The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-05-26

by the same ex-minister, Eve knew we were
living on the crust of a volcano, but we did not
think it was so thin
But the volcano burst forth in February, 1S4S;
Louis Philippe is driven into exile as Charles X.
had been before him, the streets Of Paris are piled
with barbados and drenched with blood, the
Tuileries are sacked, Neuilly is ravaged, and
Is the impossible republic is inaugsratsd. Louis
Napoleon, enrolled as a special constable with
two hundred thousand other citizens of London
at the time of the great chartist demonstration
in April, is elected a member of the epheineral
chamber his choice as Prince President soon
follows on the ID of December. 1852, the quiet
lad of 1919, by a coup d eot, whose unexampled
holiness is excelled only by its success, takes
possession of the throne of France; AND IL deyolved
upon me, in an official capacity. to send to Mr..
Riyes, the American Minister in Paris. a letter OF
cr6dence to the government of his Imperial MaJes-
ty, Napoleon the Third.
In that capacity he has given to France the
strongest NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., | fear, in that
country to the best goyernment,-whlch she has
had since the downfall of his uncle. He has
completed public works. beneath which the
magnificent p~rofusion of Louis the fourteenth
staggered. He has decorated and improved Paris
beyond all his predecessors on the throne, and
projected and accomplished the most gigantic
undertakings throughout the interior and along
the coasts of France. Abroad he has consolidated
the conquest of Algeria,-maintalned an un-
doubted superiority for France over the armies OF
England associated with hers in the Crimea =
formed a firm alliance with Great Britain, against
whom his uncle waged an internecine war Tor
twenty years and has restored his country to her
former rank in the politics of Europe. In accom-
plishing these objects, the press has been fettered
and the tribune silenced. and those liberties,
which the Anglo-Saxon mind regards as the final
cause of the political societies of men, have been
gricvously abridged. But France has yet to show
that she is capable of enjoying them in peace.
Happening to be in Paris during the Summer
of 1910, and in the habit of reading the principal
journals, as well those adverse us friendly to the
government. | was amazed at the virulence and
f%erocity with which the political war was carried
on. Had the king been a military usurper in
stead of a prince succeeding by a species of popu-
lar choice to the throne, in the place. OF one who
had forfeited it by violating the Constitution, he
could not have been more fiercely assaulted, and
that by some of the most vigorous pens in France.
Had the ministry. instead of holding power on
the tenure of parliamentary support. been solely
dependent on the will of a despOt, they could not
have encountered u deadlier opposition. The
government was eminently pacific, and rs such,
it gave France a breathin9epace after the conflicts
and exhaustions of her mighty wars; but it was
daily denounced as pusilanimous. The kingand
his family lavished their vast private possessions
on works of public utility and private charity,
and were daily libelled as selfish and sordid
wretches. When the law was appealed to, for
that protection of their PERSONAL characters from
those Outrages. to which the humblest are enti-
tied, triumphant verdicts of acquittal were OBJ
tanned by the calumniators. The unreflecting
mass of the community, in the enjoyment of peace
abroad and prosperity at home, were made to
believe that they were the most oppressed and
insulted of nations. Well aware from the history
of the last eighteen centuries of the fierv suscepti-
bility of Gallo blood, instead of marvelling at
the Revolution of February, 1S4S. when it burst
out, [ had for eight years been anticipating it,
and predicting 1t to my friends-
That revolution which extinguished the pariia-
mentary liberties of France,-which turned into
dreamy nonsense the doctrinarIan wisdom OF
thirty years,-and yDked together in one common
humiliation, the leaders of the rival factions, was
the work of party. | do not mean that there
was nothing to blame on the part of the kings
government, but on the Odd of February, 1913,
the popular leaders thought only OF displacing
their opponents in the ministry on the 24th they
bad overturned the monarchy. On the 9th of
February, 1913. they drove out a constitutional
king on the I'd of December, 1852, they were
marched to pris N under the bayonets of an i'm
perial guard. The statesman who falls at the
post OF duty commands respect the politician
who imperils the great interests of his country to
subvert a rival is a public enemy, and merits no
sympathy If crushed himself by an impartial
despOtisG
All assumption OF unconstitutional power is
usurpation, but the government of Louis Napo-
ttpl has ttfINC lnt EtlfttIbf - Jill v lftlil-
ing majority of his subjects. Mr.. Berger, in his
late defence OF the Count de Montalembert, says
that he has seen seventeen governments in France.
OF these seventeen governments, those of Louis
the sixteenth and Charles the tentl,-the two
out of the seventeen least respected by the people
and both violently superseded,-are the only ones
which ruled by u regular constitutional title. 1t
is a fact not generally known, but of which lam
well informed, that In overturning the govern
Inent in 1852, Louis Napoleon did but anticipate
a movement of the Chambers against himself.
The resolution was formed t. arrest and impeach
him, and no alternative remained to him but to
succumb to the venal demagogues who. under the
abused name of constitutional freedom, had
brought France to the brink of ruin, or TO extin-
guish them and with them, for the time at least,
the liberties of the country.
1t is painful to reflect how many eloquent pens
and persuasive voices of France are siIenced by
the censor but if they did not join in the clanor,
(some of them did, they held their peace. when
the madness OF party rage, by unremitting as
sdults on a mild and constitutional government,
crushed it under a load of undeserved opproIrium.
They have their reward. Would that our beloved
country might profit by the example! The Press
of the United States is vigorous and enterprising,
and reaches the heart of the community. far be-
yond that of any other couhtry. 1t is. for good
or for evil, the most powerful influence that acts
on the public mind.-the most powerful in itself,
and as the channel through which most other
influences act. If it could learn that an oppo-
nent is not necessarily an unprotected and selfish
adventurer, n traitor, n coward. and a kpave {;
and that our neighbors on an average are about
as honest and right-minded as ourselves, it would
increase its own power and the great interests of
the country (Which anguish under the poison of
our party bitternes) would be Incidentally
promoted.
BrookIgn, ". T.. sh February. 1859.