Shadow of great britain

What kind of person was Guizot?

Arthur thought that Hugo would denounce this man who had been criticized in history in an impassioned manner, but what he didn't expect was that in Hugo's mouth, Guizot seemed to be completely different from the words he read in the book. .

As a leader of French romantic literature, Hugo's impression of Guizot was not only not bad, but also quite good.

At least in the eyes of Hugo in 1833, Guizot was an out-and-out gentleman.

Guizot's maternal grandfather was a Montagnard during the Revolution and once served as governor of the Gard Province, while his grandfather was an underground pastor of the Calvinist sect. Whether they are paternal or maternal relatives, they are all high-level intellectuals.

But this does not mean that Guizot's childhood was wonderful. During the Revolution, even these upper-class families were always in turmoil.

Guizot's father was arrested by the Jacobins because he was accused of being a Girondin.

Guizot's grandfather, either out of self-preservation or due to party prejudice, was unwilling to come forward to rescue his son-in-law no matter how hard his daughter begged him. Instead, he watched helplessly as he was guillotined in his own jurisdiction.

In order to get rid of this sad memory, Guizot's mother took him and his brother to live in Geneva, Switzerland. Here, Guizot not only learned many crafts, but also learned many languages ​​including Latin, Greek, German, English and Italian.

The misfortune of his childhood and his study experience in Geneva ultimately led Guizot to form his current political stance.

Compared to those ultra-conservative royalists, Guizot was a liberal.

Compared with the Republicans who were closer to the Jacobins, Guizot was a conservative.

If we look at Guizot from a British perspective, this gentleman's position should be between the Duke of Wellington and Sir Peel. He is a Tory who insists on a constitutional monarchy.

For a Frenchman, the saddest position is that of Guizot.

He can only live between the Republicans and the Royalists, and neither party will treat him as one of their own. To make matters worse, Guizot also did not advocate violent revolution, preferring mild and gradual reforms.

For a country like France that frequently pushed cannons into the streets, Guizot's approach was tantamount to handing over the rope around his neck to the republicans and royalists.

But this stance was not without its benefits. After he returned to China in 1805, the 18-year-old Guizot quickly stood out among the literati circles in Paris with his profound knowledge. A book called "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" made him a A well-known historian throughout France.

Fontaine, the president of the Sorbonne University in Paris, even personally invited Guizot to come to the Sorbonne University as a professor of modern history. At this year, Guizot was just a 25-year-old young man.

If there is anything unpleasant about Guizot, who was very successful at the age of 25, it is that he hated Napoleon, the emperor of the French Empire at this time. He never participated in specific political activities and always insisted on his identity as a liberal. He spent money for himself. He was exempted from military service, escaped the fanatical military atmosphere of the time, and even refused to sing praises for the emperor.

After Napoleon abdicated, Louis XVIII of the Bourbon dynasty was crowned king in Paris. In order to win over the liberal literati in the country at that time, Louis XVIII cleverly promoted Guizot, who had no foundation, to Secretary of State, and later promoted him to Secretary of State. He was further appointed Minister of the Interior.

At this time, Guizot was less than 30 years old when he entered the cabinet.

Louis XVIII's ideas were similar to Guizot's. This king who developed liberal and enlightened tendencies in his youth was also a centrist.

He witnessed the execution of his brother Louis XVI, the death of his nephew Louis XVII in prison, and the tragic experience of his niece Marie Therese. The various turbulences during the Revolution convinced Louis XVIII that France could no longer return to the old path of an absolute monarch.

During his time in the cabinet, Guizot well implemented the common ideas he shared with the king. On the one hand, he affirmed many important principles of the Revolution, such as equality before the law, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of the press. The restored aristocratic forces were resolutely not allowed to counterattack the republicans. On the other hand, Guizot opposed the unyielding attitude of radical liberals towards the old aristocracy.

But as mentioned above, even though Guizot had the support of Louis XVIII, even Louis XVIII himself could not grasp the balance between the royalists and the republicans.

On February 13, 1820, the crown prince, Duke Bailey, was assassinated, and the balance was finally broken.

The ultra-royalists took the opportunity to blame the liberals for the case, forcing Prime Minister Elie Decaz to resign, and the ultra-royal representative Count Villers came to power to form the government.

They promulgated laws in favor of the nobility and strengthened the control of public opinion. The church forces also regained the power of education and culture. Black terror descended on France again.

Seeing that he was unable to save the situation, Guizot resigned and returned to his professorship at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Louis XVIII was unable to intervene in the current situation. In anger, this rare enlightened king of the Bourbon dynasty finally fell ill.

When he saw his brother Charles X who had achieved his wish and became the new crown prince, he could only curse angrily before his death: "Humph! I'm afraid it will be difficult for my brother to die on this bed."

The curse of Louis XVIII did come true. In July 1830, a revolution broke out in Paris. Charles X announced his abdication and fled to Britain with his wife, children and children.

But at least before 1830, he did comfortably serve as an absolute monarch for several years.

For Guizot, the years from 1820 to 1830 were his most difficult ten years.

He returned to the university and concentrated on his studies, preached his thoughts to students and the public, and published many historical works.

"History of the Origin of Representative System in Europe", "Introduction to French History", "Collection of Memoirs of the British Revolution", and "History of the British Revolution in the Seventeenth Century" are all works from this period, and Guizot's choice of topics alone can tell that he What exactly do you want to say.

Everyone knows that he is a dissident of the current government, but Guizot never advocates the use of violent means to overthrow the current government, but insists on the view that legal struggle is the best way to solve problems.

The government's answer to Guizot's point was that they canceled all courses offered by Guizot at the Sorbonne.

However, this was not the most painful thing for Guizot. What was most painful for him was that when Louis XVIII died of illness and Charles X succeeded to the throne, regulations and bills were issued one after another to ban immigration and restart the death penalty for blasphemers.

As a result, there was a huge division within the parliament. The romantic liberals represented by Chateaubriand believed that this was purely a reversal of history, suppressing freedom and blaspheming the idea of ​​​​natural human rights. The extreme faction headed by Bourdogne believed that the liquidation of the Revolution was far from enough.

What made Guizot almost collapse was that his wife, the female writer Pauline de Moulin, who was 14 years older than him and had been in love with him for many years, died of illness.

Perhaps to comfort her husband, or perhaps to let him remember her forever, Pauline helped Guizot arrange his next marriage before she was dying. She introduced her niece to her husband and helped him renew the marriage with her own hands.

When Paulin left, she seemed to have taken her husband's bad luck with her.

The consequences of Charles X's perverse behavior finally emerged. In order to calm the increasingly turbulent situation in the country, he had to reorganize his cabinet, and Guizot's courses at the Sorbonne were reopened.

At the Sorbonne University, Guizot in history, Cousin in philosophy, and Velleman in literature formed the three academic Musketeers of the Sorbonne University. They jointly taught in public, and each course attracted thousands of citizens. Come spontaneously to attend the class.

Among these citizens are young nobles, students from the middle class, small traders and soldiers from the lower class, and even many foreigners.

Romantic literati such as Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Pooh often came to the Sorbonne to listen to Guizot's generous speeches, so to a certain extent, there are now anonymous students of Guizot in all walks of life in Paris.

Such public lectures naturally made Guizot's reputation more and more famous, and he became the leader of the constitutional monarchy.

After the July Revolution, Louis Philippe also planned to return to the middle line of the Louis XVIII period after resolving the domestic turmoil.

Therefore, not surprisingly, Guizot entered the cabinet again in 1832, and this time, he would serve as Minister of Education, shouldering the important task of national education reform.

According to the current education reform draft proposed by Guizot, the centrist minister who returned to power made the following three points.

First, one primary school should be established in each township and one primary school should be established in each city. Educational funds are allocated from the national treasury or paid by local special education taxes.

Second, each province establishes normal schools and stipulates minimum salary standards for teachers.

Third, abolish the power of religious groups and churches to issue teacher qualification certificates before 1830. Teacher qualification standards will be uniformly formulated and assessed by government agencies.

Even if we put aside Guizot's struggle with the government of Charles X ten years ago, just looking at what he is doing now, it is not difficult to understand why Hugo spoke highly of him.

In the face of power, Guizot did not bend. And when he waited for the opportunity, he proved that he was not a scholar who could only talk, but a practical minister who really wanted to make this country a better place.

Although Arthur didn't know what Guizot did in the following decades to make him so disgusting, at least at this point in time, he was definitely a gentleman with idealism shining on him.

Especially when Arthur saw the various slutty tricks of Parisian writers, he wanted to applaud the pure love between Guizot and his late wife even more.

Hugo saw the surprised look on Arthur's face and couldn't help but smile: "Sir, why are you so surprised? Did someone falsely accuse you that Mr. Guizot is a difficult person to get along with?"

"Oh... that's not the case." Arthur joked: "But I have heard people put him and Metternich together before, so I was shocked. I don't know Mr. Guizot's character, but I am familiar with it. Metternich knows a thing or two. Do you know Heine? My impression of Metternich basically comes from his mouth."

When Hugo heard this, he couldn't help but cursed: "Place Guizot with Metternich? Only those ultra-orthodox royalists can slander him so shamelessly! As for Mr. Heine, of course I know him, and I and He had some friendships, he was a very interesting guy, and the words German hemorrhoids and urinary incontinence could not be more appropriate to describe Metternich.”

Arthur laughed, turned his hand and turned over the page: "Okay, I think I have a good idea of ​​Mr. Guizot. Do you know Mr. Thiers?"

"Thiers?"

When Hugo heard this name, he couldn't help but show a rather intriguing expression on his face: "Three years ago, Thiers was still hanging out with us in the Paris literary circle. But my friendship with him is no longer the same. It was so deep in the past. If you want to know him, I suggest you go to Honoré. He used to have a good relationship with Mr. Thiers. As for how it is now, I don’t know. "

"Honoré?" Arthur asked: "You mean, M. Balzac?"

Hugo admitted generously: "Yes, that's him. According to his habits, maybe he is also in this hotel at this time."

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help but look at Vidocq beside him.

Both of them read the same information from each other's eyes, and the detective's sense of smell is always connected - it turns out that Hugo not only spied on Pooh, he even didn't let go of Balzac.

Perhaps sensing their calls, a knock on the door suddenly sounded in the room.

Balzac's lazy voice came from outside the house. Judging from his long and drawn-out tone, this guy must have just finished a vicious battle and was stretching at the moment.

"Victor, are you there? I have a new manuscript here. Would you like to come and help me read it?"

Hugo opened the door, revealing the figure of the fat little Balzac outside.

When Balzac saw Hugo, he waved the manuscript in his hand casually towards him: "I plan to write Thiers into the book and give him the alias Rastignac. If this novel is published, , Do you think he won’t come to trouble me?”

When Arthur heard this, he immediately stood up and said, "What novel? Can I read it?"

Balzac discovered Arthur and Vidocq in the room, and said in shock: "Mr. Vidocq is here too! Who is this next to you?"

Arthur stretched out his hand in a friendly manner and introduced himself with a smile: "Arthur Hastings, a publisher from London. I am currently looking for authors in Paris who can contribute to our magazine "The Englishman". I wonder if you have any? Didn’t submit an article to our magazine?”

"The publisher of "The Englishman"?" Balzac's expression suddenly became strange: "If I remember correctly, "The Englishman" should be the magazine that published "The Count of Monte Cristo", right?"