rit, and some from monarchical
uneasiness,--desired the fall of M. de Villele, and were already
preparing his successors. Even the King himself, when any fresh
manifestation of public feeling reached him, exclaimed pettishly, on
entering his closet, "Always Villele! always against Villele!"

In truth, the injustice was shameful. If the right-hand party had held
office for six years, and had used power so as to maintain it, if
Charles X. had not only peaceably succeeded Louis XVIII., but had ruled
without trouble, and even with some increase of popularity, it was to
M. de Villele, above all others, that they were indebted for these
advantages. He had accomplished two difficult achievements, which might
have been called great had they been more durable: he had disciplined
the old royalist party, and from a section of the court, and a class
which had never been really active except in revolutionary contests, he
had established during six years a steady ministerial support; he had
restrained his party and his power within the general limits of the
Charter, and had exercised constitutional government for six years under
a prince and with friends who were generally considered to understand it
little, and to adopt it with reluctance. If the King and the right-hand
party felt themselves in danger, it was themselves, and not
M. de Villele, whom they ought to have accused.

Nevertheless M. de Villele, on his part, had no right to complain of the
injustice to which he was exposed. For six years he had been the head of
the Government; by yielding to the King and his partisans when he
disapproved their intentions, and by continuing their minister when he
could no longer prevent what he condemned, he had admitted the
responsibility of the faults committed under his name and with his
sanction, although in spite of himself. He endured the penalty of his
weakness in the exercise of power, and of his obstinacy in retaining it
under whatever sacrifices it might cost him. We cannot govern under a
free system, to enjoy the merit and reap the fruit of success, while we
repudiate the errors which lead to reverse.

Justice to M. de Villele requires the acknowledgment that he never
attempted to withdraw himself from the responsibility of his government,
whether as regarded his own acts or his concessions to his friends. He
was never seen to reproach the King or his party with the errors to
which he became accessory. He knew how to preserve si