The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-03-11

eyicted pretenders, but the whole body of repab-
Iicans, who would never forgive him for having
once more inundated the Republic. He would
thus have to contend with the most active and
| resolute men in the whole nation. lie would be
| Obliged to retain both universal suffrage and the
freedom of the press. Now, would even a prince
of the. family of Orleans, full of merit as that
family may be, be able for long to make a stand
against these engines of demolition? He would
speedily have against him the majority of the
electors in the large towns, and would find him
self in consequence brought down to the position
which ruined Napoleon Ill, that is to say, COM
/ PEELED to adopt rigorous measures of repression
at home, or else to seek a diversion abroad. We
should then again have a period of some score of
years of intestine discOrd, followed by a new
turning up of the ground; and this would have
to be again and again recommended.
/ SIS I So
Whatever the regime which ultimately carries
the day, one reform will still be urgent, the re-
form of the press. The press, 1t is said, is the
fourth estate. A mistake; it is the only estate,
for it is the press which forms opinion, and pub
lie opinion is the true sovereign. Now, the
French press is entirely below it's mission. In
the first place, with u few exceptions, the jour
mails publish no news and no documents relating
to foreign countries. The reader thus becomes
accustomed to ignore what. it ought to be indis-
pensable to him to know, and to argue as If
France were the only country in the world. The
opposition papers attack everything that is done
by the government, and the official papers are
just as indiscriminate in their praise. The jour
mails of the widest circulation are those which
live on scandal and falsehood. In ordinary times,
the harm done by this pestilent press is not per-
ceivcd but its ravages come into full light IN
times of crisis. One paper like the great Eng
lish journals. as well informed and as honorably
conducted, would be worth more to France than
the finest feet or the most powerful army. Among
the books published in England, in France, and
in Germany the difference is not striking be-
tween the English newspapers and those of other
countries, the distance is enormous. They have
assumed on the continent that it sufices to initiate
the constitutional forms of the English Govern
ment. They begin to see that without a we'll
informed, reasonable, and influential press, these
forms are not enough for the establishment of
national freedom.
In fine, France may come forth from her
present severe trial regenerated, as Prussia did
from the disaster of jena. But for this she will
have to impose upon herself a stern discipline.
She ought forthwith to devote to education what
she used to give to pleasure and arms, to undergo
the harsh law of compulsory military service, to
purify her manners, to learn respect for the laws,
and to establish a press capable of training
opinion for the enjoyment of freedom. The con-
sOlidation of the Republic raises so many grave
difficulties as to seem almost impossible but a
monarchical restorat ton, inevitable in case Of civil
war, and easy at first, could offer no guarantees
of stability. 1t is time for France to brace her
self up, if she would escape the lot OF certain
other Catholic countries, equally incapable OF
supporting a regular government, and of estab-
fishing free institutions, and lapsing from revolu-
ton into revolution in irremediable decay We
may hope that this will not be the destiny of the
great people which has done so much to spread
ideas of equality through the world, for that
would be an irreparable disaster for the whole of
humanity.