New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-03-30
VICTOR HUGO on THE ,s1TUATIoH.

V4VxUk 6U0OVA xd6 hAxuAIlOA.
This venerable opinist, now nearly
seventy years of age, may yet be regarded,
In spite Of his years, as the Attest repre-
sentative Of young France He believes
in his fellow-countymen, and neither the
passive apathy with which they submitted
for 80 long a period to the empire. nor the
violence into which they are 20 prone to
plunge whenever their necks are freshly
freed from the yoke of tyranny, can shake
that belief Returning to France after an
exile Of twenty years, great part Of
which was voluntarily endured in prefer
ence to i've under a government
which he despised, this brave, poetic
soul sees his native country writh-
ing under most humiliating defeat,
its armies captured or scattered.
its government diSorgapized, its people
divided into factions, whose contentious
are hardly less fatal to order and true
liberty than would be the success Of any
one Of them; imperialists, OrleAnists. red
republicans, all striving or plotting for
the mastery. But beneath this sssthing
sea Of revolution his prophetic eye can
discern that great unorganized, but ire
sistible force. the French people. instinct
with the spirit Of nationality. filed with
aspirations after republican liberty, and
yearning to assert that spirit and justify
those aspirations by the establishment Of
a strong, yet free government. Relying.
a. he most heartily does, ON the motive
power of this spirit among his
compatriots, and taking broad And lofty
views Of human nature in general, Victor
Hugo looks forward in the near future,
mot only to the restoration Of frances
lost provinces, and taxnished glory, but
to the establishment, through her instrua
mentality, Of great confederation of
free European States, prophetically
christened by him 1.-THE United States Of
Europe" Ethiopian as this vision will
seem to the ordinary mind, it may be we'll
for such 10 remember that genius enjoys
the prerogative of being always in advance
of the age, and above it; seeing a with
apocalyptic vision the bright ful6llment of
dreams which the son Of futurity has yet
to ripen into realities. However distant the
realization tof the poet-statesman's
prophecy Of a Omitted States OF Europe"
may be, his reasons for considering the
infant republic free from danger are
plain and to the point. According to the
report of q correspondent Of the New
York Herald, Mr.. Hugo, when asked his
opinion as to the safety of the French
republic, said emphatically: '.Be sure
of it. We have law, justice and author
ity on our side, and with these we shall
know how to maintain the republic. Its
opponents must traverse revolution, and
. bloody one, to accomplish its over
throw, and I do not think they have the
courage to attempt it. The republicans
have heretofore always been revolution
lists, and the weight Of authority was
against them. Now the tables are
turned, and the monarchists are revc-
lutionists and bad citizens, and
demagcgues and extremists, and all the
rest of the nonsense that was so current
during the empire. But they shall have
every right except that Of tying them
selves hand and foot, and handing them
selves over to another emperor or king"
Thus, if we may trust to the sagacity Of
one of the leading minds in France, the
intrigues of the three parties 10 hostile to
the young republic Bonapartists, Or
leanists and Red Republicans-are fore
doomed to failure. So may it be.