COMTE DE CHAMBORD'S MANIFESTO.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 94, 18 September 1874, Page 4

COMTE DE CHAMBORD'S MANIFESTO.

The Union publishes the following manifesto from the Comte de Chambord : Frenchmen, —You have demanded the salvation of our country from temporary solutions, and you appear to be on the eve of rushing into fresh hazards. Every one of the revolutions that have happened during the last eighty years has been a striking demonstration of the monarchical temperament of the country. France has need of royalty. My birth has made me your king. I should be wanting to the most sacred of my duties if at this solemn moment I did not make a final effort to overturn the barrier of prejudices which still separates me from you. I am aware of all the accusations directed against my policy, against my attitude, my words, and my acts. There is nothing, even in my silence, which does not serve as a pretext for incessant recriminations. If I have preserved silence for long months, it is because I did not wish to render more difficult the mission of the illustrious soldier whose sword is protecting you. But to-day, in the face of so many accumulated errors, of so many falsehoods that have been circulated, of so many honest people deceived, silence is no longer allowable. Honor imposes on me an energetic protest. In declaring in the month of October last that I was ready to renew with you the bond of our destinies, to restore the shaken edifice of our national greatness, with the co-operation of all sincere minds without distinction of rank, origin, or party—in affirming that I retracted nothing of the declarations constantly repeated for thirty years in official and private documents, which are in the hands cf everybody, I counted on the proverbial intelligence of oui race and on the clearness of our language. People have pretended to infer that I placed the royal power above the laws, and that I was dreaming of I do not know what governmental systems based on what is arbitrary and absolute. No ; the Christian and French monarchy is in its very essence a limited (tempered) monarchy, which has nothing to borrow from those Governments of chance which promise the golden age and lead to the abyss. This limited monarchy admits of the existence of two chambers, one of which is nominated by the sovereign within, and the other by the nation according to the fixed categories, kind of suffrage settled by the law. Where is there room here for anything arbitrary? On the day when you and I shall be able, face to face, to handle together the interests of France, you will learn how the union of the people and the king enabled the French monarchy to baffle during so many centuries the designs of those who only carry on a struggle against the king in order to domineer over the people. It is not true to assert that my policy is inconsistent with the aspirations of the country. I desire a strong restorative power. France desires it no less than myself. Her interest impels her to do it. Her instinct demands it. Serious and durable alliances are being sought. Everybody comprehends that the traditional monarchy alone can give them to us. I wish to find in the representatives of the nation vigilant auxiliaries for the consideration of the questions submitted to their control. But I do not wish for those barren Parliamentary struggles, whence the sovereign too frequently issues powerless and enfeebled, and if I reject the formula of foreign importation which all our national traditions repudiate, with its king who reigns and does not govern, I feel myself on that point in perfect accord with the desires of the immense majority of you who understand nothing of these fictions, and are weary of these falsehoods. Erenchmen, lam ready to day as I was yesterday. The House of France is sincerely, loyally reconciled. Rally confidingly behind it. A truce to our divisions, in order that we may think only of our country's evils. Has she not suffered sufficiently ? Is it not time to restore to her, with her ancient royalty, prosperity, security, dignity, greatness, and all that assemblage of fruitful liberties which you will never obtain without it ? The task is a laborious one, but, God helping us we can accomplish it. Let every one weigh in his conscience the responsibilities of the present, and bethink himself of the severity of history.—Henri V. 2nd July, 1874."