A new light appears to ha...
The Times, 1824-09-01T00:00:00

A new light appears to have been recently cast upon the institutions of France, on the forms of her Government, and the condition of her people. FERDINAND VII. has, if re- port says true, added one to the number of Royal Authors. He has addressed an " Epistle to the Philosopher of the " North, the ImperislALExANnEFR," which hasfor its sub- ject the extreme peril arising to all paternal Governments, like those of Spain and Russia, Romelia and Morocco, :from the wild and boundless liberty enjoyed by the French nation, under the still floating shreds and remnants of their Tnost in]auspicious charter! Among the outcries which have been often raised for an equalization of weights and measures throughout the civilized world, it seems not to have struck the mind of any man, how convenient it might be, if for purposes of diAcussion only, to have some one au- tborized code or standard, by which to fix the precise meaning of political expressions. As matters are at present, we scarecly know by what common signs an English states- .man, or an American, for instance, can carry on the most simplediscoutse on politics witha clasg4fbeingswho talk e- liberately about the "daugeroQs freedorm' erjqyedby Ff,trce underthe BoU'BoNa. Yetsach,it seerns, i theburaenoftilis song of the Spanish Solo.t o ON! FEaLIwANn strenuoualy ad- vises A LrXANDER to do for France by an inundationi of Cossacks what he complains that Louis has not donie for Spain by a Frenchl army-put down at once every vestige and sihadow of right throughout the dominions of Louis, but that of the KiNo to execute against his subjects what- ever mischief the Royal wvill inay prompt his Majesty to undertake. FERDINAND, uniless the letter be a forgery, reports to ALEXANlIRR that the Prench are so unreasonable as to urge upon him the expediency of giving Spain some sort of represenltative constitution: but Chambers, ever so servile or iiffectual, are not to the taste of this magnalli- mous Prince. He says that the very natne is poison to his imagination, and that the Kiing of FRANCE, by suggesting such a calamity, has efficed froin his heart, however sen- sitive, all impressions of gratitutle for restoring himn to the throne of his repute(d father. FERDINAND is positive that such fatuitv must arise fromn thc too liberal institutions of France herself! aiml that Europe will never enijoy that re- pose wlich lhe presumes (and well he may) to be the object of the Holy Alliance, until all Chambers and Parliaments, and other depositaries of free action and free opinion, shall have beeau swept off the face of society. AL.EXANDER is then conjured, by Ihis power irresistible, and by his un'fa- iliomable wisdom, to mareh an immaense lhost of Cossacks against the Freitqh natioli, which is to be blesse(d by the estaldishment of that same paternal systems wilicil FE IDR- fAN-D wouldt perpetuate beyontd the Pyrenees, if only his cousin Louis would permit him ; for surely that Govern- men1t is paterital, and patriarchal irnoreover, where the pa- rent hna power of life andl leath over the childl. A letter to the above effret is assertedl openly to have been written by F2ErDKNAND): it is in eharacter at least, andl in strict k-epitg. 'Thlat the seutitnetits assignetd to it andl to thet writer are cabealated to obtain a favourable aU- (ihence froin tle Autocrat, there is little doubt. FRANCIS had native, etniough to ainonuce tv all mankind, that obedience w*as itl Austria the one thing needfill. It is, in faet, the sole Ritm andl spirit of the Holy Allianire, clhat oninipotelee is to he the attribu te of every ionareleh, and( polrfect slavvry the appanage of tlte human race. I'oor blind worins ! Do they (Iream that such a eonsniracv c1an prosper ? Tthat, in spite of the press andl thle reforrnma tion, the minid of mitan ean he eh:)ked-or idt'oatry, at its ebb tide, ove, flowv froin the Saint to the Sovereign?" Do they anoinit t!;ernselves with the miserable vanity, that despotism will be sufferedl to carry on her approacites ln- diqtuihbed, that she may at least lay siege te England it this lhemisrhere, atitl to Engla'td's fair oWl'pring- in the other? 'I'he folly of the arbitrary Courts of Europe is obvious to all but thctmselves; nevertheless it is a rein' folly, they do entertainr these fantastic visioins, andl will strive to clutch the bloo(ly dagger which leads them to their owi (lestruction ; but first, unfortiunately, to that of their more inntocent fellowv-creatures. 'rruly has it been said by FERDINAND, or for him, that the species of tranquillity whieh the Holy Alliance ai-ns at, will never be achieved until free institutions shall be everywhere overturned. It is in the nature of the des- potic mania to move perpetually ouwards, atnd to be satis- ficd with nothinig short of extitiction to the principle of free- (dom in act or wor(l. IPrance is to be first regenerated by the destroyers and disciples of BuoNArARTE-G7reat Britain next: soon they fight among themselves for the prize of itniversal monarchy, wh<en darkness visible covers the in-. habited vorl(i: one hope, however, remains: while any metium of discussioa remains, tyranny cannot be absolite even France, il3 spite of its censorship, is not entirely en- slaved, whiile its Chambers are allowed to mcet : and Great Britain, with its press and Parliarnent united, rnay laugh to scorn the vain babblings or the brute force of the Holy Allies.