CHARLES X., King of France (CHARLES PHILIPPE, Comte d'Artois), born at Versailles, in October 1757, was the youngest son of the Dauphin, grandson of Louis XV., and brother of Louis XVI. Ilia title, as a junior member of the royal family, was Comte d'Artois. The Duke de la Vauguyon, who was appointed tutor to him, as well es to his 'brothers, selected for their teachers several bishops and abbds.
Charles married, in the year 1773, Marla Theresa of Savoy, sister to the wife of his brother, afterwards Louie XVIIL His youth was dissipated and stormy, and he fought a duel with the Duke of Bourbon in consequence of a quarrel between them at the opera. When the disturbances which preceded the Revolution began, the Count d'Arteie showed himself from the first opposed to concession, and lie retnaiued consistent in his opposition throughout the whole period of the Revo lution, whilst his brother Louis, count of Proveuce, afterwards Louis XVIII., seemed to court popularity, and took pains to please the Constitutional party. Charles was one of the first to emigrate : he left Franca in July 1789, after the first popular insurrection and the destruction of the Bastille. He repaired to Turin, and from thence went to Vienna, and lastly to Pilnitz, where he attended the first congress of princes assembled to oppose the French revolution. After Louis XVI. had accepted the constitution in 1791, he invited the Count d'Artois to return to France, which he, iu concert with his brother the Count of Provence, who had now joined him at Coblcue, refused to do, and they gave their reasons in a kind of manifesto. In consequence of this, the Legislative Assembly stopped his allow ance on the civil list, and ordered the seizure of his property, in May 1792. The war having broken out, the Count d'Artois assumed the command of a body of emigrants, who acted in concert with the Prussian and Austrian armies on the Rhine. After the execution of Louis XVI. the Count d'Artois repaired to Russia, where he received fair promisee from Catharine, but no efficient assistance, lie then made an attempt on the coast of Brittany, but soon after returned to England, and went to reside in Edinburgh, where he remained Gomel years. In 1809 he rejoined his brother, who had assumed the title of Louie XVIII., at Hartwell. In 1814 he went to Germany to wait for events. After Napoleon's abdication, he entered France with the title of Lieutenant-Oeueral of the Kingdom, and issued a pro clamation to the French, iu which he promised liberty and order, the reign of the law, the abolition of the conscription, and of the "droite reupia," aud an entire forgetfulness of the past. He entered Paris on the 12th of April 1814, attended by a body of national guards. The Senate acknowledged his authority, in expectation of the arrival of Louis XVIIL He told the Senate that his brother was determined to reign as a constitutional king, with two chambers, and to grant individual liberty and the liberty of the press. When Louis XVIII. arrived in Paris, the Count d'Artois, whose title was now that of Monsieur,' was made Colonel-General of the National Guards. In March 1815 he was obliged to leave France with the king, in consequence of Booaparte'e return from Elba, but he went back after the battle of Waterloo. In February 1820 he lost his second sou, the Duo de Berry, by the hand of an assassin. His elder aon, the Due d'Angouldme, who bad married his cousin, the daughter of Louis XVI., was childless. The Duo de Berry left only one daughter, but several months after his death his widow was delivered of a eels, the present Duo de Bordeaux.
Louis XVIII. died on the 16th of September 3824, and Charles X. was proclaimed king. On the 27th he made his entrance into Paris in the midst of acclamations. One of his first acts was an ordinanco abolishing the censorship of the newspapers and other periodicals, which had been re-established by an ordinance of his predecessor in the previous month of Auguet This threw over him a momentary gleam of popularity ; but there was a strong party, or rather a com bination of parties, which disliked and mistrusted him from the first, and by his bigotry and folly lie Goon justified their mistrust. In April
1825, a project of a law, or bill, was laid by ministers before the chambers against the guilt of sacrilege, awarding the penalty of death for the profanation of the consecrated boat, and other severe penalties fur the profanation of the sacred utensils of churches, fkc. The law was passed ; but it had a bad effect on publio opinion. By auother law, an annual sum of thirty millions of franca was charged on the national debt, to be distributed as an indemnity among the emigrants whose property had been confiscated. In April 1826, a declaration signed by most of the archbishops and bishops of France wag pro mooted to the king, denouncing all attempts to subject tho temporal authority of kings to the papal power, a principle always reprobated by the Oallican Church. In 1827 a law was passed agatoet the slave trade, which contained against those engaged in it the penalties of banishment, fines, and confiscation. In the same session a bill was presented by ministers concerning the police of the press,' which in effect re-established the censorship for all pamphlets of less than 21 sheets, though it was not till a few months later that it was formally re-established. The new bill also compelled the editors of peritoneal papers to declare the names of all the proprietors of the papers, and give security to a heavy amount. Under the third head of the bill, severe penalties were inflicted for offences of the press against the person of the king, the royal dignity, the religion of the state, and other communions acknowledged by the state, foreign sovereigns and princes, the courts of justice, &c. After a warm debate ministers thought proper to withdraw their bill ; this created a lively sensation in Paris. Soon after, at a grand review of the national guards, Charles X. was saluted by cries from the ranks of "Down with the ministers;" "Down with the Jesuits !" The king, looking on some of the most clamorous, told them firmly, "I am come here to receive homage, and not lessons." He then disbanded the national guards. In November the king dissolved the House of Deputies, and directed new elections to be proceeded with. He then took off again the censorship of the journals. By another ordinance he created seventy-six new peers. In January 1823 a new ministry was formed. Messrs. Villele, Peyronnet, Corbiere, dm., gave lu their resignations, and were succeeded by Viscount Martignac, and Counts de la Ferronnays, Portalis, and others. This change was considered as a sort of concession to liberal principles. A commission was appointed, at the suggestion of the new ministry, to frame a project of municipal administration for all France. Another commission was formed to inquire into the discipline and method of education which prevailed in the petits Samivaires,' or colleges for clerical students, which were said to have fallen under the direction of disguised Jesuits, as the Society of the Jesuits was not authorised by the laws of Franca The king's speech at the opening of the session of 1823 was con ciliatory. A law was pamed In the Chambers concerning newspapers and other periodicals, fixing the amount of security to be given by the proprietors, and enacting other regulations for the police of the press. The commission on the clerical seminaries having made its report, stating that seven or eight of those establishments were actually under the direction of members of the Society of Jesuits, the king issued an ordinance placing the establishments thus specified under the juris diction of the university, and ordering that in future no director or teacher should be admitted in any clerical seminar] unless he declared in writing that he did not belong to any of the religious congregations not legally established in France.