Page:A Scene from Contemporary History.djvu/12

Rh Never did I think for a single moment of a single member of this Assembly, I declare it, and I leave my call to order upon the conscience of M the President (Movement—Very good! Very good!)

One minute more, and I descend from the tribune

(Silence is re-established on all the benches The orator turns towards the right)

Legitimate monarchy, Imperial monarchy, what would you have with us? We are men of another age For us, we have no flours de lys but Fontenoy, no eagle but Eylau and Wagram

I have already told you,—you are the past By what right do you put the present in question? What is there common between you and it? Against whom and for whom do you coalise? And then what signifies this coalition? What is the meaning of this alliance? What is the object of this hand of the empire which I see grasped in the hand of legitimacy? Legitimists, the empire killed the Due D’ Enghien! Impenalists, the legitimacy shot Murat! (Strong impression)

You,—you grasp hands! Take care, you mix spots and stains of blood! (Sensation)

And then what do you hope? To destroy the Republic? You undertake there a hard task Have you well thought of it? When a labourer has worked eighteen hours, when a people has worked eighteen centuries, and when they have at last the one and the other received their payment, try then to take by force from this labourer his hire, and from tins people its republic (Applause)

Do you know what makes the Republic strong? Do you know what makes it invincible? Do you know what makes it indestructible? I have already told it to you in commencing and in terminating I shall repeat it to you  It is because it is the sum of the labour of generations, it is because it is the product accumulated of anterior efforts, it is because it is a historical result as as a political fact, it is because it makes, so to say, a part of the actual climate of civilisation, it is because it is the form