New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-07-29

in the meekness and forbearence OF our
People. 1t is found in that grand safety
valve of public disaffection, Popular Suffrage
Our people, when deeply incensed or
alarmed at the policy of their rulers, forbear
resort to the musket because they have faith
in the ballot. They inwardly say, "Les
them 20 on in their evil way; the worse
'they behave, the more sure is their down
fall at the next election" So they pa
tiently bide their time: And SO Popular
Suffrage precludes Popular Instruction,
and is of all human institutions most con-
eeryatiye Of Peace, Order and the Suprema-
cy Of Law. When we have at times seemed
verging on civil war las in the case OF
Rhode Island in 1929 Restriction OF
Suffrage was the origin, and continued 10
be the pretext after it had ceased to be the
cause of the outbreak; and the only insur-
rections which have resulted in loss Of life
were Slave Instructions at the South-in-
surrections, namely, of the class utterly ex-
cluded from Political Franchises. Had all
men been made voters by the War of Inde-
pendepce, as they should have been, there
would have been no drop Of blood shed
since in civil feud from one end of the land
to the other.
Yet in the face Of these and kindred
facts the ruling powers in France, them
selves chosen by Universal Suffrage, have
rushed upon the fearful experiment of de-
priying six-tenths of the voters by whom
they were chosen, of any legal right to vote
hereafter 1t is scarcely year since the
organs of the Middle Glass were exulting
over the utter absence Of Democratic sentl-
ment among the French masses-asSerting
that France was "a Republic devoid Of Re
publicaps.' But now the Republicans are
so numerous that the combined partisans Of
all the royal dynasties and all the aristocra-
cies dare not meet them again at the polls
to avoid it they rush on the fearful expert
ment of depriviDg six tenths Of the Nation
of all voice in the choice Of their rulers or
in the shaping Of the National policy. The
result cannot be doubtful. Secret meetings
and societies, conspiracies and plots, by
and-by to end in barricadeS and deadly vol
legs of musketry-such are the issues to
which France is now tending. Taxation
must be enormous, to support an army Of
10000 men required to keep down An
archy and preserve Order which latter,
after all, is very badly preserved.
Will rulers never grow wiser? The vast
Army stationed in and about Paris is of
course composed of men, and mainly of men
disfranchised by the new Electoral Law
The associates and kindred Of the soldiers
have been disfranchised with them. Mill
tary discipline and maxims 60 great way
with soldiers, but they cannot be always re-
lied on, as the conduct Of the troops in the
revolutions of 1880 and '4S has demonstrate
ed. When the People shall rise in their
might to demand restoration of their Right
of Suffrage, the disfranchised soldiers will
not shoot them down for so doing.
We apprehend, therefore, that a new Rev.
olution in France cannot be many years dis
tant, and that, once again successful, the
sYindled Millions will not be SO forbearing
and magnanimous as they were in 1880 and
again in lS4S. Should our apprehensions
of a sanguinary triumph of Universal Suf-
frage be realized, let the prOvocatiOns and
tuferings of the disfranchised Millions be
remembered, and not their vengeance alone.
And let the great truth of the eminent con-
servatism of Universal Suffrage be every
where proclaimed and insisted on. In an
age, when venerable institutions and powers
are rocking in the tornado of emancipated
thought, the broadcast possible basis is none
too bread for whatever affects vitality the de-
yelopment and happiness of Man.