Year: 1869




on Sunday, did not exceed in brillianey the
displays of former years, there was one ac-
compartment of La Fste Rationale of this
year which made up for all short comings, if
there were any such. The universal Amnesty


was at once bold, and wise, and gracious.
posed to fear, a letting loose of all the spirits
of destruction it throws open the prison
doors to sworn enemies of the Imperial Re
ginle; it invites back TO France exiles whose
days of banishment have been days of brood
ing over wrongs too often real, and who have
not unfequently consoled themselves in
strange land by looking forward to the happy
time when the children of the opprcssor
shall be served as they. The Amnesty is


bold, but it is also wise. At a time when
the Emperor recognizes and responds to
the will OF France, 1t has become impos-
sible TO insist upon the full exaction of
the punishment from those whose main fault
had been that they struggled for concessions
such as are now made, and were rem morseless
in attacking Constitution which has been
surrendered. 1t was also gracious. 1t would
have been easy to.discriminate between the
classes of offenders which were suffering the
penalties of the law, or had escaped them by
an easy flight across the frontier; the En-
peror might have qualified his pardon of the
mass by exceptions which would exclude
those he had reason to deem the most i'm
placable Of his enemies and the world, while
regretting their exclusion, could not have
condemned his prudence. But the Amnesty
was made universal. All are included in it.
from the least 10 the greatest, the eontuma-
cious equally with the penitent, the offender
whom the accident of an hour made an enemy
of the Empire, If not against his consent, yet
without any premeditated design, and the
ffrtn tuhA e. hae haaf,
passed in plots against the Throne-almost
against society.


This Amnesty is the appropriate sequel of
the Imperial Message. 1t is the crown and
consummation of the policy of peace. The
hundredth anniversary of the birthday of the
First Napoleon has been made the starting
point of new period. The experiment is
to be fairly tried whether 1t is impossible for
the inhabitants of France to live in harmony
with one another under Constitution which
allows the free development of all diversities
of opinion and OF aims. Although the Sen
atus Consultum is not yet settled, and the
Corps Legislatif has not re-assembled to
commence its active functions, all doubts as
TO the reality of the reforms to be conceded
have vanished, and it is equally clear that
the representatives Of the French people will
be untrammeled in their future course. Have
We any reason to doubt that France may,
under such circumstances of emancipation,
work out her own salvation, and resume her
position in the vanguard of civilization as a
free, selfgoverned nation? The Emperor
gives the best pledges of his resolution to
renounce the government of France by the
exercise of his personal will, and to be con-
tent, for the future, to execute the expressed
will of the people Will the nation respond
TO this resolution with generous confidence
in its sincerity? Will the eniranchised Legis-
lature use its new powers with sObriety and
honesty? There is a strong and ancient
prejudice, once almost irresistible among us,
still lingering with too great vitality, but yet
happily declining in strength, and promising
TO pass away, which declares that French
men can not be trusted to govern themselves,
and which supports the position by an ap-
peal to the records of eighty years. The
everyday life of France ought, apparently,
TO refute this prejudice, and to make those
who hold it investigate somewhat more
deeply the causes why successive Constitu-
tiOns have failed. 1t is acknowledged by all
that the French peasant-and France is, in
the main, an agricultural country-is the
most hard-working, yet cheerful and even
submissive of men. A profound conserv-
atism, which survives all mutations Of dynas-
ty, all transformations of the form of gov
ernment, and simply desires the permanency
of order, and an unbroken continuity OF
rural life, is his especial political character



the peTe de .tdmiiie of cities and towns is as
averse to change as the cultiyator of the
soil. But il is thought that Paris is hot
bed of disorder The Parisians fret and
chafe under arbitrary rule; that they have
been discontented at being governed in all
the details of municipal life by Prefect and
a Council, in whose appointment they have
no share; that they are CALLED by yearly in
creasing taxation; that they resent a burden
of debt, made more and more onerous in di-
rect violation of law; that they are uneasy
under perpetual displacement of domicile,
all these things are true enough, but should
not we, of London, be equally discontented
under similar causes, without, as We should
hope, laying ourselves open to the charge of
being extravagantly unrulyg The experience
of such day as Sunday last in Paris-and 1t
is an experience which may be gathered
many times year-would rather persuade
us that there is no city in the world whose
inhabitants are SO ready, not merely to obey
just and equal laws, but to make laws for
their own government in all urgent necessi-
ties The stranger, moving about Paris, is
struck by the singular union of gayety and
order. We sometimes see, in places of
thronged resort in England, request that
everyone will assist in maintaining uniDjured
objects of pleasure intended for the enjoy
ment of all. This is spontaneous impulse
of the true Partisan. The contrast between
the gamins and blouse-clad workmen in the
garden of the Tuileries, or of the Luxem-
bourg, and the spectacles of st. James's
Park, or us We are now told, of Kensington
Gardens, is not tlattering to our pride. We
should be glad to feel that there would,
under analogous circumstances, be the same
respect for the rights of Others shown by
Englishmen OF similar class as was mani
tested in the long queues described by our
correspondent as waiting through the day at
ha Of ha eueh fuda1d
may be seen every evening on smaller scale
on the Boulevards. There is, without doubt,
a dangerous class in Paris, as elsewhere, but
the rumor and the terror Of it are out of all
proportion to its numbers, and the occasions
when it has come uppermost have been due,
not so much to its own exertions as TO the
obstinacy in error of those who were In the
possession of power.


We have the greatest confidence that the
transition from the Empire as a system Of
personal government, to the Empire as
regime of constitutional liberty, may be ef-
fected in peace, without any very considerable
strain Oh the forbearAnce of French politi-
clans, and we believe that the happy trans
formation will be successfully accomplished.
Henry V. might have been at the Tuileries at
this hour. had Charles X accepted, and
Henry inherited, the position OF a Constitu-
tional King. The elder branch fell, not be-
eanse France desired a Republic, for she
rejected ii. but because she desired self
government and freedom. The Comte de
Paris Is an exile because Louis Philippe
trusted to corruption and the support of 4
bureaucratic oligarchy, and rejected every
proposal of reform which would associate
the people in the work Of government. The
Republic which arose Unexpectedly on France
was violently extinguished, but not before It
was made apparent that the vast mass OF
Frencbmen was perfectly Indifferent, II not
hostile, to the maintenance Of a Republican