THE French elective Chamber differs from the House of Commons, in being split into a much greater number of parties, between whom there exist political differences, which to themselves seem irreconcileable, although they are scarcely perceptible to a dispassionate looker-on, and especially to a foreigner. But genius is not as multifarious as party. This is fortunate, at least, for France. For if each of the numerous sections of the Chamber of Deputies, were led by a statesman and orator of high pretensions, it is difficult to see how the country could go on at all, drawn in so many different directions, by equal antagonistic forces. Among the notabilities of the French parliament, two are, by common consent, predominant-MM. Guizot and Thiers. They are the Peel and Russell of France. In the present position of the Chambers, no administration could stand a chance of holding power a single month, to which both these two deputies would be opposed, nor could any administration be formed out of their respective sections of the Chamber, of which they must not have the lead. Sections of the house there are, which are opposed to both; but none of these have number, coherence, or, above all, parliamentary and administrative genius, to entitle them to take the helm of the state, or to give them the faintest hope of a majority in the country or the Chamber. The names of Thiers and Guizot stand, therefore, before the world, in juxta position, as the political chiefs of the French Parliament. Having lately presented the readers of this journal with a rapid sketch of the career VOL. XXIX.No. 171.

and character of M. Thiers, a similar attempt to pourtray his illustrious rival and opponent, will not, probably, be unacceptable.

M. Guizot is now in his sixtieth year, having been born on the 4th October, 1787. He is therefore just ten years senior to his rival and opponent, M. Thiers. His birthplace was Nimes, where his father practised, with some reputation, at the bar. The detestable laws which prevailed at that time in France, denied to his parents the legality of marriage, and the legitimacy of offspring, in consequence of their religious faith. They were of a Protestant family. In a few years afterwards, the Revolution came and restored to them their natural rights of citizens, but involved them at the same time in the most bitter domestic desolation. On the 8th of April, 1794, when the present prime minister of France was in his seventh year, his father's head fell under the guillotine. Suspected of resistance to the will of the terrible triumvirate, he was ruthlessly torn from his wife and two children, the eldest of whom, Francis Pierre Guillaume, is the subject of this notice. Thus, in his earliest years, M. Guizot was surrounded by misfortunes, produced by those two extremes of government, against which he has signalized himself in later life by his struggles. The absolute regime before the revolution, stripped him of his rights as a citizen, and the revolutionary regime which followed it, deprived him of his natural protector, and flung him an orphan on the world.

After the loss of her husband, Madame Guizot quitted the city, which

U

was associated with such agonizing recollections, and retired to Geneva, where she enjoyed the consolations of her family, and obtained the means and opportunity of securing a sound education for her children. The eldest, placed at the Institution in that city, called the Gymnase, soon manifested those intellectual endowments, the subsequent development of which has elevated him to the highest post in his country. Before he attained his twelfth year, he was able to read in their proper language, the works of Thucydides and Demosthenes, Tacitus and Cicero, Dante and Alfieri, Schiller and Goethe, Gibbon and Shakspeare. The last two years of his course in college were devoted to historical and philosophical studies, which, it soon appeared, possessed for him the highest attractions. The character of his mind was admirably suited to the spirit of the manners and institutions in the midst of which he was placed. His severe logic and pure morals were in harmony with the habits of the Genevese republic, and the rigid discipline of Calvin, the traces of which had never been obliterated there.

In 1805, M. Guizot having completed his academical studies, and been loaded with scholastic honors, came to Paris, to commence his professional studies for the bar.

At that period,

the school of law in Paris had fallen in the revolutionary changes, and the knowledge obtained by students was chiefly derived from private establishments, and in a very imperfect manner. Guizot, little inclined to participate in the scenes of licentious pleasure, in which he found his fellowstudents for the most part plunged, and setting small value on the superficial means of information offered by the Institutions to which we have just adverted, found himself thrown upon his own intellectual resources, and sought, in the solitude of his chamber, in meditation, and in such works as the great repositories of learning in Paris never failed to supply in the worst times, that knowledge which, under a better system, he might have obtained with less labour, and the benefit of competition and fellowship in well organized and wisely directed schools. His first year in Paris was thus passed in solitude, amidst a busy population of half a million.

In the succeeding year, he was received as private tutor in the family of M. Stapfer, formerly minister for Switzerland in Paris, in whose house he was so fortunate as to meet not only a paternal reception, but the means of extending his information by social intercourse with those who were best able to direct his studies. Here he also became acquainted with M. Suard, in whose salons he met those most distinguished for their intellectual endowments and accomplishments. It was here he first saw her who was afterwards destined to exercise over his life and happiness so noble an influence.

Born of a distinguished family, which was ruined by the Revolution, Mademoiselle Pauline de Meulan had, like many others who had lost their properties in that catastrophe, resorted to these attainments which had been acquired with a view to adorn rather than support life, and this lady, to sustain her destitute family, adopted the profession of journalism. She was the editor of a paper of that day, called the Publicist. It happened that this lady was attacked by a malady rendered more severe by the imperious necessity of continuing those labours, which were so necessary to the well-being of those to whom she was tenderly attached, when she received one day an anonymous letter, accompanied by the manuscript of a leading article for her journal. On examination, the article proved to be of the highest literary merit, and was of course, immediately accepted. The following day brought a like contribution from the same unknown hand, together with an intimation, that these literary supplies would be continued until such time as the restoration of her health might enable her, without inconvenience, to resume her customary occupation.

Deeply touched by the delicacy of this secret aid, proceeding obviously from some male friend, who with a refinement well calculated to command the admiration, and excite the gratitude of a mind like that of Mademoiselle de Meulan, shrunk from a disclosure which might create a sense of personal obligation, the lady recounted the circumstances again and again with the liveliest emotion, in

the salons of M. Suard, exhausting her imagination, and taxing the ingenuity of her friends to discover her unknown benefactor, little thinking at the moment, that among those to whom she addressed her conjectures and her guesses, was her literary friend himself in the person of a pale, serious, and severe-looking young man, with whom she was scarcely yet acquainted, and whose retiring habits, united with his natural delicacy, rendered him the more unobtrusive on the attention of her who so anxiously inquired after him. At length, after many unfortunate entreaties addressed in the Publicist to the unknown contributor, to disclose himself, M. Guizot presented himself in person at the Bureau of the fair editor, and

accepted the so warmly expressed thanks of her who a few years later became Madame Guizot.

In the five years after his arrival in Paris, M. Guizot devoted himself to the composition of several literary works, which at once laid the foundation of his reputation, and gave him a moderate independence. The first of these, which was not published till 1809, was his "Dictionary of Synonyms;" this was followed by his "Lives of the French Poets," his translation of Gibbon with historical notes, and a translation of a work of Refhus, entitled Spain in 1808. These several works, the merits of which, whatever they may have been, were eclipsed by the more important ones that followed them, were written before their author had completed his twenty-fourth year.

In 1812, his talents became generally known and appreciated, and he was appointed by M. de Fontane as assistant professor of history, in the university. Soon afterwards, he was advanced to the full functions of the professorship of Modern History, and it is well known what lustre his lectures conferred on that chair. It was at this time that commenced with Royer Collard, who held the professorship of the history of philosophy, a friendship, which was continued till the death of the latter.

At the epoch of the political events of 1814, M. Guizot was at his native city of Nimes, whither he went to visit his mother, after a long absence. On his return, he was destined to make his debut in political life. His friend, Royer Collard, induced the Abbé Montasquion, then minister of the Interior, to appoint him to the office of chief secretary of that department. In this position, his moderate monarchical politics placed between the extremes of the ultra Royalist party and the Republicans, rendered it impossible for him to secure for his official conduct, the approbation of either. In the opinion of one party, he went too far; in the opinion of the other, not far enough. The law against the press, presented to the Chamber of 1814, by the Abbé Moutesquion, rendered both him and his friend, Royer Collard, unpopular with the liberal party, and still more the circumstance of his having afterwards consented to accept a place in the committee of the censorship, beside M. de Freyssinous. The Royalist party, on the other hand, were indignant at beholding one whom they regarded as belonging to the Bourgeoisie, a professor, and above all, a Protestant, yoked as a colleague, or at least, a confidential subordinate of a court abbé; talking of the equilibrium of the constitution, the preponderance of government, and attempting to reconcile monarchical notions with the new interests which the Revolution had created. In the opinion of some he did too little-of others, too much. He was, however, suddenly and unexpectedly drawn from this collision of parties by the return of Napoleon from Elba.

After the flight of Louis XVIII. and his family, M. Guizot returned to the duties of his professorship, and after the expiration of the hundred days, and the catastrophe of Waterloo, he was selected by the constitutional Royalists to go to Ghent, to urge upon Louis XVIII. the adoption of the charter, and to insist upon the necessity of removing from power M. De Blacas,

who at that time was regarded as the type and representative of the old monarchical regime. The result of his negotiations became apparent soon afterwards, for M. De Blacas retired, and the king acknowledged the errors of his government, in the proclamation of Cambrai, and added new guarantees to the charter.

In the stormy session of the Chambers, which followed the second restoration, in 1815, M. Guizot filled the office of chief Secretary to the minister of Justice. He has been reproached with yielding, in an undue degree, to the reactionary spirit which prevailed at this epoch. The parties consisted of the ultra-royalists, supporters of the old regime, who desired the king without the charter, the liberals who desired the charter without the King, and the constitutional royalists, which demanded both. To this last section of the political body, M. Guizot naturally belonged. His pamphlet on "Representative Government, and the present State of France," which he published in answer to M. De Vitrolles, gave a view of his principles at that time, and placed him in the royalist constitutional majority, beside his friend Royer Collard, MM. Pasquier, Camille Jordan, and De Serres. It was about this period that the name Doctrinaires came to be applied to that party, originating in the fact that Royer Collard, who was its leader, had been educated at a college conducted by a sect called Doctrinaires, and also from a certain stiff adherence to particular general principles, and a severe system of logic, put forward rather obtrusively in their public speeches.

After the assassination of the Duke of Berri, the ministry of Decazes retired from office. MM. Royer Collard, Camille Jordan, and De Barante, withdrew from the Council of State, and M. Guizot resigned with his party. From that time until the accession to office of the Martignac ministry, in 1828, his course was a continual struggle against the tendencies of the Villele ministry. At this time he was too young, and his reputation was too little advanced, to lead him to aspire to a seat in the Chamber, but the principles of constitutional monarchy found in him a most able defender, through the organs of the press.

In his professional chair of Modern

History, in the midst of the enthusiastic applauses of those youths, many of whom were destined at a later period to aid in overthrowing the house of the elder Bourbons, M. Guizot deve. loped the various phases of representative government in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. The ministry took its vengeance for his attacks in his pamphlets, by interdicting his course in 1825.

Returning to private life, he was poor, for the worst enemies of this statesman never ascribed to him a disposition to convert the opportunities of office to the purposes of personal profit. He had, however his pen, and that was an independence. Excluded from treating of the politics of the day, by the arbitrary spirit of the government, he engaged in a series of historical works, several of which have since surrounded his name with lustre, among which may be mentioned, his collection of Memoirs relative to the Revolution in England; two volumes of the History of that Revolution; the collection of Memoirs relative to the Ancient History of France, and Essays on French History; Historical Essays on Shakspeare and Calvin; a translation of Shakspeare, and extensive contributions to the Revue Francaise.

It was when immersed in these literary labours, in 1827, that the most bitter calamity of his life befell him. A premature death snatched from him her who was at once the partner of his labours, and the solace of his home ;her whose elevated mind and pure spirit sustained and encouraged him in the agitations and struggles of his public life. It was a touching scene to behold the last farewell of the wife to the husband and the son, the latter of whom was destined to soon follow his beloved parent to the tomb. Madame Guizot, though a Roman Catholic by birth, became a Protestant shortly be

fore her death.

After the fall of the Villele ministry, M. Martignac, on his accession to power, restored M. Guizot to his professorship. Soon after this he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, by the College of Lisieux, which he has ever since represented. He was one of the memorable majority of 221, who voted the address which was the precursor of the Revolution of 1830, concluding his speech on that occa

day he wrote the celebrated protest of the deputies against the ordonnance which produced the revolution; a document which indicates a Conservative spirit, which feared, rather than desired, a revolution. Its moderation found favour with few. The government deemed it seditious,-the people thought it tame.

On the 29th July, the Deputies met at the house of M. Lafitte, where a lively sense of triumph was expressed, at the result of the struggle, but where, at the same time, the paramount necessity of regularizing the revolution was acknowledged.

M.

Guizot was the first to rise and impress on his colleagues the urgency of the appointment of a municipal commission, to be specially devoted to the re-establishment and maintenance of order. The next day this committee appointed him provisional minister of Public Instruction. On the 31st he read to the chambers the draft of a proclamation nominating the Duke of Orleans Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. In the interval, between this and the 9th August, the day on which Louis Phillippe accepted the crown tendered to him by the chambers, M. Guizot filled temporarily the office of Minister of the Interior, and displayed extraordinary administrative powers on that difficult emergency. A complete recomposition of the internal administration of the country was effected, and the charter was revived and amended. Seventy-six prefects, one hundred and seventy-six subprefects, and thirty-eight chief secretaries were appointed. In the revision of the chamber he endeavoured to fix the age of qualification for a deputy at twenty-five. In this, however, he was outvoted.

The cabinet which was formed out

of the fermenting elements of the revolution, was, as might be expected, ephemeral. The personal differences which had been lost in the magnitude and importance of the public interests staked in the measures which accompanied the revolution, reappeared as soon as tranquillity was restored. The spirit of the epoch, and the state of exaltation of all minds, demanded more of vigour in political action, and required less of the philosophical spirit of organization than was consistent with the public character of M. Guizot, and he retired. The cabinet of M. Lafitte succeded, and when the public became more tranquillized, and desired to see the Institutions consolidated, it gave place again to a more conservative administration, under the presidency of Casimir Perier. The Chamber now began to settle down into recognized sections and parties, under acknowledged leaders, and symbolized by known systems of policy. For the first time since the revolution of July, a compact, resolute, and permanent majority was created. This parliamentary force, which had hitherto been confused and undisciplined, consisted of three chief divisions, whose movements were directed by the spirited president of the Council. The left wing, composed chiefly of that party, which formed the liberal opposition during the Restoration, and which now rallied round the Constitutional Throne of the Barracades, was led by M. Thiers. The right wing, composed of the party which, under the Restoration, were known as the Constitutional Monarchists, were headed by M. Guizot. The centre body, composed of those whose opinions wavered, and whose conduct had been undecided, were under the leadership of M. Dupin the elder.

Supported by this triple phalanx, the ministry of Casimir Perier prevailed equally against the opposition in the chamber, and the emeutes in the streets. It effected the occupation of Ancona, and consolidated the system which sprang out of the three days of July. After the death of Casimir Perier, which took place during the prevalence of the cholera in 1832, these elements of parliamentary and governmental power were dissolved, and the several leaders, with pretensions nearly equal, disputed the command. The usual consequences