THE CRY FOR A NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
()NE would quite expect M. Guizot to plead for the im- mediate convocation of a National Assembly in France.. The old intriguer who arranged the Spanish Marriages,—the foulest job witnessed by this generation of men,—who as an Academician has helped to proscribe all Liberal Frenchmen of genius, and as ruler of the Protestant Consistory has battled steadily for the Temporal Power, has, throughout his life, been before everything a formalist. He disregarded many laws human and divine to win Spain for Louis Philippe ; but we do him the justice to believe that he would have sacrificed Louis Philippe to Spain rather than commit a visible inde- corum. He governed France by corruption, and brought on a revolution by folly ; but he adhered rigidly to all con- stitutional forms, and he is constitutional now, when he pleads that France should surrender, and accepting peace and legality, should with them accept also his old masters. That is the real meaning of his sermon, so dignified, and patroniz- ing, and crafty, in favour of an Assembly, just pub- lished in Macmillan, — a sermon which is unanswerable by legal arguments, and will help to blunt every sword in France, and which he may like for one reason as well as for the other. He sees being shrewd and experienced in country, and made the political agitations of England an affairs, that France must win ; he knows that if the Republic on behalf of the national movement, appear to gain V A But we shall be told that if France at heart desires peace, and better title to obedience ? What better title can they con- is willing to sacrifice provinces to secure it, surely France ceiyably have than an obedience so voluntary and so universal has a right to make peace and overrule M. Gambetta's desire that it amounts to a plebiscite of the most splendid kind, a to go on with war. We are not quite so sure of that. There plebiscite delivered in the face of the enemy and under are other rights as well as legal rights in the world, and one penalty of endless suffering ? All France is obeying Trochu of them is the right, under certain circumstances, of insurrec- and Gambetta, the very men who run away acknowledge tion against legality. All oppressions are more or leas legal. their authority, and even the Alsatians, who know they will The American people had no legal right to depose their King, be marked men for life, will for years to come be exposed to even if they had to resist his Parliament ; William Tell punishment from their new rulers, throng to the standard of was a rebel ; Hofer defied a Treaty ; Cromwell rose against a the Genoese who is defending France in such numbers that legitimate King ; every man who has ever enfranchised a the Germans have to punish their families in order to strike nation by violence has broken through some constitutional terror. What better title to rule a nation can there be than cobweb or other in his progress. If the right of resistance the national will, or what other title does King William plead can ever exist, it must exist to the fullest extent against a to the Kaisership of Germany By every law human or Government which, native or foreign, is exerting the powers of divine known among men, M. Gambetta has a right to defend government for the benefit of an invader ; and if France his country, and to lead other countrymen willing to follow in officially yielded, and Gambetta, leading the more daring of that worlilof defence, and that is all he is doing. Insurrection her sons, defied both the foreigner and his instruments, history against the foreigner has always been held by Englishmen a would pronounce him a patriot, and enshrine his name as it duty as well as a right, and he is leading an insurrection has enshrined that of Kosciusko,—who, by the way, died in a against the foreigner as much as ever Hofer or Daniel Manin far less defensible cause. Suppose that England, conquered by were, far more than Washington was. Is his moral position the Germans, had ceded Cornwall, and some Scottish plebeian changed because he has created great armies instead of little roused Scotland, maintained the illegal contest with the in- bands, or because, instead of failing, he will, in all human pro- vader and won it,—should we pronounce him a usurper, or bability, succeed ? Or is it altered because the enemy is a honour him for ages as the greatest of heroes ? Or suppose, great one, a highly-organized State, inhabited by highly- after Jena, and the Treaty, Stein had had the power to do trained soldiers, directed by Generals of the first capacity ? Is openly what he did secretly—organize a national revolt— it lawful to rebel against all invaders save such as happen to would Germany have honoured him less than she does, or even wear spectacles ? To say that he is compelling France to more, as a man who, in the name of national freedom, had defend herself against her will is the silliest calumny. If a defied arrangements theoretically legal, but really made under district chooses to disobey, what is to prevent it ? If an duresse ? Are men bound, morally bound, to obey laws army chooses to arrest him, what hinders it ? If a town passed by their representatives under threats from an armed shuts its gates on him and proclaims peace, where is its host ?—and that would be the position of a National Assembly liability ? He has precisely the title of the House of of France elected during an invasion, elected, that is, by the Hanover to the Throne of England, namely, the will of the votes of men to whom the immediate danger and distress are people, given of necessity and under exceptional &cum- so visible and so terrible that they cannot see the general
stances through irregular forms, position, are not capable of forming an opinion, are not, in
But it is asked why, if a section of the population of France fact, capable of giving a free vote. Even on the grounds desire an Assembly, and an Assembly is the fitting Sovereign alleged by those who believe that France would surrender, the of France, should it not be summoned together ? For the title of the Government of Defence is good, while it is per-. same reason that a General in the crisis of a campaign should feet upon ours, who believe that an Assembly would fight not summon a council of war, because it is certain to be inferior —as Trochu and Gambetta have not done—by revolutionary in daring, resolution, and success to an individual,—because it means, who hold that their power exists because they represent can be called only to diminish his own responsibility. Suppose precisely the desire ef all France, the desire to fight on till the Assembly the best which France could raise, quite deter- this generation has perished rather than yield, but to fight on mined to fight on, full of persons whose advice would in peace in the civilized and organized style, with armies and rifles, time be most valuable, still its deliberations would in a time instead of Hofer's weapons,—mountaineers and boulders of rock. like this be most embarrassing, would substitute the will of six hundred persons for the will of one, would allow of the existence of parties, would encourage the rise of ambitions, would substitute debate, wisdom, and eloquence for unity, secrecy, and daring, which latter, and not the former, are the qualities re- quired to rescue an invaded people. One does not save a ship on saves her, the Republic is established ; he believes the Assembly fire by a talking committee of her passengers, and the right to would be anti-Republican, would represent, as he says, the save her—a right above all laws and forms and regulations immense body of pacific persons who desire before all things made for ordinary seasons—belongs to any man who can do it. to pursue their fruitful industry, and cannot pursue it during If there is such a man on board, his duty is absolute ; and if a war ; and, therefore, at the risk of defeating France, of he shoots down half the crew for disobedience and the rest of buying off Germany by a sacrifice of her limbs, he advises the them for breaking into the spirit-room, and saves the ship by moderate classes to summon the Assembly. the irregular aid of the passengers, he is within his right. That M. Guizot should give this counsel is, as we said, The committee might be more legal, particularly if it corn- intelligible. The unscrupulous formalist is not a rare prehended officers ; but as neither wind nor sea heartily respects character, and in political formalism and in political unscru- committees, or is willing to wait while they seek for counsels pulousness M. Guizot has still his equal to seek. But we of perfection, the work has to be done at once, and in a more are a little puzzled with the hold which this notion of an Assem- or less illegal fashion. When the Germans are outside France bly has over a great many Englishmen who do not sympathize the formalities can be complied with, and ought to be corn- with Bismarck, who do not wish France in her hour of de- plied with, being useful formalities in ordinary times, by liverance to surrender provinces, and who, if, deceived by retrospective enactments. M. Guizot points to the example aristocratic chatter, they distrust Gambetta, have still a cor- of Washington, who, though harassed and hampered by Con- dial admiration and sympathy for General Trochu. English- gress, never superseded it, and thinks apparently that example men are friends of legality, no doubt ; but still they are conclusive. It has no weight whatever, for the circumstances usually able to understand revolutions, to recognize the differ- have no analogy. Working among Englishmen, Washington ence between a true and a false plebiscite, to comprehend that could not have overcome the difficulty of obtaining supplies obedience to a man who cannot coerce is equal to a popular from thirteen separate colonies without the aid of a Congress ; election. What possible or imaginable good could a National but had he had the power, we may rely upon it he would have Assembly just now do to France ? We entirely admit that the called Congress together only after the war. As it was, Sovereign power in France, as in England, rightfully belongs though his task was a trifle by the side of Gambetta's, though to such an Assembly, but what use would there be in invok- he had with 600,000 male adults to defend a country attacked lug the Sovereign power just now ? Suppose that it removed by a State 3,000 miles off and to defeat an army never 40,000 the two chiefs of the national movement, or limited their strong, he was so hampered by Congress that he was repeatedly autocracy, that would be only a misfortune, would tend within a hairsbreadth of total defeat. Could he have wielded directly to diminish the vigour of the defence. Or _sup- the resources of the Union as M. Gambetta wields those of pose it supported Trochu and Gambetta, what would they, France, war could not have endured a year. on behalf of the national movement, appear to gain V A But we shall be told that if France at heart desires peace, and better title to obedience ? What better title can they con- is willing to sacrifice provinces to secure it, surely France ceiyably have than an obedience so voluntary and so universal has a right to make peace and overrule M. Gambetta's desire that it amounts to a plebiscite of the most splendid kind, a to go on with war. We are not quite so sure of that. There plebiscite delivered in the face of the enemy and under are other rights as well as legal rights in the world, and one penalty of endless suffering ? All France is obeying Trochu of them is the right, under certain circumstances, of insurrec- and Gambetta, the very men who run away acknowledge tion against legality. All oppressions are more or leas legal. their authority, and even the Alsatians, who know they will The American people had no legal right to depose their King, be marked men for life, will for years to come be exposed to even if they had to resist his Parliament ; William Tell punishment from their new rulers, throng to the standard of was a rebel ; Hofer defied a Treaty ; Cromwell rose against a the Genoese who is defending France in such numbers that legitimate King ; every man who has ever enfranchised a the Germans have to punish their families in order to strike nation by violence has broken through some constitutional terror. What better title to rule a nation can there be than cobweb or other in his progress. If the right of resistance the national will, or what other title does King William plead can ever exist, it must exist to the fullest extent against a to the Kaisership of Germany By every law human or Government which, native or foreign, is exerting the powers of divine known among men, M. Gambetta has a right to defend government for the benefit of an invader ; and if France his country, and to lead other countrymen willing to follow in officially yielded, and Gambetta, leading the more daring of that worlilof defence, and that is all he is doing. Insurrection her sons, defied both the foreigner and his instruments, history against the foreigner has always been held by Englishmen a would pronounce him a patriot, and enshrine his name as it duty as well as a right, and he is leading an insurrection has enshrined that of Kosciusko,—who, by the way, died in a against the foreigner as much as ever Hofer or Daniel Manin far less defensible cause. Suppose that England, conquered by were, far more than Washington was. Is his moral position the Germans, had ceded Cornwall, and some Scottish plebeian changed because he has created great armies instead of little roused Scotland, maintained the illegal contest with the in- bands, or because, instead of failing, he will, in all human pro- vader and won it,—should we pronounce him a usurper, or bability, succeed ? Or is it altered because the enemy is a honour him for ages as the greatest of heroes ? Or suppose, great one, a highly-organized State, inhabited by highly- after Jena, and the Treaty, Stein had had the power to do trained soldiers, directed by Generals of the first capacity ? Is openly what he did secretly—organize a national revolt— it lawful to rebel against all invaders save such as happen to would Germany have honoured him less than she does, or even wear spectacles ? To say that he is compelling France to more, as a man who, in the name of national freedom, had defend herself against her will is the silliest calumny. If a defied arrangements theoretically legal, but really made under district chooses to disobey, what is to prevent it ? If an duresse ? Are men bound, morally bound, to obey laws army chooses to arrest him, what hinders it ? If a town passed by their representatives under threats from an armed shuts its gates on him and proclaims peace, where is its host ?—and that would be the position of a National Assembly liability ? He has precisely the title of the House of of France elected during an invasion, elected, that is, by the Hanover to the Throne of England, namely, the will of the votes of men to whom the immediate danger and distress are people, given of necessity and under exceptional &cum- so visible and so terrible that they cannot see the general
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