| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| PAGE | |
| WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE PREVALENT EVIL? | [1] |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| WHAT IS THE DUTY OF GOVERNMENT WITH RESPECT TO DEMOCRACY? | [7] |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC | [15] |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| OF THE SOCIAL REPUBLIC | [25] |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| WHAT ARE THE REAL AND ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE? | [36] |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| POLITICAL CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL PEACE IN FRANCE | [56] |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| MORAL CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL PEACE IN FRANCE | [70] |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| CONCLUSION | [84] |
D E M O C R A C Y I N F R A N C E.
CHAPTER I.
WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE PREVALENT EVIL?
Mirabeau, Barnave, Napoleon, and Lafayette, who died at distant and very dissimilar periods, in bed or on the scaffold, in their own country or in exile, all died under the influence of one sentiment—a sentiment of profound melancholy. They thought their hopes deceived, their labours abortive. They were assailed by doubts of the success of their cause, and by misgivings as to the future.
King Louis-Philippe reigned above seventeen years, for more than eleven of which I had the honour to be his minister. If to-morrow it pleased God to summon us into his presence, should we quit this earth very confident in the future destiny and the constitutional order of our country?
Is then the French Revolution destined to give birth only to doubt and deception?—to bury all its triumphs under ruins?
Yes: so long as France shall suffer the true and the false, the upright and the perverse, the practicable and the chimerical, the salutary and the pestilent to be constantly mingled and confounded in her opinions, her institutions, and the government of her affairs, such will be the unfailing and inevitable result.