On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
SPEECH O ¥ THE EMPEROR NAPO tEOff ON TUE OPENING ! OF THE XEGISLAT 1 VE SESSION ^ This Emperor delivered on Monday the follxwin SnaLj , to the Senate and the Legislative Body : — w # « e « u " MM . les Scnatews , MM . les Deputes , " Last year , my opening Speech terminated with invocation for Divine protection . I asked " of Ileave to guide our efforts in the path most conformable with the interests of humanity and civilization . That prav seems to have been heard * ™ r " Peace has been signed , and the difficulties of detail consequent on the execution of the Treaty of Pari 3 have been successfully overcome . " The dispute which has arisen between the Khw o g Prussia and the Helvetic Confederation ha 3 lost all war ? like character , and it is permitted to us to hope for a speedy and favourable solution .
" The good understanding between the threo Protecting Powers of Greece renders useless any further prolongation of the stay of the English ., and French trna ™ at the Piraeus . ps " If a disagreement to be regretted has arisen with regard to the affairs of Naples , it must be imputed to the desire which equally animates the Government o £ Queen Victoria and my own to act everywhere in the interests of humanity and civilization . "Now that the heat intelligence exists amoagst all the great Powers , we must earnestly set to -work to regulate and develop at home the strength and the wealth of the nation . "We must struggle against those evils from which a society in a state of progress is not exempt .
" Civilization , although it has for object the moral amelioration and the material prosperity of the greatest number , marches , it must be acknowledged , like an army . Its victories are not obtained without sacrifices , or without victims . The rapid roads whicb . facilitate communication and open to commerce new paths , disturb existing interests and cast into the background districts Tybich are as yet deprived of them . That useful machinery -which multiplies the labour of man ,, replaces it at first ,
and leaves- momentarily many hands unemployed . Those mines , which spread abroad in . the world anamount of coin hitherto unknown — that increase of public fortune which multiplies tenfold the consumption —tends to unsettle and to raise the value of every article . That inexhaustible scarce of wealth called credit brings forth marvels , and yet the excess of speculation entails much individual ruin ; hence the necessity ,-with out stopping its progress , of aiding those who cannot keep pace with the rapidity of its advance .
" Some must be stimulated , others- stayed 5 \ iut we must nourish the activity of that throbbing , restless * , exacting society which , in l < rance , expects all from the Government , yet to which the latter must oppose the limits of possibility and the calculations of reason . " To enlighten and to direct , that is our duty . The country prospers , it must be allowed , for , notwithstanding war and famine , the progressive movement has not slackened . The produce of indirect taxation ,, which is the certain sign of public wealth , surpassed by more than fifty millions , in 1856 , the already extraordinary receipts of 1855- Since the re-establishment of tiie Empire the revenue has of itself increased by two hundred and tea millions , without taking into account new taxes .
" Nevertheless there is great sutrering amongst a portion of the people ; and , so long , as Providence does not send us a good harvest , the millions given by private charity and by the Government -will only bo feeble pal 1 - liativcs . " Let us redouble our efforts to remedy evils beyond human foresight . " Many departments have been this year devastated by inundations . I have every roason to hope that Science will succeed in subjugating . Nature . It concerns my honour that , in France , rivers , like revolutions , shall flow within their true course , never again to quit it .
" A cause of uneasiness , not loss grave , exists ni men's minds . Wb . cn a . crisis arrives thero is no speoias of false rumours or of false doctrine that ia not propagated by ignoranco or mischief . Lately , it has even been successfully attempted to render uneasy the industry of the nation , as if the Government could wibIi aught but its development and prosperity . The duty , therefore , of good citizens is to spread abroad everywhere the wiBO doctrines of political economy , and chiefly to fortify thoso timid hearts who—I will not say at the first breath of ill-fortune , but at tho luast halt of prosperity—spread discouragement and augment uneasiness by imaginary alarms
ii » easy matter to attempt any general movement , where twenty persons cannot meet , with impunity . TVeM , this is the very reason why any legitimate mode of action must be resorted to , which still remains open . The policy of abstention , advocated by some of our friends , is a fatal one . It could but serve to -dishearten the good , to countenance the wicked , to supply the sceptical with a mask , to betray the courageous , and to shield the cowardly . The problem will not work itself out . In any collection of men , as well as in any single man , atrophy is the unavoidable consequence of ¦ want of exercise . If nothing be done , rest assured Uiat , before long , the vitality of France will dwindle into torpor , and from torpor into death . Besides , would not inertness be mistaken for assent ? Or could the sympathies ^ of constitutional . Europe be enlisted in favour of France , were France herself unconcerned about her own fate ?
On the other hand , it is natural enough that sincere and high-minded patriots should be deterred from joining in moclc elections 3 with the view of electing mock candidates . For there is no speaking of universal suffrage . "What ! universal suffrage , where there is nei ther liberty of the press r nor individual liberty , nor liberty of private correspondence , nor absolute liberty of mere drawing-roorn conversations ! Universal suffrage , w here the threat of deportation is suspended over every man's head ; where fraudulent , returns may be paraded about , ¦ without any one being allowed either to control them or to give them the lie ! Universal suffrage , where the Court of Cassation has juat declared that a slip of paper , bearing simply the name of a candidate , comes under
th-e head of pamphlets' amenable to police regulation No , no ; in the present state of France , universal suffrage is a universal sham . Nevertheless , let our friends gjo to the poll , if they think it proper , but so as not to sanction the existence of the Government by seeming to acknowledge the soundness of the principle on which it professes to rest . Let the world be made aware that the position of the ^ Republican and Liberal party in France is that of a man who , being compelled to preserve his life , seizes a rotten stick , for want of any better weapon . Next conies the question , What shall the Republican or Liberal candidates do , if elected ? Shall they take the oath of allegiance to the Empire ? Shall'they
consent to be ranked amongst the mute servants of the new Court in t 2 ie lobby termed Legislative Chamber ? Not for a moment can such things be thought of . To yow allegiance to the Empire in earnest would be both criminal and suicidal . To take the oath as null and void would be dishonest . It was by breaking his word and scandalously insulting public faith that Louis Bonaparte got the mastery . Why , the nature of the proceeding was perfectly consonant with the nature of the aim ! It is not for us to crawl in the dark . Justice and liberty demand to he served in a manner worthy of them : it is not for us to endeavour to magnify lying into triumph . Rather submit to force ha silent dignity than lower oneself on a level with a perjurer and forfeit the right of denouncing him at the tribunal of all honest men .
On the other hand , to elect candidates without intending them to sLt in the Chamber might appear childish , and . would be of little or no avail , unless a course bo adopted- of a nature to create , not a superficial agitation , but an emotion both deep and lasting . Well , I think the purpose would bo accomplished if some persons in a Irigh station were determined nobly to come forward on a solemn , occasion , so chosen as to attract the attention ¦ of the world , and then to give utterance to the feelings of indignation that fret in the hearts . For so doing no better opportunity could be imagined than the ceremony of the taking tho oath , a formality with which the liepublican and Liberal candidates should refuse to comply , after strenuously stating their motives , and that with the undaunted resolution to insist if interrupted , and to resist if tlireatoned , till they were subdued by physical force at the risk of an immense scandal .
votedne ' ss may be fruitful , on account of their talent , their position , and their fame . Devoted , hearts throb undoubtedly beneath the humble garment of the-work man or of the peasant ; but it is one of the most lamentable features of the enslavement of the press in France , that isolated and private sacrifices , however honourable , are lost , as they remain utterly unknown and cannot consequently contribute to arouse the sense of national honour . In the case alluded to , on the contrary , the example set on a most conspicuous occasion by persons standing , so to speak , on the top of the hill , could not fail , to make a deep impression and to elevate the tone of public life .
Another and no less important advantage of the course I suggest would he to place Louis Bonaparte in the alternative either of acknowledging his defeat in the face of the world , or outlawing , in the person of their representatives , these very electors from whose will he professes to derive his power . Would not Europe at . last and for ever be undeceived were Louis Bonaparte brought to stifle the voice of that very sovereignty of the people by which he dares boast of being supported ? Let him lay bare the only true foundations of his dominion ! By what means the above-mentioned scheme might be best carried out , is a , question which our friends in France must know how to solve . At all events , I trust it cannot be deemed impracticable , as requiring too
large an amount of devotedness , in a country like France , where men have always been found in thousands ready to stake their fortunes , their domestic happiness , their homes , and finally their lives , for the sake of freedom . Every page of our modem annals speaks to the French workmen of the indomitable courage of the people , and if the leaders of the bourgeoisie want to be told of the duty that devolves upon them , they have only to look a few years back to the history of their own fathers . There they will see how the members of the Third Estate succeeded in vindicating : their rights . The recollections connected with that immortal date , Twentieth of June , 1789 , are still living . Was- the situation then less gloomy than it is now ? Was the future
less clouded ? Far from it . The despotism to be confronted , at that period , was possessed of all the moral force and of all the prestige naturally imparted to it by centuries ; it had not been recently baptized in blood ; it was not the offspring of a nightly surprise at the hands of some men of desperate fortunes , supported by drunken janissaries ; it was not born of " the bold stroke of the insolvents . " Yet , the representatives of the Third Estate did not hesitate a moment . On the Twentieth of June , at Versailles , they found the doors of the National Assembly shut , and the house invaded by guards ; they were kept waiting in the rain , in the mud , and waited long to no purpose , amidst the sneering laughter of the courtiers and the clash of swords . Did they grow
disheartened ? Did they think of death ? No ; they calmly repaired to the tennis-court , and there , within a miserable hall consisting only of four naked walls , but , in the fine words of Bailly , " widened by the majesty it contained , " they took God to witness that they would meet ia all places , under all circumstances , wheresoever two or three could get together , until they had done what it was their mission to do . The inad counsellors of the king had . imagined that nothing could be easier than to scatter les gens-du Tiers like as much barn-door poultry . But , as Carlyle says , " Barn-door poultry fly cackling ; national deputies turn round lion-faced , and , with uplifted handa > swear an oath that makes the four corners of France tremble . ?'
J . U . 1 S is the heritage which those wlio have it from their fathers are bound to transmit to their sons . Will it be observed that the heroes of tho Second of December are determined to shrink from no wicked attempt ? So bo it . The question is whether a sufficient number of stout hearts be willing to put that audacity to trial two or three times more ; for those aio greatly mistaken who- think that despotism can live long by a series of coups iic ' tat . The most robust man sinks very soon into exhaustion when kept in a continual state of
After all , a scene of that sort would not be unprecedented . Every one knows how favourable was to the cause of froodom , under the reign of LouisXVIIL , thefact of Manual causing himself to be collared by soldiers on hia benoli in the Chamber of Deputies . Never was ho so much considered the true representative of thepoople aa when he had been brutally and unjustly dragged out , of the House . It is true that , under the reign ovoiuof Louis XVIIT ., thepeoplo had more opportunities thau they havomow to vent thoir complainings ; and I confess that , aa matter * stand at present , any individual isolated protest would bo worse than useless , by canting on the party of the opposition at largo the shadow of a sad oontraatj . But who can doubt that a collective display , of enflogy ,, resulting from a previous undcr&tandiniz between all the . candidatea ^ clected , in a circumstance over wmchno veil oould , bo stretched , would telLmost forcibly on public opinion ?
frenzy : so , despotism will soon . be exploded if brought to burst into repeated fita of violence . 11 is not every day that a simplo mortnl , however conscious of his power , can make- chaoa subservient to his infuriated passions . Satan himself , as described by Milton , would not have' been able permanently to ride tho whirlwind . Unfortunately , terror always outlives the fact by which it was begotten . Long after the rqal danger is over , dread remninfl . Hence , tyranny happens to last where it hns no strength of its own . It ia only fearful because ovcrfeared . Make up manfully to the spectre , it will vanish .
For my part , I have no doubt that France will , soonor or later , redeem her honour . She bears within her wherewith to astonish mankind under various and unforeseen aspects . AVhat unoxamplcd fatigues and sufferings and struggles has sho not already gone through ! How often did slro not em orgc from beneath accumulated ruins with fresh vigour and unimpaired youth ! Thank God ! France is not like thoso heavy cavaliers of the middle ages , all cast in iron , who , once brought to tbogroHud , could no longer move . She will me again , and will answer to the call of thoso capable of loving her above all , if they be daring . Bo so . Louur . Bt . ANC .
In tho case of Louis Bonaparte ' s putting up with such an affront , tho : hold his government lias over so many tomfled minds -would bo irretrievabl y ahukon . Wouia tho representatives of tho pooplo bo committed to R"aon , tried , or driven out of tho country without trials Nothing oould bo better calculated to impreaa ovory ono with tho duty of civic courage . Franco icdttcod to . tho hiat extremity , wants men whono d « -
u Having regard to the various requirements of our position , I have resolved to reduco expenditure without susponding great worlcw , -without compromising tho employment of labour—to diminish certain taxca without detriment to tu « finance * of tho State . Tho budget of 18 / 18 will be prcseutod to yon , with the expenditure balanced by tho receipts . All foreseen ex peiiBca have been therein included . Tho producoof the luto loans willBiiuice to liquidate the co . nt of tho Into war . " Every department of tlio public soryice bus been provided for without our . having to makoamy now appeid to tho public crodit . Tho army und navy estimates havo bocn reduced within duo liuaLU so at * to presoxvo
Untitled Article
PF 174 , _________ T _ ^ 3 ^ lL ^ -A . S ^ - ?!_ - Iffg : Jig ! : * abbat ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1857, page 174, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2181/page/6/
-