FRENCH AFFAIRS. Paris) We are again to be agitated by
an election for member of the As
sembly, vice M. Vidal. The most prominent candidate of the, Mtn- Liberals-is-M. Emile Girardin ; who is beyond doubt the most influential' centurion of that party now going. In times of conflict, qualifications' for combat are estimated' above all others ; and thus M. Girardin's by- gone sins are thrust out of sight, for a time, by his partisans. The Government, having made a species of compromise with the Con- servative leaders, have been hard at work in the preparation of their-cor- rective and repressive measures. But the representatives from the die- partments will have a word to say on these subjects, or lainmuch mis- taken. What the Government aims at, avowedly, is to suppress Sociallie doctrines, and that by persecution. The existence of such opinions has'. 'been pretty obviously indicated by the course of the recent elections', both in distant provinces and in the capital ; assuming universal suffrage to. be the true expression of the popular sentiment.
Now observe, that the term " Socialist " is about the most vague which can be employed to signify the party; or parties, opposed to. the
fuel Government, to the Club of the Rue de Poitiers, to the Jesuitical' section of the Fauxbourg St. Germain—to all those, in short, who deities:** to upset the Republic. If you ask a woritman hen, what Sociallintr means, you will probably receive a reply tinged with unmeaning. dissatis- faction at the conduct of public affairs, varying with the personal ciao: meter of the indfridual, but without carrying along with it any three hostility to the recognized principles of society, in themselves: and Rig in order to extinguish this dissatisfaction among the people, that Lone. Napoleon and his friends, Thiere, liontalembert, Benyer, and Co., combine to punish the expression of it, in: whatever form it appears: whether ins newspapers, tracts, books, or by speeches, songs; votes"-, or subserrptiontif to victims—every symptom of dissatisfaction. with the Executive Govern., raentof Louis Napoleon is to be visited with' pains and penalties; Futlle policy ! senseless purpose!" The French. people will never file silenced save by appeals to their better sentiments. Instead' of plotting. and intriguing to subdue the expression. of popular- disaffection, let the Government try a firm course of legislative measures, having for its ob-
ject to inspire confidence in the actual constitution of the Republic. Nothing can save this magnificent country from further mischief, but the spread of confidence, which shall engender progress in the path of ma-' tetiatprosperity. Instead of the resources of the nation finding employ- ment m the channels of patient industry, you must see that the public mind is kept upon the rack by the continual struggle on the part of the governing section to stifle the manifestations of the governed many. And if it is true that the exercise of universal suffrage bids fair to disarrange the actual institutions of social life in France, I should be glad to know how it is to be stopped in its work. What a whole nation, or the bulk of a whole nation, wills, can hardly be hindered by a part, especially when that will can be lawfully expressed, as it can now be in the Assembly. I assure you I view the conduct of the ruling parties in France as fraught with direful consequences. The hatred of Republican govern- Ment leads them to risk everything sooner than lend themselves to the work of so consolidating its machinery as to offer little or no hope to any future rival fabric, whether Monarchy or Empire. The conspirators against public order are less the Socialists than the various parties who secretly pray for the return of a *inn under which they shall recover place, power, and distinction. For example, a man of the working class said to me only yesterday, that "things have gone much better since the elections of the 10th March, which have had the effect of proving the detersdnation of the people to uphold the Republic."
When you go into society here, one idea is ever uppermost- " Which is the stronger, we or the Rouges ? " Clinging to the ap- paratus of organized force, with a present tenacity which might be said to augur a doomed class, the owners of property aid and abet a con- duct which, by exasperating the multitude, must ultimately involve all grades in one common ruin. As to the wholesome methods to be invoked in lieu of this desperate course—I would have distinct prin- ciples of social philosophy enunciated, instead of evasive doctrines ; declared objects of internal policy, such as should enlist the support of all holders of property, great or small ; and in behalf of these, a vigorous em- ployment of the actual instruments of government civil and military. And I would abjure every kind of personal policy ; trusting to the sup- pdrt of the country for carrying on the Republic, and for dealing with the difficulties which the unsettled state of the French mind has engen- dered in so many formidable shapes. Pray try and inculcate these views on your countrymen, in the hope of arresting the somewhat harsh judg- ment they are wont to pass on "these restless Frenchmen." Depend upon it, if another convulsion befall France, it will be the work of the
rich quite as much as of the proletaires. P. D.
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