New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-21

fearful and undivided responsibility.
For once Louis Napoleon, hitherto so remarkable
for bis cunning and sagacity, has overshot the
mark. The most important of the protocols OF the
Partisan Conferences which We lately published,
bears evidence against him. We refer to that OF
April 8, in which the new maritime law was de-
cided upon and the occupation of Greece and Italy
were debated but in viii 81 likewise, the liberty Of
the press was furiously assailed. Count Walewski,
as the faithful echo Of Louis Napoleon, brought
for%"ard the complaint and tried to stir up sym
pathetic grow on the part of the other Plenipoten
tiaries. The occasion was furn's shed by the use
made of the liberty of the press in Belgium, which
it seems has been welded unrelentngly by the
Beleians Themselves as well as by the political re-
fugees of various nations among them, against the
hero of December 2, and his minions In their
ears it is like a continual buzzing of musketoes.
The French Minister in Brussels has several times
protested, menaced, and urged the interference of
the Belgian Government-but all In vain. The
aDtwer of King Leopold and of his Cabinet has
been that they are bound by law, which they can
not violate. In one instance the French agent
lodged a complaint in the Courts, but neither he
nor bis master made anything by it. Some sup
pose that this demonstration in the Conferences
was aimed by Louis TspOleon indirectly at En-
gland. At the very opening of the Conferences
the English press began to recover its independent
tone, and no longer fawned upon its recent darling
idol. Even then, thrusts passed at himj and now
he may not unreasOnaby expect, in time, to find the
English press again siding with liberty and justice.
Whatever reasons may have urged Louis Napo-
leon to this step, we cannot discover in it his usual
shrewdness E en- had his special irritation been
as great as bis general hatred toward the Press it
would surely have been better not to display it so
clumsily. 1t was easy to see that the demonstra-
ton in the protocol would bring about no defntere-
suit. He cannot have expected to obtain declar-
alton or decision resembling that celebrated one
issued in Carlsbad some twenty years since by the
defunct Holy Alliance which suppressed the liber-
ty of the Press in Germany. His unsuccessful at
tempt in the present instance places him in rdic-
ulous position. The failure will embOlden his
scourgers. 1t shows clearly how much he ia
alarmed, as well as the manner in which to attack
his weak point in order to shake his power. He
should have foreseen that he must eventually be
forced to succumb in this strife against more
formidable enemy than he met at Sevastopol and
the Crimea But above all, he overshOt the mark
in suppoeing that, with all her subserviency, En-
gland would take such stand against freedom.
He is fighting, as it were, with a swarm Of bees.
Though he may destroy some of them, the restwill
hasten the more to sting him. The appeal to the
other Plenpotentiaries to join him in the attempt
to put down the Press was futile. Although some
of them acknowledged the dangerous existence of
the common enemy, still the matter ended there.
Probably the representatives of the absolute powers
were glad to show the world that, however much
they may dislike free press, still they are no. such
enemies to ii as Louis Napoleon
Experience of others should have taught this
Imperial despot how vain is struggle against the
greatest power Of our epoch The human mind is
not now capable of being suppressed or fettered,
and the press is it's great offensive and defensive
weapon. For this reason the elasticity of the press
s like that of the air. and its vitality equal to that
Of creative nature Compressed or destroyed in
one point il rises with new vigor iu another, scat
tering light that proves deadly to its assailants. In
our time 1t is as impossible to exnguish it or to ar
rest its vivitDg and avenging action, as to destroy
the influence of the sun upon the globe. And as
daylight discovers and Furnishes crimes perpe.
trated at night, SO the press elucidates and
attributes crimes and dark attempts against Free
dom. The free press may now and then be over
clouded, but it can never be destroyed. Louis Ma
pOleon lie not the rst to attack it, but he too must
fail in the unequal combat. 1t is the demon Of
darkness and destruction against the spirit Of light
and life 1t is struggle as old as the existence Of
man, fought under various shapes and with various
weapons, spiritual as well as material. But in
spite Of all defeats and disasters, victory has still at
last remained on the side of truth and humanity;
and it is not for such creature as this Louis Ma
poleOn to reverse or avert the eternal course Of
things.