Disappointment increasing their irritation, the parliamentary opposition, in a momentary resistance, employed the remainder of their strength.  On February 22d fifty-two Deputies of the Left laid before the Chamber a bill of impeachment against the Ministry, on account of their home and foreign policy during the whole course of their Administration.  “What would you have them do?” said to Guizot an old member of the opposition who had no share whatever in this act.  “They have just rendered the banquet abortive by declaring they would not attend it, and felt compelled to do something to compensate for and to some extent redeem that refusal.”

Weakness has a constraining power difficult to understand, which is not foreseen even by those who give way to it; and of this the history of the Revolution of 1848 offers an eloquent and melancholy example.

The King, as well as his ministers, still hoped that the crisis had passed, and that the disorder avoided on the occasion of the banquet should not reappear under any pretext.  The display of military forces which had been agreed upon and prepared was ordered to be suspended; instructions to arrest the Republican leaders were issued slowly and in but few instances.  Yet a secret agitation was indicated in several parts of the capital; there were numerous crowds; on the morning of the 23rd several corps-de-garde were attacked.  As the fermentation increased, the streets were crowded with idle workmen; people collected in knots from curiosity, or stood at their doors.  The storm was in the air, evident both to those who dreaded it and those who were preparing to make use of it.

Meanwhile the appeal of the revolutionary leaders to the National Guard had been listened to.  Many of the Parisian shopkeepers took part in the “reform movement,” without well understanding it, and marched under the orders of their dangerous allies.  Several detachments of the Seventh, Third, Second, and Tenth Legions appeared in the streets, some in the Faubourg St. Antoine, others marching to the Palais Royal, or the office of the National in the Rue le Peletier, and others in the students’ quarter shouting “Long live reform!” in every street.  When General Jacqueminot, the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard, ordered a general muster of the legions, a large number of the guards, respectable and law-abiding men, did not answer to the summons.  They had no desire for a revolution or reform forced from the legal powers by insurrection, but they shrunk from entering upon a struggle with soldiers wearing their own uniform and influenced apparently by reasonable motives.  They remained in their homes dejected and anxious.