ation of European order either in public or in private.

The throne is now filled by an individual whose right is questioned by the great majority of the nation. That throne is without power and without glory. It has neither genius nor fame to support it against the implacable hatred of two great parties, whose rights it has violated, and whose confidence it has deceived. Well might Louis-Philippe style the Revolution that seated him on the throne," the business of Paris." It was indeed only the business of Paris; and France will avenge the intrigues of the capital.

On what does Louis-Philippe depend? Is the army for him? Is the nobility for him? Is the Church for him? Is the people for him? Without their aid, what is M. Perier? what is Mr. Guizot? what is M.Thiers? What are a few bankers, whose falling credit he props up? What are a few professors, whose impossible doctrines he affects to practise? What are a few journals, which have lost half their circulation since they supported his government?

What, we repeat, are the grounds on which Louis-Philippe can imagine that he can maintain himself upon a throne, on which he has been placed by the intrigues of a côterie? This un

happy ruler has at once deceived Liberty and betrayed Legitimacy. Will he be joined either by the Republicans or the Royalists? That is the only question. He must gain one of these great parties, to secure himself. And how does he proceed? The Republicans would sooner obey Henry V. than Louis-Philippe; and the Royalists would prefer a powerful Republic to a contemptible Valois.

We believe that the King of the French himself is aware of his position. His anxiety to be recognised, at any price, by the Foreign Powers, proves at least his sagacity and his fear. Mark the strange individuals whom he immediately despatches to the different Courts to secure this recognition,-M. de Talleyrand, M. de Mortemart, M. Bertin de Vaux, Marshal Maison, M. d'Harcourt; these were not heroes of July; they do not wear the cross of "the Paris business." We may safely acquit them of all heroism. What is the point of all his negotiations? It may be comprised in a line : "I totter: be quick, or I fall!"

He who is supported by the enthusiasm of a nation, cares little for the intrigues of individuals. At the head of a nation of 32,000,000 of souls, flushed with glory and felicity; proud, brave, and free; dwellers in a rich land, speaking the

same language, and animated by the same interests, what had such a prince to fear if his position were well founded, and the acquiescence of his people sincere? But, no, no; the cowardly anxiety to be recognised without, proves the hollowness of the situation within. The letter to the Emperor Nicholas is sufficient to prove that the King does not believe in his own stability. It never could have been penned by the confident leader of a devoted people.

Of all living men, Louis-Philippe is the least fitted to be the leader of the French. The reminiscence of Jemappes and Valmy will not, I imagine, be any permanent consolation for Waterloo, nor a sufficient compensation for the bristling front of the rocky Ehrenbreitstein.

I shall close this chapter by a quotation from an able Liberal writer, who has well observed, "that there are two events equally beneficial and necessary for France, both to insure her strength without and to restore her confidence within; and that, of these events, one is indispensable.

"Either the Abdication of Henry V. in favour of Louis-Philippe; or the Abdication of LouisPhilippe in favour of Henry V.

"The first event," continues this writer, "is most improbable; for what could induce the elder

Bourbons to renounce their last hope

Time. Let us speak, therefore, of the advantages of the second, as the only means of repairing the great error of a party, who, in their hurry to create something durable and excellent (for we question not their motives), have hazarded, without reflection, the peace of Europe, and the happiness of France.

"One source of anxiety and alarm, from which we have not been able to free ourselves, from the moment that the Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom permitted himself to be made King of the French, is their inability to destroy the rights of the two other Pretenders to the Crown, styled respectively by their partisans Henry V. and Napoleon II.; each of them having an abdication in his favour, and each of whom is now quiet only because he is weak; but their posterity, if not themselves, menace France and Europe with a long prospect of civil and foreign wars; unless, indeed, we believe that the Crown is considered only as a deposit in the hands of Louis-Philippe, as one might be induced to suspect from the tone of his declarations, and after the act which has been registered in the archives of the Chamber of Peers, -the abdication of Charles X. in favour of the Duke of Bordeaux, as if they could not have

exacted from the infatuated monarch who permitted himself to be dethroned, an absolute unconditional abdication.*

"Are the people satisfied with the result of the three days? Is the clergy tranquil, submissive, and content? Can we flatter ourselves that the army is unanimous, or cordially attached to our new Government? Even the devotion of the National Guard cannot be obtained by the influence of the La Fayette party. And in fifteen or twenty months, as in ten or fifteen years, why may not capricious Fortune raise up successively or simultaneously the army of Henry V., the army of the Republic, the army of Napoleon II., and the army of Orleans, disputing the Sovereignty, without mentioning the foreign powers-which may introduce friends of one party, enemies of another whom, nevertheless, we must induce to evacuate one part of the French territory by sacrificing the other.

“What we have witnessed for the last forty years, may well make us believe that that which in the

* This idea of the crown being held by Louis Philippe as a deposit was prevalent during the first months of the Revolution, because no one could believe that the Usurpation was in good earnest. Time, however, has proved that he considers himself the positive proprietor of the Crown.