Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-15 00:00:00

FRANCE AND THE ELECTIONS.

Can any reasonable or thoughtful man see, in
the existing situation of affairs on the other side
of the Channel. the promise of a tranquil future?
In what respect, we would ask, is the political
repose of France more assured since the 2nd of
December, 1e51.? There is still the unmixed
government of the sword. Public opinion, in-
tellect, and worth, are trampled under foot by the
demi-monde rabble of a court of adventurers.
Throughout the length and breadth of France, the
government is regarded with indifference by the
vulgar, and despised by the educated classes. The
country submits, it is true; but it submits with a
mingled apathy an disdain. The patient may
sleep for the moment, but he will assuredly awake
again, one day or other, to a more certain and fear-
ful delirium. The present dictatorship in France
was the temporary refuge of a terror-stricken
people, but the government is fast losing the sup-
port which it found in the servile fears of • the
middle classes. The present state of things can-
not continue for ever. Already, within the past
year, murmurs have been heard which have caused
the Emperor serious and well-founded Uneasiness
The profligate public expenditure,'which it would
have been the proper function of an independent
parliament to control, is hastening on a social
crisis, which will, at no distant day, try to the utter-
most the strength of government in France Louis
Napoleon has staked everything on his personal
popularity, and with that popularity his whole power
meat crumble to pieces; and then the country will
feel the whole extent of the blunder which has been
committed, in neglecting the precious opportunity
of five years of tranquility to plant and foster some
system of government which should have a chance
of surviving' the accidental fortunes of a single man.
If there had been a bona fide attempt on the part of
the Emperor to give a true representation to public
opinion in the Chamber, restrained by such limits
as the condition of France might require; it would
have been possible to hope that her political and
social diseases might gradually heal them-
selves, by the curative powers of nature.
But the insolent manifesto lately set forth
in the Noniteur, shows that there is no
honest intention to give any real existence to this
imperial plaything. The so-called" representatives,"
it is clear, are meant to be exactly like any other
officers of the household, and to form part of the
,pageant without partaking of the power of the state.
The enemies of free institutions will tell us with a
sneer that these are the natural fruits of the uni-
versal suffrage. They take the same sort of delight
in the degradation of the representative principle
as a mile would find in the detection of a missionary
in a peccadillo, or in the sight of a quaker reeling
in the street. But the truth is, that the whole of.
France, from the very nature of its civil government
is one gigantic close borough. To return an inde-
pendent member against the influence of the im-
perial government would be almost as easy as to
return a tory for Calne, or an opponent of the
ministry for a dockyard. It rested with the
Emperor to determine whether the elections
should be free, and he has not bad the courage
to make up his mind in the affirmative. He
has never dared to trust public opinion, and
public opinion is beginning to turn against
him. . All the precautions which have been taken
to make the elections safe, are fresh proofs of the
distrust with 'which the Emperor views the state of
public feeling towards hie government. He ad-

~1 I

heres to the simple principle. of force on which he
founded his power, and his' governfnent has not
cast one single root into the country by which it
might sustain itself against_ the accidents wh'ell
may unmake as easily as they have made it. While
such a state of things exists in France, there
m-y be a powerful army, but there is not a strong
government.}--Saturday Review.