Revolution 1830
After the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the power of the restored Bourbon monarchy was limited by a constitution known as the Charter of 1814. The former and almost powerless Estates General was replaced by a bicameral legislature composed of a Chamber of Deputies, elected by the richer citizens (those paying taxes of more than 300 francs a year) and a Chamber of Peers appointed directly by the king, who also appointed the ministers. Clearly this was very far from being a democracy, but Louis XVIII, having been already in his mid-thirties when his brother, Louis XVI, was deposed and executed, was well aware of the practical, as well as the theoretical, limits on royal power.
Louis died in 1824 and was succeeded by his brother Charles who, although only two years younger, had not drawn the same lessons from the years of revolution. Chafing under the very limited restrictions placed on his power by the Charter, in 1830 he issued the July Ordinances which disbanded the Chamber of Deputies, limited franchise and imposed press censorship. The consequences, which were very far from what he had intended, were witnessed by Joseph-Paul Gaimard following his return to France in 1829 from serving as surgeon/naturalist on the Astrolabe during Dumont d’Urvilles’s first voyage as expedition commander
Once back in France, Gaimard was engaged in collaborating with Jean René Quoy on the Zoology part of the Astrolabe report. It was work that required him to be Paris, but he kept in touch by letter with his former commander on the Uranie, Louis de Freycinet. When the constitutional crisis came to a head, in late July 1830, one of those letters contained an eye-witness account of the events of the three-day revolution. As befits a running commentary, it was partly written in the present tense.
Paris, August 3, 1830
Dear Commandant
Last Saturday, I wrote to you two notes dictated by Quoy. Today, I will give you some details about a revolution as astonishing for its speed as for the admirable way in which order was preserved while it took place. On July 26, very early in the morning, the Moniteur[1] was read aloud in all the reading rooms[2] and in many other places! At first, there was quiet despondency as groups of students began to gather near the Odeon[3]. The ordinances relating to the press and elections were universally rejected. This is, it was said, a government that will do anything it wants,[4] and it would be better to revoke the charter outright; that would be more honest. This is what was being said, but criticism was limited to the ministers who signed the ordinances. Apart from that, peace reigned undisturbed, the lower classes having no idea of what had just happened. In the evening there were some some disturbances at the Palais Royal concerning the news sheet of the Marquis de Chabannes and some posters in which he criticized the ministers rather strongly.[5] The shops closed abruptly. I was just then going to adjust my watch at M. Leroy’s but, eager to see everything that might happen, I remained at the Palais Royal until this slight disturbance had dissipated
On Tuesday, the 27th, Le National, Le Temps, La Globe, etc., appeared despite the ordinances and without the authorisation they required. I emphasise this, because it is important. All these newspapers strongly criticised the ordinances and said that since the charter was being violated, obedience was no longer owed to those in power. In the Globe it was said that a crime was being committed. By morning, the printers had dismissed their workers, and all the other workshops soon followed suit. Crowds began to form. The most violent passages in the papers were read out load. From early morning all the shops in the capital were shuttered. In the evening, the crowds were attacked by the army, and on the Pont Neuf, where I was at half past eight in the evening, a few men were killed or wounded. The political horizon darkens, and anything might happen.
Early on Wednesday, the 28th, workers, students and uniformed National Guardsmen are seen to be taking up arms. The vast majority are workers and raggedly dressed men, armed with rifles, sabres, swords, axes, hooks, etc. The first uniformed National Guardsmen that appear are greeted with general acclamation, being seen as guardians of the peace. At nine o’clock, the guards at the Place St. Michel were forced to lay down their arms, and a soldier of the 15th Line Regiment was quite seriously wounded. I stopped the bleeding and took him to the Val de Grace[6] in a cab.
Soon, companies are formed, but without any discipline. All available weapons are seized from gunsmiths and civil establishments; the headquarters[7] of the artillery is occupied, and several barracks are captured and disarmed. All day long there is intense gunfire at the Place de Grève[8], the Rue St Honoré, the Rue de Rohan, the Richelieu, and on the quays. The cannon fire I heard so often echoed painfully in my soul. I went to the Pont Notre Dame[9] to see this tragic spectacle up close. The ordinary soldiers were despondent and remained neutral, firing neither on the crowd nor on the Swiss Guards[10]. The Hotel de Ville was taken and retaken, and the tricolour flew from the towers of Notre Dame. Newspapers were posted up – the King’s ordinance placed Paris under siege – the National Guard was addressed – all citizens were instructed in the name of the Order to go to their respective arrondissements – the streets were barricaded and paving stones were torn up for many miles.
Figure 1. Central Paris in 1830. Extract from map published by Goujon and Andriveau, annotated to show locations mentioned by Gaimard in his letter to Louis de Freycinet. Map source BNF Gallica.
This was the deadliest day.[11] The alarm bells were ringing continually.
Thursday the 29th. At eight in the morning the crowds capture the Gendarmerie on the Rue Tournon, the barracks of the elite gendarmerie. The students of the École Polytechnique place themselves at the head of improvised companies that seize the Louvre and the Tuileries. Royal Guards occupy houses on the Rue St. Honoré and mount a stubborn defence,[12] sadly killing even women and children. Eventually almost all are overcome. I accompany a blind magistrate, M. de Berny, to the Palace, where he addresses the people and invites them to withdraw, which they do immediately. The tricolour is raised over the Tuileries.
The Revolution is complete.
The 30th, Friday: Provisional Government – Paris Commission – Post Office Management – Police Stations.
Complete calm – The dead are buried – There are more than 1,200 wounded and many seriously injured.
The 31st, Saturday: the Duke of Orléans accepts the office of Lieutenant du Royaume – St. Cloud is captured.
On Sunday, August 1, everyone is strolling around as if nothing had happened.
On Monday, August 2, the workers return to their jobs at the Odéon. William Tell and Tartuffe are performed, and the Marseillaise and Le Vieux Drapeau are sung.
Today, August 3rd, parliament is reconvened. The Duke of Orléans is now in the Chamber of Deputies, where he arrived to the sound of cannon fire – a large number of armed men are leaving for Rambouillet, where the King is now, having abdicated in favour of the Duke of Bordeaux. A friend of the Duke has said that he did not want it and does not want it.[13] The King has requested safe conduct to embark at Cherbourg but It now seems that he wants to remain at Rambouillet. God grant that nothing bad happens!
So far, no revenge has been taken. Two robberies were committed; the thieves were shot on the spot. There have been as many acts of selflessness[14] as of bravery.
Farewell, dearest commander, I beg you to present my respects to Madame de Freycinet and to give me your instructions if I can be of any use to you in this city.
Please believe in my unwavering devotion. Your most affectionate and respectful servant.
Gaimard
There followed a brief postscript, dealing with matters that might be expected to be of particular interest to de Freycinet.
3 p.m., at the Ministry of the Navy.
Tupinier is the signatory, acting for M. de Rigny.
D’Urville has been sent on a special mission to Cherbourg; I think he left this morning.
Four days later, Paris had returned to normal, and Gaimard sent a second letter, principally concerned with the changes the revolution might bring about in the management of the Navy.
Paris, 7 August, 1830
Dear Commandant
As I told you at the end of my last letter, M. de Rigny[15] had a good chance of becoming Minister of the Marine. The position in Finance of his uncle, M. Louis, was a sufficient indication. It now seems certain that the Ministry has been given to M. de Rigny, and that until he arrives M. Tupinier[16] is the signatory. This latter appointment has been announced in the newspapers.
I should also tell you that it is being said that M. de Mackau[17] has resigned as director of personnel. This is positive news. General Roussin did not want to serve the Duke of Orléans before the abdication of Charles X, but I am told that he will now do so[18].
D’Urville has arranged for two American vessels that were at LeHavre to go to Cherbourg to be at the disposal of the royal family. Their destination is not known.
It has just been announced that, to put an end to the general uncertainty and to prevent unrest, the Duke of Orléans will be proclaimed King very soon – tomorrow or the day after. I spoke yesterday with a large number of people and it seems clear that the majority are for him. Then come the supporters of the Republic, of the Duke of Bordeaux and of the young Napoleon, in that order. There are only a few for the latter. The main disadvantage of a regency and, perhaps even more, of a republican government, would be that the friends of order and freedom seem to rally in greater numbers around the Duke of Orléans. The Duke of Bordeaux will probably have many supporters in the Chamber of Peers. The debates will be very interesting. Let us hope that there will be calm and good order everywhere.
If your brother were not going to Martinique, I would have liked to see him made Director of Personnel, but it seems that he wishes to take up his governorship as soon as possible. Since what happens in France affects the colonies, it is good that someone as distinguished as he is in charge of the most important of our overseas possessions.
Please give my respects and those of M. Quoy to the Mesdames de Freycinet and the governor. M. Poirier[19] had the goodness to bring me your letter. I am writing to you from your house, where I came so that M. Poirier could take advantage of the second page of my letter to write to you himself. He is not at home at the moment
– ah, he has just arrived!
Press freedom has been discussed or rather will be discussed, today. It is said that it will be written in to the Charter so that no power can destroy it. I am assured that this clause has just been adopted by the Chamber of Deputies. There are many people in the room. The garrisons at all the Garde national posts have been doubled or tripled so that the deliberations are not influenced by the crowd
Believe me to be always; your very affectionate and devoted servant.
Gaimard
M. Poirier has asked me to tell you that M. Empis[20] was not able to write his usual letter to you because he had no way to send it. M. Poirier is looking after matters until your return – otherwise, nothing new.
ADDRESSED : Très pressé
Monsieur Louis de Freycinet, Capitaine de Vaisseau, Membre de l’institut de France,
Officier de la Légion d’honneur, etc. à Loriol, Dépt de la Drôme
NOTES
[1] The Moniteur was the leading conservative newspaper in Paris at the time. On 26 July it published the decrees known as the July Ordinances and then, In accordance with those decrees, it ceased publication.
[2] The reading rooms were an important institution in Paris at the time. Entry to them was not free, but for those who could afford the fees they provided access to all the newspapers and a wide variety of other material.
[3] The national theatre.
[4] ”Régime du bon plaisir”. The translation used here is based on the definition on p. 330 of the 1835 (6th and final edition) of the Dictionnaire des Dictionnaires ou vocabulaire universel et complet de la langue française (Sylvie Brassard, pers. comm., 2020).
[5] The Palais Royal was the seat of the dukes of Orleans. The Marquis de Chabannes, an arch conservative but an active contrarian, had a public reading room in the commercial developments in the arcades surrounding the gardens. The shops referred to would have been those of the other occupants of the arcades.
[6] A military hospital at 74 Boulevard de Port-Royal in the 5th arrondissement.
[7] Reading uncertain
[8] Now the Place de l’hotel-de-Ville
[9] The Pont Notre Dame links the cathedral to the area in front of the the Hotel de Ville, (the Town Hall).
[10] Two of the eight infantry regiments included in the garde royale from 1815 to 1830 were Swiss mercenaries. Remembering the fate of their predecessors who were killed almost to a man during the storming of the Tuileries in 1792, many of them quietly melted into the crowds.
[11] It is thought that about 800 insurgents and 200 soldiers were killed and, respectively, 4500 and 800 wounded.
[12] The government ministers fled to the Tuileries and in the evening Marmont established a defensive line from the Place de la Concorde to the Louvre along the Rue St Honoré.
[13] On n’a pas voulu de son abdication ou du moins on ne veut pas. The meaning is obscure; this is one possible translation.
[14] ‘Traits de désintéressement’. It is not clear what Gaimard means by this.
[15] Admiral Count de Rigny had been appointed Ministre de la marine once before, in the Polignac Ministry on 8 August 1829, but had returned to the eastern Mediterranean almost immediately, being replaced in the Ministry by Charles Lemercier de Longpré. He was thus not tainted by association with the last months of the reign of Charles X and an obvious candidate for appointment as again Ministre de la Marine.
[16] This news was also given in the hurried note scrawled at the end of Gaimard’s previous letter. The absence of de Rigny from Paris at the time of the uprising would have necessitated the appointment of an acting Ministre de la marine, and this place was filled by Jean Marguerite Tupinier. He became briefly Ministre in his own right in 1839.
[17] Ange René Armand de Mackau. From 1843 to 1847 he served as Ministre de la marine.
[18] The appointment of Albin Roussin as director of personnel for the Navy would presumably have been welcomed by the de Freycinets, since he had gained a reputation as a hydrographer and earlier in 1830 had been elected to the Académie des Sciences. It is not clear why Gaimard refers to him as ‘M. le Gal. Roussin, since he had been made an admiral in 1822 and never served in the army.
[19] Poirier was employed as an assistant or secretary to Louis in the writing of his reports on the Uranie voyage. Some years later, in a letter to his brother Henri in written in July 1837, at a time he was battling with the Ministry for funding to complete his reports for publication, Louis mentioned that he had ‘lost’ Poirier, but he hoped he might find a valet who ‘could read and write and so also act as copyist’ to replace him (Suzanne Falkiner, pers. comm. April 2020).
[20] Reading uncertain. Person not identified.