ap unpopularity! Then, if the nation,
its hopes of 1830 restored, should feel it its duty to keep its
promise,--and it would keep it, for the word of the nation is, like that
of God, sacred,--if, I say, the nation, reconciled by this act with
the public-spirited monarchy, should bear to the foot of the throne its
cheers and its vows, and should at that solemn moment choose me to speak
in its name, the following would be the substance of my speech:--

"SIRE,--This is what the nation wishes to say to your Majesty:--

"O King! you see what it costs to gain the applause of the citizens.
Would you like us henceforth to take for our motto: 'Let us help the
King, the King will help us'? Do you wish the people to cry: 'THE KING
AND THE FRENCH NATION'? Then abandon these grasping bankers, these
quarrelsome lawyers, these miserable bourgeois, these infamous writers,
these dishonored men. All these, Sire, hate you, and continue to support
you only because they fear us. Finish the work of our kings; wipe out
aristocracy and privilege; consult with these faithful proletaires, with
the nation, which alone can honor a sovereign and sincerely shout, 'Long
live the king!'"

The rest of what I have to say, sir, is for you alone; others would
not understand me. You are, I perceive, a republican as well as an
economist, and your patriotism revolts at the very idea of addressing
to the authorities a petition in which the government of Louis Philippe
should be tacitly recognized. "National workshops! it were well to have
such institutions established," you think; "but patriotic hearts never
will accept them from an aristocratic ministry, nor by the courtesy of a
king." Already, undoubtedly, your old prejudices have returned, and you
now regard me only as a sophist, as ready to flatter the powers that
be as to dishonor, by pushing them to an extreme, the principles of
equality and universal fraternity.

What shall I say to you?... That I should so lightly compromise the
future of my theories, either this clever sophistry which is attributed
to me must be at bottom a very trifling affair, or else my convictions
must be so firm that they deprive me of free-will.

But, not to insist further on the necessity of a compromise between the
executive power and the people, it seems to me, sir, that, in doubting
my patriotism, you reason very capriciously, and that your judgments
are exceedingly rash. You, sir, ostensibly defending government an