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January 15, 1853.] THE LEADER. 51
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CONTINENTAL NOTES. Tino Prussian and Aus...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Letters From Paris. [Fbom Oub Own Cdttrk...
his Ministers to punish Russia "b y an immediate rupture . Persigny , that apothecary who gives himself the airs of a swashbuckler and a fire-eater , loudly supported Bonaparte at first . " We must teach ( he exclaimed ) cet insolent de Nicolas manners , and my advice is at once to send the ambassador his passports . " When once matters were pitched at this diapason , the rest of the Council joined in chorus , and M . Drouin de Y Huys received orders to communicate with M . de Kisseleff on those terms . His explanations with the latter were very categorical ; he declared it was impossible for his
Majesty the Emperor Napoleon ITT . to allow M . de Kisseleff to be accredited to him as long as the Emperor Nicholas declined to give his Majesty the title of " Brother . " M . de Kisseleff himself was really expecting to receive his passports , when , on the following day , the court carriages ( new style ) came to take him to the Tuileries . In the course of twenty-four hours Bonaparte had changed his tone and his language ; it was a very different thing to make war upon an unarmed population and upon the formidable power of Russia . This reflection made the hero of the 2 nd of
December turn pale , and he suddenly became all submission . On the 5 th instant Bonaparte sent the " court carriages" to conduct in state the ambassador whom the very day before he had called an insolent . All Europe will laugh at this flunkey servility ( platitude de valet ) . The IKoniteur pompously records the details of the audience given by Bonaparte to the Russian ambassador . The letters of credence from Prussia and Austria are now expected . * They are said to have arrived . Every , day we have presentations of ministers of petty powers , duchies , and principalities . After New Years ' day , there was no further motive for the petty conspiracy of delay which the small powers had maliciously organized for the express purpose of leaving Bonaparte bereft of ambassadors at the usual complimentary reception on the first day of the New Year .
Yet Bonaparte thought , with reason , that he had done enough to deserve well of the Northern powers , especially of Russia . He had even given orders to the French ambassador at Berlin , to announce to the Prussian Government , that France would be henceforth closed to any Polish refugees who might come to seek an asylum within her territory . This fact deserves to be given in all its details . The authorities of Scheldborg ( Posen ) had recently expelled two Polish refugees , and had given them a passport ( feuille de
route ) for France . The French ambassador at the Court of Prussia declared to the Prussian Minister of Foreign Affairs , in the name of his Government , that , for the future , foreigners of that class would not be received into France . Consequently , the Prussian Minister of the Interior gave formal orders to deliver no more passports for France to Polish refugees . Bonaparte , you perceive , has constituted himself the gendarme of Europe in France . Up to this time , it is his sole title to glory .
But it is not only before the Foreign Powers that this glorious Emperor bows humbly down—there is no kind , or degree of abject baseness to which ho docs not submit at home to win the favours of the clergy . Ho has just made a fresh concession to them , in reconstituting the Council of Public Instruction . All the liberal supporters of the University have been carefully ousted , and replaced by bishops , priests , and laymen , devoted to the clerical party . Even M . Michel Chevalier , the celebrated political economist , has fallen a 8 acrifice .+ He had been so rash ns to advocate ,
in tho Council of State , the cnu . se of the University against tho encroachments of the priestly party . Notwithstanding all the good graces ho appeared to enjoy from Bonaparte , ho has been dismissed . But this is not all . Tho Emperor , it is rumoured , secretly meditates a project which even Louis Philippe never dared to entertain . This consists in withdrawing tho Ministry of Public Instruction from tho hands of a layman ( and a lnyumn of the University ) , to hand it over to a bisltop . J This would be a return to the best days of the Restoration . For this purpose , the * They hnvo since boon presented .- —Hi > . Leader . f Wo mny add , that tho namo of M . do Montal'omhort no longer appourH in tho lint . So that oven men "devoted to tho clorieul party" uro inadmisHihle , unless ( hoy are equally devoted to Absolutism , spiritual and temporal . Tlio omission of such a namo in a negative fact , far mom Bignifieant of tho progress of retrogression in I'Yunco Mian n host of decrees . With regard to M . Michel Chevalier , bo long an ho remains a ncimtor , nrid ( as -wo bolinvo ) , a personal acquaintance of the Kinporor Bonaparte , wo may concede uomo credit to tho oxitiLiiig Fronch system of government ( to give oven Napoleon III . his duo ) for at least commercial tendencies in tho direction of Free Trado , and thin will , perhaps , atono lor much in tho eyes of certain of our " possible" liberals at homo . — fti > . Leader . X We recommend theso " inaniiL'oinont clauses" to the nympathotio digeotion of Archiloocon Douiuon . —I £ i > , Leader .
Ministry of Public Worship will be divided into two sections : — 1 . That of Protestant , Jewish , and Mahometan churches , which will be committed to the Ministry of Justice . 2 . That of the Catholic worship , which will remain under the protection of the Ministry of Public Instruction . ' This separation is just now warmly solicited by certain members of the clergy to whom Bonaparte can refuse nothing . It is , therefore , very probable that these measures will soon be carried into execution .
The fact is , this weakness of Bonaparte for the clergy belongs to one of the fatalities of his position . He has no point d'appui , and he is-seeking for one in every direction , and at any price . He is like a poor drowning wretch who catches at every reed and straw in desperation . Since the declared hostility of the Legitimists , and the complete failure of all the attempts at seduction , which have been brought to bear upon the chiefs of the Republican party , this disposition becomes daily more and more evident . The official journals seem all to have received the same mot d ' ordre—they all preach the necessity of adhesion to the reigning
power . Perhaps the Constitutionnel merits the palm in this respect . Mistrustful , no doubt , of its own resources , that journal began yesterday by invoking the authority of M . Troplong ; while M . Troplong takes refuge in the authority of Machiavel . The Constitutionnel concludes , that there is no other course for wise Republicans , who are sincere asserters of the principle ef the * sovereignty of the people , ' than to rally to the Government , which is the glorious exponent of that sovereignty . After having , in this wise , persuaded the Republicans , it turns to the Legitimists of the Gazette de France school : — " You are , " it says ,
" partisans of the National Sovereignty ; in that case , I am your man—' prenez votre ours' —take Bonaparte , the glorious product of the National sovereignty /' Not even the Orleanists are spared the despairing appeal of the Constitutionnel — " You are Liberals , " it says to them ; " under that title you have fought for thirty-five years for the intervention of the people in their own affairs .. Well then , now you have that grand thought realized . The Empire is nothing else but the people incarnate in the highest personification of our epoch , in that great man , called Bonaparte !"
This pertinacity of the official journals has been much remarked . It proves one thing at least , that the denizens of the Tuileries are beginning to be afraid of their isolation , and of the yawning void abound them . Indeed , this isolation is complete ; it has reached even the saloons of the Ministers , op # n to any number of snobs that may condescend to enter them ; and yet remaining half deserted . You have no idea of such a solitude . It seems as if there were a mute conspiracy
of absence . No fetes , no balls , no soirees , no dinners , All the saloons of Paris are closed . You might fancy that the plague had just passed away , and that Paris had become a vast Necropolis . The Government is reasonably scared at such a state of things . In vain docs Bonaparte give orders to all those valets , disguised as marquises , to givo balls , soirees , and dinners ; in vain ho gives them himself—tiro invitations are declined . It would be enough to make him shoot himself , if he were not reserved for higher destinies . Even the creatures ho has enriched turn their backs
on him . Ho counted on that world of finance to which ho bus thrown millions in money and jobs , being ready to spend their money largely , and ho to enable the other classes of society to reap somo advantage from their sudden wealth . Nothing of tho kind . Bonaparte- is reduced to his twenty-five ; millions ( of francs ) and to tho heavy salaries of his creatures , to keep trado moving . On this point he has inherited ol tho Einperor Napoleon the most stupid notions . lie
fancies ho is performing an act of genius when , after extorting a million sterling from tho entire collective population of Franco , ho . spends that sum for the exclusive profit of a low tradesmen . When he has paid heavily bin wine-merchant , his cook , bin tailor , his jockey , hi . s coachniakei " , and his horse-dealer , Ik ; fancies he has enriched all France . Such are tho traditions of imperial economy . Faithful parrot , ho repents them with imperturbable satisfaction , in spite of the progress of the age , and in deliunco of the march of
intelligence . Meanwhile some recent nominations have aroused many jealousies among hi . s intimates . It appears ho had promised everybody all tin ; vacant oiliccs , and as it wan impossible to witisfy each in Ins turn , all the ousted ones accused him of ingratitude . Iterthier , othorwiHo ^ l ' rince do Wagram , was to have been Master of the Hounds ( grand vanrur ) , ho had told all 1 ' aris so , and 1 had told you . Whon Bonaparte gave thin place ,
with its 100 , 000 francs , to Marshal Magnan , Borthier wrote a very pungent letter to Bonaparte , in which he sent in his resignation us senator . " I can no longer ( he wrote ) remain faithful to a man who has never been faithful to his own engagements . " Several other Bompartists who were to have been senators , and who were not appointed , have been equally mortified . The sons of Lanne ' s , among others , ( now the Montebello family , ) saw Larocbejaqueliii , a Legitimist , promoted
to the dignity of senator , and themselves excluded . M . de Nieuwerkcrke , the director of the Fine Arts , in his capacity of arnant of the Princess Mathikle , considered himself entitled of right to the 30 , 000 francs of a senator . Missing his name in the list , ho betrayed the keenest disappointment . On the same day he had a terrible scene with Princess Mnthilde , who promised to bring the Emperor to his senses ( " later comme il faut la tele a ce crasseux JZmpereur . '" )
There is no novelty stirring . The Moniieur is as dull and as vacant as the Tuileries . Two or three little insignificant decrees now and then just to " make act of" sovereignty , that is all it contains . The electoral colleges of eight arrondissements are convoked : they have to replace eight deputies whose civic virtue has found its reward in admission to the senate . These elections , I need not add , possess no
public interest at all . The Legitimist resignations are still going on , as well as the fall in the funds . In order to mislead public opinion , Bonaparte has been buying , at heavy prices , the Legitimist prints in the provinces , and after making them change their line of advocacy , his functionaries and agents spread the report that these journals are converted to the cause . This has been recently the case with the Gazette dw JBas Jjavquedoc .
One rumour , however , is abroad which deserves to be noticed . Bonaparte is absolutely bent upon glory . He is burning f or a campaign ; but it wont be a Russian campaign—it is to be the campaign of Sahara ! A considerable expedition is preparing in Africa . In the spring Bonaparte ( says rumour ) is to put himself at the head of the troops , and to command the expedition in person . We shall have the pleasure of singing " Malbrooh s'en va fen guerre . " A more lively feeling
against him prevails in the working population of Paris just now . In memory of Boulogne and Strasbourg , he is never known among tlfem now by any other name than Bou-stra-pa , a name composed of the first syllables of the three words , Boulogne , Strasbourg , and Paris . A poor fellow appeared only a few days since before the correctional police for having called the Einperor Boustrapa . Another working man has been thrown into prison for having cut with a knife a piece of money bearing the effigy of Bonaparte . S .
January 15, 1853.] The Leader. 51
January 15 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 51
Continental Notes. Tino Prussian And Aus...
CONTINENTAL NOTES . Tino Prussian and Austrian ambassadors presented thoh credentials to ( lie Emperor on Tuesday last , and the ()/ Ionian ambassador on Wednesday . Most ol the potty states of Germany have presented their letters of credence . The Spanish Minister has notified fo the Kmperor the delivery of tho Duchess of Mo » tpensior of a daughter . A largo quantity of the newVoinugo of the Kmpire Iins been thrown info circulation at the banks and changes . While tho tasteful execution of the various coins is generally much admired , it is objected that their intrinsic value is far below that of tho corresponding pieces of anv coinago since the former . Napoleon ' s in 1 MO 8 . A duel has ( alw ( . mi place between M . de Nieuwerkerke and Colonel fOdgar Ney . An these ; gentlemen are both intimates of the lOmperor , tin ) former being Director of the Fine Arts and attached to the Princess Mathildc , the latter an aide-de-camp of the Einperor , the affair lias created some sensation . Tho Monittmr has published a decree giving the titlo of Imperial to all the military schools and other establishments of the artillery and engineers . A projected match between the lOmperor and a Princess
of the house o ! " I loheiizollem is reported to have hern broken off by the King of Prussia . No person under sururit'lance is to he allowed lo remit ) in any of the localities where there are imperial residences . The correspondent of the Ihiifj / News writes , " You will remember that shortly before the lOmporor's election the Monitenr took everybody by surprise b y conspicuously publishing three red republican proclamations , which hll then the police had used every elfort | o repress . One of these was signed by ( amongst others ) Victor Hugo . Another was understood lo be the composilion of l . edru
Itollin . But the third , signed "Mm revolutionary cominitlee , " which openly recommended a general massacre of all the adherents of " tho present govemmenl , was indignantly disavowed by all shades <> '' republicans m Paris . Tho authorship of this sanguinary document has now been discovered , and it in satisfactory to know that he is a person of no consideration , and one , who there is mason to believe , has no followers . He is a M . Hoignoiirot , an insurgent of June , 1 H 1 H , who then , took relugo in Jersey , where he has ever since resided . The proclamation wan a constant subject of con vernal ion among the Jersey refugees , who suspected it lo be a fabrication of the police , ana expressed the utmost anxiety to t rueo out its source , in order to relieve the republican party from tho suspicion of harbouring designs which they desired energetically to repudiate . In tho course of thoao conversations , Heignou-rot at
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011853/page/3/
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