to those about him, "The empire is a fact" (l'empire est fait). "The man who never speaks," as Thiers called Louis Napoleon, was about to act.

When the Second Empire had fallen, and the future form of government was discussed, Thiers found that the republic, proclaimed without opposition after the surrender of Sedan, was the only practicable solution of the problem. Nevertheless, he said it must be "a republic without republicans," because the worst enemies of French republics had invariably been found among their most radical supporters. He was thinking of a republic administered by men, who, like himself, had supported constitutional monarchy as long as it was possible, and now rallied to what was known in 1871-72 as the conservative republic; "for," said Thiers, "the republic will be conservative, or it will not be at all” (la république sera conservatrice, ou elle ne sera pas). He now brought into daily use an expression he employed as early as 1849, and which in 1871 was accepted by men of widely different theoretic views: "The republic is the form of government which divides us the least" (le gouvernement qui nous divise le moins). How could it be otherwise when there were three applicants for any throne which might be set up, the Imperialists, the Legitimists, followers of Henri Cinq, and the Orleanists, who supported the Comte de Paris, grandson of Louis Philippe: "There is but one throne," said Thiers; "and there are three who wish to sit on it, which is impossible" (La monarchie est impossible, puis qu'il y a trois dynasties pour un seul trône).

Behold the Liberator of the Territory!

A remarkable scene occurred in the French Chamber during the exciting session of 1877, when both parties were arraying themselves for the electoral campaign of the autumn. Fourtou, a member of the conservative ministry, had, in the presence of Thiers, applied the title of "Liberator of the Territory" occupied by the Germans after the war, to the Assembly of 1871. As a matter of fact, President Thiers, by arrangements with English and Continental bankers, after the success of a loan subscribed for in France fourteen times above the original call, had anticipated the payment of the immense war indemnity, and

thus freed the Eastern departments from German occupation before the time stipulated in the treaty of peace. Exasperated that the services of the "Saviour of his Country” were ignored, Gambetta rushed to the space in front of the tribune, and, pointing to Thiers, shouted, "Behold the real Liberator of the Territory!" The whole Left and Left-Centre of the Chamber rose, and burst into uncontrollable cheering.

In politics it is always the unexpected that happens.

An application to politics of the proverb: "Nothing is so certain as the unforeseen." Both are to be referred to an incident in the war of the Fronde. When, during the Conferences of Bordeaux in 1650, Cardinal Mazarin found himself in a carriage with three leaders of the other party, he said, "Who would have believed four days ago that we four would to-day be in the same carriage?” — “Oh,” replied the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, "every thing happens in France!" (tout arrive en France!)

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You demand the impossible.

Dr. Véron, the journalist, once requested a place under government, which should give him "consideration.”—“Oh, mon cher, replied Thiers, "vous demandez l'impossible !”

He did not entertain a high opinion of Comte de Molé, prime minister of Louis XVIII.; for he once said, "I cannot conceive how a man who calls himself Molé should wish to be any thing but a keeper of the seals!" The count was overthrown by a combination between Guizot, Thiers, and others; and when he remarked that Thiers in his place would do as he himself had done, the liberal statesman replied, "I might have played the same tune, but I should have played it better" (c'est possible je jouerais le même air, mais je le jouerais mieux).

Thiers remarked when the editor of his paper, the "Constitutionnel,” left it for a better position, “M. Bailay is like a cook: as soon as he has learned his trade, he changes his master" (il fait comme font les cuisinières: aussitôt qu'il a su faire la cuisine, il a changé de maître).

He said of certain newly appointed ministers who were accused of a lack of good breeding, "They believe themselves virtuous because they are ill-bred."

To some one who advised him to answer a calumny, Thiers replied, "I am an old umbrella, upon which the rain has fallen for forty years: of what account are a few drops more or less?" (Je suis un vieux parapluie, sur lequel il pleut depuis quarante ans: qu'est-ce que me font quelques gouttes de plus ou de moins?” Common sense is the genius of our age (le véritable génie de notre époque consiste dans le simple bon sens).

Goethe, in the appendix of the "Wanderjahre" ("Werke," XXII. 213), quotes the remark of an unknown French author, "Common sense is the genius of humanity" (Le sens commun est le génie de l'humanité); derived, perhaps, from the bon sens of Diderot, which he, in turn, translated from Shaftesbury's "Common Sense" ("Characteristics," I. 3). This common sense (gemein Verstand) Goethe applies to the solution of the ordinary problems [Bedürfnisse] of life; and its sufficiency for such purposes prompted the following maxim: "There is nothing unreasonable which reason (Verstand) or chance cannot straighten, nothing reasonable which unreason or chance cannot warp."

Lamartine once said of the mobility of M. Thiers' features in conversation, "One can see him think through his skin!" He also remarked of the "History of the French Revolution,” “Man is in this history: God is not. M. Thiers' history is a landscape without a sky."

LORD THURLOW.

[Edward Thurlow, an English lawyer and politician; born in Norfolk, 1732; educated at Cambridge; member of Parliament, 1768; solicitor-general, 1770; attorney-general, 1771; lord chancellor, 1778-92; died 1806.]

The accident of an accident.

The Duke of Grafton having reproached Thurlow, during a debate on Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich Hospital, on his low extraction, the lord chancellor rose from the woolsack, and, advancing towards the duke, said that he was amazed at his grace's speech; that the noble duke "could not look before him, behind him, and on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer who owes his seat in this House to his successful ex

ertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honorable to owe it to these as to being the accident of an accident?"

He said while lord chancellor that he was hesitating, in making a legal appointment, between the intemperance of A and the corruption of B; adding, "Not but what there is a deal of corruption in A's intemperance."

To the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., Thurlow once remarked with great frankness, "Sir, your father will continue to be a popular king as long as he goes to church every Sunday, and is faithful to that ugly woman your mother; but you, sir, will never be popular."

When a solicitor remarked that he ought to know of a certain person's death, because he was his client, Thurlow added, "No wonder, when he was your client." His last words were charac

teristic: "I'm shot if I don't believe I'm dying."

Burke said of Thurlow's obsequiousness at court, and his severity in the House of Lords, "Thurlow was a sturdy oak at Westminster, and a willow at St. James's."

TIBERIUS.

[Tiberius Claudius Nero, step-son of Augustus; born 42 B.C.; served with distinction in Spain, Asia Minor, and Germany; adopted by Augustus, and became emperor A.D. 14; used his power at first with moderation, but soon abandoned the government to his minister Sejanus; retired from Rome, never to return, 26, and gave himself up at Capri to a life of profligacy and cruelty; died A.D. 37.]

You leave the setting to court the rising sun.

Of the feeling of the Roman people towards his successor, Caligula. When Sulla opposed Pompey's triumph, on the ground that he had been neither consul nor prætor, the latter bade him consider that "more worship the rising than the setting sun;" intimating that his power was increasing, and Sulla's upon the decline. Sulla did not hear what the "beardless youth" said; but, when told, admired Pompey's spirit, and cried, "Let him triumph!"— PLUTARCH: Life of Pompey. Shakespeare (“Timon of Athens," I. 2) borrowed part of the saying: "Men shut their doors against a setting sun." Garrick wrote an ode on

the death of Henry Pelham, chancellor of the exchequer in 1742: he died on the day of the publication of Bolingbroke's works, which caused the poet to reverse Pompey's saying, —

"Let others hail the rising sun,

I bow to that whose course is run."

Of Bolingbroke himself, Johnson declared, "He was a scoundrel and a coward, — a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution enough to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death.”

Oderint dum metuant.

The most common maxim of Tiberius concerning his subjects was, "Let them hate me, provided they approve of my conduct" (Oderint dum probent). SUETONIUS: Life. This is a change of the line of the poet Accius (“Atreus”) “Oderint dum metuant' (Let them hate, if they only fear me). It is often quoted by Cicero, as in the orations for Sestius, and the First Philippic, and in "De Officiis;" also by Seneca, in the treatise "De Clementia." It was the favorite motto of the emperor Caligula.

Tiberius hated his grandson, who bore the same name as himself, and said that "Caligula is rearing a hydra for the people of Rome, and a Phaëton for all the world; " referring to the son of Helios, the sun-god, who was allowed to drive his father's chariot across the sky; but, being too weak to control the horses, nearly destroyed the earth. This jealousy of Caius (Caligula) and hatred of Tiberius caused the emperor often to exclaim, "Happy Priam, who survived all his children! "

When asked by a condemned criminal to hasten his execution, and grant him a speedy despatch, Tiberius replied, "You and I are not yet friends (Nondum tecum in gratiam redii). — SUETONIUS: Life.

Augustus perceived the dangerous qualities which were later to prove so detrimental to the empire; and, after a day's interview with Tiberius, towards the close of his life, remarked, as his stepson left the room, "Unhappy Roman people, to be ground by the jaws of such a slow devourer!" (Miserum populum Romanum, qui sub tam lentis maxillis erit!) The comparison was