never let it be forgotten by the Politician, that no Government is safe which omits from the list of its duties the regeneration of the social state of man. It is in the natural order of events, as hitherto illustrated by the history of both countries, that England should first perceive and act on this truth, and that France should follow and imitate.

ever.

V. Not long after the conversation above related, the French papers confirmed the whole of the statement con→ cerning Joseph Henri. A copper tube, described by the culprit, was found in a cellar, and opened. It contained an account of his plans for carrying out his project, describ ing the manner in which his pistols were to be loaded, and declaring that they were not to contain any projectile whatTo give the appearance of a regicidal attempt, the mountebank was to pretend that the pistols were to be charged with a piece of iron rounded off by a file, and kept in the barrel by his finger. Also, to escape any sudden outburst of popular indignation, Joseph Henri was to exclaim, when arrested, that he had accomplices. "In short," add the Paris papers, "the document bears the singular stamp, found by the faculty in many cases of mental derangement, of a chain of incoherent and curious ideas, arranged with precision, and clearly expressed." And then, as if to invalidate this decision as soon as pronounced, the same writer proceeds to affirm, "It seems that if Joseph Henri had been condemned to death, he would have contrived by some means or other to bring these papers to light." But of course the journalist well knew, while inditing it, that the pretended theory of mental derangement was absurd-except in so far as French vanity might be adduced as an instance. But, then, the disease were national, not individual. All the people in France being, in this respect, as mad as Joseph

Henri himself, it could not properly be marked there in him. My Parisian friend, I repeat, refused to entertain the notion for a moment. No, no! That explosion of gunpowder was designed for an inarticulate voice that should attract attention to the opinions previously formed, and intended to be promulgated. It was meant to impress LouisPhilippe with the situation of the sufferer and his class-to alarm, and not to wound all foolish enough-nay, even criminal-but yet involving a warning not to be despised.

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VI. Not being Chartist, nor Communist-neither Whig nor Tory-neither Conservative nor Protectionist--but an impartial and equitable Spirit, contemplating, by habit and office, all subjects from the highest point of view; too readily overlooking perhaps individual specialities, and giving the holders of power credit for more wisdom than they ordinarily do, though not for more than they ought to possess ; I now willingly, yet without shame, acknowledge that I then thought that Louis-Philippe was not the man to despise the warning to which I have thus endeavoured to give its full significance. Nay, judging from no inconsiderable authority, I then ventured to think that no such exhibition, whether theatrical or in earnest, had been, in fact, needed; both the King of the French and M. Guizot being, as I was emphatically assured, fully alive to all expedient reforms. Still, having been taught caution by experience, I was careful publicly to record my conscientious opinion in these words: "How long the juste milieu system is to prevail, is not yet ascertained. It will, no doubt, be suffered to work itself out. In so doing, it may work out both Monarch and Minister. But it must end. There is a spirit of freedom in France, which, though it now slumbers, will, ere long, demand new constitutions. The Continent is awakened: even Rome herself is roused."

These few words have proved more prophetic than, when originally published, they were meant to be. They were dictated by the observation, which I could not avoid making, how much free truth was wanting in general politics, and particularly in French politics; and were, moreover, inspired by a spirit of opposition to the slavish and garbled accounts then everywhere evulgated concerning the course of public affairs. Thus I may mention that the French Minister of the Interior had just made a Report on the then alarming prevalence of incendiary fires, intended to hoodwink the popular intelligence in relation to the subject; in which Report he was not ashamed publicly to confess that, "for his part, he saw much danger in discussing the facts, and in presenting them under the form most likely to disturb the public mind." False policy! yet to him so dear and trustworthy, that the same functionary thought proper to censure the journals for having so mistreated the argument as to have already caused the disturbance that he dreaded : -those very journals, forsooth, which, one and all, had corruptly agreed in assigning secondary and inadequate causes to such disasters, in order to conceal their real primary source. It moved my wonder then, and it moves it now, that the London editors should have neglected to strip off the veil that hung over French journalism, and to present the political Isis in her native shape, whether beauteous or deformed. But so it was, and even thus the principle of the freedom of the press was compromised by the culpable apathy shown by the metropolitan newspapers of England in this matter.

VII. There can be no doubt that the English Reform agitation of 1831 encouraged, if it did not incite, Frenchmen to a serious consideration of their own Electoral

System. Taxation, as evidence of property, was in France the basis of the electoral privilege. The payment of two hundred francs, or eight pounds, in direct taxes, qualified the man of twenty-five years of age for a voter, Half that sum, however, was sufficient for a member of the capacities, an artist or a professional man. The number of both classes of electors was about two hun dred and forty thousand-a small proportion, it must be conceded, of a population of thirty-five millions. The deputies returned were only four hundred and fiftynine. More than half of these-a considerable majority, indeed-could easily be returned by a system of bribery or corruption; the sum of electors, in three hundred and fifty poor arrondissements, not exceeding one hundred thousand. Two members of the French Chamber, MM. Duvergier de Hauranne and de Remusat, undertook to lead the movement for an extension of the right of suffrage and a limitation of the number of placemen. For the Napoleon of Peace had surrounded himself with a standing army of placemen and expectants. The civil offices held at ministerial pleasure were in 1847 stated to be six hundred and twenty-eight thousand—almost thrice the number of electors—at the annual cost of ten millions sterling. The reform claimed proposed to admit to the franchise all who were entitled to serve as jurymen, and all officers of the National Guard, without regard to a property qualification. Ultimately this measure of reform became the warcry of the Constitutional party, the watchword of the Dynastic Opposition in the Chamber of Deputies; at least that section of it which was under the direction of MM. Odillon Barrot and Thiers. Their demand was certainly a moderate one-the reduction of the two hundred officials in the Government majority, and the addition of twenty thousand electors to the existing number.

VIII. For a time Louis-Philippe secured the adhesion of the Middle Classes in France, for whose material happi ness it was that he had ostensibly cared, and whose support he had solicitously purchased. But no one Class in the State can permanently prosper at the expense of another. Commerce and the Arts both flourished for a while under the sway of the Citizen-King. The shopkeepers of the Tuileries grew rich at the expense of English visitors→→→ the middle classes in turn sanctioned their monarch in the expenditure of large sums in fortifications, and in such other manifestations of power as might discountenance the spirit of republicanism, thus driven to brood in secret over its discontent. Alas! both parties were deceived :—the King of the Barricades began to feel like a Legitimate Sovereign, while the money-making orders of the community had accustomed themselves to depend on the protection of the ruling power as the source of their growing wealth. But, with the year 1847, came a stagnation of trade, and a want of operative employment. The excessive weight of taxation began to be felt. The number of the destitute daily augmented. A common distress soon caused the middle and lower classes to sympathize.

IX. Electoral Reform had thus become a public want -a popular necessity-a national Nemesis. The French Politician sought for means of expression, to give a voice to the general opinion. In England, as has been fre quently remarked, we possess a ready method for accomplishing such a desire. Men dine together, and having eaten and drunken, orate and perorate; which ended, they vote thanks to the Chairman, and then return to their homes, satisfied with having made a sensible and formal demonstration in favour of a common project. The Frenchman had for the most part set the example of fashion in