nditions under which we made
it, I do not think that it was in our power to make a good one.'

'Tocqueville,' I said, 'told me that Cormenin was your Solon, that he
brought a bit of constitution to you every morning, and that it was
usually adopted.'[1]

'Tocqueville's memory,' answered Beaumont, 'deceived him. Cormenin was
our president. It is true that he brought a bit of constitution every
morning. But it scarcely ever was adopted or capable of being adopted.
It was in general bad in itself, or certain to be rejected by the
Assembly. He wished to make the President a puppet. But he exercised over
us a mischievous influence. He tried to revenge himself for our refusal
of all his proposals by rendering our deliberations fruitless. And as
the power of a president over a deliberative body is great, he often
succeeded.

'Many of our members were unaccustomed to public business and lost their
tempers or their courage when opposed. The Abbe Lamennais proposed a
double election of the president. But of thirty members, only four, among
whom were Tocqueville and I, supported him. He left the committee and
never returned to it. Tocqueville and I were anxious to introduce double
election everywhere. It is the best palliative of universal suffrage.'

'The double election,' I said, 'of the American President is nugatory.
Every elector is chosen under a pledge to nominate a specified
candidate.'

'That is true,' said Beaumont, 'as to the President, but not as to the
other functionaries thus elected. The senators chosen by double election
are far superior to the representatives chosen by direct voting.

'We proposed, too, to begin by establishing municipal institutions. We
were utterly defeated. The love of centralisation is almost inherent in
French politicians. They see the evil of local government--its stupidity,
its corruption, its jobbing. They see the convenience of
centralisation--the ease with which a centralised administration works.
Feelings which are really democratic have reached those who fancy
themselves aristocrats. We had scarcely a supporter.

'We should perhaps have a few now, when experience has shown that
centralisation is still more useful to an usurper than it is to a regular
Government.'

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 212.--ED.]

_August_ 18.--We drove in the afternoon to the coast, and sat in the
shade of the little ricks of sea-weed, gazing on an open sea as blue as
the Mediterranean.

We talked