Lamartine had written

Rhin, Nil de l'Occident, coupe des nations !

1. 26. L'astre de Charlemagne. The sun of the West, that shone over the dominions of Charlemagne, Emperor of the West.

1. 33. The first victories of the soldiers of the Révolution were those won in the Rhenish Provinces in 1793.

Page 153. (Chapter heading.) On the circumstances in vvhich this Préface to the second édition of the pamphlet iSi§ et 1S40 was composed, see Introd., Ixiv and Ixviii.

1. 21. The Thiers ministry had fallen (Oct., 1840) after Louis- Philippe, in order to avoid a European war, had signified his will to yield to the décision of the four great Powers (England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia) at the London Conférence (July, 1840), and to give up supporting the Pasha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, against the Sultan. This was a deep wound to the legitimate pride of France, but while Thiers, the Duke of Orléans, and the party to which Quinet bclonged, wished to engage in a war, however desperate (against ail Europe), in order to save the honour of the country, Louis-Philippe, Guizot, and a numerous peace party would not jeopardize the laborious work of reconstruction carried on by France since 18 15, and the Thiers cabinet had to resign.

1. 23. The Thiers ministry was succeeded by a cabinet in which Marshal Soult was nominally prime minister, but which was actually led by Guizot, as Secretary for Foreign Afîairs. Now Guizot, throughout the year 1840, had occupied the post of French Ambassador in London, and in this capacity had transmitted to the English Government the correspondence of the Thiers administration.

1. 29. Marshal Soult had declared himself a Royalist in 18 14, after Napoleon's abdication and departure for Elba.

1. 31. Thiers had obtained Great Britain's consent that the remains of Napoléon should be brought back from St. Ilelena to Paris. They were then on their way across the océan.

Page 155. 1. 7. le droit public des invasions. This phrase is often used by Quinet respccting the policy of the Iloly Alliance. The absolute— or well-nigh absolute — sovereigns who had entered

the Alliance after 181 5 (and the King of France was one of them) had mutually guaranteed their rule and pledged themselves to repress any popular uprising by combined force of arms. Yet, in 1830, none of thèse sovereigns, in face of the attitude of their subjects after the Révolution of July, durst enforce the policy determined on. France could change her monarch and force on the citizen-king a libéral charter without any intervention from Europe. This, Quinet considered as an impUed cancelling of the poUcy of the Holy Alliance, as a sign of the growth of libéral opinion in Europe, and as a promise of popular sympathy with France. Yet, though this libéral stroke of policy had indeed made its action felt for some timc, other forces, especially the aspirations for unity and national power in Germany, were soon at work, and balked the Libérais of their seemingly justifîed hopes.