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    162 THE LEADER; [No. 412, February 13, 1...

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    OEHUENSCIILAGER'S ALADDIN. Aladdin; or, ...

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    Parliamentary Government In France. Tiis...

    say vttl"ar , * buse of liobespierrc and the Jacobins , we have nothing but a decent , ' quiet narrative of the conflict of principles and doetrines at that eventful period . Sueh a work may be heavy reading to those who are not deeply interested in the fortunes of France ; but it is an admirable study for young men who believe in the return' of liberty , and -wish to prepare themselves for its responsibilities . M . Davergier de Hauranne ' s account of the career and policy of Bonaparte is peculiarly interesting . It is quite refreshing to be able for once to watch the career of this grandest of parvenus , without being stifled by the smell of

    powder , stunned by the roar of cannon , or sickened by the stream of blood ; iar from , flapping standards , shining bayonets , and multitudes of convulsed iknatics , fancying themselves heroes and patriots , rushing to die for that sublime egotist ; out of sight of the three-cornered hat , queer waistcoat , tight breeches , and loose boots that make up the comical figure which French art is not ashamed to introduce into Paradise , telescope and snuff-box and all . M . de Hauranne has nothing to do with these things . He even refuses the advantage of painting the man for whom he has a cold , deadly repulsion in the mean attitude of the Eighteenth of Brumaire—how

    different from our Cromwell I—but simply describes him in his political chaxacter , and shows his exorbitant ambition , his utter unscrupulousness , his narrow views , his ignorance , and his failure . As he implies , it was scarcely worth -while to wade through slaughter and perfidy to a throne which remained erect only ten years , even though , forty years later , the tradition of this temporary success may have enabled a relative , by similar means , to reach a similar position . It will be a singular dynasty that appears and disappears in this convulsive way every hall" eentury . As M . Duveigier de Haaranne clearly and imperatively shows , institutions like these , which alone find favour with the Bonapartist mind , in which the sovereign is not only the elec

    fountain of honour , but the fountain of every kind of power—ting even the representatives of the people—not only come as catastrophes , but inevitably < iepart in the same manner . " Whether , he was consul for life , or hereditary emperor , " says the historian , " his death would infallibly have reopened the career of revolutions , and restored to all parties the chances they had before . The best rampart that could have been given him was , not an heir , but liberal institutions , with representative , national , and independent bodies . " This is significant , and reminds us of that fierce imperialist General de Castellane , at Lyons , when the telegraph brought him word , not that ' the Emperor ^ Nicholas was dead , ' but simply that ' the Emperor was dead , ' and who instantly proclaimed Henri Cinq ; and was not dismissed & r his precipitate conversion , but simply joked with by Napoleon 111 , . the

    man in all the empire who best knows the ehances of his dynasty . _ M . Durergier de Hauranne quotes the extraordinary conversation of the Emperor with M . Decres , recently revealed by the Due de Raguse . It cannot be too often repeated , as showing the wild , Oriental character of the despot by whom all intellect in France was put in a corner , like a sulky boy at school . " I have come too late , " said Napoleon . V Nothing great remains to do . " M . Decres , of course , was too accomplished a flatterer not to contradict . " Yes /* answered Napoleon , " I agree that my career is . fine ; I have travelled a sp lendid road ; but what a difference from antiquity ! Look At Alexander : after having conquered Asia , and announced himself to the peoples as the son of Jupiter , with the exception of Olympias , who knew all Athenian all the East believed

    about it , and of Aristotle and some pedants , him . Well , now , if I were to declare myself to-day the son of the Almighty Father , and were to announce my intention of doing homage to him in that character , there is not a fish-fag who would not hiss me as 1 passed . ^ People are too enlightened now-a-days . There is nothing great to be done . " " Do we not see , " asks the historian , " in this strange regret , so strangely expressed , the certain sign of a mind that was going astray , of an ambition that could acknowledge no bounds , of a pride which even the empire of tho ¦ world could not satisfy ? " He might have added that this speech , which has many counterparts in the history of Napoleon , exhibited also the meanness which was created in him by the presence in this world of enlightenment jsiad intellect . He felt that though his arm was strong enough to beat down

    far a time all physical opposition , his genius , which had a strong relationship to vulgar enthusiasm , could only impose on those who were prostrate before him ; and he knew that his memory would only be preserved with respect la the traditions of the lowest developments of humanity . r Jbis partly explains his determined hatred against men of ideas , or ideologues , as he chose to call them , arid who formed a permanent as well as a temporary danger to 4 JUe State , as he conceived it . In the chapter on tho Empire , M . Duvergiex de Haumnno abl v develops the taeaia , that * the enemies of free institutions always see the embarrassments they cause , but never the support they give ; and do not reflect that despot ism in the days of adyerBity dearly pays for the facilities it . hua enjoyed in the days of prosperity , ' He brings forward some curious examples to prove that not only political liberty , but civil liberty , which was still sometimes with wished to abolish the

    talked of , was tampered - . The Emperor jury , and . spared it . only on condition that the lists should be so chosen as to be hurmlees , and that there should ?!}© tribunals of exception against forgers , armed smuggling , and resistance to public authority . He established stale prisons , 4 a winch , despite certain , formalities , people were shut up arbitrarily . " When I fell , " said he at St , Helena , " tho state prisons scarcely contained more than two hundred and fifty individuals . " " Indeed 1 " exukima M . Duvergier 4 e Hauranne ; " that was a great deal more thun the state pdaons of thu old m % imo cantfcined at thy taking of the Bastille 1 " A peculiar colour is given to this remarkable history by the firm conviction everywhere expressed that liberty will have its day again in Jfmuce , The lL . i ii l ^ TiiTi ^ Tj / . iTp . ^ TT il 7 "i" ^/ Jv * i . VrTT' i ¦ " . „ ' ¦¦¦;¦ ¦ -m- Ti - ¦ - —i > -t - -vif—¦ --- ¦ ¦ —r ¦ - ¦—•*— /* - *— -t ° - — ¦ - " ¦' — " - " . " y- — ¦ •¦ ¦ - ¦¦ ¦——rwriter denies that the French people is * radically incapable of self-government . ' and adds :-

    —forward to the time \ > hen it shall rise up , gather new strength , and determine to use it ? Whether that time Le desired ox feared , it will coinc infallibly , and the world will prepare for it . " I have never loved and do not now love absolute power , " says the historian , in his preface ; - " but I understand it . I understand that with more or less success , for a longer or shorter period , all political life may be stilled in a country , all spirit of resistance crushed , all liberty suppressed or annulled . What I do not understand is the strange idea of granting to a people liberty of election , liberty of speech , liberty of the press , on condition that it shall not make use of them , or that it shall do so uselessly ; of putting into the hands of citizens a powerful weapon , and warning them' the same time that they are to be treated as if they were disarmed ; of giving them , in a word , the form and the attributes of Parliamentary o-0-vernment , without giving the substance . "

    In this way does M . Duvergier de Hauranne criticize the present Government , with the evident object of insinuating that the time may come when the system of machinery which is now nothing but a huge hypocrisy may be used to restore liberty in France . It is certain that if the electors throughout the empire were on one and the same day to insist oil exercising their right freely , an Assembly might be returned before which the governing coterie would fly like chaff before the wind . But it is precisely to prevent this possible though not probable result that the whole ingenuity of the Government is directed . However ,-we would not seek to discourage JM . Duvergier de

    Hauranne and his friends , who no doubt are allied , at least in sympathy and intention , to the new party which since the death of General Cavnignac is endeavouring to form in preparation for the future ; which abjures all narrow doctrines of Legithnisin or Orlcanism , whilst it admits the necessity of a monarchy , surrounded by institutions no matter how liberal ; which looks with hope to the young pretender who , under the guardianship of his mother , is waiting for the conspiracy of time and circumstances ; which may include all fragments of old parties , royalist or moderate republican ; and which must n e cessarily go on . recruiting from the unprejudiced masses , who feel only the shame and the inconvenience of the present system . if the former Ministerwhen lie

    But if this be the ease— , assures us that if not he yet bis sons will assuredly behold the revival of Parliamentary government , speaks patriotically and not in the spirit of a coterie—why should he persist in saying offensive things of the men without whose aid there can be no return of liberty in France' ? Clearly , a restored monarchy must lean on something more than the personal friends and adherents of M . Guizot , most of whom are now growing old and grey . Why use , then , that hackneyed and unjust expression , ' the catastrophe of February j " In one sense , the Revolution of 1848 may be considered a eatastrophe , because it led to the Coup d ' etat ; but M . Duvergier de Hauranne , in defending the greater Revolution of 1789 , proves that its excesses were not logically necessary , and that events do not succeed one another in this world . mechanic-ally ,

    without regard to the merits and the conduct of men . He must know that many active ' promoters of the fall of Louis Philippe are only withheld from becomin « - Orleanists in the sense we have explained by the fear that they will thus ' deny their past ; ' and that it is from the foolish and bigoted vocabulary of the Reaction that he borrows the obnoxious phrase we allude to . Is he afraid to condemn his own past ? Considering the ignoble fate of the dynasty he loves , he might do so "with a good grace . Why not admit that the Revolution of February , with all its fearlnl and humiliating consequences , -was not a catastrophe but a lesson ? The confession may be a grievous one to make ; but it is necessary to the union . Besides , M . Duvergier de Hauranne makes it elsewhere , when he says : —

    If we consider the result to which . our Parliamentary struggles have led us , nobody has the right to be very proud ; and if there be a party or a man who bousts not to have committed a fault , that party or that mun exhibits more pride than good sense . Why not tell the whole truth ? The Government of 1830 , Ministry and Opposition , did not sufficiently trouble itself to know what the popular masses felt , thought , und desired . Thus it was that the ground was mined under our feet , whilst we wero combating with courteous amis , and that we came , with closed eyes , to a cat'wtroj >/ tc unexpected by everybody , even by those who made it and those who prolited by it . When ubsolute governments perish in this way no one has a right to be astonished . Free governments ure bound and are able to be moro clear-sighted and prudent . Uut even in free governments people « ro sometimes inclined to allow themselves to be blinded by success and lulled to ( bleep in the arms of power . It hni-rieiis , then , that for fear of going too fast , they make up their minds not to advance lit nil , and that between those who govern and those who are governed such a distance at last is then

    placed that they lose eight of one another . The merest accident , a spark , brings about an explosion . We hope that M . Guizot is not the man who ' boasts that he never committed a fault / who will not allow that it whs by his obstinacy that Cho ? lesson ' or ' catastrophe ' was rendered necessary . It is certain , however , that , even at the risk of admitting that he contributed from pride ami iguorance to increase tho distance between the governors and the governed , he oug ht to subscribe to this declaration , which wipes out many limits , and may bo eminently useful in the future , Tho work of M . Duvergier do Hauranne , though it has made no sensation—nothing literary makes now ft sensation in France but novels so highly coloured that they bring their authors before tho Court of Assjzws— has been favourably received by quiet politicians and by studious youths . It cannot bo road without fruit ; and will be a good antidote to the sound and i ' ury of revolutionary uiwmls .

    If this were so , Franco should seek tbo secret of its destinies in the annata of tho Bpman Empire , mkI thank tuoae writers who , with more ardour than glory , labour to « 6 bAltilii 4 itQ that wretched period . Hut yerJuwps I way bo allowed to prateat against a 4 « cxee dictated by inton & t ' and accepted My weakness . Awt <> wl # f mistaking tho Bleep of bianco for death , would it not . bo bettor to look

    162 The Leader; [No. 412, February 13, 1...

    162 THE LEADER ; [ No . 412 , February 13 , 1858 .

    Oehuensciilager's Aladdin. Aladdin; Or, ...

    OEHUENSCIILAGER'S ALADDIN . Aladdin ; or , Tho Wonderful Lamjt . A Dramatic I ' oom iu Two Partn . Uy Aduni OchlunschlUgor . Trmaalatud by Theodore Martin . __ J- W . 1 ' arkui . At the latter' e'ilcf ' oFTuMiti ccntuiy , ( lie castle ofTFollericksborgTono of th' residences of the kings of Denmark , used to be occupied during tho nutuinn and winter , when tho court was absent , by a worthy fcjehloswigur and his wife and family , who took care of tho royal abode until tho return ot tho monarch . Tho castlo , which is said to have'beon orected from the dosigns of our great English oruhitoct , Inigo Jones , stauds about two inilus iro « u tho western gates of Copenhagen j and here , in comparative solitude , ll » o youthful son of the person charged with the oaro of the cadtle—a boy ot &

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13021858/page/18/