The Russian Conference is to meet, it is said, in
London on the 3rd January. Report says that France will not send an ambas- sador unless England first recognizes the Republic, and a remon- strance presented to Mr. Gladstone on his refusal to receive a depu- tation on this subject, urges the same step. We confess that after- Lord Palmerston's hasty recognition of the coup de' tat before that disgraceful act had been condoned by the vote of the French people, we think we owe the Republican party in France an irregularity in their direction, especially as a four months' uncontested tenure of power is a far better test of legitimacy than a four days', which was- the time within which Lord Palmerston acknowledged the govern- ment of the coup d'etat. It has been said that as any king may strike a coup d'etat, and yet no foreign power would regard the government as changed, so it was competent to Louis Napoleon
to do so. But that is absurd. An hereditary king has, at least, a eight independent of election ; an elected president has none. The revolution between let and 3rd December, 1851, was far more violent than that of the 4th September last, and quite as great, and yet we recognized the new government at once. Perhaps we were wrong then. It is, at least, quite sufficient justification for .doing the same now, without waiting for the ratification of a National Assembly.
Previous page
