minent. bourgeois chivalry, and the "Presse" post- his purpose, and war was believed to be imponed the conflict until Molé should be called to the command vice Thiers cashiered: but with these exceptions, what a phalanx of Louis-Philippeists, Barrotites, Republicans, Bonapartists, now rallied around the main division of the Centre Gauche ! 99.66 Yes, nothing less than War. The understood bargain between M. Thiers and the Press appears to have been, that in consideration of the honor of giving law, at least in appearance, to the ministry, the journals Yet even here M. Thiers was not content should place at their control the passions of to stop. Absolute master of all the light the country. From the cabinet board the fieldpieces of the daily press, he proceeded three allied leaders, "Constitutionnel," to capture the heavy artillery of the only "Courier Français," and "Siècle," having two periodicals of importance, the "Revue received the word of order, set forward, de Paris," and the "Revue des deux match in hand, to fire the train. France Mondes." To the first, a weekly magazine, was told she was insulted, that she had rewe have already alluded as the one in which ceived a slap on the right cheek, and, as the candidate for the representation of nations cannot, like individuals (how this Guadaloupe upon pro-slavery and liberal last analogy is hackneyed!), turn the other government principles, wrote himself into in a Christian spirit, she was bound to go to the good graces of the planters abroad, and War, and to War she should go. There the anti-slavery men at home. But the was in this proceeding at least some defer"Revue des deux Mondes" is the great gun ence shown to the spirit of the age: some of French periodical literature. It is their acknowledgment that the time had gone by "Edinburgh," "Quarterly," and "Foreign when a minister to keep himself in place had Quarterly" combined. With nearly as only to move an army: but there its virtue many articles, and as much matter, as any ended. M. Thiers thought that to bring one of these Reviews, it appears once a fort- the people after him, he had only to catch a night. This important periodical owed its few popular journals, hang bells around existence chiefly to Count Molé, and for a their necks, make them advance (en avant considerable period received the contribu- marchons), and that as a matter of course tions of the first literary men of the day. the whole flock would follow. Tiresome Indeed to name its former contributors and sickening would it be to wade through would be to set down every distinguished the mass of raving-mad nonsense, flung out name in modern French literature. And now, for the first time, upon the breaking out of the war-cry this periodical took a prominent part in the politics of the day: warmly espousing the part of M. Thiers. The proprietor of the "Revue" being also patentee of the Théâtre Français (to give him a title most intelligible to the English reader), and in this latter capacity receiving a large subvention, the amount of which, de Mars. After various evolutions the although voted by the Chamber, depends upon the will of the minister, it was at first supposed that either direct menace, or a lively sense of benefits to come, had much to do with a sudden metamorphosis of a literary miscellany of a grave character into a sharp political controversialist. But when it was ascertained, that the political "Chronique" was placed under the direction of the count Rossi, a Swiss born but a naturalized Frenchman, owing the honor of the peerage to Louis Philippe, with whom he was a well-known favorite, the public saw in this circumstance, taken in connection too with the war-tone of the "Débats," that the conduct of M. Thiers had the hearty support of the Château. Hence, notwithstanding the peaceful disposition of the king, the minister seemed to have carried like garbage every morning for the masses to batten on, and then eject, half-digested, upon the Boulevards and in the Theatres.Even the soldiers became intoxicated by the reeking spirit with which the atmosphere was charged. Detachments, going to relieve guard, kept time to the Marseillaise. One morning, the late lamented Duc d'Or leans reviewed five regiments in the Champ troops were ordered to put their arms en faisseau, when, having done so, they shouted with one accord the Marseillaise. The Prince Royal was taken by surprise, and very likely thought the spirit was not to be resisted. Nor was this all. While the Press was raving, and Mobs shouting, and English residents receiving insults, Ordonnances for the levy of troops boomed ever and anon through Paris. This looked like earnest. But what still baffled and puzzled the Jour nals all the time, was the apparent neglect of the English government to make any preparation against the coming storm, and the more marked silence of the English Press. Let us pause to pay a just homage to the Newspaper Literature of our country. Had the London Journals at that time allowed the speech set down for him; as suddenly his ministers resigned; and with no loss of time the majority that had supported, straightway abandoned them. themselves to be betrayed into anger, we know not what could have prevented a burst of irreconcilable hostility between the two countries. The silence which they imposed upon themselves was not contemptuous; for Louis Philippe, with the sagacity for a Great Nation, no matter how it may be which he is so remarkable, had some time misled for a time, cannot be treated with been aware that the Newspaper Whirlwind affected scorn. They appeared rather to had raised up, not an irresistible phalanx of have gravely measured the responsibility will, but mere clouds of sand. For a time, which was imposed on them, and to have like the cautious traveller in the desert, he resolved that they would hold themselves threw himself upon his face, and allowed it guiltless of the crime of involving their to pass over. But if he felt no terror, it was countrymen in strife. Yet if in France the his policy to act fear. The fortifications of members of the Press be held in so high an Paris, projected by M. Thiers in his warlike estimation, that their honorable calling is mood as a base for the operations of the the avenue to the highest posts of states- coming spring, had, like all the warlike mea, manship, there is in England, on the con- sures of his ministers, received, for exceltrary, upon the part of the great and little lent reasons, the royal sanction, When the aristocracy, an affected contempt, almost same measure had some years before been ludicrous, for those from whose armory proposed by Marshal Soult, under the more members of both houses take their stores rational form of a chain of Detached Forts, of argument and information. Perhaps it the Press, then in possession of its senses, is that the members of both houses feel rose against "the Bastilles," and the Press piqued that they are obliged to deck them- defeated the project of the court. We may selves in second-hand robes, turned and re- easily understand a cool governor thus reaarranged for holiday display. Perhaps their soning thereon: "Oh if I could only induce anger is no more than the proverbial ingra- the support of the Press, the people who titude attendant upon obligation. But be it have no public meetings and no other voice, as it may, we cannot but rejoice that we are should perforce submit." But how do that? under no necessity of guarding against the Why by the old means, Fear. Fear, in what dangerous temptation of an irresponsible shape? Why, the fear of Invasion. How seat in the cabinet, to be offered to the edi- aptly did the long wished for opportunity tors of the Times' or Chronicle,' 'Globe' present itself! How it must have been or 'Standard.' Not that we doubt the abili- hugged with joy, proportioned to its unexties of the gentlemen in question for the pectedness! We do not say that the Jourpost, but that, admiring the principle of di-nals feared invasion any more than M. Thiers vision of labor, we would keep each in his own sphere, perfecting in that sphere his own capability, and inducing him to make its pleasurable, honorable, and profitable exercise, its own reward. For to the results of a different kind of policy, we have now to ask the reader's attention. Let him mark what this boasted Public Opinion turned out to be, by the affected appeal to which this Newspaper Whirlwind had been raised. A new and potent actor steps upon the scene. While the ministers were playing the game of terror, for the purpose of rendering the Chamber obedient to them; while the Journals were rioting in their supposed influence over government and people, and the storms of passion it had raised; there was one individual watching all parties, controlling all, and ready, at the proper moment, to render all subservient to one or two little projects of his own. Our readers will at once understand that we refer to Louis Phillippe. Suddenly, with marvellous indifference, he refused, upon the very eve of the opening of the Chambers, to speak or the king himself: but they lent them- Thiers, compelled to resign, was yet allowed to carry off with him the paternity of this measure. He could well be spared its glory, and all of it was conceded by the king. The Fortifications of Paris were proposed by Thiers. Marshal Soult denied their utility, and called for the old Detached Forts; but the Chamber, though not frightened to the whole extent of M. Thiers's calculations, still allowed their senses to be deluded by the spectre of Invasion. Thiers, the Journals, and the court shouted in chorus "Invasion;" the chamber echoed it; it was in vain that Lamartine spoke the best speech he ever made, and that Count Molé treated the proposal with scorn; the Chamber would have the Bastilles: ditch, wall, soldiers, cannon and all. Marshal Soult | France; but they did not tell them that bowed, and thanked them for giving more Liberty, like Charity, should begin at home, than he wanted, said the "enceinte contin- and that France, having once before been uée" was an " embarras des richesses ;" and received as the friend of Liberty, while, the Court, and Thiers, and the Journals imposing heavier chains than those she were happy! had stricken off, she falsely broke her word The Newspaper Press of France, then, the delusion was not again to be repeated. are to be thanked for the Fortifications of Above all, they did not see one fatal effect Paris: the only deposit left from the angry of all their ravings. The amour propre of storm they raised. The Fortifications are the French Nation has been irremediably the work of the whole Press, from the hurt. So much spirit expended for nought; "Journal des Débats" to the "National." so much enthusiasm thrown away; so The "Presse," as the organ of Count Molé, much preparation fruitless; so many threats, feebly opposed the measure, and so, out of so much bragging, passed like the idle contempt for Thiers, did the "Commerce;" wind; all these things make France look but these two formed the only exceptions. foolish in its own eyes, and it turns upon its The "Journal des Débats," notoriously deceiver the Press, while the Press turns the court organ, was, as we have seen, in again upon England. The Press told the company with Louis Philippe's Count Rossi, nation it was insulted, and the Press told as loud in encouraging Thiers in the first the nation a falsehood, which being found instance as the Courier Français" or out, it is distrusted. We believe at the "Siècle." By that influential paper, indeed, same time that the nation would willingly General Bugeaud, the governor-general of forget all that is passed, and apply itself to Algiers, acknowledged that he had been something more useful than the mere remisled into the belief that France had really collection of its having been deceived; but been insulted, and must wipe off the stain: the Press, like a deceiver found out, thinks and he afterwards expressed his astonish- it can only gloss over its misconduct by ment at the little ground there was for such bullying on, and so it still cries every day an assertion. Named one of a commission Haine et Mort aux Anglais. to prepare the address in reply to the king's The key to this latter conduct is to be speech, an inquiry into the circumstances found of course in weak human nature. attendant upon the signature of the treaty They who leave the path of rectitude, from for the settlement of the eastern question, a very sense of shame persist in the same from which France stood self-excluded, | evil course. Bonaparte, with his bad became part of his duty; and the general moral sense, attempted, like Machiavelli, soon discovered, and publicly expressed to erect into a principle an evil weakness, his surprise at, the slight base upon which when he laid it down that persistence in a so alarming an outcry had rested. "The course originally bad was the only way to Débats,' no doubt, had been deceived." But the "Débats" was not deceived: its rôle had been to deceive others: its business was to help in shifting the scenes, and in keeping up the stunning music of the pantomime, until the grand finale was ready and then, at a stroke of the wand, away went the Boulevards, and the Marseillaise, and the trickery of Clown, and the dupery of Pantaloon, and lo! admist the thunder of artillery and the fall of liberty, Paris surrounded by Walls, Forts, and soldiers! The people asked for bread, and they received a stone! Mark now the just recoil. THE PRISON WALLS GROW UP RAPIDLY AND UNNOTICED: THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRESS DECLINED, AND IS DECLINING. The Press promised the nation war, and peace is assured: glory and conquest, and they find Europe armed and prepared. They told them the old story of people everywhere being ready with outstretched arms to accept Liberty from make it ultimately right. The Journals only act upon this maxim when they follow up their senseless cry. They hope to ren der it so familiar to the nation, as that at last the nation will receive it as a sound pregnant with meaning. Vain hope! It is not easy to re-kindle national ire by a dull echo. The substance of alleged wrong has been examined, handled, and thrown away as unworthy of the anger it had caused. What is to be hoped from the shadow ? But if the Press be no longer potent for evil, it can stand in the way of good. It can feed a constant irritation. It can create a "malaise ;" not amounting to malady, but enough to render uncomfortable the people disturbed by so constant a visitor. Could the small, teazing, worrying insults, thrown every day at the English people, be made to provoke a return, then indeed a squabble without dignity might end in a quarrel without hope. Half the rage of the Press appears to arise from the difficulty of ex for whose legislatorial acumen Napoleon professed such profound homage, was at hand, prepared to set the understandings of party in harmony with its passions. M. Marie presented himself before one of the electoral colleges of Paris at the last election, and in a speech, of course upon the right of search, and nothing but the right of search, put the following case: torting a reply from its imperturbable rival. | own trading vessels, at least twenty times But while the rage is harmless here, in as numerous, to the inconvenience of the France the constant jarring produces, as risk of search,-how she could freely acwe have said, a certain ill effect. It has cept such hazard if fraught with inherent deranged, for example, some of the best ruin to commerce, was an enigma difficult plans of the government. The railways to reconcile with the standing accusation stand still not one contractor can be of a deep, although inexplicable, plan for found to bid for the execution of any part annihilating all rivality upon the of the northern railway to Belgium. The Fortunately an avocat, one of that body contractors say they are ruined by the contracts undertaken for the Fortifications. In the same way the government offered large subventions to private companies to undertake the carriage of the mails to the French West Indian colonies and to the United States; but there is either not sufficient capital or sufficient enterprise in the country, and the government must take the risk upon its own shoulders. While we do not deny that other considerations enter largely into the causes of this stagnation of public enterprise (considerations too extensive to be examined here), we may still fix upon the Press a reproach from which it cannot escape: namely, that supposing it to have had good intentions towards public pros perity, it has certainly diverted all these into an unprofitable channel, while it has regarded the dispositions of the government with sullen apathy, offered no suggestion, and pointed out no means for the amelioration of the people's wants. It has had but one nostrum: War with England. What benefit this wrought to the nation, is beheld in the Fortifications of Paris: what other result it has brought about, remains to be witnessed in the Degradation of the Press. This next division of our subject brings Guizot more prominently on the stage, from which Thiers had for a time retired. In the paragraphs which we quoted from the "Journal des Débats," we find it stated that the agitation raised upon the right of search is but ten months old, the right itself having existed, and been acted upon, for as many years. This right of search was a windfall for the Journals. A merely general allusion to its history will serve our purpose. It is well known that the treaty of 1841 was signed by Russia, Austria, and Prussia, upon the invitation of France herself. No sooner, however, was it announced from the throne, that these powers had afforded their adhesion, than suddenly the scales fell from the eyes of the Journalists, and they discovered the right of search to be but a hypocritical pretext upon the part of England for destroying the commerce of her rival. But then, how England, who exposed her "Suppose," he said, "a merchant-vessel to be about to sail from a French port, at the same time that an English ship, laden with similar produce, is about to sail from a British port. The English captain is informed by his correspondent that a rival is about to start, and that i he arrives before him at the foreign port to which both are bound, the cargo of whoever comes last shall either not be sold at all, or sold at one-half its value. The English captain, acting upon the advice, sets sail, and drops a hint to the British cruiser that he meets in his way. The latter looks out for the French merchant-ship, pretends to mistake her for a slaver, detains her on suspicion for two days, and then sets her at liberty. But the British merchant-ship has been there two alas! upon arriving at her destination, she finds days before her, and has had time to supply the market, and the French merchant is ruined." Now this farrago of ignorant absurdity was actually thrust down the throat of a body of Paris electors! In the language of the " National," to whose columns the speech was confided, its illustration of the designs of Great Britain was covered with thunders of applause. We may forgive the Paris electors, not one of whom, perhaps, such a statement; but of what stuff can the ever saw a ship in his life, for swallowing opposition of the Chamber of Deputies be cats, with which dignity we believe M. composed when the "bâtonnier" of the avoMarie to be invested, could be found capa ble of uttering trash like this? And what must be the extent of that newspaper infor mation which could adopt it? Whether The trash has been more recently repeated by the paltry " Presse" à propos of the affair of Barceglish journals had congratulated their readers on lona. After stating, falsely of course, that the Enthe defeat and disarming of Catalonia, because nothing could now prevent the treaty of commerce with England being at once completed, the court print proceeded thus: "Ah! there are the English for you! Behold their policy in all its ugliness! Let them talk now of humanity and philanthropy! 66 the blind guides of the people, be they avo- mighty talent, with mpaired influence becats or journalists, were themselves ignor- cause of its tardy opposition to the war ant of the real nature of the question, or pranks of Thiers, which, as we have already whether they seized hold of the claptrap seen, it had for its own purposes at first ingredient which composed the phrase encouraged; the "Globe" without sufficient "right of search" for the purpose of creat- circulation, notwithstanding its unquestioning delusion, certain it is that delusion was able ability, to make its support tell upon circulated, and ignorance deepened, while the public mind, while it was moreover the through the spreading darkness phantom organ of the French planters, and not likely, shapes were conjured up, enough to make therefore, to be ardent in its advocacy of the hair stand on end at the designs of M. Guizot's policy upon the question where perfidious Albion." And now the Press strenuous advocacy was most needed. If once more appeared to be in the ascendant. M. Thiers's object was to rule the country The ministry of Guizot gave way. The ses- through the journalists, that of M. Guizot sion approached its close. A general elec- would seem to have been, to hold his place tion was at hand. The Ministry appealed to in spite of them. He paid them no court. the country upon the good achieved through Nay, he offered them, in the prosecution of the restoration of peace, the establishment M. Dupoty, the grossest insult, and the of order in the finances, their efforts in favor greatest outrage, which it was possible to of material good, such as the law just pass-inflict upon so distinguished a body of men. ed for a general line of railways. The Press But could he have done this in any other inscribed upon its banner "No right of state of things than this we have described ? search! No submission to England!" Could he have done it if the Journalists of France had remained true to themselves? Dared he have done it, and afterwards faced the French People? In the then coming struggle there was not wanting that admixture of personal resentment which gives sharpness and earnestness to human contests. M. Guizot's treatment of the journals had been as opposite to hat of M. Thiers, as the characters of the two men are opposite from each other. The former is as reserved in his official manner as the latter is communicative. The one, thoughtful, yet not cold, revolves within his own mind the measures of his government, there allows them to mature, and to disclose themselves only, and in their due order, at the proper time and season. His hardy self-reliance stands in no need of counsellors, nor does a vain desire to produce effect prompt him to send forth to the public a sudden and startling resolution, to be obliterated by another more dazzling because more unexpected. To such a man as M. Guizot, a set of quidnuncs must be as annoying as to his restless predecessor they were necessary. We thus find M. Guizot, upon his advent to power, with but two direct supporters, the "Dèbats" and the "Globe:" the "Débats," notwithstanding its One of the bitterest reproaches urged against M. Guizot by rational men, that which carried with it the most apparent truth, has been this: that he, who has written so much upon British constitutional statesmen and British constitutional history, and written too with so evident an admiration of the maxims and principles of our laws, should yet, with the opportunity afforded him of carrying these maxims and principles into execution in his own country, where their application is so much wanted, guard with the greatest jealousy against their introduction, and violate the first principles of justice in the persons of political offenders. In another and different spirit, M. Guizot's supposed English predilections have also afforded his less rational enemies, the readiest, most convenient, and most constant topic against him. He is, forsooth, the minister de l'étranger; he is the pedantic Doctrinaire who would force upon the uncongenial soil of France the constitution of her untiring enemy; he would teach a love of England as the pattern of all excellence, and Anglicise his countrymen. From you Humanity for them is only an instrument of commerce. These tender and generous philanthropists, who so much pity negroes, see with delight torrents 01 blood and heaps of ruins in Catalonia. Do know why? It is because, on the negro question, philanthropy gives them the right of search, by which means they spy after our commerce, and harass the rivals of their industry: while in the fire of Barcelona their inhumanity and savage barbarity render them masters of the trade of Spain, securing the conclusion of the treaty of commerce so long desired, and which they think they shall pick out of the sinoking ruins of Barcelona! Yes, behold the philanthropy of England!" any thing like this latter reproach, he must be said, in the matter to which we now advert, to have fairly purged himself. It could only be accepted, from one whoso swears by Great Britain, as the avowal of a painfully profound conviction of the unfitness of France for the blessings of British freedom. In a word, the case of Dupoty was a most horribly revolting case of justice vio |