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speech rigorously , one might take it to pieces , sentence by sentence , so many and so frequent are the contrasts of words and facts . What will have been most commented upon in England , I suppose , is the announced reduction of the army to the extent of 20 , 000 men . It was believed that you were about to increase your army to that extent , and hence what you applaud as a reduction was in fact intended as a retort . After such a concession , however , how can you persist in thinking Bonaparte wants to go to war with you ? Surely you will disarm at once , to imitate so good an example ; disband your militia , strip your batteries , spike your guns , and dismantle your forts and your harbours : the wolf is turned into a . lamb ; you hare nothing more to fear !
But for ourselves , if Peace is assured , it is not . so with Liberty . You will have remarked that phrase : " To those who may regret that a wider field has not been given to liberty , I would reply that liberty has never aided in founding a durable political edifice ; it is merely the crowning-point of the edifice when consolidated by time . " Let us console ourselves : some centuries hence , perhaps , when our necks shall have "been well broken-in
to bear the chain—when our limbs shall be well-formed to the yoke—when , in short , after the lapse of many centuries , we shall have nothing left but the appetites of slaves and the instincts of cattle—oh ! then , perhaps the descendants of this farceur will entertain themselves with the sport of releasing our children ' s children from these fetters , and will find a sudden rapture in demolishing , stone by stone , the edifice of despotism , which the ages will have handed down to their conservative veneration . You will have remarked , too ,
with what bitterness , with what prolixity , contrasting strangely with the concision of the rest of his Speech , the Czar of the French speaks of the " old parties . " Never did man make more impudent and clumsy revelations- Bonaparte is so little disturbed by these " parties / ' that he devotes to them eleven lines out of fifty-five , in a speech remarkable for its concision . What ! if it be true that the " immense majority" of the country is with you , why manifest so much anxiety
about a few " incorrigible individuals ? " And if the sea is so calm , why trouble yourself about a few idle passengers who call for a tempest P This last expression is one of extreme gravity . Bonaparte now declares aloud what every one was thinking silently . There is not a man of worth in all France , to whatever party he may belong , who does not , with all his strength , not only call for a new revolution , but at this moment actively prepare it .
You will have remarked , too , that Bonaparte , struck , no doubt , by the signs of the chafing wrath around him , promises to relax the reins a little : he desires to " persevere in that course of firmness , and moderati 6 n which reassures without irritating , which leads to good without violence , and so prevents all reaction . " Unfortunately , it is too late , beau Sire , you have provoked the reaction ; you will be its victim ! In fine , this speech found all who heard it , grave and serious . The deputies who had just returned from their departments , bringing all eorts of unpleasant news for the Government , were faint in their applause this time . Yet they were all Government nominees . It seems as if the hurrying prossure of events had begun to open
their eyes , and that since they have met together to exchange their impressions , they can no longer dissemble the perils of the situation . Henco their general and imperative demand for great concessions to public opinion . Hence their reiterated warnings to the Government that nothing but a prompt and decided policy of conciliation can avert a terrible and speedy catastrophe . They are ho alarmed , these deputies , that they even forget their trade of valuta and parasites . These adorers of every rising sun turn away their oyes from the sotting luminary . Soon after the marriuge , ii committee of deputies was formed to get up a magnificent ball in the name of tho LogiHlativo Corps , and in honour of tho Kmpress . This committee has met
with so littlo enthusiasm for the ball that it has recently dissolved itself . Tho deputies arrived from their departments just in time to find themselves in tho midst of tho hubbub created by the new coup d ' etat ; I moan tho gonoral and sudden arrest of tho correspondents of foreign journals . Their impression of the mutter is that of ovorylKuly else—indignation ; and tlio opposition they
have raised , joined to tho universal reprobution expressed by public opinion , has miulo tho Government recoil . Uonaparte has given orders that nil domiciliary visits should cease forthwith , and thut as many as possible of those arrested nliould bo set at liberty , MM . Ohatnrd , of the ex-journal la llepuhlique , 1 ' olloquet , of the iix-National , do VillemeBant , ot the eX'Cortaire , and Henri Cliarrww , were released PD Itfday fyrf ,, A » for tft ? otfwr « thOy were charge
with three principal counts of accusation . 1 . With forming a secret society . 2 . Retaining arms . 3 . Spreading false news . Now however , tactics are changed , and they are solely accused of betraying the secrecy of intimate relations . As no article of law is applicable to such a charge as this , it is evidently the intention of the Government to release them one after the other . I have explained to you how this coup d ' etat was the result of an intrigue of Persigny ' s contrivance . The effect has been disastrous for Bonaparte , who , they say , mortally regrets the consequence of a sudden impulse . The tempest of opposition has dismayed him . When no man feels secure in his bed of a night , it begins
to be a serious question with all people how to put an end to such an intolerable regime . Revolution ceases to be a word of fear , after such an experiment of the regime of the sabre , with all its stupid irresponsibility . In this juncture , M . Emile de Girardin has made himself the interpreter of the common discontent , and in an article entitled " Liberty and Right , " has boldly raised the standard of revolt , amidst general applause . On the day that article appeared , a crowd of personages , of all opinions , and of all parties , called to inscribe their names at his house . Among the number of these
visitors were magistrates , and ten officers of the army . There is in society a deep surging movement of irritation and discontent . It vents itself in puns , lampoons , and songs : but in France these missiles are dangerous auguries . The Empress , I regret to say , does not escape these malicious shafts ; and I hear she is far from insensible t o the shower of innuendoes and scandals that rain upon her innocent head . I have heard , indeed , that Mdlle . de Montijo , even before the marriage , anticipated this warm reception , and more than once grew pale at the thought .
The attitude of the population towards the Empress is very singular . Wherever it is known that she is about to pass , a considerable crowd rushes to catch a peep at her , and the imperial carriage is beset with curious eyes . But no one shouts a Vive ! no one takes his hat off , no , not even to the lady . Never did a people treat their sovereign in this wise . The fact is , that public spirit , I repeat , is now running high . The bourgeoisie are making up their minds for another Revolution ; and , what is better , the people is getting ready . Not since 1830 have preparations so formidable been projected ; and that is all I deem it prudent to say now .
The Belgian correspondence , which used to be forwarded by the guards of the railway trains , was seized last Friday in the following manner . The conductors were in the habit of receiving their packets of letters at a certain wine shop opposite the Northern Railway station , between seven and eight o ' clock of an evening . On Friday , at the usual hour , the police made a " descent" upon this wine shop , and arrested at once the railway guards , and the individuals who brought them the correspondence . This affair is not of a serious nature . The Government itself has declared that it had no other intention than t o secure to itself the monopoly of the post . Since Friday , accordingly , the correspondents are obliged to drop t heir letters into the common letter-box .
This week we have been regaled with a superb protest in the Moniteur against any project of invading England . An agent of tho police , by name Billot , calling- him « self a Legitimist , wrote with tho connivance , if not under the inspiration , of tho Government , a wretched pamphlet , to which ho gave tho name Lettres Francques , in which ho frantically proposed to " His Majesty the Emperor" to mak e n descent upon England , and to go to London to destroy that " nest of pirates who killed tho grand Emperor . "
This farrago had made a great sensation here , for the simple reason that wo have a Censorship , and that whatover the censorship has not prevented , has at least the authorization of , if it does not emanate from , the Government . No one , then , was mistaken about tho real origin of these pretended letters ; but to-day ( Tuesday ) tho Moniteur , seeing tho horizon at home grow clouded , suddenly repudiates what it has permitted to he in circulation for nearly three weeks . Who caft be tho dupe of mich denials as this ? Ah for the attempt to make a man pass for a Legitimist , who gives Iioimpurto point , blank the title of "II is Majesty the Emperor , " it is un amusing pleasantry enough . It ia another uiiuu of Honapurto discovered . That iH all ! S .
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CONTINENTAL NOTES . Tiir Govorntriont has published in tho Moniteur tho letter of Sir C . Wood . Tho othor Government journals give n short abstract of tho conversation in tho Houses of Lords und Commons relative to tho npooch of tho English minister , leaving out tho words wnieli gave offence , and only furnishing the roplitw of Lord Aberdeen and . Lord John liuHMtsll . , On t-ho day of tliQ opening 1 of tho Ohambora , it appears that M . de BCftujspnyUIo , «< m-h vj *> r of : the Duo d «
Broglie , was walking with his son , a boy of ten years of age , when their progress was stopped by the procession of deputies . M . de Haussonville , getting impatient , remarked to his son , "II font beaucoup d ' einbarras ces gens la pour leur ttmpereur ( They make a great fuss about their Emperor ) ; " and this expression having been overheard by a long-eared sergent de ville , M . de Haussonville and hia son—this conspirator of ten years—were marched off to the office of the commissary of police , guarded on each .
side by two municipal guards , and followed by a crowd of Parisian gamins . The Constitutionnel , however , gave a different , and , as it turned out , an incorrect version of the affair , stating that M . de Haussonville , being in his carriage , had endeavoured to push on , rather than wait till the procession had passed ; and that an over zealous functionary had consequently laid hands on the proprietor of the carriage . To this statement M . de Haussonvillo has addressea the following reply : — " I " eb . 15 , 1853 .
" Your journal of this morning contains details which concern me , and which are completely inexact . My confidence in your impartiality does not permit me to doubt your readiness to rectify them . I never for a moment attempted to break the line of carriages entering the court of the Tuileries . I made no reply to the insulting language of the police agent who arrested me . I spoke neither to him nor to any one in the crowd , which , besides , was at rather a good distance from me . I merely said to my little boy , a child of nine years of age , who was by my side , some words , of which I am quite ready to maintain , before any tribunal whatever , the perfect truth and complete innocence . —I have the honour to be , &c , " Count d ' Haussonville . Ex-deputy . "
M , de Haussonville was , it appears , taken before a Commissary of Police , by whom he was soon afterwards released . The Commissary of Police thought proper to advise M . de Haussonville to be more circumspect in his expressions about the Empire , and got well snubbed for his pains , by a reminder that it was not his business to give advice . A telegraphic despatch , dated Berlin , February 12 , brings word that M . Waldbott ' s motion in favour of giving larger liberty to the Jesuits , was rejected in the Second Chamber by a majority of 175 against 323 votes . At Francfort-on-the-Maine , on Sunday last , a banker's office in one of the most frequented streets was broken open and robbed during church time . One of the partners , who probably interrupted the thieves , was found murdered , his throat being cut , and his hands very much , wounded . The perpetrators had not yet been discovered .
In Spain , the result of 303 elections is now known . Tho government has returned 244 of its members , and the opposition , composed of the Moderate and Progresista parties , only 59 . Among the public men who have failed to secure seats in the new Cortes are MM . Olozaga , Escosura , Paclieco , Moyano , and Noceda . The opposition has returned among others MM . Mon , Pidal , Cortina , Seijas Lozano , and iiios-Hosas . A Madrid letter of the 6 th states that the leaders of tho Progresista party complain as loudly as tlioy dare of the collusions which , havo been notoriously practised in the elections for that capital . In 1840 the Progresistas , opposed to two rival parties , were able to return half tho in union with
members elected for Madrid . Now they are the Moderados , and yet the government seats all its candidates , and by large majorities . Tho explanation of this anomaly is found in tho practical control which tho government , unembarrassed by a free press , is able to exercise on the preparation of the electoral lists , by moans of which they have , in tho present instance , thoroughly transmuted tho constituency . It is rumoured that Count Leiningcn ' s mission to Constantinople has not been altogether fruitless , and that Austrian mediation , backed by an enormous army upon the Turkish frontier , is accepted , in tho Montenegrin *! struggle , just at a timo when tho Soraskior has got all Montenegro in his power , and is preparing a final blow . There are a great numbor of Poles and Austrians in Omer Pacha ' s army ,
burning to get at tho Austrians , but indisposed fo attack tho Christian mountaineers of Montenegro . Telegraphic accounts from Vienna of tho 17 th state , on 'bo other hand , that the Porto declines to givo a satisfactory pledge to Count Leiningen , and that tho regiments which had boon halted wero to resume their march to tho frontier . For tho present hostilities aro suspended while Omor Pacha awaits an answer to liis address to tho Montenegrins in which ho oilers them religious liberty , with tho right of electing their own judges and magistrates , subject to tho control of tho Pacha of Scutari ; and he promises that no taxes shall be imposed except to maintain theso officials , whoso duty it will bo especially to protect tho poor ; while tho Montenegrins will bo expected to protect the frontier .
From a letter in the Trieste paper , it would appear that the war between Turkey and Montenegro uro . so out of tho internal dissensions of the tribes peopling the latter country . One ttadovon , in November last , headed an opposition against tho Vlndika , who had just arrived from SI .. Petersburg and published a decree for the imposition of fresh taxes on houses and the fisheries . The opposit ion . spread and Kadoven , who , secretly backed by llio IurlcN lind already a largo number of adherents , rinsed the . standard of rebellion in the district of Pip . ri . I ' rmco Dunilo at tho head of 10 , 000 men , marched down upon tlio ollendinjr commune conquered all outward opposition , uml pounced upon tho fortress of Zabliak . Tho Pacha of Scutari , thus * openly defied , resolved upon reprisals , and nptiedily forced tho Vkdika to retire . Then Omer Pacha appeared upon Mm hcoho . The above statement is probably correct .
Tho Imporial Commissioner of the Porto in . liotmiu lias published a finnan , according to which tho ( Jhr ' iHtians aro to havo the name rights as the Turks . Ilurnhiil Panlm , tho new Governor of Bosnia , and Camil Pasha , tho Imperial CoirnuiuHioner , are said to bo doing all in t . Uoir power to ameliorate the condition of tho Rayahs , The Ofotnor J , nhiico wyu ^ hftt n « vor yrm tlw wtufttym .
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Febbpaby 19 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 177
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1853, page 177, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1974/page/9/
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