Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"We have now before us a handbill entitled the _Bulletin de
la Republique_, and printed on white paper, the distinctive
mark of _official_ proclamations, headed, moreover, with the
words "Ministère de l'Intérieur." This document is one of
those semi-officially circulated, as we understand, by M.
LEDRU ROLLIN, for the purpose of exciting the Republican
party. A more disastrous appeal to popular passions, and a
more delusive pledge to remedy all human sufferings, we
never read; for after having laid to the charge of existing
laws _all_ the miseries of a poor man's lot, heightened by
inflammatory description, the working classes are told that
'henceforth society will give them _employment, food,
instruction, honour, air, and daylight_. It will watch over
the preservation of their lives, their _health, their
intelligence, their dignity_. It will give asylum to the
aged, work for their hands, confidence to their hearts, and
rest to their nights. It will watch over the virtue of their
daughters, the requisite provision for their children, and
the obsequies of the dead.' In a word, this exceptional and
transitory power, whose very form and existence are still
undefined, announces some necromantic method of interposing
between man and all the laws of his existence on this
globe--of suspending the principles of human nature, as it
has already done those of society--and of changing the whole
aspect of human life. No delusions can be so enormous: the
word is too good for them--_they are frauds_; and these
frauds are put forward by men who know well enough that the
effect of the present crisis already is, and will be much
more hereafter, to plunge the very classes to whom these
promises are made _into the lowest depths of human
suffering_."--_Times_, 14th April.
One of the most instructive facts as to the ruinous effect of the late
Revolution on the best interests of French industry, is to be found in
the progressive and rapid decline in the value of all French
securities, public and private, since it took place. It distinctly
appears that _two-thirds of the capital of France has been destroyed
since the Revolution_, in the short space of six weeks! Attend to the
fall in the value of the public funds during that brief but disastrous
period:--
French 3 per cents. 5 per cents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account