New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-28

celebrated not only the dcatn Oh hiuB h"'''
but of his wife and family; not only oil princes
but of the people-the vices of Mirabea'i' tnc
horrible audacty of Danton, the reptile cruelty
of Marat, the fatal lcartlessness OF Robesplerro
in short all that makes intellectual men deVliS'
and the Pandemonium of the Reign OF terror
n favorite drama for u certain order oil french
enthusiasts. They sat down to feast on horrors
and might have remembered that last night
when the Girondsts suppcd together. 10y STRAIN
ing point they might have brought thcil-
selves round TO celebrate the massacres oil the
comp dtiGf; for murder Is murder, whether
done by king or dcmagOgue
Fearful and wonderful, in some points OF
view is the spirit which, after decades OF UNI
availing blo0dshcd, reioices in such an event
rs the first murder. Perhaps it is right for ~,
however TO accept the late polite cOnyOcatOn
of French worms over the memory OF sad
King LOUIS as in the natural order of n peculiar
train of events. IL is natural, perhaps, that
great sclf-abs0rbed all-absOrbing monsters OF
personality should have grown like tumors on
country which has witnessed the bidcous
loosencss of morals and disrespect OF all per
sons shown in the days of the guillotne. 1t
is natural for the country which had Robes
Napoleon to be stung with Rochefort. The
worst commentary to he made on the PERM
ciousness of the Empire seems to be that in
this day of grace men calling themselves lib
| erals assemble to feast over the death OF
poor laundering king-whO, after all, was less
laundering than the scores of his eXecutiOners
| who persisted mserably by the very instrument
they erected-whosc oflense against France
was slight compared to the crime of its pres
cnt ruler who may soon die, but will not soon
resign or be killed. After nineteen years OF
probation, has France not outgrOwn the reign
of terrOrl Has Napoleon only been an educa-
tor of sans cuIoUeS and king-killersi Has he
been training up cXccutioneTs only to have 1t
| asked who shall put them to death in their
tuml
A new French caricature represents NapO-
leon speaking to a balletgirl who wears the
liberty cap. The new revolution in France
must oppose the idea of imperialism with
something better than libertinism. The ex-
cesscs of the guillOtine, the saturnalias of ter
ror, were the fruits of libertinism, and not
liberty, carried out into the extreme of horror.
Frenchmen are as able as other men, but they
cannot set right their disiointed society
by new dslOcatiOns. They have ter
rible children among them, ready to
do Traupmann's work for libcrty's sake in an
age when there are plenty of generous people
who hardly understand that liberty can be
robbed for and butchered for like other selfish
prizes, and that intellectual men can be fasci-
mated with great problems of revenge, and
come to view conventional assassination as
necessity. NJ. Rochefort quotes Robespierre-
and Danton and Mirabeau are the apostles
of the young students who i'll Belgium echoed
Proudhons teaching in cry of Down with
God" to have it caught up in Spain by a
mad Republican, Suner dc Capdevilla. 1t is
plain that the liberty of the guillotine counts
out one important element in the direction of
human aiiairs-thc Almighty.