THE FIRST GREAT MISTAKE OF THE FRENCH PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. (From the Times, Feb. 29.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 224, 22 July 1848, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FIRST GREAT MISTAKE OF THE FRENCH PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. (From the Times, Feb. 29.)

Bonaparte spoke a homely but important truth when he laid Cc n'cst quo le tentrr gui gouverne k monde. It is the losi, nut of a Reform banquet, bulol' the daily bica 1 of myriad*, that has dethroned LouU Philippe and established a mob government la Paris. I'ull work and good wages would have kept that fierce democracy in order bitter thuu a hundred thouiand soldiers of the line — better (than twenty forts duly manned and provisioned — better even than a well packed and well ted majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The real work of the revolution last week was done by hungry men. They contributed numben, fury, recklesmiess, and terror to an vmeute, 0. Odillon Bairot had another thing in view when he applied the

torch to the magazine. lie expected a brilliant firework, illustrating constitutional principles. The effective tableau was to teach a grave moral. Out of an impoMing avenue of unarmed National Guards, a vaht deal of silent indigmit i«n, and a scenic impeachment, he had constructed a melodrama ending in the overthrow of Guizot and the exaltation of M. Odillon Dariot to guidt» the 1 ist days of Louis Plul'|>pe and the minority ot his grandson. liut the nvueiial was more abundant and more explosive Ulan he reckoned on. Within twenty four hours both Guizot and Uarrot were successively shtlved, unh-s? we arc to suppose that the latier had more to do with the sequel than he chose to avow. Why was this? The answer is a vulgar one. There were in Paris tome hundred thousand empty I stomachs. It is the nature of this disease to require a prompt remedy. The Reform banquet might have been postponed for months but even a few hours are a serious delay tq a hungry man. A mere change of Minibtry, a dissolution ot the Chamber, and a more enlightened policy fnr a future, were cold comforts to the hupperless rabble. " See that we are not cheated of our tights this time," they call out at the office of the National, us if they could not wait anolher-sevpn-teen ye ars. The disorder was chronic, but the pang» were sharp, and something must be done without further delay. This feature of the crisis is revealed in the first arts of the Provisional Government. Addressing 5 the " Citizens of Parib" with customary grandeur of expression, it laments the ' emotion" which still agitates the capital, and threatens to compromise the prosperity of the people. That emotion it labours to allay with mudi the tame simple argument which a mother might use with a hungry child. *• Provisions are assured, and the bakers are provided with flour for thirty-five days." Alter an odd parenthesis about the adhesion of the General, the " Citizens of Paris" are then told, " One thing alone still retards the sentimtnt of public security, and thßt is, the agitation of ths people, which is want of work, and the ill-founded distrust which causes the shops to be kept closed and puts a stop to business. To-morrow the uneasy agitation of a svffeung part of the population v*ill disappear under the impiesMon of the works which are about to be resumed, and of the enrolments of men receiving pay which the Provisional Government has decreed to»day." The distrust lamented in this sentence, it must be confessed, wa« not without reason. The " Citizens of Paris" though they manifested throughout these three glorious days (he must heroic abstinence from plunder, and though they shot a poor fellow who had pocketed one of Louis Philippe's Mirer spoons as a souven r of the citizen lung, were rather freer customers at the pi ovision shops thnn suited the views of the propneurs, and the shops weie accordingly closed. The shopkeepers did not trust their fellow-citizin*. The Provisional Government finds itself compelled to undertake that variety of duties so vehemenily urged up >u the Brituh government by some IrMi advihers during the late famine. It opens the shops, guarantees their supply, and gives their customers both employment and money. In the case ol Ireland tlnveueekers and war steamers, blue jackets and admirJs. were the purveyors to be employed. In Paris a commissariat of a s ill more equivocal chaiacter is introduced. "The students of the Polytechnic School and the citizens Do Basbano and Solins are charged to watch over the full and entire execution of the deciees issued by the Provisional Government of the Republic for provisions of all kinds. They ahull more partieularlv see that the bakers be well supplied with bread. Every power is given them for this purpose, and to this effect they will go to the halles and entrepots, aud asmre themselves of the complete state of the fcuppliea ; they are authorised to call tor the assistance of the armed force to secure the deliveries." What with the students of the Polytechnic School, and the " armed force" at their command, we confess to tome little apprehension for the bakers, corn me; chants, and farmers, within reach of the capital. As for the other parties in the arrangement, the customers themselves, th.-y are all looked to. In the first place, twenty-four battalions of moveable National Guard are to be emolled from the most destitute classes, who are forthwith to icccive 30 sous, or Is. 3d. a day. Their physical wants will be batisfud with bread, their heroic appetites with a sight of the Alps or the Rhine. Of course, under the disguise of an army, this is a gigantic system of out-door relief. It is pauperism in uniform, with barracks for union workhouses, and with the glory of prospective conquest! instead of the stigma we attach to the profession of poverty, Omnc tulit punctual qni vnscuit utile dulci. Ccitainly it is a better arrangement than ours, as long as it lasts. We leave it, however, to the economists of France to say how the gratuitous feeding of 24 t OOO paupers is likely to make bread cheaper (or the rest. But this is not all. A virtual gift of ten franci is an ounced to every penon who is poor enough to have about him a pawnbroker's pledge to that amount. " All objects pledged at the Mont de Piete, from February 4th, consisting of linen, clothes, and other small articles, on which not more than ten francs have been lent, shall be gi<eu back to the parties to whom they belong. The Minister of Finance is charged with the ta«k of providing for the expense which the preient deciee will occasion." This is no more than reason. The mob have captured Paris, with France into the bargain, and they deserve some prize money, at well as a share in the political benefits of the conquest. Besides all these attangements of a more or less eleemosynary character, public works are promised. How often lm*e public works stopped the mouths of Cerbeius ! '1 he three glorious days of Ju'y were followed by public woiks at no distant interval. The fortifications of Paris liud this among oilier objects. Here again, however, we fear we shall be at issue with the Republic economists. Public works undertaken, not so much for themselvei as for the wages distributed, are merely a specious and ruinous pauperism — aggravating the evil they palliate or postpone. The signs of an industrial insurrection are every whote betrayed. It is a grand turn out against tteh c s:a'e as the master employer. Parisian republicanism is lrii.i repeal, and is nothing more or less than a violent mid organized indignation ugainst a Govern. ,|

ment which docs not succeed in finding profitable employment for the people. Bands of armed workmen are everywhere parading tbe city. Many of the shops, we a-e told, have been not only ransacked l,ut win ton ly injured, as il by discarded or offended employes. These formidable bodies* penetrate the Hotel dc Vilic, knock at the doo s, fill the iallcs, and endeavour to repeat in tlie Council room the terrible scene which decided the fate of France in the Chamber of Deputies. The penius of I amartine is tasked to lull the storm. On Friday, tl'is surprising man, exhausted by a sixty hour's hitting, wis five times summon-d to addrc-s fresh massci of armed and hungry citizens, and each time ctlcctually wield. d the tieitc di-mocrary. The name scene win exhibited at the Minisrty of the Inierior, when M. Ledru Rollin bribed off his formidable, visitors with the promise of 30 bohs a day mi the National Guard. " The safety of the country," he very truly said, requited their immediate enrolment. The Rejurme vehemently resents some " sinister reports," that these citizen mobs have, been threatening machinery and other apparatus for economising labour. These reports it ascribes to those who. not having been able to gag or conquer the people, calumniate them. By way, however of refuting the calumny it expostulates with the mob, and quotes from the Atdicr, the artizins' journal, a positive statement of the fact, that machinery had been threatened. Its arguments most significantly prove the induhtiial character of the crisis. "If citizens., victims of the organized concurrence against them by means of great forces, were to allow themselves to be seduced into making a holocaust of machinery, they would deceive themselves as to their real enemy. The enemy is not the economical and great motive power of production ; the enemy is the foudal industrial govirnruent, which, in order to found its empire on the servitude of hunger, degraded handicraft, and refused to the workman credit and association." The Atelier argues in the same strain, transferring the blame from machinery and other inventions for abridging labour and multiplying produce, to "egotiiticul and improvident governnitnts." More cogant aiguments, however, are found necessary. Printing machines having been paiticularly marked for destruction, a notice has been hived th.it the piCßi of France is under the protection of the Provisional Government, and the active aid of all good citizens i* invoked in in defence. Even did space permit, it would be scarcely necessary to speculate on this feature of the revolution. Tito fact speaks volumes. It is an operative revolution. We wish we could persuade ourselves that the leaders now installed at the hotel de Ville had not lent themselves to sjme mo»t perilous illusions on the subject of wealth and labour. The expedients with which they meet the existing evil, winch realty is the want of c ipital for profitable emp oyment, are most wretched, fictitious and temporary. A thousand military students sent about furaging for food 1 Shops compul 'Oiily open! Twenty- four battalions of splendid paupcri!) A general redemption of pawns! The ovens of the Hospices constantly at work lor the dis. tributiou of bread to armed citizens ! Unless manna rains from heaven, or the unfortunate province* are plundered, this system of gtatuitous pay and artificial employment cannot last long. It is as sine to run out and come to a stand still us the system of Louis Philippe, or any other violation of political truth The opeialiveb of Pans will find the hotel de Ville as unable to furnish pirpetual employment as the Tuilenci or abrogated Chambers. Tho history of the first 1 evolution wknesies to this truth. However, these events arc not the less full of warning to rulers. Employment and food are amongst the first duties of gjverniuent. 'I ho popular instinct expects to obey, to woik, and to be fed. If it is disappointed in this moderate expectation, it is apt to rebel, not expressly for food, but against institutions which it has no practical reason to value. Let Parliaments look to it, hunger is the staple of rebellion. Justice requires us to guard our censures, We are far from intending a general condemnation of the conduct cither of the Provisional Government or of the people. The former has displayed an energetic zeal for humanity and order, earned out with great judgment. We may instance particularly the abolition of capital punishment for political offences, nnd the strong measures taken for the protection of the once Royal property and other public monuments. The latter has shown equal moderation in the hour ot triumph. The peculiar featuies ot the revolution which we have noticed above are an exception to tbe general character of these events, nnd are io much the more remarkable.