The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-29 00:00:00

eittrara Atit
I

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1852.

By the 10th of next August the memorable. treaty
of commerce between France end Belgium will have
expired. By the 8% of next June one-half
of the
Belgian Chamber of Representatives must be re-elected,
lected,
in compliance with the 51st article of the Constitu-
tion. The position of affairs in that country, with
reference to its powerful neighbour, is consequently
very imminent in its character. To appreciate the
importance of this subject as bearing upon the con-
tinuance or rupture of the tranquillity of Chris-
tendom, it is only necessary to remember the ru-
mours which the other day were prevalent, to
the effect that the policy of the Prince LOUIS NA-
POLEON had a tendency decidedly antagonistic to the
interests of King LEOPOLD, or that, to speak more
plainly, the ambition of the powerful chieftain of the
Elysee was directing its energies beyond the Belgian
frontiers, with a view to the territorial aggrandizement
of the Republic. Precisely at this moment, therefore,
when the Belgian Chamber of Deputies is on the eve
of a partial dissolution, and when the treaty of com-
merce between the two countries is within a
single quarter near the period cf its expi-
ration, it becomes a matter of enormous
importance to discern the course likely to be pursued
upon this question by
the puisant Prince now in-
stalled for ten years upon the chair of the Republic,
aad grasping with supreme authority the reins of the
democratic government. Exactly at this time,
ctioreover, it is that the intentions of LOUIS NAPOLEON j
In regard to Belgium are revealed. This revelation 1

occurs under the signature of M. GRANTER DE CAS..
SAGNAC, and in the columns of the Constitutionnel.
From the elaborate statement which has thus been
published in a semi-official manner, he only
manner really practicable under the circumstances,
seeing that the pages of the illoniteur are restricted
rather to decrees than to explanations, it will be per-
ceived that the projects of the PRINCE PRESIDENT
are, as might reasonably have been anticipated, alto-
gether as pacific as his diplomatic system hitherto
has been moderate in its demands and sagacious in
their enforcement. The passage in which the warlike
intentions attributed to Louis NAPOLEON in regard
to Belgium are disclaimed is too important of its kind,
and too remarkable for its explicitness, not to
command for it a most respectful consideration.
Upon this point—" A sort of terror," says the article
in the Constitutionnel, " took possession of the Bel-
gian Cabinet after the 2d December, and the Minis-
ters imagined that Louis NAPOLEON would infallibly
invade Belgium. It was a false and puerile alarm•
Belgium would have an immense commercial interest
in being reunited to France; the interest of France
in that reunion is infinitely less. Besides, the
PRINCE PRESIDENT, as all Europe well knows, only
entertains ideas of organization at home and peace
abroad ; it is not to set nations one against the other
that he has saved them from Socialism ; and his task
is greater and more glorious for his ambition than
algy conquest could be." Such is the bold
and honest disclaimer of any intention whatever
on the part of Louis NAPOLEON'S Government
to act inimically to the interests of Belgium. About
the force of this disclosure there cannot be two
opinions among the unprejudiced. It is frank,
plain, and resolute. Recently in the same journal
appeared the denial of any bellicose purpose
in reference to England, and now comes this
equally candid denial of any aggressive views in re-
gard to Belgium. Calumny after calumny is refuted,
and during the progress of events the Ministers of the
PRINCE PRESIDENT persevere with unflagging
energy in carrying out calmly the stupendous
and intricate labours of internal administration.

Yet such is the utter absence of magnanimity per-
ceptible in the conduct of those who have heretofore
vilified every proceeding of the Prince Louis NAPO-
LEON individuals bitten with a sort of anti-
Bonaparte-phobia that they distort even his
acts of grace into additional evidences o f
turpitude. Does the Prince, from a noble
appreciation of the genius of AaAoo, waive
the necessity of requiring from that illustrious
astronomer the oath of allegiance which would
have been otherwise necessary for the re-
tention of his post at the head of the Paris
Observatory ? It is at once elegantly observed
by one of these generous-minded traducers that
Louis NAPOLEON has " knuckled down" to the
man of science and probity ! Does the Prince, in •
stead of proclaiming the Empire on the Champ de Mars,
as bad been predicted by his antagonists, and as they
acknowledge he might have done with the same ease
that he presented the eagles to the different regiments,
cause the cries of " Vive l'Empereur!" to be sup-
pressed in the official report of the ceremonial pub-
lished in the Moniteur He is at once taunted with the
disappointment of his aspirations, and with the cool-
ness of those who, according to every narrative of the
festivity, received him rather with the most fervent
acclamations ! The same disingenuous method of
commenting disparagingly upon every incident of his
rule is observable throughout the whole of the remarks
of his antagonists. His concessions dictated by be-
neficence are construed into signs of weakness.
He refrains from declaring war against any
one, and he is at once accused of conspiring against
the peace of Christendom. He drives a little open
phaeton himself slowly through a dense crowd
from the Elysee to the Invalides, when he goes
to hear a requiem mass offered up for the
repose of the EMPEROR—and we are told
that he gallops in a closed carriage with bullet-
proof pannels, surrounded by a troop of cuiras-
siers, through a multitude muttering curses not
loud but deep, and thirsting like tigers for his
assassination. The very declarations of his ami-
cable feeling towards England and Belgium
are regarded as additional proofs of his lust of con-
quest. And, all this time, the country, said by these
writers to be groaning under the pressure of his
sanguinary and remcrseless despotism, is developing
its resources as it has not been able to develop
them fur many years previously—Society, Family,
and Property being re-established on the basis of a
powerful and independent Government, under the
blessing of Religion, under the shadow of the Re-
public, and under the aegis of NAPOLEON.

Personal matters appear to have recently monopo-
lized the attention of Parliament. Tne circurn.
stance is not unworthy of notice, occurring, as it
does, immediately before the dissolution. It would
seem as though our Legislators were adopting every
imaginable device to fritter away the public time in
order that the general election may be delayed until
the year has tolerably well advanced. The truth is,
all parties, without exception, are nervous as to the
result of this momentous appeal to the country.
The Ministry itself has avowed, through the lips of
the First Lord of the Treasury, that but few hopes
are entertained of a majority being returned to the
next House of Commons by the Protectionists. The
ex-Ministry again, although perfectly aware of its
unpopularity, although unable to question for an
instant the existence of that unpopularity after the
apathetic indifference displayed on all hands at the
period of its collective resignation, dreads so far the
force of that popularity that it refrains even from
the peril of its overt acknowledgment. Thus, for ex-
ample, in the recent communication addressed to his
metropolitan constituents, by the Noble Lord the
Leader of the Opposition, no allusion whatever was
made by him to the want of confidence in him enter-
tained by so many of his former supporters, notwith-
standing that this feeling on the part of the electors of
the city of London has become long since notorious
not only throughout Middlesex, but throughout
the greater portion of the United Kingdom. Such,
moreover, was the solicitude felt upon the subject of
the electioneering movement by the distinguished
Chieftain of the Peelites, that he was about the first
to unfurl the political banner in anticipation of the
approaching struggle, by addressing his already well
known letter to the electors of the borough of Ripon.
In that manifesto it cannot be forgotten that Sir
JAMES GRAHAM at once boldly announced his inten-

tion of " carrying the war into the enemies' camp,"
by recommending the Free-traders to put one
query to the various candidates—" Are you
a supporter or an antagonist of Lord
DERBY'S Government ?" Lesser divisions of the
Legislature have evinced a no less remarkable amount
of activity. The Exeter-hall people, likewise, have
been bestirring themselves betimes, even as far north-
wards as the great manufacturing city of Manchester.
In the archiepiscopal city of Canterbury, moreover,
such
hot words have been breathed that its represen-
tatives
have taken return-tickets to Weybridge, for
the purpose of
an
_to: e exchanging shots to tle dismay cf
shoart,heteahblee cock pheasant. In all directions may, in
of
~ ar,d that peculiar note—whicb, in the instance
—the note is occasionally liable to become cashed
moil:reparation. One statesman of impor-
tance has
reputation'
leading,
days
his taciturnity, attested the con-
Hence repese4; by
the
ehim in his influence over the popu-
of
administration,
majoritiefromthe
ac
hour of his abrupt dismissal from
, Lord PALMERSTON has main-
tttlaihaiiteini:ei popu-
lation.
rtaeSuiilighennnei
s-eooeefipi
political
t i c a l
regard to future policy most tan-,
opponents, but befitting an
administrator omfubsits prolonged experience and ele-
vatedconfessed,
His vengeance on his former
comafptearratihviesly
few be
was rapid and
withdrawal from
expulsion speak-
ing,thecoovlere
wa gi
leuenei
rl
Ile; h
gt
.1 :
from office to their
• been
alone
o n eo
House o f
4 Y to
which the ex-Foreign Secretary has Subse ttentl
responsibilities
capa-
ble of carryingre him in th H
the walls of the Legislature
everything
Course thuse
before
2D
Commons with large
of the Militia Bill to the adjournment acceptance
of the
Le
Derby-day. Otherwise than by b
pursued by him within
Lord PALMERSTON has remained impassive w in the
midst of all those bickerings of party and of all that
electioneering excitement which prepare tl e
way for the Ministerial appeal to the coup-
try. Contrasting strongly with his conduct
in this respect, the bearing of the other political
leaders of the
_day has betrayed very Manifestly a i i

considerable degree of solicitude. Insomuch so,r,that
each dreading the possibility of discomfiture, all have
united in lengthening out the debates so as to delay
still further the hoz irdous epoch of the dissolution.
To this end the Members of the House of Commons
dedicated their energies, first, to the consideration
of the annual estimates. Then came the pro-
longed discussions upon the Militia Bill,
followed by a series of adjournments and
re-adjournments. Another evening, moreover,
they rejoiced to see monopolized by the financial
statement of the new CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER. Afterwards, thanks to the fanatical consis-
tency of Mr. SPooNER, the Maynooth grant pro-
voked, night after night, a succession of tediously
minute and distressingly elaborated arguments.
Minor questions were in a similar way debated until,
so to speak, they became absolutely threadbare—and
the representatives, finding themselves driven at last to
the examination of private grievances with a view, if
possible, to protract yet a little while longer the
already long-delayed dissolution of the Legislature.
Yesterday revealed in a remarkable manner the
anxiety of both Houses in this matter by the unusual
variety of purely personal subjects inquired into by
the assembled Parliament. A glance at our report of
the debates of last evening will show how far this
anxiety was carried in the Lords as well as in the
Commons. There was first of all a discussion in the
Upper House upon the case of Mr. MATHER, the
young Englishman who was not long since insulted
in the streets of Florence by an Austrian officer.
From the explanations given during the course of
this discussion by the Noble Earl the Chief Secre-
tary in the Foreign Department it would appear that
the amount of compensation offered has not been
deemed adequate by the members of her MAJESTY'S
Government. Later in the evening a petition was
presented by Lord BEAUMONT from one CONSTANT
DERRA DE MARODA, praying for inquiry into the
circumstance of the arrest of the Baroness Vox
BECK at Birmingham. Whereupon ensued a
more than usually animated debate respect-
ing the harsh and in many respects
unjustifiable treatment of the unfortunate
Racidula. Meanwhile, in the House of Commons,
not only was the case of Mr. MATHER again
brought before the notice of Parliament, but three
other cases of an equally personal character were dis-
cussed by the national representatives. There was
the case of Mr. MURRAY, the young Englishman,
who, for consorting, it is said, with red Republicans,
and for being in some manner implicated with Com-
munist aseassior, has lately been found guilty and
condemned to death in the Papal dominions. There
was the case of Colonel OUTRAM'S dismissal from the
office of resident at the Court of the Guicowar, toge-
ther ,a ith the alleged corruption of the officers of the
Bombay Government. Besides which, there was the
often revived and apparently interminable case of Mr.
BENNETT and his institution to the vicarage of Frome,
notwithstanding his comparatively recent removal
from St. Paul's and St. Barnabas', Knightsbridge—a
subject which proved, of course, yesterday, according
to wont, peculiarly fruitful of discussion. By thus pro-
tracting the debates from night to night the Parlia-
ment has contrived to carry the session on from
windy March to showery April, and forward
through what ought, according to the alma-
necks, to be the pleasant and blossoming,
but what has, according to the weather, been the
drenched and chilly month of May, until we find
ourselves almost within sight of the first and brightest
of the summer months, " the leafy month of June,"
without one official whisper having yet been audible
as to the probable period of the dissolution of Parlia-
ment. From this evident timidity of the different
parties in the Legislature, we are sanguine that the
Liberal electors of the United Kingdom, those elec-
tors who may be designated from the thorough inde-
pendence of their views as patriots rather than as
partizans, will take courage to themselves, and, by
acting in obedience to the dictates of their better
judgment, so far influence the course of the general
election as to return to the House of Commons men
sworn to no faction whatsoever, but resolved to vin-
dicate their integrity as Free-traders, and to further
the cause of social and political improvement by
practical reforms secured in rapid succession after the
assemblage of the new Parliament.

OVERLAND MAIL

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH).

MARSEILLES, MAY 28, FOUR A.M.
CAPTURE OF RANGOON AND IVIA-
TARBAN, WITH ONE HUNDRED
AND THIRTY PIECES OF CAN-
NON.

The Indian Mail has arrived ; the dates are—
Bombay, May 3; Calcutta, April 22.
Rangoon and Matarban are taken, and 130 pieces
of cannon.

We have had about 150 men hors de combat.
Exchange at Calcutta, 1.104 to 1.11.

PORTRAIT OF THE REV. J. E. GLAD.

STONE.

A portrait of the Rev. Juhn E. Gladstone, who has
lately acquired so much celebrity, by the decided stand
which he has made against the inroads of Traetarianism,
and by the noble manner in which he has confronted
the Bishop of London, though armed with all the terrors
of the Ecclesiastical Courts, has just been published, in
aid of the funds of the Anti-Tractarian Association, of
which the Rev. Gentleman was the founder. The por-
trait is in lithography, and in addition to being a strik-
ing likeness, is as tine a specimen of the excellence to
which the art of drawing on stone has been brought, as
we have seen for a long time past. The portrait was
painted by Mr. Herbert L. Smith, and is lithographed
by Mr. J. Skelton, of Albany-street, Regent's-park.—
Morning Advertiser.

[ We ha►e rarely indeed seen so speaking a likeness as
this portrait of Mr. Gladstone; while, as a specimen of
art, it is singularly beautiful. There is not a sound
Protestant in the empire but ought to become possessed
of so excellent a memorial of the intrepid and noble
confronter of ecclesiastical oppression. Were the mi-
nistry of the Church of England all men of Mr. Glad-
stone's stamp, the gangrene of Tractarianism would be
soon extirpated. His numerous admirers have now an
opportunity of showing their honour of the man by
placing this most striking similitude of his features over
the firesides of their homes.—En. Sun ]

CABINET COUNCIL.—(THIS DAY.)-11113 Ministers
assembled in Council this afternoon, at the Foreign-office,
Downing-street. There were present—The Earl of Derby,
the Earl of Lonsdale, the Duke of Northumberland, the
Marquis of Salisbury, the Chancellor- of the Exchequer, Mr.
Herries, Mr. Henley, Sir John S. Pakington, Mr. Secretary
Spencer Walpole, the Lord Chancellor, and Lord John
Robert Manners. The dissolution of Parliament, as recom-
mended by Ministers, according to reports today at the
club-houses, will take place about the 22d or 24th of the
ensuing month.

MADAME CELESTE.—Thid ppular artiste was by
the last dates performing her final engagement at Philadel-
phia to enormous houses. His Excellency Governor Bigler
had gone in grand state to her celebrated representation of
the French Spy. The Philadelphia Sun, in speaking of her,
says—'• Celeste's benefit takes place at the Walnut this
evening. We are soon to lose the graceful acting of this
lady, as she returns to Europe. In intensity of feeling, grace
of action, and elegance of pantomime, she stands without a
rival, and often reminds those Who have seen Rachel, of the
glowing personations of that celebrated actress. This even-
ing she appears as Narramattah, in the beautiful drama of
the Wept of the Wish-ton-Wish, and as Mazurka, in
Taming a Tartar." When in Washington, she received an
autograph letter from the celebrated Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, Daniel Webster, and had the honour of a personal
interview- Such is the attention paid by the great to
artists in every country but our own.

POSTAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE FALKLAND
ISLANDS. —The Gazette of last night contains a Treasury
warrant fixing the rates of postal charge for letters and news-
papers to and from the Falkland Islands, Monte Video, and
England;
APOTHECARIES'-HALL.—The following are the
names of gentlemen who passed their examination in the
science and practice of medicine, and received certificates to
practise, on Thursday, May 27, 1852:—John Edmunds,
Bangor-rscoed, Flintshire; Clark Armstone Ducket, Quad-
ring, Eaudike, Lincoln; John Hancock Wolstenholme,
Bolton-le-Moors; Charles Harris, Northiam, Sussex; Wil-
liam Charles Beckett; Leonard Yeatley Yelf, Isle of Wight.
ABOLITION OF THE M. ASTERS'• OFFICES. The
Lord Chancellor's Bill to abolish the Masters'-offices, as
amended, has just been printed. This measure will shortly
reach the House of Commons, and is expected to pass into a
law without much discussion. At the commencement of
Michaelmas Term (2d of November) the first foar Masters
will retire on allowances, as directed by the Bill.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON LOCH VENNACHAR.--00
Saturday last a party of pleasure took a boat for the pur-
pose of enjoying ,a day's sail on the water, when, in their
progress, the oar of one of the rowers dropped overboard.
Two or three of the party rushed to the side, in order to re-
cover the oar before the boat had passed by it, when their
weight caused the boat to overset, and, we grieve to relate
Party, a young lady and gentleman, were unfor-
tunately ofate thely- drowned._Scotchman.
We hear that the Rev. James Paul, late Modera-
tor of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, is to
be appointed one of the for Scotland,
Royal Chaplains in the
room of Dr. Mearns, deceased.—.Etraid;