apoleon alone was able to employ young men as
he chose, without being restrained by any consideration. After the
overthrow of that mighty will, vigor deserted power. Now the period
when effeminacy succeeds to vigor presents a contrast that is far
more dangerous in France than in other countries. As a general thing,
ministers who were old before they entered office have proved second
or third rate, while those who were taken young have been an honor
to European monarchies and to the republics whose affairs they have
directed. The world still rings with the struggle between Pitt and
Napoleon, two men who conducted the politics of their respective
countries at an age when Henri de Navarre, Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert,
Louvois, the Prince of Orange, the Guises, Machiavelli, in short, all
the best known of our great men, coming from the ranks or born to
a throne, began to rule the State. The Convention--that model of
energy--was made up in a great measure of young heads; no sovereign
can ever forget that it was able to put fourteen armies into the field
against Europe. Its policy, fatal in the eyes of those who cling to
what is called absolute power, was nevertheless dictated by strictly
monarchical principles, and it behaved itself like any of the great
kings.

After ten or a dozen years of parliamentary struggle, having studied
the science of politics until he was worn down by it, this particular
minister had come to be enthroned by his party, who considered him in
the light of their business man. Happily for him he was now nearer sixty
than fifty years of age; had he retained even a vestige of juvenile
vigor he would quickly have quenched it. But, accustomed to back and
fill, retreat and return to the charge, he was able to endure being
struck at, turn and turn about, by his own party, by the opposition,
by the court, by the clergy, because to all such attacks he opposed the
inert force of a substance which was equally soft and consistent; thus
he reaped the benefits of what was really his misfortune. Harassed by a
thousand questions of government, his mind, like that of an old lawyer
who has tried every species of case, no longer possessed the spring
which solitary minds are able to retain, nor that power of prompt
decision which distinguishes men who are early accustomed to action, and
young soldiers. How could it be otherwise? He had practised sophistries
and quibbled instead of judging; he had criticised effects and d