Liberal Party (Bourbon Restoration)

The Liberals (French: Libéraux) was a short lived French liberal political party which was active in several elections before being absorbed into the Doctrinaires, a fellow constitutional monarchy party. Several members of the Liberals eventually went on to serve in the Movement Party and even later in the Orléanist parties. The precedent set by the party would help form modern French classical liberalism, something used in the modern centre-right Republicans party.

First Liberals

Part of a series on
Liberalism
Schools Classical Conservative Cultural Democratic Feminist Equity Green Internationalist Muscular National Neo Ordo Radical Religious Christian Catholic Islamic Jewish Secular Social Techno Third Way
Principles Consent of the governed Due process Democracy Economic liberalism Economic globalization Equality Gender Legal Federalism Freedom Economic Market Trade Press Religion Speech Harm principle Internationalism Invisible hand Labor theory of property Laissez-faire Liberty Negative Positive Limited government Market economy Natural monopoly Open society Permissive society Popular sovereignty Property Private Public Rights Civil and political Natural and legal To own property To bear arms Rule of law Secularism Secular humanism Separation of church and state Separation of powers Social contract Social justice Social services Welfare state State of nature
History Age of Enlightenment List of liberal theorists (contributions to liberal theory)
Philosophers Milton Locke Spinoza Montesquieu Voltaire Rousseau Smith Kant Turgot Burke Priestley Paine Beccaria Condorcet Bentham Korais De Gouges Wollstonecraft Staël Say Humboldt Constant Ricardo Guizot List Bastiat Martineau Emerson Tocqueville Mill Spencer Arnold Acton Weber Hobhouse Croce Cassirer Mises Ortega Keynes Collingwood Čapek Hu Hayek Popper Aron Berlin Friedman Rawls Sen Nozick Kymlicka Badawi
Politicians Jefferson Kołłątaj Madison Artigas Bolívar Broglie Lamartine Macaulay Kossuth Deák Cobden Mazzini Juárez Lincoln Gladstone Cavour Sarmiento Mommsen Naoroji Itagaki Levski Kemal Deakin Milyukov Lloyd George Venizelos Ståhlberg Gokhale Rathenau Madero Einaudi King Roosevelt Pearson Ohlin Kennedy Jenkins
Organizations Africa Liberal Network Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Arab Liberal Federation Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats European Democratic Party European Liberal Youth International Alliance of Libertarian Parties International Federation of Liberal Youth Liberal International Liberal Network for Latin America Liberal parties Liberal South East European Network
Regional variants Europe Latin America Albania Armenia Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Hong Kong Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Venizelism Honduras Hungary Iceland India Iran Israel Italy Liberism Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Moldova Montenegro Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Cracovian Portugal Romania Russia Senegal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Cobdenism Gladstonian Manchester Whiggism United States Arizona School Classical Jeffersonian Modern Uruguay Venezuela Zimbabwe
Related topics Anti-authoritarianism Anti-communism Bias in American academia Bias in the media Capitalism Democratic Centrism Radical centrism Economic freedom Egalitarianism Empiricism Humanism Individualism Anarchist Land value tax Libertarianism Left Right Pirate Party Sexually liberal feminism Utilitarianism
Liberalism portal  Politics portal
v t e

Following the Charter of 1814, the new constitutional Kingdom of France was set up after the First Abdication of Napoleon. The new charter called for the creation of a two-house legislature, with the King retaining some of his power and titles. The new Kingdom was deemed a "constitutional, but not parliamentary, monarchy", leaving the King and his ministers with considerable power. One of the parts of this new charter was forced by the "Liberals", which would eventually bond together to form the Liberals party. This part, becoming known as the 'Liberal Article' called for selective suffrage to be adopted. This is granted to men of at least 40 years of age, who are charged 1,000 French francs of direct tax. Given these conditions, the politically active citizens amount to 100,000 voters and 15,000 eligibles.^[1]

Following Napoleon's return, the Charter of 1814 became nulled, and a new charter, the Charter of 1815 was signed on 22 April 1815. The new charter was written by a future leader of the party, Benjamin Constant. During the subsequent elections held between 8 and 22 May 1815, the Liberals, now a fully formed party win in a landslide, capturing 510 seats in the 630 seat chamber. The party's win over the Bonapartists (80 seats) and Jacobin Republicans (40 seats), was seen by Napoleon as a direct answer to his return, and consequently began working with the Liberals during the Hundred Days. During the May election, the party was led by the famed Gilbert du Motier, Marquis of La Fayette and stood on a centre-left constitutional platform, designed to support Napoleon while holding him accountable. The May 1815 election was the only time the Liberals held a super-majority (indeed a simply majority) and held government.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Party formation

After Napoleon's Second Abdication, the three parties in the Chamber of Representatives (Liberals, Bonapartists, and Jacobin Republicans) were forcefully disbanded and their members shunned from political life. Some Liberals joined the newly formed Doctrinaires, which in all but name were the same as the former Liberals. Many Liberals however, decided to try and run for election; unsuccessfully during the August 1815 legislative election, which ended in a super majority for the new Ultra-royalists.^[9][10]

The 1816 legislative election, held just one year later however had a different outcome, when (on the recommendation of Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu) 'non-governmental parties' were allowed to run. The Duke defended his proposal to the King stating that allowing the 'opposition parties' to run, the people would have a better view of the King and see him as a constitutionalist supporting all sides. The new Liberals now supported the constitutional monarchy, but wanted to see elections become more fair and expand through limited suffrage. In the elections, the Doctrinaires obtained 136 seats, or roughly 52.7% of the vote and the 'New Liberals' obtained 10 seats or 3.9% of the vote.^[9][10][11]

The Liberals, as a 'party' however, weren't officially formed until the elections partial elections in 1817. In accordance with the 1814 Charter, and indeed an election system which mirrored that of the Constitution of the Year III (1795), a third of the assembly was to be elected yearly. In the 1817 partial legislative election, the Ultras lost all their seats up for grabs, the Doctrinaires gained 39 seats, and the Liberals gained 12. The 1819 partial legislative election saw even more seats lost by the ultras, gaining just 5, while the Doctrinaires gained 13 seats and the Liberals gained 35 seats. Following the results of the election, the Liberals controlled roughly 1/3 of the assembly.^{[9][10][12][13][14]}

The 1820 legislative election further expanded the Liberal's influence winning 23 more seats for a total of 80. During the election, 16,920 votes were cast for the Liberals, or roughly 18.4%. The election marked a turning point for the party, and would be its last election.^[9][12]

Decline

In February 1820, before that year's legislative election, Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry, the nephew of the king, was assassinated by a fanatic who says he was a member of the "Liberals". The Prime Minister, Elie Louis, Duke of Decazes and Glücksbierg was held indirectly for the crime by the ultra-royalists and forced to resign from the government. This forceful resignation leaves a stain on both the Liberals and Doctrinaires, leading to the downfall of the former. In the 1824 legislative election, the Liberals lost all their seats and the Doctrinaires didn't fare much better, only winning 17 seats of out 430 up for grabs. This marked the end of the Liberals, though many of their former members joined the Doctrinaires.^[9][12]

In the 1827 legislative election, the Marquis de La Fayette re-joined the Doctrinaires and subsequently many liberals joined the party following their old leader. Because of the massive influx of liberals, the Doctrinaires' political stance shifted from maintaining the Charter of 1814 to becoming more critical of King Charles X, and in part would help spark the 1830 French revolution.^[9][12] These new Doctrinaires became known, from 1824; once again as they had back in 1815; as the "Liberal Doctrinaires".^{[citation needed]}

Ideology

The "Left-Centre", later the Liberals, was made up of men who supported moderate Liberalism. Like the "Right-Centre", or Doctrinaires, this group believed in the honest execution of the 1814 Charter, but it also believed that the Charter should be extended towards greater democracy. The "Extreme-Left", usually referred to simply as "The Left", or the "Republicans", carried the Liberals' views further, and in its ranks were some avowed enemies of the dynasty. This "Republicans" consisted of what is referred to today as Bonapartists (whose political party was disbanded following the Second Restoration), Orléanists (a term not used until 1830), and some few Jacobins (referred to as the Republicans, ironically). Most of the ablest men of the Chamber of Deputies had their seats on the Left, sometimes in the Left-Centre, and sometimes with the Left, the division not always being very clearly marked. The leaders of the Liberals included: Benjamin Constant, Jacques-Antoine Manuel, Jacques Laffitte, Casimir Pierre Périer, Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, Marquis d'Argenson, and Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette.^[15]

Societies

In 1818, a number of radical deputies and peers, including the Marquis de La Fayette, Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure, the Marquis d'Argenson, and Jacques-Antoine Manuel, formed connections with several secret societies: L'Union (The Union), Les Amis de la Presse (The Friends of the Press), and Les Amis de la Vérité (The Friends of the Truth). These secret societies, about which little is known, included some Freemasons, and a large number of old imperial French Army officers on half-pay. Their programme was vague. Some were Bonapartists, and a lesser number were Republicans. All agreed in their hatred of the present régime and in their devotion to the Tricolor. Several of these secret societies united to start a military uprising in Alsace in 1821, but it failed completely.^[11][16]

In 1821, there was founded at Saumur in the Pays de la Loire, a new secret society, the Chevaliers de la Liberté (Knights of Liberty). This was soon united with the other secret societies into a large organisation on the model of the Italian Carbonari. At the centre of this "French Carbornari" society was "La Haute Vente" or "The High Twenty", under which were the "Ventes Centrals" or "Central Twenty", and finally the "Ventes Particulières" or "Twenty Individuals". All France was soon covered by the network of these societies. The recruits were largely soldiers, though many were also lawyers, doctors, and journalists. No effort was made to affiliate the working classes. The prosperity which prevailed at the time, the general bourgeoisie fear of revolution, and the indifference of the peasants, kept the movement from gaining any great national following. Among the members were the Marquis de La Fayette and a group of deputies, Victor Cousin the philosopher, Augustin Thierry the historian, and Jean-Antoine Dubois and Dubois, who in 1824 founded The Globe. Every member swore to absolute secrecy and obedience to orders, and all agreed to keep ready a gun and fifty cartridges. The symbolism, which was elaborate and included secret passwords and handshakes, was all imitated from the Freemasonic lodges.^[17]

Electoral results

Election year	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	No. of overall seats won	+/–	Position	Leader
Chamber of Representatives
May 1815	26,356 (1st)	80.95%	510 / 630	New	1st (majority)	Gilbert du Motier, Marquis of La Fayette
Chamber of Deputies
1816	3,760 (4th)	3.9%	10 / 258	500	3rd (minority)	Marc-René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson
1817 (partial)			22 / 258	12	3rd (minority)	Marc-René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson
1819 (partial)			57 / 258	35	3rd (minority)	Marc-René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson
1820	16,920 (3rd)	18.43%	80 / 434	23	3rd (minority)	Benjamin Constant

In the French political spectrum

The French assembly was indeed the first of the European legislatures to have their members grouped by party and sit on the "wings". The Ultras sat on the "Right wing", indicating their closeness to the monarch (Right wing), the Doctrinaires just to their left (Centre-Right), then the Liberals in the "Centre-Left", and the Republicans on the left (Left-wing). Because of their location, Liberals became known as members of the Centre-left political spectrum.^[9]

Footnotes

References

• Caron, Jean-Claude (1993). La France de 1815 à 1848 (in French). Paris, France: Armand Colin. ISBN 978-2200213404. OCLC 174296752.
• Artz, Frederick B. (1963). France under the Bourbon Restoration: 1814–1830. New York City, New York, United States of America: Russel & Russel Incorporated. OCLC 1120831890.