The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-19 00:00:00

rtirt• !Nllttion

TA.TTERSALL'S.—THIS EVENING.
Six o'cLocx.

METROPOLITAN HANDICAP.
100 to 6 agst Elthiron
20 to 1 agst Haresfoot
LINCOLN HANDICAP.
5 to 2 agst View Holloo
3 to 1 agst Lady Agnes—taken
CHESTER CUP.
30 to 1 agst Anosto—takea
33 to 1 agst Ringleader
33 to 1 agst Grand Dake—taken
35 to llagst High Sheriff
40 to 1 agst Confessor—taken
50 to 1 agst Nancy—taken
.50 to 1 agst Koh i-noor
66 to 1 agst Haresfoot
TWO THOUSAND GUINEAS,
7 to 1 agst Filins
DERBY.
3 to 1 agst Hobbie Noble
15 to I agst Augur
1$ to 1 agst Kingston
to 1 agst Orelio—taken
25 to 1 agst Lapidist—taken
25 to 1 agst Alfred the Great
30 to 1 agst

FRANCE.

The following remarks on the defensive preparations
said to be commanded by the British Government are
from the C onstitutionnel :
" It is affected to believe and to assert that the British
Government has commanded armaments and that the sea-
coast is being placed in a state of defence. We are accus-
tomed to see the military and naval authorities demand si-
milar measures of precaution every time any circumstance
occurs in France to interest them more or less. During
the last years of the reign of Louis Philippe, who certainly
did not pass for one who indulged in ideas of war, when
the Chamber of Deputies voted a credit for the increase
of our navy, which was to be divided into annual
grants, Admiral Napier and others demanded that ex.
traordinary armaments should be prepared, and advised
that seamen should be pressed for the service; but there
was little attention paid to them. Tho armaments now
spoken of in England are not more serious than these of
that period. We show in a subsequent article the value
to be set on the alarming cries of the English journals.
We mean to speak here only of what is ;laid in France.
Those reports of war are collected; certaifi parties have
an interest in exaggerating them, and they are exag-
gerated. They are made the foundation of the most absurd
commentaries, the most sinister conclusions are deduced
from them, and they are converted into fake news.
To believe the alarmists the Government is about
to bring us back to tha period of the camp of Boulogne,
and means of a descent on England have not only been
discussed but concerted. Other newsmongers direct the
conquering ambition of Louis Napoleon to another
quarter. The latter assure us that a decree is about to
be published annexing Belgium with France, others
that it is proposed to resume the frontiers of the Rhine.
Some people will tell you that the Government has views
on Geneva, others on Savoy. Evert body is in posses-
sion of a State secret, everybody is aware of a plan on
which depend the destinies of Fraece and of Europe. Is
it necessary to say that all those pretended facts arc ri-
diculous inventions? Assuredly the safety and the honour
of France are in good hands. If Louis Napoleon were
compelled to maintain in a foreign land the right or the
dignity of the nation which placed him at iFs head, he
would not be false to the glorious traditions of hit family.
But he must be attacked before he will consider it neces-
sary for him to defend himself, and no power in the
universe would think of di,2turbing France in her inde-
pendence or her interests. In the second place, it has
never entered the head "of Louis Napoleon to make an
act of unjust a;gression against any State, great or
small The elect of 7,500,000 Frenchmen is occupied
in organizing his Government in order to give The
country an era of order, labour, and prosperity. It is a
noble and a grand task. The ideas which occupy his
Council are ideas connected with the peace of France
and of the world. now, then, are we to regard those
reports of war? Simply, as we have already said, as
a war ef false reports against the national Government
of Louis Napoleon.'