own them in disorder, had not reconstructed
and arranged them; and that the re-organization of society on the
basis of humanity and mutual obligation, was still an unfinished
problem. Lamartine felt this; but did the French Chambers, as they
were then organized, offer him a fair scope for the development of his
ideas, or the exercise of his genius? Certainly not. The French
Chamber was divided into two great dynastic interests--those of the
younger and elder Bourbons. The Republican party (the extreme left)
was small, and without an acknowledged leader; and the whole assembly,
with few individual exceptions, had taken a material direction.
During seventeen years--from 1830 to 1847--no organic principle of law
or politics was agitated in the Chambers, no new ideas evolved. The
whole national legislation seemed to be directed toward material
improvements, to the exclusion of every thing that could elevate the
soul or inspire the masses with patriotic sentiments. The government
of Louis Philippe had at first become stationary, then reactionary;
the mere enunciation of a general idea inspired its members with
terror, and made the centres (right and left) afraid of the horrors of
the guillotine. The government of Louis Philippe was not a reign of
terror, like that of 1793, but it was a reign of prospective terror,
which it wished to avoid. Louis Philippe had no faith in the people;
he treated them as the keeper of a menagerie would a tame tiger--he
knew its strength, and he feared its vindictiveness. To disarm it, and
to change its ferocious nature, he checked the progress of political
ideas, instead of combating them with the weapons of reason, and
banished from his counsel those who alone could have served as
mediators between the throne and the liberties of the nation. The
French people seemed stupified at the _contre-coups_ to all their
hopes and aspirations. Even the more moderate complained; but their
complaints were hushed by the immediate prospect of an improved
material condition. All France seemed to have become industrious,
manufacturing, mercantile, speculating. The thirst for wealth had
succeeded to the ambition of the Republicans, the fanaticism of the
Jacobins, and the love of distinction of the old monarchists. The
Chamber of Deputies no longer represented the French people--its love,
its hatred, its devotion--the elasticity of its mind, its facility of
emotion, its capacity to sacrifice itself for a great ide