TOPICS OP THE DAY.
THE REIGN OF LITTLENESS.
FRANCE, in default of a great man to rule her destiniesakes up with the shadow of a great notion. National sentiment wanting, the nation is swayed by impressions. Louis Napoleon is nought, except the namesake and heir to the memory. of Austerlitz and Marengo : of the man, the electors knowmothing, but his name recalls all that a Frenchman loves to remember ; and in choosing him, the citizens enthrone the pride of France. Cavaignac has the iestimonials of acute politicians, but he has created no popular impression : he has been a clever officer, a clever administrator ; the politicians of the cafes may be glad to see him in commission or in office ; but be is not " en rapport" with the nation. Coach- fuls of apologetic and explanatory circulars cannot counterbalance the proclamations of the great Napoleon and the right to call their author uncle. Cavaignac has personal merit, but Louis Napoleon has a name which Frenchmen love to couple again with France. It may stultify the Republic, but it almost stultifies the battle of Waterloo.
And the Republic—where is that t In the phrase of the jockey, it is " nowhere." In the words of a leading Republican, Louis Napoleon received the suffrages of all who disliked the Republic ; and he has an absolute majority. You cannot expect thirty mil- lions of people to entertain distinct opinions, and therefore it isnot matter for wonder if the thirty millions are not included in the Republican party. That party, however, should have gained over the confidence and pride of the people ; and the election proves how much it neglected. The Republic, Red or Tricolor, has made no impression on the nation ; and in the absence of any newer sensation the memory of the Empire revives.
It is always so : a country, a nation, a people—the multitude, the masses, the million—call the crowd what you will—is not governed by constitutional doctrine, or calculated views of policy., or nice constructive social systems, but by broad impressions and wide feelings. If you have a scheme to save your country or to exalt it, and want the help of the people in carrying out your doctrine, you must take possession of that people by virtue of creating some great impression—wearing yourself some aspect of greatness, or evoking some great sentiment. Such impressions, however, cannot be made to order, by dint of unmixed humbug. Louis Napoleon would be nothing, but for the indefeasible realities of Austerlitz and Marengo. Our own Reform Bill movement succeeded so far as it was a reality, but failed to the full extent of its hollowness and spuriousness. "The Bill," accepted as an incomplete instrument, introduced to an active share in our political system a power which actually existed, which did exercise an influence, and which only awaited the form of introduction ; and in that mode the measure super. bided conflict, did away with friction, and provided for the smoother working of public affairs. But the movement failed in so far as it was humbug; the promises beyond the bill came to no- thing. The change infused no "new new life "into other classes. It did not ennoble the Whigs. In counteraction to great monopolies, it set up the retail interest ; and while it promoted a more business- like overhauling of accounts, it stimulated a great deal of ac- tivity in the national councils which had small reference to po- litical objects, to national dignity, or the efficient working of "his Majesty's government." It conferred a leading influence on the extensive retail interest—that great aggregation of littlenesses. Instead of infusing new life into any other class, it infused death : the aristocracy truckled to the trading class ; the working class_, who helped to get the Reform Bill, found itself still neglected. it demanded the Charter, in supplement to the Reform Bill, as a right : it receives the baths and washhouses as a boon. The Chartist rebellion was pummeled into subjection by the staff of the special constable ; the Fitzwillliam is made to know his place ; and supremacy is enthroned on the counter, to preside over—theti11. Thus, again, Free Trade succeeded in all its reality, failed in all its humbug. By freeing the operations of trade, it enables trade to effect all that trade can do—which indeed is not all that man needs. But it made men trust to a nostrum, which fails in other thinge. It exalted mere trade to be the sole reliance of national activity ; it set pounds, shillings, and pence, above every other faith. It helped to foster littleness, and created a sort of political materialism. Ludicrous were the blunders. For example, be- cause Richard Cobden was a debater at arranging the policy of trade, it was presumed that he was a &reat political moralist : he receives a free subsidy from the nation ; and the first thing he does, in his laudable gratitude, is to predict European peace on the eve of European revolution, and on that basis to suggest a series of impracticable " reforms," which he is laughed out of. It were a mistake to suppose that this nullity of public opinion is the opposite of bigotry or fanaticism : it is but the ebb-tide of the same river of darkness. Positive opinion—definite conviction based on tried grounds and conscientiously bent on fulfilinent- is the life of vigorous action ; but fanaticism rests on do&ma, not opinion. As opinion is the fruit of reason, it is the opposite o, fun- reason, whether that take the shape of tyrannical bigotry or effemi- nate indifferentism. Genuine opinion will always seek freedom for its own assertion, power for its own enforcement ; but, by the very terms of its existence, it recognizes even antagonist appeals to reason. Political justice is political safety: the most matured opinion, the most determined conviction, accords with perfect freedom for other opinions ; and we desiderate a revival of more
positive opinion as the safeguard equally against indifferentism and fanaticism.
There is danger in the reign of littleness, neither obscure nor remote. France, for example, has just enthroned a nominal Na- poleon, a titular First Consul—the creature of mere antagonism, the sport of conflict: but a great question remains behind, alto- gether unsettled by this Sunday election—the state of the work- ing classes. Those classes are poor, and exasperated by actual want ; oppressed by the bureaucratic usages of France, and tan- talized by the brief possession of political power ; " Red" with sanguinary doctrines and the smoking blood of June: they have wants, plans to satisfy those wants, and leaders in plenty to pro- mote those plans, even to the destruction of existing society, of the actual Republic, of the President and the Constitution : now what power has France established to deal with that formidable question, to soothe or master it? None. France, just busied in forming a supreme power, has wasted her opportunity and set over herself a toy—a King Log—an Emperor in plaster of Paris. The power of destruction is huge and real ; the power of govern- ment is a nullity. The slumbering dragon lives, but the St. Chore is a man of straw. It is not for us to crow over our neighbours : a similar danger threatens ourselves, for similar reasons, though in a milder form. 'We have the same deferred unsettled question of the working classes. It can be met only in one way—by practical conscien- tiousness, by diligent development of sound and beneficent mea- sures, by displaying a strong kindness, ample power, and indomi- table will. But all these things demand positive opinions, and a spirit of greatness—greatness, if not of leading men, at least of national sentiments. Those functions of -vigorous national vital- ity are in abeyance. Greatness vegetates, and littleness reigns over all.
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