Suppose France left without a Government, every man in France
refusing to sign the treaty, how would matters go then ? That form of extreme resistance has never occurred, and like the extreme form of passive resistance, probably never will occur, but the course of an invader would be clear. He would appoint and acknowledge a native Government, towards which all owners of property, stockholders, and so on, would be sure to drift, and would support it by force in establishing its authority, treating all opponents as rebels. As a matter of fact, though it ought not to be so, people will not fight a native Government because foreigners are friendly to it, and the provinces would drift back to obedience as they drifted back to obedience to the Directory. Of course such a Government, being nominee, would be the worst con- ceivable for native interests, as the Government of 1815 for some years was,—would, in fact, use native power to further foreign interests. Almost any form of resistance, or any mode of acqui- escence is better than that, and we question if, in a civilized state, the experiment will ever be tried. The rulers have lived in the capital, and they love it, and cannot bear to give it up.
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