The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-27 00:00:00

SPEECH OF COUNT PERS.IGNE

We extract the subjoined from the Memorial de
a Loire et de la Haute Loire:—
The session of the Council-General of the Departmen
of the Loire was opened on Monday, under the presidency
of Count Persigny.
In taking the chair, Count Persigny made the follow-
ing speech :
" Gentlemen,—Summoned by the choice of the Em-
peror to preside over the Council-General of the Loire,

I feel myself called upon, in the first place, to thank
my fellow-citizens for the proof of their esteem which
they have just given to me. The more universally
true is the proverb, That no one is a prophet
in his own country,' the more precious are the marks of
sympathy that one receives in it. Personally this senti-
ment is with me all the stronger, because all here know how,
20 years ago, fresh from my school bench, I was one of the
first Frenchmen who went into exile to the nephew of the
Emperor, and saluted him with the title of future
Emperor of the French. (' True, true '— applause.)
It is therefore natural that, finding myself for the
first time in presence of the honourable representa-
tives of my province, I should ask their permission
to recall the circumstances to which I owe the honour of
of engaging the attention of my fellow-citizens. At the
time of which I speak the Duke of Reichstadt had died,
carrying with him, apparently to his tomb, the whole Napo-
leon tradition. The public did not seem to be aware that
there existed in exile other members of the Bonaparte
family, and it seemed as if the Imperial dynasty had passed
away for ever. Nevertheless, in the midst of this general
oblivion, some men still dreamed of a return to the tra-
ditions of the great Emperor; and this was reasoning
which was to them, as it were, a revelation.
France, said they, is monarchical, by her history, her tradi-
tions, her manners, her spirit, her whole character, and she
can only be a monarchy. Let her try the republic ten times
and twenty times—ten times and twenty times she would
fail in the unnatural essay. The question is not, then,
monarchy or republic ?' but what monarchy ?' what
dynasty ?' Now, added they, the time in which we
live, whatever regret the past may inspire, how-
ever illustrious and glorious the House of Bourbon may
have been, overthrown as it was by the great revolution, and
re-entering France at the rear of foreign armies, it does
not represent our new society—foreign, if not hostile, to the
new interests and the new glories of France, and unable to
count on the sympathy and the love of the people. It is
henceforward as powerless to reign over the people as were
the Stuarts in old times remaining Catholics on the throne of
a Protestant nation. We must have in its place a
popular dynasty, springing forth from the womb of the Re-
volution, embodying the ideas, sentiments, instincts—per-
haps even the passions of our modern society, and possessing,
above all, the sympathy of great popular masses—(loud

cheers)—for that which makes the strength of monarchies
is not only the support of the opulent classes. If every one
had £4,000 a-year the choice of a dynasty would be oflittle
consequence. The great problem to be resolved is so to settle it

,hat millions of men liviug from hand to mouth in medic,.

crity, in want, and often in misery, may place such con-
fidence in the Government that they may have no care
but to seek and to go to their daily employment. In other
words, it is not sufficient for France that the dynasty should
be dear to the scutcheoned palaces of the Faubourg St. Ge-
rmain, nor to the golden drawingrooms of the Chaussee d'An-

tin—but above all it must be loved in the cots of the peasant,
by the men of the fields and of the manufactories. (Cheers.)
Now, what name speaks to the breast of the masses like that
of Napoleon—what tradition can, like it, excite confidence ?
In it there is the true, the legitimate dynasty of France,
and the day when the sentiments of the people shall be
called forth will be the day of the re-establishment of the
Imperial dynasty. Well, gentlemen, the prophecy is now
accomplished. The dynasty of Napoleon reigns over a
peaceful people, and that people which seemed ungovern-
able is now the most tranquil in Europe. A name, a symbol,
beloved by the masses, hascalmed all the effervescence of those
passions which seemed to menace our country with complete
ruin. Far be it from me to detract from the personal merit due
to the Emperor for the grand work of pacification which he
hes accomplished. Like Augustus, the nephew of Caesar,
the nephew of Napoleon I. must have had great and rare
faculties to triumph over so many obstacles. But it must be
said for the honour of the nation, that if Napoleon 111. so
easily succeeded in an enterprise in which so many had
failed, it was because his talent was aided by the noble
and touching confidence of the people in the name of Napo-
leon ; and that is the most conclusive justification of the
dynastic ideas of which lam 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 has re-established in men's minds—
and the security which it has rendered to all interests.
But they accuse it of a tendency to disinherit the country
of its legitimate influence in the conduct of public affairs by
founding, as at Rome, a sort of Caesarian dictatorship, aided
by the prestige of the name of Napoleon. Allow me to re-
pudiate this analogy. Between Cee.ar and Napoleon there
is 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 transfer a society
corrupted and disorganised by civil war from a republic to a
dictatorship by the destruction of its ancient 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 Napoleon 111. is organised in accordance with the
principles and ideas of the Revolution of 1789 popular
suffrage, the free vote of the taxes, and the irremov-
ability of the judges are the fundamental 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 sys-
tem of warnings. But this reserve in our institutions is
evidently but an act of prudence—a safety-valve in a steam-
engine. True liberty remains notwithstanding, and will re-
main engrafted in our habits and our laws, and will thrive
all the more vigorously because it is cultivated in a prepared
and temperate atmosphere. I know very well that certain
party men cannot forgive the Emperor's Government for
not repeating the mistakes of the Restoration and the House
of Orleans : these men would see the parliamentary lists
thrown open again with all the parliamentary CO7 tege of pas-
sions and prejudices, at the risk of producing a third catas-
trophe. But the example of those two Governments will not
be lost upon France. In point of fact, gentlemen, these splen-
did parliamentary struggles which some people now look
back to with so much regret were most perilous things; for
in a country where people were not agreed as to the principle
of government, where there were four or five nations in a
nation—a Legitimist nation, an Orleanist nation, a Bonapar-
tist nation, and a Republican nation—that is to say factions
and not parties, the complete enjoyment of public liberty
could only have led to the formation of coalitions, and coa-
litions tending not to the substitution of one set of principles,
or one set of men for other men and other principles, but to
the overthrow of the government itself, to the immense peril
of society. At this day, gentlemen, the most ordinary pa-
triotism suffices to put us on our guard against such folly.
Before putting in motion all the machinery of liberty—
before giving free scope to every private opinion, let
us first found a government, let us establish a dynasty
which—like that in England shall be secure from
party attacks, and elevated above the regions of public
discussion. All dynasties require the consecration of time.
Time alone can complete the reconciliation of the parties
which have so long divided France. The day is not, I trust
far distant, on which this great malt will be achieved—
when there will be but only one nation in the nation
under the throne of the Napoleons. On that day the French
Revolution will be terminated, and freedom of discussion,
being no longer a peril or a threat for any one, will become
a benefit for all. Till then, gentlemen, let us patiently
maintain in our institutions those elements which it would
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laws which regulate the press—let us keep the safety-valve,
whatever present inconvenience we may find it. Assuredly
no one can regret more than I do myself that owing to the
present system the influence of the press upon public opinion
is insufficient either to enlighten the Government or to pre-
vent private interests, under the mask of public interests,
from taking the name of the Emperor in vain. But we must
admit that human things are human things. Good cannot
be absolutely separated from evil. The essential thing is
that we should not sacrifice great to little things. Above all,
I repeat, let us found a dynasty as indispensable to the liber-
ties as to the grandeur and security of our country, and, for
the sake of an immense future good, let us learn to support
some present inconveniences. This dynasty, gentlemen, like
all others, has its perils, real or imaginary. It was cruelly
tried at the beginning of this year by one peril, which threw
men's minds into such a state of perturbation that even emi-
nent individuals uttered words of discouragement. But all
these dangers must be looked in the face, and I think it the
more useful to discuss with you the particular danger to
which I allude, because it is my profound conviction that
political assassination, with the view to overthrow a dynasty,
defeats its own object. Thus, gentlemen, the murder of
Cmsar only served to destroy the republic and found the
empire; the murder of the MeAcis rendered that family
sovereign in Florence; the assassination of Henry 111. only
strengthened the house of France; and that of Henry IV.
rendered the house of Bourbon more powerful than ever
The history of the Italian principalities of the middle ages
furnishes many examples of a like nature. I cite one at
random. One day a prince of Bologna was assassinated
with his whole family ; the conspirators who took possession
of his palace thought that they were masters of the State.
But soon the cry of Down with the assassins' was
heard in the town. The people rose, massacred the mur-
derers, burnt their houses, and formed a Government com-
posed of the best friends of the murdered price ; afterwards
one of the members of the new Government announced