Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/278

 23G ORIGIN OF THE AVAR OF 1<53 chap, the same kind of expedients, as an embarrassed '__ tradesman. This was the President's actual plight ; and if he looked to the future as designed for him by the Constitution, he could see nothing but the prospect of having to step down on a day already iixed, and descend from a conspicuous station into poverty and darkness. He would have been con- tent, perhaps, to get what he needed by fair means. In the beginning of the year he had tried hard to induce the Chambers to increase the funds placed at his disposal. He failed. From that moment it was to be expected that, even if he himself should still wish to keep his hands from the purse of France, his associates, becoming more and more impatient, and more and more practical in their views, would soon press their chief into action. He declares The President had been a promoter of the law suffrage. a ' of the 31st of May restricting the franchise, but he now became the champion of universal suf- frage. To minds versed in politics this change might have sufficed to disclose the nature of the schemes upon which the Chief of the State was brooding ; but from first to last, words tending to allay suspicion had been used with great industry and skill. From the moment of his coming before the public in February 1848, the Prince laid hold of almost every occasion he could find for vowing again and again that he harboured no schemes against the Constitution. The speech which he addressed to the Assembly in 1850 * may be taken as one instance out of numbers of these solemn
 * 13tli Xoveinlier.