livered
a speech much more Republican than Monarchical. For this he was
sentenced to four months' imprisonment, but the sentence was appealed
against and annulled on a technical ground, and the honorable member
was ultimately acquitted by the Cour d'Assizes of Angers.

The parliamentary _debut_ of M. Rollin took place in 1842. His first
speech was delivered on the subject of the secret-service money.
The elocution was easy and flowing, the manner oratorical, the style
somewhat turgid and bombastic. But in the course of the session M.
Rollin improved, and his discourse on the modification of the criminal
law, on other legal subjects, and on railways, were more sober
specimens of style. In 1843 and 1844 M. Rollin frequently spoke; but
though his speeches were a good deal talked of outside the walls of
the Chamber, they produced little effect within it. Nevertheless,
it was plain to every candid observer that he possessed many of the
requisites of the orator--a good voice, a copious flow of words,
considerable energy and enthusiasm, a sanguine temperament and jovial
and generous disposition. In the sessions of 1845-46, M. Rollin took
a still more prominent part. His purse, his house in the Rue Tournon,
his counsels and advice, were all placed at the service of the
men of the movement; and by the beginning of 1847 he seemed to be
acknowledged by the extreme party as its most conspicuous and popular
member. Such indeed was his position when the electoral reform
banquets, on a large scale, began to take place in the autumn of 1847.
These banquets, promoted and forwarded by the principal members of the
opposition to serve the cause of electoral reform, were looked on
by M. Rollin and his friends in another light. While Odillon Barrot,
Duvergier d'Haurunne, and others, sought by means of them to produce
an enlarged constituency, the member for Sarthe looked not merely to
functional, but to organic reform--not merely to an enlargement of
the constituency, but to a change in the form of the government. The
desire of Barrot was _a la verite a la sincerite des institutions
conquises en Juillet_ 1830; whereas the desire of Rollin was, _a
l'amelioration des classes laborieuses_; the one was willing to go
on with the dynasty of Louis Philippe and the Constitution of July
improved by diffusion and extension of the franchise, the other
looked to a democratic and social republic. The result is now known.
It is not here our purpose to go