The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-03-30

,ben, IN behalf Of the principles aVo"eu.
Fifty.three counties were represented
half whites and half negroes.
France, England, and the United states
M M psRsIGSY has recently made a
remarkable speech In the French cham
hers. mainly in defence of the wisdom and
vital power or endurance Of the French
Government. He contended that the En-
peror had made no real change in the con-
stitution, but had only simplified and for
nailed some successive notifications.
The idea chiefly dwelt upon by the speaker
was the independence of the government
of party ebullition, while at the same time
the Imperial authority was the embodiment
Of the nationality, the spirit, the will, and
the power Of France. M. DE PERsIGNY
derived much pleasure in contrasting the
French and English Ministries. He fell
citates France that her Ministers are not
subjected to the party changes in the le-
gislative branch-indeed, that they are not
responsible. The responsibility of the
Ministry in England he thinks a bad fea-
ture. Democracy, he evidently thinks, is
making serious inroads upon the British
Government, and, indeed, that the demo-
cratic spirit is spreading, and threatening
the peace of the world. England, he con-
tends, might have put an effective check
| upon it, and done much to promote her
own safety, had she seized the golden op
portunity which lately presented itself,
when England slrank from aiding France to
break zap the United States by supporting
the somherners and by establishing Meri-
can Empire.
The London Times makes vigorous as
sault upon M. DE PERsIGNY's speech-a
speech regarded as State paper. The
Times considers NJ. DE PERsIGNY authority
for France but denies the fidelity of his
picture and the soundness Of his reasons
relative to the workings of the psrlia-
mentary system of England. The Times
does not choose to look upon the French
system as model, declaring that France
has been governed for centuries by "car-
"dinals, by queens, by mistresseS by in
"triguers, by theorists, by every class that
disdains responsibility" On this point,
we question whether France is much ahead
of England, the history of whose rulers is
not much behind that Of any country for
its illustrious and numerous examples of
intrigue, vice, and depravity.
With reference to NJ. DE PERsIGNY's re-
hinder that England lost the opportunity
for strengthening herself by aiding France
to break up the United States, the Times
says:
"By this time, it seems, we ought to be
resting together after the demolition of
the great American Republic, or winning
glory in the still unfinished enterprise.
| But mtler no government uhdteUer 1could
| England haze marched one foot in such
desperate and gratuitouS crusade. The
sense of the uhole nation is against found
ina empires and destroying them upon a cal
culatiOn of political consequences, either IN
the Old World or in the Ne,c. Such pro-
jects are, indeed, oftener found in palaces
|
as hands insulated from social relations
and their natural control. If this be all
and this idea is to be the touchstone OF
our respective metals-we are content to
stand the ordeal and to be thankful that
we are not a nation Of great ideas and ire
SponSible rulerS."
| While on the subject, we may add that
M. THEIRS has come out also with a new
speech and a new fear. He considers the
state of Europe, and especially France, to
be serious. There is an increase of arma-
ments. The dangerous idea which he re-
CARDS as unsettling present conditions is
"that of nationalities and of great agglo-
"merations having the same origin and the
sssame language" The ambition Of Prus-
81 and Russia, in taking advantage Of ma
tionality, he says, was an insult to Europe.
France could have arrested this ambition
by a single word, and that word was
European equilibrium" But he con-
tinues, France ''was led away by the CHI
"mera ofthe nationality principle and by an
"uuefecting desire for popularity" The
only remedy is to restore the European equi-
librium mainly by recovering the alliance
10Th England" That alliance will be the
protection of small States.
Thus these statesmen speculate and
scheme yet events roll on just as though
their wise discoveries never had been
made. The laws established in the begin
ming still prevail, and nations 60 through
their ups and downs as they always did.
That nation which is most certain it has
the world in sling is generally the first to
take passage on the .facilis decens,ls Of ma
tions.