[From the Times, July 1, 1848.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 343, 15 November 1848, Page 3

[From the Times, July 1, 1848.]

A deep mystery, or at least, a general si» lence, has hitherto prevailed hi France as to. the most responsible leaders of the late revolt and the conspiracy in which it originated, That such vast preparations, that such military organization, that such a protracted re* sistance were not the result, of accident or of any hasty insurrection must be evident to the whole world, But in the midst of so dearly bought a triumph, the men who have rescued their country from the jaws of anarchy and. impending ruin, by an exertign of courage and self-sacrifice unparalleled by civic troops, still hesitate before they lay bare the depth of peril from which they have escaped, and .the political crimes which have led to such 3 .catastrophe. EJre long, however, the truth mu§t make its way. The just indignation of the Natipnal Guard and the middle classes, which can hardly be restrained from inflicting summary execution on their guilty fellow* citizens, will not endure that the offences of greater criminals should be screened fronj condign retribution ; and t|e safety of the State, as well a? {he laws of universal ju£v tice, jmperfct^ejy, requ'yrp. an unflinching "mV o vestigitfgri q$ -tUjS 'of '^his . strugglaj Jfoljgwe'd by .ttfe .guqigjijjiepl, <?f thfc raifyrjji,

At present, strange to say, not a name has been pronounced altiud, and the suspicions which have, n,ow succeeded' to the excitement of the battle have hardly assumed a precise or ostensible form. But we can no longer refrain from stating that' tjiose suspicions,' backed by Written proofs, point mosi; strongly to the members of the late Executive Commission, and to none more than Laraartine. The first duty of the National Assembly, after the restoration of tranquilliity, or rather the cessation of bloodshed in the capital, ;w,as therefore to perform the severe but essential work of justice. Nor can we impute to that body an undue harshness or contempt for th'e^ forms of law, if,,under such circumstance's, it has proceeded by very sweeping measures. The necessity of the case was imperious. The prisons, and even the cellars of the public buildings of Paris, are crammed to suffocation with thousands of misguided wretches, taken With arms in their hands, in the flagrant act of civil war. Against these masses even the expeditious proceedings of courts-martial, applied to r individual cases, would afford a tardy arid Ineffectual remedy. The Assembly has, therefore, been led 'by 'the terrible pressure of J the times to pass a/general bill qf proscription. By the .mere authority of the Executive' Government the whole of this rebellious population may v be summarily transported to the savage islands of the Pacific or the swamps of Gdiana ; and the , more deliberate proceedings of the courts-martial, assisted by a committee ,of inquiry of the Assembly itself, wiir be directed to the cases of the chiefs' or instigators of the rebellion,' or those who shall be found Jo have distributed money or held a command during the insurrection. This measure encountered : no serious opposition. M, Caussidiere and M. Leroux we're, scarcely allowed to protest against it, and no consideration could have prevailed over the imperious • necessity of ridding' Paris and the country of these bands'. It is nevertheless a most sdrious event, and an alarming' precedent, that the ' constituted ' authority of , the Republic should have 'been driven to so terrible and revolutionary "a measure as a proscription, 'for none of those who have adopted this measure can reasonably hope that it wiirbe the last of its kind. It is; due to General Cavaignac to' addj that in the r exefcise of his high authority he has sought rather to mitigate than to itfcrease the severity with which the Assembly is disposed to treat the conquered party. But, after all, no one can doubt that if the contest had ended differently, the result woulo* have consigned the Assembly and the friends of order, not to banishment' in the Marquesas, but to the ' guillotine. It scarcely appears, however, to have occurred to our neighbours, that'the process of transporting several thousands' of persons to the Antipodes, with their wives and children, and providing for them in an uncultivated island, is an undertaking of no ordinary difficulty and expense, and we are curious to learn by what means the shipping will be/procured for so considerable a voyage, or the'provisioris for such an immigration to the Polynesia. The great political result of the late conflicts 1 ; that air doubt and pretence is removed as to the existence of two great parties in the commonwealth of France as it is atpresent coristitiited, and that'the existing authority of the Republic rests upon' the force of a victory as wellas'on the will of a majority of the nation. fßutf But the unnatural union which existed, or was supposed to exist, between the extreme' Republicans with their popular arniy, their clubs'^ their incendiary press, and their visionary theories, "and the politicians' of the liberal party who figured in the regular opposition of last' year, is for' ever dissolved? ' 'Whosoever is not with the cause of order antisocial peace is against it. The attempt of M, L LamaHine to combing frv?g;el^n}enfs radically, exposed to each other was in fact an act of treason to the party whose -suffrages at the first election f had placed him in ' one of the prouSest positions ever°filled by a French citizen. The country confided in him' as the able and eloquent defender of conservative? liberty. And his very first act in the Assembly -disclosed his inaptitude, to call J it at present by no harsher name, for that task; an r d, in retaining the hated influence of Ledru Rollin m the Execii-" tiv!e" Commission, M. TJamartine annihilated his own authority in France. The'attack on the Assembly on the 15th" of May aggravated this Equivocal; position.' The conduct of the Executive Power naa* been extremely inert, suspicious, and reprehensible. Some members of the late' 'Provisional" Government ajid the General commanding' the National .Guard wdre so t palpably implicated "in "that plot that they at' once committed Yd Vin'c'ennes on a charge of' Wh treason. Another, 'even mpre'dangerous and criminal, J wa£ only' Saved from the prosecution l 'of the Attorney- General' by'a yote in' which the Ministers divided against; iheir 'own law officers, and, stobft convicted of open,/alsehood, in brdet'to^ screen an tccnsetl traitor, whosfe" name- WVs y still 1 $ovf--erful w.ith'th'e masses 3 wfom^hVha'ct deceived,* From tliat time H c\iM xi^ik doubted! thar

the object of the more violent party in the Government itself was to resort to a popular* 'commb'tibn, in order to establish the uncontrolled ascendancy of their own revolutionary cabal. The occurrence of such a struggle was 1 generally foreseen, and it now appears "that it was even more confidently foreseen by the anarchists than by the friend's of order. Immense preparations were going oh in the Faubourg St 1 . Antoine— few, if any, ori the othWside. At length the decisive moment arrived. The contest began, almost without a definite'pretext ; and the bourgeoisie of Paris, supported by the army, by the National Guards of the adjacent departments and provincial towns, and r by all the powers of the "State^ once more came into collision with the combatants of the barricades, the low population of the faubourgs, and, in a word, Tiith the mob of Paris. Some legions of the National Guard joined the enemy, and have since been disarmed ; but, happily, the institution of the Garde Mobile had draughted the most active portion of the revolutionary forces into the service of Government, and the daring defenders of the barricades of February were the still more daring assailants of those of June. Victory at length remained with the upper classes, the bourgeoisie, and the Assembly. That victory has saved the country, but it has raised a conservative power based upon the ruins of a defeated party, and to be maintained in the first instance by the sword. With reference, therefore, to the prime movers in £he revolution — the men who have kept al;v'e for 60' years a tradition of anarchy begining with the desperate exploits of last Monday afternoon — the position of the future Government ol France differs in no material respect from that of the dynasty of Louis Philippe. His resistance to- the revolutionary party was neither so direct nor so unlimited as that of the conservative party in the present Assembly, for he contended within the bounds of law", and, yielded even when the 1 Court of Cassation decided on the illegality of the proclamation of martial law. At the present time all such restrictions have been overleapt. For 1 almost the first time in its long career of irregular power, the mob of Paris and the Republi- 1 can faction has sustained a thorough, sanguinary and, we trust, decisive defeat ; arid the authority of the State rests,- not on the suppression of a: riot, but on the extinction of a rebellion, 'which the Assembly would fain convert into the annihilation of a party. Call it by wjbat name you will, such a re- ! sult~as that is an important revolution and a 'decisive reaction. Down to the 22d of June the popular authors of the revolution of FebruaTy were the objects of extravagant* adulation" 01* 'continual 1 fear. They have passed by a rapid transition to a bloody grave, or a pestilenlial piison, with hopeless exile beyond it. We hold that they have deserved their- fate ; yet whilst' the humbler victims of these civil broils-claim some compassion at our hands, we reserve our heaviest condemnation for those false and-'wicked men' who have made these victims their instruments' in the strife for political power or official plunder: Henceforward it is clear that the fate 'of France, under whatsoever form of government she may exist; depends upon the exclusion of such men fromthe direction of her affairs as much a&iipon the suppression" of disturbances* in the streets of Paris. The choice of the- Assembly has naturally fallen upon General Cavaignac, and to him the formation of the new Cabinet has been deputed. It will be well if the political abilities of that officer are equal to hig'integrity and his valour, but amongst'the names of his future colleagues 'many are feeble "and some even despicable : and we 'can attach little importance to an administration composed of sucti materials. The political' ascendancy of Ministers, who will maintainthe rights of the majority in defence of law and ord^r, is essential to the existence of that majority, and to perform the arduous duties which the state of the country impos:es on its rulers ; for if those duties are 1 ' not" discharged with resolution; or if men be want- ' ing*, to discharge them,! even : the sanguinary battle which has'sc'arcely terminated will possibly have been 1 fought' in vain." ' - t. ■ ■ v