have discovered some method of arriving, with railway speed, at public opulence amidst private suffering. The melancholy progress of the first Revolution has naturally made numbers of persons, not intimately acquainted with its events, apprehensive of the immediate return of the Reign of Terror and the restoration of the guillotine into its terrible and irresistible sovereignty in France. Without disputing that there is much danger in the present excited and disjointed state of the population of that country, there are several reasons which induce us to believe that such an event is not very probable, at least in the first instance, and that it is from a different quarter that the real danger that now threatens France is, in the outset at least, to be apprehended. scenes In the first place, although the Reign of Terror is over, and few indeed of the actual witnesses are still in existence, yet the recollection of it will never pass away: it has affixed a stain to the cause of revolution which will never be effaced, but which its subsequent leaders are most anxious to be freed from. Its numerous tragic - its frightful atrocity-its heroic suffering, have indelibly sunk into the minds of men. To the end of the world, they will interest and melt every succeeding age. The young will ever find them the most engrossing and attractive theme, the middle-aged, the most important subject of reflection, the old, the most delightful means of renewing the emotions of youth. History is never weary of recording its bloody catastrophes,-romance has already arrayed them with the colours of poetry, the drama will ere long seize upon them as the finest subjects that human events have ever furnished for the awakening of tragic emotion. They will be as immortal in story as the heroes of the Iliad, the woes of the Atrides, the catastrophe of Edipus, the death of Queen Mary. strongly have these fascinating tragedies riveted the attention of mankind, that nothing has ever created so powerful a moral barrier against the encroachments of democracy. The royal, like the Christian martyrs, have lighted a fire which, by the grace So of God, will never be extinguished. So strongly are the popular leaders in every country impressed with the moral effects of these catastrophes, that their first efforts are always now directed to clear every successive convulsion of their damning influence. Guizot and Lafayette, at the hazard of their lives, in December 1830, saved Prince Polignac and M. Peyronnet from the guillotine; and the first act of the Provisional Government of France in 1848, to their honour be it said, was to proclaim the abolition of the punishment of death for political offences, in order to save, as they intended, M. Guizot himself. In the next place, the bloodshed and confiscation of the first Revolution have, as subsequent writers have repeatedly demonstrated, so completely extinguished the elements of national resistance in France, that the dangers which threatened its progress and ensanguined its steps no longer exist. It was no easy matter to overturn the monarchy and church of old France. It was interwoven with the noblest, because the most disinterested feelings of our nature,-it touched the chords of religion and loyalty,it was supported by historic names, and the lustre of ancient descent,-it rested on the strongest and most dignified attachments of modern times. The overthrow of such a fabric, like the destruction of the monarchy of Great Britain at this time, could not be effected but by the shedding of torrents of blood. Despite the irresolution of the king, the defection of the army, the conquest of the capital, and the emigration of the noblesse, accordingly, a most desperate resistance arose in the provinces; and the revolution was consolidated only by the mitrillades of Lyons and Toulon, the noyades of the Loire, the proscriptions of the Convention, the blood of La Vendée. France was not then enslaved by its capital. But now these elements of resistance to the government of the dominant multitude at Paris no longer exist. The nobles have been destroyed and their estates confiscated; the clergy are reduced to humble stipendiaries, not superior in station or influence to village schoolmasters; the corporations of towns are dissolved; the house of peers has degenerated into a body of well- Although, however, for these reasons, we do not anticipate, at least at present, those sanguinary proscriptions which have for ever rendered infamous the first Revolution, yet we fear there is reason to apprehend changes not less destructive in their tendency, misery still more widespread in its effects, destined, perhaps, to terminate at last in bloodshed not less universal. Men have discovered that they are not mere beasts of prey: they cannot live on flesh and blood. But they have learned also that they can live very well on capital and property: and it is against these, in consequence, that the present Revolution will be directed. They will not be openly assailed direct confiscations of possessions have fallen almost as much into disrepute as the shedding torrents We do not say that the present Provisional Government of France are actuated by these motives, any more than we say that our negro emancipators or bullionists and free-traders meant, in pursuing the system which they have adopted, to occasion the wholesale and ruinous destruction of property which their measures have occasioned. We consider both the one and the other as political fanatics; men inaccessible to reason, insensible to experience; who pursue certain visionary theories of their own, wholly regardless of the devastation they produce in society, or the misery they occasion in whole classes of the state. "Perish the colonies," said Robespierre," rather than one iota of principle be abandoned." That is the essence of political fanaticism; it rages at present with equal violence on both sides of the Channel. The present Provisional Government of France are some of them able and eloquent-all of them, we believe, well-meaning and sincere men. But they set out with discarding the lessons of experience; their principle is an entire negation of all former systems of government. They think a new era has opened in human affairs: that the first Revolution has destroyed the former method of directing mankind, and the present has ushered in the novel one. They see no bounds to the spread of human felicity, by the adoption of a social system different from any which has yet obtained among men. They have adopted the ideas of Robespierre without his blood, the visions of Rousseau without his profligacy. The writings of Lamartine and Louis Blanc clearly reveal these principles, particularly the "Histoire des Girondins" of the former, and the "Dix Ans de l'Histoire de Louis Philippe" of the latter. Lamartine says the Girondists fell because they did not, on the 10th August 1792, when the throne was overturned, instantly proclaim a republic, and go frankly and sincerely into the democratic system. If he himself falls, it will not be from a repetition of the error; he has done what they left undone. We shall see the result. Experience will prove whether, by discarding all former institutions, we have cast off at the same time the slough of corruption which has descended to all from our first parents. We shall see whether the effects of the fall can be shaken off by changing the institutions of society; whether the devil cannot find as many agents among the Socialists as the Jacobins; whether he cannot mount on the shoulders of Lamartine and Arago as well as he did on those of Robespierre and Marat. In the meantime, while we are the spectators of this great experiment, we request the attention of our readers to the following interesting particulars regarding the acts of the new government, the professions they have made, the expectations which are formed of them. One of the most popular journals of the working classes of Paris-that is, the present rulers of France-the Democratie Pacifique, has adopted the following mottoes: "The Revolution of 1789 has destroyed the old Regime; that of 1848 should establish the new one." "Social reform is the end, as Republic is the means; all the Socialists are Republicans, all the Republicans are Socialists." The methods by which the plans of the Socialists are to be worked out, are in the same journal declared to be as follows: 66 PROGRAMME OF THE PEOPLE. "A man with a heart,-a man greatly loved by the working classes, has lent his hand to the formation of a programme dictated by the popular will. The ideas on which it rests, treated as utopian yesterday, have no need to be discussed today. The last Revolution is an explosion of light which has dissipated the darkness. The Socialist ideas railed at yesterday, accepted to-day, will be realised to-morrow. Its principles are, "I. The rights of labour.-It is the duty of the state to furnish employment, and if necessary a minimum of wages, to all the members of society whom private industry does not employ. "II. House of refuge for industry. "III. Despotism must be for ever disarmed by the transformation of the army into industrial regiments, (en regiments industriels,) suited alike to the defence of the territory and the execution of the great works of the Republic. * Democratie Pacifique, 1st March 1848. "IV. Public education, equal, gratuitous, and obligatory upon all. "V. Savings' banks (caisses d'épargne) which keep capital dead, shall be vivified by labour: the people who produce all riches can afford to be their own bankers. "VI. A universal reform of law courts, juries every where. "VII. Absolute freedom of communications of thought. "VIII. A progressive scale of taxation. "IX. A progressional tax on machinery employed in industry. "X. An effectual guarantee for a fair division of profits between the capitalists and the workmen. "XI. A tax on luxury. Gardons nos armes ! " * In 66 ABSORPTION OF RAILWAYS BY THE STATE. "Let us reproduce to-day, with the certainty of being heard by the country, the wishes which the Democratie Pacifique has announced every morning since its origin, seventeen years ago. "I. All railways, roads, canals, and public ways, by which the life of France circulates, to be absorbed by the state. "II. The state should undertake all stage-coaches, carriers, waggons, and means of conveyance or transport, of every description. "III. All joint-stock banks should be absorbed by the state-(A l'état les banques confédérées.) "IV. All insurance companies, mines, and salt-works, to be undertaken by the state. "V. No more forestalling, accumulating, regrating, or anarchical competition. Feudal industry is pierced to the heart; let us not allow it to raise itself from the dust."+ Such are the proposals to be found in a single journal which represents the ideas that are now fermenting in the mind of France. These propositions will probably "donnent à penser," as the French them will perhaps be of opinion that say, to most of our readers. Some of our lively neighbours are getting on at railway speed in the regeneration of society. We recommend their projects to the consideration of the numerous holders of French railway and other stock, in the British islands. They will doubtless get good round sums for their claims of damages against the French government, when it has absorbed all the joint-stock companies of the country!-the more so when it is recollected, 1st, That the damages will be assessed by juries elected by universal suffrage. That they will be paid by a government appointed by an assembly elected in the same way. We are afloat in the ruling and irresistible not surprised, when such ideas are workmen of Paris, who have just overturned Louis Philippe, at the that the French funds have fallen head of one hundred thousand men, and railway and other stock in a still thirty-five per cent in these few days, greater proportion. The Paris 3 per cents are now (March 18) at 50; the 5 per cents at 72! 2d, Nor let it be said these ideas are the mere dreams of enthusiasts, which never can be carried into practice by any government. These enthusiasts are now the ruling power in the state; their doctrines are those which will quickly be carried into execution by the liberal and enlightened masses, invested by universal suffrage with supreme dominion in the Republic. Most assuredly they will carry their ideas into execution: the seed which the liberal writers of France have been sowing for the last thirty years, will bring forth its appropriate fruits. What power is popular and highly lauded" imto prevent the adoption of these provements, after the government of Louis Philippe and Guizot has been overturned by their announcement? These persons stood the barrier between France and the "social revolution " with which it was menaced: when they were destroyed, all means of resisting it are * Democratie Pacifique, 1st March, 1848, p. 1. +Ibid. as at an end, and the friends of humanity must trust to prevent its extension to other states, mainly to the reaction arising from its experienced effects in the land of its birth. Already there appears, not merely in the language of the popular journals, but in the official acts of the Provisional Government, decisive evidence that the socialist ideas are about to be carried into execution by the supreme authority in France. On March 1st, there appeared the following decree of the Provisional Government : "The Provisional Government, considering that the revolution made by the people should be made for them : "That it is time to put an end to the long and iniquitous sufferings of the working classes: "That the question of labour is one of supreme importance: "That there can be no higher or more dignified preoccupation of the Republican Government: "That it becomes France to study ardently, and to solve, a problem which now occupies all the states of Europe: "That it is indispensable, without a moment's delay, to guarantee to the people the fruits of their labours: "The Provisional Government has decreed, "That a permanent commission shall be formed, which shall be entitled, The Commission of Government for the Labourers,' and charged, in a peculiar and especial manner, with their lot. 66 To show the importance which government attaches to this commission, it names one of its members, M. Louis Blanc, president of the commission, and for vice-president, another of its members, M. Albret, mechanical workman. "Workmen are invited to form part of the commission. "It shall hold its sittings in the palace of the Luxembourg. "LOUIS BLANC. How is the Provisional Government to find funds for the enormous multitudes who will thus be thrown upon them, or to satisfy the boundless expectations thus formed of them, and which their own acts have done so much to cherish? Already the want of money has been experienced. Nearly all the banks of Paris have failed; the savings' banks have been virtually confiscated, by the depositors being paid only a tenth in specie, and the Bank of France has suspended cash payments. The government has got into an altercation with a class of the highest importance, under existing circumstances, which is striving to liberate itself from the imposts which are more immediately felt by it. So early as March 2d, the journalists claimed an exemption from the stamp duties on the public journals; and on the government hesitating to comply with their requests, they loudly demand the dismissal of M. Cremieux, the new minister of justice. The Democratie Pacifique of March 2d, observes "The greatest danger of our situation is, not that which comes from without, but that which comes from within. The most imminent danger would be the slightest doubt on the intentions of government, the least retrograde step in the presence of events. That disquietude, we are bound to admit, already exists in the minds of many-distrust is the precursor of revolutions. "The government has had under its eyes the conduct of the people. Let it imitate it. Energy, constant energy, is the only way to do good. The people have proved it. It is by energy alone that the prolongation of struggles is prevented -the effusion of blood arrested-dangerous reactions averted. "Forward, and Force to power! Such is the double cry of the Republic. "The Chamber of Deputies and of Peers must not only be interdicted from meeting; like royalty, they must be abolished. "M. Cremieux, the minister of justice, has forgotten his principles. He is not prepared for the part he has to perform. He blindly yields to old attachments and prejudices. At the moment when the most absolute liberty of the press, the most rapid and ceaseless emission of ideas, is the sole condition of the public safetyat the moment when we are in the midst. of a chaos from whence we cannot escape if light does not guide our steps-at that moment M. Cremieux proposes to extinguish it-he proposes this, a retrograde step, to the minister of finance-the reestablishment of the stamps on journals. "A revolution of yesterday cannot be thus braved. * Democratie Pacifique, March 1, 1848. |