grief because Dupin would not submit to the many restrictions which surrounded the presidency of the Council. There are, in fact, some peculiar circumstances as regards this presidency. The King himself often assumed it, especially in the beginning of his reign. This was always a great embarrassment for the Minister, and the misunderstandings of those times mostly proceeded from it. Perier alone was able to resist such encroachments, and thereby he withdrew affairs from the too great influence of the Court, which under every régime directs the King; for which reason it is said that the news of Perier's illness was not unacceptable to many of the friends[1] of the Tuileries. The King now seemed to be perfectly justified when he personally assumed the presidency of the Council; but when this provisory arrangement was made public there arose in the salons and newspapers a very violent dispute as to whether the King had a right to act thus.
In doing this there was manifested much chicanery and more ignorance. People gossipped about what they had only half learned and not at all understood, and there was a rustling and spirting from many mouths like a political waterfall.[2]
