FRANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 585, 12 June 1858, Page 3

FRANCE.

The following French intelligence extracted from the ' Spectator' of the 13th March, give# the news more in detail than our former gleanings from the Australian journals, although it adds nothing material to the facts alreadygiven.

Arrests continue to be made all over France. The Emperor, it is stated, is " unusually hard at work" : he has "the interior affairs of France under his control"; he is " giving his personal attention to the diplomatic relations of England and France." There is trouble both without and within. On Tuesday the ' Moniteur 1 pub • Hshed the following account of an 6meute at Chalons: Paris had not heard of it before.

"At Chalons-sur-Sa6ne, on Saturday evening about nine o'clock, a mob of some forty men assembled suddenly, and made a rush against a small guard of infantry, whom they surprised. They then proceeded to the railway terminus, uttering cries of ' Long live the Republic ! the Eepublic is proclaimed at Paris! the Republic is everywhere! men of Chalons, to arms!' The stationm aster, an old soldier, collected the railway oflcials, and- repulsed these insurgents. From the railway the mob w,entto the bridge over the Saone, and occupied the bridge-head, for the purpose of preventing the alarm being given to the soldiers in the Wracks. The officers of the garrison, who had hastened to th& Sub-Prefect's dwelling to learn the mining of the rumour which had already spread, forced a passage at the sabre's point. Shortly afterwards the troops arrived, the mere sight of whom, dispersed the group. Before midnight, fifteen of the principal offenders were in the hands of justice." No other account has been published. The correspondents of the London journals seam to have no information on flic subject. The fact that it occured on Saturday and was not known in Paris until Tuesday has caused much sur-

pnse.

The 'Moniteur' of Thursday made further revelations of the disturbed state of France. It stated, that on the 24th February arrests were simultaneously made in various parts of France, which defeated culpable projects, and led to the discovery and seizure of arms, ammunition and compromising correspondence. The number of arrests, however, has been exaggerated. They are limited to fifty principal ringleaders at Paris, twenty at Lyons, twelve at Marsailles, and four on an average in forty departments, In spite of this precaution, a gathering took filace at Paris on the night of the sth of March. Firm and vigilant measures caused it to prove abortive, and led to twenty new arrests. The writer of the pamphlet " L'Empereur Napoleon 111 et PAngletetre," describes his work as " a calm and impartial voice" rising. amid the passions unjustly excited in England. He promises Hi be sparing of observations, and bent above all things on recalling facts. Thus he sets out-*-

When Louis Napoleon was elected President of the Kepublic, he only found abont him, in the Assembly which was to share and often embarrass his "Government, parties hostile or unsympathetic to England. The Legitimists preserved religiously to our old enemies the historical re-r

sentment of our ancient national strifes. The

Republicans remembered Pitt leagued with Coburg against the Bevolution in order to crush it. The Orleanists regretted the protection which had humiliated them, all the more on account of the abandonment they had .■experienced before their falL Finally, the partisans of the Empire still groaned under the most melancholy recollection of contemporaneous history. What was the heir of the Emperor Napoleon I, become chief of Prance, going to do? Was he about to yield to the rancour and the prejudice of parties? Was he to foster, by his example, the international hatreds still alive at the recollection of Waterloo and St. Helena? Was he about to avenge, at least by his coldness, his name and character, outraged by the English press at the moment of his election? No! Exile is a school of wisdom and of maturity for those whom God destines to reign. At that school Louis Napoleon had learnt much and forgotten much. He only remembered the hospitality which had soothed the trials of his days of adversity—he only considered the great interests which drew France and England together in the cause of civilization.

Then follows a string of instances of Imperial magnanimity. When in 1849 Austria menaced the Porte on account of the Hungarian refugees, the President of the Republic, notwithstanding the susceptibility of the Ministry against England, ordered the French fleet to sail towards the Dardanellss at the same time as the English fleet. When Lord Palmerston presented his ultimatum to Greece, the Constituent Assembly showed its hostility to England; the chiefs of all parties waited on the President, and he received them .with coldness to show his disaproval of their conduct. When the English journals denounced the man who on the 2nd December saved his country from frightful anarchy, "indifference was not possible," but "forbearance was commanded by patriotism and public interests." Had he not been prudent enough to calm public opinion, a rupture would have been the inevitable consequence. And so the recital gravely proceeds; describing the visit of the Emperor and Empress to England, glorifying the conduct of the Emperor during the Crimean war—when " one would have said we buried our rivalry in the same grave as our dead"—when the English, army wore with pride " the effigy of the martyr of St. Helena," and " the sons of those who fought at Waterloo wore with the same pride a medal on which is engraved the image of the Queen of England." " The alliance then appeared indissoluble." But dissentions arose respecting the treaty. For the sake of harmony, " France and Bussia an reed with England." "The embarrassment which the war in India imposed on England

•only rendered the Emperor more conciliating •at Osborne on the question of the Principalities."

After this long array >6F magnanimous ser- ■ vices,'the writer -comes to"the attempt of the' 3.4ith January. The assassins 'hail come from1 -England. They were not the first. Instances ; 'are" given of six other attempts at assassination ; oas having, originated in 'England between 1852 •and 1858. Then ; the writer desc -ibes how : "■'* regicide" is discussed in debating societies, and advocated at a French club in Leicestersquare; in pamphlets, more than fifty in number; at the graves of refugees. Public opinion <=In France-wasjUiStly-moved, rendered indignant, and irritated. There was but one cry throughont France—that the assassins -should be re* Mnove'd from "the French frontiers, and that the apologV'of assassination in journals or •at meetings should "be prohibited. France did mot demand the renunciation of the right of •asylum. " France, who would not sacrifice it 'to any one, does not ask allied or neighbouring powers to sacrifice it—she merely asks of other states to do what she is ready to do for them." Count Walewski was not in error when he said that assassination was openly preached. "Is there any need to give evidence ? In London there are held meetings where assassition is glorified. In London are sold atrocious libels in which the murder of the sovereigns of Europe is elevated to a system, to a right, to a duty, in which thrones, altars, armies, laws, the magistracy, society, and God himself, are dragged through blood and mire. Such Saturnalia surpass even barbarism. There is not a law in ancient or in modern times which tolerates them.; and can it be pretended that this tolerance is on the part of England merely the exer>cise of the right of asylum f" ....

With the whole of the facts before us which we have rapidly sketched, with that prolonged tolerance which their authors so audaciously abuse, France has refused to believe that the existing laws of England were sufficiently efficacious. She is disquieted and irritated at it. As to the Government of the Emperor, it limits dtself to explain the situation of affairs, to explain the causes of the irritation which the country manifested, and in other respects trusting to the loyalty of .the English Government to give satisfaction iio justice, to morality, to the interests of society, to international rights. . . .. . "We have the firm hope that it will be so; for it is impossible that some misconceptions, exaggerated by an unforeseen incident, K:an weaken the accord of two great nations whose alliance is indispensable to the future prosperity of the civilized world. That alliance in fact sets aside all ideas of conquest. It guarantees the security and liberty of Europe, the interests of England anil France being identical in every quarter of the globe, wherever humanity and civilization are in question. It is for these reasons that it was wise to form that alliance, and that it is useful for the interests of all to maintain it. After this explanation, public opinion in Europe will judge if France has understood this obligation—if she has fulfilled it—if she has the indisputable right to say that she is without reproach, and consequently without fear, before the tribunal of public conscience. The ' Journal dcs Debats' has given the the world the following French version of the taking of Canton. It will be seen that the spirit which dictated the writings of Bazancourt and others on the Crimean war reappeared :— '

Canton, Jan. I.—On the 28th of December, between six and seven o'clock, our troops disembarked according to agreement at a place ■which I had already reconnoitered twice in the >cntter. "We were received by the enemy with musketry, which wounded five of our sailors. The English did not arrive until two hours afterwards, although they ought to have been lirst at the place of rendezvous in order to assault a neighboring fort. When they landed, they found the Chinese dispersed, the village •cleared, and the French marching straight for the fort.

However, as this part of the operations had been assigned to them, our Admirals merely sent on twenty skirmishers to keep down the 'fire from the embrazures. The ten or twelve shots fired by the Chinese killed nobody. The English advanced slowly, surrounded the fort, •and began to shell it. Meanwhile our twenty ■men got in, expecting to find the Chinese, who "had not shown themselves at the embrasures, and planted the French flag on the walls. Then, and not till then, the two thousand English, with a wild hurrah, rushed to the assault.

The English were greatly dissatisfied; they nod nothing to do during these two days but to ■oocupy the positions won by the French troops. The truth is, that the French chose to anticipate by a couple of hours the time agreed upon to begin the attack upon Fort Lin; and they "won" a position from which our shells had ■driven the Chinese. The assertion in the last paragraph 13 an undiluted falsehood.

General Bedeau, like General Changarnier, has refused the offered permission to return to France. Bedeau observes, that the notice in the ' Moniteur' was only a simple license, revocable by a Minister, and not an irrevocable decree.; and, expressing his belief that the time chosen to publish it shows that it is only meant to divert public opinion, says he has " nawish .to lend himself to such a design."