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On one side is the Satan of this epic , Marshal the Dake of Vigtobia , " the accomplice of fortune , " who has reaped the fruits oi other * ' gallantly , who has stood by to take the spoil of popular revolt ; insinuating hunself into the confidence of the Crown to destroy the monarchy . He has , moreover , the audacity to be the reverse of handsome . " The Duke of Victobia , " says bis Paris portraitpainter , " is of very short ; stature , dark in countenance , his lips pinched , never completely smiling , never looking you in the countenance , his moustache thin and cut like a brush . " In painting the embodied
principle of evil , M . Hugelmaiw beats Milton-, Tasso , and Goethe , Michael Angelo and ¦ Betzsch ; for his sketch of a diabolical aspect adds to its repulsiveness traces of meanness . Moreover , we discover from the rest of the pamphlet that this diabolical agent of the Spanish epic had another hideous trait—he consorted with English politicians , with that foreign country whose citizens demand to be paid , and ask for the arrears of their debt O'Donnell is indignant for his country , and Hugelmann tells French capitalists that their aid -will not be more useful to
O'Don-JTEiiL than profitable to themselves ! On the other side of the Queen stands the saving angel , Marshal O ' Donnell . " His stature is tall , his figure handsome ; his head carried high , energetic , and fair ; his lip full of authority ; the lines of his face replete with uncommon energy , and a great power
of will . " He is " excellent father of a family , " who jumps into the saddle at the sound of danger " without moving a muscle of his countenance . " Queen Isabella is religious , O'Donnell virtuous ; and by a powerful « pell they have conjured away the hesitating , Anglicized Espahtebo , whose thin moustache is cut like a brush .
It is for French support that M . Hfqei-MAMf especially advertizes , and he has various reasons why that support should be given . In the first place , humanity . Spain has only one or two sculptors , no chemists or men of distinction in science and literature ; whereas lie " knows young men in every town , who need nothing but support and aid to be firstrate in literature , art , and science / ' A splendid agency has M . Hugelmann in Spain for French influence , if there be a little water poured down the well to set that agency at work ! Next , French capital is at work in
Spain already ; some has been invested in societies established there , and more might be invested with great profit . Thirdly , General O'Doitnell is " the generous imitator " of " the saviour of France . " " He has played in the eyes of Spain for two years , " says Eugeimann , " almost the same part which his Majesty the Emperor of the Fbenoh has 5 1 ayod in the eyes of France . " In Spain , d . H-u&EiiMANT * constantly heard the natives cry , " Ah ! if we had a man who could render us the services that your Emperor has rendered to you !"— " An ! if we could bo delivered from Parliamentism !"— " Ah ' if the
monarchy could seize again its right of initiative ! " O'Donnell has performed that service . He has , it is true , been misappreciated l > y tho press of England , Belgium , and even Irrance ; but French writers will bo warned tyy the pamphleteer , who tells tho assailants m O'DoararELL that " if they do not daro to attack directly the victorious saviour oi Jfl
rance , they have indiroctly attacked him iu m ? erBOn of hia generous imitator . " rhememhera of some Societode Credit not named are permitte d by the Spanish Government to eBtabliBb . a Spanish journalist in Madrid , ns the forerunner and auxiliary of tho coup d fftet . The same gentleman is permitted bvthe m-ench Government , which exerciaea so Btnct a eurveillance over the press , to piibliah
as an advertisement of O'Donnell this strange anatomy of a coup d ' etat , preceded by a two years' conspiracy . We are told that O'Donnell is the " generous imitator of the victorious saviour of France , " being in the sight of Spain the exact counterpart of Louis Napoleon in the eyes of France . If O'Donnell is thus tacitly accepted as the accomplice of Louis Napoleon , the programme of the Spanish adventurer is the confession of the French adventurer .
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TRANCE IMPERIAL . It would be the merest equivocation to deny that France , for the present , accepts the Imperial Government . Every Frenchman who remains , voluntarily , within the limits of the Empire , must be supposed , at least , to tolerate its institutions . He may protest in secret , perhaps he conspires , but he does not refuse , practically , to acknowledge himself , temporarily or otherwise , a subject of the December dynasty . Those who have never accorded even this reluctant recognition , this helpless assent to the reigning power , are either prisoners or exiles .
These classes have their special rights and duties . It is the right of the prisoner , unjustly condemned and cruelly punished , to exclaim perpetually against his wrongs . It is the right of the exile , and even his duty , to cherish the relics of liberty , and to prohibit , as far as possible , the consecration by history of successful crime . Other politicians , however , must act on other principles .
For example , it is not for any English journalist to constitute himself exclusively the representative of a defeated party in France . Whatever may be his sympathies , his devotion to constitutional law , his detestation of public perjury and violence , it is by no means incumbent upon him incessantly to denounce an act of triumphant treason , as though the life of the world were suspended , while that treason remained unchastised .
In the presence , then , of general facts , knowing that journalism is of no value unless it deals with the rising exigencies of every successive day , perceiving the hopelessness of any immediate restoration of political vitality to France , we have not thought fit to disparage , on all occasions , and under all circumstances , the present Emperor of the Fbench , or his Government . With respect to neither is our opinion unknown . We have
always ranked Louis Napoleon among unscrupulous adventurers , and have said so . We have always regarded his Government as the representative of political degradation and immorality , and have said so , when to say it was inconvenient and unpopular . It has been the humiliation of France ; but , after all , France herself must determine how long the reign of irony , indifference , and imbecility shall last .
This policy has been an offence to some of our ardent friends . It is , however , tho office of journalism to discuss those matters which arc being discussed by tho public , or to introduce matters , necessary to be understood , which havo a chance of discussion . Several times , since the coup cVctajt of December , there lias been no chance of forcing a discussion of French affaire , and thero would have been , no utility in doing so , had it been
possible . At tho samo time , wo never changed our tone , as they well know who have followed us ia our criticisms on tho war , and on tho exchange of cordialities between tho French Government and tho British Court , aristocracy , preaa , and people . Bui : now , England being in a mood of sympathy , Poeiuo appealing onco moro from his dungeon , tho assassination of Uao Bassi—scalped and partly flayed—at Bologna , and of OicjoitVAOOiiio at Contarinn ,
exciting horror in the West , and British journalists , generally , being engaged in a crusade of compassion , the exiles of Cayenne have ventured to utter a second plea for pity . " We ourselves published , several months ago , an account of their sufferings , transmitted by M .. Louis Blano . M . Louis Blanc has now secured the largest circulation for a letter , from the political detenus at Cayenne , numeroiisly signed , complaining of their suf ferings . We print the document in another column , as it appeared in the Times and Daily News , the Times starting into horror , as if at a political and geographical revelation .
Assuming that the reader has acquainted himself with its details , let us ask whether we have ever libelled the Government of Louis Napoleon ? Assuming , also , that most men , imperialist or liberal , have certain generous feelings which would forbid them to commit such cruelties upon a dog , we ask whether the ruler who thus tortures honourable and innocent citizens is the less infamous because he tortures them in Guiana and not
at Capri ? What does Felici Ousini tell us of the Austrian Cavaletto ? Is that more than a counterpart of the Napoleonic stake and scourge ? What does Mr . Gladstone tell us of the subterranean prisons in the Neapolitan kingdom ? Are they worse than the fens of the Oyaque ? It seems to us that to be flogged until the surface of the body is a pulp of blood and discoloured skin , to drag a cannon ball for hours over scorched rocks , to be imprisoned amid marshy forests for resenting an act which the legal courts
had pronounced to be treason , is to suffer m an aggravated form exactly that kind of injustice which Poekio suffers , and which lias brought upon Poerio ' s oppressor the remonstrances of the British Government . Indeed , so far as we have been able to learn , the political punishments inflicted by the King of Naples are mild in comparison with the severities of Cayenne , and justifiable in comparison with the military murders in Austrian Italy . But we have heard of no rebukes addressed to Paris or Vienna . Yet the French
and Austrian Emperors belong to the same category with the Neapolitan King—with this difference , that the Neapolitan King tortures his own subjects at home , while the Austrian Emperor shoots , flogs , and flays the best of the Italian race ; while the French Emperor , seizing a number of French citizens , transports them , for convenience , to a distant colony , where , while he plays the philanthropist at home , his enemies are rapidly
destroyed by torture , privation , and fatiguo . Mark , not only are tho original victims of December treated in this way . Continual accessions are received by the miserable colony . The Parisian who now and then disappears , tho member , or suspected member , of the secret society who occasionally is hurried away from his family by the kidnappers of the Empire—wo gave an instance a few weeks ago—is secreted in this vast
oubliette across tho seas . What wonder , then , that conspiracy works in Franco — that illicit combinations aro formed , and that tho most deadly passions take possession of a class of ignorant men r M . Louis Blano , who has oxposed tho nature of French imperial revenge , has produced the best possible justification of Hocrot societies . At tho samo time , it is 11 fallacy
to supposo—or it is a malicious misrepresentation to say—that all French liberals are members of secret societies , or approve <> t their methods of action , or recognize tho doctrines of tho Marianne . M . Louib Bla ^ o , for example , is not , and baa never boon , a member of a secret society . ., What wonder , either , that tho poopJool tho Continont look with suspicion upon Mio
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830 THE iL E A 3 > B & « [ No . 3 a 6 A . ftMErospAy ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1856, page 830, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2156/page/14/
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