Order cannot in fact, condemn the
other Ministerial acts which it had itself dictated. The January 18 vote
of lack of confidence was decided by 415 ayes against 286 nays. It was,
accordingly put through by a coalition of the uncompromising Legitimists
and Orleanists with the pure republicans and the Mountain. Thus it
revealed the fact that, in its conflicts with Bonaparte, not only the
Ministry, not only the Army, but also its independent parliamentary
majority; that a troop of Representatives had deserted its camp out of a
fanatic zeal for harmony, out of fear of fight, out of lassitude, out
of family considerations for the salaries of relatives in office, out
of speculations on vacancies in the Ministry (Odillon Barrot), or out
of that unmitigated selfishness that causes the average bourgeois to be
ever inclined to sacrifice the interests of his class to this or that
private motive. The Bonapartist Representatives belonged from the start
to the party of Order only in the struggle against the revolution.
The leader of the Catholic party, Montalembert, already then threw his
influence in the scale of Bonaparte, since he despaired of the vitality
of the parliamentary party. Finally, the leaders of this party itself,
Thiers and Berryer--the Orleanist and the Legitimist--were compelled
to proclaim themselves openly as republicans; to admit that their heart
favored royalty, but their head the republic; that their parliamentary
republic was the only possible form for the rule of the bourgeoisie Thus
were they compelled to brand, before the eyes of the bourgeois
class itself, as an intrigue--as dangerous as it was senseless--the
restoration plans, which they continued to pursue indefatigably behind
the back of the parliament.

The January 18 vote of lack of confidence struck the Ministers, not the
President. But it was not the Ministry, it was the President who had
deposed Changarnier. Should the party of Order place Bonaparte himself
under charges? On account of his restoration hankerings? These only
supplemented their own. On account of his conspiracy at the military
reviews and of the "Society of December 10"? They had long since buried
these subjects under simple orders of business. On account of the
discharge of the hero of January 29 and June 13, of the man who, in May,
1850, threatened, in case of riot, to set Paris on fire at all its four
corners? Their allies of the Mountain and Cavaignac did not even
allow them to