ILLUSTRATIONS.

PORTRAIT OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN, WITH THE PRINCESS

HELENA, AFTER THORBURN

PORTRAIT OF LEOPOLD I., KING OF THE BELGIANS, AFTER

WINTERHALTER

to face Title

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THE

LIFE

OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE CONSORT.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE policy of Louis Philippe had, as we have seen, for some time inspired the Prince and his Coburg friend with doubts of the stability of his power. The latter had written on the 1st of August, 1847: Louis Philippe's ambiguous reputation as a master of the arts of statesmanship has been most unequivocally ruined by the Spanish intrigue. If he live long enough, he can hardly fail to suffer some portion of the punishment, which, according to the laws of nature, he has incurred.'

It was the creed of both Stockmar and his pupil, that as surely as sorrow is ever found, in the words of our old poet, 'dogging sin,' so surely will retribution overtake the Sovereign, who thinks more of the immediate interests of his family or dynasty than of the well-being and advancement of his people. From what side this might come in the case of Louis Philippe it was impossible to foresee. But it was an ominous symptom, that for some time the policy of France at home and abroad had become personally identified with the King; while at the same time, the Government, blind to the fact that the Opposition, although in a

FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.

1848

numerical minority, really echoed the voice of the nation in calling for reform, had dealt with it as though they were a faction whose real aim was not reform but revolution, and who were to be silenced, not by the removal of unquestionable abuses, but, if necessary, by force. A state of things more dangerous to the dynasty could not well be conceived. Lulled into a false security by the facility with which he had for many years been able to impress his own views and wishes upon his Ministers, Louis Philippe had forgotten, that, as it is they who in all Constitutional Governments are primarily responsible to the people, their freedom of action must not be overborne by the dictates of the Sovereign, and that if, forgetful of their own prerogatives, they suffer themselves to become his subservient agents, they do so at the hazard of dragging him down with their own fall.

To such a result things were indeed surmised by some close observers to be rapidly tending; and the recurrence of Louis Philippe to a Bourbon policy seemed the more unaccountable as well as dangerous, that throughout all the countries in Europe, where Absolutism had hitherto prevailed, the cry for free Constitutions had arisen. But to none had it occurred, that the downfall of the Orleans dynasty was so close at hand. It had cut itself off from the sympathies of England, and it was known to be pursuing a line of policy both in Switzerland and in Italy which might readily lead to an European war. Old jealousies had revived; rightly or wrongly, England had come to look at France with suspicion, Rightly as it proved; and but for the Revolution of 1848, Great Britain, we now know, would have found France arrayed against her in an alliance with Russia, Prussia, and Austria. These Powers had become so seriously alarmed at the encouragement given by England to the Constitutional movement in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy, that they considered it necessary to unite in measures for the common defence. They then entered into communications with the French Government, and had actually settled terms with them, when the whole scheme was blown into the air by the events of

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