two years in the United States, as I have done, and not
be of that opinion. But do you think that in the present state of
France a republican government can be adopted?"

"No," said Lafayette; "that which is necessary for France now is a
throne, surrounded by republican institutions. All must be
republican."

"That is precisely my opinion," rejoined Louis Philippe.

After this scene, the duke, immensely strengthened in his position,
returned to the Palais Royal, accompanied by a decided increase of
acclamations. Still there were many murmurs. The people could not
forget that he was by birth an aristocrat and a Bourbon; that he had
taken no part, either by word or deed, in the conflict for the
overthrow of the despotic throne; that, concealed in the recesses of
his palace at Neuilly, he had not shown his face in Paris until the
conflict in which they were shedding their blood was terminated, and
that then he had come merely to assume a crown.

Immediately after the withdrawal of Louis Philippe from the Hotel de
Ville, Lafayette and his friends drew up a programme, or social
contract, in which they endeavored to reconcile republican
institutions with the forms of a monarchy. Lafayette himself took
this contract to the Palais Royal, and submitted it to the duke. He
gave it apparently his candid consent. There were, however,
Legitimists as well as Republicans who had no faith in this union.
The Abbe Gregoire is reported to have exclaimed in disgust, "Good
God, are we then to have both a republic and a king?"

There were yet many dangers to be encountered. The word _king_ had
not been distinctly spoken. And still the supreme power was placed in
the hands of Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans. It was necessary to
the more full organization of the government that he should be
recognized as a sovereign. But it was no easy matter to reconcile the
populace of Paris to the idea of placing a Bourbon at the head of the
new government.

"To obviate the unfavorable impression thus produced," writes Alison,
"the Orleans committee prepared and placarded all over Paris a
proclamation not a little surprising, considering that M. Mignet and
M. Thiers were members of it--'_The Duke of Orleans is not a Bourbon;
he is a Valois_.' A remarkable assertion to be made, by historians,
of a lineal descendant of Henry IV., and of the brother of Louis
XIV."

The leading journals had all been won over to the side of the Orleans
party. We wo