Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/99

 XI.

DUTY.

let Statesmen repress without mercy the progress of the country towards social democracy and towards the extinction of Religion. Let the Government in power cause the Parliamentary Representatives to understand that they are not to consider themselves entitled to direct the policy of the Cabinet, that Ministers are not their servants, and that a Minister may not be dismissed at their pleasure without necessarily dismissing the whole Cabinet. Let the nation prostrate herself in their temples and implore God to forgive her crimes and errors; let her make her peace with Heaven. Heaven alone can restore a country to the esteem of nations in preference to their mistrust; good example from the upper classes will restore the whole country to self-respect. For, while the wretches, the hypocrites, and the foolish, already cry out for more revenge and thirst for civil war, those who believe in God and in France confess with grief that they have been justly smitten for their outrageous pride, apostasy, and rebellion. Every man should remember his forefathers, and so should the nation. Michelet writes: "Let us remember (and things are so different now that our words carry weight) that nothwithstanding our levity, our follies, our vices even, ancient France was justly called the most Christian People. Our ancestors were certainly the people of love and grace, whether taken in a human or Christian sense, both are equally true. The Frenchman, even when vicious, preserved more than others his right reason and good heart. Let not contemporary France forget the watchword of ancient France."

"Our real enemy is Demagogy; and I will not betray the last remnant of social order, that is to say, the Catholic Church, into its hands" (Thiers). The watchword of ancient France then