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26-2 POLITICAL CONSEQUENCESmay be considered under two points of view, and these intoapparent oppositioneach other. It prepared the way onthe one hand for the absolute power of the king, and yet onthe other it seems, even after the fall of its party, to havemaintained a spiritof resistance in the nation.It is a common phenomenonin great monarchies, thatthe power of the government does not become firmly established, and either wholly, or in great part, absolute, has undergone a struggle with some strong party in opposition to it.till itAt the moment when such a party has been suppressed or disarmed, every thing is open to the sovereign ;and even the remaining props of national liberty may beIn France the government found such aneasily put aside.opposition as we describe, in the party of the Hugonots.is true that it was the government itself, which by its persecutions, its duplicity, and utter cruelty, converted a friendlysect into a party of political opponents. This cannot bedenied the cry of death which was raised on St. Bartholomew's night, and echoes to allages, is too strong an evidence of this ;but still an unprejudiced observer must confess, that the foundation of any stable government in Francemust needs have remained impossible, as long as this partycontinued to hold arms in its hands.The edict of Nantes had undoubtedly softened down theirviolence : on such fearful storms as had here raged, aperiod of calm must at any rate follow but;the eventswhich occurred after the murder of Henry IV. served toshow how formidable the stillHugonots were.It was difficult for any great and effectual measures ofgovernment to be carried through without coming in contact with them ;for such a party cannot for any time existwithout involvingits own interests with the interests of thestate, in such a multiplicity of ways as to afford abundanceof real, or, what is in effect the same, imaginary points oiexcitement The struggle which Richelieu maintainedagainst the Hugonots was, therefore, a necessary if struggle,any permanent order of things was to be establishedin France : he wished to disarm but not to extirpate them :and the condition in which they were leftby the peaceof Rochelle, (1629,) was such as, in accordance with law,they ought to have been placed in ;Italthough, at the same