The capture of Paris, the recal of the Bourbons, and the cession of Flanders, were events little ex pected by the French nation, who had been kept in the dark in regard to the overwhelming force of the allies, and the weakness of their own army. These humiliations, and a dread of the revival of the influence of the noblesse and clergy, with • all the ancient abuses, created a great degree of discontent and dissatisfaction. In so divided a country, Bonaparte was aware that he could not encounter much opposition, and the attachment of the military, still expressed with all the frankness natural to their profession, justified him in anticipa ting a welcome from every detachment that should be sent to oppose him. Such, and not a recal by any party, were the motives of his most unexpect ed return, and the causes of his success. No one can form a judgment of the sudden defection that took place, unless he knows the enthusiastic attachment of French soldiers to a successful chief, and the art with which Bonaparte had concentrated their affec tions on himself to the exclusion even of his marshals. A general dread of a civil war pervaded the revolu tionists themselves till he reached Paris, and placed himself, unopposed, at the helm of affairs. The pro vinces followed the example of the capital. The country at large was tranquil, but the note of war was soon sounded, first on the side of La Vendee, and ere long on that of the Netherlands. The force with which Bonaparte advanced (about 100,000 men) was at first successful by its rapidity and concentra tion ; but it was found wholly unequal to the execu. tion of his daring plans when divided, and opposed with firmness and judgment. It was beaten, routed, dispersed ; and, on Bonaparte's return to Paris, the assembled representatives, who had acted from the outset with a degree of independence, wholly op posite to the conduct of the senate of former years, required his immediate abdication.
Louis now re-entered his capital for the second time. His language was firm but moderate. The highest place in his ministry entrusted first to Tal leyrand, was soon after conferred on the Duke of Richelieu. Instructions being given for a new par liament, the elections took place under an impres sion of general animosity towards the revolutievists as instrumental to the late disasters, and produced the return of a chamber impatient for vindictive measures. Party spirit run extremely high, and the majority of the chamber pressed many measures at variance with the moderate views of the King, who at last, on 5th September 1816, took the decisive step of dissolving this parliament, and of enabling his people to make a second election under calmer feelings. From this time forward the King was highly popular with the liberaux, and the ultra-royal ists postponed their hopes of ascendancy to the ac cession of a new sovereign.
The years 1817 and 1818 were occupied chiefly with financial discussions, with new-modelling the army, and with obtaining, at first a reduction, and eventually a removal, of the allied army from the French territory. The Duke of Richelieu now thought he might urge a modification of the elec tion law. The majority of the peers were known to favour this course, but Louis thought different ly, and, parting with his minister, continued to act under the counsels of Decazes, until the threatened ascendancy of the liberaux induced him to accede to the proposed change; to recal the Duke of Ri chelieu to his councils; to sanction certain restrict Lions on the language of newspapers ; and, by a law sur /a liberti individuelle, to give his ministers a power similar to that which the government acquires in England by the suspension 'of the act of Habeas Corpus.