n August, is now as good
as chosen. Nay it has mostly got to Paris: it arrived gradually;--not
without pathetic greeting to its venerable Parent, the now moribund
Constituent; and sat there in the Galleries, reverently listening; ready
to begin, the instant the ground were clear.

Then as to changes in the Constitution itself? This, impossible for any
Legislative, or common biennial Parliament, and possible solely for some
resuscitated Constituent or National Convention,--is evidently one of
the most ticklish points. The august moribund Assembly debated it for
four entire days. Some thought a change, or at least reviewal and new
approval, might be admissible in thirty years; some even went lower,
down to twenty, nay to fifteen. The august Assembly had once decided for
thirty years; but it revoked that, on better thoughts; and did not
fix any date of time, but merely some vague outline of a posture of
circumstances, and on the whole left the matter hanging. (Choix de
Rapports, &c. (Paris, 1825), vi. 239-317.) Doubtless a National
Convention can be assembled even within the thirty years: yet one may
hope, not; but that Legislatives, biennial Parliaments of the common
kind, with their limited faculty, and perhaps quiet successive additions
thereto, may suffice, for generations, or indeed while computed Time
runs.

Furthermore, be it noted that no member of this Constituent has been,
or could be, elected to the new Legislative. So noble-minded were
these Law-makers! cry some: and Solon-like would banish themselves. So
splenetic! cry more: each grudging the other, none daring to be outdone
in self-denial by the other. So unwise in either case! answer all
practical men. But consider this other self-denying ordinance, That none
of us can be King's Minister, or accept the smallest Court Appointment,
for the space of four, or at lowest (and on long debate and Revision),
for the space of two years! So moves the incorruptible seagreen
Robespierre; with cheap magnanimity he; and none dare be outdone by him.
It was such a law, not so superfluous then, that sent Mirabeau to the
Gardens of Saint-Cloud, under cloak of darkness, to that colloquy of
the gods; and thwarted many things. Happily and unhappily there is no
Mirabeau now to thwart.

Welcomer meanwhile, welcome surely to all right hearts, is Lafayette's
chivalrous Amnesty. Welcome too is that hard-wrung Union of Avignon;
which has cost us, first and last, 'thirty sessions of