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Hot one of the-least remarkable eigns of...
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XES IDEES NAPOLEONIENNES.* Ma voix est l...
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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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A Series Of Lectures That Cannot Fail To...
sympathy , and , great ^ practical experience . They will be lectures from the ^ OEkshpp of all . ag . es , delivered by a Master .
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Hot One Of The-Least Remarkable Eigns Of...
Hot one of the-least remarkable eigns of the > times on the > northerahorizon is ^ jbe -announcement by" the esteemed and distinguished-exile Alexander 39 xbz £ K , 'whose ^ whole life is devotion to the cause of social emancipation amongliis countrymen , of a Quarterly Russian Keview to 'be published in liOndon , as the organ of revolutionary Russia . It is to be called l / 'Etoile
tPotaire : the first number -will appear on the 1 st of August . It Trill depend on She supportthe-editor may receive from Russia whether the Review will appear itfrintervals of three or of ifour months . In each number there will be a general articleof revolutionary philosophy , addressed more particularly to social questions , an historical or statistical article on Russia , or- onthe Slavonic race ; = sn analysis of-some remarkable work of history , politics , or philosophy ; artd a paper -. on Russian literature ; with the usual summary and correspondence . M . Hbbzen offers this Review as an asylum to his countrymen *' « who have been shipwrecked by the censorship . " He desires to "fix in •* ypB the forbidden manuscript fragments of Fouchkine , Lermontoit j RnnuiHPf . In the first number we are promised a curious correspondence ifeefrwoen Bemwsk-t and Gogol ; a political paper , with this text , " Qu ' est-ce » ne l'Btat ? and a review , by the editor , of M . Michelet ' s Renaissance .
( We thail the appearance of this Russian Review with real satisfaction , 3 « ad > we cordially wish its courageous editor success .
Xes Idees Napoleoniennes.* Ma Voix Est L...
XES IDEES NAPOLEONIENNES . * Ma voix est libre comme ma pense ' e . . . et j ' aime la liberty . ( Treface to the " Idees Wapoteoniennes" ') '¦" One word more , Messieurs . I represent before you a principle , a cause , - « na adefeat . The principle iB the Sovereignty of the People ; the cause is - *> hat of the Empire ; the defeat is that of Waterloo . The principle , you jba * : « recognised it j . the cause , you have served in it ; the defeat , you would 4 avengeit . " Thus perorated Prince iLouis Napoleon Bonaparte , when aranigned before a Court of Peers to answer for his invasion of a peaceful country that had transferred its worship from Moloch to Mammon . The a . nfinciDle" is elsewhere defined to be that excellent form of government abusof
• which provides for the 'correction of all grievances and e power - « mthout'Civie commotions , for the revision of the laws and constitution when - « equisite ,. and for the nummary dismissal of the Chief of the State whenever ' isuch shall be the pleasure of the sovereign people : " for no one generation has the power to impose its laws on those that ^ succeed to it . " But as it is manifestly impossible in a great nation that every citizen should take an active part in the administration of public affairs , it becomes necessary that at least the executive power should be delegated to aome man , or family , who enjoys the confidence of the majority ; " for it is the nature of a dernocHBcacy to personify itselfin an individual . " This idea is more fully developed , , 5 n-the Prince ' s pamphlet on the affair at Strasburg , published in the name \ of M . Armand Laity , who expiated that honour by five years of
imprisonment . . _ . " France we are told ^ is democratic , but not republican . By demo-»* e * acy , I mean the government of an individual by the will'of all ; by ' jarepublic , I , mean the government of a number in obedience to a certain system . France desires to have national institutions as representatives mfHherj-ightsi and some man . or some family . to represent her interests . . . . 3 & y design is to come with a . popular banner—^ he most popular , flie most ail « rious % f all- * to offer a rallying . point to whatever is generous and national r ewery party- —to restore to . Francei-her . dignity without a general war , her i & iberty without ( Uoenser -her stability . viithout . deapQtiam . And to accomplish isnoh a result , what must , we -do ? We must derive from the masses all our ^ Strength -and all our right—for the masses « re on the side of reason and
justice . '" The destruction of the aristocracy , "the faithful , though oftentimes oppressive , guardian of the general and permanent interests , ' induced » £ he necessity for the oreation of " an hereditary family to exercise a conservative influence in favour of those , general interests , and whose power should . ' , * haveno other foundation than the democratic spirit of the nation . " Unfortunately , this hereditary necessity accords somewhat inharmoniously with t «* he idea" of responsibility on the -part of the chief of the State , and of the " © bUgation < of obtsnningthe sanction of the people on * he accession of every . anew emperor . » Nor -does lit altogether agree with the spirit of the letter have
- addressed from Ham to the Editor of the Journal du Loiret : " Never I thought , never will I believe , that France is the apanage of anyone man or family . Never have I claimed other rights than those of a French ^ citizen , and never shall I entertain any other wish than to behold the entire r » eople , legally convoked , muke free election of the form of government i ( most suited to dts Tequirements . " Still less consistent is it with the proclamation of the d 6 th of Jaauary , 1852 . " The present constitution proclaims , £ hat the chief whom you have elected is responsible to you ; that he has the right of appeal to your sovereign judgment , in ordqr that in grave circumstances you may always bo able to continue your confidence in him , or to withdraw it . Being responsible , his actions must be free and without
hin-. •• dwance . " This last clause is sufficiently intelligible , for a responsible chief ought ^ rtainly to be unrestricted in his choice of Ministers ; and that the people floes consider the sovereign responsible maybe seen in the history of every "tuition—for in which has there not been a revolution and a monarch de-« jM » ed ? But it is a vary different thing to reconcile the " ideas" of respon-< MbUity ,-election , and hereditary descent , « or , indeed ,-do we undertake < to rfjjcpliun a \ l the difficult passages ia this Comedy of Errors . The contro-3 u » tion -was apjparont to the First Consul himself in the year X ., when he aaid : " Hereditary power depends upon the civil law . It implies the idea * df iproperty , and Is instituted to intsurothe transmission df that property JOBott is it possible to reconoile lihe hereditary 'deucentiof the first . magistracy JpEwmwdfi XqpaUon lit . PublUfea jrnrM . C . E . Tomblnire . Paris .
with the principle of the sovereignty of the people ? "How are we to per suade the people that this magistracy is a property ? When the crown was hereditary , there were many magistracies in the same condition . This fiction was almost a general law , but there is nothing of that kind now " Perhaps , however , the best explanation is to be found m the very proclamation cited above : — " I have thought it reasonable to prefer the precepts of genius to the specious doctrines of men of abstract ideas . " When the ea ^ le soars aloft to the sun , it is in vain that blinking owls strive to folWTits course . ...
Happily we are not left equally in the dark as to the rights which Fiance desires to have represented by national institutions , for they are thus enumerated in the Fifth Article of the Model Constitution proposed in the Reveries Politiqnes : — " The right of expressing one ' s thoughts and opinions cannot he withheld . " Verily , Job did well to exclaim , " O , that mine enemy would write a book ! " By way of postscript to this rare Bill of Rights , it is added : — "A Minister must neither be a banker , nor gamble at the Bourse , " and The caution-money for periodical papers is abolished . " And the same liberal view , slightly modified , is enunciated in Louis Napoleon ' s address to the French nation when offering himself as a candidate for
the Presidentship , for he therein pledges himself " to protect the liberty of either through the medium of the Press or in any other manner , the right , of assembling . together peaceably , and the free exercise of religious worship , the Press from the two excesses which endanger it at present , that of arbitrary authority on the one hand , and of its own licentiousness on the other . " In the time of Napoleorrthe Great , we are told , " the liberty of the Press would only have served to place in evidence the greatness of his conceptions , and to proclaim the benefits of his reign . . . . Nor could the liberty of discussion in the Chambers have had more dangerous consequences for the Imperial Government ; for , as all were agreed on the fundamental questions , the Opposition could only have served to give birth to a noble emulation ; and , instead of consuming its energies to effect its overthrow , it would have limited its efforts to the task of improvement . " Is the converse of-this statement , we would humbly ask , equally true ? Is the Press now enslaved because of the littleness of the Third Napoleon ' s conceptions ? And
as the liberty of discussion withheld because there is no agreement on fundamental questions ? But what matters a partial disagreement , so long as the sovereign people is contented ? Surely , its irresponsibly-responsible , hereditarily ^ elective Chief is no other than the personification of the democracy , the representative of the national sovereignty , the exponent of the feelings , ideas , and desires < of the majority ? But let us return to our " nibbling flocks . " Napoleon was no despot , * for in 1810 he expressed " his displeasure that no law had yet been framed for the Press , and it is especially worthy of remark that the Emperor frequently pronounced these memorable words : — " I do not wish this power to be left to my successors , for they might abuse it . " " Oh , my prophetic _ soul , my uncle ! " We might here again inquire , as to the converse of this new proposition , whether a prince who ga » s the Press is a despot ? But we prefer quoting the Emperor ' s remonstrance to the Council of State . " The Press , assumed to be free , is in the most abjeet slavery . The Police curtails and suppresses what works it pleases : nor is it the Minister himself who judges , for he is obliged to refer the matter to those under him . Nothing can be more irregular and arbitrary
than such a system . " „ u But Prince Louis Napoleon represented : i " cause" as well as a principle , " and this cause was the Empire . L '' Empire c ' est la paix . It is also de fined as a system which " consists in promoting civilisation , without discord and without excess ; in giving an impulse to ideas , at the same tune developing mutual interests ;~ instrengtheaing theJjiands _ qfjp _ o ^ r , by making it respected ; in disciplining the masses through the medium of their intellectual faculties ; in short , in uniting around the altar of the country Irenclimen of all parties , by giving them for motives of action honour and glory . A <* ain : " The Imperial system is not a bastard imitation of the constitutions ofTEn ^ l and and America , but the governmental formula of the principles ot the Revolution ; it is a hierarchy in a democracy ; equal rights before the law promotion by merit ; in fine , it is a pyramidal colossus with broau base and towering head . " The first Emperor ' s mission was to prepare tnc way for Liberty . His wars were forced upon him , and m defending * ranee he well ni"h subdued the world . He was not personally ambitious ; he uiu not surround himself with the illustrious names of the ancien retnmc to satisi ) his self-love ; he did not waste the treasures of France , nor spill her noDiess blood , to aggrandise his own power and to place his brothers upon tin-ones , nor did he espouse an archduchess of the House of Austria that a ge » u "" ° princess might share his couch . Allans done ! We must be » piaimes m intelligence ^ to misunderstand him so grievously . No . J- he P ^ » Mapoleon was sublime and disinterested . He contemplated the ^ "franchise ment of Europe from old traditions and worn-out usages ; and it He uiu niat a royal orown on the heads of his near kinsmen , it was because they wouiu w more submissive and could be more easily deposed than other dependents , i or the Imperial system , so far as its development had attained , was m n . tianb tion state , tlid final success waited upon his arms , ho would have-it : twoa the nationalities of Italy and Poland , We caused all monarch » ^ d « rtwm their armies and retain only a guard of honour , and have coiwoUdatcd ibu ty at homo . » The government of Napoleon , more than ^ f ^^ urod patible with liberty , for the simple reason that ^ jferty woulcl J ovo the stability of his throne , while it subverts those that res ton no ^ ao m d Liberty would have oonBrmed his power , because he ha « g wJ ' the France all that should precede liberty ; because his powei rop ° « eu entire mas 3 of'the nation ; because his interests were UM & * \ l rf . beoauee , ia short , the most perfect conhdence ^^^ . ^^^ onted after cthe ruled . " Such was the cause which Loum Nli »> O / e , ? ar Kbuvg . To the affair at Boulogne , and which , ho . had repudiated . at £ ^^ froW Colonel Vaudrey he said : "The Emperor Napoleon . held lu pmv the French people ? four times did his authority rocoivojthoj )^ * Oflf he wore a despot , ho ir » on . of those « whogovern ^^™^ ttZ nOiP & QvUw , than their own caprice , but who at least do nut uofa sueciea : they opprcfla without domoralising it I
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041855/page/18/
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