Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/83

 Houses of Peers and Commoners striving only for the prosperity of France; to see the Sovereign reigning but not governing, the King standing on high, aloof from the influence of popular passions.

The French are far from the goal. Indeed they can hardly see it rising in the distance upon a path on which they have not yet entered. On August 2nd, 1840, Charles X., then at Rambouillet, had, with the Duke d'Angoulême, abdicated in favour of his grandson, who was proclaimed King with the name of Henri V. The day before, Louis Philippe (then Duke d'Orleans) had been entrusted with both the Lieutenant-Generalship of the Kingdom and the duty of seeing to the coroNation of Henri V. The bearer of the Royal commands was the Viscount Latour-Foissac, whom Louis PhiHppe declined to receive. We all know that Louis Philippe's next disgraceful step was to send Odillon Barrot and General Maison with three others to keep Charles X. out of the way, thereby being himself enabled to have his ambition satisfied in becoming "King of the French" on August 9th, 1830. But Louis Philippe, in substituting the title of "King of the French" for that of "King of France," indicated his view of the revolution which he had accepted; this was going backward instead of forward, and the attempt to perfect the Charta and individual liberty took the nation back to Clovis and the Frank chieftains. Every Frenchman and Paris Politicians know perfectly well as we do, that a Sovereign, whatever his title, could not dispose of France as of a patrimony belonging to him. Every one knows, in these days, that France belongs to the French, as England to the English and Prussia to the Prussians. Why then substitute the tide of "King of the French" for that of "King of France"? How would "Queen of the English" affect an Englishman's ear, instead of "Queen of England"? Why go back, after so many centuries, to a form belonging to an uncivilized era? By a singular paradox, the title was revived by Louis Philippe which in its origin belonged to a conquest against which protestations were made in the name of the Revolution (October 16th 1789).

And of the emblems of the Gauls the cock only was chosen. This new Royal Standard, symbol of watchfulness, did not prevent Louis Philippe's Ministers and Councillors from deceiving themselves. They were mere plagiarists of the men of 1789, in which