The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-03-19
PUBLISHED EVERY DAY--sUNDAYs ExcEPTED-
Br A. r. HAYES 90.
VIEW oRLEANS.
MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 10, 1s4o

NEW ORsLEANS:
MONDAY MORNING. MARCH 10, 1s4o.
French Finances.
The French budget for 1s49 shows deficit Of
more than forty millions Of dollars; and Ministers
alarmed by this state of the treasury have proposed
to reduce the army and discharge the greater part
Of the Mobile Guard.
Sooner or later the military establishment oil
France must be retrenched II financial conside.
rations do not induce the French to part with the
immense crowd of idle soldiers who line their
frontiers and fill their cities, political reasons will
soon force them to get rid Of the drilled and uni
formed incubus that weighs down all the rising
energies Of their new republican institutions. It
may be hard to give up all the brilliant military
pageants which have so long delighted Paris and
the provinces. 1t may be notifying to annihiIate
that corps with which are SO intimately associated
all the glories of the Consulate and Empire Blu.
this must be done, or else in the course of short
time France will be bankrupt; and worse still, she
will be at the mercy of pretorian cohorts ready 70
elevate to the supreme authority any man who will
pander to their passions and crafty their desires
Let her, however, put down this Descriptions
Briareus that holds in his arms all her fourshing
and fertile her rid herself Of these
drones that live upon the labor of others-and then
may she have prospect not only of supplying her
wants from the income Of her treasury, but also of
carrying out successfully those great social and
political reforms for which she has been SO long
struggling.
1t will be said, however, that France cannot for
moment maintain her Independence without the
vast standing army she at present supports Sur
rounded as she is by numerous and powerful enc
mics, ready and anxious to attack her on the first
sign of weakness on her part, how, it may be
asked, viii she be able to defend herself from the
inroads of her neighbors? For ourselves, we be-
lieye that standing army is not only useless for
the defence of country, but that it is positively
injurious depriving nation of some of that
strength which would otherwise belong to it. After
people have been long accustomed to regard
regular army as the chief means for their protec-
ton, they come in the end to regard it as the sole
means. Hence, the mass Of the nation remain
ignorant of all the latent energies they possess
within themselves, and once let the standing army
be overcome by foreign invaders, the people permit
themselves to be conquered with apathy, or if they
have not yet sunk so low, yield with despair. II
was only after fifteen years of the Consulate and
Empire-ffteen years of exhaustion from foreign
wars and long habit Of looking to the soldiery as
the only means of defence from lnvasion-that the
French permitted the allied army to march into
Paris In the days Of Jemappes and Valmy, in
the days when what little army remained was dis
organized and enfeebled by political dissensons in
the days when those who resisted the invasion of
Brunswick were without shoes, without coats, and
many of them without trousers, the enemies of
France were hurled back from eher borders and
driven ANONYMOUSLY through their own capitals
The ancient statesman was wise when he opposed
the building of walls around his city: 81 would
have my countrymen," said he, depend, not on
walls, but on themselves" It becomes not the
citizens of any country, especially of a proud
country like France, and least Of all the citizens of
a Republic, to look to anything but themselves for
protection from foreign foes When state de-
Ponds chiefly on bands q regular soldiers for its
support and maintenance it is better for the world,
better for its own citizens, that it should cease to
exist. Far, then, from regarding the French army
rs necessary TO the existence Of France we regard
il rs canker corroding her vitals and facilitating
The whole body polite.
But there is another use to which standing ar
mics are sometimes put. When the monarchs of
Europe lost the feudal services of their barons and
|eudal retainer, they supplied their places with
regularly paid officers and soldiers instituting
lode of military morals and military dicipline by
which it was made disgraceful, dshonorable, and
highly criminal for soldier to swerve in the least
rom his allegiance tohis sovereign. With body of
men so instituted and organized, kings hoped to
Ieep in subsection the Inhabitants of their king
Ions; and for more than three hundred years they
ave carried the system through with success The
,reat use OF a standing army with monarchs was
lot to keep foreign invaders from their dominons
,ut to keep their subjects fromrevolution, rebellion
md conspiracy. Now, in a Republic, can this ex-
use be given for maintaining an armys Is it mes.
'essary in Republic, especially in democratic !
tepublic, to pay a large body of men for keeping |
heir fellow-citizens in order! s
It's common saying with sciolists in politics and |
hose who have no opinions save of that stale sort
which has sought refuge in the closets Of college
Professors or the halls of youthful debating clubs,
hat France is not capable Of self-government, and |
hat there must be large standing army to restrain
he French people in those outbursts of passion
which necessarily occur under the present ofeani.
alton Of society. Now it is exactly these standing
rmies which produce and generate those violent
orms Of revolution to which the people on the
ointment Of Europe are in the habit of resorting.
t is the oppression which produces the outbreak I;
here would be no explosion if the energies of the
eople were not cramped and confined. Once let |
he governed see that the governors are afraid of /
rulers depend for their power not on I
moral influences but on the strong arm OF the mill
airy force and the peop2e VIII resort 10 violence To
brow off the bands that fetter them in the free ex-
rcise of their natural and inalienable rights. The
My sure and stable basis of government is justice;
nd justice has no part or parcel in the upholding
strong standing army.
1t requires only little courage and boldness on
no part Of the French Legislation. 70 free them