Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer errors have been changed and are listed at the end. All other inconsistencies are as in the original.

MEMOIRS

TO ILLUSTRATE

THE HISTORY OF MY TIME.

BY

F. GUIZOT,

AUTHOR OF 'MEMOIRS OF SIR ROBERT PEEL;' 'HISTORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL,'
ETC. ETC.

VOLUME I.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1858.

PRINTED BY

JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,

LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON.

CONTENTS

OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

1807-1814.

Page

My Reasons for publishing these Memoirs during my Life.--My
Introduction into Society.--My First Acquaintance with
M. de Chateaubriand, M. de Suard, Madame de Stael, M. de Fontanes,
M. Royer-Collard.--Proposal to appoint me Auditor in the Imperial
State Council.--Why the Appointment did not take place.--I enter
the University and begin my Course of Lectures on Modern
History.--Liberal and Royalist Parties.--Characters of the
different Oppositions towards the Close of the Empire.--Attempted
resistance of the Legislative Body.--MM. Laine, Gallois,
Maine-Biran, Raynouard, and Flaugergues.--I leave Paris for
Nismes.--State of Paris and France in March, 1814.--The Restoration
takes place.--I return to Paris, and am appointed Secretary-General
to the Ministry of the Interior. 1

CHAPTER II.

THE RESTORATION.

1814-1815.

Sentiments with which I commenced Public Life.--True Cause and
Character of the Restoration.--Capital Error of the Imperial
Senate.--The Charter suffers from it.--Various Objections to the
the Charter.--Why they were Futile.--Cabinet of King
Louis XVIII.--Unfitness of the Principal Ministers for
Constitutional Government.--M. de Talleyrand.--The
Abbe de Montesquieu.--M. de Blacas.--Louis XVIII.--Principal Affairs
in which I was concerned at that Epoch.--Account of the State of the
Kingdom laid before the Chambers.--Bill respecting the Press.--Decree
for the Reform of Public Instruction.--State of the Government
and the Country.--Their Common Inexperience.--Effects of the Liberal
System.--Estimate of Public Discontent and Conspiracies.--Saying of
Napoleon on the Facility of his Return. 27