New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-09-24


st;tutiops. but among these the establish
meut of liberty cannot be reckoned' VA
tho contrary, no Government was ever
more terribly despotic than that welded
By Robespierre and his coadjutOfs, and adj
mipis,ered in every hamlet by agents
clothed with absolute authority. And so
down to the present day, under Charles K
Louis Philippe, Cayuignac or Napoleon the
French have had to submit to varying de-
erees of tyranny under the names OF
Empire, Constitutional Monarchy and Re-
public, and under this system the entire
political education of the present genera
ton has been accomplished. The idea OF
Governmental control and surveillance Is
thus. as it were, innate with them. Of the
Independence and elf-directiDg energy
which freedom generates in an American
or EDglishman, the men of that nation
have not the slightest conception. Why,
according to a recent traveller, the vintage
in the South of France is never begun
without the order of the authorities in
one vineyard the fruit maybe too ripe, and
in another not yet ripe enough but no mat
ter for that. The cultivator is not allowedto
Judge and act for himself, but everything
is controlled and directed from above. So,
TOO, a man cannot 60 from the country TO
Paris without the permission of the autho-
rites. And this is the spirit of the en-
tire polilicalsystem and habits of the coun-
try. The people do not know how to go
alone, but must have the command or the
advice Of the Government; to conduct their
steps.
OF course, such people, with such dis
positions, thus needing the he Up of lead
ing. strings and of superior authority, must
submit to the behests of that authority,
whatever they may be. A greater or less
degree of rigor is of paratively little
consequence, at least for the moment.
Submission is the habit; and though we
may be sure that, In the long run, there
are things which the French people will
not stand from their Government, it would
be hard to think of any imposition which,
if skilfully laid upon them, with due re-
gard to the eXigencies and tendencies of
the moment, they will not submit to.
Now, many readers may exclaim at this
that the French are miserable and slay-
ish people, but this would be a gross mis-
take. They are simply people who have
inherited system under which they have
received certain political education, and
who have always suffered a certain des-
potic control. That they should be what
that education has made them, and should
preserve the habits which generations have
formed, does not prove that they are IN
unmany race, destitute of noble qualities.
On the contrary, i: is known from Hbun-
dant experience that no nation excels them
in some of the grandest features of hui
man character. That they have not known
how to attain to political liberty, after so
many spasmodic efforts, is their msfor-
tune, not their fault. Nor is the present
de,potism much worse than others they have
undergone. The former Napoleon abol-
ished the liberty of the press, and turned
out the aimless takers who enacted the
farce of a Legislature, and the present
one has done little or nothing more to cur
tail the freedom of his subjects.
But there i. a still deeper cause why this
gallant nation is still enslayed and that is
in the exceeding poverty of the masses of
its people. Because the law produces an
al bitary and altogether artificial division of
the soil, it is usual to suppose that the
French peasantry are better off and more
Independent than any other, but the con.
trary is the fact. Certainly there are few
if any peasants in Europe, except 1t be
those Of ireland, among whom poverty
is so profound and all pervading. This
statement may surprise some but we pro-
coed to demo nstTate its truth.
In the DictiOnnaire d Agriculture OF NJ.
de norogues the value of the entire real
e,tate Of France, cities included is put
down, according to official do ;uments of
1884, atthirty- nine thousand five hundred
millions offrancs, or about $500, 900, 900;
It's net product is estimated at l,56O,597,-
OOOf, which had to pay as Interest on
mortgages SCI, G63,208f. and a, direct
taxes 279,9S9, 0l9f; thus the taxes and in
terest on mortgages eat up more than half
OF the entire product, and all that the
whole real estate of France nets to its
L. 1