Although nothing of a positively dangerous kind has yet hap-
pened in Paris, the situation of Ministers becomes every day more critical. Relying on a banded majority, of which the larger part consists of placemen, the Cabinet does not hesitate to brave public opinion, by conduct both discreditable and arro- gant. Ministers sat in the Chamber of Deputies and heard their own officer, General de Lamoriciere, repudiate the responsibility of having broken faith with Abd-el-Kader. They are reduced to make shuffling replies when asked why they have expelled a M. Bakounine and a M. Engels : M. Bakounine is a Russian who had "spoken disrespectfully of a friendly power" ; and M. En- gels a Prussian, expelled for some cause unknown. Finally, when the paragraph of the address against the Reform meetings came under discussion, the exasperation on both sides broke through all restraint : Ministers declared the meetings illegal : the Opposition called the Ministers "worse than Polignac," threatened to attend a great meeting in Paris, and to resign if prevented. Indeed, the example of Charles the Tenth and Po- lignac seems to have been thrown away.
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