o be
constructed in '87 or adopted in '88, the necessity for it would still
have existed, growing daily more urgent and palpable, so that Convention
after Convention would from time to time have been called, and sooner or
later a Constitution would have been elaborated and adopted; and the
longer this consummation was delayed the stronger and more controlling
the Constitution ultimately formed would have been. So with the French
Republic. It is simply an expression of the intellectual convictions and
social instincts of the French People. You meet it on the Boulevards and
in the cafes where the wealthy and luxurious most do congregate; your
cabman and boot-black, though perfectly civil and attentive, let you
understand, if you have eyes, that they are Republicans; while in the
quarters tenanted or frequented only by the Artisan and the Laborer you
meet none but devotees of "the Republic Democratic and Social." The
contrast between the abject servility of the Poor in London and their
manner here cannot be realized without actual observation. A hundred
Princes or illustrious Dukes in Paris would not attract as much
attention as any one of them would in London. Democracy triumphed in the
drawing-rooms of Paris before it had erected its first barricade in the
streets; and all subsequent efforts in behalf of Monarchy here have
produced and can produce only a fitful, spasmodic, unnatural life. If
three Revolutions within a life-time, all in the same direction, have
not impressed this truth conclusively, another and another lesson will
be added. The French have great faults of character which imperil the
immediate fortunes of the Republic but cannot affect its ultimate
ascendency. Impulsive and egotistic, they may seem willing to exchange
Liberty for Tranquillity or Security, but this will be a momentary
caprice, soon past and forgotten. The Nation can never more be other
than Republican, though the possessors of power, controlling the Press,
the Bureaux, the Assembly and the Army, may fancy that their personal
interests would be promoted by a less popular system, and so be seen for
a season following strange gods. This delusion and apostacy will
speedily pass, leaving only their shame behind.

The immediate peril of the Republic is the Election of May, '52, in view
of the arbitrary disfranchisement of nearly one-half the Democratic
voters, the manacled condition of the Press, the denial to the People of
the Right of Meeting f