The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• A Thinker For Our Times: Madame De Staël, Her Life and Works
• Life of Madame De Staël
• Works of Madame De Staël
• Madame De Staël and Napoléon
• The Ideas of Considerations
• The Reception of Considerations
• Madame De Staël and America
• Note On the Present Edition
• Considerations On the Principal Events of the French Revolution
• Notice By the Editors 1
• Advertisement of the Author
• Part I
• Chapter I: General Reflections.
• Chapter II: Considerations On the History of France.
• Chapter III: On the State of Public Opinion In France At the Accession of Louis XVI.
• Chapter IV: Of the Character of M. Necker As a Public Man.
• Chapter V: M. Necker’s Plans of Finance.
• Chapter VI: M. Necker’s Plans of Administration.
• Chapter VII: Of the American War.
• Chapter VIII: M. Necker’s Retirement From Office In 1781.
• Chapter IX: The Circumstances That Led to the Assembling of the Estates General.—ministry of M. De Calonne.
• Chapter X: Sequel of the Preceding.—ministry of the Archbishop of Toulouse.
• Chapter XI: Did France Possess a Constitution Before the Revolution? 1
• Chapter XII: On the Recall of M. Necker In 1788.
• Chapter XIII: Conduct of the Last Estates General, Held At Paris In 1614.
• Chapter XIV: The Division of the Estates General Into Orders.
• Chapter XV: What Was the Public Feeling of Europe At the Time of Convening the Estates General?
• Chapter XVI: Opening of the Estates General On the 5th of May, 1789.
• Chapter XVII: Of the Resistance of the Privileged Orders to the Demands of the Third Estate In 1789.
• Chapter XVIII: Conduct of the Third Estate During the First Two Months of the Session of the Estates General.
• Chapter XIX: Means Possessed By the Crown In 1789 of Opposing the Revolution.
• Chapter XX: The Royal Session of 23d June, 1789.
• Chapter XXI: Events Caused By the Royal Session of 23d June, 1789.
• Chapter XXII: Revolution of the 14th of July (1789).
• Chapter XXIII: Return of M. Necker.
• Part Ii
• Chapter I: Mirabeau.
• Chapter II: Of the Constituent Assembly After the 14th of July.
• Chapter III: General La Fayette.
• Chapter IV: Of the Good Effected By the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter V: Liberty of the Press, and State of the Police, During the Time of the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter VI: Of the Different Parties Conspicuous In the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter VII: Of the Errors of the Constituent Assembly In Matters of Administration.
• Chapter VIII: Of the Errors of the National Assembly In Regard to the Constitution.
• Chapter IX: Efforts Made By M. Necker With the Popular Party In the Constituent Assembly to Induce It to Establish the English Constitution In France.
• Chapter X: Did the English Government Give Money to Foment Troubles In France?
• Chapter XI: Events of the 5th and 6th of October, 1789.
• Chapter XII: The Constituent Assembly At Paris.
• Chapter XIII: Of the Decrees of the Constituent Assembly In Regard to the Clergy.
• Chapter XIV: Of the Suppression of Titles of Nobility.
• Chapter XV: Of the Royal Authority As It Was Established By the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter XVI: Federation of 14th July, 1790.
• Chapter XVII: Of the State of Society In Paris During the Time of the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter XVIII: The Introduction of Assignats, and Retirement of M. Necker.
• Chapter XIX: State of Affairs and of Political Parties In the Winter of 1790–91.
• Chapter XX: Death of Mirabeau.
• Chapter XXI: Departure of the King On the 21st of June, 1791.
• Chapter XXII: Revision of the Constitution.
• Chapter XXIII: Acceptance of the Constitution, Called the Constitution of 1791.
• Part Iii
• Chapter I: On the Emigration.
• Chapter II: Prediction of M. Necker On the Fate of the Constitution of 1791.
• Chapter III: Of the Different Parties Which Composed the Legislative Assembly.
• Chapter IV: Spirit of the Decrees of the Legislative Assembly.
• Chapter V: Of the First War Between France and Europe.
• Chapter VI: Of the Means Employed In 1792 to Establish the Republic.
• Chapter VII: Anniversary of 14th July Celebrated In 1792.
• Chapter VIII: Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick.
• Chapter IX: Revolution of the 10th of August, 1792—overthrow of the Monarchy.
• Chapter X: Private Anecdotes.
• Chapter XI: The Foreign Troops Driven From France In 1792.
• Chapter XII: Trial of Louis XVI.
• Chapter XIII: Charles I and Louis XVI.
• Chapter XIV: War Between France and England. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox.
• Chapter XV: Of Political Fanaticism.
• Chapter XVI: Of the Government Called the Reign of Terror.
• Chapter XVII: The French Army During the Reign of Terror; the Federalists and La Vendée.
• Chapter XVIII: Of the Situation of the Friends of Liberty Out of France During the Reign of Terror.
• Chapter XIX: Fall of Robespierre, and Change of System In the Government.
• Chapter XX: Of the State of Minds At the Moment When the Directorial Republic Was Established In France.
• Chapter XXI: Of the Twenty Months During Which the Republic Existed In France, From November 1795 to the 18th of Fructidor (4th of September) 1797.
• Chapter XXII: Two Singular Predictions Drawn From the History of the Revolution, By M. Necker.
• Chapter XXIII: Of the Army of Italy.
• Chapter XXIV: Of the Introduction of Military Government Into France By the Occurrences of the 18th of Fructidor.
• Chapter XXV: Private Anecdotes.
• Chapter XXVI: Treaty of Campo Formio In 1797. Arrival of General Bonaparte At Paris.
• Chapter XXVII: Preparations of General Bonaparte For Proceeding to Egypt. His Opinion On the Invasion of Switzerland.
• Chapter XXVIII: The Invasion of Switzerland.
• Chapter XXIX: Of the Termination of the Directory.
• Part Iv
• Chapter I: News From Egypt: Return of Bonaparte.
• Chapter II: Revolution of the 18th of Brumaire.
• Chapter III: Of the Establishment of the Consular Constitution.
• Chapter IV: Progress of Bonaparte to Absolute Power.
• Chapter V: Should England Have Made Peace With Bonaparte At His Accession to the Consulate?
• Chapter VI: Of the Solemn Celebration of the Concordat At Nôtre-dame.
• Chapter VII: M. Necker’s Last Work Under the Consulship of Bonaparte.
• Chapter VIII: Of Exile.
• Chapter IX: Of the Last Days of M. Necker.
• Chapter X: Abstract of M. Necker’s Principles On Government.
• Chapter XI: Bonaparte Emperor. the Counter-revolution Effected By Him.
• Chapter XII: Of the Conduct of Napoléon Toward the Continent of Europe.
• Chapter XIII: Of the Means Employed By Bonaparte to Attack England.
• Chapter XIV: On the Spirit of the French Army.
• Chapter XV: Of the Legislation and Administration Under Bonaparte.
• Chapter XVI: Of Literature Under Bonaparte.
• Chapter XVII: A Saying of Bonaparte Printed In the Moniteur.
• Chapter XVIII: On the Political Doctrine of Bonaparte.
• Chapter XIX: Intoxication of Power; Reverses and Abdication of Bonaparte.
• Part V *
• Chapter I: Of What Constitutes Legitimate Royalty.
• Chapter II: Of the Political Doctrine of Some French Emigrants and Their Adherents.
• Chapter III: Of the Circumstances That Render the Representative Government At This Time More Necessary In France Than In Any Other Country.
• Chapter IV: Of the Entry of the Allies Into Paris, and the Different Parties Which Then Existed In France.
• Chapter V: Of the Circumstances Which Accompanied the First Return of the House of Bourbon In 1814.
• Chapter VI: Of the Aspect of France and of Paris During Its First Occupation By the Allies.
• Chapter VII: Of the Constitutional Charter Granted By the King In 1814.
• Chapter VIII: Of the Conduct of the Ministry During the First Year of the Restoration.
• Chapter IX: Of the Obstacles Which Government Encountered During the First Year of the Restoration.
• Chapter X: Of the Influence of Society On Political Affairs In France.
• Chapter XI: Of the System Which Ought to Have Been Followed In 1814, to Maintain the House of Bourbon On the Throne of France.
• Chapter XII: What Should Have Been the Conduct of the Friends of Liberty In 1814?
• Chapter XIII: Return of Bonaparte.
• Chapter XIV: Of the Conduct of Bonaparte On His Return.
• Chapter XV: Of the Fall of Bonaparte.
• Chapter XVI: Of the Declaration of Rights Proclaimed By the Chamber of Representatives, 5th of July, 1815.
• Part Vi
• Chapter I: Are Frenchmen Made to Be Free?
• Chapter II: Cursory View of the History of England.
• Chapter III: Of the Prosperity of England, and the Causes By Which It Has Been Hitherto Promoted.
• Chapter IV: Of Liberty and Public Spirit Among the English.
• Chapter V: Of Knowledge, Religion, and Morals Among the English.
• Chapter VI: Of Society In England, and of Its Connection With Social Order.
• Chapter VII: Of the Conduct of the English Government Outside of England.
• Chapter VIII: Will Not the English Hereafter Lose Their Liberty?
• Chapter IX: Can a Limited Monarchy Have Other Foundations Than That of the English Constitution?
• Chapter X: Of the Influence of Arbitrary Power On the Spirit and Character of a Nation.
• Chapter XI: Of the Mixture of Religion With Politics.
• Chapter XII: Of the Love of Liberty.

CHAPTER VII

Of the Constitutional Charter Granted by the King in 1814.

I have a pride in here reminding the reader that the declaration signed by Louis XVIII at St. Ouen in 1814 contained almost all the articles in support of liberty proposed by M. Necker to Louis XVI in 1789, before the Revolution of the 14th of July burst forth.

That declaration did not bear the date of a reign of nineteen years,1 in which lies the question of a divine right or a constitutional compact. The silence observed in that respect was extremely prudent, since it is clear that a representative government is irreconcilable with the doctrine of divine right. All the disputes between the English and their kings have arisen from that inconsistency. In fact, if kings are absolute masters of the people, they ought to exact taxes instead of asking for them; but if they have anything to ask from their subjects, it necessarily follows that they have also something to promise them. Moreover, the King of France, having in 1814 reascended the throne by the aid of a foreign force, his ministers ought to have suggested the idea of a contract with the nation, of the consent of its deputies; in short, the idea of anything that could convey a guarantee and bear evidence of the wish of Frenchmen, even if these principles had not been generally recognized in France. It was much to be apprehended that the army which had taken an oath to Bonaparte and had fought nearly twenty years under him should regard as null the oaths required by European powers. It was thus of importance to connect and blend the French military with the French people by all possible forms of voluntary acquiescence.

What, it will be said, would you plunge us again in the anarchy of primary assemblies? By no means; that which public opinion called for was an abjuration of the system on which absolute power is founded, but the public would have aimed at no chicanery with the ministry of Louis XVIII in regard to the mode of accepting the constitutional charter. It would have been sufficient only to consider it as a contract, not as an edict of the King;2 for the Edict of Nantes of Henri IV was abolished by Louis XIV; and every act which does not rest on mutual engagements can be revoked by the authority from which it emanates.

Instead of at least inviting the two chambers to choose the commissioners who were to examine the act of constitution, the ministers caused these commissioners to be named by the King. The chambers would very probably have elected the same men; but it is one of the errors of the ministers of the old government to want to introduce the royal authority everywhere, while one ought to make a sparing use of this authority wherever it is not indispensably needed. All that we can allow a nation to do, without its leading to disorder, tends to extend information, to fortify public spirit, and increase the harmony between the government and the people.

On the 4th of June, 1814, the King came to the two chambers to make a declaration of the constitutional charter. His speech was full of dignity, talent, and propriety; but his Chancellor3 began by calling the constitutional charter a decree of reform. What a fault! Did not this imply that what was granted by the King might be withdrawn by his successors? Nor was this all; in the preamble to the charter, it was said that power in all its plenitude was vested in the person of the King, but that its exercise had often been modified by the monarchs who preceded Louis XVIII, such as Louis VI, Philippe the Fair, Louis XI, Henri II, Charles IX, and Louis XIV. The examples were certainly ill-chosen; for without dwelling on Louis XI and Charles IX, the ordonnance of Louis VI, in 1127, relieved the Third Estate of the towns from a state of servitude, and it is rather long since the French nation have forgotten this favor. As to Louis XIV, his is not the name to be introduced when we speak of liberty.

No sooner had I heard these words than I became apprehensive of the greatest future evils; for such indiscreet pretensions were still more calculated to expose the throne than to threaten the rights of the nation. The latter was at that time so powerful in its interior that nothing was to be dreaded for her; but it was exactly because public opinion was all-powerful that people could not avoid being irritated at ministers who thus put to hazard the protecting authority of the King without having any real strength to support it. The charter was preceded by the old form used in ordonnances, “We accord, we make concession and grant.” But the mere name of charter, consecrated by the history of England, recalls the engagements which the Barons obliged King John to sign in favor of the nation and themselves.4 Now, in what manner could the concessions of the Crown become a fundamental law of the state if they were nothing more than a favor from the King? Scarcely was the constitutional charter read when the Chancellor hastened to ask the members of the two chambers to swear fidelity to it. What would then have been said of a reclamation by a deaf person who should have got up to excuse himself from taking an oath to a constitution of which he had not heard a single article? Well! this deaf party was the French people; and it was because its representatives had acquired the habit of being dumb under Bonaparte that they desisted from any objection on the occasion. The consequence was that many of those who, on the 4th of June, swore to obey in all respects a code of laws which they had not even had time to understand, disengaged themselves but too easily ten months after from a promise so lightly given.

It was curious to see assembled in the presence of the King the two assemblies, the Senate and the legislative body, who had so long served Bonaparte. The senators and the deputies still wore the uniform given them by Napoléon; they made their bows turning to the rising instead of the setting sun; but their salute was as lowly as before. The Court of the House of Bourbon was in the galleries, holding up white handkerchiefs and calling Vive le Roi with all their might. The former adherents of the imperial government, the senators, marshals, and deputies, found themselves surrounded by these transports, and they had the practice of submission to such a degree that all the habitual smiles of their features served, as usual, for the admiration of power. But ought anyone who knew the human heart to put trust in such demonstrations? And would it not have been better to bring together representatives freely elected by France than men who at that time could be actuated only by interests, and not by opinions?

Although the charter was in several respects calculated to satisfy the public wish, it still left many things to be desired. It was a new experiment, while the English constitution had stood the test of time; and when the charter of the one country is compared with the constitution of the other, everything is in favor of England, whether we look to the people, to the grandees, or even to the King, who in a free country does not have the power of separating himself from the general interest.

The unconstitutional part of the royalists, whose words we are obliged incessantly to take note of, because it is above all by words that they act, have all along repeated that if the King had acted like Ferdinand VII,5 if he had re-established, purely and simply, the old form of government, he would have had nothing to dread from his enemies. But the King of Spain had the army at his disposal, while that of Louis XVIII was not attached to him. The priesthood also forms an auxiliary army to the King of Spain; in France the ascendancy of the priesthood is at an end; in short, everything forms a contrast in the political and moral situation of the two countries; and he who endeavors to compare them merely indulges his fancy without at all considering the elements of which power and public opinion are composed.

But Bonaparte, it will still be said, knew how to beguile or to control the spirit of opposition! Nothing would be more fatal for any government in France than to imitate Bonaparte. His war-like exploits were of a nature that produced a fatal illusion in regard to his despotism; still Napoléon was found unable to resist the effect of his own system, and certainly no other hand was capable of wielding that club which recoiled even on his head.

In 1814, the French appeared less difficult to govern than at any other period of the Revolution; for they were rendered passive by despotism, and they were weary of the agitation to which the restless character of their master had doomed them. But, far from putting trust in this deceitful torpor, it would have been better to encourage them, if we may say so, to want to be free, that the nation might serve as a support to the royal authority against the army. It was important to replace military enthusiasm with political interests in order to nourish that public spirit which in France always stands in need of it. But of all yokes it was most impracticable to re-establish the ancient one; and the greatest precautions should have been taken to guard against whatever recalled it. There are yet but few Frenchmen who know thoroughly what liberty is; and Bonaparte certainly did not render them nice judges of it; but all institutions tending to hurt equality produce in France the same ferment which the reintroduction of Popery caused formerly in England.

The dignity of the peerage differs as much from nobility by genealogy as a constitutional monarchy from a monarchy founded on divine right; but it was a great error in the charter to keep up all titles of nobility, whether ancient or recent. After the restoration, we met in all directions with counts and barons created by Bonaparte, by the court, and sometimes even by themselves; while the peers alone ought to be considered the dignitaries of the country, in order to destroy the feudal nobility and replace it with a hereditary magistracy which, extending only to the eldest son, would not establish distinctions of blood and family in the country.6

Does it follow from these observations that the people in France were unhappy under the First Restoration? Was not justice and even the greatest kindness displayed toward everyone? Doubtless; and the French will long repent that they were not then sufficiently aware of it. But if there are faults which justly irritate you against those who commit them, there are others which cause you disquietude for the fate of a government that you esteem; and of this description were those committed by the agents of the royal authority. The friends of liberty, the most sincerely attached to the King, wished a guarantee for the future; and their desire in that respect was just and reasonable.

[1. ] By using the phrase “De notre règne le dix-neuvième” (“in the nineteenth year of our reign”) to date the Charter on his return to France in 1814, Louis XVIII implicitly claimed that his reign had started nineteen years earlier. This apparently minor detail implied that all previous regimes, including the empire, had been illegitimate.

[2. ] The use of the word “octroi” (concession) carried strong symbolic connotations that affirmed both the royal sovereignty and the continuity with the French monarchical tradition. As such, it eliminated any possibility of conceiving of the Charter as a social contract (or social pact) between the monarch and his subjects.

[3. ] Dambray.

[4. ] Magna Carta (1215).

[5. ] Upon his return to Spain in December 1813, Ferdinand VII rejected the liberal Cádiz constitution (passed in 1812) and reestablished political absolutism and the Inquisition.

[6. ] The hereditary peerage was introduced during the Second Restoration in August 1815 and was abolished during the July Monarchy in December 1831.