New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-03-11
0e6 Orlears laiIp Crescent.
LETTER FROM PARIS.
slal to the New Orleans Crescent. ]


one hears in coversation and reads in the public
Journals, am not sure but that great faith woult
be obliged to admit more contradictions than would
be consistent with truth or probability. French
men have just now great deal to taih and write
about Their Emperor is daily gratifying then
with SO many agreeable surprises that they nc
| sooner recover from one ecstacy than shey i'm
| nedIately fan into another. His concessions Of
liberty to the press, freedom of debate to the egis
lative chambers, and above all. that charming "Ex
position''-a kind of Presidents message-in which
he so frankly laid before the Legislature ana the
world the condition of public affairs, and entered SC
heartily and with such genuine feeling into the in
tcrests of the laboring and agricultural classes all
| this not only makes the nation proud of its ruler
but enables the Partisan to take little credit %
himself for having been born in the nineteenth
century, and above all things for having been bor7
a Frenchman And, indeed, with all its apparent
| extravaganza. there is reason in this as well as
patriotism. The great nan Of Earope, crowned
! or uncroWned, Is Louis Napoleon; and he mas been
angular blessing to France as well as to Italy,
and his influence for good may yet be felt by mil
! lions OF others on the continent.
| Many prudent people ask 8" May not this reform
policy carry him too far?' already the press has
taken hungry hold upon its long denied subjects
OF discussion, and in the Chambers the opposition
has felt itself strong enough to brand the Govern
| ment party as Manneukes-a decidedly bold, if
not nngracons epthet to bestow upon its eonserva-
tive co-aborers. Still, conide in the discretion
and in the strong arm of the Emperor and, ipas-
| much as public sentiment is with him, our conf
dence is not likely to be misplaced. Capacity for
| self-government in people implies the possession
of more wisdom, forhearance, and charity than /
republican though | beam disposed to yield
them. Not that think Frenchmen less qualified
to exercise this power with safety than any other
people, but because government is, of al sciences,
the most difficult to learn, the most dangerous to
deal with, and the most disastrous when ignorantly
administered The vast majorites of all peoples
are iliterate and uninsructed in the first elements
Of political knowledge, and yet it is the rule Of
these msjori'ies modern statesmen invoke. If
your own New England people, with all their
:" cuteness" and book learning, have neither the
prudence, sense nor magnanimity to prefer the in
tegrlty of the great republic to their intractable
theories respecting negro equality, wiat, in
Heavens name, could we have to hope from the
suddenly liberated hordes of Europe? The dis
organizing propensites of ignorance not so
dangerous as that wild fanaticism that often
aeizes upon the educated classes If no one man,
then surely no body of men should be entrusted with
the exercise OF unlimited power. And yet. how
are we to direct and control majorites? Will con-
sttution, will laws do it? Read the Chicago plat
form OF your Northern party. But you do net eX-
pect me to write you on American politics. How
ever, when you remember that too am an A!neri-
can you will excuse me.
Now that Gaeta has fallen and the young Benbd
has had enough of bombs, the people begin to
breathe more freely. The papers will acJaant
you with the details of the terrible explosion
caused by the shells of the Sardnans; and as
well Win tie ilaHIdnlHlOuS conduct OF ClaI0lnl,
who granted truce with the breach in the wall in
viting him to an assault. The King has taken refuge
on board French ship. His destination is not
known. He carries with him, however, immense
treasure. This victory serves to remove another
| obstacle from the way of Italy's complete emanci
patton. Messina must now fall. and then Rome
and Venice will fix the attention. The loss of
Gaeta will shake the confidence Of the Pope or,
at least, expose his weakness more clearly to the
| eyes of his friends.
The retention of the French squadron before
Gaeta for so long time gave rise to many express
sions of discomfort with the Emperor's policy
and now that the mystery is in q measure cleared
up, the London Times charges him with all the
blood shed in the Abruzzi by the priests and Bour
bonlsts, who were encouraged by that policy in
their reactlonary movements. The London Times,
however, only gives vent to that intense hatred
which springs from fear as well as from jealousy
OF the Emperor's influence. A gentleman whose
opportunities for guessing improved by his fire.
quent intercourse with diplomatic circles, said to
me the other day that he thought he had arrived
at the reasons of the Emperor's conduct which, he
suggested, were these THE Emperor knew, az
anybody else might know, that the German pow
ers-and you may include England and Spain in
the category-were not very devoted friends of
his and would not suffer any very violent re rrets
were he removed from his present exalted position
| and France reduced to her ancient demensions
And he had, likewise, well grounded suspicion
that great and strenuous efforts being secretly
| made to mite Europe for his overthrow and for
the restoration for the Hapsburg- Iouaine family to
their Italian dukedoms. He wished to lend his
and to this effort to certain extent. by seeming
INDUS position toward the unity of Italy and lean
ing toward the old dyna5ties. And thus, by his
ukewarmness and inaction, encoura cement would
be given to greater bodnesa on their part until he
could fully satisfy himself of the character aud ex-
tent of their designs This would be to him nralu.
able information upon which to found his future
policy. Nor was he disappointed. New contribu.
tons flowed into the papal treasury; the interest
on the public debt was paid and Monsienor Me.
entrusted If q
army. In Naples in Sicily, and elsewhere reac-
tonary bands were organized. Austria threatened;
Prussia, Bavaria and the other German States pro-
tested against the sale of Veneta; and leaving it
to England to menace Piedmont in the event of
Garlbald assailing Venice, all seemed ready for
spring campain. No sooner was the Emperor fully
informed Of all this than his feet was withdrawn
and Gaeta has fallen and with it, at least for the
present, the prospect of a European war.
We cannot, indeed, count up the movements of
Austria: Hungary at present occupies a great
deal OF her attention, and may soon demand more.
Prussia has in her new King a man who is burn.
ing to signaze himself by some display Of mill.
ary address. But the country is averse to it; and
in the Chamber of Deputies, on the 9Th inst a res.
olution offered by Baron Vincke, that it is
neither for the interest of Prussia or Germany to
place obstacles in the way of the unity of italy,"
was passed by a vote of l59 to Jag. Whether this
will check the King or only eXasperate him further,
time alone can tell. So warm had some of the dis
cussions become, that the ministerial party had
threatened the abrogaton of the Constitution and
q return to pure despotism. Such a threat
might lead to revolution elsewhere; but not in
Prussia, where the people have before submitted
to like act Of irresponsible authority on the part
of the old King. The military organization of
Prussia is even more complete than that of France,
and the army always stands by the throne. Still
when so powerful monarch is disposed to fight
somebody, it may not be long before he shall find
an adversary. There is always enough matter for
quarrel to be found among so many Kings
While England is fretting and Tuning about the