Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/95

 whose philanthropic policy will more readily win his people than any other measures, "making each the other^s treasure,—once divided, losing all."

Such is the state of contemporary Europe; its concert is utterly disorganized, and if the most powerful States are threatened, in what plight can Frenchmen expect to find France, she who has been disinherited of her centuries-old possessions, she who has thrown overboard Kings, allies and frontiers?

If I pass on to consider the internal state of France, I feel still more the need of the powerful yet moderate prudence of the late M. Thiers. Parties divided against themselves, faction in power, a horde of men who will persist in either keeping aloof from the rest of the population or in assuming the selfish guardianship of their interests, but preach- disaffection as well as unreason, think, speak and act as foreign foes; the finances of the country pilfered or squandered at the very time when millions have to be paid away for necessaries; the army raw in its new discipline, faulty in organization, through local dissensions and through having become the tool of the party in power; anarchy armed to the teeth; the working-classes discontented and turbulent, lowered and weakened in their character, in spite of the universal extension of the Franchise, which in England is being desperately fought for as the sole means of giving the labouring man more self-respect, more elevation of mind!!! a Press run wild in insult, recrimination and provocation against both Heaven, and earth: such is the situation.

At the time of M. Thiers' election as their representative, twenty-six Counties had expressed a deeply-felt want as well as an ardent desire. M. Thiers alone could repair internal disasters, and prepare for France later on a return to her former position among European Monarchies. He had felt the responsibility laid upon him, and without hesitation or evasion he had grasped firmly the powers given him, and declared publicly that he would not yield them up, that he was the representative of France, and that he countenanced no faction. When the crisis had passed away; when France was reorganized by order,, economy, a just administration, and true liberty; when agriculture, commerce, manufactures, would be once more in a flourishing