LETTERS FROM PARIS, BY O. P. Q. No. XXIX.

WHAT HAVE WE GAINED, AND WHAT HAVE WE LOST, BY THE CHANGES IN THE FRENCH CABINET?

;'Take such men as you will, hat continue the system; for the system is mine, and I will not change it."—Louts PHILIP TO COUST MOLE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Paris, 12th November 1834.

Sia--The summer is gone, and the autumn is past, and we are not saved. "Take such men as you will," said Louis PHILIP to Count Mose, this day week, "but continue the system ; for the system is mine, and I will not change it." So much the worse for France, for yourself, for the cause of national liberty and progressive civiliza- tion,-and the sequel will prove it. We have lost the Doctrinaires. Do I rejoice at it ? I do. Have I one parting word to say in their favour? Not one. Now they are out of office, shall I cease to attack them, and at least accede to them the merit of being sincere, as though mere sincerity was a virtue? No such thing. As long as I live and breathe, and can ibiek and write, I shall not cease to say " That the Doctrinaires have by their conduct, and by their foreign and domestic policy, since the Revolution of 1830 in France, done more permanent injury to the cause of the people, of progressive improvement, true freedom, and rational liberty, than all the Emperors, Autocrats, Tories, Royalists, Legitimists, WELLINGTONS, POLIGNACS, NICHOLASES, MIGUELS, FERDINAND the Sevenths, and Prince 1%1er/7:Renews in all countries and in-alines, from-tire begin ning of the world to the day of the date of these p.esents," We by therefore lost by the changes in the French Cabinet, the most dlsse. nest, enprincipled, characterless chailatitos, ever called on to injure and to ruin the cause ef freedom and citilizatiou. They Lad not one redeem- ing point about thorn. They were Anti-French, Anti-English,Anti. Liberal, A rid- Enlightened, Anti -Progressive ; and devoted their time, energies, and intluelice, to the service of corruption, monopoly, tyranny, fraud, and tetiolery. They were saperficial, chattering, coxcomical, im- pertinent, swaegering, conceited, ill:behaved, andarnaccustomed even to those rules of civilized raid good society all respect who respect themselves, and on which none infringe except those who are as vs. mous, indiscreet, and ignorant as themselves. We have lost men who were prepared to change sides twenty-four times in every day, if by se changing they could retain office ; and though they were tricky and wily enough to resign, they never thought that their resignations would be accepted ; imagined themselves as indispensable to the Weems dynasty ; and bragged that they possessed all " the talents " of both Houses of Parliament. Do not be cajoled by any stupid stories, told in any rumbling correspondences, about the Doctrinaires going out of office on any question of principle. They did no such thing. Neither the questions of the amnesty, nor of the commercial inquest, nor of the approaching trials of hundreds of Republicans by the Chamber of Peers' nor of the affairs of the East, nor of the humiliation of Switzer. land by the Northern Courts of Europe, nor. of the progress of Don CARLOS in Spain, nor of the intrigues of the Government of Sardinia, nor any other question involving any one great principle or interest, has led to their retreat. Pay no sort of attention to the idle gossip of cm-- taut of your Daily Morning contemporaries 'on this head. Their coe respoutlents are not so placed in society and with political parties, as to know what is really passing in the councils of the King. The retreat of Marshal GERARD on the question of the amnesty led to the neces- sity of filling up his place by a President of the Council and a Minister of 'War. If the Chambers had not been so near meeting, they would not have filled up these posts at all ; but they were compelled to do so; and the quarrels of THIERS, GMAT, RIGNY, and Hum ANN, relative to I the persons so to be named, led to the resignations en masse, and to their acceptance by the King. It was a mere kitchen or scullery quarrel. The head cook had gone away; the second cook applied for his place ; the third cook said he was just as good a cook as the second, knew just as well the Royal taste, and could just as well please it. The housemaid took the part of the second cook, and the kitchen.maid the part of the third cook, and the lady's-maid and footman were the one for the second and the other for the third cook ; and the butler, who kept the keys, was the only one who looked on and said as little as possible. So, after quarrelling, calling names, and fighting for nearly a fortnight, the second cook proposed his friend BROGLIE for the head cook's piste; and the third cook proposed his friend MOLE ; and so then to work they went, earwigging their master, and plotting and conspiring against each other. At lust their master called them all together, and begged and prayed them to be reconciled; but they would not; and—all in a passion together—all gave in their resignations. At first, this greatly baffled the master, for the second cook was an admirable hand at " potage," and the third cook eh excellent maker of "ragouts and light pastry ;" but after repeated efforts to find some one or other who would consent to become head cook with Guizor and TRIERS, and after failing most completely, the master accepted the resignations of all the servants, and only retained his butler PERSIL, to install all his other new domestics.

Upon any word and honour, the whole affair has been quite as low as this—not indeed quite so respectable' and never were cooks who gave warning to their masters, when they did not expect such warning to be accepted, so completely taken by surprise, as when they found a Royal ordinance, countersigned by PERSIL, accepting all the resignations of cooks, housemaid, lady's-maid, and kitchen-maid. Poor Madame DE RIGNY, who has just married (only a fortnight since) a Minister, now finds herself the wife of a mere officer of the Marine ! Poor Mistress Thiers, whose mother, Madame Doses, rides the high horse in the family, is now sent into the world, not " to seek her fortune," for that is made, but to find a decent friend to keep her company. And poor Monsieur DUCHATEL, who was to have married a rich wife if he remained Minister, has only to console him, for his loss of every thing, the simple fact, that the Commercial lnguest would have crushed him, if the quarrels of the kitchen had not. Do not, then, be deceived by any one who may talk of the "honour" of the Doctrinaires, or "of their going out on a great question of principle," or of any other motive influencing them than the lowest and basest which can influence public men. No, no! let it be well recorded, and well understood, that the Doctrinaires resigned, without intending that their resignations should be accepted ; and that they so resigned in consequence of low, vulgar, kitchen and scullery quarrels amongst themselves. The place of first cook had "better wages" and "more perquisites" than either the-second or the third ; and so these ambitious men were ready to cut each other's throats rather than yield that place with its emoluments to any one who would not divide the spoils exclusively with them. In England, these things do not, and cannot occur. The Duke of WELLINGTON goes out upon Reform : Earl GREY comes in. Earl GREY goes out upon his objection to swamp the House of Lords : Lord MELBOURNE comes in. In all this, there is something of virtue and dignity on both sides. But the Doctrinaires wotild abandon a thousand times all the principles they had beforehand nine hundred and ninety-nine times advocated or opposed, rather than lose for one minute one sou of their salaries. This is what we have lost ! These are the men who governed for years the affairs of thirty-three millions of Frenchmen! Do I not then rejoice at their dismissal? Most certainly I do : and for eve? shall I shout with satisfaction," A has les Doctrinaires !" BUT WHAT IVVE WE GAINED BY TIIE CHANGES IN THE FRENCH CA- BINET? If we have lost nothing worth preserving, have we gained something worth keeping ? I think not ; I fear not. I believe in my conscience not. The Journal du Commerce asks us to wait before we pronounce for the acts of the Administration ! Why should we do this ? We did not adopt this rule in 1829, when the Posterete Ca* billet .y4/10; %taxied ; and why should we do lio now? We said there - These men bring with them {rows obarecters, known principles, iiopIcs OF T HE D AY. known antecedents ' • and us we should not wait if We hibabiled a til- lage where a wolf had suddenly made its appearauce, to See whether it

carried off our poultry, our pigs, our lambs, and even our littleehildr0i, THE LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.* before we went out armed to seek and to destroy it ; so, when we tee to him are joined other domestics, in whom I have (with one exception, the

peace ; but he bungled in his mission, aud made more fierce the war.

the Emperor, flattered his vanity, and urged on his foreign conquests. The Bourbons banished him ; and in the very Gratz, afterwards in-

babited by CHARLES the Tenth, did he reside. But the Bourbons re-

Poland.

M. PERSIL comes next. He is Minister of Justice ! Then justice who did all for the best, and took the blame of other sins than is no longer blind—then the balances will be no longer even ! PERSIL his own, that the Whig Cabinet might not perish. But his has proved what he is, by a system of persecution wholly unparalleled in successor will be differently dealt with. Whether he be Mr. the history of the world, against the French Press. SPRING RICE Or Mr. ABERCROMBY, Or Lord JOHN RUSSELL, or M. BRESSON is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is the son of whether in the turn of the political wheel Sir ROBERT PEEL or a man who owes all to the Bourbons and the Restoration. Ile is the Lord STANLEY should slip into his shoeslfor a season, it will be disciple of TALLEYRAND. He was the go.betwcen in the Belgian instantly found that the spell is broken—that the House is no arrangements. He has been flattering the King of Prussia to the longer under the influence of the magician's wand. In other skies, and if he shall accept office, will return to France to establish Anti- words, there is an end of Leadership ; the Members of the House English relations. will not in future be managed. There may, and we suppose will BERNARD, the best engineer officer of the Empire, is made a Peer, and Minister of War. He was the advocate of detached forts; thought be, a nominal successor to Lord ALTHORP, but he will not be cam- the siege of Paris most admirable ; and has praised to the skies both mender in chief of the majority. Goner and TIMERS. NAPOLEON once said to him, "Mon cher Ber- Being thus deprived of the only member of their body whose Bard, ne parte donc jamais politique ; tu n'y entends rien; to es tin popularity was proof against all assaults of their enemies, and excellent maitre mason, ne sors pus de la." BERNARD and BAssmso even against the effects of his own public inconsistency and sp- here the same idea of liberty as PERSIL—" Force is every thing." parent backsliding, what ought to be the course of Ministers ? Tens, the Liege barrister, the naturalized Dutchman—the man Plainly, to bring forward such measures only as will speak for who not two years since corresponded with the Court of the Hague—the themselves; and to adopt and adhere to such a line of policy as lawyer and no merchant—the speculator and no politician or economist • will render the exercise of sinister or mere personal interest un- -is named Minister of Commerce. Heavens! whit next?—Why, next, necessary. Blameworthy as many of the acts of the Reformed we are told that his friend SAUZET, the Lyons lawyer and friend of PEYRONNET, is to be Minister of Public Instruction! Yet these are

the men who are "to restore the Revolution of 1530!"

Baron CHARLF.8 borate, the brother of the President of the Chain- ber of Deputies, is Minister of Marine With such a Marine out of doors. All, therefore, that Ministers have to do, is care- Minister, Britannia is long likely "to rule the waves." CHARLES fully to eschew measures which are disagreeable to the country. DUNN has voted for PERIM for SOULT, for Tmeas, for GUIZOT, Their principal reliance for the carrying of such was on Lord against the right of association, mid against the freedom of the press. ALTHORP; and he is become a comparatively inefficient and Lastly, M. PASSY, Minister of Finance. Of PASSY I think well, powerless person. They must now depend much more, if not al- He is the only acquisition we have made. But he is timid, stands together, on the unbiassed majority of the National Represerita- alone, and will be unable to effect any thing. lie hopes well; but tives. They must act upon principle. The make-shift system

be will be crushed, or must resign. must be abandoned. Their power to drag an unwilling majority This is the new Cabinet. We have lost nothing worth keeping. We have gained hut one man worth preserving. But patience ! France ' If Ministers will set themselves honestly and seriously to work, begins to open her eyes, and begins to move. The day will come

of the Emrich Ministry Was more pressing for the moment. yesterday is true to-day—what is written is written.