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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



becially after a penal dissolution ; it would keep 

 the way always open to the reform of what is 

 bad, by means of improved elections, and with- 

 out a revolution ; it would give full play to any 

 increase of virtue and Intelligence which there 

 might be among the people ; its course would 

 no doubt be at first somewhat halting and un- 

 satisfactory among a people whose training has 

 been so unfortunate, but it could hardly fail to 

 the ground, or fail to answer in a tolerable way 

 the ordinary ends of government. 



Of the present constitution, unfortunately, 

 the contrary is true. It does contain in itself 

 the almost certain seeds of its own destruction. 

 The quasi-monarchical power, presidency, mar- 

 shalate, or whatever it is to be called, and the 

 Senate, which is sure to have an aristocratic 

 character, will probably remain, as they are now, 

 the double basis of a perpetual reaction in fa- 

 vor of the hereditary principle, to which privi- 

 lege, with good reason, clings ; and recent expe- 

 rience renders it highly probable that the two, 

 if firmly united, would be able by successive dis- 

 solutions, combined with the exercise of govern- 

 ment influence in the elections, to place in the 

 utmost peril, and practically to annihilate, the 

 organ of the national sovereignty, and the 

 national sovereignty itself. The constitution 

 of " three powers " is a constitution of civil 

 war. 



In discussing constitutions, however, and the 

 revision of constitutions, we are haunted by the 

 unwelcome apprehension that something of a 

 sterner kind may yet be in store for France. 

 We do not greatly fear that a soldier, whose 

 name is associated with nothing extraordinary 

 or great except defeat, will conceive the design 

 of founding a military empire in his own inter- 

 est. We do not greatly fear the clericals, since 

 the catastrophe of Eugenie and her priests, and 

 when Ultramontanism, in spite of its recent 



spasm of aggressive energy, is manifestly losing 

 ground throughout educated Europe. We do not 

 even greatly fear Bonapartism in itself, simply as 

 a movement in favor of the restoration of a 

 military despotism for the benefit of a discred- 

 ited dynasty. What we fear is the implacable 

 hostility of aristocracy to a republic based upon 

 equality. In France the three aristocracies, Le- 

 gitimist, Orleanist, and Bonapartist, are now col- 

 lectively strong ; their wealth has greatly in- 

 creased ; they begin to feel a common interest, 

 social and political, though they are at present 

 ranged under the banners of different pretend- 

 ers, and have hitherto, by their disunion, saved 

 the Republic. One and all, they instinctively 

 hate equality, and those hate it most bitterly 

 whose nobility is of yesterday. You may de- 

 monstrate as clearly as you please that aristoc- 

 racy has had its hour, that humanity is passing 

 into another phase, that the best and most glori- 

 ous part which a man who inherits the influ- 

 ence of aristocracy can play is to smooth the 

 transition into a new era : some of the finer 

 minds, and of those who can hope to maintain 

 their position by their own character and intel- 

 lect, will perhaps listen to you; the mass will 

 obey the bias of class, cling to privilege, and 

 constantly conspire against equality and any in- 

 stitutions by which equality is upheld. Their 

 feelings toward the democratic masses are not 

 those of mere political difference, but of hatred 

 more bitter than that which is felt by a foreign 

 enemy, and aggravated by contempt. The aris- 

 tocratic conspiracy, for such at bottom it was, of 

 De Broglie and Fourtou has for the moment 

 failed ; but the attempt will be perpetually re- 

 newed : and it will be fortunate, indeed, if the 

 question between the republic and the aristocracy 

 is finally decided without adding another convul- 

 sion to the ninety years' agony of France. — Con- 

 temporary Review. 



