PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. [From the Times, Feb. 28.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 311, 22 July 1848, Page 3

PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. [From the Times, Feb. 28.]

The 24th of February is a day which will henceforth bear a signification in history infinitely more terrible than that once given to it in the pages of dramatic fiction. A German poet chose that date as the title of a celebrated tragedy, founded on the fatal march of retributive justice and the mysterious instinct of criminal passion. That day vfcill henceforth be associated with real events equally marked by retribution of the most awful character, and by an explosion of popular passion unparalleled for its instantaneous effects in the known annals of the world. France and Europe have been struck by an unpremeditated blow ; but a blow which is not the less complete, or the less difficult to, be repaired. The event alone has laid bare ; the deep-seated causes of an eruption of which no living man j had foreseen the promptitude or the intensity. The Government; ( pf France perished in utter blindness, as' a man struck by lightning or a

, cannon ball sees not the flash which destroys \ him ; for, such was the rapidity of the stroke, that even those who had laid the train and prepared to tike advantage of it in the morning, were themselves distauced\nd outlawed before the ?vening closed. At an early hour on Thursday M. Thiers was summoned to the Palace to undertake the task of forming a government which M. Mole" had abandoned the night before. He passed through the barricaded streets with alacrity, promising the people reform ; though already on the preceding day he narrowly escaped from an atack of the mob on his person by jumping over a low wall in the Champs Elysees. By 1 1 o'clock in the morning the basis of the proposed Cabinet was formed, and a proclamation issued, signed by Thiers, Duvergier, Odillon Barrot, and General Lamoriciere. In the state of excitement which the populace had then reached, these men, who sought to govern tlie movement they had set on foot, were, precisely as we had predicted on the very day when the thing was happening in Paris, " consumed like stubble," — that was oui expression, that has been their fate. Far, therefore, from allaying the storm, this proclamation was instantly followed by the attack on the Palaces, — the King retired, and abdicated the crown which he had received 18 years before from the hands of the people, — and then occurred in the hall of the Chamber of Deputies the most extraordinary scene we ever remember to have read of. After the abdication of the sovereign, the supreme power was — if anywhere — in the hands of the elected representatives of the nation. Though eveiyibing else was overthrown, that assembly might still be regarded as an institution ; the Constituent Assembly had been so regarded on the 10th of August, 1792, to which day last Thursday bears so striking a resemblance, and the Convention on many occasions presented an aspect of senatorial dignity, even after the irruption of an infuriated mob. To this spot, therefore, the Duchess of Orleans repaired with her children and the Princes. The Liberal Deputies advocated her claims to be Regent, and proposed to place the crown on the head of her infant son. But the aspect of the assembly, the tumult of the tribunes, the presence of an excited mu-titude in the very body of the house, soon showed that the revolution stooped not at the fall of a Ministry, or even the surrender of a crown, — it proc.eded to depose the Chamber of Depu r ties too. The 18th Brumaire, when Bonaparte turned the legislative body out of doors with hi* grenadieis, waa not more decisive. After a vain, and, as it seems, not very heroic struggle, the President, M. Sauzet, put his hat on and retired, followed by the Royal Family, and the whole Conservative or moderate party ;— exeunt the Princes, Deputies, and laws of France. What followed is sufficiently evident from the proclamation of the Provisional Government. The multitude rushed in bodily and occupied the seats of the legislature, together with the Rump of the Parliament which remained after the secession of the majority. By this wild and heterogeneous assembly M. Dupont de l'Eure was borne to the chair, and their acclamations made him. the head of what must be termed for the moment the government of France. The othev members of the government are as follows, and in juxtaposition with them we place, as a matter of curiosity, the names of those who assumed the same offices in 1830 :—: — 1830. * Interior Duke de Broglie Foreign Affairs Bignon Finance Baron Louis Marine Admiral de Rigny Public Instruction .. . Guizot War Gerard 1848. President Dupont de I'Eur.e Interior Ledru Rollin Foreign Affairs Lamartine Finance. . . . , Michel Gourchause Marine Arago Public Instruction. . . . Carnot Public Works Marie War Bedeau And, to conclude, M. Gamier Pages assumes the extinct, but not unforgotten office, of the Mayor of Paris — the Petion we presume, of this new Committee of Public Safety. This compared list is in itself so remarkable, that we might leave it to tell the whole story of this prodigious revolution ; it means, in one word, that in 1830 everything was done to erect an efficient power, not subjected to the impulses of popular passion, and that in 1848 everything is left to the impulses of popular passion itself. In 1830 the revolution was accomplished and arrested ; in 1848 it is installed in place of government. Without, however, entering in this place upon the policy of such a government, or diving into the impenetrable course of events under such cir-^ cumstances, it may be of use to take some brief notice of the individuals who compose this council. They all belong to the most advanced Republican pai ty in France, for it

will be observed that men who have hitherto passed for Liberals, or even ultra- Liberals, beginning with M. Thiers and ending with M« Maguin arid M. Barrot, seem to have been as effectually thrifst aside as r M. Guizot himself. OfM. Dupont de l'liure we have no disposition to speak disrespectfully, but it may stand in lieu of comment when we state, that if he be the person we take him to be, and the same individual who figured in the revolutions of 1792 and of 1830, he is now just eighty-one years of age, having been born, we believe, on February 27, 1767 ; and, certainly, few men have celebrated their 81st birthday in so remarkable a manner. The thing seems incredible, but we do not suppose that there are two celebrated revolutionary characters in the same family ; we rather think this gentleman officiated the other day as the father of the Chamber of Deputies ; and he was probably selected on this occasion as one of the few surviving actors in the old revolution. Ledru Rollin and Gamier Pages are well known by their popular sympathies and their adhesion to the Republican cause whilst they had taken an oath of allegiance to the King and Charter ; but their talents are of a very ordinary description. Of M. de Lamartine we cannot but say liceat perire poelis ; — his bold, generous, and imprudent character has conspired with, his vanity and the temptations of genius to make him the most conspicuous member of such a government as France has never seen before. We do not question the purity of his motives ; we rejoice to think that he, at least, will probably oppose all manifestations of hostility against this country ; but the conclusion is irresistible, that it is his destiny not merely to write of the Girondins, but to follow their career. The name of Arago is as distinguished in science as that of Lamartine in letters ; but even in the scientific world the great mathematican is known by the violence of his temper and the harshness of his character ; his politics are of the most ardent republicanism. Passing over some names of less note, and some utterly strange, that of General Bedeau deserves to arrest attention. He and General Lamoriciere are the most distinguished young generals of the French army ; they have fought their way to the rank they now hold by long and most distinguished services in Algeria, and they have respectively filled the rank of Lieutenant-Governors of the provinces of Constantine and or Oran. The administration of Bedeau. has, from the nature of the country, been most remarkable for military government ; that of Lamoriciere for military | enterprise ; the former passes for the more eminent man of the two, the latter for the most daring. It is needless to point out what prospects the present state of France offers to military ambition, at home as well as abroad ; or what notable precedents there are for the transition from popular government to military power. Apart from speculation, these two young generals now stand forward as prominent competitors for fame and influence ; and whilst Lamoriciere seems to be more intimately connected with the designs of M. Thiers, it is evident that Bedeau has joined the extreme republican section now in power. It is, however, impossible to hazard a conjecture as to the future course of any individual in this surprising confusion, or as to the future condition which the influence of such a revolution may prepare for France and for Europe. When Lucan opened his epic song of those civil wars which revived the days of Sylla, and filled Rome with fears of the worst calamities, he deprecated the foresight which terrified the nation with impending gloom. The French revolution of 1848 might, at least, by its suddenness and its obscurity, have fulfilled that portion of the Roman's prayer : " Jamque irie patuere Defim, manifestaque belli Signa dedit mtradus ; legesque et foedera rerum Priescia monstrifero Tertit natura tumultu, Indixitque nefas. Cur hanctibi, rector Oljmpi, Sollieitis visum mortalibns addere curam, Noscant Venturas ut dira per omnia clades ? Sit tubilum quodcunque parat s sitcrca futuri Mens hominum fati : liceat sperare timenti."