The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-11 00:00:00

LOUIS BLANC.

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of a morning Contemporary by Louis Blanc :
Sir,—lt is cruel to be compelled again to take up
the pen, when the soul is horror-stricken and the
hand seeks a sword.
There are things, however, of which it is abso-
lutely necessary that public opinion in Europe should
be informed.
In my own country, momentarily crushed, the
press is dumb : I have recourse to that of a free people.
Nothing is finished, Sir. A mock Censer, supported
by his drunken pretorian guards, cannot impose him-
self on France. It is not by cannon shot that the
French revolution can be driven back. Nothing is
finished.
This is what every one says ; it is at least what
every one thinks. If I had only to prove this my
letter would be useless.
But one fact stands forth in the history of our
recent disasters, unforeseen, strange, most important
to explain, and of which the key is to be found in
the information which I have received since my de.
parture from London.
That au army of 100,000 men, disciplined, expe-
rienced, formed of chosen regiments, and supported
by a formidable artillery, should have held Paris in
check—Paris taken unprepared—Paris long since
disarmed—Paris without ammunition and without
pikes—what is there surprising in this ? And
yet, had the faubourgs thrown themselves en
masse into the insurrection, of two things one would
assuredly have happened. Either this army of 100,000
men would have been destroyed, or Louis Bonaparte
would have escaped the execrable distinction of remain-
ing erect amid corpses and ruins—so great is the in-
trepidity of the people of Paris; such is the devotion,
such the intelligence which it brings to the combats
of liberty.
But the working men, taken en masse, have not
engaged in the struggle. This is certain. Why
is it so ?

. _
Why ? Because their first words were " C'est biers
fait," when they heard of the dissolution of the As-
sembly which had sickened and disgusted them ;
when they heard of the arrtst of M. Thiers, who had
spoken of them as the vile multitude, of the arrest of
General Cavaignac, who in the month of Jane had
fired upon and decimated their ranks ; and of General
C.angarnier, of whom the reactionists boasted as a
captain capable of insulting by the use of the whip,
as well as of striking with the sword.
Placed between the maintenance of the robber law
of May and the pretended restitution of universal suf
frage, between the danger of a monarchical restora-
tioa and that of a sham rqahlic, between the obsti
nate denial of its rights and a hypocritical homage
rendered to its sovereignty, the peopla retired, leaving
the field to the two tyrannies, of which one would
serve to destrOy the other, and ir,serviNg its blood
for less t quivocJ triumphs. Tile defeat of the
['resident, might it not result in the reinstalla-
tion of the Assembly, repudiating the people in in-
surrection after having drained its life blood, pro-
claiming itself the only legitimate power, taking pos-
ses7.l,,n of the army, creating for its own purposes a
Parliamentary dictator, and taking into its service
some new ill-omened hero of June; and then, with
loaded cannon, turned against the people, how could
they come and demand a reckoning from their new
master?

It is true that the victory of the President was also
an immense peril. But here at least one resource re-
mained to try—the vote.
It is true on the other hand, that the people once
master of the streets, would have been more in a po-
sition to dictate than to submit to laws ; but it had
already so often had to see, in the confusion which
follows a battle, France robbed of the price of the
victory which had been gained. Distrust had even
been shown towards it, and in its turn it was dis-
trustful. The other day the Times, speaking fur the
representatives of the bourgeoisie, supposed them to
say, Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis. Alas!
the people on its side, with regard to the represents•
tives of the bourgeoisie, has had the very same senti-
ment which these words express. Here is the hor-
rible, the melancholy fatality which has denominated
the occasion.

God grant that this experience may be profitable to
all. It has become absolutely necessary that the
bourgeoisie should lay on one side its unjust sus-
picions, stretch a friendly hand to the people, and con-
sent henceforth to be one with it. Here is the only
safety of liberty and civilization.
How profound and terrible a lesson I
The members of the Parliamentary majority had
triumphantly inaugurated the system of the state of
siege—and behold they themselves are made to un-
dergo its utmost rigours.
They had disarmed their fellow-citizans ; and be-
hold arms are wanting against the sanguinary domi-
nation of the soldier.

They had never ceasad to &cry the constitution ;
by their law of May they destroyed it ; and the con-
stitution is no longer a protection to them.
They had allowed the principle of national repre-
sentation to be odiously outraged in the persons of
their colleagues of the Left; and drunken corporals
now lay rough hands upon them.
When the Mountain revolted against the people
being called the vile multitude, they cried out with
insolent irony, " cdlons done," and when they seek a
people ready to fight for their quarrel, those who
would have cornhtuted may say—" And h this, then,
the vile multitude, v‘hich is not fit to vote, fit to die ?
Allons done."
This is the immortal lesson contained in the events
which have now occurred. I repeat it—let its
bearing be studied, let it be understood. The
bourgeoise and the people must be one, and all
is saved.

And when I fay " all is saved," I speak not only o:
France.

To divide Europe into three great empires-3
Russian empire extending to Constantinople; an Aus-
trian empire, with the defluitive annexation of Italy ;
a French empire, with the addition of Belgium. From
this new holy alliance between these three despotic
empires to cause to arii,e a war to the death against
the Democratic party, and against the Liberal and
Constitutional party; to distinguish between the armies'
tread what the absolutist powers call the revolutionary
flame—that is to say, whatever lights the human
spirit on the way of progress—and if England reahts
to mill her. . . . Such is the plan (who can
doubt it longer ?)—such is the sacrilegious plan of
which the sack of Paris is the commencement, and for
the accomplishment of which Louis B ,naparte has
delivered France into the hands of French Cossaclo..

Oii the reality of this plan, and on the abominable
c:miplicity which binds t, the fortune of the Emperor
Nicholas the ambition of Louis Bonaparte, I may be
able very shortly to publish some proofs, which I em
now in course of collecting. We can than judge 0!
the important influence which Russian gold exercises
in the humiliation and misfortiu.es of Fiance.
ALanwhile, Sir, it is indispensable that Europe.
hould know that the issue of these last events is at-
tributable neither to the indifTerrnce of the people nor
to the cooling of its spirit —nor, least of all, to its
aninpartistn—a word impossible to write without a

And this will remain true, even should the result of
a shameless management of the vote appear to indicate
the contrary. No, no ; the people of France has not
deserted., all its traditions of courage, of noble pride,
of oev.iti:oa to liberty. Adopting this famous expres-
51"a which Sieses applied to the A,,smnbly of 1789,
fallen fora moment under the. blow of brute force-
4, 'l 'he people is to-clay what it was before."
Dec. 9, 1851.

train
famous collection may
in charge oirforn
_e last lot was sent off
were the L'
KNOWSLEY AVIARY.--This fa
thre.eThompson,
now be considered to be extinct, as.
by the eleven o'clock express
er the Zoe-
station, on Friday morning, Lime street
Mr
curator, and two assistants. There
otherwise
the
the iliailway truck
loads, consisting of the Eland antelopes,
some smaller animals and birds. These we„7"Yx' and
logical Society's collection in London. The larger animal
were carefully arranged in ewes, well padded, anti
protected, to ensure their safety on weir journey. Nearly
the whole of the birds and animals were packed and salt (ff
by Mr. Thompson and Mr. Moore, the secold curator; and
so far as their services were in requisition, we are happy to
learn that no injury was sustained, the birds and beasts ar-
riving safely at their destination, both in this country and
in Holland and Italy, which were the chief places to which
those specimens purchased by foreigners were sent. Ttie
same success. we understand, attended the removal of that
porticn of the collection taken away direct by the purchasers,
with one exception. the animal, a zebra, from some unex-
plained cause, dying on the j.yurney. Liverpool Courier.
EXTRAORDINARY DP,COVERY.—We lIN informed
that while preparing a vault in the south isle of the cathe-
dral the
.other day, the workmen, though fortunate enough
to come just between two other. yet made a remarkable dis-
covery. At one end, -B,;kitehiout ;1;3, vestige of acoffin, laid an
atmosphere, immediately ceituon,h which, when exposed to the
almost perfect human •
other end an entire coffi of mth id into dust; while at the
w,ts fount to contain nothing but wood shavir,gi.—
e root shape, made of deal,
Cat lisle
Palm..

LONDON,