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 visible prosperity. If we are to believe the deputies and the journalists, peace had been bought at the price of national dishonour ; the Government was "sold to the foreigner" ; the blackest designs were meditated by the King and his Councillors — no less than the confiscation of national property, the restoration of the privileges and the corvée of the ancien régime ; the Charter and representative Government were nothing but a deceptive lure, destined to disappear at the least expected moment, and so on. There was no Government Press, properly speaking ; the few journals that defended the Government did so with a nervous awkwardness. The French Press was still without experience, and as opposition is easier to do than anything else, the opposition journals were the more numerous and more brilliant ; moreover, truth and justice being the virtues least esteemed by their editors, they exercised a disastrous influence.

From all this it resulted that the people, though satisfied, preserved a secret feeling of distrust ; the accusations which arose on all sides against the Monarchy prolonged the effect of the Hundred Days, and prevented it