Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-01
PLON-PLoN's PLEA.


festo of Prince Napoleon which stirred up
so much excitement in France and was the
cause of the arrest and imprisonment of
the author. Following is translation:
PARIS, Jan. 1, 18S3.-To my fellow citi-
zens: France languishes. Some of those
who suffer are stirring. The great major
ity of the nation are disguised. Without
confidence in the present, they seem to
| await a future that they will only
be able to obtain by a virile resolution.
The executive power is enfeebled, incapa-
BILE and incompetent. The chambers are
without direction and without will. The
party in power sets at naught its own
principles, only seeking to satisfy the least
noble of passions. The parliament is split
| up into countless number of fragments
| Reactionaries, moderates, radicals have in
| turn taken the government. All have been
! wrecked. You have been promised re-
| public which should build up and reform.
lying promise that! You see continual
crises which involve the chief of the state,
| the ministers and the chambers. The
experience of the parliamentary
republic carried through twelve
years is complete. You
have no government. The evil is in the
constitution, which gives over the country
to the, discretion of 800 senators and dep
| uties. Faults have been committed in
| the past. Why aggravate them instead of
| taking warning from them; The army,
| the foundation of our greatness and of
our security, is in the hands of incompe-
! tent men. For two years they have been
discussing its reorganization, and are now
| forced-after plumbers which ruin the mil
| itary spirit-to find a new law of recruit
| ing. The administration is discredited.
| The officials are the slaves of the paltriest
partisan interests. To make the most for
ones self out of the country is not to gov
ern it.
The magistrates are manacled in the
very fiber of their independence. They
seem to lose day by day with the security
to which they are entitled loyalty to their
duties. Our finances are shaken. The
taxes, heavy and badly distributed, are
kept up in a fatal spirit of routine which
much easier to borrow than to reform.
| The expenditures are increased without
| just cause. The most elementary con-
ditions of the public credit are ignored.
| Stock jobbing, which often owes its i'm
purity to the compromising nature of its
ramifcations, has over-run all classes of
society. The floating debt is swollen to
sum which threatens our credit at the first
shock. In spite of the enormous taxes the
| budget shows deficiency.
Religion, attacked by prosecuting athe-
ism, is not protected. And nevertheless
this great interest of all civilized society
| is easier to guard than any other, by fideli-
| ity to the concordat which alone can give
US religious peace. Social questions, vital
to our democracy, wherein political equal
| ity ought to secure better distribution of
| burdens to the advantage of the most num-
erous and poorest class of our people, are
disregarded. Even the study of them is
despised. In the face of the problems
which are in our path we do not advance
we go backward.
Our commerce is attacked by giving up
the treaties of 1880, to which we owe our
prosperity, and the interests of consumers
and the commercial classes are alike sacri-
feed. Our foreign policy is one of bad
faith with the feeble. 1t is at the service
| of private speculations in Tunis. The
costly occupation of that country is with
out profit. Our policy is cowardly and
idiotic as to Egypt, where the interests of
France are important We cannot review
our relations with other countries without
feeling of profound sadness. Our France,
but just now so great, has to-day neither
friends nor prestige. Even among well dis
posed nations shemeets an indifference
more painful than hostility. and neverthe-
less a strong France must haye place in the
world. We shall regain our position
abroad only by setting things right at
home. This situation of affairs is caused
by the abandonment of the principle of
national sovereignty. So long as the people
do not speak France will never lift up her
head.
Heir of Napoleon 1. and Napoleon Ill,
I am the only man living whose name has
secured 100000 votes. Since the death
of the emperor's son 1 have kept silence
in regard to the policy of the state, not
wishing to interfere with the developments
which were under way, haYe been waiting
in sadness for the time when the course of
events should call for me. Ny silence
was only the patriotic expression of my
respect for the repose of the country.
My conduct, my opinions, my sentiments
have been Systematically traduced. IN
moved, I have only replied by contempt
to set sons against their father. Efforts
odious and barrenl [ have felt it duty
to impose silence upon the young hearts
revolted by such instigations. I have pre-
ferred to be alone in the face of our ad-
versaries. Ny sons have been as yet
strangers to politics. The natural order
designates their places as after mine, and
they will remain faithful to the true Napo-
leonic traditions.
Abdication has been spoken of, but it
will not take place. When a man has
more duties than rights abdication is de-
sertion. Snch an attitude, such recogni-
ton of mutual obligation, would be becom-
ing to the princes who think that they have
rights, superior to the will of the people.
The Napoleons. the chosen of the people
whom they serve, would not conduct them
selves like those princes.
Two principles divide the world. One
admits right superior to the will of the
people. The other puts the source of all
power in that sovereignty. I respect the
country where these two principles
are not allowed to conflict. In
France it is not so. The representatives
of the past have made it impossible. There
is nothing doubtful in theiF attitude. No
union with the partisans of the white