preceding year. Electors[1], borne along on a path of which they were soon to recognise the danger, sent to the Paris Chamber a majority who, under the pretence of fortifying the Monarchy, were about to call for the most compromising and high-flown solutions of pressing questions. The greater part were rural proprietors, old émigrés, men unused to politics, inexperienced and sometimes ignorant, who belonged to the lower ranks of the nobility and were jealous of the higher — jealous, too, to secure for themselves a preponderance of power, even if the principle of Royalty was to suffer.
For it has been pleasantly said of this Chamber, called the " Introuvable" because of its exaggerations, that it was " plus royaliste que le Roi." It would be more correct to say that it was revolutionary in its own way ; continually claiming new rights, extending its influence as far as possible, and trying to inspire the Government with its own passions. Its temper was sufficiently manifested in the early days when a deputy, M. de La Bourdonnais, was heard frantically demanding
- ↑ Their number was found to be double that of the voters during the elections of the Hundred Days.
