The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 25,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—The neighing of a horse, the flight of
birds, height of stature, strength of arm, or length of
beard have in various ages and countries served to de-
termine the choice and election of rulers over mankind,
But even those expedients of barbarous or superstitious
nations led there in all probability to results less sudden
and unexpected than the modern ballot-box, as it in
used in the United States. For that singular en-
gine of popular election positively brings about
the exclusion of all the most prominent candidates,
and as a necessary consequence, the selection of
some person whose abilities and former services had
hitherto kept him in a condition of relative obscurity.
The principle of hereditary monarchy is perhaps not,
easily to
.be reconciled with abstract considerations of
pure reason applied to the transmission of sovereignty
over a free and intelligent people. Nothing appears
more simple than to say, " Let such a nation elect the
worthies of its citizens to rule over its destinies and
to direct its policy." Yet experience shows
that hereditary monarchy has for some thousands
of years, and under very different phases of
less uncertainty and anomaly
psurceeseidsseni uu It is based upon tradition,
and jostled by experience; but it is still more forcibly
Oct
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recommended by the startling absurdities and the per-
plexing- results of Chi? opaDsito system, as applied by
tsdetete—elunder our own eyes. Popular
election has just given,
for instance, a Louis Napo-
leon to France; and it has suddenly raised a go:nee-
man of New HaniPshire, of whom nothing was known
America as a respected member -al the Leeislature, to
in Europe till yesterday, and who was only known in
the exalted posidon of candidate "afeethe Democratic
of the United States. The
Presidency
form of election by univer-
sal suffrage necessarily depends on two trials. The
candidate must first be chosen and
accepted as the solo
candidate of his Party throughout the country; and,
ipioasrtyibifinpirtythoef
secondly, the party which has thus adopted him must
obtain the majority e over its antagonist at the regular
and decisive election required by the Constitution.
But the preliminary election, conducted under pri-
vate arrangement, and binding only by the obligations
of party honour, is indispensable to ultimate success,
for if either Patty were divided in the choice of its
representative, the
victory would remain with the
other side; and,
in point of fact, although the sub-
sequent and formal election decides the contest of par-
ties, the previous convention settles the still more de-
licate and important question of persons. At this
stage of the electoral proceedings it might, therefore,
be conceived that personal merit would have the utmost
weight, as all the candidates submitted to this trial
are supposed to represent the same political opinions.
yet the recent determination of the Democratic Conven-
tion at Baltimore has again proved, as bad been pre-
viously shown upon the election of Mr. Polk in 1844,
that it is easier for an untried man to attain the summit
of political
Poser by such a process than for a man of
the highest standing in the country to overcome the jea-
lousy of his rivals. Montesquieu has said that the prin-
ciple of absolute monarchy is fear, and that of aristo-
cracies is honour. To speak in the same general terms,
the principle of democracies is envy. Envy is the true
name of that passion for equality, which they some-
times indulge even by the sacrifice of freedom and
the proscription
of greatness; for, by the operation of
universal suffrage and the mechanism of popular elec-
tions, it t
-- is easier to insure the defeat of a rival than to
secure the
return of a friend. Such is the result which
these Canoes elections in the United States frequently
exhibit. By the form and rule of their proceedings, the
candidate
who obtains the votes of two-thirds of
the eseegetea is to he proclaimed the candidate of
the whole party, and accepted by the rest. We
will suppose that two or more candidates of eminence,
Buell as Mr. Buchanan and General Cass, are the fa-
vourites, as
the miner competitors drop off after the
first ballot, As long as there is a third party on the
list there
the other
be hope that his votes will be transferred
to other principal candidates, so as to give one of
them the requisite number of votes. 'But suppose that
when
,only two names remain one has 60 and the other
40 votes out of 100, 67 being the number required to
make a majority. The contest rages with violence
and pertinacity, but with no result. Whatever is
to happen neither side will pass over to its imme-
diate rival; and the passion for excluding him
outweighs and mitigates the sense of its own failure.
In this Ivey 40 or 50 ballots take place. Parties become
weary and irritated, and fall into the state of men ready
to adopt any y compromise which will save them from
Political defeat. At that moment a comparatively small
body of voters, who have kept their own counsel
and Ptirposely thrown away their votes on other
eandicla
. tes iti the earlier ballots, may by good
turnmanage-
mee the whole election in favour of their own
secret candidate. In the present instance this manoeuvre
has been skilfully performed by the electioneering
dexterity of the men of Virginia, and as they
started General Frank Pierce at the critical moment, he
became in a very short time the term of compromise
between the rival factions, and was chosen with a degree
of unanimity that bodes well for his ultimate success as
President of the United States. As far as we are
able to . collect information respecting a gentleman
who is thus raised to a more prominent position than
he had before occupied, the lot has in this instance
fallen well; and if the chances of success are—as
we suppose them to be—in favour of the Democratic
candidate, we greatly prefer General Pierce to
either General Cass, Mr. Douglas, or Mr. Buchanan,
speaking, of course, principally with reference to the opi-
nions an policy these gentlemen are believed to enter-
tain as to the relations of the Union with this country
and with foreign Powers. General Pierce is said to pos-
sess the first and greatest quality of a statesman—high
character. 40 has the good fortune not to have been
mixed up with the feverish ogitution and the puerile
pledges by which the candidates of the Democratic party
are wont to court popularity. Ho has not made speeches
for M. Kotsutb, or promised the annexation of Cuba.
'He has had experience of public affairs in the highest
assembly of that country—the Senate of the United
State.; •and, to dc'enid to minor particulars in his
political creed, he is at once is man of New
England and yet e decided champion of free
trade. Mr. Rufus lee
, neng, the Democratic candidate
for the vice-presidency, is better known to us from
having filled the office of American Minister in
Paris, where, however, he left no very high impression
of his qualifications, though he was justly more
esteemed than his predecessor, General Cass. The ulti-
mate success of these gentlemen depends, however, on
the result of the Presidential contest, which can only bo
said fairly to begin when both parties have named
their candidate. The choice of the Whig Convention
is still unknown and doubtful. The march of
events in each succeeding year convinces us
more aad more that there is no occurrence
beyond the limits of the British empire, and
out of our control, which
exercises so
great and impor-
tant an influence on our own welfare, and on the general
progress of the world, 03 the character and policy of the
American Government, It is not, therefore, without
the deepest interest and solicitude that we watch the
somewhat capricious operations by which the composi-
tion of that Government is to be determined for toe
next four years. The relations -of the British em-
pire and the American Union have gradually twined
themselves into a connexion, strengthened by common
interests and common
, freedom, which is alike distinct
from the close and sometimes onerous ties of a mother
country to her eoloai
J 33, and from the frigid or politic
alliance of two foreign States. Between ourselves and
the United States there is no dependency, and, strictly
speaking, no alliance
; but there is identity in the first
interests of industry, of peace, and of mutual respect.
There isidentity ill ties more sacred than those of diplo-
matte intercourse. be
~ 0 are told that a favourite
staple of the inferior press of America is abuse of
this country. It may
bo so, for whether what
they say of us be good or bad, it seldom falls under our
antic©; but if such be the
practice there, it is not one
we art, disposed
-0 t imitate. It becomes us rather to set
the example of expressing our habitual respect for a
country whose greatness we desire to see increase next
to that of Eagland
herself; and although we may criti-
cize the institutions of the United States as freely as we
do our own, we are not the less conscious that these in- •
stitutions are eat the Transatlantic growth of our liber-
ties, our laws, and
our language, sprung from one root,
and bred by one Pee le
DAILY NE Ws._
P Check the second has been felt by
Louis Napoleon,
In December he had things all his
Own way—the army managed that—but when amongst
his shower of decrees came out one confiscating the pro-
perty of the Orleans family, the lawyers of France
ventured to question the legality of his spoliation, and
in the proceedings that ensued the despotic Pre-
sident of a
nominal republic met his first
serious rebut
Embued with the determination to
remain the absolute master of France, Louis Na-
poleon, however, thought it politic to surround himself
by the semblance
oconstitutional forms, and with that
view he arranged his set of puppets as members of a
Council of State
and of a Legislative Body. To the latter
of these he lass
week sent for the second time his Finan-
cial Scheme for the coming year, with the understand-
ing that by his new Constitution they were bound
to adopt it an
a whole. But the members, though
chiefly h; dignified with
''.ll friends and nominees—being
the title of Corps _e, .
.1, 1 latii, and enjoying the dig-
nity of lasenie,„ makers—felt "". enough of the spirit of
items venture, on Tuesday, upon a discussion of the
:„lera,b3; placed before them for approval. Whilst busy
--s task they were not unwatohed. In an obscure
part of the in the corner of ono
gallery of the House—u
of the reserved tribunes in such a position as to be con-
ceal bees ' • " at the usurper himself,
much as possible —3
that mi Chamber behaved itself. A
ght see how his
member urged objections to the proposition to adopt a
e
budget to
which no amendments could be made, and
which must be taken as a whole or be rejected altogether,
when M. Billault said the speaker was inveighing against
n
the Constitution—slight murmurs were heard. .
A doother
r of
speaker attacked the budget, when a COMIC!,
could
State expressed his astonishment that any onet
outrage the Constitution which had.
saved the country."
lot a
ry." On
this. a louder storm of disapprobation arose,
when,
note from the tenant of the obscure box reached the hands
of the chairman, and he read to the astonished Assembly
the opinion of the President, that they wore breaking
tion e—caxe
' their bounds. "On this a profound
4ien6a
found Ben-
the reporter for the English papers—
a a pro
.
con-
Elation pervaded the Chamber, which broke
• inutepd. A real
fusion." This is precisely
what was anti,cdipear
the whole-
despotism cannot work harmoniously nie
seme trammels of constitutional forms. Louie Napoleon
aeain and
has been tripped Acuity Unit line a
up by the difficulty .
i ation of such
again been pointed out, and this very antic p
a result gave treble significance to the news when it yes-
terday reached Landon. The electric telegraph brought
the intelligence by mid- claev' and our funds were
at once affected; and to such influences they
d doubt, be liable
1811.6 t again and again, below
whilst. prance is in the bands of the unscrupulous
man who now controls her destinies. Whilst
we haves Miniiter like Lord Ablatesbury for the manager