CHAPTER CLVII.

POLITICAL OBSERVATIONS.--THE DEPARTURE OF CHARLES HATFIELD.

Yes--it was true that the Prince of Montoni had become Grand Duke of Castelcicala; and those who have read the First Series of “THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON,” have now traced the career of Richard Markham from the period of his obscure boyhood until the time when his brow is circled by a sovereign crown!

And when we reflect that it was a REVOLUTION which evoked his brilliant qualities as a warrior and a statesman,--when we call to mind the fact that it was the cry of “LIBERTY” which became the watch-word of his achievements and the herald of his triumphs,--we cannot do otherwise, on reaching this point in our narrative, than avail ourselves of so fitting an opportunity to notice the grand and glorious struggle that has so lately taken place in the capital of France.

Oh! the French are a fine people, and are destined to teach the world some signal lessons in the school of POLITICAL FREEDOM!

PEOPLE OF ENGLAND! accord your sympathies--your best and most generous sympathies--to that gallant Parisian population which has so recently dethroned a miscreant Monarch, and hurled an execrable Ministry from the seat of power!

Let the English Sons of Toil--oppressed, ground down by taxation, half-starved, and deprived of their electoral rights as they are,--let the Industrious Classes of the British Islands, trampled upon and made tools of by the wealthy _few_ as we know them to be,--let _them_ do honour, at least by words to the working men of France who have dared to expel a demon-hearted tyrant and his bravo-hirelings.

The States of Italy--Bavaria--and France have all, within the last few weeks, manifested their scorn and contempt for the doctrine of “the divine right of kings;”--the PEOPLE in those realms have exercised the power which they possess:--the cause has been righteous--the despots have yielded--and _one_ has been overthrown altogether.

For the cause is always righteous when the People seek to wrest from their rulers that freedom which has been basely usurped, and which the tyrannical oligarchy refuses to surrender by fair means to the millions.

It is a monstrous absurdity and a hideous mockery to prate of treason, and sedition, and rebellion, when a people rises up in its might and its power to demand the privileges which are naturally its own.

The _few_ cannot possibly possess an inherent or hereditary right to enslave the _many_: nor is the present generation to be bound by the enactments of the preceding one. If that preceding one chose to have a Monarchy, the present one is justified in declaring its will that a Republic shall exist;--and so long as the great majority of the inhabitants of a country are of accord in this respect, they have a right to upset the existing government at any moment and establish another. Nay, more; we will assert that the people need not even be wise or prudent in order to legitimatise their actions:--the great majority may act as they think fit, although they should be unwise or imprudent in respect to the institutions they choose to build up!

We are averse to the exercise of physical force;--but France has shown that when moral agitation fails, violence _must_ be used;--and if freedom can be gained by the loss of a few drops of blood--why, then those drops should be shed cheerfully.

Suppose that in any country the great majority of the people sign a document addressed to the sovereign in these terms:--“We are very much obliged to you for having reigned over us hitherto; but we do not require your services farther. It pleases us to establish another form of government and raise up another ruler; and therefore we request you to descend from the throne and surrender up the power delegated to you.” Were the sovereign to refuse compliance with this demand, then force should be used; and all the antiquated farces of “hereditary rights,” and “treason,” and “sedition,” and such-like nonsense, would of course be disregarded by an insurgent people.

On the other hand, so long as a nation remains tranquil, and addresses to the sovereign no demand of the kind supposed above, that sovereign may continue to occupy the throne, as the people’s executive magistrate; for it is the fault of the millions themselves if they be foolish enough to tolerate either a king or a queen.

Republicanism is the “order of the day;” and there is not a throne in Europe that is worth twenty years’ purchase,--no--not even that of the Austrian Kaiser or the Muscovite Czar;--and from the banks of the Thames to the confines of Asia--from the cheerless regions of the North to the sunny shores of the tideless Mediterranean, the prevailing sentiment is adverse to the antiquated, useless, oppressive institutions of Monarchy.

HONOUR TO THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS FRENCH NATION! And let the Royalty which still exists in England beware how it caress, and pet, and openly sympathise with the ex-Royalty which has taken refuge on this soil. For the Queen of England to adopt such a course, were to offer a gross and flagrant insult to the people of France, and inevitably provoke a war. Besides--is not Louis-Philippe a miscreant deserving universal execration? Did he not calmly and deliberately calculate upon butchering the brave Parisian people, in order to consolidate the power of his despot-throne? Are not his hands imbrued with blood? No sympathy, then--no pity for this royal Greenacre--this horrible assassin!

And were he to be received at the palace of our Queen, the insult would not only be monstrous towards the French people, who have expelled him, but equally great towards the English people, who abhor tyrants, and who are generous, humane, and merciful.

WORKING MEN OF ENGLAND! rejoice and be glad--for amidst the changes which have so recently taken place in France, there is one “sign of the times” that is cheering and full of prophetic significancy for _you_! I allude to the grand--the glorious fact, that in the list of the Provisional Government which the Revolution raised up, these words appeared--“ALBERT, Working Man.”

Yes: a Working Man was included in that fine category of Republican names; and he has been instrumental in giving to the whole political world that impulse which must inevitably conduct _even the present generation_ to the most glorious destinies.

Honour to Albert, the Working Man!

There is another point on which I must touch, ere I resume the thread of my narrative.

The Prime Minister of England has declared “that he has no intention whatever to interfere with the form of government which the French nation may choose for themselves.” He therefore admits the right of the nation to establish any form of government which it chooses;--and this concession is an important one, when coming from the principal adviser of the Queen, and from a man who is, after all, nothing more nor less than the chief of an aristocratic clique.

Well, then--it being admitted by the Prime Minister that a nation has a right to choose its own form of government, the sooner the people of England begin to think of establishing new institutions for themselves, the better. For there is no use in disguising the fact--and no possibility of exaggerating it,--that England is in a truly awful condition. Already are we enduring a war-tax; and it was only through fear of seeing the glorious example of the Parisians immediately followed by the inhabitants of London, that the Ministers abandoned their iniquitous and execrable scheme of doubling that shameful impost. But the financial ignorance and the wanton extravagance of the Whigs have plunged the country into serious pecuniary embarrassments, from which nothing but the sweeping reform of a purely democratic Ministry can relieve it. With a tremendous national debt,--with no possibility of levying another tax,--with Ireland to care for and almost support,--with a vast amount of absolute penury and positive destitution in the country,--with an aristocracy clinging to old abuses, and with the land in the possession of a contemptibly small oligarchy,--with the industrious classes starving on pitiable wages,--with a pension-list which is a curse and a shame,--with a cumbrous and costly Monarchy,--with a Church grasping at all it can possibly lay hands on,--with a Bench of Bishops in inveterate and banded hostility to all enlightening opinions and popular interests,--and with a franchise so limited that nine-tenths of the people are altogether unrepresented,--with all these, and a thousand other evils which might be readily enumerated, we repeat our assertion that England is in an awful state; and we must add that great, important, and radical changes must be speedily effected.[13]

Oh! how well and how truly has a great French writer declared that “men have only to will it, in order to be free!” France has set England and the world a great and glorious example in this respect.

These English newspapers which are interested in pandering to the prejudices and the selfishness of a bloated aristocracy and an oppressive oligarchy, of landowners, represent revolutions as scenes of spoliation, social ruin, and other demoralisation. But the incidents of the Revolution which gave Louis Philippe a throne in 1830, and those of the grand struggle which has just hurled him from his despot-seat, give the lie--the bold, unequivocal lie--to such statements.[14]

The time has come when all true Reformers must band together for the public weal. Let there be union,--union of all sects and parties who are in favour of _progress_, no matter what their denomination may be,--whether Republicans, Radicals, Chartists, or Democrats. “Union Is strength,” says the proverb; and the truth thereof maybe fully justified and borne out in the present age, and in the grand work of moral agitation for the People’s Rights.[15]

* * * * *

We now proceed with the thread of our narrative; but it is not necessary to give at any length the particulars of the interview which took place between Lord Ellingham and Richard Markham, now Grand Duke of Castelcicala. Suffice it to say, that his Sovereign Highness, though deeply afflicted by the news of his father-in-law’s demise, welcomed the English nobleman with the utmost cordiality, and immediately consented to receive Charles Hatfield as one of his _aides-de-camp_. The Earl hastened back to Pall-mall, and, sending for the young man to his private apartment, reasoned with him in an impressive way upon the necessity of retrieving the past by the conduct which he should pursue in future. Charles listened with profound attention to all that the excellent peer said upon this occasion, and promised that his behaviour should henceforth render him worthy of all the signal favours bestowed upon him.

The preparations for his departure were in the meantime made with all possible despatch; and in the course of a few hours Charles Hatfield took leave of his family, and hastened to Markham Place, to join the suite of the new Sovereign of Castelcicala.