Party spirit has no mercy; indignant Freedom seldom shows forbearance
in her hour of revolt. I wish you _could_ see the aged gentleman
trudging down Cornhill with his umbrella and carpet-bag, in good
earnest; he would be safe in England: John Bull might laugh at him
but he would do him no harm.
'How strange it appears to see literary and scientific names figuring
in the list of members of a Provisional Government! How would it
sound if Carlyle and Sir John Herschel and Tennyson and Mr. Thackeray
and Douglas Jerrold were selected to manufacture a new constitution
for England? Whether do such men sway the public mind most
effectually from their quiet studies or from a council-chamber?
'And Thiers is set aside for a time; but won't they be glad of him
by-and-by? Can they set aside entirely anything so clever, so
subtle, so accomplished, so aspiring--in a word, so thoroughly
French, as he is? Is he not the man to bide his time--to watch while
unskilful theorists try their hand at administration and fail; and
then to step out and show them how it should be done?
'One would have thought political disturbance the natural element of
a mind like Thiers'; but I know nothing of him except from his
writings, and I always think he writes as if the shade of Bonaparte
were walking to and fro in the room behind him and dictating every
line he pens, sometimes approaching and bending over his shoulder,
_pour voir de ses yeux_ that such an action or event is represented
or misrepresented (as the case may be) exactly as he wishes it.
Pages:
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571