France -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Fiction; French fiction -- Translations into English
From this point des Lupeaulx went on with a long tirade about the Grand
Almoner and the dangers the government ran in relying upon the
church and upon the Jesuits. We need not, we think, point out to the
intelligent reader that the court and the Grand Almoner, to whom
the liberal journals attributed an enormous influence under the
administration, had little really to do with Monsieur Baudoyer’s
appointment. Such petty intrigues die in the upper sphere of great
self-interests. If a few words in favor of Baudoyer were obtained by
the importunity of the curate of Saint-Paul’s and the Abbe Gaudron, they
would have been withdrawn immediately at a suggestion from the minister.
The occult power of the Congregation of Jesus (admissible certainly as
confronting the bold society of the “Doctrine,” entitled “Help yourself
and heaven will help you,”) was formidable only through the imaginary
force conferred on it by subordinate powers who perpetually threatened
each other with its evils. The liberal scandal-mongers delighted in
representing the Grand Almoner and the whole Jesuitical Chapter as
political, administrative, civil, and military giants. Fear creates
bugbears. At this crisis Baudoyer firmly believed in the said Chapter,
little aware that the only Jesuits who had put him where he now was sat
by his own fireside, and in the Cafe Themis playing dominoes.
At certain epochs in history certain powers appear, to whom all evils
are attributed, though at the same time their genius is denied; they
form an efficient argument in the mouth of fools. Just as Monsieur de
Talleyrand was supposed to hail all events of whatever kind with a bon
mot, so in these days of the Restoration the clerical party had the
credit of doing and undoing everything. Unfortunately, it did and undid
nothing. Its influence was not wielded by a Cardinal Richelieu or
a Cardinal Mazarin; it was in the hands of a species of Cardinal
de Fleury, who, timid for over five years, turned bold for one day,
injudiciously bold. Later on, the “Doctrine” did more, with impunity,
at Saint-Merri, than Charles X. pretended to do in July, 1830. If the
section on the censorship so foolishly introduced into the new charter
had been omitted, journalism also would have had its Saint-Merri. The
younger Branch could have legally carried out Charles X.’s plan.
“Remain where you are, head of a bureau under Baudoyer,” went on des
Lupeaulx. “Have the nerve to do this; make yourself a true politician;
put ideas and generous impulses aside; attend only to your functions;
don’t say a word to your new director; don’t help him with a suggestion;
and do nothing yourself without his order. In three months Baudoyer
will be out of the ministry, either dismissed, or stranded on some other
administrative shore. They may attach him to the king’s household.
Twice in my life I have been set aside as you are, and overwhelmed by an
avalanche of folly; I have quietly waited and let it pass.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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