New-York daily tribune., 1858-12-14
Du.es, or locks upon our hsn.doors.


feebleness, of that despct and his supporters. We
DO not profess suy remarkable sympathy with Ccun.
Montalembert and his doctrinaire school and prac-
tice. Like the Norman barcns and clergy who ex-
torted the Magma Charta from King john, Aonta-
lembert WAS ever the admirer Of privilege for an
oligarcby in opposition to pure despotism, hut
never for a wide and generous suffrage and the
popular rights and dlgnties inherent therein. A,
q monarchist, he was effectively q supporter of
Louis Philippe; thought that the votes of 200 600
men out of a population of 81, 600, coo were all
sufficient for France; favored the spy system Of
that King: the conscrPtion, too; the budget. rum
ming the country deeply in debt; aud in word,
the entire Oreanst policy. 1t is true that his sup
port Of these measures IN the Chambers was always
| accompanied by the grace and suayity Of msn Of
| bigh birth, added TO the tact Of cOurtier AID
nature essentially refined. He acted for his order,
| and opposed all democratic innovations as pest
lental.
At that period the benignity and benefcence IF
the English system of government had not special-
ly dawncd on the souls of French statesmen and
pubHcists. Provincial as is Paris, that is to say
France even now, regards the rest of the world,
which may answer for many So hate as about the
year lei0 there was produced at tae Theatre
Fiancais fye.sct serious drama, the scene of
which was laid in London, and the plot was the ef.
forts Of the family of Earl Derby to make him
Lord Mayor OF London. Nov, as we al know that
those civic Offices are the rewards for rich trades
men, and are avoided by the aristocracy as the
stain Of pebeisnim, the ignorance of the Parisans
of fact clear to proverb among their neigh
bors across the Channel is incomprehensible;
the more so. as the play in question was written
by learned member Of the Institute acted before
the most refined audience of the capital, aud
naIvely commented upon BY the French press. NJ.
Chevalier, in his work on America, speaks Of the
sublmated ignorance Of the French as regards
their English neiehbors. This Ignorance NJ. de
Montalembert sought to eradicate by series of
luminous articles published in Partisan journal,
in reply to the ultra Anglophobs of the Ultra
montsne fanatics Of the Unirers. The only mis-
take he made WAS, that his English preferences
| were published at the wrong time. He forgot
| under whom he lived. lie had buided despot!sni
| stronger than he knew.
When in lcio-9 he did his best and worst against
|
present terrific imperial power. What he wanted
was rot a hfe-Emperor, making war and peace at
will, but constitutional monarch, surrounded with
peers and Chamber Of Deputies elected by frac-
ton Of the people. He would have preferred the
hereditary peersge Of England, but accepted the
| extemporzed Government Of 1880 as temporary
| expedlent. The Republic he never would look at
and he exercised his brilliant powers to the utmost
| to bresk it down. With Berger, Theirs, Guizot
and the other clever fellows, he made himself the
catspaw of Louis Napoleon. Though that msn
took the oath to support the Republic, and retire
peaceably from Office at the end Of four years, from
the fret hour of his Inauguration he plotted against
that X, public, ard was enabled to do so because
tie Orleanists and Legitimsts for their own ends,
aided him. His turpitude and ingrattude being
immessurable, be outwitted them, ard they either
retired from public life or became the iunkeys Of
tie Bonapartean dynasty
But Montalembert had too much pride, and at
heart too much worth Of character, to fall 80 low
as the liyeried domestics of Louis Napoleon. A
protracted visit TO England, q study after fashion
Of her institutions added TO the sorrows of defeat
and The arrest Of ambition, drove him TO beard the
lion in his dep aud to write In manly terms Of the
Frerch Government and people, in comparison with
those of England. There is no question, so far as
We can perceive, that the igorous and brilliant
| onslaught Of the Count de Montalembert had the
effect TO drive the French Government into pit of
deeper dsmnation, if possible, than II now wslows
H. We have read the peccant paragraphs asten-
lively, and they are precisely those which, If
pondered by tie people, should maze the tyrsnt
rremble ON bis throne. II they overestmste Eng
lard and the English system, they certainly place
the Government of Louis Napoleon where it ought
to be- We quite agree with the Procureur- General,
who told N. Mcn.slember., as regards bis treat
m.nt of France "Y0u have struck her in the
face. struck her in the face, unworthily struck
"her in the face" writer could not do other.
wise, who would rpeak the truth Of France and
her Government.
The Court the speech for the prosecution the
defense, however, were ali farce. The exhuming
of dead law of io4S-the product Of the fears OF
the moment-wss Likewise farce. Montalemsert
might Just as well have been drumhesded out oil
France 10 Algers or Cayenne, like the 1000 who
we're exiled by the tyant for being true to the
Constitution which he swore to obey. To 90
through the mockery Of justice may possibly suit
,oms lovers of the dramatic Of the stage, but Va
doubt it, The lveried lackeys Of law had their
cue. They dared not act otherwise. They hsve,
however, raised MOutalembert to point Of hoaor