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in a condition to take a bolder flight . Come the deluge when it may , their ¦ " mission is accomplished . " , But taxpayers may well shrug- their shoulders ; they have got their . order and tranquillity ; what do they say to alittle bill of £ 9 O 0 # OO for refurft * ishing the Tuileries ? " - - , ~ [ ... . Louis Bonaparte coquets strangely with the Legitimists . Whether out of spite to the Orleanists , or to appease the manes 0 f the Due in
d'Enghien , or from a respect for the " prciple of authority / ' we cannot say . Certain it is that the Nephew df Napoleon honours January 21 st as we do the 30 th of this month . Louis Philippe could never afford to- recognize that " blessed martyr' *—to his own fatal incapacity and indecision—poor Louis XVL , to whom we do not refuse a thought of sympathy ; but in going out of his way to be generous , Louis Bonaparte will not con * ciliate the Royalists , and he will disgust the mass of the population . At Berlin and at Madrid the initiative of Paris is
taking root : the prevailing tendency is to get rid of Constitutionalism and of talking houses . In the one case the Chamber has been warned not to discuss the acts of Government . In the other the press is well nigh extinct . Koasuth has been received by Congress , and formally welcomed . In other respects the news from America is checkered ; but it is upon the whole satisfactory . Judge ^ Douglass disappoints us by declaring that he will form no alliance with England until she do " justice to Ireland "—which is , in
delphia , where Colonel Small and Judge Kelly came out vigorously , and Louisiana , where Kinkel was getting on with his German loan . Ten months alone has America conceived the idea that she is the leader of National Freedom even for the Old World , and she is already " big with glorious great intent . " Yes , the work of sowing has been done , and effectually ; the harvest will be one worth waiting for , though it were to wait ten times as long as we shall .
truth , " neitherhere nor there . ** Tt is ^ eyident that Judge Douglass is not yet alive to the wide distinction between Dowiiing-street and England . Others are more hearty ; and old General Cass had declared that he was ready to support in Congress a resolution in favour of the " hands off" policy—the policy of maintaining a real non-intervention and a real independence forjeach nation . We see the same spirit manifested in all parts of the Union , even in Phila-
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LETTERS FROM PARIS . [ From our own CoRHEapoitDfeNT . ] Letter IV . Paris , Tuesday evening , January 20 , 1853 . Well ! The Constitution has made its appearance . It is pretty nearly what I had told you to expect . You know its terms ; so I may content myself with a -word or two on its characteristics . It may be described in a sentence . It asserts the rights of the President—it completely ignores the rights of the nutum and of citizens . All its provisions are against the nation—none of its guarantees in favour of the nation . All is illusory in the Constitution of the 14 th of January . We are to have but the dumb shadow of a Parliament in place of the reality . The
power of making laws is removed from the legislative corps , which is a legislature only b y name . A Council of State , nominated by the President , prepares and elaborates the drafts of bills . The legislative corps votes on these bills by •' Ayes" and " Noes . " Next comes the Senate , with its absolute tight of veto to cancel and annul the deliberations of the legislature . Now , this Senate being nominated by the President—the legislative body , the living expression of the national voice—becomes less than a nominal power . The President absorbs in his own person the nation and the national representatives—a dead People and a dumb Parliament . Let me tell you how this Napoleonic Constitution has been received by the different classes of sooiety .
The banks , the shops , the mercantile men , the Stock-jobbers and money-mongers—all , in a word , who imagine that God has created man to eat and drink ,- to put money in his purse , and then an end "—clap their handB with joy : they rejoice at being political agitations , and from the dia-- gues pf the ^ iro rival powers—the Farand the Executivo- The higher classes , hand , accustomed to govern the country ' » "gntfy their discontent audibly , beonBtitution rot >( l tfte mof an influence they exercised . The journalists are dissatissilence of the Constitution respecting the pree » . The functionaries are displeased ., which prescribes an oath of obedience atitution , ant J especially an oath of fidelity . But it is the army that this clause / violently . Many of the officers ( not to p * y all ) belioved they wero fighting for Franco , foi mb *;
their country ; . tayttsi . tJikjr : nnrf ~ they-have-risked their lives , and sacrificed their position , for one man ! This situation humiliates them ; and they do not scruple to * manifest their feelings aloud . So formidable is thei # opposition , that Buttaparte is already thinking seriously of revising his Constitution , . Mid . of afging th& Senate to abolish Art ; XIV . > which * ei «|» oses the bath . AC old m . ag 4 st * ate who , for flis part , has Jived long enough , to swtttr fidelity 4 o eight ditfetfent governments , said that this article was a aeed-plot of perjury * Even the Bourse " started " at the Constitution * More enlightened in general than
the / tradesmen , these men on 'Change have begun to understand that it is the public liberties which have been sold to pay the expenses of the campaign against "Socialism ; " and they are alarmed to find themselves isolated , disarmed , burked , robbed of every guarantee , in presence of one man ' s self-wul , armed with absolute governmental omnipotence * ^ So that the promulgation of the Constitution Was hailed by the Bourse with a considerable fall in prices , and with a sudden chill hi business . The political world , in fine , composed of men who look beyond the men and things of the moment , discern how frail is this " edifice" of the Constitution . The president has recoiled from the creation of the First Consul . In the Constitution of the year VIII . it was the
Executive that nominated the legislative corps . The operation , was on this vrise . The citizens of each commune nominated a list of Notables of the Arrondissement ; these , again , formed a list of Notables of the Department ; these last , formed a third list of Notables of the Republic—for that form of government was likewise called " Republic . " Then came the Senate , nominated b y the First Consuh The Senate selected from the third list the names im-^ osed ^ ponJt s-choieeJhy the First Con sul ; and t ^ e result was what was callSd ^^ Efi ^ Na ^ an ^^ Repie sentation . " The work of the First Consul was
logically consistent ; this President botches it . The Constitution of the 14 th of January does , in effect , leave to the country the direct nomination of the legislative body . By this fact alone it creates ^ antagonism between the President and the nation . During the first period , the ascendant period , the legislative corps will remain mute . J 3 ut let the President once have lost the prestige of novelty , the legislative body will gain , in the sight of the nation , all the importance which the President -will lose .
All the favour that now attends on the latter will pass over to the former . The nation will recover its own self-consciousness—consciousness of its rightsand Louis Bonaparte will find himself alone , face to face , with the legislative body , backed by the entire nation . The situation will be once more the same as it was before the 2 nd of December . Then , in vain , willM . Bonaparte attempt to better his position by another actof treachery or violence . The nation forewarned , Will not risk another midnight surprise , all defenceless , as on the 2 nd of December .
Such is the future the political world predicts—on the supposition , of course , that no other accident interpose . The result is so easily foreseen that already all parties are in motion to " work" the elections . The Government itself has lost confidence . Notwithstanding the Bonapartist vote of the 20 th of December , it begins to fear that local influences may elect candidates unfavourable to its pretensions . The Legitimists , especially , are working the electoral ground indefatigably . They are anxious to take advantage of the folly they have had the skill to make
Louis Bonaparte commit- —of sparing them . It is positive that , if the Legitimists obtain a majority in the legislative body , representing as they -would , in that case , the nation , they will gain immense popularity—enough to submerge the President irretrievably . Besides , it is not only the nomination to the legislative body that parties will fight for ; candidateships for the Counoil of State and for the Senate are not less eagerly pursued . Louis Bonaparte will be cheated by the mask of Bonapartism which good numbers of Legitimists and Orleanists have assumed . It is , therefore , impossible for him to avoid " stocking " the Senate and the Council of State with his own enemies . Among the ' proper names" already designated for the Council of State , I have heard MM . BUlault , Delnngle , and Brinvilliers , two Orleanists and one Legitimist , mentioned . The nominations to the Senate are to appear immediately , The army is largely represented in its construction . The names of several generals who took part in the late events , and of a few of the old peers , are mentioned . , Twenty-five generals are named for the "honour ;" among other * , MM . Lariboissifere , General of Artillery , the Generals Freval , Magnan , Ornans , Castellane , le Due de Bauffremont , M . de Mortemart , le Due de Mouchy , Legitimists ; and a few personal friends of the President . M . Chasaeloup-Laubat and M . de Beauveau , are also mentioned , &c , &c . The old King Jerome , whose pecuniary straits are known to all the world , and whose pay as Marshal of France is insufficient for his wants , is designated for the Presidency of the Senate . His salary , in this capaoity » would be imperial . But as the recollections of Majesty would not permit King Jerome to preside over any assembly Unless it were an
asgembly-of-feiBgfo '¦ " * ^ " content himself with taking the emoluments , Mid leave the duties o ± " the office to the Vice-PJteBiderit . Excepting a very few names , the Council of State and the Senate can , and will , only be made up of politicalmediocrities and social nullities ; The EntpetOr Napoleon ^ a man . of genius , was not afraio ! df superior capacities ; far from this , he surrounded himself iiitH them > . he absorbed thei » y he assimilated them . All-men of talent we / e drawn into the sphere of his attraction , like planets found a sun . It is not so with Louis Napoleon , A commohplace man , he is far from , exercising that magnetic influence which - ^ is the privilege
of genius . He can . only rally to his cause a host of mediocrities . This is precisely what we see . Around the President a blank , with the exceptitwi of a few functionaries wholly devoted to—their salaries , he stands alone , a lonely man . All the men of eminence , all the illustrious names of the country , are in exile , struck by decrees of proscription , or , self-banished to seclusion on their country estates , they have forsaken for awhile political affairs . M . de Lamartine himself , profoundly humiliated at his country ' s degradation , has resolved to leave France , and to repair to the East , to the domain , near Smyrna , which the Sultan has given him .
This void around him Bonaparte thinks to fill with soldiers and functionaries . He spares the armyno flatteries . He promises the generals war . "Has he not a ' mission . ' to baptise the eagles he has restoredto the army } " The army ^ therefore , reckons oh . war . To deceive this expectation were too dangerous , in the situation of Eouis Bonaparte , for him to run the risk . The probability of war , then , is the common report . Last Saturday , as some sailors were receiving their discharge at Havre , the Naval Commissary made use of these significant words t- —* ' You wonV ^ njoy—your-diSeharg&-yery—_ long ; in two months you will " -be recalled ; in two months we shall have war . " In another direction
Louis Bonaparte is using efforts to gain over the magistracy . He attacks their weak side—the side of thepurse . He is going to augment all their salaries . The Councillors of the Court _ of-Cassation will have ISOOf . instead of 1200 f . ; the President , 40 , 000 f . instead of ^ O . OQOf . ; the Councillors of the Court of Appeal , lO . OOOfV instead of 800 « f . ; and the First President , 3 O 7 OOOf instead of 25 , 000 f-Unable to attach persons to his cause , Bonaparte seeks to attach classes . He has the pretension to conciliate the noblesse . A law is already announced for the reestablishment of titles of nobility abolished by the Revolution of February . Louis Bonaparte ,
in fact , desires to resume the plan followed by the Restoration and by Louis Philippe ; by the one towards the bourgeoisie , by the other towards the noblesse t that is to say , to reconstitute large fortunes by means , of monopolies . To this end , the Restoration created duties on iron and coal to enable the nobility , who were then the « ole proprietors of the mines and collieries , to realize high profits at the expense of the entire nation . Louis Philippe pursued the same system towards the farmers and the financial aristocracy . The farmers were indispensable to him in the elections . He used to kill two birds with one stone . Through the
company of Darblay , Rothschild , &c , he would purchase wheat at good prices ; as their wheat always found buyers , it suited the farmers Very well to vote with unanimity for the best of Governments . The Darblays and the . Rothschilds made dear purchases , it is true ; but they had the privilege of forestalling the corn-market ( La Halle ) of Paris . The factors of the Halle Were bought over to complete devotedne 88 to them . The great manufacturers , on the other hand , were specially " protected " by the customs' duties , which assured them not only the national market , but a monopoly of unjust profits at the expense of the nation . This system was
stigmatized under the name of Exploitation . It was , m fact , the organized jobbing of a few privileged speculators at the expense of the mass of consumers . From suchasystem aroseatlengthanimmense protest against all monopolies and privileges , and against exploitation in every form . This Protest took the name of Socialism . At the present moment Louis Napoleon flourishes before Europe as the exterminator of Socialism . The logic of facts is driving him to set up again more unblushingly , more vigorously than ever * the very system of jobbing and monopoly that compassed the fall of Louis Philippe . Inevitably , then , the Protest against this jobbing which is to be conducted on a
larger scale than formerly , will manifest itself under a form more emphatic than it has ever yet assumed . I have already told you , in a preoeaing potter , how a financial monopoly had been , reorganized on the occasion of the Lyons Railway concession , which , for the first time in France for sixty years , was granted without control , without adjudication , without publicity * Now » the wheat monopoly is already reestablished * The flours of whioh M . Darbiay has got possession , and for which he has secured the privilege of forestalling the central corn market oi Paris ( La Halle ) , are quoted at higher prices , q independently of the prices of wheat ; hence this singular phenomenon—slow and gradual rise in $ l ™ \ rapid rise In flours . On the 2 nd of December , bread
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1852, page 70, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1919/page/2/
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