476 PARTIES AND PROSPECTS IN PARIS. 



French argument be true or not, I will not say. I give them as they 

 were spoken : but that the conclusion is true no one will deny. 



Now this., which is but doing in England, is done in France. The 

 aristocracy has disappeared, and men of the middle rank in birth, in 

 wealth, in life, wield all the influence in society and in the state. They 

 are the uppermost class, and they are resolved to continue so. They 

 will have no lords, no seigneurs, no hereditary privileges. This is the 

 dominant, universal, fixed principle of the French nation. Yet the 

 French king has just appointed an administration, the sentiments of 

 which are directly opposed to this general spirit and determination. The 

 doctrinaires, De Broglie, Guizot, &c., are admirers of the English con- 

 stitution, not that of 1832, mark me, but that of 1831. They believe 

 that no state can subsist without an hereditary aristocracy, liberal if 

 possible, that is, understanding its own interests, but still a privileged 

 aristocracy. 



These men, in political creed, are pretty much what the Whigs are in 

 England. They are the same abstractedly. But what immense difference 

 doth not their respective positions place between them ? In England the 

 Whigs are for progress, since liberty has not yet reached their maximum. 

 In France, the Doctrinaires, instead of being for progress, are for re- 

 action, because liberty has passed their ideal limits. And what limits ! 

 Good heavens ! when the electoral franchise is confined to those paying 

 ten pounds of annual taxes. Therefore you are not to judge of the 

 enormity of the administration just constituted by their opinions, but 

 by the contrast of those opinions with the ones prevalent here. Wel- 

 lington created premier of the English cabinet at present could not be a 

 greater blow given to the ear of the public, than the appointment of 

 Guizot has proved to France. 



It is the opinion of a number of persons here, that Louis- Philippe is 

 seriously disgusted with his quasi royalty ; that his secret purpose is t6 

 resign in favour of the Due de Bourdeaux and legitimacy ; and that in 

 order to pave the way for this, he has undertaken to disgust the French 

 as much as possible with the monarchiede Juillet, and to draw from it as 

 many absurdities as possible. These good people are no doubt very 

 much mistaken ; Louis Philippe is not so blind to the charms and solid 

 revenues of royalty, nor so very susceptible of disgust. But certainly 

 his acts give no small colour to the supposition. For not only does he, 

 whose crown was yesterday the gift of the people, put himself in oppo- 

 sition to that very people, but he selects the same moment to destroy foi* 

 ever the remaining respectability of one of the pillars of the said mo- 

 narchic de Juillet. 



I allude of course to the Chamber of Peers. When it was proposed 

 to change the name of this upper House to that of Senate, as more 

 appropriate to a set of poor, unknown, unillustrated, unhereditary noto- 

 rieties, it was negatived. Its dignity, forsooth, was to be upheld. 

 And this FalstafFs regiment of legislators, this ragged rout, preserved 

 its title of the peerage. M. De Broglie, and his party, exerted all their 

 powers to bestow hereditary rights upon its members ; and the majority 

 of the Chamber desired no better than thus to secure a temple of ho- 

 nour for themselves ; but they were ashamed, and durst not. Perier 

 added forty recruits to the number ; and lo ! sixty now are marched up 

 to join the squad. 



I do not think that there is one man of 1000/. per annum independent 



