The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-15 00:00:00

FRENCH LEGISL A TIME ASSEMBLY.

The Emperor of the French has probably encoun-
tered a much more numerous as well as a more bitter
opposition in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies
than he had been led to expect. He might have
thought, and not unreasonably, that nine years of
the most severe repression had tamed down the
exuberant spirits of French Parliamentary comba-
tants, and reduced them to a state much more
nearly resembling the phlegmatic Englishman than
the lively and excitable Gaul. This, however, like
most of the theories of arbitrary power, is, as events
have shown and as reason could have proved, a very
superficial view of the subject. Men can be kept
silent by the fear of death, of chains, or of deporta-
tation, but the repression which teaches silence does
not inculcate moderation, and political passions burn
only the more fiercely for having been concealed.
The habit of public discussion, of confuting, of being
confuted, of striking and baring your shoulders to
the lash in your turn, has a great effect in modify-
ing the most extravagant prejudices and regulating
the most ungovernable tempers. We in England
have debated upon public affairs till we have hardly
left to ourselves a substantial difference of opinion
to debate about. We have rounded the corners and
planed off the angularities till there is hardly any-
thing left to lay hold of. It is not so in France.
She awakes from her nine years' slumber, like
Nourjahad or Rip van Winkle, apparently uncon-
scious that she has slumbered at all. Nothing has
been learnt—nothing has been forgotten. The old
factions wake up again in all their vigour and in
all their bitterness, and the Tribune resounds with
denunciations as vehement and fierce, and the
Chamber with interruptions as violent and long,
as ever waited on the speeches of Guizot or Lamar-
tine. The political education of the country and
of the Chambers has to be begun again. We
think it is high time that the process should begin,
and therefore sincerely rejoice that the Emperor
has at last opened an academy in which that neces-
sary instruction can be imparted. We would,
however, suggest one improvement in the course of
discipline through which the French Chambers
are to pass. The experience of 600 years of Parlia-
mentary debate has taught us in England that the
true objects of free discussion can only be attained
by a free and lively interchange of the thoughts of
the moment ; never by condemning a deliberative
Assembly to a wearisome succession of written ser-
mons. The sallies of an exuberant fancy or the
vehemence of an over-eager advocacy may be tole-
rated and forgotten, but the cold, dull, elaborate
malignity of a written oration, every phrase of
which has been weighed and every epigram pointed
in the study of the speaker, leaves wounds that no
time can heal and no good nature can forget.
Still, bitter as has been the attack on his person
and his Government, we think the Emperor of the
French has no reason to regret that he has taken
the people into his counsels, and given them the
opportunity of expressing, in the most unreserved
manner, their hopes and their fears, their hatreds
land their predilections, their friendships and their
animosities. Certainly, a great many of the
speeches display neither reason nor moderation.
Facts have been ludicrously misstated, opinions
grotesquely distorted, and everything has been re-
garded through the refracting medium of nine
years of compulsory and burning silence. Yet all
this, we apprehend, has not been without its advan-
tage to the Emperor. With all deference to M.
Prevost Paradol be it recorded, that the " Old
Party," the existence of which he so strenuously
denied, has shown itself in this debate in itsltrue
colours. Orleanist, Legitimist, and Ultramontanist
are blended in one undistinguishable phalanx.
There is no difference to note between them. Re-
ligion, politics, sympathies, and antipathies are all
the same. We might quote their speeches in detail,
but it would be a futile repetition. Nothing but the
name at the beginning of the speech could inform us
whether the orator was a bigot or an unbeliever,,. a
Republican or a disciple of the divine right of lungs.
They have but one cast of countenance, one voice,
one manner, ono thought. There is a monotony
of tony
of hatred, an uniformity of disappointment.
religion is to believe that Christianity must stand
or fall's according as the very worst Government in
Europe is preserved or destroyed. Protestants or
Catholics, they all hold the same language and are
full of the same idea. The Pope is the only guetran-

;

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tee for order in Europe, and his spiritual power
reposes, not on the rock of ages, but on his retention
of a petty and ruined principality. It is only doing
M. Thiers justice to say that the present politics of
the French nation have been formed entirely on his
History of the Consulate and the Empire, probably
the most immoral, anti-social,and the leastveraeions
work that ever issued from the hands of a great his-
torian. The Opposition in the French Senate and
Legislature has drunk too deeply from this impure
source. To tear up the treaties of 1815, to avenge
the defeat of 'Waterloo, to carry her - boundary to
the Rhine, to dominate over the rest of Europe by
an aggressive policy and an overpowering army, to
sow dissensions in Germany, Italy, and Spain, and
co profit by those dissensions in order to extend the
dominion of France over unwilling and uncongenial
nations—these M. Thiers has taught the present
generation of Frenchmen to be the legitimate objects
for the ambition of a great and enlightened people.
But, above all things, the French Opposition appear
to be anxious to involve their country in a struggle
for life or death with England, which desires nothing
more than alliance and friendship. The Emperor is
represented as actuated by the fear of Italian dag-
gers, as meanly truckling to the policy of England,
and false to the true interests of France, be.
cause he has permitted a large and prosperous
kingdom to come into existence on her frontiers.
England is accused of intriguing for Italian
unity under the mask of non-intervention,
and Victor Emmanuel is denounced in lan-
guage rarely indeed employed by the subjects of
one crowned head when speaking of another. The
Emperor is counselled by one to draw close the
ties of alliance with Russia, by another to loci him-
self with the crushing weight of the falling
,colossus
of Austria, and all combine in the Most heartfelt
praise of the discrowned King of Naples whose hands
are yet red from the cruel and useless massacre of
Palermo.

We have no objection to be blamed, we should
feel the greatest disgust at being praised, by such
orators. Their taunts are as much without point
as their menaces are without strength and their
counsels without wisdom. We cannot wonder that
those who counsel France to link her destiny with
an exploded theocracy, to ally herself with all that
is, decrepit, retrograde, bankrupt, feeble, and dis-
reputable among the monarchies of Europe, should
advise her to keep aloof from the alliance of such a
country as England. We cannot wonder that those
who are never weary of promulgating a policy of
the basest selfishness, the meanest jealousy, and the
most sordid cupidity, should select England, which
has no obsolete party interest to serve, and no super-
annuated hatreds to gratify, as the mark of their
impotent rage and pointless denunciations. They
are worthy of their cause, and deserve to live under
a Pope and a King of Naples, rather than under the
existing Government of France. But the Emperor
has no reason to regret that they have shown them-
selves in their true colours. He has proved to the
world that his policy can stand the test of the most
rancorous public attack, and come out all the
brighter from the ordeal. He has shown that he
has no occasion to silence men who have only to
speak freely in order to call down upon themselves
the reprobation of the wise and good of all nations,
and he has probably done much to reconcile France
to his domination by giving her a convincing proof
of the quality of the men from whose hands he has
snatched her, and into whose hands she might pos-
sibly fall again.—Times.