WILL THERE BE A REIGN OF TERROR IN FRANCE? (From Blackuood's Magazine.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 237, 6 September 1848, Page 3

WILL THERE BE A REIGN OF TERROR IN FRANCE? (From Blackuood' s Magazine.)

The melancholy progress of the first Revolution has naturally made numbers of persone, not intimately acquainted with its events, appiehensive of the immediate return of the Reign, of Teiror and the restoration of the guillotine into its terrible and irresistible sove.. reignty in France. Without disputing 1 that there is much danger in the piesent excited and disjointed siate of the population of that country, there are several reasons which induce us to believe that such an event is not very probable, at least in the first instance, and that it is fiom a different quaiter that the real danger that now threaten France is, in the outset at least, to be apprehended. In the fiist place, although the Reign of Terror is over, and iew indeed of the actual witnesses aie still in existence, yet the recollection of it will nev-r pass away; it has affixed a stain to the cause oi 1 1 evolution which will never be effaced, but which its subsequent leadeis are most anxious to be freed from. Its numerous tragic scenes — its friphtful atrocity — its heroic suffering, have indelibly sunk into the minds of men. To the end of the world, thty will interest and melt every succeeding age. The young will ever find th°m the most engrossing and attractive theme— the middle-aged, the most important subject of reflection — the old, the most delightful means of renewing the emotions of youth. History is never weary ot recording its bloody catastrophes — romance has already arrayed them with the colours of poetiy-~ the drama will ere long seize upon them as the finest •übjects that human events have ever furnished for the awakening of tragic emotion. They will be as immortal in story as th© heroes of the Iliad, the woes ot the Atrides, and the catastrophe of (Eiipm, the death of Queen Mary. So strongly hare these fascinating tragedies rivetled the attention of mankind, that nothing has ever created so powerful a moral barrier against the encroachments of democracy. The royal, like the Christian martyrs, have lighted a fire which, by the grace of God, will never be extinguished. fc>o strongly are the popular leaders of every country impressed with the moral effects of these catastiophes, that their first efforts are always now directed to clear eveiy successive convulsion of their damning influence. Gu'Zot and Lafayette, at the hazard of their lives, in December, 1830, saved Polignac and M. Pcyr^nnet, from the guillotine ; and the first act of the Piovisional Government of France in 1848, to their honour ba it said, was to proclaim the abolition of the punishment ot death for political offences, in order to save, as they intended, M. Guizot himself. In tbe next place, the bloodshed and confiscation of the first levo ution have, as mbsequent writers have repeatedly demonstrated, to completely extinguished the elements of national lesistance in France, that the dangers which threatened its progress and ensanguined its steps no longer ex'st. It was no easy matter to overturn the monarchy and

— — wmam— ■ i ii ii mi mniiiM'.i>A&aw«mß«aiffl«Hßsa> church of old France, It was interwo w t'u wiih tb». noblest, because the mosl disinterested t&'hngs of our imtuie— it touched She chords of religion and loyalt) — it was (supported by liislouc names, and the lustre of ancient descent— it rei-ted on the btiongest and naost dignified at'a hmtnts of modem iiines. The overthrow of sucii a fabric, like the destruction of the monarchy of Great Britain at this time, could not be effected but by the t,hfcddw<j of torrent* of bloui. Despite ibi itrebolution of the K'n», the detection of the army, the conquest oi the cipitul, and the emigration of the nublease, accordingly, a most desperate resistance arose in the ptovinces; and •h p revolution was consolidated only the vutullades of Lyons and Toulon, the no>/uiles ot the Loire, the proscription of the Convention, the blood of La Vend<se. Fr.inu3 was not then enslaved by us capitil. 15ut now these fie metils of resistance to the government ot the ilommin? multitude in Paris no longer eiist. Tiie nobles have beea destroyed andtbeir estates con fucated ; the clergy are leduced to humble stipendiaries, not supenoi i.» station or influence to village schoolmasters ; the coiporations of towin are dissolved ; the hou c of peers has degenerated ino n bo iy oi well-dies A-d and titled employes. Six millions ot sepdiato landed propiietors, without leaders, wealth, intbimation, or influence, have seized upon, and now cultivate the soil of Fran je. Power is, over tha whole realm, synonymous with, office. Every appointment in the kicgdom flows from Paris, lv these circumstances, how is it possib'e that resistance to the decrees ot sovereign pnwei.in possession ot the armeJ force of the capital, tli,; treasury, the telegraph, and the post office, can an>e in France elsewhere tlun in the capital? livil wai, therefoir, out an extended scale over the country, is improbible; and. the victorious leaders ot the revolution, delivered trom immediate apprehension, save in their i,wn metropolis, of domestic d<ingei,have no motive for shocking the feelings of mankind, and endangering their relations with foreign powers., by needless and unnecessary deeds of crueUy. It was during the struggle with the patricians that the pn sjripttons ot Sylla and Manns deluged Italy with blood. Alter they were deployed, by mutu-il slaughter and the denunciations of the Trium-c vnate,' tliongli there was often the greatest possible tyranny and oppression under the emperors, there was none of the \\ hole-ale deduction of Lt'e which disgraced the republic when therivjl iactions fronted each other in yet undi'nmished strength. Although, however, (or these reason*, we dj not an'icipate, at least at present, those s.inguinaiy proscriptions which have for ever rendered infdnaous the Ik 0 !: revolutioa, yet we fear there is rea^m to apprehend changes not less uestiuc-* live in their tendency, misery Dtill more wide-spread in. its effecra, descmed, perhaps, to rerminate at list m bloodshed not lets univerhal. Men Have discovered that they are not mere beasts of prey j they cannot live on ile»h and blood. But they hava learned also that they can live veiy well on capital and property : and it is against these, in consequence, that the present revolution will be directed. They will not ha openlyassailed : direct, confiscations of possessions have fallen filmost as much into disieputeaj the shedding torrents of blood on the «ca(l\.ld. Ihe thing will hi done more covertly, but not leis effectually.

Victims of the Revolution- iN 1793, iv France. — Prud'homme has, given the following ap-. palling account of the victims of the resolution :—: — Nobles 1,278 Noblewomen , 750 Wives of Uljouren and artisans 1,4u7 Religiouses oJO Priests 1.H5 Common pursous, not noble., lo (i'2i Guillotined by sentence of the Revolutionary Tribunal 18,603 18,603 Women died of pidnutuie child-birth * 3,100 In child-biuh from grief 3iS Women killed in La Vendee ... ] r ),000 Children killcJ in Li Vendee.. 2J.000 Men slam in La Vendee 9i)o,f.')i) Victims under Canier at Nantes 32,000 ("Children shot 500 2 Children ihowt ed 1,5 "' is Women shot 291 S J Women drowued 500 M "» Priests shot 300 * Priests drowned 4fiO 3 N»ble«dro«necl 1.400 LArtisuns drowned.. . .^...... 5,300 Victims at Lyons 31,000 Total 1,022,351 In this enumeration are not comprehended the massacres of Versailles, at the Abbayc, die Carmelites or other prisons, on September 2nd, the victims of the Glacicie of Avignon, those shot at Toulon and Marseilles, or the peisons siain in the little town of Bedoin, the whole population of which perished !