The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-20 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, JUNE

U. 174.

A PEOPLE ON A VOLCANO.

The st i rring incidents report ed from Franc.
within the last few days have once more ('Oct
cent rated the attention of Europe upon thn,
unfortunate country. With a splendid cli-
mate, a ii: It and fertile soil, and inhaliite,
by qnick it ii..atious race, the Ft,•!
•0,119: haplAL.zt Li!
I 'lrking pt.ple,in Europe. Its land is
half frozen, like that which lies under tin
snows of Rnssia ; its population lives not I
rear of hitations from burning monnt:•
like those of It•illy ; it is not midr the
of a bigoted and int.derant stqa-estif on I k,
Turkey ; it has not been br,u,4lit under i•
f treign yoke, like Hungary; and its people
live under a clear a y and in a balmy atmos-
phere which strimgly contrast with the clouds
awl fogs which incessantly hover around our
more northern latitudes. And yet France is
not happy. It is now more than eighty years
ago that the tierce Parisian mob destroyed
the Bastille, massacred the Royal guards,
brought the king and Queen to exeention.
and perpetrated deeds of horror which can-
not be contemplated without a shudder of
amazement. For the Revolution itself there
was sonic excuse, but there could be none for
the frightful excesses by which it wits acetic-
hauled. France, for centuries, has had no-
thing but a long line of absolute monarchs
who presided over courts in which cruelty,
debauchery, and corruption were supreme.
The people, ground down by oppressive taxa-
tion, had not the slightest voice in it, impo,i-
tiou ; their possessions were liable at any mo-
ment to be seized and transferred to sway
clartly favourite ; and on the slightest mur-
mur at such glaring injustice th•.y were cast
into prison without trill. and kept there un-
til they languished to death. Si iinfamons
was the system which prevailed, that if one
man had a spite against another, and had in-
fluence at court, he was, for a consideration,
enabled to procure an order consigning the
other to the Bastille without the unfortu-
nate wretch having the slightest idea why he
was thus consigned to a living tomb. When
once the massive g,ttes closed upon the im-
mured one, he was as dead to the world as
though he had been laid in his grave. What
wonder that a high-spir ted and intelligent
people, stung to madness by such outrageous
deeds, ruse in their fury, and swept the sys-
tem away. There was the great State prison
standing in the very heart of Paris, the em-
bodiment of tyranny and crime. It was
oppression struck into stone, but unfortun-
ately with its destruction the appetite of the
mob for levelling grew upon what it fed on,
and the consequence was a series of :itroci-
ties which has had no parallel in the history
of the civilized world.

Since France abolished the old monarchy,
the country has possessed no settled form of
Government. It was succeeded by a Repub-
lic, which in its turn gave way to the First
Empire. The great Napoleon made war
upon all Europe, and laid up for France that
legacy of hatred from the Germabs which led
to its invasion and dismemberment fun r years
ago. When the first Bonaparte was trot rid
off, a brother of the decapitated king came
back, and at his death he was succeeded by
another Bourbon—Charles X.—who was
driven from his throne after some sanguin-
ary slaughter in the streets of Paris. Then
one of the Orleans branch—Louis Phillippe
—came to the throne with a great flourish
of trumpets and amid high hopes of liberty.
Again the old scene is enacted; the King
and his family have to fly for their lives ; and
the mob burst into the pa'ace of the Tuille-
ries, and trample its magnificence under feet.
Next follows the second Republic, which
speedily developes into the second Empire,
after a massacre which struck:terror into the
people of Paris. So well were the details of
the plot carried out, that on a given night in
the depth of winter thousands of prominent
Republicans throughout France were seized
in their beds, hurried away to the fatal cob.
nies of Cayenne and Lambesssa, and never
heard of again. The second Empire was all
show and glitter for nearly twenty years,
and came to an end by a tremendous catas-
trophe in a war which it had declared, al-
though not without provocation. A Govern-
ment calling itself one of National Defence,
rose upon the ruins of the Empire, and now
we have what is termed a Provisional Repub.
lie. Each party, when it gets into power,
seems to consider it almost a matter of self-
preservation to strangle as many of its poli-
tical opponents as it possiblly can, well know-
ing that if the others get the u, per hand the
fate which they now mete out to others will
certainly be their own. The Imperialists
are fully aware that ;f the extreme Republi-
cans seize the helm, they will all have to fly
for their lives', the Republicans having had
previous experience of Bonapartist seizures,
know what they must expect if these come
into power. Thus it is that the two parties
hate each other with the most intense ani-
mosity, and we have those reports of extra-
ordinary scenes in the French Assembly which
are a scandal to Parliamentary procedure.
Deputies roar at each other, shake their fists
at each other, and actually tome to blows in
the streets, so bitter is the acerbity of poli-
tical feeling. It is a melancholy spectacle.
The best interests of the country are sacri-
ficed to violent party passions. and respon-
sible government is impossible amid the ex-
citement consequent upon such scenes.
France has indeed passed through the fur-
nace of afflictiiin, but she has not been puri-
fied by it. After the earthquake. the whirl.
wind, and the storm, there is no still small
voice of peace for our distracted neighbours-
Their best friends must regret to see fiem
drifting into a condition which promises t
involve, them in the fate of anarchical Spain
or dismembered Poland.