New-York tribune., 1868-12-25
TILE MEASURE OF ONE LIE.

In any large estimate OF historical Affairs,
comprehensiye enough to warrant h1ed ana
genuine opinion and capable of scientific
opnlication TO the wants of the present most
men are obliged to rely upon history Wiillc
history for the most part gives us SO much
trouble in settling premises that we nave no
time left for adjusting conclusions. 10 mlnu
really active and wcll-balanced, no human teS-
timony can have the value OF personal op-
seryation yet it is very seldom permitted 10
any man to see with his own eyes so many az
three acts of historical DRAMA while nobody
over saw both the first and the last. The be-
ginning is myth and the end can be no more
tbon proDhesy. DR.. Franklin once said, hall
in lest. but with his usual good sense,
that he should like to live in the next age the
concluding moiety of his life. 1t is not by
any means certain that he would then nave
been able to arrive at positive conclusions 1t
does not follow because We have masses oi
material that we can always shape from them
automatic laws On the other hano' "iihou'
long stretches of authentic history to assist US,
we should be either the victims oil iriatlohi
hope or of equally irrational despair Mons
Berryer, the illustrious French advocate Is
lust dead, at the age OF nearly eighty years
He was born January the 4th, 17S0-fOur months
before the opening Of the States General. lie
was about four years old when the King WAS
executed. He was well-grown boy when
Napoeon I. assumed the imperial crown. lie
witnessed the grandeur OF the Empire and Its
overthrow, the restoration, and the second ex-
puls;on of the Bourbons, the revolution which
raised the Orleans family To the throne, ana
tho revolution which restored the Buonapartes
10 the same pcrilous position. Whatever may
have been his opinion of the political future OF
France IL is evident that few persons had
better right to form and to give one. Ho had
seen all-the mad license of the Reign OF Ter
ror and the massacrcs aud the executions Oh
that frightful period which ended with the
death of Robespierre the coronation 10y papa
bond, of NAPOLEON and the coronation by far
other hands of the Emperor OF Eiba the
dream of the Hundred Days, the rude waking
ot Waterloo, and the consignment of the Auto
crot of Europe to hopeless and far-dstant
exile the second flight of the Bourbons the
accession of a Citizen-Kng and his deposition; ;
the spectacular Republic of NJ. do Lamartlne !;
the shorl-lyed Republic of NJ. Buonaparte !;
the coup d'ctdt, and the full, imperial Towering
of Napoleon III. Here are centuries OF ordi-
nary history crowded into lifetime. III Is
true that during the breaking mp OF the
Roman Empire, despot succeeded deSpot with
even greater rapdity; but the influence OF po-
litical institutions upon the progress ana hap
piness of mankind was hardly dreamed OF then
even by the philosophers. The democracy oil
the ancients meant license; the democracy OF
modern times means not merely liberty, but
law and order For moro than half century
the French. a people of acknowledged intel
lectual acuteness aud of uncommon construct
i've ability, have struggled for democracy III It's
safest and most permanent form; failure has
succeeded failure; experiment after experiment
has ended in something like the old explosions
of the alchemists Committees and Consuls
and Directors. Kings and Emperors and
Presidents have been tried and accepted in
the morning only TO be rejected IN the even
ing, until it has really become question IN
many minds whether the laws OF political
science which are applicable to the rest OF
mankind are applicable to Frenchmen at all.
| Both French Republics have fallen, not through
| tho hostility of surrounding mOnarchies, but
through their own motion, and each has been
energetic only in securing its own overthrow
What next ?-the Millennium or the Deluge
! How often must this question have occurred
| TO the fine old man who has just been carried
to his grave in Paris. Did he still adhere tC
the political convictions of his YOUTH Did he
still dream of the restoration of that House tC
the fortunes of which, with chivalrous fidelity
no adhered to the last Did he anticipate new
outbreaks of public insanity and revival OF
the sanguinary saturnalia which made the years
of his infancy sadly memorable in the worlds
historyY Although the value of his opinion
of the opinion of any thoughtful and earnest
man, may bc slight at least to the money
making and money-spcndng and pleasure
seeking mass of the French people, IT would be
precious to the better portion of hls country
men, who do not
| "----- with besotted, base ingratitude
| Cram and basphcme their Feeder"
TO us il il indeed q melancholy consideration
that so little of the future of great people
can bc safely prcdicaie6 upon even lis inHhedi
ate past. The exclamation which comes to on
lips the most naturally, is someWhat different
from that of the noble woman who went to the
scanold for the sake of pure but mistaken
party. 90 Liberty" We are tempted to cry,
what biundeys are committed in thy name.
Everywhere" wrote Larhnche, the Commits
sioner of the Convention, TO his employers III
I7o3. h" have made teIrOr the order OF the
"duy.n Is it now in that unhappy country as
il VIVA more than half century ago Has
this diabolical faith in turn been utterly cxter-
minated, OF is il only slmnbcringT IsH seI''cu