ligion demands from it pure hearts and disciplined
minds; the State looks for habits profoundly monarchical; science,
philosophy, and literature expect new brilliancy and distinction. These
will be the benefits bestowed by a prince to whom his people already owe
so much gratitude and love. He, who has made public liberty flourish
under the shadow of his hereditary throne, will know well how to base,
on the tutelary principles of empires, a system of teaching worthy of
the enlightened knowledge of the age, and such as France demands from
him, that she may not descend from the glorious rank she occupies
amongst nations."

At the expiration of eight days more, in an assembly exclusively
literary, a man who had never held public office, but for half or more
than half a century a sincere and steady friend to liberty, M. Suard,
perpetual secretary of the French Academy, in giving an account to that
body of the examination in which he had decreed the prize to
M. Villemain for his 'Panegyric on Montesquieu,' expressed himself in
these terms:--"The instability of governments generally proceeds from
indecision as to the principles which ought to regulate the exercise of
power. A prince enlightened by the intelligence of the age, by
experience, and a superior understanding, bestows on royal authority a
support which no other can replace, in that Charter which protects the
rights of the monarch, while it guarantees to the nation all those that
constitute true and legitimate liberty. Let us rally under this signal
of alliance between the people and their king. Their union is the only
certain pledge for the happiness of both. Let the Charter be for us what
the holy ark that contained the tables of the law was for the Hebrews of
old. If the shade of the great publicist who has shed light on the
principles of constitutional monarchies could be present at the triumph
which we now award him, he would confirm with his sanction the
sentiments I venture to express."

An assembly so unanimous in opinion and intention, composed of such men,
representing so many important sections of society, and voluntarily
grouped round the King and his ministers, constituted in themselves a
great political fact. A certain index was supplied, that, in the opinion
of the moderate party, enlightened minds were not wanting to comprehend
the conditions of the new system, or serious dispositions for its
support. As yet, however, they only formed the scattered el