The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-11
SPIRIT or xzn PRESS.
Raitsrimi Opinions 81 the Leading Svurnals
UVoa Current TepIcs- -OemDlied Kvery
Day for tho Evening telegraph.


and ouiet without scenes of carnage and hor-
ror such as have often been enacted in the
straats of Paris are creditable to the modera-
tion which has, on this occasion, tempered the
armness of the French Government 1t was
the determination of the authorities to shed
no blood, il bloodshed could be avoided; and
the suppression of the riot without any serious
loss of fife has caused the wave TO pass under
the ship without straining its timbers.
The Government was fully prepared for
this emergency, physically and morally. The
time that had elapsed since the assassination
Of Victor Noir, which led to these troubles
has been sufficient for the adoption of pre-
cautionary measures by quietly bringing
more troops to the vicinity of Paris, and
making such military dispositions as would
enable the army to act with vigor and over
whelming efficiency if an extreme emergency
should arise The feeling among the lntelli-
gent classes that the Government was ire
sistible against any immediate attempts
at revolution has spared the necessity of
full exertion Of its strength. In the proceed
inps against Rochefort, the care which it
took to fortify itself legally and morally
eyinced solid wisdom. By introducing the
subject in the Corps Legislatif, and inviting
and tolerating full debate upon it in advance
of the prosecution, the Governments got an
opportunity to explain its motives and
answer ODJ6cLlOhb W lJo pIOPOocu COuIbo III
the face of the nation; and M. Olivier did this
with 80 much skill and success that he carried
tho assembly with him by an overwhelming
maiority--the numbers being 222 votes for,
and only 81 against the prosecution This
put il out of the power of the malcontents to
assert, with any color of plausibility, that the
Government was acting by arbitrary caprice
or headlong resentment in the steps it was
taking. The prosecution was sanctioned in
advance by the great body of the elected re-
presentatives of the people, and therefore
seemed undertaken purely in the interest of
Mder, and with the moral support of the nation.
These precautions made etheproceedings against
Rochefort seem in ostensible harmony with
the professed remuneration of personal and
the substitution of representative govern
ment They were rendered necessary by the
fact that Rochsfort was himself deputy, and
his offepse an abuse of the freedom of the
press-both being points on which the whole
liberal part of the nation are extremely and
ary preparation was adroitly planned,
and is justified by the result. The new Gov
eminent has passed, without a serious
shock, through an unexpected and most inop-
perfume crisis.
= If necessity had arisen for wholesale
slaughter to put down the rioters, there is no
reason to doubt that the imperial troops
would have been victorious; but the reform
of the Government would have been arrested
and turned back, and the new liberal tenden-
cies destroyed in the germ. II the Emperor
Napoleon were twenty years younger and in
the full vigor of health, perhaps he would
have gladly accepted such a result. But the
Emperor is growing old, his health frail, the
heir to his throne child, the Empress with
out talents to govern strongly as a regent,
and the stability of his dynasty is staked on
the success of his tardy attempt to inaugu-
rate representative government. He is
acting under the coercion of circumstances;
but the necessities of his position are a
guarantee of his good faith in the recent
change of system. Yet his interest in it is
only personal, and he would withdraw every
concession and fall back upon the army as
the sole instrument of authority, if he felt his
throne tottering under him during his life
time. He will not risk present power for the
chance OF perpetuating his dynasty after his
decease. If, therefore, the recent riot had
grown to moro formidable proportions, il
would have been unfinchingly put down al
whatever cost, and followed by sullen re-
lapse into imperial absolutism. 1t is fortu
nate for the experiment that Paris was MOI
thrown into one of those wild deliriums o
violence to which its excitable population il
SO prone. ~
II it is misfortune to the Emperor tC
have such an impetuous, hare e-brained relativ,
as Prince Pierre Bonaparte, whose murderoul
folly furnished the occasion for these disturb
ances, it has been, on the other hand, q great
advantage that the leader who undertook t,
turn the occasion to account is such despi
cable fomenter of sedition as Henri Roche
fort. This uneasy miscreant has not singh
title to respect He has a vulgar, siniste
face; repulsive bearing; an upstart insolenc
of manner; no talent that fits him for an
other trade than that of libeller; no qualit
which can bind his associates to him by an
other tie than q common taste for violenc
and rancor, or common hatred of tho impe
rial family. The liberal statesmen of Franc
scorn, despise, and shun him; they wash ihei
hands of all utilization or completely with him
and would think themselves disgraced by cor
senting to follow him as leader The pru
dent moderation of Nj. Olivier, supported q
it WAS by the great body of the deputies,
set off to great advantage by contrast wit
such vulgar demagoGue and reckless, vic
lent libeller as this misereant Rochefort.
AS things look at this distance, the govern
Inent of NJ Olivier will not be weakened b
the recent outbreak. 1t arose out of an O,
currence which nobody could have so muC
regretted as the Government, and for which Il
other member of the Imperial family is r
sponsible than the dsesteemed perpetrato
and he was surrendered without hesitation
or any attempt at favoritism, TO be dealt vii
according to the law. France has, no doub
real grievances but the assassination
Victor Noir by bully who happens to beloI
to the Imperial family was not an occurren'
which justified an attempted revolution. III
sober public judgment of Paris could Meth
approve of the cause nor the methods of 81
reyolutionists on this occasion; and as TIN
did not succeed in provoking the Governme