Page:A Scene from Contemporary History.djvu/13

522 absolute, supreme, necessary, of the time in which we live, it is because it is the air we breathe,—and because when once the nations have respired this air—be of this quite sure, they cannot under any circumstances breathe in another! Yes, do you know what makes the Republic imperishable? it is that it identifies itself on one side with the age, and on the other with the people! It is the Idea of the one, and the Crown of the other! (Bravo! Bravo!)

Gentlemen, whose work it is to revise the law, I have asked you what you desired What I desire—I shall tell you  All my politics, it is here, in two words—It is necessary to suppress in the social order a certain degree of misery, and in the political order a certain spirit of ambition  No more pauperism, no more monarchy  France shall not be-tranquil, except when by the power of her institutions work and bread being given to the one and all hope being taken away from the other, we shall see for ever disappear from the midst of us, all those who stretch forth the hand, from beggars for a penny to pretenders to a throne (Explosion of applause—Cries and murmurs from the right)

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR

The French Hansard is generally a much more readable book than the English which has a soporific effect, at least on my constitution The allusion to M Victor Hugo's father was made because he was a distinguished colonel in the service of the first Napoleon  Most of the speakers against M Victor Hugo obtained places and fat saliries under the late Empire  For the rest,—no explanation seems to be necessary, but the following poem from "Les Châtunents" may staid as a fitting pendant to the scene, given above.