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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
If Prosper de Barante was the most articulate advocate of the theme of the new aristocracy, he was by no means the only one. The arguments he developed in response to the royalists in Des communes et de l'aristocratie were repeatedly echoed among liberals in the Restoration period. Like Barante, liberal thinkers responded to the royalist discourse by arguing that the demise of the landed nobility was irreversible and permanent. But, again like Barante, they agreed that the subsequent atomization of society, and the isolation of individuals from one another posed a threat to liberty, which should be counteracted by the creation of a new aristocracy.
These arguments occupied an important place in the writings of Barante's fellow-doctrinaires, but they were not exclusively defended by them. Rather, the theme of the new aristocracy was propagated by liberals of various stripes and colours. It appeared in a number of important political debates of the Restoration period: the proposals of certain liberals to reform the Chamber of Peers, the debate about decentralization in the Restoration period, and the prolonged discussion about the liberty of the press that was conducted between 1814 and 1830.
THE DEBATE ABOUT THE BICAMERAL SYSTEM
Throughout the Restoration period, the composition of the Chamber of Peers was subjected to much debate. At first, as we have seen, liberals were enthusiastic about the Chamber of Peers, adopting Montesquieu's perspective that an aristocratic intermediary body was necessary for the preservation of liberty and stability in post-revolutionary France.
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