and cannot be themselves suppressed--there will
be a hundred, and the number will neutralise their power, so that they
will become of no account politically.

[*] Another political pamphlet, entitled "Du Gouvernement Moderne,"
written by Balzac at Aix in 1832, has lately been published in the
_North American Review_. The original is in the collection of the
Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.

Balzac had no chance at Fougeres, where a rich proprietor of the
neighbourhood was chosen as deputy, and no doubt M. de Pommereul
advised him not to proceed further in the matter. However, with his
usual tenacity, he wrote in September to M. Henri Berthoud, manager of
the _Gazette de Cambrai_, who wanted to collaborate with the _Revue de
Paris_, promising to further his wishes by all the means in his power,
if M. Berthoud would, on his part, support his candidature at Cambrai.
At the same time, he determined to try Angouleme, where he sometimes
went to stay with a relation, M. Grand-Besancon, and had met a M.
Berges, chief of the Government preparatory school, who was much
struck by his talent, and promised to help him. In June, 1831, he
wrote to Madame Carraud,[*] who took much interest in his political
aspirations, and sent her three copies of the Manifesto for
distribution. He told her that he was working day and night to become
deputy, was going out into society for this purpose; and was so
overwhelmed with business, that he had not touched "La Peau de
Chagrin" since he was last at Saint-Cyr.

[*] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 118.

He was evidently full of hope; but in spite of the powerful support of
the _Revue de Paris_, the _Temps_, the _Debats_, and the _Voleur_, the
steady-going electors had no mind to be represented by a penniless
young author, who was chiefly known to the general public as the
writer of the "Physiologie du Mariage," a book distinctly _not_
adapted for family reading. Therefore, in this, as in many other hopes
of his life, Balzac was doomed to disappointment; though the readers
of novels may be grateful to the unkind fate which caused him to turn
with renewed ardour to the neglected "Peau de Chagrin." He cherished a
slight resentment against Angouleme, as he showed in "Illusions
Perdues," where the aristocracy of that town are rather unkindly
treated; but he was not discouraged in his political ambitions, and in
1832 he joined with M. Laurentie, the Duc de Noailles, the Duc de
Fitz-James