On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
conducted papers rising one after another . But there is a still deeper cause of our democratical tendency . In the same pro * . portion as civilization , political knowledge penetrates in the most remote parts of France—there , as a natural inference , every small
bourgeois , every peasant , who grows rich , resolves that his son shall be a gentleman , un Monsieur . The consequence is that in this country there is a general struggle of every class to come up , and rear itself above its level . This is very good , and a sure symptom of progress . But the result is , that each new
generation is determined to be something in the state and country : crowds of young men come to Paris , where they imbibe the philosophical ideas and liberal notions of our great Babylon , and
then they carry back the gift to their departments ; so that the deptric fluid circulates perpetually by all these young men , from Paris to the provinces . Another result is that our liberal professions do not afford one-tenth of the demand that would occupy our young men . We have actually a standing army of lawyers and doctors ; but , alas , the first have proved as useless against the etat de siege , as the second against cholera . All these
influences will explain our immense ardour on political questionsour fixed and powerful ideas of equality , which is , among the great majority , nothing else but a general determination of filling some part , either in action or in speech , in public life and in the movement of our age . —A third feature remains , which is not the least important . In France , commercial spirit and enterprize is abroad in every direction . This is owing to the powerful impulse
that Napoleon gave to our arts and manufactures , -and to the necessity that we were placed under by the blockade of France by English fleets . A great proportion of our young men , and indeed of all France ., is engaged in commerce . Now , commerce and speculation can only thrive under the protection of peace , order , and a strong government . Reversing the Polish motto , commerce will always prefer c quieta servitus' to c periculosa
Ubertas . ' While our military and democratical spirit ask for agitation and war as their proper element , our commercial spirit demands repose and submission to laws , good or bad , provided they do not interfere with its own concerns . The first is a spirit of mind , and the second a question of money , at least in trance . It is thus , that by a long circuit ,- —that however the
complete consideration of the case rendered necessary , —we can point out the exact explanation of the state of France , and of the revolt of this month . Any violent political movement ( unless provoked by an atrocious conduct of government , which was not the case at the procession at General Lamarque ^ s funeral ) will have to contend in France with the whole interest of commerce ,
property , and good order . It was owing to this that a large part of the bourgeois of Paris took arms and left their families and Concerns to fire on the republicans . It is for this reason that the
Untitled Article
494 On the ^ Pubtic Mind x > f France .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 494, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/62/
-