FRENCH PROVISIONAL MINISTRY. [From the Times, February 28.1

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 311, 22 July 1848, Page 4

FRENCH PROVISIONAL MINISTRY. [From the Times, February 28.1

What is the Government now established at Paris ? For the present, that is the most anxious political question which a Frenchman or any other European can ask. No sensible person will ask it in an invidious spirit, or with the least wish to receive or make out an unfavourable reply. The destiny of thirty millions, the tranquillity of Europe, and other issues of infinite moment, are committed to new hands. As far as we are concerned, it is only next to asking "Who governs at St. James's? We will ask, therefore, as we wonld concerning those from whom we may ' soon receive ambassadors, and to whom Lord Normanby himself may possibly be accredited. The answer is soon given. The people and some deputies in, or, more properly, after the sitting on Thursday, nominated six

persons as the Provisional Government of France. Let us speak of them with the utmost possible respect. These six men, chosen on the inspiration of a moment, by an absolutely casual throng, are distinguished for various poetical, scientific, and philosophical attainments. Lamartiue and Arago are sufficiently known and admired in this country. Ledru Rollin enjoys the regards of a certain class of Irish politicians. Mr. Cobden will answer for Cremieux. Whatever more is known of them we have said it above. We are willing to believe that all six are men of the purest benevolence and of an almost romantic integrity. Would that they possessed the commonest requisites for their more than mortal task ! Would that the awe of the crisis, and the respect for virtue, might supply all deficiences of authority and of talent? We are ready to believe and to hope, and charitably to expect all this; but never were faith, hope, and charity, more severely tried. It is vain to count the stages of the crisis. As well compute the bounds of a rock dislodged from the mountain peak and precipitated to the valley. Yet it must be said that the steps which led to the Provisional Government were many and quick. Within twentyfour hours Guizot had been minister, then Mole, then Thiers, then Odillon Barrot, besides various military appointments equally sudden. Between breakfast and dinner ou that memorable Thursday Odillon Barrot governed France in three distinct capacities. First he was the minister of Louis Philippe. His ministry under that monarch was distinguished by two remarkable acts. He began with advising his Majesty to order the regiments of the line to lay down their arms ; and by the time that experiment on the public safety had had time to work, he advised his Majesty to abdicate the throne in favour of the Count of Pam, nominating the Duchess of Orleans for the Regent. At twelve o'clock, therefore, Odillon Barrot became minister of Louis, King of the French. There is no reason to doubt his constancy and devotion during the hour and a half of this Ministry and reign. He probably did what he could. Under his auspices the young King entered the Chamber of Deputies at one door, and in a few minutes "the French people" entered at the other. The Regent tried to speak ; but the first and last words of her brief hour's Regency were drowned in the voice of the people. The young king abdicated his bench in the Chamber, and withdrew, just about the time the bill-posters were placarding Paris with the proclamation, signed by Odillon Barrot, announcing the commencement of his reign. Thus ended the second ministry of this remarkable statesman. As Louis and his mother withdrew, the President put on his hat, the Chamber closed its sitting, the deputies separated, or rather retired before the armed majesty of the people, and the republic was inaugurated. Here began the third stage of Odillon Barrot's career. It is not so clear as the preceding. The only fact we have is, that the Provisional Government then nominated were the very men he had already chosen for his Cabinet. It is to be presumed, therefore, that he had, and still has, a considerable share in the new regime. All this took place — three Ministries, two Kings, a Regent, and a Republic — in little morejime, so (p speak, than we have been telling it. It takes an immense stretch of faith, we repeat, to expect much stability from so sudden a formation. We do not expect to cross a lake on one morning's frost, much less to drive waggons upon it. However, the Government in the first place is only provisional, and does not aim to be more. We are to expect a more deliberate choice, and must not take it much amiss if the stopgaps have been selected in a hurry. What is more, the provisional government has existed since two o'clock on Thursday, and we have news up to Saturday night. That makes nearly three days, and we now judge the Government by its acts. 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 English understanding. It has dissolved the Chambers and totally abolished the Chamber of Peers, whose very last debate, it is perhaps worth observing, related to some project of law relating to the mortgages on colonial estates. It is about to consult the French people on the proper shape to be given to the national sovereignty, and announces a national assembly* the method and procedure of which it is now devising. The Municipal Guard having been disbanded, it commits the police of Paris to the city itself; that is, to the National Guard. It very respectfully invites the sympathy and co-operation of the army. The strongest and most significant measure is the last, namely, the formation of 24 battalions of moveable National Guards, to be composed of those poor citizens who cannot maintain or clothe themselves, and who are to form' two corps d'armee, constituting two armies of observation on the frontier.

If the Provisional Government is as competent for action as it is for proclamation, it has some promise of stability. That is the first point. As far as these arrangements concern the people of France, we have little right to criticise them. France, of course, will govern itself. There is no doubt of that ; and we should think that other nations have enough troubles of their own without wishing to undertake the guardianship of young France. England, in fact, has never recognised any other principle. Pitt acknowledged the revolutionary 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. The Independence of nation* is sacred to England. We have no pledges to Louis Philippe beyond those which we had given to his predecessor and to the people of France. "The people and some deputies," assisted by the National Guard, deposed Charles X. and raised Louis Philippe to the throne. We respected the call, and the next time our Sovereign addressed his Parliament he inform id it that the elder branch of the Bourbons had ceased to reign in France, and the Duke of Orleans had been called to the throne with the title of "King of the French." "The people and some deputies," assisted by the National Guard, have acted again. They have deposed that Duke of Orleans and decreed a republic. As a matter of national prejudice we may not like the substitute so well as on the former occasion, but we certainly shall not have less reason for acquiescing in the act of the people. All that has been done at Paris, however, is mere child's play 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 Empire, according to the fashion of the hour. An armed middleclass can easily gather at the tocsin, and stand between regiments of the line and an insurgent mob, disarm or destroy a municipal guard, 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. The Natioual Guard need only look to the history of the past week to learn that something more i than the lash is necessary to guide the fiery chariot of revolution. ! Does this Praetorian Guard of shopkeepers, tradesmen 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 geuerally the men to prosper, or even to exist in a reign of terror ; and, without a strong and conscientious government of some sort or other, a reign of terror is sure to arise. Once weaken the bands of order, and forthwith you find the ground beneath your feet mined and charged with anarchy and destruction. Bands of wretches then emerge from their holes, and, seeing the coast clear, soon join their forces, and establish a bloody despotism, the strength of which is rather in its crimes than its numbers. Should the guillotine again be erected, and claim its human hecatombs, many will suffer besides those who are denounced, and put out of pain. Famine will be sharper even than the knife. But there are ciimes more glorious, though not less culpable — not less certain to recoil on those who, having given the first impulse, lack the courage to restrain it. There are crimes against nations as well as against persons. Are the tradesmen of Paris prepared to declare war against Europe? Europe will respect, national independence, but, if required, it will also succour it. If it allows liberty of choice it will also protect it.