Not that General
d'Hautpoul had gained the rank of Ministerial President. Along with
Barrot, Bonaparte abolished this dignity, which, it must be granted,
condemned the President of the republic to the legal nothingness of a
constitutional kind, of a constitutional king at that, without throne
and crown, without sceptre and without sword, without irresponsibility,
without the imperishable possession of the highest dignity in the State,
and, what was most untoward of all--without a civil list. The d'Hautpoul
Ministry numbered only one man of parliamentary reputation, the Jew
Fould, one of the most notorious members of the high finance. To him
fell the portfolio of finance. Turn to the Paris stock quotations, and
it will be found that from November 1, 1849, French stocks fall and rise
with the falling and rising of the Bonapartist shares. While Bonaparte
had thus found his ally in the Bourse, he at the same time took
possession of the Police through the appointment of Carlier as Prefect
of Police.
But the consequences of the change of Ministry could reveal themselves
only in the course of events.
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