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ber were Monarchists after some fashion or other, who at least agreed in repudiating the doctrine of universal suffrage, and all its consequences. The Assembly had made a dirt pie, and demurred considerably to eating it.

Meantime Louis Napoleon, never going beyond the logical attributions of his position, managed to encrease his power and popularity. He seems to be conscious that his forte lies in the expression of opinion, and therefore he lets no opportunity slip by unimproved. He assisted at the opening of all the railways that year; he was fêted by different towns, and there were numerous public occasions when he presided, and he never seems to miss the opportunity of making a speech, in which he introduces political opinions and maxims, calculated to conciliate public opinion.

At Chartres he says that the hopes of France rests on 'faith and conciliation,'' C'est à la foi, qui nous soutient et nous permit de supporter toutes les difficultés du jour; à la conciliation, qui augmente nos forces et nous fait esperer un meilleur

avenir.'

In a visit to the fortress of Ham, the scene of his captivity, he says, “I do not complain of having expiated here by an imprisonment of ten years, my temerity against the laws of my country." At Angers he says, "he is no admirer of that savage liberty which permits everyone to do as he pleases, but of the liberty of civilised people, permitting each one to do what does not hurt the community." And again, "under all regimes there will be, I know, oppressors and oppressed, but so long as I am President of the Republic, there will be no oppressed party."

In his speech at Tours, of 31st July, this year, he mentions for the first time the apprehensions entertained of a Coup d'Etat.

We are

He says they have no just foundations. "Les Coups d'Etat n'ont ancun pretexte, les insurrections n'ont ancune chance de succès; à peine commencés, ils seraient immediatement réprimées." inclined to give him credit for sincerity, as a year and a half was yet to intervene before he had recourse to that remedy. Still he let it be seen that he felt embarrassed in his present position. "Qui est-ce qui em

pêche aujourd'hui notre prospérité de se developper et de porter ses fruits. Permettez-moi de vous le dire c'est que le propre de notre epoque est de nous laisser séduire par les chimères au lieu de nous attacher à la réalité." Nothing is more singular than the cautious and gradual way with which Louis Napoleon approaches his subject; this that we have quoted is an instance of it— it is the germ of complaints, which afterwards attain form and consistency, and which we will trace in the sequel till they reach maturity. The theorists, the ideologues, are his bêtes noirs, which it becomes ultimately necessary for him to take strong measures with; as yet he merely hints a fault, and hesitates dislike.

On the 7th of June, this year, the President delivered his first message to the Legislative Assembly; this, as well as the subsequent ones to which we will allude in their order, is given in extenso.

He begins by recapitulating the pledges he had made in his manifesto, and as he abridges them we may as well reproduce them here:

"To what, in effect, did I engage myself in accepting the suffrages of the nation? "To defend society audaciously attacked. "To strengthen a Republic wise, great, and honest. "To protect family, religion, and pro

perty.

To forward all ameliorations, and all possible economics.

"To protect the press against the tyranny of license.

"To diminish the abuse of centralization.

"To efface the traces of evil discord.

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duty is to take a part between the false and the true ideas which spring up from a revolution; the separation once made, it is necessary to put ourselves at the head of the one, and to combat courageously the others." "Truth will be found by making appeal to all intelligences, by repelling nothing till we have profoundly investigated it, by adopting every thing which will have been submitted to the examination of competent men, and has undergone the proof of discussion." These doctrines no doubt

are subject to qualification; the first proposition would justify any degree of persecution, and their author subsequently proved this by the banishment to Cayenne of some thousands of citizens, who unfortunately had made a different selection from him of the ideas which spring up in a revolution; and as to the second proposition, 'competent men' are often mistaken on political questions, and the proof of discussion is rather an imperfect test.

Some of the representatives don't seem to have relished these doctrines, for on the 12th of June we are told, "that a factious minority in the very bosom of the Assembly makes an appeal to insurrection, to civil war." The president answers by a proclamation to the people :

"Some factious men," says he, "dare still to raise the standard of revolt against a Government, legitimate, since it is the offspring of univeral suffrage. They accuse me of having violated the constitution-me, who have supported for six months, without being moved, their injuries, their calumnies, their provocations

"Elected by the nation, the cause which I defend is yours, it is that of your families and of your property; that of the poor as well as the rich; that of entire civilization; I will be deterred by nothing in my attempts to make it triumphant."

It was now sufficiently obvious that the Assembly and the President could not go on long together, and the former must by this time have attained some idea of their opponent. Very able men there were too in that Assembly-Thiers, Changarnier, La moriciére. Statesmanship, literature, and war were all represented by first-class illustrations; but the Prince President had one advantage, he was alone and he could rely on himself;

whereas, the very reputation of his opponents kept them from combining in any uniform course of action.

On the 31st October the President delivered another message to the Assembly. He had changed his ministry

-an important step, and one obviously in preparation of the struggle which was now inevitable.

On the 3rd November the President delivered a discourse at the ceremony of the institution of the magistracy in the Palais de Justice. After remarking that spite of all political tempests the magistracy, as instituted by Napoleon, had endured, he says:

"Let us honor then that which is immovable; but let us also honor what is good in the changes introduced. To-day, for example, that, assembled from all the points of France, you come before the first Magistrate of the Republic to take an oath; it is not to man that you swear fidelity, but to the law. You come here in the presence of God, and of the great powers of the State, to swear to fulfil religiously a mandate, the austere accomplishment of which has always distinguished the French magistracy. It is consoling to think that, beyond the political passions and the agitations of society, there exists a body of men having no other guide than their conscience; no other passion than the public weal; no other end than to make justice reign."

In

There is another body in France even more permanent than the Magistracy, and which has as devotedly adhered to its peculiar_functions. We mean the Political Police. all the revolutions it has passed over nearly intact to the service of the victor for the time being. Fouché carried over his whole staff from Napoleon to Louis XVIII; and at the Revolution of 1830, Louis Philippe found the same perfect instrument for watching conspiracy, but most imperfect one for repressing it, ready to his hand. At the Revolution of 1848, the Police passed over to the service of the members of the Provisional Government, to watch whom had for some years been the most inportant of its duties. Cavaignac used the police to hinder the election of Louis Napoleon, who now wields it to repress all republican ideas. But in fact the French Political Police has a more remote pedigree than that which dates from Napoleon I.; the Police of Richelieu and of Louis XV.

and XVI. differed little in organization or efficiency from that of Napoleon; originally it was an engine expressly invented for the maintenance of tyranny, and as centralised France is always tyrannical in its executive, there has always remained a need for its services.

On the 11th November the President presided at the distribution of prizes decreed to national industry. We believe this is an annual matter in France, and an institution which might be copied in our own country to advantage.

On this occasion the President thus indicates his ideas on an important question of political economy :

"Therefore, the principal care of an enlightened administration, occupied chiefly with general interests, is to diminish as much as possible the burdens which press upon the land. In spite of the sophisms daily spread abroad to deceive the people, it is an incontestable principle, which in Switzerland, America, and England has produced the most advantageous results, that we ought to free production and to burden only consumption. The riches of

a country is like a river; if we take the waters at the source we dry it up; if we take them on the contrary when the river has increased, we may turn aside a large body of it without altering its course."

This philosophy numbers the conservative party of England among its adherents. It formed the principle on which was based the budget of D'Israeli.

We think the Emperor has stated the grounds on which it rests correctly, but with somewhat more than his usual conciseness. He seems to hold first that an increase of population is the only test of national progress, since it is the natural consequence of increased well-being; but, secondly, that the additional number of inhabitants must be dependent on, and resulting primarily from, an increased agriculture; for, if the population increase from any other cause, it has nothing in the country itself to fall back upon, but being at the mercy of taste and fashion, and foreign trade, may be an element of weakness instead of power: and third, that it becomes, therefore, the duty of an enlightened statesman to facilitate as much as possible the development of agriculture, by abstaining from

imposing on it any burdens or taxes which, inasmuch as they diminish the net return, will prevent the inferior descriptions of land being taken into cultivation. But, lastly, if land is not to be taxed, either directly or in its productions, the revenue of the state must be derived from a tax on the consumers, "d'affranchir la production et de n'imposer que la consommation."

But, however English politicians may differ on this question, all parties will agree with the Emperor when in another part of this address he says:

"The greatest danger perhaps of modern times comes from that false opinion that a government can do every thing, and that it is of the essence of every possible system to answer to all exigencies, to remedy all evils. Ameliorations are not improvised, they grow from those which precede them, like the human species; they have a filiation which permits us to measure the extent of progress possible, and to separate it from Utopias."

Nor will we quarrel with the practical application:

"Let us not, then, be seduced into vain expectations; but let us all try to accomplish all that is reasonable."

The last speech made by Louis Napoleon in 1849 was on the 10th of December, at the fête de l'Hotel de Ville. It is characterized by a calm consciousness of power, and trust in the future. He had evidently bettered his position; and though politicians still thought he was merely a stopgap to the revolution, and that his power would come to a close whenever the Legitimists and Orleanists had effected their fusion, they might at least have seen that he was a man not to be put aside quietly or easily, and that he was fully determined to defend his position by every means in his power. One passage in this address, if they had reflected on its quiet power, and believed that there was something in it besides rhetoric, might have helped to dissipate some of their illusions; "ce qui donne une force irresistible mème au mortel le plus humble, c'est d'avoir devant lui un grand but à atteindre, et derriere une grande cause a defendre."

The year 1850 was passed by Louis Napoleon very much like that which

preceded it; but the indications of his ultimate designs are more clearly hinted at, and his denunciations of the unfortunate Ideologues become more decided; though it never seems to enter into his head that he and his uncle were the most pronounced of all Ideologues, if by that epithet we mean men who wish to govern by new ideas. His actions, as we will find, keep pace with the loftier and more defiant tone of his speeches.

On the 7th of April, 1850, the President opened the session of the Council General of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. An interval of four years had elapsed since their last meeting, and the President tells them that then they enjoyed a complete security, which gave them time to study at leisure the ameliorations best suited to the material interests of France, but that now the task was different; 66 un bouleversement imprevu a fait trembler le sol sous vos pas."

This allusion is judicious. It pointed out clearly, but at the same time without giving offence to the Republican party, that Louis Napoleon had no complicity in the revolution; and that he rather deplored it than considered it a subject of gratulation: an opinion calculated at one and the same time to quell the sensitive distrust of the men of order, who could not yet put confidence in a Bonaparte; and to disarm to some extent the animosity of the Orleanists, by the tacit preference it implied of the rule of Louis Philippe over the Republican regime which had displaced it.

On the 9th and 10th of June he is at St. Quintin. In his speech at an Exposition of Industry in the town, he says:

"I am happy to find myself among you, and I welcome with pleasure all opportunities of coming into contact with that great and generous people which has elected me; for every day proves to me that my most sincere and devoted friends are not in the palace but under the thatch; they are not under the gilded roofs, they are in the work-shops and in the country. If I was always free to accomplish my wish, I would come among you without pomp, without ceremony. I would like, unknown, to mingle in your labours as well as your fêtes, in order better to judge myself of your desires and your sentiments. But it seems that fate puts unceasingly a barrier betwixt you and me, and I have to

regret never having been a simple citizen of my country."

We can easily imagine the effect of such language, addressed to the people of the provinces who already worshipped the inheritor of the name of the Emperor; it served also another purpose, by indicating, or to use a French phrase, "faisant entrevoir," his dissatisfaction with the Burgraves of Paris.

In this oration he defines his idea of "ordre," which is not with him merely an empty word which every one may interpret as he pleases, but "it is the maintenance of that which has been freely elected and consented to by the people; it is the national will triumphant over all factions."

But as if to cool down all unreasonable enthusiasm, he says shortly afterwards at Dijon :

"Governments which succeed revolutions have an ungrateful task: that of repressing in the first instance, in order afterwards to ameliorate; that of dissipating illusions, and of replacing by the language of cold reason the disorderly accents of passion."

Visions of the Coup d'Etat are no doubt by this time revolving in his mind; and in most of his speeches this year he throws out feelers on the subject. At Lyons he says:

"Rumours of Coups d'Etat have, perhaps, come even to you, gentlemen, but you have not credited them, and I thank you for it. Surprises and usurpations may be the dream of parties who have not the support of the nation, but the elect of six millions of suffrages executes the will of the people; he does not betray them. Patriotism may consist in abnegation as well as in perseverance."

No doubt this was well considered. Indeed all the President's speeches bear traces of long and weighty preparation. Here he dexterously turns the artillery of his enemies against themselves. He, the elect of six millions, has no necessity for a Coup d'Etat; but the opposite party may attempt to compensate by violence and surprise their want of authority with the country. Nor, if well-considered, do these expressions absolutely foreclose him from attempting a Coup d'Etat, for the elect of the people may thus execute their will.

Lyons was the next stage on the

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perfection of the law prevents it;"

and for the purpose of assuring order in the most agitated provinces, great commands, comprising several military divisions, have been created, and more extensive powers confided to experienced generals." Otherwise this message resembles the preceding ones in the somewhat laborious detail into which it enters, regarding the finances, the public works, the industry, and commerce of the country.

In the resumé, the President is eminently suggestive :

"I have often declared publicly, when the occasion has offered itself, my thought, that I would consider as criminals those who, by personal ambition, would compromise the little stability which the constitution guarantees to us. This is my profound conviction. It has never been shaken. Enemies alone of the public tranquillity could pervert the most natural steps incident to my position."

As first magistrate of the Republic it was his duty, he said, to put himself into communication with all interests, and personally to visit the provinces; and "if my name has had an effect in strengthening the spirit of the army, of which alone I dispose in terms of the constitution, this-I dare to say it is a service I have rendered to my country."

Having thus indicated his opinion of the constitution, and significantly alluded to his influence with the army, he directs attention in brief and pregnant terms to an important matter:

"It is now permitted to all the world excepting to me to wish to hasten the revision of our fundamental law. If the constitution contains in itself vices and dangers, you are free to expose them to the country. I alone am bound by my oath to confine myself within the strict limits which it has traced."

And somewhat farther on :

"The uncertainty of the future produces, I know, many apprehensions by awaking many hopes. Let us all learn to sacrifice these hopes to the country, and to occupy ourselves only with her interests. If in this session you vote the revision of the constitution, a constitutional assembly will remodel our fundamental laws and regulate the lot of the executive power. If you do not so vole, the people in 1852 will solemnly manifest the expression of its new will."

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