New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-04-24
FRANCE
Prom Our Own Correspondent.

'Our DstppoiueileHs qua our hopes -N0s
k,eomptes ct Nos Esperanees-and written oy
Guirot The Discalcul.tions the errors, com-
mi.ted from 1889 to the present d,y-the pros
pect fer the future-a theme Of such pressing
interest to every think pg Fsencbmau, treated by
90 experienced statesman aud profound
student of the philosophy Of history as Guizot,
has excited much attention here. The article in
question fills eighteen large octave pages, though
it is not too long for its subject, nor for the read
er. 1t is not easily compressble. There is no
space in this letter for all of it-not for all Of its
more striking passages. Something OF its spirit
will endeayor to give, by brief extracts and alb
stracts at the risk Of nutilatiOn. At least will
not add insult to injury by much criticism. 1t
opens thus:
81 meet two sorts Of people, whose characters re-
srectivey h NE with sorrow and With anxiety. O1e
elsss cling obrt at@y come what will 10 the objects
Of their primary belief AMI desire the other
them quicll J. with or without regret, when the evil
days come Those learn botbing, these forget every
Thing On one sioe iDcura5e blind nen; on the
other, timid esotis's or discouraged skeptics. Two
WAYS Of losiDg good caIses for - win them thsre
need be conviction aud good sense-tte clear igbt Of
experience and the persistent a-dJr of faith. Get
kbo.lefge aud p-revere: only 1T this double price
does God grant strength and permit SUCCESS. We
have suffered from msoy nistfkes. want 70 cay
what, 10 my seeming they have taught Us, AMI what
they leave us the rieh, TO hope"
In 1873, it was the widespread doctrine that
man was naturally good; he willed rightly, and
weud almost always act rightly, were he not
checked lead astray, corrupted to evil by bad n
stitutiOns, abuse of force. Society, Government,
not the man himself, was responsible for his
crimes and nisiOrtunes. Hence it was not only
necessary to clear away the obstacles TO the free
action of a good nature that good men might
create new, pure, happy social state. The error
was to have overlooked the real nature Of man,
which is truly revealed in the Christian creed
that evil resides in the man himself: "The dogma
"of original sin is the religious expression aud
"planatOn of natural fact" The individual mar s
innate tendency to dsObedience and licence needs
the inward restraint Of faith in God and his
moral laws, and the external restraint of human
authority and laws that shall make the moral laws
respected.
a. IL is cruel Disappointment after dreaming Of the
bappiuefs Of humanity, q wske aud see II dro ynsd
III blood and tears but 10 have dres ned offs vrtde,
its innocence, and then suddenly fall amid rs
chained bad Dasrlobs Is still mora cruel dissp'
poiItn eDt. The spectacle OF human suffurnys b ~
rows the soul that of human vices aud crimes sub.
verts it. Our fathers of 1889 were con iemned to
pass from prospects of Paradise to the scenes of
pre- eDt hell
They found that all things could not be re-
created after their image of society. They met
resistance everywh here sometimes blind, always
deco, worn out and needing reformation and sub
sttutiOn-old beliefs, habits, customs, instltu
tiODs-rOyaty, clergy, nobility, parllaments-re-
manned facts would not consent to die and at last
reappear among the materials of their recon-
structed social edifce. THE young elements of
"society FASTENED to clothe themselves 10 the
"ancient costumes, to lodge under the old ruins"
1T is very easy to say here that the young ee-
"ments" would have clothed themselves more
6tly in span new garments, and lodged more per-
manently in houses of purely Few architectural
styles. But this is not complete reiutatOn OF
NJ GuizOt's view, who looks to the real fact-a
lanentable fact if you choose commendable
fact, as he chooses to think but still fact. But
there is much not to be denied to the 18th CEN
tury; NJ Guizot, however, grants it charily]
at wss an aggressive epoch, an era of criticism
and attack upon dominant facts and established
pOwtrs-but ifs ideas of man and of society not
always very elevated or very profound.
Its triumph over the defects and vices of de-
clinirg sy stems aud declining power was an easy
one. In the intoxication OF the triumph the vic
tors and the victorious force, mere and unasslsted
human f rec, were dolized Christianity was in
allowance 1t is curious, and rather sadly SO, 10
observe how Guzot, the politician, gets the better
Of Guizot, the philosophical historian. The read
ers Of THE tribune may remember that spoke,
more than year ago, OF an article equally able
and equally remarkable with the one now in hand,
and which appeared in the same Reruc, under the
title of the "Bourbons before 1889" That essay
betrayed, much more strkogly than this Parti-
zan Of the " Fusion " between the two branches
of the Bourbon family and in that article, more
boldly and more definitely than in this, NJ Guizot
strove to persuade his readers that all the
good which came from the Revolution of
SO would have been efected-nay was
in the course Of being ttiected-by the
voluntary action of Royalty. But neither
in that nor in the present essay, does he
explain to us hOo the systems and power OF the Old
dynasty came to be in SO declining state that
conquest over them was an easy story. All that
was wreng, all the horrors of the Revolution, are
set to the account of the godlessness OF the phios
ophers and late reyoutionists. The godlessness
Of the Bourbon kings and their courters is kept
out of sight.
Passing from I7s9 to 1880, we ind revolution
of an entirely different character. There was no
general and passionate longing for an underlined
something in the future. There was political
movement forwarded by men of divers opinions:
Constitutionasts: enemies of the elder branch OF
T. Bourbons who believed that after the dlsas-
tiers and disgrace of 1874, none OF that branch
could or would rule in the interests of modern
France; finally came the Republican party and
"anarchcal groups" ardent and Formidable but
i'm the shade MS yet, and obliged to remain there
The national sentiment did not 90 beyond change
of dynasty and an extension of public liberties.
(Alas the national sentiment was never consult
ed. If it is to be considered as expressed in the
three days OF July, it was surely disregarded as
soon as possible thereafter by the Citizen King.
whose "eagerness to clOthe himself in ancient
costumes and lodge under the old ruins NJ.
Guizot seems to forget those who would have
preferred that matters should not 90 so far count
ed upon their going further those whe wished to 90
thus far promised others and themseiv,s that they
would 90 no flrther those who desired to 60 much
further. did not think themselves in condition to
make the attempt and were resigned to wait,
though meantime always pushing toward FUR