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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(Front 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-
siert 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, sir the pretence of feel-
ing, or the aheence 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 r rutes 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
France, become our Ally, and entered heartily with us
into the arduous task of keeping Russia within bounds.
They wished to see the man who has done this, so to
speak, with his own hand,—the man who actually
governs a great nation by no means easy to be governed.
They wished also to see the lady whom they somehow
regal.] 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 am put out of the question. Nepoleon 11. de-
rives more real greatness from his union with the object
of his affection than if he bad married a daughter of the
beuee of Austria on the faith of a portrait or a diplomatic
report. These may. perhaps, be thought no very suffi-
cient reasons Sir a grand ovation ; and the Londoners
may be set down as a crowd of gaping spectacle-hunters,
ready to go any where to look at an Emperor, and just
now in crowds, simply because this week is poeitively
the last as well as the first of the exhibition. Be it se.
Let the thing be as vulgar as it may, nevertheless the
fact remains that the spectacle of this week is net a mere
repetiti ,n 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 eve a fifteen guineas, for a
stall ticket. No one can deny that something more
than curiosity prompted many of that numsrous but
very select body of spectators. It wee something more
than the knowledge that they saw before thein what
Erielaed and France had wished in vain to see for five
several centuries. The British people may or may not
be under a mist ke or a deluei,e, hut they certainly saw
in that group a picture of amity and friendly union that
may lest as long as the previous reign of jealousy rind
distrust. Every street through which the friendly caval-
cade passed yesterday to the city, and afterwards to
Crivent-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 same 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 be given
to congratulations which Heaven itself has countenance]
with its miles, and which may, perhaps, express a vele,
superficial feeling, and a too transient blessing. We
only think it bad philosophy, as well as bad taste, to dis-
parage this brilliant reception as a matter of course, and
a " vain repetition." This is simply not the fact.

( From the Morning Herald of this day. )
The enthusiasm manifested towards the Emperor and
Empress of the French has hitherto experienced no dimi-
nution. Yesterday all the approaches which marked
the Imperial visit to the city were crowded with throngs
of earnest and expectant spectators. London had turned
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 our wea-
ther-beaten countrymen and countrywomen worth some
few miles of rail ; some few hours of standing in the dry
and dusty streets ; some few hundred thumps and ahoy-
ings, which fa.,l to the lot of all thorough-paced .sight-
seers in this empire. Her Majesty seemed to feel and
uoderstaod this, 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, fir beauty,
grace, and kindliness, far beyend the limits of that em-
pire in the rule of which she hag been associated. For
n'neteen persons whose first query will be made in re-
lerea !e to toe Emperor, ninety and nine will have in-
quired anent the Repress. The geod folkain Seven-d als
and Drury lane, utterly ignorati, and careless of diplo-
macy, indifferent to our doings at Sebastopol, except so
ter as they-would be glad to see " the Rooshiane" well
drubbed, were discussing con amore, in our own herr-
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, carri.iges, an carts.
All this must be familiar enough to Napoleon 111.
He has not passed so many years in this country as n-it
to know oar stational peculiarities. He is not so Too-
rat,t of the nature of E, glishinen 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 net 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 occasien 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 himselt 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 masses 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
be a warm friend to England I 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 regafel the visit of
the Empress as one of the most important consequences
of this august presence. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon
1., or eeiy other personage who Lae taken hold of our
imagination by the splendour of his victories, or the
greatness of h;s 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. 'eight
have put out a great many manifestoes and proctols, he
might gave 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 aelescent to the sister
kingdom, and has been educatedsin England, without
its effect.
Let us hope that this is not the only instance of such
visits. Let us hope that the time has cone when Sove-
reigns as well as their subjects may view each others'
kingdoms without fear and without suspicions. The
period is past for both when true patriotism was con-
sidered violated by such visits. Long since has the
notion beeeti exploded that a desire to see and profit by
the improvements of foreign countries was a necessary
n.emation of being discontented with one's own. Cer-
tain y, after such a sight as was witiies.e l yesterd ,y,
the people of this country will find it hard to persuade
themselves that Napoleon 111. or the Empress Eugenie
can ever be their enemy. We shall all be lotbe to ima-
gine that they who have trusted themselves so frankly
to oar hospitality can ever be among the number of its
willing violaters. It is a great thing to have removed
generally from the winds of Englishmen the persuasion
that nothing could render us the faithful allies of the
French. It is still more to have itop'anted in the minds
of those whose prejudices linger the longest the convic-
tion that a French rifler can be as dear to us as our own
welcomed by a Iraq majority of the people of this na-
tion with an enthusiasm and respect not less than what
they are accustomed to pay to their own Sovereign.