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" It was certainly
culpable on the part of the opposition to try to take advantage of this
disturbed state of men's minds to gain the end they were pursuing. Seven
times was parliamentary reform, and three times was electoral reform,
refused by the Chambers, from February 20, 1841, to April 8, 1847; the
question being then displaced, it changed its ground. The opposition
made an appeal to popular passion; and parliamentary discussions were
succeeded by the banquets.
From the close of the session of 1847 to the opening of that of 1848
they kept France in a state of constant fever--an artificial and
deceptive fever in this sense, that it was not the natural and
spontaneous result of the actual wishes and wants of the country; but
true and serious in this sense, that the political parties who took the
initiative in it found among some of the middle classes and the lower
orders a prompt and keen adhesion to their proposals. The first banquet
took place in Paris at the Chateau-Rouge Hotel on July 9, 1847.


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