The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-07-08


eccentric clumsnsss in his own domestic arrange
mehts.
IL is admitted on all hands that it would be an act
OF gross injustice and violence 10 remove
poudent from France except for positive mis-stste-
ms mt or wiiful distortion Of facts Even the Frenoh
police will doubtless allow that the unfaverable toaor
Of hio reports would not in itself justify pulson
unless those reports were untructhough. Of course.
the standard OF truth received in do Maapas
Office nay be expected to be peculiar IT. then, he
be meEacod with the penalty due only to flsehood.
be has right, derived from the universal prnoi-
pies Of justice" to be acquainted with the specific
instances Of misrepresentation which arc laid to his
charge That right was at asserted by our cor-
respondents and he was thereupon referred to meta
phor in leading article. The metaphor, however,
was one which might be applied with equal prop,ioty
and with as little 0ensiyeness TO Lord Derby and pro-
tection and the article in which occurred did ps
has been insinuated contain recitals Of
fact, but simply expressed our astonishment that,
considering the antecedents Of Louis Napoleon, he
should think il worth while to bind the members Of
the public service by an oath. Now, is it credible
that, misstatements were really imputable to
correspondent, the example cited would have been
such as this! Is il not clear that it merely M.
Dumoulin's sense Of logical propriety which die
tated the hint Of falsenews." and that he obeyed
the real instructions Of the minister whom he refused
to have anything to do with tho actual guilt in
nocence Of our correspondent, ard admitted that he
would only be punished as the representative Of
the obnoxious journal The corpus delicti, when
called for, was found to be contained in a bound
volume Of trane1atlons the Chf0f1Ck,
in which correspondence and leading articles wore
unfortunately mingled. 1t would be difficult to
imagine moro convincing proof that mere aIimad-
version, and not Misrepresentation, has reused the
ire Of the French executive.
But let us pause for n moment to draw curious
inference from the disclosure which we owe to M
Dumoulin's courtesy. 1t seems that the archives
Of the French police comprise volumes regularly ll
which are published by the English press Now IL
this collection be really higgedy- piggledy assem-
bnge Of leading and correspondents reports,
We are within an inch of understanding why the most
acrimonious most constant, and most undiscrmi-
mating assaiant of Lous Napoleon may have been
complimentary dc scribed by NJ Dumoulin as n,eant
du Name Ct dn noir. If this expression was
really employed-on which point there may be
to say hcreafter- to the French
officials excusably failing to perceive that all the
black was dashed on in the congenial neighborhood
Of the Thames, and all the white applied in the less
dngy vicinity of the Seine In fact the contemporary
who has been made conspicuous exception in the
cent measure Of the French censorS, has long SUI
prised us by tho glazing contrast between the grim
gloom Of his leading columns, and the pale inanity
Of the correspondence which ought to DO their Pc
destal We might perhaps, have entertained inju-
rious suspicious of tho motives which caused the lat
ter to wear so lamb-lke an aspect, if We had not
supposed, from the on-like confidence and ferocity
of tho criticisms contained in the former that they
were occasionally founded upon Statements of the
nature Of intelligence" which were furnished BY
the correspondent, though, from a regard to his
safety, they were not published in his avowed COM
munications" Our suspicion, which we now relin-
4nish, was at all events complimentary; for other
wise we might have been tempted to believe that,
in the department Of the newspaper especially de-
voted to facts everything unfavorabe to the French
government was either half told kept back to the
last momont and that, when at length the truth
became so palpable as to compel publicity, every
effort was used to associate itwith some more pa
Misrepresentation.
1t is only just to add that this seesaw of good
and evil report, which we have been accustomed to
explain with all the tenderness Of construction
which the confraternty Of journalism demands, is,
felicity in the eyes Of our contemporary With
very characteristic appreciation Of the value uses
and nature OF facts, he congratulated himself on
the neutral tenor Of the information he receives,
and exultDgly tells that it would be just as easy
to gather from his columns the materials for an un-
qualified eulogy on Louis Napoleon, for the un-
mitgated censure which he happens to have acci-
dentally selected as his own mode of treatment
With all respect for the authority from which this
doctrine emanates, We confess that it strikes
decidedly eccentric, and rather immoral Metre du
blanc ct an nor is, of course, consistent with
honesty but it implies hesitation, whilst, in the
finished results Of our contemporary, there is DO
trace of doubt as to the true character Of Louis
Napol.on's policy. For our own part if our pic
lures OF the French President are black, il is only
because he by his acts, rubs little but black our
palette. Our conclusions built on the facts
which his conduct supplies to impartial and indie
pendent observation. But the facts supplied to our
Il
plexon: and unless he keeps secret daub Of paint in
his westcoat pocket, we cannot for the ife Of us
imagine how his portraits turn out as black as
the canvass of Mr.. Martin used to be, before that
distinguished artist imbibed his taste for ultra
marine
II there were any truth in the charge made
against our correspondent that his reports French
affairs are less relieved by redeeming CLEANS of
commentator than the accounts of his colleagues,
1t would still be opcn to to reply that there is
antecedent probability Of harmony between the Or
leans decree, or the slaughter on the Boulevards,
and the residue of their authors measures. But it
is wholly untrue that the gentleman in question has
omitted to report good rs we'll evil. If the least
sembance Of greater hostility has attached to his
letters than to those Of Others it il because he has
OWNED from longer distance the landmarks Of the
dark and gloomy road upon which the French 60
vernment is unhappily journeying. To the scarcely
uttered asporsions on his fidelity, and to the com
placent self CALCULATIONS founded upon them, We rs-
tort that there is department Of our journal in
which we utterly careless of rivalry as that
con6dcd to his direction.
From the London News June lol
lmpunity is said to beget insolence-and that it
does so wo find new proof in the last act of Louis
Napoleon. Without his unce's genius, he has many
of that unce's failings and amongst the rest, in
herts the First Consuls inability to discover where
it is wise to stop. Having overrun Italy and Ger
many, the uncle ventured upon Russia; having
heeced France OF her liberties the nephew ventures
upon something very like insult to English freedom.
The gsggedpress of France lies helpless at his feet
and now he seeks to intimidate the free press Of
England.
On Tuesday, the agent Of the French police, who
has under his special charge the newspapers Of
France, sent for the Paris correspondents Of two or
three OF the London daily papers, that he might
communicate to them the future intentions of Louis
Napoleon towards the English press. In performing
this task, the agent, M. Latour. DumouliA, is de-
scribed as bringing the manners and language Of
cultivated life TO bear upon the work in hand, evil
IDENTITY in order that its real character might seem
less abominable. But tyranny, however bland, is
still tyranny, and in this therewas room for
mistake In his interview with the correspondent Of
the DAILY Ne1cs, the first intimation M Dumoulin
gave was, that what he was about to state must be
regarded as an official Notice OF the French govern
ment He then went on to say that the English
newspapers bad been outrageous towards tho Presi-