STATE OF FRANCE. [From the Evening Mail, March 28.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 315, 5 August 1848, Page 4

STATE OF FRANCE. [From the Evening Mail, March 28.]

Although no progress has yet been made by the French people in the definite formation of that republican constitution which is to govern the future condition of the nation, the existing form of government in France deserves to be ir ore iully considered, because the fact that such a government has subsisted for a whole month is itself a remarkable phenomenon ; there is moreover every reason to believe that its existence will be prolonged beyond the period assigned to its powers ; but above all, it may be shown that the character which 'this provisional form of government has assumed will materially increase the difficulty of substituting for it any more permanent and circumscribed republican institutions. For these reasons the present political state of France, or rather of Paris, will exercise a powerful and lasting influence on the future course of events. The postponement of the elections, and consequently the prolongation of the pecpliar powers of the Provisional Government, was the most important object of the great popular demonstration of last week ; and there is no doubt that the demand was suggested to the clubs and multitude by the most decided partizans of the revolution — whether in or out of the Government. M. Ledru Rollin himself very explicitly avowed the motives upon which he was prepared toact when he declared that — " If we wish to have a national representation which shall not be a disguised representation of the principles which have been destroyed : if we wish for a truly Republican representation ; if we think that, at this moment, the elections cannot take place, so as to ensure, indelibly and immutably, the principles we proclaimed after our victory — oh, then, the elections shall be adjourned." The ultra-republican party isperiectly aware that the great bulk of the French nation is by no means animated with the same energetic revolutionary sentiments as the populace which sanctions the phbisceta of the Hotel de Ville;but it is expected that by dint of clubs, commissaries from Paris, and an inflammatory press, public opinion in the departments may be raised to a much higher pitch of excitement. Time is therefore "demanded in order to agitate or, according to the expression of our neighbours, j our travailler V esprit public. In the interval the populace of Paris have no reason to complain. They are the absolute masters of the Government and of France. If any attempt were made to promulgate a decree which should not enjoy the favour of that fraction of the French nation, a popular demonstration would compel the Government to revoke it. In other words, the control of the sovereign people, or of that portion of it which assembles in the streets of Paris, is direct and immediate — and this state of things has lasted several weeks, and will last probably as many more. We venture to affirm that no such exhibition or application of immediate popular power has ever been witnessed in a state on so vast a scale, or for so considerable a time. It presents some faint analogy to the assemblies of the democracy of Athens, with her 20,000 citizens, or the comitia of Rome in the turbulent days of the Republic; but in Athens the class of artizans was expressly excluded from the rights of citizenship, and in Rome the proletarii were slaves. There is, however, one place, not in political fiction, where the very same state of things is recommended and applauded as the very perfection of liberty — and that in the pages of the " Central Social" of Jean Jacques Rousseau. It is curious to observe bow many of the wildest sophisms of that eccentric philosopher have been grasped as political truths by the French people, and especially that which submits every act of the executive to the direct control of the sovereign people bodily assembled. Rousseau absolutely proscribes the, theory of representative government ; and in his eyes the agents of executive power are at all times to act as the servants, or rather the slaves, of the popular will. The sovereignty of the people is, to use his paradoxical language, inalienable and indivisible : that is, it cannot be delegated to representatives, or severed into parties. A universal popular dictatorship is the basis of his theory of law and government. Such a state of things has certainly not often been witnessed among men : but it is precisely what we have now before our eyes in Paris. That city has, in the first place, entirely assumed or usurped the sovereignty of

France, and therefore one or two hundred thousand individuals who shout, threaten, and command in the name of the French nation, may be easily collected in one spot at any given time. Practically, France has ceased to be a nation composed of millions of men enjoying equal righ's, and is become a Parisian Republic, ruled by Decemvirs of exclusively Parisian authority. M. de Lamartine, who is himself more connected with the province of Burgundy than with the populace of Paris, has courageously resisted this species of usurpation — but that is probably one of the grounds of his declining popularity. The despotism centralization is never so absolute as when it is wielded by the lowest and most vehement democracy. Under those circumstances, and after the spirit of anarchy has been strengthened by agitation, by indulgence, and a mock fear of resistance, what conceivable inducement have the Parisian crowds to abdicate their actual power, to swear allegiance to the representatives of the other parts of France, to reduce their own pretensions to the slender proportions of a mere constituency, or to obey any rorm of government so established ? It is clear that no species of representative government can stand against the direct power of an armed and excitable mob. Whenever the nine hundred representatives of France are assembled, they will be as completely under the control of the populace of Paris as the late Chamber of Deputies was ou the 24th of February, or as the Provisional Government still is at the Hotel de Ville. Representation of the people is a farce, unless the people consents to suspend its direct interference by authority on all occasions except at a general election. But in like manner, the general aspect of affairs in France has extinguished the other fundamental condition of public liberty, by virtually putting an end to parties. The right to express all shades of opinion with freedom and safety, and to form associations for the defence of them, is the very essence of a free constitution — and the policy of a free state is guided by the result of these contending forces. In Paris, it is needless to say, that all such contests of party have ceased. There is a frightful uniformity of subjection. Opinions are more freely expressed in St. Petersburgh than in the capital of France; and, although factions may arise at the instigation of personal ambition and intrigue, the free movement of parties is paralysed by fear. The party of the Monarchy vanished on the 24th February, and not a man of it has been heard of since ; not a line has been since printed in its defence. The party of the " bourgeoisie" and the National Guard made its demonstration on the 17th March, and in a few hours sank scarcely less effectually crushed than the Monarchy. Neither the one nor the other have attempted to maintain their ground against the popular element, for at the stage at which matters are now arrived in France all discussion means blows — all resistance civil war — and from these dreadful extremities every one recoils. There is, therefore no genuine discussion, and no resistance. If the French people were really to intend that a body of national representatives should frame the future constitution of the Republic, one physical condition would be indispensable to secure the independence of their deliberations, namely, that such an assembly should not sit within reach of Paris. But we are well aware that such a proposal would be altogether chimerical, and indeed would be furiously resented as a direct attack on the majority of the Parisian people. Yet in Paris, as long as the populace retain their present direct and absolute power, no independent executive government and no representative legislature can in reality exist. And we shall not be surprised to learn that the clubs which are engaged in speculating on the utmost limits to which democratic absolutism can be carried had discarded these fictions. A celebrated writer has observed, that the tyranny of the majority is the curse of the democracies: but the existence of a real legal majority in a state presupposes a certain amount of order and justice. There is an evil far beyond that tyranny ; namely, the tyranny of the minority, which is based on injustice, and can only be maintained by fear. "La liberte politique," says Montesquieu, " provient citoyen est cette tranquillite de sa surete ; et pour qu'on ait cette liberte ll faut que le gouvernement ait tel qu'un citoyen ne puisse pas craindre un autre citoyen." How remote is that state of things from the present condition of France !