The Express.
London, England, 1858-08-26 00:00:00

SPEECH OF COUNT DE PERSIGNY,

THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE.

At the opening meeting on Monday of the Council
General of the Loire, of which Count de Persigny is
the President, the ex-ambassador to London made a
speech which is destined to become celebrated.
Coming from one who is probably higher in the
confidence of the Emperor of the French than any
one else, this address has great political import-
ance.

After some preliminary observations, in which
M. de Persigny reminded his audience that from
his schoolboy days he had sought the nephew of
the great Emperor in exile, and saluted him as the
future Emperor of the Frensh, at a time when, to
all appearances, the Napoleon tradition was br•ied
in the tomb of the Date de Reichstadt, he said :
Par be it from mete detract from the personal merit due
to the Emperor for the grand work of pacification which be
has socomplished. Like Augustus, the nephew of Cedar,
the nephew of Napoleon I. must have had great and rare
faculties to triumph over so many obstacles. Bat it mud be
said for the honour of the nation, that if Napoleon 111. so
easily outmoded In an enterprise In which so many het
filled, it was because his talent was aided by the noble
and touching confilence of the people in the name of ?depo-
ts= ; and that is the most conclusive justification of the
dynastic) klieg of which I ern about to speak to you. lam
not ignorant, gentlemen, of the reproaches addressed by
some parties to the imperial government. They cannot
deny the great services which it has rendered to social order
—the calm which it bas rei-establiahed in men's mind.—
and the security which it has rendered to all Interests.
But they some it of • tendency to disinherit the country
of It, legitimate Influence in the conduct of public affable by
founding, es at Rome, a sort of Cimmerian diendership, aided
by the prestige of the name of Napoleon. Allow me to
repudiate this ...logy, between Comer and Nepal...en there
la nothing in common except the glory which founded the
prestige of the two names. But the situations are totally
different. At Rome the problem was to treader • society
corrupted and disorganised by dell war from • republic to a
dictatorship by the destruction of its indent liberties—while
in France, on the contrary, the task of the Napoleons is no
other than to continue our old monarchical state by a fourth
dynasty—not to destroy ancient liberties, but to consolidate
new ones. Thus, gentlemen, the government of Napo-
leon 111. is organised in accordance with the prin.
olples end ideas of the revolution of 1789—popular
suffrage, the free vote of the taxes, and the Irre-
movability of the judges, are the findaniental bases
of the Imperial system. It is true that the liberty of
the press—a modern institution—which either vivifies or
kills all other liberties, is very materially modified by the
system of warnings. But this reserve in our institutions is
evidently but an act of prudence—a safety-valve fa • deme-
snes& True liberty remains notwithstanding, and will
remain esgrafted in our habits and our laws, and will aria
all the more vigorously became it is cultivated in a prepared
sad temperate atmosphere. I know very wan that certain
party mia cannot forgive the Emperor's grimmest for net
repel leg the mistakes of the Restoration and the house of
Odessa: these men would see the parliamentary Ines throw*
open again with all the parliamentary (*digs of passions
' and prejudices, at the risk of producing a third catastrophe.
But the example of those two governments will mot
be lost upon Franca. In point of feet, gentleness, them
splendid parliamentary struggles which some people now look
back to with so much regret were most perilous thine: for
in a country whore people were not agreed as to the principle
of government, where there were four or live nations in a
nation—a Wanda nation, an Orleanist nation, a Bona.
parthat nallemomd • Republican nation—that is to say factions
sad sot peaks the etatpkte enjoyment of public liberty
amid only lave to the formation of militias, and opal-
Uwe treadiag set to Ma ishiflution of one at of principles,
or one set of awn toe ear saes and earr piasipke, bat to
the overthrow of the Itself, to the .katerte peril
jof society, At this , psalm" the most emlisay pr
Wotan Naas to pet as ea ear pied spiel Nab big.
Deka pOgog la nodes the rariksary el IllhatHeekie
NW* . IRO Min I. Wig
as first land • goarlassit ; pet r ealehila • dpaiip
idiot —like that in Englaidrakei he some foam
petty attacks, and elevated above the ail= el pails
discaska. All dynasties require, the misestalia eat tam
Tiros alone can complete the recatelltedea of the pram
which have so long divided Francs. Tie k alp he ask I
trust, far distant, on which this grant result *Of lie Wawa
—was there will be but only pis. spates a the nada
under the throne of the Napolawst—es dot der the Babe
readmits will be terminated, and bear of disireadia
Wag no kapr a peril or • threat for any ass, vEI Wl*
• treeit far all. TI l then, gentlemen, Ist as
maintain la ear larditatioaa thaw elements which rtid=
he imprudent to discard—Le us not disks any asap k
the Lew. which regulate the puss—Lt as hap Ike War
valve, whatever present lationvadanco we may lad k
Assuredly so one Can admit more thin I do Wag
that owing to the present system the badman
of the pram apes public opinion in insaboisat
either to alight= the governmiat or to pram*
private interests, under the mask at public interests,
from taking the name of the Emperor in vain. But we rand
admit that hums things are human things. Good cannot
be absolutely 'operated from evil. The essential thing is
that we should not eaceifioe great to little things. Above all,
I repeat, let as band a dynasty a Indispensable to the liber-
its ato the grandeur sad security of oar country ; and, for
tip aim of as haresass Mare good, lotus learn to support
some mesa taimavadesita. This dynasty, gentlemen, like
all Oka, has its perils—real or imaglaary. It wee orally
tried at the beginning of this year by one peril, which threw
mass naiads late sea • sate of perturbation that swat
eminent ladirkinak altered words of dieconreensent.• But all
those dangers must be looked in the ram, and I think it the
are useful to Maass with you the particular danger to
which 1 .Dade, becalm It is my profound conviction that
political assassinatiou, with the view to overthrow a dpurity,
dekata its own object. Thus, gestlatiso, the murder of
Coma Duly saved to destroy the republic and found the
empire; the murder of the Malicia rendered that family

• ilia alJodes probably to M. Bowies epoch cat,behalf
of tha Publio Safety 1301, is which he said that than vaasot
a town, Wigs, or Daaakt ilk Franco has lona dataffecOop..