The southern press., 1851-08-26

unwise administrators OF the affairs Of the couL
= try thought the people would become too happ
y to have the regulations of trade secured us pei
manentIy as it is ia Europe, where no state G
o affairs in time of peace prevents the bona il
n merchant from realizing cash for his paper 0
. produce at triiiing per centagc over the lega
rates" g
Q t=g- The following letter from the pen o
W. M. CoRRy, of Cincinnati who passed som
b time in France, is worthy of the heart that die
Q tated it, and the good sense and observativ'
character Of the man. I4 ts4
: We remark upon it with the greater pleasure
because it is truthfal representation of the
French people. In no country are those gen
erous and honorable feelings, which do credit t.
humanity, more conspicuous No traveller car
J fail to be struck with it. And man must bs
singularly imbued with pre-conceived prejudices
who couli pass even short period in any part
n of that country, without seeing and rejoicing in
its progress in the highest civilization.
\ The upper classes still retain many of the
vices peculiar to their position aggravated by
rage at the progress and prosperity of the
middle and working classes that manifests itself
at every turn. But the people have been singu-
larly changed by the influence of their fair laws
which have existed since the revolution. They
are no longer depraved or vitiated by aristo-
cratic tyranny. Hence, in the two revolutions
of 1880 and '48, their conduct was one of con-
ciliation and generosity, as the events them
selves proved.
The HUMANITY OF THE FRENCH PEopLE.-
Among the prominent abuse of the French peo-
pie by Engsh writer's, whose opinions prevail
here, is the charge that there ia no humanity in
France. We need not retort that charge, with
all its terrible emphasis arisin out of the daily
history Of Eng'a and the cold and wholesale
determination of the human race in ireland and
India. The retort would be overwhelming, so
far as the accuser is concerned, for his mouth
would be shut; but the accused is entitled to a
defence. The French people are not sanguinary,
on the contrary they are humane. No one can
deny, that at the period Of their old revolution
OF l7S9 there was a prodigious shedding Of
blood; but it was not comparable in extent to
many catastrophes brought about by monarchs
in the different ages of the world. BY them,
the human race has been made to fulfil thous-
and times the dread picture of the despot Of
Argos, into whose mouth Sergeant Talfourd
puts the speech which describes the people
''As the common herd,
The vassals of our ancient house, the mass
OF bones and muscles formed to till the soil
A few brief years, then rot unnamed beneath IT.;
Or, decked for slaughter at their masters call,
To smIte and be smitten, and lie crushed
In heaps to swell his glory or his shame"
Ion .4ci g: Scene /.
So do now the ferocious tyrants who have
slaughtered on their own soil bv trcachery as
often as by force the generous spirits of Hun
gary, Germany and Italy, regard mankind
| That is the estimate of it formed by Nicholas
Joseph and Frederic; by their creatures and
prime minister's, worthy only of Pandemonum,
Nessselrode, Swartzenburg, and Manteufel.
/ They have acted and do now, and are preparing
for further action, on the old hypothesis. And
their action has frequently been most unpro-
voked and unnecessary. Their foolish wars,
external or internal. have been often without
cause, and contrary to justice. They have been
begun and prosecuted for the qualification of
pique, pride, at the instgation of mistress or
favorite and therefore with most inadequate mo-
tive and basest origin. Again, these wars invov-
ing determinations of instruments as we'll AZ op-
ponents, by myriads, have been inflamed by hos
tty to the most noble aspiration of the heart
the desire to better human condition, and have
| been waged without mercy, truce or discrlmina-
tion, against the struggling democracy of each
succeeding generation On such shrines roy
atty has offered up mankind, and fed the rivers
and the ocean with their blood. But the old
| French revolution was precisely no war Of con-
quest or pride. 1t was the struggle of a great
people to be free. 1t was, let it not be forgot
ten, struggle in imitation of our own then
recent and glorious example. The revolution
which freed us from the intoerable allegiance TO
England was singal to France for the over
throw of her tyrants. II was prompted by the
same definite object IL was n battle for the
inestimabe reward of self-government and for
| the construction of free institutions upon the
reluctant soil of Europe. But it was even more
than this; the authors Of the overthrow of the
throne in France had assisted us in America,
and the crisis of the campaign of 1881 was pas
sed by French succor on sea and land; the
surrender at Yorktown was surrender to the
generals of the united armies of the United
States and France. After that victorious day,
Lafayette and his countrymen went home, and
spread the seed and reaped the fruit of repub-
lican institutions. Under these explanations
no American should fail to do justice to the
French people, even with respect to the old re-
voIution, tragedy which has exhausted the
materials Of description and exaggeration in the
hands Of native and foreign artists IA tragedy
to which England especially has thousand
times returned for topics of reproach, and on
which she fingers with illdisguised satisfac-
ton.
When we Americans remember the dreadful
oppression of the French people of that day, we
can estimate the evaporation of all classes below
the MOBILES and clergy. These owed two-thirds
of the land of France and paid almost no taxes,
which were enormous, and thrown on the other
third Of the land, and the mass of the people |
The psmpered higher orders tyrannized in every
manner over the lower, and seduced and de-
bauched every young person ofuncommon mind
or benuty II contained. BY their example, they
inflicted almost as much injury on the people |
as by these aggressions, for the court and church
were alike hideous receptaces of the worst men
and omen, whose individual promotion above
the mass of crimes and vices composing socierty,
depended on their progress in the infamous art
Of physical, mental and moral prostitution In