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THE CELEBRITIES OF THE CORPS
LEGISLATIF.
By George Makepeace Towle.
I.—ROUHER.
GLANCE at the portrait of M.
Rouher, the
AState, discovers Imperial Minister
of
a peculiarity not
common in Frenchmen. His features
are decidedly of an English type.
Their form and expression have neither
the sensitiveness nor the nervous exci
tability which we are accustomed to see
in the faces of his countrymen ; they
possess rather the fixedness, calmness,
and silent determination of the Eng
lishman. You are even more struck
with this when you see the man him
self, as he sits erect and tranquil on
the Ministerial bench at the Palais
Bourbon. Other French statesmen
are restless, impatient of opposition,
and may often be observed, when
they are being attacked byan opponent,
in so excited a state that they can
scarcely keep their places till he has
finished. Amid all the fierce storms
of the Chamber—and they are far
more frequent than those of the
House of Commons—Rouher alone
seems unmoved, and appears to ob
serve with a kind of cool and compla
cent contempt the efforts of his adver
saries to arouse him. He has all
that presence of mind, that quiet per
severance, that imperturbable self
control, which make up far more
often an English than a French tem
perament. And Rouher, though, like
an Englishman, slow to wrath—or at
least slow to evince it—is great when
he at last turns at bay. Proud, and
perhaps stubborn, he, for a French
man, shows a wonderful patience and
coolness of temper ; but when he is
once roused by an insufferable taunt
from Jules Favre, or an icily stinging
thrust from Emile Ollivier, he throws
himself into the contest with some
thing of that muscular impetuosity
which Fox displayed in his jousts
with Pitt, and which, later on, made
Brougham the terror of the opposite
benches in the House of Commons.
Thus, alike in feature, in manner, and
in character of an English type,
Rouher seems almost out of place in
the midst of his vivacious and easily
excited countrymen ; and perhaps it
has been owing, in some degree, to
his more English qualities, that he
has risen to his present high posi
tion.
It is interesting to sit in the dark
little gallery of the Corps Legislatif,
and note this singular contrast be
tween the Minister of State and his
colleagues.
After you have been
listening with admiration to the
superb "roaring and blowing” of
Favre, that refined and toned-down
Mirabeau ; after you have been wellnigh convinced by the incisive logic
of the veteran Thiers ; after you have
been amused by the fiery vagaries of
Pagds, the Nestor of the revolutionists;
your attention is at once fixed by the
tall and rigid form of the Emperor’s
most trusted counsellor, as he rises to
reply. His air is one of confidence
and command ; the half contemptuous
indifference of his countenance is
also betrayed in his very manner of
getting to his feet. He looks, every
inch of him, the prosperous, selfcomplacent, haughty, well-backed
official. Everything about him be-
���The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
trays the bold minister of an absolute
dynastry. Until recently, Rouher
seemed to be in the lusty vigour of
manhood ; but of late his health has
become feeble» the cares of State have
weighed heavily upon him, and have
given him a much older and more
weary look. Still his countenance is
one of the most suggestive in the
Chamber.
He is taller than the
middle height, well-built, and holds
himself proudly erect. His head is
a remarkably fine one, round, and
well-shaped ; his soft, curly brown
hair is thinning above the broad
and well-curved forehead, over which
a curl is permitted to fall. His dull
gray eye is cold and almost listless,—
but now and then flashes with indig
nation, or in exultant triumph. On
one memorable occasion, years ago,
the momentary brilliancy of his whole
countenance is said to have attracted,
for the first time, the attention of
his colleagues in the Assembly, who
had previously thought him but a
dullish and hard-working official
drudge. In 1850, during his first
term of Minister of Justice, he was
arguing, from the tribune, in favour
of a law restricting the liberties of
the press» He had been interrupted
several times by the cries of that
extreme party which had assumed the
traditional title of the “Mountain”;
at last, one of his sneers at the press
Was greeted by a perfect roar of indig
nation. Turning suddenly to the side
[where the “ Mountain ” party sat,
and leaning over towards them, with
outstretched arms and flashing eyes,
Rouher shouted, “Your Revolution
of February was but a catastrophe !"
The Assembly was greatly excited by
an apostrophe of such import, coming
from a Minister of the President, and
from one who had himself been a
creature of the Revolution ; the say
ing became historical ; and the men
of that day, on hearing it, rightly
predicted that it foreshadowed the
establishment of a Second Empire.
But to return to Rouher, as he appears
on the floor of the Corps Legislatif.
A native of the genial climate of
Auvergne, his complexion is smooth
and sallow, and hardly ruffled by a
single wrinkle; his nose is gently
aquiline and very handsome—of a
pure aristocratic type ; his lips are
full, yet firm-set, his chin round and
somewhat prominent. As he begins
to speak, his voice is low and mono
tonous, his gestures and manner stiff
and formal. He seems to be, except
on rare occasions, almost indifferent
as to the effect he is about to produce,
and to speak less with the object of
persuading than of fulfilling an official
duty. Little desirous, apparently, of
popularity—for he seems to feel that
his strength lies in the unbounded
confidence of Napoleon—-he certainly
has failed to reap it, for no French
statesman is less generally liked. As
he continues to speak, the salient
traits of his character more and more
distinctly appear.
Never off his
guard—always possessing complete
control over his temper—quick to
answer by a short, curt repartee, a
sarcastic interruption—resuming with
ease the thread of his argument—
bold in the assertion of fact—and
subtle in getting over an awkward
point, he strikes you as precisely the
man to defend the policy and gloss
over the errors of a personal govern
ment. Neither his career as a states
man nor his manner as an orator im
presses one with his devotion to any
one great principle ; he seems to be
guided solely by expediency. He
indulges little in the flowers of
rhetoric, and proceeds directly with
his subject.
The close attention
which the Chamber bestows upon
his harangues must be attributed to
another cause than any great fascina
tion in his oratory, As the mouth
piece of the Emperor, he is an oracle.
Upon his lips hang peace or war;
his every word may be—often is—a
prophecy ; he seems to delight in
�74
The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif
holding the Assembly in suspense,
playing with their curiosity or their
fears, and, after giving each one of
his hearers a sort of mental St. Vitus’s
dance, in coming out suddenly with
a short, bold, emphatic declaration.
For, with all his English-like sang
froid, he has the Frenchman’s love
for the dramatic, and when he finds
it necessary to be clear and definite,
he loves to fashion the scene so that
it shall have an éclatant denoue
ment. Such an episode was that of
last autumn, when the Pope was
making up his mind to be a martyr
to Garibaldian desecration, and was
disappointed by the timely interfer
ence of the Chassepót. Rouher had
been making one of those crafty
speeches which say much without
enlightening anybody, and had sat
down without exposing the intentions
of the Government in reference to
Rome. The crisis was a dangerous
one ; many of the Opposition—among
them Thiers and Berryer—had de
clared for the Pope’s sovereignty, and
the choice of the Emperor must be
given between the Ultramontanes and
the Democrats. The excitement of
the Chamber had reached its height ;
Berryer, Thiers, and the Imperialist
Catholics surrounded the Minister,
and besought him to declare which
side the Government would take.
The deputies watched the little group
with unconcealed anxiety ; the venera
ble Berryer gesticulated vehemently;
Thiers was red with excitement, and
talked rapidly ; Rouher’s features
were immovable, and he stood with
folded arms, looking down, appa
rently indifferent to the appeals made
to him from every side. Finally, his
face lit up as if with a sudden resolu
tion ; a slip of paper, containing a
telegram from the Tuileries, was
placed in his hand. With a quick
step and his head held high in air, he
mounted the steps, and appeared, for
once flushed and nervous, at the rail
of the tribune. The hall was as still
as if it were empty ; the deputies on
all sides leaned forward to catch every
word ; but there was no need of
that, for the speaker’s voice was this
time clear and ringing. " Italy shall
never possess Rome ! Never !” de
clared the Minister; and as he
descended, the Catholic deputies
greeted him with a deafening ovation
of applause.
Rouher seems to be quite wrapped
up in the arduous duties of that office
which has been wittily called, by a liv
ing French writer, the “Ministry of
speech-making.” Although obliged
to appear often in society, he is by no
means a brilliant society-man. He is
affable in private, but talks little, and
is always thoughtful and absent. As
you see him in his superb carriage,
rolling over the smooth asphalte pave
ment of the Rue de Rivoli, he seems
to be in deep reverie ; unmindful of
what is passing around him ; not
conscious, or too proud to seem so,
that all eyes are directed towards
him. Yet he is not wanting in wit;
at least, in that ironical humour
which has its best field in a legisla
tive assembly.
On one occasion,
during the Republic, when it was con
trary to law to speak of the ancient
noblesse by their former titles, Rouher
alluded to M. de Broglie as the Due
de Broglie ; and immediately, with a
fine sense of irony, asked pardon of
the Chamber for his infraction of the
Constitution, and with mock gravity
expressed the hope that his colleagues
would not impeach him for it. But
while at Paris he is the cold, haughty,
energetic Minister, in the warm and
lovely valleys of his native Auvergne
he unbends, and becomes almost
genial. It is a trait in singular con
trast with the character which he ex
hibits in public life, that he cherishes
an unusually strong affection for the
province of his birth. There, and
there only, is he popular ; and there,
and there only, he seems to forget
the cares of public life, and to relax
�The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
the austerity of his bearing. The
citizens of Riom, his native town,
have named the street where he first
saw the light, by his name ; and the
news of his coming is always wel
comed with rejoicing and festivity.
When the Emperor and Empress
visited that part of France, not long
after the coup d'etat, Rouher hastened
on before them ; and, on reaching
Riom, was received by the Mayor,
and presented with an address. He
spoke to his compatriots in a tone so
much more cordial than he had ever
used at Paris, that it was everywhere
remarked ; and assured them that he
had come to “join the ranks of his
compatriots, rather as a private
citizen, in welcoming their Majesties
to his native province, than as a
Minister attendant on the Sovereigns.”
One of the most creditable features of
his public career has been his solici
tude for the welfare of Auvergne.
“I am never,” he said on one occa
sion, addressing his fellow-citizens,
“ far away from you in heart. I
always, with a pious and grateful
care, bring hither all my joys and
griefs, my family emotions, my poli
tical perplexities.”
Rouher is a hard, driving worker.
He is, perhaps, the best administra
tive officer in France. His forte is
said to be finance, and it is owing
to his ability in that department, com
bined with his ease and force as an
orator, that he is sometimes called
the “ Gladstone of France.” He is
early at his office, by no means
fashionably late, according to Pari
sian ideas, in his hour of getting to
work ; he is most careful in the pre
paration of his work, and especially of
his speeches, which are revised again
and again, and are especially replete
with information on the subject which
he treats. He is, as has been already
said, the Emperor’s most trusted
counsellor, and seems to have quite
superseded, in Napoleon’s good graces,
his former and more liberal favourites,
75
Count Walewski and the Due de
Persigny. Indeed, Rouher is believed
to be even less liberal in his opinions
than his chief, and to have been
loth to grant those recent laws on
the press and the right of public
meetings, the good effects of which
are already visible. His aristocratic
tendencies may be traced back to the
period of his youth. Before he was
heard of as a politician, he was a
small provincial advocate, with lofty
ideas, great ambition, and good con
nections. Had not good old patri
archal King Louis Philippe luckily
abolished the naval school of Angou
lême, the haughty Minister of State
might now have been serving as an
obscure lieutenant on board an Im
perial man-of-war, off the coast of
Algeria, or in Oriental seas. In sup
pressing the academy, the Orleans
monarch seems to have also sup
pressed Rouher’s early propensity
to a naval career. Back went the
would-be midshipman to his Auvergne
home ; and he next tried the paternal
and fraternal profession of drawing
deeds and instructing advocates. He
went up to Paris to complete his legal
education ; seems to have chafed
terribly under its dreary' and dusty
monotony ; yet plodded on, nursing
in secret a restless, ambitious soul.
His elder brother, impelled by illhealth, relinquished his practice to
Eugene; and the latter, about the
same time, made a fortunate matri
monial alliance with the daughter of
M. Couchon, Mayor of Clermont,
having admired and courted the future
Madame Rouher during his course of
studies there. Young Rouher’s na
turally conservative ideas, both social
and political, were doubtless intensi
fied by the attack which the canaille
of Clermont made upon his father-inlaw’s house during the uprising of
1842 ; driving the respectable Mayor
out at the back-door, and pillaging it
from cellar to garret.
Law seems to have been fonder of
�7&
The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
him than he of law ; for he achieved a
rapid success at the bar, yet longed
to relinquish it and enter upon a
wider and more notorious career.
In 1846 (being then in his thirtysecond year) he had become so enter
prizing a politician that he had won
the countenance of Guizot, under
whose auspices he stood for the
Chamber of Deputies in his native
town of Riom. The good folk, his
neighbours, had not then learned his
value ; and unceremoniously chose
his antagonist. From that time till
the great “catastrophe” of 1848,
Rouher disappears from our view ;
but soon after the tempestuous days
of February have passed, and those
most uncomfortable disciples of uni
versal fraternity, the Provisional
Government, have installed them
selves at the Hotel de Ville, he again
emerges, now galvanized into an
ardent republican, and is triumphantly
elected deputy from Riom to the
Constituent Assembly. In that unruly
and pugnacious body, Rouher seems
to have been frightened, for the while,
out of his natural boldness.
He
found the task of achieving fame in
revolutionary politics a far harder
one than running after greffiers,
haranguing in a provincial Palace of
Justice, or having now and then a
tilt with the Procureur-General. He
sat long on the back-benches of the
Assembly without making any sign ;
spoke rarely, and did not shine as
orator or as practical legislator ;
and was, during several months a
very common-place, demure, neglected
young deputy. There was one of
his colleagues, however, who had
certain reasons for observing men
at that period, and upon whom the
infrequent speeches of young Rouher
made an impression ; and while the
latter was listened to with provoking
indifference by the greater part of the
Assembly, luckily for him, he was at
that time heard with deep attention
by the “ coming man.” Rouher owes
his eminence to the fact that with
him, in the Constituent Assembly, sat
the returned exile, now deputy for
Paris, Prince Louis Napoleon Bona
parte. His spirit, his perseverance,
his patience, his evident dislike of the
revolution, the care and ease with
which he spoke, were all qualities
likely to be needful to the Prince at a
time not far distant. After the coup
d’etat, Rouher reaped the reward of
long obscurity. He was at once
summoned to the Emperor’s councilboard, and henceforth, with few in
terruptions, basked in the sunshine ot
the Imperial favour.
From this brief sketch of the Min
ister’s not very striking career, it wil
be seen that he is emphatically what
the French call a “ new man.” To
his own qualities alone, and to the
happy accident of his sitting as a de
puty in the same assembly with the
future Emperor, is to be attributed
his success. He is thus a represent
ative man of the Second Empire ; for
that is essentially a régime of new
men. The old Bourbon nobility hold
aloof from it, because it is not Catho
lic enough, and because it is a con
stant refutation of the idea of “di
vine right ” : it is amusing to hear
these heirs of the ancient aristocracy
sneer at Napoleon, and call him an
“ upstart they fairly look down on
him, with that icy though polite con
tempt which is the peculiar privilege
of the blue-blooded descendant of the
Bourbon noblesse ; and when you
think how much the creature of an
upstart should be despised, you may
imagine with what feelings Rouher is
regarded by these fine old Bourbon
gentlemen. He is not less disliked
by the Republicans, who see in him,
as one of the most eloquent of them
once said in the Chamber, “ a recre
ant son of the Revolution.” Billault,
the predecessor of Rouher as Minister
of State, was also an ungrateful child
of the days of February ; but Billault
had a suaviter in modo, a conciliatory
�The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
grace of manner, which Rouher lacks,
and which went far to win for him
the esteem of all parties, notwithstand
ing his desertion of the Republican
cause. Rouher has staked his for
tunes on the stability of the Imperial
throne, and will sink or swim with it.
He will do nothing to win the esteem
Or the support of his opponents. He
repays contempt with contempt, and
thrust with thrust. His vigour, and
the promptness of his ironical wit—
th® latter rather the result of practice
than a natural talent—enable him to
hold his own with the ablest of his
adversaries, and he apparently cares
for no more amiable triumph. He
does not hesitate to retort upon the
Opposition with their own weapons of
invective and irony ; he employs every
little art which the greatest orators
employ, and is an adept at that fo
rensic fencing—that thrusting and
parrying, slashing and throwing off
guard—for which the Corps Legislatif
is the most notable of arenas.
Rouher’s public life has been
marked by many changes in France.
It would be unjust to him not to at
tribute to his administration many of
those improvements and adornments
which the Empire has received within
the past ten years. Both Paris and
the departments have visibly changed
their aspect. The sumptuous metro
polis has been decorated and made
more spacious, and becomes every
year more splendid than before. In
the provinces, roads are being built,
Schools are multiplying, the condi
tion of the towns is becoming more
healthy, and all the benefits of a per
sonal régime are appearing. The po
lice system is a perfect machine in the
effectiveness with which it works. The
public offices are in a state of order
and efficiency before unknown.
But perhaps the greatest triumph of
Rouher’s career was the Commercial
Treaty with England. English in his
personal appearance, and in many
traits of his character, the Minister
77
of State is also a firm believer in
many English ideas, and an earnest
advocate of alliance and friendship
between England and France. The
reader may not have forgotten that he
came to England on the occasion of
the second Universal Exhibition of
London. He was cordially received
as a well-known friend of the alliance;
and in answer to the address by which
Earl Granville welcomed him, the
Minister replied: “Every invoice
which is signed to-day at Birming
ham and Manchester, at Mulhouse
and Rheims, is one more blow, aiding
to destroy whatever germs of hate
may yet exist between our two coun
tries. Each one is another guarantee
of that peace which is so necessary
to the progress of these two peoples,
and to the civilization of the world.”
It is hard for an Englishman to
imagine how fierce was the opposition
to free trade in France. To establish
it was nothing less than to risk another
revolution. Cobden’s noble task, with
a less courageous Minister,would have
been hopeless. But Rouher saw both
its commercial benefits to France, and
its importance as another bond of
amity between his own country and
England. The Emperor, resembling
Rouher in courage, in clear-sighted
ness, and in friendliness for England,
took his Minister’s advice : and Cob
den was able to return successful in
his mission. They bravely met the
storm which burst upon them from
every part of the Empire ; and the
result has proved that Napoleon III.
could have had no more sagacious ad
viser than his Minister of State. One
of the most successful and eloquent
speeches Rouher ever delivered—one
in which he showed more earnestness
than in almost any other he ever pro
nounced—was that, last spring, in
which he defended the Cobden
Treaty, and triumphantly refuted the
assertion that the distress of France
during the winter was owing to that
great measure.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The celebrities of the Corps Legislatif. 1: Rouher
Creator
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Towle, George Makepiece
Description
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Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: [72] -75 p. : Ill. (port. with tissue guard) ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. The Corps législatif was a part of the French legislature during the French Revolution and beyond. Printed in double columns. From The Ocean Broadway. Date of publication from Virginia Clark's catalogue.
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[n.d.]
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[1868]
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G5304
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French Revolution
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The celebrities of the Corps Legislatif. 1: Rouher), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Eugene Rouher
France-History-1789-1793