pon the treaties of 1815?"

By the treaties which in that year the conquerors of Waterloo formed
at Vienna, Europe was partitioned out among the dynasties, so as to
bind the people hand and foot, and render any future uprising in
behalf of liberty almost impossible. The River Rhine, since the days
of Caesar, had been regarded as the natural boundary between France
and Germany. Large provinces on the French banks of the Rhine were
wrested from France and placed in the hands of Prussia, that, in case
the French people should again endeavor to overthrow the aristocratic
institutions of feudal despotism, the allied dynasties might have an
unobstructed march open before them into the heart of France.

Though the Bourbons, replaced by foreign bayonets, had entered into
this arrangement for their own protection against democracy, still,
the discontent of the French people, in view of the degradation, was
so great that even Charles X. was conspiring to regain the lost
boundary. According to the testimony of his minister, Viscount
Chateaubriand, he was entering into a secret treaty with Russia to
aid the czar in his designs upon Turkey, and, in return, Russia was
to aid France in regaining her lost Rhenish provinces. In reference
to these treaties of 1815 even one of the British quarterlies has
said:

"Though the most desperate efforts have been made by the
English diplomatists to embalm them as monuments of political
wisdom, they should be got under ground with all possible
dispatch, for no compacts so worthless, so wicked, so utterly
subversive of the rights of humanity, are to be found in the
annals of nations."

When the question was asked of Louis Philippe, "What are your ideas
upon the treaties of 1815?" his embarrassment was great. Should he
say he approved of those treaties, all France would raise a cry of
indignation. Should he say that he was prepared to assail them, all
the surrounding dynasties would combine in hostility to his reign.

The reply of the duke was adroit. "I am no partisan to the treaties
of 1815. But we must avoid irritating foreign powers."

The next question was still more embarrassing, for it was to be
answered not only in the ears of this democratic delegation, but in
the hearing of all aristocratic Europe eagerly listening. "What are
your opinions upon the subject of an hereditary peerage?" Still the
duke manifested no little skill in meeting it. He replied:

"In h