New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-24
REPUBLICAN ELEMENTS IN EUROPE.

WITH WE6l SLOW anu rlfpf W Nhhs
weary and protrscted stsGes, does Europe gra-
vitate toward Republican institutions. This
inevitable advent, however remote, is still fore
boz ed by sll speculative observers and philo-
sophie historians But beyond all, those who
will be crushed in its coming, kings, the old
srstocracies of birth, the new ones of money,
and pusillsnimous conservatives of every hue,
all have clear presentiment of their fate. lt
il. however, difficult. accurately to eefns what
will be the nature of this great movement or
into what governmental shape il will develop IT.
self and be realized. The elements are of va
rious Kinds, yarousiy distributed among the
Principal European pations, and extreme
ly complicated. Hence it happens that
whatever may be the aspirations aud
tendencies, however wide in general
the diffusion of republican ideas, few of even the
strongest and most ardent apostles OF the faith
possess a clear, distinct and precise notion OF
the vital element which gives life AMI
strer 9Th 10 a republican community. Self-goT-
ernment-absolute, all-penetrating and direct
inc self government, of unlimited and per
vadinp application, as ia the Free States of this
Union-cOnsttntes the soul of republic.
selfeoverpment not alone in the election t, the
Q. neral legislative bodies, but applied TO the
most minute details of the daily doings of the
community.
The French nation stands foremost in action,
and for this reason is looked on as the corner
stone of whatever Republics may be established
hereafter in Europe. She has won this position by
the most daring, devoted, and cody attempts
aud sacrifices. The granite rock on wbich,essays
thus consecrated ever shiyeIed was the incapa'
bilty of self government which could neutral
ize the existing administrative centrilizitlon.
On the other hand, Capitalization in the short
lived but memorable history of the First French
Republic was two.edged sword striking for
good and evil and the only weapon by which
road could be cut through tn the goal Ii was
the offspring of absolute necessity. 1t is true
the communal system, which is The basis Of self
goverun eDt, was once partially developed and
carried out through France. But 1t never
took such deep root in the life OF the people
az to become an essential condition OF
their social existence. The various provinces
out of which monarchical France was conssi.
tuted preserved their original Parliaments,
which, in course of time and under Royal pres
sure, dwindled down into Courts of Justice.
Some cities preserved their municipal rights, or
rather inmuDties, and a feeble sembance OF
communal life, but tho whole people, the
masses, the villagers and peasants were slaves
and serf, and the numerous boroughs the prop
erty ard dependencies of the mobiles. Louis
- r .I....e. -. Oh
Of the independence of great feudataries. After
him the Valois family continued to extend the
net more and more over all the strata of the
nation. The HuguenOts, who principally con-
sisted of the gentry, resisted the Valois sword
in hand, and fought nearly as much against the
ceGtraliziDg action Of royalty as for religious
independence Rictelieu, and finally Louis
XIV, brought monarchica absolutism to the
climax, AID with it strengthened centraliza-
ton. The great and viyifying revolution had
its heart and brain in Paris, where the heart
and brain ofthe past, the monarchy AID monarch,
were to be destroyed. To communicate to the
people the electric stroke, all the energy had
to be condensed in one focus, to spread
thence the salutary shocks The old Parlia-
terward, stunned by its greatness, tried to
oppose its march were destroyed. The old
provincial divisions and names were aanull-
ed the country carved into departments,
ard everything was to depend on and receive
impulse from the center. The JacObin Club,
that mighty laboratory Of revolution, had its
center at Paris, whence through affiliated socie.
ties it operated on and reused to action the
masses throughout the country. This Club aud
tie Montague, in the immortal Convention, sent
forth the new word of salvation, which resOunded
10 the remotest corner of France and the Eu.
ropean world. The alt-revolutionary cutlery
raised against both the Convention and the
Jacobins was principally decentralization, the
independence of the PROVINCES and of localities
where the relics of the past-priests, MOBILES and
all the APPENDICES of onseryatism-preservea
a powerful influence The Convention was at
tackled within and without. 1t was forced 10
recur to a necessary, salutary, revolutionary
oespotism, at one mt ment reduced to thirteen
Departments. Centralizing all the forces and
resources of the nation, it resisted coalesced
Europe. The result gave to Capitalization a
religious conservation, and made it the creed
Of all successive revolutionary apostles down
10 the present day. Destroying in this IN anna r
every germ of intelligence 10 the minds of the
masses OF the French people, the Jacobns and
Convention planted there n compensatory sub.
sttute tie indestIuctible spirit of social equil-
~. Napoleon gave an iron east to centra.ization
using it for personal despotsla and crushing