iness now is
to preserve the monarchy, but this becomes more difficult from day to day."

I adverted to the personal character of the royal family.

"Nothing can be better. But chance has placed them in false position.--If
the king were but the first prince of the blood, his benevolence without
his responsibility would make him the most popular man in France.--If the
queen were still but the dauphiness, she would be, as she was then, all
but worshipped. As the leader of fashion in France, she would be the
leader of taste in Europe.--Elegant, animated, and high-minded, she would
have charmed every one, without power. If she could but continue to move
along the ground, all would admire the grace of her steps; but, sitting on
a throne, she loses the spell of motion."

"Yet, can France ever forget her old allegiance, and adopt the fierce
follies of a republic?"

"I think not. And yet we are dealing with agencies of which we know
nothing but the tremendous force. We are breathing a new atmosphere, which
may at first excite only to kill.--We have let out the waters of a new
river-head, which continues pouring from hour to hour, with a fulness
sufficient to terrify us already, and threatening to swell over the
ancient landmarks of the soil.--It is even now a torrent--what can prevent
it from being a lake? what hand of man can prevent that lake from being an
ocean? or what power of human council can say to that ocean in its
rage--Thus far shalt thou go?"

"But the great institutions of France, will they not form a barrier? Is
not their ancient firmness proof against the loose and desultory assaults
of a populace like that of Paris?"

"I shall answer by an image which occurred to me on my late tour of
inspection to the ports in the west. At Cherbourg, millions of francs have
been spent in attempting to make a harbour. When I was there one stormy
day, the ocean rose, and the first thing swept away was the great
_caisson_ which formed the principal defence against the tide,--its wrecks
were carried up the harbour, heaped against the piers, which they swept
away; hurled against the fortifications, which they broke down; and
finally working ten times more damage than if the affair had been left to
the surges alone. The thought struck me at the moment, that this _caisson_
was the emblem of a government assailed by an irresistible force. The
firmer the foundations, and the loftier the superstructure, the surer it
was to be ultim