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 53<5 Readings in European History pretensions were advanced and argued in a conference between their plenipotentiaries and those of Austria. The arrogant tone of that insolent and nonsensical document so deeply offended Lord Castlereagh that, departing from his habitual calmness, he declared that the Russians were claiming to lay down the law and that England was not disposed to accept that from anybody. 457. Diffi- cult position of Louis XVIII and his govern- ment. II. France after the Restoration Chancellor Pasquier, with his usual insight, gives in his Memoirs the following picture of France on the restoration of the Bourbons. Vanquished on the ioth of August, 1792, immolated on the 21st of January, 1793, the Bourbon monarchy had returned after twenty-two years, which had seen a republic, a directorial government, a consulate, and an empire. It came back not in a blaze of glory, since not a single vic- tory had been won in the past twenty years either by it or in its name, but bringing with it the blessings of a neces- sary peace. Peace abroad, peace at home, was all that was expected of it ; but for this dual peace to be lasting it must be an honorable one. No longer could any ambitious day- dreams be indulged in ; we could revel no more in the enjoyment of the brilliant victories which had become so dear to the French heart. Care must be taken the while to respect the memory of them, and to be considerate in the treatment of those who had risen to an illustrious and glorious prominence, all the more precious in that it alone had survived the shipwreck. Yet fate and the force of cir- cumstances rendered these memories — cherished by so large a majority of Frenchmen — a painful subject to the king, the royal family, and almost all those who had returned in their wake. The situation was a delicate one, for hardly any one dared to give frank expression to his natural sentiments. Some there were who, in spite of the caution enjoined by