. We shall con
tent ourselves with stating the results which were
the avoiding a battle, effecting junctions of the
greatest importance, securing the magazines,
and lastly, after a series of manoeuvres and a few
engagements, the enclosing of Lord Cornwallis
and the whole of his army, in a certain position^
which had been previously fixed upon as the
most convenient place for the Comte de Grasse;
on his arrival from the West Indies, to blockade by
sea, whilst the corps of Lafayette, reinforced by
three thousand French, disembarked under the or
ders of the Marquis de Saint-Simon, took up a po
sition at Williamsburgh which Lord Cornwallis be
lieved to be impregnable. Grasse and Saint-Simon
urged Lafayette to attack the enemy ; but being
convinced that his adversary could not escape, he
was desirous of sparing the effusion of blood, and
waited for Washington to bring up Rochambeau's
corps, and the division of Lincoln. This junction
having been effected, Lafayette, at the head of the

ILngTTFPd "brWBai.

CTL-VKLES, MARO"TIS C< iKXWAT.US .

IT;i)M T1TE ul-UMXAl

li'U.Y, CT

ITtR <tTTI J)I1.\I,1.. UKDIA"

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 27
American light infantry, carried One of the
enemy's redoubts at the point of the bayonet.
The French grenadiers, commanded by the Baron
de Viomesnil also took another. The capitulation
of York Town decided the fate of this war.
These events took place in October, 1781.
Having returned to France on board of an
American frigate, Lafayette was attached to the
grand expedition at Cadiz, whither he conducted
eight thousand men from Brest. The Comte
d'Estaing, commander of the land and sea forces
of France and Spain, having determined to attack
Jamaica with sixty vessels and twenty-four thou
sand men, Lafayette was appointed chief of the
staff of the combined armies. The ultimate
object of this expedition was to proceed to New
York, after which Lafayette was to have penetrated
into Canada by the river St. Lawrence, and re
volutionized the country. But the departure of
the expedition was prevented by the peace of
1783, of which he was the first to send the news
to Congress, his attendance at Madrid having
been required by the American charge d'affaires,
in consequence of the delay which had taken
place in the establishment of political relations
between, the two countries. Here his energetic

28 MEMOIRS
representations had the effect of obtaining an
arrangement of all matters in dispute, within the
space of eight days.*
A short time after this, Lafayette paid a visit to
the United- States. His journey through the
country presents the spectacle of a continual fete.f
He was requested to assist in arranging a treaty
with the Indians ; his influence with them being
well known. He was received in state by the
Congress ; and addressed them in a speech, the
concluding words of which were as follows: —
" May the prosperity and the happiness of the
" United-States attest the advantages of their
" government ! May this great temple, which
" we have just erected to liberty always be a

* An account of the diplomatic negociations of the United-
States during the first years of their independence, taken from the
archives of the Congress, has lately been published in America.
Those in which Lafayette . was engaged, occupy a third of the
work ; and it is easy to recognize, in the frank but dignified man
ner which are so successfully employed, in the name of this rising
state, towards the eourts of Madrid and Vienna, the tone which
he was anxious that our diplomacy should adopt, in the early
period of the revolution of 1830.
t See the publication of the time, and especially the third
volume of the Cultivateur Amfricain by M. Crevecoeur,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 29
" lesson to oppressors, an example to the op-
" pressed, a refuge for the rights of the human
" race, and an object of delight to the manes of
" its founders ! " — The state of Virginia placed a
bust of Lafayette in the capital, and presented
the city of Paris with a similar one ; which was
placed in the grand hall of the Hotel-de- Ville,
afterwards the Hall of the Electors of 1789.
In 1785, Lafayette went to visit the courts,
and inspect the armies of Germany ; and al
though he carried with him the republican
principles, for which he was distinguished at the
court of France, he was not the less, on that
account, treated with respect and kindness.
Joseph II, and Frederick the Great, whom he
accompanied to all his reviews, especially re
ceived him in the most flattering manner. It
was then that he first saw horse artillery, and
pledged himself to introduce that species of force
into the French army as soon as possible.
On his return to his native country, he, in
conjunction with Malesherbes, turned his at
tention to the condition of the protestants, in
whose interest, he had since the year 1785 made a
voyage to Nismes, and with the concurrence of
Marshal de Castries, he devoted a considerable

30 MEMOIRS
sum to the purpose of effecting the gradual freedom
of the negroes. Some of these unfortunate men,
who had been purchased at Cayenne, for the
purpose of being restored to liberty, were, '. in
spite of the remonstrances of Madame de La-r
fayette, sold as slaves by the party, which
triumphed on the 10th of August, 1792.
Lafayette aided the Ambassador Jefferson in
the formation of a league against the Barbary
corsairs, — a league which the courts of Versailles
and London, taking these pirates under their
protection, rendered ineffective.
: Afterwards, when Holland was menaced* by
Prussia, it appears from the work of M. de
Segur, and from a letter written by M. de
Saint-Priest, that Lafayette would have been
invited to their aid by the Batavian patriots, if
the treachery of the French ministry had not
hastened their ruin. The indignation which
Lafayette manifested on this occasion was similar
to that which he recently displayed at the
tribune, when the present government acted the
same part with respect to the Austrian invasion
of Italy, as the Archbishop of Sens did with
respect to the Prussian invasion of Holland.
The Dutch were not unmindful of his zeal in

¦ CwL*r X?&9

iBst Bi"bl tit".

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 31
their behalf, and during his long and cruel pro
scription, they never ceased to shew him the
strongest proofs of their affection and gratitude.
In 1787, he was a member of the Assembly
of Notables. He denounced many abuses, pro
posed the suppression of kttres de cachet, and
of state prisons ; obtained a decree favorable to
the civil liberty of the Protestants ; and, unse-
conded, made a formal demand for the convo
cation of a national assembly. " What !" said
the Count d'Artois, " do you make a motion for
" the States-General V " Yes," and even more
" than that," was his reply,
Lafayette was a member, of the Provincial
Assembly of Auvergne. As a landed proprietor
in Brittany, he was the first to sign the protests
of that Province, against arbitrary power. At
the second Assembly of the Notables he ear
nestly advocated the double representation of the
Communes. As deputy to the States General, Lafayette
supported the motion of Mirabeau fos the re
moval of the troops, and procured its immediate
adoption. On the 11th July, in the midst of the
assembly, then surrounded by troops, and

32 MEMOIRS
strongly menaced, he proposed his famous de
claration of rights. It is as follows : —
" Nature has made men free and equal. The
distinctions necessary for social order, are only
founded on general utility.
" Every man is born with rights inalienable
and imprescriptible; such are, the liberty of all his
opinions, the care of his honor and his life, the
right of property, the uncontrolled disposal of
his person, his industry, and all his faculties;
the communication of all his thoughts by all pos
sible means ; the pursuit of happiness, and the re
sistance of oppression.
" The exercise of natural rights has no limits,
but such as will ensure their enjoyment to other
members of society.
" No man can be subject to any laws, ex
cepting those which have received the assent of
himself or his representatives, and which are pro
mulgated beforehand and applied legally.
" The principle of all sovereignty resides in
the nation. Nobody, no individual can possess
authority, which does not expressly emanate
from it.
" Government has for its sole object, the ge-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

33

neral welfare. This interest requires that the
legislative, executive and judicial powers, should
be distinct and defined, and that their organiza
tion should secure the free representation of the
citizens, the responsibility of the agents, and the
impartiality of the judges.
" The laws ought to be clear, precise, and uni
form for all citizens.
" The subsidies ought to be freely consented
to, and fairly imposed.
" And as the introduction of abuses and the
right of succeeding generation make the revi
sion of every human establishment necessary, it
must be allowed to the nation to have, in certain
cases, an extraordinary convocation of deputies,
whose sole object should be the examination and
correction, if necessary, of the vices of the consti
tution." This declaration of the rights of man, the first
ever published in Europe, and the most simple,
formed the foundation of the one adopted by the
constituent assembly. At this time, the assem
bly having declared itself permanent, nominated
Lafayette as their vice-president ; in which ca
pacity he presided during the nights of the
13th and 14th July, and caused a decree to
vol. 1. D

34 MEMOIRS
pass constituting the responsibility of the crown's
advisers. On the 15th he was sent to Paris, as
head of a deputation of sixty members, and was
there proclaimed commandant-general of the
civic guard. On the next day, he caused the
order for the destruction of the Bastile to be
published ; on the 17th he received the King,
at the head of nearly two hundred thousand men
variously armed.* After saving a great number
of victims from popular fury, and despairing of
being able to preserve the lives of Foulon and
Berthier, he resigned his commission. The re-
* Lafayette, says Toulqngeon, in speaking of this epoch, La
fayette, whose name and whose reputation, acquired in America,
were associated with liberty itself, Lafayette was at the head of
the Parisian national guard. He enjoyed at once, that entire
confidence and public esteem which are due to great qualities.
The faculty of raising the spirits, or rather of infusing fresh cou
rage into the heart, was natural to him. His external appearance
was youthful and bold, which is always pleasing to the multitude.
His manners were simple, popular, and engaging. He possessed
every thing that is wanting to commence, and terminate a revolu
tion :— the brilliant quality of military activity, and the calm
confidence of courage in times of public emotion. La
fayette was equal to every thing, if every thing had been done
fairly and openly ; but he was unacquainted with the dark and nar
row road of intrigue.

JBAILLY.

''»M;„ „,.„. |,-,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. <j0
presentations of the citizens, and particularly
of the electors, and of the virtuous Badly, re
newed in him, the hope of being able to arrest
the acts of violence which were being committed ;
and he again devoted himself to this humane duty.
The sixty districts of Paris unanimously con
firmed his nomination as commandant-general,
and pledged themselves, by special decrees, to
second him in his efforts to preserve liberty and
public order.
Shortly afterwards, Lafayette proposed, at the
HoteLde-Ville, the regular institution of an
armed force, under the title of the National
Guard. The old white colour was joined to blue
and red, the colours of the city. " Gentlemen,"
said he addressing the assembly, " I bring
" you a cockade which shall make the tour of
" the world ; and an institution at once civic,
" and military, which shall change the system
" of European tactics and reduce all absolute
" governments to the alternative of being beaten,
" if they do not imitate it ; or of being overthrown
" if they dare to imitate it." Throughout the whole
country a national guard was organized on the
same principles as that in Paris, under the in
fluence of their chief, who, however, refused
d 2

36 MEMOIRS
the special commands, which deputation and ad
dresses, from all quarters, offered him.
It appears from Bailly's memoirs, that at
the commencement of September 1789, Lafayette
succeeded, not without great difficulty, and
the employment of his personal influence, in
getting a deputation to be sent from the com
mune to the national assembly, to request some
immediate reforms in criminal jurisprudence,
such as the making all proceedings public, the
communication of the accusations to the accused,
allowing them advocates, the free intercourse of
the accused with their families and friends, the
confronting of witnesses reforms which were
exceedingly necessary ; and which were intro
duced in the only three political trials which
took place during the early part of the revolution.
M. de Seze, advocate of the Baron Bezenval ut-
terred a high eulogy upon these reforms, as may
still be seen in the memoirs and journals of the
time. While in Paris the magistrates and the national
guard were exerting every effort to maintain
public order, new conspiracies were hatching at
Versailles. The signal was given at the famous re
past of the body guards. The tricoloured cockade

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

37

was trampled upon ; the ladies distributed white
cockades ; and cries of a, bas la nation ! were
heard. These provocations, the scarcity of bread
and the intrigues of the factions produced a vio
lent commotion at the Hotel-de-Ville on the 5th
of October. Immense crowds gathered on all
sides, exclaiming " to Versailles !" and " we
want bread !" Lafayette stemmed this torrent for
the space of eight hours ; but on learning that
from various points of the capital, several thou
sands of infuriated people were repairing to
Versailles with arms and cannon, he demanded
and obtained from the Commune an order to pro
ceed thither himself with a portion of the national
guard. On arriving at Versailles he caused the
guards to renew their oath of fidelity to the na
tion, the law and the king. Having solicited for
himself and the two commissioners of the Com
mune admission to the court yards, which were
then filled by the regiment of Swiss guards, he
advanced into the apartments of the castle,
which were crowded with pebple. A gloomy
silence prevailed which was broken only by one
of the spectators exclaiming : " Behold Crom
well!" " Cromwell," replied Lafayette, " would

38 MEMOIRS
not have entered this place alone." His behaviour
to the King, and the language he addressed to
him were admitted, even by the courtiers to be
full of respect and affection. However, Louis
XVI consigned to him only the guard of the posts,
which had belonged to the late French guards. The
taking possession of the other guarded points
would have been an act of unheard of presumption.
The castle, the inner court and the gardens
were therefore entrusted to the body guards and
the Swiss. At two o'clock in the morning, after
having visited his posts, Lafayette sent to inform
the King, that he wished to speak with him
again. He was informed that the King was in
bed. After five o'clock tranquillity was per
fectly restored, and Lafayette, exhausted with
fatigue, proceeded to his head-quarters, (which
were established near the castle) to receive the
reports, to write to Paris, and to take a little re
freshment and rest. Suddenly a patrole-officer
presented himself before him. A party of ruffians,
who had concealed themselves in the shrubberies
of the garden, had effected an entrance into the
palace, killed two of the body guards, and pe
netrated to the apartments of the Queen, who,

3-IonJtivb saJp-
M A ir D E ATlTlSli 1*1 ET'T£.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

39

thanks to the courageous resistance of two of her
guards, had time to effect her escape to the
King. To order the first post to hasten to the Queen's
apartments, which were unfortunately barri
caded on that side, (an obstacle which favoured
the flight of the assailants) — to leap upon the
first horse he could find, and whilst the national
grenadiers saved the royal family and the body
guards, (of whom it may be observed, that all the
officers, except four, had retired to rest,) — to
rescue from the mOb which was pouring in on all
sides, other body guards who had been seized in
the streets : all this was the work of the national
guard, and its chief. Lafayette being left, alone
amidst an infuriated mob, one of them demanded
his head, which he saved only by ordering the
arrest of the maniac by his companions.
The King having held a counciland announced
his determination to proceed' to Paris,, Lafar
yette alarmed at demonstrations which still
threatened the Queen, ventured to propose that
she should appear with him in the balcony ; there
not being able to make himself heard by the
multitude, he conceived the happy idea of kissing
the hand of Marie-Antoinette. " Vive la Reine !

40 MEMOIRS
vive Lafayette!" then resounded on all sides.
He next led one of the body guards out on the
balcony, and embraced him : " vivent les gardes
du corps !" exclaimed the multitude. On Lafa
yette's return to the royal closet, Madame Ade
laide, the aunt of Louis XVI embraced him and
called him the saviour of the King and his family.
This title of saviour was reiterated, for a few
days, among the courtiers, the body guards, and
individuals of all parties. To the time of their
death, the King, Queen and Madame Elizabeth
publicly rendered to Lafayette the justice of ac
knowledging that to him they were indebted for
their preservation on that memorable occasion.
The court removed to Paris. It is false that
the heads of the unfortunate guards were carried
before the royal carriage, and it is equally untrue
that the Duke of Orleans was seen at the castle
at the time of the tumult. He did not arrive
there until it was all ended ; but his name had
been compromised, and that was sufficient to
prompt Lafayette in a conference which Mirabeau
styles very imperious on the one part, and very re
signed on the other, to persuade the prince to quit
the kingdom for a time.
Lafayette wished that the body guard should

Ga.ildr.24t. del

Jjrip ^rmdbj "*r- J'^tid daj-jtrty, 3n Rir

m a m a t o

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 41
share with the national guard the duty of the
palace. The aristocratic spirit of the officers op
posed this, and besides the court was anxious
that the King should appear to be a prisoner. Be
this as it may, thus were frustrated at once, a
counter-revolutionary plot, and the horrible de
sign of a guilty faction.
Other acts of firmness contributed to the
speedy restoration of public order. Some se
ditious individuals who had murdered a baker,
were tried and hanged ; and a troop of insurgent
soldiers were stripped of their uniforms and
conveyed to the prisons of Saint-Denis. Fi
nally, though Lafayette often had popular move
ments to repress, and still more frequently to
calm by persuasion, yet Paris enjoyed during
.two years astonishing tranquillity amidst the
great fermentation.
The debates of the assembly afford an un
deniable proof of the freedom of opinion. The
liberty of the press, which was especially ex
ercised upon men in power; was extreme in
every point of view, from the counter-revolu
tionary journals and pamphlets to the writings
of the well known Marat, a physician attached to

42 MEMOIRS
the establishment of the Count d'Artois. This man
departed. for London an aristocrat, two months
before the 14th of July and returned a month
after a furious demagogue and the daily assailant
of Bailly. and Lafayette. Amidst this conflict
only three men: were; tried for state offences':
viz : Bezenval, who was acquitted* the Prince
de Lambesc who was ih contumacy, and Fa
vras, an officer of the household, of Mon
sieur, afterwards . Louis XVHI. That Prince
came to the Hotel-de-Vilfe, meanly to de
clare ; that there existed: no political relation
between hirii arid : Favras, and to protest his
attachment to the revolution, v Favras was tried
by the court of Chatelet, according to the old
laws,, but modified by- new forms favorable to
the accused. "The judges," said Lafayette,
" are incapable of being influenced by fear, but if
they were, it would be superfluous cowardice for I
will answer for all." Accordingly, the courageous
and discreet Favras in open court thanked the
national guard for their exertions in protecting
his person and the independence of his judges.
He was condemned, though the evidence upon
one of the principal charges : against him, the

>=

id
«s3

id

//;

. r/ /////""

'.¦'J^/--'s --*7"

<3t>6*

*-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

43

design of assassinating the mayor and the com
mandant general, was shaken by a letter
from those two functionaries, tending to inva
lidate that accusation.
Lafayette frequently alluded in the national
assembly to the riots which broke out in the
various provinces. He proposed repressive de
crees and compensations for the houses which
were burnt in those riots, for which he in a
great measure blamed the counter-revolutionary
spirit. The idea that those anarchical excesses
were encouraged by foreign influence, was fre
quently hinted at by Lafayette, and this was
also the opinion of many of the purest friends
of liberty and public order. " It is not for
the Champ-de-Mars that you sacrifice me," said
Bailly, " it is for the oath of the Tennis Court."
We find, from the Memoirs of Madame Cam-
pan, that this opinion was also shared by the
Queen. It was while demanding, in the tri
bunal, the adoption of rigid measures against
the rioters, that Lafayette made use of the fol
lowing words, for which he has been so often
and so bitterly reproached, " Under despotism,
the most sacred of duties is insurrection, under
a free government, obedience to the laws."
Lafayette supported with all his power the firm

44 MEMOIRS
measures adopted against the^garrison of Nancy,
which had risen in insurrection, and he called
for the approbation of the [assembly on the
conduct observed by M. de Bouille on that
occasion. He proposed the establishment of
the English jury, in all its purity, and at the
opening fc-f those religious dissensions, out of
which party spirit^, on both sides created a
schism, Lafayette, in the assembly as well as in
the exercise of his functions of commandant-gene
ral, was the apostle and defender of the liberty
and equality of religious worship. He openly
protected that form of worship which was most
unpopular, and which was practised in his own
family. He in consequence received the thanks
of the non-juring priests and of several convents
of nuns, where prayers were offered up for La
fayette. He spoke in behalf of the rights of
men of colour. "The national assembly," said
he, " convokes colonists to deliberate on their in
terests , is it not evident that free men, who are
landed proprietors, cultivators and tax- payers in
a colony, are colonists ? Now the individuals
to whom I refer, are tax-payers, cultivators,
landed proprietors and free men ; are they not
also men? I think so, &c."
Lafayette declined accepting either recom-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 45
pense or salary from the Commune of Paris, at
the; same time declaring, that he attached no
more importance to the refusal than to the ac
ceptance. The public were informed, for the
first time, by the Memoirs of Bouille, that he
refused the marshal's baton the constable's
sword and even the office of lieutenant-general
of the kingdom : offers which were more than
once renewed. So in the popular meetings of
the Hotel-de-Ville and particularly on the oc
casion of a special motion of the Abbe Fauchet
he rejected propositions of dictatorship and to
be created commander-in-chief of the armed
citizens. He went still farther: — at the time
of the great federation of 1790, when he learned
that all the deputations were arriving with the
design of conferring upon him that supreme com
mand, he immediately made a motion for ob
taining a decree prohibiting any individual from
being invested with the command of the national
guards of more than one department or even
one district. One day, when on his return from
a review, he was conducted back to the as
sembly amidst the enthusiastic acclamations of
an immense multitude, he seized that opportu
nity of declaring in the tribune his formal de-

46 MEMOIRS
termination to return to the class of private citi
zens, as soon as the constitution should be settled.
In the famous sitting in which the abolition of
titles ofnobility was proclaimed, Lafayette warmly
supported that measure. He even opposed any
exceptions in favour of the princes of the blood, and
he insisted that the constitutional principle of
equality among citizens should be immediately
established. On the 14th of July, 1790, Lafayette being
major-general of the federation, of which the
King was chief, took on the altar of the coun
try, the civic oath in the name of four millions
of national guards, represented by fourteen thou
sand deputies. The popularity which he then
enjoyed, excited particularly on that solemn oc
casion, a feeling of enthusiasm, which induced
him in an address to the federates, to make
the following remarks : " Let not ambition take
possession of you ; love the friends of the peo
ple; but reserve blind submission for the law,
and enthusiasm for liberty. Pardon this advice,
gentlemen : you have given me the glorious right
to offer it when, by loading me with every species
of favour which one of your brothers could receive
from you, my heart, amidst its delightful emo-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 47
tion, cannot repress a feeling of fear." — On
taking leave of him, the deputations spoke as
follows : — " The deputies of the national guards
of France retire, with the regret of not being
able to nominate you their chief. They re
spect the constitutional law though it checks
at this moment, the impulse of their hearts;
a circumstance which must cover you with
immortal glory, is, that you yourself promoted
that law, that you yourself prescribed bounds
to our gratitude."
On the 28th of February 1791, after having
quelled a riot excited at Vincennes for the pur
pose of drawing him out of Paris, closing the
gates against him and even attempting his life,
Lafayette returned to the Tuileries, where there
had been mustered in the apartments and inner
passages, an assemblage of armed men, who re
ceived the name of chevaliers du poignard. The
murmurs of the national guards, on duty, had suf
ficed to break up this strange assemblage, of
which the king himself blamed the imprudence
and felt the danger. The appearance of Lafayette
contradicted the report of his death, which had
already been circulated. He required that the
arms which had been deposited, and among which

48 MEMOIRS
there really were poignards, should be given to
the national guards, and an order of the day an
nounced that the chefs de la domesticite", which
was the phrase made use of, had been enjoined
not to permit any more such enterprises. Thus
Lafayette had continually to defend liberty and
public order against the plots and efforts of the
various factions, which subsequently, and when
regular institutions were at length established,
made so violent and fatal an explosion.
On the 11th of April of the same year, a com
motion, which had evidently been prepared in
secret, impeded the usual journey of the king
to Saint-Cloud. Lafayette was now for the first
and only time, dissatisfied with the national
guard on duty. He was also displeased with
the civil authorities and the court ; and he
tendered his resignation. The commune in a bo
dy and all the battalions assembled, waited
upon him, and conjured him, to resume the
command. The escape of the king, against which every
precaution had been taken, compatible with the
liberty enjoyed by the supreme chief of the state,
was to Lafayette an event very unexpected,
as the positive promise and the apparent sin-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 40
cerity of the monarch had recently warranted
him in contradicting the suspicions which had
arisen, and publicly staking his life that the King
would not depart.* " Consequently," says a
historian, " the fury of the people against La
fayette was extreme. It was somewhat appeased
when they beheld the composure with which he
advanced, unattended by any escort, amidst the
yells of a prodigious crowd which had assembled
before the Hotel-de-Ville. Some lamentations
for the recent public calamity, which seemed to
challenge Lafayette, furnished him with an op
portunity of telling those who complained that,
if they called that event a misfortune, he wished to
know what name they would give to a counter-revo
lution which would deprive them of liberty.''
The same eye-witnessf adds that in that, mul
titude, several voices were raised to offer him the
vacant place ; a proposition which he rejected
with a contemptuous sarcasm. This restored
him to all his previous popularity.
On learning the fatal departure of the King, the
well foreseen signal of civil and foreign war, La-
* Toulongeon's History of France. See the Pieces Justificd-

f Bureaux-Puzy.
VOL. I„

50 MEMOIRS
fayette, without waiting for the meeting of the as
sembly, and after having consulted its president
and the mayor, took upon himself alone the res
ponsibility of signing and dispatching in every di
rection, orders for stopping what was termed the re
moval of the King. Fortunately for him, consider
ing the atrocious crimes which were afterwards
committed, it was not in consequence of his or
ders, which were necessarily tardy, but the
misfortune of being recognized by a post master,
which occasioned the arrest at Varennes. The
royal family on receiving from Lafayette's aide-
de-camp, the decree of the assembly, appeared
surprised that he was still commanding in Paris ;
and indeed, observes Bouille in his memoirs, the
flight of the King might have caused him to be
massacreed by the people. It is remarkable that
the notorious Danton, who had previously re
ceived 100,000 francs from the court, was the
only one who, the same evening, at the jacobin
club, demanded the head of Lafayette, though
he was well aware the latter knew his secret.
When the King and his family were brought
back to Paris, where hitherto they had not been
prisoners, but merely kept under supervision, a
decree of the assembly consigned them under the

Tit-'

llil

Public p,ir Furac, Paris

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 51
orders of the commandant-general, to guards
personally responsible, and the more distrustful
inasmuch as they had just been deceived. La
fayette manifested redoubled zeal to guarantee
the safety of the royal family, but sovereign ho
nors were not restored to the monarch until he
had again acknowledged and accepted his title
of constitutional king. Meanwhile Bouille, hav
ing, in his letter from Luxembourg, alleged
that there existed a party who wished for a re
public, and that Lafayette belonged to it, the
latter renewed in the assembly his declaration of
fidelity to the constitution as it was established.
While two opposite factions accused Lafayette
of having connived at the King's flight with the
view, according to some, of founding the republic,
and according to others of serving the court, the
general himself employed his popularity and his
power only to ensure the independence of the
deliberations and obedience to the decrees of the
assembly. The decree of the 16th of July 1791, proved
that there was almost a unanimous determination
to restore the King. The discontented assem
bled in the Champ-de-Mars, on the morning of '
the 17th to sign a protest against this measure.
e 2

52 MEMOIRS
They commenced by assassinating two invalids
and carrying their heads on pikes. Lafayette
promptly hurried to the spot, and ordered the
barriers, already raised, to be pulled down A
man discharged a musket at him, which fortu
nately missed fire. This assassin, whom La
fayette released, afterwards made a boast of his
crime at the bar of the convention. In conse
quence of a promise having been given that the
crowds would disperse, the municipal officers
waited till evening, but as the agitation conti
nued to augment, as hostile projects were an
nounced to the assembly, and as that body had
directed the municipality to take measures for
restoring public safety, the latter unfurled the
flag of martial law, and paraded it through the
streets, headed by the mayor and escorted by a
detachment under the command of Lafayette.
The municipality were assailed with stones, and
in self-defence found it necessary to fire a few
shots. The national guard also fired, but in the
air. This encouraged the boldness of the rioters,
and the guard then fired upon them. According
to the report of Bailly about a dozen persons
were killed and as many wounded ; it has been
alleged that the numbers were more considera-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 53
ble, but very exaggerated statements were cir
culated at the time. Be this as it may, a few mi
nutes sufficed for the dispersion of the crowd,
which however re-assembled with greater success
on the 10th of August and 31st of May. The
municipality and the national guard, who on that
unfortunate day also lost several men, received
the unanimous thanks of the assembly. There
would have been more bloodshed, but for the
courage and presence of mind of Lafayette, who
at the moment when the match was about to be
applied to a cannon, placed himself before its
mouth, and the terrified gunner had barely time
to withdraw his arm.
During the last discussions on the constitu
tional act, Lafayette opposed the project which
prohibited the nation for thirty years from the
privilege of modifying the constitution. When
the question was settled, he procured a decree
for the immediate abolition of law proceedings
relative to the revolution, the use of passports,
and all restriction on the liberty of travelling in
the interior and out of France.
On the 8th of October he took leave of the na
tional guard in an affectionate letter, in which he
retraced his principles of liberty and public order.

54 MEMOIRS
The following is a literal copy of this remark
able document. " Gentlemen,
" At the moment when the National Consti
tuent Assembly has resigned its powers, when
the functions of its members have ceased, I also
close the engagements I contracted, when placed
by the voice of the people at the head of those
citizens who first undertook to conquer and main
tain their liberties ; I promised the capital, which
first gave the happy signal for freedom, to keep
unfurled the sacred standard of the revolution,
which public- confidence consigned to my pro
tection. " The constitution, gentlemen, is now settled by
those who had the right of superintending its ar
rangement ; and after having been sworn to by all
the citizens, by all the sections of the empire, it has
been legally adopted by the people at large, and
solemnly recognised by the first legislative assem
bly of its representatives, as it had previously, with
equal reflection and good faith, been acknowledged
and adopted by the hereditary representative
entrusted with the execution of the laws. The
days of the revolution now give place to the pe-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 55
riod of regular organization, liberty and prospe
rity which that revolution guarantees. Thus,
when every thing concurs for the pacification of
internal troubles, the threats of the enemies of
France must, in the face of the public happiness,
appear even to themselves insensate. For what
ever plots may be formed against the rights
of the people, no free mind can harbour the base
thought of compromising any of those rights, and
liberty and equality, once established in the two
hemispheres, will never retrograde.
" To serve you until this day, gentlemen, was
a duty imposed upon me by the sentiments which
have animated my whole life ; it was but the
return of fidelity to which your confidence was en
titled. To resign now, without reserve, to my
country all the power and influence she gave me
for the purpose of defending her during recent
convulsions — this is a duty I owe to my well
known resolutions, and it amply satisfies the
only species of ambition I possess.
" After this explanation of my conduct and
motives, I will make, gentlemen, a few reflec
tions on the new situation in which we are
placed by the constitutional order about to com
mence. Liberty arose surrounded by the en-

56 MEMOIRS
signs of peace, when her enemies, provoking
the defenders of the people, rendered necessary
the creation of the national guards, their spon
taneous organization, their universal union, in
short that development of civil power, which
restored the use of arms to its real destination,
and which verified the remark 1 feel pleasure
in repeating, viz: that for a nation to be free it is
sufficient that she resolves to be so. But it is time
to give other examples, and those which will
be still more imposing,, have an irresistible foree
which is exercised for the maintainance of the
laws. " I feel, pleasure in calling to mind, gentlemen,
how amidst so many hostile plots, ambitious in
trigues, and licentious extravagancies you faced
every adverse circumstance with undaunted firm
ness : to the fury of parties you opposed the
pure love of your country ; in short, amidst the
storms of seven and twenty revolutionary months
you have calculated dangers only to multiply
your vigilance, and measured their importance
only inasmuch as they might compromise or
serve liberty. Doubtless we have too many dis
orders to deplore, and you know the painful
impressions they have always produced on me ;, —

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 57
doubtless we ourselves have errors to repair; —
but when we look back on the great events of
the revolution, and observe the unremitting
devotedness and boundless sacrifices of a portion
of the citizens to secure the liberty, safety, and
peace of all ; when we reflect on that provi
sional state which had just terminated, and in
which confidence necessarily supplied the place
of law; who is there, among those who provoked
you and whom you protected, who can blame
the hommage now rendered to you by a sincere
friend and a grateful general.
" But you must not believe, gentlemen, that
every species of despotism is destroyed, and
that liberty, because it is constituted and che
rished among us, is already perfectly established.
This cannot be while every thing, not prohibited
by the law, is not freely permitted ; while the
movement of persons and the circulation of food
and money are impeded by any obstacles ;
while those who are cited to trial shall
be protected against the law; while the people
neglecting their most important duties and their
most sacred debt, are neither eager to concur
in the elections, nor prompt to pay public con-

58 MEMOIRS
tributions; while arbitrary opposition, the fruit
of disorder or distrust, shall paralize the action
of the lawful authorities ; while political opinions
or personal sentiments, and above all, the sa
cred use of the liberty of the press, shall ever
serve as a pretext for violence ; while religious
intolerance, screening itself under the cloak of
pretended patriotism, shall presume to admit the
idea of a ruling or a proscribed form of worship ;
while the abode of every citizen is not to its
owner an asylum more inviolable than the most
impregnable fortress, while every citizen does
not conceive himself bound to defend his civil
and political liberties, and to maintain the rigid
execution of the law ; finally, while there is not,
in the voice of the magistrate who speaks in the
name of the law, a power for its defence, su
perior to that of a million of swords.
" May all the blessings of liberty, by conso
lidating, more and more, the happiness of our
country, duly reward the zeal of the national
guards of the empire, who were all armed in
the same cause, and united by the same sen
timents : and may I be allowed here to express
to them a gratitude and devotedness as bound-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 59
less as were the testimonials of confidence and
friendship with which they have honoured me
during this revolution.
" Gentlemen, I now cease to command you ;
and at the painful moment of our separation,
my heart acknowledges more warmly than ever,
the vast obligations by which I am attached to
you. Accept the wishes of a devoted friend, for
the public prosperity, for the private happiness
of each of you, may your recollection of him
be frequently present in your thoughts, asso
ciated with the oath by which we are all bound
to live free or to die. " Lafayette."
The same day he delivered a farewell address
to the Commune, and quitted the capital in
which he had constantly enjoyed popularity,
the more pure and the more remarkable, inas
much, as it had been incessantly employed to
repress factious intrigues, and the excesses of
fury and licentiousness, which were afterwards
so terribly and fatally manifested. He retired to
the place of his nativity, about one hundred and
twenty leagues from Paris. As he proceeded on
his journey, he was overwhelmed with honors and

60 MEMOIRS
marks of affection. The national guards of Pa
ris presented to him the statue of Washington,
and a sword forged from the bolts of the Bas
tille. Several citizens made an attempt to recall
Lafayette, by getting him elected mayor instead
•' of Pethion, who was supported by the jacobins.
The court employed its influence in favour of
Pethion, and as the friends of the general knew
he was not ambitious of the dignity, the favorite
candidate of the jacobins and the court found his
success easy.
Meanwhile the emigration became general ;—
multitudes were arming themselves abroad ; and
the coalition was developed. It was deemed
necessary to raise three armies of fifty thousand
men. Luckner, Rochambeau, and Lafayette
were the three generals chosen to command them.
When, on passing through Paris, to proceed to
his head-quarters, Lafayette presented himself to
the legislative assembly, the president informed
him that the nation confidently opposed to her
enemies, the Constitution and Lafayette. He
successfully directed his attention to the means
of re-establishing discipline, and adopted more
rigid regulations than those already in existence.
He made negligence be regarded as a sign of

J.-'wrnMS-nsr.

0#M*UAte4

c_

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 61
aristocracy, and attention to duty as a mark of
patriotism ; and finally, he introduced in the
army that simplicity which subsequently secured
to us so many triumphs, which was quite at
variance with the luxury which had previously
prevailed among the French military.
At this period, the minister Narbonne, who
had the confidence of the generals and troops,
lost his place; and his fall was closely followed
by that of his colleagues. They were succeeded
by a ministry which the jacobins and the in
tendant of the civil list formed with common
accord. Dumouriez was at its head. It was
not long before war was declared.
Among the intrigues, foreign and domestic,
which were at this time carried on, one was
hatched for the purpose of ruining Lafayette.
On the evening of the 24th, he received orders to
form an army-corps and a train of artillery which
were to be at Givet, on the 30th. All was ready
in four and twenty hours, and this unexpected
march of fifty-six leagues was performed in five
days ; so that while every good citizen deplored
the checks sustained at Lille and Mons, it was
impossible to withhold thanks for the efforts and
zeal of Lafayette. He directed on the enemy's

62 MEMOIRS
territory a corps which fought valiantly near
Philippeville ; and afterwards, in conformity
with a plan which left the offensive to Marshal
Luckner, he proceeded to occupy the entrenched
camp at Maubeuge. Before that town a partial
engagement took place, in which General Gouvion
was killed. The accidents and delays which too
frequently ensue with raw troops, rendered in
effectual a movement on the flank, and gave the
enemy time to retreat.
According to the first plan which was con
certed in the King's presence, between the
minister Narbonne and the three generals, Luck
ner was to manoeuvre on the Rhine, and Lafayette
at the head of forty thousand men, was to enter
the Netherlands, while the army of Rochambeau
was to be in readiness to support him. However,
this plan was modified by Dumouriez and the
jacobins, who were at that time his friends.
Rochambeau in disgust resigned his command,
and Marshal Luckner, who failed in his offensive
operations against the Netherlands, thought proper
to retire on Valenciennes. Lafayette, who had oc
cupied Maubeuge as a means of diversion, dis
patched Bureaux-Puzy to prevail on Luckner to
make a combined attack upon the Austrians, nearly

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 63
at the point where the battle of Jemmapes was
fought. Lafayette answered for his troops, and
entertained no doubt of their success, for he had
from the very outset constantly and publicly pre
dicted the advantage which our new institutions,
and our spirit of patriotism must possess over old
tactics and old armies. Luckner obstinately re
fused to yield to the recommendations of his
colleague. This circumstance proved not a little
mortifying to the enemies of Lafayette, both
within and without the assembly, for by dint of
repeating that he had prevented Luckner from
attacking, and had proposed that he should march
on Paris, Bureaux-Puzy was summoned to the
bar, and they themselves rendered necessary the
publication of the correspondence.
Lafayette was at the same time engaged in a
more perilous war against the colossal and dis
organizing power of the jacobin clubs. He was
aware that the enemies of the revolution, both at
home and abroad, had formed the systematic
design of destroying liberty by excess and licen
tiousness. He saw among the jacobins sincere
patriots, who were the involuntary instruments of
intrigue, fury, and the counter-revolution. He
determined to brave them ; but he attacked them

64 MEMOIRS
alone, and his letter of the 16th of June, to the
national assembly openly denounced that for
midable association ; and specifically named the
jacobins. The following is an extract from this
document, which forms an epoch in the history
of the time.
" Gentlemen,
" The public cause is in danger. The fate of
France depends chiefly on her representatives.
The nation looks to them for her safety ; but by
giving herself a constitution, she has prescribed
to them the only course by which they can save
her. " As gentlemen, the rights of man are the law
of every constituent assembly, the constitution
becomes th\°, law of the legislators whom it has
established : it is to you that I must denounce the
too potent efforts which are making to mislead
you from the course you have promised to follow.
" I will not be prevented from exercising this
right of a free man, and fulfilling this duty of a
citizen, either by the momentary errors of opinion,
— for what are opinions which depart from princi
ples?— or by my respect for the representatives of
the people, for 1 respect still more the people

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

65

themselves whose constitution is the supreme
law ; nor by the regard you have always shewn
me, for I wish to preserve that regard, as I ob
tained it, by an inflexible attachment to liberty.
" You are placed in difficult circumstances.
France is threatened abroad, and agitated at
home. While foreign courts announce the au
dacious project of attacking our national sove
reignty, and declare themselves the enemies of
France, our domestic enemies, intoxicated with
fanaticism or pride, cherish chimerical hopes,
and harass us by their insolent animosity.
"It is your duty, gentlemen, to put down
these enemies ; and you will only have power to
do so inasmuch as you are constitutional and just.
" It is no doubt your wish to put them down ;
but cast your eyes on what is passing both in the
bosom of your own assembly and around you.
" Can you conceal from yourselves that a
faction, and to avoid vague denunciations, the
jacobin faction, has caused all these disorders ? I
here openly accuse that faction. Organized like
a separate power, in its source and its rami
fications, blindly directed by a few ambitious
leaders, that sect forms a distinct corporation
VOL. I. F

66 MEMOIRS
amidst the French people, whose power it usurps
by subduing its representatives and agents.
" This faction in public sittings style respect
for the laws aristocracy, and their infraction
patriotism : they pronounce eulogies on the
assassins of Versailles, panegyrize the crimes of
Jourdan, and- the recital of the assassination
which sullied the city of Metz, drew from them
infernal acclamations of approval. Can these
reproaches be evaded by fastening upon an
Austrian manifesto in which the jacobins are
mentioned ? Have they become sacred because
Leopold has pronounced their names ? And
because it is our duty to oppose foreigners who
mingle in our quarrels, are we exempt from the
equally important duty of delivering our country
from domestic tyranny ? In comparison with
this duty, what signify the projects of foreigners,
their connivance with counter- revolutionists, and
their influence over the lukewarm friends of
liberty ? It is I who denounce to you this.
jacobin sect ; I, who without referring to my
past life, may reply to those who pretend to
suspect me : — ' Stand forward, at this critical
juncture, when the character of every individual

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

07

is about to be tried, and let us see which of us
most inflexible in his principles, most firm in his
resistance, will best brave those obstacles and
dangers which traitors conceal from their country,
but which true citizens know how to estimate
and oppose.'
" And why should I longer delay to fulfil this
duty, when the power of the constituted authority
is daily diminishing, when party spirit is sub
stituted for the will of the people, when the
boldness of agitators impose silence on the
peaceful portion of the citizens, and when sec
tarian devotedness takes place of those private
and public virtues, which in a free country should
be rigidly regarded as the only means of at
taining to the first officers of the state.
" After having opposed to all obstacles and all
snares, the courageous and persevering patriotism
Of an army perhaps sacrificed to intrigues against
its general, I now come to oppose to the jacobin
faction the correspondence of a ministry the
worthy offspring of its club: — a correspondence
in which all calculations are erroneous, the pro
mises vain, the information false or frivolous, the
advice perfidious or contradictory: — a correspon
dence in which, after being urged to advance
F 2

68 MEMOIRS
without precaution, and to attack without means,
I was informed that resistance would soon become
impossible ; but I indignantly repelled the base
assertion. " What a remarkable similarity is observable,
gentlemen, between the language of the factious
party favored by the aristocracy, and those
who usurp the title of patriots! All have in view
to overthrow our laws, all rejoice at our disorders,
oppose the authorities delegated by the people,
detest the national guard, preach insubordination
to the army, and scatter alternately the seeds of
discontent and discouragement.
" As to me, gentlemen, who espoused the
cause of America at the moment when her ambas
sadors declared her lost: — who, from that time
have devoted myself to a persevering defence of
popular liberty and sovereignty ; who, on the
I lth of July 1789, on presenting to my country a
declaration of rights, ventured to say, that, ' for
a nation to be free, it is sufficient that she wills
it;' as I now come, full of confidence in the
justice ;of our cause, contempt for the cowards
who desert it, and indignation for the traitors who
would sully it, to declare that the French nation^
if she be not the vilest in the universe, may, and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 69
ought to resist the conspiracy of the Kings who
are coalesced against her. It is not certainly in
my brave troops that any timid sentiments are
expressed ; they are distinguished for patriotism,
energy, discipline, patience, mutual confidence,
in short, for every virtue civil and military.
" Among them the principles of liberty and
equality are cherished, the laws respected, pro
perty held sacred, and calumnies and factions
unknown. When I reflect that France has several
millions of men capable of becoming such soldiers,
I cannot help exclaiming : — How degraded must
be this vast nation, even more powerful by her
natural resources than the defences of art, and
opposing a monstrous confederation to the ad
vantage of extraordinary combinations, when the
base idea of sacrificing her sovereignty, compro
mising her liberty, and bargaining for her decla
ration of rights, could enter the catalogue of future
possibilities ! But that we soldiers of liberty
should fight or die with any advantage to our
country, it is requisite that the number of her
defenders should be promptly apportioned to that
of her adversaries, that supplies should be multi
plied, and our movements facilitated, that the com
forts of the troops, their equipment, pay, and

70 MEMOIRS
medical treatment should not be subject to fatal
delays or to a false economy, which operates in a
manner diametrically opposite to its supposed
object. " It is necessary above all, that the citizens,
who have rallied round the constitution, should
be assured that the rights it guarantees will be
respected with such a scrupulous fidelity as will
reduce to despair its enemies hidden or avowed.
This is the wish of every sincere friend of your
legitimate authority. Being assured that no
unjust consequence can flow from a pure
source, that no tyrannical measure can serve a
cause which owes its power and its glory to the
sacred bases of liberty and equality, you will
make criminal justice resume its constitutional
course, and let civil liberty and religious equality
enjoy the full application of just principles.
" The royal power must remain uncurtailed,
for it is guaranteed by the constitution; it must be
independent, for that independence is one of the
springs of our liberty; the King must be respected,
for he is invested with the national majesty: —
may he make choice of ministers who do not
wear the chains of any faction, and if conspirators
exist, let them perish by the sword of justice.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

71

" Finally, let the reign of the clubs, annihilated
by you, be superseded by the reign of the law ;
their usurpations by the firm and independent
operation of the constituted authorities; — their
disorganizing maxims by the true principles of
liberty;— their unbridled fury by the calm and
steady courage of a nation who knows her rights
and can defend them;— in short, their party
schemes by the real interests of their country,
which, in this moment of danger, should rally
and unite together, all those men to whom her
degradation and ruin are not objects of atrocious
pleasure or infamous speculation.
" Such, gentlemen, are the representations and
prayers submitted to the national assembly, as
they have already been submitted to the King by
a citizen, whose sincere love of liberty none will
dispute ; — who would be less hated by the dif
ferent factions, if he had not raised himself above
them by his disinterestedness; in whom silence
would have been more convenient, had he, like
many others, shewn himself indifferent to the
glory of the national assembly, and the confi
dence with which it ought to be surrounded : — of,
on his own part, confidence he cannot give a
better proof than by exhibiting the truth without
disguise.

72 MEMOIRS
" Gentlemen, I have obeyed the dictates of my
conscience, and fulfilled my oaths. It was a duty
I owed to my country, to you, to the King, and to
myself; for the chances of war will not permit me
to delay any observations I conceive to be useful,
and I cherish the hope that the national assembly
will regard this as a fresh homage of my fidelity to
its constitutional authority, and also of my per
sonal gratitude and respect.
" Signed, Lafayette."
This letter, which was approved by the ma
jority of the assembly, was bitterly attacked by
the jacobin deputies. The clubs vied with each
other in denouncing Lafayette. The Paris club
chose for its organ the too famous Collot d'Her-
bois. Intrigues now multiplied. The title of republi
cans was given to the factious spirits of that
period, as it was subsequently given to the men of
terror ; but there was no idea of a republic at the
Champ-de-Mars; of this the declarations of Ma
dame Roland and Brissot afford sufficient evi
dence. The names of the Duke of Brunswick and
the Duke of York were pronounced in the clubs,
and the subsequent conduct of most of these self-

'/' /

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 73
styled republicans of the time of anarchy and
violence is well known,
Meanwhile seventy-five departmental adminis
trations, composed of men really chosen by the
people, tendered their formal adherence to La
fayette's letter, and the national assembly daily
received fresh notifications of adherence, which
were interrupted by the catastrophe of the 10th
August, and the crimes of September.
The command of the frontier, was, after
the resignation of Rochambeau, divided be
tween Luckner and Lafayette. The Marshal's
portion extended from the Rhine to Longwy ;
and Lafayette's from Dunkirk to Mont-
medy. The two generals easily foresaw that
the principal attack would be made near the
junction point of their respective commands.
They had a host of adverse circumstances to
contend with, viz : the disguised movements of
the Austrian forces ; the outcries of the jaco
bins ; the denunciations of the journals ; the re
presentations of the ministers, who were ruled
by the clubs, and the disobedience of Dumou
riez, who first quarreled with his old colleagues,
and then, after the most serious charges on
both sides, was reconciled to them. How-

74 MEMOIRS
ever, in spite of all these obstacles, Luckner
and Lafayette, directed towards the threatened
points, the two corps ready to support each
other, and to oppose the Duke of Bruns*
wick. But while their military plans, that
among others which they formed in Flanders,
were thwarted by orders from Paris, internal in
trigues retarded the supplies of troops, which
had been ordered conformably with the law. It
proved fortunate, that at a subsequent period a
portion of these new levies arrived, at the right
moment, on the plains of Champagne, at that
time, a position skilfully chosen and boldly
maintained by Dumouriez, (the successor of La
fayette) ; the battle of Valmy, gained, by
Kellerman, and the cannon of Duboville,
French patriotism and courage, the imprudent
confidence of the allies, and the concurrence of
the elements, justified the predictions of the
proscribed general ; and perhaps, in that re
treat it was fortunate for the allies, that they
had to do, as the Marquis de Lucchesini ex
pressed it, with a general who knew how to nego-
date. Lafayette had been denounced to the natio
nal assembly, by the members who then

mmmm

evrtpar ^nsuuxr--

C?rcc&& pctt* J)eaya

.y

¦ ss y / y / /////^

',^/t,

"+ A.'^^

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

75

constituted the organs, and considered themselves
the leaders of the jacobins.
They gave him the name of the second Crom
well ; not however, in the honorable sense in
tended by Mirabeau, who, wearied with his scru
ples, called him Cromwetl-Grandison. And by
whom was this reproach of vulgar ambition, ad
dressed ? by the men whose offers of dic
tatorship, and general command he had rejected.
He was represented as an aristocrat, by those
very jacobins who, in their ministerial instruc
tion, had recommended him, not to yield too
much in Belgium, to his democratic sentiments,
and also by others, who were afterwards soon
covered with titles, orders, and cordons. On the
other hand, the court paid for libels, in which
the general was denounced as a royalist, and ac
cused of making his army a seditious rampart, for
himself. The infatuation by which the court, through jea
lous distrust, and secret calumny detached from
itself men, and above all, the man who, more
than any other, then possessed the power and
the will to protect it by constitutional means,
is one of the most curious traits in the history of
the period.

76 MEMOIRS
On the 28th of June, Lafayette presented
himself alone at the bar of the national assem •
bly to demand justice for the violence committed
on the 20th at the Tuileries. The citizens who
applauded him, would have defended him
personally ; but they did not support him with
that civic energy, which the critical occasion de
manded. Next day the King was to have re
viewed the national guards; but a counter or
der was issued during the night. The court
party frustrated the project of Lafayette, and the
King positively rejected his offer to defend
him against the threatened dangers. La
fayette proposed to conduct him, in open day,
to Compiegne, a distance to which he might pro
ceed without violating the constitution. There
he would have found a detachment of trust
worthy troops, as well as the local national
guard, and by a proclamation, made in full liber
ty, he might have recovered the public confi
dence. " He would have save the King," said
the royalists, " but not royalty ;" for to the court
party, constitutional royalty was nothing. The
Queen replied, that " it would be too much to
owe their lives once more to M. de Lafayette."
The Memoirs of M. Huet, first valet-de-cham?

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

77

bre to Louis XVHI, printed in 1814, shew that
the refusal which was merely attributed to inter
nal counsel, and the Queen's dislike of the pa
triots, was more especially due " to a letter from
the Duke of Brunswick, sent from his head-quar
ters at Coblentz." This letter conjured the
King to stay in Paris " until the troops of the
coalition and the emigrants should come to meet
him there." Lafayette repulsed in all his en
deavors to save the lives of the King and his
family, had no alternative, but to pursue his
route towards the frontiers.
On the 8th of August, the national assembly
deliberated on the charge brought against La
fayette. After some warm debating, it was de
termined by a majority of 407, to 224 votes,
that there was no ground of accusation. On the
following day, the 9th a great number of Depu
ties, who had voted for him, had to complain of
violent outrages committed upon them. A large
majority of the assembly rose and exclaimed :
"We all declare that we are not free."
The events of the 10th of August are known.
Lafayette thought it his duty to resist. He was
firmly supported by the municipality of Sedan
and the department of the Ardennes. He re-

78 MEMOIRS
ceived flattering letters from the new ministry.
The worthy magistrates of Sedan, who were
afterwards immolated on the scaffold of terrorism,
proposed to him to accede to a revolution, which,
by getting rid of the king, would have placed
him at the head of a new order of things. He
refused to recognize the violation of laws to which
obedience had been solemnly sworn. The in
flexible courage with which he persisted to the
last moment in an opposition becoming more
and more hopeless is well known. Of the se
venty-five departments which adhered to his
letter of the 16th of June, there remained with
him only the Ardennes. Dietrich and his friends
failed in their resistance at Strasburgh. The
troops, the generals, and the commanders of the
divisions, after having nearly all declared in his
favor, yielded and gave way on all sides. Every
means were employed to deprive him of the
support of the corps which remained with him
at Sedan ; and after the 1 9th of August no re
source was left to him, but a disgraceful retrac
tion, a death without glory and utility, or the
chance of an asylum in a foreign country.
In Jefferson's Memoirs, lately published, there
is a curious letter written to Lafayette in 1815.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 79
That illustrious chief of republican democracy
reminded his friend that at the period of the
tennis court oath, he advised an accommodation
with the King, until the French nation should
be further advanced in its political education.
" You thought otherwise, and that the dose
might still be larger, and I found you were
right; for subsequent events proved they were
equal to the constitution of 1791. Unfortunately,
some of the most honest, and enlightened
of our patriotic friends (but closet politicians
merely, unpractised in the knowledge of man,)
thought more could still be obtained and borne.
They did not weigh the hasards of a transition
from one form of government to another, the va
lue of what they had already rescued from those
hazards, and might hold in security if they
pleased, nor the imprudence of giving up the
certainty of such a degree of liberty, under a
limited monarch, for the uncertainty of a little
more under the form of a republic. You differed
from them ; you were for stopping there, and
for securing the constitution which the national
assembly had obtained. Here, too, you were
right ; and from this fatal error of the republi
cans, from their separating from yourself, and

80 MEMOIRS
the constitutionalists in their councils, flowed all
the subsequent sufferings and crimes of the
French nation. The hazards of a second change
fell upon them by the way. The foreigner gained
time to anarchise by gold the government he
could not overthrow by arms, to crush in their
own councils the genuine republicans, by the
fraternal embraces of exaggerated and hireling
pretenders, and to turn the machine of jacobinism
from the change to the destruction of order,
and in the end the limited monarchy they had
secured was exchanged for the unprincipled and
bloody tyranny of Robespierre, and the equally
unprincipled and maniac tyranny of Bonaparte."
The conduct of Lafayette in wishing in 1789 to
go the length of the constitution of 1791, and
to stop there in 1792, presents a striking con
formity with his program of the Hotel-de-
Ville : A popular throne surrounded by republican
institutions. Writing from the prison of Magdeburgh to the
Chevalier d'Archenholz, in a letter which re
mained long secret, he says : " My position is
hereby singular. I have sacrificed republican
inclinations to circumstances and the will of the
nation. I served the sovereignty of the people

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 81
under the constitution which emanated from
them. My popularity was great. The legisla
tive body defended me better on the 8th of Au
gust, than it defended itself on the 10th. But
I had displeased the jacobins by blaming their
aristocratic usurpation of legitimate powers ; the
priests of all sorts, by claiming religious liberty,
the anarchists, by repressing them, and the cons
pirators, by rejecting their offers. You see what
enemies are united with those which foreign po
wers, the anti-revolutionists and even the court
hire against me. You recollect the premeditated
aggression of the 10th of August, the forces
required in the name of the law and slaughtered
in the name of the people; the citizens of every
age and sex massacreed in the streets and
thrown into prison to be there assassinated in cold
blood. You recollect the King only saving his
life by an illegal suspension ; the national guard
disarmed, and the oldest friends of liberty and
equality, a La Rochefoucauld even, marked
out for the murderers; the constitutional act
rendered a signal for prosecution ; the press en
chained, and opinions punished with death ; ju
ries replaced by cut-throats, and the ministry
of justice given to their chief; the administra-
VOL. i. g

82 MEMOIRS
tive and municipal bodies of Paris dissolved ;
the national assembly compelled to sanction these
iniquities ; in a word, natural, civil, religious,
and political liberty strangled in blood. What
was to be thought, what was to be done, by the
man who had always been the ardent friend of
liberty, who was the first in Europe to proclaim
the declaration of rights ; who, on the altar of
the federation, had pronounced in the name of
the French people the civic oath ; and who re
garded the constitution, notwithstanding its faults,
as the best rallying point against the enemies
of freedom. Though the national sovereignty
was violated in the representatives, as well as
in the delegations of power, I did not wish that
the armed force should cease to be obedient,
and it was from civil authorities, which could
conveniently be applied to from the camp, that
I requested orders. Doubtless I earnestly wished
that a general call of the national voice should
re-establish public liberty ; that of constituted
powers. The independence of elections and delibe
rations being assured, if the nation had wished
to revise the constitutional act, would I — 1 who
have always been the first and most obstinate
defender of conventions complained ? Assuredly

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 83
I was too averse from associating myself with
the crimes which had been committed and those
which I foresaw, not to encourage that resistance
to oppression which I regarded as a duty ; but
I will venture to say that my conduct, difficult
as my situation was, will stand the severest
examination. " Ah ! Sir, I am sensible of what I owe you,
for your consideration of the inexpressible grief,
which my heart, ardent in the cause of humanity,
thirsting for glory, loving my country, my family
and friends, must have endured, when after the
labours of sixteen years, I was obliged to deprive
myself of the happiness of combating for the prin
ciples and sentiments for which alone I have lived ?
But what more could I do ? You know that, at the
10th of August, I was the last and almost the
only individual who resisted. If intrigue misled
many citizens, terror chilled almost all. I was
dismissed, accused, that is to say, prosecuted.
My defence might have been sanguinary, but it
would have been useless. It would only have
served myself, not my country, and the enemy
would have taken care to profit by it. I might
have attacked, and been killed, but seeing no
military advantage in that, I desisted. I would
g 2

84 MEMOIRS
have gone to meet death in Paris, but I feared
that such an example of popular ingratitude
might discourage other friends of liberty here
after. I departed then, and there was the more
reason for secrecy that a great number of officers
and even several corps might, at such a moment,
have been induced to follow me. After having
provided for the security of the places and troops
under my command, after having by a delicacy
for which we paid dear, dismissed my escort and
even my orderlies, on the frontier, I proceeded
with anguish in my heart, accompanied by Mau-
bourg* whose friendship with me is as old as our
existence, M. de Puzy, and a few other friends,
most of whom had been my aides-de-camp since
the formation of the national guard. M. Alexan-:
der Lameth joined us in our route. We intended
to go to Holland and England, then neutral coun
tries, and we had reached Liege, when we fell
in with an Austrian corps which delivered us up
to the coalition. We were made prisoners, and
the four members of the constituent assembly
were successively transferred to Luxemburgh,
Wezel and Magdeburgh.
* The general and peer Latour-Maubourg, lately deceased.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 85
" It is unknown what sufferings have been
inflicted upon us by this coalition ; but what are
those sufferings to the pains a heart devoted to
liberty feels from the injustice of the people ! In
that injustice the threefold tyranny of despotism,
aristocracy and superstition finds itself avenged ;
but the monster has received a mortal wound.
Here all the contrivances of the inquisition and
barbarism are multiplied around us ; but these
cruelties do us honor, and whether our heads are
reserved to adorn a triumph, or whether it be
preferred to make the insalubrity of dungeons,
the privation of air and exercise and every kind
of moral torture, have the effect of slow poison,
I hope that the compassion, the discussion, the
indignation which our fate will excite, will prove
so many germs of liberty, by raising up for. it
new defenders. To encourage such, in the sin
cerity of my heart, I here bequeath to you this
consoling truth, that the pleasure of a signal ser
vice rendered to humanity, more than compen
sates for all the torments which the united efforts
of its enemies and even the ingratitude of the
people may cause.
" But what will become of the French revolu
tion? Whatever may be the force which the in-

86 MEMOIRS
stitution of the national guards gives to France ;
whatever the extent of the advantages prepared
by Generals Rochambeau, Luckner and myself,
and energetically followed up by our successors;
can reliance be placed on immorality, tyranny
and disorganisation ? — On men whose venality
has disgusted all parties, whose baseness has
always prompted them to kiss the hand which
gives or strikes, whose pretended patriotism was
never any thing but egotism or envy — on avowed
corruptors of public morality, the authors of pro
tests and projects against the revolution, asso
ciated with the sanguinary wretches who have
already so often stained it ! what chiefs for a
nation that would be free ! can its legislators give
it a constitution, or legal order ! can its generals
prove incorruptible ! however if, after the convul
sion of anarchy, there still should exist one spot
where liberty maintains the combat, how I
should then curse my chains ! I refused to live
with my countrymen, but not to die for themi
Besides, can it be possible to escape from so many
barriers of guards and chains ? — Why not ? — ¦
Already a tooth-pick, some soot, a bit of paper
have served to deceive my gaolers, and at the
risk of my life this letter will be conveyed to you.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 87
It is true that, to the danger of escape must be
added the difficulty of the journey and the asylum.
From Constantinople to Lisbon, from Kamt-
schatka to Amsterdam (for I am on bad terms
with the House of Orange) bastiles every where
await me. The Huron and Iroquois forests are
peopled by my friends ; with me, the despots of
Europe and their courts are the savages. Though
I am no favorite at St. James's, I should find in
England a nation and laws, but 1 would wish to
avoid a country at war with my own. America,
the country of my heart, would rejoice to see me
again, but my solicitude on the destiny of France
would make me, for a time, prefer Switzerland.
However, enough on this idea. Instead of a
line of thanks I have written a letter and must
beg of you to receive with my adieux, the ex
pression of my gratitude and my attachment.
" Lafayette."
If Lafayette had not been recognised, the offi
cers who accompanied him would probably have
been allowed to pass. When arrested they made
an official declaration of their patriotic prin
ciples, because, as they stated, they did not
wish to be confounded with the emigrants who

88 MEMOIRS
were armed against their country. The eighteen
officers who followed their general were sent to
Antwerp and released in the course of a month ;
but the four members of the constituent assem
bly, were first conveyed to Namur and Nivelles.
At Namur the commandant of the place, the
Marquis of Chasteler told Lafayette, that
Prince Charles had been instructed by their
Royal Highnesses to converse with him on the
affairs of France, and he was given to understand
that, as he had complaints to make against his
country, they expected to obtain some informa
tion from him. " I know not/' replied Lafayette,
" whether such a commission has been given, but
I do not believe that any person will dare to exe
cute it on me." In the evening the Marquis de
Chasteler, taking Lafayette aside, shewed the
draught of a letter which was to be, as he said, writ
ten to their Royal Highnesses the Governess of the
Netherlands and the Duke of Saxe. In this letter
the opinions of Lafayette were spoken of in a
very incorrect manner, and in particular, he was
represented as regretting the abolition of the no
bility. " I am obliged to you on account of your
motives," said Lafayette, " but I declare to you
that if you thus travesty my principles and sen-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

89

timents I shall be under the necessity of decided
ly disavowing the assertions which your kindness
has dictated." At Nivelles a commission came
from Brussels to make an inventory of whatever
was supposed to belong to the King of France.
" I see," said Lafayette, that if the Duke of
Saxe Teschen had been in my place he would
have stolen the army chest." To his application
for a passport, the Duke of Saxe Teschen re
plied, that one was reserved for his journey to
the scaffold. Count Clairfayt was on the spot try
ing to take advantage of the disorganisation which
he hoped would follow Lafayette's departure ;
but, thanks to the precautions which the latter
had taken, he found the army secure against any
attempt, and the commissioners themselves ac
knowledged, that this service had been performed.
From Nivelles, the four deputies were transferred
to Luxemburgh. An attempt was there made by
a troop of furious emigrants to assassinate La
fayette ; it was preceded by the publication of
one of Rivarol's pamphlets to which he had given
this motto :
Et dubitamus adhuc mercedem extendere factis.

90 MEMOIRS
The Austrian commandant tookmeasures to pre
vent the repetition of such an atrocity. In the
meantime, the jacobin clubs resounded with voci
ferations against Lafayette. He was charged, which
was true, with wishing to conclude with the Duke
of Saxe Teschen, a cartel by which the emigrants
would have been regarded as prisoners of war;
thus putting them on the same footing on which the
American tories, who joined the English, stood in
the war of the American revolution. This stipula
tion was never after proposed by any French ge
neral, nor did any of the enemy's generals, or
any foreign cabinet ever think fit to require it.
M. de Segur in his History of Frederick Wil
liam, gives the following account of the usage
which Lafayette experienced :
" The four constituents were conveyed to
Wessel and imprisoned. They were watched by
inferior officers, whose orders were to keep them
constantly in sight and to give no answer to their
questions. " Lafayette having fallen dangerously ill, his
friend Maubourg could not obtain permission to
see him, though he appeared at the point of
death. A salutary crisis rescued him at the
gates of death.— The King of Prussia, wishing to

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 91
take advantage of his bodily debility, suggested
that his situation should be ameliorated in return
for his giving plans against France ; but by an
energetic reply he proved his contempt for such
a proposition.* He was then treated with en-
creased rigor. Soon after they were placed in
a cart and removed to Magdeburgh, all infor
mation being refused respecting the existence
of their families, on whose account they felt
great anxiety in consequence of the proscriptions
which then took place in France.")"
* This circumstance was thus adverted to by Fox in one of
his speeches — " With the same diabolical perversity which after
wards suggested to the Austrian ministers, the laying of snares
for the courageous affection of the wife, endeavours were made to
seduce the patriotism of the husband. Base men had dared to hope
that the brave Lafayette would be disposed to renounce his bril
liant and justly acquired reputation; that he would stain the
laurels with which he was covered, and sacrifice a noble character
which will flourish in the annals of the world and live in the ve
neration of posterity, when kings and the crowns they wear
shall be no more regarded than the dust to which they must re
turn. But Lafayette, while he condemned the measures which
had exiled him, was too magnanimous to favor the designs of
those who were leagued against his country. The idea of such
perfidy could not approach that heart which never, for a moment,
ceased to glow with a sacred fire of the purest and most religious
patriotism." f The American ministers at London and the Hague at last

92 MEMOIRS
" They were detained during one year at Mag
deburgh in a dark damp dungeon, surrounded
by high palissades and closed by four successive
gates, fastened by iron bolts and chains. Their
fate appeared to them, however, less severe, as
they were sometimes allowed to see each other,
and to have a walk for an hour each day on
one of the bastions.
" An order was suddenly issued by the King
of Prussia for removing Lafayette to Neiss ; La-
tour Maubourg begged in vain to be sent there
with his friend, but they conveyed him to Gratz,
to which place Bureaux de Puzy was soon after
transferred. It was not until the period of their
delivery to Austria, that the three were brought
together again at Neiss.
" Alexander Lameth, being dangerously ill,
could not be removed with his companions in
misfortune. After earnest solicitations by his
mother, whose virtues had obtained for her
a merited consideration, Frederick William con
sented that her son should remain a prisoner in
obtained for them the favor of receiving open letters in the
Prussian prison, and permission to reply to them under the eyes
of the commandant. It was not the same at Olmutz, where it was
only by the arrival of his wife that Lafayette learned she was
yet living.

-f'#rr.1^^'-"*"'

¦

r

: •'-'¦^r^^SE

1

1 1 :'

flPW

11111

*£|
1M-:
-/ztv
"/,-
OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 93
his states ; and some time after, when peace was
concluded between that monarch and the French
Republic, he was set at liberty.
" The King of Prussia was however by no means
willing that the peace which he found it neces
sary to conclude with France, should oblige him
to release his other victims. He therefore gave
them up to Austria, and they were carried to
Olmutz. " On transferring them to their separate cells,
it was declared to each that they would never for
the future see more than these four surrounding
walls; that they would receive no information about
things or persons ; that their gaolers were prohibited
from pronouncing their names, and that, in the go
vernment despatches, they would be referred to merely
by their numbers ; that they never would have the
satisfaction of knowing the situation of their fa
milies, or their reciprocal existence: and that as
such a situation naturally incited to suicide, knives,
forks, and every means of destruction were to be
withheld from them.
" After certificates by three physicians of the
necessity of. allowing Lafayette to breathe an air
a little more pure than that of his dungeon, after
the thrice repeated reply that Lafayette was not

94 MEMOIRS
yet so very ill, he was allowed to take an occa
sional walk, during which, without any express
condition being attached to the favor, he was
most rigorously watched. It is quite false that
Lafayette enjoyed this liberty as has been repre
sented, under his parole of honor, not to attempt
to escape.
" The enterprise of Doctor Bollman and the
young Huger, the son of Major Huger, of South
Carolina, where Lafayette landed when he first
visited America is well known.
" Bollman, who, after several months of fruit
less attempts, succeeded in getting a note se
cretly conveyed to the prisoner, executed a
most daring project. He went to Vienna to
meet Huger and returned with him to the spot
where he expected Lafayette to be brought out
to take the air. Having contrived to get some
of the keepers out of the way, they proceed to
assist in the escape of Lafayette who was en
gaged with the remaining gaoler. In the struggle
Lafayette sustained a severe strain in the loins,
and the corporal of the gaolers with whom he
contended and whom he disarmed tore the flesh
of his hand to the bone.
" These generous defenders succeeded in

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

95

putting him on horseback, and so completely
overlooked their own security, that they could
with difficulty find the horses by which they were
to escape themselves. In consequence of this
loss of time and the cries of the keepers, a num
ber of persons and troops repaired to the spot.
Huger* was speedily taken, and Lafayette, who
had separated from Bolman, was arrested within
eight leagues of Olmutz, with little difficulty as
he was entirely without arms.
" While Lafayette was tortured in the prisons
of Olmutz, his wife, uncertain of his existence
and condemned to a state of indescribable suf
fering, was imprisoned at Paris and expected
every day to be conducted to the scaffold on
which several of her family had perished. The
fall of the tyrants saved her life, but it was long
after before she recovered her liberty, and the
strength necessary to put in execution her de
signs. She landed at Altona on the 9th of Sep
tember, 1795, and proceeded to Vienna with an
American passport, under the name of Mortier.
She reached the Austrian capital before any one
* Huger delivered himself up with the view of facilitating the
escape of the other two.

96 MEMOIRS
there was aware of her intention or could be
prepared to oppose her applications.*
" The Prince of Rozemberg touched with
her virtues, obtained an audience of the Em
peror for her and her daughters, the details of
which may without difficulty be faithfully re
ported. " Madame Lafayette, whose principal object
was to share her husband's imprisonment, soon
obtained permission so to do. Finding that the
Emperor so readily conceded this point, she
endeavored to make him feel that it was due
to justice and humanity to liberate Lafayette. The
Emperor replied : — 'This affair is complicated;
my hands are tied with respect to it ; but I grant
with pleasure what is in my power, in permitting
you to join M. de Lafayette. I should act as you
do were I in your place. M. de Lafayette is well
treated, but the presence of his wife and his
children will be one consolation more,' he added.
— * With us, prisoners of state are numbered and
nothing more is known of what becomes of them :
— I know this is by precedent.'
* She had sent young George Lafayette to America to General
Washington, in whose family he found a second paternal roof.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 97
" It must be left to conjecture what was the
impression Lafayette received on the sudden ap
pearance of his wife and children, whose existence
had long been to him a subject of fear and un
certainty. It must also be conjectured what
were the feelings experienced by these young
girls and their mother on the view of Lafayette's
debilitated condition, his feeble limbs and pale
countenance. It will not be expected that their
embarrassment was suspended by the order to
deliver up every thing that they carried about
them. " At length the health of this unfortunate
woman, deteriorated by an imprisonment of
sixteen months in France, exhibited very alarm
ing symptoms. She considered it her duty to
make some attempt to preserve her life, and she
wrote to the Emperor, asking permission to pass a
week at Vienna, to breathe some healthful air
and consult a physician. After two months' si
lence, a period which indicates the practice of
consulting on the most trifling affairs, the com
mandant of the prison hitherto unknown to Ma
dame Lafayette entered her apartment, and or
dering, it is not easy to tell why, that her daugh
ters should be put into another chamber, inti-
VOL. i. h

98 MEMOIRS
mated to her that she was prohibited from ever
appearing at Vienna, and that she had leave to
depart from the fortress, but upon the condition
of never returning. He required her to write
her choice and to sign it. She wrote :
" ' I owed it to my family and my friends to
ask the assistance necessary for my health, but
they know that the condition attached to it can
not be accepted by me. I never can forget that
while we were both on the point of perishing — ¦¦
I by the tyranny of Robespierre, my husband by
the physical and moral sufferings of his captivity
— I was not permitted to receive any news of
him, nor he to learn that his children and I still
existed. I will not expose myself to the horror
of a new separation. Whatever may be the state
of my health or the inconvenience of this resi
dence to my daughters, we shall gratefully avail
ourselves of his Imperial Majesty's goodness in
permitting us to share my husband's captivity in
all its details. No A ILLES-La FAYETTE.'
"After this no further application wasmade,and
these unfortunate ladies continued to occupy
their chambers, which might be called dungeons,
where they breathed an air infected by the ex
halations of the common sewer of the garrison

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

99

which passed under their windows. So offensive
was the effluvia, that the soldiers who brought
them their meals used to stop their nostrils, as
soon as they approached the spot.
" The three prisoners, Maubourg, Lafayette,
and Puzy, were confined for three years and five
months in the same corridor without being
allowed to meet, or to hear the slightest account
of each other."
At the epoch of the Lyonnese insurrection
two men who differed much in their opinions and
situations, the publicist Archenholz, and the
zealous but generous royalist Lally-Tolendal,
hit upon the idea of representing to the coalesced
powers that the arrival of Lafayette at Lyons,
from his credit with the national guard, and by
the rallying of the numerous constitutionalists of
France, was alone capable of putting a stop to the
massacres of terrorism. The proposition shewed
a strange misunderstanding of the counsels which
guided those powers. " It is very true," observed
some royalists, " that Lafayette would, as in 1792,
save his and our friends, but he would turn every
thing to the advantage of liberty." In fact,
while Lyons, in a patriotic revolt, wished to
march forward in the cause of liberty, the secret
h 2

100 MEMOIRS
junta desired only to convert the town into a
garrison for the foreigner, and the noble and
humane suggestions of Count de Lally and of the
respectable Prussian Archenholz produced only
new precautions against the escape of the pri
soner. In one of Lafayette's letters, which escaped
the vigilance of his gaolers, we find the following
opinion on the pretended republicanism of the
terrorists, and the perfidious policy of the allied
monarchs : — " I_shall say little on public affairs.
A man dead for one and twenty months, must be
an ill judge of what has been passing. But
surely the liberty of which Europe feels the want,
which England is losing with regret, which
France implores in secret prayers is equally at
tacked by the double-faced factions of jacobin
committees and coalesced cabinets. Strange as
it may be that there should be persons who
respect brigands solely for calling themselves
patriots, and think themselves free because some
twenty republican words have been ingrafted on
the most odious system of tyranny, it is not less
extraordinary that it should be supposed that the
national sovereignty interposed between this new
usurpation and the ancient despotism would gain

H j j
I

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

101

any thing by successes of the allies. And sup
pose even that the latter were to consent to
disguise aristocracy, intolerance, and arbitrary
authority under some outward appearances styled
constitutional, I really cannot persuade myself
that fhe cause of humanity would ever be served
by the very powers who have conspired against
it." While the kings of Europe and all the partizans
of the ancient order of things indulged their
inveterate hatred of freedom, the reputation, the
fortune, the families, and the friends of the
proscribed patriots were exposed to all the fury
of the anarchist and terrorist parties which suc
ceeded each other in France. The accusation ot
Fayettism was a decree of death ; it was to be
found in the commitments and in the condemna
tions. Often did good citizens, men respectable
for their virtues or their talents, profess before the
tribunals, and even on the scaffold, attachment to
his principles and his person ! " There is a com
pany of Fayettists," said an officer at the battle
of Fleurus, while passing before a battalion of
the national guard. " Yes, we are," replied the
captain, " and we are going to shew you how we
fight." They were nearly all killed. Lafayette

102 MEMOIRS
was at this time the object of the greatest interest
with all the friends of liberty in both hemispheres.
The patriotic journals of Germany, England, and
America did homage to his name. General
Washington, the president of the United -States
sent a minister to Berlin, and wrote personally to
the Emperor of Austria. Two special motions
in favour of the prisoners were made in the
British parliament by General Fitzpatrick. These
motions were ably and eloquently supported by
the opposition, but the sophistry and influence of
the minister prevailed.* These efforts would
however have been insufficient against the violent
and inveterate animosity of the European aris-

* " I never can believe," said Fitzpatrick, *' that this country
hates a man born in France, because he instituted those National
Guards, who after having for two years under his orders protected
property and maintained the tranquillity of the capital, have enabled
France to establish the government of her choice against all the
efforts of coalesced Europe. Still less can I, by any admission,
sanction the idea that there exist in any comer of the British soil,
in any English heart, conceptions so narrow, vengeance so base, as
to wish to see the pupil of the illustrious Washington perishing in
a dungeon on account of his political principles were it even true
that he had learned those principles by supporting the cause of
America against Great Britain.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 103
tocracy, had not victory at length enabled France
to rescue the prisoners of Olmutz. The directory
instructed General Bonaparte and Clarke, the
plenipotentiaries of the republic to demand, be
fore signing the treaty of peace, the deliverance of
Lafayette, Latour-Maubourg, and Bureau de Puzy.
The negociation lasted five months, and Napoleon
has often said that of all the negociations he had
with foreign powers, that was the most difficult,
so great was their repugnance to let go their prey.
But what could resist the triumphant arms of
France, and the prodigious ascendency of Bona
parte ! An attempt was however made to impose
conditions on the prisoners to whom all com
munication with each other continued to be
denied. Lieut. General the Marquis de Chasteler
was the person employed on this occasion. What
the nature of the proceeding was will appear
from the following declaration made by Lafayette:
" The commission with which the Marquis de
Chasteler is entrusted appears to resolve itself
into three points : —
1st. " His Imperial Majesty wishes to have our
situation ascertained. I am not disposed to make
any complaint to him. Some details will be
found in my wife!s letters which have been trans-

104 MEMOIRS
mitted or sent back by the Austrian government ;
and if it be not convenient for your Imperial
Majesty to refer to the instructions sent from
Vienna in your name, I will willingly give to the
Marquis de Chasteler whatever information he
may desire.
" 2nd. His Majesty the Emperor and King
wishes to be assured that immediately upon my
liberation I will depart for America. This is an
intention which I have frequently expressed ; but
as, at the present moment, my reply would seem
an acknowledgment of the right to impose this
condition upon me, I do not think proper to satisfy
such a demand.
" 3rd. His Majesty the Emperor and King has
done me the honour to signify that the principles
I profess being incompatible with the security of
the Austrian government, he does not choose that
I should return into his dominions without his
special permission. There are duties which I
cannot fail to fulfil. Some I owe to the United-
States, some to France, and I cannot pledge
myself to anything that may be contrary to the
right my country possesses over my person.
With these exceptions, I can assure the Marquis
de Chasteler that it is my unalterable determi-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 105
nation never to set foot on any territory which
acknowledges obedience to His Majesty the
King of Bohemia and Hungary."
Maubourg and Bureau-de-Puzy also made their
declarations, and in consequence the three pri
soners signed the following engagement :
" I, the undersigned, promise to his majesty the
Emperor and King never, at any time, to enter
his hereditary provinces without his special per
mission, always excepting the rights which my
country possesses over my person."
The prison-gates now appeared to be closed
for ever. The Austrian ambassadors, however,
affirmed at the head quarters of the army of
Italy, that the prisoners were liberated. But
Bonaparte guessed the falsehood, and sent M.
Louis Romeuf, formerly aide-de-camp to Lafa
yette, to treat directly with the minister Thugut.
At length on the 13th of September, the prisoners
were released from captivity, and conducted to
Hamburgh, where an entertainment was prepared
for them on board some American vessels. They
were first taken to the house of the American
Consul, as the cabinet of Vienna had required,
and from thence they repaired to the residence of

106 MEMOIRS
the minister of the French republic, where they
mounted the national cockade.
Though the prisoners of Olmutz were triumph
antly released through the perseverance of their
government, though they were received and
loaded with marks of respect by the agents of
France abroad, yet it was long before they re
turned to their country. They would have been
required to sign their adherence to the decisions
of the 18th fructidor, and that act of weakness
would have ill become men who had sacrificed
and suffered so much rather than adhere, in 1792,
to the violation of the constitutional throne, and
the national representation. Moreover, they felt
it to be a sacred duty to extend the expression of
their gratitude to that portion of the government
and councils who had concurred with the victo
rious party in obtaining their release, and who
had just been banished and proscribed. It is a
remarkable fact, that at this period, when La
fayette was treated abroad as a Citizen- General,
and when the French minister was present as a
witness at his daughter's marriage in the house of
the French consul, the remainder of his property
was sold in France. He had refused the emolu-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 107
ments and compensation offered to him on the
breaking out of the revolution, though a great
portion of his fortune had been expended for the
public cause.*
Lafayette passed some time in Holstein, a
neutral territory ; and he afterwards proceeded to
Holland, at the special invitation of the republic,
where the relations he had maintained with that
state, and with the proscribed Dutch in 1787,
were gratefully remembered. While in Holland,
he learned the memorable event of the 18th bru-
maire, and he immediately resolved to pro
ceed to Paris, without either permission or pre
vious erasure from the proscribed list. He
contented himself with informing the provi
sional consuls, that since they once more
professed the principles of 1789, his place was in
France. It was not long before he and his com
panions were restored to their rights as French
* It is known that the United States at this time voted to La
fayette, the number of acres of land in the best provinces of
Louisiana, which were due to his rank. It will also be remem
bered that in 1815 the Congress presented to the Soldiers of
Liberty, the munificent donation of a million of dollars, and a con
siderable extent of land in the Floridas, alleging with exquisite
delicacy, that it was a compensation for his early expenses.

J08 MEMOIRS
citizens. Lafayette retired into the country, and
his son entered the French army, where he
served with distinction. He refused a seat
in the Departmental Council of the upper
Loire ; on that occasion Lafayette delivered
the following address to his fellow citi
zens : —
" After having taken part in an honorable
revolution, whence the American republics have
derived liberty and happiness, I was already a
veteran in the cause of the people, when France
adopted those eternal truths which, being since
invoked by the oppressed of all parties, have
incessantly denounced the weak men who per
mitted their violation, and their violators, who
profaned them by a false worship.
" Enjoying myself, the public confidence, and
a popularity which I shall never prefer to the
discharge of my duty, I flattered myself that after
having surmounted, with my fellow-citizens, the
storms of their complete renovation, I should leave
them to enjoy its fruits ; and if this ambition was
justified by some services, it is due above all to
the patriotism of my friends, to that power insti
tuted, both for the maintenance of legal order, and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE, 109
the destruction of hostile coalitions, which though
paralized in its sedentary existence has so glori
ously fulfilled its exterior destination.
" Afterwards, called from retirement to com
mand, impressed with the imminence of our
civil dangers, I devoted myself wholly to the task
of exposing them, and encouraged by the general
wish, I cherished the hope of averting them. But
though my conduct on the 10th of August 1792,
was the act of my life of which I have most
reason to be proud, I will here merely do homage
to the worthy martyrs of the national sovereignty
and the sworn laws, who, while they supported
constitutional royalty, manifested the highest de
gree of republican virtue.
" Far from regretting, in my melancholy ban
ishment, my precautions for the safety of the
army, or my repugnance to deprive the frontier of
a single man who could defend it, which caused
me and my companions to fall into the hands of
the enemy, I regard as the least of my misfor
tunes, a captivity assuaged by the most grati
fying approbation and the kindest sympathy,
and terminated by the triumphs of our coun
try, and which, while exhibiting for five years

110 MEMOIRS
the malignity of our powerful gaolors, has perhaps
served as an antidote to their intrigues.
"Alas! misfortunes, which nothing can termi
nate, nothing assuage, are those which by inun
dating France have plunged my heart into
eternal grief; the most intolerable suffering is
to behold crime deforming and holding up to
public odium all that we most dearly love. These
disastrous times, which were the result of anarchy,
tyranny, and submission, to oppression, must serve
but to fortify us in our inflexible love of liberty.
" The liberation of the prisoners of Olmutz, (of
whom two, Latour-Maubourg and I have had
the honor to be your deputies) though long
demanded by the government of our country, and
pressed by the zeal of our plenipotentiaries and the
victories of Bonaparte, did not take place until
near the 18th fructidor. I had abjured all claim
to my return, under the system which arose out
of the proceedings of that day, but which was
succeeded by the engagements and hopes of the
18th brumaire. I then thought I had a right to
put a period to my outlawry, and after informing
the provisional consuls of my arrival, and de
manding the recal of my companions in exile, I

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. Ill
awaited our erasure in the retirement to which I
have withdrawn, and where, removed from the
turmoil of public affairs, and devoting myself to
the repose of private life, I form ardent wishes that
peace abroad may speedily crown those miracles
of glory which have surpassed the prodigies of
preceding campaigns, and that peace at home
may be consolidated on the essential and invari
able bases of true liberty.
" I feel happy that twenty-five years of vicissi
tudes in my fortune, and firmness in my principles
warrant me in repeating here, that if, to recover
her rights it is sufficient for a nation to resolve to
do so, she can preserve them only by rigid fidelity
to her civil and moral duties."
M. Bignon, in his recently published work
observes, that " the intercourse between General
Lafayette and the First Consul was for some time
maintained on a very amicable footing. They
oftener than once had conversations of three or
four hours' duration. To General Bonaparte M.
de Lafayette was already a character of past his
tory. In the comrade of Washington, in the old
commander of the national guard of 1789, he
honored virtues which did not belong to his
practice. He had already, as he did again, at a

312 MEMOIRS
subsequent period, manifested a wish to attach
Lafayette to his government ; but the latter was
not inclined to comply with that wish. Whilst
the First Consul grew in greatness, and unfortu
nately in power, General Lafayette continued in
his retirement the worshipper of liberty. We
shall find them both on the scene of public affairs
during the melancholy events of 1815."
In one of the conversations between Lafayette
and Bonaparte, the former blamed the project of
the Concordate. " While you consecrate, as you
ought to do, religious liberty," said he to the
First Consul, " do not create an established reli
gion. Leave every individual, as in the United
States, to pay for his own worship and to ap
point his own ministers. Really pious men ask
for nothing more, and will bless you; political
devotees will say that you have not done enough;
and anti-religionists that you have done too
much. They will be equally wrong*."
* M. Bignot thus relates the conclusion of the above conver
sation : " Confess," said General Lafayette, to the First Consul,
" that there is no other object in all this than to break the little
phial. That is to say, to raise a barrier between the Bourbons and
the French clergy." " You are making sport of the little phial
and me too," replied the First Consul; " but be assured that it

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 113
Several endeavors were made, but without
effect, to induce Lafayette to enter the senate.
Napoleon at length determined to speak to him
himself. Lafayette's answer to the latter was can
did and produced no misunderstanding between
them. Accordingly, with the consent too of the
First Consul, he retired from the army. " Con
nected," he said in his letterto the minister, " from
their commencement with those institutions which
have triumphed in Europe, united by the ties
of affection to the generals of the republic, I
have ever been their comrade, but I pretend not,
after so many victories, to be their rival ; I beg
then, if you think I ought to be put on the retired
list, to have the goodness to request it of the First
Consul." But at the period of the consulate for life,
matters little to me, either at home or abroad, to make the
Pope and all those folks declare against the legitimacy of the
Bourbons. I every day meet with these follies in negociations.
The dioceses of France are yet ruled by bishops in the pay of the
enemy. But do you not come to reproach me with an act of
tyranny against a priest ?" (A priest had been imprisoned as a
lunatic because he preached a seditious sermon.) " I confess
that was an act of tyranny, but what other mode is there of
keeping them within bounds, as long as they are not subject to
discipline ?"
VOL. I. x

114 MEMOIRS
he voted in these terms : " I cannot vote for
such a magistracy, until public liberty has been
sufficiently guaranteed. Then will I give my
vote to Napoleon Bonaparte." His letter on this
occasion has been often published. " General,"
said he, " when a man, penetrated with the gra
titude which he owes you and too much alive to
glory not to admire yours, has placed restrictions
on his suffrage, those restrictions will be so much
the less suspected when it is known that none,
more than himself, would delight to see you chief
magistrate for life of a free republic. The 18th
brumaire saved France*, and I felt that I was
recalled by the liberal professions to which you
have attached your honor. We afterwards be
held in the consular power, that restorative dic
tatorship which, under the auspices of your
genius, has achieved such great things, less
great however, than will be the restoration of
liberty. It is impossible that you, general, the
first in that order of men, (whom to quote and
compare it would require me to retrace every
age of history,) can wish that such a revolution,
so many victories, so much blood and miseries,
* It was not in fact on the 1 8 th brumaire, but on the 1 Sth fruc-
tidor that the constitution of the year 3 was destroyed.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 115
should produce to the world and to ourselves no
other result than an arbitrary system. The
French people have too well known their rights
to have entirely forgotten them. But perhaps
they are better enabled to recover them now
with advantage than in the heat of effervescence ;
and you, by the power of your character and the
public confidence, by the superiority of your ta
lents, your situation, and your fortune, may, by
re-establishing liberty, subdue our dangers and
calm our inquietudes. I have no other than pa
triotic and personal motives in wishing for you,
as the climax of your glory, a permanent magis-
trative post ; but it is in unison with my princi
ples, my engagements, the actions of my whole
life, to ascertain before I vote, that liberty is
established on bases worthy of the nation and of
you. I hope you will now acknowledge, general,
as you have already had occasion to do, that to
firmness in my political opinions are joined
sincere wishes for your welfare and profound sen
timents of my obligations to you." "From this
time" says M. Bignon, " all communication
between Lafayette and the First Consul ceased."
Lafayette lived in retirement at Lagrange,
the paternal estate of his mother-in-law the
i 2

116 MEMOIRS
Duchess d'Ayen, who perished on the revolu
tionary scaffold together with her eldest daughter
and the Marechale de Noailles. He devoted
himself with ardor and success to some impor
tant agricultural experiments. His son remained
in the army, notwithstanding the marked dislike
of the Emperor who had at first noticed him with
approbation, but who, nevertheless, constantly
refused to advance him when requested to do so
by his generals. He did not tender his resigna
tion until after the peace of Tilsit and- before
the Spanish war. Soon, however, the tranquil
retreat of Lafayette and his family was embit
tered by an unfortunate event. Heaven, to use
the words of General Fitzpatrick, had destined
him to be the husband of a woman whose name
will be revered as long as sublime virtue shall
command respect, and unmerited affliction shall
inspire compassion in the human heart. " This
lady, (says M. de Segur,) who was a model of
heroism and indeed of every virtue, imbibed
during her captivity and misfortunes, that disorder
which, after protracted suffering, terminated her
life on the 24th of December, 1807 ; she died sur
rounded by a numerous family who offered up
ardent prayers to heaven for her preservation."

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 117
When unable to articulate, a smile played upon
her lips at the sight of her husband and children
who bathed her death-bed with their tears. De
voted to her domestic duties, which were her
only pleasure; adorned by every virtue ; pious,
modest, charitable, severe to herself, indulgent
to others, she was one of the few whose pure
reputation has received fresh lustre from the mis
fortunes of the revolution. Though ruined by
our political storms, yet she scarcely seemed to
recollect that she had ever enjoyed ample for
tune. She was the happiness of her family, the
friend of the poor, the consoler of the afflicted,
an ornament to her country and an honor to her
sex." (Extract from the Journal de £ Empire du
25 Decembre, 1807.
Meanwhile the prodigious genius of Bonaparte
pursued its ambitious and brilliant career. All
sovereigns, all aristocracies, religions, civil and
military, were at his feet* ; the frontiers of the
empire had extended far beyond their natural
and desirable limits. He distributed thrones,
and at the same time destroyed the signs and
forms of liberty, by corrupting the patriotic
* Et de ses pieds on peut voir la poussiere,
Empreinte encor sur le bandeau des Rois. — Bekanger.

118 MEMOIRS
institution of the jury, nullyfying the national
representation by reducing it to a powerless and
silent phantom, re-establishing the clergy as a
body, restoring hereditary nobility, the censor
ship of the press, lettres de cachet, state prisons,
and tribunals of exception ; by suppressing the
municipal and departmental elections, and the
institution of the national guard ; and by disarm
ing and enslaving the French people as well as
all the rest of the continent.
The awful catastrophe of the Russian cam
paign was doomed to put an end to his prodi
gious career. There then arose a spirit of reac
tion among the subjugated nations, and a feeling
of indifference among the people hitherto victo
rious, whom the calculations of imperial despo
tism had weaned from all interest in the public
cause ; and thus it happened that, under the
greatest general since the age of Caesar, and in
despite of the efforts of his genius and his incom
parable army, France beheld the enemy in her
capital, lost all the conquests of her revolution, and
some of those acquired under the old government
and was once more placed under the sceptre
of the Bourbons who owed their restoration to
the faults of Napoleon, as he owed his fall, to

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 119
use his own words, to the force of liberal
opinions. During these events, as during the course of the
first restoration and the Emperor's second acces
sion, Lafayette, whose deportment had been a sort
of constant protest against the violation of his
principles, took no part in public affairs. But
when the Congress of Vienna placed Bonaparte
beyond the pale of the law, when the coalesced
powers were arrayed a second time against
France, for the purpose of re-establishing Louis
XVIII by force of arms, he issued from
his retreat. Being invited on this last occasion
by Prince Joseph in the name of liberty and
of his country to ascertain, himself, the value
of pledges given to the nation and at the same
time to foreign powers, he replied : that such
an appeal in the crisis in which they were placed
allowed him no room for hesitatioti ; but that he
had, nevertheless, a great fund of incredulity, which
balanced in some sort, his over confidence in the
year 8.
In the additional act he disapproved of the
sovereign power taking the priority which ought
to have been left to a national representation ;
he condemned the hereditary peerage as an

120 MEMOIRS
institution opposed to his political creed, and
wished not to renew his personal relations with the
Emperor, foreseeing, as he said, that his unbend
ing nature would make him sooner or later his
opponent, He did not, however, show himself
the less determined to serve him to the utmost
of his power and to aid with all the influence, his
rank as a popular deputy gave him, the efforts
which Bonaparte made to repel foreign invasion
and intrigue, and to oppose those princes who
appeared in the ranks of the enemy and under
the protection of their bayonets. He made at
his commune and in the departmental college
of the Seine and Marne every reservation for
the rights of the nation in general and for those
of each individual citizen, and yet he was
nevertheless elected president and afterwards
first deputy. Lafayette did not lend himself
to the project, wbich was broached, of nomi
nating him president of the chamber, but he
was one of the vice-presidents and he urged the
formation of a new constitution. In the com
mittee for drawing up the address he demanded
that it should be conformable to the national
dignity. " The Emperor Napoleon," said M.
Lafayette, " ascending gradually from his post

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 121
of national magistrate to seat himself upon a
throne without limits, seems to have wished to
punish, as for the abuse of republican forms,
by making us feel all the weight of absolute
monarchy. He jumbled together the men and
opinions of two arbitrary systems, to the ex
clusion of the principles of 1789, and made con
stant advances towards despotism, through the
carelessness of the people."
General Lafayette, in expressing his desire
that the assembly should assume an attitude
capable of inspiring confidence in the nation
and in Europe, said that its conduct would set
tle the question as to whether it was to be
called the representation of the French people or
simply the Napoleon Club. He devotedly ap
plied himself to all the means of resistance re
quired by the Emperor, and regretted Napoleon's
repugnance to employ the national mass, for
instance, the great levy offered by Brittany.
But the disaster of Waterloo, the arrival of
Napoleon, the instantaneous plan, then avowed
but since denied, of dissolving the chamber of
representatives and the ill-boding predictions
of his most devoted adherents, rendered the
adoption of other measures necessary.

122 MEMOIRS
In this momentous crisis, 21st of June, La
fayette, without having had time to forewarn
his colleagues, mounted the tribune and said :
" When for the first time for many years, I
now raise a voice which the old friends of liber
ty may still remember, I feel myself called
upon, gentlemen, to address you respecting the
dangers of the country, which you alone are now
able to save.
" Sinister reports have been spread abroad ;
they are now unhappily confirmed. The mo
ment has arrived for rallying round the old tri
coloured standard, that of ] 789, that of liberty,
equality and public order. It is that standard
alone, which we have to defend against foreign
pretensions and internal intrigues. Permit, gen
tlemen, a veteran in this sacred cause ; one who
was ever a stranger to the spirit of faction, to
submit to you some provisionary resolutions the
necessity of which I trust you will acknowledge.
" Art. 1. The chamber of representatives de
clares that the independence of the nation is
menaced. " 2. The chamber declares itself permanent.
Every attempt to dissolve it is high treason ;
and whoever is guilty of that attempt, will be

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 123
a traitor to the country, and instantly condemned
as such.
" 3. The army of the line and the national
guards who have fought and still are fighting
to defend the liberty, the independence and
the territory of France, have merited well of the
country. " 4. The minister of the interior is called upon
to assemble the general staff and the command
ants and majors of the national guard of Paris,
in order to consider of the means of arming and
rendering most efficient that civic guard, whose
patriotism and zeal, after twenty-six years' trial,
offer a sure guarantee for the liberty, property
and tranquillity of the capital and for the in
violability of the representatives of the nation.
" 5. The minister of war, for foreign affairs,
of the interior, and of the police are required to
join the assembly immediately."
The assembly adopted these resolutions on the
instant, but some persons artfully procured the
adjournment of the article relative to the national
guard, which would have placed fifty thousand
men at the disposal of the assembly, for its own
defence and that of the capital. Nevertheless
many battalions came spontaneously to range

124 MEMOIRS
themselves under the command of the national
representatives and their old general.
In the secret committee which was held that
evening, Lucien Bonaparte, having ventured some
allusion to the volatile character of the French
poeple, M. de Lafayette rose and pronounced
in his place with impressive composure, the fol
lowing words: " That is a calumnious asser
tion, which has just been preferred. Who can
dare accuse Frenchmen of fickleness and want
of steadiness, with regard to the Emperor Na
poleon ? Did they not follow him through the
sands of Egypt and along the deserts of Russia,
over fifty fields of battle, in his disasters as
well as in his victories, and it is for having fol
lowed him that they have to regret the blood of
three millions of their countrymen !" These few
words produced a deep impression on the as
sembly, and even Lucien himself made a res
pectful obedience before the worthy veteran of
liberty. As soon as Napoleon sent in his abdication, a
provisional government was created. Every one
thought that Lafayette would have formed a part
of it, and that he would then have been elected
president. His avowed intention was to make

clan cirx ;il©tlo o

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 125
an appeal to the French people, to call upon
the nation to rise in support of an army still nu
merous, and he doubted not that those national
guards and those tried troops of the line, would
be better enabled than in 1792 to repulse the
enemies, with whom he would never treat, ex
cept on the other side of the frontiers, leaving
the nation to adopt her own constitution and
choose her own destiny. Intrigue, ignorance,
old prejudices and new plots prevailed. The
proposition of the Duke of Otrauto and of MM.
Dupin and Regnault was to name five commis
sioners : three chosen in the chamber of repre
sentatives and two in the chamber of peers.
Public report alluded to Fouche and Carnot as
the two to be named in the peers, and among
the deputies, Generals Lafayette and Grenier, v
and a third upon whom the choice was said to
be not yet determined. These arrangements
were altered by a species of mystification of
which many persons were the dupes. In the
second draught of this proposition, the word by
was substituted for in. The chamber of repre
sentatives made the first choice. They were per
suaded to nominate two of the peers; they chose
Carnot and Fouche. Lafayette and Grenier

126 MEMOIRS
were then ballotted for, and the latter was
chosen. It was thought, two hours before the,
scrutiny, that Lafayette had the majority of votes:
but it proved otherwise; not that his personal
friends, on this occasion, as in the affair of
the precedency, had withheld this honor
from him, on the contrary, they eagerly
promoted his election ; but many interests and
passions were arrayed against him. The in
fluence which the royal party might possess,
if not within the house, at least out of doors,
was directed against a man for whom indeed it
had recently manifested its dislike,* and who
* This malevolence is evinced in a manner as bitter as it
is mendacious, in a History of the Restoration recently pub
lished, in which there are many proofs that not a few of its notes
have been supplied by the men who, at that time, intrigued for
Louis XVIII among the members of the chamber of representatives,
and with Fouch6 himself, — those same men who pursued with
their ingratitude and their hatred Napoleon, whose humble ser
vants they had previously proved themselves. Lafayette on
the other hand endeavored to secure his passage to the United
States, and testified to the fallen Emperor on that very occasion,
every sentiment compatible with his patriotic duties.
M. Galatin, who is known to Europe and especially to France
by his diplomatic labours, and whom America reckons with pride
among the number of the most constant and able defenders of her

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 127
would listen to no compromise at variance
with certain fixed principles of their own.
Many republicans who had proscribed him
by calling him aristocrat and royalist, and
who were now covered with titles and orders,
reproached him with entertaining republican
designs, and with being no more favorable to
the new hereditary nobility than he had been
to the old. Reports were circulated that he would
refuse the office ; that he reserved himself for
the national guard ; or for an embassy. The
consequence was that, he obtained but one hun
dred and forty-two votes. If this disposition to
oppose the interests of parties was unfavorable
to him, the Duke of Otranto, on the contrary,
liberties, when addressing Lafayette, in 1825, in the name of
the inhabitants of Union Town, paid a splendid compliment to
his generosity towards the Emperor Napoleon.
"But," said he, "the colossus fell : and although his flatterers
betrayed and deserted him, you who resisted him when he was
in the summit of his power, alone recollected that you owed to
his first victories your delivery from the prisons of Olmutz ; and
you were one of the first to propose the means of safety which
was then sought to be procured for him and which perhaps, but
for a strange blindness on his part (his prejudice against repub
lican ideas) and the shameless perfidy of his false friends, might
have rescued him from the unfortunate fate which awaited him.

128 MEMOIRS
found himself supported by the Bonapartists who
knew him to be in correspondence with M. de
Metternich, to secure the regency; by the
conventionalists who were attached to old
interests and, above all, by the ardent votaries
of royalty who looked up to him as their ex
clusive advocate. The republican integrity of
Carnot, his correspondence during the last cri
sis with Bonaparte, in whose conversion he
trusted, and whom he regarded in the sincerity
of his patriotism, as the palladium of liberty,
had also assured to him a great majority, espe
cially as his character presented a kind of pledge
of the most vital importance at that moment, viz :
that he would give no uneasiness by any con
nexion with the adherents of ancient privileges.
General Grenier, one of the most respected ge
nerals in the army, was the third person elected.
The chamber of peers chose Baron Quinette, for
merly member of the convention, and the Duke
of Vicenza well known for the freedom with
which he treated the Emperor Napoleon. As
to the presidency, the choice rested between
Carnot and Fouche. The vote of the Duke of
Otranto decided the question, which became
very important from the influence which he exer-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 129
cised over his colleagues, and by their consign
ing to him negociations of the most important
nature. It was believed either that the national
guard would nominate its chief as at the com
mencement of the revolution, or that the choice
would be consigned to the assembly. That chief
would have been in either case, the general
who created that guard twenty-six years
before. The government, however, chose to ap
point him to an embassy.
A great majority of the chamber sincerely
believed that they saw utility in this decision.
Marshal Massena, who had saved France at Zurich
and at Genoa was appointed commandant of the
national guard of Paris.*
Thus, by the influence of Fouche who had al
ready entered into an understanding with the
enemies of France, Lafayette was got out of the
* When Massena received the congratulatory visits of the na
tional guard on his appointment, he had the good grace to allude
to the wish that was entertained, to see Lafayette in the chief
command, as in 1789, and he expressed his determination to
walk in his footsteps. Lafayette, for his part, declared to Mas
sena, that he would always be ready to serve him in the capacity
of aide-de-camp. Thus it is that public men ought ever to con
duct themselves, when the interest of their country demands it.
VOL. I. K

130 MEMOIRS
way and sent to treat with those enemies for an
armistice, they being secretly recommended to
detain him until after the capitulation. In this
negociation the plenipotentiaries supported the
rights and honor of France, but they did not
obtain the truce they demanded.
The English ambassador having raised doubts
respecting the legal character of a chamber con
voked by Bonaparte, " I am astonished," re
plied Lafayette, " that a public man of your
country, does not acknowledge that the authority
of a national assembly is derived rather from
those who elect, than from him who convokes it."
" And since we have alluded to past times,"
added Lafayette, " I beg you, my lord, to recol
lect that, in that very revolution, which I toge
ther with you and every Englishman call glorious,
the situation of the army of James II, was a
little different from that of the French army in
its relation to Louis XVIIl. James had formed
the army, he had fought with it; it owed him
allegiance, but that did not prevent the troops
and even the favorite of the King, your great
Marlborough from deserting in the night, not in
deed to rally under a national banner, but to
join a foreign army, prince and flag."

Al 0 A' .'QTMl ID^IiGETS 3 OH „
D e i d in 1 'f' dkiL ID ip rp lo 4n H aunt ffluuii 9

a

.m. eau ilowi

7°

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 131
The ambassador being at last requested to de
clare whether he would accept of peace, on the
condition of delivering up Bonaparte to the
allies, he replied, " I am surprised, my lord,
that in making so odious a proposition to the
French nation, you should have addressed your
self to one of the prisoners of Olmutz." He had
endeavored, before his departure, to obtain for
Napoleon two frigates to conduct him to the
United States ; but every thing was changed.
The plenipotentiaries on their return, found, as
the intriguers intended, the capitulation con
cluded and the army removed. Lafayette, and
his colleagues d'Argenson and Sebastiani arrived
in time to sign their adherence, on the 6th to
that famous declaration, proclaimed the evening
before by the chamber of representatives. This
important document may* with propriety, find a
place here.
Declaration of the Chamber of Repre
sentatives, on the Sitting of the 5th
July, 1815.
" The troops of the allied powers are about
to occupy the capital. k 2

132 MEMOIRS
" The chamber of representatives will never
theless continue to sit amidst the inhabitants of
Paris, where the declared will of the people has
called upon them to assemble.
" But at this important juncture the chamber
of representatives owes to itself, to France, and
to Europe, a declaration of its sentiments and
its principles.
" It accordingly declares that it makes a so
lemn appeal to the fidelity and to the patriotism
of the national guard of Paris, which has under
its protection the national representation.
" It declares that it places the fullest reliance
on the moral principles, honor, and magnanimity
of the allied powers, and on their respect for the
independence of the nation, so positively ex
pressed in their manifestoes.
" It declares that the government of France,
whoever may be at its head, must accord with
the wishes of the nation, legally expressed, and
ought to co-operate with the other governments
to ensure a common pledge, and guarantee of
peace between France and Europe.
" It declares that no monarch can offer true
guarantees, if he do not swear to abide by a con
stitution determined on by national representa-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 133
tives, and accepted by the people Thus, no go
vernment will enjoy a permanent existence, or
secure the tranquillity of France and Europe,
which rests merely on the acclamation or will of
a party — which is imposed by force — which does
not adopt the national colours, and guarantee;
The liberty of citizens,
The equality of civil and religious rights,
The liberty of the press,
The liberty of religious worship,
The representative system,
Free assent to the levies of troops and taxes,
The responsibility of ministers,
The irrevocability of the sales of national pro
perty of every description,
The inviolability of property,
The abolition of tithes, of the old and new nobi
lity, hereditary succession, and the feudal system,
The abolition of the confiscation of pro
perty, The complete oblivion of political opinions and
votes, down to the present day,
The institution of the legion of honour,
The reward due to officers and soldiers,
The pecuniary aid due to their widows,
The institution of the jury,
The irremoveability of judges,

134 MEMOIRS
The payment of the public debt.
If the cases mentioned in this declaration should
be disavowed or violated, the representative of
the French people, now discharging a sacred duty,
protest by anticipation, in the faee of the whole
world, against the. violence and usurpation. They
entrust the maintenance of these conditions to all
good Frenchmen, to all generous hearts, to all
enlightened minds, to all men jealous of their
liberty, and to future generations !
Signed,
Lanjuinais, President.
Bedoch, Dumolard, and )
-, . -~ (Secretaries.
Clement be Doubs, j
When, on the 8th, the chamber was taken pos
session of, and its members found the doors closed
against them, Lafayette asked them to proceed to
his house, and from thence 200 deputies went to
the residence of the president Lanjuinais to sign
the following document r
Protest against the closing of the
doors of the Chamber.
July 18th, 1815, Ten o'clock a. m.
" In the sitting of yesterday on the message by
which the committee of the government announced
that its functions had ceased, the chamber of re-

M„ BE10CI

JSeipwte CHI J) enl oLe la

^OTTTPZP ,

A

era. ram. iii

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 135
presentatives proceeded to the order of the day.
It afterwards continued its deliberations on the
project of a constitutional act, the drawing up of
which was expressly recommended to it by the
French people. The sitting was then adjourned
till 8 o'clock a.m. this day, the 8th of July.
" In pursuance of this adjournment the mem
bers of the chamber of representatives proceeded
to the place where these sittings are usually held;
but the doors being closed, the avenues guarded
by an armed force, and the officers in command
having announced that they had formal orders to
refuse the deputies admission,
" The undersigned members of the chamber
assembled at the house of M. Lanjuinais, their pre
sident, where they drew up, and individually
signed, this minute, in proof of the facts therein
stated. [Here follow the signatures.]
The committee appointed to present the decla
ration to the sovereigns not having succeeded in
doing so, Lafayette sent it to Count Capo d'ls-
trias. The letter which contained this inclosure,
together with his declaration of adherence, con
cluded thus :
" Have you had the kindness to speak in behalf

136 memoirs
of an unfortunate woman,* whose mother behaved
to me during my captivity in a manner which I
can never forget, even although I should now be
called a Bonapartist by the powerful enemies of
Napoleon. However, neither they, nor their am
bassadors have ever seen me visit bim."
Lafayette afterwards returned to his country
seat at La Grange, which he did not quit for a
moment, except to propose at an American
banquet, his toast to the memory of the American
and French soldiers who died defending their
country against foreign invasion.
The election of M. Lafayette as a member of
the Chamber of Deputies during the congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle caused a great sensation there.
During the performance of his legislative duties
as deputy, first for La Sarthe and afterwards for
the arrondissement of Meaux, he uniformly and
without disguise defended the principles he had
proposed throughout the whole of his life. In
1819 in opposing the resolution of the Chamber
of Peers against the law of election, already
so limited and restrictive he moved " that the
institution of trial by jury should be restored with
* Queen Hortense-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 137
all its protective forms, and that the recal of
banished persons should be the termination of
all measures of proscription." He called the
municipal system of that period " an avowed
despotism, the feudal system in disguise." He
said, " that the institution of the national guards
was the only thing that could have resolved the
problem of the alliance of liberty in a great conti
nental state with the security of its territory
and its independence." And he declared, " that
the foreign invasion in 1792 could alone have in
sured the triumph of anarchy. It was a fatal
alliance," he added, " the alliance of anarchy,
oligarchy, and despotism which has already been
revealed by some of the parties to it, and which
history will reveal in still blacker colours." —
The tumult which prevailed at the sitting of the
17th of May, having rendered inaudible the va
rious opinions expressed by members respecting
the recal of banished persons Lafayette published
his. When speaking that same year on the
budget he maintained, " that the principle object
of every country was to be governed as well
and as cheaply as possible." He wished the
most scrupulous precision with respect to all the
articles of the budget, he also required " that

138 MEMOIRS
none but Frenchmen should be employed in the
public service, and Frenchmen, as long as any
such remain, who have" fought under their coun
try's banners." Finally, he repeated, in allusion
to the national guard, the three essential condi
tions of the laws of 1791 " the arming of the
nation, the subordination of the armed force to
the civil authority, and the appointment of officers
by citizens. It is out of this institution, said he,
that have arisen those heroic armies, the produce
of patriotism and civil equality, whose glorious
remains, now that they have returned to their
homes, afford an example of domestic virtues and
of every sentiment, becoming good citizens." In
his speech upon that occasion the following re
markable passage occurs : " The constituent as
sembly found it impossible to alter any thing
without changing all. If the reconstruction was
imperfect the general principles were, whatever
may be said of them, very salutary, for notwith
standing all that was afterwards lost by anarchy,
terrorism, the maximum bankruptcy, and civil
war — notwithstanding a terrible struggle with all
Europe, this incontestible truth is established,
viz : — that agriculture, industry, and public in
struction in France, the comfort and -indepen-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 139
dence of three fourths of our population, and I
say again, public morals, have been improved to a
degree of which there is no example in any
equal period of history or in any other part of the
old world."
In 1820 Lafayette brought forward a special
proposition for the reorganization of the national
guard. " I feel implicit confidence," he said,
" in our young army ; it will prove itself, when
occasion requires, always brave, always pa
triotic, two essential conditions of honor for the
warriors of a free country. To name our ve
terans is to retrace their glory and our gratitude.
But the country requires a third barrier of our
independence and our territory, and an indispen-
sible guarantee of liberty and order, viz : — the
national guard." The consideration of this pro
position was adjourned.
On the 2nd of March he made use of the fol
lowing language, whilst defending the right of
petition, " Gentlemen, we have heard of coups^
d'etat, and extreme measures ; some persons have
even condescended to tranquillize our anxiety on
this subject ; and really, after the French people
have alternately exhausted the coups-de'tat of
jacobinism, despotism and aristocracy, when they
have been so dearly taught not, in future to

140 MEMOIRS
take ordinances for laws, commands for budgets,
and despotism for a claim to obedience, such an
idea can only excite commiseration for the folly
of those who could venture to cherish it. But
there is another, and too usual a mode of accom
plishing coups- d'e'tat, which is, rendering the
chambers parties to them."
During the same year, when replying to minis
ters, who in proposing measures hostile to per
sonal liberty, used the words pernicious doctrines,
Lafayette observed, " Those expressions have
been employed officially by the minister whom
I now see before me. Let him be pleased to say
whether he alludes to that declaration of princi
ples which gave liberty to the French people ;
— over which the terrorists of 1793 wished that
a veil should be drawn, while it was invoked in
the name of an oppressed worship, in the first
manifesto of the Vendeans, and in the name of
suffering mankind in the proclamations of the
illustrious and generous city of Lyons. Another
minister," said he, " boasted yesterday, of the
theory of flexible doctrines. He cited his expe
rience. My experience, on the contrary, teaches
me that all the evils of France have been pro
duced, less by the perversity of the wicked, and
the violence of fools, than by the hesitation of the

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 141
weak, the compromises, of conscience and the
tardiness of patriotism. Let every deputy, every
Frenchman shew what he feels, what he thinks,
and we are saved !
" Thanks then to those who have spoken be
fore, of all parties, and particularly to my col
league of La Sarthe ! The question has been
placed in a clear point of view : on the one hand,
the past revolution with all its advantages, moral,
physical, and political : on the other hand, the
counter revolution to come with its privileges
and its perils. It is for the chamber, it is for
France to choose.
" Gentlemen, thirty years ago, in the assembly
of the notables of 1787, I was the first to demand
the abolition of lettresde cachet: I now vote against
their restoration."
On the 23d of March, speaking on the censor
ship of the press, he made an animated digression
on the reports which were circulated respecting
projects hostile to Spain, and ended with these
remarkable words: — " Let the charter be re
spected ; for to violate it would be to dissolve it,
to dissolve the mutual guarantees of the nation
and the throne, to throw ourselves back to the
primitive independence of our rights and duties."

142 MEMOIRS
In the sitting of the 17th of May 1820, he
warmly opposed the alterations in the law of elec
tions. " I flattered myself," said he, " that the
different parties, yielding at length to the general
necessity for liberty and repose, would, by mutual
sacrifices, have sought to secure those blessings by
the exercise of the rights which the charter has
acknowledged, and by those institutions which
were to lead us tranquilly to the possession of all
social guarantees. My hope has been disap
pointed. The counter-revolution is in the govern
ment ; it is wished to fix it in the chambers. It is
the duty of myself and my friends to declare it to
the nation.
" Conceiving also that the engagements of the
charter are founded on reciprocity, I have ho
nestly warned the violators of sworn faith.
" On what," added he, " depends the existence
of the charter? Is it religion, or right divine? But
several previous acts, issuing from the same
source, have for nineteen years invoked the same
talisman. " Is it the promulgation of the 4th of June ? But
what Frenchman, having a just sense of his rights
did not feel indignant at the formula by which the
nation was said to be delivered, at the moment

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 143
when she replaced the royal standard at the head
of her banners, loaded with laurels ? Is it because
this charter first arrived in the train of foreign
armies, and was afterwards brought back by
them ? But, on the contrary, is there not disad
vantage here ? It must be acknowledged, gentle
men, if the charter, in spite of all that had gone
before it, in spite of its imperfections, its commen
taries, avowed as well as confidential, has really
become popular among us, it is because it re
tracted many counter-revolutionary doctrines,
hopes, and declarations ; because it was pre
sented by its august author as a guarantee for
personal liberty, the liberty of the press, the
liberty of religious worship, the equality of rights,
the independence of the jury, the inviolability of
all property, and as the pledge of a representative
system which might render effectual this recent
acknowledgment of our rights and the fruits of
the revolution.
" Well, gentlemen, what has ensued ? The
liberty of the press, and personal liberty have once
more been sacrificed ; the organic laws of the
municipal system, of the administrative system,
of the independence of juries, of the responsibility
of the agents of power, which we were informed

144 MEMOIRS
were all ready last year; and as the King's com
missioners say they now are, are obstinately with
held. Government will neither form nor arm the
national guard, which, therefore, has no resource
in this moment of danger, but to rise sponta
neously. " Now, gentlemen," continued he, " are we no
longer permitted to think that a nation belongs to
herself, and is not the property of any one ; that
in a free country every soldier is the soldier of his
country ; that we owe obedience only to legal
orders, and not to oppression ; for despotism,
whatever form it may assume, is the most insolent
of revolutions, the most scandalous and lasting
of public disorders ! We have nothing to do with
Cicero, the Praetors, or the sword of Brennus ;
though I confess that the minister who wished
to overwhelm me with his erudition, might just
ly have quoted to me, by way of reproach, Ihis
line of Lucan, which is engraven on the ruins
of the Bastille :
Ignorant ne datos, ne quisquam serviat, enses ?*
" But let it not be believed, on the faith of
* It was Lafayette who caused this quotation from Lucan, to be
inscribed on the medals of the French guards.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 145
all this declamation that the promoters of French
liberty were only the creators of trouble, because
in 1788, at the time when aristocratic sedition
was disseminated through the capital and the
provinces, by the nobility, clergy and parlia
ments, they substituted, for so many interested
passions, a passion for the public welfare,
and for the revolt of the privileged orders a
demand for the rights of the nation. Gentlemen,
every member of this chamber has a right to ex
plain himself on a personal fact, on an injurious!
imputation ; and in justice to the memory of
my numerous friends, who fell victims to their at
tachment to the constitutional system, I must
here call to mind that after the noble national
impulse of 1789 restored the people to their just
position, every subsequent irregularity was com
mitted, not only in spite of us, but against us.
" Our adversaries, in whatever rank you may
take them, have themselves frequently acknow
ledged that their safety, their property, and their
rights were preserved by that same national guard
which appointed its own officers, which is now des
cribed as the instrument of disorder and faction,
while in truth it was as much a stranger to the other
factions, as to that armed emigration, but for
VOL. i. L

146

MEMOIRS

which we should have had no 10th of August, no
death of the King, no 21st of January, and no
reign of terror.
" Gentlemen, we have at all times, and without
exception served the cause of liberty, condemned
crime instead of protecting it, repelled intrigue,
opposed despotism, anarchy and privileges ; and
since repeated attacks force me to speak out since
so much is said about factious committees, I may
be permitted to mention that we have never, from
the very outset, ceased to point out, what indes-
creet disclosures have subsequently confirmed :—
I allude to those counter-revolutionary associa
tions, the auxiliaries of jacobinism at home, which
while abroad the invasion of France is implored, con
cur with the other categories of perverse or misled
disorganizers, to render the revolution odious, by
forcing it to deviate from its primitive and gene
rous impulse : take for example, the troubles of
Nismes in 1790, which were generally attributed to
the reprisals of a day, for a century of religious
persecution, until, since the restoration, one of
the principal instigators of those excesses revealed
the secret, by publicly demanding his salary.
These seditious associations, under various deno
minations, sometimes to the great regret of the

mfcdE<ss,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 147
constitutionalists, took part in their resistance to
terrorist oppression, and turned it to the advan
tage of hostile governments ; sometimes confined
themselves to services which I will not name, but
which are now recompensed at the expense of the
defenders of their country ; — and finally, under
the imperial system, disappeared without ceasing to
be united ; and it would now be easy to ascertain
their real condition if government were pleased to
draw aside, from one end of France to the other,
the mysterious and blood stained veil, which the
spirited petition of M. Madier-Montgan has only
partially raised."
Three of the previous speakers having used
some disrespectful expressions in reference to the
tri-coloured flag, Lafayette warmly defended that
symbol of emancipation and glory, " which," said
he, " Louis XVI accepted from the hands of the
nation, which his successor was proud to bear, and
whose least title of honour, is to have floated in
every capital, received the homage of every po
tentate, and to have triumphed over all the most
powerful flags of Europe." If I refrain out of re
spect to the present time, to retrace a picture of
that past regime so boasted, so regretted, it will
be sufficient to call to mind that a host of old
l2

148 MEMOIRS
abuses (here he rapidly enumerated them) and
iniquities consecrated by the civil and religious
authorities, have vanished in France and in other
parts of Europe, before that national standard,
which, in its origin was, I am proud to repeat,
the flag of liberty, equality, and public order."
In the session of 1821, during a discussion on
the different parts of the budget: — " The puMic
debt of the state," said he, " whatever be its origin,
is sacred. Like you, I regret its encrease, but
without accusing either the errors of the first res
toration which brought about the 20th of March,
or the fatal landing at Cannes, which mingled with
the movements of a resistance more salutary and
less alarming ; or the conditions of the last treaty
of peace exclusively stipulated between the powers
at war with France and the august ally of those
powers, I shall confine myself to drawing from the
past a great lesson for the future : which is that it
would have cost much less, as I then said, to
expel the foreign coalition than to bargain with it ;
that if ever those unfortunate circumstances should
recur, and if, following the example of Napoleon
and the provisional government, the government
of France should hesitate to raise the whole nation,
it will be the duty of the nation itself sponta-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 149
neously to take up arms, and assemble the mil
lions of her youth, to crush the violators of her in
dependence. " The civil list," he added, " was voted for the
duration of the present reign ; but when, in conse
quence of encroachments and- delapidations, a
personal income of forty millions is deemed in
sufficient for the monarch and his family, I may
be permitted to refer, (not to the country which
possesses ten millions of population, and in which
the salary of the chief of the state does not equal
that of a French minister,) but to the monarchical,
aristocratic and expensive government of England,
where, though the pensions of the princes are
smaller than in France, and more than half the
civil fist is appropriated to the payment of the
ministers, the diplomatic body and the judges,
the sum of which the King has to render any ac
count, does not exceed fifteen or a hundred
thousand francs. As to the remainder of what
is destined for royal expenditure, the accounts are
annually submitted to parliament, with such scru
pulous regularity, that, according to a law proposed
by the celebrated Burke, any of the King's trades
men who neglect to send in their bills within
three months, shall forfeit their right of claim."

150 MEMOIRS
On another occasion, he complained of " the
sudden irruption of a number of claimants to re
wards, for having in fact or in intention, on fo
reign hire, or in internal insurrection, openly or
in obscurity and even in imperial liveries, mani
fested or disguised their opposition governments
which, after being each flattered in its turn, are
now styled illegitimate. Thus, by the deviations
and temporary apostacy of a revolution of liberty
and equality, we are likely for some years to come,
to see Europe burthened with two complete sets of
dynasties, of noble and privileged orders. . . .
" I ask," he said, " whether we ought in con
science to support by our pecuniary votes, a scan
dalously expensive government, the measures of
which are evidently contrary to the rights and
wishes of almost all tax-payers, who, of course,
pay their money with the view of being served
honestly and for the national interest.
" Our system of criminal justice, "he observed,
" must also be denounced. Its preliminary pro
ceedings, contrived by the most artful despotism,
have reduced the law of lettre de cachet to a mere
luxury of tyranny. The excessive severity of our
criminal code is acknowledged by all, even those

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 151
who, notwithstanding the fallacy of human judg
ment, and after the many judicial murders we have
personally to deplore, do not concur in my wish for
the abolition of the punishment of death. Finally,
the title of jury, impudently employed at our as
sizes, is but a pitiable abuse of terms : if the con
stituent assembly did not adopt the motion for the
adoption of the English and American jury in all
its purity, it was at least with the intention of
improving it, whatever may have been said in this
assembly with a singular ignorance of facts, men, and
doctrines. All ulterior modifications, however,
have been planned in a spirit of enmity to the
institution itself.
" Our present diplomacy," he again observed
" is an absolute incongruity. In fact, gentlemen, the
system, the agents, the language, all appear to me
to be foreign to renovated France. She is sub
jected to doctrines she had overthrown, powers she
has conquered, habits contracted in the train of her
enemies, and obligations for which she has only, on
her part, to blush. However, Europe, thirty years
ago was summoned by us to liberty ; and awed, it
must be confessed, by our excesses and the abuse
of our victories, has resumed, and will continue, in
spite of recent misfortunes, that great march of

152 MEMOIRS
civilization, at the head of which France has her
place assigned, and there nations already free, or
aspiring to become so, will not seek her in vain.
" Gentlemen," said he, in the same speech, " the
crimes and disasters which we all execrate and
deplore, are no more to be set down to the account
of the revolution, than the massacre of St. Bartho
lomew is to be laid to the charge of religion, or the
eighteen thousand judicial murders of the Duke of
Alba, to that of monarchy. The revolution was the
emancipation and developement of the human
faculties, and the restoration of nations. This is
so true, that the friends of liberty have always been
and still are, hated by the adversaries of the revo
lution, in proportion to the efforts they have made
to prevent it being sullied by crimes and ex
cesses. " Yes, gentlemen, let the enemies of our cause
endeavor to extract hypocritical arguments from
our misfortunes, as they have long founded upon
them unworthy hopes ; — let them excuse or deny, as
they please, the aristocratic re-actions through
which they before designed to execute fearful repri
sals ! As in 1815 they endeavored to stifle, in
this capital, the popular voice which denounced the
massacres of the west, so also the outrages of the

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 153
past year found apologists even among the first per
sonages of the state. For our parts, despising, as
we have always done, in our patriotic hatred of
crime, that weakness which would compound with
her, by drawing a distinction of victims and of
periods, we must assign all these atrocities to the
unworthy, or furious passions which have produced
them. But never, at any time, under any pretext,
or from whatever quarter the imputations or apolo
gies may come, will we submit to see perfidiously
and voluntarily confounded the crimes of faction,
the errors of a generation escaping from the old
system with all the benefits of the revolution, the
imprescriptible rights of human reason, and the pure
intentions and incontestible principles of the invari
able defenders of liberty, and the declared adversa
ries of all oppression."
In rendering homage to the French navy and our
seamen, he observed that the truly French senti
ments of the latter would have been applauded
by the immortal crew of the Vengeur; he com
pared the expense of our department of the marine
with that of the navy of the United States, " whose
fleet," he added, " since its creation, and during
two very severe wars against Great Britain, with

154 MEMOIRS
equal, and often with inferior force, never once failed
to gain the advantage."
Speaking of the minister of war, " Have a care,"
said he, " that by dint of breaking and ruining
officers, you do not make all the rest believe that
the Coblentz party cannot reconcile itself to the
recollection of that glory, for the destruction of
which they so long prayed ; — that regret is cher
ished for the time when regiments were formed by
recruiters, and claims to office specified by genealo
gists, or that still more remote period when cam
paign plans were traced out in the apartments of
the King's mistress. A French army must doubt
less be kept in subordination; but you will never
prevent its being intelligent and national."
Provoked by fresh expressions of regret at the
destruction of the old system, Lafayette drew the
following picture of it : — " Then disappeared that
clerical corporation, which, while it exercised every
description of influence, and refused to pay any
share of public contribution, was incessantly in
creased. No part of its immense wealth was ever
alienated ; but all was distributed in its own class,
in an inverse ratio to labour. The law was a party
in the exaction of vows, too often compulsory, and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 155
France was covered with monastic orders, devoted
to foreign chiefs. The clergy levied at once the
contributions of opulence and mendicity ; and in
its secular organization was so wholly devoted to
worldly indolence, that the laboring ministers
were but an insignificant portion of what was called
the first order of the state.
" We saw the disappearance of that corporation
of sovereign courts in which the power of judging
was venal by law, and hereditary and noble in
fact; and in which feodal judges were chosen and re
vocable by their lords ; and in which the diversity
of codes, and the jurisprudence of decrees made
a cause be lost in one court, which would have
been gained in another ; in which every plaintiff,
by purchasing the most insignificant place about
court, could drag the adverse party from the
furthest extreme of the kingdom to Paris ; — in
which all the grievances arising out of esprit de
corps were multiplied by the dependence of a host
of lawyers ; — in which all rational ideas, all useful
discoveries were formally proscribed — and which
even in a just cause, could not resist the express
command of the King except by a denial of justice
to the public.
" We beheld the overthrow of that financial cor-

156 MEMOIRS
poration impoverishing France to the uttermost by
fiscal farming. This monstrous institution ex
ceeded in expenditure and profits the receipts of
the royal treasury. Its vast code, which no where
existed in a collected form, was an occult science
which its agents alone had the power or means of
interpreting, and which by constantly putting a
price on perjury and domestic treachery, exercised
on all unprotected men a despotism boundless and
unrestrained. This is the way in which Males-
herbes spoke of it to Louis XVI in the remon
strance of the Cour des Aides in 1775."
There was also seen the obliteration of those des
tructions of French provinces, conquered provinces,
nominally foreign provinces, and provinces of
estates or election. All these were surrounded by
a double circle of excise officers and smugglers
whose intestine warfare recruited the prisons, the
galleys and the gibbet at the fancy of the agents
of the farmers general. We saw the subversion
of those other distinctions of property, noble and
ignoble, presenting different degrees of feudal
domination, vassalage and servitude. The parks
and gardens of the rich man paid nothing, whilst
the field and the person of the poor man were
taxed in proportion to his industry ; the socages

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 157
and the law of franc-fief incessantly reminded the
citizens that their degradation was not only terri
torial but personal.
" Then was consecrated that constitutional equa
lity which confines itself to founding on general
utility, the distinctions laid down by the law.
The privileged caste gradually lost the right of
dispensing exclusion and contempt on the rest of
their fellow citizens. No Frenchman was unquali
fied for public employment, because he was not
noble ; none were reckoned dishonored because
they exercised useful professions ; — a fatal preju
dice, which debarred the majority of families from
a share in the public prosperity, just in proportion
as they supplied the means of increasing it.
" What then have we to regret ? is it to be the
system of taxation, imposed by the King in ac
cordance with the fancy of a finance minister, a
system I have seen changed twelve times in
fourteen years, arbitrarily imposed on the pro
vinces, and I may add arbitrarily upon individuals ?
For with the exception of some districts with estates
and of the two assemblies called by M. Necker,
which a well known piece of treachery* did not
* The communication to the members of parliament of amemo-
rialto the King, confided byM. Necker to Monsieur, (Louis XVIII).

158 MEMOIRS
allow him time to extend to the other provinces,
the power of the intendants was only modified in
1778. " Is it the capitulation established in 1702, which
was to have finished at the peace, but which was
always prolonged ? or the two twentieths ostensibly
imposed upon the rich but levied on the poor ? or
the tax which in Auvergne was fixed at nine sous
in the pound, and which was raised to fourteen,
principally in consequence of the number of privileged
individuals which encreased daily by the trafic in
offices?* or lastly, is it the laws which press so
heavily on articles of consumption, laws simular to,
but more odious than the droits reunis of Napo
leon ?
" Is it the criminal jurisprudence under which the
accused could neither see his family, his friends,
his counsel, nor a copy of the indictment ? When
delivered over to a magistrate who made it his
only merit to extort confession, he was merely
confronted with the witnesses who were previously
interrogated in secret, and who could retract
* Report of the tax committee of the provincial assembly of
Auvergne, drawn up by MM. the Marquis de la Querille, the
Bishop of St. Flour, &c. December, 1787.

U-ns-z/^ A't&r .-¦<'' L- ~ Jt'C/.C'fsz.tUru/

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

159

nothing without incurring the penalty of perjury.
Condemned upon the deposition of a witness in an
inferior tribunal, he was dragged to the Parliament
Court, sometimes more than one hundred leagues
from his dwelling place, and to the grand chamber
if he were a gentleman. There, upon the same
indictment and the report of a counsel, the sellette
or stool for the prisoner being an insulting super
fluity, he received sentence, obscured as it was by
the vague forms in which the facts resulting from
the case were set forth. This sentence might be
aggravated at the option of the judges by the in
fliction of the torture, for at that time, only
torture before the trial had been abolished. You
know, gentlemen, the barbarous variety of punish
ments, thus in use from the cross and the wheel,
to those execrable tortures of which I will spare
you the description.
" Have we to regret the religious intolerance
which doomed a great portion of the population to
a state of legal concubinage, to bastardism and
disinheritance ; — or that legislative violation of all
the laws of nature and morality, which Louis XIV
established and which the illustrious prelate,
Bossuet, styled the work worthy of his reign, the
most assured sign, as well as the finest enactment of

160

MEMOIRS"

authority?* The bishops in 1751 and 1752
demanded its execution, by the judgment of the
commandant or intendant without the form or figure
of a trial. Such was the legal doctrine from the
period of the decree of the council of 1684, which
debarred all private persons from receiving into their
houses any sick person of 'the protestant religion, under
the pretext of charity, down to the decision of the
council of Louis XVI, when, in opposition to the
advice of Turgot and Malesherbes, the oath to ex
terminate the heretics was taken at his coronation.
The condition of the protestants was bettered by
the edict of the King in 1 780 ; I remember it the
more distinctly, because in the preceding year I
had the honor of seeing adopted in a committee, at
which the second brother of the King presided,
the first official admission of their civil rights ; but
even then this half-tolerance was considered a re
volutionary innovation.
" Have we to regret the ecclesiastical and
seignorial imports, which levied on the lowest
results of labor, were a burthen threefold heavier
upon the increase of the landowners than what was
taken away in raw produce ; are we to regret the
* Funeral oration of the Chancellor Tellier.

Jmp. Fhault'j'7^'^. J' \And> d&r-drtir, 3v J'eu-ur.

ALESMEKIBE

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 161
burdensome and humiliating feudal duties, whether
they were collected in kind or replaced by a tri-
butewhich indicated their origin ? Are we to regret
the laws, which bound the vassals to feudal
services; — the laws of the chase;— the captainships,
which delivered up the crops to the voracity of the
game, and the labours of the field to the caprices
and extortions of the guards ; — or the penalties
amounting to condemnation for life to the galleys,
which were dispensed in a tribunal nominated by
the captain, who pronounced judgment on the
bare statement of the accuser ? Have we to regret
the lettres de cachet given blank to the ministers,
the commandants and the intendants ? — or the
decrees of supersedies which absolved the courtiers
from the payment of their debts ; or the evoca
tions of law suits ; or the substitutions and customs
by which children were sacrificed to a collateral,
and whole families to an elder relative ? Have we
to regret the sinecures, the reversions, and all that
multiplicity of abuses, and oppressions which find
a place in written history, and even to this day in
the memory of all our co temporaries, foreign as
well as national, who have directed any attention
to the government of France ?
" Frenchmen, such was the old government, the
VOL. I. m

162 MEMOIRS
destruction of which has secured for you advantages
which are only as little to be perceived as the bene
fits of the air you breathe ; — a system whose re-esta
blishment was the avowed object of the emigrants at
Coblentz and of the coalition at Pilnitz, and whose
spirit has never ceased to animate that government
of the court more or less occult, in whose eyes mi
nisters are as nothing, and who in 1814 said offi
cially: " Let us enjoy the present, I will answer
for the future*."
In the session of 1822 Lafayette spoke against
the jurisprudence of the penal code : " Instead,"
said he, " of the unanimity required in England
and the United States , instead of the five sixths
fixed by the constituent assembly, a simple ma
jority is now considered sufficient to constitute
the magistrate charged with the application of the
law, a party in the verdict, and thus making him
a judge of fact as well as of law. This is the cir-
stance which militates against the very essence of
the institution of juries. Some honest statesmen
impressed with the fallacy of human judgments,
have urged the abolition of the punishment of
death, and there has hardly been, these thirty
* Reply of the Count d'Artois to a deputation of the national
guard.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 163
years, a case of condemnation for political offences,
in which the judges have not afterwards heartily
wished, (whether owing to the bitterness of remorse,
or the reaction of retaliations) heartily wished to re
cal at any price the life that had been taken.
Yet we find persons still to compliment us in our
possession of a penal code, the subtleties and se
verity of which must disturb the consciences of
its administrators, while it menaces all parties in
turn, and contains that system of confession,
which was worthy the conception of Tiberius,
which was revived by Louis XI and Cardinal Ri
chelieu, and which is now more frequently resorted
to in our tribunes, than it has ever been at any
former period of our history.
" The counter-revolution," added he, " being
master of all the powers of the state, all the insti
tutions, and all the channels of influence, sustained
as it is by the coalition of all the despots of Eu
rope, all the aristocratic interests, every prejudice
and every abuse, in a word, upheld by whatever
is at variance with true social order, endeavors
still to blind the people to the positive advantages
they owe to the revolution. By an imprudent an
ticipation, the partizans of the old government have
now begun to wound the dignity of the citizens,
m 2

164 MEMOIRS
and to shew before the time that hatred of equality
which was ever their ruling passion.
But the counter-revolution successively attacks
all guarantees, and it is well that the French people
should be aware that after the destruction of those
conservative guarantees, whieh you will not and
cannot longer defend, it will be declared as it was at
Pilnitz and Coblentz, that all the advantages gained
over the old system by the national revolution of
1789 were illegal, transient and revocable usurpa
tions." In the session of 1823 Lafayette was one of
those who denounced with patriotic indignation, the
determination to declare war against the Spanish
constitution ; a determination which had been stig
matised as a calumny in the speech from the throne
of the preceding year, but avowed in the speech
of that year. When his friend Manuel was vio
lently expelled from the Chamber of Deputies,
Lafayette retired with sixty of his colleagues and
signed the protest which he had unsuccessfully
proposed to the chamber, and which openly; de
clared that the public taxes having become illegal
by the violation of the liberty of the chamber,
their payment was not obligatory.
The freedom of Lafayette's declarations both

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

165

former and recent, the appeal he made in the
chamber to the patriotism and energy of the French
people, perhaps also the recollection of a remark
made by the Archbishop of Sens in the King's
council of the King in 1788; " That he, (Lafa
yette) was their most dangerous antagonist because
his logic consisted in action ;" all these circum
stances joined to others less publicly known, fur
nished a pretence for directing against him weighty
accusations. His enemies had already implicated
him in some law proceedings, at least as a witness,
and it was on one of those occasions that he pro
tested against the title of marquis which the presi
dent of the tribunal had applied to him, declaring
that that title was no longer his, after the decree
of the constituent assembly of the 17th June, 1790.
But in 1823 a more positive accusation was
brought against him, at the suit of the procureur
du roi, Mangin, who pretended to have proof
against Lafayette and who in the excess of his
monarchical zeal uttered that famous exclama
tion; " Ah! were I but his judge* !"
* The special accusation here alluded to was not exactly cor
rect. But it is true that, in the celebrated affair of Bedford,
which miscarried by a mere chance, Lafayette was no stranger to
the conspiracy. He and his son responding to an appeal made

166 MEMOIRS
Those of his colleagues who were likewise impli
cated, less deeply it is true, in the Mangin de
nunciation, demanded in the tribune justice against
the calumny. It was on this occasion that M.
Laffitte in stigmatizing the atrocious wish of
the procureur-general applied to him the merited
epithet of purveyor to the guillotine. Lafayette dis
daining on his part, all denial of the fact, mounted
the tribune merely to make the following remark
able observations : "In spite of my habitual in
difference to party accusations and animosities, I
still think myself bound to add a few words to
what has fallen from my honorable friends. Dur
ing the whole course of a life entirely devoted to
the cause of liberty, I have constantly been an ob
ject of attack to the enemies of that cause, under
whatever form, despotic, aristocratic, anarchic,
they have endeavored to combat it. I do not com
plain then, because I observe some affectation in
the use of the word proved, which the procureur-
to them by many patriots, and even by some corps of the army,
incurred dangers from which good fortune alone saved them. It
is but just, however to add that before taking this step, Lafayette
had denounced in the tribune the violations of the charter, and
frankly declared that in his opinion, those violations reduced us to
a primitive independence as regarded our rights and duties.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 167
general has employed against me. But I join my
honorable friends in demanding a public enquiry,
within the walls of the chamber, and in the face of
the nation ; there I and my adversaries to whatever
rank they belong, may declare without reserve
all that we have mutually had to reproach each
other with, for the last thirty years."
Lafayette's adversaries of the highest rank re
coiled before this challenge, and the accusation was
no longer agitated.
By dint of intrigues and electoral frauds which
have since been acknowledged, the Villelle minis
try succeeded in preventing Lafayette's election
to the chamber, denominated septennial. The cir
cumstance was fortunate; for the interval of par
liamentary repose permitted him to gratify the
wish he had long entertained of revisiting America,
that scene of his youthful glory, whither he was in
vited by the pressing solicitation of a people eager
to declare him one of the founders of their indepen
dence. His connection with the United States and his
zeal to serve them never relaxed. " We minis
ters in Europe," said Jefferson in a recent speech,
" placed the nail, and Lafayette drove it in." At
the period of the revolution he received the con-

168 MEMOIRS
gratulations of his paternal friend Washington. At
Mount Vernon the principal key of the Bastille con
veyed thither by Lafayette, is kept in a glass case.
The directory had occasion to acknowledge in conse
quence of an intercepted letter of the illustrious Ha
milton, that even during his proscription, Lafayette
endeavored to .extenuate the errors of the French
government and to assimilate the two countries.'
Though in his letter addressed to Archenholz,
from his prison at Olmutz he wrote ; " America,
that country dear to my heart, will behold me
again with joy ;" yet when President Jefferson
pressed him to accept the provisional government
of Louisiana, and when urgent invitations were ad
dressed to him from all parts of the United-States,
he was detained in Europe by the feeling which
lately brought him back: — the hope of being useful
to liberty and to his country.
" Your proposition," replied he to president Jef
ferson*, " offers all the advantages of dignity,
wealth and security, and I do not feel less warmly
than I have done these thirty years past, the de
sire of advancing with American liberty in its pro-
* Extract of a letter dated 16th vendemiaire, 8th October, 1804,
published since the death of his illustrious friend.

¦ ,:
72

s

5

r*-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 169
gress over all the continent. But you, my dear
friend, you also know and share my wishes for
French and consequently for European liberty. In
America the cause of mankind is gained and se
cured ; nothing can arrest, change or sully its pro
gress. Here all regard is as lost and without hope.
But for me to pronounce that sentence, to pro
claim it as it were by a final expatriation, would
be a concession so contrary to my sanguine nature,
that unless I were absolutely forced, I know not
the land, however disadvantageous, and still less
can I imagine the hope, however unpromising,
which I could totally and irrevocably abandon.
This is perhaps after all but a weakness of heart,
but in spite of the usurpations of uncontrolled power,
and in the event of its overthrow — amidst the
dangers of jacobinism excited to rage, and the
still greater dangers of a royal aristocracy, more
absurd, though not less sanguinary, I do not dis-
pair of obtaining modifications less unfavorable
to the dignity and liberty of my countrymen.
When I consider the prodigious influence of French
doctrines upon the future destinies of the world,
I think it will not be right in me, one of the pro
moters of that resolution, to admit the impossi
bility of beholding it, even in our time, re-es-

170 MEMOIRS
tablished on its true basis of a generous, a virtuous,
in a word, an American liberty."
In February, 1824, the President of the United-
States transmitted to General Lafayette an unani
mous resolution of the two Chambers of Congress,
expressing " the attachment of the whole nation,
which ardently desired to see him again." A 74
gun-ship the North Carolina was directed to sail
as soon as he should name the time of his visit,
but Lafayette accompanied by his son and his se
cretary, embarked on board a packet boat, the
Cadmus, and arrived in the bay of New York on
the 25th of August.
I shall not here enumerate the honors, the
fetes, the enthusiastic testimonials of affection,
which from the salute on his arrival at Port La
fayette, to the farewell at Brandy wine on his
departure for Havre, were fairly showered upon
him daily, nay hourly, during a journey of more
than five thousand leagues and occupying four
teen months, for which space of time, he was con
tinually moving through the twenty-four states of
the Union. Received with honors at the boundaries
of the states, the counties, the villages and the
hamlets, conducted by the governors and the
respective magistrates to the extremity of their

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 171
territory ; formally introduced to the different le
gislative assemblies ; publicly harangued by the
constitutional authorities, the universities, the
clergy, the bar, by all the learned bodies and
the popular deputations expressly appointed to
compliment the " guest of the nation." To their
addresses, he delivered answers, each imbued
with eloquence, talent and feeling. Wherever he
went, he was greeted with triumphal arches,
splendid banquets, magnificent balls, illumina
tions, public acclamations, the ringing of bells
and the firing of guns ; such were the circum
stances which marked this triumph of little more
than one year. What must have been the feel
ings of Lafayette throughout that triumphal jour
ney, when he beheld a population of twelve mil
lions rising to meet him with the unity of a
single family ; when he beheld his old companions
in arms, who were sent for from distant parts, so
that none were deprived by old age, wounds, or in
firmity of the happiness of seeing him again —
when, in fine, he received, after so much mis
representation and calumny, the public and offi
cial approbation of a great nation, sanctioning
in all its parts, the conduct pursued by this
pupil of the American school, as he loved to style

172 MEMOIRS
himself, during the revolutionary storms of Eu
rope ? What delightful emotions must he have
experienced on contemplating the numerous po
pulation, the prosperity, the industry, the prac
tical liberty and the happiness of the American
people ! This was indeed a noble example to
the world, and a striking justification of the prin
ciples and conduct of his whole life. What plea
surable sensations must he have felt, at behold
ing the beautiful towns, the various works of
art, the numerous canals, the cultivated lands,
the fine navy and the well appointed military
establishments : — in finding those immense fo
rests, which were scarcely known before his
time, covered with flourishing cities, occupied
by an industrious population, employed in ma
nufactures and engaged in literary and scientific
pursuits, or converted into luxuriant corn-fields !
At every point of his route, he reviewed, in the
character of a simple citizen, the different bodies
of militia, that assembled to honor him. At his
presence, local enmities and party distinctions
merged in one common sentiment, and old friends,
whom political differences had separated, again
coalesced for the purpose of welcoming him to
America. This journey gave a useful and salu-

THE TOBSI3. Of WMlIHfilOI, jMKjOTKTT VE

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

173

tary impulse to the public spirit of the United
States : — and when the number of the spontaneous
and disinterested testimonials of affection, remem
brance and esteem he received, as well as the
unanimity with which they were awarded are
considered, it will be confessed that no parallel
can be found in history to the glorious and peace
ful triumph which Lafayette enjoyed. The de
tails of this memorable visit are to be found in
all the American journals and partly in the Eu
ropean newspapers and also in several works pub
lished in the United States. It has been cele
brated by poets and orators ; and some of the
events, the arrival at New York, the ball given
at that place to six thousand persons, the recep
tion by Congress, the tomb of Washington for
instance, have been described by Mr. Cooper with
that ability and talent, for which he is remarkable.
A small work was published in France on this
subject and was soon followed by a more com
plete account in two volumes, by M. Levasseur.
In this latter publication, the visit of Lafayette
and his son to the tomb of their adopted father
is described, an interesting account is given of
the ceremony at which Lafayette assisted, of laying
the foundation-stone of various monuments erect-

174 MEMOIRS
ed in memory of his companions in arms, — Greene,
Kalb and Pulawski. Lafayette likewise laid the
first stone of the edifice on Bunkershill and it
was on this occasion that the eloquent Mr. Web
ster, in the presence of more than a hundred
thousand spectators expressed the gratitude which
that free nation felt for the veterans of the re
volution, at the head of whom stood Lafayette,
the only general of that period who was still living.
On the same day Lafayette proposed the follow
ing toast at a dinner, which was attended by no less
than four thousand persons: — " Bunkershill and
" the sacred resistance to oppression which has
" liberated the American hemisphere. At the
" next jubilee, the toast will be ' Europe libe-
" rated.' "
The speech delivered on the 18th of January
by the president of the chamber of representatives,
in the presence of that body, the senate and a nu
merous concourse of spectators, is too honorable to
be omitted : Lafayette having been introduced with
due solemnity and form by a deputation of twenty
four members, was addressed by Mr. Clay in the
following terms, with that eloquence and graceful
dignity which distinguished him, but with deep
and visible emotion:

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 175
" The chamber of representatives of the United-
States, impelled by its own feelings and those of
the nation, of which it is the interpreter, has
imposed upon me the grateful duty of expressing
their heartfelt congratulations at your recent ar
rival in this country ; and I most willingly obey
the wishes of the congress, by assuring you of
the high satisfaction, which your presence upon
the first theatre of your glory, occasioned
among the members who compose that body.
Few are now to be found who shared with you the
campaigns of our revolutionary war ; but impar
tial history, or faithful tradition have made us
all acquainted with the dangers, the sufferings,
and the sacrifices, to which you voluntarily sub
mitted, and the signal services which you rendered,
both in the new and the old world, to a people
remote from Europe, almost unknown, and yet in
their infancy. All feel and acknowledge the
extent of the obligations, which you have imposed
upon the nation. But whatever may be the im
portance of the relations, which have connected
you, at all times, with our states, this is not the
only cause of the respect and admiration, which
this chamber feels for you. The constant firm
ness of your character, your unquenchable zeal in

176 MEMOIRS
favor of liberty, founded on legal order, through
out all the vicissitudes of a long and perilous life,
are entitled to our highest admiration. During the
convulsions, which have recently agitated Europe,
whether in the midst or after the cessation of the
political tempests, the people of the United-States
have always seen you faithful to your principles,
braving every danger, and raising your voice, so
well known to them, in support of the friends of
liberty. They have seen you the constant and
fearless defender of freedom ; ready again for its
sake to lose the last drop of your blood, which you
so nobly and so generously spilled in this country
for the same cause.
" The vain wish has often been expressed that
providence would allow a patriot to revisit his
country after death, there to behold the changes,
which time had produced. The American patriot
of passed days would now see forests cultivated,
cities founded, mountains levelled, canals opened,
roads formed, and an immense progress effected in
the arts, in the sciences, and the increase of
population. General, your present visit, forms a
happy accomplishment of this wish. You are
here in the midst of posterity. On every side you
cannot fail to be struck with the physical and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 177
moral change, which has been effected since you
last left us. This very city, which bears a name
as dear to you as to ourselves has been recently
raised out of the bosom of the forest, which
covered its soil. But there is one point in which
you will perceive no change, and that is our un
shaken devotion to liberty, our deep and heartfelt
gratitude for the friend, whom you have lost, the
father of the country, for you, general, and your
illustrious companions in the field of battle, and
in the council chamber, and also for the numerous
benefits which we enjoy, and even for the right
which I now exercise in addressing you. This
feeling, which at present is cherished by more
than ten millions of men, will be transmitted
unaltered to the remotest posterity, from age to
age, through all the innumerable generations
which are destined to people this vast con
tinent." Lafayette, after the delay of a few moments,
rendered necessary by the general emotion in the
assembly, and by the state of his own feelings,
replied in an extemporaneous speech to the fol
lowing effect : —
" President, and gentlemen of the chamber ofre-
VOL. I. N

178 MEMOIRS
presentatives, since the people of the United-States
and their honorable representatives in the con
gress have deigned to choose, in my person, an
American veteran, to whom to give a testimony of
their esteem for our common labors, and of their
attachment to the principles for which we have
had the honor of shedding our blood, I am happy
and proud to share their extraordinary favors
with my dear companions in war and in revolution.
Nevertheless, it would be ungrateful, and some
what uncandid in me not to acknowledge the
particular share which you have accorded me in
these marks of your favor, which I feel too
strongly to be able suitably to express my gra
titude. " My obligations to the United- States, Sir, far
surpass the services that I have been able to
render them. They commenced at the period
when I had the good fortune to be adopted by
America as one of her young soldiers ; — as a well-
beloved son. For nearly half a century I have
continued to receive constant proofs of American
affection and confidence ; and now, Sir, thanks
to the invitation so prized by me, which I re
ceived from the congress, I find myself the object of

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

179

a series of the most affecting receptions, to enjoy
one hour of which is more than a compensation
for the labors and sufferings of a whole life.
" The approbation which the American people
and their representatives have expressed of the
conduct which I pursued throughout the vicissi
tudes of the revolution in Europe is the greatest
recompense which it is possible for me to receive.
I may indeed be confident, and hold my head
erect, when you, Mr. President, have solemnly de
clared in their name, that on every occasion I
have remained faithful to American principles
of liberty, of equality, and of real social order,
which, from my youth, I have advocated ; and
which, until my last breath, I shall deem it a
sacred duty to promote.
" You have judiciously alluded to the peculiar
advantage of my situation. I assure you that I
am fully sensible of my good-fortune, in being
permitted, after a long absence, to behold the
immense progress which this country has made in
the arts of civilization ; — the admirable means of
internal communication which it has established,
and the surprising creations, of which this city,
whose very name is a palladium, presents an
example ; in a word, to witness all the prosperity
n 2

180 MEMOIRS
of the United-States, which, while affording to the
entire American continent a noble guarantee of
the consummation of its independence, spreads
throughout the four quarters of the globe the
light of a superior political civilization.
" What surer pledge can there be of the per
severance of the nation in the love of liberty,
than these very advantages, which are evidently
the result of a virtuous resistance to oppression,
and of institutions founded upon the rights of
man and the republican principle of self-govern
ment? " No, Mr. President, I am not among posterity ;
for in the children of my ancient companions and
friends, I retrace the same public sentiments, and
allow me to add the same sentiments towards one
which I well knew their fathers entertained.
" Sir, I had occasion, forty years ago, to express
before a committee of a congress of thirteen united
states, the ardent wishes of an American heart.
" I now have the happiness to congratulate the
representatives of the Union which has so greatly
increased, on seeing their wishes realized far be
yond all human hope ; and on the prospect of pro
gressive prosperity, to which no limit can be seen.
Allow me, Mr. President, to add to the expression

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

181

of these sentiments, the tribute of my deep grati
tude, of my zealous affection, and of my profound
respect for this nation."
At New Orleans he had the pleasure of seeing an
old French colony, which, in consequence of the
excellence of its political institutions and its incor
poration in the confederation of the United States,
had in a very short space of time, tripled its popu
lation and greatly augmented all the sources, of its
prosperity ; for instead of three ships, which used for
merly to be the whole number that annually entered
the port of that city, no less than three or four
hundred now visited the place, within the same
period ; and the river Mississippi, which before
Louisiana, became a member of the United States,
had only one steam-boat, was now navigated by
upwards of a hundred and sixty. During his stay at
New Orleans, Lafayette received a deputation from
the Spaniards, who had settled there, and a number
of their fellow.-countrymen, who were proscribed by
Ferdinand VII. The deputation thus addressed
him : —
" A few Spaniards approach you, general, with a
quiet conscience ; and they venture to address you,
because they know themselves to be guilty of no
crime. They are unfortunate, but if the sacrifice

182 MEMOIRS
of themselves would ensure their country's pros
perity, they would willingly make an offering of
their lives. In the field of battle they would still
invoke you, general, and those like you, who do
not attempt to stifle the spirit of the times, or stop
the progress of knowledge and liberty by despotism,
tyranny, and the inquisition. Accept, general, the
sincere homage of our affection and admiration, and
grant the unfortunate Spanish refugees, who have
been driven from their country by the cruel scourge
of tyranny, the consolation of enjoying your sym
pathy. This, if they should be fortunate enough to
obtain will be their justification in the eyes of the
world, and will create in their own breasts, the
hope of a happy future for their country."
To this address Lafayette replied in the following
manner : —
" In congratulating such among you as have the
good fortune to be members of the great American
confederation, I cannot avoid expressing my confi
dent opinion that the cause of liberty must ulti
mately triumph in every quarter of the globe in
spite of all hostile coalitions and deceitful intrigues.
Already your beautiful language, the language of
Padilla, has spread over an immense extent of this
hemisphere, and become the language of independ-

Engraved, by WMoll

IB OIL IT A Ifi,

¦"7- iV /
OT^i-em.' ii ¦// ' '//r/'//ny//f/ fy

idci tlie .Su|.i-niii.-inliuice of Uir- He. i.-ly [nr Die- Diffusion of Useful T&iowlert^e.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 183
ence and republicanism. Already has it been heard
in the country of the illustrious and excellent
Riego, expressing the eloquent and generous senti
ments of patriotism ; and notwithstanding the mo
mentary success of an impious war, detested, I am
happy to say, by the French people ; notwithstand
ing the pernicious effect of a deceitful influence, of
which I need not remind Spaniards, will in a short
time spread its benignant Hght over that interesting
portion of Europe, — then alone will the names of
Riego, of his young and unfortunate wife, and of
the many other victims to superstition and tyranny
be appeased."
In a letter to Bolivar, informing him that the
family of Washington had sent him a portrait of
that illustrious patriot, Lafayette thus expresses
himself: —
" What more can I say to the great citizen,
whom South America has honored with the title —
a title confirmed by both hemispheres, — of the
liberator ; and who,, enjoying an influence equal to
his disinterestedness, bears in his heart the love of
liberty without qualification ; and of republicanism
without alloy. Still the recent public testimonies,
which I have received of your favor and esteem,
embolden me to offer you the personal congratula-

184 MEMOIRS
tions of a veteran in the common cause, who, now
about to depart for another hemisphere, will carry
with him a sincere desire for the glorious achieve
ment of your labors."
" How shall I express," said Bolivar, in reply,
" the value which my heart attaches to the declara
tion of affection and respect, so honorable to me ?
The family of Mountvernon have honored me be
yond my hopes, for Washington's portrait, pre
sented by the hands of Lafayette, is the highest
reward which a man can desire. Washington was
the fearless defender of social reform, and you, you
are the citizen hero, the Colossus of liberty, who
with one hand assisted America, and with the other,
the old world."
This correspondence will, doubtless, recall to the
recollection of the readers, the complaint made by
a minister of the restoration at the tribune, that
many natives of France, merchants as well as
others, addressed their representations to an indi
vidual instead of to the French government, " be
lieving," he added, " perhaps justly, that the influ
ence which that individual enjoyed in the States of
North and South America would be more advantage
ous to them than the interposition of their official
protectors."

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

185

In order not to prolong this account, which has
already extended to much length, I shall only give
a few portions of the two speeches which Lafayette
delivered, when, after the celebration of his birth
day, he left Washington on the 7th September, and
embarked in the frigate Brandy wine, so named in
memory of the river, on the banks of which he was
wounded forty-eight years ago, and took a solemn
leave of the president of the United States, sur
rounded by the officers of the Union, and a numer
ous assembly.
" It would be superfluous," said the president to
him, " to recapitulate the remarkable events of
your youth, events which have indissolubly associ
ated your name, your fortune, and your fame with
the independence and history of the North Ameri
can Union.
" The part which you acted at that honorable
period, was of so remarkable a character, as to
realize the most beautiful fictions of antiquity, and
stand almost unequalled in the records of authentic
history. " You nobly preferred every danger and priva
tion in defence of a sacred cause, to an inglorious
ease, and to the unbounded seductions of rank,
riches and youth in a court the most brilliant and

186 MEMOIRS
aimable in Europe. In this choice, you manifested
not less wisdom than magnanimity, and the ap
probation of half a century ; and the acclamations
of innumerable voices, though wanting the power
to express all the gratitude which the heart feels,
is a sure proof of the justness of the selection.
" When the contest for liberty, in which you
engaged as a simple volunteer, terminated in the
complete triumph of her cause in this country of
your adoption, you returned to your native soil
to fulfil the duties of a philanthropist and a
citizen. There you pursued the same career with
undeviating constancy, and supported, in good
fortune and in ill-fortune, the glorious cause, to
which you had devoted the best years of your
youth ; the amelioration of the moral and political
condition of man. . . .
"... .During this period of forty years the
generation, with whom you bore arms, has become
nearly extinct. You are the only survivor of the
general officers of the American army, who fought
in that war. The wise men, who directed our
councils, the warriors who fought by land and by
sea, all are now sleeping with their fathers, except
a few to whom Heaven has granted a greater
number of days than falls to the common lot of

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 187
mankind. A second generation, and a third even,
are rising to take their place ; and their children's
children have been taught, what indeed the con
stant enjoyment of liberty would point out as a
duty ; — they have been taught to join in the
blessings which they pronounce to the memory of
their fathers ; the name of him, who came from
distant climates to espouse their cause, resolved
with them to conquer or die. . . . These are the
sentiments of the whole country.
" A whole year has now elapsed since you
placed your foot on our shores ; and we can say,
without exaggeration, that this year has been for
the people of the Union, a year of fetes and con
tinual rejoicings occasioned by your presence.
You have traversed the twenty-four states of this
great confederation, and have been received by the
men and women of the present generation, as a
long absent father by his children. The rising
generation, our future hope, far more numerous
than the whole population for whom you fought,
have vied with the few survivers of that period of
trial in expressing joy at the sight of him, whom
all acknowledge as their common benefactor. You
have seen the past, the present and the future
age, join in joyful acclamations at your approach.

188 MEMOIRS
The spontaneous cries of transport and delight,
which thousands raised on your arrival in this land
of liberty, have accompanied you at every step,
and Hke the unceasing noise of the torrent, they
are still heard in all parts of the Union. If ever,
in after ages, a Frenchman should be asked to
describe the character of his nation by that of
some individual of the present epoch, his cheeks
would glow with patriotic blood, and his eyes
sparkle with virtuous fire, while he pronounced
the name of Lafayette. We, too, and our children,
in this life and after death, will claim you as one
of us. You belong to us by that patriotic zeal
which you displayed to deliver our fathers from
the danger which threatened them ; you belong to
us by that affection, which for so many years you
have felt for us ; you belong to us, by those
unutterable sentiments of gratitude, which we feel
for your services, and which we consider as one
of the most precious portions of our inheritance.
Finally, you belong to us by those bonds of
friendship, too strong for death to tear asunder,
which have joined your name for ages to come,
with the glorious name of Washington.
" Now that the painful moment has arrived, that
separates you from us, we have some consolation

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 189
in thinking that wherever you may be placed, our
country will always be the object of your affection,
until your heart ceases to beat ; and we feel a joy
ful presentiment that this is not the last visit
which we shall have the pleasure of receiving from
you. We feel delight in nourishing the hope that
we shall shortly see you again. In the name of
all the people of America I now, yielding to those
feelings of attachment, which cause the heart of
an entire nation, to beat like the heart of one
man, bid you a sorrowful and affectionate fare
well." Lafayette, having commenced by expressing his
thanks for the honor that had been done him
thus continued: — "Having, under most critical
circumstances, been adopted as a beloved son by
the Union ; having participated in the labors and
perils of the noble struggle, which had for its
object independence, liberty, and equality of
rights ; having taken a part in the foundation of
the era of a new social order, now established
throughout this hemisphere, and which must, for
the dignity and happiness of the human species,
successively spread over all the parts of the other
hemisphere ;^-having received, at all periods of
the revolution, and during the forty years which

190 MEMOIRS
have since elapsed, both from the American people
and their representatives, abroad and at home,
continual marks of confidence and kindness : —
such have been my glory, encouragement, and
support in my long and perilous career. But how
shall I find language to acknowledge the flattering
reception, and the marks of affection which have
been shewn me at each step of my journey through
the twenty-four states of America for the last
twelve months ? These things have filled my heart
with inexpressible joy, for they have afforded the
people an opportunity of expressing their approba
tion of the very great favors, bestowed upon me by
different branches of the government in all the
confederated states, and in the point of the Union.
" But a still higher gratification awaited me: —
in the miracles of creation and improvement, which
every where presented themselves to my eye ;— in
the comfort so well appreciated by the people ; —
in the rapid progress of their prosperity ;- in their
security, pubUc as well as private ; — in their habits
of good order, the genuine consequence of liberty ;
— in that national good sense, the sovereign arbi
ter of all differences, I beheld with pride the result
of those republican principles, for which we have
fought, and the glorious proof, which must carry

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 191
conviction even to the most timid and prejudiced,
of the superiority of popular institutions, founded
on the true rights of man and guaranteeing portion
by constitutional pledges, the privileges of each
of the confederation, over the degrading sys
tem of aristocracy and despotism. This union
between all the states was the dearest wish of our
great and paternal Washington, and its conti
nuance must be the most fervent prayer of every
American patriot. It has already become the sa
cred pledge of the emancipation of the world, that
emancipation in which I am happy to see the peo
ple of America interest themselves more and more,
whilst they afford to Europe the encouraging exam
ple of the success of free institutions, in exchange
for the evils which have been upon her by inhe
ritance, and over which liberal and enlightened
sentiments are daily gaining the mastery.*
" And now, gentlemen, how can I possibly express
the feelings which have been excited in my mind
by the valuable assurances of your esteem and
friendship, by the allusions you have made to
times past, to my brave companions in arms, and
* An allusion to the traffic in black slaves,- forcibly imposed
upon the English colonies, and now gradually being abolished
throughout a great part of the Union.

192 MEMOIRS
to the vicissitudes of my life,— by the benedictions
showered by many generations of the American
people, upon the last days of a veteran soldier —
by your affectionate remarks, on the sad moment
of our separation, on my native land, which I can
assure you, teems with attachment to the Ameri
can people, and on the hope so naturally cherished
by me of revisiting this country, which for half a
century, has treated me as one of her sons ! Avoid
ing all superfluous repetition, I will now merely
confirm those sentiments, which I have had occa
sion to express in public daily, from the period,
when your venerable predecessor, my old friend
and brother in arms, transmitted me the honorable
invitation of the congress, to this moment, when
you, Sir, whose friendship for me is dated from
our early youth, are about to consign me to the
safeguard of the heroic national flag, which waves
upon this fine vessel, whose very name is not the
least of the many flattering compliments I have
received in this country.
" May heaven shower down blessings on you,
Sir, on the American people, upon every state
of the Union, and on the whole federal govern
ment ! accept this patriotic farewell of a heart
full of gratitude, a heart which will be animated

JYhlMIArUJElL
Derail lo c'luu ID-rpo «?e la Vein etc c,

r!m «m nSafi0

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 193
by the same feelings till the last moment it shall
continue to beat !"
This farewell scene was very affecting, as was
also the separation on the shore and the parting
good wishes expressed by the numerous troops
who escorted him, as well as the population of
Washington and the neighbouring villages.
Lafayette after a prosperous voyage, landed at
Havre, where he was received with enthusiasm
by the populace. The same reception awaited
him at Rouen, in spite of the interference of the
authorities and a charge of the gendarmerie.
He was received with great affection by his neigh
bours at La Grange, his country retreat in which
he lives surrounded by his family and enjoying
his recollections of the United-States. Being in
vited to the funeral of Manuel, he delivered a dis
course over his tomb. On the decease of the de
puty for Meaux, in the septennial chamber,
Lafayette was elected in his stead, but the dissolu
tion of the chamber, rendered a new election
necessary, and in this he was successful. During
the session of 1828, he delivered many remarkable
speeches. In a debate on the budget on the 23rd
of June, he said, " .... While nations are ad
vancing, governments are retrograding  A
vol. i. o

194 MEMOIRS
number of offices branching out from official depart
ments themselves factitious ; — situations created
for persons to fill them, and the latter appointed
by patronage ;— the sections of France sacrificed
to a system of centralization of which the metro
polis, splendid in so many respects, presents at
the same time the deplorable contrasts, which our
honorable colleague, M. Charles Dupin, lately
pointed out to you ; — our academies, our learned
societies, and lastly the polytechnic school, dif
fusing their light upon a population which, at the
same time, as has just been observed, is denied
the means of learning to read, (and the question
is still agitated, whether it is proper that the peo
ple should be taught to read) ; — in fine, an incon
ceivable abundance of generals, staff-officers, pri
vileged bodies, and diplomatic bodies, few soldiers,
and a nation heretofore armed throughout, and long
victorious over Europe, now disorganized and dis
armed and as if it were a conquered land: — think you,
gentlemen, that a few trifling amendments in com
mittees, or a few animadversions from the tribune,
will suffice to reform a state of society, which may
be styled the world of constitutional order turned
upside down ! These observations are not made,
gentlemen, in any bitterness of feeling; they are

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 195
the result of consciencious conviction in me in
dividually, and they concern those who, in taking
upon themselves to conduct the affairs of a great
people, should at least endeavor to persuade that
people that they could not manage them better
themselves .... Every debt is sacred : some are in
suspense. For instance, whilst the European
powers were amply indemnified for their claims,
a hostile demonstration on the part of the United-
States, or merely the making common cause with
the others in their demands, would have sufficed
to procure the payment of them. The claims of
the latter are not however yet liquidated, in con
sequence of the American republic having neglect
ed to inscribe herself among the enemies of France,
which were then really in France, whatever may
have been sometimes otherwise said in the tri
bune."* He then went on to express his regret that we
had not, from the first, adopted the arrangements of
the civil list of England. He repeated his wish for
the abolition of the punishment of death, " which,"
said he, " the fallacy of human judgment renders
* An allusion to the phrase, recently repeated by a minister,
that France was where the King was.
O 2

196 MEMOIRS
«o frightful, and which ought especially to excite
horror in the present generation, amidst whom
party fury has inflicted such irreparable wounds."
— . He also recommended the abolition of the
punishment of the branding-iron — a practice con
demned on all hands. .....
" One of my honorable friends," said he, " has
alluded to the unpaid magistracy in England. I
envy not our neighbours on this account, nor do
I believe that great landed proprietors are the
fittest persons to pronounce judgment upon the
petty offences which are committed around them.
I however coincide, with those who wish for the
renewal of the temporary election of the justices
of the peace.
" I am pleased to find that in the late discussion
on the subject of the jury, a promise was made to
consider next session of the application of that
institution to all offences of the press."
Recurring to what he had said in 1819, he
observed: "There would be an absolute saving
if the heads of ministerial departments would
rigidly insist on their business being done, and
well done, and would propose such an allowance of
salary as may be necessary for the comfort of the

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 197
persons employed; provided that these depart
ments were freed from all parasite service, and
young men were brought up to a more productive
kind of industry, than that of place-hunting,
which operates as a check upon all real industry,
and corrupts the independence of a numerous
class of citizens."
He found the items larger than those of the
Enghsh budget. " And yet," saidhe, " the English
have not a cheap government, to use an expression
for which I have often been, reproached, and which
I am by no means willing to retract. The
question to be decided is, whether the government
is to crawl on in the tract of old diplomatic
traditions, or whether, emancipated from foreign
influence and reminiscences, we are to assume our
proper place at the head of European civilization ;
— a place which I conceive, has always been
vacant, in spite of appearances, contradictory to
facts, — and a place to which no foreign nation has
now any claim. From that high position, France
can and ought to resist influences which do not
concern her. For my part, I should have waited
for more minute explanations and reports, before I
assented to the late vote of eighty millions ; but
no one can approve more than I do, the measures

198 MEMOIRS
necessary to ensure the Uberty and independence
of Greece, to enable her by pecuniary aid to defend
herself, to form a barrier against the ambition of
their powers, to stop the traffic in the unfortunate
victims, and to rescue from slavery those whom
our interference did not guarantee from that
calamity. In all this I foresee advantage to our
commercial relations, which, in spite of narrow
prejudices, will always gain by the extension of
the information, happiness, and liberty of nations.
" I shall say nothing of our unfortunate and
culpable expedition to Spain, nor of the severe
lessons which despotism, congreganism, and aris
tocracy have received in the Peninsula, whose
beautiful provinces, are I trust, destined to a
happy change of fate ; but I may be permitted to
direct your attention to the enormous error com
mitted with reference to the new American States.
By what unaccountable blindness, gentlemen, by
what complaisance in return for insult, ingratitude,
and bankruptcy, do we persist in refusing to
recognize the independence of those states ? — The
British government, under the direction of an
illustrious minister, hesitated, I know, on this
question ; but as soon as it perceived the immense

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 199
advantage which the United-States would derive
from the priority of that recognition, and an
official and opportune declaration of sympathy and
protection, it hastened to take a share in the
honor and profit to be derived from these new
connections. " Amidst the attacks of pretended defenders of
the altar, I am sorry to observe, that fanaticism
which represents, as hostile to the rights and
sentiments of nations, the Christianity of which
social equality was the primitive basis ; thus pro
voking a sort of reprisal of animadversion against
opinions and practices, which in themselves have
nothing in common with worldly ambition. If I
seek a solution of this inextricable combination of
the duties of the priest, speaking both in the
name of Heaven, and as the paid officer of the
state, I shall find it, at least in my opinion, only
in a country where religious sentiment is more
general than in France, where the ministers of the
Gospel receive more respect, where all sects live
in peace, where their rites and ceremonies inspire
no alarm, but where they are total strangers to the
civil government, and where religious societies,
freely formed, have ministers of their own choice.

200 MEMOIRS
" National education, gentlemen, and above all,
elementary education, that great spring of public
intelligence, moral conduct, and popular tran
quillity, is now the principal want of the French
people, as it is the principal debt government owes
to them. You know, gentlemen, how that debt is
acquitted. Systems of public instruction have
hitherto been patronized in an inverse ratio to
their merit. Neither your pitiable fifty thousand
francs, nor even five hundred thousand francs will
suffice to fiulfil that great social duty. For the
support of a good and honest system of public
education, it appears to me that five millions
would be the most praise-worthy item in the
budget. " Many statesmen seem to have forgotten, some
perhaps never knew, that by the law of the 3rd
brumaire, year IV, France possessed the best sys
tem of public education that ever existed in any
country. It was unsuited to the power which
abolished in the institute, the class of moral and
political sciences. Napoleon created the University,
whose monopoly and regulations were revolting to
the friends of liberty and to family sentiments ;
and which afterwards owed to the invasion of
Jesuitism, another species of privilege, — the advan-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 201
tage of passing for a liberal institution. To give
general satisfaction it is necessary to present next
session a system of public education, by which all
the national duties of instruction shall be com
pletely fulfilled, and by which personal liberty
will be respected. But every plan of education,
particularly in its elementary parts, would require
the concurrence of just civil administration.
" Why, gentlemen, in spite of so many promises,
have we preserved for fourteen years, the imperial
frame work of the internal administration of France?
Those factitious municipalities, those preposterous
councils, those despotic and vexatious prefectures
and sub-prefectures, whose privileges and salaries
have been successively augmented ? When shall we
see each section of the country have an administra
tion for its own affairs, and keep within its own
territory that portion of taxes, which it is afterwards
necessary to send back to it ? Is this an idea un
known in France? The constituent assembly,
whatever has been said to the contrary in this tri
bune, did not confine itself to proclaiming salutary
truths : it had organized an administrative system
chosen by the citizens, and which was not abolished
until the Consulate and the Empire. Where is the
great difficulty of all this? But when in 1815 in a

202 MEMOIRS
fit of reluctant liberalism, Napoleon -decreed the res
toration of municipalities according to the law of
1791, the elections were effected with remarkable
promptitude and moderation. Indeed there could
be no embarrassment, unless the government, in
stead of adopting the plain results of eternal truth
and contemporary reason had thought itself
obliged to combine that union of principle and ex
ception, right and privilege, which would have im
peded and defeated the best intentions."
Lafayette recommended the re-organization of
the national guards, and quoted the ordinance of
9th of March, 1815, wherein it is said that a na
tional guard consisting of three millions of fund-
holders, land owners and manufacturers, consti
tutes a local force universally diffused.
" From this formidable mass," he said, " which
so many interests attach to the soil, may be ob
tained volunteer corps to form moveable columns. .
 Thus the nation will every were
fight with the army, either in line or as an auxi
liary, and will prove that a great people cannot,
against their will, be forced to resume a yoke which
they have once shaken off. 
The glory of the French navy has resounded every
where. The name of Navarino has been pronounced

<
><

w
Q

<
<

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 203
in the same accent of praise on the throne, in the
chambers and by the nation at large : of this eulogy
at least the brave Admiral Rigny never need fear
a repeal. The infamous traffic in slaves has been
checked, but not put down. Full of confidence in
the sentiments of the Minister of the Marine on
these important questions, I submit to him the
idea of assimilating the slave trade and piracy, as it
is by the law of the United States, which has been
adopted by England. As to the system of colonies
gentlemen, there is too much to be said on that
subject for me to express my opinion briefly. I
shall merely observe, that the ancient system of co
lonization appears to me preferable to that of mo
dern times  "
In the session of 1829, some deputies of the
right side having used some disrespectful language
in reference to the Spanish constitutionalists, and af
terwards accused the plenipotentiaries of Haguenau
of having solicited a foreign sovereign from the
allied powers, M. Benjamin Constant replied to
this last reproach and requested that his colleague
would also explain himself on the subject. Lafayette
spoke as follows :
" Gentlemen, I seize the opportunity which now
presents itself to give a formal contradiction to the

204 MEMOIRS
assertion I have just heard, and upon which I am
happy to explain myself in this tribune.
" No, gentlemen, I never appealed for the in
terference of foreigners, to decide the fate of my
country ; and I should be the more offended at
such an accusation if I did not believe that the
party accusing me, from old habit, regards this sin
as a very venial one.
" When, after an unfortunate experience of
eight months, I saw foreign troops ready to invade
my country, I thought it necessary, for the first
time since the title of Emperor, or even Consul
for life existed, to unite my efforts to those of my
countrymen in repelling the invasion of foreigners,
and I never considered who were in their ranks.
" When, after having had the honor of being
elected a member of the chamber of representatives,
I was appointed, with my honorable colleagues to
the mission of Haguenau, I regretted this, I
confess, because I conceived that my presence here
would be more useful. Nevertheless, I yielded to
the wish expressed by my fellow-citizens and
colleagues. I went on that embassy, but I
solicited neither foreign interference, nor a foreign
prince ; and truly, I should have been somewhat

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 205
embarrassed to have selected one. I wished that
France should have time to adopt, as I conceived
she had a right to do, a constitution of her own
choice. Such, gentlemen, was my conduct.
" I will avail myself of this opportunity to say a
few words on an affair which is likewise to me
almost personal. For a long time past, the Cortes
and the Spanish patriots have been insulted in this
tribune. I think it time that the friends of the
constitutional' liberty of Spain should protest
against this bad practice.
" I shall not be very prolix either in drawing
comparisons or stating facts. I do not love to stir
up these questions, and to provoke angry discus
sions. I shall merely observe that the Cortes, and
the patriots who have been so much abused, de
fended the liberty and independence of their coun
try, and even the crown of Ferdinand VII, at the
time when that same King Ferdinand, was wor
shipping St. Napoleon at Valencay, congratulating
the Emperor on the conquest of Madrid, and re
questing to take the oath of fidelity to King Jo
seph." In a sitting of the 6th of June, 1829, the order
of the day having been called for, on a petition

206 MEMOIRS
against the double vote, Lafayette replied in the
following speech :
" Gentlemen, if I were required to give my per
sonal opinion, I should say that all tax payers ought
to participate, either directly, or through their re
presentatives, in the votes for pubhc taxes, and
that there is no exception to this rule, save for
those who are disqualified by an evident deficiency
of independence or discernment. But we are here,
in the circle which the charter has traced out for
us, and already, out of a hundred Frenchmen of an
age to vote, eighty-nine are excluded from the
exercise of that privilege. Now the elective cham
ber is only the third of the legislative power, a fact
which will, perhaps, console the honorable deputy
who spoke last, and who expressed fear lest popu
lar passion should rise against social order.
" However, gentlemen, the elective qualification
has been fixed by the charter at the payment of
300 francs of direct taxes, and I do not think it is
allowable to violate this regulation by the privilege
•of a double vote in favor of the most highly taxed
fourth of the electors.
" Call to mind, gentlemen, what passed some
time ago in this chamber. One of your commit-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

207

tees made a favorable report of a petition tending to
lower the age of qualifications ; that is to say, to do
what the author of the charter himself did, when,
on his second return, he said, ' he intended to
repair the errors of the first restoration.' Well,
gentlemen, such was then your ardent and scrupu
lous love for the charter, that I beheld almost all
my colleagues rise eagerly for the order of the day,
declaring that the legislative faculties of French
intelligence and energy could only be developed in
a middle age of from 57 to 58 ; and yet the ques
tion then was only to restore a few citizens to the
exercise of a natural and consequently imprescrip
tible right, whilst, in the question of the double
vote, it has been necessary to violate an acquired
right, fully enjoyed and solemnly recognised by the
charter. " How has this anomaly of double votes been
introduced, and by what arguments ? You know,
gentlemen. A deplorable catastrophe had united
all parties in one common feeling of sorrow ; when
some men conceived the idea of turning this mis
fortune, this individual crime, to the advantage of
the aristocracy and the government. I should not
have alluded to the intrigues, the violence, and, to
use the expression of the honorable deputy who

208 MEMOIRS
spoke last, the scandals of that melancholy legisla*
tive period, if he had not spoken of them himself.
I will not enquire how it happened that the double
vote obtained the majority of a few voices. I shall
merely refer to those arguments which may still
have some weight in this chamber, since they have
been recently revived.
" We must, it has been said, support per
sons of large property, (that is to say, support the
strongest,) because it is alleged they are most inter
ested in good legislation. In the first place, gen
tlemen, I deny the principle. It is in fact, in an
inverse ratio to its extent, that property is inter
ested in good government. Indeed, the land owner
with a revenue of one hundred francs, reduced to
fifty thousand, is less to be pitied than one of one
thousand francs who might be reduced to five hun
dred, and still less than the small proprietor, whom
bad measures of government might reduce to the
condition of a serf. I say nothing of the property
of our persons, though none of us, I presume, are
so humble as not to value it a little above zero.
" But why is there now any question of pro
perty, when it is required that the deputies should
pay 1000 francs and the electors 300 francs of
direct taxation, making their incomes above the

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 209
average of landed property in France ? No, gen
tlemen, it is in favor of privilege that privilege
has been created. It is for an opinion, a party,
perhaps in ulterior views; and this is so true,
that we find every measure since proposed smells,
if I may so express myself, of the double vote ; es
pecially the two laws municipal and departmental
which were withdrawn as soon as the amendments
of your committee gave cause to apprehend re
sults less in unison with the spirit of the double
vote. " An outcry was then raised, as there has since
been and I see that it has made an impression upon
the honorable gentleman who spoke before me,
a cry was then raised about democracy, republican
ideas, and the sovereignty of the people. Ah !
gentlemen, place some little reliance upon one of
your colleagues whose habits of more than half
a century, and whose private opinions have made
him well acquainted with these principles and sen
timents. There is not a word about them either
in the charter or in any thing proposed under its
auspices. " May it not be imagined that the enemies
of every species of liberty hoped that the majority
of the hundred thousand principal landed proprie-
vol. i. p

210

MEMOIRS

tors of France had become indifferent to liberty
and to the institutions by which it was guaranteed?
but that perceiving their error they seized, before
the arrival of the third series of deputies, the first
pretext for getting from the fourth part of the elec
tors most highly rated what they could not obtain
from the whole body.
" An opinion was then advanced which the
honorable gentleman who has just sat down has
reiterated. The charter, it was said, has distinctly
pointed out those Frenchmen who must not elect,
but with respect to those whose qualification it
recognizes, any arrangement may be made which
may be thought necessary : the charter does not
interfere with this point.
" A fine part truly, gentlemen, would the charter
be made to play in our electoral system. It would
be an instrument of proscription towards those whom
it excludes, and would not be an instrument of pro
tection towards those whom it admits! Gentlemen,
it is quite bad enough, I think, for a constitution
adopted by the entire nation, or for a charter ema
nating from the royal will, to restrain within cer
tain limits the exercise of natural and social rights ;
but when those limits are once fixed, can it be
said that the authorities instituted by that consti-

_/ >il

Mo CAMIMLJE JCDMBAN

TO*

l-ttBVod-1^"

elouL 'a^mi m. <{f

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 211
tution or that charter shall be able at will to
contract still further those limits by establishing
for instance categories, privileges, and degrees of
election ? Such acts would indeed be, to use the
words of the honorable gentleman, the overthrow
of social order, and might be justly called sense
less theories, an expression which the minister of
the interior has endeavored to explain by apply
ing it to the measures of the constituent assembly,
that is to say gentlemen, to the voices which have
proclaimed so many truths, re-established so many
rights, abolished so many wrongs, abuses, and
barbarisms, — to those theories which, after passing
through the three great vicissitudes of jacobinism,
the empire, and the restoration are still powerful
and are the cause of whatever political, civil and
religious liberty our charter and our laws give us.
" It would not be difficult, gentlemen, to abolish
this plan of the double vote. Adopt the amend
ment proposed by our late excellent and much
lamented colleague Camille Jordan, which con
sisted in the division of the old departmental
colleges into colleges of administrative arrondisse-
ments, a division more agreeable to the country
and to the electors than the present division.
It would require very little calculation to introduce
p 2

212 MEMOIRS
into the chamber the same number of deputies as
at present. And who would oppose this proposi
tion, gentlemen ? Would it be the nation ? But
in our social edifice, based upon its summit, when
there escape from the summit some fractions of
power which the aristocracy seize on their pas
sage, is it not for the national interest to make
the aristocracy approximate more nearly to the
population ? And besides, is not the national
opinion with respect to the double vote well
known ?
" Would it be the electors? Why truly to
three fourths of the electors the double vote is not
only an injustice, it is an insult and you know it
has also decided enemies.
" Would it be the chambers? We all know
that the chamber of peers, hereditary legislators,
and judges, are satisfied with the privileges which
they themselves enjoy and have neither the desire
nor the interest to create more anomalies elsewhere.
With respect to the chamber of deputies, gentle
men, its members are already obliged to pay a
thousand francs in contributions and to be of the
age of forty. No less than ninety nine Frenchmen
out of a hundred of the age to elect, are already
excluded from being elected. Would it be policy

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 213
still further to disfranchise three fourths of the
hundred of the right of election ? Ah ! gentlemen,
if any one of my colleagues can have any such
idea, I can tell him that he neither does justice
to his own merit nor to the judgment of his fellow
citizens. " Would it be then the government? Gen
tlemen, this brings me to my last and best argu
ment. In the situation in which we stand, both as
regards us at home and abroad, it behoves the King's
government to show that there exists no distrust
between the people and the throne ; and what bet
ter means can there be of effecting this object
than by abolishing an order of things, the conti
nuation of which would only lead to the conviction
that entire and complete confidence can only be
placed in twenty thousand electors out of a popu
lation of thirty two millions of souls.
" For these reasons, gentlemen, I vote against
the order of the day, and for the decision to which
your committee has come."
In the sitting of the 9th of July, the question
under the consideration of the chamber being the
supplimentary vote of credit, Lafayette expressed
his opinion in the following words : —
" I leave to those who, shall follow me in debate

214 MEMOIRS
the task of entering into details for which they are
better fitted than myself by their deep study and
local experience. Besides, gentlemen, my system
of diplomacy might appear to you too simple. In
the great contest of the East, all that I can see
for France to obtain, is the importance of our
intermediate power. — In what is called the balance
of Europe, I can only see two parties : the op
pressors, and the oppressed — In the demarkation
of states, I can only see their natural limits — In
the well being of the people, I see nothing but the
advantage of all — And in French politics, nothing
but an independent and liberal part. You are
acquainted, gentlemen, with that vast and powerful
league which would enslave and brutalize the
whole race — it devastates the Peninsula, oppresses
Italy, and disturbs all other states — Its metropolis
is Vienna, and in spite of all other pretensions
Don Miguel is its ideal type.
" England has boasted of having raised up
another flame sometimes extinct, and at other
times only throwing forth false lights. Appeal to
Italy, to Spain, and to Portugal for the truth of
this statement. It is for France, gentlemen, pos
sessing more sympathy with the new civilisation,
whose duty it is to place herself at the head of this

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 215
civilisation. This will be her glory, this her
interest. This too should be her ambition. This
also will secure to her government dignity and
permanency. But to enable her to perform this
noble part, it will be necessary for her govern
ment no longer to fear either the representation,
nor the arming of the nation ; and then re
nouncing old relations, it might say to foreign
powers, " it is to the French people after God that
I am indebted for being placed above your influ
ence, and out of the reach of your speculations."
" I will confine myself, gentlemen, to alluding ge
nerally to some of the countries, to whose assistance
we were, invited even by our interest — some of
my honorable friends have spoken severely of the
expedition to the Morea, they even think that we
should obtain no sort of thanks for it. Gentle
men, I have so ardently desired some inter
ference — a French interference in favor of Greece,
that I cannot join in their censures. And to show
how much generosity there was in our assistance,
not to speak of Russia whose motives are clear,
it will be sufficient to read the speeches from the
throne delivered by Charles X and George IV,
in the first of which the battle of Navarino is
called glorious, and the latter untoward. Then

216 MEMOIRS
the motives of the two nations in assisting the
Greeks will be no more confounded together
than the cannonade of Terceira with the hospita
lity at Brest. The last protocol of London,
however has checked my joy, and destroyed my
hopes. Gentlemen, why have the Greeks taken
arms — suffered so many evils, and lost so much
blood ? To free themselves from the tribute they
paid to the Turks —to re-establish their antient
country —to govern it by themselves, and accord
ing to their own manners. Well, gentlemen, this
protocol imposes the odious tribute. The greatest
part of Greece is left out of Greece, and for the
government of the little that remains a foreign
prince is to be searched for, some Hospidar
Metis of the east and west, in whom the Greeks
will only behold a vassal of the Porte, and
another master to whom they must pay tribute.
Gentlemen, this may suit Russia, who already
dreams of new subjects in that quarter — it may
suit England, who has always feared rivals in the
coasting trade ; but France whose interest it is to
see Greece a powerful and friendly nation — a barrier
both against the warlike and mercantile ambition
of other powers  this is the
point upon which we want explanation.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 217
" The governments of Italy are under the in
fluence of Austria. Italy free will be our friend.
Spain whose distributive justice consists in mur
dering by turns patriots and carlists will never be
our true ally until she becomes constitutional. With
respect to Portugal, it is in vain that the Enghsh
government has shown a desire to prop up the
pretended sovereignty of the Miguelite Cortes, by
institutions which a British Ambassador (be it
observed by the way) brought from Brazil. Gentle
men, the partisans of the national principle will
not accept this concession. There can be no
legality, when there is nothing but a tyrannical
violation of natural and social rights, besides do
not we see how the pretended Cortes are composed
— how the deputies whom Don Miguel has not
chosen are excluded ? Let us hope, gentlemen, that
public indignation, and the insane attacks upon the
flags of every nation will shortly put an end to
this usurpation ; and that in the mean time France
will loudly protest against the frightful expedient
which would deliver over a young and innocent vic
tim to the brutality of Don Miguel.
" I will not deny, gentlemen, that there have
been disorders in South America and Mexico,
and that they still continue there. These disor-

218 MEMOIRS
ders have however been exaggerated : I attri
bute them principally to two causes : first, the
threats of Spain which, though powerless, neces
sitate the permanence of armies disproportioned
to the country, and cause disputes between their
chiefs ; and secondly, European intrigues, which
have for their object the introduction of old in
stitutions into new states. Remove these two
causes and the tranquillity of commerce will re
turn. The minister of commerce observed the
other day, that diplomatic relations had nothing
in common with our commercial interests in that
country. Since then I have received a Mexican
journal of the 19th of March which contains the
report of a proposition made in the chamber of
representatives having for its object, to double
the duties imposed upon goods coming from coun
tries which have not recognised its independence.
"It is time," continued Lafayette, " that the
government should yield to the unanimous de
mands of the French merchants. One of my
honorable friends will address you on the sub
ject of Algiers, of which he knows more than
I do ; I will only inform you of an attack upon the
national honor, much more serious than the blow
of the Dey's fly flap.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 219
" I will not now treat in a general manner the
great question of the dehvering up of aliens and
the right which a constitutional government arro
gates to itself of thus annihilating in consequence
of treaties, formed without the concurrence of
the chambers, the most noble prerogative of the
French soil. But the delivery up of aliens for
political reasons has been unanimously condemned
at all times and in all countries, and I have been
informed by able lawyers that Galotti could not
have been given up without the violation of our
laws. " But yet I am ready to admit that, on the
part of the French agents, it was only an error
and act of precipitation ; and they may be supposed
to have repented of it afterwards. There must,
however, have been crime, deception and out
rage against the honor of France somewhere. We
have heard of robberies and of party excesses ;
of these I know nothing, but you know very
well that they are not what are called highway
robberies. " We have heard something of judicial sen
tences. Are you ignorant of what may be the na
ture of judicial sentences in absolute governments ?
If, for example, Don Miguel— fortunately he is an

220 MEMOIRS
usurper, but for the sake of argument we will
suppose him a legitimate prince,— if Don Miguel
should come to you with a sentence in his hand,
against some respectable Portuguese who had
taken refuge in this country and say : ' This
was the man, who in the King's palace, assassinated
my father's best friend, the Marquis of Louie.*'
— would you give any credit to Don Miguel
and his judges ? not however that I would com
pare Francis I with him. But how can I think
that that Neapolitan prince is liberal when he still
keeps in exile the friends who took part in his pa
triotic efforts for the delivery of his country — those
friends whom he himself prompted to insurrection ?
With respect to his ambassador in France, gen
tlemen, I think that the ministers before they
so simply gave him their confidence should
have enquired whether there was not some iden
tity between him and one of the members of the
* It is a well known fact that the Marquis of Louie, the
friend of John II was drawn into a snare by Don Miguel who
murdered him with his own hand. This crime was committed
in a part of the palace situated at a distance from the royal
apartments. When the unfortunate John II heard of the mar
quis's death which was represented to be owing to an attack of
apoplexy, he exclaimed, that Don Miguel must have murdered him.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 221
junta of 1799, that atrocious instrument of fo
reign vengeance which inundated Naples with
so much illustrious blood.*
In a word, gentlemen, there has been an
attack upon French honor, and it is necessary
that justice should be done. It is necessary that
Galotti's restoration should be demanded — should
be insisted upon.
" Let this be done with determination and let
him be restored to the soil of France. The na
tional honor must somehow or other obtain re
paration." I think it right, to give here a translation of
Lafayette's speech at the American dinner, given
in the year 1829, in commemoration of the 4th
of July.
" Gentlemen," said he, " in this numerous
meeting assembled for the purpose of celebrating
our great anniversary of the 4th July, I feel a de
lightful gratification in breathing, as it were, the
air of America. I am the more sensible of your com
plimentary toast, and of the flattering sentiments
* Prince of Castelcicala was no other than the notorious Fa-
bricio Ruffo whom, immediately after the revolution, Lafayette
proposed should be sent home ; but he still remained at his post.

222 MEMOIRS
by which it was accompanied, inasmuch as you
have been pleased, to associate my name with those
principles and institutions for which my comrades
of the revolution, and myself, with the illustrious
and much beloved Washington at our head, have
had the honor of fighting and of spilling our
blood. These institutions, gentlemen, while they
have secured the liberty and the independence of
the United States, have commenced the American
era of a new political civilization, which is destined
ultimately, to extend throughout the whole world,
and which is founded, as has just been observed,
upon the principle of the natural rights of man.
I am proud to add, that the first declaration of
these rights, on this side of the Atlantic, bears
the indelible stamp of its American origin.
" Habituated, as you have been from your in
fancy, to love and respect these institutions, I am
persuaded that you have become better acquainted
with their value, since you have been afforded
an opportunity of comparing them with those of
other countries.
" Thus, while all generous minds, feel delight
in seeing amelioration take place in any part of the
world ; whilst, for instance, we have received with
acclamations, the news of the triumph lately ob-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 223
tained in Great Britain over religious intolerance,
the citizens of the United States have the plea
sure of reflecting, that these great advantages, and
distinguished victories, have been in principle and
practice enjoyed by them, for no less a period than
half a century. This thought, gentlemen, ought
to perpetuate your devotion to institutions, which
cannot be better guaranteed, than by your perse
verance in the system, and the principles of fede
rative union.
" Let us hope that the example of the combina
tion of so many benefits which have received the ap
proval of long experience, will not be lost upon the
republics, recently founded in the remaining por
tion of the American hemisphere, and that in the
consolidation of their constitutional edifices, let
us hope, that they will be upon their guard against
European suggestions, and the admission of exo
tic materials.
" I should like, gentlemen, to give you the name
of a distinguished patriot, and most respectable mi
nister, my personal friend,* whose approaching de
parture causes us much regret ; but I must not en-
* Mr. Brown the American minister, who was about to leave
France at this time.

224 MEMOIRS
croach on the prerogative of our president, and I
will therefore give you a farmer's toast : ' to national
legitimacy ; it extirpates the weeds of privilege, and
fosters the roots of natural and social rights.' "
At the end of the session and after fourteen years'
absence, Lafayette visited Chavaniac, in the old
province of Auvergne, his birth place and the pro
perty of his son. A part of his family assembled
to meet him, for the purpose of accompanying him
to see his grand-daughter, Madame Adolphe Perier,
in the department of Isere. Being invited to a public
entertainment at Clermont, he made a speech in
which he drew a very judicious comparison between
the period when the Gauls under Vercingentoric,
made their last resistance to the Romans, and the
time when the army of the Loire, formed there,
their last entrenchment.
At Issoire, Bridade, Paul Laquet, Langeac, and
Chavaniac, the people came out to meet him, and
he was received in like manner at Puy, where the
new deputy M. Bertrand, addressed him at the
head of the inhabitants of that town.
While the citizens of Puy, were thus welcoming
him, and while the inhabitants of Ardeche, Isere,
and Lyons were making similar preparations to
honor him, the news of the creation of the ministry

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 225
of the 8th of August, and of the projects which
it announced, came like a clap of thunder upon
them. From that moment, the preparations made for
the reception of a simple citizen assumed a par
ticular character, the influence of which, upon the
plots which were hatched against Lafayette was
evident and universally recognised.
In his speech at the banquet of Puy, Lafayette
expressed his gratitude for the favour which he
had received from the citizens, and especially
from the departmental : administration, for having
formerly refused (as we have elsewhere said) to
obey an order of the ministry formed after the
10th of August, enjoining them to send Madame
Lafayette to Paris during the massacres of Sep
tember. Alluding to the Chamber of Deputies, La
fayette pronounced these prophetic words, which
seem almost like a prediction of the address of
the 221 
" It has been a reproach," said he, " to this
Chamber, that they have shown some tardiness in
effecting liberal improvements, but as soon as it
shall discover a plot against public liberty it will
VOL. I. Q

226 MEMOIRS OF
recover, and the nation also will recover sufficient
energy to crush it."
The inhabitants and the principal patriots of
Amconay, of the Cote Saint-Andre, of Rives, &c.
attended Lafayette to the frontiers of the depart
ments of the Ardeche and Isere, where he was
received in triumph ; he likewise made his entrance
into Grenoble, in the midst of an immense multi
tude which had assembled to meet him. The
following is his reply to an eloquent speech of
M. Mallein, who made an address to him in the
name of that patriotic city : —
"It is with the deepest emotion that I enter
the illustrious town of Grenoble, where the first
signal of French liberty was given — where the
first attack upon privilege was made, and where
the last national victory against foreign invasion
was obtained. I leave you to judge, sir, of the
value which I attach to the affectionate attention
which I have received here, and to the approba
tion which you have been good enough to bestow
upon my political conduct, in the name of the
citizens of Grenoble.
" You have recalled various periods of the re
volution ; among their number there is none

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 227
which is not glorious for the town of Gre
noble ; none in which she has not shown her love
of liberty, her hatred of anarchy, and her ardent
and sincere patriotism.
" Vizille, which you have named, was venerated
by me as the cradle of the liberty of Dauphiney,
of the liberty of France, and consequently of the
liberty of Europe. After a lapse of forty years
I feel much pleasure in finding myself attached to
it by the dearest affections, by the tenderest ties
of family and friendship.
" I have heard you with the greatest pleasure
mention the names of several of my old and new
colleagues, your fellow-countrymen. At all pe
riods they have been distinguished as the zealous
defenders of wise and true liberty."
A silver crown, bound round with oak leaves
by a venerable and aged man : " I accept,'' said
he, "with gratitude the crown which you pre
sent, not to me alone, but to me in common
with the patriots of Dauphiny, of the periods of
1787, 88, 89 ; of the years in which you made
your sentiments so well known, and particularly
of that memorable day,* when you taught the
* An allusion to the celebrated affair of 1815, in which the
national guard of Grenoble so valiantly defended the walls of
Q2

228 MEMOIRS OF
Austrians, once too often, what a national guard
could do, animated by the love of liberty and their
country. Accept, gentlemen, the homage of my
gratitude, and of all the sentiments of which my
heart is full." .
In the evening, the whole of the town was mag
nificently illuminated, and a grand serenade was
given to the General. The next day, at an enter
tainment which had been prepared in honour of,
him, he proposed this toast : —
"To the department of the Isere, and to the
town of Grenoble !
" Here waved the first banner of liberty, the
first signal of political equality. Here will be
found, in the time of need, an anchor of safety.
" May every prosperity be showered upon the
beautiful country of the Isere, and upon the illus
trious metropolis of Dauphinese patriotism !"
. The authorities of Grenoble, and particularly
the mayor of the town, had manifested a desire of
suppressing, or at least of moderating, the general
enthusiasm ; but they learned in time the impos
sibility, and even the danger of such an attempt.
The same enthusiasm, the same public joy, the
the city against an Austrian division, which suffered consider
able loss.

^-1

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 229
same testimonials of respect and veneration,
awaited the general in the city of Vizille, whither
he proceeded to spend a few days with the Perrier
family. There the resentment of the. government
was expressed by the brutal deposition of the
mayor, who had dared to head the inhabitants of
this illustrious cradle of Dauphinese liberty, to
offer homage to Lafayette ; but, strange to say,
the influence of authority was inadequate to find
ing a single citizen who would consent to replace
the magistrate honoured by such a deposition.
Bonfires lighted on all the summits of the Alps
were added to the illuminations of Vizille.
Lafayette's route through the towns of Voiron,
Latour-du-Pin, Bourgoin, and the surrounding
country whose population flocked to meet him,
was one continued triumph. The whole town of
Vienne turned out to receive him, and fire-works,
prohibited by the authorities, were transported
across the Rhine, and displayed in the adjacent
departments. The speech in which Lafayette recalled the
archbishop of Vienne's presidency at Versailles
produced the most lively enthusiasm, especially
when he pronounced those words preparative to
to the glorious struggle impending. " You justly

230 MEMOIRS OF
observe, gentlemen, that the political sentiments
of the inhabitants of Vienne cannot be more op
portunely manifested than under the novel cir
cumstances in which we are placed ; and I feel
assured that whenever the public liberty may be
menaced they will always be found foremost in
setting an example of energetic firmness."
Nothing can exceed the magnificence of La
fayette's reception at Lyons, that second city of
the kingdom, which had forty-four years before
saluted within her walls the rising glory of the
defender of American liberty, who now returned
to her in the decline of his career, full of wounds,
full of glory, full of honour. The mere name of
Lafayette could not indeed fail to produce a deep
impression in a city whose love of liberty is the
necessary result of her love of order and of indus
try. That liberty, as an historian has already
observed, which is beloved at Lyons is the
same that was anciently claimed by the indus
trious borderers on the Zuydersee ; more re
cently achieved at the expence of a no less glo
rious struggle by the oppressed colonies of Eng
land ; that liberty, which with purity unsullied,
rests its basis on the dignity and independence of
man ; that in short which recognizes for its heroes

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 231
the William Tells, the De-Witts, the Washingtons,
and the Lafayettes.
Eighty thousand persons had poured out to
meet Lafayette ; and here, as in American cities, .
the remaining population took possession of the
streets and of the windows, and roofs both of
dwelling houses and public edifices.
Addressed by M. Prunelle in the name of the
inhabitants of Lyons, the general replied :
" 1 have then, at length, the happiness of re
visiting this great and beautiful city, whose vicis
situdes during our political tempests have excited
in my soul such keen and sympathetic emotions.
" It was four years prior to the revolution of
1789, that I received in your city the first testi
monies of Lyonnese regard. When admiring the
prodigies of your industry, little imagining that it
was so soon to acquire new and still encreasing
development from free institutions and from the
abolition of the trammels and prejudices of the
ancien regime ; and when remarking the fine con
dition and excellent spirit of your burgher guard,
who enjoyed the privilege of electing their own
officers, my wishes invoked the day when the
National Guard of France, founded on this same
principle of emulation and civic discipline, should

232 MEMOIRS OF
be destined to defend the national liberty and
independence. " No sooner had the revolution burst forth, and
Parisian patriotism coming to the assistance of
Constituent Assembly, at that time menaced with
a fatal coup d'etat, erected over the ruins of the
Bastille the national banner of liberty and equa
lity, than the patriotism of Lyons was the first to
aid our efforts.
" Again when, a year later, fourteen thousand
deputies from three millions of National Guards
came to Paris, and there surrounded the federal
altar, we hailed with transport the new banner
from the department of the Rhone : it was on that
important anniversary that 1 received from the
City of Lyons the symbolical present to which
you have been pleased to allude,* and which I
have ever preserved as a precious talisman, and
an indissoluble bond which unites me to Lyons.
" Oh why, afterwards, amidst the miracles of
glory resulting from that first and pure spark of
patriotic enthusiasm, was the holy cause of liberty
* A Roman ensign representing Curtius plunging into the
gulph for the preservation of his country, and surmounted by
the Gallic cock with the • motto : " Cives lugdunenses optimo

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 233
destined to be compromised and changed in its
very nature by a period of anarchical tyranny,
against which the City of Lyons opposed a coura
geous resistance, followed by frightful misfortunes !
" You have deigned to express a regret which
honours and deeply affects me ;* but such a con
sideration could only serve to tighten the bonds
of a captivity by which our august gaolers took
vengeance upon us, less perhaps for proclaiming
the first declaration of the rights of men and citi
zens, than for having long maintained public order
and laboured to prevent that excess of licence and
crime which had then become the sole hope of the
coalesced cabinets in the counter-revolutionary
faction. " You have recalled, Sir, my happy visit to the
twenty-four States of the American Union. I
found in every part of that union a particular
attachment cherished for the City of Lyons with
a just sense of the reciprocal advantages resulting
from her commercial relations with the States.
* This refers to the expressions of M. Prunelle regretting
that instead of a misplaced reliance on the military chiefs of
the Lyonnese revolution, that city had not Lafayette at her head,
who would have directed her to a true conception of that
liberty, and of that really national spirit which always ani
mated the hearts of the Lyonnese population.

234 MEMOIRS OF
" At this day, gentlemen, after a long succession
of brilliant despotism, and of constitutional hopes,
I find myself amongst you at a moment which
I should call critical, if I had not every where
encountered on my road, if I did not perceive in
this powerful city, the calm and even disdainful
firmness of a great people conscious of their rights
and of their strength, and resolved to be faithful to
their duties. Under the present circumstances I
take pleasure in the acknowledgment of a devo
tion, to which while I live you will never appeal
in vain. With all my heart I join the homage of
that devotion to that of my profound and inexpres
sible gratitude for the reception with which the
people of Lyons have honoured me."
After this oration, says the PrScurseur, Lafayette
ascended an open caliche, prepared for him and
drawn by four superb horses, and the procession
set forward for Lyons in the following order :
1st. A piquet of young men on horseback;
2nd. Three carriages of the deputation;
3rd. The general's carriage, surrounded by a
cohort of young men on foot.
4th. The remaining carriages of the gentlemen
of the commission.
5th. A train of private carriages, so numerous

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 235
that the last equipages had scarcely reached the
middle of the long street of Guillotiere, when the
head of the procession arrived at the bridge of
Charles X., by which the general designed en
tering the city.
An immense multitude which cannot be com
puted at less than sixty thousand persons filled the
quays the streets and courts of the city. Scarcely
could the procession force its way through the
close ranks of the populace, while the air re
sounded on all sides with cries of Vive Lafayette !
cries that were re-echoed from all the windows.
The ladies also took part in the public joy : great
numbers elegantly dressed occupied carriages in
the procession, or waved their handkerchiefs from
the casements as the General passed. Similar
acclamations and manifestations of joy accompa
nied him to the Hdtel du Nord, where he alighted.
There he shewed himself in the balcony, to gra
tify the eagerness of the crowd who immediately
and quietly dispersed to allow the noble veteran
the repose he so much needed.
The evening was passed in a brilliant serenade.
The authorities of Lyons, whose efforts and
proclamations had been powerless to arrest or
even to abate for an instant the universal move-

236 MEMOIRS OF
ment, had recourse to another means which proved
equally unavailing. They bethought themselves
of unpaving the bridge by which the crowd were
to pass, but as it happened the people quietly
made a circuit to cross another bridge which has
since assumed the name of Lafayette.
Early the following morning the General re
ceived the visits of the principal citizens ; and the
confluence of all persons of note in Lyons was in
cessant till the moment appointed for an excursion
on the Soane. At three in the afternoon the
guest of the city, with his family, mounted a car
riage prepared for the purpose, and was escorted
to the Neuville Gate by a brilliant and numerous
cavalcade through an immense and admiring mul
titude. Two large barges had been fitted up
with decks, and hastily decorated for the oc
casion. A select company, amongst whom were
many splendidly attired ladies, attended the
General. A multitude of smaller vessels, glowing with
pendants of a thousand colours, surrounded the
barges, and the quays on both banks of the Soane
resounded with the acclamations of the people
who covered them. Beyond the city the crowd
was increased by the concourse from the neigh-

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 237
bouring country ; but on approaching VLle Barbe
the spectacle was really surprising. The mea
dows of the island, as well as its shores, were a
living forest of heads, over which the bridge of
Saint Rambert, filled with a dense crowd, formed
an animated amphitheatre ; and even on the most
elevated platforms of those picturesque hills,
which bound the bed of the Soane, numberless
groups of spectators were visible. At this mo
ment the steam-packet from Chalons to Lyons
happened to pass ; and the passengers, astonished
at so extraordinary a scene, soon learned its
cause. By a spontaneous movement, they un
covered as they passed the barges, and heartily
joined in the cry of Vive Lafayette ! which, re
peated simultaneously by sixty thousand voices,
was echoed and re-echoed around.* In the
evening a grand masonic fete was given to the
General. The next day he was entertained at a banquet
of five hundred covers in the magnificent hall
Gayet, on his road to which he again passed
through a densely crowded populace, who had
placed themselves in the way, notwithstanding
the rain which was pouring in torrents.
* Statement of the Precurseur.

238

MEMOIRS OF

M. Conderc, the General's colleague, having
proposed for a toast :
"Other warriors have gained battles; others
have made eloquent orations; but none have
equalled him in the civic virtues."
Lafayette replied :
" I am proud and happy, gentlemen, that my
arrival in this great and patriotic city has afforded
her an additional opportunity of manifesting her
unvarying hatred of oppression, her love of true
liberty, her determination of resisting all the
attempts of counter-revolutionary incorrigibility.
" No more concessions, say the official journals
of the party ; strange misconception of the nature
of social powers ! No more concessions, say the
French people in their turn, and with a juster
right, while demanding those institutions so long
expected, which alone can guarantee the enjoy
ment of our imprescriptible rights recognized by
the charter.
" Gentlemen," added he, " they threaten us
with hostilities; but how will they effect them?
By the Chamber of Deputies ? My colleague
and friend, your respectable Deputy, who is even
now by my side, M. Conderc will guarantee,
every one of our colleagues who partake of this

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 239
banquet will also guarantee, that in the hour of
danger our Chamber will prove faithful to patriot
ism and honour.
" Would they dissolve the Chamber? It would
then be in the hands of the electors ; and cer
tainly they would send Deputies worthy of them
selves, of the nation, and of the circumstances.
" Will they dare, by simple ordinances, to
vitiate the elections, and exercise an illegal autho
rity ? Doubtless the advisers of such measures
will come to a timely recollection that the power
of every government must exist in the arms and
in the purse of each citizen who forms a compo
nent part of the nation. The French nation knows
its rights, it knows also how to defend them.
" Let us hope then, gentlemen, that these plots
will be defeated ; and in the meantime may we
cordially unite in the following toast :
" To the department of the Rhone, and to the city
of Lyons, the ancient metropolis of industry, and
the courageous enemy of oppression ! May her
liberty, her greatness, and her prosperity be
founded on the solid basis of a full enjoyment of
those natural and social rights which she has,
from time immemorial, invoked !"
The next day, at seven o'clock, General La-

240 MEMOIRS OF
fayette entered his carriage, and quitted the city
of Lyons. The rain, which fell in torrents, formed
no impediment to the crowds who once more
pressed upon his route to bid him a last farewell.
An escort of cavalry accompanied him two leagues
beyond the city, and there ended this long series
of popular triumphs, which the illustrious citizen
himself arrested, by declining the pressing solici
tations of deputations from St. Etienne and Cha-
lons-sur-Sa6ne, which had come to invite him to
visit their towns. After having expressed to
them his grateful thanks, the General went direct
to his seat La Grange, by a different road to that
on which new multitudes awaited him with new
homage. The patriotic impulse excited by the presence
of Lafayette throughout this part of France was
so great, that the Court was on the point of
sending an order by telegraph for his arrest at
Lyons : from this time, in fact, the revolution
commenced. They thought better of it, however,
though without self-delusion with respect to the
prodigious effect created by this journey.

ILUJ^IYT

MEMOIRS

GENERAL LAFAYETTE

THE REVOLUTION OF 1830.

SECOND PART.

CHAPTER I.
Lafayette at La Grange. — A Glance at the Politics of the
Restoration. — Progress of the Counter Revolution. — Villele
Administration. — Polignac Administration. — The Adminis
tration of the 8th of August. — Situation of France at the
Publication of the Ordinances of the 25th of July.
From the period of his return to France in
1800, Lafayette had spent the chief of his time at
his estate of La Grange, the inheritance of his
mother-in-law, the Duchess of Ayen, one of the
VOL. I. R

242 MEMOIRS OF
victims immolated under the reign of terror. The
decree for the restitution of the property of con
demned persons restored to him this wreck of
a great patrimony, of which the revolutionary
whirlpool had engulphed all that he had not him
self sacrificed to the interests of that liberty to
which he was at all times equally ready to dedi
cate his fortune and his life.* There, in the bosom
of his numerous family, happy in the felicity
which his paternal solicitude shed over all who
surrounded him, encircled with friends, and rich
in the benedictions of the poor, Lafayette, as much
a stranger to the palaces of the restoration as to
those of the empire, indulged his predominant taste
for agriculture.
I shall not attempt to describe that antique re
sidence of La Grange, at the door of which the
unfortunate never asked admittance in vain. So
* Charles X. frequently said — " There are but two persons
in the revolution, Lafayette and myself, who have remained
unalterably firm in their principles." And, in fact, the revolu
tion of July furnished a new proof of the tenacity of principle
which distinguished these two contemporaries. The last words
addressed by the dethroned king to the captain who escorted
him to England were : " The old republican Lafayette has
been the prime mover of all this mischief." It is a principal
characteristic of this incorrigible party to see nothing but proper
names in the movements of popular masses.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 243
many patriots, philanthropists, friends of humanity
of all opinions and of all countries, have, like
myself, taken their seats at the fireside of M. de
Lafayette, that the simplicity, the frank hospi
tality, the continual but concealed actions of be
neficence, the improvements in agricultural in
dustry and domestic economy which were enjoyed
in this abode of happiness, are well known to the
world : the patriarchal hospitality of La Grange
has become proverbial.
I have now arrived at that sudden convulsion
of the social system, in which this man of the
two worlds was about to show himself, as he
always had done, the equally zealous defender of
order, and ardent promoter of the liberty of his
country. But previously to following him through
the new career which was opening before him,
let us cast a hasty glance over events so un
foreseen and so great as to bid defiance to all
comparisons, and all precedents.
Never had a greater number of humiliations
and outrages combined to arouse the indignation
of a whole people, and to impress upon its mind
the love of liberty. My memory can recall
nothing, nor can my imagination paint any thing
more perfidious, and at the same time more
r 2

244 MEMOIRS OF
absurd, than the last fifteen years of the reign of
those Bourbons, to whom France had granted
her pardon, and saw, without hatred as without
love, re-established on the most powerful throne
of the universe. And if it is for the first time in
the world that a nation of thirty-two millions of
men, dispersed over a vast territory, diversified
by their manners, their necessities, their defects,
their virtues, and, above all, by the various
degrees of a very unequal civilization, has been
found to accord, after fifteen years of patience, in
one unanimous sentiment of reprobation, it is but
just to observe that there never was a reigning
family more zealous to insult the public opinion,
and to excite in the people a feeling foreign to the
age. How many old prejudices were revived!
how many conspiracies meditated ! how many
iniquities committed in this short interval of
/fifteen years ! So much turpitude and vanity
has truly something superhuman in it. Let us
look back to the period of the first return of the
Bourbons, a period admirably adapted for a reign
of peace and reparation.
France, such as Louis XVIIL found it, was no
longer that nation exalted by the commotions and
triumphs of the Revolution which 1793 had left

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 245
suspended between the popular sovereignty, not
yet sprung into life, and the monarchical des
potism no longer existing. The spirit of de
mocratic turbulence had evaporated in lassitude ;
republican radicalism had been modified by the
rapid change in public opinion ; and the only
sentiments which had passed unwarped through
the weakness of the Directory, the deceptions of
the Consulate, and the glories of the empire,
were a purified love of the Revolution of 1789,
hatred of the excesses of 1793, and a general re
probation of the brilliant yoke of Buonaparte.
This fortunate soldier found power at war with
anarchy, and his despotism could support itself,
up to a certain point, upon the necessity of
terminating this grievous struggle. The restora
tion had, on the contrary, found liberty con
tending with despotism, and all the intelligence,
all the interests of the country, labouring to
return to the principles of 1789, and to establish
the constitution of 1791. God forbid that I
should blend unworthy flattery with my duty as a
patriot writer ! That Napoleon betrayed the
sacred cause of liberty is undeniable ; never
theless, it is but just to bear circumstances in
mind, and to acknowledge that he had at least a

246 MEMOIRS OF
pretext for his usurpation of the popular so
vereignty, in the necessity of stifling anarchy, of
re-establishing order, of calming apprehensions,
and of overcoming all the elements of a civil war,
which seemed about to crown the devastations
of foreign hostilities. But how differently were
the Bourbons situated ! Humiliated vanity and
deceived ambition were the only obstacles that
remained for them to conquer, whilst opposed to
these were the moral strength of France, the
torrent of opinion, and the universal desire for
calm after five and twenty years of tempest.
What was required of them to engraft liberty
upon these admirable dispositions ? Nothing but
to espouse frankly the generous principles of a
revolution, the violences rather than the benefits
of which the people had hitherto experienced.
On the contrary, what did they ? Scarcely
seated upon a throne, still humid with the blood
of Louis XVI., the family of this Prince had
already sown the seeds of faction and of public
calamity; all the old prejudices, all those in
terests founded on abuses, were revived with in
solent temerity ; they returned with shameless
effrontery to all the iniquities of the bygone age.
Such was the aim of all the acts, the spirit of all

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 247
the orations, and of all the writings which sig
nalized the brief existence of the first restoration.
The force of events produced the result which
simple good sense might have foreseen. A skiff
appeared upon the coast of Provence, and that
throne, which had been rooted for eight centuries,
surrounded by a people and an army, shook
to its foundation before a single man who pro
tected the recollections of glory, but who was no
longer called to the nation by its unanimous
assent. I shall not speak of the- reign of the
hundred days. Liberty, a second time disowned
by Buonaparte, would no longer range itself
under his dictatorship; the nation withdrew
from him, and one day, one unfortunate battle,
effected against this great captain what three
years of reverses and twenty lost battles had
scarcely been able to accomplish, while the nation
still lent him its support. Thus perished Buona
parte, as the work of selfishness and ambition
will always perish in France.
Here opens a new series of facts, the heads of
which must be run over to obtain a full un
derstanding of the crisis which decided our
emancipation. I shall not recall those first years of
sanguinary reaction and royalist terrorism, during

248 MEMOIRS OF
which the purest blood of France flowed upon the
scaffold. With how many wounds and chains
the Bourbons then overwhelmed our unfortunate
country is but too well known; nor can the
image of the most Christian King devouring his
children, like Saturn, be so quickly effaced from
the memory of the French. I will but touch
upon the more general traits of that vast plan of
counter-revolution of which the ordinances of the
25th of July were the finishing stroke.
The first blow levelled at the Charter of 1814,
that incomplete consecration of the principles
proclaimed by the Constituent Assembly, was the
ordinance by which Louis XVIIl. changed, on his
Own authority, the original conditions of con
stituency and eligibility. From that period every
day gave birth to some new project of counter
revolution. This had its commencement in the
establishment of a double government in the
state; the one form ostensible, and destined to
support the appearance of a representative go
vernment, the other occult, and exercising a des
potic influence over all the branches of the admi
nistration. Hitherto the counter-revolution had
but marched to its object, now it began to run.
Therefore the Villele administration was formed,

'&¦¦&. '"

IK n H © m W F_. A K € II .
- fa HI'KT VILLEIR5

^.- GKELLAWAY, ?£*-/>?. ,r y i-i."lJ'--/y>jy

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 249
with the manifest design of accomplishing the
counter-revolution, by fortifying it with all the
energies of seven individuals, loaded with stigmas
and devoted to party.
Therefore, also, arose that impious war which
exhibited to the world the spectacle of a French
army marching to stifle in Spain the germs of
that liberty for which France had herself so
long combatted. From this moment the political
reaction of the revolution was boundless. The
ordinance of Andujar was no sooner published
than revoked. The revolution had struck at the
heart of fanaticism, by confining the clergy to the
ministration of the gospel ; satisfaction was made
by a bloody law, the law of sacrilege. The
charter had pronounced the sale of the national
property irrevocable ; a thousand millions were
sacrificed to the voracity of the emigrants. It
guaranteed the liberty of the press ; an attempt
was made to abolish it. A jury was the sole
palladium of the life and honour of the citizen ; its
suppression was commenced by a project of law
which took from it the cognizance of offences of
barretry and piracy. Another project of law
respecting the medical schools and medical juries
left no doubt as to the intention of successively

250 MEMOIRS OF
enslaving all the liberal professions. Finally,
some indications of independence having been
manifested by the Chamber of Peers, the Mi
nistry hastened to people it with creatures of the
restoration, and the most servile remains of the
Imperial Senate.
Such was the state of affairs, when the counter
revolution openly avowed, all the interests of the
state in danger, the indignation of all upright
minds, and, above all, the outcry of public opi
nion, caused the apprehension on the part of the
Ministry of the loss of the majority which it had
succeeded in creating in the Chambers, at the
expense of so much corruption and so many
frauds ; the Government convoked the elec
toral colleges, whence issued, in despite of its
utmost efforts, the more popular Chamber of
1828. Beaten in the elections, the restoration enacted
the hypocrite ; the Villele administration was
overthrown ; the king came at the opening of the
session to stammer out some words of liberty, to
promise improvement, and France, always fool
ishly confiding, believed in his promises, pardoned
and hoped. The Martignac ministry reconducted
the ostensible policy of the government into more

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. '251
liberal paths, and it is but justice to acknowledge,
that its first care was to give to the country some
of those guarantees which had so long been
demanded in vain. The electoral law, destined
to repress those ministerial frauds which had so
deeply gangrened the national representation ;
the law on the liberty of the press, although im
perfect, since it declined on this point the juris
diction of a jury; and the ordinances of the 16th
of June, against religious congregations, gave to
the session of 1828, a character of reparation,
which conciliated to government the interest and
support of the nation. We well remember that
journey into Alsace, during which the population,
forgetting the most legitimate resentments, came
to repay with their homage, the evils which power
had for a while ceased to inflict. This simple
change of ministry seemed to have restored to the
nation the exercise of its rights, and to the throne
the affections of the French people. There re
mained, indeed, many legal victories to gain, but
its essential characters were restored to the repre
sentative government, and the people were per
suaded that there would be no difficulty in giving
them their full development.
Nothing at this moment appeared more easy,

252 MEMOIRS OF
than to proceed in those national paths to which
the ministry and the legislature had just returned.
But if the Chambers and the depositaries of
power were sincere, the court was not so. Always
governed by one fixed idea, the court had only
adjourned its favourite project of a counter-revo
lution. Suspicious and dissembling, it saw only
enemies in the ministers, whom the force of cir
cumstances had imposed upon it; without the
cabinet, councils were formed which paralyzed
its energies, and rendered its march painful and
indecisive. The session of 1829 passed away in
new conflicts, indicative of the plots which were
proceeding in secret. The prorogation of the
Chambers left the field open to the counter
revolution; and scarcely had the Deputies re
turned to their departments, than the announce
ment of the ministry of the 8th of August struck
people with consternation. Never had France
been more unworthily betrayed, and, as said M.
de Berenger, it was reserved for our heroic nation,
to receive in a single day, from the hands of its
king, greater outrages than foreigners would ever
have dared to inflict.
In this momentous crisis, however, the entire
country arose, assumed an imposing attitude, and

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 253
faced, with indignation and courage, the impious
faction into the hands of which its destinies had
just been thrown ; from all sides, a cry of ana
thema was heard against that increasing gene
ration of favourites, mistresses, and flatterers,
which had succeeded in possessing itself of
power. Then, one by one, opinion took up the members
of the new administration, and found in each a
a living image of the most hideous wounds, which
France had endured for three centuries past.
What, in fact, were these ministers ? A Roman
prince, bred in the maxims of ultra despotism,
and whose melancholy destiny it was, that the
first and last acts of his life should be blended
with political plots ;* the man of sanguinary
ideas ; f the good-natured prefect, who seeing
from his window, the march of the guillotine
through the champaign of the Rhine, remarked
that the errors of governments should be bu
ried in the entrails of the earth ; J the spoilt
child of the congregation, whose incapacity was
become proverbial ; § the promoter of the pre-
votal courts ; || a returned emigrant, a traitor,
* M. de Polignac. t M. de La Bourdonnaie. % M. Chabrol.
§ M. de Montbel. || M. de Courvoisier.

254 MEMOIRS OF
whose sword had cast a stigma on French glory,*
and lastly, a Mangin.
Such was the composition of the new cabinet.
On one side, hypocrisy and fanaticism ; on the
other, violence ; elsewhere, treason and servility ;
on all sides, insincerity and hatred of our institu
tions. Events followed close upon the spirit of
the men ; all the aristocratical passions were put
in motion ; every resentment was awakened,
every insane hope revived at this signal.
What was to be feared, what to be hoped from
such a situation ? It promised to the country
nothing but a futurity of blood ; for it was evident
that despotism was necessary to men who pos
sessed neither the power nor the capacity to
bring into play the resources of the representative
government. In such a crisis, inaction would
have been fatal. Accordingly, a generous emu
lation took possession of every citizen. On all
hands, preparations were made to combat to ex
tremity, that contempt of all civilization, that
horror of all liberty, of all national advancement,
which formed the soul of the cabinet of the 8th of
August. In vain, affrighted by the cry of indig-
* M. de Bourmont.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 255
nation which saluted them as a public calamity, •
the new ministers hesitated to adopt arbitrary
measures ; in vain, amidst the apprehensions, the
terrors that assailed them, they affected secu
rity ; in vain, they protested that the nation had
nothing to fear: the nation, satisfied that its alarms
had never been more legitimate, prepared in all
quarters for the defence of its menaced rights. A
nucleus of association formed to organize a resist
ance to all taxation, was propagated with pro
digious rapidity ; the press, elevating itself to the
greatness of its object, engaged in a perpetual
war against all the acknowledged projects of
government ; it aroused the fear of coups d'etat,
it inspired all classes with the presentiment of a
great approaching danger ; and eventually, who
ever in Fiance had patriotism in his heart, pre
pared for resistance. Nine months past in recri
minations and in preparations for attack and de
fence. But, after all, it was indispensably neces
sary, to determine upon facing the nation, and the
Chambers were convened.
Hitherto, the faction had affected patriotism,
and fatigued the nation with its praises ; now
its language changed ; Charles X. on the open
ing of the session, denounced France a focus of

256 MEMOIRS OF
revolt and sedition ; the counter-revolution was
even anticipated in the royal speech. " If," said
the king, " culpable manoeuvres should excite
against my government, obstacles opposed to my
will, but which I cannot foresee, I shall find in
my resolution, the power to surmount them.''
Of all the sessions, none had commenced under
such melancholy auspices. Faction, which after
fourteen centuries of permanent rebellion against
the rights of the people, was reduced to a sha
dowy phantom under the republic of the empire,
had now shown itself in renewed vigour. We had
no longer to discuss fears more or less vague ;
rumours more or less well founded ; the counter
revolution had proclaimed its secret, and it was
now understood, that from henceforth, liberty
must overcome an insolent oligarchy, or that
oligarchy would stifle liberty. In a word, it was
evident that what the 8th of August had begun in
fraud, was preparing to be carried on by force of
arms. In the royal speech, so deeply impregnated
with gall, and with contempt for the national
rights, France saw only an additional reason for
never treating with enemies who must be con
quered ; and for perseveringly repulsing, with all

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 257
the energy of her will, men, whom so many plots
and a secular aversion for liberty, marked out to
her consternation, as the most irreconcileable ene
mies of a representative government.
The Chamber of Deputies justly understood
the danger of our position ; and felt that the
questionat issue was not, as some maintained, a
quarrel of individuals or of parties, for if the
administration of public affairs may, without peril,
lapse into perverse or unskilful hands when strong
and vigorous institutions repose under the shadow
of their own antiquity, it is not so while the or
ganic laws are still a question rather of right than
of fact, and while those institutions which give
vitality to liberty are yet to be obtained. The
question of facts, then resolves itself into a ques
tion of men, and the existence of an evil ministry,
were it but for a year, a month, or a single day, is
a public calamity.
The majority of the Chamber thought it neces
sary to make this truth reach the ear of the mo
narch. " The intervention of the nation," said
they, "renders a permanent concurrence of the
political views of your government with the wishes
of the people, an indispensable condition of the
orderly progression of public affairs. Sire, our
vol. i. s

258 MEMOIRS OF
loyalty, our devotion, oblige us to declare to you
that such concurrence does not exist.
" Your Majesty's supreme wisdom must decide
between those who misconstrue so calm, so faith
ful a nation, and us, who with profound conviction
approach your Majesty, to lay before you the
grievances of a whole people."
What was the reply of Charles the Tenth's su
preme wisdom ? That the resolutions announced
in the speech from the throne were immutable!*
From that moment, the symptoms of an ap
proaching ^crisis succeeded each other with fright
ful rapidity. The adjournment of the Chamber,
was quickly followed by its dissolution ; the most
criminal exercise of every species of fraud to vitiate
the elections ; a vast and atrocious conspiracy,
spreading conflagration through our provinces ;
a great military enterprise, conceived and executed
with the sole desire of operating a diversion in the
public mind favourable to the counter-revolution ;
the appointment of a generalissimo, crowned with
inextinguishable opprobrium ; the employment of
enormous sums, without the control of the Cham
bers ; the return of M. Peyronnet to the ministry,
* Address of the two hundred and twenty-one.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 259
and the nomination of Messieurs Capelle and
Chanteleuze, to replace two ministers who with
drew from the projects of the counter-revolution ;
the royal proclamation ; the adjournment of twenty
electoral colleges ; the news of the capture of
Algiers ; the ministerial songs of triumph ; the
almost integral re- election of the two hundred and
twenty-one ; the triumph of the constitutional
opposition, in the immense majority of the col
leges ; the defeat of the ministers ; the despatch
of sealed letters, calling the deputies to Paris, no
doubt that their persons might be more easily
seizable ; and lastly, the publication of a memo
rial, in which the emigrants solicited Charles X.
to a coup d" Stat ; — such were the events which
preceded the ordinances of the 26th of July, ordi
nances in which the feelings of the 8th of August
found an active expression.
The first of these ordinances, a direct attempt
against the national representation, pronounced
the dissol ution of the Chamber previously to its
meeting •, the second annulled the electoral laws
then existing, reduced the number of deputies
from 430 to 258, left the arrondissement colleges
only the right of presenting candidates, abolished
the secresy of votes, the intervention of the third
s2

260 MEMOIRS OF
estate, and the jurisdiction of the royal courts in
matters of election ; fhe third convoked the new
colleges for the 6th and 18th of September, and
the Chambers for the 28th of the same month ;
lastly, the fourth ordinance abrogated the laws by
which the liberty of the press was guarded, and
restored to vigour the dispositions of that of the
21st October, 1814. *
These ordinances appeared in the Moniteur of
the 26th July.
* In virtue of this law, no periodical journal could appear
without being previously authorized by the government. The
ordinance of the 26th July decreed, moreover, that the presses
and type of the journals convicted of disobedience should be
seized, or rendered unserviceable.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 261

CHAPTER II.
Effect produced by the Ordinances. — Appearance of Paris. —
Alarming calm during the 26th. — Conduct of the Press. —
Meeting of the Journalists at the house of M. Dupin  First
meeting of the Deputies at the house of M. de Laborde. —
Courage of that Representative. — Fears of M. Perier. —
Meeting of the 27th at M. Perier's. — Collective and indivi
dual conduct of the Deputies at that meeting.
A new series of facts here presents itself, bring
ing us back to the principal object of this work —
the conduct of Lafayette, and his co-operation in
these great events.
Patriots cannot recall, without terror, the first
effect produced by the ordinances: it was a sullen
stupor of almost incredulity. The Moniteur had
been circulating for several hours ; the citizens of
the capital had read and re-read, for the twentieth
time, the insolent manifesto, and could not yet
persuade themselves of the actual existence of
such insane audacity. The public places remained
open as usual ; the inhabitants of Paris applied

262 MEMOIRS OF
themselves to their business ; no symptoms of
insurrection were visible ; in short, the most
desponding tranquillity reigned till the evening
throughout that vast city, in whose bosom the
government alone was organizing its means of at
tack and defence.
The periodical press, however, which sustained
the first assault of the counter-revolution, and
whose very existence was at stake, boldly took
refuge in insurrection. Reduced to the alterna
tive of slavery or revolt, all the opposition jour
nals, with very few exceptions, were faithful to
their doctrines. Their conductors and chief edi
tors held their first, but useless meeting, at the
house of the elder M. Dupin.* They afterwards
* A journal which subsequently defended the cause of
liberty, the Journal de Paris, in its number of the 8th of Sep
tember, gives the following account of the first efforts of the
periodical press to organize the resistance which ultimately
decided the fate of the Restoration.
It was on Monday, the 26th, that the ordinances appeared.
The coup d'itat was revealed only by the Moniteur, that is to
say, between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. M. Sar-
rans, jun. principal editor of the Courrier des Electeurs, and the
conductor of the Nouveau Journal de Paris, were already la
bouring, each in his sphere, to procure the earliest possible
meeting of all the conductors. After an interview with the
conductor of the Journal de Commerce, who was also exerting
himself for the same object, they went together to the office of

y

M„ ETAM STE TDUMO UI.IN,

lea aiatcmura die ilaMnierve

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 263
met in the bureaux of the National, where that
energetic protest, destined to place arms in the
the Constitutionnel, in order to appoint, if possible, the hour of
meeting. There they learnt that M. Evariste Dumoulin, whom
they had sent as an emissary to ascertain what was passing,
had not yet returned from the country. It was determined
that immediately on his arrival, information should be conveyed
to the conductors of the other papers, who agreed purposely to
remain in the neighbourhood. At eleven o'clock, M. Sarrans
and the conductor of the Journal de Paris, returned to the
office of the Constitutionnel, and learnt with a surprise which
they cannot dissemble, that, without consulting them, the
meeting was fixed to take place at the house of M. Dupin, sen. ;
the counsel for the journals, and that information of the ap
pointment had just been sent to all the journals. Such was at
this time the confidence of those gentlemen, and of all their
colleagues with whom they conversed, that as a measure of
precaution against M. Dupin, they agreed not to attend the
meeting without the assistance of less prudent civilians, and
each journalist accordingly put in requisition the member of
the bar with whom he was most connected. To this sort of
impromptu precaution was owing the presence, in M. Dupin's
cabinet, of Messrs. Merilhou, Barthe, and Odillon Barrot.
Such was the homage which we paid to the character of M.
Dupin : numerous witnesses are ready to attest its truth. That
which constituted the real object of the consultation, the means
of resistance, on which we required the counsel of the most
firm and devoted patriots, these M. Dupin, sen. will now tell
us, that he dared take upon himself to point out to us. Every
time that one of us pressed him on this question, did he not
instantly and eagerly object, with all the haste of a man in
terror of being compromised, that the question belonged to
politics, and that if he had been pleased to open his cabinet

264 MEMOIRS OF
hands of our citizens, and determine them on
resistance to oppression, was discussed, and after
strange opposition, over which I cast an official
veil, was adopted.
This courageous protest, printed in defiance of
the ordinances, and profusely disseminated, not
withstanding the efforts of the satellites of tyranny,
produced an electrical effect throughout the whole
population. From this moment, public opinion
underwent a change : anger and indignation suc
ceeded to surprise ; the interests most immedi
ately attacked burst into explosion ; the operative
printers presented themselves under arms with
incredible audacity ; the students of the Polytech
nic school threw themselves heroically at the head
of the insurgent citizens ; those of the schools of
law and medicine followed the example, and the
capital was in revolt. All was then agitation, all

for a consultation purely of right, he would not have opened
it for a political discussion ? The conductor of this paper then
observed to him, that the assembly had not entered his Cabinet
to learn a fact of which no one was ignorant, that is to say,
that ordinances do not abrogate laws ; but that, in addressing
the civilian, they had been desirous also to confer with the
deputy. Upon which, the conductor of this sheet was inter
rupted by this exclamation, slowly pronounced, and now lite
rally repeated — " I am not a Deputy !"

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 265
rushing onwards in insurrection. A magnificent
defence was arranged in a few hours ; the soldiers
of despotism presented themselves on the field of
battle against the public liberty ; the combat was
commenced amidst cries of Vive la Charte ! Vive
la LibertC" ! blood flowed ; all hope of conciliation
was destroyed, and victory must decide between
liberty and despotism.
The struggle between the people and the royal
troops was thus entered upon on the evening of
Tuesday, the 27th of July ; the true cry of insur
rection was then first heard. But that day, the
prelude to the great events of the following days,
produced no other results than two or three charges
of gend'armerie, the dispersion of several groups
of young men and workmen that had formed in
the Rue St. Honore, the Place Vendome, and in
the environs of the Palais-Royal. As yet, the
people were but exciting each other to the con
quest of their liberties, and preparing for the
combats of the 28th and 29th, to which I shall
return, after a brief sketch of the conduct of the
deputies who were at Paris on the 26th and 27th
of July. An eye-witness of the facts I relate, I
shall be uninfluenced by the spirit of party ; and
if I should chance to mistake, it will be the fault

266 MEMOIRS OF
of my memory, never of my will ; but my memory,
I am convinced, can retrace only true and inef
faceable reminiscences.
The first member of the Chamber who ventured
to take a decided part, and to hazard his head in
the first stage of the struggle, at a moment when
the insurrection was attended only by probabilities
of defeat and the perspective of a scaffold, was
M. le Comte Alexandre de Laborde. On Mon
day, the 26th, this honourable and courageous
deputy presented himself to the assembled jour
nalists, and accepted the presidency of that meet
ing in which the principle of protestation and of
resistance to the ordinances was loudly and pub
licly proclaimed. All my ancient colleagues will
recollect with admiration the reply which he made
to a deputation from the School of Law, who were
charged to impress on us the necessity of recourse
to arms. " Gentlemen," said M. de Laborde,
"you are right; the country no longer demands
from us impotent words : unanimous and powerful
action can alone save her liberties. Go, tell your
comrades that you have found us animated with
the same sentiments as yourselves, and prepared
to fulfil the same duties, and to face the same
dangers. Go, gentlemen, assemble more nume-

Depute tloJJeip* cWTFWasteire (

elm emit

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 267
rously this evening at ten, when we will acquaint
you with our resolutions."
At the termination of the meeting of Journalists,
at which each pledged his honour to employ every
means at his disposal for provoking resistance and
generalizing the insurrection, M. de Laborde con
voked a meeting of the Deputies present in Paris.
It was appointed for seven o'clock at the house of
the honourable Deputy.
At eight o'clock only some members had an
swered to the call of honour ; of the number were
Messieurs de Bavoux, Daunou, Vassal, Marschal,
de Schonen, Leferre, Bernard, and Villemain.
Pressed by events, and perhaps also tired of
waiting for the rest of his colleagues, M. de La
borde opened that memorable debate. After de
scribing the present spirit of the public mind, and
repeating what he had just seen and heard in the
meeting of the Journalists, he showed the neces
sity of an energetic declaration in answer to the
ordinances, and strongly insisted that the mem
bers present should draw it up, before they sepa
rated, in the name of the Chamber of Deputies.
M. Bavoux suggested that the Deputies now pre
sent in the capital should constitute themselves a
National Assembly. The venerable M. Daunou

268 MEMOIRS OF
spoke with a noble warmth on the duties which
the efforts of an oppressive power imposed upon
the representatives of the country. He remarked
that even the dangers which might accompany
the accomplishment of these duties rendered them
more imperative and more sacred ; that as the
liberty of the tribune was violated, the appeal to the
people was the only means of public safety which
tyranny had left at the disposal of the representa
tives of the country, and that there must be no
hesitation in employing it under the penalty of a
forfeiture of honour, and of betraying the con
fidence and the dearest interests of the nation.
M. de Schonen spoke to the same purpose : he
said that the moment was decisive ; that the
liberty of the country was at stake ; that the duties
of the Deputies was clearly marked out ; that this
great conjuncture demanded the abnegation of
self, and, if the case required it, the cry to
arms. Such were the thoughts of all the members
of this meeting, and already, I believe, M. Ville
main was engaged in reducing them into the for
mula of a protestation, when M. Perier was
announced. The last words of M. de Schonen,
the cry to arms! had struck upon his ear; his
countenance expressed the most lively anxiety.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 269
" Ah ! gentlemen," he exclaimed, " how much are
you mistaken ! What would you do ? Have you
reflected coolly upon these measures ? You con
stitute yourselves a national assembly ! and cry
to arms !"
But so many legitimate resentments pursue
the memory of the President of the Council, that
my task of historian imposes it upon me as a duty
to cast off the feelings which these recollections
awake in my mind. I shall not report the words
which he opposed to the noble resistance of his
colleagues, but shall confine myself to a summary
of his opinions. He thought that the Chamber
was legally dissolved ; that the ordinances were
but the exercise of a right consecrated by the
charter, and that since the publication of that
day's Moniteur no Deputies existed ; that sup
posing the right invoked by Charles X. was ques
tionable, which he did not admit, where, he asked,
was the judge between authority and the people ?
In every event he declared that the Chamber
should abstain from taking the lead in a contest ;
that it would be an act of madness on its part to
push on an insurrection ; that it was impossible
but that the king must in the end make up his
mind to withdraw the ordinances ; and that the

270 MEMOIRS OF
declaration should be worded upon this supposi
tion, supposing the project to be persisted in, but
that he did not give his assent to it. With respect
to the confidence which seemed to be placed in
public opinion, he (M. Perier), did not partici
pate in it. Accustomed, said he, to express it
self through legal channels, this opinion would
not arm itself with a brutal force ; and if it dared
to do so, it would be vanquished and annihilated :
witness the results of the events of 1820, 1821,
and 1827; witness, 'in fine, allthe abortive con
spiracies attempted during fifteen years. In short,
M. Perier thought the wisdom and patriotism of
the Deputies should await events, and regulate
their conduct according to accomplished facts.
During these debates, and on the proposition
of M. de Laborde, three of the Deputies present
repaired to the meeting of the Journalists, which
was now augmented by a great number of the
electors of Paris. These Deputies, who were
M.M. de Laborde, Villemain, and de Schonen,
had found all these honourable citizens animated
by the most ardent patriotism, aud more than
ever determined to oppose a vehement resistance
to the encroachments of authority. M. de La
borde, still under the impressions which he had

MoVIILILMMAI^p
Depmte dm Bra/.t MopHjUkani f
elm. ea. jlSiq 0

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 271
there received, represented warmly to his col
leagues that a longer hesitation on their part would
be fatal to liberty, that the victory of the people
depended upon the concurrence of the Deputies
with the citizens who had first devoted them
selves, and that they ought instantly to join the
meeting of the Journalists. This opinion was
combatted by M. Perier, who resumed his former
arguments against every procedure tending to any
other object than that of recalling Charles X. to
better views. Despairing, however, of persuading
his colleagues to adopt this opinion, he had re
course to a prejudicial expedient, which suc
ceeded. He remarked that there would be light
ness and inconsistency in adopting a determination
of this nature without consulting the other De
puties present in Paris, and he undertook to have
them convoked to his house for an early hour the
following day. In fact, letters of convocation were
addressed by M. Perier to several members of the
Chamber ; but no doubt, in consequence of the
increasing irritation of the populace, and the hos
tile disposition manifested by them during the
night and on the following morning, M. Perier
hastened to recommend the Deputies he had con
voked not to accept his invitation.

272 MEMOIRS OF
Such, through the day of the 26th of July, was
the attitude taken by the Deputies present in
Paris. The morning of the 27th did not open under
more favourable auspices* A very few Deputies
re-assembled at the house of M. de Laborde, and
appointed a rendezvous at the house of M. Perier
at two in the afternoon. This choice appeared to
occasion some visible uneasiness ; but so immi
nent were the dangers which menaced the liberty
of the country, that they were thought capable of
rekindling the patriotism of M. Perier, which had
been slightly damped within the last two years.
It was well known that the active liberalism of
this Deputy had been blunted by contact with
royal graciousness ; but it was hoped that the
tribune would revive at the sight of the country's
danger, and that the Rheum of Demosthenes
would not resist the sun of July.
This assemblage was preceded by a scene of
carnage. A great number of young men, attracted
to the Rue Neuve du Luxembourg by the report
of a meeting of the Deputies, were there shut in
and sabred by two detachments of cavalry.
Obliged to take refuge in the neighbouring houses,
they knooked in vain at M. Ptirier's door ; pru-

yi „ LABBEY BE F ©MPIEBJRE § ,

pirn, em. iSiqi „

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 273
dence kept it closed against every one who could
not announce himself by the name of a Deputy.
Many of these young patriots, severely wounded,
were carried to the office of the Minister for
Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile what was passing in the interior of
M. Perier's hotel? The deputies, who this time
assembled in pretty considerable numbers, under
the precedency of M. Labey de Pompieres, had,
from the opening of the sitting, divided it into two
hostile camps : the one defended the constitution
ality of the dissolution of the Chamber, the main
tenance of Charles Xth's royal authority, the ne
cessity of not overstepping legal limits, and of the
assembly's restricting itself to inducing the with
drawal of the ordinances, by respectful remon
strances, resting upon the manifestation of public
opinion. The other side maintained that the
quality of deputy was not destroyed by the
ordinance of dissolution ; that, moreover, Charles
X. in violating the charter by each and all of his
ordinances, had divested himself of the right to
dissolve the Chamber, and that consequently the
deputies remained in possession of the plenitude
of their qualifications ; that it was absurd to
invoke the law in favour of a power which had
VOL. I. T

274 MEMOIRS OF
just broken through all its ties, and that when the
liberty or slavery of France, a representative go
vernment, or an individual tyranny was in question,
the public safety could no longer be sought, but
in the success of an open resistance to oppression.
M. Dupin maintained the first of these two
opinions ; M. Mauguin was the energetic cham
pion of the second. M.M. de Larborde, De
Puyraveau, Berard, Labey de Pompieres, Persil,
Milleret, Bertin de Vaux, and Villemain, pro
nounced for the opinion of M. Mauguin; the two
last holding, however, that: Charles X. should be
distinguished from his ministers and not com
pounded witb them in a common reprobation.
M.M. Sebastiani and Casimir Perier ranged
themselves under the banner of M. Dupin. It is,
however, justice to add, that M. Perier announced
his opinions at first by mute signs, which attested
the uncertainty of mind that tormented him.
The debate was becoming more animated on
either side, when it was interrupted by an unfor-
seen incident which gave it a new character. A
deputation of the electors of the City of Paris re
quested to be introduced. M. Perier already saw
the sword of the Bourbons and the popular dagger,
suspended over the heads of the assembly. " Ob-

M.BEVAIJX,
depute' cLul Beipt Am. Qm

eJlio. em iLtfiic

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 11 O
serve," cried he, " the predicament in which we
are placed! If we receive the deputation, it will
be known at the Tuileries ; perhaps it may cause
irritation, and who knows what measures may be
adopted against us? If the deputation is not adr
mitted, complaints will be made, the individuals
composing it may disperse themselves amongst
the people, and in the present exasperated state
of the popular mind, who can answer for the con
sequences?"* M.M. Dupin and Sebastiani op
posed to the utmost the reception of this deputa
tion, which, joined to the nomination of a presi
dent, converted, said they, a family meeting into
an actual deliberative assembly.
The deputation, however, was introduced. It
was composed of the most honourable citizens of
the capital, who by their organs, M.M. Merilhon
and Boulay de la Meurthe, came to declare to
the deputies that all the bonds which attached
France to the throne of the Bourbons were
broken ; that the nation no longer ought to, no
longer can, appeal to any thing but insurrection
against an authority which had trampled upon all
the laws, and that the people rely on the patri
otism and courage of their representatives.
* History of the three days by M. Marast.
T 2

276 MEMOIRS OF
Absolute silence followed this declaration, and
the deputation retired to an adjoining apartment,
to leave the Deputies entire freedom of delibera
tion. Thereupon a new deputation of young men
demanded admission. M. Perier hastened to
them, and conjured them not to persist in a step
which he considered imprudent in the extreme ;
he represented to these young men the madness
of their efforts against the measures of repression
which the government could not assuredly have
failed to take ; he exhorted them to return within
the limits of the law, and not to seek in the streets
a victory which would elude their pursuit. The
youths, determined to rely nenceforward only on
the energy of the people, retired ; and M. Perier
rejoined his colleagues.
The Deputies were already in deliberation ;
their deliberations were long — that it would be
well-timed and prodigiously patriotic to address a
letter to Charles X., imploring his Majesty to be
graciously pleased to change his ministers, and
withdraw the fatal ordinances. This opinion, pro
pounded by Messieurs Bertin-de-Vaux, Dupin,
Sebastiani, Perier, and Villemain, prevailed ;
without, however, leading to any result. They
separated without any decisive measure, without

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 277
attempting any thing for that heroic people whose
blood already flowed in torrents in the streets of
Paris. I mistake — something was done : a meet
ing was appointed for the morrow, at noon, at
the house of M. Audry de Puyraveau, who, on the
refusal of M. Perier to open his hotel a second
time to the assembled Deputies, eagerly offered
them his house, adding, that they would be under
the protection of the people.
Hostilities between the people and the royal
troops, which had commenced on the evening of
the 27th, were renewed early on the 28th, and
then assumed that character of unity of action,
and tenacity of purpose, which announced a war,
whose issue must be life or death to the liberties
of France. Accordingly, from that moment, La
fayette inseparably united his existence with the
vicissitudes of this great struggle. The country,
enveloped in storms, once more sought protection
under the aegis of that illustrious citizen, whose
laurels, gathered in both hemispheres, were ever
those of liberty, courage, and philosophy. As in
the earlier days of the revolution of 1789, as in
every period of his long career, the authority of
his name conquered despotism, and imposed on
anarchy.

278 MEMOIRS OF

CHAPTER III.
Arrival of Lafayette in Paris. — His first measures. — The re
sistance of the People becomes general. — First meeting of
Deputies at M. Audry de Puyraveau's. — Conduct and
Speeches of Messieurs Lafayette, Manguin, Lafitte, Charles
Dupin, Sebastiani, Guizot, Puyraveau, &c. — A Committee
despatched to the Duke of Ragusa. — M. Perier secretly
proposes giving some millions to Marmont. — First meeting
at M. Berard's. — Dereliction of the Popular Cause by nearly
all the Deputies present. — Various Conflicts. — Weakness of
Messieurs Villemain, Sebastiani, Bertin-de-Vaux. — Second
Meeting at M. Audry de Puyraveau's. — The Patriot Depu
ties no more than eight — Night of the 28th and 29th.
Lafayette was absent from Paris when the
ordinances appeared. The Moniteur of the 26th
reached him at La Grange, on the morning of the
27th. His resolution could not be doubtful : he
set out post, and perhaps owed only to the rapi
dity of his journey his escape from arrest by the
way; for it is impossible that at such a crisis the
counter-revolutionary government* should not
* The Cdurt is wrongfully accused of want of foresight, and
of failing to adopt all the measures in its power to repress the

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 279
have had its eyes fixed on him, who was called
the human revolution. However that may be, the
insurrection which the ordinances must provoke. The debates
on the trial - of the ministers shew that power had anticipated
the revolt, and made disposition for suppressing it. Independ
ently of the Prevotal Courts, the establishment of which was
to complete the counter-revolutionary system, and the organi
zation of which was decreed, the military authority was pre
pared beforehand to repulse force by force. So early as the
20th of July, the Duke de Ragusa, then on duty as Major-
General of the guard, had transmitted to the various com
manders a confidential order, such as is only given in presence
of the enemy, or in the most critical circumstances. This order
indicated the several points to which en cas d'alerte they were
to repair ; it explains the meaning of a cas d'alerte to be the
beating of the generate, a revolt, or any riotous assembling of
armed multitudes. In either of these cases, the troops were
instantly to repair to the points marked out for them, with
arms, baggage, and all necessary munitions, without further
orders. The troops were to be in cloaks, and with knapsacks,
in order to frustrate any design the seditious might have formed
for deceiving the royalists, by presenting themselves in the
costume of the guard.
The officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, were
prohibited from quitting their posts, or communicating with
the inhabitants. If the king should be at St. Cloud, the troops
quartered at the military school, infantry, cavalry and artillery,
were to establish themselves in the Champs de Mars ,• the artil
lery was to detach a battery, which should repair to the Champs
Elysees by the Widow' s-alley, and remain in column in the
Avenue de Neuilly.
Finally, the order provided that the Lieutenant-General on
duty should remit a sealed copy to the commanding officer of
the troops quartered in the Rue Verte, who should open it only
en cas d'alerte.

280 MEMOIRS OF
first care of Lafayette, on the evening of the 27th,
was to offer the insurgent patriots the support of
his name and his person. At four in the morning,
a deputation from the students of the Polytechnic
school had met at his house, and some hours
later, all that swarm of young heroes were fight
ing and dying at the head of the people, in every
quarter of the capital.
Resistance was established on every point, with
various chances of success or reverse ; some bar
ricades were beginning to be erected, and already
blood flowed abundantly, when, couformably with
their convention of the previous day, the deputies
began to assemble at M. Audry de Puyraveau's.
It was mid-day ; the sun was resplendent ; the
sound of the tocsin, mingling with the thunder
of cannon, and the discharges of musquetry,
announced that the people were awakened ;
the representatives of France, at least so it was
imagined, were about to decide the fate of their
country: an indescribable sentiment of fear and
hope agitated all hearts ; we were not so much
living as devouring life, and dying with impatience.
An innumerable crowd of citizens, diversely
armed, or destitute of arms choked up the avenues
to M. Puyraveau's house, seeking to trace in the

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 281
external figure of each Deputy as he passed, the
measure his heart comprised of courage and pa
triotic devotion. Lafayette was saluted with the
loudest acclamations ; he was the anchor of li
berty : he and M. Lafitte arrived first at the
meeting. The deputies were soon seated, and silence
succeeded to private discussions ; the meeting
was at length about to occupy themselves with the
means of saving that liberty, for which the people
had for thirty-six hours been instinctively fighting
and bleeding.
I will tax my memory to relate what, with my
head resting on the ledge of a window, my ear
attentive, and my eye fixed on that hall in which
the destinies of a whole people, or more properly
the destinies of Europe were debating, I saw and
heard in that important moment. I stand at the
bar of my country, equally unbiassed by hatred
or by fear, I shall speak the whole truth.
M. Mauguin first spoke. That man of dangers ;
he was the orator of the revolution ; Nature had
created him for the tribune. He drew, with
strong outlines, a frightful picture of the state of
Paris ; he spoke of the attempt of the court, the
resentment of the people, their combats, their

282 MEMOIRS OF
success, their reverses, their fears, and their hopes.
" Listen," cried he, with enthusiasm, " listen to
the sound of the cannon, and the groans of the
dying, they reach even to you ; a great people are
accomplishing a revolution, which it is your part
to direct ; their is no longer room for hesitation ;
our place, gentlemen, is between the popular bat
talions, and the phalanx of despotism ; beware of
losing time ; the royal guard loses none ; once
more a revolution calls upon us."
At this word revolution, several Deputies rose,
and threatened to retire that very instant ; all the
fears which had found their way into the meeting
now exploded. Messieurs Charles Dupin, Se
bastiani, and Guizot, distinguished themselves
amongst the most zealous partisans of legal order.
" I protest," exclaimed M. Dupin, against every
act that exceeds the bounds of legality." " What,
are you talking about resistance?" said M. Sebas
tiani, angrily and hastily ; " the question at issue,
is the preservation of legal order." " The small
est imprudence," said M. Guizot, " would com
promise our good cause ; our duty is not, as it is
urged, to take part either with or against the
people, but to act as mediators, to arrest the

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 283
popular movement, and to convince the king that
his ministers have deceived him."
A voice well known to the friends of liberty was
now heard ; that of Lafayette, always as cou
rageous as skilful in laying open the true prin
ciples of a question. "I admit," said he, with a
smile, " that I can ill reconcile legality with the
Moniteur of the 26th, and the fusilade of the last
two days." Then resuming the composed and
solemn accent which became the gravity of his
situation, he declared that a revolution was indeed
the matter in question, and proposed the imme
diate appointment of a provisional government,
an idea ultimately adopted, but which was too
decided, and too patriotic, not to appear at least
premature to the majority of his colleagues.
. At this moment it was announced that the
people were, after a horrible carnage, masters of
the Hotel de Ville ; but the combat continued,
the royal troops were receiving re-inforcements,
and there were grounds for fearing that they might
yet be victorious. This incident appeared to re
animate the failing courage of some of the cham
pions of legitimacy. M. Guizot, passing sentence
on the respectful letter which should have been
written to Charles X., was willing to risk the

284 MEMOIRS OF
hazard of a protest, of which he read the sub^
stance, and in which fidelity to the king was still
introduced. The protest was adopted, notwith
standing the daring observation of M. Lafitte,
who declared it insufficient, and inadequate to the
legitimate exigencies of a people who had already
shed such torrents of blood.
M. Perier proposed sending a mission to the
Duke de Ragusa, to obtain a truce from him,
during which the Deputies might carry their
grievances to the foot of the throne ;* but La
fayette demanded that they should simply order
Marmont, in the name of the. law, and on his per
sonal responsibility, to cause the firing to cease.
The committee was, however, appointed, and
consisted of Messieurs Perier, Lafitte, Mauguin,
Loban, and GeVard. Lafayette, manifestly in
dignant at all these delays, while the blood of so
many citizens was flowing around him, declared
to his colleagues that his name was already
placed, by the confidence of his fellow-citizens,
* Impartiality compels me to add here, that M. Perier had
already confidentially proposed offering some millions to Mar
mont, to seduce him to the cause of the people ; he even in
sisted that M. Lafitte, who had had pecuniary transactions with
the Duke de Ragusa, should undertake the negociation.

Pf'rr//

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 285
and with his own consent, at the head of the in
surrection ; that he was ardently desirous of ob
taining their assent to his determination, but that,
be that as it might, he considered himself pledged
to establish his head quarters at Paris on the
morrow. Thus concluded that first sitting : its only re
sult a proclamation destitute of energy, or interest
and which was to .be published — the next day.
It was two o'clock and the meeting adjourned till
four at M. Berard's.
At four the Deputies re-assembled at M.
Berard's. Here the office of historian becomes
more painful. I am compelled to retrace scenes
which should perhaps be expunged from our par
liamentary annals ; but the instruction of futurity
has claims on them ; my pen shall fulfil its duty.
During the short space of time which had elapsed
between the first and second meeting of the De
puties, on the 28th, the aspect of affairs had
totally changed. The patriots had been defeated
on several points ; the Hotel de Ville twice taken
and retaken, remained definitively in the hands of
the royal troops, with whom a few brave citizens
were again disputing them, but the combatants
were beginning to feel discouragement ; energy

286 MEMOIRS OF
was wasting for want of direction, anxiety was
at its height, and the defeat of the people gene
rally considered as inevitable. Shall I confess
it ? Scarcely half the Deputies who had as
sembled in the morning attended the evening
sitting. The committee, however, who had been
deputed to the Duke de Ragusa, reported to the
meeting the insolent reply of that barbarian,
who required the submission of the people as
preliminary to all negociation. Such an answer
roused the indignant ire of those Deputies whose
patriotism yet remained unshaken, but it chilled
with affright the majority of those would be
patriots— who with the miseries of France before
their eyes meditated only the means of personally
eluding the consequences of the ordinance which
declared Paris in a state of siege. The procla
mation voted in the morning, and which some
jonrnalists had the hardihood to print, divested of
those expressions of servility, with which the
fears of its authors had encumbered it, was
brought in at the same time. Here I have new
instances of weakness to register ; the proclama
tion, feeble and void of colouring as it was,
awakened the terrors of Messieurs Villemain,
Sebastiani, and Bertin-de-Vaux ; they no longer

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 287
dared to avow it, and retired, in defiance of the
most pressing remonstrances from several of their
colleagues who implored them not to abandon
their country when on the brink of a precipice.
Meanwhile the patriots had again carried the
Hotel de Ville : and the Swiss and olher guards
had retreated over the bodies of the dying which
overspread the Place de Greve, the quays and the
bridges. The Deputies were reduced to ten
when this happy news was brought to them. It
re-animated the expiring patriotism of a few, and
M. Guizot himself proposed signing the procla
mation with the names of all the Deputies, absent
as well as present, whose opinions were known to
favour the liberal side. Against this step M. Sebas
tiani who had re-appeared in the saloon, again
protested ; and the measure so long delayed
would probably have been altogether rejected or
at least adjourned anew, had not M. Lafitte with
that cool self-denial and truly civic courage which
characterise him, resolved the question by say
ing : " Let us adopt this proposition, Gentlemen ;
should we be vanquished they will belie us, and
prove that we were only eight ; if on the other
hand we are conquerors, be satisfied, the signa
tures will be matter of emulation." The declarar

288 MEMOIRS OF
tion was adopted, and sanctioned by sixty three
parliamentary names of presumed patriotism, out
of the four hundred and thirty who compose the
Chamber of Deputies. The name of M. Dupin
was inserted but afterwards erased upon the ob
servation, by M. Mauguin, that it would expose
them to inevitable and annoying gainsayings.
Another meeting was appointed for eight in the
evening at M. Andry Puyraveau's. A meeting
which reproduced all the traits of courage and of
timid weakness that had marked its predecessors.
A controversy that I can never forget arose be
tween Messieurs Lafayette, de Laborde, Lafitte,
Mauguin and Andry de Puyraveau, on one side,
Sebastiani and Mechin on the other. The former
demanded that putting an end to such disgraceful
tergiverstation, the Deputies present in Paris, in
full costume and mounting the tricoloured cockade
should manfully place themselves at the head of
the people ; the latter still presumed to talk of
legal order, of mediation, and concessions to be
obtained from Charles X. This was too much for
the Republican soul of Lafayette : he hastily rose
and demanded of his colleagues what post they
assigned him in the name of the country : for he
was ready to assume it on the instant. The dis-

m

EE BTMEOMTS
UDeipniL'tc oxtl Deipl Ac JLAasaiF'

P-lai e^H niMiq c

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 289
sentients had retreated, and the patriotic Deputies
reduced to five, but resolved gloriously to raise
the tricoloured standard, separated under agree
ment to meet again at five in the morning, at M.
Lafittes ; it was now midnight.
What a night was that from the 28th to the 29th
of July ! Never did a more beautiful sky over-
canopy a more heroic people ! A reflection from
the night of Pharsalia animated that sombre and
magnificent scene. All the inhabitants of that
great city are awake, all are in agitation, all under
arms, or working at the barricades, yet the stu
pendous silence that envelopes all Paris, is inter
rupted only by the hollow sound of the pick-axe
loosening the pavements, the groans of the
wounded, whom some friendly arm is conveying
to the paternal roof, the who goes there? of the
citizen-soldier, or the long watch-word, stand on
your guard, whispered every quarter of an hour
from one to another, through a hundred thousand
men stirring for liberty : No ! the people never ap
peared so great.
Lafayette devoted this solemn night to the
inspection of the barricades, which the instinct,
the foresight of the populace had established on
every threatened point ; and, as he passed each
vol. i. u

290 MEMOIRS OF
of these fortifications, he could not withhold his
expressions of admiration for a train of military
dispositions which would have done honour to the
prudence of Vauban. " Who," he would exclaim,
" has taught them the art of war in one day, in
one night ?" Between one and two in the morn
ing, an old man, who could with difficulty walk,
and was supported by two or three persons, pre
sented himself before the barricade which cut off
the street Cadet from that of the Faubourg Mont-
martre. Here a scene occurred, to describe which
I shall borrow the picturesque recital of a jour
nal* which gave it with admirable fidelity. " Halt
there!" cried the centinel ; "corporal, come and
reconnoitre." — The corporal was a mechanic.
" Come to the post you trampers, and tell us what
business you have to be walking about at this
hour." The group marched to the post, and there
each of the strangers was examined, and they
were found to consist of a man of advanced age,
and venerable figure, before whom many barricades
must have already yielded ; and three other per
sons who appeared to be acting under his orders,
as aides-de-camp : all this appeared very sus-
* The Tribune.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 291
picious to the commandant, who strictly ques
tioned the old man. The latter replied, " Cap
tain, you see me overwhelmed with heartfelt emo
tion by the spectacle you present to me ; come,
and embrace me, and you will know that I am
one of your old comrades." The commandant hesi
tated. — It is " General Lafayette !" said some one,
and all threw themselves into his arms, but the
commandant recovering his composure, exelaimed,
to arms, gentlemen ! They were instantly ranged
in order of battle, and the general passed in
review as he might have done by a regularly dis
ciplined army.

u 2

292 MEMOIRS OF

CHAPTER IV.
Battle in the Morning of the 29th. — Aspect of Paris. — Hero
ism, Probity, and Humanity of the Patriots. — Lafayette sur
rounded by Royal troops. — Meeting at M. Lafitte's. — Victory
declares for the People. — The Deputies who were converted
to the cause of Liberty by this news. — Aspect of M. Lafitte's
Hotel. — Some private details. — Lafayette repairs to the Hotel
de Ville. — Picture of this new Head-Quarters. — Installation
of the Municipal Committee. — Its first Measures  Proclama-
of Lafayette to the Army.
The battle was renewed at daybreak; Lafayette,
returning to his hotel through the Rue de Surlne,
was for some moments inpeded there by the
royalist corps, who fired indiscriminately on all
who made their appearance. The general was
fortunate enough to escape the danger, and after
wards taking advantage of a retrograde movement
effected by one of the enemy's posts, lost no time
in repairing to M. Lafitte's, where he was accom
panied by his grandson, Jules de Lasterie, Mes
sieurs Audry de Puyraveau, Colonel Carbonel,

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 293
and Captain, now Colonel Poque. Cannon and
musquetry thundered in every street contiguous
with that which Lafayette was traversing on
foot. It was affecting to witness the recognition
of this veteran of liberty by the populace,
who confined their joyful acclamations of vivc
Lafayette, to a whisper, lest they should point
him out to the vengeance of Charles X.'s sol
diers, and eagerly opened their shops, that the
barricades might offer no obstruction to his pro
gress. In this manner, after encountering a thou
sand dangers, and a thousand testimonies of the
popular solicitude, the general at length reached
M. Lafitte's hotel, where he found assembled many
of his colleagues, and several deputations of brave
citizens, who waited to conduct him to the Hotel
de Ville, recently reconquered, and definitively
occupied by the patriots.
I have already said, that at daybreak, hostilities
were furiously renewed between the people and
and the royal troops. In order to understand
what took place at M. Lafitte's, and to appreciate
the new face which Messieurs, the Deputies were
about to assume, it is important to recapitulate
the turn which the military operations had taken
on that decisive morning, and previous to the meet
ing of the five and thirty or forty members of the

294 MEMOIRS OF
Chamber, who, at eleven o'clock assembled at the
house of the honourable M. Lafitte.
Innumerable partial skirmishes had recom
menced with the dawn, and, with the exception
of the Hotel de Ville, the avenues of the Place de
Greve and the Boulevards, St. Denis, and St,
Martin, from whence the enemy had been re
pulsed over night, the combat was general on
every point which had been the theatre of struggle
during the 28th. There, around the barricades,
in the streets, in the houses, on the porticos of
the churches, were profusely re-enacted those
deeds of heroism, of magnanimity, of contempt
for life, which already marked the two preceding
days, as an epoch the most brilliant that ever
ennobled the human race ; the most glorious that
liberty and philosophy can boast. Where shall
we look for a pen that can retrace, that can even
reduce to credibility, the immeasurably sublime
incidents, each of which would singly suffice to
immortalize a century, but which on that day were
obscured by that mass of absorbing achievements
which leaves in relief nothing but an entire popu
lation radiant with courage and virtue. Here are
barricades rising as if by enchantment behind the
soldiers, who are attacking other barricades which

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 395
arrest their progress; there are women hurling
from the windows, paving stones, furniture, and
flaming brands, in contempt of the balls which
are flying to strike them beside the cradles of
their infants ; children waving the tri-coloured
flag * amidst the shower of bullets, or rushing
in the adverse squadrons to stab the horse of a
cuirassier whose rider is above their reach. I
saw some creeping under the feet of the horses,
to feel with the point of a foil for the termination
of the enemy's cuirass, and thus killing those iron
clad soldiers, whose weight alone was sufficient
to crush their pigmy opponents ; I saw others,
clinging to the stirrup of a gens-d'arme, and cut

* In the vestibule of the Chateau de la Grange, a trophy is
displayed which recalls some of the splendid actions of that in
comparable period. It is composed of the colours of the Swiss
guard captured in the engagement ; the flag taken at the bridge
of Arcole, and stained with the blood of the heroic child who sa
crificed his life to his prize ; the standard which was borne by the
wounded of July at the first review, and which they presented
to Lafayette j other tri-coloured flags offered by the national
guards of the Departments ; old flags of 1789 ; the standard of
the famous 8th hussars of the revolution, an American and a
Polish flag, and two small pieces of ordnance, with the in-
inscription : presented by the people of Paris. The men of July
love above all things to dwell on these recollections.

296 MEMOIRS OF
down while endeavouring to discharge a pocket
pistol at his breast.*
And to contrast with these miracles of courage,
how many were the acts of generosity and huma
nity ! The enemy wounded, or a prisoner, is no
longer an enemy ; he is a fellow-citizen, a brother
whom the people confound with their defenders,
* It was a boy of sixteen, armed with a double-barrelled
gun, and a pair of pistols, who first opened the door of the
Louvre to the people ; this brave youth, pierced with a dozen
or fifteen wounds, was carried into the church of St. Germain
l'Auxerrois, which had been converted into a hospital, and
taken care of, and God has doubtless preserved him to us, for
few are more worthy of his protection.
Another boy of the same age, a pupil of the Orphan Insti
tution, named Pierre Charles Petit-pere, was also the first to
scale another gate of the Louvre, in face of the fire of the Royal
and Swiss Guards. Fortunate enough to escape uninjured,
when the palace had surrendered, he joined the engagement
in the Rue de Grenelle St. Honore ; here a ball, passing
through his left hand, broke his right arm, which it was found
necessary to amputate, and the young hero fell, exclaiming,
Vive la Charte ! Vive la France !
Near him, another youth, of eighteen, named Charles Bour
geois, a locksmith from Rocroi, in the Department of Ardennes,
climbed the colonade, armed with unloaded pistols, (powder
failing him), to plant upon it the tri-coloured flag ; five Swiss
pursued him, and inflicted bayonet-wounds, but could not
destroy him.
The loss sustained by the royal troops has never been cor
rectly ascertained. That of the patriots amounted to about
6,000 men ; 1,000 or 1,200 killed, the remainder wounded/

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 297
and on whom they lavish equal solicitude. Who
can ever forget those excellent women, who so
eagerly in their own houses, at the corners of the
streets, under the very shots, every where, em
ployed themselves in bandaging in turn, the me
chanic just mutilated by a royalist ball, and the
soldier who had struck that brother or friend !
And when at length the fortune of the day was
decided, what an affecting spectacle was afforded
by the number of private houses, churches, and
theatres which civic piety had transformed into
hospitals and surgeries. At every step might be
seen the mustachio of a wounded Swiss, between
the pallets of two young patriots who had treated
him as a friend, and to whom the surgeons extended
the same assistance.
Meanwhile, after a furious conflict, all the pro
babilities of victory declared for the people. Al
ready several battalions of the line had deserted
the royalist ranks : the Guards and Swiss alone
fought with pertinacity, but driven successively
from every post they had occupied in the heart of
the capital, they drew towards the Louvre and
Tuileries. On the other hand, the patriots seeing
themselves deserted by the Deputies whose
courage they had so repeatedly and futilely endea-

298 MEMOIRS OF
voured to arouse, had on the Wednesday evening
conceived the project, of proclaiming a provisional
government, which, with their secret concurrence,
was composed of Messieurs Lafayette, Gerard,
and Choiseul. Whenever any credulous citizens
presented themselves at the Hotel de Ville, to
communicate with this fictitious authority, the
sentinels answered : " No one can pass ; the provi
sional government is in conference." This govern
ment, which held its real seat only in the imagi
nation of a few patriots, produced the happiest
effects on the public mind. Entire companies of
National Guards re-appeared in uniform, under
arms, and with drums at their head. The people,
emboldened by these rallying symptoms, and per
suaded that they were not now abandoned to them
selves, rushed with confidence against the bands
of absolutism; the popular aggression assumed
on all points a regularity of action ; numerous
attacking columns were formed and marched
upon the enemy, commanded by the students of
the Polytechnic school, actual generals at twenty
years of age, as a citizen poet has so well re
marked; in short, the Parisians flew to the
combat as to certain victory : their success was no
longer doubtful.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 299
Such was the situation of affairs at eleven in
the morning of the 29th, when the meeting ap
pointed at M. Lafitte's assembled ; and it may be
readily believed that it proved more numerous
than those of the preceding days. The night had
operated singular convictions, and certain De
puties who, but the night before, had departed
determined legitimates, returned indignant, in
censed, furious, at the horrible obstinacy with
which the Bourbons persisted in shedding the
blood of their subjects: it was atrocious. With
such sentiments reappeared successively Mes
sieurs Sebastiani, Bertin de Vaux, Gerard, Dupin
senior, Guizot, and many other champions of the
respectful grievances, the withdrawal of the ordi
nances, and legitimacy at any price.
From the dawn of day, or rather from over
night, the residence of M. Lafitte had become
the point of union for the patriots, the centre or
meeting place, whence issued the few measures
which they took, and all the confused and con
tradictory news of the events which were passing
in various parts of Paris. This bank of millions,
with its sumptuous apartments encumbered with
wealth, and its tables covered with plate, filled as
it was with an incessantly changing crowd of rich

300 MEMOIRS OF
and poor, strangers, workmen, soldiers, all sur
rounding these riches by day and night, without
the subtraction of one crownpiece, or one
coffee spoon, by men whom the most assured im
punity protected, presented a most extraordinary
spectacle. Frequently without a waistcoat, and
without shoes, harassed with fatigue, overcome
with indignation, these soldiers of liberty would
demand cartridges,* orders, commanders, some
times even a morsel of bread ; but they saw
neither the gold nor the precious effects, which
thrown about pell mell, might have tempted their
heroic poverty. I repeat that the people, the true
people of the barricades, never appeared to so
much advantage.
It was also to M. Lafitte's that the patriots of
the neighbouring departments hastened for in
structions, which the honourable Deputy thus
briefly summoned up : " Promote insurrection, and,
if necessary, come to the assistance of Paris" Such,
for example, were those received by the Mayor
of Rouen, who, on the first news of the ordinances,
had come to offer to the capital the concurrence
* An abundant distribution of cartridges, brought from the
barracks of the Rue Verte to M. Lafitte's house in wine hampers,
was made to the people on the morning of Thursday.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 301
of the patriotic city over which he presided. The
brave citizen returned immediately, accompanied
by the honourable M. Carel, to incite the city of
Rouen to insurrection ; which determination was,
under the, circumstances, equally prompt and
noble. The despatches, intercepted by the pa
triots, the demands for safe conduct, and the pass
ports claimed by the foreign ambassadors, were
also addressed to M. Lafitte, to whose house were
even brought some of the prisoners taken from the
royal troops. Of this number were, amongst
others, three officers of the general staff, Messrs.
Roux, de Seran, and another, who, grateful for the
hospitality which had been granted them, and for
the pains which had been taken to save their lives,
acknowledged to their host that at the moment
they fell into the hands of the Parisians, they
were deliberating at the quarters of the general
staff upon the measures to be taken in order to
send two hundred soldiers, disguised in the habits
of the people, to seize him, M. Lafitte, and con
duct him to the foot of the column, where he was
to be instantly shot. After being detained forty-
eight hours in the apartments of the man they had
condemned, these summary despatchers of justice
received disguises from him, by the help of which

302 MEMOIRS OF
they might quit his house, and mingle in the
crowd. It was in the midst of this tumult that the
meeting of the 29th took place, at which thirty-
eight or forty deputies were present. It opened
under the Presidency of M. Lafitte, who, after
having explained the state of the national im
pulse, and urged the necessity of directing it,
gave way to M. Mauguin. The latter spoke
with the same patriotism, the same energy, which
he had displayed on the preceding days, and con
cluded by saying, that since they had allowed the
people to get so much the start of them, they
ought at least to endeavour to make up for
lost time, by organizing a provisional government
without delay. Numerous citizens, flocking from
the Hotel de Ville, came incessantly to solicit
this measure, without which fortune might yet
change sides ; uncertainty and timidity, however,
still prevailed. At length Lafayette arrived, and
upon his offer of taking upon himself the com
mand of all the military forces, the resolution
was carried. I ought her e to observe that Ge
neral Gerard immediately declared that from this
moment he asked nothing better than to serve
under the orders of Lafayette ; and it was agreed

'ARHIER A NANTES

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 303
that the direction of active operations should
be immediately confided to him.
Lafayette demanded the formation of a civil
commission, composed of deputies, but he de
clined the honour of appointing them himself.
His colleagues, therefore, named Messrs. Mau
guin, Lafitte, De Schonen, Audry de Puyraveau,
Loban and Casimir Perier, as municipal com-.
missioners, charged with the superintendence of
general affairs.
Meanwhile the • Louvre and the Tuileries had
just been carried, after an obstinate resistance on
the part of the guards and of the Swiss, and pro
digies of valour on the side of the people. This
people, always master of itself, walked conqueror
through the abode of kings, and there, as at the
residence of M. Lafitte, as at .the Hotel de Ville,
at St. Cloud, and every where, showed itself
another Spartan army in the palace of Xerxes.
As the reward of victory, this people demanded
only to place a corpse on the throne of Charles
X. ; not an atom was disturbed in this depdt
of luxury and costliness. Again, the 5th and
53d regiments of the line, influenced by a brother
of M. Lafitte, who had the boldness to throw
himself into the midst of the soldiery, had been

304 MEMOIRS OF
detached from the royalist troops, and returned to
their barracks, under the condition that retaining
their arms, they should not be required to turn
them against their comrades.
The combat was now carried on only against
the guards and the Swiss, who were retreating at
all points, when the meeting of the 29th ter
minated, the result of which was, that Lafayette,
honoured with the confidence of the people and
the approbation of his colleagues, commenced his
progress towards the Hotel de Ville. This pro
gress, partly triumphal, partly warlike, presented
one of the grandest spectacles which can be
offered to the admiration of man. We may
figure to ourselves an immense crowd of citizens,
armed and unarmed, carrying in triumph the
veteran of liberty ; the confused cries of Vive la
Nation ! Vive Lafayette! mingling with the uproar
of a thousand partial combats, still existing at the
barricades, in the streets, and in the houses ; we
may conceive the acclamations of a people who,
having been left for three days to themselves, see
at length a generalissimo appear, bringing to
their recollection fifty years of battles fought
in the cause of liberty ; we may imagine five
hundred thousand men, women, and children,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 305
lining the streets, hanging from the windows,
and crowding the roofs, while their handkerchiefs
wave in the air, and the city reverberates with the
exclamations of hope and joy ; our imagination
may paint all this, and we shall still have but an
imperfect idea of the popular delirium which
saluted the passage of Lafayette.
At the moment that the cortege, advancing
slowly amidst these condensed masses, reached
the Rue aux Fers, a cloud of tri-coloured ribbons
covered the whole group, in the middle of which
was Lafayette. The General hastened to hoist
the three colours, as did every body who could
obtain a portion, however small, of this patriotic
trifle. At La Greve the people, as homage to
Lafayette, presented some of their wounded, whom
he pressed to his bosom. Arrived, at length, at
the Hotel de Ville, where he was received by
General Dubourg, who had established himself
there before him, and by Colonel Zimmer, who
had already there organized a general staff, his
first care was to unfurl the tri-coloured flag upon
the tower of this ancient edifice, and to cover
the walls of the capital with the following procla
mation : —
VOL. i. x

306 MEMOIRS
" My dear fellow-citizens and brave comrades,
" The confidence of the people of Paris once
more calls me to the command of the popular
force. I have accepted with devotion and joy the
powers that have been confided to me, and, as in
1789, I feel myself strong in the approbation
of my honourable colleagues, this day assembled
in Paris. I shall make no profession of my faith,
my sentiments are well known., The conduct of
the Parisian population, in these last days of
trial, has made me more than ever proud of being
their leader.
" Liberty shall triumph, or we will perish
together !
" Vive la Liberie ! Vive la Patrie !
"Lafayette."
Behold then the veteran Lafayette installed
in this same Hotel de Ville, where forty years
before another generation had placed him at the
head of the revolution of 1789. Some person
being willing to. point out the .way to. him : "J
know every step," said he, laughing, as he con
tinued to ascend the great staircase. What a
picturesque scene is presented at these new head-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 307
quarters of liberty ! What glorious remembrances
have here just connected themselves with still
more glorious achievements! These immense
halls crowded with citizens of every class and of all
ages ; these combatants intoxicated with victory
and adorned with wounds; these fleur-de-lyed dra
peries coolly reduced to rags ; the bust of Louis
XVIII overturned ; that of Charles X ground to
powder ; these citizen soldiers hastening from all
quarters to announce the defeat of the enemies of
liberty, the capture of the Louvre, of the Tuileries,
of the barracks ;* carrying hither the banners, and
dragging the cannons which they have torn from
the soldiers of Charles X ; orders dictated in haste
and expedited in all directions, for following up
the royalists, already harrassed in their retreat ;
these guards with naked arms ; the whole Poly
technic school under arms ; posts established at
all points ; the Place de Greve covered with
caissons and the wrecks of the companions of
war ; elsewhere pious hands already digging the
* How great must Lafayette's emotion have been when he
learnt at the same moment that of two friends M.M. Joubert
and Levasseur, with whom he had put himself in communica
tion on his arrival in Paris, the one had just taken the royal
residences, and the other was severely wounded !
x 2

308 MEMOIRS
graves for the heroes of liberty ; in fine, that amal
gamation of a popular commotion and a regular
battle against warlike troops and generals, re
solving itself into a multitude of attacks of posts
and partial successes : all this enlivened and
animated by the consciousness of a splendid
triumph, formed a spectacle which the pen of a
Tacitus or a Sallust would alone be worthy of
recording. Meanwhile the commission arrived at the Hotel
de Ville and took charge of the immediate wants
of the service, while the Generals Gerard and
Pajol visited in succession the various points of
defence ; for a general and decisive attack from
the enemy was still expected. Such was in fact,
the intention of the court, which was renounced,
after its columns had been moved forward, only
on a sight of the measures which had been
adopted to receive them. In the night, between
Thursday and Friday, the popular bivouacks were
still disturbed by some light parties, but actual
battle had ceased in Paris, and hostilities were
but faintly continued in the Bois de Boulogne and
on the lines of retreat of the royal troops, which
were concentering upon St. Cloud.
In this state of affairs Lafayette's first care was

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 309
to address to the army the following proclama
tion, with the view of tranquillizing it upon the
sentiments borne towards it by the nation :
" Brave Soldiers,
" The inhabitants of Paris do not hold you re
sponsible for the orders which have been given
you ; come over to us, we will receive you as
brothers ; come and range yourselves under
the orders of that brave general who has
shed his blood for the defence of the country
under so many various circumstances, General
Gerard. The cause of the army could not be long
separated from the cause of the nation and of
liberty, is not its glory our dearest patrimony !
Neither can we ever forget that the defence of
our independence and our liberty is our first duty
as citizens. Let us then be friends because our
interests and our rights are in common. General
Lafayette declares in the name of the whole popu
lation of Paris, that it cherishes no sentiment
either of hatred or hostility against the French
soldiers : it is ready to fraternize with all those
who will return to the cause of the country and of
liberty ; and it ardently invokes the moment when
citizens and soldiers, united under the same ban-

310 MEMOIRS
ner, and in the same sentiments, may at length
realize the happiness and glorious destinies of our
fine country.
" Vive la France ! " General Lafayette."
Thus ended active operations within the radius
of the capital. I now return to the Hotel de Ville,

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 311

CHAPTER V.
The Orleanist party — M. Laffitte at its head — His efforts
during thirteen years to place the Duke of Orleans on the throne
— His secret communications with Neuilly, in the night of Tues
day, and the subsequent days — The Duke of Orleans passes the
night in a kiosk in the centre of his park, to avoid the emissa-
lies of St. Cloud — The arrival of envoys from Charles X at the
Hotel-de-Ville, and the meeting at Lamtte's — Their reception
—Meeting at M. Laffitte's on Friday — The presence of some
Peers — The deputation meet at the Palais Bourbon — They call
the Duke of Orleans to the lieutenancy of the kingdom — He
does not accept it till after a secret consultation with the Prince
de Talleyrand — Anecdote.
The only real government, the only lever which
could elevate the masses, that which alone pos
sessed the confidence of the people, and could res
tore stability to society, shaken to its foundations,
was seated at the Hotel-de-Ville. The battle was
over; nothing remained but to consolidate the
fruits of victory ; was it surreptitiously obtained ?

312 MEMOIRS
this point I leave my readers to decide. I do not
judge ; I merely relate. But in order perfectly to
understand ulterior facts, it is indispensable to cast
an eye upon other events of the preceding days.
From the moment of the publication of the ordi
nances some men devoted, during many years, to
the interests of the House of Orleans, had con
ceived the project of substituting the younger for
the elder branch of the reigning house, and all
their proceedings, during the three days' struggle,
tended towards this result.
M. Laffitte was especially the patron of this de
nouement* The Duke of Orleans was at Neu
illy ; between the court, which committed the error
of not summoning him to St. Cloud, and Paris, to
the insurrection of which he was a total stranger.
* This idea was of many years standing. The dissourse pro
nounced by the deputy of the Seine, on the 10th of February 1817,
on the subject of the project of law relative to the finances, and in
which he maintained that the English are indebted for their liberty
to the revolution which passed the crown to William III, is still
remembered. Not only was this bold opinion then made the text
of the most violent attacks upon M. Laffitte by the journals of the
restoration, but it gave occasion to the Prime Minister, the Duke
of Richelieu, to demand of the honorable deputy a categorical an
swer, whether or no, his intention had been to excite a movement
in favor of the Duke of Orleans-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 313
So early as eight o'clock on Wednesday morning,
M. Laffitte, who had arrived only a few hours pre
viously, sent for M. Oudart, secretary to the
Duchess of Orleans, and despatched him to Neu.
illy, with notice to the Prince of the meeting of
deputies which was to take place at noon, at the
house of M. Audry de Puyraveau, and to entreat
his Royal Highness to be careful to avoid the emis
saries of St. Cloud. This opening, which no doubt
was not confined to a simple message of prudential
advice, was made on Wednesday morning, a period
when every thing was still in suspense. His Royal
Highness therefore, kept his thoughts close, and
said little. The Duke of Orleans, however, was
sensible of the tender solicitude of M. Laffitte,
and in pure condescension to the recommendation
of his banker, condemned himself to the inconveni
ence of passing the entire night in a kiosk con
cealed in the middle of the park, around which
vigilant and faithful friends were on the watch.
On Thursday morning M. Laffitte again sent M
Oudart to Neuilly ; his importunities were now more
pressing ; he informed the Prince of all that had
passed in the meetings of the preceding day, of the
exasperation of the public spirit against the elder
branch, of the singular importance of his present

314 MEMOIRS
situation, and of the necessity in which the Duke of
Orleans stood of choosing, within twenty-four hours
between a crown and a passport. It is said that
already the choice was no longer doubtful ; and
that this time his Royal Highness 's reply was such
as to satisfy his partisans upon the cruel sacrifice
they exacted of his patriotism ; in fact, the die was
cast, and the Duke of Orleans submitted to place
upon his citizen head, that crown of thorns, up to
which, as every one knows, he had never elevated his
ambition. Therefore, had M. Laffitte, who, during
the whole of Wednesday, and the morning of
Thursday, exchanged several messages with the
Duke of Orleans, already dexterously prepared
the minds of the deputies and of several members
of the provisional government, in favor of the lieu
tenancy of the kingdom by the Duke of Orleans,
when Lafayette, and the municipal commission in
stalled themselves in the Hotel-de-Ville.
While the military chiefs were taking measures
to consolidate the victory achieved by the people
alone, and the municipal commission, with the
commissioners entrusted with the different depart
ments were re-organizing the general service, a
fraction of the chamber of deputies, in a meeting
at M. Lafitte's, were employing themselves in

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 315
arranging a new order of things. A deputation
composed of M.M. d'Argout, Semonville, and
Vitrolles, had presented itself at the Hotel-de-
Ville, to treat in the name of Charles X, and to
announce to the commission that the ordinances
were withdrawn, and a new ministry nominated,
which included M.M. Casimir Perier and Gerard.
These envoys were introduced to the municipal
commission, and the presence of Lafayette was
requested. The answer was not delayed : the
people had fought to the cry of, Down with the
Bourbons, and it was too late ; — the Bourbons had
ceased to reign. This was what M.M. Lafayette,
Audry de Puyraveau, and Mauguin formally de
clared to the ambassadors from St. Cloud, in the
presence of M. Perier, who kept silence. The
royal commissaries were about to retire, when M.
de Semonville having addressed himself to Lafa
yette, the latter asked him if the. Bourbons had
yet assumed the tri-colored cockade ; and on his
answer that it was a serious consideration, the
general replied, that they might now dispense with
any pain this act might cost them, as it was
already too late : all was over.
The next day, M. de Sussy, the bearer of a

316 MEMOIRS
letter from M. de Mortemart, the new prime
minister of Charles X, and an enclosure containing
the recall of the ordinances, found Lafayette sur
rounded by his officers, and a crowd of citizens.
" We need be under no constraint," said he to M.
de Sussy, " I am here in the midst of my
friends, and have no secrets with them ; " and
opening the paper, the contents of which he read
with a loud voice : " Well ! " said he, to the
people, "what answer shall we make?" "No
more negociations ! " was the cry from all sides.
"You hear," continued Lafayette; "it is too
late." Sometime afterwards, a patriot orator, sent to
some regiments which covered the court, having
brought back information that the commander of
the royal troops, on the bridge of St. Cloud,
complained that since the recall of the ordinances,
no explanation had been made to them, and asked
a categorical answer, Lafayette sent him back
immediately with a billet couched in the following
terms :
"I am asked for an explicit answer on the
situation of the royal family, since its last
aggression upon the pubhc Uberty, and the victory

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE- 317
of the Parisian population ; I shall give it frankly :
it is that all conciliation is impossible, and that the
royal family has ceased to reign." " Lafayette."
Since their propositions obstinately rejected at
the Hotel-de-Ville, the commissioners of Charles
X hoped to find a better reception at M. Laffitte's.
About nine or ten o'clock in the evening M.
d'Argout presented himself to the members of the
chamber, who were sitting at the house of this
deputy, and declared to them, that he was com
missioned to announce to them, in the name of
the King, his master, the recall of the ordinances,
and the formation of a ministry composed of
characters more acceptable to the country ; that
matters were therefore re-established as before
the violation of the charter, and that Charles X
made no doubt but the national representation
would interpose its mediation to bring the people
back to their allegiance. The answer of M.
Laffitte was as peremptory as had been that of M.
Lafayette, at the Hotel-de-Ville. " War has de
cided," said he to M. d'Argout; " Charles X is
no longer King of France." M. d'Argout with
drew, after vainly insisting upon the guarantees of

318 MEMOIRS
inviolability with which the constitution still sur
rounded the person of the King. Some moments
afterwards, M. Forbin-Janson came to announce
that his brother-in-law, the Duke de Mortemart,
claimed a safe conduct, to present himself before
the meeting of the deputies. This demand was
acceded to, and M. Laffitte was solely charged to
answer the overtures of the new President of
Charles X's council of ministers ; but M. de Mor
temart did not appear.
From this moment the cause of the elder
branch of the Bourbons was irrevocably lost, not
only in the will of the people, but in the thoughts
of the two centres of action, which had possessed
themselves of the direction of affairs. The Hotel-
de-Ville, and the Laffitte-meeting were agreed as to
the definitive expulsion of the reigning family, but
by no means so as to the form of government
ulteriorly to be adopted, or the new dynasty to be
elected. These capital questions were subjects of
warm controversy at the Hotel-de-Ville, while at
Laffitte's, an almost entire unanimity prevailed
upon the choice of the Duke of Orleans, or rather
upon the proclamation of this choice, already
prepared by the efforts and the secret manoeuvres
of the honorable banker.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 319
Before returning to Lafayette and the munici
pal commission, I should report all that had passed
at the house of M. Laffitte, in the interest of
Louis-Philippe. By an early hour on Friday morn
ing, some intimate associates, such as M.M.
Thiers, Laraguy and Mignet, had met there to
concert the means of insuring the success of this
great intrigue. There, even before any inquiry
into the will of the deputies a proclamation was
drawn up which called the Duke of Orleans to
the office of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom ;
there, also the measures were agreed upon the
most likely to secure the influential journals in
the influence of this combination. This little Ca
marilla of a new description quitted the saloons
of M. Laffitte only to work upon a meeting of pa
triots, held at the house of the restaurateur Loinlier,
in which it was the general opinion, that as the
.people alone had conquered, the people ought
to be chiefly consulted.
About ten o'clock, almost all the deputies pre
sent in Paris met at M. Laffitte's ; some peers also
joined them, amongst whom was the Duke de
Broghe, who spoke at length upon the popular
exasperation and the dangers of a republic. These
dangers, purposely exaggerated by M. Dupin,

320 MEMOIRS
produced a pretty general anxiety, of which M.
Laffitte skilfully took advantage to propose the
election of the Duke of Orleans, as the only
means of arresting the torrent and fixing all un
certainties. This opinion, now officially expressed
for the first time, produced some astonishment
and provoked some contradiction , but M. Du
pin supported it with so much eloquence and
energy, that it became immediately evident,
that a measure, which it was affected merely to
offer for deliberation, was no other than a project
already agreed upon between the Prince and a
party headed by M. Laffitte. Numerous deputies
were however still undecided and the discussion
became more animated ; when the adroit cham
pion of the House of Orleans observed with so
lemnity, that the place for the deputies of France,
re-constructing the government of a great empire,
was the Palais Bourbon and not the cabinet
of a private individual. This recommendation
prevailed, and it was determined that in two hours
the deputies should assemble in the Hall of Sitting
of the chamber. The Orleanists made good use
of this interval in redoubling their persuasions
and seductions.
Nevertheless, at the opening of this memorable

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 32]
sitting, opinions appeared more than ever divided ;
all systems, the republican excepted, here found
partisans ; by turns the Duke of Orleans, the
Duke of Bordeaux, the Duke of Angouleme were
named and even Charles X, who, incredible fact !
united the evident majority of voices. It was at
this decisive moment, that M. Sebastiani was
heard to exclaim, on the subject of the tricolored
flag displayed on the Hotel-de-Ville, that " The
white flag is now the only national standard!"
It was also at this moment that M. de Sussy, re
pulsed from the Hotel-de-Ville, came to present
to the chamber the recall of the ordinances and
the formation of a new ministry, insisting, but in
vain as may be imagined, that M. Laffitte should
transmit this nomination to the parties for whom
they were destined.
The principal object of the meeting was to de
termine upon the declaration which was to call
the Duke of Orleans to the Lieutenancy of the
Kingdom. A committee had been directed to
present a report to the chamber on this important
measure, and some members of the chamber of
peers had joined themselves to it ; the Duke de
Broglie was one of these. A warm discussion
arose in the mixed committee upon the principle
VOL. I. Y

322 MEMOIRS
on which the throne should be declared vacant ;
the peers and some deputies insisting on the ab
solute necessity of taking for its exclusive basis,
the abdication of Charles X and the Duke of An-
gouleme. Meanwhile great agitation was manifested, both
within and without the palace of the legislature.
New and secret machinations were spoken of, for
adjourning the decision of the chamber ; it was
affirmed that a considerable personage, recently
elevated by Charles X, to the presidency of the
council of ministers, had been met on the road to
Saint-Cloud, and in fact, this report had been con
firmed at the Hotel-de-Ville, by several patriots,
upon whose depositions, an order of arrest had
been issued againt M. Casimir Perier. Whatever
may be the truth of this matter, the uneasiness
was general, when the president of the chamber
M. Laffitte, informed of what was passing in the
committee, and yielding to the impatience exhi
bited on all sides, sent a secretary to invite the
committee to an immediate return to the chamber,
and to admonish it, that if it hesitated longer, the
deputies would deliberate without hearing its re
port. This bold and daring measure put an end
to the representations of the legitimatists, and to

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 323
the uncertainty of the fearful. The proclamation
was drawn up, such as it appeared in the Moniteur
of the following day.
M. de Mortemart to whom a rendez-vous had
been given at the chamber, did not appear there.
The parliamentary mind, however, was still so
much inclined to carlism, that it is reasonable to
believe, that the presence of this diplomatist might
yet have persuaded the majority into a determina
tion, by which either the chamber or the revolu
tion would have been irrevocably lost. But, how
ever this might have been, the address of the de
puties, calling the Duke of Orleans to the office
of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom was signed,
and the victory remained with this prince.
A commission was charged to present this mes
sage to the Duke of Orleans, which repaired to
the Palais-Royal about eight in the evening : the
prince was still at Neuilly. The commission wrote
to him, to inform him of the nature of its mission,
and to transmit the debate which had just taken
place in the deputies. His Royal Highness hast
ened his return to Paris, where he arrived on foot,
at eleven o'clock, accompanied by Colonel Ber-
thoix, now aid-de-camp to His Majesty. At
eight o'clock -the following morning the members
y2

324 MEMOIRS
of the deputation, composed of MM. Gallot, Be"-
rard, Sebastiani, Benjamin Delessert, Duchaffau,
and Mathieu Dumas, were informed that the prince
was ready to receive them ; and at nine o'clock
they were admitted to his presence.
I call the attention of my readers to all the cir
cumstances of this interview, because they are .of
unexceptionable authenticity and of a nature to
throw a strong light on some ulterior events.
M. Berard spoke first, and developed at much
length the motives of general interest, as respected'
the nation, and of private interest as regarded the
prince himself, which according to the orator, im
posed on the Duke of Orleans, the necessity of
acquiescing in the proposal of the deputies, by ac
cepting the reins of government, under the provi
sional title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom.
M. Sebastiani was the first to maintain the con
trary opinion, and contended upon arguments
drawn from the respect due to legitimacy, from
the precarious situation of affairs and from the pos
sibility of the return of the Royal Family, that
the Duke of Orleans should unhesitatingly decline
the offer that had been made to him. M. Benjamin
Delessert, adopting the opinion of M. Berard,
whose arguments he repeated more earnestly and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 325
pressingly, conjured the prince to save France
from the anarchy and civil war which threatened
her, and his own house from the impending ruin,
of which his refusal would infallibly be the signal.
M. Delessert never before spoke so convincingly,
so persuasively.
Undecided and manifestly under the alternate
tyranny of hope and fear, the Duke of Orleans
dwelt tediously on his family ties with Charles X,
and concluded by declaring that he could come to
no resolution without consulting a person who was
then absent, and his Royal Highness retired to
his cabinet, where M. Dupin was already waiting
and where M. Sebastiani was shortly summoned.
Who was this eminently sagacious personage to
whose wisdom the destinies of France were subor
dinate? It was M. de Talleyrand. In fact, M.
Sebastiani secretly repaired to the house of the
ex-great-chamberlain of Charles X, now become
as the reader perceives, sovereign arbiter of the
revolution of July. Here he also found a brave
admiral, whose royalist sentiments were beyond
doubt, but whose heart bled for the calamities of
his country. M. Sebastiani placed the declaration
of the deputies in the hands of M. de Talleyrand,
who replied : Well, it must be accepted. These facts,
I repeat, are strictly accurate.

326 MEMOIRS
Now let these transactions be compared with
the primary motive which determined the subse
quent retreat of M. Laffitte, and we shall perhaps
find a key to many circumstances over which a
fearful mystery yet hovers.* Be this as it may,
after an interval of three quarters of an hour, the
Duke of Orleans, accompanied by MM. Sebas
tiani and Dupin, rejoined the committee, and
declared that he accepted the office of Lieutenant
General of the Kingdom.
* It is well known that M. Lafitte retired in consequence of
the discovery made by himself, that some diplomatic despatches
had been withheld from the council of ministers of which he was
President.— (See Chapter VIII).

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 327

CHAPTER VI.
Repugnance of the Hotel-de-Ville to the nomination of the Duke
of Orleans as Lieutenant-General. — Advice of Lafayette in these
circumstances. — His wishes for the Convocation of the Primary
Assemblies. — Why he did not proclaim the Republic. — Idem,
Henry V, with a Regency which was offered him.— Idem, Na
poleon II. — Letter of Joseph Bonaparte to Lafayette. — Answer
of Lafayette.
Meanwhile what was passing at the Hotel-de-
Ville ? There, the men who had just accomplished
the revolution, and especially the youths still under
arms, loudly demanded a re ublic, and Lafayette
for its president. Numerous meetings of patriots
urged him to seize the reins of power before the
intrigues, which they saw in motion, should obtain
them. But though penetrated with gratitude, La
fayette swerved not from those disinterested prin
ciples which had regulated his whole political hfe.
He repelled with affection but with firmness the so-

328 MEMOIRS
licitation by which he was on all sides assailed. I
even remember that amidst successive tides of
opinion which surrounded him, and the contradic
tory offers that were made to him, some men less
republican than the honorable member said to him:
— " Well if they want a king, why not have you ?"
" To that question," said Lafayette, " I may reply
in the words of Marshal Saxe, when it was proposed
that he should become a member of the French Aca
demy : — It would become me as well as a ring would
become a cat."
The earnest wish of Lafayette, and that which
he repeatedly expressed, was the appointment of a
provisional government, until the primary assem
blies should be convoked in the form prescribed by
the constituent assembly, and the nation should
express its sentiments respecting the form of
government and the dynasty to be established, it
being an understood condition that it should be in
favor of the monarchical system. But this was not
conformable with the ideas of the deputies ; and
it must be observed that they represented eighty
thousand of the most notable citizens in the
country, and that the invariable principles of
Lafayette made him regard it as a duty to bow to
this national representation, however vicious and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 329
imperfect he might consider it. Neither must we
forget the elections which occurred so shortly
before the revolution of July. The press, the
patriotic societies, in short, all the liberals had
combined and directed their efforts to one single
object, the re-election of the 221 voters of the
address. The vote of France seemed to depend
on this result ; and, for its accomplishment, they
had in some measure deified those men of prin
ciple, without, however, being deceived as to the
intrinsic qualities of many of them. It was a
necessity arising from circumstances. But it im
parted to the re-elected deputies that absolute
confidence which swayed all minds at the moment
when the ordinances appeared. At that time, all
France was, as it were, under the spell of the
enthusiasm created by the electors. But the 221
deputies, who were the objects of this enthusiasm,
were alike averse to a provisional government and
to the primary assemblies wished for by Lafayette.
What then was to be done ? To disavow the
authority, at least, the moral authority of the
chamber, and to come to a rupture with it ? But
considering the general disposition of the public
mind, this might have been a rupture with the
majority of the departments, and perhaps to

330 MEMOIRS
confine the revolution to Paris. Would it be
advisable to repel to-day, as unworthy, the men
who only yesterday had been held up as the
firmest supporters of liberty ? But to act in this
way might have appeared like an insult to the
national intelligence, a separation of the cause of
the provinces from that of the capital, and an
excitement to civil war, which might then have
strangled the revolution at its birth.
These primary considerations are too frequently
lost sight of by those patriots, who, judging from
events, and without looking back to the starting
point, blame Lafayette for remaining faithful to his
political creed, and not overcoming the resistance
of a chamber, which, in the absence of every
other national representation, contained the elected
of the people. A minister of Charles X had
called for a monarchical 5th of September. Well
then ! to violate the will of the chamber of
deputies, in the crisis into which we had been so
unexpectedly thrown, would have been considered
by France as a republican twenty-fifth of July.
Who is there then who would not have shrunk
from the possible consequences of a national
re-action ? Doubtless, the victory was neutralized
by intrigue; but that intrigue was invested with

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 331
the senatorial toga, and it was not for the sword of
Lafayette to attack it in the very sanctuary of the
national representative.
Besides, considering the Lieutenant-Generalship
of the Duke of Orleans, only as a form of govern
ment, essentially provisional, it is certain that it
was, more than any other, in accordance with the
wishes of Lafayette. Being questioned, on the
Friday morning, by the friends of his Royal
Highness, he replied, that though he was not
much acquainted with that prince, yet he esteemed
his personal character, and the simplicity of his
manners ; — that he had seen him an ardent patriot
in his youth ; that he had never fought except
under the tri-coloured flag, and that these con
siderations were sufficient to induce him not to
oppose his being appointed Lieutenant-General.*
There still remained a choice of one of three
things, viz : — a republic; Henry V, with a regency,
and Napoleon II, or a regency in his name.
* The Duke de Chartres, when returning from his regiment to
join his family at Neuilly, was arrested by the mayor of Mont-
Rouge, who sent to enquire of Lafayette what was to be done
with the prisoner. The general replied, that the Duke de Char
tres was a citizen like any one else, and that nobody had a right to
detain him. The prince was accordingly liberated.

332 MEMOIRS
These three plans had their partizans, and this
seems a fitting place to answer candidly the
charges with which all these parties have assailed
Lafayette. No doubt Louis Philippe himself felt the re
publican form of government the darling object
of Lafayette, was the best that could be adopted.
But in the circumstances in which the country
stood, was it possible to deny the force of the
melancholy impression which the word republic
had left in France and the apprehensions it still
inspired among the contemporaries of the reign
of terror and the descendants of its numerous
victims ? Frightful recollections took possession
of their minds. It is true they laboured under
misconception ; but they nevertheless pictured to
themselves the revival of those revolutionary tri
bunals where the defence of counsel was prohi
bited, where a self-styled republican jury, com
posed of thirty, forty or even sixty judicial as
sassins deluged the guillotine with blood, amidst
shouts of vive la liberte ! and indiscriminately sent
to the scaffold all who were distinguished for
merit, talents, public services, or beauty ; for even
beauty was then a title of proscription. Memory
dwelt with horror on the republican marriages

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 333
of Nantes ;* the miseries of famine, bankruptcy,
maximum, denunciation and confiscation, and those
terrible days when terrorism set up as a principle of
government that the tree of liberty must be wa
tered with blood and that it was necessary to
cast coin on the Place de la Revolution. These
recollections of a too recent period, alarmed per
sons who did not reflect that almost all these
atrocities had been committed by counter-revo
lutionists, at the instigation of foreigners and for
the purpose of sullying the sacred names of liber
ty, equality and republicanism. It was also re
collected that even under the republic when sub
jected to better principles by the constitution of
the year 3, and even under the directors, France
still groaned under violence, peculation and cor
ruption, and finally, that the country had been
reduced to the extremity of regarding the 18th
brumaire as the only security against the return
of jacobin terrorism. Thus it was evident that
ridiculous and unjust prejudice, and the habit of
confounding the republic with excesses to which
* The name given to the drownings at Nantes, where a man
and woman used to be tied together and thrown into the water
in skuttle boats .

334 MEMOIRS
it served as a pretext, had created in the minds
of the people a decided aversion to that form of
government. They would not be convinced that
if in the ages of antiquity and in modern times
in France, Venice and Genoa, the word repub
lic had had a signification synonimous with ter
ror and even slavery, its meaning was widely
different in America, where on the contrary it
expressed principles and represented facts dia
metrically the reverse of the facts and principles
deplored. But the prejudice existed, and it is
certain that with the exception of a few old and
very rare republicans and a greater number of
young men, who while they favored that form
of government, had no very fixed ideas respecting
the democratic conditions they wished for — it
is certain, I repeat, that with those exceptions
the proclamation of a republic would have excited
in France almost universal alarm and opposition.
Besides, would the army have been as favorable to a
republic as to a prince raised to the throne by
the wish of the chamber of deputies ? This I think
is doubtful.
The next proposition was Henry V with a re
gency. Having been constantly about Lafayette
and honored with his confidence in that difficult

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 335
period, I can affirm that, until the last moment
and even when the deputies were deliberating on
the lieutenant-generalship, he received propositions
for placing Henry V on the throne, and the re
gency was repeatedly offered to himself. But it
is evident that the Carlist priesthood and nobi
lity party looked to this plan only as a truce and
a transitory means of arriving at another state
of things. Besides the principle of legitimacy
accorded but ill with republican institutions : La
fayette's reply was what it ought to have been.
Finally, another course was possible. It con
sisted in calling to the throne Napoleon II, or of
establishing a regency in the name of that young
Austrian Prince.*
Here I cannot better explain the reasons which
* I say Austrian, because it is certain that the fundamental
principle of the court of Vienna is to educate the Princes of the
house of Hapsburgh and especially the Princesses who are des
tined for alliances of foreign courts in the exclusive creed of
Austrian interests. Maria Antoinette and the Queen of Naples,
(though I am far from intending to compare the two sisters), the
Arch-Duchess Governante of the Netherlands and more recently
the Empress Maria Louisa, in this respect, fulfilled the same
duties as Anne of Austria in the time of the regency. It is the cha-
techism inculcated to all who are brought up in the court of Vienna.

336 MEMOIRS
influenced Lafayette's determination, than by
transcribing the letter which he wrote to the
Count de Survilliers, Joseph Bonaparte, in ans
wer to an overture made to him by that prince
in behalf of his nephew. I beg the noble gene
ral's pardon for having availed myself of my op
portunity of taking copies of these important do
cuments, which however, I should have abstained
from publishing, if the letter to which Lafayette's
is an answer, had not appeared in an American
Journal, with the cognizance of Prince Joseph.
However, I present these documents to the par
tizans of Napoleon dynasty, as an explanation
of Lafayette's conduct towards them, and as the
expression of his personal sentiments towards
that imperial family, between which and himself
there have always existed and still do exist,
relations of mutual kindness. But how could
it be hoped that he who, throughout the course
of his long life, had sacrificed his dearest affec
tions to his political duties, would on this oc^
casion make subservient to private considerations
that which he considered as the necessary con
dition of the liberty and happiness of France?
The following is the correspondence, from which
the reader may form his own opinion.

of general lafayette. 337
Letter from Count Survilliers (Joseph
Bonaparte) to General Lafayette.
" My dear General,
" General Lallemand, who will deliver this letter,
will recall me to your recollection. He will
tell you with what enthusiasm the population
of this country (both American and French)
received the news of the glorious events of
which Paris has been the theatre. The Americans
were also glad to see the tricoloured flag displayed
in their theatres. Did I not see at the head of af
fairs a name with which mine never can accord, I
should be with you wholly and entirely, and as soon
as General Charles Lallemand. You will recollect
the conversations we had in this free and hospitable
country. My sentiments and opinions are as un
changeable as yours; and those of my family are —
Every thing for the French people. Without doubt,
I cannot forget that my nephew, Napoleon II, was
proclaimed by the chamber, which, in 1815, was
dissolved by foreign bayonets, and also by the army
which was dispersed on the banks of the Loire, ac
cording to the wish of that family whom foreigners
imposed upon France, and on whom France has at
last done justice; as in 1815, it did justice to
vol. i. z

338 MEMOIRS
itself in quitting the country to take refuge under
the cannon of the coalition. I shall never be so
base as to abandon what I am bound to love ; but
faithful to the motto of my family — Every thing by
France, and for France — I wish to fulfil my duty
towards her, and I see in the 3,000,000 of votes
which were given for us, only obligations towards
the country, which are greater for me than for any
other Frenchman. You know my opinions, which
have long been declared. Individuals and families,
in their relations with nations, can only have duties
to perform ; the latter have rights to exercise, —
they owe justice to all.
" If the French nation should call to the head of
its affairs the most obscure family, I think that we
are bound to submit to its will wholly and entirely;
but the nation alone has the right of destroying its
own work. Governments being needful for nations,
the individuals who compose governments ought,
doubtless, to be subordinate to the wants of the
people clearly expressed. I should have come my
self to express these sentiments, had I considered
my presence useful,— had the arbitrary law, dic
tated by the foreigner, and approved by the family
imposed on our country, to neutralize its just in
fluence on the affairs of Europe, been abolished by

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 339
the authorities whom necessity gave to France after
the events of the last days of July.
" I ask then the abolition of that arbitrary law
which closes France against my family, which had
opened France to all the Frenchmen whom the re
volution had expelled. I protest against every
election made by private corporations and bodies
which have not obtained from the nation those
powers which it alone is entitled to give, and I de
clare, under all these circumstances, that I am
ready to conform to the national will legally ex
pressed, whatever that will may be, regarding every
sacrifice which the welfare of the country imposes
as a tribute which she has a right to require of her
children, and a happiness for them to perform.
" The vessel which conveys General Charles
Lallemand being on the point of sailing, I have
barely time to write these lines. I address them to
you, because of all the Frenchmen who have taken
part in the secret struggle which existed by the
force of circumstances between the nation and a go
vernment of foreigners, you are the person who has
seen me, and conversed with me here, who knows
my whole mind, and whose similarity of political
opinions with my own has given me a full and en
tire confidence in your character.
z2

340 MEMOIRS
" I have begged M.  to express my wish to
you, and I beg that you, General, will express to
the illustrious citizens who, with you, have as
sisted in raising up the national colours, my senti-
timents which you have had the opportunity of as
certaining here, and which, in all possible hypo
theses, are unalterable — wholly for the French
people. " The Emperor, my brother, when dying on the
rock of St. Helena, dictated to General Bertrand a
letter to me, in which he recommended his son to
me, and bade me an eternal farewell. This letter
terminates thus : — ' Impress unceasingly on my
son that he is before all things a Frenchman ; let
him take for his devise Tout pour le peuple franqais.'
I have fulfilled, as far as lay in my power, the duty
which this sentiment imposed on me. I know that his
son is as much a Frenchman as you and I, in des
pite of fortune ; and I hope that the moment is not
far distant when he may help me to restore to
France a portion of what we all owe her.
" Adieu, my dear General; my letter sufficiently
proves that I render justice to the sentiments you
evinced for me during the triumphal journey which
you made in that nation in which I have hved for
fifteen years. Liberty is not a mere chimera ; it is

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 341
a blessing which a wise and moderate nation may
enjoy when it will. By way of precaution, I send
a duplicate of this letter. The first copy was des
patched on the 10th instant.
" Be pleased to accept, my dear General, every
expression of my former attachment.
" Joseph Bonaparte."
General Lafayette's Answer to the
Count de Survilliers.
Paris, Nov. 26, 1830.
" Monsieur le Comte,
" I have received the letters, which you have
done me the honor to address to me, with
those sentiments of affection and respect which
I owe to the kindness you have at all times
evinced for me. My gratitude and attachment
could not but be strengthened by our late conversa
tions, when we spoke with confidence of the past,
the present, and the future.
" You must have been dissatisfied with my con
duct in recent circumstances, not that I had given
any pledge to you or to any one ; but you must
have said — ' Since Lafayette conceived himself com
pelled by circumstances to relax in the preference
he has at all times professed for purely republican

342 MEMOIRS
institutions, why has that concession favored
another family than mine? Has he forgotten that
3,000,000 of votes acknowledged the Imperial dy
nasty ? You see, my dear Count, I present the re
proach in its full force. I have deserved it, and
will now justify myself in full independence and
purity of conscience.
" When the measures of Charles X and com
pany roused the inhabitants of Paris, and pubhc
confidence placed me at the head of the patriotic
movement, my first thought, after the victory, was
to turn affairs to the best account for the cause of
freedom and my country. You may readily sup
pose that no personal consideration could connect
itself with this determination.
" The first condition of republican principles
being to respect the general will, I was withheld
from proposing a purely American constitution, — in
my opinion the best of all. To do this would have
been to disregard the wish of the majority, to risk
civil troubles, and to kindle foreign war. If I was
wrong, my mistake was at least at variance with
the inclinations I have always cherished, and even,
supposing me to have possessed vulgar ambition, it
was contrary to what might be termed my interest.
" A popular throne, in the name of the national

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 343
sovereignty, surrounded by republican institutions,
appeared to be within our attainment; this was the
programme of the barricades and of the Hotel de
Ville, of which I undertook to be the interpreter.
" The Chamber of Deputies, representing 80,000
electors, did not go so far as we did ; but it agreed
with public opinion for the expulsion of the guilty
family, and it was, like Paris and the rest of France,
urged to allay inquietude, and to come to a reso
lution. " I might content myself with observing that
your dynasty was dispersed : some were in Rome,
you in America, and the Duke of Reichstadt in the
hands of the Austrians ; but I owe to your friend
ship a candid disclosure of my sentiments.
" The Napoleon system was brilliant in glory,
but stamped with despotism, aristocracy, and
slavery,* and if there were any event which could
* After the Emperor's departure for Waterloo, Prince Lucien
had a conversation with Lafayette : — " Do you hope," said the
latter, " that your brother may be corrected?" " No," replied
Lucien; " two miracles have saved him — Marengo and Auster-
litz : he perhaps will perform a third ; but that does not depend on
himself, and in case of a defeat, two parties will rise up — one for
his son, and the other for the Duke of Orleans. I am for my ne
phew ; whom are you for, General ?" " Neither for the one nor

344 MEMOIRS
render those scourges tolerable and almost popular
in France (which Heaven forbid) , it would be the
restoration of the imperial regime. Besides, the
son of your wonderful brother has become an
Austrian Prince, and you know what the Vienna
cabinet is. These considerations, my dear Count,
in spite of the sentiments I entertain towards you
personally, did not permit me to wish for the re-
establishment of a throne which during the hun
dred days had displayed a constant tendency to
former errors.
" I scarcely knew the Duke of Orleans. Se
rious differences had existed between his father and
me. Some family relations and civilities had not
led me to visit the Palais Royal. Nevertheless, I
knew, in common with the public, that there were
to be found in that family, along with domestic vir
tues and simple tastes, little ambition, and a senti
ment truly French, to which the Emperor himself
had rendered justice. I recollected too the young
republican of 1789, the soldier of Valmy and Ge-
mappes, the professor in Switzerland and the tra-
the other," replyed Lafayette ; " as I just now observed to an
Orleanist. I remain with the people, independent of parties ; and
I hope that liberty may make the best possible bargain, without
reference to individuals."

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 345
veller in the United States. He was called Bour
bon, and that is a disagreeable name ; but as a
name, it was more than yours, more than that of
republic, a security against war. It did not pre
vent the establishing and bringing into practice the
principle and the sovereignty of the people — the
putting arms into the hands of 2,000,000 of citi
zens — choosing their own officers — the completing
of the liberty of the press, and the possession of
popular institutions. It therefore appeared to me
useful in the circumstances in which we were
placed, for the sake of peace within and without,
that the different shades of political opinion, with
the exception of Charles X's party, should unite
under this combination.
" My assent was not the effect of any prejudice
or anterior affection. I must now say, that after
four months of intimate acquaintance, sentiments
of confidence, friendship, and the interest of a
common cause have strengthened my first impres
sions. As to general assent, what was done was
not merely the work of the chambers and the
population of Paris,— of 80,000 national guards
and 30,000 spectators in the Champ-de-Mars, all
the deputations from the towns and villages of
France, which, in consequence of my functions,

346 MEMOIRS
I received in detail, — in a word, multitudes of ad
hesions, uninstigated and unquestionable, took
place, which convince us more and more that
what we have done is conformable to the will of
the great majority of the French people.
" I observe in one of your letters, which have
all been faithfully delivered, that you suspect the
Duke of Orleans of having had knowledge of a
plot against the Emperor in the Isle of Elba. He
is incapable of any thing of the kind ; and, from
what I have been told by the republican who
denounced that plot, and by Madame de Stael,
who continued in friendship with the Duke of
Orleans, I should, independent of his known
character, have been convinced that some one had
calumniated him to you.
" One of my first cares, after his elevation to
the throne, was to express a wish to him that you,
your children, and your respectable mother, might,
if you thought fit, return tranquilly to France.
The idea was very cordially received by the King ;
but objections were started on account of the
treaties with foreign Powers, which absurd and
insolent as they are, would render some negocia
tions necessary. Political circumstances have
since changed ; the diplomatic horizon is overcast;

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 347
both sides are on their guard. But it is super
fluous to dwell on these circumstances, since, in
any case, judging from the tenor of your letters,
you would not have adopted that course. I men
tion it only in reference to what I had the honor
to tell you at Burdenton.
" In the sincerity of my heart, I was anxious to
have this explanation with you. I will not say
that all happened just as I would have dictated it.
You know that in public, as well as private affairs,
we never see things go entirely to our satisfaction.
Your incomparable brother,, with all his power,
his energy, and his talent, experienced the truth
of this ; and you, his best friend, have had your
share of disappointment. I can make no con
cealment of what I voluntarily did, for I love to
preserve your friendship by candor, rather than
to destroy it by a less sincere apology.
" Receive, my dear Count, the homage of the
respect, gratitude, and affection, for which I am
pledged to you. " Lafayette."
Such are the motives which induced Lafayette
to hold himself apart from three systems, into each
of which the parties endeavored in vain to engage
him.

348 MEMOIRS

CHAPTER VII.
Lafayette adopts two great measures — The H6tel-de- Ville and
the Chamber of Deputies on the 2nd August — Lafayette insists
that every step taken shall be provisionary — Order of the day
—The visit of the Duke of Orleans to the H6tel-de- Ville—
Opposition to the Lieutenant Generalship — The popular throne
with republican institutions — Charles X wishes to retire to La
Vendee — The expedition to Rambouillet.
Lafayette waited until the representatives of
the nation should adopt in the name of the
people that first step, which none had the right to
take before them. He, however, secured the adop
tion of two great measures, which France would as
suredly neither have obtained from the government,
nor from the legislature, had they been previously
submitted to their decisions. He immediately
caused to be solemnly recognised as a preliminary
condition of every ulterior arrangement, the maxim
of the sovereignty of the people, which Napoleon

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 349
and the Bourbons had for thirty years, ranked
in the class of political chimeras, if not mis
chievous ideas. He secured both principle and
practice ; the arming of the whole nation, towns as
well as country places, and that the nation should
have the appointing of her own officers, a princi
ple which took its date from, but which the des
potism of the thirty-two last years had rejected,
as the most dangerous of institutions, and the one
most incompatible with public order, and the
maintenance of sovereignty. The reception which
the declaration of these doctrines had obtained,
whenever Lafayette ventured to give it utterance
in the tribune, convinced him of the necessity of
securing and bringing them into operation, before
either chamber or King had the opportunity of
resisting or modifying them. Who can doubt but that
if these two conditions had been formally submitted
either to the King's counsel, or to the deliberation
of the legislature, that they would have suffered
mutilation ? Is it not especially evident that the
project of composing the national guard of the
citizens at large and of investing them with the
right of electing their own officers, would have
been summarily rejected by the order of the day ?
This is so true that Lafayette had often to struggle

350 ' MEMOIRS
for the conservation of the principle he had
brought into force, and indeed on an occasion not
very distant from the three days, he was obliged
to quash, by moving the order of the day, a pro
position of the government, which went to confine
the embodying of the national guards to towns of
three thousand inhabitants and upwards.
But to return to the events which occurred on
the 2nd August, at the Chamber of Deputies and
the Hotel-de-Ville.
The members then present in Paris, had, as I
have said, elected the Duke of Orleans Lieutenant-
General of the kingdom. A deputation from the
chamber proceeded to the Hotel-de-Ville, for the
purpose of informing Lafayette of this legislative
decision, to which he gave his assent without
hesitation, constantly expressing his decided con
viction, that all which had been done was to be
considered merely provisionary, and that nothing
was definitive but the victory and sovereignty of the
people. This opinion was clearly laid down in the or
der of the day, which he published on the 2nd Au
gust and in which he said : — " In the glorious crisis
in which Parisian energy has re-conquered our
rights, every measure adopted will be provisionary;
nothing is definitive but the sovereignty of the

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

351

national rights, and the eternal remembrance of
the people's great work."
The proposal of the Lieutenant-Generalship had
been transmitted to the Duke of Orleans on the
Friday morning. That Prince having arrived the
same day at the Palais Royal, lost no time in
sending his compliments to the Hotel-de-Ville
and to Lafayette. On Saturday morning he an
nounced his visit.
The nomination of the Duke of Orleans had,
however, met with strong opposition on the part of
the combatants of July. They had nothing to
complain of in the prince personally ; but as a
Bourbon, he was an object of invincible repug
nance to the great portion of the citizens, whose
blood had been shed during the three days. The
name of Bourbon, against which the bodies of the
slain, which yet covered the Place de Greve were
so many bleeding evidences, engendered odious re
collections and deep indignation ; so that when the
Lieutenant-General arrivedatthe Hotel-de-Ville, and
some few cries of Vive le Due d'Orieans! were raised,
they were instantaneously drowned by vociferations
a thousand times repeated, of Vive la liberte'! vive
Lafayette ! This opposition was renewed more ve
hemently at the moment when the Prince entered

352 MEMOIRS
the Salle du Tr6ne, where the young men, still co
vered with the dust of the three days, responded to
the shouts of Vive le Due d'Orieans ! which the de
puties raised, by the very significant cry of Vive La
fayette ! Some proclamations, which spoke of the
Duke of Orleans in terms of eulogy, had been torn
down from the walls, and the men who had posted
them were seized and maltreated by the populace.
The Place de l'Hotel de Ville was covered with an
immense crowd of persons, among whom was often
heard the cry of Plus de Bourbons ! Every one
awaited with impatience the reception which Lafay
ette would give to the Lieutenant-General. All eyes
were fixed on these two personages. A deputy,
M. Viennet, read the declaration of the chamber,
which excited no sensation ; but when Lafayette,
extending his hand to the Duke of Orleans, pre
sented him with a tri-coloured flag, and led him to
one of the windows of the Hotel de Ville, the en
thusiasm of the people burst forth, and more fre
quent cries of Vive le Due d'Orle'ans ! were mingled
with the universal shouts of Vive Lafayette !
Things had, however, like to have assumed a serious
aspect. From the interior of the Hotel de Ville,
and under the very eyes of the Prince, dissatisfac
tion was expressed in no very equivocal terms. A

OF GENERAL LAEAYETTE. 353
general* opened a window, and, pointing out his
Royal Highness to the people, had the boldness to
address him thus :
" Monseigneur, you know our wants and our
rights ; if you forget them, we will remind you of
them." At this moment it was feared the people would
run to arms, and once more take possession of the
field of battle.
Lafayette now interposed his all-powerful au
thority with the chiefs of the insurrection, and ob
tained from them a promise that tranquillity should
not be disturbed ; pledging himself, on his part, to
obtain from the new power those guarantees which
the revolution had a right to exact, and which he
summed up in the words, " a popular throne, sur
rounded by republican institutions ;" that is to say,
the adoption of the fundamental maxims of the
sovereignty of the people, the abolition of heredit
ary peerage, the abolition of qualification, the ap
plication of the most extensive elective principle to
the municipal and communal institutions, the re-es
tablishment of the national guard on the principles
* This was General Dubourg, who has since been persecuted
with the bitterest animosity by the ministry of Louis Philippe.
VOL. I. 2 A

354 MEMOIRS
of 1791, and the suppression of monopolies contrary
, to the general interests of commerce and industry.
Lafayette, adopting these bases as the expression
of his own sentiments, went and presented them at
the Palais Royal. He returned with the assurance
that such were also the decided sentiments of the
Lieutenant-General. " You know," said he, to the Duke of Orleans,
" that I am a republican, and that I consider the
constitution of the United States as the most per
fect system that has ever existed."
" I think so too," replied the Duke of Orleans ;
" it is impossible to have lived two years in Ame
rica without being of that opinion ; but do you
think, in the situation in which France stands, and
in the present state of public opinion, we can ven
ture to adopt it here ?"
"No;" replied Lafayette, "what the French
people want at the present juncture, is a popular
throne, surrounded by repubbcan institutions."
" That is just what I think," replied the Prince.
All that passed in this interview between the
Prince and Lafayette indicated the same repubb
can sentiments on the part of his Royal Highness,
whose liberal profession went even beyond the ex
pectations of the general.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 355
Lafayette hastened to make public the engage
ment which the Lieutenant-General had entered
into with him, an engagement, which to use his
own words, " let it be appreciated as it might,
would have the effect of rallying round us, both
those who desire no monarch, and those who de
sire to have no other than a Bourbon*. It is es
sential to the history of this revolution to mention
here one of the important objects which prevented
Lafayette from paying sufficient attention to the
first steps taken by the new government and the
chamber of deputies. Whilst he was incessantly
occupied at his head quarters in re-establishing or
der in the metropolis, and organizing vast means
of defence and attack, in the event of a long re
sistance, the court and royal army were retiring
on Versailles and Rambouillet, where Charles X
had resolved to take up a position and defend it
* It is asserted, though erroneously, that Lafayette, on pre
senting the Duke of Orleans to the people, exclaimed " this the
best of republics." Lafayette has, however, explained the pur
port of his expression in a letter adressed to General Bernard,
which that officer published in the American papers. He said
speaking of the monarchy of July " this is the best we have been
able to do in the way of a republic," and not " this is the best of
republics."
2a 2

356 MEMOIRS
vigorously. From this point the dispossessed King,
hoped to raise in his favor La Vendee, and the
departments of the west with which he had already
opened communications*. Lafayette foreseeing the
probability of this design, lost no time in forming
a corps of fifteen or twenty thousand volunteers to
the command of which he appointed General Pajol,
with Colonel Jacqueminot, as the chief of his staff
and his son Georges Lafayette as his aide-de-camp.
This army, which presented so singular an ap
pearance by the diversity of costume and of arms,
the multitude of omnibusses, hackney coaches,
cabriolets, and articles of every description em
ployed to transport it to the field of battle, but
which at the same time was highly interesting from
the ardent patriotism by which it was ani
mated, set out on its march for Versailles after
being reviewed by Lafayette, in the Champs-Elysees.
The evening before, a feeble advanced guard under
the command of Colonel Poque, had been directed
upon the same point, in order to follow the move-
* General Lamarque, who shortly after took the command of
these departments, obtained the most convincing proofs of the ex
istence of this plan of civil war, which only failed through the
promptitude with which a popular army was directed on Ram
bouillet by order of Lafayette.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 357
ments of the enemy, and to demand the restora
tion of the crown jewels, which the royal family
had carried off with them. This mission gave oc
casion to the exchange of some flags of truce, and
it was whilst bearing one of these that Colonel
Poque, whose sacred character was shamefully
disregarded by a general now in active service*,
received the fire of a Swiss platoon, which killed
his horse and fractured the colonel's foot. During
the night after the departure of the patriot army
Lafayette was visited at the Hotel de Ville by a
general officer, who, having been at Rambouillet
at the time Charles X was reviewing his troops,
had profited by the opportunity of collecting the
most authentic details of the force of the royal
army. That army it appeared had forty pieces of can
non and an effective, force of twelve thousand men,
including three fine regiments of cavalry. La
fayette was not without apprehension at the thought
of a conflict in the plains of Rambouillet between
* I ought to mention here that when Lafayette ordered the
general who had directed the flag of truce to be fired on, to be
tried before a court martial, Colonel Poque had the generosity to
solicit his pardon, and to beg that his name might not be placed in
the order of the day.

358 MEMOIRS
the artillery and cavalry which he understood to
be animated by the most hostile spirit, and the
patriots whose formation had been so sudden and
incomplete. He therefore transmitted, forthwith,
the information he had just received, to General
Pajol, and directed him in case of an attack to
gain the woods, where the volunteers would not
fail to recover their superiority. Happily the
rapid and bold movement of the Parisian army had
awed the royal family, and the apprehended con*.
flict did not take place. The three commissioners
from the provisional government M.M. Maison,
Odillon Barrot and de Schonen proceeded to Ram
bouillet where it was stipulated that the crown
jewels should be restored, and that the royal family
should retire to Cherbourg by easy stages, followed
by the troops who wished to accompany them to
the frontier.
That day presented a spectacle, unparalleled in
the annals of the world ! on the one hand, a per
jured King, who had broken the fundamental
compact, proclaimed absolute power, caused his
countrymen to be mowed down by artillery and
the sabre for the space of three days, and even
ordered the arrest and execution of the very men
who held him in their power, now traversed

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 359
France, under the protection of three commis
sioners decorated with the tri-coloured cockade,
amidst a population which though still excited by in
dignation, offered no insult to misfortune so well
merited. On the other hand, fifteen or twenty-
thousand Parisian volunteers, directing their steps
homeward, without the commission of a single act
of violence. Finally, the court carriages, covered
with gilding and drawn by eight horses beauti
fully caparisoned, were loaded inside and out with
patriots, who rent the air with laughter at finding
themselves seated on the velvet cushions of royalty.
But they nevertheless respected those relics of chas
tised vanity.
Subjoined is the order of the day, which La
fayette published on the termination of this adven
turous expedition.
Order of the Day of the 5th August.
" So many miracles have occurred during the
past week, that we must henceforth cease to
wonder at any thing achieved by courage and de
votion. The general-in-chief, however, thinks it
his duty to express the public gratitude and his
own, for the promptitude and zeal with which the

360 MEMOIRS
national guard and the volunteer corps, marched
the road to Rambouillet, to check the last resis
tance of the ex-royal family. He also owes thanks
to the brave men of Rouen, Louviers and Elbeuf,
who, coming to our assistance in brotherly union,
could not better fulfil that object, than by joining
the expeditionary army, under the orders of Ge
neral Pajol and Colonel Jacqueminot.
" In contemplating the services rendered to
their country by the people of Paris, and the young
men of the schools, there is no good citizen who
is not filled with admiration, confidence, and I
may add respect, at the sight of that glorious uni
form of the Polytechnic school, which in the mo
ment of the crisis, made each individual a host in
the conquest of liberty, and the maintenance of
pubhc order. The general-in-chief begs the pupils
of the Polytechnic school to select one of their
comrades to remain with him as his aid-de camp.
" Colonel Poque, the general-in-chief's aid-de
camp, was despatched four hours ago, by the pro
visional commissioners and the general to follow
the retreat of the royal troops, and to terminate a
mission of patriotism and generosity. Whilst await
ing the return of a flag of truce, the colonel was
fired on and severely wounded. A strict enquiry

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 361
will be instituted upon this proceeding. The ge
neral-in-chief confines himself at present to making
known the intrepid, intelligent and generous con
duct of Colonel Poque, and to rendering justice to
the young M. Dubois, who on this occasion evinced
remarkable intelligence and courage, as well as to
the brave brigadier of cuirassiers, Pradier, and
some others, who were near the colonel at the
time. " The brave volunteers who under the com
mand of their intrepid leader Joubert performed
such deeds of valor during the three great days,
again distinguished themselves under the command
of the same chief, by their zeal in the expedition
to Rambouillet.
" Our brothers in arms of the patriotic town of
Havre, also marched to us; they yesterday en
tered the capital to unite with us. " Lafayette."

362 MEMOIRS

CHAPTER VIII.
Fresh irritation in Paris — Opening of the Session of 1830 — La
fayette preserves the independence of the chamber — His in
fluence gives umbrage to the new government — He declares
himself against the hereditary peerage — History of the Charte-
Berard — It is wished that the abdication of Charles X and the
Dauphin should be the principle on which the throne is pro
nounced vacant — Secret document and curious details on this
subject. During the expedition to Rambouillet, renewed
irritation appeared in Paris. The charter, as mo-
' dified by M. Berard, was published. This crude
plan of a constitution, remodelled upon one which
had just expired, was far from satisfying the ex
pectations of the revolutionary party, because it
consecrated the principal abuses of the old system,
and repelled all idea of national sanction. Besides
there was a wish to vote for the peerage, which
excited-a- general burst of indignation among the
men of July. They raised a cry of treason ! this

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 363
was on the 3rd of August, the day appointed by
the government of Charles X, for the meeting of
the chambers. The deputies attached great im
portance to the opening of the revolutionary ses
sion on that day. It did open, and two sittings
took place during the day. The sitting of the
evening had hardly commenced, when a tumub-
tuous crowd appeared before the doors of the
chamber, with the manifest intention of dis
solving it by force. The exasperation of the
young men rose to a higher pitch than ever ; the
members who entered the hall of the assembly,
heard threatening reproaches ring through the
passage ; in a word the tumult was at its height,
when Lafayette arrived by the great court on the
opposite side. Finding the chamber in a state of
great agitation, and prepared to resist courageously
this violation of its liberty, he asked where the
tumult was, and presenting himself forthwith to
the crowd, who were rending the air with groans
and vociferations, he addressed them in the fol
lowing terms: " My friends, it was my duty to
take measures for defending the chamber against
every attack, which might be made upon its in
dependence ; I neglected to do so, and I acknow
ledge my error in that neglect; but I never con-

364 MEMOIRS
templated, after all that passed during the revolu
tion, the violence which has this day been mani
fested; I have no force to oppose to you, but if
the liberty of the chamber is violated, the disgrace
will light upon me, who am entrusted with the
maintenance of public order. I therefore leave
my honor in your hands, and I count upon your
friendship for me, as a security that you will de
part peaceably." At these words, the storm sub
sided and all exclaimed: " Come, let us depart!
vive Lafayette !" the chamber was then restored
to freedom of deliberation.
But it was not with impunity that the mere
voice of Lafayette, effected in this crisis, what the
combined influence of the other members attempt
ed in vain. The personal popularity, he enjoyed
among all classes, high and low, became the germ
of enmity and jealousy, which soon broke out,
when the dangers, with which the trial of the
ministers menaced the new order of things was past.
Before the public discussion of the new charter,
some deputies were invited to the Palais-Royal,
to the reading of the draft, on the drawing up of
which Lafayette was not consulted. At this
meeting MM. Georges Lafayette, Victor de Tracy,
and Lafayette himself were present. The docu-

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 365
ment was read over hastily, and in order to pre
vent comments, the pretext was artfully made,
that the chamber was waiting. Lafayette, how
ever, was struck with the ambiguous and unsatis
factory nature of the article relative to the abolition
of the peerage, which had been so strongly de
manded at the Hotel-de-Ville. The draught was
altered in the chamber, at the instance of several
deputies, and in consequence of some severe re
marks, which Lafayette delivered in the tribune.
He said: " Gentlemen, ifi am about to advance
an opinion, which is contested by many friends of
liberty, I shall not, I imagine, be suspected of
having been seduced by enthusiasm, or of courting
a popularity, which I shall never prefer to my
duty. The republican sentiments, which I have
declared at all times, and before every power, do
not hinder me from being the defender of a con
stitutional throne. Thus, gentlemen, in the pre
sent crisis of affairs, it seems proper that we should
erect another national throne, and I must say,
that my approval of the Prince, with the choice
of whom we are now occupied, was corroborated
the more I know of him. But I differ with many
of you upon the question of hereditary peerage.
I am a disciple of the American school, and I have

366 MEMOIRS
always thought, that the legislative power should
be divided between two bodies, with some diffe
rence in their organization. But I never could
comprehend, how legislators and judges could be
hereditary. Aristocracy, gentlemen, is a bad in
gredient in political institutions. I therefore, de
clare decidedly that I vote, for the aboli
tion of hereditary peerages, and at the same time,
I pray my colleagues not to forget that if I have
always been the supporter of liberty, I have also
never ceased to be the supporter of public order."
These words sealed the death warrant of the
peerage. I must now call the reader's attention to the
Charte-Berard, upon the origin of which so many
conjectures have been ventured. I am better qua
lified to describe its history, since through my
connection with its author, when we were both
contributors to the Journal du Commerce, I was
enabled during the memorable days, to enrich my
portfolio with some notes, which he had left in the
office, and to ascertain all the circumstances of his
conduct. It is wrong to accuse M. Berard of having, at
this juncture, accepted a ready made part. The
first idea of the important measure which he

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 367
subsequently proposed, belongs to himself entirely ;
and the following is a correct account of the
vicissitudes his charter passed through, before it
was declared to be the law of the state.
On Wednesday, the 3rd of August, at ten
o'clock at night, M. Berard, whilst discoursing at
M. Laffitte's with M.M. Etienne and Cauchois
Lemaire, upon the dangers of longer leaving an
opening for the ambitious projects which were in
agitation, conceived and communicated the idea of
putting an end to them by proposing that the
chamber should declare the forfeiture of Charles
X, and to proclaim the Duke of Orleans, under
conditions so rigorous and precise, that it should be
impossible for that prince to evade them. This
project was approved of by the few patriots to
whom it was communicated, and M. Berard re
turned home to draw up the scheme of the
following plan of the proposition : "A solemn
compact united the French people to their
monarch. This compact has been broken. The
rights which it created have ceased to exist. The
violation of the contract can have no right to
demand that it should be carried into execution.
" Charles the Xth and his son in vain pretend
to transmit a power which they no longer possess ;

368 MEMOIRS
that power is extinguished in the blood of many
thousand victims.
"The act which you have heard read* is a
perfidy. The appearance of legality with which
it is invested, is a mere deception. It is a brand
of discord which is attempted to be thrown amidst
us. " The enemies of our country resort to every
expedient ; they clothe themselves in all colours ;
they affect all opinions. If a desire for undefined
liberty inflames some generous minds, these ene
mies eagerly turn to their own advantage, a sen
timent which they are incapable of understanding.
Ultra royahsts exhibit themselves in the colors of
rigid republicans. Others affect for the son of
the conqueror of Europe a hypocritical attachment
which would soon be converted into hatred, if it
were seriously proposed to make him the
sovereign of France.
" The inevitable instability of the existing
resources of government encourages the promoters
of discord. Let this state of things exist no
* This proposition was to be read in the sitting in which
Charles X's act of abdication, and the renunciation of the Dauphin
were communicated to the chamber.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 369
•
longer. A supreme law, that of necessity, placed
arms in the hands of the people of Paris to repel
oppression. This law has induced us to adopt, as
a provisionary leader, and as a means of safety,
a Prince, who is the sincere friend of constitutional
institutions. The same law requires that we
should adopt this Prince for the definitive head
of our government.
" But, however great may be the confidence
with which he inspires us, the rights we are called
upon to defend require that we should fix the
conditions upon which he will obtain power.
Shamefully deceived as we have repeatedly been,
we may be excused for stipulating for rigid
guarantees. Our institutions are incomplete,
vicious, even in some respects : we must extend
and perfect them. The Prince, Who is at our
head, has even anticipated our just demands. The
principles of many fundamental laws have been
proposed by the chamber and recognized by him.
" The re-establishment of the national guard
with their participation ; the choice of their officers ;
the participation of the citizens in the formation of
departmental and municipal administrations ; the
trial by jury for offences of the press ; the re
sponsibility of ministers, and of the secondary
vol. i. 2 b

370 MEMOIRS
agents of the government ; the fixing of the con
dition of soldiers legally fixed ; the re-election of de
puties promoted to public offices ;— these conditions
are always secured to us. Public opinion requires
further that there should no longer be a vain
toleration of all religions, but the estabhshment of
their perfect equality by law; the expulsion of
foreign troops from the national army ; the abo
lition of the old and new nobility ; the right of
originating laws to be given to the three powers
equally ; the suppression of the double electoral
vote ; a suitable reduction of the age, and the
pecuniary qualifications of voters ; finally, the
total re-construction of the peerage, the funda
mental bases of which have been successively
vitiated by prevaricating ministers.
" Gentlemen, we are sent here by the people ;
they have confided to us the defence of their inter
ests, and the duty of expressing their wants.
Their first wants, their dearest interests are
liberty and repose. They have conquered their
liberty ; it is our duty to secure them repose ; and
we cannot do so except by giving them a stable and
just government. Vainly would some persons pre
tend, that in taking this course we shall overstep
the limits of our duty. Mv answer to this futile

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 371
objection is, the law which I have already invoked,
is that of imperious and invincible necessity.
' Upon the faith of the strict and vigorous exe
cution of the conditions herein enumerated, which
must previously be stipulated and sworn to by the
monarch, I propose, gentlemen, that we should im
mediately proclaim Lieutenant-General Prince Phi
lippe of Orleans, King of the French."
On the morning of the 4th of August, M. Berard
communicated this proposition to several deputies,
amongst whom were M. Dupont de l'Eure, then mini
ster of justice, and M. Laffitte. Both promised to
mention it to the council. At noon, M. Berard pro
ceeded to the chamber, where, before the opening
of the sitting, he considered it his duty to commu
nicate his intention to a great number of his col
leagues, from whom, generally, it experienced a
strong opposition. In the meantime the provi
sional ministers arrived at the Palais Bourbon, and
assured M. Berard that his project had obtained
the assent of the council ; but that the Duke of
Orleans earnestly beseeched him to suspend his
proposition, for the purpose of giving it a still
greater extension for the interests of Liberty ! ! '•
They added that the Prince had conceived the idea
of applying immediately to the charter the princi-
2 b 2

372 MEMOIRS
pies laid down in M. Berard's proposition ; and that
he would be summoned in the evening to the coun
cil, to discuss with the members of the cabinet the
alterations which it might be deemed fit to make in it.
M. Berard however was not sent for by the ministers,
who excused themselves by saying, that the council
wished first to argue amongst themselves with re
spect to some points under deliberation, which they
had not yet been able to do ; but that assuredly he,
M. Berard, would be requested to attend the meet
ing of the council that evening. This second pro
mise had the same fate as the first."
On Friday morning, the 5th of August, M. Be
rard went to M. Guizot, to whom he complained
warmly, both of the delay which his proposition
experienced and of the incivility of the conduct
observed towards him. M. Guizot, then, with
visible embarrassment, presented to him a new pro
position, in the hand-writing of the Duke of Bro-
glie, which contained the views of the doctrinaires,
who had possessed themselves of power.
I subjoin the original text of this curious docu
ment which I recommend to the attention of my
readers, as the type of the ideas which then go
verned, and have since constantly directed the
policy of the men of the restoration, to whom the

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 373
revolution of July was, in a fatal hour, confided.
In this we must look for the origin of that mon
strous anomaly which M. Guizot soon ventured to
introduce into our public law, under the curious
denomination of quasi le'gitimite'.
The chamber of deputies taking into con
sideration, &c.
" Seeing the act of abdication of his Ma
jesty Charles the Tenth, dated the 2d of Au
gust LAST, AND THE RENUNCIATION OF LOUIS An-
toine, the Dauphin, of the same day;
" Considering, besides, that his Majesty
Charles the Tenth, his Royal Highness Louis
Antoine, the Dauphin, and all the members of
the eldest branch of the royal house have at
the present moment quitted the French terri
tory ;
" Declares that the throne is vacant and
that it is indispensible, that the vacancy
should be filled up."
The representative's qualification of 1,000 francs,
and the elector's qualification of 300 francs were
carefully preserved in this project, which as cau
tiously abstained from proposing any modification
in the composition of the chamber of peers. M.
Guizot had merely added the following marginal

374 memoirs
note in his own hand writing : — " All appoint
ments and creation of Peers made in the reign of
his Majesty Charles X are declared null and void."
What, however, is most worthy of observation
in this document, is the class of opinions under
which the two directing ministers had already
placed themselves. What use then did MM. de
Broglie and Guizot wish to make of the considera
tion introduced into their proposition ? With what
view had they stipulated for the abdication of
Charles X, and the renunciation of the Dauphin,
if not to favor the pretensions of a third minor ?
In fact the necessity of the abdication, and of the
renunciation being once admitted, the Duke of
Bordeaux alone remained by law King of France.
However, it was rationally impossible, from these
principles to deduce any thing favorable to the
royalty of Louis-Philippe, and in order to avoid
being struck with the absurdity of this combina
tion, it would be necessary to give credit to the
existence of a certain protest published in the
English journals at the time of the Duke of
Bordeaux's birth, which was republished some
weeks after the events of July, and remained un
contradicted by the Duke of Orleans to whom it
was attributed. At all events, it was at least

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 375
evident that the doctrinaire ministers wished
thenceforth to create a legitimate monarchy for
Louis-Philippe ;— a pretension which sufficiently
explains both the conduct of the first administra
tion and that of the existing cabinet, whose prin
ciples are exactly the same.
Be this as it may, M. Berard on receiving M.
Broglie's draft from M. Guizot, declared that it
expressed principles of which he could not become
the organ, and announced his intention of modify
ing them. Time, however, pressed : it was nine
o'clock, and the chamber was to assemble at noon
for the purpose of having his proposition commu
nicated to it. It was in this short interval of time
that he rivetted the compact, which was destined
to unite France to the royalty of the barricades.
When M. Berard met M. Guizot at the post of
the tribune, he said, " I have made great altera
tion in your work." — " So much the worse,"
replied the man of the doctrine, " for you will
never be forgiven for it." A reflective mind will
see that this expression comprehends within it the
whole system which is now unfolding itself.
I have no wish to be the apologist for M.
Berard's composition — I have already said, that
it is merely an indigested assemblage of the most

376 . memoirs
incoherent propositions. However, if on the
one hand we reflect on the precipitation with
which he was obliged to determine upon it in
the shape in which it finally appeared, and on the
other hand we compare his first sketch with the
proposition introduced from on high — if moreover
we take into consideration the elements of which
the chamber was composed, we can conceive the
difficulty of this honorable deputy's position, and
perhaps may attribute to circumstances rather than
to his political convictions, the vices by which
the charter of 1830 has been stained.

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 377

CHAPTER IX.
Vain hopes— Lafayette objects to the new King taking the name
of Philippe V — Enthronement of Louis- Philippe — Why
Lafayette accepted the command of the national guards —
What he did for that institution — Review of the 29th August
1830 — The moment for Europe to ask for peace, and for
France to grant it.
The new charter thus suddenly improvized, as
suredly fell short of what victory was entitled to
demand, and more particularly fell short of the
hopes which so noble a triumph had excited.
Still the distance was already great between the
new constitution and the granted charter ; between
the republican forms which were yet respected,
and the servile forms of the court which a few days
before had oppressed France. The most ardent
friends of the revolution could still dream of
justice, Uberty, glory, a throne protecting the
rights of the people, and an indissoluble compact
between the government and the nation. As for

378 memoirs
myself I confess, I believed that the dreams of my
youth were realized, for it was to the sound of the
music of the Parisienne and the Marseillaise,
executed beneath the peristyle of the chamber,
that the Lieutenant-General appeared for the first
time in the bosom of the national representation ;
and relying on the duration of a future which had
been so long expected, I imagined that I should
be able to exclaim with the old man Simeon, Nunc
dimittis. . . . Alas !
It had been decided that the throne should be
offered to the Duke of Orleans, and that the new
monarch should take the name of Louis-Philippe
V. This was the first attempt of counter-revolu
tion, to renew that chain of time which the barri
cades had so unceremoniously interrupted. La
fayette objected to this denomination, which he
called unworthy of a republican monarchy, that
ought to have nothing in common with the pre
tensions and tinsil show of the ancient kings of
France ; manliness on this occasion triumphed
over doctrinaire courtliness, and the Duke of
Orleans wrote with his own hand these English
words:—" You have gained your point; it shall
be as you wish it."
It was indeed a glorious spectacle to witness

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 379
the enthronement of a King issuing from the
midst of the people entering the sanctuary of the
laws, to the sound of the popular songs of 1792,
blended with the patriotic inspirations of 1830,
and modestly seated on a stool until the delegated
of the nation should permit him to take his
place on the throne. Who will ever forget it ?
The people were still in all the dignity of their
power, and never were the relations of the creation
nearer to the creator more religiously observed.
Cries of vive le Due d'Orieans, and not of vive le roi
resounded from the benches and the tribunes. The
president of the chamber M. Casimir Perier having
read the new charter to the Duke of Orleans,
and the Prince having declared that he accepted it,
honest Dupont de l'Eure presented it to him to
sign and to swear to. A King standing addressed
his seated people ; and finally when authorized he
seated himself on the throne for the first time,
and was saluted with the title of Monarch. Such
were the last homages that were rendered to the
sovereignty of the French people.
When the Lieutenant-General arrived at the
Hotel-de-Ville his first care had been earnestly to
solicit Lafayette to retain his function of com
mandant-general of the national guards of the

380 memoirs
kingdom. The prince reiterated this request on
ascending the throne, adding that it was the most
efficacious, perhaps the only means of consohdating
his work. Lafayette believing that in fact circum
stances required that this command should still
continue in his hands, consented to retain it pro
visionally, although as I have previously stated
he had refused it forty years before, because he
was of opinion that it conferred too exorbitant and
dangerous a power upon any single man.
The following is the order of the day which he
published on this occasion:
" Amidst the powers created by the necessities
of our situation, the re-organization of the national
guards is a measure of defence and public order
demanded on all sides. It is the opinion (and I
feel that it is complimentary to me) of the Prince
who executes the high functions of Lieutenant-Ge
neral of the kingdom, that I ought for the present to
take the command of the national guard. I re
fused to do so in 1790 when solicited by 3,000,000
of my comrades because the office would have
been permanent and might one day have become
dangerous. Now circumstances are different_and

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 381
I believe it to be my duty, in order to secure liberty
and my country, to accept the office of commandant
general of the national guards of France.
" Lafayette."
This is the proper time to recall to memory the
services rendered by Lafayette to his country in the
brief exercise of his important command. At the
name of their general, the national guards rose up
and embodied themselves in all places as if by en
chantment. All his watchings, all his solicitudes
were devoted to this national re-armament without
which he has always thought there could not be
any guarantee for liberty. A great part of his time
was absorbed which he hastened to establish
between his head quarters and the staffs of all the
national guards of the kingdom. In particular he
attached great importance to the creation of a citi
zen artillery of which a great number of companies
were already organized and in possession of 350
pieces of cannon at the moment of his retirement.
He was obliged himself to name the chiefs of legions
in order that they should serve from the very begin
ning to the ulterial organization ; but faithful to
the principles of 1791 he hastened to place these

!

382 MEMOIRS
appointments to the disposal of citizens as soon as
circumstances would permit him to do so*. This
right which is essentially national, Lafayette de
fended shortly afterwards against the opinion of
the commission which declared it to be a preroga
tive of the crown, and he also contended in the tri
bune that canton battalions ought to be founded
upon a general and vigorous principle and not
abandoned to the pleasure of the king. Lafayette
joined to his staff the colonels and lieutenant-colo
nels of legions of the artillery and of the cavalry in
order to concert with them, not only as to the means
of perfecting the organization of the citizen army,
but also as to the measures necessary to be taken
for the maintenance of public order and the better
distribution of duty.
His mornings were generally devoted to the re
ception of numerous deputations from national
guards and departmental municipalities who flocked
from all parts to present him their homage, and to
solicit arms the delivery of which never failed to

* By an order of the day of the 22nd of August he authorised
colonels to proceed in their respective legions in the appointment
of colonels and lieutenant-colonels in conformity with the fcrms
prescribed by the law in If 1)1.

A- s- ,.yy/'f y-///v/ ;/?*> (//•ay'/rffu.J!- <¦/¦ /ft r/f,'J''"/'' /fa'/''/?'7"

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 383
excite emotions and struggles which his officers
alone were able to perceive and appreciate. Finally,
thanks to the unbounded confidence with which he
inspired the country, to his assiduous cares, to his
patriotic perseverance and perhaps also to the fear
which the government had of resisting him at a
moment when the heir to the throne came to ask
his permission to serve as a simple artillery man
in the national guard, thanks to all this, France
already numbered seventeen hundred thousand or
ganized national guards appointing their own offi
cers, armed and clothed for the greater part and
full of ardor and patriotism.
Who is there that does not still thrill with en
thusiasm at the recollection of the review on the
29th of August when 60,000 national guards or
ganized, as if by a miracle, perfectly armed and
equipped came to the Champ de Mars to receive
their colors from the hands of Louis Philippe who j
then still honored himself by being only their first
magistrate? What guarantees! What glory! What
liberty! What prosperity did this magnificent ex
hibition promise ! Fifty-two battalions or squadrons
of citizen soldiers worthy of comparison for steadi
ness and military precision with the old bands of
the grand army, wearied with the acclamation of

384 MEMOIRS
the 300,000 spectators presented a spectacle even
more brilhant than that of the federation of 1790.
It was then that Louis Philippe threw himself into
the arms of Lafayette crying " This is dearer to me
than a coronation at Rheims," and the troops and
the people answered to their embrace by cries of
"vive le roi! vive Lafayette." Touching and
grand union which promised bases of granite for
the throne of Louis Philippe ! Then again the other
review which some weeks afterwards exhibited
70,000 national guards united under the flag, and
then those 20,000 men of the department of the
Seine-et-Oise whom the King and Lafayette in
spected at Versailles, all soldiers and citizens all
demanding and inspiring confidence — who will ever
forget them ? With what confidence might not the
throne of July then have promised and com
manded peace. Peace! it was for the kings of Eu
rope to demand it; for Louis-Philippe to grant it.
Fifteen days after the fall of a perjured King who
had slaughtered his people, an immense army
was raised for liberty, order and independence,
and behind this civic phalanx, were 100,000 work
men ready to save their country as they had saved
the capital ; and in all the rest of France 3,000,000
of citizens eagerly organizing themselves against

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 385
the enemies of our independence, of liberty and
public order! Yes, this day ought to have termi
nated the course of our long vicissitudes. The
name of king was re-established in France who
extended his hand to all citizens, and whom all in
terests saluted as their protector. Yes, on the
29th of August, a month after the expulsion of
Charles the X, the revolution commenced forty
years previously might have ended in the princi
ple of popular sovereignty and citizen monarchy !
But that was not wished: the revolution is again
in motion: the crown and liberty still stand in awe
of each other: France is no longer advancing in
aggrandizement: she is growing less.
Who on reading the following documents, would
not believe that an indissoluble alliance had been
formed between Louis-Philippe and Lafayette.
Order of the day of the 30th of August, 1830.
" The noble review of yesterday, the admirable
appearance of the citizen army, whose rapid for
mation is in harmony with the rapidity of the
triumph of liberty, the manner in which the na
tional guard presented themselves under arms, and
'defiled before the King excited the enthusiasm of
vol. i. 2 c

386 memoirs
the immense population which surrounded us, and
the just eulogies of generals, whom victory has
long since qualified to be the best military judges.
The presence of our brave countrymen, wounded
in the grand week, and of many deputations from
our brothers in arms in the departments, completed
the enjoyment of this memorable day. The gene
ral-in-chief confines himself this day, to congra
tulating himself in common with his comrades of
the Parisian national guard, on the superb and
patriotic spectacle, which they have exhibited
upon this memorable occasion. What expressions
indeed could he employ, after those contained in
the speech delivered by the King, on giving us the
flags, and those contained in the letter, which he
hastens to communicate to his brothers in arms ?"
Speech delivered by the King on presenting
the Flags.
" My dear Comrades,
" I feel pleasure in presenting to you these co
lors ; it is with lively satisfaction that I restore
them to him, who forty years ago, stood at the
head of your fathers, on the same spot.
These colors have marked the dawn Of liberty
amongst us ; the sight of them reminds me with

OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 387
delight of my first efforts in arms. Symbols of vic
tory, against the enemies of the state, be these
flags also the pledge of domestic order and liberty!
be these glorious colours, which I confide to your
fidelity, our rallying sign. Vive la France !
Letter from the King to General Lafayette.
" I long in the first place to know, my dear Ge
neral, how you are after this interesting day, for
I fear you must be greatly fatigued ; but I have
another object deeply at heart : which is to request
you will be my interpreter to that glorious national
guard, whose patriarch you are, and to testify to
them all the admiration with which they have
impressed me. Tell them they have not only
surpassed my expectations, but that it is not
possible to express all the joy and happiness they
have afforded me. A witness to the confederation
of 1790, in this same Champ-de-Mars ; a witness
also of the grand effort of 1792, when I saw forty-
eight battalions, raised within three days, by the city
of Paris, arrive to join our army of Champagne,
and which so eminently contributed towards re
pelling the invasion, that we had the happiness to
arrest at Valmy, I am enabled to draw a compari-
2 c 2

388 , MEMOIRS
son, and with transport I assure you, that what
I have just witnessed, is infinitely superior to what
I then considered so complete, and our enemies
found so formidable. Have the further goodness,
my dear General, to express to the national guard,
my deep sense of the affection they have shewn
me, and with which my heart is penetrated.
Your affectionate, Louis-Philippe.
Quantum mutatus ab Mo !

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 389

CHAPTER X.
Motives which divert the Attention of Lafayette from the For-
mation of the King's Council. — He demands the Emancipa
tion of People of Colour. — He presents to the King the
Persons condemned for Political Offences. — Conduct of
Power towards those brave Men.
The numerous occupations, which results so
rapid and important, imposed upon Lafayette,
could not but divert his attention from the forma
tion of the king's councils. He is even charged,
and perhaps justly, with having suffered power to
fall into the hands of the doctrinaires and in gene
ral, of the men of the restoration. This indiffe
rence, become so mischievous, is accounted for
by the character of Lafayette, to whom authority
was always oppressive, and for whom current
affairs never had any attraction. Accustomed to
find his advantages in crises, he was at all times
guilty of the fault — and no slight one in a states-

390 MEMOIRS OF
man — of disdaining intrigues and especially all
those of which he could personally be the object.
This disregard of the petty machinations of the
palace became a capital fault, at the close of a
revolution which had been directed at least as
much against men as against things. Never
theless, if we take away a few names associated
with melancholy recollections, we must admit
that the direction given to affairs by the first
ministry of Louis Philippe exhibited at the outset
nothing alarming for the revolution, at least as far
as regarded the avowed and ostensible objects of
that cabinet.
The faction which soon afterwards set itself up
for the arbiter of our destinies, had not yet tried
to re-model the restoration ; it appeared to be
labouring solely to find for France, a suitable
pasture, a point of support ou the new ground
ufion which the events of July had thrown it.
The revolution of 1830 too, had itself affected a
multitude of interests, deranged numerous esta
blishments, wounded a great many vanities ; the
situation was studded with rocks and shoals and
tottering power demanded support from all
comers. Experienced patriots, on their part, re
membered that our preceding revolution had

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 391
committed faults ; that the struggle in which it
had found itself engaged had rendered it violent ;
that it had frightened many, overshot its mark, in
many cases swept away the good with the evil,
and ultimately established despotism to put an
end to anarchy.
This predominant idea commanded caution, and
required at least that, before people attacked the
new government, they should wait till it was
settled and had unfolded its system. All the
organs of liberal opinion, whatever might be the
shades of their peculiar doctrines, rallied with
frankness around the authority sprung from the
barricades ; and this almost unanimous support
given to the depositaries of power during the
first six months of their administration, is not one
of the slightest proofs of the progress which poli
tical reason had made among us. Many of the
men of July, and we may say the greater number
of those who were implicated in the revolution
then supported the ministry, at the same time
deploring the dangerous tendency to which it had
abandoned itself. Some rare exceptions would
not invalidate this observation.
Since that time these men have learned much ;
they have been deceived, and experience has

392 MEMOIRS OF
condemned them to the condition of decided
oppositionists ; but not till they saw the system
of the restoration, fearlessly developing itself,
doing a great deal of mischief, and meditating
more. For this reason, too, Lafayette abstained
at first from making any opposition to the do
mestic politics of the government of July, which
might have been the signal for fresh resistance,
and have raised serious obstacles.
Nevertheless, amidst the labours with which
he was overwhelmed by the re-organisation of
the National Guard, he did not lose sight of
some important points on which it was necessary
that the government should explain itself without
delay. Among these were the definitive esta
blishment and recognition of the rights of free
people of colour in the colonies, an important
question, of which all the efforts of the opposition
under the preceding government could not obtain
a solution. The Minister of the Marine, chal
lenged by Lafayette, replied from the tribune that
the new royalty regarded all the citizens of our
colonies as perfectly equal, and that it admitted
of no inferiority or superiority founded on diffe
rence of colour. This was a great point gained
for the cause of humanity, and much also for the

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 393
patriot who was the first in France to attempt the
gradual enfranchisement of slaves, and had de
voted a considerable part of his fortune to this
philanthropic work.
One of the first cares of Lafayette, was also to
ascertain the sentiments of the new power, re
specting the fate of the patriots condemned for
political offences during the reigns of Louis
XVIIL and Charles X. In the decision which he
demanded of the government respecting these
noble victims, he beheld not only a satisfaction
due to justice, but a new consecration of the
principle of resistance to oppression, and to the
violation of the laws. It was, therefore, a great
scandal to the party of the doctrinaires, who
already began to be dejected about the young court
of Louis Philippe, when one day, on which the
saloons of the Palais-Royal were filled with de
putations from all parts of France, an aide-de
camp on duty was heard calling in a loud voice :
The gentlemen condemned for political offences — and
Lafayette, advancing at their head, and saying to
the King, " Here are the political offenders ;
they are presented to you by an accomplice."
The king received them with the most touching
affability, and reminding several of these generous

394 MEMOIRS OF
citizens of the persecutions which they had un
dergone, to his great regret, he promised all of
them the warmest interest and a speedy indemni
fication for their long sufferings. What was the
result of these promises? — the complaints of these
brave men has proclaimed it to the country, to
which it is daily repeated by their indigence.
Repulsed by all the administrations, exposed to
the disdain of the sycophants of all colours who
beset the royalty of the barricades, the persons
condemned for political offences go dying of
hunger before the eyes of the throne to which
they served for a pedestal. History wiU record
that men who for fifteen years, sacrificed every
thing for their country, found in it nothing but
earth and water, after the glorious revolution of
July. What a monument of the gratitude of
kings.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 395

CHAPTER XL
Influence of the Revolution of July on the Nations of Europe. —
It extends over both Worlds. — Sympathy of England. — Two
systems of Foreign Politics divide the Patriots. — Non-inter
ference as understood by Lafayette. — System of the Doc
trinaires. — Consequences.
Our revolution in July was the signal for the
most important events of all kinds. It made the
people leap with joy and hope ; the despots shake
with fear and rage ; the whole world felt itself
agitated by an irresistible sentiment of liberty.*
But of all these phenomena, the most remarkable
was the concord of the popular sympathies ex-
* This great event re-echoed even in India. At Delhi, the
holy city, the people and the authorities, Indian and English,
celebrated it in a magnificent entertainment, to which M.
Jacquemont, a French naturalist, then in that distant region,
was invited — the inhabitants of the banks of the Ganges drink
ing to the men of the barricades, and shouting Lafayette for
ever ! — what a subject of meditation for the politician and the
philosopher !

396 MEMOIRS OF
pressed on all sides in favour of the Parisians.
Forgetting every motive of division and rivalry
with ancient France, all nations, without excep
tion, mingled their wishes for the success of the
sacred cause that had triumphed at the barricades ;
they were one family of confederate nations,
alike called upon to participate in the advantages
of an immense social and political renovation. In
short, the revolution of July appeared like a be
nefit felt by the whole human race, and for which
the civilized world testified profound gratitude to
the people farthest advanced in civilization. It
was an event which exalted the dignity of our
common nature, and elevated the character of
every nation. There was not a tyrant in the
world but trembled, not a slave but felt his chains
lightened in contemplating France. The Eng
lish in particular seemed as if they could not ex
press sufficient enthusiasm. Whigs, tories, and
radicals, churchmen, presbyterians, methodists,
and catholics, rich and poor, all the parties that
cover the face of Great Britain admired us in the
combat, admired us after the victory, and pros
trated themselves before the people which had, in
three days, been able to raise itself out of eight
ages of disgrace, and to reduce a monarchy, the

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 397
offspring of conquest, in the infancy of the social
state, so as to be henceforward but a simple form
of government, open to all the improvements of
the future.
Who is there but remembers those numerous
deputations which poured from all parts of Eng
land, Scotland, and Ireland, to congratulate the
great nation, and the great citizen whom it had
placed at its head ! And what language was that
held by these free men ? Listen for a moment to
the leader of the London deputation, bringing to
the Hotel de Ville the good wishes and the offer
ings of that great city. " The imperfect lesson
given by our country," said he, "you have en
larged and completed. The world owes you an
immense debt of gratitude. For our parts we
acknowledge it, and will endeavour to make it be
acknowledged : the victory which you have won
is that of humanity, and we are proud of you who
have so nobly established its rights and performed
its duties."
" You have bravely fought for liberty," such
was the address of the inhabitants of London ;
" you have made a noble use of victory ; we sin
cerely congratulate you upon it. History has few
pages the glory of which is untarnished, but it

398 MEMOIRS OF
has none more brilliant" than that of your glorious
revolution to transmit to future ages. May pa
triotism resort to it to meditate its sublime duties,
and heroism derive from it its loftiest lessons !
Ardently do we wish that the liberty which has
been established by so signal a triumph may be
perpetuated among you from age to age ; that
under its sacred auspices the reign of peace and
public prosperity may be omnipotent, and that at
the foot of their altars we may bury every vestige
of jealousy and animosity. We here solemnly
express the conviction that the mighty interest of
liberty is the grand and general interest of the
human race."*
The enthusiasm of the English for the courage
of the Parisians was not confined to these demon
strations. They resolved to furnish a more po
sitive act of adhesion to the principles for which
the men of July had fought and conquered. In
all the newspaper offices, in all the govermerit
offices, in all the parishes of the three kingdoms,
subscriptions were opened for the relief of the
wounded, and of the families of the patriots who
had fallen during the three great days. The
municipal magistrates of towns and villages sum-
* Moniteur, August 28, 1830.

Meyers ConfZt* ,V-°/J

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 399
moned public meetings, as well to give a solemn
character to these acts of national adhesion, as to
make arrangements relative to the subscriptions.
In short, these testimonies of approbation were
deemed so important, that in order to enable
every person to concur in themj they accepted
the humble offering of a penny.
At that moment the elections for a new parlia
ment were in progress throughout the whole of
Great Britain. The electors required, as a de
claration of principles, a public assent to the re
volution of July ; and there was not a candidate,
either on the ministerial side, or belonging to the
opposition, who, before he solicited the suffrages
of his fellow-citizens, did not think it incumbent
on him to proclaim the praises of the heroes of
the barricades. I shall quote a few fragments of
these addresses, as the most characteristic traits
of that period.
" I am thoroughly persuaded," said Mr.
Brougham,* to the electors of York, " that if it
were to become necessary, the same hands which
you have just held up for the choice of your re
presentatives, would be ready to fight with as
much energy as the French. That neighbouring
* Now Lord High Chancellor of England.

400 MEMOIRS OF
nation now offers you the glorious example of its
efforts in behalf of the sacred cause of liberty.
After having been long your enemy, she is now
become your rival in the struggle for liberty :
your history has become hers. Roused by the
weight of an intolerable oppression, she has raised
herself in her might, as did your ancestors ; she
has driven a tyrant from the throne which he dis
graced. I am confident that this nation, after
having inflicted upon her ministers such a chastise
ment as will for ever deter their successors from
following their example, will return to that state of
repose from which she was urged by oppression,
and will show as much moderation in her triumph,
as she has displayed vigour and courage in her
resistance. Let France and England then regard
one another as inseparable friends, and study to
maintain that peace which ought to remain in
violable between them !"
" Gentlemen," thus wrote Sir Francis Burdett
to the electors of Westminster, "the events which
have just taken place in France are so prodigious,
and they have been so admirably conducted, that
it is impossible for me to think of anything else;
and though I feel, as I ought, the honour which
you have done me in electing me to represent

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 401
you in Parliament, I scarcely know how to ex
press my gratitude to you. What spectacle more
sublime, and more worthy in the sight of God,
than that of a great nation fighting for liberty, re
ceiving it, and avenging, as it were, the insulted
rights and liberties of all mankind. You will join
me, gentlemen, in blessing the French people."
In short, the re-action of July overthrew the
Tory ministry, and produced that happy fermen
tation, which has accelerated the success of the
Reform Bill, so long under discusssion in the
British Parliament.
The sensation produced in the United States
by the revolution of July, was more profound
than in any other part of the globe. No sooner
had intelligence of the movements at Paris, and
of the position of Lafayette, placed at the head of
the public force, by the will of the nation, reached
New York, than the whole city gave itself up to
demonstrations of unbounded joy. All the bells
were set a-ringing, every house was illuminated
and displayed the tri-coloured flag, and festivities,
as brilliant, as solemn, and as numerously at
tended as any of those which had been held on
account of the triumphs of America, were organ
ised in honour of the victory of Paris. It was
vol. i. 2d

402 MEMOIRS OF
the same at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Richmond, Charlestown, New Orleans, and
throughout the whole of the United States, which
lost no time in sending succours, addresses, and
deputations to the French nation, to the National
Guard, and to Lafayette. The flag presented by
the city of New Orleans on this occasion, to the
people of Paris, still waves in one of the halls of
the Hotel de Ville. All these addresses breathed
the warmest, the purest admiration of the revo
lution and the men of July, and expressed the
most touching community of sentiments and prin
ciples. The enthusiasm of the American government
was not behindhand with that of the people. On
the 7th of December, the President of the United
States, in his message on the opening of Congress,
pronounced the most pompous panegyric on the
judgment and generosity which the French people
had displayed in this great revolution. In con
gratulating himself with his fellow-citizens on an
event of such importance to the dearest interests
of humanity, he did no more, he said, than respond
to the voice of the country. There was no reason
to expect from such a nation as the American,
any other than the most profound sympathy with

s
a

Qhi

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 403
the triumph of the sacred principles of liberty,
gained in a manner so worthy of so noble a cause,
and crowned by the heroic moderation which had
sanctified the revolution. " Notwithstanding the
strong assurances," he added, " that the man for
whom we feel such love, and so just admiration,
has given to the world of his esteem for the cha
racter of the new King of the French — a character
which, if he maintains it to the end, will secure to
that prince the high appellation of a patriot king
— notwithstanding this assurance, it is not in his
triumph, but in that of the great principle which
has seated him on the throne — the sovereign
authority of the public will, that the American
people rejoices."
The sympathies of the American continent with
the revolution of July were not confined to the
United States. In Mexico, Bogota, Vera Cruz,
and Chili, in the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Central
republics, addresses of congratulation were drawn
up, and transmitted to the inhabitants of Paris,
to the French people, to the National Guard of
Lafayette. After our example, the thirst of liberty and the
love of order burst forth in all parts of the conti
nent of Europe. Belgium and Poland commenced
2 o 2

404 MEMOIRS OF
the work with an energy and a prudence hereto
fore unknown to people in a state of insurrection;
Italy, ashamed of her degradation, became the
theatre of numerous plots ; Germany peremptorily
demanded the performance of engagements con
tracted with her fifteen years ago ; Switzerland
resolved to shake off the yoke of a republican but
insolent oligarchy, as all aristocracies are ; Spain
and Portugal only awaited a helping hand to set
about their resurrection ; in short the interests of
despotism had every where sunk before the gene
ral interest of nations, and Europe seemed but to
await a signal from France to resume full pos
session of her rights, suspended, but not pre
scribed. In this state of things, what ought to have been
the foreign politics of the revolution of July?
That revolution consummated, did there still exist
a European public law ; and had not that event
destroyed all the systems generated by fifteen
years' improvidence and servitude on the part of
nations, and blindness and oppression on the part
of kings ? In short, had not the moment arrived
for Europe to frame for herself a new political
code, based no longer upon traditions, but upon
actual wants ? History will answer : she will

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 405
say whether a representative government is or is
not a vast organization which can live only by
a general life, and whether the government of
July, in allowing liberty to be trampled upon
among its natural allies has not proclaimed its
degradation, and, laboured for its own destruction.
The task which I have here undertaken, is not to
inquire what it ought to have done, but to state
what it has done.
Immediately after the days of July, two systems
of foreign policy offered themselves to the choice
of France. While awaiting the development of a
futurity pregnant with so many hazards, I pur
pose to examine the qualities of those two systems
either of which the best patriots considered as fit
for adapting, but in different ways, the position
of France to the new circumstances in which she
was placed by the revolution.
A numerous party thought with reason that a
monarchy born in three days of the sovereignty,
of the people, could not long co-exist with the
old dogmas of legitimacy which the revolution
had just crushed in France. This party con
ceived that the moment was decisive for the glory
and the security of the country, and that the
interests as well as the duties of a monarchy,

406 MEMOIRS OF
based upon acts destructive of the spirit and the
letter of the treaties of 1814 and 1815, were evi
dently to suffer the revolutionary movement to
run through the whole national sphere, to sweep
the ignominies of those treaties to the Rhine, and
thence to excite to a complete change of the public
law of Europe, — a work of violence, an agglomer
ation of unnatural alliances and of charges without
compensations, which certainly could not be
binding upon oppressed nations any longer than
while they lacked the means of liberating them
selves from them.
As to the fidelity due to these treaties, the par
tisans of war replied that in political morality it
was a horrible corruption of right to make it an
instrument of oppression and ruin ; and in the
way of facts, they cited all the wars which the
very persons who now appealed to treaties had
undertaken to evade engagements which they had
imposed upon themselves. " What, said they,
did Austria care about all the treaties which she
had conducted with the Republic, the Consulate,
and the Empire ? How did England observe the
treaty of Amiens, Prussia those of Presburg and
Tilsit, and Russia that very treaty of Vienna,
which had conferred on heroic Poland a sein-

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 407
blance of nationality, and certain shadows of
liberty ?"
The partisans of war saw no conditions of sta
bility and permanence for the revolution but in a
general system of similar perturbations which
should break all the bonds of patronage and in
feriority established by the treaties of 1814 and
1815 ; treaties by virtue of which Prussia holds
dominion from Thornville to Memel, Austria from
the Lake of Constance to the gates of Belgrade,
and from the Tanaro to the frontiers of Turkey ;
and what is far more alarming for the civilization
of Europe, by virtue of which a semi-barbarous
Empire has established itself on the Oder,
whence it threatens the Elbe, the Weser, and the
Rhine. Lastly, the war-party was desirous that Europe
should be re-settled, not by convulsions, but by
an equitable return to natural nationalities, and it
conceived that the monarchy of July was not
bound to ratify the spoliation of Landau, of
Sarre-Louis, of Philippeville, of Chambery, of
Huningen, &c. According to its views, it was the
duty of France to make herself as strong by her
alliances as by her own weight ; and it regarded
as her proper allies not the great powers, but the

408 MEMOIRS OF
secondary states which she had taken under her
aegis ever since the war of the Reformation — in
the Poles, the Belgians, the Swedes, the Danes,
the independent members of the German family,
the free men of all countries. In short, this party
calling to mind with pride that France had at all
times united her cause with that of weak and
oppressed nations, that, though catholic, she
had undertaken the defence of protestantism, that
though an absolute monarchy, she had fought for
republican insurrection, loudly insisted that she
should now carry her popular doctrines to the
Rhine, the Pyrenees, beyond the Alps, and there
assuming the character of auxiliary or umpire,
she should guarantee to the nations who wished
to be free, the right to make themselves so, and to
those, if any such there were, who prefered abso
lute power, the right of retaining it; for to what
ever shades of opinion they are attached, the
genuine men of July no more assume the right to
combat the fanaticism of slavery, than they admit
that of attacking the enthusiasm of liberty.
Such is the first system of foreign politics, of
which the most ardent friends of the revolution of
1830 desired the adoption. Would it have pro
duced the results which they promised themselves?

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 409
I know not ; but this I know, that the overthrow
of the most ancient throne in Europe, the unex
pected return of England to a liberality relatively
excessive, the resurrection of Belgium, the pro
digious struggles of Poland, the convulsions of
Italy, the agitations of Switzerland, the commo
tions of Germany, and even the patriotic remi
niscences of Spain, seemed to indicate that the
hour for the complete redintegration of France,
and the emancipation of Europe, had arrrived : the
rest belonged to Providence.
Enthusiasm, however, even that of liberty, has
its vicissitudes ; humanity has its rights, war its
hazards, fortune its reverses, and on those re
verses might depend, according to the views of a
great number of excellent patriots, the fate of
France, and the coming destinies of Europe.
The victory was promised to nascent liberty, but
the revolution, in short, might be vanquished ;
and is it possible to conceive what might have
been brought back to us by that legitimacy when
triumphant, which, on the brink of ruin, so in
solently denied to us the shadow of liberty ?
This apprehension, united with the feeling of
the calamities and sacrifices which the most just
of wars must necessarily occasion, imposed upon

410 MEMOIRS OF
excellent citizens the duty of inquiring if there
was no other way than that of war to consecrate
the revolution of July, and to guarantee to the
great national individualities which this revolu
tion had aroused, the faculty of acting freely for
themselves. No doubt every one was sensible,
that on the issue of the Belgian, Polish, and
Italian revolutions, might eventually depend the
issue of the second French revolution ; but every
one knew also, that it was sufficient to guarantee
to those nations the free development of their
strength, in order that, especially after the first
exertions on their awaking, they might be able to
accomplish of themselves the grand work of their
regeneration. Such are the opinions which, in the first days suc
ceeding the revolution of July, were held by citizens,
equally devoted to the interests of France, and the
liberty of Europe, to these two systems of peace
and war : on the one hand, patriots demanding
an attack, sudden, spontaneous, impetuous as the
revolution itself; on the other, patriots also, who,
conceiving that sufficient courage had ennobled
this revolution, and that it had no more need of
blood, preferred to the hazards of war, a definite,
rigorous, and inflexible system of non-interference.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 411
Lafayette adopted the latter way of thinking.
Was he right or wrong? people may differ in
opinion on that subject. There is, however,
reason to believe, that if, instead of frittering
down the system of non-interference to the ab
surd, instead of suffering it to be fashioned ac
cording to the calculations of all the monarchical
iniquities, instead of distorting it by the most
insolently Jesuitical interpretations, it had been
maintained, and, if need were, defended by force
of arms in all its strictness, such, in short, as it
was approved by Lafayette, Poland, Belgium,
and Italy, would at this day have shaken off the
yoke which tramples on their rights and threatens
ours. Neither was this so unusual a system as
some assert it to be. Thirty-eight years before,
the Foxes, the Greys, the Erskines, had laid the
foundation of it by demanding the non-interference
of powers in the affairs of other countries, and
declaring that this non-interference would suffice
to enable liberty to produce its natural fruit, not
only in France, but over the whole continent of
Europe. Why, then, should that which was pos
sible in 1792, be no longer so in 1830 ?
In short, non-interference, in the utmost rigour,
both of the letter and the spirit of that term, if

412 MEMOIRS OF
not war with all its chances, all its consequences,
was, in the first days of the revolution of July, the
policy of Lafayette, as- well as of some of the
members of the first cabinet of Louis-Philippe.
I subjoin a few facts, which will prove in what
way the crown and its counsellors affected to un
derstand that system, so long as their conduct
was governed by the revolutionary influence,
purposely selecting my- authorities from a period
in which the royalty of July had already began
to abjure its principle.
On the 20th of December, the head of the
ministry of the 3d of November, said from the
tribune : —
"France will not allow the principle of non
interference to be violated, but she will use her
efforts also to prevent any one from compromising
peace, if it can be preserved ; and if war becomes
inevitable, it ought to be proved, before the face
of the world, that we have been forced into it,- by
having no other choice left us but war, or the de
sertion of our principles.
"We shall continue, therefore, to negociate,
but while negociating we shall arm.
" In a very short time, gentlemen, we shall
have, not only our fortresses provisioned and de-

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 413
fended, but 500,000 regular troops well armed,
well organised, well officered ; a million National
Guards will support them, and the king, if need
be, will put himself at the head of the nation.
"We will march in close order, strong in the
goodness of our cause, and the might of our prin
ciples. If storms burst forth at the sight of our
three colours, and become our auxiliaries, so
much the worse for those who have let them
loose : we shall not be accountable for them to
the world."
Here is a precise definition of the system of
non-interference, as adopted by the new dynasty.
What was its object ? Listen to the ministers of
that dynasty. *
"The object of the holy alliance," said M.
Lafitte, " is to stifle, by united efforts, the liberty
of nations, wherever it may show itself; the new
principle, proclaimed by France, is to suffer li
berty to develope itself wherever it has sprung
up naturally. The principle of non-interference
has the two-fold object, to cause liberty to be re
spected everywhere, but to hasten its coming no
where ; because it is not good, excepting where
it is a natural fruit ; since experience has proved,
that in every country, the liberty brought by fo-

414 MEMOIRS OF
reigners, is a present as baneful as despotism.
No more interference of any kind — such has been
the system of France. It has the advantage of
guaranteeing our independence, as well as that of
the countries recently emancipated."
The profession, however, of a principle is
nothing ; its application is every thing. To what
purpose, then, has the principle of non-interference
been applied by the monarchy of July? Was it
applied to Italy, which the Austrians entered in
spite of our teeth, and which they did not eva
cuate, a first time, till they had crushed that
liberty which the King of the French desired to
see "developing itself wherever it should have sprung
up naturally ?" — Was it applied to Poland ? — Was
it even applied to Belgium, on the fate of which
the permanent action of the conference of London
has for eighteen months past exercised the most
direct interference ? Assuredly not ; for if the
party of soldiers whom we sent to play on the
banks of the Scheldt, was considered as a conse
quence of the principle of non-interference, which
could scarcely be the case, history would call us
to account for the abandonment of the Poles, who
stood in precisely the same situation in regard to
the czar, as the Belgians did to William. Pos-

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 415
terity will say on this melancholy subject, that
Nicholas dared to insult the royalty of the bar
ricades, and that this first shout of a barbarian
chilled the courage of the France of July.
If I turn to more recent transactions, I there
find proofs of a deception, or a blindness beyond
all comparison. At the opening of the present
session, the crown guaranteed to papal Italy a
real amnesty, the abolition of confiscation, and posi
tive ameliorations in the administrative and judicial
departments. Well ! but what was there real in
this real amnesty? The dungeons of Venice
transferring to the dungeons of Milan, the patriots
whom France knew not how to wrest from a few
Austrian pirates ; civil war desolating anew the
plains of Rome; the pillage of Cesina; women,
children, and aged men, slaughtered by regi
mented banditti under the banners of the cross,
and a tribunal of blood borrowed from the bar
barism of the middle ages. What is there, then,
real in the independence promised to central
Italy ? — why, the arms and intrigues of Austria
tending incessantly to the subjugation of the whole
peninsula. In regard to Belgium, Louis Phillipe said,

416 MEMOIRS OF
" The fortresses erected to threaten France shall
be demolished." They are still standing.
The Polish nationality shall not perish. What,
alas ! has become of the nationality of a magnani
mous people, whose melancholy lot it is to be
murdered four times in a century, through the
cowardice of Europe ? Look at that race of heroes
consigned to the sword of its tyrants ; the deserts
of Siberia peopled with men to whom posterity
will erect altars ; those few remnants of the brave
soliciting of us an hospitality, which a timid po
licy dare scarcely grant them : the Russ alone is
seated on the hearth of the great people.
Such are the consequences of the dereliction of
the principle of non-interference constantly in
voked by Lafayette. Instead of protecting our
friends, the royalty of July has suffered them to be
trampled upon in despite of the most solemn
promises; instead of providing at a distance means
of attack and defence, he awaits the enemy in the
very citadel ; and while it is as evident as the
light of day, that the absolute monarchies are
drawing closer together and colleaguing, she, the
offspring of a revolution denies her natural auxi
liaries, and is content to exchange, against an

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 417
abject submission, all our recollections of glory
and power. I know not with what name she dig
nifies her policy, but I can tell that which history
reserves for it.
But, we are told, peace is insured, and a gene
ral disarming will soon crown the system of the
cabinet of the 13th of March ; and this peace and
this disarming, will give a positive contradiction
to the foretellers of war. Away then with all
uncertainty, all the alternatives of calm and storm,
which chilled the heart and struck France aghast.
The fact is certain : it was false, that it behoved
the revolution of July to seek its triumph in the
identity of French interests with the interests of
all the nations into whose bosoms the volcano had
thrown the brands of liberty. Look around : such
of those nations as, after our example, rose to re
conquer their country, their distinctive names,
manners, and physiognomies, and laws conform
able with their nature, are again bound under the
yoke ; in Poland, a re-acting, vindictive, barbarous
policy, has ground to dust the very last elements of
that nationality which the declaration of the King of
the French had guaranteed in the face of the world ;
Italy, decimated by a priest, is still a prey to all
the calamities of civil war, and a two-fold foreign
VOL. I. 2 E

418 MEMOIRS OF
interference ; Belgium is still chained in a cramped
and false situation ; fresh convulsions are preparing
in Spain and Portugal ; Switzerland is dismem
bering itself; national independence, personal
security, the progress of civilization, are every
where threatened ; in short, all things in Europe
are clashing, without coming together; jumbling,
without uniting ; and yet, the ratifications of the
twenty-four articles are exchanged, peace is no
longer doubtful, the royalty of July has slipped
into the family of legitimate monarchies, the juste
milieu triumphs, and peace will be maintained.
Such are the practical results of that diplomacy,
so inactive, expectant, so.cowardly, which amidst
the rapid movement which hurries Europe along,
seems, you would say, to have struck dumb that
noble France of July, who, according to you,
could not re-conquer the notoriety of her prepon
derance but by showing herself resolved to brave
all dangers, and giving the world a high idea of
her determination and courage. Well ! that idea
she has trucked for letters of vassalage, she has
stripped off her virile robe to put on the rags of
the holy alliance ; that character of the revolution
of July which ought to predominate in all possible
situations, that ascendancy of armed reason, of

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 419
power in the hands of liberty, which she ought to
exercise in the councils of Europe, she has bar
tered for the disgrace and the mischief of a royal
embrace : and yet, peace is ensured ! What more
have you to say ? Believe in us and hold your
tongues. Such is the argument of the doctri
naires. Be it so then ! The spirit of war is laid ; the
execution of the twenty-four articles is guaranteed
by all the powers ; Holland herself is forced to
submit to all the stipulations of that treaty ; she
acknowledges King Leopold, and accredits an
ambassador to his court; Russia removes from
Poland part of the regiments which cover its soil ;
in short, the peace of Europe is definitively esta
blished on these bases. Let us take all these things
for accomplished facts, and even admit that a dis
arming, which the difference of the military
systems of Europe will always render illusory,
comes to crown this peace, and to fix the various
nations of the continent in the precarious, false,
ruinous conditions in which they find themselves,
as well in regard to one another, as in their rela
tions to their respective governments. Let me
ask, — is there a man of sense and foresight who
can believe in the permanence of this monstrous
2 e2

420 MEMOIRS OF
re-organization, ahd is not convinced that such a
state of things must necessarily generate fresh
and speedy convulsions ?
That benevolent belief, which some superficial
but honest observers entertain in the durability of
this peace, is an important error, too frequently
accredited by the false prepossessions of the
friends of liberty themselves. After the revolu
tion of July, the parts were reversed by attribut
ing to France the necessity of preserving peace,
and by the foreign powers, the intention of making
immediate war upon her: and the government
has very skilfully fostered this opinion, that it
might assume the merit of overcoming the diffi
culty. Hence, the arguments drawn from the
dismemberment of the army, and the relative
inferiority of our military force ; hence, all the
disgraceful concessions, all the diplomatic pol
trooneries which imminent necessity forced upon
us ; hence, in short, the cause of the impossibility
of saving Poland and Italy.
The plainest common sense, however, will suf.
fice to do justice to these quibbles. How, in fact*
is it possible to suppose, that after the events of
July, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and Spain — for
England is quite out of the question — would be so

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 421
*
blind as to think of attacking France, excited by
an immense revolution, and having for an ad
vanced guard, a girdle of nations in a state of
insurrection? How renew, then, a coalition al
ready broken by the appeal to arms of Belgium,
Poland, Italy, and some of the German provinces ?
Was it not evident that the holy alliance, before
it could threaten the Rhine, the Alps, and the
Pyrenees, must have awaited the result of some
campaigns on the Vistula, the Elbe, the Rhine, the
Po, and the Ebro ? And, let the state of our army
have been what it might, had not France all the
time necessary, had she not, above all, more ele
ments than she needed to place herself in a
formidable attitude in the rear of the foreign
populations, fighting in front of her for a cause
which was their own. Have you forgotten the
revolutionary enthusiasm, which in a month
would have cast forth beyond the frontiers, all
the. obnoxious persons whom the days of July
had displaced? Have you forgotten those thirty
thousand volunteers, with which, in one fortnight,
the single city of Paris reinforced the army ?
Lastly, have you forgotten the triumphs of 1792,
won with means so inferior to the moral and
-material resources presented by our situation in

422 MEMOIRS OF
1830 ? Now, as at that time, France is but one
soldier ; but at the latter, more than at the former
date, this soldier had the population of Europe for
his comrade in bed and in battle ; and his cause,
in the eyes of all, was a revolution free from the
horrors and excesses which had degraded the
primitive character of his elder revolution.
It was, therefore, as I have already said, for
Europe to demand peace, and for us to consider
whether it was consistent with our true interest to
grant it. The utmost skill of the politics of the
cabinets has been employed to avert a tempest
which might have overthrown them, at the same
time that they affected to spare us the war ; the
most inconceivable folly of our government has
been to suffer the kings to recover from their
stupor, the nations to abandon their hopes, and to
reduce the honour of its diplomacy to the avoid
ing of a struggle in which its enemies were
neither willing nor able to engage. In short,
if the honour of France, her reputation, her
promises to the nations have been accounted
for nothing by the royalty of July, I am not
surprised at it ; it is not the first time that private
interests have predominated over the grand in
terest of the country. But how is it possible not

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 423.
to feel that all the despotisms which live by our
general life, not having abdicated with Charles
X., could not forgive the revolution of July, but
would deem it right to defer an attack till time
and our intestine divisions should have stripped
it of all that was impassioned, ambitious, popular,
and formidable to tyranny !
This deplorable result our statesmen have taken
great pains to produce ; they have made France
to foreigners just what they would wish her to be.
Fear has beclouded the experience of these
worthy men ; egotism has intercepted the country
from their view ; they have urged on the future in
direct opposition to the lessons of the past. In
fact, this past ought at least to remind them of
the similarity of position which existed between
France and the Directory, and France and Louis-
Philippe. At Campo Formio and at Rastadt the
Directory, too, made peace with the whole Con
tinent, and solemnly abjured all spirit of pro-
selytism. What happened? A year after the
conclusion of these treaties a general war broke
out afresh in Europe. After the battles of Zu
rich and Marengo, the coalition, more seriously
wounded, took three years to recruit itself; it did
recruit itself, and then ensued another general

424 MEMOIRS OF
war, and history will, perhaps, some day admit
that France fought as necessarily for the prin
ciples of 1789 at Austerlitz and Wagram, as
at Jemappes and Fleurus.
The peace boasted of by the Ministry of the
13th of March, perfectly new in history, gives the
lie to the intelligence and the facts which consti
tute the whole of European policy. All the
obligations on one side, and none on the other.
Now, what can spring from such a state of things
but systems remaining the same, as has been the
result of similar situations ? To sum up — the
coalition, disjointed in its organization, wounded
in its vital principle by the revolution of July, has
resumed its former position, and war with France
is now evidently with our enemies a mere ques
tion of time and opportunity. The moral power
of the revolution once extinct, all that they have
to encounter will be but a mere war of the chess
board, which perhaps will not be sparing to them
of new treasons and sold laurels. And, if these
melancholy forebodings should be realized, what
energy, what prudence could guarantee the direc
tion of events, and ensure a plank of safety to that
throne, with feet of clay, which will so kindly
have solicited the storm? Will it not then be

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 425
necessary to summon the sympathies of July
in aid of the courage of our soldiers ? It will,
there can be no doubt, for, with the nation for
auxiliary, another Waterloo would cost us only
the loss of a battle, but reduced to an army
to defend the revolution, one disastrous day might
cost us an empire. But what shall revive the en
thusiasm of the popular masses ? — the dangers of
the country? I believe so. But beside these
dangers I see nothing but a power cruelly ana
lyzed, and a throne without confidence, without
influence, without magic.
I must confess my patriot blood boils at the
idea of the men of the doctrine calling to their aid
the men who shed their blood for liberty. They
would dare do it, for seventeen years of cha
meleon life have proved that they dare do any
thing. But the profound feeling of disgust and
contempt which would burst forth against them
from all classes of the nation — of what assistance
would that be to the monarchy of the barricades ?
This is a question which it is to the interest
of this monarchy to investigate beforehand. A
promise would be given to adopt better prin
ciples, and to employ honester men. Louis
XVIIL and Buonaparte promised the same thing

426 MEMOIRS OF
in 1815, and Charles X. in 1830. What became
of Louis XVIIL, Buonaparte, and Charles X. ?
And yet Buonaparte had glory on his side ;
Louis XVIIl. and Charles X. had in their favour
eight centuries of traditions and recollections.
But as for Louis-Philippe, strip him of the popular
majesty and he is stark naked. Seriously, what
authority would a handful of obscure doctrinaires
possess for upholding the work of the people, if
the people were to withdraw themselves from it ?
Take away the revolution from this whole scaf
folding of power, and to-morrow you who are
reaping the benefit of this revolution will have
neither a crown- piece, nor a soldier, nor a
triumph.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 427

CHAPTER XII.
Continuation of the preceding. — Notification of the Accession
of Louis-Philip. — Insolence of the Emperor Nicholas and
the Duke of Modena. — Lafayette in his Relations with
Diplomacy. — Certain Cabinets send a Diplomatic Agent to
him personally. — His interview with that Agent. — His
system of Non-interference developed.
Such was the general disposition of men's
minds relative to the question of peace and war,
immediately after the revolution of 1830. Al
ready did the royalty of the barricades waver in
uncertainty between the appetite for a repose
without security and without glory, and the
apprehensions of a struggle which might sweep it
away, if it allowed its enemies to strike the first
blow. On the one hand, quiet and the stigmas
of the treaties of Vienna and Paris, but withal the
hope of a bill of indemnity and a monarchical

428 MEMOIRS OF
adoption ; on the other, the flame of insurrection
to kindle over the whole continent of Europe, the
dust of camps to wipe off, the hazards of war to
incur, but also the complete emancipation of
France, the revival of all her glories, and the in
fallible enfranchisement of Europe.
The citizen-royalty would not understand that,
independently of the necessity of establishing
claims to the gratitude and respect of nations,
there was one which no new dynasty had escaped
— that of a baptism of glory and of blood. Born
amid the thunder of the popular cannon, this
royalty chose rather to endeavour to strengthen
itself in servitude than to enter frankly into the
traditional system of its ancient alliances.
However, setting aside the question of principles
and propagandism, the foreign policy of this
government, no sooner born than bastardized, was
extremely simple. What, strictly speaking, was
the point at issue ? A question of territory. In
fact, while France, after carrying her arms into
every capital, found herself despoiled even of pos
sessions which she had acquired between the
years 1648 and 1789 ; and for which, be it ob
served by the way, she had given superabundant
compensations, her enemies had immoderately

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 429
extended their territories. Austria, for example,
had aggrandized and established herself at the
same time in Germany, Poland, Turkey, and
Italy ; she had acquired rich means of internal
navigation, ports, and maritime commerce. Prus
sia, formerly of the third order, had rapidly raised
herself to the rank of a preponderating power, by
slices taken from all the neighbouring states, from
the Niemen to Thionville. Russia, which did not
even exist when France was the first power in the
world, had extended herself on all the points of her
immense circumference, and by a necessary con
sequence of her progressive system of conquest,
as well as by the policy of her family alliances,
this empire had acquired such a preponderance
as not to suffer the west to be at war but by her
impulsion, or, at peace but by her tolerance. I
shall say nothing about England : every body
knows how many rich domains and important
military positions in the seas of Europe and Asia
she obtained by the treaty which disinherited
France. The Ionian islands, the Isle of France,
the Cape of Good Hope, &c. &c. are some of the
acquisitions with which British disinterestedness
contented itself.
Such was the respective situation of France

430 MEMOIRS OF-
and of the foreign powers at the moment when the
revolution of July deranged all the elements of
European public right. Now, confining the ques
tion to the isolated interest of France, setting
aside all community of principles, wants, and
sympathies, there was still left for a national
government the imperative duty of reclaiming the
frontiers necessary for the defence of the country.
Let us not be told of the fears still excited by the
convulsions of the republic, and the glorious days
of the Empire. The republic was not able to
conquer liberty for itself but by conquering peace
for others ; and the treaties sufficiently attest its
justice, and its imprudent generosity after victory.
As for the Empire, making and unmaking kings
at the pleasure of a fortunate soldier, it was not
France, it was the army of Bonaparte, unfaithful
to the revolution, and returning in full sail into
the system of the ancient monarchies ; and for the
rest, history will perhaps bear witness, that if the
Empire overran Europe, it was called to do so by
the coalitions formed in 1789.
Setting aside proselytism and liberalism, it be
hoved the government of July to provide for our
future security, and to re-establish the equilibrium
which the weakness of a degenerate power had

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 431
suffered to be deranged. In this respect the re
volution of 1830 might, even in unskilful hands,
have become at least the guarantee of our na
tional independence. The elected royalty has
made it nothing more than a convulsion similar to
those which disgrace the latter ages of the Roman
empire. You were unwilling, you allege, to compromise
the peace of Europe. You have prostituted the
life and the majesty of the revolution which made
you ; your indecision, your pusillanimity, your
incapacity, have exhausted the courage and the
patriotic perseverance of nations, extinguished
the revolutionary impulsion in. France, and kin
dled the indignation of all free men against you.
Do you think that in thus doing you have averted
the storm ? Do you imagine that your illegiti
macy is on that account more or less overk ~>ked
by the old monarchies ? Yes, it may be for a few
months, or a few years perhaps. But what are
those months, those years ? what are you to the
life of France ? Look at Poland annihilated ; the
barriers between barbarism and civilization broken
down ; Russia ready to set about the dismember
ment of Prussia by the separation of her Polish
provinces ; and the North ready to rush upon the

432 MEMOIRS OF
South : look at this result of your genius, and
dare to calculate how much blood will one day be
required to rescue mangled Europe from the
grasp of the despot who greeted your accession
with a slap in the face.
Be this as it may, the first measure of foreign
policy taken by the Ministry of Louis Philippe
was the notification to foreign Courts of the ac
cession of that prince to the throne of France.
England was the first to recognize the new king ;
the adhesion of Austria, Prussia, and the second
ary States of Germany, speedily followed that of
the Cabinet of St. James's ; Spain deferred her
answer, and published a circular as insulting to
the new monarch as to the nation which had
elected him ; the princeling of Modena insolently
protested against usurpation; and, lastly, it was
only after a long delay, and strong solicitations,
that M. Athalin obtained from the Emperor
Nicholas the strange answer which the Autocrat
condescended to return to the letter, though suf
ficiently humble, which had been addressed to
him by the King of the French. It will be recol
lected in what terms that overture was couched,
and that by an incredible forgetfulness of the
national dignity, the Cabinet of the Palais Royal

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 433
called the glorious events which had just placed
the crown of France on the head of the Duke of
Orleans a catastrophe. This humiliation received
its chastisement in the answer of the Czar, which
I quote here as the historical document fittest to
serve for a specimen of the bitter pills which the
monarchy of July submitted to swallow.
Cabinet Letter of His Majesty the Emperor of all
the Russias to His Majesty the King of the French,
dated Zarsko-Selo, September \3th, 1830.
" I have received from the hands of General
Athalin the letter of which he was the bearer.
Events ever to be deplored have placed your Ma
jesty in a cruel alternative. You have taken a
determination which appeared to you the only
one capable of saving France from greater cala
mities, and I shall express no opinion upon the
considerations which have guided your Majesty ;
but I pray that Divine Providence may be pleased
to bless your intentions, and the efforts which you
are about to make for the happiness of the French
people. In concert with my allies, I am gratified
with the wish expressed by your Majesty to
maintain relations of peace and amity with all the
vol. i. 2 F

434 MEMOIRS OF
states of Europe : so long as they shall be based on
existing treaties, and on a firm determination to re
spect the rights and obligations, as well as the state of
territorial possession which they have consecrated.
Europe will find therein a guarantee of peace, so
necessary to the repose of France herself. Called
jointly with my allies to cultivate these conserva
tive relations with France under your government,
I will bestow upon them for my part all the care
which they deserve, and the dispositions with
which I offer to your Majesty the assurance of
the return of the sentiments which you have
expressed. T beg you to accept at the same
time, &c. &c. " Nicholas."
What unworthy language, then, had been put
into the mouth of France ?
Before the battle of Denain, when the fate of
the crown depended upon the chances of the fight,
Louis XIV. wrote as follows to Villars :
" If you are beaten, I will go through Paris
with the infamous proposals of the enemy in my
hand, and the French nation will follow me. We
will go and bury ourselves together beneath the
ruins of the monarchy."

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 435
That king, at least, was acquainted with the
character of his country.
Be this as it may, the emperor's letter caused
great uneasiness at the Palais Royal. The omis
sion of the appellation of my brother, which had
been lavishly used in the autograph notification,
was, above all, considered with alarm as a positive
denial of the positive right conferred by the will
of the people at the conclusion of the catastrophe.
It was then felt that it might be possible that the
humiliations already submitted to might be thrown
away, and that it might be necessary, as a last re
source, to recur to the popular sympathies against
legitimate disaffection s. It was deemed expe
dient to return to the idea already adopted, as I
shall presently prove ; and, weighing the affinities
and aversions of nations, to push in secret the
work of propagandism, whilst ostensibly the go
vernment should continue to pursue a course of
self-denial by censuring every revolution similar
to that from which it had itself sprung, and
begging pardon for the glorious work, and pardon
for the great people.
It is of consequence to the due appreciation of
the men who still direct the politics of France, as
well as to the understanding of our real situation
2 f 2

436 MEMOIRS OF
at present, to follow attentively all the proofs
which confirm the duplicity of their policy towards
nations and kings, towards France and foreign
countries. History has few instances so strong to
offer for the study of doctrinarianism.
The Belgian revolution, which Lafayette called
the eldest daughter of ours, was the first touch
stone, as it were, applied by events to the uncer
tain and dilatory policy of the Palais- Royal. It
was above all, with reference to the respective
situation of France and Belgium, that the revolu
tion of July ought to have assailed the treaties of
1814 and 1815. Indeed, the erection of a line of
fortresses along the whole southern frontier of
Belgium, their inspection committed to an Eng
lish general, and the occupation of Luxemburg by
the Germanic Confederation, constituted a per
manent attack on our security, and furnished our
natural enemies with the means of an easy aggres
sion upon our territories. To leave this country
in the hands of foreigners, was therefore aban
doning to them the culminating point of a sudden
attack upon the capital by two important points.
On surveying these perils, the policy of a Riche
lieu or a Pitt would not have wavered ; it would
have chosen one of three measures which pre-

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 437
sented themselves successively to the adoption of
the popular royalty. Either Belgium and Lux
emburg would have been re united to France, as
the medium of keeping aloof from it a centre of
invasion, and neutralizing the political and com
mercial influence of England in that country ; or
Belgium left at liberty to place herself under the
naturally friendly and allied government of the
Duke of Leuchtenberg, would have equally covered
the vulnerable side of our frontiers ; or lastly, by
the election of the Duke of Nemours to the Bel
gian throne, France would have directly obtained
the two-fold result of insuring her independence,
and withdrawing a neighbouring nation from the
yoke of England.
Each of these combinations was too manly for
the trembling policy of the juste milieu. From
blunder after blunder, this bastard policy has
arrived at this Anglo-Belgic system, the immedi
ate or speedy consequences of which are — 1 . the
increase of British preponderance, freed from the
clogs which the mixed state of the duchy of Lux
emburg still imposed ; 2. Antwerp exclusively
won to British interests ; 3. the principal citadels
still standing, and France still obliged to pass
under the English cannon to go to Belgium ; 4. and

438 MEMOIRS OF
lastly, a new degree of continental power granted
to England, and for her commerce an assured line
of fraudulent infiltrations, which must necessarily
accomplish the annihilation of the products of our
commerce and industry.
Such has been, up to this day, the conclusion
of the Belgian affairs. Sophistries are still em
ployed in favour of this system of peace at any
price ; but either sound reason is but a vain word,
or France will, without delay, call the men of the
7th of August to a severe account, for this primi
tive abandonment of her most essential interests.
Be this as it may, if the ministry of the 7th of
August mistook these great interests, it was sen
sible, at least, that its existence depended on
guaranteeing the new state of all foreign interfer
ence, and circumscribing the struggle between
Holland and Belgium. Hence the first idea of its
system of non-interference, proclaimed at the ear
nest solicitation of Lafayette. That General, still
all-powerful, himself believed also that it would be
sufficient for France that Belgium should be inde
pendent, free, and at liberty to give herself any
constitution she pleased, in order that our country
should find in her a natural and necessary ally.
This opinion was adopted by the ministry, and

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 439
erected into a system by M. Mole, who, on this
occasion, displayed a firmness, and spoke a lan
guage worthy of France and of the revolution.
This minister signified to all the Powers, and par
ticularly to Holland and Prussia, that the inter
ference of a single foreign regiment in the affairs
of Belgium, would be the signal for the entry of
fifty thousand Frenchmen into the territory of that
state. This declaration was repeated by Lafayette
at an interview which he had with the representa
tives of the powers, at the office of the minister
for foreign affairs, which he left thoroughly con
vinced that the cabinets of Europe were much
more apprehensive than ourselves, of the conse
quences of a war against the men and the doc
trines of July.
This is the proper place for adverting to the
foreign policy of Lafayette, and exhibiting him in
his direct relations with the patriots of all nations
— relations which have furnished a theme for so
many calumnies and absurd interpretations. But
before I arrive at these particulars, I ought to
explain the general intentions of the system which
he adopted subsequently to the events of July,
and from which he has never deviated since that
time.

440 memoirs of
In the first days of August, being on duty at
the head-quarters of Lafayette, I had the honour
to introduce to him one of the most important
personages in modern diplomacy. This was M.
de Humboldt, who came to ask the general-in-
chief confidentially what were his political princi
ples, in regard to foreign powers, under the new
circumstances in which France was placed. La
fayette replied, that the foreign affairs did not con
cern him, and that he ought to address himself to
the minister at the head of that department ; on
which M. de Humboldt frankly acknowledged
that he was directed, not only by his own govern
ment, but also by some other preponderating ca
binets, to ascertain his personal intentions, and to
report these to them. Having been present at
this important conversation, I have it in my power
to give a correct report of Lafayette's answer, the
marked expressions of which I lost no time in
committing to my tablets.
" Since you wish it," said he to M. de Hum
boldt, " I will think aloud with you. We have
accomplished a popular revolution; we have
chosen a popular throne ; we wish that it should
be surrounded with republican institutions ; we
will not allow any person whatever to interfere

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 441
in our affairs, neither will we interfere with those
of our neighbours. If your people are content
with their governments, so much the better for
you ; if discussions should arise between your
people and you, it is not for us to interpose ; but
if other nations are determined to follow our ex
ample, we will not suffer foreign governments to
send their counter-revolutionary gendarmeries
against them ; and we consider Poland and Rus
sia as forming one and the same nation. You
must be sensible that we cannot allow the vital
principle of our existence, that of the national
sovereignty, to be attacked among other nations
by foreigners ; that it is impossible to permit na
tions who may become our allies to be crushed,
in case of war with arbitrary governments ; that'
we cannot let you direct, by peace, the first phrase
of a manifesto against us, and sanction pretensions
which would authorise you to make an ulterior
war upon us. We wish to remain at peace with
all our neighbours ; we have not earned into our
revolution any sort of ambition, whatever claims
we might have to make, whatever retaliation we
might have to take. But if, in spite of our mode
ration, you form another coalition against us ; if
you repeat what you did at Pilnitz, and what has

442 MEMOIRS OF
been continued, more or less, for forty-two years,
it will be a proof to us that our liberty is incom
patible with your arbitrary diplomacy ; if you
attempt to enter our country, it can only be with
the intention of enslaving, perhaps of partitioning
us ; then it will be our duty and our right to meet
you with the arms of liberty, and to raise our
population against you, as much as it is in our
power to do ; and if your thrones cannot be re
conciled with the independence and liberty of
France, it will be our interest not to lay down our
arms till those thrones shall be demolished and
annihilated. If, on the contrary, you leave us in
quiet, if you do not attempt to stifle liberty among
neighbouring nations, which would constitute a
direct and flagrant hostility against our social
existence, you shall have no cause to complain
either of France, or of the revolution of July."
Lafayette has repeated this declaration of prin
ciples in all the speeches which he has delivered
from the tribune. Thus on the 28th of January,
1831, he made in that place the following re
markable profession of faith : 
' Gentlemen," said he, " diplomacy, formerly
occult and complicated, will daily become more
simple and popular; the press divulges its mys-

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 443
tenes, the tribune judges them, the public opi
nion modifies them; family calculations and ca
binet traditions must give way to the interests
and the will of nations. In coming to-day to
bear a part in the political conversations of these
two Sittings, I shall not plead either for war
or peace ; that is not the question. Nobody calls
for war — every one would prefer peace ; but I
came to establish certain facts, the truth of which
we must maintain, and abide by the consequences,
for they are identified with French honour and
with our social existence.
" I have already said in this tribune that I saw
in the world but two classes, the oppressors and
the oppressed ; I will now say that two principles
divide Europe, the sovereign right of the people and
the right divine of kings ; on the one hand liberty
and equality, on the other despotism and privilege.
I know not whether these two principles can live
like good neighbours, but this I know that ours is
in constant, sure, inevitable progression ; that we
ought to adhere to it in every thing and every
where, and that any hostility against us will
accelerate its triumph.
" Another, not less evident truth, notwithstand
ing all that has been said concerning the respect

444 MEMOIRS OF
due to existing treaties is, that as our last revolu
tion in July has, of right, annulled certain articles
of the charter conceded to us, in like manner, it
has necessarily annulled certain of those treaties,
andofthase articles of the congresses of Vienna
and of 1815; those, for example, which ensured
the throne of France to Louis XVIIL and his
family, and united Belgium with Holland. The
minister for foreign affairs has just asked us ; 'As
a condition of breaking existing treaties, would you
have war?' — ' Yes,' I should reply, ' as concerns
the treaties which I have mentioned ; this is what
France has answered ; it is what he himself has
answered.' " I might advert to other articles of these trea
ties incompatible with our liberty and our inde
pendence, such as the conventions for the cession
of French territory; and be it observed by the
way, that these treaties were not made between
us and our enemies, but by themselves — by them
selves, who placed one of their number in the
Tuileries, to traffic with our honour and our
liberties. " A third point, equally evident, was stated by
me the other day in this tribune, in the presence
and with the consent of all the king's ministers,

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 445
and especially of the minister for foreign affairs.
I am very sure that none of them will this day
contradict the definition which I gave, namely,
that whenever a nation, a country of Europe,
wheresoever situated, shall reclaim its rights,
shall determine to exercise its sovereignty, all in
terference of foreign governments to oppose it
shall be equivalent to a direct and formal declara
tion of war against France, not only by our duties
to the cause of humanity, but because it is a
direct attack upon the principle of our existence,
a revival of the principles of Pilnitz and the holy
alliance, the justification of a future invasion of
ourselves, a manifest design to crush our natural
allies, in order to come afterwards and destroy the
germ of liberty in our bosom, among us who are
placed at the head of European civilization.
" If the consequence of these facts, of these
principles, leads to war, no doubt we must sub
mit to the necessity, and we should have for car
rying it on, those fifteen hundred thousand na
tional guards, that five hundred thousand soldiers,
citizens also, of whom the president of the council
made mention in this tribune. I thank the mi
nister at war for the brilliant and accurate picture
which he has just delineated.

446 MEMOIRS OF
" An expression of Mr. Canning's has been
quoted to you; it is not like him, with our eyes
shut, but with them wide open that we will em
ploy our strength ; and to remind you of another
expression of that minister's, respecting the pa
triot auxiliaries which he foresaw j that -.which in
him might have been deemed a sally of vanity it
would be easy, as you know, for us to realize.
"T proceed to the affairs of Belgium, gentle
men, our conduct towards her, when our govern
ment was scarcely formed, has been frank and
generous. A positive declaration was made to
foreign courts, that if Prussian troops, or any
others set foot in Belgium, we would immediately
enter that country. We have recognized i its in
dependence. There I could ;wish that the king's
government had stopped. I should have said to
the Belgians ; will, you form a republic ; a north
ern Switzerland, without an aristocracy ? we will
support you. Will you elect an hereditary chief
from among yourselves, or elsewhere ? be it so ; it
is your affair; it depends on yourselves" alone ;
and if the free choice had fallen on the Duke of
Nemours, I would have conjured, I would still
conjure the King of the French not to withhold
his consent.

Ms C£tj.3?i'±

Ins-f, "Eabliofr . fjcudil

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 447
" As for the reunion to France, that is not a
question for me, whatever other persons may
think : but if, indeed, the majority of the Belgian
people were desirous of this reunion, and in this
case well authenticated, as it is my opinion that the
king alone has no right either to accept or refuse
this reunion, I would make the proposal to all the
branches of the legislative body. And what
powers would have a right to oppose it? Not
those which concluded the treaties of Luneville
and Amiens. Would they have had more affec
tion for Napoleon than for Louis Philippe ? Would
they fear us less at this day? Gentlemen, it
would be a great mistake in them ; for our popu
lar throne has not been afraid to surround itself
with a whole armed nation, appointing its own
officers, and our force is immense.
" An abler diplomatist than I am* has so well
described the state of Poland, that little remains
for me to say on that subject. It would be
strange if the king's government, which has just
defended the existing treaties were not to demand
energetically the execution of that which by
chance emanated from the congress of Vienna,
* M. Bignon.

448 MEMOIRS OF
since it establishes the independence of Poland,
since it protects that nation, our most faithful
friend, who has shed so much blood for us, and
whose existence forms a barrier against invasion
from the barbarians of the North. Duty and
honour require that the government should ener
getically insist on the execution of these treaties,
the maintenance of this barrier.
" Formerly the instinct of the great Frederick
revealed to him the dangers of the partition ; at
least he yielded to it only at the urgent solicita
tions of the Ejnnressof Russia : he told me so him
self. Austria too, and that is not a liberal govern
ment, has frequently felt the same impression,
and if I am rightly informed, it has recently been
expressed by M. de Metternich, the least liberal
of all the Austrians."
" As for England, gentlemen, lately so jealous
of Russia, would she not have the same feeling
except towards the Turks ? Do I not see more
over, at the head of that administration the illus
trious men who have so nobly done honour to
themselves by their speeches against the parti
tions of Poland ? Do I not there see the mem
bers of that society, not numerous it is true, but
celebrated, whence issued the best and most

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 449
energetic work in favour of Polish independ
ence ?"
' Let us then hope that the government, in
performing a sacred duty, will find facilities for
efficaciously serving the cause of Europe 1"
" I owe my thanks to one of our honourable
colleagues * for having furnished me an occasion
which I should have been afraid to usurp, to state
from this tribune that there exists a Polish com
mittee, destined to give to our brethren of Poland
all the proofs of sympathy, to send to them all the
succours in our power, and I have the honour to
inform all my colleagues of the Chamber that
their donations will be received by us with great
pleasure and thankfulness.
" In like manner there was formed, some time
ago, a Greek committee, and I take this opportu
nity to express a wish that the Government
would turn its attention to the fixing, at length, of
large and suitable limits for that country, in
cluding the island of Candia, so much the more
interesting, inasmuch as when the Candiotes had
armed to complete the expulsion of the Turks,
they were stopped by the interference of the
maritime powers. * M. Dupin, senior.
VOL. I. 2 G

450 MEMOIRS OF
" Portugal was yesterday brought under your
notice. Gentlemen, I rejoice to think that the
king's government is anxious to make the name
and colours of France respected in every country.
I have been told of insults offered to our flag at
St. Ubes, of a Frenchman paraded and flogged in
the streets of another town. We have been called
scoundrels in an official journal, written under the
auspices of the assassin of the Marquis de Louie,
the warmest friend of the king, his father.
" At the mention of Portugal I am indignant
that any one should have mixed up the term
' sovereignty of the people' with the name of that
cowardly and cruel tyrant, as he was so well
designated by his protector, Lord Aberdeen. It
is as though one were to call the system of 1793
a republic, and the massacre of St. Bartholomew
religion. Let us not negotiate, then, with Don
Miguel, but let him be punished ; he deserves to
be driven out ; he shall be.
" Gentlemen, I have submitted to you some
principles, which I believe to be true, which it is
of importance to our existence to support, and by
all the consequences of which we must abide."
A month afterwards he spoke as follows : —
" My Belgian diplomacy has always been very

Painted by A "WiveH

Engraved "by T VJ:.:

GEORGE HAMILTON-GORDON, EARL OF ABERDEEN. K T.-F A. S frc &c

KinilKU, SON & C- LONDON. 1B3J

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 451
simple. To lose no time in recognizing the inde
pendence of Belgium ; to forbid the neighbouring-
powers to march troops into its territory : this is
what has been done, and rightly done. Not to
intermeddle with their institutions or their elec
tions ; this is what should have been done. Now
that we have entered upon the career of protocols,
it remains for the French government to defend
the integrity of the territory of the Belgians,
so evidently traced by their representation in the
States-General, and the declaration of indepen
dence of their provinces.
" Would it not be very inconsistent, gentlemen,
for those powers which have with reason re
cognized the separation of Belgium from Holland,
to pretend to consider Russia and Poland, so dis
tinct in every respect, and declared so by the
Congress of Vienna, as one and the same empire,
and not to find a manifest violation of the princi
ple of non-interference in the entry of the Polish
territory by the Russians, whatever may have
been said on the subject, not only by the friends
of liberty and reason, but, what is a totally
different thing, by the very acts of that congress?
" With respect to Italy, in like manner as I
did justice to the strong and explicit declaration

452 MEMOIRS OF
addressed by the late ministry to the powers
bordering on Belgium, so I rejoice to think that
a similar declaration, without weakness or excep
tion, has been transmitted to the powers con.
tigious to the new Italian States ; and I have
reason to believe that the minister for foreign
affairs will neither repudiate this assertion nor
the commendation which it involves.
" I shall merely observe that it is strange that
the Duke of Modena, whom we have known as a
bad correspondent, and whom his country has
not found to be a good prince, having conveyed
a prisoner to Mantua, this prisoner, M. Menotti,
was detained in the prison of a foreign country,
as being the only subject left him : and if we did
not know what Austrian prisons are, we might
form some notion of them from certain particulars
with which we have been furnished concerning
the present state of the prisoners of Spigelberg.
" But what one cannot comprehend, gentlemen,
in civilized Europe, is the manner in which the
neighbours of Poland behave towards her. Prussia,
for example, has seized all the funds belonging to
the Bank of Warsaw, which were deposited in the
Bank of Berlin, and belonged not to the crown,
but to the state and to private individuals. She

GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 453
arrests travellers, takes from them their money,
imprisons them; and all these outrages, which
remind one of certain forests that were formerly
famous, are committed under the influence of the
Russian ambassador who reigns at Berlin. In
my opinion this sort of interference ought to be
made the subject of diplomatic remonstrance."
In all his conversations with Louis Philippe, in
all his discussions with the different members of
the cabinet, Lafayette loudly and constantly pro
fessed the same principles. Hence that torrent
of hatred and invective directed against him by
all the aristocracies of Europe ;* hence also the
efforts of foreign diplomacy, whose influence de
cided the conduct which the cabinet of the Palais
Royal pursued in regard to him, as soon as that
cabinet had resolved to conciliate the holy alli
ance by neutralizing the patriotic excitement of
France, and leaving an open field for the policy of
the despotic cabinets against those nations which
might wish to regenerate themselves after our
* Respecting this hatred with which the European aristo
cracies honour Lafayette, Napoleon once said to him : " All
these people thoroughly detest me: they detest all of us; but,
pooh ! it is nothing to the hatred they have for you; I should
not have conceived that human hatred could go so far." And
Napoleon was well qualified to be a judge of such matters.

454 MEMOIRS OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.
example. The presence of Lafayette in the coun
cils of the new royality, his influence over the
direction of affairs, his power at the head of the
armed nation made him a bugbear for the abso
lutists abroad as well as for those at home ; and I
hold a material proof that diplomacy made his
removal the necessary condition of any ulterior
transaction with the cabinet of the Palais Royal.

END OF VOL ONE.

11AYLIS AND LEIGHTON, JOHNSON's-COTr HT, FLEET- STREET

3 9002