clauses and obligations to the observing of the constitutional charter, and the specified modifications, and, after having done this in presence of the assembled Chambers, to take the title of King of the French."

Monsieur de Corcelles asked if this election of a sovereign should not be submitted to the people for their ratification, but no one sustained him. The following was the result of the ballot which decided that the crown of France should be given away, as the same Deputies would have voted themselves refreshments for the season.

Number of voters

White balls

Black balls

252

229

33

Towards sunset the Deputies left their hall, and walked in procession to the Palais Royal, where Louis Philippe received them in the hall in which his father had received Franklin, surrounded by his family. Lafitte read the new Charter, the last clause of which was an invitation to ascend the throne, and Louis Philippe replied:

"Messieurs, I receive with deep emotion the declaration you present to me. I regard it as the expression of the national will, and it appears to me conformable to the political principles I have all my life professed.

"Full of remembrances that have always made me wish that I might never be called to a throne, exempt from ambition, and habituated to the peaceful life I led in my family, I cannot conceal from you all the feelings that agitate my heart in this great conjuncture; but there is one that overbears all the rest, that is, the love of my country. I feel what it prescribes to me, and I will do it."

As he concluded, he threw himself into the arms of Lafitte, and received the warm congratulations of his friends. Lafayette then led him out on the balcony, and when the applause of the assembled multitudes had subsided, said:

"We have done a good work. This is what we have been able to make most like a Republic." It is not correct that he exclaimed, "Behold the best of Republics."*

The next day, the Chamber of Peers assembled to ratify the compact which had been entered into by the Deputies, but it was rather an act of civility, for the lower Chamber had acted with sovereign independence. The session was, however, marked by a speech from Chateaubriand,† which will ever remain as a specimen of courageous and sublime eloquence. After having denounced, in eloquent and appropriate language, the ordinances of July, and their authors; and after having rendered his noble tribute of admiration to the temperance and moderation of the people of Paris, he addressed himself to the question of the rights of the Duke of Bordeaux:

"To say that this child, when separated from his masters, would not have had time to forget their very names, before arriving at manhood; to say that he would remain infatuated with certain hereditary dignities, after a long course of popular education, and after the terrible lesson which in two nights has hurled two kings from the throne, is at least not very reasonable! It is not from a feeling of sentimental devotedness, transmitted from the swaddling-clothes of St. Louis, to the cradle of the young Henry, that I plead a cause where every thing would again turn against me, if it triumphed. I am no believer in chivalry or romance; I have no faith in the divine right of royalty; but I believe in the power of facts and of revolutions. I do not even invoke the charter; 'I take my ideas from a higher source; I draw them from the sphere of philosophy, from the period at which my life terminates. I propose the Duke of Bordeaux as a necessity of a purer kind than that which is now in question. I know that by passing over this child, it is intended to establish the principle of the sovereignty of the people; an absurdity of the old school, which proves, that our veteran democrats have advanced no farther in political knowledge, than our superannuated royalists. There is no absolute sovereignty

* Letter from General Lafayette to General Bernard.

+ Chateaubriand. Note F.

anywhere; liberty does not flow from political right, as was supposed in the eighteenth century; it is derived from natural right, so that it exists under all forms of government; and a monarchy may be free, nay, much freer than a republic. And above all, such a monarchy as you would establish, will be swept away by democratic laws, or the constitutional monarch will be swept away by the movement of factious persons.

An unavailing Cassandra," he concluded, reverting painfully to his own position, "I have sufficiently wearied the throne and the peerage with my disregarded warnings. It only remains for me to sit down on the fragments of a wreck I have so often predicted. I recognise in misfortune all kinds of power, except that of releasing me from my oaths of fidelity. I must therefore render my life uniform. After all I have done, said, and written for the Bourbons, I should be the vilest of wretches if I denied them at the moment when for the third and last time they are going into exile. Fear I leave to those mock royalists who have never sacrificed a coin or a place to their loyalty; to those champions of the altar and the throne, who lately treated me as a renegade, an apostate, and a revolutionist. Pious libellers, the renegade now calls upon you! Come, then, and stammer out a word, a single word, with him, for the unfortunate master you have lost, and who loaded you with benefits. Instigators of Coups d'Etat, and preachers of constituent power, where are you? You hide yourselves in the mire, from under which you raised your heads to calumniate the faithful servants of the King. Your silence to-day is worthy of your language of yesterday! Ye gallant paladins, whose projected exploits have caused the descendants of Henry IV. to be driven from their throne at the point of the pitchfork, tremble now, as ye crouch under the tri-colored cockade! The noble colors you display will protect your person, but will not cover your cowardice! Whatever be the destinies in store for the Lieutenant-General, I will never be his enemy if he effect the welfare of my country. All I ask is, that I may preserve the freedom of my conscience, and the right to go and die wherever I shall find independence and repose."

This touching appeal produced no effect on the Peers, who immediately commenced balloting. Only one hundred and fourteen were present, of whom eighty-nine voted in