Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 21st August 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 791, Untitled Article

Page 791
Page 3
3 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)

      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.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      m g ofFa month ago had their scaling-ladders carried I the attack by volunteers from the very place against 1 * h the force was going . The steamers that went to Ttflssein saw the inhabitants on the banks waving their iT nds up the river , and signalling ' good speed' to the exdition against that place . The troops who have fought ^ inst us and have come in , laid down their arms and ed that they only fought while their families were in Wage for their bravery , and on their release they came ta ioin the English cause . The very last expedition against p which has not returned yet , was sent at the earnest treaty of its inhabitants to save them from the cruelty G the Barman Government . The commander of the ° Vn ? ervine , now threading her way up to Prome on a

      surev of the river , reports that he finds the villagers on the banks even so far up , afford him every assistance . They are ready with supplies , and the inhabitants are stacking fuel for the steamers they are expecting to advance upon Pome with all our troops on board . The head men of the villages and districts , 60 and 60 miles off Rangoon , have come in and begged for protection against their own Government . The cultivators entreat us to say the word , 1 will the English protect them if they sow their fields this season The Karem Christians are watching us with the greatest interest , —they have prayed for the English to come and take their country and give them liberty , —and

      is this an answer at last to their prayers ? Curious enough , too , the very courtiers round the King have whispered now , in their cups , to ears now here , ' we shall be glad if the English would take the country , we are sick of this tyranny , where life , fame , property , and families are not worth five minutes' purchase . '" The object of annexation , independently of commerce and ge neral policy , is stated to be the protection of the inhabitants , who have taken sides with us against the Burmese , and to place the King of Ava in a position rendering future wars impossible .

      Untitled Article

      LETTERS FROM PARIS . [ From our own Correspondent . ] Letter XXXIV . Paris , Tuesday Evening , August 17 , 1852 . THE / eV * of the 15 th August was not favoured by the weather . Raw gusts of wind , varied by pelting showers , prevailed from morning till night , and made havoc even of the illuminations . Only the fireworks were successful . So much for all the enormous waste of money and of imagination expended by the Government . The official journals had trumpeted this fete as one unrivalled in times past and to come . The blase public was utterl y disappointed . The intention of the President was to excite the enthusiasm of the

      working population of Paris , of which he might boast before foreign powers , and so persuade the Emperor of Russia to waive the veto to his assumption of the Imperial Crown . He was anxious to show that he had become popular with the working classes , and that they were ready to place the crown on his head ; and that with such a guarantee there would be no future apprehension of a revolution in the streets of Paris . But the failure was complete . Not a cry was raised in his honour , not a head was uncovered to salute him : not a single burst of applause rewarded the vast efforts to dazzle the populace by the magnificence of the spectacle . The people remained cold , and showed no kind of enthusiasm . I will crive you one or two details of the file .

      At half-past nine in , "the morning a Te Deurn was chanted at the Madelfeine . Bonaparte was present with his official cortege . At the doors of the church nil the veterans of the Empire , in their historical uniforms , were grouped . They ( and they only ) received the President with shouts pf Vive Napoleon . Not a liuly was at the windows in the Hue de la Concorde . After the ceremony Bonaparte mounted a horse , richly caparisoned with gold and velvet , and accompanied by his aides-de-camp , the Generals Canrobert , Roguet , Do C ' otte , Vaudrey , and Colonels Beville , Floury , &c , ho proceeded through the Place do la Concorde to the Champs Elyse ' , where the National Guard of Paris and of the banlieue awaited him . This review of the

      National Guard had been a subject of long and anxious discussion at the Elysee . The officers of various companies had been sent for ; and many had said that they could not answer for the spirit of tho men , and that a great number were disposed to cry Vive la lUpublique . . 1 Iiese dispositions alarmed the Government , and tho following plan was adopted . Only a certain number <> ' each compnny were convoked ; and these were se-Jootecl , if not for their devotedness , ait least for their luuinerencft ; those who were suspected of strong opinions

      received no summons , and were obliged to rei »!« n ut home . Tho National Guard , then , in the ordinary sense , was not convoked , at all ; but only < 'n-tain national guards . But this was hot the solo Precaution taken . All the battalions coming from «>« siH )(; t «!( l quarters were carefully isolated from one mother , and dispersed among the regiments of tho ixmluntv , composed for the most part of the gross and JtfHonint peasantry of the suburbs , the most ignorant «»< l dull of u ,, ) population throughout the whole of ¦• 'iiu-e . Besides , instead of huyingtho Parisianbuttalionn

      drawn up along the avenue of the Champs Elysees , the most " suspect" were stationed outside of Paris , in the Avenue de Neuilly . The President ( with his staff ) contented himself with passing down in front of the lines of the first battalions only , at a gallop , from the Place de la Concorde to the Rond-point of the Champs Elysees . He would not venture beyond that point , though the battalions reached as far as the Pont de Neuilly . From the Rond-point he returned to the Place de la Concorde , to the Obelisk , and the defile immediately began . Round him were ranged the municipal horse-guards and the lancers . Each battalion as it passed before Bonaparte found itself so encompassed by the cavalry , that it could not budge . At

      the slightest seditious cry , the municipal guards and the lancers could have charged the offenders in flank . Every battalion denied in succession before Bonaparte , and received from his hands the new standards . Only some battalions of the banlieue shouted Vive Napoleon ; the rest maintained absolute silence . After the defile , the standard bearers returned to the Elysee to carry back the Eagles . Some cried , Vive I'Empereur , as they entered the court-yard of the palace . As long as they were in the streets , and before the eyes of the population , they dared not utter a cry ; but as soon as they were protected by the walls of the Elysee , they gave full vent to their enthusiasm . After the review the crowd dispersed through the various quarters of Paris .

      Open-air theatres had been erected in the Champs Elysees , at the Barriere du Trone , and on the Boulevard de l'Hopital . In these theatres military pantomimes were performed , a 3 is customary in all the great public f 4 tes . Sham fights , storming towns , bombardments , firing of cannon and musketry , whizz , bang , crash , fire , smoke , fracas , Bedouins captured , Frenchmen victorious . Such is the regular bill of fare of all these spectacles : such is the programme beloved by gamins and nursemaids . The official imagination has not yet devised anything new in these entertainments .

      On this occasion , however , the Parisian population was treated to one very novel spectacle , the representation of a sea-fight . The new naval sehool frigate , La Ville de Paris , manned by sailors , brought at a great expense from Brest and Cherbourg , was cannonaded by two steamers , manned by Chasseurs de Vincennes , and , as a climax , was boarded and captured by assault . Immense preparations had been made fc r the illumination in the Champs Elysees . On either side of the avenue there were festoons of coloured lamps , with " N . " and eagles as a device . In the avenue itself fountains , decorated with flowers and variegated lamps . The

      Arc de l * Etoile , illuminated with gas , was to have formed the background of that magnificent decoration . But the weather spoilt it all . No illumination was possible . The garlands were swept away , the " N's" and the eagles torn to shreds . The wind blew the gas-lights , and left everything in total darkness , or nearly so . The cost of the illuminations for the Champs Elysees alone was 400 , 000 francs . The fireworks only had a partial success . As I had informed you in a former letter was to be tho case , the Passago of the St .

      Bernard by the Grand Army was represented . There was a very fine effect of snow falling in the midst of a shower of fire , and covering the whole mountahi . Then tho French army was seen clambering up tho Mont St . Bernard with their guns and wagons . The Hospital of the Monastery was seen in tho distance in the midst of the snow o # d tho names . At the crest of the mountain , Napoleon , dressed in tho historical redingote , stood out in relief against the sky , rising above the arch of the world .

      After the hreworks , the crowd moved away to the Chumps Elysees and to the Boulevards to see the illuminations , or , at least , what tho wind hod spared . Only tho public buildings had been illuminated . As to private houses , an invitation had been addressed to them by the Ministry of Police , which in no single instanco was obeyed ; not one private house had a lampion . Surely an evidence of the esteem in which tho existing Government is held !

      Last Saturday the bedroom of the President at the Elyse ' e caught lire . It wiia soon got under ; not , however , before it had destroyed a great number of private ; papers and documents , and among the rest his accounts of expenditure . This circumstance occasioned a very general remark , that it was really « n intelligent lire , a veritable feu d ' esprit , since it relieved the President from tho unpleasant duty of giving an account of his expenditure . In the bedroom was found an imperial cloak and crown , which were hardly preserved from tho flames , with a diamond necklace that once belonged to Queen llortonse .

      The official press had made a groat fuss beforehand about the numerous pardons that were to bo granted on the occasion of this J ' Ue . All this was for the solo

      purpose of putting the people in good humour . The Jkfoniteur has been dumb , publishing no list of the pardoned . It is said , however , that 800 prisoners have obtained mercy . But what the official journals take good care to suppress is the fact , that the pardons are almost all for criminal , not for political offences . Of the political category there are , it is said , only 50 out of 800 ; Madame Pauline Roland of the number . A note appeared in the Moniteur , , stating that there would be no general political amnesty , but that the President would reserve the faculty of granting pardons , after due examination of each case , to those who might ask it of him . It is to be hoped that none will be base enough to sue for pardon , and so this generosity will be wasted for want of exercise .

      M . Thiers has performed an act of courage which should be remembered to his honour : he has rejected as an insult the favour which the mimificence of Bonaparte had deigned to vouchsafe him , and has refused to return to France . " I will return to . France , " he is reported to have exclaimed , " with all the rest of my fellow-citizens proscribed on the 2 nd December , or I will never return at all . " * An infamous bargain of the same kind was proposed to Victor Hugo : he was to be allowed to return to France on condition of suppressing his book , Napoleon le Petit . Victor Hugo nobly repulsed this shameful offer , and by way of reply hastened the publication of his work . He was , as I have told you , driven out of Belgium , and is now

      seeking refuge at Jersey . Since his arrival in that island , Bonaparte ( we hear ) has addressed a note to the British Government , complaining of the refuge accorded by England to the enemies of the French Government , on an island only twenty miles from the French shore . The English Government is said to have replied that the right of asylum at Jersey was an old privilege consecrated by time ; and that it was neither in their power nor their intention to infringe that right . Bonaparte , implacable against Victor Hugo , had resolved to pursue him from one end of the world to another . You may learn from this resentment the ravages his book is committing in France , where its clandestine circulation is universal .

      Incensed at these continual refusals to accept of his clemency , the President has adopted a new system : — to cause it to be believed that the proscribed are constantly soliciting pardon . The Belgian and English journals have published the names of a number of ex-representatives of the people and other refugees , said to have applied for leave to return to France . Louis Blanc , among others , has been the subject of these calumnious inventions , which , I need not add , those honourable citizens have repudiated with tho contempt they deserved .

      The elections for the general and municipal councils , annulled for want of votes , have been proceeded with a second time . The simple majority only is required at a second poll , not as at the first , a quarter of the votes on the register . The electors stood aloof as before , except in a certain number of localities , where , rather than suffer the Government candidate to pass , they went in and carried the man of the Opposition . Notably , at Slrasburg and at Nancy .

      These results were displeasing enough to the President , who it is said has a coolness with Persigny in consequence . There are two partied at tho Elyseethe Persigny party , and the Fould party : tho former is bent on ruling by force , resting on the army , and tho army only : tho latter projxwes a more liberal system to conciliate the middle and commercial classes , and to rest for support on the great material interests , as Louis Philippe did for eighteen years . It is supposed that this latter party will carry tho day .

      Meantime Bonaparte is fortifying himself in Paris to an extraordinary degree , lie is constructing ut the back of the Hotel de Ville an immense barrack , quite a second Bastille for its strength and its importance . This vast building is at least 100 metres long ( about « J 50 feet ) . The foundations are completed , and tho building is already rising above tho ground . Tho square will be very large , and capable of containing 5000 men ; the guns of tho barrack will command tins new line Rivoli , and the great Rue St . Antoine , and will bo able to sweep an enormous distance . Those precautionary measures indicate clearly enough that Bonaparte relies more upon his guns than upon the affection of the people of Paris .

      It has been reported more than once that IVtrsigny is deranged . Ho had gone to Dieppe for sea-

      Untitled Article

      I AcotJST 21 , 1852 J tHE LEADER 791

      Untitled Article

      • This is in direct contradiction to a paragraph oftlio Homi-oflicial Vays , translated in tho corrcspondenco of our daily contemporaries , wlddi represents M . Thiers as eagerly embracing tho loavo to return to France , and full of gratitude to his bent factor . Ho was reported to be packing up in joyful hasto , ' anil expected to arrive "in tho Uuo St . Georges * < m Thursday ( lust ) from Vcvay , Switzerland , where ho had settled down for tho summer residence of an " illuatrioutf oiilo . "—Jill * . v £ Loader .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1852, page 791, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1948/page/3/