New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-06-18
The Political State Of France.

The condition of France is now more than
ever the key to the issues of European pol
tics. We have lately had occasion to say
that the promise of things there is altogether
favorable to the popular cause. We now
attempt to show what are the causes and
powers which will bring about the result
we anticipate. These causes are cOmpli-
Gated and date back at least as far as the
revolution of February
That revolution was no halfway affair
The Monarchy it completely broke in
pieces and flung away not a single bay
onet was longer found to support it. The
Republic entered into possession of the en-
tire organized power of State of thirty
six million souls And now to-day the foes
of the Republic again sit in all official sta
tons. the majority of its Legislature are de-
clared Royahsts, its President is an lmpe-
rialist pretendant And this utter change
is the product of unlimited, Universal Suf-
frage
The causes which have done this are not
difficult to discover. The victory of Feb
ruary was won by coalition between diff
ferent classes of society, namely, the labor
ers and the lower beurgeOiSie. In the eX-
citement of the crisis this coalition was
completed and proclaimed in terms by
which the one party meant little or nothing,
the other much or everything, while there
was still between them no actual point of
positive, material union. As this fact ap-
peared, the coalition fell into dissolution,
and with it the victory it had conquered.
The words Freedom and Equality, which
were adopted in the motto of the Republic,
were universally Ineligible, especially the
latter in its meaning of equality of political
rights But it was not for these things that
the workmeR had poured out their blood at
the barricades The rights they fought for
were mainly Social or Economic. To meet
their claims the declaration was put forth
that the future Republic should be surround
ed by " Social Institutions" and Fraternity
was inaugurated along with Freedom and
Equality among its fundamental aims; and
along with this the Right To Labor was
formally guaranteed But what are Social
Institutions And how Is Fraternity 10 be
established by the State These promises,
il must be admitted, were of a vague char
acter The Right to Labor seems more
definite, vet was indefinite enough TO embody
the antagoniSm which in the Battle of June
ragged with such unequaled bitterness.
Every revolution is expensive, from the
SIagnatiOn of industry and commerce, the
suspension of labor and the creation OF
extraordinary agencies for the new state OF
things. Who paid the cost Of the French
Revolution of February ! Was it the con-
quered, according to the rule of warfare
Was 1t the mOnied arlStocracy of Louis
Philippe, who for eighteen years had plum
dered the State, aided by the other classes
of the higher b0urgeoisie, who, in spite OF
their reverence for the monarchy, had ever
sought to put themselves in its place No,
all these parties were treated with the ten
dereSt consideration, while the burdens of
the struggle were piled upon the victors
and on the peasants of the country. Even
before the legal day the Provisional Gov
eminent paid the creditors of the State the
interest on the various public debts. The
expense Of this act OF complaisance to-
ward the higher commercial and financial
circles, was borne by workmen, servants, and
small citizens.
1t was at these poorer classes that the