e Jesuits and Ultramontanes. In a few months there
were disquieting signs of the growing unpopularity of the king. The
royal princesses were insulted in the streets; and on the 29th of April
1825 Charles, when reviewing the National Guard, was met with cries from
the ranks of "Down with the ministers!" His reply was, next day, a
decree disbanding the citizen army.

It was not till 1829, when the result of the elections had proved the
futility of Villele's policy of repression, that Charles consented
unwillingly to try a policy of compromise. It was, however, too late.
Villele's successor was the vicomte de Martignac, who took Decazes for
his model; and in the speech from the throne Charles declared that the
happiness of France depended on "the sincere union of the royal
authority with the liberties consecrated by the charter." But Charles
had none of the patience and commonsense which had enabled Louis XVIII.
to play with decency the part of a constitutional king. "I would rather
hew wood," he exclaimed, "than be a king under the conditions of the
king of England"; and when the Liberal opposition obstructed all the
measures proposed by a ministry not selected from the parliamentary
majority, he lost patience. "I told you," he said, "that there was no
coming to terms with these men." Martignac was dismissed; and Prince
Jules de Polignac, the very incarnation of clericalism and reaction, was
called to the helm of state.

The inevitable result was obvious to all the world. "There is no such
thing as political experience," wrote Wellington, certainly no friend of
Liberalism; "with the warning of James II. before him, Charles X. was
setting up a government by priests, through priests, for priests." A
formidable agitation sprang up in France, which only served to make the
king more obstinate. In opening the session of 1830 he declared that he
would "find the power" to overcome the obstacles placed in his path by
"culpable manoeuvres." The reply of the chambers was a protest against
"the unjust distrust of the sentiment and reason of France"; whereupon
they were first prorogued, and on the 16th of May dissolved. The result
of the new elections was what might have been foreseen: a large increase
in the Opposition; and Charles, on the advice of his ministers,
determined on a virtual suspension of the constitution. On the 25th of
July were issued the famous "four ordinances" which were the immediate
cause of the revolution that