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ACHILLE CHARLES LEONCE VICTOR, DUC DE...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 627 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ACHILLE See also:

CHARLES LEONCE See also:VICTOR, DUC DE See also:BROGLIE (1785–187o) , statesman and diplomatist, son of the last-named, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 28th of See also:November 1785. His See also:mother had shared her See also:husband's imprisonment, but managed to See also:escape to See also:Switzerland, where she remained till the fall of See also:Robespierre. She now returned to Paris with her See also:children and lived there quietly until 1796, when she married a M. d'See also:Argenson, See also:grandson of See also:Louis XV.'s See also:minister of See also:war. Under the care of his step-See also:father See also:young de Broglie received a careful and liberal See also:education and made his entree into the aristocratic and See also:literary society of Paris under the See also:Empire. In 18oq, he was appointed a member of the See also:council of See also:state, over which See also:Napoleon presided in See also:person; and was sent by the See also:emperor on See also:diplomatic See also:missions, as attache, to various countries. Though he had never been in sympathy with the principles of the Empire, de Broglie was not one of those who rejoiced at its downfall. In See also:common with all men of experience and sense he realized the danger to See also:France of the rise to See also:power of the forces of violent reaction. With See also:Decazes and See also:Richelieu he saw that the only See also:hope for a See also:calm future See also:lay in " the reconciliation of the Restoration with the Revolution." By the See also:influence of his See also:uncle, See also:Prince Amedee de Broglie, his right to a See also:peerage had been recognized; and to his own See also:great surprise he received, in See also:June 1814, a See also:summons from Louis XVIII. to the Chamber of Peers. `There, after the See also:Hundred Days, he distinguished himself by his courageous See also:defence of See also:Marshal See also:Ney, for whose acquittal he, alone of all the peers, both spoke and voted. After this defiant See also:act of opposition it was perhaps fortunate that his impending See also:marriage gave him an excuse for leaving the See also:country. On the 15th of See also:February 1816, he was married at See also:Leghorn to the daughter of Madame de See also:Stael. He returned to Paris at the end of the See also:year, but took no See also:part in politics until the elections of See also:September 1817 See also:broke the power of the " ultra-royalists " and substituted for the Chambre introuvable a moderate See also:assembly.

De Broglie's See also:

political attitude during the years that followed is best summed up in his own words: " From 1812 to 1822 all the efforts of men of sense and See also:character were directed to reconciling the Restoration and the Revolution, the old regime and the new France. From 1822 to 1827 all their efforts were directed to resisting the growing power of the See also:counter-revolution. From 1827 to 1830 all their efforts aimed at moderating and regulating the reaction in a contrary sense." During the last See also:critical years of Charles X.'s reign, de Broglie identified himself with the See also:doctrinaires, among whom Royer-Collard and See also:Guizot were the most prominent. The See also:July revolution placed him in a difficult position; he knew nothing of the intrigues which placed Louis Philippe on the See also:throne; but, the revolution once accomplished, he was ready to uphold the fait accompli with characteristic See also:loyalty, and on the 9th of See also:August took See also:office in the new See also:government as minister of public See also:worship and education. As he had foreseen, the See also:ministry was See also:short-lived, and on the 2nd of November he was once more out of office. During the critical See also:time that followed he consistently supported the principles which triumphed with the fall of See also:Laffitte and the See also:accession to power of Casimir See also:Perier in See also:March 1832. After the See also:death of the latter and the insurrection of June 1832, de Broglie took office once more as minister for See also:foreign affairs (See also:October 11th). His See also:tenure of the foreign office was coincident with a very critical See also:period in See also:international relations. But for the sympathy of Great See also:Britain under See also:Palmerston, the July See also:monarchy would have been completely isolated in See also:Europe; and this sympathy the aggressive policy of France in See also:Belgium and on the Mediterranean See also:coast of See also:Africa had been in danger of alienating. The Belgian crisis had been settled, so far as the two See also:powers were concerned, before de Broglie took office; but the concerted military and See also:naval See also:action for the See also:coercion of the Dutch, which led to the See also:French occupation of See also:Antwerp, was carried out under his auspices. The See also:good understanding of which this was the See also:symbol characterized also the relations of de Broglie and Palmerston during the crisis of the first war of Mehemet See also:Ali (q.v.) with the See also:Porte, and in the affairs of the See also:Spanish peninsulatheir common sympathy with constitutional See also:liberty led to an agreement for common action, which took shape in the treaty of See also:alliance between Great Britain, France, See also:Spain and See also:Portugal, signed at See also:London on the 22nd of See also:April 1834. De Broglie had retired from office in the March preceding, and did not return to power till March of the following year, when he became See also:head of the See also:cabinet.

In 1836, the government having been defeated on a proposal to reduce the five per cents, he once more resigned, and never returned to See also:

official See also:life. He had remained in power See also:long enough to prove what honesty of purpose, experience of affairs, and common sense can accomplish when allied with authority. The See also:debt that France and Europe owed him may be measured by comparing the results of his policy with that of his successors under not dissimilar circumstances. He had found France isolated and Europe full of the rumours of war; he See also:left her strong in the See also:English alliance and the respect of Liberal Europe, and Europe freed from the restless apprehensions which were to be stirred into life again by the attitude of See also:Thiers in the Eastern Question and of Guizot in the affair of the " Spanish marriages." From 1836 to 1848 de Broglie held almost completely aloof from politics, to which his scholarly temperament little inclined him, a disinclination strengthened by the death of his wife on the 22nd of September 1838. His friendship for Guizot, however, induced him to accept a temporary See also:mission in 1845, and in 1847 to go as French See also:ambassador to London. The revolution of 1848 was a great See also:blow to him, for he realized that it meant the final ruin of the Liberal monarchy—in his view the political See also:system best suited to France. He took his seat, however, in the republican See also:National Assembly and in the See also:Convention of 1848, and, as a member of the See also:section known as the " Burgraves," did his best to See also:stem the See also:tide of See also:socialism and to avert the reaction in favour of See also:autocracy which he foresaw. He shared with his colleagues the indignity of the coup d'eta.t of the 2nd of See also:December 1851, and remained for the See also:remainder of his life one of the bitterest enemies of the imperial regime, though he was heard to remark, with that See also:caustic wit for which he was famous, that the empire was " the government which the poorer classes in France desired and the See also:rich deserved." The last twenty years of his life were devoted chiefly to philosophical and literary pursuits. Having been brought up by his step-father in the sceptical opinions of the time, he gradually arrived at a sincere belief in the See also:Christian See also:religion. " I shall See also:die," said he, "a penitent Christian and an impenitent Liberal." His literary See also:works, though few of them have been published, were rewarded in 1856 by a seat in the French See also:Academy, and he was also a member of another See also:branch of the French See also:Institute, the Academy of Moral and Political See also:Science. In the labours of those learned bodies he took an active and assiduous part. He died on the 25th of See also:January 187o.

Besides his Souvenirs, in 4 vols. (Paris, 1885–1888), the duc de Broglie left numerous works, of which only some have been published. Of these may be mentioned Ecrits et discours (3 vols., Paris, 1863); Le Libre Echange et l'impoo"t (Paris, 1879) ; Vues sur le gouvernement de la France (Paris, 1861). This last was confiscated before publication by the imperial government. See Guizot, Le Duc de Broglie (Paris, 1870), and Memoires (Paris, 1858–1867) ; and the histories of Thureau-Dangin and Duvergier de Hauranne.

End of Article: ACHILLE CHARLES LEONCE VICTOR, DUC DE BROGLIE (1785–187o)

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