The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-20 00:00:00

WRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From the Times of this day.)
A successful ovation may mean a great deal, and it
may mean nothing at all. It would be unwise to build
much upon what, after all, is the voice of a multitude,
proverbially fickle. So we shall not describe what Lon-
don has witnessed this week in words of the same gravity
that we should give, for example, to the pacification of
Europe. But, on the other hand, there can be no occa-
sion for any writer to deny the fact as if it were worth
denying. In plain matter of fact, the reception given
by the people of London to the French Emperor and
Empress is not a mere repetition of that given to Louis
Philippe. Whatever the feeling, or the pretence of feel-
ing, or the absence of feeling that may be alleged, no-
body with the use of his eyes can dispute that the metro-
polis has greeted Napoleon 111. and his Consort with
an enthusiasm bordering on extravagance. Our fellow-
citizens gathered from the suburbs, selected some point
on the various rautes taken by the Imperial visitors,
and stood patiently for hours just to catch a glimpse of
the man who has restored order and prosperity to
Franoe, become our Ally, and entered heartily with us
into the arduous task of keeping Russia within bounds.
They wished to see the man w ho has done this, so to
speak, with his own hand,—t he man who actually
governs a great nation by no means easy to be governed.
They wishd also to see the lady whom they somehow
regard with a romantic interest, as one who owes her
elevation, not merely to birth or the advantage of for-
tune, but her beauty, goodness, and wit. Mere Royal
alliances were never popular in this country, and about
the greatest crime a Minister could commit in the eyes
of the people would be a Royal marriage in which the
heart
was put out of the question. Napoleon 311. de-
rives more real greatness from his union with the object
of bis affection than it he had married a daughter of the
house of Austria on the faith of a portrait or a diplomatic
report. These may, perhaps, be thought no very suffi-
cient reasons for a grand ovation ; and the Lon loners
may be set down as a crowd of gaping spectacle-hunters,
ready to go anywhere to look at an Emperor, and just
now in crowds, simply because this week is positively
the last as well as the first of the exhibition. Be it so.
Let the thing be as vulgar as it may, nevertheless the
fact remains that the spectacle of this week is not a mere
repetition of that of 1845.
The scene at the Royal Italian Opera last night speaks
for the feeling of those who can afford to pay a hundred
guineas for a box, or ten, and evea fifteen guineas, for a
stall ticket. No one can deny that something more
than curiosity prompted many of that numerous but
very select body of spectators. It was something more
than the knowledge that they saw before them what
England and France had wished in vain to see for five
several centunes. The British people may or may not
be under a mistake or a delusion, but they certainly saw
in that group a picture of amity and friendly union that
may last as long as the previous reign of jealousy and
distrust. Every street through which the friendly caval-
cade passed yesterday to the city, and afttrwa.r,3s to
Covent-garden, was hung with the national flags of the
Allies, so as to form a vista not unlike that in Henry
the Seventh's or St. George's Chapel. The satiric story
was told by the illuminations last night, and, though it
may be urged that people always like an opportunity of
decorating and lighting up their houses, and that just
now there happens to be rather fewer opportunities than
usual, we must beg to observe that we have never seen
the like before on such an occasion, unless it were the
very remarkable rejoicing at the visit of the three allied
Sovereigns in 1814. But it is not our present purpose
to argue for any one particular significance to ho given
to congratulations which Heaven itself has counter:anced
with its smiles, and which may, perhaps, express a very
superficial feeling, and a too transient blessing. We
only think it bad philo-uphy, as well as bad taste, to dis-
parage this brilliant recepti ,n as a matter of cour,,e, and
a " vain repetition." This is simply not the fact.

( Front the Morning Herald of this day.)
The enthusiasm manifested towards the Emperor and
Empress of the French has hitherto experienced no oimi-
nution. Yesterday all the approaches which marked
the Imperial visit to the city were crowded. with throngs
of earnest and expectant spectators. London had ,urned
out for a holiday. A glimpse at the Empress who,
whatever may be said to the contrary of John Bull's
gallantry, constituted not the least interesting personage
in the spectacle, was thought by thousands of o':r wea-
ther-beaten countrymen and countrywomen worth sonic
few miles of rail ; some few hours of standing in the dry
and dusty streets ; some few hundred thumps and shov-
ings, which fall to the lot of all thorough-paced sight-
seers in this empire. Her Majesty seemed to feel and
understand ale, for she made her frequent acknowledg-
ments with wonderful ease, affability, and good-nature.
As the carriage rolled on which contained her and her
Royal Consort, we could see her bowing her thanks to
the sooty and dusty urchins who crowded the church-
yards in the line of road, or clustered on the lamp posts,
highly delighted to be able to return home and say they
had beheld her whose reputation has spread, for beauty,
grace, and kindlinees, far beyond the limits of tl at em-
pire in the rule of which she has been associated. For
nineteen Rersoos whose first query will be made in re-
ference to the Emperor, ninety and nine will have in-
quired about the Empress. The good folks in Seven-dials
auctDrury•lane, utterly ignorant and careless of diplo-
macy, indifferent to our doings at Sebastopol, except so
far as they would be glad to see " the Rooshians" well
drubbed, were discussing con arnore, in our own hear-
ing, the white chip bonnet and white feathers,
which nodded and moved as they cleared their
throats for an English hurrah, or pressed forward, regard-
less of carabiniers, policemen, carriages, and carts.
All this must be familiar enough to Napoleon 111.
He has not passed so many years in this country as not
to know oor national peculiarities. He is not so igno-
rant of the nature of Englishmen as not to be aware
that our homage is rendered to practical objects which
mainly remind us of our own homes, and are connected
with our homely feelings. Our own gracious Sovereign
must come in for her share in this respect. She has
made us understand and value the rule of a female ; she
has not merely continued but enlivened the traditional
belief which has,attached so much that is glorious in
our annals with female Sovereigns. We like not un-
married kings or unmarried clergy. Even in our rulers
we- desire to see an image of that home and that house-
hold-with which so much is connected that concerns the
honour, the safety, and the prosperity of this nation. It
is the presence of the Empress on this occasion which
has brought out the enthusiasm of the population of this
country ; and by making her a participator in this visit,
Napoleon has not only shown his prudence and the
knowledge he possesses of the national character, but
has put himself before the crowd in the only light in
which they could, or cared to, understand him.
Of course we intend no disparagement to the Em-
peror himself or the higher purport of his visit by these
remarks. In a political point of view, and as a guarantee
of amity between the two nations, that visit is of ines-
timable worth. It is a pledge for that peace by which
not we only, but all Europe—it is not too much to say
the whole world—must be eventually benefited. But
then these advantages are patent to men of thought and
reflection. It is not for the wise or the politic that the
benefits of this visit are intended. They had no doubts
of the Emperor's intentions ; they had sufficient proof
of his cordial support from circumstances not so obvious
to the people. Their belief was not shaken by those ordi-
nary prejudices which find a facile receptacle in ordinary
minds. But it is far different with the great macses of
their uneducated countrymen. Could they believe that
the ruler of the French nation, one bearing also the name
of him whom their fathers regarded as the incarnation
of all that was hostile and terrible to this country, could
ba a warm friend to England ? Could they do otherwise
than consider him as a Frenchman, as an enemy, as a
man in all his interests, his feelings, and his sympathies
totally different to themselves?
It is in this light, then, that we regard the visit of
the Empress as one of the most important consequences
of this august presence. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon
1., or any other personage who has taken hold of our
imagination by the splendour of his victories, or the
greatness of his name, comes near to ourselves, and loses
something of the distant and the terrible, when- he is
seen as a husband or a father, as being in his dearest
relations exactly like ourselves. Napoleon 111. might
have put out a great many manifestoes and proctols, he
might have exhausted half the rhetoric of his very rhe-
torical nation, before he could have hoped to have pro-
duced half the impression which he has produced by
bringing the Empress amongst us. Nor is the fact that
the Empress herself traces her descent to the sister
. do, and
_has been educated in England, without
ita effect.
Let us hope that this is not the only instance of such.
visits. Let us hope that the time has come when Sove-
reigns as well as their subjects may view each others'
swithout fear and without suspicions. The
pk igo kingdoms
is
.p ast for both when true patriotism was con-
• 'dared violated by such visits: Long since has the
notion be een exploded that a desire to see and profit by
the improvements of foreign countries was a necessary
indication of being discontented with one's own. Cer-
tainly, after such a sight as was witnessed yesterday,
--Vai people of this country will find it hard to persuade
t•leraselves that Napoleon 111. or the Empress Eugenie
can ever be their enemy. We shall all be lothe to irna-
- 'slut°
eoutrhalt they
.who havey. trusted themselves so frankly
hospitality can ever be among the number of its
that
.161111igenuLeyielatkote—rs. It is a great thing to have removed
French; from the minds of Englishmen the persuasion
lAg. could render us the faithful allies of the
of those
whose
more to have implanted in the minds
that a lerenVehesndices linger the longest the convic-
tion
—welcomed by can be as dear to us as our own
lion with an mtiul majority jerky of the people of this na-
they are accustomed to pay to respect not
Sovereign.lees t h an what
(Nen thelforniag chr f this day. )
The most interesting incide"nt
might have "the proceedings at
been anticipated by
Thzacter and ca-
the Guildhall yesterday
those v‘ho have carefully studied theb
as tended
y,
nottiton, by
rear of the Emperor Napoleon the
bienstb'Aitivmugh
his policy, since he has been on theutharno.
to the consolidation of sovereignty
elevating it from a tradition into a resat
of modern times has more perseveringly broken throngs
the trammels of mere custom or etiquette. It is one of
his fixed rules of conduct, never to omit seizing on an
Ninon offered to him for putting himself in dirdt
communication with the public. Among the many
of his success that are peculiar to himself, eis
causes his opinions, sentiments,
and of personally expressing
assemblies,
and purposes, in personal addresses. to public•
or in direct written communications through accredited
Ministerial organs, has taken a prominent place. It is
in this way, indeed, that the Emperor has striven to a
certain extent to compensate for that denial of free
public discussion which the peculiar state of France,
politically speaking, has compelled him to impose upon
his people. •
We are not surprised therefore that his Imperial Ma-
esty should have thought fit to deliTer A speech peter.