and liberty might live and prosper together, but that they could not do so, except at the price of mutual confidence." Yet at that very moment there was a growing feeling throughout the country, of irritation at the abuses practised by this would-be-model King, and his government had begun to totter, not under the assaults of its enemies, but by the dissolution of its own majority and the corruption of its own principles. Yet Louis Philippe, still intoxicated with power and sanguine of perpetual success, went boldly on to carry out the vast designs of Louis XIV. in the middle of his reign, as if he had forgotten that his throne had been raised by a revolution and supported by individual will. Secured by his fortresses and bayonets, he apparently never dreamed that a few hours would suffice to turn the fury of the Parisians against his own person and family, and while urging Guizot on to execute his projects, he held him in reserve ready to be sacrificed as a convenient concession, which would quiet the popular tumult. M. Duvergier de Hauranne made an attempt to carry a bill for electoral reform through the Chamber of Deputies, but it was defeated by the ministerial party. "In the first revolution," said Gustave de Beaumont in the debate upon it, "the ruling passion was the maintenance of principles; under the restoration it was a love of liberty; at present it is a desire for material amelioration; first came ideas, then passions, now interests. M. Guizot has himself declared, that in democratic governments it was necessary to oppose the masses to the aristocracy: yet what voice have now the masses of France in her councils?" * * The electoral position of the French at this time was as follows: 8,184,887 individuals paying 1 to 20 francs each 96,000,000 10,496,461 non-voting tax payers pay a total of 206,000,000 francs. 23 [See next page.] At the King's fête, on the first of May, the public addresses were even in a more fulsome style of congratulation than before, and Louis Philippe said in reply, laying his hand on his heart, "I thank the Chambers for the support which has permitted me to accomplish the great task imposed upon me; and now that France enjoys all the advantages of peace and prosperity, I might exclaim, 'Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace."" This declaration was received with scorn, as all France knew that thirty of the Deputies, who were pledged to support the administration at the commencement of the session, had become so indignant at the bare-faced corrruption which reigned, that they had taken a high independent ground of opposition. This Spartan band of seceders, who were not to be bribed or flattered, gave most deplorable pictures of the actual condition of the country; and asserted that, although Louis Philippe had maintained peace and order, seventeen years' tranquillity ought to have produced other fruits. "What have the government to show, as the results?" asked "La Presse," the organ of the Young Conservatives. "Order! a budget of expenses, constantly increasing until it amounts to more than $3,000,000. Peace! an army which ruins us, alienates from us our natural allies, and prevents our having a powerful navy-churches in ruins communal schools without light and air — primary teachers receiving an annual salary of $40 -long and deep ruts pompously dignified with the name of vicinal roads - departmental roads, commenced, it is true, but which our children will not live long enough to see finished - broken sections of railroads-canals unconnected with each other, so as to be unserviceable to the country - maritime ports in bad condition - building yards without materials — arsenals filled with arms and ammunition, which appear to have been manufactured for no other purpose than to attest the superiority of England over us - fortifications without any affinity to the constitution of our armies colonies in a state of decay-razzias and bulletins in Africa - sinecures without number, and yet, at the same time, an infinity of useful employments inadequately remunerated-useful expenses you are unable to incur, on account of useless expenses you have not courage to suppress men without ideas placed in positions that require men of genius and understanding — excessive taxes, which you cannot reduce unequal taxes, which you know not how to bring to a proper level-abuses in every department — administrations in which mediocrity and want of good-will reign in sovereignty, and in which emulation and zeal are systematically stifled — speeches, an exuberance of speeches, without - treaties concluded, any acts but which cannot be ratified-expeditions undertaken, the glory of which is dearly paid for marriages contracted, which are proudly proclaimed as the only great achievement won by France single-handed during seventeen years, the result of which is but to raise us to a summit, rendering our fall the more deep and dangerous. These are facts which cannot be denied. Are they such results as justify exultation on surveying the country—this country, which, if the right means were taken, would become so rich, so powerful, so glorious, as to render it an example to all governments-to the people of all nations?" - Thus far, Louis Philippe's government had been supported by a general impression among the monied and trading classes that it was "safe," but its rottenness was shown by the trial before the Chamber of Peers, which resulted in the conviction of two ex-cabinet Ministers, men occupying high stations in public life, of open bribery. Other cases followed, disclosing equally frightful pictures of public and private life, and even the austere Guizot was implicated for his severe political morality could not exempt him from the influence of the means by which Louis Philippe's Prime Minister was forced to sustain himself. First, he had to serve the King; next, he had a Chamber elected by a constituency, which, for a population of thirty-five millions, was the mere mockery of a representation. The King was powerful; the people were legally and constitutionally weak; between the King and the people, were the two Chambers, almost entirely governed and swayed by the immense number of offices and places in the gift of the crown. Under these circumstances, a Minister might affect political purity, and "praise the lean and sallow abstinence" from official gains, as much as he would, individually; he might practise what he preaches, but he must connive at corruption in others; he must subdue his nature to the element he works in, and rule by the influences nearest his hand. He could not appeal to free principles; it would not suit the "system;" he could seek no support from great masses of public opinion; its expression was proscribed and forbidden; he must play the lackey to the power above him as the first condition of his official existence, and he must buy support from those who have it to sell, as the second. On the 15th of May, 1847, the compiler of this work wrote from Paris to the Boston Atlas: "Until very recently, I have thought the Orleans dynasty secure upon the throne, but I now fear it will end with the life of Louis Philippedestroyed by the corruption of its own principles." On the 20th of July he wrote to the same paper : "The French begin to see their real position! They find that the promises made to them in 1830 have been grossly violated, and that the Democrat then seated on the throne as 'the best of Republics,' put on the purple cap (like the radicals in the United States,) to amuse the populace while he fleeced them. Once in power he commenced a steady rule- now with a rod of iron, and now by moral suasion which gave hopes of progress, but no good effects are manifest, save a long peace, and this peace was for the King's private interests. Public confidence is impaired, the recent disclosures have added disgust to dislike, disquiet is gaining ground, nor will it take much to rouse the people into open revolt. The French acquiesce in the decisions of the ruling power without much comment, until the yoke becomes too oppressive - then, rising as if by magic, they cast it to the ground. “Meanwhile, the opposition are rallying with a political ardor not seen here since the revolution, and begin to show open defiance - upwards of a thousand Deputies and electors having dined together at the Chateau Rouge on the 13th, without drinking the King's health. Thiers did not dare to join in this political insult; but Barrot, De Lasteyrie, De Beaumont, Pagnerre, George W. Lafayette, his son Oscar Lafayette, and other influential Deputies were present to express in bitter language their disappointment at the King's desertion of the principles he espoused in 1830. Many of these Deputies attended just such a banquet in April, 1830, manifesting on that occasion the same opposition to the ruinous policy of the government- and many other similar signs of discontent warrant the expression of my belief, that unless some immediate change takes place in his administration, Louis Philippe will meet the fate of Charles X. "His safeguard is the army, and never was a monarch more closely guarded – all the palaces being but so many citadels. The Tuileries, for example, contains eighteen guard-houses, occupied by six hundred picked men from the infantry regiments, fifty dragoons, and three hundred national guards- the former with percussion locks and twenty rounds of ball cartridge, while the guns of the national guards have flints, and are never soiled by powder. In addition, the five barracks of the Carrousel, rue St. Thomas, Assomption, d'Orsay, and Bourbon, contain each a regiment within five minutes' march, and electric telegraphs communicate with the other garrisons scattered over Paris. At night, fifty trusty guardiens mount guard within the palace, armed with doublebarrelled carbines, and seventy-three sentries are posted around the |