The party of Order was forced to frame its motion
in that way so as to secure the votes of the republicans, because, of
all the acts of the Ministry, Changarnier's dismissal only was the very
one they approved, while the party of Order cannot in fact, condemn the
other Ministerial acts which it had itself dictated. The January 18 vote
of lack of confidence was decided by 415 ayes against 286 nays. It was,
accordingly put through by a coalition of the uncompromising Legitimists
and Orleanists with the pure republicans and the Mountain. Thus it
revealed the fact that, in its conflicts with Bonaparte, not only the
Ministry, not only the Army, but also its independent parliamentary
majority; that a troop of Representatives had deserted its camp out of a
fanatic zeal for harmony, out of fear of fight, out of lassitude, out
of family considerations for the salaries of relatives in office, out
of speculations on vacancies in the Ministry (Odillon Barrot), or out
of that unmitigated selfishness that causes the average bourgeois to be
ever inclined to sacrifice the interests of his class to this or that
private motive.
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