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faction has been demanded . In the distant region of India have we Mussulman riots , Affghan raids , and other signs of disturbance under the surface ; suggesting the question whether Russia has not already , in some sort , penetrated to our territory * M , Louis Napoleon ( he h > s dropped * hefadjily name of the Corsican ) is doing his worst to merit the reputation and the fate of a " ywy fast man /* He is surprising the expectations of his warmest friends by the reckless velocity , with which , having
scaled the dizzy height of power , he is piling * scaled the dizzy height of poWer , he is plunging down to an abyss of ruini more sudden than his exaltation , and more precipitate than his crime . At the rate he is now going , he will be thoroughly used up in violence and oppression , before he can be said to have exchanged Revolution for Authority . Strange ! On Sunday , Te Deum No . 2 , was " ordered" for his election ; and in the columns of the same Moniteur- ' appeared the decrees banishing some representatives from
France to Cayenne , and others to anywhere else they might choose for a permanent residence . Then the National Guard is abolished , and finally the Constitution appears . Where we may be landed next week we know not ; even now France is the darkest blot upon the map of Europe . Austria , Naples , Rome , are fairly surpassed in atrocity . Europe is covered with a pall ; where despotism recedes , menace and outrage are not withheld . Even Switzerland shrinks in her
fastnesses of snow ; and prudent , bourgeois Belgium ( the model of civic royalty adapted to the nineteenth century ) cowers . Where the hero of Boulogne once sought and found a sure refuge , he now forbids asylum to political exiles , on penalty of invasion . His myrmidons tread the pavement of London as well as the mountain passes of the Alps . Of the two courses open to him both are equally fatal . Peace or War I either being certain death . As to the new Constitution , tHat will last- — until the coronation of the Emperor . At home , the most real movement is that of the Amalgamated Engineers , with the counter-movement of the masters who are " on strike . " The
masters have stuck to their threat , and at this moment thousands are thrown out of work . The employers who preach so solemnly against indiscriminate measures , make no scruple of confounding the innocent with the guilty , and dismissing hands that have no connection with the Amalgamated Society ; nay , some masters have struck whose men appear to have in no way joined the movement ! A case of more wanton aggression cannot be imagined ; and if it had occurred among the men , we should have had no end of
denunciations against tyranny and cruelty . Meanwhile , the men stick to their quiet and temperate course . The sum of £ 10 , 000 has been set apart , and is to be devoted to establishing workshops on the cooperative principle , in London and three or four others of the principal towns . And to provide for the unemployed , as a matter of mere subsistence , those who are in work are asked to give one day ' s wages in the week to those who are out . The meetings held by the Society , one of them in St . Martin ' s-hall , have been very numerously attended , and have
done much , to conciliate public favour and support . We repeat ; if the men will render their workshops complete in themselves , they may serve as model establishments , and as a resource against the caprices of employers ; and may thus prove , not only excellent establishments in themselves for illustrating and extending the blessings of Concert , but powerful checks against the continued encroachments upon the returns of labour and the freedom of the workmen .
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LETTERS FltOM PARIS . [ FttOJK OCR OWN CoiUtESrONDKNT . ] Lbttbu III . rails , January 13 , 1852 . In . my lost letter I mentioned very briefly the dinner given at the HOtel de Ville to the Delegates of the Departments , i . ml the bull which followed it . On the next day , 2 ' rihce Louis Napoleon gave , a banquet at the Tuileries to these same " Delegates /' These " Dele / rates of the Departments" were , in
other words , the mayois of a \\ the chief towns of the provincial districts ( chefs lioux d ' arrondiseement ) who had been summoned by command to Puriu ior the occasion . For all things are now done to and by order in tins brave land of France } it was thus that during the first days of the Revolution of tho 2 nd of December the Sttole newspaper reappeared "by order " ; the shops on the Boulevard were reopened by order " ; and the theatres resumed their performances to empty benches " by order /' To return to tho fiJto at the Tuileries ; this banquet
passed off coldly ; no cry wits raised but " Vive le President de la Rgpubuque /* After dinner Louis Napoleon entered into conversation with the nearest groups , and the ceremonial terminated with little or no ceremony . Wednesday , again , Louis Napoleon had resolved to entertain his ** Delegates Of the French People . " He commanded a representation at the Opera of the Prophete . Only the mayors ^ the officers of the army ) and some few functionaries , were admitted to the performance . The appearance of the house , it should be added , was magnificent .
The Print * was looking extremely pale . He seemed worn out with fatigue ; and well he may be , if the report be true , that he is working day and night : whether it be at the decrees which every morning brings forth , or at the Constitution . I was told , a few days since , that General Magnan had lately requested to speak with the President , and had been unable to reach the Chief of the State , who was hermetically sealed in his private cabinet , and absorbed in the «* salvation of the country . " There are persons who attribute this interesting pallor to another cause . The Royalists are accused by some persons of having already taken measures to get rid of him , within a certain period . In the actual position of affairs even his loss would be a disaster . As
it is , the Legitimists are governing under , cover of Louis Napoleon . The sweeping proscription of all the Republican representatives in the National Assembly was , in a great measure , at their instigation . In not a few cases personal vindictiveness has marked its victims . Among others , M . Granier de Cassagnac had an account to settle with M . Creton , who had stigmatized him at the National Tribune as a " vile lampooner . " M . Delamarre , proprietor of La Palrie , was jealous of La Presse ever since it was made an evening journal . He procured the banishment of M . de Girardin . The terrorist decree
appeared in the Moniteur of Saturday . By ten o ' clock in the morning all Paris had read it . All Paris was astounded . On 'Change , in the law courts , in private society , among all classes and professions , it caused the most lively surprise and emotion . The effect of the decree was so disgusting , that to this sullen manifestation of public opinion has been attributed the momentary suspension of a second list of proscription , which , involves the fate of many thousands . The publication of this second decree is , therefore , deferred ; but it can be only for a few days . The order of the
Minister of the Interior to efface from all public monuments the Republican device , has been speedily followed by the disbanding of the National Guard throughout France , without exception . This series of measures makes us all suspect that the moment is well nigh come when M ; Louis Napoleon will overstep the nominal barrier which separates him from a throne , and when the name of the Republic will suffer the fate of the reality . The Empire is but a logical sequence of events : the Empire , then , we shnll have . Already the conquest of Belgium is talked of , and tho " frontier of the Rhine . "
The fact to which I am alluding is in this shape ; Louis Napoleon , it is affirmed , has demanded of Belgium repayment of a sum of 80 , 000 , 000 of francs by way of indemnity for the immense public works effected by the Emperor in Belgium . " If you don ' t make up your mind to repay me" he is reported to have said , " I will undertake to repay myself . " You know his alliance with the Czar ; he may well have been authorized to hold this language to Belgium ; there may * well be a secret European project on foot , in which England has not been consulted . It is not quite impossible that you may once more hear of the " Camp of Boulogne . " War with England is as
much a logical sequence of events as the Empire in France . In the mean time the rigours of the Dictatorship continue relentlessly ; numberless arrests daily ; members of the Councils-general , mayors , local magistrates , elective functionaries , are daily thrown into prison . No less than seventy colonels or general officers are in confinement at Bictftre . In the South , the outrages of 1815 against Protestants arc renewed in the name of Louis Napoleon . Dragged to prison and beaten by gendarmes with the flats of their swords , they are fortunate to escape ( but rarely ) more brutal treatment . These scenes of persecution are daily enacted ( among other places ) atNimes and Cotte .
Arrests are no longer partial . Letters from St . Etienne mention numerous arrests in that town and in the adjacent communes . From Arbois ( Jura ) we hear of twelve persons being recently arrested . At Salines there have been frequent domiciliary visits of the police . Papers have been seized ; three persons , MMT Debrand , chemist , Guignet and Dugues provisionally placed in confinement . The Journal de VYonne states that the total number of arrests in that
department was , up to tho last week , 640 . This week there have been 116 arrests in the DiGme . The Moniteur du Loiret of the 8 th instarlt mentions three arrests on the two preceding days , orfll nine at Bonny sur Loire , where the total number is about seventy . The same state of things exists at Cahors and at Nerao , where arrests are the order of tho day . Sentence has been passed this week on tho unfortunate prisoners in , the Fort of Iyry . All have been
condemned to deportation tqCayenne . The courts martial have commenced their sittings at Paris . There are , however , two courses of action in favour at the Elys 6 e . Mi de Persigny , supported by the old King Jerome , inclines to clemency ; De Morny , on the other hand , whose character is gentle , I may almost say soft , dreams of nothing less than the extretoest rigour . He insists that all who are condemned to death by the courts martial , shall , in fact ,
be executed , in spite of the law which abolished the punishment of death for political offences . Such are the two opposed systems in discussion at the Elysee . Louis Napoleon , impassible as ever , listens to the persuasions of both , parties without saying a word to either . If he be a man of-real strength of character , he will lean to clemency . If he be a weak man , as I do not think , him to be , he will espouse violence ; this is the law of nature , and nature ' s laws are never set aside . . .
Measures have been taken to ship off the wretched men sentenced to deportation to Cayenne . At Bordeaux , barracks are being constructed for their reception until they can be embarked . It is to Bordeaux that the five representatives of the people , recently condemned to deportation , will be despatched . - In certain departments the military proconsuls have published a decree that they will sentence to deportation , if not to death , as accomplices in the insurrection , any persons who shall be found to have given , or who shall give , shelter and refuge to insurgents . In 1793 , any man . who gave shelter to an emigre , was himself condemned . In 1852 , the same rule holds good , and . yet we hear of progress I
As to the press , it no longer exists but in name . I have two or three anecdotes to tell you on the subject , that you may be able to judge of the degree of liberty we are enjoying in France . The Government caused to be announced in some of the English newspapers that the Journal des Debats had completely rallied to the cause of Louis Napoleon . M . Bertin , director of the Debats , was on the point of soliciting the English press to rectify this unfounded assertion , when all of a sudden he received an injunction to desist from any remonstrance , under penalty of instant suppression of his journal . H now relates the facts to all his friends and acquaintance , Another fact . Within the last fevv
days , M . - Jules Martinet" , editor of LrOfdre , was summoned by the Bureau de Censure . " Your journal " said the director of the Censorship , V is conducted in a bad spirit . " ' " Sir , you are very kind to detect any spirit * at all in our columns : we are dull enough in all conscience . " " Sir , " rejoined the Censor , "I warn you that , if you do not conduct your paper in a better spirit , you will be suppressed . " The Siicle has received similar intimations . I am ready to bet any man , that by the time the Carnival arrives , we shall have only one surviving journal—the Moniteur Universel . Now , this would be really ingenious policy ! To condemn Frenchmen to read the Moniteur would be to sicken them of newspapers for the rest of their life .
The Opinion Publique has been suspended , and is now suppressed . M . Alfred Nettement had submitted an article to the Censorship . The Censors had expunged certain passages . The journal decided to appear with a column blank , as in the good days of the Restoration . Immediate suppression was the consequence . To make amends for our losses in the Press , we are favoured with thousands of nominations to the Legion of Honour . Not a day passes without a decree of appointments in the Moniteur . It is said that the Constitution is to be promulgated between the 14 th and the 20 th instant . I have already told you that it is to be simply a second edition of the Constitution of the Year VIII .
There will be a tribunate of bavards and a legislative corps of mutes . Bonaparte , the Emperor , was obliged to suppress or to purge the tribunate ; we shall have then a legislative absolutely dumb . This consequence too , we may look for ; as long a& the institutions are in process of formation the mutes will hold their peace ; but at the least shock , at tho slightest check , ait the first commotion , the dumb will recover their speech . This is what happened to the Emperor . Before the conqueror of Austerlitz all were silent ; but before the vanquished of Mosoow the mutes of 1813 suddenly regained their
faculty of Utterance . Ihere is the danger for M . Louis Napoleon . That is but one constitution logically befitting such a position as the vote of his seven , millions and a half (?) has given to the President . It is to combine in his own person and office the executive and legialativefunctions ; to be himself the sole legislative , the sole repreisentative of tho People . For this he would only haye to surround himself with special men in tho different branches of administration , and to consult them on the making of laws special to their several branches . A man of genius , with on instrument so simple and so mighty , would accomplish grand measures , and
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46 ' & $$ % t&i ! t ** tSAtfORDAY ,
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* " Monsieur , vous eles bitn bon do trouver de Vetprit a notro journal . II eat maintenaqt bete commo tout . " Esprit ia scarcely translatable Into English : it is a word , and a gift , peculiarly French : our » Gwrest word ia " wit . "
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1852, page 46, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1918/page/2/
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