ntion could have been prolonged, and if our
minds could have fortified themselves in their calm meditations before
being once more engaged in the passions and trials of active life. But,
as it happens almost invariably, the errors of men stepped in to
interrupt the progress of ideas by precipitating the course of events.
The Martignac Ministry adopted a moderate and constitutional policy. Two
bills, honestly intended and ably discussed, had given effectual
guarantees, the one, to the independence of elections, and the other, to
the liberty of the press. A third, introduced at the opening of the
session of 1829, secured to the elective principle a share in the
administration of the departments and townships, and imposed on the
central Government new rules and limitations for local affairs. These
concessions might be considered too extensive or too narrow; but in
either case they were real, and the advocates of public liberty could do
nothing better than accept and establish them. But in the Liberal party
who had hitherto supported the Cabinet, two feelings, little politic in
their character, the spirit of impatience and the love of system, the
desire for popularity and the severity of reason, were indisposed to be
satisfied with those slow and imperfect conquests. The right-hand party,
by refusing to vote, left the Ministry in contest with the wants of
their allies. Despite the efforts of M. de Martignac, an amendment, more
formidable in appearance than in reality, attacked in some measure the
plan of the bill upon departmental administration. With the King, and
also with the Chambers, the Ministry had reached the term of its credit;
unable to obtain from the King what would give confidence to the
Chambers, or from the Chambers what would satisfy the King, it
voluntarily declared its impotence by hastily withdrawing the two bills,
and still remained standing, although struck by a mortal wound.

How could it be replaced? The question remained in suspense for three
months. Three men alone, M. Royer-Collard, M. de Villele, and
M. de Chateaubriand seemed capable of forming a new Cabinet that might
last, although compounded of very different shades. The two first were
entirely out of the question. Neither the King nor the Chambers
contemplated the idea of making a Prime Minister of M. Royer-Collard. He
perhaps had thought of it himself, more than once, for nothing was too
bold to cross his mind in his solitary reveries; but th