nd oppression
bitter and prolonged, before revolution can be justified by reason, or
crowned with triumph in the face of its inherent faults. When such
causes are wanting to revolutionary attempts, they either fail miserably
or bring with them the reaction which involves their own punishment.

But from 1820 to 1823 the conspirators never dreamed of asking
themselves if their enterprises were legitimate; they entertained no
doubt on the subject. Very different although simultaneous passions,
past alarms and prospective temptations, influenced their minds and
conduct. The hatreds and apprehensions that attached themselves to the
words emigration, feudal system, old form of government, aristocracy,
and counter-revolution, belonged to bygone times; but these fears and
antipathies were in many hearts as intense and vivid as if they were
entertained towards existing and powerful enemies. Against these
phantoms, which the folly of the extreme right had conjured up, without
the power of giving them substantial vitality, war in any shape was
considered allowable, urgent, and patriotic. It was believed that
liberty could best be served and saved by rekindling against the
Restoration all the slumbering revolutionary fires. The conspirators
flattered themselves that they could at the same time prepare a fresh
revolution, which should put an end, not only to the restored monarchy,
but to monarchy altogether, and by the re-establishment of the Republic
lead to the absolute triumph of popular rights and interests. To the
greater part of these young enthusiasts, descended from families who had
been engaged in the old cause of the first Revolution, dreams of the
future united with traditions of the domestic hearth; while maintaining
the struggles of their fathers, they indulged their own Utopian
chimeras.

Those who conspired from revolutionary hatred or republican hope, were
joined by others with more clearly defined but not less impassioned
views. I have elsewhere said, in speaking of Washington, "It is the
privilege, often corruptive, of great men, to inspire attachment and
devotion without the power of reciprocating these feelings." No one ever
enjoyed this privilege more than the Emperor Napoleon. He was dying at
this very moment upon the rock of St. Helena; he could no longer do
anything for his partisans; and he found, amongst the people as well as
in the army, hearts and arms ready to do all and risk all for his
name,--a gener