HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE

1870-1900

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BOOK I 1870-1873

BOOK II 1873-1875

BOOK III (1875-1877)

BOOK IV 1877-1890

The men of the Third Republic

ADOLPHE THIERS

(1797-1897)

AT the time wlien the Bourbon Restoration pressed heavily on the shoulders and consciences of Frenchmen, those who saw young Louis Adolphe Thiers arrive from Provence with nothing in his pocket but a prize essay on Vauvenargues, described him as a youth with a demon of restlessness in his body, and a tongue that wagged like a bell's. A few years later (Jan. 1, 1830), when the first number of the National appeared, on the most detestable of papers, and with the most adventurous of staffs, the writer who shared with Auguste Mignet and Armand Carrel the editorial triumvirate, began to take lead in society, and the graphic M. de Loménie says of him : —"He attracted curiosity at once by the southern twang of his voice, the smallness of his size, the incomparable vivacity of his speech, and a glance the odd fire of which was heightened by the large spectacles he wore; also by a singular trick of fidgeting and shrugging his shoulders—all of which peculiarities, taken together, classed him as a being apart." The "being apart" had already at this period cleared the first steps of fame as if at a jump. He had been an art-critic ; had been shrieked at and menaced by painters ; had written on the drama, and offered to fight the entire male company of the Theatre Français if they were not content with his judgments ; had gone a walking tour of the Pyrenees, and published a volume on them ; had held during several years the post of pen-of-all-work on the Constitutionnel, contributing now a leader, now a review, now an epigram full of wit and personality, which would bring the victim of it posting down to the office, where an apology was invariably declined, and a duel accepted with alacrity. Further, he had brought out his "History of the Revolution," which had galvanised France from end to end, and he enjoyed the reputation of being a Jacobin, who would be damned without remission, said the priests; who would grow up to be somebody, prophesied shrewd old M. de Talleyrand. Men of this stamp, with a taste for polemics, and a knack of hitting the right nail stunning blows on the head, are not pleasant adversaries for Ministers like M. de Polignac, and the latter had not been in office many weeks before the two had begun to do battle. M. Thiers had, indeed, remained in France specially to wage this war. Thinking that M. de Martignac's ministry was firmly anchored to power, and encouraged by the success of the "History of the Revolution," he had proposed undertaking a "General History of the World," and was actually about to start off on a voyage round the globe with Captain Laplace's Scientific Expedition, when Prince de Polignac's accession made him stop behind and found his paper. And a desperate paper it was, this National which the Royalist judges sought to smother with fines, and which the public kept alive and flourishing by subscriptions which covered the fines ten times over. Adolphe Thiers's articles were read aloud in the streets and cafés. They grew every day in fire and boldness, and one of them, which has become almost historical from its title, "Le Roi regne et ne gouverne pas," was honoured with a vogue which can only be paralleled by that of Henri Rochefort's Lanterne in more recent times. Thiers was, in truth, the Rochefort of Charles X's Government, and perhaps no better contrast can be established between the intellectual condition of France in 1830 and in 1868 than by this comparison. The Rochefort of the Empire was, at the best, but a shallow and ignorant, although droll, flagellant. The Rochefort of the Restoration was devoured by a thirst for instruction in all its branches. Having felt, after publishing the third volume of his "History," that he was deficient in special knowledge, he had set to work studying political economy under Baron Louis, and the art of war under Generals Foy and Jomini ; and of a summer's morning he might have been seen learning to work field-pieces under the direction of some of his old schoolfellows, artillery officers, at Vincennes. Moreover, it was he who first announced as an axiom and practised as a duty, that to write the account of a battle one should have visited and minutely inspected for one's self the site where it was fought.

The Bourbons disposed of, what more natural than that the young champion whose pen had drawn up the famous "Protest against the Ordinances," should be called to a post under Government ? After he had read his "Protest" to the two hundred foremost Liberals in the Chamber and the Press, some one had cried out that it should be taken at once to the printing-office. "Unsigned?" was Thiers's indignant answer ; "we want names and heads at the end of such a document. In straits like these, a patriot should feel that he has no alternative but the guillotine or victory." There was the ring in these words which Frenchmen love, and the ex-journalist's admirers failed not to predict that he would prove quite as stubborn and hard to beat in office as he had been out of it. Nor were they wrong. Nominally Under-Secretary at the Finance Office, under Baron Louis, Thiers was virtually the prompter of the Cabinet, and it was a strange thing to see this indefatigable man holding an inferior place, and yet so working upon his chiefs by his zeal, enterprise, and perseverance, that they insensibly obeyed his lead. After Baron Louis it was Laffitte's turn to be guided by his subordinate, and in a general way it may be said that Thiers began to guide everybody witb whom he was brought into contact. The biographers of his earher days had described him as uncouth, self-asserting, and not over-observant of the courtesies of society. All this was changed now. He was quick of speech, generally monopolised the conversation, and had but a small regard for the practical worth of other people's opinions ; but his geniality made his hearers forget this. How resist a man who stood with his back to the fire and talked to you for an hour to explain that an idea or an invention of which you fancied yourself the originator had been known long ago to him, and not only known but weighed and found wanting? His experiences extended to all sciences. He had judged the prospects of railways from their outset, and foresaw that they would never succeed in France. He was persuaded that the mission of his country was to be free at home and to exercise a sort of paternal dictatorship over the rest of Europe. He chafed under the influence wielded by the Duke of Wellington, which he called an "Agamemnonate"; and which was an uncivilised thing, a humiliating relic of those Treaties of 1815 against which he would never miss an occasion of stirring up the bile of his countrymen. He had not yet got to think much about the balance of power. He was for sending off armies to free the Poles, Italians, and Belgians, not perhaps that he cared so much about these Poles and others, but because it was necessary that France should win battles somewhere in order to revive the self-confidence of her army. Foreign Cabinets, however, taking alarm at these views, he consented to shelve them on reaching a responsible position, first as Home, then as Trade, and finally as Prime Minister; and as his experience ripened he honestly avowed on many public occasions that for France to go fighting against all the other great Powers, even for such a commendable purpose as to obtain revenge for Waterloo, would really not be prudent. But ever and anon his French Chauvin thoughts would crop up in a speech, a letter, or in an impulsive communication to some astonished ambassador. He was not the man to keep a check upon his feelings, he liked to be moving, doing, and saying. He fortified Paris, reorganised the army, developed and strengthened the system of centralization inaugurated by the First Empire, and undertook a crusade against his old friends of the press, who were beginning to clamour that there was a great deal more of militaryism than of liberalism in his rule. This he denied, asserting that he was as fond of liberty as ever he had been. Perhaps he answered truly enough, but he chiefly liked the liberty which is given to a people, as a gold-piece is to a child, with the injunction, "Put it in a drawer and don't spend it." When the French took their liberties out of the drawer, and seemed to think they were made for use, M. Thiers reproached them with ingratitude. That unpleasant little Egyptian business of 1840, when by his policy he at length drew down upon himself the visitation of Lord Palmerston and the Treaty of London, forced the too patriotic states-man to retire.

M. Thiers' s dominant quality was and ever will be bravery. To this virtue is generally allied an active sense of honour, and M. Thiers is strictly honourable. Nothing could well be fairer than his method of fighting when in opposition; and the fear shown of him by M. Guizot, as well as the terrified hatred with which he was favoured by the Second Empire, sufficiently proved that his moderation was felt to be more dangerous than the uncompromising hostility of other men. The fact is, M. Thiers had his opinions built for him about forty years ago, like a house, and he has never moved out of them since. Not even in the hottest of his campaign against M. Guizot—not even when the Second Empire revelled strongest in its ill-got might—could one ever bring M. Thiers to indorse a programme which he would not have been prepared to fulfil if in power. In that delightful house of his in the Place St. George, where all the rising generation of Liberal Orleanists and moderate Republicans (that which Parisians term the Revue des Deux Mondes generation) sucked its political milk, he used to stand and hold forth with the vivacity of his sturdiest days against measures of tyranny or Government blunders. But he would never go beyond the length of what he termed les liberies necessaires in his schemes for reform ; and new theories were impetuously refuted by him, come they whence they might.

In the last days of the Second Empire, when Napoleon III tried to strengthen his tottering throne by a new Plebiscitum, M. Thiers was the most determined of his opponents ; and he was an influential member of the very small minority who voted against the war with Prussia. His conduct was then denounced as anti-national, his constituents called upon him to resign his seat, the windows of his house were broken by an infuriated mob, and he found it prudent to quit Paris for Trouville, whence he magnanimously sent to the Emperor some valuable strategical notes. When the tide of disaster had set in he showed equal generosity. He opposed the motion of Count Keratry for the impeachment of Marshal Leboeuf ; and when, after the fatal day of Sedan, there was a general outcry against personal government, M. Thiers evinced extreme moderation, and contented himself with proposing a Commission of National Defence, a scheme which was supported by Count Palikao, Minister of the Regency. Then he made a diplomatic tour of Europe and did all that could be done to remedy evils for which he was in no sense responsible. But he found the ears of every statesman in London, Vienna, St. Peters-burg, and Florence closed to his appeals, and on his arrival at Tours (21st October, 1870), M. Thiers was authorised by the Provisional Government to make overtures to the Germans for an Armistice. His mission was at first unsuccessful, because he was instructed to insist on the revictualling of Paris. France, however, was in no condition to resist any longer, and ultimately permission was obtained from the enemy to elect an assembly competent to treat for peace. M. Thiers Was chosen by overwhelming majorities for no less than twenty-six departments, and decided to sit for Paris, where 102,945 votes had been recorded for him. On the 17th of February, 1871, M. Thiers was elected by the new National Assembly as "Chief of the Executive Power," and two days afterwards appointed his first Cabinet, which was composed of the most moderate men he could find for colleagues. M. J. Favre, foreign affairs ; Ernest Picard, interior ; J. Simon, public instruction ; Dufaure, justice ; Lambrecht, commerce ; Le Flo, war ; Pothuau, navy ; Pouyer-Quertier, finance ; Larcy, public works. Within a week afterwards he signed the preliminaries of peace with Count Bismarck, four days having been spent in anxious but vain endeavours to obtain some diminution of the enormous indemnity of five milliards exacted by the Germans. In a speech, broken by sobs, he told the Parliament of Bordeaux the sad result of his negotiations, and the preliminaries of peace were adopted (March 1st) by 546 votes against 107. Since that time M. Thiers has held supreme power in France, and there is not a single department of administration over which he does not practically preside, his Ministers being in fact his subordinates and instru- ments merely fulfilling his commands. To chronicle the actions of M. Thiers as President of the Republic, would be to write the history of France for the last two years. It is enough here to say that whatever has been done to restore peace and security to the country has been done by him, and that he has reigned with more absolute authority than was ever exercised by any French sovereign.

Can it be said that he has changed some of his convictions now, and that in seeking to found a Republic he has thrown overboard his former prejudices in favour of monarcliy? This question would be best answered if M. Thiers were suddenly removed from power, and then asked to offer an opinion on his successor. He is a man of generous views, patriotic to the core, and quite alive to the necessity of keeping his country out of dynastic prize fights. But his chief admiration for the Republic may be presumed to lie in the office which he himself holds under it ; else why in republicanising his countrymen should he take so much of the Republic into his own hands and leave so little in theirs ? However, it will be a great thing if he manages to found the Republic merely in name : the Elisha who catches up his cloak will have the task of establishing it in spirit.

M. Thiers was born at Marseilles on the 16 th of April, 1797. His father was a working locksmith, his mother the daughter of a ruined clothier. He was educated on the foundation of a public school in his native town, and, like most little men, had a strong fancy to become a soldier. After some trouble, however, he was got off safely to the College of Aix, and there studied law, not very successfully. The authorities of the place were at first unfavourably impressed by his antics, and he tricked them out of a prize in a frolicsome way, but he ended by winning their esteem, and they chose him, as promptly as possible, for their representative in Parliament. This dignity was, perhaps, the only one which ever overpowered him, and he was so full of it that his earliest speeches were ludicrously pompous ; but he soon glided into that easy conversational style, abounding with anecdote and illustration, which has made his oratory so fascinating.

None of the published portraits of M. Thiers do justice to his appearance. There is an expression of liveliness and good temper in his face, an elasticity in his figure, which no artist has seized. In private life he has a very subtle power of charming, and great constancy as a friend. He is aristocratic in his sympathies, fond of soldiers and dukes, and has considerable admiration for hereditary nobility. He chose a very grand duke to represent him in London, and a very grand marquis for Berlin. Simple almost to austerity in his personal tastes, he has, nevertheless, one of the best cooks in Europe, and his dinners are triumphs of taste, his conversation as exquisite as a wine of rare vintage. Seventy-five winters have not diminished the natural fires of his temperament. His intense love of fun and practical jokes has sometimes approached to buffoonery, or gone beyond it. He once saved himself from the rage of a mob of rioters, by a deed of such courage and effrontery that it cannot be told in English ; and he fought a duel at fifty-three years of age with M. Bixio, during a sitting of Parliament. It is a curious commentary on national manners, that so nimble and volatile a personage, who could hardly be named without a smile by Englishmen, should be considered one of the most serious men in France. The Legitimists only assert that there is a single blot on M. Thiers' s fame. They blame him for having employed the secret service funds under his control, as Marshal Soult's Minister of the Interior, to buy the conscience of one Deutz, a sordid fellow who betrayed the Duchess de Berri to the Government of Louis Philippe. If this was an unchivalrous proceeding, it was also a shrewd one, for it put an end to a revolution which was keeping La Vendée in flames, and disturbing the peace of Europe. It has been urged, too, that born poor, he required fortune ; born obscure, he required a name ; an unsuccessful lawyer, a second rate author, he might have grown old in a newspaper office, had he not turned public troubles to his personal advantage. The same things might be said of many successful politicians, and will always be on the noisy tongue of disappointment. It might be justly answered, that if M. Thiers was once small and insignificant, placed fairly now upon the height of his reputation, he is a giant among his contemporaries.

 

Adolphe Thiers (1797-1897)