Between Talleyrand
and Alexander it was arranged, with the approval of the Great Powers,
that in the name of "legitimacy" the Bourbons should be restored to the
throne of France, but with the understanding that they should fully
recognize and confirm the chief social and political reforms of the
Revolution. It was likewise arranged by the treaty of Paris (30 May,
1814), also in the name of "legitimacy," that France should regain the
limits of 1792, should recover practically all the colonies which Great
Britain had seized during the course of the Napoleonic wars, [Footnote:
Great Britain kept Tobago and St. Lucia in the West Indies, and
Mauritius (Ile de France) on the route to India.] and should pay no
indemnity. "Legitimacy" was a brilliant discovery of Talleyrand: it
justified the preservation of France in the face of crushing defeat,
and, if it restored the Bourbons, it did so as limited, not as
absolute, monarchs.
[Sidenote: Louis XVIII]
Louis XVI's "legitimate" heir was his brother, the count of Provence, a
cynical, prosaic, and very stout old gentleman who had been quietly
residing in an English country-house, and who now made a solemn, if
somewhat unimpressive, state entry into Paris.
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