The chamber of peers obtained a complete triumph; although weakened by successive promotions,[31] its influence over the elections of 1827 was very great. The Martignac ministry was formed upon the principles of the Richelieu administration, that is to say, with the upright intentions that characterised the statesmen of that noble school. M. Pasquier naturally assumed his proper degree of ascendancy over that administration; the bond of recollections and of similarity of principles united him with M. Portalis, the keeper of the seals; and it was repeatedly proposed that he should resume the charge of the foreign office, his name having even been suggested by the council of the ministers after the retirement of M. de la Ferronays. Charles X. however negatived the appointment when the list of the candidates was presented to him, for he did not wish to have any man of importance in a ministry which could only be of transitory duration; and certain prejudices, dating from the year 1815, which had never been effaced from the king's mind, first made him prefer M. de Rayneval, and afterwards, finding the influence of that able diplomatist upon the two chambers not sufficiently powerful, M. de Portalis was appointed minister for foreign affairs. [31] At the same moment that he dissolved the chamber of deputies, the king created seventy-six new peers, all of them people devoted to the government. The formation of the Polignac ministry occasioned great uneasiness to the political party, which was always composed of men of eminent talents, and desirous of the establishment and preservation of order; they observed with great anxiety the impending crisis, and they dreaded the fatal struggle likely to be attempted by the party of the restoration. All these experienced minds were well acquainted with Charles X.; they knew that with all the advantages of his chivalrous disposition, his undoubted uprightness of mind, his thoroughly French character, he still had an unfortunate inclination for _coups d'état_, and extravagant actions that might compromise the safety of his government. The _corps diplomatique_ were equally uneasy, and confidential communications took place between them and the political party, expressing their sense of the danger and agitation likely to be caused by a _coup d'état_; they were consequently less surprised than alarmed by the promulgation of the _ordonnances_ of July. The political party held itself in reserve during the popular crisis, and when order was a little restored, it confined itself to giving a monarchical bias to society, as the only means of preserving France from a foreign or domestic war. As soon as the charter had restored the balance of power, and the monarchical form of government, M. Pasquier was appointed president of the chamber of peers.