The Express.
London, England, 1848-04-18 00:00:00

LATEST FROM PARIS.

PARIS, DIONDAY, 3 P M.
A document has appeared today, entitled " Regu-
lations to be adopted for the Elections by the General
Assembly of Delegates of the Operatives, and signed
by Louis Blanc and Albert. The object of this mani-
festo is to force upon the assembly twenty operatives
out of the thirty-four members to be returned by the
department of the Seine. Rules, of course, ale
given by which all members of the assembly will
Be bound to return the same list of twenty Eames,
and, to use the words of the manifesto, " the total list''
of the 34 definitive candidates of the department of
the Seine being published with the sanction of the ,
oral assemblyof the dellegates of the operatives,
invitedpeople will
n” to secure its sac-
assßees one3t
the The bulletin issued from the Ministry of the Interior,
&translation of which I sent you on Saturday, has pro
deiced here the most profound and universal indignatior
It must be remarked that this document appeared,
as some others had previously dune coming from
the same quarter, without a signature. It was,
however, printed on white paper, a colour which is
interdicted for any but government proclamations
and manifestoes ; nevertheless, it was observed
that it did not appear, as government do-
cements usually do, in the Nuniteur, either before
or after it was posted on the walls of the
capital. Neither was it reproduced in any of
the journals which are understood in a semi-
official manner to express the sentiments of the
government. It elicited from the Cunatitutionnel yes-
terday a most ably-wzitten rebuke, which, as it has
been attributed to a pen so illustrious as that of M.
Thiers, I will here subjoin :
What is this publication ? It appears in a serni-perioelh
ad manner. It is posted on the walls. It is printed on
white pope r, a colour exclusively reserved for official pla-
cards. It has reached its sixteenth number, and has never
been signed. Is it • journal, an expreadon of individual
opinion ? But the decree which abolished the caution-money
sad the stamps has not authorised the suppression of the
name of the responsible editor. Every journal remains under 11
the
_guarantee of the responsibility of the party who signs '
it. The prefect of police would not allow private handbills to',
usurp the colour which constitutes the ostensible character of
public announcements. The government would not permit
any citizen to put "Ministire de l'lnterieur" at the head of
rash proclamations. Everything, therefore, seems to iudi-
eate that this Bed:stin emanates from au officials >lace. And,
nevertheless, when one sees that the document is anony-
mous, it cannot be believed that If. Ledru Rollin is the
anchor of it. Be signs boldly ; and then what circulars are
his? When one has real this proclamation, one can scarcely
believe that it an be his. Is it, in fact, to be credited that
a member of the Provisional Government would dare to pat
forth the principles, give the advice, and fulminate the
threats contained in this indescribable document? What!
"if the departments do not cause to triumph in the
elections what you call la verse sociale, there will be
only one means of safety, which would be for the people
of Paris to manifest their will a second time, and to
adjourn the decisions of a false national representation.
Paris rightly regards itself as the representative of all the
population of the national territory; and, if it cannot
persuade, it will have the pain of conquering." Such are
your principles and your threats. Never at any. period did
counter-resolutionary spirit make a more audacious attack
on the freedom of elections. What ! Is it on the eve of the
day when the whole people are about for the first time to ex-
ercise their rights that you place all the committees of France
seder the cannon of Paris! You tell them, in the name of
the capital, "Your vote or your life!" for what you say is to
wish to deprive the country of the political life to which it
has just given birth! It is the dismissal, en masse, of the
citisens. The idea had been entertained of threatening the
dismissal of independent functionaries; but it hail never been
imagined to threaten an independent nation with depriving it
*fits sovereignty. This, however, is what is done by the
Belittle, in begging the citizens of the departments to resiga
themselves to persuasion, and to spare Paris the pain of con-
, qaering. And to conquer whom? The whole of France, if
it be not wise I From whence proceeds, we ask, this mon-
strous doctrine which makes Paris alone the supreme inter-
preter of the will of all the nation ? In what law is it writ-
tee that Ri city, however enlightened and patriotic it may be,
shall trausforin itselt into the supreme arbiter, in a political
sense, of all the gr 'at state of which it forms a part? By
uttering such a ulisphe my, the lie is given to all the liberal
expressions deiivered by the provisional government to the
deputation which came to it to demand the postponement of
the elections. "The a ill of Paris," all the members of the go-
moment, including INI. Led tu Rollin, replied, " cannot have
the authority of the will expressed by the whole nation." That
truth has been reiterated under every form, and now it is
aught to force on the whole body of French citizens the re-
timing and dictatorial power of Paris. But has Paris any
tight to use such language towards France ? l'aris does not
wish for the impious dictatorship which is attributed to it,
and it authorizes no one is take it on himself in its name.
The citirmis of Paris only see in France brothers, and not
nasals who depend on its political justice. The nati mid
puirds of Paris, that is to say the whole population, do not
=eider they have received arms to conquer their fellow-
eitisens in the provinces—to make slaves of those who are
beyond the boundaries of their city. These words of the
Balletin will be, thank God, repudiated by France as by
Paris. The concord which is in their hearts will destroy
the odious germ of division. At the same time that Paris
believes ir. the republioan feeling of departmental France,
the latter confides in the liberalism and loyalty of the Parisian
population. Never have the departments heard Paris boast
*trimming, alone, the formula of soc Lil verity, and imposing
f the other parts of France the tyrannical alternative of
thinr rallying round it or c..mpelling itself to be conquered.
Went is your stela' verity ? Who gives to one mere than
to another the right of being a judge of it 1 Beyond the
eationelsovereignty expressed by the majority of the citizens
dill France there is only the doctrine of divine right! The
divine right of whom ? Faris does not say that she poetesses
it. Ic whom is it then ? Where is this Messiah of social
mil:. We only see it too well—the dictatorship of Paris
will he yours, anonymous dictators of the Bulletin ! This is
Shy we ray that those men of pretended violent democratic
*Aiwa ere icily in reality purely counter-revolutionary.
147 sae that Paris ma, wish to change the form of the elec.
_ riehts. But that firm is univereal suffrage. To change
it is to restrict it. The first perspective then which dictator-
** shows is a diminution of liberty ; but what is that dimi-
tenon, slate before restricting that liberty by a new Law the
rdepress it by violence ? To sum up, this Bulletin, which
appears to em:nate from authority, the duty of which is to
slake the rights of the country respected, and to secure by
emend the safety of the republic, this Bulletin exaggerates,
*lb, length of the absurd and the odious, the rights of one
Dan of the population ; it annuls the rights of the other ; it
hers the seeds of division and civil war; it contains the most
'Notate denial of national sovereignty, that is to say, the ne-
Ption of the republic itself, which is the free and sincere
leinoment of all by all, and not by one man or by a mino-
rity. If this Bulletin is the private work of a citizen, we ask
16tther laws ro lorger exist.
La Prose has the following observations on the
lime subject :
yfbat does M. Ledru Itollin desire ? Let him state it
..,Biri
thatwishes we may know. lle to have the republic.
.tv
0 does not wish for the republic, on the condition
fiat it shall he liberty and not terror, right and not arbitrary
re*. discussion not oppression, security not di-quietude,
ar lot sit , credit not bankruptcy, fraterei,y not civil
sent,
Tte repaLlic is a name which ten different govern
rirrlea/ fear ; the republic of the United S,atcs of North
.____teiemeas.cothing in common with all the r. publice of
rice, which for half a century have consumed
"'reseives in anarchy. The republic as it existed at Athens
trembled
Tee in nowise the republic as it flourished at Venice.
iilepatie is a aced which should previousl be defined.
easy heel fficient matey" I wish for the republic'—you must
oi'3,°:re.ou wish for it—bow you understand it. The error
teL,!..rd!teimltollin. in our cyce is not to have ideas too radi-
%kr
the never
but to envelope them in a cloud in
never secs anything but the thunderbolt ready to