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circulated by certain parties to cast a slur upon the association for their own vile purposes . " Mr . Pocock : I know that Dr . Abercrombie went to ¦ ee the child . " Dr . Abercrombie , who was standing at a distance from the table and was not seen , came forward and stated that he had gone out to see the child , and when he came to Mr . Holloway ' s be found Captain and Mrs . Stanford there with the dead baby , and that nothing- could exceed the readiness with which Mr . Holloway attended to their wants under the distressing circumstances in which they were placed . ( Cheera . ) It was a proof to him that the principles which the association avowed were adapted more to the relief than to the injury of man . " This needs not one word of comment more than that which Mr . Fairbairn bestows upon it when he says : —
" Nothing can be imagined more different from the feelings and spirit entertained by the people of Capetown in the trying circumstances in which they were then placed by Lord Grey ' s now admitted " error" than the evil passions which , under erroneous information , he ascribed to them on Tuesday night . "
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THE DEBATES ON REVISION IN THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY . The revision debates commenced in earnest on Monday . In opening the discussion M . Dupin said : " I egislative Assemblies had been called to frame constitutions in place of those overturned by revolutions . But this was the first time an Assembly had received that mission by virtue of an existing constitution , although a majority of three-fourths was required for that purpose . The Assembly was accordingly in a totally new situation . The discussion should be serious and peaceable . Parties should be moderate , reserved , and listen patiently to their opponents , if they wished to be listened to themselves , always bearing in mind that the country was attentive to the discussion and would judge them . ( Bravo . ' ) "
The first speaker was M . Payer , who decared that the Republic offered as much stability as the Monarchy , and certainly more security ; that , to use M . Dupin ' s words , the Republic was the sole government practicable , and the only bulwark against anarchy ; that the partial revision of the constitution which he proposed , was merely to improve Republican institutions , and would not be attended with the fatal consequences which must follow any attempt at total revision .
M . de Falloux then took up the debate and attacked the Republic and the Republicans with great boldness . He accused the most strenuous advocates of uinversal suffrage of daily violations of it . To revise partially would be doing nothing—less than nothing . His adversaries objected that a total revision would lead to Monarchy , for which the country was not ripe : — "In the meantime , " he exclaimed , " the red spectre was progressing in spite of the state of siege and the skill and energy of the Administration . Its growth was the result of the divisions of that side of the Assembly ( pointing to the Right ) . The Republic , said a great statesman , is the form that divides us least . M . de Falloux
thought that it was the form that permitted men to be longest divided . The country had enjoyed that form for the last three years . { Laughter . ) In his opinion , it was that regimen that ruined France , paralyzed her power , and condemned the party of order to impotence and to a state of lethargy , to which death was preferable . M . de Falloux then referred to the inability of the different Governments , during ihe Ia 3 t forty years , to check , the march of Socialism , which had in turn concealed itself under the appellation of Liberals , St . Simonians , Republicans ; and the present Government was as incompetent as the others for the task . The remedy , in his opinion , lay in the radical revision of the Constitution , and the substitution of Monarchy for the Republic . But , all the fractions of the party of order , obeying only the voice of their conscience , should sincerely unite for the purpose . Their disunion had sadly compromised the
country . He declared that Europe was profoundly moved and alarmed , and that all who Bought for protection against the invasion of anarchy and demagogy , looked to Russia , that Hercules in her cradle , an M . Thierscalled her . " Should Europe throw itself into ker arms , it would be vain to proclaim insurrection the holient of duties . Europe will respond to you that coalition ia the most legitimate of interests . " He concluded by demnnding , in the words of General Hoche , " a remedy that was not repose . "
M . de Mornny followed . In the hmtorical annals of France was a day called the Journde des Dupe * . He thought that the present duy might bo called La Journee des Masques . He was entirely opposed to revision . The greater part of his speech turned upon the petition movement , which he denounced as the work of the Administration : — " If the prolongation of Louis Napoleon ' s powers was to be sanctioned by an election , what should the Government do under those circumstances ? ( Laughter . ) The Presidential prcas had agitated the country by fiightuning it with the phantasm of the red spectre , and aeduc * d it by describing the prolongation of the President ' s power as the forerunner of the golden age . Thoae petition * did not contain the expression of public opinion . " General Cayaignuc , uinid # t " murmurs on the
right , " declared that Monarchy was no longer possible : — " M . de Falloux had said that he believed in the divine right of the Republic . That appellation was not his . It was invented by its adversaries , who , knowing that institutions of divine right enjoyed little favour in France , had thus stigmatized the Republic . He would tell M , de Falloux that a Government that allowed its principle to be discussed was verging to ruin . " It is precisely because it is a principle that the Republic is fight . Entering into the question of the revision of the constitution upon its own merits , he concluded that his party would agree to a revision when they did not see a Monarchical enterprise behind the demand for revision . Referring to the celebrated Art . 45 , he said it was the most useful of all : — "I know , " he exclaimed , "that it may be violated . But we must warn the nation , and resist it afterwards . We have no Washington to maintain— -let us then maintain Art . 45 . It is our palladium ! It is said that the duration of the Presidential powers is too short , and we are asked to prolong them in the name of stability . Does that mean the stability of the Government or of those who exercise it ? The stability of things or of men ? If you wish for the stability of men return to the Monarchy . But if you wish to maintain the Republic , maintain Art . 45 . "
The speech of General Cavaignac concluded the first day a debate ; and we may remark that the behaviour of the Mountain , even in the opinion of their enemies , was above all praise . The murmurs and interruptions came from the Right alone . In the second day ' s debate the most remarkable speech was that of M . Coquerel , the famous Protestant minister of Paris . He spoke in favour , of revision , and derided the fears of the Republicans respecting it . But while he spoke as a Republican , he had the courage or the weakness to applaud the dynasty of Orleans , and designate Louis XVI . as the Martyr King . " But he said : —
" He believed the Republican form to be the best , and hoped that it would be one day established all over the world . ' It was his conscientious and religious belief . In 1847 he wrote that the Republican Government was the best Government , that it was based on the Gospel , and that the Gospel was profoundly Republican . ( Murmurs . )" He did not believe that Louis Napoleon would violate his oath and the constitution at the same time , and he recognized but one personage who could violate the constitution with impunity — and that personage was France .
The remaining speakers were M . Grevy , who enumerated the political laws enacted by the Assembly —pointedly , the electoral law of May 31 , and the law which prohibited the right of meeting ,, and that which gagged the press , as reasons against revision—but he was compelled , owing to faintness , to give way to M . Michel de Bourges , who spoke against the revision in the sense of the extreme party of the Mountain . He said : — " The reactionists had evinced much skill , and ably profited by the faults of their adversaries . They had crept into the councila of the Republic , sacrificed the man who had fought their battle and rendered them immense services , and placed the reins of the Government
of the Republic in the hands of a Pretender , and the high offices of the State in those of the Royalist * . It was a wonder'to him how the Republic yet lived under those circumstances . The Republicans were only 200 in the Assembly ; their adversaries mustered 500 ; they had at their disposal an army of 500 , 000 men , and a legion of Royalist functionaries , and yet the Republic was standing !" M . Berryer combatted the anti-monarchical sentiments of Michel de Bourges , and declared that he thought an unconstitutional reelection of the President would be a great danger , and that the only way of obviating that danger , would be the Convocation of an Assembly of Revision , invested with ull the powers of society .
Thus , bo far as the accounts have reached us , stands the question of revision . With respect to other matters , Generul Magnan has been gazetted as Commander-in-Chief of the army in Paris . The object of this is not very obvious , except , we presume , that General Magnan possesses Home peculiar qualities which fit him to command the troops of the Elyse . ; . i'he Bonapartist papers have vauntingly boasted of the enormous number of citizens who were signing petitions in favour of a revision of the constitution , and for n prolongation of the presidential powers . It now
turns out , that up to the l » t instant the number of petitions amounted to l < 5 , f ) SH , and that they contained 1 , 023 , 625 Mgnaturt a or adhcRionn , which arc thus divided : —For the revision , 641 , 111 ; for a revision with prolongation , 370 , 411 ; and for the prolongation only , 12 , 103 . Admitting that all these petition * are constitutional and regular ( which we are much inclined to doubt ) , the number of uigrmturcs is not in the least surprising , especially if we consider that the Government diuposes of 600 , 000 public functionaries , not mentioning their relatives and connections
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BLANQUI ON TIIIKRS . The Free Traders of Franco ure following up the diNCiUMion in which M . Xluoru playud so giguutio a
part , -tfith great vigour . The Free Trade party is by no means insignificant in France ; and though in the tribune M . Thiers has no rival , he has many in the press . A letter from one of the latter has appeared in the daily journals . It is from M . Blanqui , of the Institute , an ( Economist of European renown . M . Blanqui warmly enters on his task ; characterising the speech of M . Thiers as the " banter " of " an orator who appears to have no other religion than that of success ; " and , distinctly suggests to M . Thiers whether a little more
modesty of expression would not become a man who has " taken a part in transactions after a manner far from successful . " M . Thiers , he admits , is " a partisan upon principle , of the protective system , " who has never * ' varied his convictions . " But that is the very reason , exclaims M . Blanqui , «• why he should know how to respect the convictions of men who differ from him , and not accuse them of creating a disastrous literature , * as if the most disastrous of all literatures were not that which from the elevation of the tribune bepraises eternal war and everlasting dearth . "'
Leaving , however , the personal question , he grapples with the arguments of M . -Thiers , and especially those drawn for the most part from the flying visit with which that small statesman honoured England . M . Blanqui denies point blank the assertion of M . Thiers , that the condition of the English labourers has . not been much bettered by the repeal of the corn laws . He denies that wages have diminished . He has studied the working of Free , trade in England , and he has found everywhere that
English agriculture is making progress , bravely accepting its new conditions , and seeking in the ' improvement of processes and rotations a compensation for lost protection . Besides , diminutions of wages " do not take place in a general manner , so as to affect the entire population . They come , like storms , upon some isolated departments of industry , but it is not true to say that there has been any general reduction in wages in consequence of Peel and Cobden ' g reforms . "
He ridicules the idea of protection to the wool growers , to the cattle breeders , to the wine growers , to the silk manufactors , to the peasant proprietors who pay " five millions in quotas of less than five francs . But he makes an effective hit when he seizes and exposes the fixed idea of Thiers—that idea which he tries to conjure with—war . " The fundamental idea of M . Thiers's address , as well as of his system , is , that out of regard for a possible war , a nation should impose on itself , during peace , all the burdens of war itself . ' Beware of a war ! You will
have no more iron to defend yourselves , no more wheat to nourish you , if you accustom yourselves to buy cheaply of the foreigner . ' ? ? ? It is this always , this dismal Utopia of eternal war , which is present in the councils of French policy . War , always war , notwithstanding that all Europe is conspiring to preserve the peace , by railroads and commercial combinations of all kinds . Truly it is very wise to talk to-day of the policy of Henry VIII . and of King William , as if the times were similar , as if science , art , policy , and the genius of man had not changed , from top to bottom the organisation of societies , and the wants which demand to be satisfied . "
And , continues M . Blanqui , it is not only war but dearth which constitutes the basis of the political ceconomy of M . Thiers , who seems only frightened at one thing— " cheapness " : — " He would have us buy everything at scarcity prices , and this he calls ' the intention' of God . The true design of God , so far as man may undertake to interpret it without presumption , is that every country shall buy with the products of its natural and least-distressing
exertions the products of the labour of other nations . " He taunts M . Thiers with belonging to the " orators of the past . " He points out that the duty on steel prevents the manufacture of good tools ; that the duty on coffee compels the French to drink chicory ; and that the duty on oil nearly triples its price . The lesson he sees in the Exposition ia that only one thing is wanting for French supremacy— "lowness of price" ; and that this may be easily obtained by the removal of prohibitions or the reduction of taxes : — " But , " he adds , " the reduction of taxes and the remoral of prohibition ! will hate at their result the reduction of the profits of the few to the benefit of th « salaried or consumption of all . M . Thiers has constituted himself the defender of the first ; we have him , under all regimes , the advocate of tk * second . " The last sentences of this letter are very remarknblo : — " The reign of political intrigue , fatal to so many characters , ia in France drawing to a close . . It will urrnlnate with the Aaacmbly , which ia to diaappear in 18413 .
With the new Assembly revolution may be its complexion , the quoationa of political economy will no more be diaciiHsed from the height of the donjons of Weaaerling , or in the interest of this or that manufacture , but iu the intereat of the whole French nation . I will ouly add , that a time when all events conapire to draw pnen cloaer together , to avert wara , to multiply great publio workrt , 4 t > ameliorate the lot of the greatest number , it is not aopniam that will aucceed in persuading man tbat the dearth of proviaions and other nvceasariea is the will of God , or th » t cheapness aud , tibuiuUnc * %$ an iu * uiia tioa of tU « 4 cyil . "
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Q 74 ••* It * a fret * ( SAtoRDWY , . ¦ - ¦ -- - ——¦— - ¦ — — - —^— * * - — ' — : — ¦
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 674, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1892/page/6/
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