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    Dec. 20, 1851.] ©fle ftf .l&f V. "99 ¦ ¦...

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    The Masked « Empire " In France. [Fuoji ...

    Tho People were generally pleased with the coup X & tat at first : they thought it republican , especially 1 universal suffrage was restored . But the system f open voting undeceived them ; and had not the Tlvsee returned to secret voting by a second decree , r * possible the resistance might have been more bstinate . But on the whole the workmen were distrustful and bewildered ; uncertain whom or what to fiffht for ; unwilling to be drawn into a struggle at the hour M . Bonaparte had selected ; disposed to wait to see what he would do for them . The universal feeling now is of humiliation and jeep disgust , and discontent ; but the bourgeoisie are satisfied so long as Paris is full of foreigners , the

    shops open , the Boulevards gay . They were terrified , too , at the thought of a general uprising in ' 52 . « Spoliation—pillage—masssare , " & c . ; as if it were n othing to be murdered wholesale , to be stormed and ransacked by a faction who proclaim themselves champ ions of Religion—family—property . Oh ! mothers and daughters of England who read Mrs . Ellis , if I could tell you who and what and of what manner of life are the gentlemen and ladies at the Elysee who represent Religion — family — property . The Princess Demidoff !

    The present Ministry may literally be called a Sinister Ministry : for M . Bonaparte has two halfbrothers in M . de Morny and M . de Maupas : the former a son of General Flahault and Queen Hortense : the latter of Queen Hortense and I know not ¦ whom ; for Hortense was prodigal of her Creole blood . The fact is , that Louis Bonaparte is not a Bonaparte at all ; it is known that his putative father was impuissent , and that his real father was a Dutch Admiral . Rather a good mixture : the fire and impetuosity of the Creole tempered by the phlegmatic taciturnity and stubborn reserve of the Dutch .

    M . Carlier , the late Prefet of Police , had it seems been playing a double game for some time before the coup d ' etat . Ostensibly he had broken with the Elysee and become the ally of the Royalist factions . He had wormed himself into all their plans . He gave them several false alarms of a coup d ' etat . On one occasion they stopped at the Assembly all night ; when the real night came they were all at their own houses ready to be pounced upon by the Police , in their beds . M . Maurice Duval , who has been sent as Commissaire-General to three departments , is a man who has al ways been employed in violent and brutal measures . It was he who treated the Duchess of Berri so brutally at Blaye .

    You see that the usurping Government are pursuing the very measures so furiously attacked in Ledru Rolliii . They are " Napoleonizing " the departments . It is becoming an honour to be arrested . Arrests are t aking place every hour of every person suspected of indepencierice . ] y [ . Goudchaux , the Banker and Minister ot France in February ' 48 , was arrested yesterday . M . Leon Fauch <» hag received a passport for Belgium .

    Hie police entered the house of M . Carnot with false keys , and penetrated even to the bed of Madame Camot Avith dark lanterns to see if her husband was sleeping by her side ! They have also made a search in the house of Madame . Viardot . Victor Hugo is in Switzerland . All the Republican representative are arrested , or in flight , or concealed . Some general oilicers have been placed in retreat ; notably , too , a Colonel of Engineers . It is said thatCavaignac , Lamoriciere , Changarnier , find Charras ( who was not wounded , you are glad to hear ) have been removed from Ham , put on board shi p and taken to sea to cruise for the present , in regard of eventualities . But the Government dare not deport them .

    I hear that La Presse is to appear under other editorshi p , and that Girardin will bring out a Republican paper in Belgium . The shareholders havebrought ( "i action against him for discontinuing the paper , as 11 appears it was not suspended ; but he refusea to Write during the existing state of things . The two chief editors of the National are in ¦* i- 'l » iuin . () f K . Ilareste ( of the Rt ' publitjue ) I hear nothing . I Raw the President go out and return to the I' ^ ysec the day before yesterday . Not a cry—not a Jll \ t ; taken oil ' . People dare not Hpoak what they ' tviiik . but the disgust in general , rind the conviction tnat it cannot last . But they are afraid of what will replace it .

    ' lie working men have been apathetic this time , ^» d unprepare d , hut they ar < : awaking ; and the oil" ^ l )(;(; ' l ' y ( the captniriH and non-commissioned , | , "' > ) are returning to their nonees . liwt 1 Vl 0 Htiou if S bow long will it last ? If it could hi i ^ * ^ would be un immense emigration of the _ « i Heads anj hearts of France—they would take „ ' . ° . «! wI >« "J . They are worn out by tliiw I proNmon and degra < livt , . Such an emigration an N r < : a < l ot m the earlier hiHU « y of the UreekH . moii ° > - ° ' lf <; : lt tho I ) OBt-ol » cl ! » Jlt tlu ! P ri ! sont oi ) c | V ' ' * u

    political news in an unfavourable sense to the party in power , they are not forwarded . I have met persons who complain of receiving letters opened , and of letters addressed to friends in the provinces not having reached them . The present regime is Austro-Russian , precisely such as is in force at Vienna and Naples . The secret police are everywhere at all hours , even in the most unexpected places , in the most intimate society . For one word you may be imprisoned , or ( if a foreigner ) sent out of the country . You remember the account of the massacre of the 15 th of May , by Bomba , at Naples , and the numberless arrests and imprisonments which followed of all the best men in the country—and the trials only now begun .

    This coup d ' etat is an exact copy of those proceedings , in all their worst and most sanguinary and vexatious features . You have only to read the French papers to note into what a revolutionary state the country has been thrown . The official decrees , declaring departments in a state of siege—sending extraordinary commissaries to " Napoleonize " the provinces and to coerce the elections , promoting creatures toofficialposts , replacing all functionaries whose civism is undeniable , degrading some officers and decorating others , & c , & c , quite as revolutionary , or more so than those of the Provisional Government , when a dynasty had been swept away , and the whole form of government changed .

    There are three or four of the decrees deserving special attention , e . g . the one giving back the Pantheon to the Jesuits , as the church o » f St . Genevieve . This church has three times changed its name . The original church was built by Clo . vis at the instance of his queen and St . Genevieve , and dedicated to Peter and Paul . A religious house was attached to it , and in time became a celebrated abbey . St . Genevieve , at her death , was buried in dedicated to her

    the church , which was henceforth . The church having fallen to ruin , Louis XV . was induced by La Pompadour to rebuild it on a magnificent scale . The great revolution converted it into a pantheon , " Aux Grands Hommes La Patrie Reconnaissante . " The restoration restored it to the church . The revolution of ' 30 repantheonized it . And now M . Bonaparte restores it to his friends and patrons : in this , too , as in all other things , following the Emperor of Austria and the King of Naples .

    The Archbishop of Paris who , as you learn , is a Republican and an excellent Christian , and much beloved by the workmen , has been garde' d vue since these events . He has refused to allow a Te Deurato be sung in honour of M . Louis Bonaparte . There is another very important decree , with respect to the expulsion from Paris of men who have suffered imprisonment , or who have been under the surveillance of the haute police , and their banishment to Cayenne or Africa .

    The latter part of this decree especially is a stroke of despotism of almost indefinite severity . For who in these latter days , with ao many factions succeeding one another in power , has not been under the surveillance of the haute 2 > olice / But it is a sword that may be used with terrible efFect against those who now employ it . A decree appointing two Marshals of France : one , General Vaillant , who conducted the engineering operations at the sie ^ e of Rome . This is noticeable . First , as a consecration , personal /;/ , by Louis Napoleon , of the attack on the Roman Republic ; and secondly , as a blow for Oudinot , who was ( as you remember ) the Cominandei-in Chief , but who is now in prison at St . Valerian for having declared against the President . Oudinot is u Legitimist .

    Is it not pitiable ? So it is with every successive revolutionary Government in France ; they employ their time in striking at persons when they should be organizing thintjs ; rewarding their creatures and punishing their adversaries , instead of bringing forward popular measures . What a position this Louis Napoleon Bonaparte mi"ht have had if he had put himself at the head of the Democracy ! But those who know him well , tell

    me that he has no idea of Government but compression , military despotism , bayonets , and police ! Some of his friends , indeed , say , that , once established in his place ; , he will bring forward . some very bold measures in behalf of the working classes ( among others a strong tax oiipr <> 2 > erly ) , hut others say that his only ambition in to stay where he is , with increased power of enjoyment , of splendour , and luxuries . And bin entourage are worse than himself .

    As for tin ; Democratic works be wrote m prison , they were written with a cool and determined hypocrisy ; for it seems lie really docs know how to uhi ; his pen with a certain form and facility . All these recent measures have been prepared and can iod out by himself . . Hut he is always impenetrable , and almost always apathetic . This is his Dutch blood . JliH Creole blood shows itself in the excesses of his private debaucheries . Did you observe the decree for tho making of a railway round Paris , connecting all the main lines ? This , it . seems , has been some time in contemplation . To give you an idea of how completely the workmen ubMtuined from lighting thiw time , out of till tho

    workmen employed at the Northern Railway Station , only one was absent during the two days of last week , and he was ill in bed ; whereas , in that unhappy and untoward insurrection of June ' 48 , they were all at the barricades . But you must not suppose the workmen are Bonapartists , they are Republican to a man ; but they are hesitating , distrustful , and perhaps a little disenchanted of revolutions ; and they want to see what " this man " will do for them . Among the donations to the troops , I can certify these : Three tliousand francs per barricade . And I know from an eyewitness , that to the soldiers who were in occupation of the bureau of a suspended Journal , ten sous a day were distributed ( extra ) to each man ; and four francs to each non-commissioned

    officer . The Financial difficulties will be very heavy at the close of this year , when very heavy payments have to be made for pensions , interest on caution money of functionaries , & c . Either /> -es / i taxes ( unpopularity r ) or Loan ( on what conditions in the actual political state of affairs ?) , or emission of paper money . There is a talk of an offer of 100 millions of francs of Treasury bonds to the Bank in exchange for specie . If the Bank refuse—( will the Government dare take

    it by force ? why not , at the point of the bayonet ?) —by a forced currency ! But in either case the effect , commercially , on public confidence of such revolutionary acts , once more is a copy of Vienna . They are " bulling" the market here as much as they can . If they do not arrest " Bears " as they do at Vienna , they employ all sorts of tricks to give a factitious rise to the quotations ; and they send men and boys through the streets crying the rise in the funds . They want to force confidence .

    The " official news" of atrocities committed by " the demagogue party" in the departments are of . ' course immensely disfigured and exaggerated—even when at all true ; but of course there are malefactors who take adv antage of troubled times , and who assume the name of a political party as a mask for pillage and disorder . But have not M . Bonaparte ' s drunken soldiers set the example of violence ? And who was the first to break the law ? The way the soldiers voted was as follows : —A regiment formed into a square . The men called out one by one . ( Vote for Louis Napoleon . ) Ay or no . The noes arr ested ! ( Historical . ) The 3000 who have had the courage to say no are a pretty good number under the circumstances .

    Of course we shall have the Empire . He is marching straight for the Empire . The bourgeoisie are delighted at the thought of the gaieties , balls , & c . Trade so nourishing . Paris so full of strangers , and on such good terms with Russia and Austria . Shortsighted , corrupt fools ! for all depends on the life of one man ; and who is to follow him ? Oh I the Emperor of Russia will provide him with a consort ! But a man who chooses to act -Ciesar must expect to find many ready to act Brutus . And what then ? French society is horribly corrupt : rotten to the core . This is the cry of the Government organs , and it is perfectly true ; but is Bonapartism to be the cure ?

    The system which the great Emperor so elaborately organized , has been and is tho death of the country . I mcati that huge centralized machine ot furietionarism : / i () 0 , () 0 () functionaries , and nearly as many soldiers . Servility , corruption everywhere . Some of the Legitimists are knocking under . Do Falloux ( the Jesuit ) has adhered : and so has lieiryer I hear , but cannot vouch for the fact . It is thought by many that Russia supplies funds to the Filynee ; you know the Due de Leuehtenbcrg , the Emperor ' s son-in-law , is cousin to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte .

    That iniquitous Lottery of the Golden Tngots i . s also supposed to have furniNhed M . Louis Napoleon Bonaparte with cash , as very little of the money , which was to send men to California , has . yet been accounted for . You know that the Republican party contains almost all the intellect and genius—the best beads , and hearts , and names in France . I assure you iriauv are so heartsick of this incessant , persecution , that a general emigration is talked of—like our " pilgrim fathers " of old—to leave M . Louis Napoleon Jionaparte to be Emperor over masses of corruption and brutish peasants only !

    Hut it cannot , last . He may declare himself I ' resident for ten yearn , or Kmperor for lil <" . The longertho shorter . And out of this evil good may come ; Bonapartism , the cankerworm of tho Democracy in France , will be eradicated for evermore ! General Rulhiercs , some time Minister of War , Iuih been placed on half-pny by General St . Arniud . General Rulhieres wrote a letter to him , reminding him that in M !> he had waved the Minister ' s HWortl from beiii'j broken for some disgraceful conduct . " It in now your turn to break mine ; but you are not able to tarnish my honour . "

    The Republicans generally arc more sensitive about , tho degradation of the honour of thourmy than about , their own defeat . L ,

    Dec. 20, 1851.] ©Fle Ftf .L&F V. "99 ¦ ¦...

    Dec . 20 , 1851 . ] © fle ftf . l & f V . " 99 ¦ ¦ -I - , i i - i-wi ¦ -- ¦ -1 ¦ | -- , - i i i ¦ . ¦ - -ii .- — . ,--,- 1 - - I , ¦ - - - . -

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1851, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20121851/page/3/