LETTERS FROM PARIS, BY 0. P. Q. No. XIV. FRANCE—WHAT

SHALL, AND WHAT CAN WE DO, TO BE SAVED? " S'il Taut que tout Lyon perisse pour la cause du Gonvernement, tout Lyon peritta."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Paris, 23d April 1834.

SIR WHAT SHALL, AND WHAT CAN WE DO, TO BE SAVED—from anarchy, from civil war, from endless strife, from loss of life, liberty, and honour —from poverty the mast extreme, bankruptcy the most certain, desolating, and general—froth foreign aggression, and perhaps partition of territory, and divi- sion among the nations of Europe—from internal anguish and external disgrace —from never-ending conflicts between military despotism and national pride and dignity—from all the accumulated woes which can be heaped upon or entailed by a bad Government, in consequence of its persisting in a coarse of anti-national, anti-liberal, and anti-social policy ? This is THE question of the times in which we live, and there is no other.

Before I proceed to lay before you our situation, and the remedies proposed by various contending parties, suffer me to tell you two anecdotes, which have struck me with great force during the past week, and which are worth pre- serving.

The other day, when the members of the Chamber of Deputieri who support the Government were leaving the house it. order to rush to the Tuileries " to compliment the King " (that's the phrase) on the "Successful! termination of the events ut Paris and Lyons ! " the Minister of Finance (M. IlumANN), on leaving the Chamber, perceived the talented, high-minded, eloquent, dramatic, but niistaken though sincere BERRYER, the Royalist Deputy, seated in his usual place, and occupied in writing. " You do not follow us, then, M. BER- RYER, said M. HEIMANN; "I perceive you are busy writing." " Yes, Sir," replied this witty and sarcastic speaker, " I am writing to Charles the Tenth, to inform him that his ordinances are executed !!!" There was a poignant and cutting satire in those few words, from which in this country the Doctrinaires will never recover. It is a fact, and a fact of memorable and immense impor- tance, that the system of the ordinances of CHARLES the Tenth—all that was peculiar, and despotic, and unconstitutional about them—is now being carried by the Doctrinaires into full and complete effect. " Oui, Monsieur,Pcris d Charles Dix, clue ses ordonnances sold executees." di WHAT SHALL, AND WHAT CAN WE DO, TO BE SAVED?" This question reminds me of a fact which once came under my own observation, and for the truth of which I am personally responsible. A disappointed, animal, unintel- lectual, sort of creature, in the shape of a man, was once upon a time extremely ill. He sent fur a doctor—the best he could get (bad enough, I admit, was his best); and he said to him—" Doctor, I am very ill : I have no appetite ; I have the heart-burn ; I frequently vomit ; I am dreadfully nervous; I cannot sleep ; nothing amuses me ; my life feels a burden to me ; I do not relish even my wine or spirits; my nature feels breaking up—and I think I shall die." The doctor, who was an arraut quack, but a most pleasant and winning soft of fellow, advised aperients, emetics, and then sudonfics and anodynes—and still the patient remained the same. In the morning he took a glass of absinth ; at noon a glass of but brandy and water ; before his dinner, to give him an appe- tite, a glass of curaeoa ; and in the evening before he went to bed, joram after jorani of cold or hot brandy and water, according to the state of the atmosphere,

"to settle his dinner, and aid his digestion.' The pills in the morning were taken with the absinth ; the powders at noon were taken with the brandy and water ; and at night the sleeping-draughts were deposed in the same general receptacle with the forams aforesaid. Yet pills, powders, and anodynes were all useless—and for this obvious reason, that they were all counteracted by the spirituous liquors which accompanied them. At length, the man got very bad ; the quack-doctor's bill got very lung ; the resources and purse of the in- valid became very short and empty; and the undertaker appeared to have a good chance of an order. In this extremity, his unfortunate wife consulted a plain honest soldier, who had seen a great deal of service, and knew that brandy, thougb mingled with water, was never taken to make the hand steady ; and his advice was as follows: " Tell your husband, that the only thing he has to do is to take no more medicine, and to drink nothing but plain cold water." These remedies appeared very simple and very economical; and though the patient had not much confidence in the counsels of his military doctor, yet as death, he thought, stared him in the face, he implicitly followed the rules laid down. The absinth bottle was corked up and put away; no more curacoa was pur- chased ; and the brandy-keg was allowed to remain undisturbed in the cellar. Of course the man was cured ; and I am happy to add, became a useful member of society. Whilst the original cause of all this misery was unremovcd, the wretched being suffered on, and his system became weaker and less able to resist the attacks daily made on his vital functions by the corroding spirit ; but when that cause was taken away, the patent became well—he became a man.

The Doctrinaires are the quack-doctors. France is the sick patient. The Doctrinaires, like all charlatans, attack, or soften, or try to allay, not the disease, but the symptoms. Because France is agitated, they say, " Fire." Because France makes barricades, they say, "Attack the barricades and destroy them." Because France rises in twenty places at once in insurrections, they say, " Put down the insurrection "—" Russurez eons, Messieurs, les (wires sent impitoy- ables." And a Doctrinaire screams out to his delighted and raviaheal auditory, "If it must be that Lyons perish for the cause of the Government, why Lyot s will perish." But why is France sick ? why is France agitated ? why does France make barricades? why have we twenty insurrections at a time, more or less grave? why are the journals of Paris and the Departments at war against the Government ? why is there defection in the army ? why are private citizens massacred and suffocated at noon-day in the heart of the capital by soldiers? and why are worthy and excellent patriots in the shape of National Guards, and even soldiers, assassinated by beings who unjustly pretend to belong to the people? There must he some reason for all this. The French are not less civilized in 1834 than they were in 1820. The French are not less educated since the Revolution of 1830 than they were before it--nor less Christian, nor less social, nor Is forgiving, nor less humane. The latitude and the longitude of the country are the same. The hills are still "vine-covered ;" the sallies are still fruitful; the streams are still beautiful and abundant : and vet France is not the same. How is this? Has the curse of heaven lighted on this land of song and of sunshine? are the trees less green, the sheaves less abundant, the orchards less productive, the sky less blue, the air less clear, the zephyrs less reviving, and the heat lees ripening and fructifying? No, no ; Heaven is as bountiful, and man as ungrateful as ever. How then is it that the whole head is sick, and that the whole heart is faint, and that from the crown of du head to the sole of the foot there is nothing but agitation, restlessness, fever disease, and

misery ? So the question returns to us unanswered, " hat shall, and what can we do, to be saved ?" Take the following sketch of our position. It is but a sketch, and drawn by but a feeble hand ; but you can fill it up at your leisure; and, at least to-day, the sket. h must suffice.

THE PRESS IN FRANCE is public opinion. How is it treated ? Let me show you. The Tribune has been put down by force of arms, though the Tribune

is legally established, according to the precise wording of the lawa passed even by the Juste Milieu to punish and to persecute the press. In order to put it down, the bureaus of the Tribune have been entered by an armed form, closed by an armed force, and kept from the proprietors by an armed force. The editors are sent to gaol. The registers are seized by the Government. The names of all the subscribers are impounded, in order that in every Department, as well as at Paris, where they live, they may be persecuted. The( orrespondence of this journal has been seized ; and all those individuals who, wl en the armed force arrived ut the bureaus of the Tribune, happened to be there merely enjoy- ing the news of the day, were taken off to prison, and ever since ti en have there

been shut up. Take another ease. At LYONS, a Legitimist journal, called Le Glaneuse, is printed. I neither approve nor respect that join-mil; but what

then? it is established legally, and has complied with the cow:1th n of the law. This journal has attacked the Government, defended the Restoration, and taken the part of the workmen. It was obnoxious to the local authorities; and there-

fore what did they do, but imitate their superiors at Paris, end even out- heroded Herod. The bureaus were invested by an armed force; the types were destroyed; the printing-machines _destroyed; and all this "by authu- city:" and furthermore (do not forget this), after a week, has obtained the permission to reappear, on condition that it does not publish one word of news, or make one observation relative to Lyons, the very city in which it is published ! 'fake another case. At MARSEILLES, a man of great talent, in- tegrity, and zeal (a Republican), who I know of my own knowledge took very active part in the Revolution of July, established in the city just named a journal entitled Le Potpie Sourerain. It was very well edited, and very popular ; and of course as opposed to the Government as it could be. And what has been done to it ? Why, its printers have been arrested and sent to pri- son, as a "preventive measure ;" the " gerant," to avoid being thrown into gaol, has concealed himself; and the local government has declared, that as the gerant has fled, the journal shall not reappear, but by force shall he put down. Here we have confiscation—arbitrary measures opposed to the distinct wording as well as spirit of the Charter and the laws regulating the press, and the censorship ! The Temps of this very morning calls this system " brutal, audacious, and despotic :" and who will say that the Temps is not right? But this is not all. The Gazette de France, the Echo Francais, and the Estafette, have been seized at Paris. At Doors, the Patriote de In Cote d' Or ; at CLERMONT, the Putriote du Puy de Dome; at Le MANS, the Courrier de in Sarthe ; at Av tcwoN, Le Proyres ; at CHALONS, Le Pa- triote de Saone et Lamle; and at various other places various other journals, have likewise been seized, and the patriotic editors prosecuted. All this during forty-eight hours. Besides this, M. Miaax, the editor of the Patriotic France Condois ; M. Carets the gerant of the Daaphinois, published at Grenoble ; M. (Salvor', the gerant of the Progres at Avignon ; and the editors of the Tribune, Estoffette, and Echo Francais, at Paris, have all been arrested and sent to gaol, in order to be tried for—what ? Why, for expressing thier opinions with boldness on the present course of the Government ! And what do these arrests beforehand prove? That the Government is strong? No! That the Government is popular? No ! That the people are satisfied with the Govern- ment, and are resolved on defending and preserving it? Oh no! But all these arrests and all these seizures prove, that the Government knows it is hated—knows that the people are opposed to it—knows that it cars only maintain its position by military force, and that it must fall the moment the people are left to art for and by themselves. The Go- vernment knows very well, that if at Lyons. at Paris, at St. Etienne, at Chalons, at Grenoble, and at a hundred other raves of more or less importance, it had not had an overpowering military force during the last few days, the Re- public would have been not only proclaimed, but established. The Government would not dare to trust its cause to the people—to the middling classes—or to even the National Guards of the country. It has dissolved them at Metz, at Strasbourg, at Lyons, at Grenoble, and at many other cities and towns ; and yet it affects to have confidence in the National Guards. It has not confidence in the National Guards of the Departments. If it had so, it would not demand 400,000 troops to maintain order, and that not only for 1834, but also fur 1835. If the Government were to have as few paid troops in France as the Government of Great Britain has in that country, it would be overthrown in twenty-four hours ; and it knows it. Nor is it trite that the National Guards would avert this overthrow. If the Government believed the National Guards would defend it, it would not require the enormous war budget it now asks the Deputies to vote : but it makes that demand, because so little can it trust in the Departments the National Guards to defend it, that in more than twenty towns and cities since March 1831, the whole, or portions of the NationalGuards, have been, and even remain dissolved. And let it not be said that though the National Guards in the Departments would not prevent revolution, still they would not encourage it. Nun-prevention is encouragement on the part of any armed force. I am aware that the National Guards are not composed of the mass of the people. I am aware that, poor men, that working and labouring_ men, though honest and excellent citizens, are excluded from the rank of these civil soldiers; and that therefore, to a certain extent, the National Guards are picked and privileged men : and yet I insist on the fact, that with a MILLION of NATIONAL GITARDS in France, the Glivernment is not satisfied--dare not leave to them either their preservation or overtlalinv ; but that this Govern- ment requires 400,000 troops to keep down the journals—keep down public opinion—and administer ,justice with the sabre and the bomb. But this is only a portion of the sketch of our unhappy situation. Turn to tire right—and there is the Rue Transnouain' whet' peaceable, and honour- able citizens have been buichered in cold blood, by the 35th Regiment of the Line. Turn to the left—and there is the Conciergerie, where Doctor GERVALt informs us, he has within the last few days seen with his own his eyes men subject to the torture urn the bastinado ; who were arrested in Pal is for their Republican opinions, and where a dying Republican received from an agsnt of Police a blow under his chin at the moment of his expiring, and was taunted with not speaking : " Wiry do you not speak now ?" asked the monster ; and the wretched being gave a scream, dropped his head, and shortly afterwards expired ! Look behind you—and there are bands of Police assassins, who leave their holes and corners at midnight, and attack young and old, male and female, whose opinions are thought to be hostile to the Doctrainaires. Look before you—and Lyons is in ashes ; reduced to ruin and unexampled coo by the cannon of those who said " Their orders were peremptory and merciless." Merciless, indeed ! but the day will come when the rocks and the hills will not hide theca from the wrath of an avenging God. Look here—and you will see sub-officers of regiments chained together and conducted along the public roads to distant prisons, for having read and subscribed to Republican journals. Look there— and you will see a sanguinary band of hoary Doctrinaires clubbing and conspiring together against the liberties of France, and against all that was national and popular iu the Revolution of 1830. Here, we see LAFAYETTE weeping and groaning over the destinies of his country; and there, generous-hearted and en- thusiastic young men torn to pieces by the Police—arrested—bayonetted- kicked—and often even pm to death, because they belong to the Society of the Rights of Man. And yet the gaping, stupid, idiotic creatures of the Loaders and Paris Stock Exchanges "wonder when the French will be satisfisd," and " wonder what the French want next." I think, then, the question returns with all its force upon our consciences, judgments, aud hearts, "What Shall, and what can we do, to be saved ?"

The timid, the compromising, the cowardly, or the unprincipled, sap " Warr !" " Let the storm blow over !" " Do farthing in a hurry !" "'fake time to consider !" " Let us hope for better times !" " Something may turn up in a year two !" and " Have natienm, and all will be right in the end." ThIS is their remedy : but all that is national in France rejsets it. These men are merely mocking us, and care as much about liberty as they do about truth. " What shall, and what can we do, to be saved ?" We know what the Doctrinaires advise; and we spit upon their counsels in token of our scorn as our hate.

But there is another party entitled to be beard. It is the party of the Mrs- sager des Chambres. It hates the Doctrinaires, hates the present s:.st,m, ati loathes and reprobates the present system ; but it apprises all iasareectioas, all emeutes, and all popular demonstrations. It says that France may he saved by law, and by discussion:. We will examine this system another day. At pre- sent, I content myself by presuming it to he benevolent but inapplicable. Ss the question remains unanswered ; and time, that great solver of all human cliff.. cu!ties, and great avenger of all human wrongs, mast do the rest.