The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-11 00:00:00

NAPOLEON M. AND HIS MINISTERS.

(MON A CORAT>TONDENT.)
PARIS, Oct. S.

In the personnel of the government we
have firstly the Or leanists, who are to be
divided into three categories—the pure Orleanists—
the Republicans who have been converted to the
Orleanist cause—and the Fusionists, or Orleanists
ooesenting to submit to the Count de Chambord, he
having no other heir than the Count de Paris. The
pare Orleanisu and corverted Republicans wish to
have nothing to do with the Fusionists, and it is
reciprocally so on the other side. Hence arise little
intestine quarrels, which divide them amongst them-
selves, and allow us some respite.
The Orleaniats of every category ere in favour of
a parliamentary rgime, with a restricted popular
suffrage, and with liberty, pears at any price, every
one for himself and every one at home, with little or
no religion, with much trade and manufactures, and
alliance with England.
We have next the Legitimists, who comprise bat
two categories ; the pure or uncompromising ones,
and the Fusionists, or those who have conditionally
rallied towards Orleanism. But these two classes
scarcely quarrel with each other, and it is but just to
say that the Legitimists exercise • less deleterious
influence over the government than the Orleanists
I• do. The latter are the very pink of Liberal medi-
ocrity, whilst the former still have some instinct of
the traditional greatness of France. They wish
for less liberty, or a leas parliamentary system,
but also for a rather less restricted popular
suffrage; more agriculture than manufactures; a
little war, a stronger action in foreign affairs ; they
would have religion, • league against the prin-
ciples of the Revolution, and an alliance with
Russia.

Finally we have the third element, which is
neither Lsgitinsist nor Orleanist ; which wavers be_
tween the one and the other of those 'parties, but
which, in the meantime, whilst availing itself of
both, doss not yet determine, and itself remains im-
perious, if not imperial, rude and dissembling, not
daring to avow its projects.
By what name shall I designate this party' I
moot give it a name, but I will confine myself
to making you acquainted with some of its fea-
tures.

The men of this party do not want war; they
want peace. They do not want liberty or the par-
liamentary system; they want silence and repression.
They accept universal suffrage on condition that
they are always to guide it. They do not believe in
principles, but in physical desires. They do not
believe in peoples and nationalities; they see nothing
amongst the peoples except different factories and
markets of produce. They would have much of
manufactures, much of trade; they don't care for I
religion, and the foreign alliance which suits them
best is the one which will most forcibly and most
definitively put a stop to the liberal or popular
agitations which may still threaten to move Europe
along.
This party is horn of the coup delta of the 2nd
December, 1831. It was, if not the very idea of it,
at least its agent and its instrument. By this it
should be, or ought to be, the government itself. But
it is not so, and it separated from the imperial govern-
ment on the day when it perceived that the policy
inaugurated on the 2nd of December was but a tran-
sition system. This party would have desired that
that Pcutorian policy should be the permanent
system of the empire. From and after the discovery
of this important dissidence, the men I speak of have
not yet turned against the Emperor, but they have
already put themselves in to an attitude of reserve, and
seem to Lave said to themselves, " There will be a
catastrophe."
In 1813 there were at Paris (fa was known latex-
wards, in the seat yam) • small number of slaver
men, profoundly immoral, occupying high places,
who bad • hand in all the parties, and did not belong
to any one. What they wanted was the preserva-
tion of the Empire without the Emperor. Only
they did not know whom they could treat with on
that basis, and they went by turns secretly from a
Bourbon of the elder branch to a Bourbon of the
younger branch, advancing, retiring, and not
omitting to ensure themselves if a party of the Re-
gency of Marie Louise, with Napoleon IL, could
have a chance at Vienna with the coalition.
These dexterous manceuverers were a little surprised
afterwards by the sudden triumph of a Bourbon of
the elder branch.

Matters in our own day have not quite arrived at
that point. But we may already see the outline of
a party of the clever ones of In I 4 appearing again.
This party would be more prudent, and especially more
patient, if it had not to deal with the impatience and
the prejudices of its necessary allies, the Legitimists
and the Orleauists. Which of these two parties ha,
mostehance of carrying the day ? Which of them is it
most requisite to conciliate? The clever ones are
only a staff of political officers; they must treat with
the one or the other of the two armies. The Le-
gitimists would best effect their purpose; but the
Orleanista are the most active, the most bustling,
and, except a few old men who persist in talking to
themselves, they are the least unmanageable and the
least mad.

Amid these embarrassments the staff of clever
managers appears to have arranged a complete plan
of conduct, of which the following are the chief
measures:

The first consists of filling up all the avenues to
Power, so as always to exclude from it any unin-
itiated intruders.

The second consists of opposing on every occasion
and by every means the great or geoerous projects
of the Emperor. The peace of Villafranca is in this
direction their latest masterpiece.
The third consists of fomenting irritations and
distrust between the Emperor and the most import-
ant members of his family. The entire unpopularity
of Prince Napoleon is also one of the roaster-strokes
of this party. Its last exploit appertains to the cue-
gory No. 2 of its measure'.
The matter in question was the liberty of the
pre... Everybody in France knows that the
Emperor, whatever his desire for it may perhaps be,
is not in a situation to grant, at least at this moment,
the liberty of the press.

The situation is very tightly strained, and must
not be indiscreetly discussed. The population is
much irritated against the peace of Villafrauca. Men
of business Sr. much irritated on account of the
uncertainties which paralyse all extensive opera-
tions. Lsstly, the newspapers are all in hostile
hands. The most faithful, the Constitelioisorel and
the Pays, belong to a Jew man of business. All
the otherr, without distinc:ion, belong to the Legiti-
mists or to the differant shades of Orleanism.

Ii is evident that to stir up the question of the
liberty of the press at this moment wee to place the
Emperor in the alternative of either granting the
liberty of the press, and thereby exposing himself to
the most terrible explosion of criticisms by which a
government in a difficult position was seer assailed,
Of else to refuse that liberty, and thereby to darken
more and more the despotic character which it seems
most without remission be attached to the political
imitations of the empire.

Bat they had to revenge themselves for the mea-
sure of the amnesty adopted by the Emperor's own
personal initiative, and in spite of the unanimous
opposition of his official world.
They had also to stop the Emperor in the repara-
tory and benignant coarse in which he seemed
inclined to engage in pursuance of that measure of
the amnesty.
They knew without any doubt that by sounding
too loud and in a certain manner the word of the
liberty of the prime, they would be certain to irritate
the susceptibilities of Napoleon 111. against the
Orleanist faction, which the Emperor most impa-
tiently endures.
The intrigue was thus commenced. One of the
men of the official personnel, who was lately ad-
mitted into the staff of clever managers, having been
placed at the head of the direction of journals in the
Ministry of the Interior, canoed it to be announced
by his friends and by the journals in France and
abroad, that the liberty of the press was about to be
granted by the Emperor.
The Journal des &bats demanded that liberty in
an ironical and menacing article which had been
drawn up by the party in council. The hit suc-
ceeded. The Emperor, by a haughty note sent from
Biarritz and published in the Afeniteur of Sept. 18th,
announced that no change would be made in the
legislation which at present regulates the press in
France.
If he had been more master of himself, and had
less given way to his anger, the Emperor would have
uttered his reto in such a manner as to reserve the
future, or at least so as not to figure in person in an
act so ungracious in itself.

Bat what they desired was that the Emperor
should compromise himself by a proud, violent, and
severe refusal of the liberty of the press. And this
is what these persons obtains&