In a moment of urgent danger, a nation may accept an isolated _coup
d'etat_ as a necessity; but it cannot, without dishonour and decline,
admit the principle of such measures as the permanent basis of its
public rights and government. Now this was precisely what M. de Polignac
and his friends pretended to impose on France. According to them, the
absolute power of the old Royalty remained always at the bottom of the
Charter; and to expand and display this absolute power, they selected a
moment when no active plot, no visible danger, no great public
disturbance, threatened either the Government of the King or the order
of the State. The sole question at issue was, whether the Crown could,
in the selection and maintenance of its advisers, hold itself entirely
independent of the majority in the Chambers, or the country; and
whether, in conclusion, after so many constitutional experiments, the
sole governing power was to be concentrated in the Royal will. The
formation of the Polignac Ministry had been, on the part of the King,
Charles X., an obstinate idea even more than a cry of alarm, an
aggressive challenge as much as an act of suspicion. Uneasy, not only
for the security of his throne, but for what he considered the
unalienable rights of his crown, he placed himself, to maintain them, in
the most offensive of all possible attitudes towards the nation. He
assumed defiance rather than defence. It was no longer a struggle
between the different parties and systems of government, but a question
of political dogma, and an affair of honour between France and her King.

In presence of a subject under this aspect, passions and intentions
hostile to established order could not fail to resume hope and appear
once more upon the stage. The sovereignty of the people was always at
hand, available to be invoked in opposition to the sovereignty of the
Monarch. Popular strokes of policy were to be perceived, ready to reply
to the attempts of royal power. The party which had never seriously put
faith in or adhered to the Restoration, had now new interpreters,
destined speedily to become new leaders, and younger, as well as more
rational and skilful than their predecessors. There were no
conspiracies, no risings in any quarter; secret machinations and noisy
riots were equally abandoned; everywhere a bolder and yet a more
moderate line of conduct was adopted, more prudent, and at the same time
more efficacious. In public discussion, appeal w