TOPICS OF THE DAY.
NAPOLEON'S LAST COUP D'ETAT. FRANCE is one step nearer to constitutional government. The doctrine of Ministerial responsibility is not ad- mitted by the Empire, but a defeat on the hustings has sufficed to drive a Ministry from their seats Of the many acts by which Louis Napoleon has established his claim to a place in the front rank of statesmen, few have been wiser or better timed than the decree issued 24th June. That decree is not one of the sensation kind, has not affected rentes, or disturbed Europe, or given any party or nation cause for im- mediate hope or alarm, but the circumstances under which it was issued make it still a coup d'itat. The elections were but just over, and the cities of France, without an exception, Lad pronounced against the existing regime. Paris especially, which claims to be France, and which is really its brain, had emphatically declared her weariness alike of M. de Persigny and of a system which offered her order instead of excitement, high rents instead of great thoughts, new streets and squares and fountains instead of vivid intellectual life. The entourage of the Tuileries was wild with chagrin and disappointment. The Minister of the Interior—a man who for twenty years had been the Emperor's trusted friend—was said to have recommended that the elections should be annulled, and certainly did attack Paris in language her citizens will not forget. The swarm of little men who cling to the Imperial throne like barnacles to a keel, and by whom the Emperor usually chooses to seem to be swayed, were all clamouring for further repression,—for a new coup d'e?at, a new oath of allegiance, a new war, a new prohibition of debate, a new device of some kind which would make them realize once more that they were sheltered by a strong band. Just as their counsels were sternest came the news of the fall of Puebla, news which assured them that, repress as they would, the danger of discontent in the army was for the present over. The power for a heavy blow came sharply after the provocation to strike, and half the born kings of Europe would have yielded to the temptation. The Orleanists expected with annoyance that all their sacrifices in taking the oath might have been made in vain ; the Repub- licans anticipated with amazed hope some blunder which should wound the amour propre of France. Fortunately for Louis Napoleon he has lived many lives, and in the midst of the riot the Emperor, whom any man seems to rule while he is silent, and no man can change when he has spoken, suddenly opened his mind. The reproof of Paris was to be met by conces- sion, and not by new coups d'Itat ; the Ministry must resign, and the Government must be defended in the Legislature by Cabinet Ministers instead of Ministers' clerks. In other words, the Ministry, in whom France had lost confidence, was dis- missed; the Legislature which she had strengthened received a new mark of respect ; and the despotism against which she had protested was modified by a new constitutional right. The protest of Paris is met upon every point by concession, and though in each case the Emperor yields as little as possible, still it is much that he yields at all. If a minority of thirty-five suffices to change the personnel of a Ministry, may not a majority one day change the party from which it is selected ? If the rebuke of Paris has abolished the Ministers without portfolio, may not the rebuke of France abolish Ministers without responsibility ? If a small oppo- sition is entitled to explanations from Ministers instead of clerks, may not a large one be held worthy to control those Ministers' action ? The concession, however small, looks like obedience to the popular rote, and if a vote is to be obeyed, instead of being met with grapeshot, the destiny of France has once more passed from the hands of the Emperor into her own. That is the main significance of the change, though in itself it is not so contemptible as French Liberals may believe. The importance of the Corps Legislatif, which without Minis- ters was, like the American Congress, only a great debating club, is very decidedly increased. The Emperor has re-connected the Legislature and the Cabinet, removing those buffers be- tween them—the Ministers without portfolio. Two Cabinet Ministers, whose offices correspond nearly to those of our own President of the Council and Premier, are to speak on behalf of Government of plans and acts in which they have had their share. The "Ministers with a voice" had none, could only speak as they were bid, only promise after a consultation with the real administrators behind. It is the difference between talking to a partner and to a clerk, and will tend directly to increase the influence and the dignity of the legislative branch. Then, though Ministers are not responsible, they can, as we see, be dismissed, and Cabinet Ministers whose bills are rejected, or who are directly censured by a majority, are very likely to find themselves out of office. Even in England it is only the practice and not the theory of the Constitution which makes a hostile vote fatal to the continuance in office of men who theoretically are only Her Majesty's servants. The tendency, too, of every man is to respect the body to which he belongs, and which he Ends he can influence, and Ministers sitting in Par:iament usually regard the debates with a very different feeling from that displayed by Ministers who observe them only from the outside. The American Secretaries would not be so regardless of the opinion of Congress if they mingled in its debates, nor would they be quite so willing to accept their President's decision as final. The tendency of the change, however feeble, is still to increase the influence of the representative body over the executive and thus to open to France the means of executing her will without descending into the streets.
These, however, are results which will only be felt in the future ; the fact more immediately interesting is the change of advisers upon which the Emperor has resolved. M. Fould remains, it is true, as guarantee for economy, and M. Drouyn de Lhuys, as proof that foreign policy is unchanged ; but the bulk of the Ministry is made up of new men. M. Boudet, who, though a Councillor of State, and a "most respectable person," is outside his own country a man whose name suggests no ideas, obtains the Ministry of the Interior, by ter the most important in France. M. Behic may possibly be known to those who hold shares in the Messageries Imperiales, but be has not hitherto been one of the political circle. M. Billault, Minister of State, who, with M. Rouher, Minister President, will represent the Cabinet, was last session only the funnel through which the Foreign Office filtered its ideas to the Chamber. And M. Baroche, now Minister of Justice and Religion, was at the same period only umbra to M. de Persigny. The personnel is changed, and changed, there seems little reason to doubt, in a comparatively Liberal sense. M. de Morny, who, like his master, understands his epoch, and thinks the safety-valve of the steamer an inexpedient seat, would hardly have consented to remain in the Government without some guarantee for the Press. Then it is improbable that any Minister would compress the journals quite so fiercely as M. de Persigny, impossible that any Minister should compress them in quite so hateful a way. His dismissal is by itself a warning which no statesman is likely to disregard, and M. Boudet has not the personal hold which M. de Persigny pos- sessed. Above all, the visible determination of the Emperor to accept the will of France as the guide, if not of his acts at least of the direction of those acts, will give every publicist courage, and make every Minister dread lest the time should yet arrive when a free Press should denounce himself before a Legislature summoned by the authority of a Bonaparte, but still irresistibly powerful. All must depend as yet on the Emperor's personal intentions, and we have not forgotten that M. de Persigny began his career with a profusion of liberal words, but the tendency of the decree is to show once more that the Emperor does not forget he holds power by the,, tenure of expounding the popular will.
There is much speculation abroad as to the effect of the Ministerial changes on the Emperor's foreign policy, and the removal of Count Walewski is held unfavourable to interven- tion in Poland. Upon questions like this, however' the Em- peror rules alone, and the change can scarcely affect his course upon foreign affairs. The Minister of War and the Minister of Marine, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, all the officers whose departments would be greatly affected by war, remain unchanged. M. Boudet cannot prevent Poland from being heard, or M. Behic cool down all France from a fever of eager- sympathy. The motives which might impel, and the motives which might restrain the Emperor in beginning another war of European dimensions, are wholly unaffected by anything that has occurred. He will not play for so vast a stake until his mind is made up, or the pressure from without is not to be resisted, and when it is made up, Ministers and Councillors, public and secret, will be changed, or used as if they were pawns in chess. In the Italian war he hesitated up to the last hour, and, bad Austria been less impatient, would have called on Congress instead of his army. It may be very unpleasant for Europe to know that peace or war hang upon one man's will, but that has been the case any time these twelve years, and that is the penalty Europe must always pay when, in its timid fear of freedom, it rejoices that "order reigns in France."
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