The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-21 00:00:00

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TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 21, 1848.

ME position to which the new Republic of
France has already been brought by the insane

riovisional goVernment deserves
the very serious consideration of the few parties in
this country, who are hardy enough to proclaim
their sympathy with the revolutionary principle ;
and by those, especially in the sister island, who
look forward to the achievement of political ends
through the medium of popular outbreak and vio-
We witnessed, the other day, in a country,
whose people boast of superior enlightenment, the
spectacle of a dynasty overturned, the whole social
fabric of a great kingdom torn in pieces, and its
reconstruction and the adoption of a new system of
government entrusted to the hands of a few noisy
demagogues—poets, feuilletonists, and philosophers
—at the dictation of a mob of dissatisfied work-
men, idle and disorderly youths and confirmed
reprobates of both sexes. The respectable classes
of the French people, willing to be rid, by any
means, of the Orleans family, either stood aloof or
fraternized with the rabble. The National Guards
submitted to be dragged along with the move-
ment ; and the army, having no leaders and no
party to rally round, looked on in amazement and
inaction. The change from a well-ordered state of
society to anarchy was the work of a few hours. A
powerful monarchical system, which it had been
the work of eighteen years to consolidate, melted
like frostwork in the sun ; and the world was in-
vited to contemplate with admiration the halcyon
spring upon which the French Nation had just
entered, and to join in Pceans of laudation of the
exemplary forbearance, moderation, and patriotism
of those by whom the great work of Liberty (!) has
been consummated.

sures of its

Forthwith commenced the farcical attempts of
the heaven-born statesmen, selected by mob intelli-
gence to repair all the evils of past misrule, to
grapple with every sort of legislative and social
difficulty, and to construct a millenium on the soil
of France. Deputations of workpeople, of semp-
stresses, orange-venders, shopkeepers, and of every
class and description, waited in turns upon the
provisional committee, at the Hotel de Ville, to
state their several grievances; and each came away
with the assurance of their prompt redress. Work
was to be found for every man, at good wages ;
trade was to be flourishing, more abundant, and
universal contentment and prosperity were to be
secured for all. Unhappily, however, it has been
discovered too late that it is easier to make such
promises than to fulfil them.
Sensible and prudent men who had anything to
lose, distrusted, from the first, the flattering aspect
of affairs, and began to provide for sounding a
retreat from amongst materials which had recently
exhibited such a large susceptibility of ignition.
Strangers of every nation packed up their trunks,
parted with carriages, servants, furniture, &c., and
started off for more safe quarters. Tradesmen,
manufacturers, and merchants. began to contract
their engagements, to reduce the number of their
workpeople, and bring their establishments within
a narrower compass; and Paris, so recently thronged
with gaiety, full of active life, busy industry and
art, became quiet indeed—still as a deserted city.
The rattling of carriages no longer enlivened its
eplendid streets and boulevards. Beauty and fashion
no longer filled its saloons, its hotels, and its shops ;
its theatres were empty, its workshops deserted.
Money had ceased to circulate. Confidence between
man and man had departed. The fountain which
had supplied vitality to the roots of the tree was
driel up at its springs.
But that confidence would be speedily re-esta-
blished, it was said. There was still wealth suffi-
cient amongst the patriotic portion of the commu-
nity, ready to be devoted to the support of industry,
ready to fill up the vacuum created by the absence
of those votaries of fashion and of pleasure who had
contributed so largely to the employment of indus-
try. The events of the past week have dissipated
this last anticipation. One after another capitalists
of the French metropolis have been compelled to
yield beneath the pressure of the crisis; and, at
length, the Bank of France itself has been compelled
to cease meeting its engagements, and the Provi-
sional Government to decree in its behalf that its
notes—its paper promises—shall henceforth be
French money ! Sunk over head and ears in debt;
unable to contract loans on the sorry security they
have to offer; without a franc in their treasury to
pay the employes upon their public works, the
philosophers who are at the head of affairs find
themselves suddenly embarrassed for want of the
means to fulfil one tithe of the flattering promises
which they have made, and have only the last des-
perate resource left them to call in, to take pos-
pession of their places and duties, a still more
desperate set of men—a class who will not hesitate
to endeavour, at least, to fill the national treasury
by the sack of Europe. The departments are urged,
almost compulsorily, to return, at the coming elec-
tions, a national assembly comdosed of such per-
sons as may most readily be depended upon for
violent and ultra councils ; and it is scarcely sought
to he concealed that the sole hope of the Republic
is now based upon the result of a collision with
whatever power shall first offend against its ma-
jestic pretensions.

We are not about to speculate upon the possible
issue of this state of things, so far as either the
world at large or our own country is concerned.
We must candidly confess ourselves incapable of
determining a question which is susceptible of being
influenced by such a variety of circumstances,
whose solution, in fact, is about as great a difficulty
as it would be to tell from what quarter the snow
of next Christmas will come. Our object here is
to ask of the honest English artizan, and of the
Irish labourer and peasant, who allow themselves
to be led blindfold by frothy and deceitful dema-
gogues, to view with us the present and prospective
condition of these recent heroes of the French revo-
lution. Trace that pale-faced artizan, who has just
faced death from the musket and the bayonet, and,
perhaps,virtuouslyrejected opportunities of enriching
himself with the spoil of palaces, to his ill-furnished
apartments, and his squalid wife and children in some
obscure attic or third floor in the faubourgs. He is
the citizen of a free republic. His mind is full of all
the hopes which have been so abundantly dissemi-
nated amongst his class. He has secured the elec-
tive franchise ; and has, moreover, the assurance,
made by philosophers, that henceforth the toil of
ten hours per day will secure him an adequate
provision for the support of those dependent upon
him. " A bas les Bourbons !"—" Vive la Repub-
lique 1"—" Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite !"—are still
ringing in his ears. But a more moving cry has
to reach them—the cry of his children for bread.
Will that be appeased, for any length of time, by
the display of the tricoloured ribbon which he has
worn on his breast—by the honour which he has
gained—by the forbearance and honesty upon
which he has just been complimented ? No ; by
none of these. But to-morrow, he flatters himself,
the millenium is to come. The provisional philo-
sophers are to achieve miracles. Yet " to-morrow,
and to-morrow, and to-morrow" see him and his
only sinking into their graves, victims of hunger
end " hope deferred," or driven to utter despera-
'' 4- he has been acting

Lion by

e cons

the part of a fool or a madman
The picture of this poe
of being contemplat_
suffering classes of this kir
pily, there are few to wls

betrayed class is worthy
ted upon by the
tdom; although, hap-

tect and rei

Is to be held tip