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Leader (1850-1860), 24th January 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 2

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      . ¦ - ¦ . ¦ .. - . . M *" ¦ , It Is Not ...

      in a condition to take a bolder flight . Come the deluge when it may , their " mission is accomplished . " But taxpayers may well shrug their shoulders ; they have got their order and tranquillity ; what do they say to a little bill of £ 800 , 000 for refurnishing the Tuileries ? Louis Bonaparte coquets strangely with the Legitimists . Whether out of spite to the

      Orleanists , or to appease the manes of the Due d'Enghien , or from a respect for the " principle of authority , " we cannot say . Certain it is that the Nephew of Napoleon honours January 21 st as we do the 30 th of this month . Louis Philippe could never afford to recognize that "blessed martyr "—to his own fatal incapacity and indecision- —poor Louis XVI ., to whom we do not refuse a thought of sympathy ; but in going out of his way to be generous , Louis Bonaparte will not conciliate the Royalists , and he will disgust the mass of the population .

      At Berlin and at Madrid the initiative of Paris is taking root : the prevailing tendency is to get ^ rid of Constitutionalism and of talking nouses . In the one case the Chamber has been warned not to discuss the acts of Government . In the other the press is well nigh extinct . Kossuth has been , received by Congress , and formally welcomed . In other respects the news from America is checkered ; but it is upon the whole satisfactory . Judge Douglass disappoints us by declaring that he will form no alliance with England

      until she do "justice to Ireland "—which is , in truth , , ' * neither here nor there . " It is evident that Judge Douglass is not yet alive to the wide distinction between Downing-street and England . Others are more hearty j and old General Cass had declared that he was ready to support in Congress a resolution in favour of the " hands off " policy—the policy of maintaining a real non-intervention and a real independence for each nation . We see the same spirit

      manifested in all parts of the Union , even in Philadelphia , where Colonel Small and Judge Kelly came out vigorously , and Louisiana , where Kinkel was getting on with his German loan . Ten months alone has America conceived the idea that she is the leader of National Freedom even for the Old World , and she is already "big with glorious great intent . " Yes , the work of sowing has been done , and effectually ; the harvest will be one worth waiting for , though it were to wait ten times as long as we shall .

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      Letters From Paris. [From Our Own Corres...

      LETTERS FROM PARIS . [ From our own Correspondent . ] Letter IV . Paris , Tuesday evening , January 20 , 1852 . Well ! The Constitution has made its appearance . It is pretty nearly what I had told you to expect . You know its terms ; so I may content myself with a -word or two on its characteristics . It may be described in a sentence . It asserts the rights of the President—it completely ignores the rights of the nution and of citizens . All its provisions are against the nation—none of its guarantees in favour of the nation . All is illusory in the Constitution of the 14 th of January . We are to have but the dumb shadow of a Parliament in place of the reality . The

      power of making laws is removed from the legislative corps , which is a legislature only by name . A Council of State , nominated by the President , prepares and elaborates the drafts of bills . The legislative corps votes on these bills by ^ Ayes" and " Noes . " Next oomes the Senate , with its absolute right of veto to oancel and annul the deliberations of the legislature . Now , this Senate being nominated by the President—the legislative body , the living expression of the national voice—becomes less than a nominal power . The President absorbs in his own person the nation and the national representatives—a dead People and a dumb Parliament . Let me tell you how this Napoleonic Constitution has been received by the different classes of society .

      The banks , the shops , the mercantile men , the stock-jobbers and money-mongers—all , in a word , who imagine that God has created man to eat and drink , to put money in his purse , and " then an end "— -clap their hands with joy : they rejoice at being delivered from political agitations , and from the discordant intrigues of the two rivalpowers—the Parliamentary and the Executive . The higher classes , on the other hand , accustomed to govern the country

      by majorities , signify their discontent audibly , because the Constitution robs them of an influence they had always exercised . The journalists are dissatisfied at the silence of the Constitution respecting the liberty of the press * The functionaries are displeased at Art . XIV ., which prescribes an oath of obedience to the Constitution , and especially an oath of fidelity to the President . But it is tho army that thia clause offends most violently . Many of the officers ( not to » ny all ) believed they were fighting for Frifcce , for

      their country ; and lo ! they find they have risked their lives , and sacrificed their position , for one man ! This situation humiliates them ; and they do not scruple to manifest their feelings aloud . So formidable is their opposition , that Bonaparte is already thinking seriously of revising his Constitution , and of urging the Seriate to abolish Art . XIV ., which rehnposes the oath , 'An old magistrate "who , for his S ' art , has lived long enough to swear fidelity to eight ifferent governments , said that this article was a seed-plot of perjury . JBven the Bourse " started" at the Constitution . More enlightened in general than the tradesmen , these men on 'Change have begun to

      understand that it is the public liberties which have been sold to pay the expenses of the campaign against ¦ ' Socialism ; " and they are alarmed to find themselves isolated , disarmed , burked , robbed of every guarantee , in presence of one man's self-will , armed with absolute governmental omnipotence . ^ So that the promulgation of the Constitution was hailed by the Bourse with a considerable fall in prices , and with a sudden chill in business . The political world , in fine , composed of men who look beyond the men and things of the moment , discern how frail is this " edifice" of the Constitution . The President

      has recoiled from the creation of the First Consul . In the Constitution of the year VIII . it was the Executive that nominated the legislative corps . The operation was on this wise . The citizens of each commune nominated a list of Notables of the Arrondissement ; these , again , formed a list of Notables of the Department ; these last , formed a third list of Notables of the Republic—for that form of government was likewise called " Republic . " Then came the Senate , nominated by the First Consul . The Senate selected from the third list the names imposed upon its choice by the First Consul ; and the

      result was what was called " The National Representation . " The work of the First Consul was logically consistent ; this President botches it . The Constitution of the 14 th of January does , in effect , leave to the country the direct nomination of the legislative body . By this fact alone it creates antagonism between , the President and the nation . During the first period j the ascendant period , the legislative corps -will remain mute . But let the President once have lost the prestige of novelty , the legislative body will gain , in the sight of the nation , all the importance which the President will lose . All the favour that now attends on the latter will

      pass over to the former . The nation wul recover its own self-consciousness—consciousness of its rightsand Louis Bonaparte will find himself alone , face to face , with the legislative body , backed by the entire nation . The situation will be once more the same as it was before the 2 nd of December . Then , in vain , will M . Bonaparte attempt , to better his position by another act of treachery or violence . The nation forewarned , will not risk another midnight surprise , all defenceless , as on the 2 nd of December .

      Such is the future the political world predicts—on the supposition , of course , that no other accident interpose . The result is so easily foreseen that already all parties are in motion to " work" the elections . The Government itself has lost confidence . Notwithstanding the Bonapartist vote of the 20 th of December , it begins to fear that local influences may elect candidates unfavourable to its pretensions . The Legitimists , especially , are working the electoral

      ground indefatigably . They are anxious to take advantage of the folly they have had the skill to make Louis Bonaparte commit—of sparing them . It is positive that , if the Legitimists obtain a majority in the legislative body , representing as they would , in that case , the nation , they will gain immense popularity—enough to submerge the President irretrievably . Besides , it is not only the nomination to the legislative body that parties will fight for ; candidateships for the Council of State and for the Senate are not

      less eagerly pursued . Louis Bonaparte will be cheated by the mask of Bonapartism which , good numbers of Legitimists and Orleanists have assumed . It is , therefore , impossible for him to avoid " stocking " the Senate and the Council of State -with his own

      enemies . Among the " proper names" already designated for the Council of State , I have heard MM . Billault , Delangle , and Brinvilliers , two Orleanists and one Legitimist , mentioned . The nominations to the Senate are to appear immediately . The army i « largely represented in its construction . The names of several generals who took part in the late events , and of a few of the old peers , are mentioned . Twenty-five generals , are named for the " honour ;" among others , MM . Lariboissiere , General of Artillery , the Generals Preval , Magnan , Ornans , Castellane , le Duo de Bauffremont , M . do Mprtemart , lo Duo de Mouchy , Legitimists ; and a few personal friends of the President . M . Chasseloup-Laubat and M . de Beauveau , are also mentioned , & o ., & c .

      The old King Jerome , whoso peouniary straits are known to all tho world , and whose pay as Marshal of Franco is insufficient for his wants , is designated for the Presidency of the Senate . His salary , in this capacity , would be imperial . But as the recollections of Majesty would not permit King Jerome to preside over any assembly unless it were an

      assembly of kings , he will content himself with taking the emoluments , and leave the duties of the office to the Vice-president . Excepting a very few names , the Council of State and the Senate can , and will , only be made up of political mediocrities and social nullities . The Emperor Napoleon , a man of genius , was not afraid of superior capacities ; far from this , he Surrounded himself with them , lie absorbed them , he assimilated them . All men of talent were drawn into the sphere of his attraction , like planets round a sun . It is not so with Louis Napoleon , A commonplace man , he is far from exercising

      that magnetics influence which , is the privilege of genius . He can only rally to his cause a host of mediocrities . This is precisely what we see . Around the President a blank , with the exception of a few functionaries wholly devoted to—their salaries , he stands alone , a lonely man . All the men of eminence , all the illustrious names of the country , are . in exile , struck by decrees of proscription , or , self-banished to seclusion on their country estates , they have forsaken for awhile political affairs . M . de Lamartine himself , profoundly humiliated at his country ' s degradation , has resolved to leave France , and to repair to the East , to the domain

      near Smyrna , which the Sultan has given him . This void around him Bonaparte thinks to fill with soldiers and functionaries . He spares the army no flatteries . He promises the generals war . " Has he not a * mission' to baptise the eagles he has restored to the army ? " The army , therefore , reckons on war . To deceive this expectation were too dangerous , in the situation of Louis Bonaparte , for him to run the risk . The probability of war , then , is the common report . Last Saturday , . as . some sailors were receiving their discharge at Havre , the

      Naval Commissary made use of these significant words : —" You won't enjoy your discharge very long ; in two months you will be recalled ; in two months we shall have war . " In another direction Louis Bonaparte is using efforts to gain over the magistracy . He attacks their weak side—the side ofthepurse . He is going to augment all their salaries : The Councillors of the Court of Cassation will have 1500 f . instead of 1200 f . ; the President , 40 , 000 f . instead of 30 , 000 f . ; the Councillors of the Court of Appeal , lO . OOOf . instead of 8000 f . ; and the First President , 30 , 000 f instead of 25 , 000 f .

      Unable to attach persons to his cause , Bonaparte seeks to attach classes . He has the pretension to conciliate the noblesse . A law is already announced for the reestablishment of titles of nobility abolished by the Revolution of February . Louis Bonaparte , in fact , desires to resume the plan followed by the Restoration and by Louis Philippe ; by the one towards the bourgeoisie , by the other towards the noblesse ; that is to say , to reconstitute large fortunes by means of monopolies . To this end , the Restoration created duties on iron and coal to

      enable the nobility , who were then the sole proprietors of the mines and collieries , to realize high profits at the expense of the entire nation . Louis Philippe pursued the same system towards the farmers and the financial aristocracy . The farmers were indispensable to him in the elections . He used to kill two birds with one stone . Through the company of Dorblay , Rothschild , & c , he "would purchase wheat at good prices ; as their wheat always found buyers , it suited the farmers very well to vote with unanimity for the best of Governments .

      The Darblays and the Rothschilds made dear purchases , it is true ; but they had the privilege of forestalling the corn-market ( La Halle ) of Paris . The factors of the Halle were bought over to complete devotedness to them . The great manufacturers , on the other hand , were specially " protected " by the customs' duties , which assured them not onl y the national market , hut a monopoly of unjust profits at the expense of the nation . This system was stigmatized under the name of Exploitation . It was , in fact , the organized jobbing of a few privileged speculators at the expense of the mass of consumers . From such asystem arose atlength an immense protest against

      all monopolies and privileges , and against exploitation in every form . This Protest took the name of Socialism . At the present moment Louis Napoleon flourishes before Europe as the exterminator of Socialism . The logic of facts is driving him to set up again more unblushingly , more vigorously than ever , the very system of jobbing and monopoly that compassed the fall of Louis Philippe . Inevitably , then , the Pbotbst against this jobbing which is to be conducted on a larger scale than formerly , will manifest itself under a form more emphatic than it has ever yet assumed .

      I have already told you , in a preceding letter , how a financial monopoly had been reorganized on the occasion of thq Lyons Railway concession , which , for the first time in France for . sixty years , was granted without control , without adjudication , without publicity . Now , the wheat monopoly is already reestablished * The flours of which M . Darblay has got possession , and for which he has secured the privilege of forestalling the central corn market ol Paris ( LaHalle ) , are quoted at higher prices , quite independently of the prices of wheatj hence this singular phenomenon—slow and gradual rise in grainy rapid rise in floura . On the 2 nd of December , bread

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1852, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24011852/page/2/