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passion and the ruling principle of France. The law against the press,* which, when refused, is followed by an ordonnance— the disbandment of the National Guards the new

younger born, against whom this project is directed? In wishing to make an aristocracy with the elder children, will you not make a formidable democracy with the younger ones? And France-in taking from the circulation one fourth of her property, will you not diminish her landed revenue, and will she not be menaced by new impositions ?"

"The right of the elder born," said another Peer, "is intelligible at the time when the possession of fiefs obliged their proprietors to lead their vassals to battle. But everything is changed: the people to-day pay the subsidies, and concur in the formation of the army; 'nobles' and 'roturiers' all have the same duty to perform. No one has the right to claim peculiar laws or peculiar privileges to protect his property, and watch especially over its conservation. The transmission of fortune from a father to his children, without distinction of age or of sex, is the law of God, and man has only the right to interfere so far as to regulate this right and to conciliate it with paternal authority."

Such were and are the opinions in France.

* The plan of the Government was, by increasing the duty on the newspapers, to increase their price, thereby reducing their influence and the number of their readers. It is just worth remarking, that this idea was taken from the English system, and recommended to M. de Villèle by M. Cottu.

"A-t-on jamais vu un calcul plus erroné," said M.

creation of peers-carry the administration in every way to the furthest verge of constitutional power. Each spring of the constitution, stretched to the utmost, is strained, and its power injured.

Mons. de Villèle, as a statesman, was guilty of that fault, which, if we regard its consequences, is a crime. The system which he essayed, left, in its failure, no legitimate resource. Moderation after violence becomes weakness; and when violence has been car

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Benj. Constant, que celui qu'on nous présente! En élevant le prix des journaux, on ne diminuera point leur produit annuel! mais le plus simple bon sens n'indiquet-il pas qu'en doublant le port on diminuera le nombre des abonnés, et par conséquent le produit de la taxe ? Maintenant toute la question est de savoir s'il est juste, sage et politique de diminuer la circulation des journaux de la capitale, et de tuer l'existence de ceux des départemens."

"Dans tout ceci," said M. de Châteaubriand, "n'y at-il pas quelque chose de puéril et de sauvage qui fait véritablement rougir? La France est-elle donc redevenue barbare?"

"Dans la pensée intime de la loi," said M. Royer Collard, "il y a eu de l'imprévoyance au grand jour de la création à laisser l'homme échapper libre et intelligent au milieu de l'univers !"

The Academy protested; the law was finally withdrawn.

ried to the extremest limit of the law, the next step you make justifies resistance. Mons. de Villèle was a man of ability; he had a certain administrative talent, a certain parliamentary tact; but he had none of those loftier and more noble qualities which lift a statesman to that height from which he can survey and provide for the wants of an epoch. All his ideas and hopes were within the hemisphere of detail and intrigue; - to tickle the ear of the King, to entrap a majority of the Chamber, and to attend to the official duties of his department all this M. de Villèle understood, and understood well: but to see the course necessary to the nation, to urge the King to that course, to lead the Chamber to it-such a part was beyond the reach of his capacity, and totally out of the range of his ideas. Simple in his habits and expressions, regular in his office, and prodigal in places and dinners to his adherents, he exercised a great sway over the minds of those Deputies who, fresh from their provinces, sympathized with his manners, enriched themselves by his appointments, and felt themselves raised in consideration by his hospitality. By this provincial body M. de Villèle was adored; but all the better men of his time and of his party he alternately offended

and disgusted. He betrayed Monseiur de Richelieu, neglected Messrs. de Lalot and Labourdonnaye, dismissed Mons. Hyde de Neuville, insulted Mons. de Châteaubriand: - obtaining a certain reputation as a statesman, there is not a principle that he laid down, or a conviction that he followed-the whole course of his administration was foreign to his character, and in opposition to the policy he would more willingly have pursued. An advocate of peace, he engaged in the war with Spain; in nowise given to bigotry and superstition, he became the minister of the congrégation ;'-essentially of a cautious and moderate nature, the career of his government ran through a series of rash and violent experiments. An able man, he was the very reverse of a great man. In short, he had just sufficient talent to keep his place during six years, and to render the dynasty impossible for more than three years after his resignation.*

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Mons. de Villèle gave himself one chamber by a creation of peers, and hoped with the usual arts of government to strengthen his majority in the other by a new election; but the feelings against the congrégation,' and against the arbitrary succession of measures which had left the nation without defence, from the double power of absolutism and superstition, except in

Such was Monsieur de Villèle.

To a ministry which Charles X. said represented himself, succeeded a ministry which represented nothing.

M.

One is startled at almost every page in the modern history of France, to see the little political faith that burns in the hearts of public men. de Martignac comes into office because M. de Villèle can no longer command a majority in the Chamber. All that M. de Martignac looks to then, is to get the majority which M. de Villèle wants. He casts his eyes to this side, he casts his eyes to that side, in search of recruits; and it is a singular fact, that the ministry distinguished from M. de Villèle's by its moderation, began by an offer to the party which, during M. de Villèle's administration, had formed the Ultra Royalist opposition. M. de Labourdonnaye, however, was not to be obtained, except on higher terms than M. de Martignac could afford to give him; and the government, which began by a proposition to the extreme right, wheeled round at once to the left centreand now its march becomes every day more and

its representatives, excited throughout the country such a feeling in respect to the election of those deputies, that the minister was completely baffled, and in consequence -resigned.

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