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March 6, 1852.3 THE L E A D El. 219
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CONTINENTAL NOTES. Our Continental Notes...
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LOUIS BLANC AND MAZZINI. "WHAT FRENCH SO...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Letters From Paris. [From Our Own Corres...
+ ll chairs of philosophy will be silenced in aU the collecres and educational establishments , and replaced by a second year of rhetoric and a course of logic . I forbear t 0 say more , for to write calmly is impossible . How fare the negotiations with the Comte deChambord , to obtain of him his abdication in favour of the Comte de Pari 3 , is not yet known . One thing , however , I dp know—that the fusion of the two branches is now more than ever , a Vordre dujour . The majority
of the most eminent leaders of the Legitimists and of the Orleanists are agi'eed upon the necessity of this fusion . It is reported that the two most eminent leaders , one of the liberal party , the other of the tiers parti , and an ex-president of the council of state , have come to an understanding , and are ready to declare and to publish that there is no safety for France but hi the restoration of the traditional monarchy . There three men are M . M . Odilon Barrot , Thiers , and Gornaenin .
Legitimist sOngs are already in circulation . in Paris . There is one in particular in which the Comte de Chambord is called * ' Henri Quatre second . " The French government has just sent an ultimatum to Switzerland on the subject of the refugees . In this tiltimatt ( m , "Loxus Bonaparte energetically maintains all his imperious demands relative to the designation of refugees for expulsion from the Swiss territory , and strongly recommends the Federal government to " reflect on the consequences their resistance might entail . " In other words , to resist the pretensions of M . Louis Bonaparte is to declare WAE . S .
March 6, 1852.3 The L E A D El. 219
March 6 , 1852 . 3 THE L E A D El . 219
Continental Notes. Our Continental Notes...
CONTINENTAL NOTES . Our Continental Notes of this weak may be summarily dismissed in a few brief sentences . We do not suspect our readers of taking any interest in the squabbles of North and South Germany , Prussia , and Austria , large and small states , seaboard and inland Germany , about the possession , the dismantling , the sale , or the maintenance of that rather mythical creation , the German fleet ! Nor do we imagine that the reported
movements of the King , the Emperor , or some minor prince or other , are very valuable as news . We are told"that in Weimar , that pleasant and artistic duchy , " in consequence of the adoption of the new electoral law by the Diet , all the members of the Opposition have resigned . " Indeed ! our readers will say . But it is interesting to many to learn , that the meeting of the Austrian congress at Berlin , has been definitively fixed
for March 29 . Beneath the struggle for commercial supremacy between Austria and Prussia , the struggle for political preponderance , which in ' 48 was so insanely led off in the mountebank-mystic style by our bibulous friend , the descendant of Frederick the Great , and in ' 49 had almost brought the empire and the kingdom to a shock of arms , is easily recognised . Politically and commercially , the contest is of great moment to England .
Another fact , distressing in itself , perplexing to our Protectionists , grateful to farmers , and serviceable as " capital" to our Free-traders , is , that the Prussian Minister of Finance has announced that the duties of entry on importation of corn , flour , and vegetables , are suspended for all the States of the Zollverein till the 81 st of August , on account of the extreme dearth . The probable dissolution of the Wurtemburg Chambers ( the solo liberal parliament now extant . in Germany ) , fov having again assorted the " fundamental rights" suppressed by the Diet , is but another evidence of the now all-embracing reaction .
Irom Turin wo learn that on the 25 th ult . the ? Senate adopted the now law on the press , modifying tho law of tho 26 th March , 1848 , and withdrawing from the cognizanco of juries offences against Foreign governments , by 49 to 3 ; and by 40 to 2 , tho bill authorising tho Government to adopt certain movements of public safety . We fear that on this lustniuned nicasure , bearing the ominous title of " public safety , " something moro than tho " preservation of tho public liberties from excess" is intended . Tho situation of Piedmont , wo have often said , and are always read y to concerto , ia quite exceptional ; hut it is not her interest , still loss is it tho interest of her King , to Austriani / . e . All these indications go to establish tho incompatibilit y of continental monarchy with popular liberty , however wisely re-irulatod .
At Homo there has been a , polico-discovory of oxplosivo shells , and numerous arrests of innocent persons in COHHOquoilcO ,, From oiio end of tho-Continont to tho other English ti-avellorn nro treated with great suspicion ; as , in fact , 0 united rovolufciouwtH . ,, * ° ' ° * fc ° Franco , wo huvo a fact to record about ^ h ^ M . Band . sopt , whom wo mentioned in our last numjov but one , m an ox-representative of tho people , Tvr nVVOrl"ng llH a JourHuyinan Bhoomalcor in London . Ji . iluiulsopt was a representative of tho Bas Rhin . * n that department thoro arc now two journ « l »; ono
Bonapartist , the other Democratic . The latter published the forged appeal to the President for pardon , * with bitter comments , as the act of a deserter . When the official notification -appeared in the Moniteur from M . Bandsept himself , the democratic journal of the Bas Rhin was naturally eager to publish the denial as it had published the forgery ; but , no ! the elections were night at hand ; Louis Bonaparte wanted , political capital for the occasion . This generous pardon to a democratic representative , and a working man , was just the bait to catch the electors . True , it was proved and confessed , even by the Moniteur , to be a forgery , but what of that ? it was wanted .
M . Sauvaire Barthelemy , the Legitimist , a devoted catholic , presented himself as a candidate in the department of the Bouches du Rhone . To his extreme surprise , he found himself opposed by the clergy , who prefer Louis Bonaparte to a mere " good Catholic . " It is true that M . Barthelemy was an independent candidate ; and he makes no secret of his detestation of what he calls the most detestable oppression ever inflicted upon a country .
Louis Blanc And Mazzini. "What French So...
LOUIS BLANC AND MAZZINI . "WHAT FRENCH SOCIALISM IS , AND IS NOT . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Letter III . The Doctrine of the French Socialists has nothing- IN COMMON WITH WHAT M . MAZZINI , IN his Address to the Society of the Friends of Italy , calm " the absurd , savage , and immoral dream of Communism . " First of all , it is important to come to an understanding about terms . What is Communism , such as it has been understood in France by some of those whom M . Mazzini designates by the name of " system-makers and sectarians f "
There are , in the vocabulary of party passions , certain unlucky words which seem to have been created for no other purpose than to serve as a resume to all forms of calumny . Before the Revolution of February , 1848 , the word employed by the people ' s enemies as ^ a weapon for the moral assassination of their defenders , was the word Republican . To be a republican in the reign of Louis Philippe was to dream of nothing but disorder and destruction ; it was to be a ^ heartless , bloodthirsty wretch ; it was to desire for France , dragged back to the sombre regime of the Terror , a permanent scaffold set up in the public square , and the equality of citizens beneath the axe of the executioner . Yet , what occurred ?
It came to pass that no sooner were they masters of events , than these very republicans , who had been represented as so fierce , anxiously hastened to moderate tho triumph even before the combat had ceased ; granted a noble amnesty to the conquered ; refrained from proscription as the crime of cowards ; abolished the punishment of death ; and , in the name of civilization , disavowed for evermore the guillotine . The long and abominablo calumny that had lasted now fifty years must needs be renounced . The word Republican found itself suddenly tolerated again . Tolerated , do I say ? The provisional government had no sooner proclaimed tho Republic , than every man
held out his hand to it . Innumerable and glowing were tho assurances of dovotion to the new idea . From M . Odilon Barrot oven , up to M . do Montalcmbert , from M , dc La Roche Jacquelin down even to M . Louia Bonaparte , all rushed to tho defence , leaving behind thom tho baggage of their royalist opinions or of their royalist pretensions . Tho generals , tho magistracy , tho high public functionaries , tho Cour de Cassation , tho Cour des Comptes , hastened to perform a solemn act of republicanism at the Hotel do Villo ; and it was tho very writer of theno present lines who at that moment received , in tho name of tho Provisional government , tho adhesions of tho constituted bodies .
Finally , on the first day of mooting of tho Assembly sprung from universal suffrago , on tho 4 th of May , 1848 , tho cry of Vive la llepuhUque ! was raised ns many as twenty times in a singlo sitting , by tho royalists of yesterday ! f It was thus that tho word Republican escaped calumny . Calumny looked about for another , and found Communist . Tho Communists wore ono of tho schools which tho aggregate body was . designated by tho generic torm ( sinco become so famous ) of SooiALlSAr . Tho sum of' thoir peculiar doctrines may bo thus Htatod : Tho Communists recognised and proclaimed tho inequality of lnoii in strength , in faculties , in wants ; but they mnintninod that all aro oqmil in rights ; that all have their destiny to accomplish ; and that , cou-* Soo Leader , No . 100 . f Soo all tho journals in which a report of that momorablo flitting appeared , and notably , tho ofUcial M ' onUvw ,
sequently , all have an equal right to the free development of their different faculties , and to the satisfaction of their unequal wants . To natural inequalities , the Communists were indisposed to add social , inequalities , and to graft the one upon the other . They refused to believe that those who had been most generously endowed by nature were entitled to be still more pr «* Ii > gaily endowed by society . In their eyes , the diffidence of capacities , and the inequalities of natural endowment , emphatically signified diversity of aptitudes , and the speciality of vocations ; they were meant to determine the employment , the function , the graduated rank
of each functionary , but without conferring , any particular privilege in the distribution of the means of moral or natural enjoyment . The Communists , then , sanctioned the principle of graduated ranks , but they rested it upon the recognised diversity of aptitudes , and not on the accident of birth . Regarding all functions as equally honourable , so long as they are useful , and accepting the admirable maxim of the Gospel , they demanded that all functionaries , from the first to the last , should be hailed as members of the great human family , and should live like true brethren , conformably to the law of Christ .
To work according to our strength , our faculties , our natural aptitudes ; such was , according to the Communists , Duty . To enjoy , according to our wants and tastes , within the limit of the" resources of the community—such was Right . The Communists thought that the rights of all would be fully guaranteed , if each accomplished his duty : that is to say , acknowledged and respected the rights of others as he would that his own rights should be acknowledged and respected . Repudiating any idea of constraint , or the employment of coercive measures , they trusted for the regular development and maintenance of a social order so constituted , to the interest of each , rightly understood , when true notions of the social science should be
sufficiently disseminated , and to the power of attractive work when , instead of being bent down by misery under the yoke of labour , not voluntarily undertaken , often foreign to the natural dispositions of the man condemned to pursue it , every man should be called to fulfil his vocation , to exercise the function of his choice—to occupy , in a word , that post in society for which God himself , when he created him with certain peculiar qualities , andTwith certain predominating tastes , had in some sort designed him . Distribution being no longer subservient to the grade of the workman , the Communists concluded that in this social order of their creation , mediocrity would have no further
interest in soliciting high offices , in caballing to obtain some special function or other : they were convinced that tho most able and the most worthy would be naturally , and by an elective process , called to the supreme direction , and that they would be so much the more beloved and honoured that their superior rank would confer no privilege . It is scarcely necessary to add , that , by universal and gratuitous education , the Communists invited all children , without exception , to come and take their place at the grand sources of human knowledge ; just as by their system of distribution they tended to assure to all men , without exception , their place at the banquet of life . *
To those who wore disposed to accuse them of encouraging an idle dream , of abandoning themselves to tho deceptive charms of an impracticable Utopia , tho Communists replied , that such had over been tho fate of a new idea , to be reputed impossible , till it had received application ; that tho earliest inventor of tho steam-engine , tho precursor of Watt , was thrown into a Lunatic Asylum , by way of recognition of his sublime discovery ; that Galileo was forced to demand pardon on his knees for having professed tho impious error of
the earth ' s rotation ; that in tho history of knowledge , every new truth has been at its birth Utopian ; that , moreover , tho Communists woro far from assorting that thoir system wits capablo of oil-hand application ; that they were perfectly awake to obstacles ; that they contented themselves , in consequence , with pointing from afar to tho end to bo attained , without in any way pretending to destroy tho road which would progrcssively conduct thither , without removing tho intermediate stations .
In any case , tho Communists would havo had no right to complain if thoir . speculations had been simply neglected , and thomHclvos treated as dreamers . What olso could they havo fairly expected ? " But what did tho enemies of tho people ? No longer having at thoir disposal tho word Rri'UMT . tgan , with which they had wo long surprised tho good faith of wimple souls , abused ignorance , and misled opinion , thoy anight up , as tho * This exposition of ( ho Communist doctrines Jh not my own . It is tho faithful remmS of tho doctrino us it has Itoon tlovolopod in tho troatisos of tho most onligh toned of tho Socialist writers , M . Francois Vidal " On tho distribution of wealth , and of distributive Jvstico in Social Economy , "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1852, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06031852/page/7/
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