The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-25 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The Ist battalion of the 6th Regiment (Royal let
a_rfrAickshire), under the command of Lieut.-Col.
-I.‘,()nNN*: D. Lowe, C. 8., arrived at Aldershott on
Monday and Tuesday in two divisions. The bat-
talion is at present
]roes,
in the I and. K lines,
North Camp, mid y
prutcd shortly to South Camp. but is ex-
go unindeicdavas. Its strength is
29 officers, 36 sergeants
and file. Capt. Haws troop rufmmers, and 655 rank
the Ist Royal Dra-
goon Guards arrived at odberesandott on Thursday
from Birmingham ; and the -arters, under
Robert Wardlaw,
the command of Lieut.-Col.
marched in on the following day,an sanof the 6th
beingd met at
Farnborough and played in by theb
Lancers, and
Dragoon Guards (Carabineers), 12th L
13th Hussars. Tne 59th Regiment (2d
hamshire), under the command of Lieut.-Col. W.W.nl-
- is appointed to arrive at Aldershott on on
Wednesday, the 26th inst., from Dover. It will
he attacrled to the Ist Brigade, and will be quar-
tered in A, B, and E iines, South Camp. The 2d
battalion of the 60th Rfies, under Lieut.-Col.
F. R. Palmer, C. 8., is expected at Aldershott
in the course of the present week from Gosport.
The Ist battalion of the sth (Northumberland)
Fusiliers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Master, C. 8.,
is to leave Aldershott for Shorncliffe to-morrow,
the 261:11 inst; and on the next day, the 26th
Cameronians, under Lieut.-Col. Carey, also take
their departure. The head-quarters and five com-
panies are under orders for Gosport ; three com-
panies go to Portland, one to Weymouth, and one
to Marcbwood. Mr. Coxwell's balloon ascent, which
was to have taken place on Monday last, with the
view of experimenting and taking observations of
the movements of troops, to have been disposed for
that Purpose, did not come off, the aneroid indicat-
ing that stormy weather was at hand. In the mean-
time the ascent has been indefinitely postponed.

THE F:

TIONS.

(FromGalignana's Messenger.)
The letter of Count de Persigny to the Prefect of
the Seine on the subject of M. Thier election is
the object of very sharp attacks on the part of the
non-official journals, and of unreserved eulogium
from those which support the Government. The
following taken from the Constitutionnel will give
an idea of the tone adopted by these last-mentioned
organs of public opinion :
" The veil is at length torn away, and we congra-
tulate the Government upon the fact. The intrigues
of both the clever and the simple are shown to the
world. The dream of certain adversaries of the
Empire was to obtain the acceptation of M. Theirs
by the Government, partly from its own accord and
partly by force, to quietly introduce him into the
Legislative Body, under some ill-defined colours
which would permit even the friends of the Go-
vernment to receive him upon the benches of the
Chamber, and to group around him as admirers of
his oratorical talent. Personally M. Thiers would
not be an obstacle to any Government. He pos-
sesses more intelligence than character. If on the
one hand he has shown how little dynasties weigh
in the balance of his self-love, on the other his
want of firmness causes him to be little feared as an
adversary. M. Thiers must therefore be only looked
upon as an instrument in hostile hands—an instru-
ment, however, which the passions of those who
influence him have but very unskilfully handled.
When they induced M. Thiers, in spite of his un-
willingness, to go to the Broglie meeting, their
only object was to show that he was in their hands;
in that, they rendered a service to the Government
whose generosity would probably have been taken
by surprise, if M. Thiers had presented him-
self alone without the significant cortege im-
posed upon him. At present what does it
matter to ne? Universal suffrage will cer-
tainly defeat its own enemies. But even should
M. Thiers, by an impossibility, obtain success, he
would have little to boast of. Isolated in the midst
of the new Assembly—a general without soldiers—
confronting a resolute Government—he would be
reduced to share with M. Jules Favre, on certain
days and at certain moments, the command of the
Five, and he would soon regret that the position
resulting from his weakness should not have been
spared to his merit. He would have done better to
continue to write excellent works for future gene-
rations, for with talent books may be written, but
a man cannot govern without resolution."
On the other hand, the Prase, the Temps, the
Gazette de France, and the Debats strongly disap-
prove of the hon. Minister's letter, and seem to im-
ply that the fact of M. Thiers appearing before the
electors did not call for any such intervention. We
select from among the journals just named the fol-
lowing observations from the Debats :
" The letter is not only, in fact, a manifesto
against a candidate, but a declaration of principles
which, if the words of the Minister had the force of
law, would engage not the present alone, but also
the future of the Imperial Government. The Mi-
nister of the Interior does not indeed accuse M.
Thiers of making too little account of the electoral
oath, and of entering the Chamber with the pre-
conceived design of overthrowing the present system
of Government. More equitable than those jour-
nals which people imagine, erroneously no doubt,
to receive official inspiration, Count de Persigny
does not go so far as to make such an insinuation.
What, then, is the reproach he brings against M.
Thiers ? Nothing less than that he wishes to re-
establish a system of Government which removes
authority from its natural basis to throw it as food
for the passions of the Tribune,' that is to say, if the
naked truth may be told, a mode of government more
completely constitutional. M. Thiers is simply ace
cussed of wishing to introduce into the Imperial
Constitution, without the least intention of destroy-
ing it, institutions which, if not absolutely the
same, are at least analogous to those which France
possessed, under different names and in various de-
grees, from 1815 to 1854. If we were disposed to
indulge in the easy pleasure of proving the Minister
of the Interior to be in contradiction with himself,
we might perhaps inquire what that liberty is
which he so much admires in England and inces-
santly offers to us as the future reward of our good
behaviour; we might ask what is to be understood
by that favourite expression English liberty,' so
frequently employed by the Minister of the Interior.
Bat we will content ourselves with observing that,
notwithstanding all the powers with which he is
invested, the Minister of the Interior has no legal
right to engage the future of the Government in so
absolute a manner; our Constitution is eminently
perfectible ; it has already undergone useful amelio-
rations, and no one has a right to fix beforehand an
impassable limit to these salutary modifications. To
the Emperor and the Senate is left the care of pro-
posing or accomplishing these improvements."
The same journal remarks in these terms on the
Address to the King of Prussia before the Chamber
of Deputies at Berlin :
"It is respectful to the Crown, firm with regard
to the privileges of the Chamber, worthy of a great
assembly, and deserving the approbation of all
honest men. Taken as a whole, this manifesto can
be displeasing to none but the Bismark Ministers.
King William 1., if he were wise and have a just
idea of the duties of a patriotic, liberal, and Christian
King
,(the true definition of a modern Sovereign),
will not considerit as offensive to him. However, with
the Prussian Chamber there is always some reserve
to be made. The Address reproaches the Ministry
with not having promoted the progress of Ger-
man unity. This introduction of the question of
German unity into the address has a threefold in-
convenience. In the first place it was imprudent
to complicate an internal question, sufficiently grave
of itself, with an external question of no less gra-
vity ; secondly, the progress of German unity does
not absolutely depend on any Prussian Ministry,
whatever it may be; and, in third place, if the Bis-
mark Ministry be unassailable on any matter in a
Prussian point of view, it is with regard to the
efforts it has made to secure the extension of the
Prussian influence and policy in Germany. This is
proved by its conduct in the affair of Hesse. The
fault does not altogether lie with M. de Bismark if
Prussia, after long being the exclusive depository
of German civilisation, suddenly finds herself in the
presence of an Austria regenerated by liberty."
The Siecle has received the following" communi-
cated note" from the Ministry of the Interior:—
" The Steele has formed objections on two different
occasions to the form in which the Prefect of the
Seine has introduced to the electors of each of the
nine electoral circumscriptions of this department
the candidate recommended by the Emperor's Go-
vernment,and lias also asked by what right that
functionary
had placed the expenses of that publi-
city at the charge of the public money. The official
designation of candidates in view of legislative or
other elections is not only the legitimate exercise
ofdu
ttyh.e
Ito vvie rans
lGm,oconkte dbount
of
as such in 1848 by M. Jules Favre, the present
of the department of the
Opposition candidate in the fifth circumscription
Seine, ription
w
was
Under-Secretary of State with M. Ledru-Rollin
at the Ministry of the Interior, and by M. Emilie
011ivier, Opposition candidate in the third, when
he was extraordinary commissioner in the depart-
ments of the Bouches-du-Rhone and the Var to the
same Ledru-Rollin, and not, as was lately stated by
mistake, to General Cavaignac, who had put an end
to M. 011ivier's revolutionary office after the events
of June, and in consequence of thr disorders at Mar-
seilles, so firmly repressed by General Parchappe.
The designation of the candidates supported by the
Government is therefore en act of Governmental
authority, effected in the public interest, and not in
e ss
ne loi vt: sec.
an. That i
bn e
js-
twho
yhe
ysi nti
htt eear
sesssautn
imoeef
si tmthhme e
uc
fnaonirtdrei ds a.O ti e
Bs official
ethsied
m not
id
that the administrative ex'penselsnisn
each
department are derived from an annual allowance
agreed upon as a composition, and for that reason
the public treasury is completely disinterested in
the question of expenses, raised by the Siecle.
Consequently, if the Prefect of the Seine rightly
thinks that he should support alone the expense of
his public acts, that manner of viewing the dignity
of his functions will not affect in any way the State
Budget. As to the circulars of the candidates re-
commended by the Government, they are printed
upon coloured paper, and distributed at their own
expense."