Louis XIV. has gone down to posterity with the formula: "L'Etat c'est moi"; and Napoleon III. with that device, suggested by the irony of fate: "L'Empire c'est la paix." Lamartine is the man who, outside the Hôtel de Ville, cried: "The tricolor flag has been round the world; the red flag has only been round the Champ de Mars." Thiers said: "The Republican form of government is the one that divides us the least." Gambetta: "Clericalism; that is the enemy."
And to parody a celebrated proverb, I might say that French politics may be summed up in the words:
Acta volant, verba manent.
CHAPTER XXIV.
LORDS AND SENATORS.
The existence of a hereditary House of Lords is a standing insult to the common sense of the English people.
England is governed by the eldest sons of the aristocracy.
Now, all who have had much to do with youth are perfectly agreed that, as a rule, the eldest son is the least intelligent in each family.
The first born is a ballon d'essai.