PARIS VERSUS THE PARISIANS. [From the Atlas, September 30.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 377, 14 March 1849, Page 4

PARIS VERSUS THE PARISIANS. [From the Atlas, September 30.]

After a seven months' succession of barricades tnd commercial paralysis, the Parisians have made the discovery that an industrial city is not the fitting seat for a Republican Government. The notion has indeed been vaguely floating through the minds of their politicians for some time past. We have heard continual complaints that the head was too big for the extremities ; that Paris, wts grown too large and over-ruled the provinces too proudly ; and that the centre of Government came too closely in contact with an I ouvrier and insurrectionary population. Even those who could not iollow the argument into all its deductions, were yet conscious that the natural ctate of things must be somehow disordered wtca the dtitioiw of the empin

might be subjected, at intervals, to the dictation of a few unwashed emissaries from the Faubourg St. Antoine. The dilemma is now set forth in the most unmistakeable terms. If you have a large industrial population you must have the splendour of a regal court to furnish them with employment : otherwise the Government will be perpetually in peril from their discontent. The choice, therefore, lies between royalty and emigration. Government must display the extravagance that would find maintenance for the working classes, or be in some way freed from their dangerous proximity. The desperate attempt at conquering the difficulty by the mezzctermine expedient of the ateliers nationaux has resulted only in a disastrous failure. It was not less extravagant than the most lavish royalty, and yet obviated none of the danger to the public security. There are two ways of escaping this dilemma, each of which appears to find pretty equal advocacy. One is to remove the Government from the ouvriers; the other to remove the ouvriers from the Government. The first plan lias the great advantage of simplicity. Nothing could be easier than to remove the seat of government. In former days the Court was once resident at Versailles — the Parliament was once sitting at Besangon. Any town that could furnish lodgings for nine hundred members would afford a locale for the Assembly, who might then dispense with the protection of fifty regiments encamped upon the Champ de Mars. On the other haud, the Parisians cannot calmly consent to have their city stripped of its glories and left to its destitution. They consider that Paris ought ever to remain the chief centre of civilisation. Government, legislation, justice, art, science, and ideas must there find their source and seat. Industry alone can be dispensed with ; for industry they regard as an accident — and, not seldom, an enemy — Ito their brilliant metropolis. The truth is that in this opinion they are not far wrong ; and therein lies the secret of all the evil under which France has so long been suffering. Industry is accidental, and, as it were, superogatory to Paris. It was never attracted there by any natural advantages or local facilities for production and commerce. The chance which made that city the abode of royalty led the various hordes of an industrial population to gather round it there. And as accident alone brought the myriads of workmen to that spot, so by accident in great measure were they supported. The consequence was inevitable, that periods of unendurable misery should produce their recurring paroxysms. Once upon a time an English King, being displeased with his good Ciiy of London, threatened to carry the Court and Parliament away to Oxford. "We trust," said the Lord Mayor of that year, "we trust that his Majesty will mercifully leave us the River Thames whereby the citizens of London do receive daily such store of riches from all parts of the earth." But Paris has no Thames to replace its exiled Court ; and the Parliament has to preserve, if possible, the calmness of deliberation within earshot of desperate multitudes, and secured only from hour to hour, by a cordon of bayonets, against the intrusion of physical force. Even in England the provision of employment or subsistence is at times sufficiently embarrassing. Circumstances have in France enhanced the embarrassment tenfold. The evil has been brought into perilous contact with the Government ; and by an unlucky concurrence of causes, the displacement of royal authority has embittered the disorder, while the weak framework of the new organization has been subjected to an increased strain upon its powers. There will scarcely be vigour enough in the constitution which men may see daily carved and moulded before their eyes-* with every clause and ordeal submitted to -the ballot-box — to repress an evil that is at once so inveterate and so acute. The idea that the superfluous industry of Paris must somehow or other be " put out of sight." is one, we venture to predict, that will grow. It has a very substantial basis of fact, consolidating fast into a necessity. What fruit will ripen on it depends, perhaps, upon the disposition of Prince Louis Napoleon. But wherever the President of the Republic may remove, or however he may employ, the superabundant energies of £ renchmen, we are entitled to stipulate that they are retained within the limits of their native soil, and occupied in some other work than the sabre exercise.'