If the French Government is strong, as it is said
to be, in the support of the middle classes,—who are resolved at all events to If the French Government is strong, as it is said to be, in the support of the middle classes,—who are resolved at all events to have no more revolutions,—it must be admitted that its meastires indicate any thing but a feeling of conscious security. It is said that it is in contemplation to throw additional obstacles on the circulation of English journals in France, instead of doing away the postage-duty, as has been reported.. Now, iris not pretended that the lower classes in France read the English newspapers; and surely there are already sufficient precautions against the insertion of translated articles of a revolutionary tendency in
the French papers. Louts PHILIP, therefore, must dread the influence of free discussion on the minds of the very few 'of his subjects who can read English,—those few being almost exclu-
sively members of that class which is stated to be firmly attached to his dynasty and. to approVe of his policy. This looks like the morbid anxiety of a despot, conscious of deserving the hatred, not -secure in the affection, of the people. But his plans will fail of their real object. No power on earth can prevent the intercourse of Englishmen with lirenchmen; and no system of espionnage
can put a stop to their mutual interchange of thoughts on-politi- cal subjects. But the attempt at this imposSibility argues the existence of uneasy suspicion towards those who are represented AO being preeminently loyal.
Koircumitance has just occurred which serves as another indi- cation of the timid and therefore arbitrary and encroaching policy of the French Ministers. Our readers may remember that the
Mayor and Municipal Council of Thorigny gave a dinner to 'ODILLON BARROT, and listened to a powerful Opposition speech
from that able orator. Well—for that offence the Mayor has been removed from his office; and the Municipal Councillors marked 'their sense of the conduct of Government by immediately resign- ing in a body. Their determination was conveyed to the Prefect of the DePartment in the following letter-
_ " The urslersignedenenibers of the Municipal Council of Thorigny, think .41sems:Nlissitalled upon in honour to resign their offices as members of said ,Council This step is not the result of hurt pride: such petty passions do -mot influence them when the interest of the public isM question. It is as a warning to Government, engaged in an anti-national system, that we take the step. Many of us, we own, could not bring ourselves to believe till now that the present GoVernnient could so belie its popular origin, or so barefacedly re- ' produce the doctrines, the men, and the faults of the Restoration. What deception ! We see the King's Ministers to-day stretching the hand to our most irreconcilable enemies, and blindly persecuting the constant friends of the . King and of existing institutions. The gloomy jealousy of Ministers dismisses a Mayor, an honourable and respected man, merely for offering a dinner to M. Odillon Barrol, whom the King himself is always ready to receive and to invite with kindness. Oh if the King knew this! As for us, we should feel ourselves in disgraces in being at all associated with an act so iniquitous and • policy so disgusting. May our countrymen open their eyes to the abyss whither Doctrinarian obstinacy is leading. Increasing taxes,' the Revolution Spit upon, the Restoration praised and Mitated, the Jury in disgrace, honour in the background, the enemi..s of freedom and the country caressed, its friends and those of the King disowned and persecuted—such are the grievances which separate, by all their turpitude, the Ministry from the Nation, and which pro- voke us to the resolution which, Monsieur hi Prefect, we be to communicate to you."
As long, as . such documents can be published in France, is it not absurd to talk of prohibiting the circulation of English news- papers ? What British journalist 'could write any thing more bitterly true than is to be found in the letter we have quoted from the Municipality of Thorigny ? In various parts of France pro- secutions are in progress against provincial newspapers, and in a few days we shall probably hear of judicial proceedings under the new law against the publisher of this document. Fifteen foreigners, said to be all Pales, have been arrested, while holding a secret meeting at Bati„rmolles, one of the sub- urban villages of Paris. Much is made of this affair in the French journals; but it does not seem to be really important. The report of the suicide of MOREY, the presumed accomplice of FIESCHI, by starvation, is contradicted : the man is recovering from some illness, and has no notion of refusing any thing that pleases his palate. There have been rumours of the intended resignation of M. Hustsorsr, the Finance Minister, on account of the opposition of the King to the reduction of the French Five per Cents. Louis PHILIP, and the colleagues of HUMANN, dread giving offence to the large number of rentiers, principally shopkeepers, who invest their savings in the Five .per Cents. A large meeting of the inhabitants of Nantes was held on the 16th, for the purpose of protesting against the new alteration in the coal-duties. An equable reduction of the duty all over the country was insisted on ; and several of the speakers animad- verted on the sinister interest of certain proprietors of coal-mines in the vicinity of Nantes, for whose exclusive benefit the dis- criminative tax was proposed.
It appears to be decided in the French Cabinet, that MENDI• Z AHAL is to be, ostensibly at least, supported. We stated in a late number of the Spectator, that the Journal des Debats, in which were published a series of articles tending to depreciate the new Spanish Ministry and give a gloomy impression as to the present state of affairs in Spain, was the organ of a part only of Louis PHILIP'S Cabinet; and we can now inform our readers that the Dud DE 'BROGLIE has expressly disavowed the Debate as the organ of his Ministry, to the Dec DE FRIAS, the Spanish Ambasiador. If any aid, therefore; is still given to the insur- gents in Navarre,—and it is said that arms and ammunition are permitted to be transported across the frontiers from France,— it- is in violation of treaties; and of the assurances of friendship given by the Government of Louis PHILIP to the Spanish Court. The Duke of ORLEANS is not, it seems, to take the command of the armament about to be despatched to Algiers : he is going on a much more agreeable excursion; to Italy. The Turkish Ambassador, REDSCHID PASHA, has, it is supposed, demanded a sum of money for his master, -in return for the abandonment of the Porte's claims of sovereignty on Algiers.
