Transcript

30 - Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot · Popular History of France from the Earliest Times

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Speaker 1: Section thirty of Volume one of A Popular History of
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Speaker 1: France from the Earliest Times. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Volume
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Speaker 1: one of A Popular History of France from the Earliest
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Speaker 1: Times by Francois Guiseau, translated by Robert Black, Chapter fifteen,
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Speaker 1: Conquest of England by the Normans, Part three. Having thus
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Speaker 1: secured the victory, William had his tent pitched at the
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Speaker 1: very point where the standard which had come from Rome
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Speaker 1: had replaced the saxon banner, and he passed the nights
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Speaker 1: supping and chatting with his chieftains, not far from the
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Speaker 1: corpses scattered over the battlefield. Next day it was necessary
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Speaker 1: to attend to the burial of all these dead conquerors
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Speaker 1: or conquered. William was full of care and affection towards
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Speaker 1: his comrades, and on the eve of the battle, during
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Speaker 1: a long and arduous reconnaissance which he had undertaken with
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Speaker 1: some of them, he had insisted upon carrying for some time,
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Speaker 1: in addition to his own creiss, that of his faithful
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Speaker 1: William fitz Osborne, who he saw was fatigued in spite
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Speaker 1: of his usual strength. But towards his enemies, William was
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Speaker 1: harsh and resentful. Githa Harold's mother, sent to him to
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Speaker 1: ask for her son's corpse, offering for it its weight
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Speaker 1: in gold. Nay, said William, Harold was a perjurer. Let
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Speaker 1: him have for burial place the sand of the shore
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Speaker 1: where he was so madly fain to rule. Two Saxon
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Speaker 1: monks from Waltham Abbey, which had been founded by Harold,
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Speaker 1: came by their abbot's order and claimed for their church
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Speaker 1: the remains of their benefactor, and William, indifferent as he
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Speaker 1: had been to a mother's grief, would not displease an abbey.
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Speaker 1: But when the monks set about finding the body of Harold,
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Speaker 1: there was none to recognize it, and they had recourse
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Speaker 1: to a young girl, Edith Swan's Neck, whom Harold had loved.
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Speaker 1: She discovered among the corpses her lover's mutilated body, and
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Speaker 1: the monks bored away to the church at Waltham, where
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Speaker 1: it was buried. Some time later, a rumor was spread
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Speaker 1: abroad that Harold was wounded and carried to a neighboring
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Speaker 1: castle perhaps Dover, whence he went to the abbey of
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Speaker 1: Saint John at Chester, where he lived a long while
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Speaker 1: in a solitary cell, and where William the Conqueror's second son,
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Speaker 1: Henry the First, the third Norman King of England, one
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Speaker 1: day went to see him and had an interview with him.
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Speaker 1: But this legend, in which there is nothing chronologically impossible,
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Speaker 1: rests on no sound basis of evidence, and is discountenanced
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Speaker 1: by all contemporary accounts. Before following up his victory, William
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Speaker 1: resolved to perpetuate the remembrance of it by a religious monument,
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Speaker 1: and he decreed the foundation of an abbey on the
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Speaker 1: very field of the Battle of Hastings, from which it
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Speaker 1: took its name Battle Abbey. He endowed this abbey with
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Speaker 1: all the neighboring territory within the radius of a league
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Speaker 1: the very spot, says his charter, which gave me my crown.
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Speaker 1: He made it free of the jurisdiction of any prelate,
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Speaker 1: dedicated it to Saint Martin of Tour, patron Saint of
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Speaker 1: the Soldiers of Gaul, and ordered that there should be
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Speaker 1: deposited in its archives a register containing the name of
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Speaker 1: all the lords, knights and men of Mark who had
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Speaker 1: accompanied him on his expedition. When the building of the
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Speaker 1: abbey began, the builders observed a want of water, and
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Speaker 1: they notified William of the fact. Work Away said he,
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Speaker 1: if God grant me life, I will make such good
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Speaker 1: provision for the place that more wine shall be found
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Speaker 1: there than there is water in other monasteries. It was
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Speaker 1: not everything, however, to be victorious, it was still necessary
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Speaker 1: to be recognized as king. When the news of the
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Speaker 1: defeated Hastings and the death of Harold was spread abroad
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Speaker 1: in the country, the emotion was lively and seemed to
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Speaker 1: be profound. The Great Saxon National Council, the whittingamentt assembled
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Speaker 1: at London. The remnants of the Saxon Army rallied there,
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Speaker 1: and search was made for other kings than the Norman Duke.
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Speaker 1: Harold left two sons, very young and not in a
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Speaker 1: condition to reign, but his two brothers in law, Edwin
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Speaker 1: and Morcar, held dominion in the north of England, whilst
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Speaker 1: the southern provinces, and amongst them the city of London
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Speaker 1: had a popular aspirant and nephew of Edward the Confessor
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Speaker 1: in Edgar surnamed athen Lee, the noble, the illustrious, as
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Speaker 1: the descendant of several kings. What with these different pretensions,
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Speaker 1: there were discussion, hesitation, and delay, but at last the
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Speaker 1: young Edgar prevailed and was proclaimed king. Meanwhile, William was
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Speaker 1: advancing with his army, slowly prudently as a man resolved
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Speaker 1: to risk nothing in calculating upon the natural results of
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Speaker 1: his victory. At some points he encountered attempts at resistance,
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Speaker 1: but he easily overcame them, occupied successively Romney, Dover, Canterbury,
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Speaker 1: and Rochester. Appeared before London without trying to enter it,
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Speaker 1: and moved on Winchester, which was the residence of Edward
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Speaker 1: the Confessor's widow, Queen Editha, who had received that important
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Speaker 1: city as dowry through respect for her. William, who presented
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Speaker 1: himself in the character of a relative and heir of
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Speaker 1: King Edward, did not enter the place, and merely called
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Speaker 1: upon the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance to
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Speaker 1: him and do him homage, which they did with the
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Speaker 1: Queen's consent. William returned towards London and commenced the siege,
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Speaker 1: or rather investment of it, by establishing his camp at
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Speaker 1: Berkhamsted in the County of Hartford. He entered before long
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Speaker 1: into secret communication with an influential burgess named ann's Gard,
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Speaker 1: an old man who had seen service and who riddled
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Speaker 1: with wounds, had himself carried about the streets in a litter.
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Speaker 1: Ansgard had but little difficulty in inducing the authorities of
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Speaker 1: London to make pacific overtures to the Duke, and William
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Speaker 1: had still less difficulty in convincing the messenger of the
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Speaker 1: moderation of his designs. The King Salucci, an offergy piece,
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Speaker 1: said Ansgard to the municipal authorities of London on his
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Speaker 1: return from the camp, tis a king who hath no peer.
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Speaker 1: He is handsomer than the Sun, wiser than Solomon, more
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Speaker 1: active and greater than Charlemagne. And the enthusiastic poet adds
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Speaker 1: that the people, as well as the Senate eagerly welcomed
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Speaker 1: these words and renounced both of them. The young king
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Speaker 1: they had but left lately proclaimed facts were quick in
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Speaker 1: responding to this quickly produced impression. A formal deputation was
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Speaker 1: sent to William's camp. The archbishops of Canterbury and York,
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Speaker 1: many other prelates and layic chieftains, the principal citizens of London,
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Speaker 1: the two brothers in law of Harold, Edwin and Morcar,
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Speaker 1: and the young king of yesterday, edgar Atheling himself formed
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Speaker 1: a part of it. And they brought to William edgar
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Speaker 1: Atheling his abdication and all the others their submission, with
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Speaker 1: an express invitation to William to have himself made king,
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Speaker 1: for we be wont, said they to serve a king,
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Speaker 1: and we wish to have a king for Lord. William
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Speaker 1: received them in presence of the chieftains of his army,
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Speaker 1: and with great show of moderation in his desires affairs,
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Speaker 1: said he be troubled still there be still certain rebels.
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Speaker 1: I desire rather the peace of the kingdom than the crown.
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Speaker 1: I would that my wife should be crowned with me.
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Speaker 1: The Norman chieftains murmured whilst they smiled, and one of them,
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Speaker 1: an Aquitanian Amri de Tours, cried out, it is passing
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Speaker 1: modest to ask soldiers if they wished their chief to
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Speaker 1: be king. Soldiers are never, or very seldom called to
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Speaker 1: such deliberations. Let what we desire be done as soon
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Speaker 1: as possible. William yielded to the entreaties of the Saxon
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Speaker 1: deputies and to the councils of the Norman chieftains. But
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Speaker 1: prudent still before going in person to London, he sent
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Speaker 1: thither some of his officers, with orders to have built
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Speaker 1: there immediately on the banks of the Thames, at a
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Speaker 1: point which he indicated, a fort where he might establish
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Speaker 1: himself in safety. That fort, in the course of time
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Speaker 1: became the Tower of London. When William set out some
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Speaker 1: days afterwards to make his entry into the city, he
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Speaker 1: found on his way to Saint Albans the road blocked
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Speaker 1: with huge trunks of trees recently felled. What means this
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Speaker 1: barricade in thy domains? He demanded of the Abbot of
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Speaker 1: Saint Albans, a Saxon noble. I did what was my
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Speaker 1: duty to my birth and mission, replied the Monk. If
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Speaker 1: others of my rank and condition had done as much
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Speaker 1: as they ought and could have done, thou hadst not
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Speaker 1: penetrated so far into our country. On entering London, after
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Speaker 1: all these delays, in all these precautions, William fixed for
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Speaker 1: his coronation upon Christmas Day, December twenty fifth, ten sixty six,
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Speaker 1: either by desire of the prelate himself or by William's
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Speaker 1: own order. It was not the Archbishop of Canterbury Stigand,
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Speaker 1: who presided, according to custom, at the ceremony, the duty
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Speaker 1: devolved upon the Archbishop of York, Aldred, who had but
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Speaker 1: lately anointed Edgar Atheling. At the appointed hour, William arrived
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Speaker 1: at Westminster Abbey, the latest work in the burial place
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Speaker 1: of Edward the Confessor. The Conqueror marched between two hedges
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Speaker 1: of Norman soldiers, behind whom stood a crowd of people,
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Speaker 1: cold and sad, though full of curiosity. A numerous cavalry
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Speaker 1: guarded the approaches to the church and the quarters. Adjoining
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Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty counts, barons and knights of Normandy
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Speaker 1: went in with the Duke. Geoffrey, Bishop of Cantonese, demanded
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Speaker 1: in French of the Normans if if they would that
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Speaker 1: their dukes should take the title of King of the English.
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Speaker 1: The Archbishop of York demanded of the English in the
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Speaker 1: Saxon tongue, if they would have for king the Duke
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Speaker 1: of Normandy. Noisy acclamations arose in the church and resounded outside.
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Speaker 1: The soldiery posted in the neighborhood took the confused roar
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Speaker 1: for a symptom of something wrong, and in their suspicious rage,
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Speaker 1: set fire to the neighboring houses. The flames spread rapidly.
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Speaker 1: The people who were rejoicing in the church caught the alarm,
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Speaker 1: and a multitude of men and women of every rank
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Speaker 1: flung themselves out of the edifice, alone and trembling. The bishops,
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Speaker 1: with some clerics and monks, remained before the altar and
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Speaker 1: accomplished the work of anointing upon the king's head himself trembling,
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Speaker 1: says the chronicle. Nearly all the rest who were present
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Speaker 1: ran to the fire, some to extinguish it, others to
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Speaker 1: steal and pillage. In the midst of consternation, William terminated
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Speaker 1: the ceremony by taking the usual oath of Saxon kings
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Speaker 1: at their coronation, adding there too, as of his own motion,
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Speaker 1: a promise to treat the Englis people according to their
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Speaker 1: own laws, and as well as they had ever been
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Speaker 1: treated by the best of their own kings. Then he
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Speaker 1: went forth from the church, King of England. We will
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Speaker 1: pursue no farther the life of William the Conqueror, for
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Speaker 1: henceforth it belongs to the history of England, not of France.
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Speaker 1: We have entered so far as he was concerned, into
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Speaker 1: pretty long details, because we were bound to get a
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Speaker 1: fair understanding of the event and of the man, not
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Speaker 1: only because of their luster at the time, but especially
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Speaker 1: because of the serious and long felt consequences entailed upon France, England,
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Speaker 1: and we may say Europe. We do not care just
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Speaker 1: now to trace out these consequences in all their bearings,
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Speaker 1: but we would like to mark out with precision their
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Speaker 1: chief features, inasmuch as they exercised for centuries a determining
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Speaker 1: influence upon the destinies of two great nations and upon
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Speaker 1: the course of modern civilization. As to France, the consequences
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Speaker 1: of the conquest of England by the Normans were clearly pernicious,
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Speaker 1: and they have not yet entirely disappeared. It was a
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Speaker 1: great evil as early as the eleventh century that the
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Speaker 1: Duke of Normandy, one of the great French lords, one
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Speaker 1: of the great vassals of the King of France, should
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Speaker 1: at the same time become King of England, and thus
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Speaker 1: received an accession of rank and power which could not
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Speaker 1: fail to render more complicated and more stormy his relations
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Speaker 1: with his French causerin from the eleventh to the fourteenth century,
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Speaker 1: from Philip the First to Philippe de Valois. This position
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Speaker 1: gave rise between the two crowns and the two states,
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Speaker 1: to questions, to quarrels, to political struggles, and to wars,
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Speaker 1: which were a frequent source of trouble in France, to
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Speaker 1: the government and to the people. The evil and the
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Speaker 1: peril became far greater still when in the fourteenth century
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Speaker 1: there arose between France and England, between Philip de Valois
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Speaker 1: and Edward the Third, a question touching the secession to
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Speaker 1: the throne of France and the application or negation of
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Speaker 1: the Salic Law. Then there commenced between the two crowns
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Speaker 1: and the two peoples. That war, which was to lackast
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Speaker 1: more than a hundred years, was to bring upon France
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Speaker 1: the saddest days of her history, and was to be
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Speaker 1: ended only by the inspired heroism of a young girl, who, alone,
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Speaker 1: in the name of her God and his saints, restored
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Speaker 1: confidence and victory to her king and her country. Joan
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Speaker 1: of Arc, at the cost of her life, brought to
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Speaker 1: the most glorious conclusion the longest and bloodiest struggle that
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Speaker 1: has devastated France and sometimes compromised her glory. Such events,
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Speaker 1: even when they are over, do not cease to weigh
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Speaker 1: heavily for a long while upon a people. The struggles
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Speaker 1: between the Kings of England, Dukes of Normandy and the
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Speaker 1: Kings of France, and the long war of the fourteenth
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Speaker 1: and fifteenth centuries for the secession to the throne of
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Speaker 1: France engendered what historians have called the rivalry between France
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Speaker 1: and England. And this rivalry, having been admitted as a
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Speaker 1: natural and inevitable fact, became the permanent incubus, and at
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Speaker 1: diverse epochs, the scourge of French national existence. Undoubtedly, there
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Speaker 1: are between greate and energetic neighbors different interests and tendencies,
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Speaker 1: which easily become the seeds of jealousy and strife. But
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Speaker 1: there are also between such nations common interests and common
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Speaker 1: sentiments which tend to harmony and peace. The wisdom and
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Speaker 1: ability of governments and of nations themselves are shown in
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Speaker 1: devoting themselves to making the grounds of harmony and peace
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Speaker 1: stronger than those of discord and war. Anyhow, common sense
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Speaker 1: and moral sense forbid differences of interests and tendencies to
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Speaker 1: be set up as a principle upon which to establish
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Speaker 1: general and permanent rivalry, and by consequence a systematic hostility
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Speaker 1: and national enmity. And the further civilization and the connections
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Speaker 1: between different people proceed with this development, the more necessary
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Speaker 1: and at the same time possible, it becomes to raise
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Speaker 1: the interests and sentiments which would hold them together above
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Speaker 1: those which would keep them asunder, and to thus found
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Speaker 1: a policy of reciprocal equity and of peace, and place
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Speaker 1: of a policy of hostile precautions and continual strife. I
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Speaker 1: have witnessed, says Monsieur Guiseau, in the course of my life,
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Speaker 1: both these policies. I have seen the policy of systematic hostility,
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Speaker 1: the policy practiced by the Emperor Napoleon the first, with
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Speaker 1: as much ability and brilliancy as it was capable of,
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Speaker 1: and I have seen it result in the greatest disaster
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Speaker 1: France ever experienced. And even after the evidence of its
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Speaker 1: errors and calamities, this policy has still left amongst us
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Speaker 1: deep traces and raised serious obstacles to the policy of
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Speaker 1: reciprocal equity, liberty and peace, which we labor to support,
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Speaker 1: and of which the nation felt, though almost against the grain,
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Speaker 1: the justice and the necessity. In that feeling, we recognize
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Speaker 1: the lamentable results of the old historic causes which have
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Speaker 1: just been pointed out, and the lasting perils arising from
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Speaker 1: those blind passions which hurry people away and keep them
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Speaker 1: back from their most pressing interests and their most honorable sentiments.
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Speaker 1: In spite of appearances to the contrary, and in view
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Speaker 1: of her future interests, England was in the eleventh century,
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Speaker 1: by the very fact of the conquest she underwent in
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Speaker 1: a better position than France. She was conquered, it is true,
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Speaker 1: and conquered by a foreign chieftain and a foreign army.
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Speaker 1: But France also had been, for several centuries previously a
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Speaker 1: prey to conquest, and under circumstances much more unfavorable than
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Speaker 1: those under which the Norman conquest had found and placed England.
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Speaker 1: When the Goths, the Burgundians, the Franks, the Saxons, and
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Speaker 1: the Normans themselves invaded and disputed over Gaul, what was
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Speaker 1: the character of the event? Barbarians up to that time,
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Speaker 1: vagabonds or nearly so, were flooding in upon populations, disorganized
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Speaker 1: and enervated on the side of the German victors. No
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Speaker 1: fixity in social life, no general or anything like regular government.
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Speaker 1: No nation really cemented and constituted, but individuals in a
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Speaker 1: state of dispersion and of almost absolute independence. On the
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Speaker 1: side of the vanquished Gallo Romans, the old political ties dissolved,
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Speaker 1: no strong power, no vital liberty, the lower classes in slavery,
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Speaker 1: the middle classes ruined, the upper classes depreciated. Amongst the
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Speaker 1: barbarian society was scarcely commencing with the subjects of the
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Speaker 1: Roman Empire. It no longer existed. Charlemagne's attempt to reconstruct
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Speaker 1: it by rallying beneath the new Empire both victors and vanquished,
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Speaker 1: was a failure. Feudal anarchy was the first and the
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Speaker 1: necessary step out of barbaric anarchy and towards a renewal
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Speaker 1: of social order. It was not so in England, when
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Speaker 1: in the eleventh century William transported thither his government and
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Speaker 1: his army, a people but lately come out of barbarism,
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Speaker 1: conquered on that occasion, a people still half barbarous. Their
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Speaker 1: primitive origin was the same, Their institutions were, if not similar,
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Speaker 1: at any rate analogous. There was no fundamental antagonism in
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Speaker 1: their habits. The English chieftains lived in their domains, an
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Speaker 1: idle hunting life surrounded by their liegemen, just as the
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Speaker 1: Norman barons lived. Society amongst both the former and the
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Speaker 1: latter was founded, however unrefined and irregular it still was,
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Speaker 1: and neither the former nor the latter had lost the
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Speaker 1: flavor and the usages of their ancient liberties. A certain
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Speaker 1: superiority in point of organization and social discipline belonged to
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Speaker 1: the Norman conquerors. But the conquered Anglo Saxons were neither
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Speaker 1: in a temper to allow themselves to be enslaved, nor
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Speaker 1: out of condition for defending themselves. The conquest was destined
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Speaker 1: to entail cruel evils, a long oppression, but it could
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Speaker 1: not bring about either the dissolution of the two peoples
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Speaker 1: into petty, lawless groups, or the permanent humiliation of one
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Speaker 1: in presence of the other. There were, at one and
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Speaker 1: the same time elements of government and resistance, causes of
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Speaker 1: fusion and unity in the very midst of the struggle.
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Speaker 1: We are now about to anticipate ages and get a
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Speaker 1: glimpse in their development of the consequences which attended this
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Speaker 1: difference so profound in the position of France, and of
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Speaker 1: England at the time of the formation of the two states.
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Speaker 1: In England, immediately after the Norman conquest, two general forces
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Speaker 1: are confronted those to wit. Of the two peoples. The
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Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon people is attached to its ancient institutions, a
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Speaker 1: mixture of feudalism and liberty, which becomes its security. The
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Speaker 1: Norman army assumes organization on English soil according to the
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Speaker 1: feudal system which had been its own in Normandy. A
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Speaker 1: principle of authority and a principle of resistance thus exist
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Speaker 1: from the very first in the community and in the government.
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Speaker 1: Before long the principle of resistance gets displaced. The strife
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Speaker 1: between the peoples continues, but a new struggle arises between
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Speaker 1: the Norman king and his barons. The Norman kingship, strong
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Speaker 1: in its growth, would fame become tyrannical, but its tyranny
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Speaker 1: encounters a resistance also strong. Since the necessity for defending
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Speaker 1: themselves against the Anglo Saxons has caused the Norman barons
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Speaker 1: to take up the practice of acting in concert, and
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Speaker 1: has not permitted them to set themselves up as petty.
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Speaker 1: Isolated the sovereigns, the spirit of association receives development in England.
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Speaker 1: The ancient institutions have maintained it against the English landholders,
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Speaker 1: and the inadequacy of individual resistance has made it prevalent
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Speaker 1: amongst the Norman barons. The unity which springs from community
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Speaker 1: of interests and from junction of forces against equals, becomes
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Speaker 1: a counterpoise to the unity of the sovereign power to
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Speaker 1: sustain the struggle with success. The aristocratic coalition formed against
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Speaker 1: the tyrannical kingship has needed the assistance of the landed proprietors,
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Speaker 1: great and small, English and Norman, and it has not
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Speaker 1: been able to dispense with getting their rights recognized as
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Speaker 1: well as its own. Meanwhile, the struggle is becoming complicated.
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Speaker 1: There is a division of parties. A portion of the
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Speaker 1: barons rally round the threatened kingship. Sometimes it is the
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Speaker 1: feudal aristocracy, and sometimes it is the king that summons
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Speaker 1: and sees flocking to the rescue the common people, first
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Speaker 1: of the country, then of the towns. The democratic element
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Speaker 1: thus penetrates into and keeps growing in both society and government.
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Speaker 1: At one time quietly and through the stolid influence of necessity,
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Speaker 1: at another noisily and by means of revolutions, powerful indeed,
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Speaker 1: but nevertheless restrained within certain limits. The fusion of the
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Speaker 1: two peoples and the different social classes is little by
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Speaker 1: little attaining accomplishment. It is little by little bringing about
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Speaker 1: the perfect formation of representative government, with its various component
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Speaker 1: parts royalty, aristocracy, and democracy, each invested with the rights
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Speaker 1: and the strength necessary for their functions. The end of
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Speaker 1: the struggle has been arrived at. Constitutional monarchy is founded
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Speaker 1: by the triumph of their language and of their primitive liberties,
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Speaker 1: the English have conquered their conquerors. It is written in
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Speaker 1: her history, and especially in her history at the date
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Speaker 1: of the eleventh century, how England found her point of
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Speaker 1: departure and her first elements of success in the long
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Speaker 1: labor she performed in order to arrive in sixteen eighty
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Speaker 1: eight at a free and in our days, at a
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Speaker 1: liberal government. France pursued her end by other means and
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Speaker 1: in the teeth of other fortunes. She always desired and
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Speaker 1: always sought for free government under the form of constitutional monarchy.
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Speaker 1: And in following her history step by step, there will
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Speaker 1: be seen, often disappearing and ever reappearing, the efforts made
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Speaker 1: by the country for the accomplishment of her hope. Why
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Speaker 1: then did not France sooner and more completely attain what
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Speaker 1: she had so often attempted. Amongst the different causes of
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Speaker 1: this long miscalculation, we will dwell for the present only
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Speaker 1: on the historical reason just now indicated. France did not find,
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Speaker 1: as England did, in the primitive elements of French society,
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Speaker 1: the conditions and means of the political system to which
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Speaker 1: she never ceased to aspire. In order to obtain the
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Speaker 1: moderate measure of internal order without which society could not exist,
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Speaker 1: in order to ensure the progress of her civil laws
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Speaker 1: and her material civilization, in order even to enjoy those
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Speaker 1: pleasures of the mind for which she thirst so much,
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Speaker 1: France was constantly obliged to have recourse to the kingly
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Speaker 1: authority and to that almost absolute monarchy, which was far
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Speaker 1: from satisfying her, even when she could not do without it,
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Speaker 1: and when she worshiped it with an enthusiasm rather literary
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Speaker 1: than political, as was the case under Louis the fourteenth.
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Speaker 1: It was through the refined, rather than profound, development of
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Speaker 1: her civilization, and through the zeal of her intellectual movement,
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Speaker 1: that France was at length impelled not only towards the
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Speaker 1: political system to which she had so long inspired, but
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Speaker 1: into the boundless ambition of the unlimited revolution which she
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Speaker 1: brought about and with which she inoculated all Europe. It
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Speaker 1: is in the first steps towards the formation of the
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Speaker 1: two societies French and English, and in the elements so
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Speaker 1: very different of their earliest existence, that we find the
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Speaker 1: principal cause for their long continued diversity in institutions and destinies.
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Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty three, forty seven years ago, after having studied,
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Speaker 1: as Minschuguiseau in my essays upon a comparative history of
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Speaker 1: France and England, the great fact which we have just
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Speaker 1: now attempted to make clearly understood, I conclude my labor
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Speaker 1: by saying, before our revolution this difference between the political
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Speaker 1: fates of France and England might have saddened a Frenchmen.
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Speaker 1: But now, in spite of the evils we have suffered,
23:20
Speaker 1: and in spite of those we shall yet perhaps suffer,
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Speaker 1: there is no room, so far as we are concerned,
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Speaker 1: for such sadness. The advances of social equality and the
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Speaker 1: enlightenments of civilization in France preceded political liberty and it
23:34
Speaker 1: will be thus the more general and the purer France
23:37
Speaker 1: may reflect without regret upon any history. Her own has
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Speaker 1: always been glorious, and the future promised to her will
23:44
Speaker 1: assuredly recompense her for all she has hitherto lacked. In
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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy, after the experiences, and notwithstanding the sorrows of
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Speaker 1: my long life, I have still confidence in our country's future.
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Speaker 1: Never be it forgotten that God helps only those who
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Speaker 1: help themselves and who deserve his aid. End of Chapter fifteen.