That, made as a model which no one can sunder, No. II. THE PRESS OF PARIS. JOURNALISM in France, far more than in any other country, has developt that intellective national power which has been well termed the Fourth Estate. The newspaper press of Paris, even before the commencement of the Revolution in February, had obtained an influence that ranked its editors among the noblesse of France, opened to them the salons of the elite, or raised them up the steps of statesmanship, from the theory of politics to the administration of policy. All our contemporaries in France who have been notable politicians, have also been distinguished journalists. M. Thiers wrote in the Constitutionel and afterwards founded the National, with the co-operation of the celebrated Armand Carrel; it was in the offices of this latter paper that all the journalists of Paris signed that collective protest which was so important a fact among the events of July, '30. So also in the offices of the Reforme, most of the operations of February '48, were concocted. In fact, the majority of the Provisional Government were journalists. LAMARTINE was a journalist. He established the Bien Publique, in which he opposed the Guizot Government as timorous and unpoetic, and eloquently supported the measures of the Social Party,' of which he was the chief. In this journal appeared his finest articles in favor of the abolition of the punishment of death. In its columns his pen wept words on the miserable condition of the Proletarian. Thrö it, his plans of international policy were developt, and his magnificent ideas on the colonization of the east, brilliantly advocated. In a few words, the Bien Publique was political, only in opposition to those politicians who neglected social subjects, and, absorbed in party, entirely passed over such important questions as the condition of the laborer, the philosophy of punishment, the integrity of international relations, and the necessity of a right course and system of colonization. LEDRU ROLLIN was a journalist, as well as a barrister. He has written for the press in the closet, as well as defended it at the bar. The Journal du Palais, came forth under his patronage. In this paper he appeared as a law reformer. It was a general repertory of subjects of legal legislation. He contributed an immense quantity of papers on the history of law, on legislation generally, on the rights of inventors and authors, and on the influence upon law of the French School of the nineteenth century. As a deputy, and the leader of the extreme Left, his organ has been the well known Reforme, one of the most advanced of the old Radical papers. ARMAND MARRAST, also one of the secretaries of the Provisional Government, was the successor of Armand Carrel, in the chief editorship of the National. Previously to this, he had edited the Tribune in co-operation with M. Cavaignac. The Tribune was a journal frankly Republican, and for attacking what it termed the prostitution of the Chambers, was fined 10,000 francs; its director being condemned to three years imprisonment. After the death of Carrel in the duel with Girardin, Marrast became the high priest of the National. In the first public ceremony which preceded the grander festivals of the new Republic, funeral homage was rendered to Armand Carrel. Over his tomb, so full of solemn recollections for Republican France, Marrast leaned, when Girardin came forward and embraced the successor of the man he had slain! It was a sacred sighta sweetly sad episode amid a mass of other revolutionary reconciliations. FLOCON, another of the secretaries of the provisional administration, was first attached to the Courier Francais, as a reporter, and ultimately became one of its principal editors. From thence he passed to the Tribune, and from thence to the National. Lastly, he founded the Reforme, in co-operation with Ledru-Rollin, and of this raper he still remains the editor. LOUIS BLANC first contributed articles to a provincial paper, the Propagateur du Pas du Calais. Encouraged in his youthful attempts, he then sought in Paris for a wider field as a journalist. He bore with him an introduction to one of the Editors of the National, but after having many times called upon him without obtaining an interview, his eye happened to notice (in the same street) the office of the Bon Sens. For some minutes his modesty and his youth caused him to hesitate on entering. At length an accident forced him on, and the result was a profitable engagement, which ended in his becoming Editor of the Bon Sens. While thus engaged he also occasionally contributed to the National. A new proprietary being determined to change the political tendencies of the Bon Sens, in favor of conservative opinions, Louis Blanc, and all his editorial staff, most honorably retired. He then established on his own account the Revue du Progrès, in which appeared his most eminent writings as a journalist. M. CARNOT, the provisional minister of public instruction and religion, was a talented and frequent writer in the St. Simonian papers. He was also one of the editors of the Revue Encyclopédique. ALBERT, Ouvrier, was also the Editor of the Glaneuse at Lyons, and the founder in Paris of L'Atelier, a journal edited exclusively by working men, and devoted to the amelioration of the condition of the industrial classes. We may now form some idea of the influence of journalism in promoting the late revolution, and of the gracious acknowlegement of this influence by the insurrectionary People, in the appointment of its representatives to the provisional government. The time is fast coming, when, as Plato prophesied, philosophers will be the only princes. The mission of the pulpit has been corrupted, and the preaching of the press is now most often the truer homily, the better proclamation of the Word. The interest of the working author, the working artist, the farm laborer, and the journeyman mechanic, are one and the same. The headworker and the hand-worker are brothers in position. The mental laborer and the material workman have like wrongs and rights, wants and wishes. Each is a producer. Each, in the present societary state, can only work efficientlywith the consent of capital. The interest of both is subjugated by the capitalist. It is the interest of both, then, to obtain the rights of industry, to change a social state in which each is tyrannized over, and to construct a new order in which the producer shall have a fair share of the produce. The mental mechanic, the literary laborer, is thus the true, and even self-interested, Leader of the general Working-Masses, in the struggle for liberal institutions and an organization of industry. The late Revolution in France, during its pure primitive impulse, has acknowleged gloriously this fact, by making its journalists its government. sense. [May, 1848.] The two chief journals of the Republic are the National and the Reforme. Each of these important papers has had its representatives in the Provisional Government, has them in the National Assembly, and thröout all France. The National is the organ of the Blue Republic, the simply political revolution. The Reforme represents the Red Republic, the political and industrial revolution. The first would be content with Republican Regulations, in their merest formal The second requires better Industrial Institutions, as a fit expression of a revolution in favor of the working classes. The political economy of the National knows no other system than laissez-faire competition, salaries and capital still distinct from labor. Its tendency is thus radically contrary to the end of the revolution—the amelioration of the condition of the proletarian—the abolition of the system of making money out of man! The English press, in representing the National as moderate, and the Reforme as ultra, gives no true idea of the case. The question is not one of moderatism and ultraism, a quarrel of ambitious precedence it is a difference of Ideas, not to be settled by violence, but by reflection. It is a diversity of political economy-a diversity which now divides the whole civilized world. The Presse has held the next most important position among the old Parisian papers. Its editor is the celebrated Emile de Girardin. Immediately after the Revolution, a new business arrangement, in accordance with the new industrial ideas, was adopted by those engaged on the Presse. Its editors, reporters, compositors, and other workmen, agreed to receive their salaries in dividends, in the ratio of the sale of the paper.-Girardin is suspected of being a Carlist by the ultra-republicans. Others state that he was piqued at not being included in the list of the members of the Provisional Government. Certain it is, he wrote so acrimoniously against some of their acts, that a tumultuous assembly collected around his office to demand an explanation of his conduct. He addressed them, and they dispersed. It is due however to say, that the Clubs altogether disapproved of this proceeding, and unanimously passed resolutions in favor of the freedom of the press. For the rest, Girardin is a man of undoubted talent. His articles on social reforms breathe a beautiful and pacific spirit, and even his criticisms are always worthy of consideration. The Democratic Pacifique is the daily organ of the Phalansterians, the disciples of Charles Fourier. Their doctrine is joint stock association, with dividends in unequal 12ths for three classes, representing capital, talent, and labor. Its chief editor is Victor Considerant-a member of the assembly. It has hitherto been supported by an annual subscription, but since the revolution its circulation is considerably increased. The Vraie Republique, is another daily paper of talent and influence; established since the Revolution. It is sincerely republican, and fully accords with industrial re-organization as the social end of the late political change. Its chief editor is J. Thorè, whose collaborators are Pierre Leroux (the truly christian character of whose writings is not entirely unknown in England), George Sand, and Barbès. The Peuple Constituante is the journal of Lamennais, who is assisted in its editorship by Pascal Duprat. Lamennais has advanced in political idea. In a late paper he has admitted that "all riches come originally from the earth. It is the patrimony of the human race, the common heritage which is transmitted from generation to generation." He appears to incline to an agrarian law. The Siecle, the Constitutionelle, the Moniteur, the Courier Francais, and others of the old papers of Paris, need little description. It is sufficient to say that those that were royalist, now profess moderate republicanism, or, more truly, agree to the change of forms, while they are far from accepting the principle of the Revolution, in its social consequences. Raspail, edits L'Ami du Peuple, and is as Radical in his politics as in his chemistry. The communists have three principal papers-Le Representant du Peuple-in which Prudhomme, the author of the celebrated pamphlet, 'What is Property?' developes his views-La Fraternitè, conducted by workmen, and Le Populaire, the organ of Cabet's Icarian Emigrants. Some idea may be gained of the activity of the Press of Paris, by the following fact. Without speaking of religious, scientific, artistic, literary, and industrial publications, no less than twenty-four new political journals were started in the French metropolis, within a month after the late Revolution, besides those already named. Spirit of old Faust! what revolutions hast thou not witnessed from those old wood types with which thou first printed. Ever the Press and Progress go hand in hand. Oh, that the journalist would become an eternalist-that he might do his work so well to day, that it should last for the future! MOONLIGHT. Is deepest midnight, and each silent star Looks down into the wave. I've waited long For this calm breathing time.-I knew that song Nor lofty thought would come amid the jar Of noisy words-and now I sit afar, Peaceful, altho the crushing strokes of fate Have bowed me down. Yet once again I wait To hear what saith the Spirit. Ever near The Inspirer's voice, were we but in fit mood to hear. This moon how beautiful! Her peaceful rays Of jewels is reflected! Let me gaze So let the clouds of earth glow with the smile of love. Yes, not in vain this beauty, this still hour, These holy aspirations! I have caught Sees not the shades of Earth: These make the night, K. B. |