EUROPEAN NEWS. FRANCE. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT [From the Times, March 10.]

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 223, 19 July 1848, Page 2

EUROPEAN NEWS. FRANCE. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT [From the Times, March 10.]

It takes an immense stretch of faith, we repeat, to export much stability Irani so sudden a toiination. We don't expect to cioss a l.iKe on one morning's lrost much less to diivo waggons upon it. However, the Government, in the lir«t place, is only provisional, and does not aim to be more. We are to expect a inoic dehbeuite choice, and must not take it much amiss if the stopgaps hayi 1 been selected in a Imuy. On the whole, it is not wanting in decision or design. It has proclaimed its principles in certain formulas, doubtless more familiar to the French than the linglisli undcrstandmg. It has dissolved the i hambers and totally abolished the Chamber of Peers, whose veiy last debate, it i? pcihajis woith observing, i elated to some project, of law relating to the mortgages on colonial estaus. It is about to consult the i'rench people on the proper shaj)C to be given to the national sovereign* ly, and announces a national assembly, the method and procedure of which it is now devising. The Muni cipal Guard having been disbanded, it commits the police ol l'aris to the ( ity itseli ; that is, to the National Guard. It veiy respectful y unites the sympathy and co-operati <n ot tlie army. '1 lie strongest and most significant measuie is the last— namely, the lorm-itnm ol C >l battalions of movable National Guard*, to be composed of those poor citizens who cannot maintain or clothe themselves, and who are to foim two anps dm we, constituting two annies of obseivation on the frontur. If the Provisional (Government is as competent for action as it is for pioclatnalion, it has some uioiiii-e of stability. That ia the fust point. As tar as these ar langcinents concern the people of Fiance, we have little right tociiticisc them. France, of course, will govern itself. There is no doubt of that \ and we should think that other nations have enough tioublos of their own without wishing to undertake the guardianship of young France. England, in iact, has never recognised any other principle, Pitt acknowledged the 1 evolutionary Government of his day, and negotiated with it both at Paris and at Lille. It is useless to multiply instances. We have recognised every form of revolution, 'ilie independence ol nations is saeied to Kngland. We gave no pledges to Louis Philippe beyond those which we had given to his picdecessor and to the people of France. " The people and some deputies," assisted by the National Guard, deposed ChailesX.,'ai)d raised Louis Philippe to the thione. We respected the call, and the next time our Sovereign addressed his Parliament he infoi mcd it that the elder branch of the Bourbons had ceased to reign in Fiance, and the Dnlie ol Oi leans had been called to the throne with the title ot " King ol the French." "The people and some deputies," assisted by the National Uuaul, have acted again. They have deposed that Dlike ot Orleans and decreed a republic. As a matter of national prejudice we may not like the substitute so well as on the farmer occasion, but we ceitaiuly shall not have less reason Jor acquiescing in the act of the pcopc-. " l AlTthat has been done at Paris, however, is mere child's pUy compared with the work which remains. | The Parisians, it now appears by the evidence of three revolutions, can overthrow a Government, and establish a King> a Republic, or an Emphe, accoiding to the fashion of the hour. An armed middle-class can easily gather at the tocsin, and stand between regiments of the line and an insurgent mob, disarm or destroy a municipal uuaul, and, without taking a very active part in the struggle, can throw all its weight into the scale of the assailants. But can it finish as well as begin ? It can drive the King to dismiss a Minister, but it cannot stay the current which overwhelms the successor, It can thrust its favourite on the Sovereign, but it cannot save both from descending on the avalanche it has once set in motion- '1 he National Guard need only look to the histoiy of the past week to learn that something more than the lash is necessary to guide the iici y chai iot of revolution. Docs this Praoiorian Guard of shopkeepers, trades, men, and respectable mechanics think that its responsibility is now over ? If not responsible to the world, yet it is to France ; if not to France, yet to itself. Such are not generally the men lo prosper, or even to exist in a reign ol'teiror; and without astioiigaud conscientious Government of some sort or other, a reign of terror is suie to aiise. Once weaken the bauds of order, and lorthwith you find the ground beneath your icet mined and chanted with anarchy and destruction . Hands of wretches then emerge from their holes, and, seeing the coast clear, soon join their foircsiaud establish a bloody despotism, the strength ol which is rather in its crimes than its numbers. Should the guillotine again be eiected, and claim itt human hecatombs, many will sutjei besides tho<-c who am deno. mted and put out ol pain, Famine will bu

sharper oven than the knife. Jluttheie n'c crimes more glorious, though nor less culpable not los cciMiti to recoil on those who, having ghen the (iist impulse, luck the courage to restrain it There aic uinics against nations as well as against persons. Aie the tradesmen of Paris prepared to declare war ajrainst Europe? Kuropc will respt'et, national independence hut, if lequired, it will also succour it. II it allows libeity of choice, it will also protect it.