lest the law, salutary and necessary as by universal consent it is, be very imperfectly carried into execution. The old leaven of yesterday is so mixed with the ministerial batch of to-day, and Cavaignac himself, one of the very few republicans de la veille who are not utterly destructive and worthless, seems to find such obstacles to a complete separation from that clique, that I should not be surprised if the decree were modified, and a considerable portion of the insurgents let loose again upon that society against which they have declared a war of extermination.

France is, in fact, in a very anomalous state, and political parties are in so false a position, that all men are puzzled to discover how the government is to be carried on. It is clear that the insurgents now under examination before a military commission, are the real original republicans. They it was who pleaded for the republic on the eve, who fought for the republic on the day, and who proclaimed the republic on the morrow of the barricades. The republic for which they pleaded and fought, the republic which they proclaimed, was a republic of socialists and democrats. The Provisional Government, appointed by their acclamation, so understood the matter; all the acts of all the members of that government (with the single exception of the stand made by Lamartine against the raising of the drapeau rouge), are there to prove it. The countenance afforded to the clubs, where doctrines, subversive of all rights hitherto held to be indisputable, were boldly mooted, and constantly justified; the distribution of arms and ammunition to the fiercest demagogues; the complete organisation of an army of anarchy in the ateliers nationaux ; such were the foundations on which the structure of their power was based. The great mass of good and honest citizens were completely paralysed in face of this formidable coalition; the National Guard was totally disorganized by the new distribution of companies, and the incorporation of a new class of men into its ranks. No one knew or could trust his comrade; and in order to fill up the measure of their discouragement, the government appointed to the command-inchief, M. de Courtais, a man distrusted by all parties, and justly so, as the event has shown; whilst, by infamous jugglery at the elections, it managed to secure the nomination to the more important grades in the various legions to creatures of its own. Under these disheartening circumstances, the National Guard bowed its head to the storm, and its neck to the yoke of the republic. The provinces, too, had sunk under the same incubus, and thus matters remained until the middle of April. At this period, the socialists, finding that events did not march as rapidly as they desired towards the end they had in view, determined to take the matter into their own hands, by making themselves masters of the Hôtel de Ville. The government, seriously alarmed at last, not only for their tenure of office, but for their personal safety also, threw themselves upon the National Guard for defence and protection. The générale was beaten, and in the course of an hour, a force was collected around the seat of government, amply sufficient to shield it from invasion and outrage. And

now, for the first time since the revolution, the bourgeoisie began to feel confidence in their strength and in one another. This sentiment gained ground immensely, when, a few days later, on occasion of the distribution of new colours by the Provisional Government, at least 300,000 bayonets were mustered on the great thoroughfares between Bercy and the Barrière de l'Etoile. The momentary success of Barbès' plot against the National .Assembly, a mere coup de main, rather surprised than alarmed them, whilst the ease with which the faction was put down, and the assured sympathy of the provinces, gave incalculable force to their spirit of resistance to illegal and anarchical conspiracies.

The better and more rational part of the Chamber being now insured of a point d'appui, began to take courage, and made gradual but sure encroachments upon the power and influence of the Executive Commission. The advent of Thiers, elected by six different departments, the Lamartine of June, was hailed as that of a most useful and powerful auxiliary by the moderate party, who now determined seriously, but cautiously, to attempt the reduction of the atéliers nationaux the great stronghold of the democratic faction. The place was invested on all sides; and the supplies being gradually cut off, the garrison were soon reduced either to capitulate, or, by a bold sortie, to force the lines, and carry the war into the enemy's country. They chose the latter course, and erasing from their banner the antiquated legend, "Liberty, equality, and brotherhood," substituted for it their new shibboleth, "Pillage, rape, and murder." This animating war-cry attracted to their side all the dissolute and discontented classes in Paris-the Montagnards, the castmen of the Republican Guard, and above all, the liberated convicts, who rallied around so congenial a standard with the utmost enthuThe collision took place immediately, and during three. days, the battle raged with doubtful success. On the morning of the fourth day, victory declared itself on the side of order and civilization, and the hordes of anarchists and barbarians, who threatened France with a new and universal jacquerie, either fled, and dispersed themselves, or laid down their arms and surrendered at discretion.

But now, the social question being set at rest for a time, the political difficulty, and a serious one it is, begins to be felt. The men, by whom and for whom the Republic was proclaimed, are fugitives and outlaws; those taken with arms in their hands threatened with military execution; and a decree of transportation suspended over the heads of the remainder. Yet the Republic still subsists, in name at least, repugnant though it be to the sentiments of the majority, even in Paris, and almost universally execrated in the provinces. The violent and outrageous policy of the Provisional Government, their total subversion of the established order of things, and the barrenness of the Revolution itself, which has not produced, or brought to light, a single man of eminence or talent, greatly increase the embarrassments of the situation. The government of the country must revert, and that at no distant period, into the hands of the old dynastic opJanuary, 1849.-VOL. LIV.-NO. CCXIII.

E

position. It is impossible that the Goudchaux, the Récurts, the Bastides, the Carnots, &c. ignorant in administration, and unskilled in debate, should make head, or hold their ground against the Thiers', the Dupins, the Passys, the Dufaures, with a host of other talented and experienced men, belonging to the gauche and centre gauche of the late Chamber of Deputies. Sooner or later, singly or in mass, statesmen of this class must be called to the head of affairs, or the finances and general administration of the country will fall into irretrievable ruin and confusion. When these changes occur, and occur they must, France will exhibit the unexampled phenomenon of a nation republican against its will, under a government republican against its convictions. Were it not that France was the land of paradox, one might safely predict that such a state of things cannot -long endure; that when a house is thus built upon the sand, speedy, as well as great will be the fall thereof. I have much confidence in the wisdom of our ancestors, as exemplified in old proverbs, and hold that, not only a man, but

A nation, convinced against its will,

Is of the same opinion still.

And that opinion, if over compressed, will, according to M. Caussidière's elegant phraseology, burst like a bladder.

The work of re-construction in France will be a task of great difficulty, requiring infinite judgment and the nicest tact. God grant that it may not issue, like the building of the Tower of Babel, in a confusion of tongues and general dispersion. How much has Louis Philippe to answer for in the face of France, and of all Europe! Philippe Egalite's verdict-La mort, sans phrase-on the trial of Louis XVI., was not so heavy a blow to monarchy, as Louis Philippe's reiterated answer, Rien, rien, to every demand for moderate, and muchneeded reform. Talleyrand's appreciation of his character fell far short of the truth, when he styled him, une nullité incomprise.

Paris, August 26.

* * The debate upon the Enquête, that bone of contention which has for so long a time kept expectation on tiptoe, and apprehension on tenter-hooks, was the great question on yesterday's order of the day. Every precaution had been taken by Government for the maintenance of order. The Tuileries and the Portes St. Dennis and St. Martin were severally occupied by battalions of the Mobile; the guard at the Palais Bourbon was doubled, and the entire garrison of Paris, in barracks and in camp, were consigned to their quarters, and ready to act at a moment's warning. In the interior of the Chamber, the tribunes usually allotted to the public were reserved for the wives of the national representatives, in the hope, probably, that the presence of ladies might impose some restraint upon the violence of the discussion. The sitting was not terminated until six o'clock this morning, when the Chamber, at the

demand of the Procureur General, gave its sanction to the prosecution of Louis Blanc and Caussidière, as accomplices in the insurrection of the 15th May.

The debate was too long for me to attempt to give you even a sketch of the speeches delivered; you will read them at length in the English papers, and if not convinced by the sophistries of Ledru Rollin, nor greatly edified by the doctrines of Louis Blanc, you will at least be diverted by Caussidière's eccentricities. The personalities were so pointed, and terms of denial employed so broad, especially whilst M. Bac was in the tribune, that, at one moment, there appeared to be a chance that the representatives of the Republic (to make use of a proverb as old as the times of Henri II.) — "Se confesseraient commes les Cordeliers de Metz." You will find the anecdote which gave rise to this saying in Vincent Carloix's "Memoirs of the Maréchal de Vieille ville." I give it you in an abridged form:

"In 1555, the Marshal, who held Metz for the king, discovered a plot laid by the Queen of Hungary, for the betrayal of the place to the imperial troops, under the Count de Mesgue. The superior of the Cordeliers' Convent, with the assistance of thirty tried soldiers, entering the town, two by two, disguised in the habit of his order, undertook to fire a hundred or six score of houses, in different quarters, and whilst the inhabitants and garrison were employed in extinguishing the flames, to take possession of a bastion on the St. Yffroy side, where the wall being low, might easily be scaled by the Count de Mesgue's storming party. The conspiracy was rendered abortive by the Marshal's vigilance, and the superior and his twenty monks were condemned to death. One Wednesday, in the afternoon, the Provost announced to them, that at the same time next day not one of them would be left alive, and releasing each from his separate cell, left them pell mell together, with a recommendation to unburden their consciences by confessing their sins one to another. But instead of this, when the Provost had retired, they began to rail against the superior and four of the elder monks, at whose instigation they had joined in the plot, and each of whom was to be rewarded with an abbey. After upbraiding them with their wicked and damnable ambition to become bishops and abbots, by which they were lost and ruined, to the great scandal of their order and profession, they got from high words to heavy blows, and the sixteen beat the superior and his four elders, until the first died, and the others were maltreated to that degree, that they had to be carried to execution in a cart. This style of confession caused such laughter, that it became a by-word at court; for, when they saw pages or lackeys at fisticuffs, the common saying was, that they were shriving each other like the Metz Cordeliers.'

There is a remarkable similarity between the case of the Cordeliers and that of the French republicans, and, however inconclusive analogy may be as argument, as illustration it is striking enough. Like their prototypes, the friars, these pure patriots have ruined their

cause by greediness of place, and power, and filthy lucre; whilst at every council for the division of their ill-gotten booty, the discussion degenerated into a challenge to go down into the street, and settle the matter à coups de fusil. The ultima ratio of kings is the first argument of demagogues. Well might Cavaignac say, that the Republic could never be firmly established until the unworthy persons whom the revolutionary wave had thrown upon the shore were sucked back to their proper place by the receding tide.

That sweeping changes should take place in the various departments of administration, both in Paris and in the provinces, was a necessary consequence of the revolution; for, as Carloix says elsewhere, "A muance de Seigneurs changement de loix; principalement quand celà advient par la force et par les armes, qui extirpent de tout en tout la mémoire des prédécesseurs, pour y enraciner celle de leur nom : but the ill-omened commissaries and "birds of prey," let loose upon the departments by Ledru Rollin and the clubs, were more likely to endear the memory of their predecessors than to impress their own image on the hearts of the population, unless it were as objects of universal execration. As I told you months ago, poor France was, for a while, like Titania, caressing the hairy snout of a vulgar ruffian, and toying with the long ears of a needy and greedy poet. But the spell is now removed from her eyes; and made at last aware of the real character of the Provisional Government, from Lamartine down to Caussidière, she is ashamed and profoundly humiliated at the degradation and moral prostitution to which she had abandoned herself.

The fact is, that the nation are thoroughly sick of the revolutionary melodrames in which the populace of the Parisian faubourgs play so conspicuous a part. Nineteen-twentieths of the people, le vrai peuple, would be but too thankful to be well rid of revolutions, republics, whether red or parti-coloured, and even of barricade. monarchies. Cavaignac is evidently of opinion that the Legitimists are gaining ground. His suppression of the "Gazette de France is an evidence of his apprehensions. It was an impolitic measure, and as unjust as it was impolitic. The "Gazette" deserved different treatment from that meted out to the scurrilous and indecent publications that were so long hawked about the streets. It advocated an eternal principle, whilst they appealed to an ephemeral accident; its circulation was amongst the chateaux of France-theirs amongst the cabarets of Paris; it addressed itself to the reason and conscience of the nation-they, to the passions and prejudices of an obscure, though violent faction. Altogether, it was an ill-advised step, which will add nothing either to his power or his popularity.

The Duc de Bordeaux, it is said, has written to his adherents in France, distinctly disavowing participation of any sort in whatever - plots, machinations, or conspiracies may be undertaken in his name. He will not assume the crown, unless offered to him as his, de jure, and by the general voice of France as a nation. The publication of this letter, coupled with the suppression of the chief Legitimist