gular Verbs; governing France, and being governed by it; with toil
and noise;--cutting asunder ancient intolerable bonds; and, for new
ones, assiduously spinning ropes of sand. Were their labours a nothing
or a something, yet the eyes of all France being reverently fixed on
them, History can never very long leave them altogether out of sight.

For the present, if we glance into that Assembly Hall of theirs, it will
be found, as is natural, 'most irregular.' As many as 'a hundred
members are on their feet at once;' no rule in making motions, or only
commencements of a rule; Spectators' Gallery allowed to applaud, and
even to hiss; (Arthur Young, i. 111.) President, appointed once
a fortnight, raising many times no serene head above the waves.
Nevertheless, as in all human Assemblages, like does begin arranging
itself to like; the perennial rule, Ubi homines sunt modi sunt, proves
valid. Rudiments of Methods disclose themselves; rudiments of Parties.
There is a Right Side (Cote Droit), a Left Side (Cote Gauche); sitting
on M. le President's right hand, or on his left: the Cote Droit
conservative; the Cote Gauche destructive. Intermediate is Anglomaniac
Constitutionalism, or Two-Chamber Royalism; with its Mouniers, its
Lallys,--fast verging towards nonentity. Preeminent, on the Right Side,
pleads and perorates Cazales, the Dragoon-captain, eloquent, mildly
fervent; earning for himself the shadow of a name. There also
blusters Barrel-Mirabeau, the Younger Mirabeau, not without wit: dusky
d'Espremenil does nothing but sniff and ejaculate; might, it is fondly
thought, lay prostrate the Elder Mirabeau himself, would he but try,
(Biographie Universelle, para D'Espremenil (by Beaulieu).)--which he
does not. Last and greatest, see, for one moment, the Abbe Maury; with
his jesuitic eyes, his impassive brass face, 'image of all the cardinal
sins.' Indomitable, unquenchable, he fights jesuitico-rhetorically; with
toughest lungs and heart; for Throne, especially for Altar and Tithes.
So that a shrill voice exclaims once, from the Gallery: "Messieurs of
the Clergy, you have to be shaved; if you wriggle too much, you will get
cut." (Dictionnaire des Hommes Marquans, ii. 519.)

The Left side is also called the d'Orleans side; and sometimes
derisively, the Palais Royal. And yet, so confused, real-imaginary
seems everything, 'it is doubtful,' as Mirabeau said, 'whether d'Orleans
himself belong to that same d'Orleans Party.' What can be kn