The 1830 Revolution has intermittently been the subject of historians' interests and has been interpreted uin three main ways as has been ably summarized in the most recent work in English on this Revolution by Pamela Pilbeam. The revolution which inaugurated the July Monarchy was characterized as a deplorable repeat of the 1789 by defeated Legitimists, as 'the glorious days' by the victorious Liberals, and as a bourgeois victory by Republicans and early Socialists. Like the Great Revolution of 1789 and unlike that of 1848 which dethroned the Orleanist king, the 1830 Revolution unleashed anti-clerical violence during the July Days in the ensuing months because of the identification of Catholicism with the restored Bourbon monarchy. Thus, it was natural for the victims (Catholics) to recallm, and to fear, a return of the 1789 chaos.

This article explores contemporary opinion of the July Revolution to see to what extent the Legitimist view and fear of 1789 prevailed in the French Catholic periodical press in the immediate aftermath of the revolution. An analysis of this rich source of Catholic opinion and thought, frequently overlooked by historians, reveals the extent to which a hostile attitude towards the Orelanist regime was held and promulgated by Catholics )both clerical and lay) and discloses not only what messages Catholics wished to convey about the July Revolution but also what impact the 1830 Revolution had on Catholic thinking.