The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, TRUESDAY, DECEMBER 4.

Ir is one thing to east up the account of right and
wrong between ions NAPOLEON and the dominant
parties in the National Assembly; and it is another
thing to pass judgment upon the conduct of the PILE-
IIIDENT towards the nation that elected him as the pro-
tector of its liberties and the executive agent of its will.
][Louts NAPOLEON regarded nothing in France be-
yond the Assembly, and tf he regarded in the Assembly
merely that knot of quondam statesmen which dic-
tated its votes first for the nullification of the re-
public, and then of Louis NAPOLEON himself, we
cannot say but that his Ire, and that even something
more than constitutional antagonism, might not
have been justly called forth against treacherous,
selfish, and liberticide intriguers. They favoured
the admission of Louis NAPOLEON into France
at first, merely that his name might be a
bugbear to the republic ; they favoured his
election aa President, in order to use him
as an iron rod to flagellate the republicans.
Heaven knows, Louts NAPOLEON was obsequious
enough to them in return. Ile turned his back on
the people, wisest votes had really raised him to the
ehief place. lie lent himself to the passing and to
the application of every law which castigated,
which fettered, which mortified, and disfranchised
the people. And he not only served the people of
France so, but he lent the sword and the power of
the country to crush all them who struggled fur
liberty abroad. There was no vengeance, no re-
action of the National Assembly, and of its
conservative leaders, to which Louis NAPOLEON was
not ready to lend himself, until it became their good
pleasure and their manifest aim to get rid of him,
and to oppose his reelection. Since then, indeed,
he has waged war against them with an effrontery
and a S'ACAPPA which exasperated them beyond all
prudiace and self-possession, and which has tinnily
impelled him to the nushattempt tocrumh the Assembly
by pulling down the pillars and the edifice of the con-
afitutain about their ears. We havolittle pity for the
TIIIERALS and the CO %SOAR:VIERS ; but this does not
imply either admiration or respect for Louts NAPO-
LEON, who is playing the part of his imperial uncle,
without his means, his talents, or his excuses.

It was most possible for Louts N VULVA'S to
effect the revolution which ho bas dune, and yet
exculpate himself in the eyes of liberal and impar-
tial men. Ile might, In quashing the plots and the
power of Rut ettox parties, and announcing his
determination to crush anti-social movements, still
have preserved the great republican liberties of the
country, or he mi;eltt even, in aspiring to be Emperor
in his own right, have secured, or at least promised,
a full measure of constitutional freedom to the
French. I k has done neither of these things. But
in oue of the most audacious and foolish of proclama-
tions he promulgates his intention of restoring the
old imperial constitution, consisting of a senate., of
course to be selected by, and to be the instrument of,
the executive, which was to be completely inde-
pendent of it; which senate was endowed with
the power of completing or suspending the cousti-
lion itself, and even of re; erring situ decisions of the
judicature !
As to a chamber or assembly of representatives
elected by universal, or indeed by any, suffrage,
sitting, discussing, and voting under the brows
of en all-pnwerrol senate, and amidst the acts
of an administration totally independent of it,
anything mu impracticable and absurd never issued
from the brain of even the most crazy politician that
France has yet produced. Loris NseoLeos, when
ho uttered such nonsense, or sanctioned its appear-
ance in a proclamation, must have done so in utter
contempt of the public, whom he addressed, and in
sweeping disregard of principle, honesty, or common
sense.

To have conceived and considered as practicable
such a mude of government as this, way puerile and
fatuitous. To declare it at once, in the first hour of
revolution, was perfectly insane. There is no party,
no class, no number of Frenchmen, beyond a few
aide-de.camps, who could in the present day put trust
in such a system of government as this. The bold
attitude of the President, with the intrigues and
treacheries of the monarchical leaders in the .tsscm-
lily, which provoked it, may for a moment
incline the people to applaud Loots NAPOLEON; but
a few hours consideration, the spectacle of the con-
stitution abrogated, the Assembly dissolved, and even
its best and moat moderate members consigned with
their colleagues en 'Hasse to prisons, and this
done avowedly for the establishment of an Im-
perial Senate and riTime—must produce a terrible
revulsion of sentiment; and that every intellect
and every party in tho country will be
forthwith leagued against the usurper, is
as inevitable. as it is fearful. That the
clear perspicacity and cool judgment of NAPOLEON,
with the powerful influence that he had the gift of
exercising over tho minds both of individuals and of
the masses, might triumph in such a forlorn hope, we
admit ; but that Louts NAPOLEON, or that those
around him, are equal to the task of reducing the
thirty and odd millions of Frenchmen, with the con-
gregated intellect and numbers of their great towns,
to the state of inanimate and disgraceful pupillage
which prevailed under the Empire, that is not
within the limits of human probability.
There is indeed one kind of policy and one series
of events, which might uphold such a system for a
time. And that is, successful, triumphant, glorious
and profitable war. The large French army can,
we are afraid, become attached to no new leader or
new regime that does not give it promotion, honour,
profit and'aacendaney. But this can only be done at
the risk of war, while this against two millions of
bristling bayonets would require a degree of military
talent and fortune, of which France gives no pro-
mise, and to which the cause of the NAPOT EON
dynasty gives so claim. The great military ascen-
dancy of the French at the close of the last century
was due to the principle which animated them, and
the cothusiawn to which that principle originally
gave birth. It was in the campaigns of the republic
that the superiority of the French army was esta-
blished, and the Emperor NAPOLEON merely reaped
the crop of military power which the Jovarksixs,
the Homes, and the Moanus had sown. We
doubt, theroixo, that the campaigns of NAPOLEON
can be re enesimi, and without them the empire can
never be resuilaisi.
Amidst the for slid anxiety which these events
have eseated assempt =re are glad to hear it
that • n so near has
laillegeed ant of sliasingezelp°etty differences
amongst our own eletemen, who have now graver
mounts to occupy dismi than examining the !ape-
am, or &emus eta pertiaslar minister receiving
eh or OM
It is elestt we are bound to recognise
mhshever did magi heats the French nation may
due sr inapt hi isnot them. However we may
=his indiseas and dread his uneonstitu-
of
it is eluer est in these things the people
et hams are the Yet judges. And provided that
wrtbe fay eassalted and fairly pronounced,
eer siplessalis orierlssiss and relations have
bat to awls by it.

.
A mem sentient is presented
:erespersson
of the peelbsiseet with the sand which
auseget the emelselmai of the
trilltrisersag. • enhellsei wise sakes upon parade
a quarter el a lints tee Wes or who appears with
a:speck epee his gloves ; or vise does not " wheel •
at the axed instiat of ecomeed, is liable, within
hearing of ell his men, to a were and humiliating I
reprimand from the field Wiese. But, during hli
ample leisure, he may commit every sort of vice and
debauchery, not only unheeded, but too frequently
abetted, by his seniors. Indeed, the profession of
arms as practised in this country—requiring, except
in very rare exceptions, very little intellect—is the
sponge which sucks in most of our youthful afflu-
ence and idleness ever floating on the surface of
society. The encouragement afforded to wasteful
extravagance—to dissipation of every description