A FIT OF ENTHUSIASM. 71 



No treason, oh, no ! nothing of lie kind, nothing so viil(Tar; 

 it is " an immense act," " a glorious deed," " a fact to be 

 blazoned in history." The other day the " Patrie," a de- 

 voted slave to the government of the day ^Yhatever its 

 colour, and who would have written equally well against 

 Louis Napoleon had he been sentto Vincennes, said, "France 

 has spoken ; and its voice, which is also the voice of God, 

 has granted the supreme power to the nephew of the Em- 

 peror. The vote of the people in 1851 has retied the 

 chain of time broken in 1815 by the sword of the stranger. 

 People feel that it is a new era. Csesar sleeps gloriously 

 in the peace of the tomb under the dome of the Invalids, 

 and Augustus comes to take the reins of the French 

 government in his hand." 



For myself I am no republican, but I am half ready to 

 give way to the melting mood when I think how the poor 

 republic has been abused. When she came into this 

 strange French world, how it did go into fits of entuzzy- 

 musy about her. Nothing so perfect was ever seen before ; 

 old men acted Simeon in the temple ; each royalist swore 

 he had been a hypocrite all his life till then, but that 

 thenceforth he should cast his skin and come out in his 

 real nature ; priests blessed trees of liberty till they were 

 hoarse ; and young men and maidens did nought but dance 

 and sing and kiss round them all the livelong day, " and 

 all went merry as a marriage bell," when, lo ! the curtain 

 falls, and in another minute, presto ! behold the poor re- 

 public prostrate, spit upon, and making a most inglorious 

 exit, leaving strong odours about its path. I have just read 

 . an article in the government paper on the constitution, which 



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