The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-12-30
The French Government and the Press.

We publish elsewhere the article from the
Paris Prcsse which led to the suspension Of that
journal by the government; the decree of sus-
pension and an account of the affair from Paris
writer will likewise be found in the same CO.
umn Our readers have heard already that
when the article appeared, the government has
tened to punish the Presse by suspending it for
two months; that the Prince Napoleon, who
seems anxious to place himself at the head of
the ultra liberal party, visited the Emperor
and solicited, fruitlessly, a remission of the
sentence; and that the strain of argument which
the Prcsse had commenced was instantly follow
ed up by the Courier de Paris. There are many
indications that this new attitude of the French
press is the result of deliberate purpose on
thepart of the republican leaders 1t is stimuli
taneous with very significant movements on the
| French borders, in Belgium and Piedmont 1t
has led journals not only in Paris, but also in
| the South. into serious .rouble The courage
| with which the blow has been met indicates q
changed spirit on the pert of the French jour
nalists. The moment the Presse was suppressed,
arrival journal. the Siece, agreed to supply the
/
months of the suspension were ended. And the
tone of the Courier de- Paris which insists upon
the formation of Parliamentary constitutional
| opposition to the Emperor, certainly leads to
| the inference that concerted movement is on
| foot.
We are not left in doubt as to the method by
which it is proposed to act against the govern
ment The Emperor's ministers are to be as
sailed in the Chamber by the republican de-
puties. and an effort is to be made to organize
party which shall occupy the place which is
filed in England and in the United States by
the opposition party Whittier this party may
lead. or what they may achieve, is of course
not as yet disclosed.
There is enough here however, without fur
Their developments or disclosure, to enable
every one to predict the failure of the
scheme in its present shape. That there
is body of earnest republicans in France,
is incontestable; and that the agony of
commercial revulsion is very suitable mo-
ment for the execution of revolutionary schemes,
cannot be denied; but, in order to hold out the
least hope Of successful attack upon the GO
vernment very much more than this is required.
In the first place. the mods qperand,-the
Parliamentary opposition-is a thing which
French politicians have never been able to mas
ter Their kings have never, like the govern
ment of England, undertaken to frame enc.
They have never had a good Parliamentary
worker. Their deputies have been rhetoricians
and orators; nothing more. Under Charles
the Tenth they had an opposition which was
sometimes tame and ridiculous, sometimes
noisy and theatrical; but never of any
use whatever. Under Louis Philippe they
had Parliamentary opposition, which looked
alternately like Juvenile debating society and
a revolutionary secret club. Both oppositions
so utterly failed in their object that revolution
cut them off at last. If the politicians who are
represented by the Presse and the Courier try to
organize another Parliamentary opposition,
they will fail, too; and, some day, they will
make q furious speech against the Emperor. and
get locked up in Jail
But independently u the precise method
chosen. there are other reasons for looking
with distrust upon the whole movement of
which this newspaper outburst is the premonito-
ry symptom. There is no reason to believe that
the French are as people any better capable
Of governing themselves than they were in
ISis. in 1880, or before the elder Napoleon. On
the contrary, there is reason to fancy that
the long years Of subsection which they have
undergone at the hands Of any and everybody
who seized the supreme authority must have
taken away from them the little independence of
thought which they once had. Nor is il at all
likely that the editors OF the Press and the
Courier or their friends are any better adapted
to administer the government Of France than
the score Of very incapable men who. as re-
publicans have had on various occasions with
in this century an opportunity Of show
ing what they could do. On the con-
trary, again, IL IL reasonable to sup
pose that these young men. who have
spent the last six years Of their lives in the
not particularly advantageous position of NAL
contents under a desperate government, know
even les about the real business of govern.
ment, and the hand work Of revolutions than
the simpletons who overthrow the monarchy Of
July. One can see from the foolish comments
which they make on affairs in this country and
in England, that they have not mastered the
ilrst rudiments of the theory Of free government.
For all practical purposes, France has had no
government in the last century that can com.
pare in point OF merit and efficiency with that
Of the present Emperor. As the subordinate
departments of government and the local insti.
tutions have always remained the same under
every successive rtgime, the opportunity for
comparison between the several governments
which have successfully ruled France is OBJ
vious; one can see at glance where each adj
ministrator differed from another. careful
contrast between the policy Of the present En-
peror and that Of Louis Philippe, Charles the
Tenth and the republicans, will leave no doubt
on any candid mind that the Emperor has done