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34

PROPAGANDISM.

IMMEDIATELY after the events of July-I adopt the present phraseology of the Great Nation itself, which has, at length, by universal consent, dropped the "three beautiful days," which are now only heard of in the flowery speeches of the honourable member for Calne - it was the first object of Louis-Philippe to be recognised by the European governments by any means: and his great instrument to achieve this consummation was what is called Propagandism; a favourite system with the French, and flattering to their national vanity. Emissaries were despatched to every country, to assist the French agents already there, in stirring up the people in favour of the recent revolution, to Spain, to Poland, to Belgium, to Italy, to the Rhenish provinces, to England, and, above all, to Ireland. Louis-Philippe himself expended, from his private purse, large sums in these operations, —for a prudent man, like him, no common sacrifice. Recently M. de Pagès, a member of the Mouvement, avowed that a committee had been formed in Paris to

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revolutionise Spain; and within these few days, the eldest son of the prime minister, M. Perier fils, has been announced or denounced - I really do not know whether it was meant for praise or blame - from the tribune as one of its members; and his former ardent conduct has been critically contrasted with his present frigid demeanour. The subscriptions of Messrs. Sebastiani, Guizot, and other public men of that class, for the same purpose, were not only promised, but even paid. Lord Palmerston, no doubt, could defend all this, (and he seems much readier to defend French measures than his own,) on the principle of NonIntervention. But at that time, perhaps, NonIntervention was not a serious idea as it is at present.

It is known that the new sovereign also held regular communications with Mina in Paris. That restless chieftain was permitted to raise troops in the capital of France, who were sent to Bayonne, and whom the French ministry at length permitted to be captured, on a tacit understanding with the court of Spain that the recognition should take place. "If you will not recognise, these men are your invaders but if you will recognise-donethey are your prisoners and your victims." Agents, with considerable sums, were hurried off to Bel

gium and the Rhine. Lafayette and others were authorised to communicate with Menotti in Northern Italy. The revolution in Belgium, long prepared by previous intrigues, the revolt in Poland, the insurrections in Germany, the risings in Italy, extracted an unwilling recognition from the alarmed and busied courts of the Continent. What might have taken place in our own country is uncertain. The imitation of the fires of Normandy already spread consternation throughout half England; the state of Ireland was very alarming; even the peace of the metropolis itself was seriously threatened. Whether France influenced these disorders by more than her example I cannot take upon myself to say; but a new incident rendered further conspiracy, whether French or English, unnecessary.

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The Doctrinaire Clique of England, excited by the success of the Doctrinaire Clique of France, a success, let us always remember, occasioned by the energy of their dupes, the Republican party, determined to agitate for themselves. They were joined by the Ultra-Tories, who played the same fatal game here as the party of the Royalist Defection in France, and at the very outset of the parliamentary campaign succeeded in expelling from the councils of their

sovereign as independent, as honest, and nearly as able a minister as ever swayed the destinies of the country. Louis-Philippe had been already recognised; the accession of a liberal English ministry relieved him from all further anxiety. Then commenced a sentimental alliance between the hereditary foes, so close, so intimate, so minute, as to be really ludicrous. I will notice one instance of its preposterous folly. A Dr. Bowring, I believe, a member of one of the learned professions law or physic (which, if true, vastly enhances the absurdity,) was sent by the greatest commercial nation of the world to Paris to learn to keep the public accounts. Paris, that used to teach us fashions and dancing, and, latterly, revolutions and massacres, is now solicited to instruct the nation of shopkeepers in the art of book-keeping! Is there in the records of human folly any thing more supremely ludicrous? What a compliment to British merchants! Matchless Whiggery! What! if our Whitehall, with its Prices and Aucklands, and Poulett Thompsons, was, as I indeed believe it was, ignorant of bookkeeping, was there no such place in the world as Broad Street, that we must send an agent, and that agent a learned Doctor, at the public expense, to the Rue de Rivoli to learn how to post

a ledger? Was there no such person in the world as Mr. Baring, that we must fly on the rapid wings of financial regeneration, to supplicate an inspiring lesson in "Practice" from the mysterious and immaculate M. Kesner, the cashier of the Treasury of France. The sage Bowring devotes months of application to the study of the columns of the prime book-keeper of France; he returns amid the shouts of ministerial admiration, and the congratulatory smiles of all our economists. Even Messrs. Hume and Warburton relax into a grin of sour complacency, and vote his remuneration with costive liberality. Dr. Bowring pockets his applause and his pay: and the next day the "first accountant in Europe," the great M. Kesner, himself, decamps, a fraudulent and undetected defaulter, leaving the public treasury of the heroes of July minus eight millions of francs. What an epigram!

We have heard no more of Dr. Bowring and the French System of book-keeping; but when the little error of his arithmetic-master, M. Kesner, shall have been a little forgotten, we shall no doubt hear of Dr. Bowring again - probably as a candidate for one of the metropolitan boroughs.

I have alluded, in a previous section, to the

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