face further wearying confrontations with Villèle’s government and its tame judiciary,
who were now intent on breaking Constant for good. On 6 and 13 February 1823 he lost
two appeals he had made against different judgements and was fined 2,000 francs.^19
Villèle’s Ultra government appeared to be going from strength to strength. It was not
only financially successful, but had now involved itself, albeit somewhat reluctantly, on
behalf of another Bourbon monarch, Ferdinand VII, in the civil war which had broken out
in Spain in 1820. In April 1823 an expeditionary force was sent into Spain. Although
according to all the laws of military strategy the campaign ought to have proved a
disaster, it was a complete and remarkable success. Virtually unopposed, indeed
welcomed by the Spanish people who had so recently fought a bitter guerilla war against
Napoleon’s troops, the French army restored the Bourbon King of Spain to his throne.
Chateaubriand, now Foreign Minister to Villèle, had advocated the successful policy;
Villèle was furious and, on the grounds of Chateaubriand’s opposition to a government
finance measure, dismissed him. It was a serious error of judgement, for Chateaubriand
went straight over to the opposition and henceforth, after having been Constant’s political
adversary, became in effect a royalist ally. Constant, excluded from parliamentary
activity for the foreseeable future, worked all spring and summer of 1823 on the history
of religion, recasting his manuscript for the last time. On 7 July 1823 he wrote to his
friend Simonde de Sismondi thanking him for sending him the most recent volumes of
his Histoire des Français (History of the French People):
I never write to anyone any more.... I can’t get used to the idea of
my letters being read publicly before they reach my friends, and
even now when I have good reason to write, I have got so used to
silence that I couldn’t bring myself to break it and talk about
Hispano-European affairs. I can only say that nations ought not to
attack others since they cannot even defend themselves. I have
decided to attempt to publish my book, even though we live under
Jesuit rule, but I shall publish it in instalments, because the first,
which I don’t think will alarm anyone, will I hope establish its
reputation sufficiently for no one to dare stop me later on. I enclose
some prospectuses.^20The Jesuit order was believed to have been responsible for all the recent
government legislation in favour of the Roman Catholic church, a view
echoed by Constant. The general atmosphere of suspicion and repression
comes through clearly in the letter, as does Constant’s uncertainty as to
whether, after forty years of work, his great book will ever finally see the
light of day. Nevertheless he signed a contract in August 1823 and on 30
March 1824 the first of five volumes was printed.^21
De la religion, considérée dans sa source, ses formes et ses développements
(Concerning Religion, considered in its Source, Forms and Development) which was
only part of his work—the rest would appear posthumously in Du polythéisme romain
(Concerning Roman Polytheism)—shows a parallel with Constant’s political beliefs. As
Benjamin constant 246