The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-03 00:00:00

7
JANUARY 3, 1852.

S PIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TILE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY. ato
TINIES.—The ceremony at the Cathedral of Notre
Dame, which combined in one solemnity the corm
mencement of the new year and the commencement s!
of what m sy be termed the new reign, was accompa-
nied by all that magnificence of display which is so
well underatool by the priests, the military, and the
upholsterers of Paris. To such of the spectators of
this new pageant as cared for anything beyond the
fugitive splendour of the hour, the most striking part
of it must have been the contrast between the scene
before them and the long series of events in which it
forms a part. Upon how many triumphs and how
many dynasties, upon how much of life and how
much of death, upon what endless mutability of
greatness and of fortune, have the ancient altars and
arches of Notre Dame looked down! The church
has withheld her incense and her consecrating wafers
from no votaries of power that approached her shrines.
Her Te Deums have pealed alike for every victory in
every cause of the just and of the unjust ; nor has she
inquired aught of the fate of those who have pasted
in rapid succession from the loftiest scenes of earthly
homage to the suffering and degradation of de-
thronement, exile, and defeat. With no disposi-
tion to speak or think lightly of thou, religious
engagements which constitute the most &appro-
priate sanction of the great actions of society and
government, we cannot hold observances sacred which
are only used to gloss over a patent violation of law
and justice, nor ii it a palliation of actions so opposed
to the rules of human morality that their authors still
presume to invoke the favous of Heaven. Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte has reache4 Notre Dame and
the Tuileries. He sees beneath biiri a nation pros-
trate and subservient to his will. He ha's been borne
onwards by a tide of events independent, siiiataany
respects, of his own character or abilities. Without
the genius or the extraordinary achievements of his
uncle, he finds himself in a position not very dis-
similar from that which would have descended to him
by the Senatus Consultum of 1804 ; and he com-
mences his irresponsible administration of France at
an age not much inferior to that at which the Emperor
Napoleon closed his career. Thus far everything has
favoured his ambition. The destruction of constitu-
tional monarchy was accomplished not by himself, but
by the Republic; the Republic inflicted on the nation j ust
enough of humiliation and terror to induce the French to
hail their deliverer with an unanimity due chiefly to the
sense of their own danger and weakness. Nothing
was wanting to complete the predominant illusion of
the hour. Yet, to the more cool and dispassionate
eyes of the world there is something unreal in this
mock throne, which has risen like the decoration of a
pantomime ; something unnatural and artificial in the
impulse which has precipitated 8,000,000 of men to
declare their faith in a Government whose character
would not be improved if it were better known, and
in institutions chiefly adopted because they are not
known at all. Assuming, however, as it is now our
duty to do, that the late revolution has passed beyond
the reach of our diurnal commentary, and belongs
henceforth to history, we readily acknowledge that
Louis Napoleon is entitled in fairness to be judged by
his future acts, and we wish we could foresee that
those acts are likely to induce us to reverse any por-
tion of the opinions we have recorded on the origin
of his power. Up to the revolution of the 2d of De-
cember it was constantly asserted that his vigorous
conceptions and enlightened intentions were
frustrated by the machinations of the Na-
tional Assembly. The responsibility be now
bears is undivided, and he himself assured the
Consultative Commission, on the last day of the year,
that "he hoped to found institutions which respond
at the same time to the democratic instincts of the
nation, and to the universally expressed desire to
have a strong and respected Government ; in short,
to create a system which reconstitutes authority
without wounding the feeling of equality, and so to
lay the foundations of the only edifice capable of sup-
porting a wise and beneficent liberty." The value of
these expressions remains to be ascertained by expe-
rience ; for though we are accused by Louis Napo-
leon's partisans of a narrow and ignorant insensibility
to the brilliancy and novelty of the system he is now
about to introduce to the world, we shall suspend our
judgment till such time as its results are made known
to us. In the meanwhile we are not ashamed to con-
fess our incredulity of any new or startling discoveries
in political science. All that we have lately seen bears
a striking resemblance to occurrences as old as the de-
praved empire of later Rome. Much indeed of what is
modern and excellent in social or political improvement
—freedom of trade, the destruction of monopolies,
the right of unlimited testamentary disposition, the
power of association, and many institutions of a phi-
lanthropic character—are new to France, and might
be introduced into her social system with advantage
to the nation at large. But which of these reforms
can be expected from an arbitrary Government, with-
out the liberty of the press and without the support
of the intelligent classes which is so essential to the
defence of enlightened innovations? The very touch
of despotic power petrifies that vital energy without
which no social changes can be successfully accom-
plished; and as for the notion that the active and con-
tinual intervention of the State is to provide employ-
ment for the industrious, relief for the pour, and re-
sources for the whole community, that is a delusion
akin to M. Louis Blanc's organization of labour,
which must end in pauperism and ruin. The princi-
ple of equality may indeed be respected, for that
principle is nowhere so consistently applied as in States
where all men are equally dependent on a common
master, and in which one man is exalted that
all others may be equally depressed. But
these are the institutions of Turkey rather
than of France, and it is impossible in a
nation where talent and industry are perpetually
struggling for distinctions of every kind, that society
should be reduced to the dead level of Oriental barba-
rism. Nay, the very acts of Louis Napoleon, as well
as of the Emperor Napoleon, show that such is not
their policy. Their political councils bear the stamp
of privileged bodies, their influence over the army is
strengthened by the attractions of a military aristo-
cracy, and, though the President may brave the
middle classes, he will neither attack the highest nor
affront the lowest order of the people. The Constitu-
tion will more perfectly disclose the forms by which
the Government is to be conducted, but they are of
secondary importance, since the whole spirit and
policy of the Administration arc to be those of Louis
Napoleon himself. 'We give him credit for a desire
to succeed in the task which he has assumed, since the
duration of his own power must eventually depend on
the satisfaction he may afford to the expectations of
the country. But the promises he has given, the
hopes he has raised, perhaps the notions he has him-
self formed, appear to us to differ widely from the
practical and positive necessities of his position ; and
we fear that the lofty idea of a transcendental empire
will soon turn out to be neither other nor bettor than
the old devices and oppressions of vulgar despotism.
HERALD.—Louis Napoleon has inaugurated his
new power with Regal, or rather let us say Imperial
splendour. All that remains of public institutions in
France, everything around which there clings an
agreeable association—the Church, the army, the
magistracy, and the municipalitiea, have been duly
marshalled into a magnificent tableau, of which the
son of Louis, the best of Napoleon's brothers, and the
Emperor's destined heir, forms the main figure, to
which the rest are but subordinate appendages.
Escorted from Notre Dame, where the ceremonies,
purposely copied after those of the imperial corona-
tion, by civil and military authorities to the Tuile-
ries, where he, the Emperor's heir, was born, what
still small voice of prudence or of policy forbids him
to take the crown for which he need only stretch forth
his band ? Contented with the solid reality
does he shrink from the needless embarres intent ofot
of powtera,
showy title, calculated to awaken recollections
military glory clouded by memories of military .
disas-
ter ? Has he laid to heart the lessons of htstoarys well
rived fromthe greatest period of the monarchy, 11
r Louis
as from the matchless career of the Emperor
XIV. for a time ran as rapid a career of unscrupulous
ale raised the
success as did Napoleon himself.
and splendour, and
Monarchy to its apogee of power
roved to be the
yet the moment of its greatest gloryn
prove and 181
e
eve of :its decline—so that betwee
very stron suggest'
there might be established
hat
Franc
Louislve
analogies. We can hardly believet
Napoleon find himself able to guide s safely
through the ten years he has assigned himself, he
would be more willing
then than now to fulfil an en-
gagement which he has habituated his mind to read
by
the known disposition of the people. The country
which, by the almost universality of its vote, absolves
him now, would absolve him again. Still, it would be
a rash sort of speculation, that which taould pretend to
forecast the operation of a mind exposed to the influ-
ence of unparalleled circumstances. Hitherto Louis
Napoleon has exhibited unusual mastery over himself
under circumstances of irritating provocation. There
can be no doubt that when the worst construct'
was put upon his motives and conduct—when he
was insulted and snubbed from the tribune of the
Assembly by some of the most trusted leaders of the
majority, and the minority encouraged to mark its
derision—when he was treated as one under a sur-
veillance which was only to terminate at Vincennes,
—there can be no doubt that throughout these tan-
talising
_circumstances he felt as well aware of the
popular masses of strength at his disposal as he did on

[PRICE SD.

Wednesday evening at the moment the Consultative
Rommission announced to him formally the result of
appal to the country. To the five millions and a
tittalvho in 1848 gave their vote 3 to a name, are now
tined two millioLs more to the ruler, of whom they
tiave all had three years' experience. To himself may
he take the cre-lit of this great manifestation of a
nation's confidence. " What will he do with

it ?" will b 3 askti by every thinking per-
son in all parts of the civilized world. Some
will attribute good, end others the reverse of
good intentions. There are those who will

find shelter for their own sagacity in mixed motives.
Will the man control circumstances, or circumstances
the man? Will he adroitly temporise, and try to
evade and turn difficulties, or yield impulsively to the
first sudden gust of military enthusiasm or pupular
passion ? What he has been will he continue to be

—a calm sagacious judge of passing events. Used as
he is to reflection on history and politics, tempered
and tried in prison solitude—used to the exercise of
mind, unused to the exercise of arms ; at that mature
middle-age period of life when habits and tastes are
formed, and passions for unaccustomed adventure not
easily begot—may it not be hoped that his ambition
will be that of the law-giver rather than that of the
conqueror ? Under the cold exterior of that impas-
sible man there lies a deep enthusiasm. That cool head
is not free from mysticism. He believes in his star, and
he has run the course of semi-Socialist reflections, argu-
ing aspirations rather after improvements of society by
moans of better systems than of warlike adventures.
The victories of Napoleon have vanished as the mere
pageantry of history—the Code rests the great solid
memorial of his fame. So far such indications as we

have seen of Louis Napoleon's disposition point to
administration. Having turned his attention long
and gravely to Socialist doctrines, he has discovered
their unsoundness; and their inevitable results in a

subversion of society and irremediable anarchy.
With more doubtful and less certain reasonings, he
has come to equally adverse conclusions as regards
representative institutions. Viewed as a temporary
system and limited expedient, we might be argued
into the propriety of allowing the all-controlling
power with which the French Executive means to
endow itself. Society has received such a shake as
to need perhaps the unshackled exercise over it of a
single arm. French parties are so disorganized and
broken up, and the leadino.is men of the country so
filled with resentment and dissatisfaction, that it
may be the case that at this moment there would not
be the means of getting together a numerous As-
sembly ready to make those sacrifices of personal
with an independent
feeling to the general tranquillity which the President
and his Government deem to be indispensable. But,
however, constitutional Government, as we understand
it, witchamber,h
laws sent up by the more impassioned and more de-
pendent representatives of popular constituencies, the
ttsreca hteicnkgs, as and balances,
high court of appeal, the
whole kept in proper place by unquestionable autho •
rity—this system, proved by experience to be so well
a
suited to the present state of society, is one to which
we think France will in calmer times revert as if by

natural impulse. Whether Louis Napoleon means
that the charter which, with the sanction of the
French people, he is about to bestow, limiting very
materially the scope of Parliamentary privileges as hi-
therto received—whether he means that this shall be
permanent, is more than we can even surmise; nor
need we dwell in conjectures upon the subject, because
hie own sagacity may fairly be trusted to meet the exi-
gencies of future requirements. In his present actions
he shows remarkable acquaintance with the character
of the French people. The Parisians are delighted at
seeing the Tuileries thrown open for receptions, which
recal the happy times of Royalty, because, notwith-
standing the unsteadiness of their political principles,
they are, of all people in the world, rendered the most
uncomfortable by a derangement of their social habits.
The name of President of the Republic signifies little,
so long as they have the spectacle, the pomp, the
pageantry, and all the circumstances of a metropolitan
Court. Public show is a necessary of Paris public
life, which even the Provisional Government acknow-
ledged when, instead of Spartan or Roman severity,
they borrowed the ballet dancers of the Opera to fill
parts in Pagan processions, and organized public fetes
more suited to a luxurious empire in its decline than to
a young republic. If power, whatever be its name or
form, must have scenic decorations, better surely the
solemnities of Notre Dame and the Tuileries than the
monster reviews of 300,000 National Guards, and the
open-day semi-nudities of the Champs de Mars. In-
stead, therefore, of seeing the Empire in the New
Year's-day ceremonies of Paris, we rather recognise
certain scenic necessities skilfully adapted to the tastes
of a sight-loving population.
DAILY NEWS.—It is asserted that one of the
reasons of Lord Pahnerston's retirement was the de-
mand, or something like a demand, made by n high
member of the Cabinet—not Lord John Russell—of
a personage in the confidence of the Elysee, to obtain
an assurance from Louis Napoleon that he meant
scrupulously to respect the treaties of Vienna. Could
this be announced at the opening of Parliament, it
would, it was said, be of the best effect. We by no
means wish to give any opinion at present on the
wisdom or the inexpediency of making such a de-
mand. But we are compelled to state it, in order to
record the very important fact that such demand was
not complied with. Our contemporary, the Times,
which revealed to the world the fact of the demand,
now admits that it was met by evasion or refusal.
The Times adds that Louis Napoleon is about to send
confidential agents to the four chief Courts which
constitute the Powers of the Congress of Vienna,
in order to sound their opinions on different
subjects, but especially relative to how far the
delimitations of the treaty of Vienna are to be consi-
dered sacred. Oar correspondent writes, that it is
M. Persigny who is to proceed to Frankfort, there to
commune with the representatives of the great powers
assembled in the Diet. M. Persigny went upon a
similar errand before. At a time when Prussia was
making head against a hostile league, of which Aus-
tria and Bavaria were the chief members, Louis Na-
poleon sent M. Persigny to Berlin, where it is well
known he made offer of all aid and alliance, provided
he were allowed to take that portion of the Bavarian
Palatinate left to France in the treaty of 1814, but
taken from France in the treaty of 1815, by way of
punishment for the outburst of Waterloo. This track
contains the important fortress of Landau, as well as
Sarre Louis, Pailippeville, and Merienburg. Landau
was garrisoned, like Mayence, by federal troope%
In
the Rhenish insurrection, however, Landau had_D been
seized or had gone over to the insurgentsi n
Prince of Prussia had recaptured and rex
saonded theit.
Louis Napoleon's demand of the frontier 1814_0_
0f
is not, we believe, the first. The elder Bourbons
reckoned
Psi.
onedTohniergs,etwtihnog
saw
twwtirtalsc
traces of
consentfthe
negotiationo inf Russia.
And
his office when in
power, made
hoped to gain the
only difference was, that M.
Thiersno secarentdofsuitpn.pgolrTatnbdoef,
thaen dasse
supportntof E
that Rasa
restitution with the assent
Rthuesealida.er Bmo.urrbeorsnigevnyith represented
com-
mon object to all the sovereigns of the continent that
Louis Napoleon should succeed, should put down the
republic and anarchy, and that for this purpose it
was requisite that he should have something to show
pride, as his acquisition fur her. He,
the t was
frontierpe peaceful eat fhualt
tLooFuirsaNncaepwholieton
Napoleon, had rather not do this) by war.
What
conquest. He would
be
the allied powers bad
given to France in 1814, being the frontier in 1792.
content he aimed
with a
it does not appear that M. Persi n 's representation
i
made the least impress g
on upon the Court of Berlin,
which had enough of enmities
on its hands, without
embarking in a French alliance, and which, whatever
its cause of complaint against Bavaria
and
Austria, couldscarcely
have lent itself to
a convention that would have deprived
her
own Rhenish possessions of their German frontier
and defence. M.
Persigny failed, as a Presidential
diplomatist. He is now about to try whether he may
not succeed as an Imperial one. A great deal might
be said on both sides. But for the present we can
augur nothing but failure and disappointment from
the mission of M. Persigny and of the other Napo-
leonite envoys in their efforts to get the territorial
arrangements of 1815 altered for those of 1814. It is
to be now regretted that the three great Powers has e
shown so little respect for that treaty of Vienna
whose decision they affect to regard as sacred.
Russia has done precisely what she pleased with these
treaties, in the case of Poland and of Cracow. The
treaty of Vienna stipulated that German states should
have consti,utions, and that certain German cities
should be independent and free. When the Powers
of the East insist on Louis Napoleon rigidly respect-
ing the treaties of Vienna, he can reply, "In what I
propose I respect them just as much as you have
done yourselves." Should the diplomacy of the
Elysea assume this tone,' it would at least not be
weak in its logic, however defective in principle or
honesty.
,on

GIVAZZI AT EXETER, HALL.—Last night Father
Gavazzi delivered one of his stirring addresses at Exeter Hall
upon the spiritual and temporal influences of the Papccy.
The address was listened to with breathless attention, and
elicited constant bursts of enthusiastic applause. It was di-
vided into two parts, and at the close of each a brief inter-
pretation was offered by the Rev. Mr. Rule. At the conclu-
sion of the addresses, which altogether occupied nearly three
hours, a vote of thanks was unanimously passed to the elo-
quent Father Gravazzi, turd the proceedings closed•