ueville, "is an expression of envy.
It means in the real heart of every Republican, 'No one
shall be better off than I am;' and while this is preferred
to good government, good government is impossible. In fact,
no party desires good government. The first object of the
reactionary party is to keep down the Republicans; the
second, if it be the second, object of each branch of that
party, is to keep down the two others. The object of the
Republicans is, as they admit, _egalite_--but as for
liberty, or security, or education, or the other ends of
government, no one cares for them."'

It was the passion for Equality that made the Second Empire possible.
The city _proletariat_ would endure anything but a privilege of class, a
constitutional monarchy associated in their experience with an
artificial peerage and a narrow uniform franchise; the _bourgeoisie_,
terrified by socialism--that is, confiscation--would accept any
Government strong enough to put and keep down the Reds, the Anarchists,
who under the Republic had kept Paris always within a week--had brought
her more than once within twenty-four hours--of sack and pillage. The
peasantry hated privilege and Socialism with an equal and impartial
hatred. The First Empire had given them much of what they most prized in
their actual condition, and was credited with all. Its one hateful
association was incessant and at last disastrous war, anticipated
conscriptions, and foreign invasion. The Second Empire, with its promise
of peace, was the embodiment of their ideal. It promised work to the
operative, opportunities of fortune to the restless, and safe investment
to the prudent among the middle-class. Its protectorate of the Pope
secured the clergy and the women; and it mattered nothing that, crushing
under foot the freedom at once of the press and the tribune, it incurred
the bitter hatred of the intellectual classes in a country where pure
intellect is more ambitious and more immediately powerful than in any
other. It stood firm and unshaken while it kept its promise of peace and
prosperity--the firmer that it embodied so distinctly the errors and
illusions of the many, and not the less popular that it showed so
profound and cynical a contempt for the intelligence of the few. Its
Budgets alone would have been fatal to a Government resting on and
responsible to Opinion, for the rapid growth of the Debt in a time of
peace and pl