LOUIS NAPOLEON AT STRASBURG. [From The "Times," July 26.]

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 692, 1 December 1852, Page 3

LOUIS NAPOLEON AT STRASBURG. [From The " Times," July 26.]

We have no wish to detract from tho success of Louis Napoleon's progress to Strasbmg, or to overlook the information which this display of the popularity of the ruler is calculated to ftivo us upon the present state and future policy of France. On the contrary, it is the brilliancy of this pageant that attracts our notice. The occasion of the opening of a railway was, indeed, hardly adequate to the circumstances which attended it, such as the throwing a pontoon bridge over the Rhine, on which the French artillery advanced to the utmost verge of the territory of the Republic, an excursion into the Grand Duchy of Baden, and the triumphal return of a semi-Imperial cortege through the streets and boulevards of Paris, between ranks of innumerable soldiers, and with all the parade that could welcome a conqueror. But the temper of the French people is wrought at the present time to this sort of exaggeration, and it would be hard that, their love of display should not be gratified as lon# as it can be indulged with impunity. The maidens of the little town of Toul, who saluted Napoleon on his passage in the

langungo of historical association and of political allusion, took their standard of comparison from the heroine who figures in their own annals. The Pucolle of Orleans had stopped^ at Toul on her sacred mission to Pvheims ; horns Napoleon passed through Toul on his way to open the Stvashurg Rail a ay, Joan of Arc and Louis Napoleon hud both saved the country, and what move was wanted to complete the parallel between theso two personages i In the address of some other hamlet, which fell under our notice, sycophancy soared to blasphemy, and the President of the Rej public was sainted with the sacred and unseemly adjuration, "Thy kingdom conic." Everywhere it seemed as if the people could not rise to a higher pitch of enthusiasm, or adopt a lower posture of servility ; and greatf-r honours would .scarcely be paid to a man who had saved his country,not metaphorically, but in rude earnest. Louis Napoleon has only enslaved it ; but at certain times in history the terms are convertible, at least among I those who consider their existence most secure i when their liberty is most extinguished. From what, after all, has Louis Napoleon vivcd the country 1 From nothing but the results of its own inconsiderate actions and phantoms of its own terrified imagination. From what has he saved these very departments of Eastern France 2 Was the enemy on the frontier advancing once more upon the Meuse and the Marne ] Ko such thing. The enemies he has crushed were the representatives of these very citizens ; — the red Republican deputies of these identical departments, chosen hy universal suffrage and by myriads of votes — men whom these very cities had armed with revolutionary power, and whom they might have deprived of it. Democracy has nowhere been carried to greater excesses ; but democracy in its uncontrolled action on the continent has produced but two results — it reduces every constituted power to anarchy only to raise one crushing despotism in their place, which it decorates with the name of a saviour of the country. That is the consequence of the instinctive popular impiilse to a union and a force it can produce "by no oilier means ; and hence the will of the majority, including the great uneducated masses of the nation, hails with satisfaction and confidence the creation of a power as little amenable to the laws of ,reason and duty as their own prejudices. Such a power is precisely in the condition which renders it prone to sudden resolutions of policy and to violent actions ; for it is continually reminded of its immense material force, and it is wholly uncontrolled by that moral law which is best discerned by the light of freedom. Nothing, therefore, is more likely to ripen projects which are known to have dwelt in the mind of Louis Napoleon, and which have been partially disclosed by his actions, than these popular acclamations of w hole provinces, ready, as it would seem, to soconcl his ambition, to inflame his passions, and to exaggerate his means of action. With such a spirit pervading the departments of Franco, it is clear that the peace of Europe is just as absolutely dependent on the will of one man in the West of Europe as it is in the East ; aud it will be well if Louis Napoleon uses this tremendous power with as much moderation and good faith as the Emperor Nicholas has displayed. But in the midst of festivities which inaugurate a highroad ibv the nations destined to extend and to multiply the blessings of peace, the clang of arms jars upon the ear, and reminds us that even theso ceremonies and pageants derive their chief splendour and attraction from the counterfeit of war. Although, therefore, there is bappily no outward cause for apprehension in the present relations of France with any of the other States of Europe, it is not easy to separate the ostentatious display of military power from the purposes to which that power is most easily directed ; and it might happen to cooler and move politic rulers than those who now lord it over France to be intoxicated with such ovations. At such times the real position of the French Government is apt to be forgot ton — the silent minority standing aloof from these scenes, but including hyfavthe largest share of the worth and ability of the nation, whose power is only felt at this time by their absence — the implacable resentment of men once high in military and political office, but who have been robbed of their importance, their hopes, and of their country — the imperfect restoration of public credit and excessive floating burdens of the | country, which the first strong political pertur- j bation'will throw into a crisis of financial em- i barrassment. These are causes of weakness which pi escribeto Louis Napoleon to a cautiousand temperate course of policy as the safest method of consolidating his power. But, on the other hand, the acclamations of the multitude, the passions of the army, his own ambitious fatalism, and the traditions of the Empire impel him with perilous certainty along a different track. Already, in the scarcely formed Court which is soon to be more ostensibly constituted, the projects for the restoration of the Imperial Government are intermingled with premonitory intimations of its ejr= ternal policy. The recovery 01 the left bank of the Rhino, the emancipation of Italy } -witli the restoration of French dyn^ies beyond the Alps, and, above all, retaliation for the battle of Waterloo, are familial topics, never lost su>ht of, though slowly pursued. Although little is said, there is not a Court in Europe at which those tendencies are not watched with increasing anxiety. In every State the maxim of the day is to humour the mutable forms of authority in France, but to evade her intimacy. At present the novelty of the reign, the aspect of military evolutions, the recollection of recent perils, and the possibility of a marriage and a further dignity, suffice to occupy, or at least to amuse her. But the unruly and destructive spirit of the French nation remains unchanged ; its last outbreak was against the constitutional monarchy under which it lived, its next attack might threaten the independence of Europe wercEuro] enotperfectlypieparedtodefend herself against all the force which it is in the power of France to array against her. Even at the risk of anticipating a danger which circumstances may, and we hope will, avert, it is impossible to forget that we have to do with a Government which affords its neighbours no security ; and the same great military exhibitions on the frontier or in the capital which are intended to flatter the army and amuse the people, convey matter for reflection which will not be lost on foreign nations. The telegraphic despatches from Strasburg announced that the " foreign envoys" of the neighbouring Powers were present at the memorable passage of the Rhine, and no doubt, partook in the lively diversion which attended that exploit ; but neither on this nor on any other occurrence in this tour did his Highness (as he is now termed) vouchsafe to break through the rule of official silence he had prescribed. The Moniteur reported no more of the vehement or dexterous harangues which he has delivered on his former journeys ; and the world is left to judge of his future intentions by the significant choice of his amusements, and the absence of the declarations usually made on these pacific oc- ; casions. !