The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-25 00:00:00

ton

SUN OFFICE, Seven o Clock.

FRAN CE.

The following is the speech delivered by M. Dupin,
the President of the Legislative Assembly, a few days
since before the Agricultural Society of the arron-
dissement of Clancey in the Nievre, then assembled at
Lorme
" Gentlemen, and dear Fellow-citizens,--The meeting
of last year opened under the most painful auspices. At
that period, the scarcity of cash, the sudden extinc-
tion of credit, the cessation of labour, the decrease of
the price of cattle, the revolutionary tax of the 45
centimes, all the misfortunes of the time weighed
on agriculture. Now the state of things has
improved; the Government established by the Constitu-
tion works with regularity; confidence revives; the trade
of your fairs has resumed its activity, and the President
of the Republic, raised and supported by six millions of
votes, receives from that popular election, which
is your work, the strength, as he derives from
his persoual character the firm will, to maintain
order at the same time as liberty. All the interests
of the land, of commerce, and of civil transac-
tions arc placed under the protection of a magistracy,
whose permanency, vainly threatened during the stormy
days we have passed through, has just been newly con-
secrated for the honour of justice, and the security of
citizens. From all parts the public wishes call for and
seek stability. But, after so many vicissitudes, it is
more particularly useful to make mature reflections on
the past. I appeal to the good sense of all, and of those
in particular whose simplicity renders them more easy
to be deceived, but whose natural good fath would
bring them to the side of truth, when it is presented to
them. Why were we in such distress last year? Why
are we better now? Oa what condition may our future
state more improve? In this Agricultural Society of
the Morvand, on this rough soil, confided to the culture
of a bold and persevering people, for a long time
shut up in the midst of woods, and but little ad-
vanced in the paths of civilization, in this chef-lieu of 1
granite, I wish to speak openly and frankly, not for
those who are the nearest to me on the platform, but for
those who stand before us, to whom I say ' approach,'
for those are the labourers whom I particularly wish to
see nearest to me, and by whom I most desire to be well I
understood. Children of the Morvand, labourers, you
who have preserved your religious principles, who still
bend your knees morning and evening to pray to the
Creator, and who repeat in common those precepts of
eternal wisdom.

" Un seul Dieu to adoreras,
Tes Ore et mare hon,,reras,
Bien d'autrui to neyrendras,"

be assured, that whatever revolutions may take place
there will always be two kinds of people in the world:
—the honest and the dishonest—the industrious and
the idle—the economical and the spendthrift. If po-
litical commotions appear for an instant to confound
all ; if there be critical moments in which the
worst citizens appear to have the upper hand, events
and their consequences soon throw light on the real
state of things; chimeras give place to reality; every
one's reputation becomes conformable to his actions,
and that eternal order which God has wished in all
thiugs resumes its sovereign sway. As by the side of
your bees you hear the buzzing of drones, who anxiously
seek to devour the honey which they know not ho
produce, so, in political agitations, you see audacious to
firebrands endeavour to take possession of every em-
ployment at the risk of losing what they are either in-
capable or unworthy of governing ; men who, ac-
cording to the energetic expression of a Minister of the
Republic, are capable of nothing at the head of those
who are capable of everything. You see a crowd of
men ruined either by their fault or by their vices,
and sometimes also compromised by their crimes,
or already on the point of being so, who wish to
recover themselves by disturbance, and to fish in the
waters which they have themselves troubled.—(General
marks of assent.) Throw your eyes around you : in
every town, in every hamlet, observe those who are
always the first to declaim against all kinds of autho-
rity; to cause assemblages, to form clubs, to spread
alarming reports, to disseminate false doctrines, to hold
out foolish hopes, to calumniate the best citizens, and
to excite, by every means, even the most atrocious'
and the most odious, to the overthrow of society; and
consider whether there are not always and everywhere
individuals whose ruin was certain, and who
were, according to one of your familiar expressions,
bien prep de leurs laeses;' or, to use the wards of a
great poet—
Lin tas d'hommes perdus de dettes et de crimes,
(4,10 present do nos lois les ordres legitioaes;
Et qui, deiesieraut de les plus ilviter,
Si tout n'est renvers6, ne saurasent subsister,'
people who, not having been able to gain or preserve
a pe r.mony, would very willingly partake of that of their
industrious and economical neighbours, without reflect-
ing that the latter would not be is a humour to allow
theneseiece to he des' oiled, but would vigorously defend
themselves against rebbery and spoliation. Such
are the principal apostles of Communism ! Such
are the men whom the new sectarians employ to
propagate their doctrines ! doctrines which when
well analysed are found to lead to the brutalising of
the human rece, by the destruction of all the conditions
of liberty, honour, and morality, on which Providence
has caused civil society to repose. And, nevertheless, it
is by the aid of such auxiliaries and of such means that
public peace has been disturbed, labour interrupted,
riots excited, and civil war lighted up! The workmen
of the towns and of the country are induced to be-
lieve that a crowd of benefits would result for them
from such a perturbation, whereas the only result
is the comp Lie ruin of some, the embarrassment
of others, end the injury of all! I w.ll here to call to
your recollection what 1 said on the subject in the in-
troduotion to a little work which I recently published on
agricultural societies. I wish to address myself to your
interest, and to lay it clearly before you. When once
the rioters have succeeded in exciting civil war in
Paris, what are the results? The foreigners who had
arrived from all the countries of Europe, to enjoy
the pleasures and contemplate the wonders of our civi-
laation, hasten to quit, and the furnished hotels and
lodging-houses are deserted. The rich, those who are I
not chained by any public function of duty to Paris,
leave their hotels and give up their apartments, and go
elsewhere to seek for the peace and security which are
no longer to be had in the French capital. What then
happens? Con -aulption diminishes, credit is restrained,
the tradesman can no longer d spose of hie goods, and
work of every kind is interrupted. Such is the imme-
diate eff ct of disturbances in Paris upon Paris."
AI. Dupin then drew an animated picture of the effect
produced upon the departments by the diminution of
the demand for agricultural produce. Having done
this, in a way admirably adapted to the intelligence of
his hearers, he added :