tions and hemmed them in. The groups were soon dispersed, and M. Baudin, and two other representatives were killed on the spot. Great numbers of troops continued to arrive, and the whole section was speedily occupied by them. On Thursday morning, appearances of insurrection began to be serious. Barricades were erected in several streets. At 12 o'clock the Boulevards were swept by troops, artillery was brought up, and wherever groups of people were seen they were fired upon. It is now known that police officers encouraged the building of barricades in order to give the troops a chance to attack the people. Buildings were battered with cannon, and scores of respectable people were killed at their windows. Throughout the day the troops behaved in the most brutal manner, bayoneting, shooting, and riding over every body within reach. Great numbers of inno cent persons were killed in this manner. It would be impossible to give within our limits a tithe of the interesting incidents of the day, illustrating the spirit that prevailed. It is pretty clearly ascertained that the object of the government was to strike terror into all classes, and that for this purpose the troops had been instructed to show no quarter, but to kill every body that threatened resistance. Many of the soldiers were also intoxicated. 'Order' was in this manner completely restored by evening. But over two thousand people were killed. From the departments, meantime, came news of resistance. In the frontier districts of the southeast particularly the whole valley of the Rhone, in fact the whole region from Joigny to Lyons, including several departments, the rural population rose in great strength against the usurpation. There was very hard fighting in the Nievre, in the Herault, and in the frontier districts of the Sardinian and Swiss Alps and in many places the contest was distinguished by sad atrocities. In the course of two or three days, however, all resistance was quelled. Preparations were made for the election. The army voted first, and of course its vote was nearly unanimous in favor of Louis Napoleon. The popular election was to take place on Saturday and Sunday, the 20th and 21st of December. The simple question submitted was, whether Louis Napoleon should remain at the head of the state ten years, or not. No other candidate was allowed to be named. Louis Napoleon directed the Pantheon to be restored to its original use as a church, and thereby, as well as by other measures, secured the support of the Catholics. Count Montalembert published a long letter, urging all Catholics throughout France to vote in his favor. The election was conducted quietly-the government discouraging as much as possible the printing and distributing of negative votes. The returns have been received from 68 out of the 86 departments, and these give, in round numbers, 5,400,000 yes, and 600,000 no. His majority will probably be nearly 7,000,000, which is more than he obtained in 1848. The London papers state that a correspondence nad passed between the governments of England and France upon the subject of Louis Napoleon's usurp ation, in which the former urged a full and explicit declaration of the President's intentions, and views, as necessary to satisfy the English people in regard to what had already taken place. The replies are said to have been evasive and unsatisfactory. It is stated, also, that Louis Napoleon had directed a circular letter to be prepared, addressed to the various governments of Europe, assuring them of his pacific disposition, and saying that the step he had taken was necessary for the protection of France against the enemies of order. Marshal Soult died on the 20th of December at his chateau of Soult-berg. He was born March 29, 1769 the same year with Napoleon, the Duke of Welllington, Cuvier, Chateaubriand, and Walter Scott, and was 82 years old at the time of his death. He entered the army in 1785, and was subsequently attached to the staff of Gen. Lefebvre. He took part in all the campaigns of Germany until 1799, when he followed Massena into Switzerland and thence to Genoa, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. Set at liberty after the battle of Marengo, he returned to France and became one of the four colonels of the guard of the Consuls. When the empire was pro claimed in 1804 he was made Marshal of France. He subsequently commanded the army in Spain, and in 1813 was made Commander-in-Chief of the Im perial Guard. When Napoleon first landed from Elba he issued a proclamation against him, but soon after became one of his warmest adherents. He was afterward the firm supporter of Louis Philippe, as Minister of War and President of the Council, from which he retired in 1847 to private life. He was the last representative of the imperial era of France. From AUSTRIA the only news is of new arrests and new restrictions. A number of persons in Hun gary, including the mother and the sisters of Kossuth, had been arrested merely on suspicion at Pesth: and a subsequent account announces the death of his mother. The prisoners were removed to Vienna. The military governor of Vienna has forbidden the papers hereafter to publish the names of any persons that may be arrested, or to mention the fact of their arrest, on the ground that it "interferes with judicial proceedings." The government, it is said, has noti fied the English government, that measures will be taken to prevent Englishmen from traveling in Au stria, if Austrian refugees continue to be received and fêted in England.-The financial embarassments of the government still continue. It is stated that Prince Schwarzenberg has avowed the intention of the Austrian government to sustain Louis Napoleon in the course he has taken-not that his legitimate right to the position he holds is conceded, but be cause he is acting on the side of order. From SPAIN we have intelligence that the Queen has pardoned all the American prisoners proceeding from the last expedition against Cuba, whether in Spain fulfilling their sentence or still in Cuba. The decree announcing this was dated Dec. 9, and alleged the satisfactory conduct and assurances of the Amer ican government as the ground of this clemency.The Spanish Minister, Don Calderon de la Barca, had been honored with the Grand Cross of Charles II. as a reward for his conduct, and Señor Laborde, the Spanish Consul at New Orleans, was to resume his post. Immediately after receiving news of the coup d'état in Paris, the Spanish Congress was indefinitely prorogued by the royal authority. A princess was born on the 20th of December. In TURKEY the question of Russian predominance has again been raised, by the demand of the French, upon the Turkish government, for the control of the Holy Sepulchre, which, they allege, was guaranteed to them by treaty in 1740. Through the agency of their Minister, the French had succeeded in pro curing an admission of the binding force of the treaty: but just then the Russian Minister presented a demand that the Holy Sepulchre should still remain in the hands of the Greek Church. This remonstrance caused the Porte to hesitate: and the affair is still undecided. From CHINA and the EAST news a month later has been received. From Bombay intelligence is to scene of anarchy and blood is commencing in Aff. Nov. 17. A very severe hurricane occurred in and ghanistan. Many of the Hindoo traders and other around Calcutta on the 22d of October, and caused peacable inhabitants have fled from the country, and great damage to the shipping as well as to houses: were putting themselves under British protection.a great many persons were killed. Hostilities have An extensive fire occurred in Canton, Oct. 4, destroy again broken out between the English and the na-ing five hundred houses and an immense amount of tives at Gwalior. Troops had been sent out upon property. The intelligence of the Chinese rebellion service, but no engagements are reported.-In conse- was very vague, and the movement had ceased to quence of rival claimants to the throne, a fearful excite interest or attract attention. Editor's HE VALUE OF THE UNION.-In our period- numbers in its calendar the natal day of Washington. In the computations of stocks and dividends, and the profit and loss of commercial partnerships, the process is comparatively clear. The balance is ever of one ascertained kind, and expressed in one uniform circulating medium. There is but one standard of value, and, therefore, the methods of ordinary arithmetic are sufficient. But in this estimate, which the most ordinary politician sometimes thinks himself perfectly competent to make, there enter elements that the highest analysis might fail to master. This is because the answer sought presents itself under so many aspects, and in such a variety of relations. "The Value of the Union."-We have forgotten who first employed the ill-omened expression, but it has set us thinking in how many ways it may be taken, and how many different kinds of value may be supposed to enter into such a calculation. ment to certain emotions-in other words, what may And first-for our subject is so important as to require precision-we may attempt to consider the value of our national Constitution as A WORK OF ART. This is a choice term of the day-a favorite mode of speech with all who would affect a more than ordi- Irrespective, then, of its more immediate social nary elevation of thought and sentiment. Profound and political utilities, there is a high value in our Fedideas are sought in painting, statuary, and architec-eral Constitution when viewed thus in reference sole. ture. The ages, it is said, speak through them, and ly to its artistic excellence. We may thus speak of in them. The individual minds and hands by which its worth per se, as a model of the rò kaλóv, just as we they receive their outward forms, are only represent- would of that of a picture, or a temple, or an anthem. ative of deeper tendencies existing in the generic But even in this aspect it has its higher utilities. Is humanity. In the department of architecture, espe- there no value in the elevating effect it must ever cially, some of the favorite writers of the age are have upon those who have intellect enough to comanalyzing the elements of its ideal excellence. The prehend what we have called its artistic logic, and perfection of an architectural structure is its rhythm, soul enough to feel the harmonizing influence of its its analogy, its inward harmonious support, its out-artistic beauty? Will not a people reason better I adaptedness to certain ends, or the expression who have ever before them a work which has been etain thoughts, or the giving form and embodi- the result of so much philosophical and scientific thought? Will not their moral taste be purified, and that may be loosened without much danger, rather their love of the true and the beautiful be increased, than what it really is, or, at least has become in in proportion as their minds enter truly into the har- time, a con-necting, interweaving, all-pervading prin. mony of such a structure? Is it a mere fancy to ciple, constituting not merely a sum of adjacent paris, suppose that such a silent yet powerful educating | but a whole of organic membership; so that a sever influence in our Constitution may be more effectual, ance would not leave merely disintegrated fractions. on many minds, than any direct restraining power possessing each the same vitality it would have had, of special statutes? or might once have had, if there had never been such membership. The wound could not be inflicted without a deep, and, perhaps, deadly injury, not only to the life of the whole, as a whole, but to the vital forces through which the lower and smaller sections of each several member may have been re This train of thought is tempting, and suggests a great variety of illustrations, but we can not dwell on them. If the man who should maliciously cause the destruction of a splendid cathedral, who should set fire to St. Peter's or St. Paul's, or who should wantonly mar a master-piece of Power or Canova-spectively bound into political unities. It is true, if such a one, we say, would justly be visited with the execration of the civilized world, of how much sorer punishment should he be thought worthy who should traitorously conspire the death of our American Union, or even think of applying the torch to the glorious structure of our Federal Constitution? Even to speak lightly of its value should be regarded as no ordinary treason. But let us come down to what many would regard a more practical and utilitarian view of the matter. AS AN EXAMPLE TO THE WORLD.-What arith metic shall estimate the value of our Union and of our political institutions in this respect? This is the second element in our computation; although in view of the present condition of mankind it might even seem entitled to the first and highest place. Between the wild surgings of radicalism and the ironbound coast of despotism, what hope for the nations if the fairest and strongest ship of constitutional liberty part her anchors, only to be engulfed in the yawning vortex on the one side, or dashed to pieces against the rocks on the other? When will the ex periment ever be tried under fairer auspices? When may we again expect such a combination of favoring circumstances, propitious providences, moral and religious influences, formative ideas, and historical training as have all concurred in building up the fabric which some would so recklessly destroy? If after the preparation of centuries-if after all ou claims to a higher Christianity, a higher civilization, a higher science-if after all our boasts of progress, and of the Press, and of the capacity of man for self government-the result of it all should be a dissolu tion of our political and national existence before one generation of its founders had wholly passed away, what can we expect-we earnestly ask every serious reader deeply to ponder this most plain and practical question-what can we expect of the frivolous French infidelity, or the deeper, and therefore far more dangerous German pantheism, or the untaught serfdom of Austria and Russia? It may, perhaps, be said, that the mere dissolution of our Union would not involve any such eventful issue. It is only a temporary expedient (it might be maintained), not belong. ing to the essence of our nationality, and the real Sovereignty, or sovereignties would not be impaired by its loss. Our State governments would remain, and other lesser confederacies might be formed, if political exigencies should require them. This suggests the third aspect under which we would consider the problem that has presented itself for our editorial contemplations. The Value of our Union as THE KEY-STONE OF STATE AUTHORITY, and of all that may be legitimately included under the idea of State sovereignty. Who shall estimate it in this respect? We are too much inclined to regard our general government, as in some espects, a foreign one, as something outside of our roper nationality, as an external band, or wrapper, our general government had a peculiar origin, and stands, in time, subsequent to the State authorities. It might seem, therefore, to some, to derive its life from them, instead of being itself a proper fountain of vitality. This is chronologically true; but such an inference from it would be logically false, and could only proceed from a very superficial study of the law of political organisms. Whatever may have been the origin of the parts, or the original circumstances of their union, we must now regard the body that has grown out of them as a living organic whole, which can not suffer without suffering throughout. It is alive all over, and you can put the amputating knife in no place without letting out some of the life-blood that flows in each member, and in every fibre of each member. It had, indeed, its origin in the union of the parts, but its vital principle has modified the parts, and modified their life, so that you can not now hurt it, or kill it, without producing universal pain and universal death. Nor was such union either arbitrary or accidental. Our general political organization was as naturally born out of the circum stances in which we were placed, as our several State polities grew out of the union of the feeble and varied sources in which they had their historical origin. The written Constitution declarative of the national coalescence( or growing together) only expressed an effect, instead of constituting a cause. To change our metaphor, for the sake of varied and easy illustration, we may say, that the Federal Constitution, though last in the actual order of construction, has come to be the key-stone of the whole arch. It can not now be taken out but at the risk of every portion crumbling into atoms. The State interest may have been predominant in the earlier periods, but generations have since been born under the se curity of this arch, and a conservative feeling of nationality has been growing up with it. In this way our general government, our State governments, our county or district governments, our city corporations, the municipal authorities of our towns and villages, have become cemented together into one grand har monious whole, whose coherence is the coherence of every part, and in which no part is the same it would, or might have been, had no such interdependent co herence ever taken place. It becomes, therefore, a question of the most serious moment-What would be the effect of loosening this key of the arch? Could we expect any stone to keep its place, be it great or small? In other words, have we any reason to believe that such an event would be succeeded by two, or three, or a few confederacies, still bound to gether, or might we not rather expect a universal dissolution of our grand national system? And would it stop here? The charm once broken, would the wounded feeling of nationality find repose in our State governments, or would they, too, in their turn, feel the effects of the same dissolving and de composing process? These, also, are but creations of law, and compacts, and historical events, and ac- | preting judiciary. He should, in short, be the very cidents of locality, in which none of the present gen- last man ever to talk of revolution, or nullification, eration had any share, and which have brought all or secession, or of any thing else that may in the the smaller political powers within certain boundaries | least impair the sacredness or stability of constit to be members of one larger body politic, with all the tional law. irregularities and inequalities it may geographically present. What magic, then, in the bond that holds together the smaller parts composing New York, or Virginia, or Massachusetts, or South Carolina, which is not to be found in the national organization? What sacred immutability in the results giving rise to the one class of political wholes that does not exist in the other? Such questions are becoming already rife among us, and let the healthful charm of our greater nationality be once lost, they would doubtless multiply with a rapidity that might startle even the most radical. The doctrine may not be intended, but it would logically and inevitably result from much of our most popular oratory on the inherent right of self-government, that any part of any separate State might sever its connection with the whole, or might form a union with any contiguous territory, whenever it might seem to the majority of such part to be for their interest, or to belong to their abstract right to make such secession or annexation. There is, however, an extreme to which the principle may be carried, even beyond this. The tendency to what is called individualism, or the making all positive legislation dependent for its authority upon the higher law of the individual sanction, would soon give a practical solution to the most disorganizing theories that now exist as germs in the idea expressed by that barbarous but most expressive term come-outer-ism. And this suggests the next and closely related aspect of our important problem. Call government, then, what we will, social compact, divine institution, natural growth of time and circumstances-conceive of it under any form-still there is ever the same essential idea. It is ever one absolute, earthly, sovereign power, acting, within a certain territory, as the sanction and guaranty of all civil or political rights, in other words, of all rights that can not exist without it. There may be many intermediate links in the chain, but it is only by virtue of this, in the last appeal, that one man has the exclusive right to the house in which he lives, or to the land which he occupies. Hence alone, too, are all the civil rights of marriage and the domestic rela tions. The family is born of the state. On this account, says Socrates, may it be held that the law has begotten us, and we may be justly called its sons. There is the same idea in the maxim of Cicero, In aris et focis est respublica; and in this thought we find the peculiar malignity of that awful crime of treason. It is a breach of trust, and, in respect to government, of the most sacred trust. It is the foul est parricide. It is aiming a dagger at that civic life from which flows all the social and domestic vitality. The notion, in feudal times, had for its outward type the relation of lord and dependent-of service and obedience on the one hand, and protection on the other. The form has changed, but the essential idea remains, and ever must remain, while human govern ment exists on earth. He who breaks this vital bond, he who would seek to have the protection to his per son and his property, while he forfeits the tenure of citizenship, he is the traitor. And hence arises the essential difference between treason and mobbism. The man who is guilty of the former not only commits violence, but means by that violence to assail the very existence through which alone he himself may be said to exist as a citizen, or member of a living ure of the times than the indifference with which men begin to look upon this foul, unnatural crime, and even to palliate it under the softened title of "political offenses," or a mere difference in political opin ions. To punish it is thought to savor only of barbarism and a barbarous age. If we judge, however, from the tremendous consequences which must result from its impunity, ordinary murder can not be named in the comparison. If he who takes a single life deserves the gallows, of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who aims at the life of a nation-a nation, too, like our own, the world's last hope, the preservation of whose political integrity is the most effectual means of INTERVENTION we can employ in favor of true freedom in every other part of the globe. There is, in the fourth place, the value of the national Constitution as THE GRAND CONSERVATOR OF ALL LOWER LAW, and of all lower political rights whatever. No law of the State, of the city, of the family, of the school, no contract between man and man, no prescriptive right, no title to property, no exclusive domain in land, no authority over persons, could fail to be weakened by a wound inflicted on the all-con-political organism. There is no more alarming featserving law of our higher nationality. There are none of these but what are even now demoralized, and seriously affected in their most inner sanctions, by the increasing practice of speaking lightly of a bond so sacred. What right has he to the possession of his acres who counsels resistance to one law of the land, and, in so doing, strikes at the very life of the authority by which he holds all he calls his own? It must be true of human, as well as of the Divine law, that he who offends in one point is guilty of all. The severence of one link breaks the whole chain. There is no medium between complete submission to every constitutional ordinance, or rightful and violent revolution against the whole political system. But if such inconsistency can be charged on him who claims the right of property in land, although that, too, is beginning to be disputed, with how much more force does it press on the man who asserts property, or if a less odious term is preferred-authority, in persons? We do not dispute his claim. It comes from the common source of all human authority, whether of man over man, or of man to the exclusion of man from a challenged domain. But certainly his title can have no other foundation than the political institutions of the country maintained in all their coherent integrity; and, therefore, he who asserts it should be very conservative, he should be very reverent of law in all its departments, he should be very tender of breaking Constitutions, he should hold in the highest honor the decisions of an inter And this brings us to our fifth measure of value, but we can only briefly state it. The world has seen enough of despotism. It is probable, too, that there will be no lack of lawless popular anarchy. In this view of things, how precious is every element of constitutional liberty! How important to have its lamp ever trimmed and burning, as a guide to the lost, a bright consolation of hope to the despairing! Only keep this light steadily shining out on the dark sea of despotism, and it will do more for the tossing and foundering nations than any rash means of help that, without any avail for good, may only draw down our own noble vessel into the angry breakers, and engulfing billows of the same shipwreck. EVE Editor's Easy Chair. little hope for la belle France, UNTIL HER ARMY SHOWS INTELLIGENCE, and HER STATESMEN HON ESTY. VEN yet the talk of Louis NAPOLEON, and of that audacious action which in a day transmuted We can hardly give this current topic the go-by, our thriving sister republic, with her regularly-elect- without bringing to our reader's eye a happy sum ed President, and her regularly-made-though some-ming up of suppositions in the columns of Punch, what tattered-Constitution, into a kind of anomalous and if our listener will only read Congressional for empire, with only an army, and a Bonaparte to hold Parliamentary, and the Bentons and the Casses for it together-is loud, in every corner of the country. the Grahames and the Gladstones, he may form a very It has seemed not a little strange, that the man, at accurate idea of a Napoleon-Mr.-Fillmore. whom, three years ago, every one thought it worth his while to fling a sneer, should have gathered into his hands, with such deft management, the reins of power, and absolutely out-manoeuvred the bustling little THIERS, and the bold-acting CAVAIGNAC. Old travelers are recalling their recollection of the spruce looking gentleman, in white kids, and with unexceptionable beaver, who used to saunter with one or two mustached companions along Pall-Mall; and who, some three months after, in even more recherche costume, used to take his morning drive, with four-in-hand, upon the asphalte surface of the Paris avenues. There seemed really nothing under cover of his finesse in air and garb which could work out such long-reaching strategy as he has just now shown us. Belabor him as we will, with our honest republican anathemas, there must yet have been no small degree of long-sightedness belonging to the man who could transform a government in a day; and who could have laid such finger to the pulse of a whole army of Frenchmen, as to know their heart-bound to a very fraction. The truth is, the French, with the impulse of a quick-blooded race, admire audacity of any sort; and what will call a shout, will, in nine cases out of ten, call a welcome. It is not a little hard for a plain, matter-of-fact American to conceive of the readiness with which the French army, and all the myrmidons of that glowing republican power, shift their allegiance-as obedient as an opera chorus to the wink of the maestro. We can ourselves recall the memory of a time when that CHANGARNIER, who is now a lion in fetters, held such rule over Paris military and Paris constabulary, that a toss of his thumb would send half the representatives to prison; and now, there is not so much as a regiment who would venture a wail for his losses. This offers sad comment on the "thinking capacity" of bayonets Suppose the head of the Executive, or the Minister for the time being, were to take it into his head one morning to abolish the Houses of Parliament.-Sup pose some of the members elected by large constitu encies were to think it a duty to go and take their seats, and were to be met at the doors by swords and bayonets, and were to be wounded and taken off to prison for the attempt.-Suppose the Minister, having been harassed by a few Parliamentary debates and discussions, were to send off to Newgate or the House of Correction a few of the most eminent members of the Opposition, such as the Disraelis, the Grahames, the Gladstones, the Barings, and a sprink ling of the Humes, the Wakleys, the Walmsleys, the Cobdens, and the Brights. Suppose the press having been found not to agree with the policy of the Minister, he were to peremptorily stop the publication of the Times, Herald, Chronicle, Post, Advertiser, Daily News, Globe, &c., &c., and limit the organs of intelligence to the Government Gazette, or one of two other prints that would write or omit just what he, the Minister, might please.-Suppose, when it occurred to the public that these measures were not exactly in conformity with the law, the Minister were to go or send some soldiers down to Westmin ster Hall, shut up the Courts, send the Lord Chan cellor about his business, and tell Lords Campbell, Cranworth, and all the rest of the high judicial authorities, to make the best of their way home. - Suppose a few Members of Parliament were to sign a protest against these proceedings; and suppose the documents were to be torn down by soldiers, and the persons signing them packed off to Coldbath Fields or Pentonville.-Suppose all these things were to happen with a Parliament elected by Universal Suffrage, and under a Republican form of Government -And lastly-Suppose we were to be told that this sort of thing is liberty, and what we ought to en deavor to get for our own country;-Should we look upon the person telling us so, as a madman, or a knave, or both? and should we not be justified in putting him as speedily, and as unceremoniously as possible-outside our doors? IN our last EASY chat with our readers, we sketched in an off-hand way the current of the KosSUTH talk; and we hinted that our enthusiasm had its fevers and chills; so far as the talk goes, a chilliness has come over the town since the date of our writing-an unworthy and ungracious chill-but yet the natural re What shall we suppose of these hundred thousand scene-shifters in the red pantaloons? Are they worked upon merely by the Napoleonic champagne to a change of views; or are they tired of a sham Republic, and willing to take instead a sham Empire; or have they grown political economists, with new appreciation of government stability, and a longsighted eagerness to secure tranquillity? Or, is not the humbler truth too patent, that their opinions herd together by a kind of brute sympathy, and are acted upon by splendor-whether of crime or of munifi-sult of a little over-idolatry. As for Congressional cence; and, moreover, is it not too clear that those five hundred thousand men who prop the new dy nasty with bayonets, are without any sort of what we call moral education, and rush to every issue like nerds of wild bison-guided solely by instinct? And would not a little of that sort of education which sets up school-houses, and spreads newspapers, and books, and Harper's Magazines like dew over the length and the breadth of our land, do more toward the healing of that sick French nation, than the prettiest device of Constitution, or the hugest five-sous bath-house Ah. well-a-day, we shall have action, no apology can be found, either in moderation or good sense, for the doubtful and halting welcome which has been shown the great Hungarian. The question of Government interference in his national quarrel was one thing; but the question of a welcome to a distinguished and suffering strang was quite another. The two, however, have been unfortunately mingled; and a rude and vulgar effort has been made to prejudge his mission, by affronting him as a guest. We may be strong enough to brave Russia, and its hordes of Cossacks; but no country is strong enough to trample on the laws of hospitality |