The Express.
London, England, 1863-11-02 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(molt ous owl

PARA 8131111 DAT Erminta.
The Revue Contemporciee, in an Auricle which
the Temps considers as semi-official, lately com-
plained of the fatiguing monotony of the word
" liberty," which in May last formed the staple of
all the electioneering addresses of the opposition.
The Temps very well replied that the simultaneous
nee of this word of fear to official ears was not the
result of any commiracy, as the Revue Centavo-
rase would infer, but simply the expression of •
maimed want without which citizens, however
tolerable their immediate lot, have no guarantee
that they new not be made slaves. One of the
greatest of Preece writers has said that
" toleration is tyranny," because there is
no security that that right which is toler-
ated to-day may not be prohibited to morrow.
In plainer terms toleration is ex si termini
the negation of right. It is from this abyss that
all thinking Frenchmen, not receiving government
pay, are now making a serious struggle to emerge.
I would emphasise what I have just written. It I.
my deliberate conviction, speaking on the eye of •
great crisis, that no notable handful of Preach-
men can be found—opant from liveried partisans--
who approve of the imperial system of government
Of course I do not mean to say that if it were
necessity to-morrow to vote between the exist-
ing empire and an uncertain revolution--(and
that is the false way in which the heirs of Dec. 2
always put the case)--the fear of immediate evil
would not urge the multitude to cling to what is,
last swarm thing should happen. But this cherished
idea and ultimo ratio of the empire is manifestly no
argument at a time like the present, when independ-
ant men of intelligenee think it possible to better
Unit condition without shaking the very founds-
lions of society. The Bmperor must be as mad as
the King at Prussia if, as the correspondent of one
of yourecetemporaries has stated, he really thinks
of taking • reactionary course now. He has a
golden opportunity of curing the vicious title
derived from the coup d'itai, and of appropriating
and conciliating that universal suffrage which he
has hitherto hoodwinked and cheated. The repu-
diation of some of the most indefensible sets of
the prefects, and the consequent sacrifice of a few
mate in the Chamber, would, while but slightly

diminishing the numerical minority of the govern-
ment, enormously increase its moral force. Bet,
in order that the Emperor may reap the benefit of
any such concessions, they must be made cheer-
fully, and not grudgingly and of necessity. I
cannot conceive that his enlightened self-
interest will lead him to any—l will not
say violent, but even ingenious attempt to stifle
the natural flow of independent speech which is
now about to burst forth from a select and
Intel-
lectually powerful opposition.
This being All Saints' Day, one of the great
national holidays, the old established evening jour-
nals do not appear. The young ones, the Temps
and the Nation, steal a march upon their brethren,
and are alone cried upon the Boulevards. In the
Temps there is a review of a powerful new pamphlet,
by M. E. Pelletan, entitled "The Shadow of '89,"
in which the new deputy for Paris refutes M. de
Persigny's famous doctrine, that liberty was well
enough for Englishmen, but did not suit the demo-
cratic institutions of France. M. Pelletan settles
this nonsense pretty conclusively by saying,
" If you won't let us have what you call the
aristocratic liberty of England, give us the
liberty of Switzerland, or of America, where there
is no aristocracy." In answer to M. de Persigny's
argument that under parliamentary government
political power is the prize of eloquence, M. Pel-
letan replies that eloquence is after all only the
drapery of thought, and admitting it to be an ex-
crescence, it does no more harm than M. de Per-
signy's grand cordon and embroidered uniform.
General Bedeau's funeral was performed at Nantes
yesterday with great simplicity. His expressed wish
that no military honours should be paid to his
corpse was strictly obeyed, and not a single uniform
was seen among the followers. In point of fact—
and this consideration probably explains his dying
injunctions—he had not at the time of his de►th
any military rank at all, since his commission, like
that of Cavaignac, Lamorictice, Charms, and others,
was confiscated after the coup d'itat, and be was
struck off the army list. The four pall bearers
were M. Lanjuinair, deputy for Nantes, M.
Dnfaure, General I*moricibre, and IL Quartz.-
barbels, an ex-deputy.