THE LATE ELECTION IN FRANCE. To the Editor of Times.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 734, 14 August 1852, Page 4

THE LATE ELECTION IN FRANCE. To the Editor of Times.

Sir, — Events whirl on in France with melodramatic celerity, and almost every night the curtain drops on some new tableau with surpassing poses plastiques. History is out of breath in keeping up with fact, and puzzled Europe gazes with a fascinated stare on the dissolving views of principles and government which are cow exhibited for Us instruction. It sees a civilian at the head of an army enlisting the votes of a people which that army is engaged in butchering. It sees the self-elected champion of " order" defying the laws of God and man. It sees the defender of the social ties arresting, imprisoning, shooting, and transporting all whom it suits to suspect. It sees the obsequious son of the Church, the promulgator of decrees for the observance of the Sabbath, organising a stupendous system of lies. It sees the vaunted protector of " property" confiscating and beggaring whole classes at his pleasure. It sees the companion of Louis Blanc protesting that he only can uproot Socialism, and making himself absolute to practise it. It sees the happy era of a "strong" Government in France, the millennium of the monied class, living from hour to hour upon fear and fraud. It sees playied on ~ihe stage of to-day the grimaces, the madness, the crimes of the last century. It sees a buried generation, of mountebanks galvanised into life again, and scaring the world with guilt and passions that even the least trustful in the I destinies of a man thought to be a blotted page

of history. It sees the elite of a gallant nation prostrate in the mire and bleeding from innumerable wounds, impotent for vengeance, more alive to its shame than to its- sufferings, and humiliated at the disgrace of that very soldiery which had been employed in sabreing it. It sees aTe Deum celebrated for perjury, massacre, and treason ; and it sees a Jesuit Bishop proclaim, with the last audacity of blasphemy, that ilieir triumph is due to the " gratitude" of God. , All that is truthful and illustrious, honest and biave in Fiance, out of the military pale, is op. posed to' this foul tyranny. But whatever our sympathies, we have not the right, nor can we have the wish to interfere. Those sympathies we may express, for in Britain thought and speech. are free, and our press unmuzzled ; but the question is one of internal French policy, and it is for Frenchmen to decide it. Non-interference' of any kind, or for any party, must be the watchword of this country. Her honour and her interests alike demand it. She holds in trust the liberties of Europe, and woe to them and her if she rashly, compromise or cravenly betray them. No man can mark the hour on the dial when the great struggle shall commence, no man can indicate the spot where it > will burst forth, tHie. precise shape it will assume; j but come when, and where, and how it may, it I will be despotism against freedom, retrogression against progress, brute force against ideas, the past, against the "future, and military tyranny against England. There are some who affect a decent moderation, profess a comfortable satisfaction, and would propose to us a vote of confidence. We must suspect either their honesty or intellects. The second Napoleon apes but to exaggerate the first. Has the npphew forgotten the tradition of "Perfidious Albion ?" Has be forgotten Waterloo and St. Helena? Waterloo! Perhaps you did not mark those words of fire in his proclamation to the troops, when he turned their bayonets on the National Assembly and their cannon on the citizens of Paris :—: — " We are associated in a common misfortune aud a common glory." The glory, si presume, is Wagram, Austerlitz, Marengo, with which we were not previously aware that this Napoleon was concerned. The misfortune can be only Waterloo.' There his uncle's hosts were routed ; there bis 'dynasty was overthrown. Can any rr.an believe that a revolution, whese watchword was that fatal field, will not be pointed against us ? The old women of both sexes, in the press and out of it, are prodigal of their assurances. The knight of the Eglintoun tournament, the guest of the "Junior United," the diner-out of Belgravia, the special constable of May, can never forget the delightful ties that must grow out of such situations. The simplicity is charming, but the confidence is premature. Is there no plot hatching at this moment ? De Persigny, the genius of mischief, is everywhere. What bait is offered to the Czar ? What bribe to Austria ? What sinister motives agitate the borders of the Rhine — • rumours received, contradicted, repeated, like those that preceded the coup d'etat P Why those significant hints to Belgium, Switzerland, and Piedmont ? Why those menaces to Engiand for harbouring refugees? Does continental Europe intend to pass a Political Fugitive Bill, and enforce its provisions here ? That would be indeed ingratitude. Who sheltered Lonis Napoleon, and from whose coasts steamed the invader of Boulogne? Where did Melternich find repose after his flight from Vienna? Who was the host of the Prince of Prussa ? Could the Sultan shield Kossuth from the axe of Austria and brave the threats of Russia ? And stall England, the traditional asylum of the vanquished, eject them at the imperious bidding of despots, bar them their only homes in the Old World, and consign them to the humanity, herself to the scorn of the New ? Shall we become the spies and the police of Europe, keep lists of the proscribed, and draw up categories of the suspected ? Will the ghost of Castlereagh direct the Home office, and will Canning have unyoked us from the dray of the Holy Alliance in vain ? The want of foresight equals that of memory. Tyranny is not so sure of its game as to bar all chances to Democracy. When the turn 0/ the wheel shall bring that uppermost, it may not be inconvenient for the rulers of to-day to seek safety in Britain. But if we now succumb to their demands, how can we resist the similar demands of their successors ? It is the interest of all Governors and Governments in Europe that some countries should be~free to their misfortunes, and that, taking no cognizance of creed or cause, it should receive es fugitives and protect as guests whoever fly from political vengeance, and conform to the laws of the land that shelters them. The election of Louis Napoleon is, no doubt, an immense event. It will, and it must, affect the destinies of Europe, and probably those of the other hemisphere. But the mere consideration of the numbers that determined it would create a false impression of it. We must analyse its elements, inquire its signification, and see whether its result be as conclusive as it seems. Are the numbers "accurate ? What guarantee is there for that ? Who can check the returns 1 Where is the scrutiny ? Who are the scrutineers ? The Consultative Commission abandoned their task in despair. Tijere is no publicity. None but the creatures of the Government are present ; none but its veriest tools know the truth, and if they dared to give it utterance the journey would be short from the Mairie to the Conciergerie, and from the Conciergerie to Cayenne. If something like a latent sense of decency and a politic regard for probability afforded some chances for reality in Paris, they cannot be looked for in the provinces. The telegraph carries to each department the expectations of the Government and the announcement of fabulous successes. Shall the Mayor or the prefect be behind the rest — shall his return be a shabby one — shall his commune, town, or district, cut a paltry 'figure in the national adoration of the rising star of (be -Tuilleries ? He must know little of mayors or prefects who could harbour a ttiought so unworthy of their patriotism and their prudence. In the servile race of flattery and falsehood functionary vies with functionary, lie surpasses lie. The only limit is the calculation of what will not bear too hard on the gullibility of France. Did a man deliberately fabricate' returns, he would select, of course, the remotest districts for

) bis boldest efforts. 'By a .singular coincidence • this is just what is observed in this election. i In Parjs and in Lyons the majority is not ■ too gross for belief ; in the departments it defies i arithmetic and credulity. D'Alembert has said ? that, the vrai is not always the vraisvmbable. • This, I presume, is an instance of it. History i will never know, nor even the Government i itself can tell, what the reil majority is. But credit what we may to forgery and- falsehood, it [ is still gigantic. Its proportions are colossal, but they are (hose of Nebuchadnezzar's image, the feet are partly iron and partly clay. • A majority to' form a base for power must i have something like solidity and boroogeneousness. . If its parts are incongruous or antagonistic its hour of trial is that of dissolution, and. it resolves ■ like every rotten organism, into its constituent elements. The " great party of order " which has strutted for the last three years upon the stage of France was a majority as this, i and we have seen what an unsubstantial phan- , torn it proved before one resolute will. The majority of to-day is more monstrous still. It is the pandemonium of all opinions and all passions — of hopes and fears — of disappointments and of hatreds — of traditions and delusions — of Jesuitism and of ignorance — of curses and despair. The Legitimists are split, as usual. The petits maitres of the Quartier St. Germains have polled. The peasantry of the west have followed tliepriests, and swelled the majority in some districts, while they have abstained in [ others. The chiefs and the old feudal pro- ; prietary have generally held aloof. What the exact proportion of affirmative Legitimist votes may be, it "is, of course, impossible to say, al- , though they are not an iucousiderable element in I the Napoleon array. ; The Orle&nists have rallied with more alacrity > to the standard of expediency and force ; the] form the bulk of the mercantile class, and no small portion of the shopkeepers. The dominant caste under Louis Philippe — they stocked the Chamber of Deputies and furnished their quota to the Peerage ; the Exchange urasHheirs ; the patronage jof Government was theirs ; they officered, if they did not man, the National Guard ; their sons and nephews got all that could be got at the Lyceums, the Polytechnic, the school of St. Cyr ; concessionaires of the railways, contractors and engineers of the public works, the cream of the 240,000 electors — bribed and bribing, corrupting and corrupt — they thronged the saloons of Guizot and the levees of the old king ; they were the satis/aits of the Minister, the courtiers of the Monarch, whose suppers they devo.uied, whose person they caricatured, whose measures they supported, whose dynasty they ruined, and whose fall they basely abetted. Those who know the haute bourgeoisie the best, despise it most. The heroes of the old school of Paul de Kock— sansfoi ni hi — heedless of the past, faithless in the future, true only to the material instincts of the present, greedy of gain, lavish of expenditure, and gross in pleasures, these Sybarites of trade enact the Decameron without its poetry, and make Paris a new Capua, or something worse. It is idle to look to such a class for courage, loyalty, or truth. Indifferent to civil or religious liberty, dead to every generous aspiration, blind to all but their immediate interests, their cuckoo cry is eternally for " order," and they vote for any man or system that boldly promises to give it them. They support Louis Napoleon now — they woujd equally support, if his turn arrived, Henry V., or the Count of Paris, M. Proudhon, or the Devil. The Jesuits, Montalembert at their head, have marched with reversed cowls and unfurled banners to the ballot. They have taken with them a million of the faithful. It costs them nothing to sanctify crime, for did not their chief proclaim, with the very cynicism of immorality, at the tribune, that "whatever is possible is right! 1 ' In their eyes the '* expedition of Rome into the interior " has now really commenced. The primary schools were already in their hands, the Pantheon -is restored to them, the chairs of philosophy are falling or have fallen, the gates of the University are yielding to their blows, some works are proscribed, all will be expurgated — their writers,* who lamented that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was incomplete, that Luther was not burnt, and that the Inquisition was suspended, hope, if they do not trust, that the Holy Office will revive — their Bishops impiously press Heaven itself into their.ranks, while Paul Cullen promises the co-operation of St. Patrick ; -j- and both prove to the astonished world that hypocrisy is never so hypoci ideal nor blasphemy so blasphemous as on a Jesuit's lips. The Attila of Socialism has contrived to bag a respectable number of Socialist'votes: this is evident in Paris, and is still more palpable in the department .of- the Cher, the -Nidvre, and the Saone et Loire. They were placed under the state of siege because it was preteuded that Socialism was rampant in them. Yet the suffrage returns make almost the whole adult population in favour of Louis Napoleon. What an pllapodrida of lies this discloses! But it ought to be remembered that the proclamations to the people denounced Monarchy, affected the- defence of the Republic, and promised mysterious boons to the Democracy. His emissaries went every length, »nd the gagging of the Press most probably conceals a. system of. canvassing which has never had a parallel for " audacity, immorality, and falsehood. Terror was meant to pl»y, and has played, the lion's part ; it has been carried out with the refinement of atrocity. Is it possible to conceive that such a revolution and' election could leave the departmental electors the faintest glimmer of liberty 1 The eye of the Prefect or his myrmidons was on them — delation, tracked them ; the sabre was suspended over them ; proscription and deportationwefe before them ; and the demand was plainly " Your vote or your money — your vote or your life." In every country those who are qualified to reason for themselves are a small minority. In France, superstition, centralization, the predominance of the agricultural element, the conscription, the exclusion till the last three years from the elective franchise, have educated and kept the bulk of the population in a state of political childishness and ignorance that is scarcely

* In tht Univert. f See their prayers and pastorals passim- .

conceivable by Englishmen. No bugbear is too gross, no sha.n too stale, nopromises too impudent, no imposture too barefaced for their credulity; France is, with all its cleverness, the larnl of gobemouches. Their novelists laughed at them, their journalists lived upon them. They worshipped/ as no other people could, the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. Some really believed that the nephew was the uncle — the majority swallowed miraculous stories of. his wealth — they thought that out of Ms private purse the national taxation wou!d be lightened — they were convinced that be alone prevented Socialism from devouring them — they had not a doubt that the Assembly waa the obstacle to his conferring incomprehensible benefits upon the country — they were never tired of spectres rouges " committees of resistance," conspiracies and plots — they hated the Press, because they were assured it was the instrument of anarchy— they hated .the Tribune, because it was merely parlage — they were told that a strong Government was v all they wanted*, and fhey voted for it ; they were discontented with King Log, and they got King Stork. Even 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 of gobemouches will, make this discovery at last. The sheep of Panurgus, they follow the lead; wherever that bap--pens to take them ; or rather the " Gribouilles '* of politics, they jump into the river to get out of the rain. They were told, for their own purposes, by those who did not believe one Word of it, that 1852 was' to be a year of Socialism, pillage, and murder ; and, rather than exert the slightest moral courage, and elect, as they might have done, any one they pleased, they have plunged headforemost into the arms of despotism, and sold themselves without the acknowledgement of a bond, or the earnest of a bribe. Those Orleanist and Legitimist journals which venture to say anything at all, tell them that this is escaping the crisis of 1852, and they are the consummate fools to credit such transparent humbug. Whatever the confidence of Europe. in the vote/ there is a simple way of testing Louis Napoleon's. If the suffrages of Frenchmen have elected him, he needs nothing more. Let him throw himself upon the nation, annul the state of seige which makes the capital a barrack and the half of France a camp — reduce the army — give their muskets back to the National Guard — unmuzzle the Press — restore the Jury — stop delations, proscriptions, deportations. The" man of the people cannot . fear the people — but he makes no sign. I understand him. He parades the votes, but he trusts the sabre. He is right : be knows that the votes are a sham, the sabre only a reality. There are those who think that he will grant the Press a regulated libery. He cannot : his seizure and his tennre of power have been such that the freedom of the Press, however faint, must ultimately mine or storm it. Louis Napoleon's forte is parody. His imitations of his uncle are admirable in their way, but open to the charge of sameness. John Reeve hit off Kean's " Richard '* to the life, but contrived to infuse into it enough burlesque to amuse the pit and gallery. Even this species of 'entertainment requires a dash- of novelty ; the" best of comedieF, particularly a revival, cannot be expected to run for ever. A little variety in the mise en ecene heightens the interest and assists the "take" of the performance.. Let -Louis Napoleon attempt the part of the "Citizen King," after the once " glorious " days of July — let him don the white hat, assume the cotton umbrella, and stroll along the boulevard where be won his spurs. But why, in the midst of bis all but unanimous constituency, 1,200 men guard the Ely see ? — Why those cocked pistols that precede him in his promenade ? Why that close carriage with its ball-proof panels ? that surrounding mob of cuirassiers ? Why that furious pace? The Government proclaims that it is embarrassed by the enthusiasm of the nation, and overwhelmed with popularity. This dread of the assassin is a singular -gloss upon that flattering text ; and where will those precautions stop ? The populace is driven back by soldiers, but can those soldiers be themselves relied on ? Malicious — probably lying — rumours says already no. Out of these 16,000 muskets which areacknowledged to be hostile, are there none which in- & feu dejoie or a review, may not be pointed by a desperate fanatic against the breast of an usurper ? . Before coupd'etaf, the order of the day was " Suivesmoi." Whoever should attempt that now would find the proceeding both difficult and dangerous*. He must force his way through janitors and guards, and seek the elect of seven millions, the Autocrat of France, in some stern seclusion, dreading, perhaps, like Cromwell in his latter days, the assassin in each approaching step, and skulking each night into lome^new bedchamber. France is now making,, at her own expense, and for the information of the world, a .vast experiment. - She is endeavouring to reverse the course of time and the laws of nature, and to go back half a century. She fell asleep, like Rip Van Winkle, in 1804, and she awakes in the .same spot in 1852. She has for 60 years taken every opportunity of asserting her pre-eminence in arts,- civilization, and intelligence, and she is now exhibiting a servile imitation of the Republic of Hayti. The Charivari congratulated itself a. few i months back that Soulouque had rendered all future Emperors impossible. Soulouque 11. lives and reigns. Christendom had imagined that the progress of humanity had 'assured the victory of reason over force, of enlightenment over superstition, of morality over the baser vices, and of justice over the fouler crimes. The success of this revolution would establish just the contrary. Let those who will, assert that this monstrous attempt is right — let those who can, suppose that it will prove triumphant. I shall believe it when I- see the brute assume dominion over man, and the powers of hell prevail against the God of Heaven. And when the hour comes, as come it . will, that France shall cease to writhe under a grotesque tyranny, and acquire a Government that is neither an.incubut nor a solecism, she will remember that the voice which has been the heartiest, the promptest, and the boldest, to denounce her oppression, and oppressors, has been that of " Perfidious Albion.'" * • An Englishman. '*