Memoirs To Illustrate The History Of My Time Volume 1   By: M. François Guizot (1787-1874)

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer errors have been changed and are listed at the end. All other inconsistencies are as in the original.

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 Châteaubriand, M. de Suard, Madame de Staël, 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. Lainé, 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 Abbé 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 Fouché. 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 Châteaubriand. 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 Fouché into the King's Cabinet. 58

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHAMBER OF 1815.

1815 1816.