e of government is simply a premium given to
an evil that is sapping us,--individualism. Fifteen years hence
all questions of a generous nature will be met by, _What is that to
me?_--the great cry of Freedom of Will descending from the religious
heights where Luther, Calvin, Zwinglius, and Knox introduced it, into
even political economy. _Every one for himself_; _every man his own
master_,--those two terrible axioms form, with the _What is that to
me?_ a trinity of wisdom to the burgher and the small land-owner. This
egotism results from the vices of our present civil legislation (too
hastily made), to which the revolution of July has just given a terrible
confirmation."

The _juge de paix_ fell back into his usual silence after thus
expressing himself; but the topics he suggested must have occupied the
minds of those present. Emboldened by Clousier's words, and moved by the
look which Gerard exchanged with Grossetete, Monsieur Bonnet ventured to
go further.

"The good King Charles X.," he said, "has just failed in the most
far-sighted and salutary enterprise a monarch ever planned for the
welfare of the people confided to him; and the Church ought to feel
proud of the part she took in his councils. But the upper classes
deserted him in heart and mind, just as they had already deserted him
on the great question of the law of primogeniture,--the lasting honor of
the only bold statesman the Restoration has produced, namely, the Comte
de Peyronnet. To reconstitute the nation through the family; to
take from the press its venomous action and confine it to its real
usefulness; to recall the elective Chamber to its true functions; and
to restore to religion its power over the people,--such were the four
cardinal points of the internal policy of the house of Bourbon. Well,
twenty years from now all France will have recognized the necessity
of that grand and sound policy. Charles X. was in greater peril in the
situation he chose to leave than in that in which his paternal power has
been defeated. The future of our noble country--where all things will
henceforth be brought periodically into question, where our rulers
will discuss incessantly instead of acting, where the press, become a
sovereign power, will be the instrument of base ambitions--this future
will only prove the wisdom of the king who has just carried away with
him the true principles of government; and history will bear in mind the
courage with which he resisted