able to understand their aims and carry them out.
Unfortunately, from 1816 to 1824 the Parliament had almost entirely withheld its support. When we look at the long series of French Parliamentary assemblies, they reveal a peculiar threefold character which seems to have been pretty much the same from the very beginning of the century. Intemperance of language, and a certain inconsequence of action, with an irresistible tendency, if not to form conspiracies of their own, at any rate to denounce other people's, are the distinguishing characteristics of French deputies at the present day. We must not jump to the hasty conclusion that they have made no progress in that time. On the contrary, on several occasions the Chambers of the Third Republic have displayed a significant unanimity in dealing with national questions, and have been known to sink their private preferences in their anxiety for the public good. Any one who studies the history of French Parliamentarism with an open mind will be convinced that since 1814 its upward progress has been continuous. But the French
