FRANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 138, 27 August 1853, Page 10

FRANCE.

The following extraordinary document, addressed to the Emperor, is circulating iv France, and has created considerable sensation in England :— Prince—You have a mission plainly set before you. You have power, you dispose of force, which constitutes your authority ; you command, you order, you decree. You are a great, a redoubtable fact. Inaction would make you a cause without effect, and a cause without effect is valueless in the physical world, as it is in a political system. I tell you that by peace you endorse all the humiliations of France ; that peace is your approval of the treaties of 1815 ; that peace ratifies the division and partition of our territory, and is the dishonouring acceptance of a foreigner's work—in fine, peace is the renunciation of every sentiment of dignity and honour, and of every hope for the future prosperity and greatness of our country. I would say to Henry V. himself, if he sat on the throne of his ancesters, and accepted these treaties, " You are not worthy to govern France." Prince—ln the family of nations has arisen ona, consisting of a people altogether exceptional, which, since the discovery of the New World, and more particularly since the treaties of Westphalia, has asserted an insolent authority over other countries, and assumed the sole right of emancipating Europe. In all places does this nation impose its blind and tyrannical will; its diplomacy is everywhere corruptive, its gold subjugates and putrefies all national morality. It audaciously and with impunity violates every treaty, and grants to foreigners just so much liberty as it chooses. It holds the world in fetters, and is bound by none. It has arrived at this point—and I declare it to the shame of •Europe— it can arrogantly say to its equals— Ci You shall do only what I will—l despise you." If this which I have asserted of England be ! true, is not her conduct atrocious, and should < she not be outlawed by all other nations ? If it be true, should Aye not declare against this impious people a war, not of reprisal, but of extermination ? I fit be true, should not the tocsin sound in the 37,000 communes of France a crusade without quarter and without mercy ? If it be true, should not the tocsin sound in every place where a Frenchman can hear it, and should not the cry "To arms!" be repeated until millions of men, torch and steel in hand have buried under its ruins this nation execrated by the whole universe ? We have not yet finished with England. A struggle more terrible and bloody than ,'efer is about to commence. Our soul is struck with indignation and horror. Shall we wait much longer for the day of expiation ?

: Notwithstanding the most solemn treaties of peace, explicitly declared, Protestant and aristocratic England .is ever on foot. She must destroy that Catholicism and liberty of which France is always the. sublime refuge.. She exists against the law of all society—against the law of God. Such a nation must perish sooner or later. If your arm he raised against her, an arm more terrible will perhaps, ere long, crush her brutal and perverse insolence. Let her remember that but for the assassination of Paul I. (of Russia) London would now, in all probability, have been but a French, subprefecture.— England is but an ambuscade against all other powers. She watches aud spies them like a highwayman, and murders them when she thinks the booty worth having. We have destroyed the pirates and corsairs of Algeria, who were neither as dangerous or ruffianly as the , English ; and when we fight against her we will conquer, because the God of Battles-—the God of Justice—will fight with us. England is feudal. The yoke of 30,000 landowners weighs on 27,000,000 citizens, on 125,000,000 colonists. She pays well, and is well served, 152,000,000 people have 30,000 oligarchs for masters, to serve whom are 150,000;000 slaves. Such is the much vaunted English liberty. Thus, in chastising England, France offends not against liberty ; on the contrary, she gives it that assistance which at this day it requires in every nation. In punishing England we destroy the last, and the most dangerous of the civilised barbarism of Europe. And what will happen, Prince, if your invasion be successful (and it will be) —if your army plant its banners in this land, hitherto always our enemy, and which, thanks to you, will cease to be so? You will destroy £xhe principle of evil—the English oligarchy". Yon will give Ireland equal rights. You will place the United Kingdom in a condition for ever harmless, by establishing the principle of equal maritime rights for all the world, and all the world will bless you, and hail with welcome the new era that you will open to it. And whatever happens, citizen or Csesar, you will for all time be greater than him you have taken as a model, for he only irritated and destroyed, whereas you will calm and rebuild. When your victorious flag shall wave over London, you will summon the Powers to a congress,'where the just rights of all will be decided at an alliance really holy. France will resume her limits and the maritime ports which are her due. Her colonies will be restored; Malta will he hers, and Egypt will flourish under her laws. Poland will be restored to independence, Russia will rule in the East, and Constantinople will become Christian ; and the fraternity of peoples will then be a truth.

Thirty thousand English patricians will suffer —rather say 30,000 leeches will be destroyed, and 30,000 citizens created—lso,ooo,ooo men will be freed. England will date her emancipation, her prosperity, from the day when the universe shall be freed from the tyranny of this handful of men—of this knot of aristocrats whose insolent despotism knows no bounds. She will no longer "press" her sailors, and 45,000 men will be restored to their maritime pursuits, to their families, and their liberty. She will no longer need to. keep up a fleet of 600 ships, and to expend hundreds of millions for maintaining the means of barbarism and destruction. Her gold will belong to all, and will circulate for the life and happiness of all. What England has given us has been poison. In return we will impart to her the bread of life, for France has never afforded cause of regret to those who have followed in her noble footsteps. If our industry suffer, it is on account of England! If our navy languish, it is the fault of England! .If our commerce he destroyed, the English must answer for it! If we have neither ports nor colonies, it is the fault of the English! If we can command no foreign trade, it is the fault of the English! If we are periodically revolutionised, it is the fault of the English! If we are humiliated and insulted, it is by thelEnglish! Will you still hesitate ? I see the dangers which threaten yon ; not in the cannon which uselessly bristle on the English coast, but.in the terrors with which the news of your promotion to power has struck her. 1 She trembles, because she knows she has

committed the greatest crimes against France. She trembles, because as yet she is unsupported in the struggle against, and because she' knows that at present she could not prevent out landing on her shores, and that by landing we should destroy her. She trembles, because she knows that in our lowest chaumieres hey name is cursed, and that from all our hearts issue one long cry of vengeance. • But, Prince, she will cease to tremble, if you give her time to reflect, to agitate, to excite the; jealous susceptibilities of Europe. She will cease to tremble if her intrigues and her gold are accepted, and if by another blind coalition she enchain on the Continent a force which should only serve against herself. No further hesitation, then. " C'est au galop qu'ilfaui marcher sur elle." France only waits the signal. Send, then, your herald, and declare to the most cruel enemy of France that her hour has come. Let the tocsin announce it to our towns and country. Europe will leap for joy, and 150,000,000 of England's slaves will raise their voices to God and will bless you. Then the injuries of Clive, of Hastings, and Weilesley will be avenged. And the nineteenth century will undo the treaties of Westphalia. And humanity will respire. England will be conquered, because right is on our side, and the coalitions will be destroyed, and # the treaties of '15 will receive their deathblow. Prince, if this war be glory to France, itis a duty for you. To arms, then, and let the bright sun shine again on our dear country. As at the Crusades, let us repeat, "Gdd wills it." Yes, God wills it, for the laws of justice are violated. Yes, God wills it, for the brow of the first nation in the world should no longer be sunk in the dirt. God wills it, for the destinies of humanity depend on the destinies of France. . Let us repeat, with sacred enthusiasm, that: France would rather wade in blood than in mire. France would rather hear the sound of the thunder than the noise of the chains with which an insolent people destroys our liberties. And then peace will reign in France —in Europe— in the world. _And the empire, according to your thought, will be peace, a great strong peace, which will pain neither conqueror, nor vanquished, because it will be a great victory of civilization over that which pretends thereto only to destroy the moral interests of all people. And the empire will be peace, and peace thus obtained will be a truth. Prince, " L'Empire, c'est lapaix" will be the watchword of humanity if it signify — Justice to France ! Peace to continental Europe ! War! war, to England! £