and we
can then tell what the People really do wish and demand; but until you
do this, we shall resist every attempt to change the Constitution even
by as much as a hair." Who can doubt that this is right?

"Therefore, Representatives of the People, deliberate in peace," pithily
says Changarnier, after proving to his own satisfaction that the army
will not level their arms against the Assembly in support of a
Napoleonic usurpation. So the friends of Republican France throughout
the world may give thanks and take courage. The darkness is dispersing;
the skies of the future are red with the coming day. Time is on the
popular side, and every hour's endurance adds strength to the Republic.
It cannot be legally subverted; and should Force and Usurpation be
attempted, its champions will not shrink from the encounter nor dread
the issue. For well they know that the mind and heart of the People are
on their side--that the French who earn their bread and are not ashamed
to be seen shouldering a musket, so far as they have any opinion at all,
are all for the Republic--that France comprises a Bonapartist clique, an
Orleanist class, a Royalist party, and a Republican Nation. The clique
is composed of the personal intimates of Louis Napoleon and certain
Military officers, mainly relics of the Empire; the class includes a
good part of the lucky Parisian shop-keepers and Government _employes_
during the reign of Louis Philippe; the party embraces the remnants of
the anti-Revolutionary Aristocracy, most of the influential Priesthood,
and a small section of the rural Peasantry; all these combined may
number Four Millions, leaving Thirty Millions for the Nation. Such is
France in 1851; and, being such, the subversion of the Republic, whether
by foreign assault or domestic treason, is hardly possible. An open
attack by the Autocrat and his minions would certainly consolidate it; a
prolongation of Louis Napoleon's power (no longer probable) would have
the same effect. Four years more of tranquil though nominal
Republicanism would only render a return to Monarchy more difficult;
wherefore the Royalist party will never assent to it, and without their
aid the project has no chance. To obtain that aid, "the Prince" must
secretly swear that after four years more he will turn France over to
Henry V.; this promise only the last extreme of desperation could extort
from him, and then to no purpose, since he could not fulfill it and the
Legitimists