Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/279

 BETWEEN THE CZAE AND THE SULTAN. 237 and volunteered declarations.* ' He considered,' chap. he said, ' as great criminals, those who by per- XIV " ' sonal ambition compromised the small amount ^fifratioM ' of stability secured by the Constitution; . . .£$?&. ' that if the Constitution contained defects and public - 1 dangers, the Assembly was competent to expose • them to the eyes of the country ; but that he • alone, bound by his oath, restrained himself 1 within the strict limits traced by that act.' He declared that ' the first duty of authorities was to ' inspire the people with respect for the law by ' never deviating from it themselves ; and that ' his anxiety was not, he assured the Assembly ' to know who would govern France in 1852, but ' to employ the time at his disposal, so that the • transition, whatever it might be, should be 4 effected without agitation or disturbance ; for,' said he, ' the noblest object, and the most worthy ' of an exalted mind, is not to seek when in power ' how to perpetuate it, but to labour inseparably ' to fortify, for the benefit of all, those principles ' of authority and morality which defy the pas- ' sions of mankind and the instability of laws.' It was thus that, in language, well contrived for winning belief, he repudiated as wicked and preposterous the notion of his being the man who would or could act against the Constitution ; and, supposing that when he voluntarily made these declarations lie had resolved to do what he afterwards did, he would have been guilty of deceit more than commonly black ; but perhaps
 * Sec an enumeration of a few of these iriven an(c.