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    LETTERS FROM PARIS . [ From otjr own Correspondent . ] Letter XXVIII . Paris , Tuesday Evening , July 6 th , 1852 . The Legislative Corps have not dispersed without taking a signal revenge for all the . humiliations they have been compelled to undergo . The deputies , as they returned to their constituents , shot a Parthian arrow at their haughty master . They secretly resolved to draw up a Report of the results of their session for the perusal of the electors . This Report it was impossible to print ; but , in manuscript , it lias

    been in active circulation in Paris , and every independent deputy undertook to distribute it throughout his department . This Report is very severe in its terms . It nakedly accuses Louis Bonaparte of opposing every obstacle to the execution of their mandate : it criticises unsparingly the Administrative innovations , and does not even spare the Constitution itself . It proceeds to state , that the financial condition had seemed grave enough to demand a serious scrutiny : that , unfortunately , the trifling economics consented to by the Commission on the Budget , and refused by the Council of State , had not been realized : that to have raised a conflict with the Executive would have disturbed the commercial interests of the country ; in obedience to which they had preferred to accept the

    Government measures , even the railway concessions , of which they were far from understanding the nature or the extent ¦; but that next year they promised to be far more severe in the execution of the trust committed to them by their constituents . This Report ( compte-rendu ) has created a great sensation in Paris , and , doubtless , in the departments . The Elysee was bitterly incensed . In order to soften the blow , the adherents of the President were anxious to bring the deputies together at a farewell banquet . This banquet was a gloomy affair . No speeches ; and only one toast , proposed by the chairman , M . Billault , President of the Legislative— " To Louis Napoleon ;" a toast received in icy silence , broken only by a few claqueurs , to make the silence more emphatic !

    Louis Bonaparte is now regularly settled for the summer at St . Cloud . Debauchery and excesses of all kinds have marvellously changed the man : he is said to be quite out of health ; and his doctors tell him decidedly , that if lie will not change his manner of living they will not answer for his life . He is also said to be worn down with anxiety and work , dejected , and demoralized ^ He feels the falseness of his position and the difficulty of escape . Meantime \\\ xfideles arc working for him .

    Persigny has despatched orders to nil the prefects to resume more actively than over the agitation for the Empire , abruptly broken oil" before the 10 th of May , on account of the threats of the Czar ; so that , for the last few days— . since , in fact , tin ? Legislative Corps has disappeared , and the Senate bus boon left alone to complete its session , petitions have ; showered upon tho Senate , which , as you remember , according to our present Constitution , has the sole power of modifying the form of government . The Decembrist army , composed of ( J 000 stipenduries at Paris , and 20 , 000 in the provinces , has taken the field again . These bagmen of a new description an ? busy enough iu obtaining orders for their new : irticle--the

    fOinperor . Among nil the Prefects the most conspicuous for his imperialist zeal is M . de Bouville , ex-journalist , and Prefect of the Basses-Alpes — the department which maintained a resistance to the usurpation for twentyfour days lifter the 2 nd of December . M . de Bouville has undertaken to elleet , the wholesale conversion of this department ; and in the . very communes where the entire , irmlo population took arms to defend the cause of the Republic , M . de Bouville now pretends to find petitioners for the Umpire . 1 will tell you the very simple process \ u \ employs for thai purpose . The

    mayor of every commune is made responsible for ho many signatures , according to the population of the ? village . If he omit to lind the given number , he is threatened with transportation to Lainbessu . Such is the operation in every village , und so the signatures ilow in . This recrudescence of imperialist agil-af . ion has given rise to the report , that , the intimates of the Klysee arc ? determined to make Louis Honaparte take tin ? last

    . spring ; and the Kmpirc isag : rn the order of f lie day . As it , in , the President , lives , and moves , and acts like ? a sovereign . A decree in announced to appear shortly , reviving all the dignitaries of the former imperialist court—such as Chamberlain , Grand Chancellor , Grand lOquerry , Master of tho Ceremonies , » ve . All these functionaries art ? already named , and the decree of their appointment will appear independently of the Empire . A ridiculous conspiracy , of genuine police fabricaion , has been " discovered" thin wook . Society has

    been once more saved , and boobies are once more reassured . The police have " made a descent" upon a house behind the Jardin des Plantes , where they found some gas-pipe ends , about a foot long each , crammed with bullets , and covered over with canvas . The two men in whose room these pipe-ends were found were arrested , of course ; but the police , not content with this capture , seized every person in the house , even women and children ! As in all the houses in Paris , these people were utter strangers to each other . In this case there were two women and one little girl ; and so the number of fourteen conspirators , pompously

    announced by the Patrie , is made up ; and the gaspipe ends , covered with canvas , are the murderous machines with which " the democrats of Paris , in league with their brothers in London , " were to effect a revolution . This pretended conspiracy , which the Parisians immediately christened " The Flue Conspiracy , " and which the Government wanted to puff to gigantic proportions by arresting all sorts of people , has made a complete fiasco . The Constitutionnel , in citing the article of the Patrie , declared the facts to be " inexact . " As to the Moniieur , it was silent for two days , and then finding that the conspiracy was a failure ,

    came out with the announcement that the reports in the newspapers were certainly exaggerated . Public opinion , habituated to these police expedients , regarded the affair with perfect indifference , only inquiring what the special object of this latest fabrication might be ; and wags pretended that , had it not been for this " gaspipe conspiracy / ' Louis Bonaparte etait fume ; others considered it as an excuse for proc laiming the Empire . But I will give you the simple explanation of the affair in a few words . About a fortnig ht ago , a man , named Viguier , ex-lieutenant of marine artillery , expelled his regiment for embezzlement—a man of utterly damaged

    reputation , and attached to the police , presented himself to the refugees in London , begging admission into their society . One of the refugees having recognised the man , immediately denounced him to the society , and his non-admission was pronounced . The police , very anxious to make Viguier pass for a democrat persecuted by the Government , got up this famous conspiracy ; and it was in the rooms of two of this Viguier ' s friends that the gas-pipes were found . A perquisition made at Viguier ' s house led to the same results . The object was to accredit Viguier to the proscribed democrats at London ; this is the true and simple

    explanation of the alleged conspiracy . The conspiracy , however , of the sub-officers of the army , is another and very different business . Every regiment is sounded with amazing zeal by every party . The Orleanists and Legitimists " work" the officers , the democrats sound the sub-officers . The former hawk about the letters of Changarnier and Lainoricierc , the latter that bold one of Colonel Charras , which has produced more ravages than any other . Iu many of the regiments secret societies ace formed . One of them was lately discovered in the army of Paris . The subofficers were transferred to the prison of TJAhhaye . Another secret societ y ^ , has been discovered among the suh-oflieers at St . Oiner . The Government ,

    anxious to distract public attention , lias denied the facts : but , the following . significant announcement sufficiently disposes of tho official denials . This is what I find in the JAhcrU ' , a journal published at Lille : — " For the last few days , soldiers in chains , coming , we an ? informed , from St . Oiner , have passed through our streets , escorted by gendarmes to the Citadel of Lille . " Algeria , occupied by regiments accused of demoemtie opinions , or by regiments oflicercd by democrats , is " worked" with equal ardour by the republican party .

    A terrible menace is suspended over the head of Bonaparte , that , of seeing the army burst , in his hand The danger is imminent ; he knows it : it is this thought which pierces through the allocution he lately addressed to the officers of the five ? regiments newly added to the garrison of Paris . "In every elevated position , like that in which I find myself placed , can ? outbids content : but , in the midst , of incessant anxieties and labours , there are ( rue compensations : the first in that of duty accomplished , " Ac .

    This address is significant , enough of the present disposition of the speaker ' s mind . In truth , he is very far from having reason to be tranquil . The army is not , to be relied upon : and now the . people of Paris are alive again . I have in a former hitter mentioned , that the police had solemnly inaugurated busts of the President , in ( lie principal in : irkc | , s . The tradesmen bud been compelled , by threats , to subscribe to the expense . A few who resisted the injunction had their licences withdrawn from them . Their fate intimidated ( lie rest ,. Now the reaction is complete ; in a , great number of the market , s ( lie busts have been smashed . That in tho March / : aux , lluitras . Rue MontorgueiJ , among othern , was first covered with ordure , and then guillotined . It lma not yet been replaced by the police ,

    On the other hand , the rigorous measures continued on so vast a scale , keep up extreme irritation in the departments ; and this irritation is so keen , that many of the President ' s intimates have urged him to abandon his intended tour in the South . But he persists in . his determination . He has a secret in the purpose of this tour- His plan is to go by Bordeaux to Toidouse , and thence t o Marseilles , where he will embark for Algeria , to take the command of an expedition in person . He takes to heart his two defeats of Boulogne and Strasburg ; he yearns to rehabilitate , by some brilliant action in the eyes of the army , that military reputation of his which the army now laugh to scorn . It is for this that he contemplates the expedition I have described .

    Pending the grand tour to the South , the Government is preparing a fete of dazzling magnificence , to gratify the well-known taste of the Parisian population for " fire and smoke , " and all the " pomp and circumstance of war . " The affair is to take place on the 15 th of August , Saint Napoleon ' s day . The spectacle will consist of the crossing of Mount St . Bernard by the French army , performed by 15 , 000 . men under arms . The heights of Chaillot are destined to be the theatre of this exploit , and Trocadero is to be transformed into a Mount St . Bernard for the occasion . In the morning we shall have a pantomimic military display of the

    troops crossing the mountains , with sham combats . At night Napoleon on horseback will be visible by the aid of thousands of coloured lamps . During the performance there will be a grand snow storm falling on St . Bernard and the troops , concluding with an immense display of fireworks , in the midst of which will appear a gigantic eagle , surmounting the figure of Napoleon . This fete will cost twenty-five millions ; but Bonaparte will not grudge the money if he can but succeed in dazzling the people ; for he feels its hostility and its affection must be bought at any cost . Why should he stick at " a trifle ? " Does he not himself ,

    his family , and his courtiers , swim in g old ! Old Jerome , and the Princess Mathilde , his daughter , are most lavish in their expenditure . Lucien Murat has just bought the estate of Buzenval . Six months ago these people were over head and ears in d ebt , and now they are purchasing immense estates ! When will this host of vultures , which have fastened upon our unhappy country as on a prey , take their flight ? These champions of the right of property continue their depredations upon their neighbours . The final seal is about being put to the sequestration of the Duke d'Aumale ' s property . The produce of the sale is to be given to

    the sons of the anciens emigres of the army of Conde . To accomplish this act of spoliation the last will of the Prince of Conde will be cancelled . by a decree , and on the same authority the first will be made valid . As for the family of Orleans , it has just escaped by a legal fiction from the consequences of Bonaparte ' s decree , compelling them to sell all their property in France within the year . A friendly sale has been effected with the Prince dc Monaco , who is under pecuniary obligations to them ; so Bonaparte is again defeated . You see the ioeazles did not all die with Louis Philippe : — " Messrs . Quirk , Gammon , and Snap" still sit at tho council-table of the House of Orleans .

    The " refusals" are coining in as thick as ever . Tho professors of the university are above all distinguishing themselves by their firm and dignified attitude . Bonaparte in his suspicious jealousy has required the oath to be taken by a crowd of people who were never called upon before . For instance , all the wearers of medals , including cabmen , water-carriers , street-porters , liavo been obliged to take tho oath , or be deprived of them . Many persons have been under tho necessity of repeatedly performing the ? ceremony . One case is mentioned , that of a legitimist , who went through tho process as deputy , departmental councillor , mayor , and as trustee for a public charity . The hero of this quadruple ? binding of oaths is reported to have said , " They made ? me swear four oaths , if . will be hard indeed if I

    am unable to keep one of them . The Press is still the butt of the rigours of Government . The Corsaira , a legitimist organ , has been the first to suffer under the application of Bonaparte ' s law for the suspension of newspapers . The arbitrary " warnings" of the prefects had lost their virtue . The Cor . sairc is suspended for two months . This paper whs fined on the ISth of May , for " contempt of the Government . " On the strength of this verdict , the Ministers of Police suspended Mic paper altogether on

    the Ilrd of . July -forty-six ( lays alter the fine had been levied . Tin ? Ksptrance of Nantes , another legitimint paper , has received a first " warning . " Its crime con .-iu ;(; i in having presumed to furnish an explanation of the Comic ? de Chambord ' H letter , forbidding the faithful from taking the oath . The prefect spiced the warning with the plea that the paper was guilty of opposition to the will of eight millions of men . Wo beur every day of ironh urreattf . Laat Saturday

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    654 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1852, page 654, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1942/page/10/