THE MORAL PROSTRATION OF FRANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 107, 22 January 1853, Page 4

THE MORAL PROSTRATION OF FRANCE.

[From thn "Time.-)."]

From the first announcement of tho coup d'etat to the present time we have watched with painful interest for some indication of the feelings and opinions which lie beneath the surface of French society, We have seen liberty trampled under foot, the best and ablest citizens banished, private property confiscated, the press silenced, the independence of the seats of learning and the seats of justice destroyed, and have been unable to detect the slightest syrnpton of dissatisfaction or ropining in the conduct of a nation which has made in the last sixty years more sacrifices for freedom than any people in the world. Thousands of victims are now gasping out the last breath of a miserable existence in the pestilential swamps of Cayenne; but France has forgotton the victims. Her Statesmen are proscribed and her Generals banished, but France cares neither for Statesmen nor Generals. The Jesuit usurps* the chair of the philosopher, but Fiance has learnt to be patient even of the Jesuits, once the objects of her most cherished aversion. The tawdry and unmeaning displays of military pomp, a column wound round with a spiral train of fireworks, a few pasteboard eagles, and a few bloodless banners, are enough 10 divert the attention of this enlightened nation from the regrets of the past, ihe disgrace of the present, or the gloom of the future. The refusal of some blunt soldier to take the oath of .allegiance, or the dignified withdrawal of some notability of the days when France had statesmen from the disgrace of official rank or the compromising distinction of elective duty, have served alone to break the long mournful claim which has succeeded the struggles and tumults of Parliamentary government. A stone may here and there have been thrown into the waters, but the general surface of the lake has remain unruffled. A despotism more absolute than that of Louis XIV. or Napoleon has been established, and France is without a protest, a menace, or even a complaint. The nation hr.s created, on the ruins of its old institutions, a mechanism of absolute goveniment,under which it has itself been crushed, and a child ini«-ht almost wield the powers which have silenced ths voice and paralysed the energy of the gayest, most martial, ami most turbulent race 'in ■Europe.

At length, however, a small cloud has risen out of the sea, and a symptom that all is not well has made itself unmistakably manifest. There have been no complaints, no tumults; the President has nothing- to do hut to show himself, to he met with the same joyous acclamations as have never failed to salute his strangely varied predecessors, from Robespierre to Lamartine, and from Marrast to Cavaignae. Had Louis Napoleon been content with "such servility as is within the ordinary resources of human nature he would probably have had nothing to complain of; but lie has demanded of the French nation a degree of complaisance which transcends even their powers of endurance, and their patience has given way under the trial. Not content with absolute dominion, built on a firm basis of military support, Louis Napoleon could not be contented without calling on the French people periodically to contribute their own sanction to their own degradation. Armed with all powers—executive, judicial, and legislative—the President cannot be content without the assistance of elective bodies to throw an air of popularity over his barefaced usurpation. To these bodies he allows no sort oi' power when elected, and over their election he exercises the most jealous and vexatious interference. The Chamber or Council may deliberate, but their deliberations must end iv the manner prescribed by the Government. The electors may exercise their franchise, but their choice must fall on the government candidate. Jt was not enough to enslave the nation, unless that nation could be persuaded to become his accomplice, and to veil its subserviency under the hollow and unreal semblance of liberty.

On this point the system of the President seems likely to break down. The people do not resist, but they will not vote; election after election is annulled for want of the legal number of suffrages. The results of an election are not worth, to the voter, the trouble of oiviu^ his vote. The representative whom lie return's can do him neither <;ood nor harm, and ihe right even of testifying his opinion by ;i free choice is refused to him. The electors arc in-

[ vited to vote, in order that the Government | may nominate, and the representatives to meet in order that the Government may decide. Tho nation is naturally weary of taking part in tliis solemn farce, and feels that the form of free institutions has entirely survived the substance. Universal suffrage and vote by ballot, thoso idols of our theoretical reformers, are at a discount in France. They have not saved her liberties, and they now refuse any longer to conceal her servitude. The statesmen of France are either proscribed, or have refused to be candidates, and no one seems to care who is elected in (heir place. In vain is the eloquence of the Prefect exerted to point out to the people the invaluable privileges which they are renouncing and the public duty they are violatingl. The people refuse to degrade'the memory of freedom by mocking her ceremonies, and leave to the Government, which has deprived them of their liberties tho undisturbed choice of its councillors and its instruments. Baal was not more deaf to the cries of his priests than are the French electors to the voice which summons them to activity.

This state of tilings iiuiy not be immediately perilous, but it is fraught with fuluve dan<jer. There is no more fertile cause of revolution' than ji contempt of the institutions under which we live. The Government can still command obedience, but has lost the active support of the masses. Hitherto it has only been the honourable distinction of literary, political, and scientific eminence to stand s>loof from it. Now the same disposition is shown by masses of men into which the feelings of political rivalry and disappointed anibilioii cannot enter. The prestige of the first success is gone, and with it has departed all desire to recur to that machinery of freedom which lias been permitted to suivive freedom itself. Henceforth L .vis Napoleon must be content to fore-go even the semblance of support derived from popular election. It might have been worth while for one so strong in sabres and bayonets to have left to his peo° pie so itmch freedom of choice, and to their representatives so much liberty of action, as would have kept up the interest of an election without seriously diminishing the influence of the central power ; but tins moderate course was spurned by the head of a military revolution. His motto seems to be <; nothing for the people, and every thing- by the people!" This system of making the nation work out its own dishonour by its own prostituted vote, it has at least, had the self respect to refuse,.and by so doing has placed an impassable gulpli between it and the Government. This comes of expecting shams to do the work of realities, and forget, ting that human nature can rarely be stirrecfup to action except by honour, pleasure, or profit* none of which are to be found in the proceedings or results of a modern French election.