They
received from him their orders; from time to time, in obedience to those
orders, they even opposed his Ministers.
'This, however, seldom occurred, for the King contrived always to have a
devoted majority in his Cabinet.
'It was this that drove the Duc de Broglie from the Government and
prevented his ever resuming office.
'"I could not bear," he said to me, "to hear Sebastiani repeat, in every
council and on every occasion, 'Ce que le Roi vient de dire est
parfaitement juste.'" The only Ministers that ventured to have an opinion
of their own were those of the 12th of May 1839, of which Dufaure,
Villemain, and Passy were members, and that of the 1st of March 1840, of
which Thiers was the leader; and Tocqueville supported them both.
'When Guizot, who had maintained the principle of Ministerial and
Parliamentary, in opposition to that of Monarchical Governments, with
unequalled eloquence, vigour, and I may add violence, suddenly turned
round and became the most servile member of the King's servile majority,
Tocqueville fell back into opposition.
'In general it is difficult to act with an opposition systematically and,
at the same time, honestly.
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