LETTERS FROM PARIS, BY 0. P. Q.
No. XIX.
THE GACHIS.
TO EDIT= TIIF. SPECTATOR.
Paris, 16th Ali/ 1834.
Sin—That word ” Gm:Us" which I have just written, may perchance not be well understood by all your readers. It means "a mess"—" a concurrence of unfortunate circumstances"—" mud and slop "—" squash and dirt after a thaw ; " and just now it means " The French and English Whip and Doc- trinaires are over their heads and ears in trouble, difficulty, embarrassment, and miery." Lord I's LMEIISTON is, I believe, enough of a French scholar to un- derstand tlrat word " Garhis," without the aid of his dictionary; otherwise I might refer him to LA VEA ex, which says- .. G:tehis, s. m. 'Zalet;.• eausi.e par gooltitio liynidr. Tin grand sachis. Voilh Bien till pellis. Le degel cause hien do caelliz. 11 se dim jigurenient qudpse nIThire dem- ermsiv. par des coquets. des rapper's, des imprudences, 4c. Nuns voila dens we heart yaehis." Tiers much for the etymology of my title. We must clear the ground as we go, and not get into a noehis ourselves. And verily the yields is complicated, stiff, stubborn, dirty, and troublesome. For my Lent PALMERSTON, who is paid an immense salary as Minister of Fo- reign Affairs, in order to look after stray Kings and Queens who take it into their heads to travel now and then from one country to another—or who are sent off by their in adoring subjects" to visit other lands " for the benefit of their health,"—this same Lord FA LMERSTON who has also a no inconsiderable sum of money at his disposal fur " secret services," or in other wools for espion- nage, and wiles.. duty it is tin see at least that treaties of alliances are not laughed at, mocked, der ided, and disregarded by all who sign them,—this same Lord Paseinoterox, who had Dun Ceetos in his possession on board a British fri- gate; and who 'night have provided for his safety in any part of the British dominions, has had the politeness to send CHA R LES the Fifth once more into Spairt—has allowed the murderer of Born to walk openly in midday in the streets of Loudon—and has suffered all sorts of anus and ammunition and pro- visions, and even English officers and soldiers, to be despatched from the Eng- lish coast to he employed in the se: vice of this same Don Caulms and his friend 3101I E NO. That ;JD admirable Minister of Foreign Affairs is Lord PA LMER- STON ! HOST excellently he appropriates his secret service money ! How well he knows all that is going on in and out of Great Britain relative to the foreign alliances of his country !—This is the beginning of the flachis. And then let due honour's be rendered to the Prince BENEVENTO, Ex-Bishop of Armin, who, though possessing the largest resources of any French Ambas- sador in the world—though styled " the Patriarch of Diplomatists "—though spending thousands of pounds per annum in raking out the secrets of those who have none to be divulged—and who, being a party at least to the Quadruple Alli- ance,was bound to prove that it was something more than mere waste paper—vet has been stupid enough, doltish enough, to let Don CARLOS escape from his sight—be uninformed of the fret till he learned his safe arrival in the Spanish Biscay—and be occupying his time with the mere intrigues of Myanmr:se and Boot' a itAx, Pi: Et. and STANLEY. Flow admirably France is served! How absurd is the whit of confideuce felt by this country for the character and talents of Prince TA LLEYRAND ! How unjust are the suspicions of some, that Don CARLOS is better loved in Portland Place than is G A RGOLLO or MINA, VA LI)EZ or the Catalonian Liberals ! This is the second step we make in the gachis. And then comes the debt of gratitude we are bound to pay tolittle M. THIERS, the French Minister of the Interior; who knows so well how to work the tele- graph, and how to turn despatches into gold and bank notes, and that in the true crucible of a modern alchemist. Hew true is what he declared a few weeks since, "that the French Government is well informed as to all that is pas- sing." How carefully he traced Don CA RLOS from Dieppe to Paris ; and from Paris to Bordeaux ; and from Bordeaux to Bayonne; and from Bayonne, the fortified city, over the Spanish frontiers, to Elissondo, the head-quarters of the Biscayan and Navarrian Juntas. Really, the Minister of the Interior must be either the best- informed or the most honest man in all the dominions of the King of the French. In like manner, M. nn' Ricer-, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and M. GISQUI:T, the Prefect of Police, are entitled to our admiration and gratitude. With immense forces, and with large funds at their disposal, they were as iguo- rant of the passage of Don CARLOS through France as even the Ex-Bishop of Autun, and the (I hope) Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs in London. The movements of every Republican apprentice lad are accurately known, and faith- fully reported to 51. GIslaCET ; but the flight of Don CARLOS through Paris was unworthy of the attention of such lofty spirits and such elevated minds. A Republican Journalist cannot move from Pans to Rouen without having a batch of spies sent after him ; but when Don Censers flies from England to set at naught the Quadruple Treaty, to head his partisans, and to encourage them in their fearful and rued course of civil war and bloodshed—why, then M. Grsoe ET had gone to some picnic party at Montmorency, and his agents were occupied with the grand coinplat of April last : and the various public func- tionaries appointed through France to examine the passports were all dozing in this warm summer weather, not even condescending to examine the description of the individual in the passport with the passport itself. Admirable police! effective municipal institutions! we owe to you all a debt of gratitude, which it will belong ere we shall repay. But now, Don CARLOS is in Spain ; now Don Cantos has made a loan with the houses of JAUGE of Paris and GOWERS of London; now he has money, officers, ammunition, and provisions in abundance ; now M. GisQuer is in a passion; now he has arrested M. JAUGE the banker in the Paris Bourse; now he is hunting about to discover who saw Don Cantos at Paris, and where he lodged, and what he said and did ; and one of his agents has exhibited this morning a nightcap of Don CARLOS, which he left behind him at the house where he slept ; and this said nightcap is safely deposited at the Spanish Em- bassy ! What wretched, wretched work is all this ! But it all admits of ex- planation ; and this explanation is the real gachis. I wrote you a fortnight since a letter about the Don CA RLOS Loan. I called your attention to the subject. I heard from all sides that some coup was to be attempted. I cautioned the British public, and directed all to beware. Why did not Lord PA LEIERSTON, M. GISQUET, and Prince TA LLEYRA ND, and why did not little TRIERS and his telegraphs, know as much as 0. P. Q. ? I will tell you : because they are badly served—are indolent—are insincere—are neither Revolutionary nor Conservative—are divided between God and Mam- mon, between Liberty and Despotism, between the People and the Holy Al- liance—and because, if one day they sign a Quadruple Treaty, the next day they are afraid of carrying it into execution. I must speak out. I know a great deal of what is going on in the Foreign Office in England ; and the people of England ought to know that they are jockeyed, are tricked, are cajole& When MARTINEZ DE TA ROSA proposed that a Spanish army should enter Portugal to drive away Don Cantos, it was opposed by M. Viii-'.Rs and opposed by Lord PALS( ERATO* M A IVPIREE ptItidekli !Ow ittml,VA: but DO treaty was ever signed so reluctantly as was that by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Great Britain. But when it was signed, why was it not carried into full exe- cution? Of what use was it to remove Don Caatos from Portugal, and allow Lim to enter Spain? Why was not the spirit of the treaty followed up !—I will tell you : because the Tories protested against it—because the Duke of WELLINGTON protested against it—because the Ambassadors of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, protested against it, at London and at Paris—and because the En- voys of those Northern Courts at Madrid had left that capital. The moment Don CA RLOS was removed hum Spain by England, and by virtue of that treaty, he became a state prisoner. When he refused to give his word of honour not to return to the Peninsula, he at once became an object fur double watchfulness and increased surveillance. But Lord PA L3IERSTON did not dare to carry into effect the treaty he bad signed ; and Earl GREY drew back from his own engagements. What stuff it is to tell us, that as soon as Don CARLOS was removed from Portu- gal, the object of the treaty was accomplished ! This is mere child's play and nonsense—arrant nonsense. And when the British and French Governments saw M. TASSNI DE MEssitY and M. Baron DE HABER engaged in making con- tracts for loans for Don CA ICLOS (and I can hardly believe they were ignorant of this fact), then why were not both Cabinets more on the alert ? and why did they not take even additional measures to secure the safety of him, whose pre- sence must necessarily excite to the highest pitch of blind and desperate enthu- siasm the inhabitants of the Northern provinces of Spain ? The answer is clear : Earl GREY and Lord PA LEIERSTON, as well as Prince TA LLEYRA ND and M. on RIGNY, were insincere, timid, cowardly, and nervous. They were afraid of a war with the Northern Powers. To this fear they have sacrificed the nationality of Poland, the independence of Italy, the settlement of the Bel- gian question, the Revolution of 1830 in France and now the cause of the Con- stitution and of Liberty in Spain. As they did at Antwerp, so have they done now. They caused the citadel of Antwerp to be evacuated by Dutch troops ; but they did not dare to do more ; and now eighteen months have elapsed, and the Belgian question is as far removed from a settlement as ever. And now with Spain—they removed Don CA [CLOS from Portugal, but he has entered Spain : and there he will remain ; and there he will head his armies ; and there he will even perhaps establish, in the North, a local or a general government. Those who signed the Quadruple Treaty Ohl not dare to follow it up. The pacification of the Peninsula was only looked at as something which might be done; and one step was taken towards it ; but there it was left. Half Tories, half Legitimists—half Whigs, half Liberals—lukewarm, timid, nervous, and insincere, the Whigs and Doctrinaires of Great Britain and France have not dared to brave the Holy Alliance—have not dared to defy the armies of the North —have not dared to march with the People or fur the People, in England, or in France, or out of them: and what is the consequence? Win-, the ric/sis is deeper, thicker, and more miry than ever ; and the cause of Liberty is in real jeopardy "Noes road, dans en beau yacht's I " Nor is this all. Lord GREY is politically dead. I am glad to hear it. All the friends of the people, all the world over, will be glad to hear it. He was the last link in the rusty chain which united feudal with popular institutions, and the aristocracy of former with the democracy of modern times. I am not about to pronounce any.eulogium, or attempt any Philippic. Thank God, Lord GREY is no longer Minister ; and thank God, the GREY Ministry is at an end ! It was grey indeed. There was all the uncertainty, the coldness, the fog, the undissipated mistiness of a grey autumnal morning about it. It may be that winter shall set in. It may be that the Tories shall obtain place and power. It may be that the PEELS and WELLINGTONS, the RICII3IONDS and the STAN. LEES shall regain office. Never mind that. The winter will not he long. A few biting days and a few frosty nights, and then spring will come; and we shall forget the miseries of January, February, and March, in the smiles, cheer- fulness, and sunshine of glorious sunrises and golden sunsets. But thank God, that cloister-like light—that grey, glimmering twilight, has disappeared : for the darkness of a prison is preferable to the uncertainty of a purgatory. I need not tell you that the fall of the GREY Ministry is a real gachis to the wretched Doctrinaries. With less of talent, and even less of honesty, than the GREY Administration, the French Doctrinaries lived on the smiles of Lord PAL- MERSTON— basked in the votes of the majority of the House of Commons— and hoped to pass through months and even years of office and influence, of wealth and power protected by the Whig Cabinet of WILLIAM the Fourth. All these hopes have vanished ; all these visions have disappeared ; and the French Doctrinaries are reduced to silent sadness and mournful solitude. What to do with the expedition in the Mediterranean, they know not. What to do with the Russia's protest against that expedition, they know not. What to do with the Belgian question' again become pressing and troublesome, they know not. What to do with Don CA RLOS and the Quadruple Treaty, they know not. What to do or say to the French Chambers, about in reality to assemble on the 31st of this month, they know not. They are ail in a gachis. It is stiff, troublesome, accumulating it annoys them, and impedes them, and frets, and worries them to madness; and so, to avenge themselves, they arrest M. JAUGE at the Bourse.
But, in the midst of all this gachis, there is one cause that is progressing; and that is the cause of the People. Yef, the cause of the People. Let Whigs and Tories, let Lord BROUGH A 3I and Mr. PEEL, let Lord MELBOURNE and the Duke of RiG113IC ND, conspire and arrange, propose and manage as they will ; their reign is but short—their race is nearly at an end. No padding up will do much longer. A few Poore such events as the escape of Don CARLOS, and the eyes of the millions will he opened, and from that moment the reign of intrigue and of Whiggery will he terminated. " Futurity is for us." This is written with a sunbeam on the whole face of nature ; and therefore, let the People re- joice and the earth he glad—for all this gachis shall have a speedy termination, and the cause of the millions shall triumph. Thus prays yours obediently, 0. P. Q
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