Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/103

 altering that treaty and organizing a new system of Custom House duties. It might be more to the purpose to seek the reason of the present financial disarray, and depression in the senseless waste of public funds which is being displayed by Republicans in every department of the public service, and which, according to authentic calculations, has led to the expenses of the country being increased to the following proportions: four times more than under Napoleon I.; three times more than under the Restoration; twice more than under King Louis Philippe, and exactly double what they were under Napoleon III.

The men who have been in power under M. Grévy's reign are, with a few exceptions, needy adventurers who have taken the carpet-bag with empty pockets and left it with their pockets full; who have become millionaires with a rapidity which is not to be explained by any commercial or financial transactions, and which justly excites the maddening indignation of the ratepayers, and the jealousy of unsuccessful competitors for the portefeuille, which proves a Fortunatus' purse to those who hold it even for the short life of a Republican Ministry.

It is time that in France, as in Ireland, as in every European country, a vigorous reaction should assert itself against the Jacobins, whether national or international, who would rule the world by terror, against the spirit of disorder which overwhelms modern society, against the general moral enfeeblement of characters who have lost their power of resistance. It is not enough to have Heads of the State living in palaces where officials meet, whom we entitle Ministers because they each bring with them a carpet-bag, officials who individually may all be honourable citizens, but who do not form what we ordinarily mean by a Government. What we mean by a Government, is a responsible Cabinet, of which the members hold identical opinions on all the important questions of the day, on all the details of general policy, domestic or foreign; and who, feeling themselves backed by compact and homogeneous majorities, the official expression of public opinion, can repress with a strong hand civil tumult, can control and disarm faction, and can ensure the maintenance of order, without violating the guarantees of freedom, without having recourse to exceptional legislation.