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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2011
In none of the critical years 1830, 1848, 1870 and 1940 did the French Second Chamber as a body play an independent part in effecting or hindering a change of regime. But in 1814 there is one of the most striking occurrences in the history of the French legislature. The Conservative Senate takes a lead in bringing about a change of government, while the Lower House, so much more to the fore in later crises, obediently confirms the acts of the Upper. The story, often told as an episode in the fall of the Empire or the beginning of the Restoration, may bear a brief re-examination as an episode also in the history of the French Second Chamber.
1 Arch[ives] Nat[ionales] C.C. 986. Extraits des Régistres du Sénat Conservateur.
2 C[ambridge] M[odern] H[istory], ix, 22.
3 Thiry, J., [Le] Sénat de Nap[oléon] (Paris, 1932), p. 310Google Scholar.
4 C. M. H. IX, 23.
5 For a list of the Sénatoreries and details of their revenues see [L. de] Brotonne, , [Les] Sénateurs [du Consulat et de I'Empire] (Paris, 1895), xGoogle Scholar.
6 C. M. H. IX, 108.
7 Lanjuinais, [Comte], Constitutions [de la Nation Française avec un essai de traité historique et politique sur la Charte et un recueil de pièces corrélatives] (Paris, 1819), I, 56Google Scholar.
8 Mémotres [du Chancelier] Pasquier (4th edition, Paris, 1894), 11, 31Google Scholar.
9 Lacour-Gayet, G., Talleyrand (Paris, 1930), 11, 326Google Scholar.
10 According to Lainé certain Senators had encouraged the Legislative Body in its adoption ofan independent attitude. (Perceval, E. de, Le Vicomte Lainé (Paris, 1926), 1, 202.)Google Scholar Presumably they were the Constitutionalists who just over three months later were to take a lead in the Senate, men like Garat, Lanjuinais and others.
11 [Ch.] Dupuis, , [Le] min[istere] Tall[eyrand en 1814] (Paris, 1919), I, 103, n. 3Google Scholar, holds that Talleyrand also toyed with the idea of a Regency at least as late as 20 March.
12 Cit. Lacour-Gayet, , Talleyrand, II, 347Google Scholar.
13 Fleury, Duchesse de, Mémoires d'Aimée de Coigny (Paris, 1902)Google Scholar. The author of the lengthy introduction, Éitienne Lamy, throws no light on the way in which the Mémoires were composed; but I note that M. Lacour-Gayet accepts the conversation without question in his life of Talleyrand. None the less, the way in which the further notions she attributes to Talleyrand anticipate what actually happened is so striking that it is impossible not to wonder whether in retrospect Mme de Coigny read some of the events of April 1814 into the conversation of February.
14 [Webster, C. K.], Brit[ish] Diplomacy 1813-15] (London, 1931), pp. 148–9Google Scholar.
15 Mémoires [et relations politiques du Baron] de Vitrolles (Paris, 1884), 1, 116Google Scholar.
16 Webster, , Brit. Dipt. pp. 148–9Google Scholar.
17 Journal du Maréchal de Castellane 1804-62 (Paris, 1895), 1, 248Google Scholar.
18 Mémoirs [of Count Miot de] Mélito (London, 1881), II, 683Google Scholar. Napoleon's instructions in a letter of 8 February to Joseph confirmed on 16 March were that the Empress and King of Rome were to leave for Rambouillet and ‘the Senate and the Conseil d'État and all the troops t o gather on the Loire’. Correspondance de Napoléon, XXVII, 154, 377-8Google Scholar.
19 Memoirs…Mélito, II, 693; but see n. 21 below.
20 Arch. Nat. C.C. 985. Extraits des Régistres du Sénat Conservateur.
21 Lanjuinais, , Constitutions, I, 62, 3. See alsoGoogle ScholarMémoires [du Général] de Caulaincourt, [Due de Vicence] (Paris, 1933), III, 102–4Google Scholar; Caulaincourt says he saw a number of Opposition Senators on the morning of 1 April and found them all against the Emperor, but some ‘au fond de l'âme’ in favour of a Regency; he also says that Lacépède, the President of the Senate, had left with the Empress, and (III, 136) mentions Lambrechts and General Colaud as Senators intimately connected with ‘M. de BeneVent's agents’.
22 According to Savary, the Regency Council on 28 March agreed that before leaving, Lacepede, the President of the Senate, should write to all the Senators enjoining them not to respond t o any unconstitutional convocation of the Senate. Cp. Dupuis, , Min. Tall. I, 124Google Scholar.
23 Brotonne, , Sénateurs, p. 56Google Scholar.
24 A typical example was General Comte de Villemanzy, who had served under Rochambeau in America, was elected to the Constituent Assembly and had since been continuously employed until he became a Senator in 1809. Cp. Mémoires du Comte Beugnot (Paris, 1866), II, 62Google Scholar.
25 Chasset, Colchen, Roederer, Saint Vallier, Cornudet, Boissy d'Anglas, Canclaux, Latour-Maubourg, Montesquiou, Villemanzy, Sggur, Chaptal, Lapparent, S6monville and Le Couteulx le Canteleu. Cp. Benaerts, L., Les Commissaires extraordinaires de Napoléon Ier en 1814 (Paris, 1915), xi ffGoogle Scholar.
26 Arch. Nat. C.C. 986. Extraits des Régistres du Sénat Conservateur.
27 Constitutions, I, 63.
28 The list was published in the Moniteur Universel, in a special supplement on Saturday, 2 April.
29 [Fahmy, S.], La France en 1814 [et le gouvernement provisoire] (Paris, 1934), p. 116Google Scholar. Sir C. Stewart also reported that Barthelemy was to be a member—Correspondence [Despatches and other Papers'] of [Viscount] Castlereagh, 3rd series, I, 415.
30 Although, according to Caulaincourt, two Senators told him that Montesquiou's, inclusion ‘fit faire beaucoup de réflexions; plusieurs se réunirent le soir et le lendemain matin, mais on sentit qu'on était engagé. Mémoires de Caulaincourt, III, 134Google Scholar.
31 According to the author of A Narrative of Memorable events in Paris preceding the capitulation and during the occupancy of that city by the Allied Armies in the year 1814… (London, 1828)Google Scholar, Destutt de Tracy claimed to have first made the proposal on 1, April (pp. 140, 141).
32 Arch. Nat. C.C. 986. Extraits des Régistres du Séiiat Conservateur.
33 Cit. Webster, , Brit. Dipt. p. 174Google Scholar.
34 In conversation with Vitrolles on 17 March, Alexander had greatly shocked his hearer by speaking of Bernadotte, , Beauharnais and even of a Republic ‘sagement organisée'. Mémoires de Vitrolles, I, 119Google Scholar.
35 Lacour-Gayet, , Talleyrand, II, 371Google Scholar.
36 Correspondence…of Castlereagh, 3rd series, I, 438. Sir C. Stewart to Lord Liverpool, 4 April.
37 Op. cit. 11, 678 (my italics).
38 Talleyrand, II, 401.
39 Cp. [Ponteil, F.], [La] Chute de Napoléon [Ier et la Crise Française de 1814-1815] (Paris, 1943), pp. 110 ff.Google Scholar, for a review of opinion in the provinces.
40 Mémoires de Pasquier, II, 316.
41 Montesquiou's report to Louis XVIII, in Moniteur universel of 15 April 1815Google Scholar. This was one of the confidential documents found in the Due de Blacas' rooms at the Tuileries and published by the authorities in the Hundred Days.
42 Laharpe, who had left St Petersburg in 1802 rejoined Alexander at Langres in January 1814. It would be interesting to know more about his role at this time. Boehtlingk's, A. biography, Der Waadtländer Friedrich Caesar Laharpe (Bern, 1925)Google Scholar, does not throw much light upon it.
43 The main concession by the Constitutionalists appears to have been to allow the King to nominate all new Senators as he wished. According to Lambrechts' first draft his choice could only be made from a list of names put forward by the Senate itself. Cp. Dupuis, , Min. Tall. I, 195Google Scholar.
44 Arch. Nat. C.C. 986. Extraits des Régistres du Sénat Conservateur.
45 Moniteur universel, 15 April 1815Google Scholar. For the text of the Constitution see [Duguit, L.] and [ Monnier, H.], [Les] Constitutions [et les principales lois politiques de la France depuis 1789] (5th edition; Paris, 1932), pp. 179 ffGoogle Scholar.
46 The Royalists held that he should have been described as uncle of Louis XVII, not brother of Louis XVI.
47 Mémoires de Vitrolles, 1, 322, 323.
48 Ibid. 1, 340.
49 Ibid. 1, 367 ff. In the constitutional debate in the Senate on 6 April, a member had asked for the retention of the national colours; but it had been agreed that this was not a proposal which could be included in a constitutional charter and that instead the Provisional Government should be asked to do what they could. It is arguable that a great opportunity was missed and that had the Senators substituted for their Article VI one declaring that the Tricolour should be maintained as the national flag their Constitution would have been universally acclaimed except by the ardent Royalists. As it was, of course, Monsieur and Vitrolles were able to ignore the Provisional Government's recommendations.
50 Correspondence…of Castlereagh, 3rd series, 1, 438.
51 Mémoires de Vitrolles, 1, 370.
52 Arch. Nat. C.C. 986. Extraits des Régistres du Sénat Conservateur, 8 April 1814.
53 Mémoires de Vitrolles, I, 372, 373.
54 Fouché, was one of those who contributed most to the compromise. Mémoires de Pasquier, II, 352, 353Google Scholar.
55 Ponteil, , Chute de Napoléon, p. 96Google Scholar.
56 Both papers were at first warm in praise of the Constitution, The Times in its leading article of the 14th calling it ‘a monument of political wisdom and moderation’.
57 There should be some interesting English evidence, but I have so far searched in vain.
58 The Morning Herald, 11 April.
59 Dupuis, Min. Tall. I am not clear about the dates of the Duke's visit.
60 Mémoires, III, 296, 7.
61 E.g. Ponteil, , Chute de Napoleon, p. 96Google Scholar; Thiry, , Sénat de Nap. p. 369Google Scholar.
62 This read as follows: ‘There are one hundred and fifty Senators at the least and two hundred at the most. Their dignity is irremovable and hereditary in the male line by primo-geniture. They are appointed by the King. The existing Senators, with the exception of those who give up their French citizenship, are maintained and included in these numbers. The existing endowment of the Senate and the Sénatoreries is their property. Its revenues are equally divided among them and pass to their successors. In case of the death of a Senator without direct male heir, his share returns to the Treasury. The Senators appointed subsequently cannot have any share in this endowment.’
63 Fahmy, , La France en 1814, XIIGoogle Scholar.
64 This memorandum on the Constitution, published in the Moniteur Universel of 15 April 1815Google Scholar is undated, but must have been written between 14 April, the day of Monsieur's declaration and the King's departure from England,
65 Correspondence…of Castlereagh, 3rd series, I, 462, 14 April 1814Google Scholar.
66 Ibid. 20 April 1814.
67 Mémoires et Correspondence du Comte de Villèle (Paris, 1888), 1, 214Google Scholar.
68 Moniteur universel, 15 April 1815Google Scholar.
69 These views were excellently summarized long ago by Nettement, A., Hist[oire de la] Rest[auration] (Paris, 1860), 1, 297 ffGoogle Scholar.
70 Constitutions, 1, 67.
71 Moniteur Universel, 15 April 1815Google Scholar.
72 Ibid. An echo of this public suggestion is perhaps to be seen in Maine de Biran's Journal intime (I, 77, 8, entry for 28 April), where it is suggested that one of three things must happen: (1) the Senate must accept alterations in the Constitution; (2) the King must negotiate with the better-disposed Senators, and ignore the rest; (3) the Senate must be destroyed by a ‘coup d'autorité’. Maine de Biran, an ardent Royalist, favoured the last course, and said that public opinion would certainly support it.
73 Mémoires, II, 403.
74 Mémoires, II, 12.
75 Nettement, A., Hist. Rest. I, 302Google Scholar.
76 Ordioni, Pierre, Pozzo di Borgo, diplomate de l'Europe française (Paris, 1935), p. 125Google Scholar.
77 Ibid. p. 122.
78 Polovtsoff, A., Correspondence diplomatique des ambassadeurs et ministres de Russie en France…, I, 1814-16 (St Petersburg, 1902)Google Scholar. Pozzo di Borgo to Nesselrode, 18-30 April.
79 Dupuis, , Min. Tall. I, 316Google Scholar.
80 ‘Nous engageant à mettre sous leurs yeux.’ For the full text of the Declaration see Duguit et Monnier, , Constitutions, p. 182Google Scholar.
81 Thiry, , Sénat, de Nap. p. 379; cf. alsoGoogle ScholarBrotonne, , Sénateurs, pp. 56, 57Google Scholar.
82 Arch. Nat. C.C. 987. Extraits des Régistres du Sénat Conservateur.
83 Thiry, , Sénat de Nap. p. 387Google Scholar.
84 Chute de Napoléon, p. 30.
85 Arch. Nat. A.B. XIX, 1859 (my italics). Article VI of the Senate's Constitution of course also raised the whole question of the proper character of an Upper House and the true doctrine of peerage. But any adequate discussion of this issue which greatly exercised many Frenchmen i n 1814 and the early years of th e Restoration would require a separate treatment.
86 Memoires d'Outre-Tombe (Paris, s.d.), III, 351Google Scholar.
87 Memoires, II, 485.