iption. Tin horns were blown, tin pans were pounded, and every
species of execrable noise was made, and M. Thiers came to the
conclusion that the people of Aix did not admire his late political
conduct. To satisfy him, the leaders cried aloud, "Traitor to Poland,
to Italy, and France!" He was satisfied, and hurried back to Paris,
where Louis Phillippe met him, and as if to console him for his
reception in Aix, gave him a portfolio--and he was the king's minister.

One of his first acts was to destroy the character of the duchess of
Berri, who pretended that the French throne belonged to her son. Louis
Phillippe gave him almost unlimited power to accomplish this object, and
he set to work coolly and with deliberate calculation. It is said he
bribed an intimate friend of the duchess, who knew where she was, with a
million of francs to betray her, and she was thrown into prison. Once
there, he found means to ruin her fame and destroy her influence, though
the measures he took excited the indignation of France. He extorted from
her a secret confession, under the promise that it should always remain
strictly secret, and then coolly published it in the government organ.

Under M. Thiers the finances of the country improved, and many of the
public works were completed. The splendid Quai d'Orsay and the Place
Vendome were finished, and the Madeleine begun. At the ceremonies which
attended the inauguration of the column upon the Place Vendome, a good
thing was said in the ears of the minister by a Parisian wit. Thiers was
at the foot of the column--the statue of Napoleon at the top. The height
of the column is one hundred and thirty-two feet. Said the wit aloud,
"There are just one hundred and thirty-two feet from the ridiculous to
the sublime!"

But M. Thiers was not in reality a ridiculous man. Under his management
France saw prosperity. He developed its resources and exhibited great
abilities. He was constantly subjected to attacks from his old radical
associates and he deserved them. The great quarrel of his life,
however, was with Guizot. These two men were constantly by the ears with
each other, and the king gave one a certain office and the other
another. He changed these officers from time to time, until at last both
saw that one alone must triumph. Guizot was the triumphant man, and
Thiers fell. He became more radical as he lost office, and published (in
1845) two volumes of his _History of the Consulate_. They had a s