The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-21 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 21.

THE discussion in the French Assembly of the pro-
posed revision of the constitution has already lasted
a week, and is likely to last during a second, if not a
third. Most of the speeches arc destitute of personal
interest to the foreign reader, and political import-
ance, even in France, they have none. There arc
remarkable exceptions, however, which deserve our
notice, and demand our best consideration.
General CAVAIGNAC and M. DE FALLOUK may
be considered as the exponents of the two most
powerful, if not the most directly antagonistic, ele-
ments of opinion in France. It is a good sign when
two such men conic forward frankly at the outset of
such a controversy as that now pending, to proclaim in
temperate but unequivocal language the sentiments
they entertain on the momentous question of the
day, and their views and aims regarding the future.
M. F.tLi.oux avows that the party of which lie
is one of the ablest and most accomplished champion,
desires a revision of the constitution, in the hope that
thereby the door may be opened to the speedier
re-installation of legitimacy. lie does not, indeed,
affect to believe that the Count de CHAMBORD is per-
sonally popular, neither does he commit the impru-
dence of eulogising the BOURBON race. The whole
of his reasoning appears to be limited to the doctrine
of necessity and the logic of fear. Out of monarchy
there is for society, according to M. De Faiioux, no
salvation. And among the rival dynasties he ac-
knowledges of course but ouc—that upon whoso
impresenptible rights the claims of the houses of
Bosarsure and ORLEANS were never in his esti-
mation anything better than lawless and violent
usurpations. France having in turn tried all, if she
be wis: would take the first opportunity to confess
her contrition fur political dissent from the fold of the
unchanged and umhangeable faith in the divine right
of kings to bear rule over mankind. There is no
shamming of subserviency to the principle of univer-
sal suit age. HENRY V., in the estimation of all true
legitimists, is as rightful lord of the soil of France
to-day us he would be on the morrow of his being
summoned back to his long-lost inheritance by six
million of votes. Men like M. DE FALLOUN are too
sagacious to submit their cause to electoral arbitre-
mint. 'I hey are resolved to stake nothing on such a
hazard. The nephew of NAPOLEON may risk
a presidential Waterloo, there being nothing
else left for him to do; but the philooo-
- and far-sighted hierophants of re-action
fight for a system, not an impatient and penniless
pretender. Ile it dignity or sloth, the heir of Louts-
I.E-OltANI) has manifested little eagerness to push his
way back to the Tuileries. It is the remnant of the
old aristocracy, the ensploy of foreign absolutism, a
certain section of the parti-retre, and a compact
clique of adventurous politicians of all classes, that
constitute the energetic centre of the legitimist fac-
tion ; and to these it signifies little whether the inert
Count DE CHAMBORD shall ever be re-seated on the
ancient throne, or whether the infant Count DE
Pants shall be anointed future king in hereditary
succession—provided that succession is re-established
and the right of the people to choose their own
governor is once more crushed and overthrown.
M. Be FALLOUX dues But, however, leave this to
be inferred horn what he forbears to say. If a con-
stituent assembly can be had that will peaceably re-
store the monarchy—sa much the better. The re-
vision as the first step towards that great end ought,
in his opinion, to be adopted. But should revision
be rejected, or the constituent assembly decide
otherwise—in a word should France remain
much longer impenitent—then the judgments
Of Russia and Austria arc sure to come sud-
denly. ; and swift beneath the tread of the Cos-
sack and the Croat will be the annihilation of re-
publican presumption. For the gaolers of mankind
have gathered themselves together, their counsels arc
taken, the whirlwind of their allied wrath is pre-
pared, their faith is in the weakness and weariness
of the people : hereditary right to dominion is in-
alienable, and this, at any cost must be asserted! It is
certainly creditable to the et-If-respect and dignity of
the popular side in the.assembly that these audacious
threats so insulting to the national honour were re-
ceived without any uuthmak ofsurprise or °mot ion. That
they are calculated rather to cover the Boutteos cause
with an air of fanatical Quixotism than to inspire any
serious belief in its proximate importance, we can
hardly doubt. If M. de Fats.oux had been thinking
practically of the contingencies of 1852 with refe-
rence to a dynastic restoration, it is inconceivable
that he should have spoken thus.
The frozen inflexibility of General CkVAIGNAC'S
address is not less remarkable in its way.
He deals with the sovereignty of the people
and the inviolability of the republic in the
manner of a metaphysician of 1793. He cites
the successive dethroncments of Lolls XVI.,
CHARLES X., and Louis l'itimere as assertions of
the will of the nation in favour of the republican
form of rule, and argues with cogency that the go-
vernment which tolerates public debate as; to the
specific principles on which it is itself founded, is in
the condition of a man deliberating about suicide.
In one sense this is true, but in another it perhaps
implies too much of the spirit of misgiving as to the
fixed strength which can alone tolerate complacently
the speculative discussions whose practical results it
does not apprehend. More to the purpose., because
more savouring of the actual and real, was the gene-
ral's exposureof the solemn affectation of mere abstract
desire for sonic species of constitutional improvement
by the heterogeneous advocates of revision. With-
out pretending to deny, or even to extenuate the
knits of the constitution of 181$, he justly in-
veighs against the treachery of those who would ask
for a solemn condemnation of all that now exists,
without avowing in what direction they wish the
alteration to be made. Let us have a revision
whenever we are prepared to set about it in a spirit
of loyalty to freedom, nut of conspiracy in favour of
reaction. Let us have a revision whenever we are
prepared to improve and fortify the republic, but not
while legitimacy lies in ambush behind every move-
ment or change."
Still better is the manner in which the cant of
" stability "is dissected and disposed of. " Stability
is either of institutions or of individuals—of the form
of government or of those who happen to exercise its
powers. If the latter be meant, then the history of
the last sixty years is one unbroken testimony to
the fully anti futility of the effort. It was the at-
tempt to maintain the stability of particular families
I and ministers that rendered so many revolutions in-
evitable; and whatever is conceived in the like spirit
will terminate in the same manner. For the sake
of the institutions, sacrifices of personal interests are
worth making; but when Louis XV. exclaimed that
the decadent monarchy would last his time, the sys-
tem was doomed." And it can hardly admit of rea-
sonable doubt that if any essential modification of
the existing constitution shall be made in the man-
ner which the Elyaie would dictate, the change will
be an adaptation of national to individual wants and
a subordination of the interests of a great people to
the paltry necessities and small ambitions of a very
ordinary person.
The address of M. Mime'. (de Bourges) appears
to have elicited unusual expressions of admiration,
even from those whose sentiments do nut coincide
withthose of the orator of the Mountain. Confessedly,
the impression left by his speech was one rather of
the kind created by a peat actor than a FOIHICRI