POLITICAL VATICINATIONS : M. DE TOCQUEVILLE'S SPEECH IN JANUARY LAST.
THE state of Feria, and of France generally—in spite of the com- mercial distress so,yainfully felt, and of the uncertainty inherent in a provisional "State 4 things—is yet such as to prove that even under a temporary suspension of law, the instincts of the French population respect the sanctity both of person and property. Their morality, in its cardinal points, has been fully tested by a period of licence in which individual violence and plunder, had they been dispositions extensively predominant, would have strip- ped or outraged a large proportion of all the private dwellings. We see in Paris a great deal of turbulent and feverish activity, an infinity of visionary projects, an abundant manifestation of social and economical errors, and, what perhaps is the worst of all, a belief on the part of many that they are fully war- ranted in making their own opinions, right or wrong, pre- vail by force of arms. But amidst all this, we see also a general prevalence of honest, sincere, public-minded convic- tion : the jobber, the political fortune-bunter, has for the moment disappeared; the private citizen identifies himself with the in- terest of the country, and would disdain the idea of promoting his own interest apart ; whilst all the propositions which have any chance of even partial favour are set forth by their authors with a full persuasion, not the less sincere because it is often lament- ably ill-grounded, that the public happiness will gain immeasur- ably by their adoption. Indeed, that which chiefly characterizes the popular mind in Republican France may be pronounced to be an abhorrence of individualism—an undistinguishing declama- tion against it, as if it were absolutely mischievous, and as if the happiness of society required that it should be altogether eradi- cated from the human bosom. We shall not now stop to point out the fatal error of a doctrine which extinguishes the primary duty of self-support, the corner-stone of all sound and lasting morality ; but we may at least say in its behalf, that as conceived by the popular mind in France, it is a sincere, a generous, a com- passionate, a patriotic enthusiasm, struggling to make partisans by captivating the feelings, and overlooking inherent mischief, as well as impossibilities of execution.
We cannot better explain the spread of this current delusion than by contrasting it with that tone of mind which prevailed among the French leading classes, and dictated the proceedings of Government, before the Revolution of February last, under the Ministry of M. Guizot. The spirit now afloat is in fact an in- dignant and exaggerated reaction against that which animated the last King and the last Regal Minister of France. To under- stand what that spirit was, we will revert to a speech made in the French Chamber of Deputies on the ‘27th January last, only one short month before the Revolution and the Regifuge, by M. Alexis de Tocqueville ; a corrected report of which has just reached us, in a separate form. It richly merits a second pe- rusal, stamped as it now is with all the solemnity of a prophecy, in addition to its intrinsic merits of a large and perspicacious patriotism.
Speaking on the discussion upon the Address, M. de Tocqueville began by expressing the deep anxiety and alarm with which he was filled, in observing the manifestations of the public mind— "For the first time during fifteen years," he said, "I now feel alarmed for the future: fear and uneasiness, that sentiment and instinct which is the precursor of revolutions—always announcing them beforehand, and sometimes even causing them to .arise—has become prevalent throughout France to a very serious extent." " The Cabinet itself does not controvert the fact, though tracing the cause of it only to certain accidental circumstances in the recent course of public affairs. For my part, gentlemen, my conviction is that the cause lies much deeper—in the general state of public morals. When I cast my eyes first on the governing class, which alone possesses political rights, and next on the classes who are governed, that which I see among both makes me anxious and alarmed. I discern among the governing classes a thorough corruption of public morals: I see that this corruption is already profound, and that it increases f. .w day to day: every day private interests, private calculations, and such points of view as they suggest, supplant more and more all public affections, public ideas, or public sen- timents. Without detaining the Chamber too long upon topics so little attrac- tive, I will consent to pat it even to my adversaries themselves of the majority. Let them just examine and classify the electoral colleges by whom they have been returned: putting in the first class, those who vote for them, not from po- litical opinions, but from feelings of private friendship and good neighbourhood; in the second, who vote from interests not public or general, but_p Deduct local; in a third, those who vote from motives altogether individual. Deduct these three classes from the whole, and I would then ask them, will there be many remaining? or do those who vote from a disinterested public sentiment, or public opinions, or even public passions, form any considerable fraction of their voters? I am sure that the reverse will be at once acknowledged. Farther, does it not fall within their own knowledge, that during the last five, ten, or fifteen years, the proportion of those who vote from private interest has been continually on the increase? Has there not been gradually formed in the public mind a tolerance for this state of things—a low and vulgar morality, ac- cording to which, the voter owes it to himself, to his children, to his wife, to his relations, to employ his elective franchise for their benefit? and has not this been gradually exalted into a sort of duty incumbent on the father of a family ? What is all this but a profound and complete degradation of public morality 1 "
M. de Tocqueville proceeds afterwards to expose the misuse which the Ministry of M. Guizot made of power obtained through a majority thus elected. The same instrument of tempta- tion—the same " habit of appealing not to opinions, nor to public sentiments but to private interests "—was applied by the Ministry on the large scale which operated on all France : the same depraved public morality, manifesting itself in scandals conspicuous and flagrant, became matter of notoriety as well as of indignant comment.
" When you trace, throughout the course of history, what events have brought about the ruin of the existing governing classes, you may perhaps discern some particular event or individual figuring on the surface; but the real cause is, that the governing classes themselves have become unworthy longer to exercise power. The old Monarchy before 1789 was stronger in every way than you: it was not overthrown by Lafayette, by Mirabeau, by the deficit, or by the oath taken in the Tennis-court: there was one great and deep-seated cause—that the governing class had become confessedly unworthy and incapable."
We recommend the perusal of M. de Tocqueville's speech, in which the same general idea is worked out and proved by indi- vidual examples, in a way which our columns do not enable us to follow ; and in which it is further shown, how much the moral ascendancy of France in foreign countries had been exchanged for indifference and even dislike. Such an exposure is a valuable political lesson to men of all countries ; but it is preeminently useful as an explanation, in the way of contrast, of the present reigning tone of ideas in France.
That which the public of France have had before them for the last eight years has been the gross abuse of " individualism_," pervading the majority of the ruling classes. Pretending a right to exclude the mass of the people from the franchise on the score of poverty, this ruling class have turned it to jobbing purposes, in a manner which we are quite sure that the proletaires voters un- der the Republic, ignorant though they may be, will be ashamed to copy. The great " pere de famille" in the iuileries set them an edifying example, by jobbing on a large scale; aiming at the Spanish crown for his son, and discrediting the whole foreign policy of France in the pursuit of this family speculation. The public affairs of France, indeed, as far as the Government were concerned, have presented little else than such political fortune- hunting, on the greater or the smaller scale, accompanied with that hatred and fear of Democracy, and of the popular principle, which the corrupters and corrupted in every station are sure to feel, not without very good reason. There have always been generous and public-spirited minds in France to whom such a system was an abomination ; and the pre- sent state of the popular mind in that country is the result of a long-continued battery of criticism and attack opened against it, by men of very different persuasions—Monarchists, Republicans, and Communists—yet all concurring heartily in this aggressive warfare. The sickness and hatred of past jobbing have brought into the foreground not only the ideas of public spirit and disin- terested patriotism, but to a certain extent even a reactionary sen- timent which goes the length of renouncing all "individualism" That which is called "Communism" is the most violent and tho- roughgoing form of the idea which we have been describing. Indeed, it obtained its present popularity, (we believe a declining popularity,) partly from the fact that it ran in full harmony with the widespread antagonist feeling of which M. de Tocqueville's speech was the echo, against the intrusion of individual interest into all the transactions of political life. The real and wholesome future of France rests on the genuine Republican sentiment, apart from Communism. At present, in- deed, the latter enjoys a degree of ascendancy which seems to threaten extensive and ruinous attempts at practical experi- menting : but we have no belief that this is likely to be of long duration. As a theory or sentiment, Communism is doubt- less destined to a much longer existence ; and when we read the replies which are commonly made to it, we can hardly wonder that the Communists are not converted. This is a very large subject, on which the best words yet remain to be said.
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