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recommended, at least, by his devoted loyalty, and his personal attachment to the sovereign.

Was there any thing illegal or unconstitutional in this nomination? Was there any article in the charter that authorised the Chamber by the celebrated majority of 221 to 216 to present to the King an address, disapproving of the exercise of his prerogative, in behalf of a body of men as yet untried? This, which was the first cause of Polignac's ordonnances, was quite as unconstitutional as they; and if the lex talionis were to be applied in such a case, the ordonnances might be justified by the address. Was their conduct con

stitutional, even had the prerogative been exercised in favour of one of the ministry which the suffrages of a previous Chamber had declared "deplorable?" Certainly not. And in the few months that had elapsed between the accession of the Prince de Polignac and the meeting of the Chamber, no one has ever pretended that the tendency of any one of his acts was to overstep the law; and this moderation of conduct was maintained in spite of incessant calumny; of the ceaseless vituperation of the press, and the ever active intrigues of the secret societies, whose avowed object was, by their extravagance, to pique the minister into some illegal measure.

Twice had the King yielded to this opposition. In one instance, he had given up the most successful minister of the restoration; in the other, he had appointed a minister, whom the Chamber received with acclamations. This very minister the chamber had deserted; and now, when the King, in despair, returned to his first system, they arrogantly placed their veto upon a third, without even condescending to permit him to explain his intentions, and develope his policy.

In politics, and indeed wherever human passions operate, violence always reacts a blow produces and justifies a blow; the Chamber struck illegally and unconstitutionally at the King—it was in human nature, even if not in the charter, that the King should strike at the Chamber; but, strictly speaking, they who give the first offence are morally and legally responsible for all the consequences: would it were so in politics!

From the moment of the formation of the Polignac administration no means were neglected to stimulate the activity of the factious, to alarm the fears, and excite the passions of the ignorant. Every where they combined to refuse the taxes, every where they stirred up and agitated the populace, and even persuaded a nation that their government were a band of incendiaries ravaging

their finest provinces. Oh! those precious fires of Normandy, and their choice imitations on the neighbouring shores of England! Blind or infatuated must they be who do not see that all these fires were lighted by the same brand. The police of the French government was never more active, than in its attempts to arrest this scourge, and to detect its origin. I was well acquainted with the anxiety of the ministers in their private circles, and the deep alarm of the sovereign himself. The guards even were sent into Normandy, under the command of General Latour Fossac, a man distinguished by his manly loyalty, his stern justice, and his distinguished courage, talents, and firmness. Each day the press teemed with dark insinuations against mysterious malefactors; yet why, since the occurrence of the three glorious days, has that press been silent? Where now are the insinuations on that important subject against the Congregation the Liberals affected to style the Jesuits, and, under that odious name, whatever remains of religion in France? And why have the persons arrested by the royalist administration, on suspicion, never been prosecuted by the revolutionary government? The day will come, however, when the guilty, whatever may be their party, will be

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discovered in the mean time, for the sake of sacred justice, let us hope, that on the day of trial, even a cross of July will not be permitted to be pleaded as an exemption from penal retribution.

But while we are enumerating the infamous devices of the revolutionary intriguers to excite a prejudice against the Polignac ministry, never let us forget that the most active weapon of our present allies was the Prince's supposed connection with England. The Prince in two instances had allied himself with our countrywomen: he avowed his admiration of our state of society, our inviolable order and our practical freedom. "He speaks English in council," was the veracious on dit of all the oracles of the Cafés: yet the Prince was, in truth, a good, I had almost said, too good a Frenchman. Algiers and Belgium are monuments of the unchangeable genius of the French policy under all administrations; and M. Mauguin, one of the Commissioners of Enquiry previous to the trial of the ministers, after concluding his examinations as to the foreign policy of the illustrious prisoner, thus, we are credibly informed, addressed "the instrument of Wellington:"

"Monsieur, nous avous vû avec plaisir que vous

avez dirigé nos affaires à l'extérieur avec fermeté, loyauté, et d'une manière toute Française."

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This was the declaration of the leader of the Mouvement in the highest moment of political excitement; and I can take upon myself to add, that so great was the anxiety of the French Cabinet to avoid the imputation of being in any degree directed by the English the intercourse between the Governments was, under Polignac, much less cordial and intimate than it had previously been. I am satisfied that the Prince pushed this weakness to an almost culpable extent; and that the British Ministry were, at the moment of the explosion of July, in as entire ignorance of the difficulties and projects of the French Cabinet as the British public in general.

Abundant proofs are before us, and others are every day arising, that the insurrection of July was organised before the appearance or signature of the Ordonnances; before even the necessity of any such measure was discussed. No well-informed man of any party now affects to deny this, or any longer to ridicule those who then expressed their apprehension of an approaching convulsion. Indeed, it is now, as I have already said, the fashion among the successful party on all occasions to celebrate the Revolution, as the result of

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