"PUBLIC OPINION." – "UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE." "PLEBISCITUM."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 160, 4 July 1878, Page 2

" PUBLIC OPINION." - "UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE." "PLEBISCITUM."

To the Editor op the < Evening Mail.' Sir—No doubt there will be warm discussions in the next Geueral , Assembly on the matter of au alteration and'extensiou of the suffrage. In one or the Melbourne papers (Telegraph) two vivid pictu.es are drawn of the disastrous effects of the system— otic historical, the other private; but both of recent date. The writer concludes thus: — " And this « plebiscitum '—this instrument of despota aud usurpers — this un-English device, which has been so recently employed for the purpose of condoning one of the most iufamou3 crimes on record is actually proposed to be engrafted on our [Victorian] Constitution! Is it in jest or earnest?" Of the many sketches given of the sanguinary December in Paris, and I heard one graphically given soon after the event by eye-witnesses, I have never seen or heard it so well put as by the writer in tho Telegraph. Would it take up too much space in your paper? If not, I should like you to insert it: it is a valuable historical document, though drenched with blood: — "In December, IPSI.a reckles* and unscrupulous adventurer resolved to seize the Government of France; and he did so, he said, "in the name of the people.' Ia the accomplishment of this object he massacred 3000 people— men, women, and childrenmothers with babies in their arms, boya and girls coming home from school, in the Boulevards of Paris ; 20,000 transports were poisoned by jungle fever in Cayenne, while 25,000 others died of malaria, exposure, and bad food in the marshes of Algeria; whiie the most illustrious citizens of France had to quit the country. That this bloody deed should be condoned recourse was had "to the plebiscitum; and the following is the result of Napoleon's appeal to the public:— Votes ratifying the massacre, 7,4-29,216; condemning the same, 644,737. On thia occasion Napoleon said :— 'More than 7,000,000 votes bave absolved me by justifying an act which had no other object than to spare France, and perhaps Europe, from years of troubles and misfortunes.' He then asked to become Emperor, and resorted to his favorite plebiscitum, with the following result:— Votes for the Empire, 7,864,180; Negative, 253,145. During a reign of eighteen years this political adventurer succeeded in debauching the public mind, in debasing the public morals, in corrupting the public service, and. at last, in provoking a war with Prussia, which resulted in the humiliation and dismemberment of France, and in her having to pay for the whip tbat scourged her; in the unification of Germany; and in the elevation of the Prussian Sovereign to the Imperial dignity in the very palace which Louis the Fourteenth dedicated to " AU the glories of France.' " De Tocqueville gives, the above numbers for the massacres. He has not included the hundreds taken put by moonlight and shot into their graves in the Champs de Mars. To show the. value and wisdom of " Public Opinion " it may be stated that the opponent of Napoleon for the Presidency was Geueral Cavagnac, one of the most illustrious sons of France— worthy of being ranked with the noblest of all the Romans before Rome became an Empire. — I am, &c, E. Tocker. P.S— lt may be mentioned that Napoleon got rid of all the troops engaged in' the December massacre at the stone walls of Sebastopol. Those who survived that melan- ] choly waste bf life— especially the officers— I were sent out officially to Algeria, so that none should be left to tell the tale. Saint Arnaud refused to give up the orders issued on that occasion, but at his death his widow wa3 made a Duchess, and the papers .were i thus obtained. E. T.