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Leader (1850-1860), 8th November 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 1058, Untitled Article

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      of Municipal Councils have amounted to 126 , those of National Guards to 139 . " "We fear the five millions "who elected him must be considerably reduced in number by these " vigorous "

      measures . Great efforts have apparently been made to find employment for the working classes during the winter . This is , of course , in itself a laudable policy , however selfish the purpose in the present case . Our next paragraph is , therefore , one of the most satisfactory in the whole document . 41 The municipal administration of Paris has adopted two vast projects , which at one and the same time present the advantage of facilitating the supply of provisions to the capital , and of adding to its beauty ; 1 mean the construction of the markets and the prolongation of the rue Rivoli . The impulse soon spread from Pans to the departments , which have devoted considerable sums to works of utility . "

      A recommendation to determine the indemnities due to those citizens who have suffered material losses in consequence of the events of February and June , seems rather out of date . Is it intended as a warning to the bourgeoisie against barricades ? Then comes a toucli of the " Emperor . " ' « There is , moreover , another project of law of which I spoke to you in my last Message , and to which I attached the greatest importance , namely , the assistance to be tendered to the old remnants of the armies of the Republic and the Empire . " of will

      " Circumstances which were independent my have hitherto prevented the presentation of this project . I trust , however , that you will soon be in a position to give it a favourable reception ; for I entreat j'ou not to forget that in all parts of this country there are men covered with scars , who have sacrificed themselves to the defence of the country , and who are now anxiously waiting for you to help them . Their time is short , afflicted as they are by age and misery . " It is pleasant to turn for a moment from a lesson of political falsehoods and intrigues to a paragraph which expresses a national pride most honourably gratified . England can well afford to let France speak for herself : —

      " The superiority of certain branches of our industry has been confirmed or revealed by the London Exposition , as is proved by the numerous prizes awarded to our exhibitors . In fact , France has ptoportionably gained more than all the other countries , including England herself . And it is not only by our works of art , taste , and luxury that we have obtained this success . Our machines , our scientific instruments , our chemical products , our works in copper and hardware , as well as our preparations of our raw material , and our fabrics and dyes , have earned for us an honourable distinction . The Universal Exposition will have added a glorious page to the annals of French industry . "

      Our readers may remember the description of the " Valley of Nouhahiva , in the Marquesas , to which political exiles are now " deported" as a mild substitute for death . The conduct of some recent political trials at Lyons and elsewhere may also be remembered . How cheerful is the irony of these sentences ! — " The last Message spoke also of projects of law relative to the rehabilitation of convicts , and the repression

      of crime committed by the French in foreign countries . The Council of State is occupied with a proposition , emanating from the Initiative Committee , on the subject of transportation . Great difficulties arose as to the appointment of a place . TJip . se seem to be removed , and the law which is requisite for the peace of society and the reform of convicts , will soon receive the double examination of the Council of State and the Assembly . " The administration of justice has been everywhere promj > t and enlightened . '

      The Message on Foreign Affairs reads as much like a Royal ( or shall we say Imperial ?) speech as even hia Imperial Majesty Soulouque could desire :. Here in a correct account of the French occupation of Home on behalf of liberal institutions : — " At Koine our situation remains the same , and the Holy Father is unceasing iu his demonstratioriH of solicitude for the prosperity of France and the comfort of our soldiers . The work of the ? organization of the Human

      Government proceeds butslowly ; nevertheless , a Council of State lias been CNtabliHhod . The Municipal and Provisional Councils are gradually organizing themselves , and they will nerve to forma consulta , whose duty it will be to take a share iu the administration of finances . Important legislative reforms , follow one after another , and great pains are taken with the creation of iiu army which would promote the retreat of foreign forces from the territories of the Church . "

      On ( jjormiin ) ' could Schwarzenberg or Ncsaolrode speak more prudently ?—" The dangers which a year ago threatened the peace of Germany , hav « been dispelled . The-Germanic Confederation in its total 1 ms return « d to the forms ami the rule which prevailed previous to IMH . It attempts to protect itself against new convulsions by application to an inferior reorganization to which we ought to remain perfect BtrangerH . " M ' . Louis Napoleon , if l . e were Htill capable of one noble impulse , would ml her have bin own tongue withered than K ive utterance , oven through the mouth of uThorigny , to thin bitter comment on the gratitude of the man for whom . Switzerland once dured all the threats of dcHpotism ruthcr than drive tlio exile from hit ) refuge .

      " Switzerland has removed from its territories the greater part of the refugees who abused its hospitality . In supporting that measure we did a service to bwitzerland and to its contiguous States . " About freedom of instruction , it is not true that it is given up pieds et poings to the Jesuits , for says the President : ¦—" I feel justified in saying that freedom , of instruction , which has been developed in a remarkable manner , is without danger , because it will be confined within proper limits . The non-Catholic sects have also their due share in the care of the Government . " And , under the " care of the Government , " the Bishop of Lucon ( as we stated in a recent number ) condemns the reading of such impious books as Robinson Crusoe .

      Another bishop declares every marriage not solemnized according to Roman Catholic rites to be a mere " illegitimate concubinage . " And the nephew of a Jew Representative of the People is obliged to be married by a Protestant minister to a Catholic lady , for -want of a Catholic priest to bless the union So much for " their due share in the care of the Government . " Lastly . M . Louis Napoleon , after considerable

      flourish and alarm , fires his heavy gun of " Abrogation of the law of the 31 st of May . " He has some difficulty in explaining how he first proposed and carried and trumpetted this law , and now urges its repeal by the same arguments which he , or his organs , once called the specious inventions of anarchists . The pith of the explanations is in the subjoined extracts : —

      " Since Universal Suffrage again raised the social fabric , by the substituting a right for a revolutionary fact , is it wise in us to continue narrowing its basi 3 ? And , lastly , I have asked myself if , when new powers shall preside over the destinies of the country , we should not from the first compromise their stability if vre left a pretext for questioning their origin , or for misrepresenting their legitimacy ? " No doubt was possible ; and , without wishing for a single instant to swerve from the policy of order , which I have always followed out , I have been obliged in many respects to separate from a Cabinet which had to the full my confidence and respect , in order to choose another , which , equally composed of honourable men , and whose Conservative sentiments were publicly known , was contented to admit the necessity of reestablishing universal suffrage on the broadest possible basis .

      " You will , therefore , have presented to you the draught of a law which restores the principle in all its fulness , in retaining from the law of the 31 st of May everything which winnows universal suffrage fromimpure elements , and which makes its application now moral and regular . " Ah ! here is the key of the mystery ; but see how dexterously we let the cat out o' the bag : — " The law of the 31 st of May has its imperfections , but even were it perfect , should it not nevertheless be repealed , if it is to prevent the revision of the Constitution , the manifested wish of the country ?" But the misery of this "honest , honest Iago , " is to be always suspected ; or at least to be always suspecting himself to be suspected : —

      "It is objected , I am aware , that on my part these proposals are inspired by personal interest . My conduct for the last three years ought to repel such an allegation . The welfare of the country , I repeat , will always be the sole moving spring of my conduct . Thus , then , gentlemen , the proposal I make to you is neither a piece' of party tactics , nor an egotistical calculation , nor a sudden resolution ; it is the result of serious meditation , and of a profound conviction . I do not pretend that ' this measure will banish all the difficulties ^ of the situation . Hut to each day its appointed task . To-day to reestablish universal suffrage is to deprive civil war of its ensign , the Opposition of its last argument . It will be to furnish France with the possibility of giving itself institutions which may insure its repose . It will be to give back in future to the powers of the State that moral force which can only exist so long as it reposes on a consecrated principle and an incontestable

      authority . " So ends the last Message of the first Tresident of . the French Republic . We shall be much astonished if the French Peop le have not by this time well made up their minds that , " in order to give the country institutions which may insure its repose , " they have only to get rid -once and for ever—of J ' rlnce-FreHidmtH ; with whom " perseverance" means usurpation , and " abnegation " a coup d ' etat . The following is from a letter published in La Vressc , and dated Frankfort , the 27 th ultimo :-

      —" A complete change is imminent in the financial world . Whilst the moneyed aristocracy of Mngland , amongst which Messrs . Rothschild figure on the second rank , are preparing for KohsuUi a reception such as no king lniH obtained , the . new Austrian lonn has entirely failed . It is well known that the Austrian Government has been unable to realize more thun forly-fivo millions of florinn instead of the eighty-five which it expected . Of these forty five millions , forty were raised at home , and five only abroad , Hut . besides tin- fact that , flic communes were forced to contribute to the loan , Trie . ste-, to wit . under

      puin of losing her rig as a ( roe port , the Austrian ( jiovcrnmcut consented to take in payment , instead of cash , old obligations for war ex [ tenses of divers provinces which had almoiit lost their value . The forty millions thus raised in Austria uro in the main , therefore , but

      fictitious , and destined to serve as a bait for foreien capitalists . We learn now from a certai n source that Austria has charged the great houses of Sina and Rothschild to sell at any price the remaining forty millions of scrip . But an important loan cannot be made without bankers' assistance , and the bankers are abandoning Austria . This circumstance seems to be the real cause that has led to the meeting in this city of the four representatives of the Rothschild house . The object of consultation has been also to advise as to the means proper to adopt to cover the losses which this house has alreadv had , and is likely to have , in consequence of the present financial position of Austria . "

      Our readers have not forgotten a first letter in a recent number on some " Mysteries of the Austrian Money Market . " We now learn that the Government at Vienna have resorted to a last and most ludicrous attempt to cover the running sore of inevitable bankruptcy . The Minister of Finance acting on a supposed requisition , has appointed a commission to deliberate upon the measures necessary and expedient for regulating the business on " 'Change . " The professed object is to suppress speculations ; the real aim , to throw dust in . the eyes of the Money Market and of Foreign Exchanges . But it is too late !

      " The Constitutionelle Zeitung of Dresden of the 27 th ultimo , which published a report of the Westminster meeting in honour of M . Kossuth , was seized and suppressed by the police , by order of the Minister of the Interior . The journal states that it gave only an abstract of the proceedings , and expressed no opinion of its own on the subject of the debate , and denies that the matter seized comes under the provision of the law on the authority of which the Minister issued the order . The official Dresdener Journal condenses all the reports of the proceedings in England , at Southampton and elsewhere , to half a line , stating that ' M . Kossuth had landed' at the above-named port . Within a month five different

      works , published by the firm of Otto Wigand and Co ., at Leipzig , have been seized , and the sale prohibited . Among them is the work of General Klapka on the War in Hungary and in the Siebenbiirgen . M . Wigand intended to make a strong representation to the Government of the ruin such seizures would bring on the publishing business , which employs in Leipzig an im mense number of individuals . Immediately after Klapka ' s work had been seized and put under the seal of the police , an order for it arrived from Marshal Kadetaki . In the month of June last no less than thirty-two German works were prohibited by the Russian Government , some of them the same as those recently prohibited in the Papal States . "

      Letters from Naples speak of the serious illness of Poerio in the dungeons of Ischia . It has occasioned , says the correspondent of the Morning Chronicle , some indignation , but no surprise , to the friends o Kossuth in Vienna , to find that the papers say nothing , now that he is free , on the subject of the breach of trust story got up against him when he was not in a position to defend himself . "We are glad to hear of English ( or Irish ) honesty and courage rewarded by foreign Governments . Our letters from Florence of October 28 announce the promotion of Mr . Burke Honan , junior , from the post o attache" of the Naples Legation in that city to the more distinguished position of " attache to the embassy of his Gracious Majesty the King of the

      Two Sicilies at Paris . , It may not be generally known that Mr . * 5 { LtKC Honan , senior , is the distinguished correspondent at Naples of our '' leading journal " : one ot the estimable corps on whose operations the author ot t'ie Revelations of Russia has lately thrown some HgM . Now , we understand in what sense this " leaamf , journal " explained the fact of the popular antipwtny by the reason that it was " too English , mul too plain spoken . " We should rather say " More Iribii

      and loss nice . ,.. , -i .. * From a notification of the 25 th ultimo , published ai Venice , we learn that Count A « ostino Ouerneri , o Verona , late of the Ninth Regiment of Austrian JIuhsars , convicted of having ( two months ago ) roceiv ' an anonymous letter from revolutionary parties , of not having given it up to the authorities , Huron Lutti , convicted of having advised coui ( iuerrieri to burn the said letter , and aided hun u doing , have been condemned , on the count oi in treason , the former to ten , and the lutter to two ^ ¦ imprisonment in a fortress . wh of A happy augury of religious liberty in the non Italy . The first stone of a Protestant Chun , n laid at Turin , on the 20 th ultimo , with great *" nity , in the presence of the Uritish AmbaHHadoi , ; It . Abereroml > y , the American Minister , Mr . iv j Count Redern , the Prussian Minister , and M .

      a pastor at lurui . . , r <> 4 uittf Uut in the south ! On the 2 . 0 th ultimo tht . J < £ ^ took poHueoHioii of the convent ot bt . uu » b' » Verona . .

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      1058 ®!> * %$ -&tt *? [ SATtJRlUY ,

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      MONEY FAIUJRK OF NIJROPKAN MAUK B'l . [ From the , Times of Wednesday , City ArtlclK J . H ( int The Contincntiul uceountu continue to rq ^ UKtute of stagnation and encouragement i » purtment * of Iiuhux-hb . At Vienna an » t . « u . »* able rise of nearly ono per cent . Huh t . kon 'J the foreign exchanges , while the premium oa and gold continue also rapidly to « * 1 ^" ; ' - ,, ^ ul-The prospect that tho steady increase m tno m

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 8, 1851, page 1058, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1908/page/6/