The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe

Preface

PREFACE In 1820, at the time when the various faculties of the Academie de Paris and the College de France were recommencing their courses of lectures, several persons combined to establish a journal des Cours Publiques, in which they reproduced, from their notes, the lectures which they had attended. The course which I delivered , at this period, on the history of Representative Government, occupies a place in this collection. I did not revise the analyses ofmy lectures which were published. They were brief and incomplete, and frequently incorrect and confused . I have been requested to authorize a reprint ofthem. I could not consent to this without bestowing upon these analyses, at the present day, that labour of revision to which they were not subjected at the time oftheir publication. The two volumes which I now publish are the result ofthis labour, which has been more protracted, and has involved more considerable alterations than I at first anticipated. In order to accomplish it, I have frequently had recourse to my Essaies surI'Histoire de France, in which I embodied, in 1823, some ofmy researches on the same subject. This course of lectures on the origin of Representative Government is now as exact and complete as if my lectures in 1820-1822 had been collected and revised with the same care as I bestowed, in 182J-183o, on the publication ofmy courses on the General HistoryofCivilization in Europe, and on the History ofCivilization in France. When, in the year 1820, I devoted my energies to this course of instruction , I was taking leave ofpublic life, after having, during six years, taken an active part in the work ofestablishing representative government in our own land. The political ideas and friends with whom I had been associated were, at that period, removed from the head ofaffairs. I connected myselfwith their reverses, without abandoning our common hopes and efforts. We had faith in our institutions . Whether they entailed upon us good or evil fortune, we were equally devoted to them. I was unwilling to cease to serve their cause. I endeavoured to explain the origin and principles of representative government, as I had attempted to practise it.1 How shall I speak, at the present day, ofbad fortune and reverse, in reference to 182o? What shall we say ofthe fate which has recently overtaken our fa1 . For more details on the historical and political context ofthe Bourbon Restoration, see C.-H. Pouthas, Guizotpendant Ia Restauration (Guizot During the Restoration) (Paris: Plon, 1923); Luis Diez del Corral, Elliberalismo doctrinario (The Doctrinaire Liberalism) (Madrid: lnstituto de estudios politicos, 1956); Douglas Johnson, Guizot (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963); Pierre Rosanvallon, Le moment Guizot (The Guizot Moment) (Paris: Gallimard, 1985); Gabriel de Broglie, Guizot (Paris: Perrin, 1990). XVlll PREFACE therland, and ofthat which is perhaps in store for us? It is a shame to make use of the same words in respect to evils and dangers so prodigiously unequal. In truth, the trials of 1820 were severe and painful, yet the State was not thrown into confusion by them, and they were followed by ten years ofregular and free government. In 1830, a still severer trial, the test ofa revolution, was applied to our noble institutions, and they did not succumb; they shook off the revolutionaryyoke , and gave us eighteen years more oforder and liberty. From 1814 to 1848, notwithstanding so many violent convulsions, constitutional monarchy remained standing, and events justified the obstinacy ofour hopes. But now the storm has struck every institution, and still threatens to destroy all that survive. Not merely kings and laws, but the very root of government, of all government -what do I say?-the roots of society itself have been reached, and are left bare and almost torn up. Can we again seek safety at the same source? can we still believe and hope in representative government and monarchy? I have not escaped, any more than other persons, from the anxiety occasioned by this doubt. Nevertheless, in proportion as the events which have weighed upon us, for the last three years, have received development and elucidation -when I beheld society pausing, by an effort ofits own, on the verge of that abyss to which it had been brought by its own weakness-I felt the revival in my soul ofthat faith and hope which have filled my life, and which, until these last days, have constituted the faith and hope of our time. Among the infinite illusions of human vanity, we must...