kind than the adoption of principles more inclined to popular governments can produce; but from the circumstance of the pure royalists striving, at this time, against opinion, whilst the constitutionalists are but following the direction of the stream. The agitations of the former must necessarily be the most violent of the two, whether they make head against, or are borne backwards by, the current. It is dangerous to carry a simile or metaphor so far as to give to the thing likened all the properties of the thing applied; but Mirabeau followed up this popular phrase by denouncing drowning against the mad attempt to swim up the torrent. Who is there now in Paris or France, I would ask it of my fifty thousand countrymen in this capital, who does not conceive that this obstinacy of the Bourbonists will prove that there was nothing forced or outrageous in the comparison? The excesses of that party who dared to wear the ensigns of gladness at the battle of Waterloo, and who continue still to congratulate themselves on the success of those arms which now watch in the antechamber of their monarch, and, whilst they run over with delight at the triumph of their personal passions, have not a sigh for France, the excesses of these men, the old emigrants and the young nobles, are such as

have already consigned them to the contempt of every unprejudiced foreigner. A party of the latter description ended a compotation dedicated to the victories of their allies, by demolishing the looking-glasses and lustres of a coffeehouse, the temple of republicanism and Napoleon. These worthy warriors, the heroes, as the Nain Jaune says, not of Mont St. Jean, but Montansier, have been active also in avenging themselves on the emblems, either real or suspected, of patriotism; and having made successful war on the violets, have now attacked the pinks. An order of the day, just issued from General Desolles, forbids the wearing of red pinks, which are to be extracted with all due form and legality at the guardhouse, but not forcibly torn away in the open streets by the unofficial hands of individual zeal, a measure which has already cost the lives of two or three body guards in the boulevards and coffee-houses. The hyacinth of the Duke of Orleans is equally proscribed. Are we in the circus of Constantinople and in the 6th century? Mlle. Mars has also succeeded to the hisses of Mlle. Bourgoign, and the theatres are now in occupation of the friends of the lilies, as they were before held by the enemies of that fatal flower. The great majority of the actors and artists are more than

VOL. II.

suspected admirers of the Emperor, and proceedings may be anticipated against the Institute as well as the play-houses. The arts must be punished for their alliance with usurpation. At one of the minor theatres, an actor, who had distinguished himself in the short defence of Paris, near St. Denis, as a rifleman of the national guard, was ordered, a night or two ago, upon some trifling occasion, to ask pardon on his knees before the audience. You will not believe that I attribute the excesses or follies of the royalists to the king-by no means; I only speak of the spirit and character of the party-I only wish to show you what is the complexion of the conduct adopted to reconcile disgrace and despotism to France. You may guess at the effect-Paris is in a state of disturbance which the days of the siege never exceeded-far from diminishing the measures of precaution, and laying aside the armed attitude of distrust, the allies have found it necessary to place double guards at the palaces, play-houses, and places of public resort; cannon enfilade the streets, but every menace is scarce sufficient to preserve the tranquillity of the Palais Royal and the Tuileries.

It is clear that Louis cannot at present trust himself alone in his capital-nay, scarcely out

of his palace, in a city, where, if any where, he has a majority of the armed force in his fayour. The accounts from the provinces represent them in a state of disquiet more violent than that of Paris. The population on the eastern frontiers is still in arms-many garrisons still hold out; General Clausel has published an order of the day at Bordeaux, on the 15th, forbidding the authorities to receive orders from Paris, that city being in the hands of the enemy, or from any but the Prince of Eckmülh. At Lyons a monument has been raised to the warriors who died for their independence at Waterloo. The regret will be a perpetual censure of the royalists. The vast force of the allies will, doubtless, succeed in subjugating the provinces as it captured the capital, and the French must consent to be treated as a conquered people: they would consent, if one of the conditions were not too humiliating even for the vanquished, and its consequences more perpetual than the modern privileges of conquest seem to them to allow. The king's ostensible ministers, at least M. Fouché, would endeavour to reconcile the people to their monarch, by showing them that, although his majesty returned by force, he intends to remain amongst them by mildness; and to make persuasion finish what fear began.

Hence the convocation of the chamber, which some royalists affected to say would not be called together, the king having found the nation not good enough to be entrusted with the representative system. To the opposite influence must we attribute the provisions of the proclamation before noticed, by which many of the beneficial consequences of appealing to the people appear to be sacrificed to the apprehensions of the court. That people are happy to hear of a parliament chosen from amongst themselves, but they are sorry to hear that only 396 members are to have that distinction: they are flattered by being called to participate in the government, but they are disgusted at being told, that a certain degree of wealth, the portion only of a comparatively small minority, is to be an indispensable requisite for legislation, and the sole presumption of honesty and talent, and that thus some departments will actually have no representative; and also, that, by giving the arrondissements a choice only of candidates, not of deputies, many local interests must be disregarded or misunderstood. The army is pleased *that the legion of honour is preserved in the electoral colleges of departments; but it is equally dissatisfied at finding that a member, who does not pay 300 francs of contribution,