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74]
subject of general interest.
In speculating upon the course of events ill
Germany and
Austria, as viewed from
Paris,
Dana declares that no reaction can ever take back the abolition of seignorial rights, or reimpose the burdens which the revolution has lifted from the backs of the people.
Then he adds, with confidence:
The freedom of the press, the education of the masses can also not be done away with, though they may for a time be subjected to restrictions.
It is in vain for barbarism and tyranny to attempt to regain the conquests of liberty; they may seem to triumph for a while, but they are destroyed by their triumph.
The Croats of Jellachich may be victorious, but that very victory will leave them less savage than before, and inoculate them with ideas to which they are strangers.
In commenting upon the provisional government under the presidency of
General Cavaignac, whom he praises for his honorable descent, his spotless character, his faithful performance of duty, and as though laying down a principle for future use, he says:
... The career of the general has been a brilliant one; from his first entry into military life to the insurrection of June he has been uniformly successful.
But to be a successful soldier is one thing, and to be a man capable of directing the affairs of a state in a difficult crisis is another.
General Cavaignac is a soldier still, and only a soldier.
His government is the government of the sabre and the bayonet; it rests on military not on moral force.
Its end is the preservation of order by means of the army and the dictatorship.
His policy is military law; he is not a statesman, but a chieftain whom circumstances have put into power.
It follows that this rule is only temporary, and that as the circumstances which raised him to his present prominence disappear .. . he will return to the rank from which he has emerged, a skilful soldier, but politically a cipher...
