Press enter after choosing selection

The London Times

The London Times image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
April
Year
1848
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

In referringto the causes of the French Revolution, remarks - Bonaparte spokc a homely but important truth, wlien he said, Cc n'e.st que le ventee rui gouverne Ie monde. It is the loss, not oí a Reform banquet, but of the daily bread of myriads, that has dethroned Louis Phillippe and established a mob Government in Paris. Full work and good wages would have kept that fierce democracy in order, better tlian a hundred thousand soldiers of the line - better than twenty fort8 duly manned and provisioned - better even than a vvell packed and well-tVd majoritv in the Chamber of Deputies. The real work of the Revolution last week was done by hungry men. They contributed i bers, fiïry, recklessness, and' terror lo an cmculc # The signs of an industrial insurrection are everywhere lietrayed. Il is a. grand turn-out agaiñst the State as the master employer. - j Parisian Republicanism is Irish Repeal, and is DOthing more or less than a violent and organized indignation against a Government which does not succeed in finding profitable employment for the people - bands of armed workmen are every where panding the city. Many shops, we are told, have been not only runsacked but wantonly injured as if by I carded or offended employés. '1 hese ( ble bodies penétrate the Hotel de Ville, knoeit at all the doors, fill the salles, and endeavor to repent in the Council Room the terrible scène which decided the fate of Franse in the ■ ber of Deputies. The genius of Lamartine is tasked to 1 u 11 the storm. ♦ Let Parliaments look to it, - hunger is the staple of rebellion. Juslice requires us to guard our censures. We are far from intending a general condemnation of the condnet either of the Provisional Government or of the people. The former has dÍ9played an energetic zeal for humanity and order, carriéd out with great judgment. We may instance particularly the abolition of capital punishment for political offences, and the strong measures taken for the protection of the once royal property and other public monuments. The latter has shown equal moderatior. in the hour of triumph. The peculiar features of the Revolution which wc have noticed al. ove, are an exception to the general character of these events, and are so much the more remarkable Of the men who compose the Provisional Government we copy the followiog brief ! tices - M. Dupont !■ l.'l'.nir. Tlie President of' the Counoil, is now in his Sist year, and thouh tlicre have heen many abler and more succcssful men, slill we doubt if'there be a sinccrer, a more straightforward, , and an honestcr deputy in all France. In the year 1S0S, he was a member of the Council of Five Hundred ; in theyear 1811, he was President of the Corps Lcgidat'if ; in 1815 he proposed the famous Dedaralion, in which the rights of the citizen were reserved ; and in '30 he was sppointed Minister of Jusiice. There j is nothing in the antecedenls of such a venerable magistrale cateuUled to excite alarm in l'rance or uut of it. His appointment derives its significancy from benig a personal protest against Marshal Bngeaud. He is, moreover, highly esteemed for his virtues by the French people. At the elcctions of' 1842, M. Dupont mdignant at seemg the dppulies of the Kure servilely voting in favcr of the execrated I zot ministry, contested l'our colleges of that j Department, simultaneously ; he was elected in all four, and chose Evereux. The votes of ' M. Dupont need not be pointed out; he I riahly voted against the corrupt and dishonest ulministration which has fallen with the King, its protector. Dupont de l'Eure (says the Patriot correspondent, ) is likely to be raised to the highest rank in the Republic, just half a century after his intrepid resistance to I ral .Bonaparte, on the 18th of Erumaire, (October 7, 1798.) ITI. A ruco. Is one of the first satans in France, and lus reputation as uu orator is scarcely less brilliant. He was born in 1786, and is perpetual Sccretary of the Academy of Sciences, member of the office of longitudes, and tlie most illustrious scientific man of' the age. In politics, M. A ra go is an excellent patriot, a sworn enemy of privileges and monopoly, and an iirdent defender of the rights of' the people. He voted against the Prilchard indemnity bill, and has ever supported all the measures of the Gauche, although he goes much further, and belongs to the extreme Gauche. He is now Provisional Minister of Marine. Though of extreme opinions, he is yet températe in the expression of them, and a man of moderate character, He was present at the meeting of the British Association here in 1834, and attended the Grey dinner. " Many (says the Scotsman) will yet remember lhe tall athletic gentleman of commandingpresence, wlio made a speech in clear, sonorous French, in rpply to Lord Brougliam, when the latter proposed his healtli as ' one of the most illustrtous and successful cultivator! of science now in the world.' The compliment was not too high, for in general physics, Arago has certainly no superior at the present day Morever, he received the freedom of our city from the town council ; and this is probably the first time that n burgess of Edinburgh has unrnade dynnsty, or founded a Republic in one of the greatest States of the world." M. tlr Lamartine. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, is as famou8 in the republic of letters as his colleague, M. Arago in lhe department science. He represents Macon, and his politica! opirions have been freely and copiously expressed in his paper, Le Bien Public, published in that town. He is every where a poet, even at the tribune. Likeail poets, however, he is rather fickle and inconstant, but the elevation of his soul secures him against the greatest dangers of versalility. M. de Lamartine for a length of time occupied a very undecided position in theChambei-, bot he eventually ranged himself on the side of the opposition. The day on which he announced his intentiou of joining thecamp of the Gauche was as gloomy au one fbr the Ministry, as the memorable deserdon of the Treasury bench of the English House of Commons by the great Burke. From that period M. do Lamartine took a decided part in favor of progressive reform, and ridiculed the Guizot cabinct as the Ministry of" limitations." He teil againsl the Pntclmrd indemrity, and was prized by tlie oppositiori as an invaluable i quisition. M. de Lamartine is now in liis 58th l year, and being a gentleman of birth and i tune, has tlms given hostnges for the i tion of liis conduct. Though renowned in rope as a poet, orator, aulhor and public : ter, it is not so wel! known to the public, ihat h tnore tlian thirly years ago llie depuiy for 51acon served liis appreniiceship as a diplomatist, and was named Minister Plenipoteniary by ' Charles X. in 1829 or 1830. His Travels in j the Holy Land, and his poëtica! Medilations, I have been exceedingly popular, and his recent publication, the History of the Girondins, has M produced an immense sensulion in France, not ' only by the brilliant and animated pictures it I1 presents of the terribly dramatic scènes of the ' first rcvoluliim, but by the strong und unexpected republican liias whidi it betrays. A very intereating analysis of the work is given in the Edinburgh Review for January lust. - . The Eclectic Review for the present month, in reviewing this volume, says of the author : [ "The right of a people to freedor and nationai independence are held by him as mount to the riL'ht of a dynasty to absoluto I power, and whilst some of the Legitimists, faithful to their obsolete creed and to their hon orable aflections, still proclaim their allegiance j to iheir exiled prince ; whilst otliers transfer to a perfidious usurper of the regal and popular i-ights their mercenary subserviency - M. de Lamartine progresjes in another direction, . and becomes the champion of the people, and of those men so long reviled for having sacrificed all in def'ence of the cause of the people. " No one can impugn his motives. No one can attribute to him seirish and interested views It is evident to all who know anything of his position and associalions, that far from being beneficial to liis interests, his commendable, j his coui-ageous impartiality will be bitterly resented bv most of his former friends, and stil] more, perhaps, by the Government and its lisans." M. I minn., The Provisional Minister of Justice, (deputy for Cliinon,) was a formidable opponent of the late Ministry. He exposed all its vice ! and its weaknesses. He demanded on the discussion of the game-laws (originated in the i Peers,) the suppression of the article which exernpts the crown landsfrom the eevere j visions of that enacttnent ; but althongh successful in the Deputies, the Upper Chamber ', restored the obnoxious clause. M. Cremieux's parliamentary career has been one of the most j important and honorable; and, u short, he j was a leading member of the opposilion. Before 1830, Cremieux was the foremost advocate of the bar of Nismes. He is a man of j wealth and substance, and immediately after i 1830 [)urchased of Odillon Barrot, the place of ; conieillcr a la Cour de Castat'wn. For the last ten years he has been one of the most popular j and generally employed of the Parisian ; cates. M. Cremieux isa philanthropist as well I as a patriot. He atlended, together with his illustrious friei d, M. Isambert, the j very Convention held in London, in June, '40, i as a deputalion from the Paris Society. On i that occasion he was introduced to the , tion by ])r. Bowring in the following terms : ' " The name of M. Cremieux can scarcely i be unknown lo you. His history, also, is associaled with the most interesting struggles. He it was, Israelite as he is, who defended the Protestants of the Guard from the persecutions of the fanatical Catholics, from 1816 to 1S25. I He it was who, in 1830, defended the -Minister of Public Instruction, when the excited opinion of France would ivilhngly have conducted him to the scaffold. And he it is now who M selected by his brethren to proceed to I mascus 10 make an appeal in favor of his persecuted brethren." The correspondent of the Patnot relates ene ! or two facls in illustration of M. Cremieux's ! character - " Your readers will learn with pleasure, that : three weeks ago, he attacked the laïe Minister of Justice, Herbert, on account of the rigors i exercised against che Baptists, in the Department de l'Aisne, and claimed for tliem, and for all, the right of worshipping God according to their religious convicüons. 1 saw his speech in my French papers. " Another instance of liis liberality is very remarkable. The inhabitants of a poor rural parish had raised enough t purchase a beautiful silver ostensoir which they presented to their cúrate, to be usek in the church service. The cúrate died, and his heirs claimed the i tensior as part of the succession. An action i was brought to recover it by the villages and j carried from the Courts of First Instance and Appeal to the Court of Cassation. There Cremieux defended their cause, and was defeated- When the poor villagers applied to him for his bill of costs, he replied, that having lost their action, he would ask nothing; and requestedthem to accept another ostensinr, which he had bought for thern, to make up for the one they had been deprived of. A revolution which places such a Jew at the head of the Government, and in the rninistry of justice, ïndicatos no disposiUon to irreligión and anarchy. .tl. l.i-ilrn Rolliu, The Provisional Minister of the Interior, was elected for Mans, vice the late M. Garnier Pages. His speech to the electors subjected him to a prosecution on the part of the Government, and the trial of the case produced great scnsalion. M. Rollin representa the ultra-radïcal interest; and has often nttacked not only M. Guizot, but also the policy of such men as Thiers and Odillon Barrot. He sets on the extreme left, and has defended al the tribune, with vigor and talent, the opimons advocated by La Rrforme newspaper. Rollin is also an advocate, and in his 47th year. Though a man of extremely democratie opinions, he is a person of gooci property, and of undoubled bity and talent. Hn carne on a secret mission from the French democrats to Ireland, when I that country was in a disturbed state a few ■ years ago. tl. Cnrnof, The new Minister of Public Instruction (including the administraron of religious aifairs,) was boni in 1801, and is a son of the famotis convenlionalist of that name. He is a devoted ' partisan of democratie ideas, and belongs to the extreme Left. He voted against the Pritchard indemnity bill, and for M. Remusat'g jiroject of Parliamentary reform. " He would," say the authors of Biographic des Deputies, writing in 1846, "support a large and ' píete reform, wliich would have tlie effect of restoring sincerity to the Government, and all their rights to the cilizens." Hippolita Carnot is one of the members for Paris, and he now in his 47th year. He, too, was bred an idvocate, but Ie is now by profession an homme (Jes lettres an editor of the Rcuur, Encyclopidiquc. Marie, One of the members for Paris, is 60 years ' of age, and also an advocate by profession. - Alter a youth passed in labonous struggles, he rose in 1830 to the place occupied by the ; Dupins, Mauguins, and Berryers, and has since ■ been considered the li.'ading counsel for ] cal causes. His defence for one of the conspiratoi's of the Pont des Arts was a masterpiece of cleverness. Karnirr Pnr, The Mayor of Paris, was also bred to the j bar. Though rather atedious and soloinn rnan, yet he is of upriglit and respectable character. ] He entered the Chamber in 1831, at the age of thilty, and is still a yoving man. He took : lus station at first as the advocate of universal suffrage, and has maintained his opinions amidst many stormy debates without flinching. " ïhe Btruggle which exists (said he, in 1834,) is this, j that all desire to possess those polmcal rights which at the present are monopolized by the bourgeoisie. All conceive that there is nu safety (bonheurj for them unless they have tlio , puwer of choosing their representat.ives. It is i just and wise that the safety of all should be confined to the care of all." He is not considered a man of great intellect, and as a speaker he is more distinguished by violence than eloquence. An ornament in which the conseernted wnfer is placed wheii carried in a processiun, anti of the vulue of about X'120.