longer than strict necessity compelled.

In this weak position, two individuals, M. de Martignac, as actual head
of the Cabinet, without being president, and M. Royer-Collard, as
president of the Chamber of Deputies, alone contributed a small degree
of strength and reputation to the new Ministry; but they were far from
being equal to its difficulties or dangers.

M. de Martignac has left on the minds of all who were acquainted with
him, either in public or private life, whether friends or adversaries, a
strong impression of esteem and goodwill. His disposition was easy,
amiable, and generous; his mind just, quick, and refined, at once calm
and liberal; he was endowed with natural, persuasive, clear, and
graceful eloquence; he pleased even those from whom he differed. I have
heard M. Dupont de l'Eure whisper gently from his place, while listening
to him, "Be silent, Siren!" In ordinary times, and under a well-settled
constitutional system, he would have been an effective and popular
minister; but either in word or act he had more seduction than
authority, more charm than power. Faithful to his cause and his friends,
he was unable to carry either into government or political debate that
simple, fervent, and persevering energy, that insatiable desire and
determination to succeed, which rises before obstacles and under
defeats, and often controls wills without absolutely converting
opinions. On his own account, more honest and epicurean than ambitious,
he held more to duty and pleasure than to power. Thus, although well
received by the King and the Chambers, he neither exercised at the
Tuileries nor at the Palais Bourbon the authority, nor even the
influence, which his sound mind and extraordinary talent ought to have
given to him.

M. Royer-Collard, on the contrary, had reached and occupied the chair of
the Chamber of Deputies through the importance derived from twelve years
of parliamentary contest, recently confirmed by seven simultaneous
elections, and by the distinguished mark of esteem which the Chamber and
the King had conferred on him. But this importance, real in moral
consideration, was politically of little weight. Since the failure of
the system of government he had supported, and his own dismissal from
the State Council by M. de Serre in 1820, M. Royer-Collard had, I will
not say fallen, but entered into a state of profound despondency. Some
sentences in letters written to me from his estate at Chateau-vieux,