The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-03 00:00:00

EVENING,

TUE SDA Y

distely the investigation touchc,s upon that point the
eyes of the House of Commo❑s will be directed
simultaneously and unanimously upon the late
Foreign Secretary. Not only the representatives
of the people, but the people themselves, will look
to Lord PALMERSTON for some explanation. Confident

of the integrity of the course pursued by him during the
whole period of his continuance in office, and equally
satisfied at the same time of the insecurity and
weakness of the rest of the members of the Admi-

nistration, the community demand at the hands of
the Noble Lord a statement such as cannot but prove

at once exculpatory of his own conduct, and damna-
tory of the conduct of his ministerial colleagues.
It is anticipated, therefore, that within a very brief
interval from the opening of the present session of
Parliament, the late Foreign Secretary will render
an account of his stewardship. In doing so, in

showing that he has maintained peace with the rest of
. .

he world during these years of revolution, in show-

ing that he has upheld meanwhile the dignity of the
English Government throughout the whole of the va-
rious states of Christendom, in showing all these as the
fruits of his foreign policy and in revealing, at the
same time, the ingratitude with which his patriotic
course of administration has been at length followed

up by the head of the present Cabinet.—Lord
PAL-
MERSTON must inevitably pronounce the doom of the
Whig Ministry, necessarily driving his recent col-
leagues into the dilemma either of a disgraceful dis-
missal or of an ignominious resignation. Every-

thing, in fact, assures the country that, if the Whigs
have still remaining amongst them the feeblest and
faintest sense of decency, they will at length tardily,
but ultimately, resign. Should they, however, still en-
deavour to braz:m out their position, as they did during
the whole of last session clinging with inexhaustible
tenacity to place and power, notwithstanding a suc-
cession of the most degrading defeats, they must
speedily, wa feel assured, be driven from the Trea-
sury benches by the odium in which they are held
by the population, an odium which will inevitably
be wrought to an irresistible climax by the dis-
closures expected from the lips of Lord PALMERSTON.
Long before the original construction of Lord
Joule Russsu.'s Government, it had grown into a
sort of political axiom that the Whigs are best in
opposition. The policy they have generally pursued
during the whole period of their administration bas,
unfortunately for the country, only served to afford to
this saying a new and crowning illustration. They will
consequently be driven from the Treasury benches
without any serious regrets on the part of the com-
munity, or rather, we should say, with the exultations
which cannot but be felt at the debasement of men
who have so very grievously disappointed the national
expectations. The secret of the failure of the Whigs,
when in office, appears to be that they cannot in any
degree recognise the wisdom of th It noble thought of
SALLLST—imperium facile its artibus retinetur quibus
initio partum est—they cannot perceive that power is
effectually maintained by the very means by which it
is acquired. They seem to imagine that the country
will remain satisfied with the fair promises held out by
a Party whenever it happens to be in opposition, and
that those promises are not to be looked upon as any
real assurance from the Party on its acquisition of the
prerogatives of Government. Not so was it with her
MAJESTY'S Government when presided over by Sir
ROBERT PEEL—rather, we should say, the contrary.
For, with regard to the PEEL Cabinet, the most
valuable and the most liberal reforms hinted at by
the MELBOURNE Cabinet where by it actually real-
ized—insomuch that the people recognising this before
the close of its career greeted the fall of Sir ROBERT
from power with an enthusiasm never perhaps
excited to a similar extent by the rise of any other
statesman. Very different will be the fall of Lord
Jour; RUSSELL from that of his great pre-
decessor. The contrast presented by the two
events will be matter worthy of record on
the pages of their future biographies. One reflection,
more especially, will tend to embitter the thoughts
of the present Prime Minister on the occasion of
his speedy retirement from the direction of the affairs
of Government, and that reflection, it is scarcely ne-
cessary to observe, will be one to the effect that he
can never hope to resume the position he will then
vacate as First Lord of the Treasury. The perish-
able nature of terrestrial greatness will again be
exemplified— quidquid in aLtum fortuna tulit, ruitura
levat—only in this instance the illustration will be
the more melancholy from the consideration that
the downfall will be one unredeemed by any
attributes of dignity. The desperate efforts made
by Lord Joan RUSSELL to retain power in his hands
at all costs have altogether weaned from him the
sympathies of the general multitude. His coquet-
ting with politicians of another school from his in
several essential particulars, with a view to patch to-
gether his decayed and tumble-down Administration,
betrayed on his part a lamentable preference of place
preference none the less conspicuous
for principle—a
from the circumstance that those coquetries were un-
successful. Fac is like these cannot be overlooked—
neither can they, when once seen, be very readily
forgotten. Besides which, the people are not by any
means likely to lose sight of the jealousy
evinced by the Prime Minister at the eleventh
hour for the most notable among all the statesmen
of his Administration, one whom he was glad to
rid himself of upon any pretext, and perhaps not the
less eagerly, from the fact that upon him was con-
centrated all the popularity yetremaining to the Whig
Government. The circurar,tance that the GREY-
RUSSELL Cabinet will owe to the fact of the dismissal
of Lord PALMERSTON its OWn ultimate disruption,
will " point a moral," if it
cannot also " adorn a
tale," evidencing, as it will do, a very noble and
striking retribution.

In the tempest of indignation which the recen
rigorous proceedings of the PRESIDENT of the French
Republic have evoked on the part of divers of our public
journalists, the barefaced political swindling tyranny
of certain of the " anointed heads" of the continent ap-
pears to be all but forgotten. Writers who can de-
claim in sounding phrase against the coup d itat of
the anniversary of Austerlitz, and its consequences
are affected with a happy indifference to the whole-
sale despotism of the ie•
—AISERLING of Austria, who
seems resolutely bent on manifesting to Christendom
the most odious phases of irresponsible autocracy.
This spirit of iron rule has extended even outside the
actual limits of his empire, and the insolence of his
armed slaves has polluted the peaceful soil of Tus-
cany. The recent outrage committed in Florence on
a British citizen would not, we feel well assured, be
suffered to let pass with impunity, were Lord PAD-
MERESTON still our Secretary for the Foreign Depart-
ment; but, although a solemn investigation has been
promised, and is even in the course of proceeding in
that city, as to the circumstances of the ruffianly
assault of which Mr. ERSKINE MATHER has been the
victim, we have grievous misgivings as to its satis-
factory issue under the existing Ministerial regime.
It will turn out, we apprehend, to be but a solemn
farce, played with all due gravity and mystification,
The police magistrate of the district had been en-
gaged for three weeks in taking the deposition of wit-
nesses with closed doors. The testimony of the
Austrians had been received by him ; but before that
on the part of the aggrieved person could be com-
pletely given the case was suddenly removed to one
of the civil courts. Whether during that time any
means were resorted to for the purpose of intimidat-
ing Mr. MATHER'S witnesses may be readily con-
jectured by those who know anything of the exquisite
police system of Austria and her neighbours. The
result is pretty sure to be an exculpation, most likely
a laudatory one, of the officer who cut Mr. MATHER
down, and very probably an order to the latter to
quit the country. But much as we sympathise with
that outraged gentleman ,to whom even an apology,
or the offer of compensation—supposing such an
eventuality—can but poorly atone for such gross bar-
barity, we view the matter as involving much graver
considerations. Are the persona of civilians, foreign
or domestic, to be in any country of Europe at the
mercy of Of course
unchecked Janissaries ? in
such a case as that to which we have alluded, the
ruffianism strikes us the more glaringly, because per-
petrated on a felleiv-country wen, but the in-
terests of civilised society, nay, of common
humanity, demand the most indignant reprehension
of' military licentiousness in time of peace.
Other amiabilities cf the Austrian soldiery
quartered in the Tuscan capital have likewise trans-
pired, fully corroborating the rampant exaltation of
of civil life, which
armed violence over the rights

signalises the paternal principle of government props-
gated by the Boy-EmPERoa. Yet this systematic i
disregard of the ordinary principles of humanity
which was first prominently developed in the flogging
of Hungarian females, and has now been " fined off '
to the mere stabbing and maiming of street-passengers,
is passed by as if it were only the display of some
amiable weakness not worth commenting on, whilst
the acts of Louis NAPOLEON are held up as the
quintessence of unscrupulous cruelty and execrable
violation of all honour and honesty. Making every
fair allowance for the immense difficulties of his dizzy
position, and believing that he feels conscientiously
convinced of the soundness and applicability to the
French nation of the principles on which his system
of government is based, we have not hesitated to con-
demn his extreme and unwarrantable stretch of
power relative to the property of the OR-
LEANS family, nor can we contemplate
without disapprobation his severe repression
of the press, and several features in the constitution
of the legislative bodies. But whilst cut-throat
violence, wanton and unprovoked, is tolerated and
encouraged by our " ancient ally," who rules agree•
ably to the principles of those " elder statesmen of
Europe," whose susceptibilities have been so conside-
rately soothed by Lord Jousi RUSSELL within the
last few weeks, it strikes ,:s that some of the contents
of those vials of virtuous wrath that are continually
being poured upon the head of that " novus homo,"
the French PRESIDENT, might be laudably directed
to the freaks of Austrian despotism. Prince Louis NA-
POLEON may or may not turn out an AUGUSTUS ;
at all events he is not a .NLito. However, as even on
the tomb of the Roman tyrant flowers were flung by
some anonymous hand, so to the Red EMPEROR and his
myrmidons is accorded, in certain quarters, so much
measure, at least, of countenance and approval as may
be inferred from the consenting silence wherewith
their deeds are regarded in contrast to the brute ful-
minations levelled at the head of the princely occu-
pant of the Tuileries.
By way of postcript we annex the following ac-
count of a fresh instance of Austrian clemency, fur.
Dished by the Times' correspondent in his communi-
cation from Vienna, dated the 28th ultimo :
" The sentence passed on the youth for not taking
off his hat when the EMPEROR passed, as related in my
letter of the 261, is thus mentioned in the Wiener
Zeitung of yesterday LOUIS DA.NZMAYER, shop-
man, 20 stripes with a rod, and eight days' arrest in
a military prison, for inflammatory demonstrations
in a public place.' As my report was true to
the very letter, you may suppose what indig-
nation the wording of the sentence has occa-
sioned. In the list of those tried and condemned
by the military court during the last week I find
EVE DEMMELBART, for inflammatory expressions,
20 stripes with a rod and eight days' military arrest
(irons on both feet), duri❑g two of which she is to
have nothing but bread and water.' About a fort-
night ago you were informed that several ringleaders
a strike' had been arrested. Six have received
25 blows each with a stick, one 20, and fourteen 15
blows. Four persons are sentenced to punishment
with the stick for opposing the police, and 13 others,
whose names are not even mentioned, are sentenced
' to short terms of imprisonment or less severe cor-
poral punishment.' "

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday,
General LAWCWiTINE and Colonel VIEMA are pro.
ceeding actively with the reorganization,the Nationd
Guard of Paris. Although there will be no more
legions, five bands of music will be formed, so that
there may be one for every four or five battalions. The
mounted National Guards will have a separate band
of music. It is said that the officers of the infantry
will retain their present tunic with the addition of
facings, and will also have a separate full dress uni-
form, with dress sword and cocked hat. It is added
that the uniform of the mounted Guards will be con-
siderably changed, and that that of the officers will be
much more rich than hitherto.
M. Liwaux, formerly editor of the Chiravari, who
was arrested a short time since, has been liberated,
and has taken refuge in Belgium.
M. Duns, ex-Procureur of the Court of Cassation
and ex-President of the National Assembly, has just
inscribed his name on the list of advocates at the
Court of Appeal.
The new Council of State has not yet held any
general sitting. Some of the sections have merely
met to forward current affairs which called for haste.
Tne section of war and marine will not meet until
after the arrival of Admiral LEBLANC, its president,
who is still at Brest acting as maritime prefect.
Marshal JEROME BONAPARTE, President of the
Senate, went yesterday. to visit the Palace of the
Luxembourg. A considerable number of the new
senators have also gone to the hall where the sittings
are to be held, in order to mark their place. Several
of them are to be seen also each day in the library.
Fresh arrests have just been made in the depart-
inept of Mayenne of persons connected with secret
societies. Among them are M.
,AODARD BEAU'
CEIENB, ex sub-commissary under the Provisional
Government ; B. RELATE, a manufacturer at May-
enne, and AUGER of Chateau Gothier, who have been
lodged in the prison at Laval ; and LELONG and LE-
LASSEUX. who have been taken to Angers.
The .Emancipation of Brussels says—" The diplo-
matic communications of the French Government are
drawn up in the mildest terms. It is impossible, we
are told, to imagine anything written in a more
friendly spirit, more reassuring for the KING, or more
friendly to the Ministers, than the letter by which
M. QUINETTE is recalled. It is also very flattering
to M. QUINETTE himself."
"M. PROUDHON," says the Union, "is to be dis-
charged from the prison of St. Pelagie in a few days,
as his condemnation to three years' imprisonment,
pronounced at the commencement of 1849, is on the
point of expiring. The author of La Propri6:6,
&est le Vol,' underwent the first part of his punish-
ment at the Co nciergerie. On various occasions he
obtained permission to leave the prison for brief pe-
riods, particularly when about to be married. Lately,
also, he was allowed to go out to visit his wife
when ill."
The Five per Cents. closed at 102 f. 35c.; Three

per Cents., 64f. 30c. ; Bank of France, 2,650.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, FED. 2.1
Boulogne and Amiens, 11 ex div.—Central of France
(Orleansand Vierzon), 194 East Indian, 20%—Namur and
Liege, 534—Northern of France, 18—Paris and Lyons, 814
—Paris and Rouen, 26—Tours and Nantes, 8%.