Every new Government
starts with a new principle. Every Government in a few years perishes by
carrying that principle to an extreme. The First Republic was destroyed
by the intemperance with which it trampled on every sort of tradition and
authority, the First Empire by its abuse of victory and war, the
Restoration by its exaggerated belief in divine right and legitimacy, the
Royalty of July by its exaggerated reliance on purchased voters and
Parliamentary majorities, the Second Republic by the conduct of its own
Republicans. The danger to the Second Empire--its only internal danger,
but I fear a fatal one--is its abuse of authority. With every phase of
our sixty years' long revolution, we have a new superstition, a new
_culte_. We are now required to become the worshippers of authority. I
lament that with the new religion we have not new priests. Our public men
would not be discredited by instantaneous apostasy from one political
faith to another. I am grieved, gentlemen, if I offend you; though many
of you are older in years than I am, not one probably is so old in public
life. I may be addressing you for the last time, and I feel that my last
words ought to contain all the warnings that I think will be useful to
you.
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