The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-06-14
The French Republic.

We read, the other day, a rather sem
sible little book written by the ex-Minister
Guizot, of France, on the subject of French
Democracy. Guizot, although a royalist,
has some rather more sensible notions of
Democracy than any other Frenchman we
know of; for although The French have been
talking and writing and fighting about De-
mocracy ever since we can remember, not
one, even of their philosophers ever seemed
to comprehend it. Here, where republics
seem to grow up ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS we
lay off few hundred miles square of will
derness upon the map and plant in it a re-
public, with as much certainty of its growth
and prosperity as if we had planted mr.
Isery. it seems strange that failures in the
experiment of republicanism should he the
uniform result in France. The French
make a great mistake in associating Buona-
parte or any of that sort Of men with their
ideas of republicanism. Buonaparte was
anything else rather than republican. He
never drew an unselfsh breath. Self, and
not the welfare of the masses, was the centre
around which moved all the mighty exer-
tons of his life. The same selfish ambi-
ton seems to govern Louis Buonaparte.
1t is what the French people ought to have
expec ed. There is much in the breeds of
men-of families. Could dove be eXpec-
ted to be Matched from an egg taken out of
the eagles nest' As one of our cotempor-
aries says
"Every thing seems to Indicate that the
Prince President is treadng in the steps of
his uAcle, and acting in full expectation and
preparation for a change from the Presiden-
cy to the Imperial diadem of France; and
that his Ministers and the majority of the
Assembly are acting with him in view Of
the same expected conversion. The vulture
has killed the eagle; the Red Republic has
destroyed the real republic of France; the
people seem looking compaceDtly if not
with desire to a restoration--the Imperial
restoration-in which the pride of Liberty
may be battered for peace, prosperity, and
certain protection from the red-handcd phi
lanthropists and robber philosophers-th
new-fapgled Murats andAnarcharsis ClootZ-
es Of the day-whO have done so much to
injure the republican cause in Europe. 1t
is the light air that makes the low barome-
ter, and as the air of the continent has been
over-filled with the vapor Of mems iollies,
the column sinks, and the clouds gather
thick and fast.
Sis republicansm, then, plant that cam
not, after all, flourish in European soil? Ii
has, at least, maintained itself amid the gla-
ciers of the Swiss Alps for five hundred
years, and thrice as long, nearly, on the SOL
itary Italian hill of San Marino, and in the
hollow vale of Andorra amid the wild depths
of the Pyrennean mountains. The soil is
good and the season propitous. 1t is the
huSbandmen only, or those that assume to
direct their labors, who are in fault. The
seed OF the serpent's teeth produced in
Europe, as elsewhere, the usual crops of
armed men, ready to be organized into har-
mOnlOus communities, or driven 10y stones
cast among them, to turn their swords upon
each other. This, however. is not an evil
that can last forever. Experience is gained
by disaster, and the popular mind is inform
ed by failure. If despotism rises again, it
risas enteebled. Liberalism is checked, but
does not die. All the thrones of Europe
may be restored, but it will be only for
time. Constitutonaiism, at least, is inevi-
table; and in that is the leaven and awaken
ing principle of the freedom to which civil
lied men will aspire until it is at last firmly
and fully enjoyed"