ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE FROM FRANCE.
Paris, November 23.
There has been since last week no very material change in the state of
the Presidential question. At one time, indeed, the chances of General Ca- vaignac seemed to improve; but I believe the question must be now pretty well settled in the minds of the people, and that it will not be seriously affected by exertions or intrigues of any kind. What will be the result, I must repeat that no one can tell with anything approaching to certainty. We of the political world, we of the writing or speechifying class, may happen to know what is going on in "the world we live in," but I must again say that we are utterly unable to guess at what is going on under- neath. On that subject, newspaper writers are at their wit's end: they have to deal with entirely new materials, with the unknown influences sprang forth from universal suffrage. For instance, we may fancy that Cavaignac is gaining ground somewhat, from the fact that we see all the official people—Ministers, Prefects, even Bishops—much busied about his election, and that the Government influence is employed on his behalf. We should, however, consider that these influences have no longer the same ground to work upon as they formerly had; that all this was very well when France had only about 250,000 voters, most of them dependent on Government offices or salaries. Then, the result of an electoral strug- gle might be safely calculated: but now it is no longer so; and to know something about the matter, we ought to turn the whole country inside out, which we cannot do. An unexpected occurrence is likely to injure Cavaignac's position; I
mean the explanations which he himself has found it necessary to elicit from some of his late colleagues in the Executive Committee before June. You know that at that time—that is, previously to the great insurrection in Paris—we had a governing Committee of five, who were Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, Arago, Gamier-Pages, and Marie. Cavaignac was then but a subordinate person, being merely Minister at War; and it was only in the thickest of the battle, when the Committee were head-lost and the whole town asunder, that the Assembly committed to Cavaignac unlimited powers. Of the five members of the Executive Committee, Marie was the only one who remained in the new Government. The four others never for- gave Cavaignac, and more than once openly accused him of having allowed matters to go so fir and insurrection to gain ground in order to force upon the Assembly and the country his military dictatorship. A sort of mystery ever hung upon that matter. The fact is as it was afterwards publicly es- tablished by the famous report of the Committee of Inquiry, that orders had been given by the Executive Council for the calling of troops to Paris, notwithstanding which the town found itself quite devoid of military force when the insurrection broke out. The enemies of Cavaignac have since unmercifully made use of these facts against him, and attempted to throw upon him the whole responsibility of the terrible bloodshed of June.
For my own part, and I think I here express the opinion of many dis-
passionate men, I believe that Cavaignac is innocent of that guilt. I be- lieve it for two reasons: first, because I think him an honest man; second- ly, because I do not think him bold enough for such.a design. Even a crime of that stamp would have required a stronger and a more daring mind. I believe that no individual can be made answerable for that dread- ful and sanguinary civil war: it was the necessary, the unavoidable erup- tion of a volcano, which was out of the reach of any single hand. Any man alive who should have had the power to play such a game, and to win it, would find no competitors. Cavaignac is neither so depraved nor so deep.
Certain it is, however, that Cavaignac has been much injured by these imputations; and, as they have been now officially brought forth by Gar- tiler-Pages and some of the late Ministers, the General has thought it ne- cessary to contradict them, and to have a regular debate on the matter. That debate is to take place on Saturday. I fear it will not be to the ad- vantage either of Cavaignac or of the Executive Committee; it will only expose the internal divisions of the Republican party, and play the game of Bonaparte. That Paris and the whole country should now be kept in continued
alarm, you must not wonder. We are at present making our public educa- tion. Only consider that we have been suddenly emerging from a state of things where public meetings and public dinners were nearly unknown, and that we must become by degrees reconciled to the liberties you in Eng- land have so long enjoyed. To us the Clubs and public banquets are as- sociated with but very melancholy recollections; we are afraid of the pre- sent, because we think of the past. But the danger for France does not lie there; the real danger is in that perverted moral sense of the people at large which ever• embodies right in physical force. All the present generation ilas been• brought up with the idea that insurrection is the most sacred of duties. The word has become a principle; and it is the ruling principle of the upper as well as of the lower classes. To upset a Ministry, we make %revolution; to change a political system, we must change the very form of government. For the last sixty years, every Government in France has been thrown down by force. To go back only to the present Govern- Inent, it took birth in an insurrection, and is perhaps doomed to expire in another. At the present moment, a great part, perhaps the greater part of
the nation, is engaged in an electoral struggle, not for establishing or con-
solidating. but on the contrary for destroying its Government. That is our worst feature. For us the new President is to be, not an end, but a means: that election, which ought to settle all competitions, is but the beginning of flesh struggles; with it we do not mean to close the temple of Janus, hut to keep it wide open and send forth discord and internecine war.
Previous page
