“The Rhine.” “Whew! the devil!” “I should have protested and spoken without finding any echo to my words; I preferred to say nothing.” “Ah! the Rhine! To have the Rhine! Yes, that is a fine idea. Poetry! poetry!” “Poetry that our fathers made with cannon and that we shall make again with ideas!” “My dear colleague,” went on M. Decazes, “we must wait. I, too, want the Rhine. Thirty years ago I said to Louis XVIII.: ‘Sire, I should be inconsolable if I thought I should die without seeing France mistress of the left bank of the Rhine. But before we can talk about that, before we can think of it even, we must beget children.’” “Well,” I replied, “that was thirty years ago. We have begotten the children.” April 23, 1847. The Chamber of Peers is discussing a pretty bad bill on substitutions for army service. To-day the principal article of the measure was before the House. M. de Nemours was present. There are eighty lieutenant-generals in the Chamber. The majority considered the article to be a bad one. Under the eye of the Duke de Nemours, who seemed to be counting them, all rose to vote in favour of it. The magistrates, the members of the Institute and the ambassadors voted against it. I remarked to President Franck-Carré, who was seated next to me: “It is a struggle between civil courage and military poltroonery.” The article was adopted. June 22, 1847. The Girardin* affair was before the Chamber of Peers to-day. Acquittal. The vote was taken by means of balls, white ones for condemnation, black ones for acquittal. There were 199 votes cast, 65 white, 134 black. In placing my black ball in the urn I remarked: “In blackening him we whiten him.” * Emile de Girardin had been prosecuted for publishing an article in a newspaper violently attacking the government. I said to Mme. D--: “Why do not the Minister and Girardin provoke a trial in the Assize Court?” She replied: “Because Girardin does not feel himself strong enough, and the Minister does not feel himself pure enough.” MM. de Montalivet and Mole and the peers of the Château voted, queerly enough, for Girardin against the Government. M. Guizot learned the result in the Chamber of Deputies and looked exceedingly wrath. June 28, 1847. On arriving at the Chamber I found Franck-Carre greatly scandalised. In his hand was a prospectus for champagne signed by the Count de Mareuil, and stamped with a peer’s mantle and a count’s coronet with the de Mareuil arms. He had shown it to the Chancellor, who had replied: “I can do nothing!” “I could do something, though, if a mere councillor were to do a thing like that in my court,” said Franck-Carré to me. “I would call the Chambers together and have him admonished in a disciplinary manner.” 1848. Discussion by the committees of the Chamber of Peers of the address in reply to the speech from the throne.