TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE EMPEROR'S SPEECH.
IF the Emperor of the French would only tell us the truth, what a frank man he would be. He has all the insight, all the courage, and all the seductive simplicity which we usually discover only in the frankest of men. Alone among the Sovereigns of Europe, he is not afraid for his personal dignity, or averse to acknowledge an error, or reluctant to admit that his policy may bend with the times. He speaks plainly, in the plainest of languages, and he has all the confidence which springs from the certainty that his audience must be attentive. A revelation from Heaven assuring us that for one year there should be no thunderstorms, would be sure at least to be interesting, and an Imperial speech promising peace strikes men -with just that effect. Forgetting entirely that no man, however powerful, is master of circumstances, and that the utterances of this man in particular have not always agreed with the event, the nations remember only that he can produce war if he likes, and that he for the day declares himself unwilling to do so. He can unchain the winds if he cannot guide them, and the assurance that he has no present design of using his keys of course makes every husbandman breathe more freely. Every quality that conduces to frankness, audacity, clearness, a sympathetic audience, is there in full measure; and yet the Emperor is not frank —be only tells us a part of the truth. The foreign side of the speech, for example, is considered very pacific. There is no menace addressed to anybody big enough to strike back again. Prussia, as the mistress of the Rhine, is popularly supposed to be always in danger, but the Emperor, this year, only desires to "draw closer the bonds which unite him to that country." The Americans, it is known, irritate the Imperial mind, and the blockade ruins St. Etienne and impoverishes Lyons, but France, "though seriously compromised in her commercial interests," will, if the rights of neutrals are respected, "confine herself to a wish for the termination of these dissensions." Cochin China is being invaded, but then "the Annamites feebly resist the power of France." Mexico is undergoing that peine forte et dure called friendly intervention, but then "nothing can arise out of this conflict of a nature to shake confidence in the future," and in the present the intervention rather binds the three Powers engaged under recognizances to keep the peace. The Papacy, though not disposing of -many cannons, is still a first-class opponent, and Europe expects every day new trouble in that quarter. But the Emperor is quite tranquil, he threatens nobody, and will only contribute by "sympathetic and disinterested advice" to "conciliate two causes, the antagonism of which disturbs the public mind and conscience everywhere." What can be more peaceful, or soothing, or Christian-like ? One can almost see the Emperor spreading out his fingers in mild deprecation of the popular error which names his policy as the secret of universal armament, which accuses him of keeping up the situation in Italy by the occupation of Rome, and which expects from him alone interference with the American blockade.
Yet the Emperor, with all this openness and nnreserve, is not frank. He has not said one word on the great secrets which really disturb Europe, and of which he alone possesses the key. The world to be tranquil wants to know, not that "his relations with all foreign Powers are satisfactory," but what his Majesty intends to do when they become otherwise. Nothing in the speech even tends to prove that should Austria attack Italy, or Italy attack Austria, or America leave her blockade inefficient, or the "two causes" persist in remaining hostile, the Emperor will not join in, and so wrap the world in war. The patient has a complicated malady, but the doctor talks only of one disease. We know that he does not consider the headache dangerous, but he is totally silent about the disease of -the heart. He reassures us, so pleasantly, on our little attacks of gout ; but that dreadful chronic lesion ?—that, apparently, is to mend itself. Yet until that has been discussed the patient can only gain from his physician's words a very vague sense of confidence,—rather an idea, in fact, that his manner is pleasant than that his hopes are great. The frankness on minor points is almost perfect, but when we turn to those of which men's minds are full, we find ourselves as much in the dark as ever. The speech is like an old Biblical commentary, wonderfully full of knowledge on every text over which there is no dispute. In the matter of internal finance the Emperor's attitude is just the same. He conceals nothing except the half of a truth. He makes no bones of the deficit, states truly the amount of the floating debt, does not hesitate to say be must retrench, and does not greatly exaggerate the pleasant things France has bad in return. But then be says nothing about the money be has borrowed and funded, or the uselessness of some of the objects purchased, or the fact that many of the advantages acquired might have been gained without payment. One sees that sort of frankness in spendthrifts every day. They talk easily of their debts to the tradespeople, and the improvements they have made in the property, and their good resolutions for retrenchment, but they keep careful silence as to the amount of their mortgages. The Emperbr says the floating debt need give no cause for anxiety, because 26,000,000/. was contracted before his time, and 3,000,000/. was paid to the fundholders at the conversion, and 9,000,000/. was spent for two distant expeditions. Surely this is, except as regards the 3,000,000/. paid to the mortgagees, rather an odd mode of reasoning. The first sum has to be paid, whoever borrowed it, and the object with which a debt was increased does not diminish its weight. A man might as well say he was safe because a third of his debts had been incurred by his father, and another sixth to pay for a journey. The reasons assigned diminish the responsibility of the Emperor, but not the danger of France. Then again his Majesty, dexterously producing his per contra, talks of the glory he has bought, of the great works of public utility—Cherbourg, par exemple?—of the completion of the railway .system, of the improvements in all departments, and of the immense development in commerce, which has risen from eighty millions to two hundred millions sterling. It is all true. The Emperor is a splendid administrator, and on the whole directs his efforts honestly toward the internal development of France, and the external pursuit of her glory. But he has not obtained these magnificent advantages at the very low price he states. He forgets altogether that he took the remnant of the Russian loan to meet one set of civil expenses, and appropriated a very large slice of the Italian loan to pay for another; that the revenue has increased and been spent at the rate of some extra ten millions a year, that he has two millions more to lay on in this very budget to meet his ordinary expenditure, and that he raised some millions in thirty-year bonds, which must be paid off some day. We do not say lie has paid too dear for his really superb acquisitions. Most of them, such as commerce, and railways, and works of irrigation, are solid improvements, and France, like any other grande done, has a right to a few trinkets like glory and expeditions. But why not, when stating so much so frankly, unreservedly state the whole, and admit that the Empire, which has given France railways and glory, and doubled commerce, and a new fleet, has done so at an expense of 123 millions added to the debt, and ten to the revenue ?—or Twelve years' additional revenue . . . . mo,coo,000 Addition to debt 123 000,000 We say nothing of other expenses, of the price France may yet have to pay for the world-wide influence which brings her into incessant collisions,, or for that renovation of her capital which has collected armies of workmen around her heart. We are silent on the communal outlays which have probably equalled those of the State, and have not in all cases been quite so wisely expended. We will not count up the money cost of that intellectual compression under which France still labours, that deadening of the faculties and lowering of the character which Ciesarism must always produce. We adhere to the blank figures of a most cautions budget (M. Perier's), and judged by them France has paid for the Em peror ten times the sum the Emperor names. It is but ten per cent. of frankness with which he approaches the world. It is no part of oar wish to join in the chorus of abuse so frequently lavished on Louis Napoleon. He is a great deal better than his system, or than most of his agents, and were we to state our opinion in one line, we should say that the existing Ctesar was the only apology for Ctesarism. He uses his power, on the whole, with judgment ; he never falls into those fits of stupidity which, far more than oppression, make despots so hated ; he is, on the whole, a friend to. civilization, and he has done a work in Italy which, when all his other deeds are forgotten, and Cherbourg is once more a marsh, and Paris is a city of antiquaries, may yet keep his memory green. But when he tells us that the Empire is peace, and that eremitism costs but little, we are bound to warn our readers that the powder has been damped only at the corners of the magazine, and that the credit of economy has only been earned by locking away the accounts.
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