Guizot was a French academic politician, who served Louis Philippe as
minister of public instruction (1832-37). He was the main power after 1840 and
became premier in 1847. His government was overthrown in Febrary 1848.
Speech of February 20, 1831
The Revolution destroyed the ancien régime but was unable to do more. The
Empire arose to re-establish order, order of an exterior, material sort which was the
basis of the civil society as the Revolution had founded it. The Empire spread this idea
throughout all of Europe; this was its mission and it succeeded at it. It was incapable,
however, of establishing a lasting political government; the necessary conditions were
lacking. The Empire fell in its turn, to be succeeded by the Restoration. What did the
Restoration promise? It promised to resolve the problem, to reconcile order with liberty.
It was under this banner that the charter was granted. It had accepted principles of
liberty in the charter; it had promised to establish them, but it made this promise under
the cloak of the ancien régime, on which there had been written for so many
centuries: Divine Right. It was unable to solve the problem. It died in the
process, overwhelmed by the burden. It is on us, on the Revolution of July, that this job
has been imposed; it is our duty and responsibility to establish definitively, not order
alone, not liberty alone, but order and liberty at the same time. The general thought, the
hope of France, has been order and liberty reuniting under the constitutional monarchy. There is
the true promise of the Revolution of July.
Speech of October 5, 1831
I have heard equality much spoken of; we have called it the fundamental principle of
our political organization. I am afraid there has been a great mistake. Without doubt
there are universal rights, equal rights for all, rights inherent in humanity and which no
human being can be stripped of without injustice and disorder. It has been the honor of
modern civilization to redeem these rights from that mass of violence and force under
which they had long been hidden and to bring them back to light. There you have personal
rights, universal and equal for all, from which stem equality in civil order and in moral
order. But will political rights be of this order? It is through tradition, through
heredity that families, peoples, and history subsist; without tradition, without heredity
you would have nothing of that. It is through the personal activity of families, peoples,
and individuals that produces the perfectibility of the human race. Suppress it, and you
will cause the human race to fall to the rank of the animals. I say that aristocracy is
the condition of modern societies, a necessary consequence of the nature of modern
democracy. Upon this aristocracy two conditions are to be imposed: First, it is to be
constantly submitted to the control and examination of democracy; second, it must recruit
itself constantly from the people.
Speech of February 15, 1842
I am, for my part, a decided enemy of universal suffrage. I look upon it as the ruin of
democracy and liberty. If I needed proof I would have it under my very eyes; I will not
elucidate. However, I should permit myself to say, with all the respect I have for a great
country and a great government, that the inner danger, the social danger by which the
United States appears menaced is due especially to universal suffrage; it is that which
makes them run the risk of seeing their real liberties, the liberties of everybody,
compromised, as well as the inner order of their society. . .
