The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-02-10
The new CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE.
Opinion of the English Press.
from the London News Jan. l6l

The Autocrat of France has promulgated the
constitution that might have been expected OF him.
1t is precisely that constitution which the favorte
clown or charlatan Of the day might have ann ounc.
ed with enthusiastic applause to the audience that
throngs before any theatre OF the Boulevard du
Temple. 1t is the very bureslue of representative
government, the parody Of every system that has
been seriously essayed in really free countries.
Power without responsibility, debates with cut pub
licity, a commons house without the faculty of
originating law or modify ing budget, an upper
house without hereditary dignity or elective right
q government which is nothing but police, and
an army whose duty is merely that of gendarnes--
such is the poll ical system solemnly proposed
Tor ard to France in the middle Of the nineteenth
century.
The consular constitution of the year VIII, from
which the mock ystem is borrowed, was, it is we'll
known, an undisguised and complete dictatorship.
The council Of state were the advocates whom the
future emperor paid and consulted. The senators
were his Wallets. The tribunate, or lower house,
was composed of his paid takers, who, whom
they talked in any way that government did
not lie, were precluded from talking at all.
Soon after this constitution was originally grant
ed, the tribunate as the House Of Repre-
stnatives was then called, chose to discuss and
criticize Napolecn's two measures of the code ami
the corcordat. The first consul was indignant at
their audaciiy, and withdrew these laws, giving
the triounate nothing whatever TO discuss They
bad no power by the constitution Of originating
law or motion, copse quently their functions were
suspended, their place becare siEecure, and they
the mselvts became the laughing stock ofthe Pari
SLAMS. The same fate awaits the mock House of
Commons OF Louis Napoleon, if, indeed, no can got
any Fren chmen above the rank of village school
ma sters who would so far demean themselves as TO
wear the livery, and receive the pay, of popular
presenatives without the faculty of doing anything
save what they were hidden. Why not issue y d.
cree. that the servants who wait behind the chairs
of the guests at the Elysee shall take the seats in
the morning, and vote the laws of the President.
including bis own civil list and their penses 1t
would be just as respectable and genuine House of
Commons as the raeaWe which the mock constitu-
tion summons from the provinces.
Odious as is dictatorship, the least humiliating
form of it is that which avows what it is, and which
assigns reasons for its necessity. Bonaparte, in
$500, was not without these reasons. The county
had Just recovered from civil war ana from foreign
war, from both of which he who claimed the dicta-
torship had saved it. The representative system
had in q manner worn itself out LIS last manies-
tation was reckless and exuberant royalism, that
threatened to give up every boon aud conquest OF
the great revolution. The exsuse of Bonaparte
was that he wanted to save the revolution, the
bepe fits and the acquisition of this revolution from
a reckless and criminal reaction. 10 maintain the
revolution, to uphold in Office influence, and power,
the ideas and the generation which it had pro.
duced, such was the idea of Napoleon He was deter.
med to save revolutionary France from the despo-
tic subjugation of Europe, to endow France with
new laws and with social and political ganization
in accordance with the state of things and Of society
that the revolution had created, and that the
coun er-reyoution threatened to destroy. Liberal
men admitted that there was some show of reason
in these M olives. And when Napoleon came for
ward with the code and the concordat apd with his
system Of mixed education, they understood that
he had not grasped power for purely selfish pur.
poses and that he made use of that power to place
France superior to the other European absolutlsms
and free from the worst abuse Of the old French abb
solutism.
But IL there one Of these pleas-ene Of those ex-
cuses that holds good, can BIO seriously brought
forward for the present barefaced, and inglorious,
a M tric
tyranny, all the assumption, all the impertinent
oogmatism of setting up as legislator FOR great
nation, at time when that nation has grown to
manhood, instead Of being as in $500 in political
homage. There is really nothing to do, nothing to
change, netting to enact Franco is not menaced
by the foreigner; and France is menaced by ne
priesty or aristocraic reaction, which the present
tyranny does not rather fatter and yield to than
set at nought. There Is no disorder in the pro-
vipces, no defects in the administration, which
absolute power must not aggravate instead Of re-
form. There was want OF honesty aud of high
tone OF morality IN public men VIII Louis Napo-
leon mend that! The provinces have been re iuced
to nnlities, local intelligence and influence crushed
what can Louis Napoleon do but sggravate the
evil The army weighed on the country; IL will
weigh bencoiorth tenold. Direct taxes took away
half the revenue OF the landed proprietors the ma
jority of whom are poor. To in ,rease direct tax
alton will DO impossisle-yet how avoid it il the
salt and drink duties be abolished! There is no
reform possible, no alienation feasible in French
Napoleon, or can any iSary chief, econenisel
There IL, therefore, not one pfesence for setting up
Dictatorship ono reason, save that this mode Of
government alone suits the nephew OF NAPOLEON.
as to the constitution just promulgated, is the
post audacicus OF humbugs, not deigning TO taSo
Inc trouble 10 cover WITH even a decent veil the
nasediess Of despotsm. All that 1T attempts IS
not 70 temper rbtrary power, but TO associate and
implicate with il all those notable capable men,
who consent 20 barter indepe ndenoe for Office ard
who fubmit 10 the despots livery in return for
liberty TO share with the dictator tho sPoil5 Of the
state. No honest or upright man Will take Office
under such mock constitution and II O sufficient
number Of Frenchmen Of education md capacity
be icurd 70 do so, I'll &c can cay is, that this viii
stamp iudelible difgrace upon France, without ad-
Ding 70 the durability Consistency Of government
which Is an anachrorism 70 the ago, ana disgrace
to BE country, 10 whose history 1t must survive as
8n indoldble humiliation.
From the London Chronicls Jan 10
he Wofsa an,ioipations Of those eho su2Ired 81
the nee french constitution, from the viz fra.