478 PARTIES AND PROSPECTS IN PARIS. 



this, a Senate, chosen by electors, each of whom should at least pay 

 1,000 francs, or 40 of annual taxes. In other words, it was to be an 

 upper chamber, composed of, or at least, chosen by the aristocracy of 

 wealth. Now I will venture to assert, that this elective chamber is far 

 more aristocratic than the present tag-rag and bob-tail, which is at 

 once the laughing-stock, and the arbiter of a great nation. 



The party of the Milieu and of the old revolutional of 93, mock at 

 the idea of any upper chamber ; but Lafayette and his friends wisely 

 acknowledge the necessity of this check, and certainly it is with a view 

 more to strengthen than to undermine royalty. They wish to give it a 

 healthy limb to walk and lean upon ; whereas the Doctrinaires have 

 given it merely a broken crutch. 



I conclude with an anecdote from the Memoirs of the Due de Mor- 

 temart. 



In 1815, Monsieur, Count d'Artois (since Charles X.) lodged at 

 Ghent, in an hotel situated on the great Place, or Square. Alleys of 

 magnificent trees rendered it a charming promenade, which in conse-^ 

 quence became the favourite resort and rendezvous of the emigres. 

 Often have I seen Chateaubriand pacing up and down here with Bertin 

 de Vaux (editor of the Journal des Debats, and one of the new peers). 

 M. Guizot came hither also every day, and although not having the 

 honor of a previous acquaintance, I still accosted him as a friend in our 

 common exile. Nevertheless, we were far from following the same ca- 

 reer. He was in plain clothes, and I in the uniform of a Colonel of 

 Hussars (Chasseurs). The French are a communicative people, in bad 

 or in good fortunes, so that M. Guizot and I met with pleasure every 

 morning upon this Place of Ghent just as old fund-holders approach 

 each other at the Luxembourg, or in a warm corner of the Thuilleries' 

 gardens. M. Guizot conversed well, and I listened to him as an oracle. 

 I was then a fool of a poor fellow, who, with my brain turned by studying 

 the History of France, had imagined to imitate the old preux of Charles 

 VII., in following their exiled and discomfited king, rather than to stay 

 at Paris to receive the favour of Henry the Vlth, King of France and 

 England. 



" We paced sentimentally, INI. Guizot, and I, on this beautiful square of 

 Ghent. From time to time my companion would stop, and point to me 

 the hotel where the Prince lodged, observing fc I came here only to 

 behold an instant that good Prince, and true chevalier. Ah ! the French 

 do not deserve to have a king like him." I verily believe M. Guizot 

 must have wept in uttering these v/ords, so deeply did he seem affected. 

 " Yes," said he, " the French are great criminals, but we must make 

 them happy in their own despite, and for this we must muzzle them, 

 which can easily be down by means of cours prevotales (drum-head 

 courts martial.") No I had never heard of cours prevotales even in my 

 regiment, and I begged M. Guizot to enlighten me on this point, which 

 he had the amiability to do. He explained to me precisely the nature of 

 this military mode of government. And I, as a soldier, found it quite 

 as good as any other. 



" Who could have told me," concludes M. de Mortemart, "that fifteen 

 years after, I, who had turned book-worm from a colonel of Chasseurs 

 should have been dismissed from my place, by M. Guizot, Minister of 

 the Interior to King Louis-Phillippe, and that I should have been so 

 dismissed for resolving to remain faithful to that prince, before whom I 

 had seen M. Guizot in tears of wrapt adoration/' 



