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Leader (1850-1860), 10th April 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 7

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      . ¦ , Letters From Paris. [Fbom Our Own ...

      ftf the legislative body , who are ready to oppose any Concessions on this point . They baye alread y had Several reunions during the last fortnight , and are * X [ e & les indepeadants . They loudly declare their Intention to defend the interest of the tax-payers ( contribuables ) ; and to call for a detailed account of the expenditure , which should be annexed to the budget , ' 1853 * It is well known that this is a very delicate question , and one on which a most-serious conflict cannot fail ' to arise j L . Bonaparte having regulated the budget of 1852 , on his own private authority , without furnishing any of the items 6 f expenditure .

      A third element of opposition , and one which , to a man of M . Bonaparte ' s susceptibility in affairs of etiquette , could not fail to cause him extreme annoyance , is the circumstance of the deputies persisting in presenting themselves at the soirees of the Elysee in plain clothes . He looks upon this seriously as an act of contempt against his decrees . In the meantime , L . Bonaparte advances towards the empire ; not openly though , for that has never been hidden

      his method , but by tortuous and manoeuvres . He wishes to appear as if driven ( la main forcee ) in the matter , as I told you in my last letter . The reviews are going on , and we have still the Vive I'JEmpereur of the soldiers . The faithful legion of Decentbraillards never fail to attend his path punctually , at time and place appointed : but now , in lieu of Vive Napoleon , they deafen us with formidable cries of Vive VEmperenr . The intimes of the Elysee tell everybody that we must have the empire . Persigny , a few days

      since , at the opera , met the Vicomte de l'Epine , the celebrated champion of the Empire , he that formally demanded its establishment in the Bulletin de Paris . " Continue / ' said Persigny ; " the thing prospers : we will manage to be driven . " This word is a complete avowal ; it is the agent of police provocateur , accessory to the fact . Compare this with M . Bonaparte ' s own words : "I shall not proclaim myself Emperor , unless the factions drive me to it ; " and you will see these gentlemen know what they are about . They will instruct the police to prepare an emeule , to he laid at the door of the factions ; M . Bonaparte will have found his pretext ; the factions have driven him to make himself Emperor !

      More facts . Two deputies from the South had declared that they would move for the proclamation of the empire . M . Bonaparte , seeing these gentlemen afterwards at one of his soirees , asked them in a loud voice to tell him " What they considered was the wish of the people ? " " That you should be emperor , prince , " replied they . Louis Bonaparte thereupon shook them by the hand in a significant manner . On the occasion of the preparation of the Civil list ,

      several senators waited upon the President for the purpose of learning his views on that subject . " My pretensions are very modest , " says Louis Bonaparte ; " 1 desire only the plain income of President . But as , by the forco of circumstances , I might become Emperor , let mo have a civil list of twelve millions , as if I were alread y ompevor ; for I should not wish the people to say , that my coming to the empire , has cost them a sou . " These words were uttered publicly , word for word , before six persons .

      The empire , you perceivo , is well decided upon in Louis Bonaparto ' s mind , and if it wore not for Russia , it would have been proclaimed ore this . In the meantime , it virtually doca exist . Arbitrary measures continue as heretofore . Tho censorship , though abolished by law , is still maintained . It certainly does not apply to tho press , hut every pamphlet , not boing decidedly a book , as well as every circular , is submitted to it , in spito of tho law . ¦ As a sot-oflf , Louis Bonaparto is reported to bo contemp lating an act of genorul clemency . Ho has despatched several commissaires extraordinaires into the provinces , to revise tho decisions of the late

      comjucMciaircs . " Lot mo hear , when you return , <> f as many , pardons as possible , " nro the words said to havo been addressed by tho President to M . Quentin J > auehart . After having destroyed so many of his victims , L . Bonaparte now speaks of pardoning some . Orders arc moreover being given to suspend all the trimnportations . Letters from Marseilles and Bordeaux confirm this intelligence . It is unfortunately V , lftto > On tho 20 fch of . March , the Moniteitr ^¦(¦ fffirien gives an account of 1850 transports who Jiavo landed in Algiers . To-day wo are informed that t = i » oy amount to 2237 . Louis Bonaparteit appears to 4

      , HIU * 1 H ili * mi * rMia ** % ^ i 4-n « -i .-. ?»^ .. J . « , i . «* . .. .. i ., v .. i .. _ . i . l . » i . jno . is desirous of stopping transportation , now that u » oro is no ono to transport . Tho future- omporor over hccIcb to conoiliato tho good will of tho Catholic clergy . Tlio other day , at tho coromony of conferring the cardinal ' s hat on a French uwnop , ho availed hunoolf of tho opportunity , to inHiat on tho necessity of an intimato union between tho spiwual and tomporul powers . Tho Protestant clergy ,

      however , is far from being made the aim of imperial cajoleries . A Protestant school , which had beeii established at St . Maurice ( Ybnne ) , has been closed by order of the Government , on the alleged ground , that there were no persons of the reformed religion living in the place . An attempt had also been made to establish a Bible Society at Estissac ( Aube ) , but it shared the same fate- as the Protestant school ... 'I hope to sueeeed iri drawing the attention of the English press to proceedings of this description , for they are continually occurring .

      There is to be a modification of the Ministry . This change will be decisive . M . Casabianca , Minister Secretary of State , makes way for the versatile Persigny , the Egeria of our Dutch Numa . Persigny is in fact the adviser of L . Bonaparte . The place of Minister Secretary of State belongs to him , then , by right . The following arrangements will be made under the new Minister . The council of Ministers will sit under the presidence of M . Persigny . The latter will be the only member of the council to confer , and transact business with the chief of the state , and will therefore be the principal personage of the siittalion . In a word , Persigny governs and Bonaparte reigns .

      One of the prerogatives of royalty , as you are aware , was the right of chase in the royal forests ; this right has just been conferred upon L . Bonaparte , by the Senate , which , in giving him a civil list of twelve millions , gave Mm possession of all the regal palaces , such as Versailles , Compiegne , Meudon , St . Cloud , Rambouillet , Fontainebleau , & c , and the exclusive droit de chassern . the royal forests of St . Germain , Marly , Rambouillet , Compiegne , Senart and Fontainebleau . This senatorial decree is about to produce a curious law-suit , In the month of August , 1848 , the administration of the forests executed a nine years lease of the right of chase in the said forests , to a number of private individuals , at a fixed annual rental . The concessionnaires , who have been four years in possession , and who hold a lease in due form from the

      administration , will oppose the execution of this decree . The eoncessionnaires of'the droit de chasse in the forest of Compiegne , being ^ all of them members of the Opposition , have resolved , as a matter of principle , as well as for the pleasures of the chase , to avail themselves of every form and stage of legal proceeding to maintain their rights . The affair promises to furnish much amusement . S .

      Agrie I0» 1852,] The Leader. 339

      AgRiE I 0 » 1852 , ] THE LEADER . 339

      Continental Notes. The Death Of Prince S...

      CONTINENTAL NOTES . THE DEATH OF PRINCE SCHWARZEJiTBERG . Thk sudden death of ^ Pbince Schwabzenbeeg , from a stroke of apoplexy , on Monday last , the news of which reached London by electric telegraph on Tuesday afternoon , has removed from the scene the most active , daring , and unscrupulous chief of the Counter-Revolution in Europe . In him the Emperor of Austria has lost one who , in a crisis of unexampled peril and difficulty , was found to be tho only man able to rescue from destruction a tottering dynasty , and to reconstruct and reknit a dismembered and insurgent Empire .

      "Ho found" ( says tho Times , in a summary of his career ) " the Empire in ruins , and ho leaves it entire . Ho found tho authority of tho Imperial Court at its lowest obli—attacked in . Italy , rejected in Hungary derided in Vienna , and effaced at Frankfort—insomuch that tho Tyrol seemed tho only possession which tho house of Hapsburg could call its own . Ho left ' that authority absolute throughout tho dominions of tho Crown , and ns influential as it has over boon in tho councils of Europe . "

      Prince Schwarzenberg has died in tho vigour of manhood , at the comparatively early age of fifty-two ; but ho had " lived" all his days in tho most emphatic Bonso of tho word . It was not until tho last four years of his life that ho was called to tho supremo authority , which , since November , 1848 , ho has wielded with absolute power , ami with absolute success . " His earlier years" ( snyH the Times ) " had been devoted to pleasure , to gallantry , and at times to military life , for ho held tho rank of Lieutenant Field-Marshal'in tho Imperial army , and nerved with distinction under Marshal Radotsky in Italy ; " and as a diplomatic he had boon Austrian Minister at Turin and at Naples ; at the latter court ho was surprised by tho Revolution of February .

      Ho might almost lmvo Bat for tho hero of Lord Byron ' s l ) on Juan , from his versatile powers and varied triumphs . " Love , war , the court , tho camp , " in all ho was active , and conspicuous . Like almost all men of great oiiorgy of character , and Htrongth of brain , ho found time arid leisure for " successes in conflicts neither diplomatic nor military . " " Wherever either of those services Biimmonod him ( sayn tho Daily Netoa ) lio invariably found time and loiHuro to bofltow on tho eorvieo of Cupid . In St . Potoraburgh , in Naples , and in London , tho diplomatist was a euccoHsful wooor ; though in . tho two lattov cities his Buecoasoa wroro attended by unpleasant consequences . In Naples , tho

      lazzaroni ; and in London , a court of law , revenged ^ -the injured husbamds . At the time of his death , Prince Schwarzenberg was an outlaw from this country on account of unpaid damages and costs . " But we are rather concerned with the Schwarzenberg of triumphant despotism than with the " Prince Felix" of English courts of justice ; who was wont , as a diplomatist , to carry , into the hearts of husbands that desolation which , as a Minister , he has in latter years carried into the heart of Europe . The Morning Chronicle soxos , up what he has effected since his advent to power in the winter of 1848 .

      " " With , every province in rebellion , and with , a bankrupt exchequer , he contrived- —although compelled , against his will , to accept the intervention of a haughty ally— -to regain for Austria its former rank both in G-errnany and in Italy ; he humbled Prussia as none but Napoleon had ever humbled her ; he took military possession of the Legations of Bologna , as well as of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany ; whilst he put an end to the war in Schleswig-Holstein without drawing the sword . At one and the same moment Austrian soldiers were quartered in Florence and in Hamburgh ; and all these gigantic military demonstrations took place at a period when it was believed that the Imperial resoxirces had been completely exhausted by the campaigns of Italy and Hungary , and that the whole force of tho

      army was needed to restrain the disaffected population of the reconquered provinces . When , to all appearance ,, the influence of Austria in Germany was completely undermined , lie succeeded in restoring the prestige of the Empire , and in securing the lead in the affairs of the Confederation . By skilful diplomacy and well-timed demonstrations , he was successful in recovering all that had been lost by the Revolution . At the present moment Austria is unquestionably more powerful in Germany than when the resources of the Empire were wielded by the hand of Metternich : and whilst the revolution is altogethercrushed in the Italian provinces , the minor princes of the Peninsula are more than ever under the dominion of Vienna . "

      It was not to be expected that a man of his temper ftnd antecedents would respect any engagement , or any compact , shrink at any means , however violent , or at any instruments , however cruel , in the pursuit of his ends . " With a headstrong tenacity and courage ( writes the Times ) * which seemed to take no account of tho dangers before liim , he at once repudiated all concession and compromise , and resolved to suffer no abatement of the Imperial power as long as he was its representative . " He called in Russia to the subjugation of Hungary , whilst he was wresting Germany from Prussian

      supremacy . " The Confederation was well nigh transformed into a Prussian Empire with , republican institutions ; the minor princes were faintly struggling for existence ; even , the Kings had been swept into a league which , was to supersede the Federal treaties , and Frederick William IV . seemed on the point of winning more by revolutions than Frederick II . had done by war . It was here that Prince Scliwarzenberg put forth an amount of intrepidity , activity , and address which were crowned by the most triumphant results . By the treaty of Bregenz he drew closer the ties between Austria and tho southorn kingdoms of Bavaria and Wurtemberg ; he gradually detached Saxony from tho Prussian alliance , and obtained tho

      neutrality of Hanover . Armed with this support , and relying upon , the indisputable authority of the Federal treaties , ho then revived the Diet of Fra nkfort , and whilo Prussia still denied its oxistonce , its authority was already invoked and about to bo enforced on the confines of her own dominions . With equal boldness and skill immense masses of troops wore moved at the approach of winter to all tho commanding positions in Germany from the Vistula to tho Rhine ; presently Hesse was occupied , and oven the war in Holstoin terminated by tho advance of the Imperial troops ; yot not a blow was struck , and tho Cabinet of Vienna obtained , by tho mero display of its diplomatic influence and military strongth , all the results of a victory . A fow days lator , peace was again restored botweon Northern and Southorn Gormany at tho negotiations of Olmutz . "

      So much may bo said by his most favourable biographer . On tho other bund , it may bo doubted whether many of his victories wore not duo to the weakness and vacillation of his opponents . At homo , hi « policy was simply tho reconstruction in its most odious and exaggerated form of the most brutal and degrading despotism . Motternich was content to lull tho peoplo by feasts and gamen , and to treat them as u pore & Vengrais ; Schwarzenborg scourged thorn , not with whips , but with Hcorpions . Ho made wjwte paper of

      constitutions and charters , and reduced to a solitary item tho conquests of tho revolution . Barracks and buroaucracy , police and spies , a prying and inquisitorial terrorism , wore his leading principles of Government . I To ought to- bo gratefully remembered by i 1 \ o fanatics of Order : for Ordqr was his god , and woman-floggings wore among tho sacrifices ho was wont to pay to that divinfty . By tho pooples of Europe , by all who love liberty , justice , law , humanity , his name would seem to douorvo to bo held in execration . But the fact is .

      that with all his undoubted Htrongth of will , and energy of action—with all ln » skill , vigour , and addresa--ho wuh not a man to bo remembered ovon for hto atrooitios Execration would bo too high a pedestal for a man who found a tottoring empire in tho dust , and rebuilt it

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1852, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10041852/page/7/