sonally simple in his tastes, order and economy were combined with a magnificence becoming his rank and wealth; for the restoration of his patrimony had placed him in a state of opulence. The protector of the fine arts, and the patron of letters, his superb palace in Paris, and his delightful seat at Neuilly, were ornamented with the productions of the former, and frequented by the distinguished men of the age.

While the Duke of Orleans was thus pursuing a career apart from the intrigues and heartburnings of the court, a new and unexpected scene was opened in the drama of his singularly changeful life. We here allude to the Revolution of 1830, the intelligence of which struck every nation in Europe with surprise. Yet such an event was not altogether unlooked for. The elder family of the Bourbons, who had been restored by force of foreign arms to the throne of their ancestors, are allowed by their best friends to have conducted themselves in a manner little calculated to insure the attachment of the French people. The final blow levelled at the constitution by Charles X., and the Prince de Polignac, with the rest of his ministers, was unquestionably one of the maddest acts of which history presents any account. The facts of the case were as follows:

The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved in May (1830), and a new election ordered to take place in the latter part of June and in July. All the returns of the new elections indicated a strong majority against the ministry, who were not by any means popular. It is the sound and well-known practice in constitutional governments, that in such cases as this the king changes his ministers, in order to bring the executive into harmony with the legislature. Charles X. ventured on reversing this practice. Instigated by advisers and followers, who afterwards deserted him, he resolved to retain his ministers, and hazard a new election on principles of voting different from what the existing law prescribed, and by which he hoped to gain a majority in the Chamber. The newspapers generally having denounced these and other projects as a violation of the charter or compact of the king with his people, they became an object of attack, and it was resolved to place the press under such laws as would effectually prevent all free discussion. Three ordinances were forthwith issued by royal authority. One dissolved the Chambers; another arbitrarily prescribed a new law of election; and the third suspended the liberty of the periodical press. This daring violation of the charter was viewed with consternation by the people. When the act became generally known in Paris on the 26th of July, the funds declined, the banks refused to discount bills, and the manufacturers discharged their workmen, which, of course, increased the discontent. Several newspapers appeared, in despite of the ordinances, on the 27th, and copies were disposed of by hundreds in the cafés, the reading-rooms, and the restaurants. Journalists hurried from place to place, and shop to shop, to read them

aloud, and comment upon them. The apparatus for printing the Temps, one of the most energetic of the liberal papers, was seized by an agent of police, aided by a detachment of mounted gendarmerie. This and other acts of aggression served as a signal for revolt and revolution. In Great Britain, before such extreme measures would be resorted to, the people would assemble peacefully, and petition or remonstrate; but in France, where public meetings of any kind are not tolerated without the consent of a chief magistrate, the people are practically denied the power of petitioning; and hence one cause of their recourse to a violent means of redress.

In the night of the 27th July the streets and boulevards were barricaded, and the pavements were torn up to serve as missiles. On the morning of the 28th all Paris was in arms; the national guard appeared in their old uniform, and the tri-coloured flag was displayed.* By a singular infatuation, the government had taken no precaution to support its measures by a competent armed force. There were at most 12,000 soldiers in Paris, the garrison of which had just been diminished; the minister of war, instead of bringing an army to bear on the capital, was occupied with administrative details; and M. de Polignac was regretting that he had no cash to invest in the public funds. To increase the mismanagement, no proper means were adopted to provide rations for the soldiers on duty in the streets.t

On the 28th, the fighting was considerable, the infuriated populace firing from behind barricades, from house-tops, and from windows; many of the troops were disarmed; some were unwilling to fire on their countrymen, and some went openly over to the citizens. On the 29th General Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of the national guard by the liberal deputies, and was received with enthusiasm. The fighting was still greater this day; and on the 30th, the Parisians gained the victory. From 7000 to 8000 persons were killed and wounded. It now became necessary to determine what form of government should be substituted for that which had been vanquished. The cause of the elder branch of the Bourbons was pronounced hopeless. The king was in effect discrowned, and the throne was

*The flag of the Bourbons was white. The tri-coloured flag, which consists of a stripe of white, red, and blue, owes its rank as a national emblem to chance. At the first French revolution, a distinguishing sign was wanted, and the readiest which occurred was that of the colours borne by the city of Paris, blue and red. This was forthwith adopted; but to conciliate certain influential members of the national guard who were not hostile to the king, white, the colour of the Bourbons, was afterwards added. Thus arose the flag which was borne throughout the wars of the revolution, and which Louis XVIII., by an unfortunate stroke of policy, did not continue at the restoration. The obligation to maintain the tri-colour is now engrossed in the charter.

+ History of Ten Years, by Louis Blanc-a lively narrative, of which a cheap translation has lately been issued by Chapman and Hall, London.

vacant. In this emergency, the provisional government which had risen out of the struggle, and in which Lafitte, Lafayette, Thiers, and other politicians had taken the lead, turned towards the Duke of Orleans, whom it was proposed, in the first instance, to invite to Paris to become lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and afterwards, in a more regular manner, to become king. The Duke of Orleans, during the insurrection, had been residing in seclusion at his country seat, and if watching the course of events, at least taking no active part in either dethroning his kinsman, or in contrivances for his own aggrandisement.

M. Thiers and M. Scheffer were appointed to conduct the negotiation with the duke, and visited Neuilly for the purpose. The duke was, however, absent, and the interview took place with the duchess and the Princess Adelaide, to whom they represented the dangers with which the nation was menaced, and that anarchy could only be averted by the prompt decision of the duke to place himself at the head of a new constitutional monarchy. M. Thiers expressed his conviction "that nothing was left the Duke of Orleans but a choice of dangers, and that, in the existing state of things, to recoil from the possible perils of royalty, was to run full upon a republic and its inevitable violences." The substance of the communication being made known to the duke, on a day's consideration he acceded to the request, and at noon of the 31st came to Paris to accept the office which had been assigned him. On the 2d of August the abdication of Charles X., and of his son, was placed in the hands of the lieutenant-general; the abdication, however, being in favour of the Duke of Bourdeaux. On the 7th the Chamber of Deputies declared the throne vacant; and on the 8th the Chamber went in a body to the Duke of Orleans, and offered him the crown, on terms of a revised charter. His formal acceptance of the offer took place on the 9th, and is thus described by Louis Blanc:"A throne overshadowed with tri-coloured flags, and surmounted with a crimson velvet canopy, was erected in the Palais Bourbon; before it was arranged three settees for the lieutenant-general and his two elder sons. A table covered with velvet, on which stood the pen and ink to be employed in signing the contract, separated the settee reserved for the prince from the throne, and typified the interval that lay between him and royalty. The Duke of Orleans made his entry to the sound of the Marseillaise [a popular air], and the noise of cannon fired by the Invalids. When he had taken his place, he put on his hat, and desired the members of both Chambers to be seated. The prince now requested M. Casimer Périer, president of the Chamber of Depu ties, to read the declaration of the 7th of August, which was to the effect that the throne was vacant, de facto and de jure, and that it being indispensably needful to provide for the same, the Chambers of Deputies and Peers now invited his royal highness

the Duke of Orleans to become king. The lieutenant-general read his acceptance in these terms:—

'I have read with great attention the declaration of the Chamber of Deputies, and the act of adhesion of the Chamber of Peers. I have weighed and meditated every expression therein. I accept, without restriction or reservation, the clauses and engagements contained in that declaration, and the title of King of the French which it confers on me, and I am ready to make oath to observe the same.' The duke then rose, took off his glove, uncovered his head, and pronounced the form of oath handed to him. In the presence of God, I swear faithfully to observe the constitutional charter, with the modifications set forth in the declaration; to govern only by the laws; to cause good and exact justice to be administered to every one according to his right; and to act in everything with the sole view to the interest, the welfare, and the glory of the French people."" Louis-Philippe was now king. After signing the originals of the charter and the oath, he ascended the throne, from which he delivered an appropriate address on the occasion. He adopted the style and title of Louis-Philippe I., King of the French. The principle on which he attained this high office bears a close resemblance to that on which the house of Brunswick was called to the throne of Great Britain-the invitation of the people, to the exclusion of the legitimate or regular line of monarchs. We may be permitted to hope that the event will be attended with equally happy consequences.

Two things were remarkable in the revolution of 1830-the heroism of the people, and the imbecility of the ruling power. When news was brought to Charles at St Cloud, on the 28th, that blood was flowing in the streets of Paris, he treated the intelligence with indifference; when all was over, he was seized with abject despondency, and sinking under that bitterest and most utter hopelessness of soul that afflicts the proud in their hour of dismay, his only thought was to humble himself beneath the hand of God. His act of abdication was unheeded by the Chambers. He and his family, including his grandchild, Henry, Duke of Bourdeaux (who at least was guiltless of his grandfather's transgressions, and therefore commands our pity), were tranquilly conducted out of the kingdom. The humiliation was the more complete, that his partisans, the friends of legitimacy-those who would now clamour for the restoration of his family to the throne-shrunk from his cause. Over the whole of France there was not a hand lifted, except among the troops, who acted from the habit of duty, to support the falling fortunes of his house.

We gladly turn from these events to the subject of our memoir. Louis-Philippe, since his unexpected accession to power, is allowed to have governed with prudence, moderation, and justice. He has, above all, distinguished himself as the FRIEND OF

PEACE. Under his government France has found repose, and is at present in a condition of rapid improvement and prosperity. The most serious political error of which he has been accused, is the frequent and severe prosecution of the press for alleged libels on his government. The only private fault we have seen laid to his charge is that of parsimony, though this ill agrees with the vast sums he is known to have expended in embellishing Versailles and other places of public show, as well as in the encouragement of the arts. Though considerably advanced in life, says a writer whom we have already quoted, his constitution is vigorous, and he exhibits no marks of declining strength. A handsome man while young, his frame is now bulky, but there is much ease in his movements, and his whole carriage is marked by that happy address which good taste and the polished society in which he has moved have enabled him to acquire. He is very ready in conversation, and affable to all who are introduced at his court. In the execution of his public duties he is prompt and active, and is said to exercise a degree of control over his ministry which almost goes beyond the bounds of constitutional monarchy; yet his interference in this respect is believed to have on many occasions proved of important service to the state. Since his accession to the kingly office, his perfect knowledge of English and other modern languages has proved of incalculable advantage in diplomacy, as well as in arriving at the true meaning of foreign intelligence. Of his friendly intercourse with Queen Victoria, and the readiness of his government to act justly in the case of differences with Great Britain, we can speak only in terms of sincere gratification.

The greatest misfortune of the king's life was the death of his eldest son, the Duke of Orleans, who was killed in leaping from his carriage, July 13, 1842. The duke was married to a princess of Mecklenberg-Schwerin, by whom he left two sons-the eldest, Louis-Philippe-Albert, Count de Paris (born August 24, 1838). The young Count de Paris, now six years of age, is heir-apparent to the throne. The other sons of the king are the Dukes of Nemours, de Joinville, de Aumale, and Montpensier. He has also two daughters, one of whom is married to Leopold, king of the Belgians. The court of France, under the auspices of the queen, is acknowledged to form a pattern for royalty. A kinder mother or a more pious Christian is nowhere to be found. The king's sister, the Princess Adelaide, who partook of her brother's misfor tunes and exile, still survives to share in his honours and prosperity. She generally resides with the royal family, and her excellent qualities of head and heart render her a universal favourite. It could not fail to afford gratification to Louis-Philippe that his ancient preceptress and friend, Madame de Genlis, lived, though only for a short time, to see her beloved pupil attain a station of which she had rendered him worthy. She died in Paris at the close of the year 1830, in the eighty-third year of her age.