FRANCE UNDER THE EMPIRE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 57, 13 October 1855, Page 4

FRANCE UNDER THE EMPIRE.

From the editorial correspondence of the New York Tribune we extract the following interesting description of the present political state of our great ally:—

Paris, Tuesday, May 1, 1855. I was last before in France in July, 1851, when she was (at least in name) a republic : I return to mark the changes wrought by three years and over of Imperial sway. I shall endeavour not to forget the modesty wherewith a stranger not acquainted even with the language should speak of the feelings and aspirations of a great people, and, collating all the testimony I have been able to col* lect, to set forth the good as- well as the evil effects of the Napoleonic Autocracy with frankness and candour.

Tbe Government of Russia has been defined as " a despotism tempered by assassination." That of France I would rather characterize as a despotism tempered by a salutary consciousness of the instability of power in this country, and an earnest desire to promote the material welfare of its subjects. Louis Napoleon, whatever his demerits, is no blockhead. He knows that the mode in which he acquired power was most exceptionable, and imposes on him a double necessity for circumspec tion in its use and beneficence in its influences. He knows that he rules by tbe might of bayonets, and that these are for the moment all- powerful in France; but he knows also that this is an age in which bayonets think. The army is his sceptre; he feels it, flatters it, defers to it; but he is aware that its ranks arc constantly recruited from the cottages and firesides of France, and that, were he to become decidedly odious in these, his bayonets would no longer be reliable, and might soon prove dangerous. And, besides, since France has become his possession, his property, his ox, his ass, he must be a fool or a demon if he did not aspire and labour to render her as prosperous and happy as may be without endangering his throne. I cannot doubt, therefore, that he anxiously endeavours, not only to reconcile his subjects to the Imperial regime, but to improve their material and social condition. I could not name another living monarch who would be likely to wield euch absolute power over thirty-five millions of people more beneficently than he does.

But " Slavery, disguise it as thou wilt, thou art a bitter draught." It is a fearful thing to be Autocrat of a nation like this ; to be a subject of such unlimited power is not less fearful. When we consider that in all this mighty nation there is but one puissant voice, of which all other voices are echoes, or are dumb— that one man virtually makes the laws, expounds and executes them — that this man substantially edits all the newspapers, exercises a censorship over the issues of books, telln the people what they are to think and how they are to regard transpiring events— nay, permits them to know only so much of those events as suits his purpose — we may well sigh for that nation, and tremble for him who has waded through perjury and blood to so tremendous a responsibility. If the allied armies were to be defeated and driven out of the Crimea to-morrow, the fact would be suppressed, cooked up or published exactly as should be deemed most conducive to the interest of the Emperor. A leading Parisian journalist recently remarked in confidential conversation that a censorship which expunged and suppressed such portion of each newspaper issue as was deemed objectionable would be mercy compared with the prevailing system, which says nothing till the offence is perhaps without meaning what is inferred) irrevocably committed, and then gives its terrible warning, the second repetition of which silences the offending journal and rums all connected therewith. There is no adjudication, no impartial tribunal — every editor writes with a rope around his neck, which he knows may bo drawn to suffocation whenever the tone of his articles is not agreeable to the lucky though forsworn conspirator enthroned in the Tuileries. His offence may be of the most impalpable, intangible, gossamer character, it suffices that it is an offence in the eyes Q.I Louis Napoleon or some one of his satellites accustomed to nose out the slightest taint of disaffection. And thus it happens that there is really no such thing as public discussion in France. The Legislative Chambers meet when they are called, and adjourn when their master has no further use for them; they have no right to originate or materially change any measure : they can simply say Yes or No to what the Emperor, directly or through one of his Ministers, shall see fit to propose; and they never fail to say Yes— in effect, can say nothing eUe. For this end were they expressly created, and, should they ever fail to subserve it completely, [their creator will unmake them by a stroke of his pea or a flourish of his sabre. Of this, however, there is no shadow of danger. The knowledge that they are puppets to dance with obsequious alacrity at the pull of the string obviates all necessity for destroying or reconstructing them.

This abject dependence and powerlessness of the Legislative bodies is notoriously at war with the " Idees Napoleoniennes" by which the nephew of his uncle professes to be governed. Napoleon at St. Helena admitted that his Legislature was a mistake — that, in divesting it of all real power, he had unwittingly deprived himself of all protection from the most unlimited responsibility. Nobody blamed his " Corps Legislatif " for the foray on Spain, the invasion of Russia, or any other of the mad acts by which the first Emperor was undermined and ultimately ruined. Nobody ever spoke of what the Senate had decreed or advised, Bince everybody knew that the Senate was as impotent and parasitic as the trumpet on which the Imperial blasts of war were blown. And thus it proved in the hour of trial tbat power without limit is power without support.

How then is the present Empire regarded by those on whose shoulders it is upborne ?

I should say, by the Army with approval; by tbe Roman Priesthood with complacency ; by the Noblesse with disdain ; by the Bourgeoise (that is, the mass of the merchants, bankers, extensive manufacturers and other employers) with hesitating and qualified support ; by tbe Intellectual class (professors, authors, editors, Sic.) with intense, though smothered aversion and hostility. Of tbe sentiments of the great mass of the Peasantry I can hardly speak even at second-hand; but the more general testimony implies tbat with many of them the word of the Priests is potent, and Napoleon thus in favour ; while with another large class the name of Napoleon has the same power which that of Jefferson and that of Jackson in its day had with the least enlightened portion of our own people. "To speak (says Heine) of what the provinces of France believe or desire with regard to any public question is like talking of what a man's legs think." 1 apprehend this is to-day the case with regard to a majority of the unskilled labourers of France. Earning from 18 to some 38 cents, each per day beyond the cost of the roof that barely covers them, they think of their "hunger and their rags— they think of the wine they would drink if they could pay for it, and the sport they would have if they could spare a day's scanty wages — but they think very little at present of politics or legislation.

Let Adams or Jefferson ride in the car,

'Tis no matter to me — so I smoke my cigar j — or would, if he could afford to buy one. How men whose aggregate earnings range below 100 dollars a year each, and who have often families to support out of that, where food and fuel are generally far dearer than in the United States, can afford to drink and smoke, I cannot imagine, but they do it. I think dry bread — tbat is bread with only water to moisten and render it palatable— is the

habitual food of a majority of the day labourers of Paris. Men inured to this living are not likely to make resolutions unless the bread fails — then look out !

Louis Napoleon is evidently master of the philosophy of insurrections, having had large experience in that line. While he no longer recognizes in terms the Right to Labour be paactically concedes it. To keep the labouring class of mercurial Paris busy and fed is one cardinal feature of his policy. Hence improvements, gigantic in extent and cost, are constantly in progress here. Since 1851, the Rue de Rivoli, passing by tbe north tide of the Tuileries eastward into the heart of the city, has been transformed into one of the finest streets of the civilized world, much as if William -street, in our own city had been widened to one hundred feet and cut straight through from the harbour to the Fourth-ay. Similar improvements are being made in the leading streets out of Paris westward in the neighbourhood of the Champs Elysees and in other quarters of the city. Many of these were urgently needed— for old Paris has narrower and crookeder streets, with higher houses and worse air, than even Boston ; and it is said that these improvements pay. The Government has the adjacent property appraised, takos it at the valuation, makes the required improvements, and then sells out. I am assured that merely as speculations these enterprises have generally proved profitable, while they have given constant employment to many thousands, and greatly beautified the city. Despotism is bitter, but the despotism of one shrewd man has its alleviations, such as are unknown to the rule of " Bhoulder- hitlers" or of the Empire Club. But will the empire stand? I meet no one who believes it will survive the present Emperor, but very many who think it will last as long as he does. While no one speaks of his patriotism- or disinterestedness, even by way of joke, there is a very general trust in bis ability and confidence in his indefatigable energy. He is pro* bably tbe most active, untiring ruler now living, and in this respect at least reminds the French of "Napoleon le Grand." He has besides the undoubted courage, inscrutable purpose, and unwavering faith in his "star," which befit the heir of the first Bonaparte. He is, moreover, the only focus around which all the anti-republican forces and interests in France can, for the present, be rallied. The priests do not imagine him devout, nor sincerely attached to tbeir fortunes, but they say : " What matter, so lonx as he does our work!" The Legitimists and Orleanists (the former comprising nearly all that remains of the rural or land owning aristocracy, the latter including many of the master manufacturers, contractors, thrifty traders, Stock-jobbers, and lucky parvenus generally), 6ay: "This cannot last; but while it does last it protects us from Jacobinism, from Socialism, from turbulence, anarchy, and the guillotine : so let it last as long as it will." The more intelligent workmen, the skilful artificers, the thinkers, the teachers, the observing, aspiring youth, who are almost to a man Republicans, say: "This evidently cannot last; then why plunge tbe nation into intestine convulsion and bloodshed, when it is already groaning under the load of a distant, expensive, and sanguinary foreign war?" And thus the general conviction that the empire is but a state of transition, serves to protect it from present assault and immediate danger.

I came into Paris last Saturday at the hour, and almost the minute, of the attempt of an unknown Italian to assassinate tbe Emperor, The journals have had much to say of the excitement, the indignation, the enthusiastic loyalty evoked by that crime. To me it seemed incredible that a desperate attack on the life of the Head of the State (I might almost say of the State itself) should cause no more general agitation than this appeared to do, especially among a people so excitable and demon* strative as the Parisians. I saw no crowds in tbe streets, and heard of none; and if any cried Vive I'Empereurl it was when they felt pretty sure the Emperor would hear, or at least hear of, their enthusiasm. The attempt to kill the Emperor has not created one-half the feeling here that the shooting of Bill Pool did in New York, or that an ineffective attempt to take the life of any one of the two hundred of the best known citizens of our emporium would induce. Except in official or military quarters, the whole affair has been taken very coolly. I heard one anecdote of the outrage, which my informant related as a literal fact, and which is at least characteristic enough to be so: — A Ft enchman, walking in the Place de la Concorde, was met by another who exclaimed, in deep agitation—" Have you heard the news? The Emperor has just been shot — he is killed 1" "Served him right! 1 ' responded the other; "Vive la Republique!" "No," cried another runner from the Avenue Champs Elysees; "he has been firel at but not killed— be is unhurt." "I am delighted to hear it," instantly responded tbe Republican of ten seconds previous ; " Vive VEmpereur !" So wags the world.

That the Emperor's cousin and designated successor, Jerome Napoleon (son of the last surviving brother of Napoleon 1.), is generally and intensely unpopular here is undoubted. Old Jerome is a cypher and would hardly attempt to asct-nd the Imperial throne : his son has been a violent Republican in profession without being trusted by the Republicans, and has been with the army in the Crimea without winning any laurels there, or evincing a capacity to do so anywhere. He proved more troublesome to his commander-in-chief than to the enemy, and came home by unanimous consent. Ido nDt believe the army ivill ever transfer to him its apparent devotion to Louis Napoleon, and without this he has no chance. Add to this that the Emperor's health is precarious, and the prospect of a line of heirs to his throne very faint, and tbe wisdom of adjourning to his death the next struggle between Monarchical and Republican elements in France becomes evident.

And yet there are specks of trouble even in the present sky. One is caused by the struggle upon which the Emperor has entered with the Academy. This illustrious body, strictly limited in number, but for generations enrolling on its list of members neaily all the names in France of men eminent for their services to science or literature, has always been independent of the Government— the place of any member who dies being supplied by the suffrages of the survivors. Louis XIV., Napoleon 1., Charles X., Louis Phillippe, and all the intermediate rulers of France, respected this freedom, because they saw tbat the glory, the usefulness, the substantive existence of the Academy depended on it. Louis Napoleon has attempted to undermine it,' and reduce the Institute to the position of a mere creature and tool of the throne, such as tbe Press now is. This the Academy firmly resists — three of the four sections in which it is divided having voted to do so with much unanimity, while the fourth is expected to do likewise. What will be the Emperor's response to this attitude remains to be Been. He is tenacious of bis purposes ; but the affair with Soule and bis abandonment of his intended expedition to the Crimea, prove him not absolutely inflexible. I have been criticised for writing, in 1851, tbat France is at heart Republican : I here repeat that assertion. Temporarily, a majority of her people may prefer the quiet, order, activity, and prosperity secured (while it lasts) by the present despotism, but they are none the less Republicans in conviction and in aspiration. There is no more aristocracy here than in America, and a monarchy without a privileged class is a castle in the air. Louis Napoleon, indeed, says— "Tbe army is the true nobility," and he labours to render it practically what he has declared it; but a nobility subsisting on a franc a

day per bead will not always be satisfied with flatteries from tbe possessor, by their favour, of countless millions of francs. The terms of part* nership are too unequal and must be modified, or the arrangement will not endure. To-day the imperial crown is borne proudly aloft on the point of a sword : you see bayonets everywhere, faitb in ideas apparently nowhere. Tbe atheist axiom, that " God is. on the side of the heaviest artillery," appears to be accepted as an unquestionable truth ; but wait and see.