A Reassessment Of Louis-Philippe

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 3

A Reassessment Of Louis-Philippe

Citizen-King. The Life of Louis-Philippe. By T. E. B. Howarth. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 358 pp. [Reviewed by KJ.)

During the last decade we have witnessed a France, growing in prosperity yet increasingly torn by political strife in which right and left extremes have been unable to secure a majority themselves, and all too often have been only too willing to join forces to try to defeat anyone else who seeks to govern. Politics of this type represent the transition from democracy to anarchy, and if today it is only the person of President de Gaulle that holds the balance, so, too. 131 years ago in disquietlngly similar circumstances, it was the person of that much maligned “Citizen - King," Louis-Philippe. True, the dangers of pressing such an analogy are obvious, for de Gaulle, an aloof almost royal personage who delights in referring to himself in his writings in the third person, contrasts markedly with the umbrellawielding King who stooped too low to conquer, and who, in a spirit of irony was once apologised to by a courtier for having wiped the mud off his boots before entering his presence. Moreover, LouisPhilippe acquired Algeria and de Gaulle seeks to discard it. Yet although the root causes of social discontent may be more understood today than in the nineteenth century, it is still questionable whether de Gaulle will meet with any greater success in finding a middle way than his strangely likeable forerunner.

Not surprisingly such considerations run like an undercurrent through this new and very useful study of LouisPhilippe by T. E. B. Howarth, for Louis-Philippe was one of those unfortunate persons born into the wrong age Howarth refers to him with some justice as the “last of the eighteenth century enlightened despots.” Born on the steps of the throne in the hurly-burly of the ancient regime, it would have been hardly surprising if he had followed the exploits of his father who rode naked from Versailles to Paris to win a bet, but partly as the result of a rigorous education under the tuition of his father’s mistress, the interests of young LouisPhilippe developed in a more

serious mould. By the age of 21, penniless and exiled from his beloved country, he could boast of having known and talked with most of the revolutionary leaders, of having played a prominent and responsible role in three great battles, and of having seen the high hopes for the regeneration of his country induced in him by a particularly intensive liberal education, at first gloriously realised, then, frustrated and overthrown.

His 21 years of exile found him successively, a tramp too broken down to receive hospitality at St. Gothard monastery; a school-teacher losing his virginity to the college cook; and the recipient of the highest honour a Red Indian tribe could bestow—that of sleeping between the two leading ladies of the tribe—respectively the Chief's grandmother and grand-aunt; before he finally married and settled down as a devoted and loyal husband in Twickenham. Mallet du Pan wrote of him during this exile that: “It would be difficult to have a better formed, more enlightened, and more cultivated mind, or more simple and winning manners. He, at least, has learned to profit by adversity.” Indeed, Louis-Phil-ippe in exile came to be the epitome of the best of bourgeois virtues. Howarth remarks that—“ Bourgeois is a word which has had a bad press in this century and is a great deal overdue -or a historical revaluation.” This study is a contribution towards such a revaluation and in Louis-Philippe’s subsequent life from 1830 onwards, we witness the strength and the weaknesses of the bourgeois ideal in an era of extremism.

Hitherto only the weaknesses of the King’s actions and policies have been emphasised, but here, tn masterful fashion, they are scrupulously evaluated against the strengths After all, this honest, domestically-inclined man only accepted the Crown with genuine reluctance and then for 18 years sought to keep his country on an even keel by pursuing a peaceful foreign policy and encouraging prosperity at home. The result was that he was persistently lampooned and shot at. As he tellingly remarked, “There appears to be no close season for shooting me.”

Although his performance may have fallen below his high ideals, he was certainly not the first—nor the last—statesman who might be so accused, and Mr Howarth has performed a considerable service in sifting fact from fiction. In doing so he explicitly provides a reassessment of Louis-Philippe whilst implicitly indicating that the reigns of Louis-Philippe and President Charles de Gaulle help to throw light on each other. Indeed one is tempted to conclude after reading this stimulating book that France will in all probability continue the search for stability until the real lessons of LouisPhilippe’s reign are learned Certainly Mr Howarth has performed a valuable function in indicating what the lessons are in an account in which suspense, humour and penetrating analysis are skilfully blended in a book which is invaluable to the student of the period and a delight to read at the fireside.