STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN FRANCE.
IT has been supposed by some persons who have good opportuni- ties of ascertaining the state of public opinion in France, that in our article last week on the policy of Louts PHILIP and its results, we overrated the danger to which his Government is exposed. We are told that "the ruling class" is so entirely devoted to him and his system, that nothing but a sudden and violent outbreak in Paris, and treachery among the troops, can put his throne in jeopardy. As for the army, we have seen many proofs during the last half-century of the little reliance which is to be placed upon it as a protector of an unpopular despotism ; and with respect to the ruling class, we consider it as too narrow a foundation for a go- vernment of thirty-four millions of people to rest upon. The ruling class in France consists of the 200,000 or 250,000 persons, who elect the members of the Chamber of Deputies: they are doubtless tolerably well satisfied with a system which gives them a monopoly of power. But, were there no other cause of discon- tent, than the restriction of the electoral franchise to such a fraction of the nation, that of itself must be sufficiently formidable, and in- creasing daily. Last week, we referred to the statements of a writer in the Morning Chronicle on the" material prosperity" of France, and questioned the soundness of some of his deductions from that admitted fact. This week, me find that the regular Paris corre- spondent of the Chronicle, who appears to have been taking con- siderable pains to ascertain the real state of feeling among the French people at large, adopts the views which mainly influenced our opinion. After mentioning the continuance of arrests, and re- ferring to the diseased condition of the public mind in Paris, as denoted especially by the unusual number of suicides, he ob- serves— " Your correspondent depicted the prosperity of the country in glowing and riot exaggerated colours. But he was wrong in inferring the great solidity of Louis Philip's throne from the prosperity of France. Louis Philip has consulted the views and abided by the declared opinions of the middle classes. He has flattered their feelings, their predominant feelings ; but remark, that the feel ings which he has flattered are not those in which even the middle classes take pride. It has been on the timidity, the :caution of the commercial class—on their dread of war, of popular turbulence, of suspension of business—that the Government of France since 18:30 have based their policy. These certainly are prevalent and powerful feelings ; but they are not the most honoured, the most prized, or the most national. They answer to the physical, the material wants of the people : but the French are not without moral wants and aspirations. They thirst for fame and superiority ; they have an ardent desire for equality
and liberty ; and cannot tolerate the idea of being less free and less advanced
than the English their neighbours. In all these have the aspirations of even the middle classes of the French been cruelly disappointed ; and, however they may admit the cautious wisdom of the Government, it is not a wisdom that ex- cites love or enthusiasm, or more, in fact, than a very low degree of loyal respect." It would appear from this, that the middle classes are not pre:
pared to risk much for Louis PHILIP. But then let us turn to the millions without electoral privileges-
" have just returned from a tour through all the towns of the South cf France, which I visited and observed in the midst of the emotion excited by the news of Alibaud's attempt. I had ample means of judging what was the sentiment of the population. And truth compels me to say, that notwithstand• ing the great increase of prosperity, those sentiments were not such as monarchy or dynasty might slumber securely on. In the present state of France and Europe, it would be criminal to endeavour to shake the throne of the King of the French. But the sure way to endanger that throne is to represent it as in need of no further prop, no change of system—as secure beyond the necessity -of further exertion, and as in a fair way to be firmly established by mere per- severance in the Doctrinaire policy. On the contrary, the Doctrinaire sys- tem, which legislates for the extension and straining of the power of the narrow governing class, to the utter contempt, exclusion, and oppression of the lower classes, is a system that will leave the French monarchy less firm and less consolidated in fifty years than at present. There is no danger, indeed, for the moment, except an the regicide mania while it lasts; but it is madness to suppose that a monarchy raised up by the pike and musket of the lower
classes can exist without winning more than the tolerance of these classes. Should their indifference be allowed gradually to grow into discontent, and their discontent into bate, laws of the direst rigour will not suffice to guard the throne ; nay, the bayonets of the middle class itself, organizud in a National Guard, may not prove sufficient. There is one grand and indispensable con-
quest to be made, one guard to he acquired, and that is popularity ; and he who says that it may be dispensed o ith in France, is either a fool or a traitor.'
This is our doctrine. The policy of resistance cannot be main- tained permanently either in France or England in the nineteenth century. But it is to that policy that the Tories must adhere should they succeed in their attempt to recover their old predomi- nance in England. The consequence of Tory success, should it endure for any lengthened period, must be that national convul- sion of which Louts PHILIP lives in hourly dread.
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