kind of intermediate position between the widely sundered extremes of the Opposition and Contre-Opposition. Besides, it was but a few years since, that, of more than four hundred Deputies, only thirty were found to vote against the Ministers; and now they outnumbered their antagomists, perhaps, or at least were likely to do it with the aid of the Centre.

In characterizing the smaller subdivisions of this Chamber, a spirited author has said that the extreme Right consisted of the Jacobins of Royalty; the Right, of Royalists somewhat less furious than their neighbors; the Right Centre, of Royalists having a violent inclination to be reasonable; the Left Centre, of Royalist who desired a varnish of constitutionality over the solid advantages of ministerialism; the Left, of the sincere friends of the Charter; and the Extreme Left, of the Republicans, the Radicals, the insa tiable.

La Bourdonnaye, who had just retired from office, had pretensions to be considered a leader of the Extreme Right, these paladins of the old noblesse, who certainly did more harm than good to the King by their extravagance. What party could be strengthened by a Duplessis-Grénédan, who had loudly demanded the re-establishment of the rack and other atrocious barbarities of feudality, and who opposed the law of indemnity because it did not wrench all the fragments of the national domain from the hands of innocent purchasers, and restore the very estates themselves to the old

proprietors ? By a La Boësière, who deemed it a breach of the oath of allegiance to question the propriety of anything emanating from the Ministers? By a Salaberry, to whom the name of the Press or of the Charter, was as water to a subject of the hydrophobia? And if others, like Corbière, had more of discretion, talent, or knowledge of the world, they labored under a load of unpopularity, which rendered them of little avail in the present crisis. The Contre-opposition, however, contained men, to whom it is impossible to deny the respect due to integrity and ability, although associated in positions with men, who were blindly hastening on a new Revolution. Martignac and Hyde de Neuville, independently of their numerous other claims to consideration, had earned a new title to it in being driven from the Ministry to make room for the vowed foes of the Charter. MM. de Conny, Delalot, and de Larochefoucauld with others of their class, might also be singled out from the ranks of the Right, as uniting great personal respectability with a creed, which comprised the Charter and the King, the Bourbons and France. The Right was to derive what aid it might from the Ministers themselves, at least from such among them as possessed capacity for the business of a deliberative assembly; and how weak they had previously been, in this essential element of a vigorous Cabinet, is rendered apparent by their calling Guernon de Ranville from a provincial bar to suceed La Bourdonnaye, on account of the rhetor

ical powers and supposed parliamentary talent of the former gentleman.

How differently constituted was the Opposition in all the elements of national consideration and the means of exercising popular influence! Since the Three Days their names have become familiar to us by the deeds they have performed, or the speeches they have delivered, in the cause of the Charter. If the Left contained fewer of the old aristocratical families, which the Restoration had given back to France, it was rich in everything else, and in that respect even was not deficient. If the La Fayettes and the Larochefoucauld-Liancourts, with genealogies running back into eras co-existent with the conquests of the French, were not numerous among the Opposition, who, among the Contre-Opposition, deserved to be matched with the Royer Collards, the Duponts, the Périers, the Dupins? Here were Firmin Didot, Lefebvre, Jars, Casimir Périer, Lafitte, Balguerie, Ternaux, Laisné de Villevesque, who brought to the deliberations of the Chamber a practical knowledge of the commerce and manufactures of their country, worth all the sangre azul in France; and several of them could be as eloquent in the tribune, as they were wise and well informed in the committee room. Among the great publicists and eminent mag

ist rates were Dupont de l'Eure, exhibiting a life of public usefulness and exalted public virtues in legislative and juridical functions coeval with the Revolution; Méchin, a contemporary of the last in the length of his public services, and distinguished for zeal as a debater; Bérenger, a publicist, whom some of the American letter writers have absurdly mistaken for Béranger the poet; Dupin and Mauguin, practising advocates of Paris, equally distinguished at the Bar and in the Senate; and Schonen, a counsellor of the Cour Royale of Paris of the highest reputation for talents and patriotism. It is one of the distinctions of science and letters, that they diffuse a reputation far beyond the limits of ordinary political notoriety; and Royer-Collard, Etienne, Charles Dupin, Kératry, and Benjamin Constant, had more than a single claim to be known, whether in or out of France. Nor should we omit to mention the virtuous Labbey de Pompières, since lost to his country by death; or Louis, who had twice resigned the ministry of Finance rather than participate in acts injurious to his country, and was now a steady opponent of the Government, or Government, or Sébastiani and Gérard, the former so well known as a diplomatist, and both as among the great generals of the Empire ;* or Laborde, eminent as an author and a politician, and

not less so as the generous dispenser of a noble fortune, and às a spirited public benefactor.

We need occupy but little time in speaking of the Chamber of Peers, which from deliberating in private, attracted less of general interest, and has been almost passive in the changes of the Three Days. It contained two very distinct divisions, one of which would gladly have aided M. de Polignac in restoring the good old times, and the other would have preferred to let things remain as they were. It is observable that neither did all the ancient nobles belong to the first class, nor all the novi homines to the latter, but singular mixtures had occurred on both sides. Many gentlemen of name and arms had become reasonable by the influence of reflection and experience. Such were MM. the Ducs de Mortemart, de La Vauguyon, de Choiseul, de Broglie, de Doudeau

ville, the Prince de Talleyrand, the Marquis de Jaucourt, the Vicomte de Châteaubriand, the Comtes de La Ferronays and de Laroche-Aymond, the Marquis de Catelan, the Comtes de Pontecoulant, de Ségur, the Duc de Praslin, and others who justly appreciated the mad schemes of the Government. They remembered what the noblesse had already lost in the unequal contest of parchment-privileges against force, they foresaw what it would again lose by another such struggle, and they sought to calm, by moderation and prudence, the exaltation and exaggeration of the wild apostles of a royalist revolution. Although sustained by the brilliant cortège of the titled heroes of the Republic and the Empire, by the great functionaries who had been the lights of their times, and who retained in old age the patriotic spirit of their youth, although efficiently aid

M. D. In his interest.

ed by such men, the Mortem arts and the Châteaubriands strove in vain to control a suicidal madness of policy, which they knew would work the destruction of the Bourbons, and had reason to fear would prove equally fatal in its consequences to the Chamber of Peers. Of M. de Pastoret, the perpetual President, we will merely add, that he had well attained his political elevation by a career of meritorious public services, having traversed the Revolution with honor. It was pointedly remarked of him, long before any body anticipated the catastrophe of the Three Days: Il ne nuira jamais de lui-même à l'ordre établi; mais, si on voulait le renverser, il laisserait faire.' The event has very strikingly verified this prediction.

Such was the Legislature, before whom the Ministers were now called upon to account, not for their measures, but for their existence in office. Anxious expectation filled every mind, and angry discussions were heard in every circle, as to the form in which this great question would come up, and the effect of any hostile demonstration on the part either of the ministers or of the Opposition. Would the Minis

ters résign if the Address of the Deputies should be against them, and a dissolution of the Chamber ensue? The royalist journals said, no. The Address,' they argued, is of little consequence: if it is hostile, Ministers will put it in their pockets, and pursue their course as before; they are not persons to retire because they are asked to do so. Let them hold firm; the Address will pass for nothing; and they will have the majority for the Budget.' Supposing this to be their course, and the Ministers to disregard the menaces of the Opposition, yet, if the latter should have the majority in the Chamber, what would or ought to be the effect of their refusing the Budget? Would the Ministers then yield to the National Representatives? Or would the King, indignant at such an interference with his pretended prerogative in the selection of his Ministers, dissolve the Chambers? And if so, would he order a new election thus making an appeal to the voice of the Nation? Or would he undertake a coup d'état, in the hope of maintaining his ground by force? These delicate and difficult questions were at length cut short by the unexpected arival of the national crisis.

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THE French Chambers assembled on the 2d of March. All France awaited with intense anxiety the result of this the most important legislative meeting which had occurred since the Restoration.

6

The King's Speech at the opening of the session, after alluding to the probable termination of the negotiations regarding Greece and the intended Algerine expedition, and to some minor topics of internal policy, concluded with these words: The Charter has placed the public liberties under the safeguard of the rights of my throne. These rights are sacred; my duty is to transmit them entire to my sucPeers of France and Deputies of Departments, I doubt not of your co-operation in effecting the good which I wish to ac

Colo

complish. You will repel with contempt the perfidious insinuations which malevolence endeav

ors

to propagate. If culpable manœuvres should raise up against my Government obstacles which I am unable (he added on recovering himself) which I do not wish to foresee, I shall find the power of surmounting them in my resolution to maintain the public peace, in my just confidence in the French, and in the love which they have always shown for their Kings.'

In weighing impartially these expressions, which occasioned so much heat, excitement and discussion at the time, and which had such a decided effect in precipitating the critical moment, it seems clear to us that the great error of the Speech was in its mal-adaptation to the sentiments and opin