Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-04-08
THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.


attention of our readers 10 certain views Of the late
Revolt OF the People Of Paris.
Within that short space of time, the news tina
has reached us from the Provinces as well as from
Paris itself leaves no doubt of the completeness o.
the Revolution; Of the overthrow oil the Consll
tutonal Government of France, and the substitution
from the necessity of the case-such as knows nc
law-of self-constituted Directory, or Provisional
Government consisting of eleven individuals, OF 2
more respectable class and character than was Ike
ly to be thrown up 10 the surface OF the tempest
tossed multitude of a city so populous as Parls. Inc
authority of this Provisional Government has been
recognised or submitted to by the body OF the People
of France and, emanating as It does from the spon-
taneous acclaim of mass OF people who had oui
lust thrown off government of law, makes more
respectable and effective government de facfo, than
under all circumstances, one could have had any
right to expect
The decree for the call of Convention, to be
elected on the 9th and TO assemble on the 20th OF
the present month, shows that those who compose
the Provisional Government have no design to re-
tain longer than necessary their accidental trust
but intend to resign the power thus acquired INTO
the hands of the Convention, soon as 1t is organ
lied. This is, under the circumstances the wlsest
and best thing which the Provisional Government
could have done. II has thus done towards the re-
establishment of regular government in France all
that il could do.
We cannot say as much for the wisdom and fore
cast of all the other DEGREES of this Council OF Ele-
ven. There are several of them which, forced by
circumstances upon the Directory, are OF evil por-
tent for what is yet to come. The DEGREES TO which
we refer it is not necessary to particuarize. The
readers Of this paper will need no guide to them.
Il is enough for us to say that some of them are
repugnant 10 every idea of the reign Of law, and
that others Of them give room TO apprehend the
entire ascendency Of embodied popular force over
the obligations of political justice and moral law,
by which, if free to act, the Directory would pro-
badly have been governed. Whenever and where
ever the passions OF the people, on the impulse OF
the moment, are allowed to control and master the
sense and judgment Of those who have become, no
matter by what process, the recognised government,
that government temporary though it be, is already
shaken, and in danger of falling before lis time. II
is no longer government but the slave Of the popu
lace Such, il is obvious, is the only way Of account
ing for several Of the DEGREES. The demands of
the People, thus in part complied with, in part evad-
ed, and in part postponed, so far from being u1-
natural, were such every reasoning man must
have foreseen TO be inevitable. 1t was this fore
sight which obliged US, upon the first news from
Paris to regard with distrust the sudden overturn
of established Government, TO which disorder,
usurpation, and renewed tumults must almost IN
evitably succeed. We knew that Nj. LANARTINE
himself, probably honest though visionary man
had, not many months ago, in public address de-
livered at Marseilles, declared the first duty OF all
Government to be to educate the people, and It's
next duty TO feed them, or provide them with food
The men of Paris, every one Of whom is, by the
DEGREES Of the Provisional Government Magis-
trate, every one of whom is National Guard
clothed at the National expense, to keep his arms
in his hands until he works out the problem OF
liberty, have already, by virtue Of their sovereign
will, obliged the persons who compose the Provi-
sional Government TO legislate upon their own
maxims. The bakers shops, thrown wideopen, sup
ply the popuace with bread, and the Government
pays for il property pawned for money at the au-
thorized pawnbrokers is ordered TO be returned to
its owners, and the money due upon the pawns to
be paid out OF the Public Treasury. By another
decree the hours of daily labor abridged ma
tional workshops opened for those who are out
of employ, who are to be paid for such work out
of the Treasury. Further largesses will, it is pre-
sumed, be conceded to the clsmors of the multitude
until the Public Treasury is exhausted, when, un
less means be in time provided by regularly or
ganized government to replensh it the want 0
food and Of the means Of indulgence may invov,
Paris in the tumult Of a new revolution TO end il
the rule Of pew men, and possibly in horrors tn
very thought Of which almost blinds us as we write
To many Of our readers any allusion here to tn
History Of the first great Revolution Of France
may appear in the light OF a twice-told tale. II
at least onc-half Of them, nevertheless, much Of il
history is absolutely new. They have heard Of il
and read Of it. as struggle Of long duration be
tween the People and the Monarch first, and after
wards between successive Notwithstanding in tn
establishment Of gorgeous Empire, which for
season dazzled the Nations of the earth with il
power, lis gorgeous splendors, and its magnifcen
military expoits-but last, becoming the victim o
its ambition, the prey Of lis conquests, receive'
laws from those to whom il had but lately dictates