the inquiry. The
proper mode of proceeding appears to me to be, to leave justice to its
ordinary course, which no one has a right to arrest.... If members of
this Chamber have been compromised in the act of accusation, do they not
find their acquittal in the very fact that the Chamber has not been
called upon to give them up to be added to the list of the accused? For,
gentlemen, it is maintaining a contradiction to say, on the one hand,
'You have placed our names in the requisition for indictment,' and on
the other, 'The minister in office has not dared to prosecute, since the
Chamber has not been required to surrender us.' And the demand has not
been made, because the nature of the process neither imposed it as a
duty nor a necessity on the part of the minister to adopt that course. I
declare openly, before France, we do not accuse you, because there was
nothing in the process which rendered it either incumbent or essential
that we should do so. And we should the more readily have fulfilled that
duty, since you cannot suppose us so little acquainted with the human
heart as not to know that there would be less danger in subjecting you
to direct prosecution than in following simply and openly the line
marked out by the ordinary course of justice."

At the close of this sitting, M. de Villele assuredly had good reason to
be satisfied with his position and himself. He had exhibited, at the
same time, firmness and moderation; by confining himself within the
ordinary resources of justice, by disclaiming prosecution to extremity,
he had exhibited the arm of power restrained, but ready to strike if
necessity should require; he had thus, to a certain extent, defied while
he tranquillized the patrons of the conspirators, and had satisfied his
own party without irritating their passions. On that day he combined the
minister with the tactician of the Chamber.

At the time of which we are speaking, M. de Villele stood in the first
and best phase of his power; he defended monarchy and order against
conspiracy and insurrection; in the Chamber of Deputies he had to repel
the furious attacks of the left-hand party, and in the Chamber of Peers
the more temperate but vigilant illwill of the friends of the
Duke de Richelieu. The danger and acrimony of the contest united his
whole party around him. Before such a situation, the rivalries and
intrigues of the Chamber and the Court hesitated to show themselves;
unreasonable expectations wer