The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-04 00:00:00

SPEECH OF THE DUKE DE PERSIG]

The Duke de Per2igny del'vered a long address
the day before yesterday at Montbrison, on the
occasion of the inauguration of the Diana Hall, the
ancient ha'l of the Estates of Fors, which has
been recently decorated. We extract from it the

following passages :
The weight of past ages unconsciously weighs upon the
mind as the weight of the atmosphere en the body. Igno-
rance and presumption alone could conceive the idea
of getting rid of it. For having wished to sup-
pre,. the past the passions which contributed to the rime
lotion rendered its realisation impossible. On the
contrary, by uniCng the grand ideas of that epoch to the
traditions of our history, the restoring hero secured their
triumph. f3^e with What wonderful art the principles of
1789 are united in his work with the alightlymodified forms
of the past ; how all the new ideas—equality before the law,
the abrogation of privileges, the right of admission for all
citizens to public offices, the control over the government
by the nation in its right to vote the taxes, and the unifi-
cation of all the elements of the nation, have been core.
bined with the re-establishment of the monarchical form of
government, the retain to catholic worship and the reor-
pulsation of a political anti adni nistrative hierarchy."
The " strong hand " of the Napoleons was neees.
nary, according to M. de Persigny, to keep down
the Bourbon, ()demist, and Republican parties,
which were struggling for mastery. " Without
the fact and theory of the empire, society would
have been oondemned to the perpetual agitations
of a struggle of classes." Society had been pre-
pared for a reconstruction, but what wag necessary
to accomplish this without the accompaniment of
convulsions 1 M. de Persigay thus answers the
questions he puia :
A power not only liberal but strong, capable of holding
the balance between interests and controlling passions. Un-
happily at that t'me royalty represented by a good but
weak pi:nce, resigned authority to the multitude, and
every thing fell into chaos. Now, gentlemen, the first
duty of a prince is to secure public order. The
sword which God or the nation gives him is not
his own. It is the safezuard of all the interests
of the people. To desire to tear it from his hands
in the name of llber .1 is a sure sign that the liberty
thus invoked is but a lie, for true liberty cannot exist
without authinity. A pr:nce may expose his life to the
steel of factions, and busy Walsall beneath the 1.1',/ of his
throne ; but he should never resign his sword. This
great lesson of history has not been always understood
or followed since the revolution. However, we have just
seen it put in practice under remarkable circumstances by
a foreign piece, whom fox :ens has recompensed far his
boldness. He, likewise, was exposed to the attacks of an
imprudent liberalism. The deputies of Prussia, whe in
their inexperience believ.•d that they were augmenting
their new liberty by diminishing the priv:lege of the crown,
were certainly animated by honest intentions. But what
would have occurred but for the resolution of the King?
After having disarmed the prince they would themselves
be exposed, without defence, to those violent spirits who
are always ready to falsify the conditions of liberty and to
exaggerate its consequences. Germany would probably at
this moment be in the midst of anarchy, whilst now, by a
just turn of opinion, the same men who would have
trampled under foot the rains of the monarchy, pro-
claim the King as the benefactor 'of his country.
The empire (14. de Persigny proceeds to say) is not to be
muffled in the rags of past regimes, nor is the giant to
be stretched on the bed of Freer ustees. The France of to-
day is about to see opened before her a whole world of
development and practical liberty. To speak indeed of
the petty pocecres of paltry liberty at a moment
when the reign of a mighty democracy is beginning !
when the popular masses, so long dis'nherited and
worked up by selfish schemers, demand their share of the
banquet of civilisation ; when they demand of public
power not words but acts, not the struggles of ambition
but life, light, and activity ; and when in their mighty
asphations they say to the sovereign of their choice,
" King of the people, onward ! Continue and complete
your work; finish the machinery of the country;
put the most remote hamlet in easy commu-
nication with the centres of intellect and prosperity ;
let labour be honoured ; let a become the principle,
the nobility of the new society, and let it fertilise all pm is
of France. King of the people, onward ! Let your sword
assure the peace of the world ; let the noble words of St.
Helena be accomplished : nationalities which are consti-
tuted under your auspices can only knit more closely the
ties of European brotherhood. Onward, King of the
people ! March at the bead of pacific victories, but retain
with firm hand the sword which the people has confided
to you."