TOPICS OF TtLE DAY.
THE PLOT AND THE PLRBISCITE.
WHATEVER view we may take of the discovery made, or asserted to have been made, by the French Govern- ment of a plot to assassinate the Emperor,—this at least seems pretty clear, that no testimony more convincing could have been conceived to the utterly anarchical policy of the plebiscite. Suppose we take the view which many of the Liberal journals in Paris, and many of the Liberal journals in London take, that the discovery is so certain to bring the Emperor a vast accession of timid votes,—under the impression, as M. 011ivier coolly puts it, that all who vote "No," vote for revolution,--that it is utterly unreasonable to ascribe the new conspiracy to his foes. Suppose we apply Paley's celebrated design argument, and say that, just as when we find folded up in the embryo, lungs for breathing, and scientific mechanical arrange- ments for walking and lifting, and so forth, which are evidently of the highest use for a life in air and space, and of no use whatever where they are, we rightly infer that these arrangements must be intended for use in the air and in space,—so when we find folded up in this plot complex means most scientifically adapted for obtaining the majority which the Emperor wishes at the very moment when he wishes it, we must reasonably infer that it was designed to meet his wishes. Well, then, the further infer- ence must be that a political device which needs such supple- mentary arrangements as these to enable it to fulfil its pur- pose, is one of the most dangerous ever conceived by man. Here would be a device for giving the Emperor a new lease of power from the people, yet which, in order to succeed, compels the Emperor's own servants to bring into prominence the chronic hatred always entertained for him in certain strata of society in France, and to'whet the tepid zeal of the cautious millions by ap- pealing ostentatiously to their fears ! What can be imagined more calculated to suggest the idea of instability, and utter lake- warmness on the part of the great majority of the people of France A ple'biscite which can only be turned to satisfactory account when it is endorsed by a pretended plot is surely the forlorn hope of tottering dynasties, and is likely to bear more telling evidence to the danger of the throne than to its safety. Grant even that in panic dread of the socialists and the revolution, a great vote is given to the Emperor, as it was in 1852, after the discovery of a Marseilles plot of which nothing more was heard when the vote had been taken. Well, the very just inference of Europe will be, not that the Emperor's throne is deeply rooted in the affections of his people, but that it is still regarded as at best a less alternative evil than revolution, and is accepted once more as the throne of the Saviour of Society, but not as the throne of the here- ditary sovereign. Who cannot see that an argument so publicly addressed to the people in favour of a cool head, long tried in the work of stern repression, is not an argument at all for a posterity of rulers of all shades of weakness or strength, —that the reason which saves the Emperor now has no refer- ence whatever to the succession of his son, for which he him- self desires to see it doing duty.
But now suppose, what seems to us, we confess, on the evidence produced, decidedly more likely, that a real plot of some kind has been discovered, whether for revolution or assassination, or both. (We ourselves suspect that there is always in France a considerable amount of seditious feeling perfectly well known to the police, on which they can play, as a performer plays on the keys of a piano, so as to produce at will any particular note, and that such seditious feeling always becomes more lively and dangerous in any time of political excitement.) Well, in this case the conspiracy bears still stronger witness to the political shortsightedness of those who proposed the plebiscite. No doubt it is quite true that at such a time it would have been the clear interest of the friends of liberty to keep quiet. Every alarm, every shock to the nerves of the peasant-pro- prietors or shopkeepers of France, could only tend to increase the number of the Emperor's nominal adherents. But what is the actual effect Why, that violent irritation and revolu- tionary designs are bred by the mere proposal to take a mass-vote on a refined political question the answer to which might be understood in a dozen different ways,—though a 'yes' is popularly interpreted as affirming the Empire just as the Ministers wish to affirm it, though apparently it only affirms the advisability of depriving the Emperor of personal power, and a 'no' as repudiating the Emperor, though apparently it only affirms the inexpediency of diminishing the Emperor's personal power. The mere attempt to take a mass-vote on such questions, seems so monstrously insincere to the extreme Radicals, and so certain to yield a result which the Government will make use of against the people, that they immediately begin to plot how this farce of asking the people one thing, and interpreting their answer as meaning another very different thing, can be altogether stopped and extinguished. And in point of fact, there can be no real doubt at all that the proposal for theplebiscite has stimulated every anarchical element in France. A form apparently so popular, and simulating even extreme republican ideas, acts like a dram on the republican feeling ; and when the radicals realize, as they soon do, that under the form of a proposed deference to the people, the Emperor and his advisers are disguising an ingenious device for diminishing the true influence of the people, the latent republicanism of the nation is irritated to madness.
Whichever way we look, then, at the plot,—whether as fomented by the Government, or as the natural outcome of radical feeling in view of the ple'biscite,—we find in it a most impressive testimony to the political mischievousness of this direct appeal to the people for the purpose, not of electing representatives, but of passing their own judgment on the Emperor's policy. Whatever else it does, it needlessly calls the attention of France to the ultimate revolutionary power vested in the people, and yet does so only to baulk her of true popular power. It suggests the substance of democratic cravings, and gives only a mocking shadow. It excites passions to which it ostentatiously denies all gratification. It gives the Government so strong a motive for frightening the people as to the seeds of anarchy which are germinating among them, that every one speculates, whether truly or not, on the possibility that it has manufac- tured the plot which it is now denouncing. And why does it give the Government this powerful motive for frightening the people as to these seeds of anarchy ? Because, in point of fact, it does stimulate their growth like a hot-bed. The plebiscite has made all France suspicious of the hypocrisy of the Government, and all France sensible of the fierce dis- contents of the people. The plot, whether true or false, or as is most likely, mostly true and partly false, is the natural political supplement of the Plebiscite. A Government which asks a people a question at once exciting and indiscreet, has the strongest reason for also pressing upon them arguments which are at once exciting and indiscreet, and is quite certain to find adversaries who cannot endure the spectacle of an inarticulate people stammering out one thing with their lips and meaning quite another in thsir hearts.
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