The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-22 00:00:00

THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.

No sooner had his Imperial Majesty the Emperor
of the French attained the summit of human power
and felicity than a few incidents occurred to remind
him that he is mortal, and that in all human great-
ness some alloy of our original infirmities will work
its way. The Senate, hitherto to obsequious, ma-
nifests a strange disinclination to vote away the last
vestige of Parliamentary control over the expendi-
ture and the commercial legislation of the country.
The Northern Powers unaccountably show none of
that eagerness to hail the advent of a new Ceesar
which had been attributed to them. The Pope
greatly hesitates to repair to Paris for the ceremony
of the coronation. The matrimonial project, which
had gone so far that a portrait of the Princess Wasa
was shown to the confidential circle of St. Cloud,
and the ladies of her household were already desig-
nated, is suddenly demolished by the announce-
ment that this accomplished Princess has resolved
to bestow her hand on Prince Albert of Saxony,
and is not tempted by the lure of an Imperial crown
to add another victim to that list which already
bears the names of Marie Antoinette, Josephine,
Marie Louise, Marie Amelie, and the Duchess of
Orleans. But while we respect the good sense
which has induced the Princess Wasa to forego
these treacheeous honours, her refusal has of course
touched the vanity of a ruler who occupies so con-
spicuous a position in the present state of Europe.
It is always unpleasant to be a rejected suitor, but
it is doubly painful to be rejected in the face of the
world, and in spite of adventitious circumstances
which might be supposed to gild. the Imperial
offer.

Nor is the internal state of the Palace in its
councils and its domestic relations on a more agree-
able footing. The Emperor is said to have pro-
posed to the Princess Matilda, his cousin, an allow-
ance of 12,0001. a year, out of the vote recently
granted to the Imperial family by the Senate • but
this income was to be secured to her on condition
of her renouncing the allowance she obtains from
Russia by the express will of the Emperor Nicholas,
who compels her husband, Prince Demidoff, to pay
it to her. The Princess declines, thinking that,
after all, her Russian settlements are a better spe-
cies of property than a French annuity, even when
it is secured upon the Imperial Crown.
The personal jealousies and divisions of the Minis-
ters most nearly attached to the person of Louis
Napoleon have assumed a character of unusual vio-
lence. M. Persigny and M. Fould are said to have
exchanged direct and insulting provocations in the
very presence of the Sovereign. The financier was
accused of ruining the Empire—the confidant of
disgracing it ; and this altercation was carriedbeyond
the limits not only of policy and respect, but of de-
cency and good taste. Perhaps it was a conscious-
ness of the extreme incapacity of several of his pre-
sent Ministers, and of their entire want of consider-
ation in the country, which induced Louis Napoleon
to resort a few days ago to the singular and almost
incredible expedient of opening negotiations with
some of the most rigid members of the Republican
party. The interview which took place was not, as
was reported at the time, with M. Carnot, the
renowned author of the circulars in favour of elec-
toral ignorance, which he issued from the Depart-
ment of Public Instruction in 1848, but with M.
Bethmont, who also held a seat in M. de Lamar-

tine's Provisional Government. To the astonish-
ment of this gentleman, he was summoned to the
Tuileries, and honoured with an audience. Louis
Napoleon did not disguise his want of able agents,
or the hostility of all the statesmen who had belong-
ed to the monarchical Governments anterior to
1848. He expressed his readiness to treat, on
almost any terms, with the men who had served
the Republic, observing that they must now be
aware that no Government but his own was pos-
sible. M. Bethmont was authorised to communi-
cate what had passed to his friends, including even,
we believe, General Cavaignac. It is unnecessary
to add that the result was a collective and indig-
nant refusal, for there is still not a man of inde-
pendent political opinions in France who would not
esteem it a dishonour to assume the livery of the
Imperial Court.
The resistance of the Senate to the proposal for
modifying the constitution is a still more significant
symptom, for-although the members of that body
have been chosen for their supposed attachment to
the present order of things, they are independent
by position, they are irremovable, and they com-
prise a certain number of men who have figured in
the assemblies of the constitutional monarchy. All
the efforts of M. Troplong, who had just been re-
warded by the highest judicial office in the empire,
were for many days unavailing to surmount the
repugnance of the senators to the scheme for giving
the Emperor absolute power over the protective
system of France, and to that for withdrawing the
details of the budget from the control of the Lower
Chamber. At one moment it seemed as if the idea
of a coup d'Hat against the Senate crossed the
mind of the irritated ruler. At length, however,
a compromise was effected, leaving all substantial
power in his hands, but warning him at the same
time that the Senate will not always prove as mute
and as flexible as he intended to make it.
It would be hard if despotic power were never
used for any good purpose, and there arc, no doubt,
objects to which it can be applied with more effect
than the machinery of free governmein. Thus it
has always proved in France a task of iasurmount-
able difficulty to confront and overpower those
class interests which have perpetuated commercial
monopolies and restrictive dutie4 to an extent now
unknown in any other part of the vorld. The
power which Louis Napoleon is likely to acquire
over the commercial tariffs of Prance will enable
him to deal more freely with her prohibitive sys-
tern than any constitutional Minister could have
done ; and as his most valid chim to the support
of the nation is his resolution to prefer the popular
interest to every other consideration, it would be
consistent with his policy and his interest
tpoergietlyveethe French people cheap iron, cheap coal,
and cheaper manufactured goods of certain
descrip-
tions, if he has the courage to. face the clamour
which the interested parties will attempt to raise
against the slightest interference with their immo-
derately protected interests. If Louis Napoleon
can introduce any such measures, we have no doubt
that he will benefit the mass of the community far
more than by any of the rash speculations he has
legitimate basis ; and, among the acts of oppres-
sion and of wrong justly to be charged Against his
sGeotvoenrnfmooetn,t,foirt
wiheilwbill extend trade on its own
be
well
if
he leaves a nobler
and more lasting monument of his power, by hav-
ing broken down
system which is still the heaviest burden upon the
. resources and the industry of the French people.
—Times. the barriers of
that prohibitive

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HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.—The rate of
mortality in the metropolitan districts has been nearly
uniform during the three weeks of December. The
deaths rose to 1,042 in the first, declined only t 01,012
in the next, and in the week that ended last Saturday
rose again to 1,041. In the ten weeks eorrespondng to
last week of the years 1842-51, the average number was
1,190, which, with a correction for increase of p)pula-
tion, gives a mortality for the present time of 1,309.
Influenza, which prevailed at the end of 1847, wien in
the corresponding week 1,946 persons died from all
causes, has contributed to swell this average ; bu:, with-
out reference to the casual effect of an epidemic, the
comparison still affords gratifying evidence of an im-
provement in the public health. It will be seen that re-
gistrars in particular localities confirm this observation.
During the last four weeks the mortality caused by zymotic
diseases in the aggregate exhibits remarkable uniformity ;
the deaths in this class were successively 207, 210, 212,
and (last week) 211. In the same times those from scar-
latina were 72, 59, 62, and 60. Of 5 deaths from small-
pox, one occurred in the Small-pox Hospital, being that
of a female servant from Pimlico, aged 17 years, who
died on 16th December of " small-pox, confluent, un-
modified (14 days)," said to have been vaccinated when.
7 months old at Leominster by a woman ; no cicatrix.
At 338, Albany-road, Camberwell, a professor of astro-
nomy, aged 64 years, died on 12th December of "bilious
diarrhoea with vomiting (4 days), cholera without spasm
(28 hours)." Last week the births of 878 boys and 784
girls, in all 1,662 children, were registered in London.
The average numbers in seven corresponding weeks of
1845-51 was 1,377. At the Royal Observatory, Green-
wich, the mean height of the barometer in the week was
29.318 in. On Wednesday, the mean daily reading was
28.914 in., and on Saturday, 30.044 in. The mean
temperature of the week was 48.5 deg., which is 7.5 deg.
above the average of the same week in ten years. The
mean daily temperature was about 10 deg. above the
average of the first three days, and from 6 to 8 deg.
above it on the next three days. On Friday the mean
temperature was 49 deg., and on Saturday it fell to 41
deg. Till Saturday the wind blew from the south and
south-west ; it then changed to N.N.W. The mean dif-
ference between the dew point temperature and air tem-
perature was 6.4 deg.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM.—An interesting and valuable
addition to the extensive catalogues to the Museum library
has just been made in the form of an exclusive catalogue
of works on music, possessed by the library of the nation.
The new catalogue introduced to the reading-room is en-
tirely in manuscript form, and is composed of 57 volumes
folio. • It is divided into two parts—music, and names of
authors of words set to music. Of course such an accession
to the reading-room is found to supply a great desideratum.

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