The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-07 00:00:00

SPEECH OF LOUIS NAPOLEON.

The Legislative Chambers were opened on Thurs.
day at the Tuilleries, in the Hall of the Marshals,
by the Emperor Louis Napoleon in person, who said:

MM. les Senatenrs, MM. les Deputes,
Since your last session two questions, you are aware,
have occupied the attention of the country—the insuffi-
ciency of the last harvest, and external difficulties. But
these two questions, I hasten to inform you, alre►dy occa-
sion much less fear, because, in spite of their serious cha-
racter, we can ascertain their extent and their limits.
The scarcity of the harvest has been estimated at about
ten millions of hectolitres of grain, representing an amount
of nearly 300 millions of francs, and the lading of 4,000
vessels. Could the government undertake to purchase
these ten millions of hectolitres on all points of the globe,
and come and sell them afterwards in all the markets of
France ? Experience and prudence showed that such a
measure would have been attended with almost insur-
mountable embarrassment, and inconvenience and dan-
gers without number. Commerce alone possessed financial
and material means for so great an operation. The go-
vernment has, therefore, done the only thing practicable ;
it has encouraged the liberty of private operations by
freeing the corn trade from all obstacles. The high price
of an article so necessary for the general subsistence is, no
doubt, a calamity ; but it was not possible, nor even de-
, sirable, entirely to evade it. For if the price of corn had
been lower in 'France than in neighbouring countries,
foreign markets would have been supplied at the expense
of ours. This state of things must nevertheless have pro-
duced a state of uneasiness which could only be combated
by activity of labour, or by public charity. The govern-
ment, therefore, endeavoured to open, from the commence-
ment of the year, credits which, exceeding by some
millions only the resources of the budget, will, with the
co-operation of the communes and companies, give rise to
a mass of works estimated at nearly 400,000,000, without
counting the 2,000,000 applied by the Minister of the In-
terior to beneficent establishments. At the same time

the general and municipal councils and private charity
made the most praiseworthy sacrifices to alleviate the
sufferings of the poorer classes. I recommend particu-
larly to your attention the system adopted by the city of
Paris, or if it be extended, as I hope, throughout France,
it will henceforth prevent, in respect to the value of corn,
those extreme variations which, in times of abundance,
cause agriculture to languish, in consequence of the low
price of corn, and in times of scarcity occasion sufferings
to the poorer classes by an excessive dearness. That
system consists in creating, in all the great centres of the
population, an institution of credit, known as the Bakers'
Bank (la Caisse de Boulangerie), which may give, during
the months of a bad year, bread at a price much less than
the ordinary averages, on the condition of paying a little

dearer in years of abundance. These last being, in ge-
neral, more numerous, it is understood that the compen-
sation can be effected easily. The immense advantage is
also obtained of founding companies which, in place of
gaining in proportion as bread is dearer, are interested,
as all are, in its becoming cheap ; inasmuch as, contrary
to what is the case at the present moment, they will obtain
profits in seasons of plenty, and loss in those of scarcity.
I am now happy to announce to you that 7,000,000 of
hectolitres of foreign wheat have been already delivered
for consumption, independent of the quantity on its way
and in bond, and that thus the most difficult period of the
crisis is past. There is one remarkable fact which has
deeply affected me. During this severe winter not an
accusation has been made against the government, and
the people have endured sufferings with resignation,
which they, were so just as to attribute to circumstances
alone ;—a new proof of their confidence in me, and of
their conviction that their welfare is, above all, the object
of my constant attention. But, scarcity hardly at an end,
war commences.
I promised in my opening speech last year to make
every effort to maintain peace, and to reassure Europe.
I have kept my word. I have, in order to avoid a contact,
gone as far as honour could permit me. Europe now
knows, and has no doubt of the fact, that if France
draws the sword it is because she has been compelled to
do so. It knows that France has no idea of aggrandise-
ment ; and that she only wishes to resist dangerous
encroachments ; and for that reason I desire to proclaim
loudly that the period for conquest is passed, never to
return ; for it is not by extending the limits of its terri-
tory that a nation can henceforth be honoured and
powerful ; it is by placing herself at the head of generous
ideas, and by establishing everywhere the empire of law
and justice. Thus you see the result of a policy devoid of
selfishness and reservation ! Behold England, that ancient
rival, which is every day drawing closer the bonds of a
more intimate alliance, because the principles which we

defend are at the same time those of English people.
Germany, which the recollection of old wars rendered mis-
trustful, and which, for that reason gave for the last forty
years, perhaps, too many proofs of deference to the policy of
the cabinet of St. Petersburgh, has already recovered her
independence of action, and looks freely to which side her
interests are to be found. Austria, particularly, which
cannot see with indifference the events which are pre-
paring, will enter into our alliance, and will thus confirm
the character of morality and of justice of the war which
we are about to undertake.

The state of the question is precisely this :—Europe, oc-
cupied with internal struggles since 40 years, reassured,
moreover, by the moderation of the Emperor Alexander,
in 1815, as by that of his successor, down to the present
day, appeared not to be aware of the danger that might
menace it on the part of the colossal power which, by its
successive invasions, embraces the north and the centre,
which almost exclusively possesses two inland seas, from
which it is easy for its armies and its fleets to throw them-
selves upon our civilisation. An ill-founded claim (prßen-
lion) at Constantinople sufficed to arouse slumbering
Europe.
We have, in fact, beheld in the East, in the midst of
profound peace, a sovereign exact suddenly, from his
weaker neighbour, new advantages, and because he did not
obtain them,.invade two of his provinces.
This fact alone would place arms in the hands of those
whom iniquity revolts ; but we have other reasons to sup-
port Turkey. France has as much, and perhaps more, in-
terest at stake than England to prevent the extension of
the influence of Russia indefinitely over Constantinople,
for to reign at Constantinople is to command the Medi-
terranean, and not one of you, gentleman, I think, will
say that England alone has interests in that sea which
washes 300 leagues of our shores. Moreover, this policy
does not date from yesterday. For centuries every national
government in France has maintained it.. I shall not
abandon it. Let men then no more say, "What are you
going to do at Constantinople ?" We are going there with
England to defend the cause of the Sultan, and, neverthe-
less, to protect the rights of the Christians. We go there
to protect the freedom of the seas and our just influence
in the Mediterranean. We go there with Germany to as-
sist it in maintaining the rank of which it seemed an at-
tempt was made to deprive it—to make sure its frontiers
against the invasions of a too-powerful neighbour. We go
there, finally, with all those who desire the triumph of
right, of justice, and of civilisation.
In this solemn circumstance, gentlemen, as in all those
in which I am obliged to make an appeal to the country,
I am sure of your support, for I have always found in you
the generous sentiments which animate the nation.
Therefore, strong in that support, in the nobility of the
cause, in the sincerity of our allies, and confiding especially
in the protection.of God, I hope shortly to obtain a peace
which it will not be in the power of any one to trouble
with impunity.