"for as I see M. de Tocqueville every day, I will
talk to him about it myself." At that very time, the _ordonnance_
dismissing M. de Tocqueville had been signed, and Louis Napoleon knew
that he would probably never see him again.'

'I do not,' said Ampere, 'give up the chance of a republic. I do not wish
for one. It must be a very bad constitutional monarchy which I should not
prefer to the best republic. My democratic illusions are gone. France and
America have dispelled them: but it must be a very bad republic which I
should not prefer to the best despotism. A republic is like a fever,
violent and frightful, but not necessarily productive of organic
mischief. A despotism is a consumption: it degrades and weakens, and
perverts all the vital functions.

'What is there now in France worth living for? I find people proud of our
Italian campaign. Why should the French be proud that their master's
soldiers have been successful in a war as to which they were not
consulted; which, in fact, they disapproved, which was not made for their
benefit, which was the most glaring proof of their servility and
degradation? We knew before that our troops were better than the
Austrians. What have we gained by the additional example of their
superiority?

'I fear,' I said, 'that a republic, at least such a republic as you are
likely to have, would begin by some gross economical enormities--by the
_droit au travail_, by the _impot progressif sur la fortune presumtee_,
by a paper currency made a legal tender without limitation of its
amount.'

'The last republic,' said Ampere, 'did some of these things, but very
timidly and moderately. It gave to its paper a forced currency, but was
so cautious in its issue, that it was not depreciated. It created the
_ateliers nationaux,_ but it soon dissolved them, though at the expense
of a civil war. Its worst fault was more political than economical: it
was the 45 centimes, that is to say, the sudden increase by 45 per cent,
of the direct taxes. It never recovered that blow. Of all its acts it
is the one which is best recollected. The Provisional Government is known
in the provinces as "ces gredins des quarante-cinq centimes." The
business of a revolutionary government is to be popular. It ought to
reduce taxation, meet its expenditure by loans, abolish octrois and
prohibitions, and defer taxation until it has lasted long enough to be
submitted to as a _fait accompli_.'

'I fear,' said Madame de T