The quidnunc will delight in the combination of reactionary symptoms
which appear in various quarters of France just now. Marshal Bugeaud shows himself at Lyons and Bourges, in taking his command of the Army of the Alps, and talks most perilous stuff at " the factions of Paris " ; he declares that the departments will no longer submit to the tyranny of those factions; that he shall keep his eye on Paris ; that he may have to march upon it with the Army of the Alps and National Guards collected in the provinces; that to suppress internal outbreak is as glorious as victory abroad ; and that when he enters the field be will restore order pour toujours. Called upon to explain, M. Odilon Barrot says that military officers are bound to reserve and shall be held to their duty ; but that the Marshal is eccentric—perhaps he is not accurately reported—some of what he says is too extravagant and out of place to merit attention, some too true to permit denial. So M. Odilon Barrot tacitly refuses to repudiate the Brunswick manifesto of the Algerine hero. Meanwhile, President Bonaparte is indulging Paris to its heart's content, with palace gayeties of Imperial pattern. His doors are guarded, like Napoleon's, with gigantic porters in the true Na- poleonic livery; he stands in an hereditary posture, with hands behind his back ; he is right royally affable, with a few words for everybody ; he hugs Count Mole, and fondles M. Thiers ; in short, he is Imperial and condescending, magnificent and popular.
Rather an amusing sign of the altered state of affairs, is the zeal displayed in clearing away " trees of liberty" and "caps of liberty' about the country. This has been thought so needful for order and political neatness, that in Cette it has been done at the point of the bayonet. It reminds one of those busy footmen of the theatre, who run in after a stirring act to clear away the properties that have served their turn and are no longer wanted for the remaining scenes : as the nimble attendants pick up the scattered swords and other waifs that would disfigure some fes- tive pageant—as they tear up the green baize of the tragedy in order to the ballet—so the provincial servants of the Paris ma- nagers are clearing away the caps and trees that were so effective in the act just closed, but would only be eyesores in an Imperial regime.
