June 22, 1847
The Girardin* affair was before the Chamber of Peers to-day. Acquittal. The vote was taken by means of balls, white ones for condemnation, black ones for acquittal. There were 199 votes cast, 65 white, 134 black. In placing my black ball in the urn I remarked: “In blackening him we whiten him.”
I said to Mme. D—: “Why do not the Minister and Girardin provoke a trial in the Assize Court?”
She replied: “Because Girardin does not feel himself strong enough, and the Minister does not feel himself pure enough.”
MM. de Montalivet and Mole and the peers of the Château voted, queerly enough, for Girardin against the Government. M. Guizot learned the result in the Chamber of Deputies and looked exceedingly wrath.
Notes
* Emile de Girardin had been prosecuted for publishing an article in a newspaper violently attacking the government.