Memoirs to Illustrate the History of My Time, Volume 1

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   MEMOIRS

   TO ILLUSTRATE

   THE HISTORY OF MY TIME.

   BY

   F. GUIZOT,

   AUTHOR OF 'MEMOIRS OF SIR ROBERT PEEL;' 'HISTORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL,'
   ETC. ETC.


   VOLUME I.


   LONDON:
   RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
   Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
   1858.




   PRINTED BY

   JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,

   LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON.




CONTENTS

OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

       *       *       *       *       *


   CHAPTER I.

   FRANCE BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

   1807-1814.

                                                                    Page


   My Reasons for publishing these Memoirs during my Life.--My
   Introduction into Society.--My First Acquaintance with
   M. de Chateaubriand, M. de Suard, Madame de Stael, M. de Fontanes,
   M. Royer-Collard.--Proposal to appoint me Auditor in the Imperial
   State Council.--Why the Appointment did not take place.--I enter
   the University and begin my Course of Lectures on Modern
   History.--Liberal and Royalist Parties.--Characters of the
   different Oppositions towards the Close of the Empire.--Attempted
   resistance of the Legislative Body.--MM. Laine, Gallois,
   Maine-Biran, Raynouard, and Flaugergues.--I leave Paris for
   Nismes.--State of Paris and France in March, 1814.--The Restoration
   takes place.--I return to Paris, and am appointed Secretary-General
   to the Ministry of the Interior.                                    1




   CHAPTER II.

   THE RESTORATION.

   1814-1815.

   Sentiments with which I commenced Public Life.--True Cause and
   Character of the Restoration.--Capital Error of the Imperial
   Senate.--The Charter suffers from it.--Various Objections to the
   the Charter.--Why they were Futile.--Cabinet of King
   Louis XVIII.--Unfitness of the Principal Ministers for
   Constitutional Government.--M. de Talleyrand.--The
   Abbe de Montesquieu.--M. de Blacas.--Louis XVIII.--Principal Affairs
   in which I was concerned at that Epoch.--Account of the State of the
   Kingdom laid before the Chambers.--Bill respecting the Press.--Decree
   for the Reform of Public Instruction.--State of the Government
   and the Country.--Their Common Inexperience.--Effects of the Liberal
   System.--Estimate of Public Discontent and Conspiracies.--Saying of
   Napoleon on the Facility of his Return.                            27




   CHAPTER III.

   THE HUNDRED DAYS.

   1815.

   I immediately leave the Ministry of the Interior, to resume my
   Lectures.--Unsettled Feeling of the Middle Classes on the Return
   of Napoleon.--Its Real Causes.--Sentiments of Foreign Nations
   and Governments towards Napoleon.--Apparent Reconciliation,
   but Real Struggle, between Napoleon and the Liberals.--The
   Federates.--Carnot and Fouche.--Demonstration of Liberty
   during the Hundred Days, even in the Imperial Palace.--Louis XVIII.
   and his Council at Ghent.--The Congress and M. de Talleyrand
   at Vienna.--I go to Ghent on the part of the Constitutional
   Royalist Committee at Paris.--My Notions and Opinions during this
   Journey.--State of Parties at Ghent.--My Conversation with
   Louis XVIII.--M. de Blacas.--M. de Chateaubriand.--M. de Talleyrand
   returns from Vienna.--Louis XVIII. re-enters France.--Intrigue
   planned at Mons and defeated at Cambray.--Blindness and Imbecility of
   the Chamber of Representatives.--My Opinion respecting the Admission
   of Fouche into the King's Cabinet.                                 58




   CHAPTER IV.

   THE CHAMBER OF 1815.

   1815-1816.

   Fall of M. de Talleyrand and Fouche.--Formation of the
   Duke de Richelieu's Cabinet.--My Connection as Secretary-General of
   the Administration of Justice with M. de Marbois, Keeper
   of the Great Seal.--Meeting and Aspect of the Chamber of
   Deputies.--Intentions and Attitude of the Old Royalist
   Faction.--Formation, and Composition of a New Royalist
   Party.--Struggle of Classes under the cloak of Parties.--Provisional
   Laws.--Bill of Amnesty.--The Centre becomes the Government Party, and
   the Right, the Opposition.--Questions upon the connection between
   the State and the Church.--State of the Government beyond the
   Chambers.--Insufficiency of its Resistance to the spirit of
   Re-action.--The Duke of Feltri and General Bernard.--Trial of
   Marshal Ney.--Controversy between M. de Vitrolles and Me.--Closing
   of the Session.--Modifications in the Cabinet.--M. Laine Minister of
   the Interior.--I leave the Ministry of Justice and enter the State
   Council as Master of Requests.--The Cabinet enters into Contests with
   the Right-hand Party.--M.