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^12 Ttik LEADER. [SiTtikiuY _ | - .¦». ¦...
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CONTINENTAL NOTES. The following speech,...
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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. [From Our Own Corres...
To " -ive you an idea of the continual alarm in which the Ministers left in Paris live ; they have had placarded anew all over Paris the ordonnance which forbids the retention of any arms , and commands their instant delivery into the hands of the police under the severest penalties . I have already told you that the Ministers hang npon the wires of the telegraph : but this is not all : they also compose and arrange the news . Being , by
means of the telegraph , some thirty-six hours in advance of the post , they publish incredible accounts . Never did monarch triumphant , or hero crowned with spoils of victory , achieve ovations so magnificent ! There is no voice to qualify or contradict ; no journalist is allowed to follow the " progress ; " no version is permitted save the Moaiteur ' s , so with the Moniteur we must needs be content . It is a singular comedy enough : it is no longer history that supplies the Moniteur , but the Moniteur that makes history .
At Bourges , where the President arrived m the evening , he was received ( I quote the telegraph ) " with the greatest enthusiasm . " The municipal council of every commune in the department had , as you know , been summoned to meet on the Place Serancourt . Bonaparte showed himself to the crowd from a distance , standing on the terrace of the Prefecture , by torchlight . The Moniteur relates that he was greeted
with the acclamations of an idolizing population . It also relates that the town was resplendent with illuminations ; in other words , the lampions despatched from Paris had been duly lighted . The Moniteur , edited by Persigny , goes on to say that the cries of Vive VEmpereur were unceasing : but it forgets to add , that one citizen who cried Vive la Repiibliqiie was arrested . For this item of intelligence we are indebted to the Journal des Debats .
At Bourges Bonaparte lost no time ( s'est empresse ) in proceeding on foot from the Prefecture to the Archbishop ' s palace to receive the benediction of the cl mrch . Starting from Bourges at eight o ' clock in the morning , he reached Nevers at 2 r . ivr . There the mayors and their deputies , of every commune , had been summoned to salute him , together with the 1200 workmen of the National Marine Foundries . The telegraph heard these workmen cry Vive VEmpereur . There , too , Bonaparte " repaired" to the cathedral to receive the Bishop ' s blessing . All the clergy of the
department had been convened to this touching ceremony . The Monileur ( edited by Persigny ) recorded , in six telegraphic despatches on the same day , that the Prince President was saluted everywhere with that single acclamation , Vive I'J'Jmperenr . Persigny himself edited every successive despatch on the first day of the " progress , " to give an impulsion to the enthusiasm , and after giving the Moniteur the key-note , and even working it up to concert pitch , he surrendered bis pen to his secretary , and set oil" in hot haste for Lyons . On the Kith , Bonapartfl started from Nevera at ten o'clock in the morning , and arrived n . t Moulins at two in the afternoon , in the midst of a pelting rain .
. Notwithstanding the rain , s : iys the Monileur , ( should it not have said wit / island in /; , ) the Prince was tlie object of the liveliest , enthusiasm . New cries of Vive I'Emperour . ' another visit to the cathedral : smother Archbishop ' s speech : another reply from the President . To-day , that we have our private letters , we find that there was scarcely a . soul in the streets of Moulins ; the ; ruin \ v : is so violent that there was neither any crowd nor any i-nihusiasin . Perhaps : i few of the regular agents and touters may have been stationed to shout Vive rKmpcrcur : but it must have required a ? leal of courage to do it even professionally , in mich a < lrencliing rain ! Ifonapart . e left iMoulius on the morning of the l 7 lh , rftiichiiiLr Uosimie at % l ' . M . The , Moniteur assures us
Unit ill U ;> uune this Princo w . ih welcomed by un immense and madly enthusiastic concourse of people , and by shout , s , u thousand times repented , of Vive I' ICmj / ereur Privnte letters sny Unit ho was received by n rail ) , cold Tain . Then 1 , however , iis everywhere else , the mayors ( with their deputies ) from every commune in the department , had been . summoned , and ordered , to shout Vint : rI'hnpereitr . I ' onaparle arrived ut St . Ktienne on the 18 th , ut I ' l ' . lM .: there he was received by 5000 minors , headed by their employers , nays the Monileur . What the Moniteur Jon / els to s ; iy is , tliut there ure ( 10 , 000 workmen lit , St . Istienno in different , employs , besides the minors , ni . d ( hut , not one of this number figured in tho oflicin . 1 ceremony . As to the miners , they did just , what the working-men of Alsace had done before them headed l » i their employers , they figured
in the show , voila tout ! At length , on the I Dili instant , Louis Hoimpnrfe nnule bis triumphal entry into LyoiiH , in tho midst of nu enthusiastic crowd , according to tho Moniteur . Here , an olacwhore , all the commune * wero olliciaUy
convoked . Bonaparte , who has decidedly become a de vot , did not forget his religious duties , and went to the cathedral to hear mass . Can you inform us whether he was a regular church-goer iu his London days ? We fancy not . En resume , a new step has been taken towards the Empire . We are now witnessing the fourth act of the grand imperial comedy . The Moniteur presides as chef d ' orchestre , and does what it had never done before—cries Vive I'JSmpereur !
The change of key is abrupt and strongly marked . Even in the recital of the Strasburg " progress , " the Moniteur never heard any cries but Vive Napoleon , Vive le President , with the single exception of a " still small" cry of Vive I'JSmpereur at Nancy . Now , the scene is wholly changed . On the very first day of the journey the Moniteur records one only cry—Vive VEmpereur . On the second day six times , in six successive telegraphic despatches , the same cry , and so on , day after day , crescendo .
There is one point , however , on which we don t get at a certainty ; namely , as to what class of the population it is that cries Vive I'ttmpereur . On this point all is vague hesitation . First , it is the peasantry ; presently , the operatives . Now , as it was precisely these peasants who were charged with having committed such horrible excesses in December , and who Avere then denounced as rouges , there is a singular contradiction in all this . So , when the Moniteur asserts that the workmen at St . Etienne had but one
cry— yive VHmpereur—it adds , " we only wish all Europe could have witnessed this singular transformation of public feeling . " " Singular transformation , " indeed . It is all mise en scene , it is all a comedy rehearsed beforehand . France is to be taught to believe that she is imperialist , that she wants an Emperor ; and as it is difficult to persuade her into the belief , enthusiastic manifestations are got up , and frantic cries of Vive VJEmpereur elaborately invented . It is now declared aloud in the official report , that after his return Bonaparte will no longer delay to proclaim himself Emperor . It is even affirmed ( but I should doubt the
statement , as there is no necessity for the President to precipitate events made ready to his hand ) that the Senate will not even be convoked , and that Bonaparte will declare the unanimous will of the people to be that he be Emperor , and so , with his own hands , he will place the crown upon his bead . Others go so far as to say that he will not even appeal to universal suffrage , but that having reached the goal of his ambition , he will throw oft" the mask ; the few journals that still subsist will be suppressed , and the thing will be
done . There are certain indications , indeed , which give a colour of probability to this report . We may persist in saying that all France is hostile to the man ; that the majority of the communal elections abundantly attest this hostility ; that every provincial journal is full of municipal councils dissolved , and mayors suspended or dismissed by the Prefects ; that the population 1 i : ls in many places voted against the candidates of Government . We may sisk , how consult the country under such conditions ? We are no longer at the 20 th
of December , under the terror that , then laid all men's minds prostrate . We may believe that if Bonaparte were fairly to appeal to universal suffrage , universal Kiiflhigu would reply with one voice , You are an impostor , you stand apart from the nation , get you gone ! Why , then , should the Elysce confront such a probability ? Why not , carry the game in military liishion , by assault ? Certain it is that Bonaparte lias quite screwed up his mind . His reply to M . Dupin at Novers is proof enough . The latter told him that the desireof the population was to see him Kmperor . Bonaparte replied , modest It / , that , " when the general interests were at , stiilvn he always anticipated public opinion ; but that when bis personal interests were concerned he only followed it . "
At Lyons , in his address on the inauguration of tho I'hnperor ' s statue , Itonaparte pretended to bo still undecided . " It is still dillirult , for me to know , " he , said , " under what , name , I ran render the greatest , services to Fiiince : if tho modest title of President might facilitate the mission confided to me , and from which 1 have not swerved , it , is not , myself flint would desire to change it for that of ' Kinperor . ' At nil events , " he added , " both prudence and patriotism demand that the nut ion lake counsel before lixing ils destinies . " Now , while
be is Npt'iiking so modestly , his I ' refeets and iigeutB ol all soil : ! nre hymning dit . hyranibic odes to bin glory . M . ( 'liaj ) uis Montlaville , Prefect of Toulouse , inn proclamation to his department of the llauto ( jiiroiuut , invilcH the population to be present ut Toulouse on the 4 ill of ( ) ct , ober , to shout in the presence of the second heir of a , fourth race , the cry of Tim / ' / Cvipereur : " that national cry , which , after having shaken foreign nutioim with n hundred victories , now covers them with iln protection . You ! with ita protection , and with its
power ; for the hand of Louis Napoleon , which h preserved France , has also been the salvation of « T continent of Europe . " * * In the midst of these elaborate triumphs , I have t mention one serious rebuff . Persigny , after ha " broken down in his negotiation with the English Q vernment for a reduction of the duties on Bordeaux wines , and anxious that Bonaparte should enter th t city with a treaty of commerce , fell back on Belgium only three days before the departure of the President for the south . He gave notice to the Belgian Cabinet that he should increase the duties on Belgian produc ten per cent , unless Belgium immediatel y consented to reduce the duties on the silks of Lyons and the wines of Bordeaux . This threat of the " touter" had not , it seems , the desired effect , and failed to intimidate Belgium . Whereupon appears a decree in the Moniteur , imposing a duty of ten per cent , on Belgian coal and iron . The Moniteur has published the names of the Government candidates in the approaching election for Paris : they are MM . Germain Tbibaut , manufacturer and Monin-Japy , Mayor of the sixth arrondissement . The Republican candidates are MM .. Goudchaux banker ; Proudhon , the writer ; and Michelet , the historian . S
^12 Ttik Leader. [Sittikiuy _ | - .¦». ¦...
^ 12 Ttik LEADER . [ SiTtikiuY _ | - . ¦» . ¦ .- -.. — ¦¦ - > , — ¦ » . - . . —¦¦ i . ^—t , ¦
Continental Notes. The Following Speech,...
CONTINENTAL NOTES . The following speech , delivered by Xouis Napoleon at the inauguration of the Emperor ' s statue at Lyons , is conclusive enough as to the coming Empire . Our readers will not fail to remark the craftiness which suggests , while seeming to deprecate , the crown , as though , it were father proffered than seized . It has been acutely remarked that , in alluding to the humble title of President , the speaker appeals to the vanity of the vainest of nations : — " Lyonnese , —Your city has always been associated byremarkable incidents with the different phases of the life of the Emperor . You hailed him . Consul previous to his crossing the Alps to gather fresh laurels . You hailed him in his omnipotence Emperor , and when Europe had confined him on an island you were again , among the first , in 1845 , to salute him as Emperor . To-day your city is the first to erect a statue to him . This fact is significant . Equestrian statues are only erected to Sovereigns who have reigned , and it was on that account the Governments who preceded me have ever denied that homage to a power of which they would , not admit the legitimacy . And yet who was more legitimate than the Emperor , thrice elected by the people , consecrated by the chief of religion , and recognised by all the continental powers of Europe , who were united to him by bonds of policy and by ties of blood ? The Emperor was the mediator between two hostile epochs . He destroyed the old regime by retlio
establishing all that was good in it . Ho destroyed revolutionary spirit by causing the blessings of the revolution everywhere to triumph . This is the reason why thoso who overturned him soon deplored their triumph . As for those who defended him , I need not cull to mind how profoundly they lamented bis downfall . On that account , when the people- found themselves free to make a choice , they directed their eyes to tho heir of Napoleon , and it is for the same motive that , from Paris to Lyons , everywhere on my passage the unanimous cry of Vive VJEmpereur has been raised . But that cry is much more , in my eyes , a recollection that affects my heart than a hope that excites my pride . A faithful servant of my country , I shall ovor in this great
hiive but one object—that of reconstituting , country , convulsed by so many revolutions and Utopian schemes , a ponco founded on conciliation of persons , on tho iniloxibility of tho principles of authority morality , and affection for tho labouring and suffering classes , a « of national dignity . Wo uro only just emerging iron those critical times when , tho notions of good and . evu being confounded , tho best minds were perverted , a denco and patriotism require that at such periods « nation should pause and consider buforo it lixcs us i . iiios , and it is Htill diilioult for mo to k » ° V , W < i <> naino I can render tho greatest services . V » , title ol' President , could facilitate tho mission con me mo , and before which 1 did not recede , I Hboiild not , _ i ^ Tw > i-R / iiiiil mt . i > iv > Nt . ( lnsire to OXCliaiUTO that tltlO 10 r ,
of Emperor . Lot us , then , deposit on tins b one our- f nrngo to a great man . Wo thus honour both llio ( ,, » ^ Franco and tho gcnerouH gmtHudo oi th « I » !» '' lftl Uglify likewise , the fidelity of tho L yoimcso to » nm > rtvolfecl . iouH . " . e ¦• , ( meech Tho trull . filings of tho historical portion ol i » ^ wo cquulH the honoHty of tho personal 'lllllH 1 < 'nH ; , vollltionurV hear that , tins Emperor " oxLiiiguwhwl «« »» vo ., j Hpiril , wo ask wholhur 1830 and 18-18 uro to bo <<>»«' an proofw of thin HlaU'inent . . ]„ , dr > - Whatevor may havo boon tho rcgrot » ol tn <*» ^ fended tho Kmporoi-, or , in othor wonto , ol « » ^ . we do not . romemlior that bin doparturo lor Jj" , t jHlan < l incited by tho population , or bin mturri Irom tlu , Smiled with joy by tho nation he had depopulated iy
eoiiNeript . ioiiH . . . . .... |] i () ]> r <>" Ah a favourable specimen of ollieml n . luliU" ' ; tlo . dnmation of | . h « Prefect , of tho Haulo ( Jaronn « to 1 partition ! , in worth special record : . . IllH to "At thin moment tho Houth numi . ifl 1 O ! " | which HiiHtiiin with tho roHtof 1 ' ranoo tlu » si mm « < ' , h , jr erect , and in proBomm of Iho world , stand .. ' ££ for of a fourth rnce-. Tho reception which you r « lttt ion your ohictod will bo pro-omiiuuit , «» h . 1 1 ' «< kb """ * i olton » , liko yourn . To tho ineonso whieh will burn » y ol to tho chanting of tho holy prints , and U tlu I J ,,. tho faithful , will to joinod tho oxpanwyo j ^ ™ ^ v w > H ' 1 ' roparo , then , your holiday olothoH , adorii y ™ " ^ C o ^ ribuudtt aud jluworfl , take hvurcl iu jour bund * w *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1852, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091852/page/4/
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