The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-06

that the Message of the PRESIDENT will be prompt
" delivered.
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Tie trial of Count de MoNTALEMBERT, which
was detntively arranged to take place at Paris
on the oath Of last month, is event of more
than ordinary Importance The English journals
are filed with denunciations of LOUIS NAPOLEON
for authorisng the prosecution of a nobeman so
eminent as politician, and as a man of letters:
so honest in his views, and so frank in expressing
them To subject NJ. de MoNTALEMBERT, a Peer
Of France eX-member of the Chamber of Depu-
ties an Academician, and the acknowledged
Champion Of the Roman Catholic Church, to the
indignity Of an indictment, framed by the Pro
creW Imperial, is regarded as an act of despotism
Kin which the unquiet conscience of the Empire
'spcaks again, as it spoke in the measures of most
''anwise coercion which followed the ORsINI plot,
and the desperate course which, it is alleged that
LOUIS NAPOLEON has adopted, in this instance is
compared to that of "a charioteer dashing blind
'ly towards the brink of precipice." Whether
that course is really rash, unwisc, or impolitic.
depends principally, we think, upon the opinion
that may be formed of the necessity for the exer-
else of a censorship of the Press in France If it
be true-as many persons believe-that the French
people are not yet prepared for the institution of
free Press, and that such a concession could have
but one result-the subversion of the Imperial
rule and the organization of socalistic Republic,
with its crude and impracticable theories concern
ing the rights Of labor, and its inevitable tenden-
ces to msrule and anarchy-the propriety of
maintaining n rigid supervision over all DEPART
ments of literature, and of placing an effectual
check upon all manifestations of radicalism, in
whatever shape they may present themselves, can
not well be questioned. Taking, then, LOUIS
NAPOLEoN's own view of the case, and assuming
that in the present condition of France, with its
active or latent factions of Legitimsts, Oreanists,
Republicans Revolutionists Reactionaries, Social
lists, Red Republicans and Communists, censor
ship of the Press is necessary to the preservation
of the public peace, it could scarcely have been
expected that Article so well calculated to
bring the government into contempt, and ema-
mating from so prominent a writer as NJ. de
MoNTALEMBERT would be permitted to pass
unnoticed. To have suffered the high rank
of the offender to shield him from those con-
sequences to which men of lesser note, and of
TO have allowed to Count de MoNTALEMBERT that
license of speech which was denied to the COM
moner class of publiciSts, would have provoked
invidious comparisons, and would in all proba-
hility, have resulted in more danger to the Gov
eminent, from the Inconsistency thus betrayed,
than all the comments to which it might be ex-
posed by public prosecution. There were many
reasons why LOUIS NAPOLEON should have hesitated
to proceed against Count de MoNTALEMBERT.
Though legitimist from principle, the latter, on
more than one occasion, while a member of the
Constituent Assembly, had eloquently defended
the Prince President from the charges brought
against him. and subsequent to the Coup d. Etqt,
he gave in his adhesion to the new order of things
by accepting a seat in The Corps LcgislatG, though
he declined the distinction which was pressed
upon him, Of becoming a member of the
Consultative Commission. His opposition to
the Government, though, even then, OCCASION
ally displayed was by no means stamped
with that bitterness of feeling which evinced itself
after his defeat at the last election in 1851 by the
Government candidate, yet we do not think that
his present hosttyto the Empire is to be attributed
solely to political causes. All his life he has steadily
sought to increase the power and influence of the
Roman Catholic Church. During his early man
hood, i'll conjunction with the celebrated Able
LAMMENAIs he entered heartily into a project for
bringing about an union between Catholicism and
democracy; but when the writings of LAMMEyA1s
drew upon him the censure Of the Vatican. his
younger coadjutor cndeavored to atone for the
errors into which he too had fallen, by speedy
return to Orthodoxy; and for the past quarter of
a century, Catholicism, in France, has had no adj
vocate more Jealous in its cause than Count de
MoNTALEMBERT. How far the rumored design of
LOUIS NAPOLEON to restrict the independence of the
Church, and to subordinate it TO the State NAV
have had the effect Of changing the sentiments of
Count de MoNTALEMEERT towards the Empire, we
can only conjecture. Such change has certainly
been more strongly manifested of late, and espe.
cialY has this been apparent since the Archbishop
of Paris so mystcriously forwarned the clergy,
assembled at the Church of St Sulpice of the secret
peril by which they were menaced but the par
ticulars Of which he was not permitted to reveal.
What then is more probable than that the appre-
hension Of encroachment upon the privileges of the
Church should have given additional causticitv to
the pen Of its most eloquent defender and should
have stimulated him to indulge in such extrava-
gance OF Language as is contained in the following
sentence, which forms a portion of the article for
which he has recently been indicted? He writes:
FINDING the foul marasmus creeping over me:
my cars tingng with the low tittle-attle of ante
chambery, and the yells of fanatics qcho think them
SeIees our masters; or of hypocrtes who think we
'&re their dupes; sufocated By the scribe and cor
''rupt'ng miaSmata Of loathsome atmosphere,
''Ieit France for England to take bath of fresh
''air." Nothing could we'll be in more striking
contrast than this splenetic outburst, and the
memorable speech which was made by Count de
MoNTALEMBERT, before the chamber of Deputies
when he declared it to be his conscientious
conviction that LOUIS NAPOLEON chad re-
manned faithful to his mission. that he
had succeeded in restoring society; re-
establishing order and keeping down dema-
goguism." So radical difference between his pre-
sent and his past opinions can only be accounted
Tor by attributing the change to something more
profound than politics, while the gravity of the
charges brought against him indicates the light
IN which he is now regarded by the Imperial gov
erh'heh'' lie Is charged, Sin the first place, with
an attack upon the principle of universal stuff
rage and against the rights and authority which
tine Emperor holds from the Constitution Sc
''condly, with an attack against the respect due
Ito the laws. Thirdly, with exciting to hatred
'and contempt of the Emperor's government.
"Fourthly and finally, with seeking to disturb
''public tranquility by exciting the CONTEMPT or
"hatred OF citizens one against the other" Such
Is the Indictment, and the English journalists in
expressing their sympathy for Count de Moxr.1r,,-
BERT are indignant that so eminent man shonld
be placed IN the same category with socialist and
republican sectaries, and should be considered
as having rendered himself amenable to similar
penalties. We confess that we cannot see how
LOUIS NAPOLEON could have Disseminated between
Count de MoNTALEMBERT and any inferior writer
without sacrificing the consistency Of his nolicv
Nor are we at all prepared to regard this prosccu
ton as an evidence of the inherent weakness of
the Imperial government. To us it appears far
more expressive of its confidence and ability TO
cope with disaffecton from whatever source if NAV
arise and of It's determination not to tolerate in
men occupying high social position, that harsh
censure Of the Imperial system which would not
be permitted in men of low degree. The rule of
LOUIS NAPOLEON may be despotic but in the adj
ministration of the laws-arbitrary though they
may be-he has certainly shown himself to be no