The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-04-18
Revolutionary Movements.

vo;te the most intense interest among all nations.
The selfish regard it with hatred, the timid shrink
f,o,, If in fear. and the liberal and humane look
unon it with trembling and anxious hope 1t Is not
mere political revolution. No changes in Eu-
ronean governments can be. The evils under
which the people groan, and which arouse them to
effect the subversion of the dominant power, are
social evils-inherent in the very form and growth
of society-and relief can only be hoped for from
reconstruction of the whole social system. And
herein consists the greatness and the glory of these
revolutions but herein also consists their great
danger. dynasty may be overhrown in an hour
the form of government changed in day-but
the reconstruction of the social system, and the
emancipation of a people from the habits, preJu-
dces modes of life and of business which nave
characterized their past existence, Is the work oil
generations.
Republican Government is not all that the Peo-
pie demand. Liberty will not suffice Liberty
and Equality were the watchwords OF the iirsl-
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" are those Oh
the third French Revolution. These Woras aio
not mere popular cries-they have meaiiiils-'o
the peope who use them a deep and intense Aieaii-
ing The inequality of condition between VIC
noble and the peasant-between the capitallst ana
the laborer, by reason of which the one Is placed
in the endowment of all the pleasures, lu1urles, and
mowers of life, while the other Is subjected to an
existence of unremittng toll and suffering, covered
with rags and daily threatened with starvation
this inequality is the goad by which the masses are
urged on to revolutions-and it is this inequality
which they desire to terminate, and not mere sys-
tenn of theoretical liberty which they labor to estab-
lsh But with the desire of improvement, the
knowledge of the means to obtain it does not always
come The first exertion of the people is to throw
off its government. This, under the circumstances,
was we'll and wisely done for, if the government
had not caused all the grievances of which they
complained, it was the creation OF the system by
which they had been generated, and served to per-
petuate, and in some degree to aggravate them
The overturn of the kingly power was, therefore,
the first step to regeneration. The great danger Is
that the second step may be taken in the wrong
direction. The state of tutellage under which the
nations have been kept by their rulers, has accus-
toned the people to attribute all ill, and to expect
all good, from the government. They have no
knowledge-no selfreiance-no confidence In their
own exertions-no patience to wait for the slow
developments of time and labor. Monarchy, with
them, was but another name for suffering, want,
and degradation From Repubcanism, they ex-
pect that all these things will be suddenly changed,
and the system of Liberty, Equality, and Frater-
nifty" be at once established. Nor is this the feel
ing only of the laborng classes: it is encouraged
and participated in by those who are, aspire to
be, leaders. 1t is the result of bad training-the
necessary consequence of ages of bad government,
in which the ruling power took the regulation OF
every thing into its own hands, and left nothing for
,J,n hi of fha
Acting under the influence of these prejudices,
we perceive with regret that many OF the leading
members of the French Provisional Government
are encouraging expectations on the part OF the
people that can be realized and are fostering
hopes which must terminate in disappointment,
and may give rise to disturbance and bloodshed
That the Government should have taken into con-
sideraton the condition of the laborng classes,
was right and proper it was thing absolutely
demanded. But that it should attempt, by direct
ecrees to fix the hours of labor, the rate of wages,
the price of food or to furnish all the unemployed
with work in national workshops, was but to con-
tnue the kingly system of interference with the
laws of nature interference in an opposite dlrec-
ton, it may be, but equally perncious In It's mme-
diate and remote consequences But this mterfe-
renee has not been confined to labor alone-lt has
been extended to every branch of trade and COM
MERGE; and from the payment of mercantile bill,
to the control of the Bank of France, the agency
of the Government seems to be looked Tor by the
people, and granted by the Ministers.
| Herein as we said before, is the danger of the
| revolution. The present generation of Europe
| cannot be made to understand what is adopted as
an axiom of American politics, that the best Go
yernment is that which governs least" that the
evils of despotic rule lie principally In the con-
slant and pervading action of the Government
upon all the empoyments and interests of society
thus preventing the natural and gradual develop
ment of the feelings and faculties of man, and set
ting up, in place of the great laws of Nature, the
will or caprice of Natures meanest productions !;
and that the true end of political revolutions is to
relieve humanity from this extra load of legisla-
ton; to abolish monopoies and exterminate privi-
eges; and to leave the individual the utmost free
dom of action, in order that society itself might
work out the problem of its own best mode of ex-
stence. If the people and their leaders could but
comprehend this simple doctrine, then would the
present revolution be the greatest event OF modern
times. 1t would be the beginning of that social
reform for which all are anxious, and which,
sooner or later must certainly be realized But
it, on the contrary, the notions which appear to be
prevalent at the present moment in Paris shall OBJ
tain the ascendancy throughout France if the
National Convention attempt to change the forms
and relations of society by arbitrary laws; if they
follow in the footsteps of their predecessors of
1923; legislate upon every thing, from the
dogmas of a creed to the shape of a cap, or the
price of a loaf of bread then, though we shall
al hai,,r do aI frprt th,
turmoil and confusion. yet we shall expect to see
years wasted to but little effect.
We shall closely watch the working OF this great
experiment, and endeavor to keep our readers APP
prised of its progress not merely of the outward
events, which all can see, but of those deeds and
doctrines which strike tie senses with less force,
but which reveal the spirit and indicate the fate,
of the whole movement. By simply casting OFT
what is bad in her present system, France may
begin a career as Nation, to which all her past
history would be Insignificant: and her people, in