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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 24th July 1869, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag

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    • AT THE FOOT OF TUB VOLCANO,
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  • Transcript

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      The T O M A H A W K. A Saturday Journal ...

      THE T O M A H A W K . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . ( JEiiteii hp & mm ^ xtl bmmwAmm ) ux ^^ mh * V & etkztt . ¦¦¦¦ 0 "INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "

      No. I Id] London, July 24, 1869. [Price ...

      No . I id ] LONDON , JULY 24 , 1869 . [ Price Twopence .

      At The Foot Of Tub Volcano,

      AT THE FOOT OF TUB VOLCANO ,

      The Great Man Has Spoken ; France, Throu...

      The great man has spoken ; France , through its Ruler , who , we over know . Napoleon , is France III . has well made as Peace concessions , has spoken sufficient ; all danger to satisfy is some of his opponents , at least ; France will accept these concessions , and devote herself to peaceful progress . So say the half-Liberals , the adherents or pensioners of the Emperor , and the official and semi-official papers in Paris . But all earnest Liberals , all moderate men and upright politicians , all supporters of constitutional instead of personal government , say far otherwise . They say that the Emperor ' s proposals are thoroughly insincere , inadequate to the demands and necessities of the country , and utterly incapable of satisfying the awakened cry for Reform which has sounded from one end of France to the other . If these concessions are granted , the Revolution , which might now be a peaceful and harmless one , will be deferred , until , day by day , it shall have gathered irresistible strength , and shall enforce its demands at the point of the sword , perhaps from the barricades . The abandonment of the interpellation by the " Tiers parti " is what might be expected ; it has been partly dictated by that " laissez alter' * ' ' disposition which hates the worry of any decided action ; partly by the ever-present spirit of toadyism which shrinks from openly offending the " person in possession " at the Tuileries ; partly , let us hope , from a spirit of statesmanlike self-restraint which nobly consents to postpone the realization of its aims and hopes , rather than to call into existence the horrors of a civil war . The attitude of the Emperor is still more what might have been expected ; it would have been curious the filibuster indeed voice , if , rose the of ma universal by n means , who suffrage from of hi a gh n , - to sounding edy the exile proud , professions and position a conte , and mptible of Pre by - b the side y the p nt rouder , gratef and the position ul nce nation , by of which the Emperor pater he n had al ; honoured ri rescued gour of and from the coup feted anarch cPttat not y , onl but , to y by all Christian powers , —yes , first and foremost by virtuous gentle England , the home of the law-keeping , life-respecting Saxon ;—it would be curious indeed if the man who , having achieved the liberation all this of , Ital added y , the to bloodless his glory th subjugation e conquest of of Savoy e Cri , the ea , control regeneratio of th n e Bel Mexico gian railroads , the reorganization shouldof of Germany own accord , and th lay e I down his power at the command , of disrespectful , opposition , , ri should ght ha nd e at lly the deprive same Fran time ce . The of her Saviour head , h of er Society heart , a s wiser her

      than to go through the arduous process of salvation twice over . Louis Napoleon knows that were he to surrender the principle of enoug personal h to be government called in again , he by would a devoted probabl nation y be to save ared Fra long nce and society at the same time . This is the Imperial view of the matter . But it is in the power of but few mortals to realize the magnificent ideas , or to trace the complicated motives , of such a magnanimous genius as the present Emperor of the French . Some have called him a purely imitative man ; they have attributed his apparent cruelties , his executions , his deportations to Cayenne , his tyranny over the Press , to a humble resolve to follow in the footsteps of other Governors of France before him . It may be this want of originality , his great-uncle and the Republican Government affording him no immediate precedent for his conduct under the present crisis—at least , not one that he feels strong enough to carry out—may ultimately drive him to seek for an example among the Kings of France , and so result in landing him once more on these shores an honoured exile . Were it not impossible to predict the future conduct of one so eminently ductile in the hands of his people , one might be tempted to think that his last attempt at offering the shadow for the substance could have no other end than a peaceful abdication , which Louis Napoleon would surely prefer to an internecine struggle , or a reproduction of the massacre which he once authorized with such reluctance , and at such terrible expense to his sensitive and generous nature . The question is , does France—that is to say , the active , earnest , thinking , resolute , part of France—really require constitutional government , that is to say , the right to control the expenditure , to declare war , and the responsibility of Ministers to the nation not to the Emperor ? If France does require all this , the Emperor ' s rigmarole message does not even promise it ; that he will ever grant it , we do not believe . Ministers may sit iin the House of Assembly , the Council of State may discuss affairs of State with the Emperor j the Deputies may criticize the measures of the Government;—but as long as the executive power is vested in one man , as long as there is no constitutional power vested in the people ' s representatives of stopping the supplies , so long is liberty an impossibility in France . It may be that the Emperor intends for the future to be the mere exponent of the nation ' will ; that lie intends to initiate nothing , but to receive his orders from the Assembly of the people ' s representatives ; if so , he will have some difficulty in persuading France , or any other nation , to believe it . He cannot destroy ! Ii e memory of his past ; and the lesson which that has taught

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), July 24, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_24071869/page/3/