intervention, was
opposed to such a project. "Let us aid the Spaniards from a distance," said
he, "but never let us enter the same boat with them. Once there we should
have to take the helm, and God knows where that would bring us." He
demanded the retirement of the French corps of observation in the Pyrenees.
Thiers was utterly opposed to this: "Nothing can bring the King to
intervention," said he, "and nothing can make me renounce it." On
September 6, the Cabinet resigned, having been in power but six months.
Count Mole was charged with forming a new Ministry. A new cause of
disquietude was given late in October by Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte at
Strasburg. On the last day of that month, Louis Napoleon, with no other
support than that of Persigny and Colonel Vauterey, paraded the streets of
that town and presented himself at the barracks of the 4th regiment of
artillery. He was received with the cry "Vive l'Empereur." An attempt to
win over the soldiers of the other barracks failed. The young prince was
arrested. Ex-Queen Hortense interceded in his behalf. The attempt to regain
the Napoleonic crown had been so manifest a fiasco that Louis Philippe
thought he could afford to be generous. Louis Napoleon was permitted to
take himself off to the United States of America with an annuity of fifteen
thousand francs from the royal purse. His adherents were taken before the
court at Colmar and were all acquitted by the jury. A simultaneous military
mutiny at Vendome was treated with like leniency. After the death of
ex-King Charles X., Prince Polignac and other of his Ministers who had come
to grief after the revolution of 1830 were sent out of the country. A
general amnesty was announced.

[Sidenote: American elections]

[Sidenote: The "Gag Law"]

[Sidenote: Smithson's bequest]

[Sidenote: Jackson's specie circular]

The arrival of Prince Louis Napoleon created little stir in the United
States. The people there were in the midst of a Presidential election.
President Jackson wished Vice-President Van Buren to be his successor. He
therefore recommended that the Democratic nomination should be by national
convention. The National Republicans had by this time generally adopted the
name of Whigs. They supported William H. Harrison and John McLaine of Ohio
with Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. The opposition hoped to throw the
Presidential election into the House, but did not succeed in doing so. A
majority of Van Buren el