The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-17 00:00:00

lembert's manifesto has made as great a sensation as
the coup dace. The church is in ecstasies. Rome is
looking up. Popery, for a few months, will be ram-
pant. The effect of it in Paris is visible already.
Long-winged priests fly about from house to house
like bats. The bright atmosphere of Paris has sud-
denly become dense. The wheels of time seem to be
reversed, and we are backing into the middle ages.
All this is ominous. The people arc distracted. The
old catholic yoke burns their shoulders. The Fri-
testants howl.
What will be the effect of this scarlet liaison upon
next Saturday's vote ? Alas no one can ever know;
and it would take a Yankee to guess. It is to be
hoped that it will, at least, diminish the number of
abstainers. To vote now seems to bo the sacredeat
of duties.
The chief significance of this new move is that
Louis Napoleon has evidently given up all hope of
the republican vote. ILis bait of universal suffrage
didn't take. The people darted from the ill-con-
cealed hook in shoals. The next thing was to catch
the Jesuits. The Pantheon was let down to them.
They caught at and swallowed it, and now lie
floundering at the feet of the President. Truth to
say he is no negligent sportsman. His nets are now
being dragged through the lowest gutters of society
in search for the miserable and depraved. These
nets bear the name of "Public Works." Hundreds

are entrapped already.
The snares for the legitimist party are baited with
hope, and those for the bourgeoisie with tranquillity.
In fact, man-traps are set in every part of France.
Meantime arrests go on frightfully, especially in
the departments, where the walls and papers tell us,
twenty times a day, tout cst tranguille. "The dema-
gogues"—we have it on the same editorial and mural
authority—" are everywhere terrified." You sec the
two magic words now are terror and tranquillity. I
remember, while walking on the pleasant banks of
the Canal d'Ourcq last summer, during one of my
strolls in the environs of Paris, to have observed the
following curious inscription over the signature of
the directors: " In this canal tranquillity and fish
are found in abundance." This curious combination
of charms returns to my mind every time I read the
official journals; only now, instead of "tranquillity
and fish," it is tranquillity and terror which one
Sods in abundance.
The days of Libert,', Era% Fraternit,7, are past.
The words are still extant, but the fact is extinct.
We have the sign, but not the thing signified; and
even the sign will soon be obliterated, lest it be
thund too powerful a souvenir. It may possibly be
left on the walls of La Morgue as a mortal sarcasm;
and it will also remain as a triune creed on the

national heart.
It is an easy matter to kill a man, but ideas are
killed never. Louis Napoleon may persecute them,
even eclipse them for a moment, but he can no more
extinguish them than he can extinguish a star.
As for socialism, so for as that word represents
disorganisation, anarchy, no-property, or equal divi-
sion of goods—it died out years ago of its own rot-
tenness. There is a system of association, but that
is based on an economical rather than a social theory,
and has no necessary connexion with any form of
government. The idea that the govcrmnent should
furnish the people with work is also exploded; or,
if not utterly exploded, has ceased to be a pet idea
with intelligent reformers. The most inveterate so-
: eialist in this latter sense is Louis Napoleon, who, as
already stated, is employing the people by thou-
sands in order to use them. Indeed, he is the oue
incarnate demagogue of the age. For months past
ho has been billing and cooing with what 'Ciders
calls the "vile multitude," from morning till night.
Ile has sent his agents about to the great workshops
of Paris, and distributed decorations and "soft
solder" among them like another Sam Stick. He
has even made court to the Paris lishwomcn. This
was his old game. While in exile, he wrote social-
ism, and fraternised with Louis Blanc. He would
fain figure in the favourite character of a "Friend
of the People." It is his favourite "%le.