o'clock at noon it cleared up. The coffin was placed on a car of the true classic form, and being received at the barrier of Charenton, it was borne first to the spot on which the Bastille had stood, and where Voltaire had been confined by lettre-de-cachet. The ground was converted into a temporary garden by turf and shrubs, and boughs of trees, and the sarcophagus containing the coffin of the great infidel was placed on a platform in the centre, being covered with myrtles, roses, and wild flowers, and bearing the following inscriptions:-" If man is born free, he ought to govern himself." "If man has tyrants placed over him, he ought to dethrone them." This was plain speaking. Besides these there were various other inscriptions in different parts of the area, and on a huge block of stone, in large letters:-" Receive, O Voltaire! on this spot, where despotism once held thee in chains, the honours thy country renders thee!" From the Bastille to the Panthéon all Paris seemed to be following the procession. Soldiers, lawyers, doctors, each made their part of the train, carrying banners with devices in honour of the hero of the occasion. The assembly, the municipal body, marched in their places of honour; the learned academies with a crowd of poets, literary men, and artists, carried a gilded chest containing the seventy volumes of Voltaire's works; the men who had taken part in the demolition of the Bastille carried chains, fetters, and cuirasses found in the prison; a bust of Voltaire, surrounded by those of Rousseau, Mirabeau, and Desilles, was borne by the actors from the different theatres, in ancient costume; then came the car which at the Bastille had been surmounted by a statue of the philosopher which France was crowning with a wreath of immortelles; this fresh inscription on the sides of the sarcophagus:-" He avenged Calas, La Barre, Sirven, and Montbailly: poet, philosopher, and historian, he made the human mind take a high flight, and prepared us to become free." The immense procession was preceded and closed by national guards. The procession halted at various places for the poet to receive particular honours. At the opera houses, the actors and actresses were waiting to present a laurel crown, and to sing a hymn to his glory; at the house of M. Villettewhere was yet deposited the heart of the great man previous to being sent to Fernay-four tall poplars were planted and adorned with wreaths and festoons of flowers, and on the front of the house was written, in large letters :-"His genius is everywhere, and his heart is here!" Madame Villette, who had been so much celebrated by Voltaire as the good and beautiful, also appeared and placed another crown on the statue. Near this was raised a sort of amphitheatre, on which were seated a crowd of young girls in white dresses with blue sashes, crowned with roses, and holding wreaths in honour of the poet in their hands, whilst they sang another hymn to his glory; madame Villette and some members of the family of Calas then walked before the car to the Théatre Française, where the names of Voltaire's works were written on the front of the building, and the columns of its portico were also garlanded with flowers, and hung with medallions. A similar halt was made on the site of the former theatre, Comédie Française, and a status of the poet was there crowned, by actors costumed as 567 Tragedy and Comedy; the actors then sang a chorus from his opera of "Samson," and then the procession advanced to the Panthéon, where the mouldering remains of Voltaire were placed beside those of Descartes and Mirabeau. All Paris that evening was one festal scene; iiluminations blazing on the busts and figures of the patriot of equality, the Creator himself having been, in imagination, dethroned by him, and by quotations from his works, which were deemed to have swept away for ever all the old superstitions of the Bible. Three days after this, the 14th of July, the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille was kept, and bishop Gobel celebrated mass at the altar of the cemetery in the Champ de Mars; and, just three days later, La Fayette fired on the assembled people, in the same spot- a curious concurrence of circumstances, and suggestive of serious thoughts on the tendency of the revolution. The assembly now took upon itself the education of the dauphin. Poor Louis complained in vain that he should not be allowed to dictate the education of his own child; but individual feelings, or rights of nature in a monarch, were things that the revolutionists of France took no account of. A king or a prince was, with them, only a piece of machinery to be fashioned and used as they pleased, and, accordingly, to manufacture a prince answerable to their ideas, the assembly piled on the poor boy's head a crowd of teachers, enough to drive any child mad. There were no less than sixty-eight preceptors of one kind or another! Amongst them were St. Pierre, the author of the "Studies of Nature," and of "Paul and Virginia; "Berquin, the author of "The Children's Friend; " Dacier, chief secretary of the Academy of Belles Lettres; Ducis, translator of Shakespeare; Lacépède, the naturalist; Lacratelle, the historian; Malesherbes, formerly minister; De Quincey, writer on art and antiquities; Piéyres, author of "The School of Fathers; " Segur, the diplomatist; and the abbé Sicard, the improver of the art of teaching the deaf and dumb. If the king complained of the appointment of many of these teachers, the jacobins complained of more, and declared that the boy ought to be put into the patriotic hands of Marat and Robespierre. And now, prior to its own dissolution, the assembly commenced the great work of the revision of the constitution. A report of a committee was brought up on this subject. Men of all politics were on this committee; there were Thouret, Target, Chapelier, Sièyes, Talleyrand, St. Etienne, Barnave, Duport, Alexander Lameth, ClermontTonnère, Buzot, Petion, &c. The discussion of this report continued till the 1st of September. Malouet, Barnave, and the Lameths, resolved, on this occasion, to make a determined stand for the restoration of the most important of the royal prerogatives. Malouet was to take the lead; Barnave and the Lameths to appear to oppose him; but, in the course of their speeches, to admit that certain concessions to the crown were necessary to the independent working of the constitution. It is possible that something might have been gained by this plan, but, unfortunately, the moderates had ruined all hope of it, by refusing to vote any more in the assembly, thus leaving the matter in the hands of the coté gauche, or ultra-revolutionists. Malouet made a daring and uncompromising attack on the constitution, and demanded, first of all, that the declaration of the Rights of Man should be expunged. It is not to be supposed that he could for a moment hope to succeed in this demand, but that, by his extreme demands, he might render the points of revision suggested by Barnave and the Lameths moderate in appearance. The most terrible outcries were raised around him by the coté gauche; but he went on, and denounced the clubs and their influence. He adverted to the proposition that no alteration should be made in the constitution till 1800, and contended that it was intolerable to expect France to groan under such a tyrannous constitution for that length of time; that they had pared down the royal power to an absolute nullity; had reduced the king to a prisoner and a puppet, and thus destroyed all his moral influence in the state; that the legislative had usurped the executive, and was itself the slave of the clubs and the mob. "Have you taken any measures," he demanded, amid the most violent interruptions, yellings, and hootings, "for compelling that multitude of tyrannical clubs, which corrupt and subdue public opinion, which exercise an entire influence over clections, which domineer over all the authorities, to restore to us that liberty and peace which they have torn from us? Have you taken any measures to restrain within the due limits of the law those masses of armed men which cover the whole of France as national guards? If your constitution does not check the abuses of the extraordinary means that have been made use of to establish it, you can yet propose to us a long interval, before any alterations or reforms shall be permitted?" lived, could not have a vote; but he did not remind the assembly that the bulk of the French people were no Rousseaus yet, but were utterly illiterate, and degraded by oppression and ignorance, and therefore incapable of an enlightened vote, as they were incapable of any but the most savage conduct. Petion demanded that the royal power should be still more restricted, and popular power extended according to Robespierre's recommendation. The duke of Orleans offered to resign any rights that he might possess as a member of the blood royal, on condition that he should be allowed to exercise the same rights of voting as all other citizens. He asked whether the king's relations were not men, and ought, therefore, to possess the rights of men? But Robespierre rose again, and said they were talking too much of the rights of individuals, and too little of the rights of the nation. At the same time, he did not object to give the same rights of voting to the king's relations as to all other men, for it tended to abolish distinctions; and he quoted the examples of England, Hungary, Bohemia, and other countries where the relations of the king sate in the legislative chambers. But such a doctrine was not tolerated even in Robespierre, and he was clamoured down. Barnave and Alexander Lameth exerted themselves to procure some modifications in favour of oppressed royalty, but in vain; the coté gauche, unopposed by the coté droit, which had voluntarily abandoned the right of voting, carried it triumphantly that the constitution was perfect, and was finished. So much, indeed, was conceded, that instead of fixing the year 1800 as the earliest period at which any alterations in the constitution should take place, necessary reforms might be introduced by a third consecutive assembly, when in the last two months of its session; and this was to be done without requiring the sanction of the crown! The work of reform must then be committed to a select form an assembly of revision, and in this assembly or com mittee those who demanded the reforms were to have no place. The number of members of the assembly at large was fixed at seven hundred and forty five; and though universal suffrage was not literally conceded, yet there was a very near approach to it, for every man of twenty-five years of age, having a fixed domicile, not being a footman or valet, and paying a direct yearly contribution to the state equal to the value of three days' labour, was endowed with the franchise. In the midst of a raging storm of abuse and tumult he went on-"Gentlemen, are we to remain in our present terrible condition till the year 1800 ?—in a condition in which neither liberty, nor property, nor the lives nor consciences of men are free a single day from the most terrible viola-number-two hundred and forty-nine members-who shoul tions? Gentlemen, you must put down your inquisitorial committees of research, your laws against the emigrants, your multiplied oaths and deeds of violence, your persecution of priests, your arbitrary imprisonment of all classes of people, your criminal proceedings without evidence, the fanaticism and dominion of the clubs. But even all this is not enough to preserve public tranquillity. Licentiousness has committed such ravages; the dregs of the nation still boil up so furiously-" Here the confusion, the shouting of "down with the maligner," the uproar from the left side and the galleries were deafening, but Malouet went on, as soon as he could be heard:-"The frightful insubordination of our troops; our religious troubles; the discontents and insurrections of our colonies, which are destroying our commerce; the embarrassments of our finances, growing worse and worse every day, are motives which should induce you to reform the constitution, and render it as effective and beneficial as it is now powerless and contemptible." This was a sketch of things far too true to be agreeable. Robespierre, on the contrary, insisted that a further extension of the popular power, by universal suffrage, was the remedy for all these troubles. He declared, that till all distinctions of money and property were abolished there could be no equality; that by the present law Rousseau, one of the greatest philosophers and legislators that ever The constitution was pronounced complete on the 3rd of September, and a deputation of sixty members was appointed to present it to the king, and demand his pure and simple acceptance of it. "From that moment," says Thiers, "his freedom was restored to him; or, if that expression be objected to, the strict watch kept over the palace ceased, and he had liberty to retire whither he pleased, to examine the constitutional act, and to accept it freely." That expression will certainly be objected to by every reader. It was a cruel farce played upon the unhappy Louis. He was told that he might retire to St. Cloud, from which he had been some time ago so insultingly kept back. He was a miserable captive, dragged back from Varennes, and watched day and night, both he himself and the queen, as a cat watches mice. Yet now, as it was desirable to give a free air to his A.D. 1791.1 ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE KING. 569 acceptance of the constitution, suddenly the strict sur- having put the question, whether the assembly ought not to veillance is abandoned, the door of his trap is left open, and remain seated while the king took the oath: 'Certainly,' he is told that he may go at large. But Louis knew better; was repeated by many voices; and the king standing he knew that the assembly had still a string to his leg, and uncovered.' M. Malouet observed, that there was no that if he really did endeavour to liberate himself, he would occasion on which the nation, assembled in the presence of be savagely plucked back. He knew that if he exercised his the king, did not acknowledge him as its head; that the own judgment on the constitution, this fawning assembly omission to treat the head of the state with the respect due would pounce upon him like a crouching tiger; and that, if he to him would be an offence to the nation as well as to the should declare himself unable to sanction it, there would be monarch. He moved that the king should take the oath a very short cut for him to the scaffold. Thiers himself, after standing, and that the assembly should be in the same postelling us that he was restored to his freedom, and might go ture whilst he was doing so. M. Malouet's observations where he pleased-if we "do not object to the expression "would have carried the decree, but a deputy from Brittany -gives us the most sufficient reason why we should object exclaimed, that he had an amendment to make, which would to it. "What," he asks, "was Louis XVI. to do in this render all unanimous. 'Let us decree,' said he, 'that M. case? To reject the constitution would have been to abdi- Malouet, and whoever else shall so please, may have leave to cate in favour of a republic. The safest way, even accord-receive the king upon their knees, but let us stick to the ing to his own system, was to accept it, and to expect from time those restitutions of power which he considered due to him." Malouet, indeed, with the same daring which prompted his speech in the assembly, advised the king to state plainly his objections to it, and to point out the vices and dangers which he saw in their constitution. Montmorin was of the same opinion; but they stood alone. Barnave and Duport knew the assembly and the jacobins too well to give the king such perilous advice. They agreed with Kaunitz, the Austrian ambassador, who had been the favourite minister of the great Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette's mother, and who had the queen's interest deeply at heart, that the only safe plan for Louis was to accept it without any exceptions. Accordingly, in the course of a few days, Louis wrote to the assembly that he accepted the constitution, entirely. There was a burst of applause on the reading of this message. There were loud cries of "Vive le roi!" for some obstacle on the part of Louis had been expected. La Fayette seized the opportunity of this sudden elation to propose a general amnesty for all acts committed during the revolution. This-which included a cessation of prosecutions carrying on against those concerned in the flight to Varennes-was instantly carried, and, according to Thiers, the prison doors were immediately thrown open. The king repaired to the assembly, and again swore to observe the constitution; and, according to the same author, all was joy and satisfaction. But other writers give a very different account, and, amongst them, madame Campan. This is her version :-"A deputation of sixty members waited on the king, to express to him the satisfaction that his letter had given. The queen, his son, and madame, were at the door of the chamber into which the deputation was admitted. The king said to the deputies:-' You see there my wife and children, who participate in my sentiments;' and the queen herself confirmed the king's assurance. The apparent marks of confidence were very inconsistent with the agitated state of her mind. These people will have no sovereigns,' said she. 'We shall fall before their treacherous though well-planned tactics; they are demolishing the monarchy stone by stone!' "The day after that of the deputation, particulars of their reception by the king were reported to the assembly; and they excited warm approbation. But the president decree.' "The king repaired to the chamber at mid-day. His speech was followed by plaudits which lasted several minutes. After the signing of the constitutional act, all sate down. The president rose to deliver his speech; but, after he had began, perceiving that the king did not rise to hear him, he sate down again. His speech made a powerful impression; the sentence with which it concluded excited fresh acclamations, cries of 'Bravo!' and 'Vive le Roi !' 'Sire,' said he, 'how important in our eyes, and how dear to our hearts; how sublime a feature in our history must be the epoch of that regeneration which gives citizens to France, a country to Frenchmen; to you, as a king, a new glory; and, as a man, a fresh source of enjoyment and of new feelings.' "At length, I hoped to see a return of that tranquillity, which had been so long chased from the countenances of my august master and mistress. But, no! The queen had attended the sitting in a private box. I remarked her total silence, and the deep grief which was depicted on her countenance on her return. The king came to her apartment the private way. His features were much changed. The queen uttered an exclamation of surprise at his appearance. I thought he was ill; but what was my affliction when I heard the unfortunate monarch say, as he threw himself into a chair, and put his handkerchief to his eyes- All is lost! Ah, madame, and you are witness to this humiliation! What! You are come into France to see -.' These words were interrupted by sobs. The queen threw herself upon her knees before him, and pressed him in her arms. I remained with them, not from any blameable curiosity, but from a stupefaction, which rendered me incapable of determining what I ought to do. The queen said to me, 'Oh, go, go!' with an accent which expressed, 'Do not remain to witness the dejection and despair of your sovereign.' "I withdrew, struck with the contrast between the shouts of joy without the palace and the profound grief which oppressed the sovereigns within. Half an hour afterwards, the queen sent for me. She desired to see M. Goguelat, to announce to him her departure on that very night for Vienna. The new attacks upon the dignity of the throne, which had been exhibited during the sitting; the spirit of the assembly, worse than the former; the monarch put upon a level with the president, without any deference to And thus the assembly, the so-called constitutional party, the throne; all this proclaimed but too loudly that the had given the last blow to the monarchy. They had sovereignty itself was aimed at. The queen no longer saw degraded the sovereign to the lowest degree in the eyes of any ground for hope from the interior of the country. The the nation; they had played into the hands of the king wrote to the emperor; she told me that she would herself, furious republican party; and they were about to surrender at midnight, bring the letter which M. Goguelat was to bear the legislature and their new constitution into the very to the emperor, to my room. During all the remainder of the hands that were panting to destroy it, and to spill the blool day, the palace and the gardens of the Tuileries were of the king and queen, of these blind lawmakers, and onc prodigiously crowded; the illuminations were magnificent. another. La Fayette and Bailly marched their national The king and the queen were requested to take an airing in their carriage in the Champs Elysées, escorted by the aides de camp and leaders of the Parisian army, the constitutional guard not being at that time organised. Many shouts of 'Vive le Roi!' were heard; but, as often as they terminated, one of the mob, who never quitted the door of the king's carriage for a single instant, exclaimed, with a stentorian voice, No, don't believe them: vive la nation!' This ill-omened cry struck terror into the queen; she thought it not right, however, to make any complaint on the subject, and pretended not to hear the isolated croak of this fanatic, a base hireling, as if it had been drowned in the public acclamation." guards and their municipal officers once more to the Champ de Mars, on Sunday, the 18th of September, and there, amid the thunder of cannon, and of shouting multitudes, again proclaimed their devotion to the accomplished constitution. But, amid the rejoicings of the people, there were cries and other signs that they were rejoicing, not so much in the completion of the constitution, as in the fall of the monarchy. Amongst other significant symptoms, a shoemaker, in the Rue St. Honoré, exhibited a transparency, with the words, " Vive le Roi! s'il est de honne foi!”— "Long live the king, if he keeps faith!" At this very time, the ladies and chief officers of the court were resigning their situations because the new constitution |