of the helm; or if they rise in rebellion against | precarious tenure of his crown, at the will of them, it is not so much from any view to the the Prætorian Guards of Paris, more absolute public good, as from a desire to secure to them- authority than ever was held by the most des. selves the advantages which the possession potic of the Bourbon race. of political power confers.

France being held in absolute subjection by Paris, all that is necessary to preserve this authority is to secure the mastery of the capital. Marshal Soult has taught the citizen king how this is to be done. He keeps an immense military force, from 35,000 to 40,000

force is stationed within twelve miles round, ready to march at a signal from the telegraph on Montmartre, in a few hours, to crush any attempt at insurrection. In addition to this, there are 50,000 National Guards in Paris, and 25,000 more in the Banlieue, or rural district round its walls, admirably equipped, well drilled, and, to appearance at least, quite equal to the regular soldiers. Of this great force, above 5000, half regulars and half National Guards, are every night on duty as sentinels, or patrols, in the capital. There is not a street where several sentinels, on foot or horseback, are not stationed, and within call of each a picquet or patrol, ready to render aid, if required, at a minute's notice. Paris, in a period of profound peace, without an enemy approaching the Rhine, resembles rather a city in hourly expectation of an assault from a beleaguering enemy, than the capital of peaceful monarchy.

This extraordinary concentration of every thing in the central government at Paris, always existed to a certain extent in France; but it has been increased, to a most extraordinary degree, under the democratic rule of the last forty years. It was the Constituent As-men, constantly in the capital; and an equal sembly, borne forward on the gales of revolutionary fervour, which made the greatest additions to the power of government-not merely by the concentration of patronage and direction of every kind in ministers, but by the destruction of the aristocracy, the church, | the incorporations;-every thing, in short, which could withstand or counterbalance the influence of government. The people, charmed with the installation of their representatives in supreme power, readily acquiesced in, or rather strenuously supported, all the additions made by the democratic legislature to the powers of the executive; fondly imagining that, by so doing, they were laying the surest foundation for the continuance of their own power. They little foresaw, what the event soon demonstrated, that they were incapable, in the long run, of preserving this power; that it would speedily fall into the hands of ambitious or designing men, who flattered their passions, in order to secure the possession of arbitrary authority for themselves; and that, in the end, the absolute despotism, which they had created for the purpose of perpetuating the rule of the multitude, would terminate in imposing on | them the most abject servitude. When Napoleon came to the throne, he found it unnecessary to make any great changes in the practical working of government; he found a despotism ready made to his hand, and had only to seize the reins, so tightly bitted on the nation by his revolutionary predecessors.

The Revolution of July made no difference in this respect; or rather it tended to concentrate still farther in the metropolis the authority and power of government. The able and indefatigable leaders, who during the fifteen years of the Restoration had laboured incessantly to subvert the authority of the royalists, had no sooner succeeded, than they quietly took possession of all the powers which they enjoyed, and, supported with more talent, and a greater display of armed force, exercised them with | far greater severity. No concessions to real freedom were made-no division of the powers of the executive took place. All appointments in every line still flow from Paris: not a postillion can ride a post-horse, nor peasant break a stone on the highways, from the Channel to the Pyrenees, unless authorized by the central authority. The legislature convoked by Louis Philippe has done much to abridge the authority of others, but nothing to diminish that which is most to be dreaded. They have destroyed the hereditary legislature, the last remnant of European civilization which the convulsions of their predecessors had left, but done nothing to weaken the authority of the *xecutive. Louis Philippe enjoys, during the

In addition to this prodigious display of military force, the civil employés, the police, constitute a body nearly as formidable, and, to individuals at least, much more dangerous. Not only are the streets constantly traversed by this force in their appropriate dress, but more than half their number are always prowling about, disguised as workmen or tradesmen, to pick up information, mark individuals, and arrest discontented characters. They enter coffee-houses, mingle in groups, overhear conversations, join in discussions, and if they discover any thing seditious or dangerous, they either arrest the delinquent at once, and hand him over to the nearest guard, or denounce him to their superiors, and he is arrested at night by an armed force in his bed. Once incarcerated, his career, for a long time at least, is terminated: he is allowed to lie there till his projects evaporate, or his associates are dispersed, without either being discharged or brought to trial. There is not a night at this time, (August, 1833,) that from fifteen to twenty persons are not arrested in this way by the police; and nothing is heard of their subsequent trial.

From the long continuance of these arrests by the police, the prisons of Paris, spacious as they are, and ample as they were found during the Reign of Terror, have become unable to contain their numerous inmates. Fresh and extraordinary places of confinement have become necessary. A new jail, of great dimensions, guarded by an ample military force, has been constructed by the citizen king, near the cemetery of Pêre la Chaise, where the overflowings of the other prisons in Paris are safely lodged. The more dangerous characters are conveyed to fortresses in the interior, or the

Chateau of Mount St. Michael in Normandy. | printing-offices of some newspapers, prevents This great state-prison, capable of holding this last act of despotism. The National many hundred prisoners, is situated in the sea, on the coast of the Channel, and amply tenanted now by the most unruly part of the population of Paris, under a powerful military and naval garrison.

Above fifteen hundred persons were arrested after the great revolt at the Cloister of St. Merri, in June, 1832, and, though a few have been brought to trial or discharged, the great majority still remain in prison, in the charge of the police, under warrants apparently of interminable duration. The nightly arrests and numerous domiciliary visits are constantly adding to this immense number, and gradually thinning that ardent body who effected the Revolution of July, and have proved so formidable to every government of France, since the beginning of the revolutionary troubles in 1789. The fragment of this body, who fought at the Cloister of St. Merri, evinced such heroic courage and invincible determination, that the government have resolved on a bellum ad internecionem with such formidable antagonists, and, by the continued application of arrests and domiciliary visits, have now considerably weakened their numbers, as well as damped their hopes. Still it is against this democratic rump that all the vigilance of the police is exerted. The royalists are neglected or despised; but the republicans, whom it is not so easy to daunt, are sought out with undecaying vigilance, and treated with uncommon severity. Public meetings, or any of the other constitutional modes of giving vent to general opinion in Great Britain, are unknown in France. If twenty or thirty thousand men were collected together in that way, they would infallibly be assailed by the military force, and their dispersion, or the overthrow of the government, would be the consequence.

Guard, in all probability, would resist such an attempt, and if not supported by them, it would endanger the crown of Louis Philippe. Government has apparently discovered that the retention of the power of abuse consoles the Parisians for the loss of all their other liberties. They read the newspapers and see the ministry violently assailed, and imagine they are in full possession of freedom, though they cannot travel ten leagues from Paris without a passport, nor go to bed in the evening with any security that they will not be arrested during the night by the police, and consigned to prison, without any possibility of redress, for an indefinite period.

The present government appears to be generally disliked, and borne from despair of getting any other, more than any real attachment. You may travel over the whole country without discovering one trace of affection to the reigning family. Their names are hardly ever mentioned; by common consent they appear to be consigned to oblivion by all classes. A large and ardent part of the people are attached to the memory of Napoleon, and seize every opportunity of testifying their admiration of that illustrious man. Another large and formidable body have openly espoused the principles of democracy, and are indefatigable in their endeavours to establish their favourite dream of a republic. The Royalists, few in number in Paris and the great commercial towns, abound in the south and west, and openly proclaim their determi nation, if Paris will take the lead, to restore the lawful race of sovereigns. But Louis Philippe has few disinterested partisans, but the numerous civil and military employés who wear his livery or eat his bread. Not a vestige of attachment to the Orleans dynasty is to The only relic of freedom, which has sur- be seen in France. Louis Philippe is a man vived the Revolution of July, is the liberty of of great ability, vast energy, and indomitable the press. It is impossible to read the journals resolution: but though these are the qualities which are in every coffee-house every morn- most dear to the French, he has no hold of ing, without seeing that all the efforts of des- their affections. His presence in Paris is potism have failed in coercing this mighty in- known only by the appearance of a mounted strument. The measures of public men are patrol on each side of the arch in the Place canvassed with unsparing severity: and not Carousel, who are stationed there only when only liberal, but revolutionary measures ad- the king is at the Tuileries. He enters the vocated with great earnestness, and no small capital, and leaves it, without any one inquirshare of ability. It is not, however, without ing or knowing any thing about him. If he the utmost efforts on the part of government is seen in the street, not a head is uncovered, to suppress it, that this licentiousness exists. not a cry of Vive le Roi is heard. Nowhere is Prosecutions against the press have been in- a print or bust of any of the royal family to be stituted with a degree of rigour and frequency, seen. Not a scrap of printing narrating any since the Revolution of July, unknown under of their proceedings, beyond the government the lenient and feeble government of the Re-journals, is to be met with. You may travel storation. The Tribune, which is the leading across the kingdom, or, what is of more con republican journal, has reached its eighty-second sequence, traverse Paris in every direction, prosecution, since the Three Glorious Days. without being made aware, by any thing you More prosecutions have been instituted since see or hear, that a king exists in France. The the accession of the Citizen King, than during royalists detest him, because he has establishthe whole fifteen that the elder branch of the ed a revolutionary throne-the republicans, Bourbons was on the throne. The govern- because he has belied all his professions in ment, however, have not ventured on the de- favour of freedom, and reared a military des cisive step of suppressing the seditious jour-potism on the foundation of the Barricades. nals, or establishing a censorship of the press. The French, in consequence of these cir The recollection of the Three Days, which cumstances, are in a very peculiar state. They mmenced with the attempts to shut up the are discontented with every thing, and what is

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have a vivid impression also of the external consequences of such an event: they know that their hot-headed youth would instantly press forward to regain the frontier of the Rhine; they foresee an European war, a cessation of the influx of foreign wealth into Paris, and possibly a third visit by the Cossacks to the Champs Elysées. These are the considerations which maintain the allegiance of the National Guard, and uphold the throne of Louis Philippe, when there is hardly a spark of real attachment to him in the whole kingdom. He is supported, not because his character is loved, his achievements admired, or his principles venerated, but because he is the last barrier between France and revolutionary suffering, and because the people have drunk too deep of that draught to tolerate a repetition of its bitterness.

worse, they know not to what quarter to look | actions; the Reign of Terror, the massacres for relief. They are tired of the Citizen King, in the prisons float before their eyes. whom they accuse of saving money, and preparing for America; of having given them the weight of a despotism without its security, and the exhaustion of military preparation without either its glory or its advantages. They (excluding the royalists) abhor the Bourbons, whom they regard as priest-ridden, and superstitious, weak and feeble, men unfit to govern the first nation in the world. They dread a republic as likely to strip them of their sons and their fortunes; to induce an interminable war with the European powers; deprive them of their incomes, and possibly endanger the national independence. They are discontented with the present, fearful of the future, and find their only consolation in reverting to the days of Napoleon and the Grand Army, as a brilliant drama now lost for ever. They are in the situation of the victim of passion, or the slave of pleasure, worn out with enjoyment, blasé with satiety, who has no longer any enjoyment in life, but incessantly revolts with the prurient restlessness of premature age to the orgies and the excesses of his youth.

What then, it may be asked, upholds the reigning dynasty, if it is hated equally by both the great parties who divide France, and can number none but its own official dependents among its supporters? The answer is to be found in the immense extent of the pecuniary losses which the Revolution of July occasioned to all men of any property in the country, and the recollection of the Reign of Terror, which is still vividly present to the minds of the existing generation.

Although, therefore, there is a large and energetic and most formidable party in France, who are ardently devoted to revolutionary principles, and long for a republic, as the commencement of every imaginable felicity; yet the body in whom power is at present really vested, is essentially conservative. The National Guard of Paris, composed of the most reputable of the citizens of that great metropolis, equipped at their own expense, and receiving no pay from government, consists of the very persons who have suffered most severely by the late convulsions. They form the ruling power in France; for to them more than the garrison of the capital, the government look for that support which is so necesOn the English side of the channel, few are sary amidst the furious factions by whom aware of the enormous pecuniary losses with they are assailed; and to their opinions the which the triumph of democracy, in July, people attach a degree of weight which does 1830, was attended. In Paris, all parties are not belong to any other body in France. The agreed that the depreciation of property of Chamber of Peers are disregarded, the legisevery description in consequence of that event lative body despised; but the National Guard was about a third: in other words, every man is the object of universal respect, because every found himself a third poorer after the over- one feels that they possess the power of throw of Charles X. than he was before it. making or unmaking kings. The crown does Over the remainder of France the losses sus- not hesitate to act in opposition to a vote of tained were nearly as great, in some places both Chambers; but the disapprobation of a still heavier. For the two years which suc- majority of the National Guard is sure to comceeded the Barricades, trade and commerce mand attention. In vain the Chamber of Deof every description was at a stand; the import puties refused a vote of supplies for the erecof goods declined a fourth, and one half of the tion of detached forts round Paris; the ground shopkeepers in Paris and all the great towns was nevertheless purchased, and the sappers became bankrupt. The distress among the and miners, armed to the teeth, were busily labouring classes, and especially those who employed from four in the morning till twelve depended on the sale of articles of manufac- at night, in their construction; but when seve tured industry or luxury, was unprecedented. ral battalions of the National Guard, in deIt is the recollection of this long period of na- filing before the king, on the anniversary of tional agony which upholds the throne of Louis the Three Days, exclaimed, “A bas les forts Philippe. The National Guard of Paris, who detachés," the works were suspended, and are are in truth the ruling power in France, know now going on only at Vincennes, and two by bitter experience to what a revolution, even other points. That which was refused to the of the most bloodless kind, leads-decay of collected wisdom of the Representatives of business, decline of credit, stoppage of sales, France is conceded at once to the cries of pressure of creditors. They recollect the in-armed men: the ultimate decision is made by numerable bankruptcies of 1830 and 1831, and the bayonet; and the boasted improvements are resolved that their names shall not enter of modern civilization, terminate in the same the list They know that the next convulsion appeal to physical strength which characterwould establish a republic in unbridled sove-ize the days of Clovis.

reignty they know the principles of these This contempt into which the legislature apostles of democracy; they recollect their has fallen, is one of the great features of

presentatives of such varied interests must be chosen: the interests in the nation do not exist whose intermixture is essential to a weighty legislature. Elected by persons possessed of one uniform qualification-the payment of direct taxes to the amount of two hundred francs, or eight pounds sterling a-year-the deputies are the representatives only of one class in society, the small proprietors. The other interests in the state either do not exist or are not represented. The persons who are chosen are seldom remarkable either for their fortune, family, talent, or character. They are, to use a homely expression, "neighbour like;" individuals of a bustling character, or ambitious views, who have taken to politics as the best and most lucrative profession they could choose, as opening the door most easily to the innumerable civil and military offices which are the object of universal ambition in France. Hence they are not looked up to with respect even by their own department, who can never get over the homeliness of their origin or moderation of their fortune, and by the rest of France are unknown or despised.

France, since the Revolution of July; but it is one which is least known or understood on the English side of the channel. The causes which produced it had been long in operation, but it was that event which brought them fully and prominently into view. The supreme power has now passed into other hands. It was neither the Peers nor the Commons, but the Populace in the streets, the heroes of the Barricades, who seated Louis Philippe on the throne. The same force, it is acknowledged, possesses the power to dethrone him; and hence the National Guard of the capital, as the organized concentration of this power, is looked to with respect. The departments, it is known, will hail with shouts whatever king, or whatever form of government the armed force in the capital choose to impose; the deputies, it is felt, will hasten to make their submission to the leaders who have got possession of the treasury, the bank, the telegraph, and the war office. Hence, the strife of faction is no longer carried on by debates in the Chambers, or efforts in the legislature. The National Guard of Paris is the body to which all attention is directed; and if the departments The chief complaint against the legislature are considered, it is not in order to influence in France is, that it is swayed by corruption their representatives, but to procure addresses and interested motives. That complaint has or petitions from members of their National greatly increased since the lowering of the freeGuards, to forward the views of the great par- hold qualification from three hundred to two ties at work in the metropolis. Such petitions hundred francs of direct taxes, in consequence or addresses are daily to be seen in the public of the Revolution of July. This change has papers, and are referred to with undisguised opened the door to a lower and more corruptible satisfaction by the parties whose views they class of men; numbers of whom got into the support. No regard is paid but to the men who | legislature by making the most vehement prohave bayonets in their hands. Every thing fessions of liberal opinions to their constituents, directly, or indirectly, is referred to physical which they instantly forgot when the seductions strength, and the dreams of modern equality of office and emolument were displayed before are fast degenerating into the lasting empire their eyes. The majority of the Chamber, it of the sword. is alleged, are gained by corruption; and the more that the qualification is lowered the worse has this evil become. This is founded on the principles of human nature, and is of universal application. The more that you descend in society, the more will you find men accessible to base and selfish considerations, because bribes are of greater value to those who possess little or nothing than those who possess a great deal. Many of the higher ranks are corrupt, but the power of resisting seduction exists to a greater degree among them than their inferiors. You often run the risk of insult if you offer a man or woman of elevated station a bribe, but seldom if it is insinuated into the hand of their valet or lady's maid; and when the ermine of the bench is unspotted, so much can frequently not be said of the clerks or servants of those elevated functionaries. Where the legislature is elected by persons of that inferior description, the influence of corruption will always be found to increase. It is for the people of England to judge whether the Reformed Parliament is or is not destined to afford another illustration of the rule.

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The complete insignificance of the Chambers, however, is to be referred to other and more general causes than the successful revolt of the Barricades. That event only tore aside the veil which concealed the weakness of the legislature; and openly proclaimed what political wisdom had long feared, that the elements of an authoritative and paramount legislature do not exist in France. When the National Assembly destroyed the nobility, the landed proprietors, the clergy, and the incorporations of the country, they rendered a respectable legislature impossible. It is in vain to attempt to give authority or weight to ordinary individuals not gifted with peculiar talents, by merely electing them as members of parliament. If they do not, from their birth, descent, fortune, or estates, already possess it, their mere translation in the legislature will never have this effect. The House of Commons under the old English constitution was so powerful, because it contained the representatives of all the great and lasting interests of the country, of its nobles, its landed proprietors, its merchants, manufacturers, To whatever cause it may be owing, the fact burghers, tradesmen, and peasants. It com- is certain, and cannot be denied by any person manded universal respect, because every man practically acquainted with France, that the felt that his own interests were wound up with Chamber of Deputies has fallen into the most and defended by a portion of that body. But complete contempt. Their debates have al this is not and cannot be the case in France-most disappeared; they are hardly reported the classes are destroyed from whom the re- by the public press; seldom is any opposition

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to be seen amongst them. When Louis Phi- | are roused; the National Guard hesitate, or .ippe's crown was in jeopardy in June, 1832, it join the insurgents; the troops of the line rewas to the National Guard, and not to either fuse to act against their fellow-citizens; the branch of the legislature, that all parties look-reigning dynasty is dethroned; a new flag is ed with anxiety. A unanimous vote of the old hoisted at the Tuileries; and the submissive English Parliament would probably have had departments hasten to declare their allegiance great weight with an English body of insur- to the reigning power now in possession of the gents, as it certainly disarmed the formidable treasury and the telegraph, and disposing of mutineers at the Nore; but a unanimous vote some hundred thousand civil and military of both Chambers at Paris would have had little offices throughout France. or no effect. A hearty cheer from three battalions of National Guards would have been worth a hundred votes of the Chambers; and an insurrection, which all the moral force of Parliament could not subdue, fell before the vigour of two regiments of National Guards from the Banlieue.

No sooner is this great consummation effected, than the fruits of the victory begin to be enjoyed by the successful party. Offices, honours, posts, and pensions, are showered down on the leaders, the officers, and pioneers in the great work of national regeneration. The editors of the journals whose side has It is owing apparently to this prodigious as- proved victorious, instantly become ministers: cendency of the National Guard of Paris, that all their relations and connections, far beyond the freedom of discussion in the public jour- any known or computable degree of consannals has survived all the other liberties of guinity, are seated in lucrative or important France. These journals are, in truth, the offices. Regiments of cavalry, préfetships, pleaders before the supreme tribunals which sous-préfetships, procureurships, mayorships, govern the country, and they are flattered by adjointships, offices in the customs, excise, the fearlessness of the language which is em-police, roads, bridges, church, universities, ployed before them. They are as tenacious of the liberty of the press at Paris, in consequence, as the Prætorian Guards or Janizaries were of their peculiar and ruinous privileges. The cries of the National Guard, the ruling power in France, are prejudiced by the incessant efforts of the journals on the different sides, who have been labouring for months or years to sway their opinions. Thus the ultimate appeal in that country is to the editors of newspapers, and the holders of bayonets, perhaps the classes of all others who are most unfit to be intrusted with the guidance of pub-selves. lic affairs; and certainly those the least qualified, in the end, to maintain their independence against the seductions or offers of a powerful executive.

schools, or colleges, descend upon them thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa. Meanwhile the vanished party are universally and rigidly excluded from office, their whole relations and connections in every part of France find themselves suddenly reduced to a state of destitution, and their only resource is to begin to work upon the opinions of the armed force or restless population of the capital, in the hope that, after the lapse of a certain number of years, another revolution may be effected, and the golden showers descend upon them

In the Revolution of July, prepared as it had been by the efforts of the liberal press for fifteen years in France, and organized as it was by the wealth of Lafitte, and a few of the The central government at Paris is omnipo- great bankers in Paris, this system was suctent in France; but it does by no means follow cessful. And accordingly, Thiers, Guizot, the from that, that this central government is itself Duke de Broglio, and the whole coterie of the placed on a stable foundation. The authority doctrinaires, have risen at once, from being of the seraglio is paramount over Turkey: editors of newspapers, or lecturers to students, but within its precincts the most dreadful to the station of ministers of state, and discontests are of perpetual recurrence. The pensers of several hundred thousand offices. National Assembly, by concentrating all the They are now, in consequence, the objects of powers of government in the capital, necessa- universal obloquy and hatred with the remainrily delivered over its inhabitants to an inter-der of the liberal party, who accuse them of minable future of discord and strife. When once it is discovered that the mainspring of all authority and influence is to be found in the government offices of Paris, the efforts of the different parties who divide the state are incessant to make themselves masters of the talisman. This is to be done, not by any | efforts in the departments, any speeches in the legislature, or any measures for the public good, but by incessant working at the armed force of the capital. By labouring in the pub-rose to greatness. lic journals, in pamphlets, books, reviews, and magazines, for a certain number of years, the faction in opposition at length succeed in making an impression on the holders of bayonets in Paris, or on the ardent and penniless youth who frequent its coffee-houses; and when once this is done, by a well organized emeute, the whole is concluded. The people

having sacrificed all their former opinions, and embraced all the arbitrary tenets of the royalist faction, whom they were instrumental in subverting. Their conduct since they came into office, and especially since the accession of Casimir Perier's administration on the 13th March, 1831, has been firm and moderate, strongly inclined to conservative principles, and, in consequence, odious to the last degree to the anarchical faction by whose aid they

The great effort of this excluded faction was made on the 5th and 6th of June, 1832, on occasion of the funeral of Lamarque. In England it was not generally known how formidable that insurrection was, and how nearly it had subverted the newly erected throne of the Barricades. Above eighty thousand persons, including a considerable por