Democratic institutions may vary in their form and still remain democratic. I should not venture to predict eternal duration for the present French republican forms, but I believe that the democracy will last, if only because it is inconceivable that an aristocracy should ever destroy it and take its place. The strong popular conservative tendency which has been already noticed may possibly preserve both the senate and the presidence. Sir Henry Maine had a very contemptuous estimate of the position of a French president, whose position he considered “pitiable.” That is merely an example of the English habit of despising, already alluded to. If the position of president were “pitiable,” it would not be so much coveted by the leading politicians. In dignity it is inferior, no doubt, to that of a great king, but it is superior to the minor royalties. In influence it is enough to say that it is superior to that of a merely ceremonial monarch, because the president presides over councils of ministers, and is, in fact, himself a permanent minister, or the only minister with any approach to permanence. It is not surprising that a constitutional sovereign should manifest a constant unwillingness to read speeches composed by others, to be afterwards criticised in Parliament with utter disregard of the royal name that covers them. A French president is at least permitted to write his own messages, which are the expression of his own opinions. The greatest function of a French president is a very lofty and noble one. It is to smooth asperities, to diminish the bad effect of political dissension, and to be watchful of the interests of the country. He has also a direct and immediate influence on foreign affairs, which has already proved useful on more than one occasion. These are reasons why the office may possibly be maintained, but there is another reason that affects the estimation of the republic in rural districts. The country looks to the president with satisfaction as the nearest approach to permanence that a democratic constitution can admit. What Bagehot said of the Queen twenty years ago is in a great measure true of the French president to-day. Amidst the frequent changes of ministers he is comparatively stable. The peasants follow with difficulty the names of successive ministers, but they all know the name of the president, and his portrait is seen everywhere. Their belief about the president is that he is a respectable, trustworthy man: “C’est un brave homme, Mossieu Grévy (or Carnot, as the case may be), je le crois b’en, moi.” Is that nothing? It is not the Russian’s adoration of the Czar, nor the German’s affection for old Kaiser Wilhelm, but it is an element of tranquillity in the State. PART IV RELIGION CHAPTER I STATE ESTABLISHMENTS OF RELIGION