ear pastor) the
individuals of whom the Church was composed were all well educated,
disciplined by religious feeling, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of
the same system, well aware of what they wanted and whither they
were going. But modern Liberalism rashly made war upon the prosperous
government of the Bourbons, by means of ideas which, should they
triumph, would be the ruin of France and of the Liberals themselves.
This is well known to the leaders of the Left, who are merely
endeavoring to get the power into their own hands. If (which Heaven
forbid) the middle classes ranged under the banner of the opposition
should succeed in overthrowing those social superiorities which are so
repugnant to their vanity, another struggle would follow hard upon their
victory. It would not be very long before the middle classes in their
turn would be looked upon by the people as a sort of _noblesse_; they
would be a sorry kind of _noblesse_, it is true, but their wealth and
privileges would seem so much the more hateful in the eyes of the people
because they would have a closer vision of these things. I do not say
that the nation would come to grief in the struggle, but society would
perish anew; for the day of triumph of a suffering people is always
brief, and involves disorders of the worst kind. There would be no truce
in a desperate strife arising out of an inherent or acquired difference
of opinion among the electors. The less enlightened and more numerous
portion would sweep away social inequalities, thanks to a system in
which votes are reckoned by count and not by weight. Hence it follows
that a government is never more strongly organized, and as a consequence
is never more perfect than when it has been established for the
protection of Privilege of the most restricted kind. By Privilege I
do not at this moment mean the old abuses by which certain rights were
conceded to a few, to the prejudice of the many; no, I am using it
to express the social circle of the governing class. But throughout
creation Nature has confined the vital principle within a narrow space,
in order to concentrate its power; and so it is with the body politic.
I will illustrate this thought of mine by examples. Let us suppose that
there are a hundred peers in France, there are only one hundred causes
of offence. Abolish the peerage, and all the wealthy people will
constitute the privileged class; instead of a hundred, you will have
ten thousand, instead