Then does the
repressed valor of the party of Order break forth, then it tears away
the curtain from the scene, then it denounces the President, then it
declares the republic to be in danger,--but then all its pathos appears
stale, and the occasion for the quarrel a hypocritical pretext, or not
at all worth the effort. The parliamentary tempest becomes a tempest in
a tea-pot, the struggle an intrigue, the collision a scandal. While the
revolutionary classes gloat with sardonic laughter over the humiliation
of the National Assembly--they, of course, being as enthusiastic for the
prerogatives of the parliament as that body is for public freedom--the
bourgeoisie, outside of the parliament, does not understand how the
bourgeoisie, inside of the parliament, can squander its time with such
petty bickerings, and can endanger peace by such wretched rivalries with
the President. It is puzzled at a strategy that makes peace the very
moment when everybody expects battles, and that attacks the very moment
everybody believes peace has been concluded.
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