PARTY.--ESTIMATE OF THEIR CONDUCT.--ATTACKS TO WHICH THEY ARE
EXPOSED.--M. DE MONTLOSIER.--M. BERANGER.--ACUTENESS OF
M. DE VILLELE.--HIS DECLINE.--HIS ENEMIES AT THE COURT.--REVIEW AND
DISBANDING OF THE NATIONAL GUARD OF PARIS.--ANXIETY OF
CHARLES X.--DISSOLUTION OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.--THE ELECTIONS
ARE HOSTILE TO M. DE VILLELE.--HE RETIRES.--SPEECH OF THE
DAUPHINISTS TO CHARLES X.

I now change position and point of view. It was no longer as an actor
within, but as a spectator without, that I watched the right-hand party,
and am enabled to record my impressions,--a spectator in opposition,
who has acquired light, and learned to form a correct judgment, from
time.

In December 1821, M. de Villele attained power by the natural highroad.
He reached his post through the qualities he had displayed and the
importance he had acquired in the Chambers, and at the head of his
party, which he brought in with himself. After a struggle of five years,
he accomplished the object prematurely conceived by M. de Vitrolles in
1815,--that the leader of the parliamentary majority should become the
head of the Government. Events are marked by unforeseen contradictions.
The Charter conducted to office the very individual who, before its
promulgation, had been its earliest opponent.

Amongst the noted men of our time, it is a distinctive feature in the
career of M. de Villele, that he became minister as a partisan, and
retained that character in his official position, while at the same time
endeavouring to establish, amongst his supporters, general principles of
government in preference to the spirit of party. This moderator of the
right was ever strictly faithful to the interests of that side. Very
often unacquainted with the ideas, passions, and designs of his party,
he opposed them indirectly and without positive disavowal, resolved
never to desert his friends, even though he might be unable to control
their course. Not from any general and systematic conviction, but from a
sound practical instinct, he readily perceived the necessity of a strong
attachment from the leader to his army, to secure a reciprocal feeling
from the army to its chief. He paid dearly for this pertinacity; for it
justly condemned him to bear the weight of errors which, had he been
unfettered, he would never in all probability have committed; but
through this sacrifice he held power for six years, and saved his party,
durin