as well as the alarms
of honest men and friends. I lived in the midst of both classes.
Although no longer interested in the electoral object which had
occasioned its institution in 1827, the society called, "Help thyself
and Heaven will help thee" existed still, and I still continued to be a
member. Under the Martignac Ministry I considered it advisable to remain
amongst them, that I might endeavour to moderate a little the wants and
impatience of the external opposition, which operated so powerfully on
the opposition in Parliament. Since the formation of the Polignac
Cabinet, from which everything was to be apprehended, I endeavoured to
maintain a certain degree of interest in this assembly of all opposing
parties, Constitutionalists, Republicans, and Buonapartists, which, in
the moment of a crisis, might exercise itself such preponderating
influence on the destiny of the country. At the moment, I possessed
considerable popularity, especially with the younger men, and the ardent
but sincere Liberals. I felt gratified at this, and resolved to turn it
to profitable use, let the future produce what it might.

The temper of the public resembled my own, tranquil on the surface but
extremely agitated at the heart. There was neither conspiracy, nor
rising, nor tumultuous assembly; but all were on the alert, and prepared
for anything that might happen. In Brittany, in Normandy, in Burgundy,
in Lorraine, and in Paris, associations were publicly formed to resist
payment of the taxes, if the Government should attempt to collect them
without a legal vote of the legal Chambers. The Government prosecuted
the papers which had advertised these meetings; some tribunals acquitted
the responsible managers, others, and amongst them the Royal Court of
Paris, condemned them, but to a very slight punishment, "for exciting
hatred and contempt against the King's government, in having imputed to
them the criminal intention either of levying taxes which had not been
voted by the two Chambers, or of changing illegally the mode of
election, or even of revoking the constitutional Charter which has been
granted and confirmed in perpetuity, and which regulates the rights and
duties of every public authority." The ministerial journals felt their
position, and saw that their patrons were so reached by this sentence,
that, in publishing it, they suppressed all observations.

In presence of this opposition, at once so decided and restrained, the
Minist