ABSTRACT
The France which emerged after the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars was a constitutional state which sought to marry the principle of representative government with monarchical rule under the restored Bourbons. The latter, however, both under Louis XVIII (1814–24) and in particular under Charles X (1824–30), failed to bridge the chasm between les deux France, the France of the Revolution and the France of the monarchy. The liberal Orleanist regime of Louis Philippe (1830–48) fared little better. For French republicans, only the creation of a viable democratic Republic could embody the aspirations of the sovereign people: ‘universal’ suffrage was the principal demand of radical republicans who identified completely with the legacy of the Revolution, Terror and all.
