Of course you are correct: the quotation is about the liberal idealism of youth needing to be replaced by eventual realization of the way the world really is.
In 2009, hopefully that realization includes reflections about the nature of larger corporates and the fact that an economy is maintained by a republic or democracy (or these days largely by co-operation between them) to deliver stability and quality of life for all, not just a comfortable elite. Refusal to acknowledge this always seems to lead to an unfortunate result- such as the guillotine for Louis Phillipe under whom Guizot was Minister of the Interior, fwiw.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
