The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-05 00:00:00

I lamina

,;,'•4w7
LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1852

M. BAROCHE was right when, in addressing Louis
NAPOLEON on New Year's Eve in the Palace of the
Elysee, on the occasion of his announcing to the
PRINCE his election by a majority of 7,439,216, he
exclaimed, " Never, in any country, has the national
will been so solemnly manifested !" In that magni-
ficent vote in the affirmative, the French people have
plainly declared their approbation of the coup d'etat
of the 2d of December. Their suffrages were given
under the sheltering secresy of the ballot—conse-
quently they were the genuine expression of the
wishes of each individual, uninfluenced by bribery or
intimidation, by gold or the bayonet. Every male
adult in that immense country, moreover, was,
unless incapacitated by crime or idiotcy, em-
powered to raise his voice in pronouncing
the formal decision of the national judgment—con-
sequently the result is the expression of the will of
the entire population, and not of a mere section of it,
of the whole and not of a part. Elected originally
by six millions,
,the PRESIDENT is confirmed in his
august position by votes ranging from severe to eight
millions. The significance of this sentence, besides,
is something more than a declaration of confidence
in the patriotism of his views in regard to the Future.
It is the announcement of the popular approval of his
policy in reference to the Past. By bestowing upon
.""i5 NAPOLEON this overwhelming majority the
people ofFrance have avowed their satisfaction in the
three Past
years of his administration, while
they have
elected him for ten years longer as the
head of their Republican Government. The import,
therefore, of the decision recently announced by the
President of the
Consultative Commission, and by the
nvades
cannon of the Hotel des I 1. is twofold in its
character—it comes
to Louis NAPOLEON at once as
an expressionlof gratitude and
of encouragement. The
distinguished statesman,
'whose words have already
been quoted, was right, cause
16tuvltly
ei-ites having) been
when he added,
in allusion to these 7,439,2
given under the system of the
b l
suffrage, "Never did any t and universal
Government obtain a
similar assent ; never had it a •
basis more ex-
tensive, an origin more legitimate and more
worthy of the respect of nations." Disappointed in
their hopes of the discomfiture of the Pausna
traducers in this country have, we observe, his
endea-
voured to depreciate the value of his present success
by a miserable sarcasm directed against the entire
French community. They remark, with sarcastic
effrontery, that as the nation has accepted Louis
NeroLEoN's, so it has accepted every preceding
' Government. Not so, however, says history. Ap-
) peal to its records and hear their answer. You will
find that in no instance since the first and greatest
Revolution has any form of administration received
so marked or so unanimous an adhesion as that which
• has recently greeted the Administration of Louis
NAPOLEON. You will find, indeed, that the vast
majority obtained no direct recognition at all by a
reference to the opinions of the departments. Among
the earlier revolutionists of the last century, the
Jacobins were the favourites of what was at first an
obscure and fanatic club ; they were never the re-
presentatives of the community. In like manner,
the Feuillants, and other petty distinctions, among
the then diversified throng of politicians. The Gi-
rondins, though, when it was too late, the lamented
favourites of the more susceptible and generous part
of the population, Ns ere during their lifetime only
I the exponents of the ideas entertained by a small but
1 important division of the Assembly. The

Triumvirate—to the credit of humanity be it
said never applied to the nation for its
sanction of their system of atrocities— and the Reign
of Terror was the misfortune of France while it was
the: infamy of those three men, COUTHON, ST. JUST,
and ROBESPIERRE. So also, as the result of a poli-
tical intrigue, is the formal approval of the community
found wanting in the instance of the Directory. The
Consulate, born out of the daring movement of the
18th Brumaire, received, it is true, subsequently, the
sanction, or rather we should say, the applause.of the
very numerous votes accorded to its illustrious chief-
tain by the electors among the French multitude.
But it should be remembered that the number of those
electors at the beginning of the present century
was altogether insignificant when contrasted with the
number obtained now•a-days under the system of
universal suffrage. The same arguments apply in
like manner to the number of rotes polled throughout

the electoral districts of France when NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE was elected Emperor by the will of its
population. With reference to the Kings of the
Restoration, it is needless to observe that in their in-
stance the wishes of the people were in no manner
consulted. Louis XVIII. was Monarch by

the bayonets of the allied Sovereigns, and
CHARLES X., his successor, by the divine
right believed in by the Legitimatists. As to
the monarchy under Louis PHILIPPE, the whole
of Europe has known for upwards of twenty years,
that it was based, in the first instance, upon a trick
on the Stock Exchange, and subsequently upon a
well-organized scheme of legalized corruption. Let
us have no repetition, therefore, of such folly as that
which compares the election of LOUIS NAPOLEON to
any one of the preceding French Governments.
Until the calumniators of the PRESIDENT can contrive
to dissipate the fact of his being elected by from
seven to eight millions of citizens, of their free will,
as expressed through the urn of the ballot, it will
require a miracle to show that he is not the choice of
the great European Republic.
Accounts of the gorgeous ceremonial which inau-
gurated, at Notre Dame, on the Ist of January, the
new era of the Democratic Government, coincide in
assuring us of the enthusiastic joy diffused by the
triumphant majority in favour of the PRINCE PRESI-
DENT. At all times disposed to welcome a pageant
with delight, the rarisians seem to have regarded
with more than ordinary pleasure the pomps of this
great festivity, religious in the cathedral and courtly
in the palace. They appear to have regarded it with
the gratification of men who beheld in the success of
the PRESIDENT not only the revival of many
popularly beloved and glorious souvenirs, but the
vindication of the national will, and the utter confu-
sion of the anarchists. With a view, doubtless, to
keep these souvenirs before the eyes of the multitude,
Louts NAPOLEON, " wise" enough " in his genera-
tion," has, it will have been observed, restored the
eagle as the imperial emblem to the standards of
the army, and to the crosses of the Legion
of Honour, announcing almost immediately afterwards
his removal from the Elysee to the Palace of the
Tuileries. Such have been the:events which have
marked the entrance of the French people into that
new year of 1852 which was awaited until
very recently by the majority with such unutterable
trepidation. Whatever may be the ulterior result of
these proceedings, the friends of Liberty cannot but
wish for our neighbours their continued preservation
from the perilous seductions of Socialism.

On the first day of the present year we directed
the public attention to the large amount of specie
now lying idle and unproductive in the vaults of the
Bank of England, and the immense quantity of notes
unemployed in the banking department of that levia-
than establishment. We also alluded to the fact that,
notwithstanding the extraordinary and unprecedented
advantages offered to purchasers under the Encum-
bered Estates Court in Ireland—the safe and unques-
tionable title, and the concise and simple deed of
transfer, and, also, notwithstanding the certainty
that eligible investments must speedily be in
demand, in order to provide remunerative
employment for capital—real estate in Ireland was
still a drug in the market, selling at little more than
one-half its actual value, or at an average of twelve,
or at most thirteen years' purchase on well-circum-
stanced properties.
There is, then, every inducement for persons having
money at their disposal, and anxious to turn it to
the best advantage, to investigate closely the circum-
stances and natural capabilities of the various pro-
perties about to be offered for public competition
under the auspices of the " auctioneers" par excellence
of modern days, the mighty three who have already
disposed of property to the amount of several millions
of pounds sterling within a single year, to whom the
sale of ten or twelve estates, to the value of fifty or
one hundred thousand pounds sterling in a morning,
and the substitution of new men for the quondam
proprietors in whose families the "dirty acres" had
remained for centuries, is a mere nothing—a trifle
unworthy of notice or comment.

Many persons, however, although fully appreciating
the numerous and varied advantages thus tendered
for their acceptance, are unable or unwilling to avail
themselves thereof. Some feel that they are not pre-
pared to sever old associations and to seek a new
home in their declining years—that Irish property
will be chiefly beneficial to those who can, to all
intents and purposes, become residents and give the
" master's eye" and the "master's superintendence"
to the cultivation and improvement of the soil!
Others are,_ still labouring in their respective
vocations ; although they may have already
accumulated " something handsome," more must
be realized, to achieve the easy indepen-
dence, with which they can seek the otium cum digni-
tate of retirement from the ,cares and turmoils of
business, to live upon THEIR OWN ESTATES, which
they can manage according to their own fancies, and
for which they have no rents
,to pay. A variety of
other causes may deter parties from:endeavouring to
become the purchasers of properties now for sale in
their individual capacities.

This is, however, a wonderful age—what cannot be
accomplished by individual exertion, will be achieved
by joint-stock enterprise. Few among us would
contemplate undertaking a journey to California or
Australia, with all its incidental dangers, annoyances,
and privations, and yet there are myriads who could
not be tempted ,from their own firesides and snug
chimney corners, where they can enjoy their Christ-
mas festivities with all the creature comforts about
them at reasonable and moderate prices, who will
still enter into mining speculations in the modern El
Doradoes, and endeavour to obtain portions of the au-
riferous soil or the gold-sprinkled quartz through the
exertions of more energetic adventurers, who contri-
bute a portion of their gains; in return for the benefits
conferred upon them by the companies and the ad-
vantages of combination and co-operation, and all
the materials for disposing thereof in the best
market and under the most favourable auspices.
In like manner, we may find many who, although
they will not repair to Ireland to become resident
proprietors, or embark sufficient capital to purchase
estates for themselves, may yet desire to have an in-
terest in the soil of the sister kingdom, and to partici-
pate in the advantages to be derived from purchases
made at the present low quotations.
Such persons will have an opportunity of indulg-
ingvariety
their fancies. It is strange that among all the
of objects
prise has been applied, so little has hitherto
been done in the way of " land investments" in the
United Kingdom. We have had " Waste Land , to which joint-stock enter-
Im-
provement Societies," but nothing in the way
of the purchase of lands already under
cultivation. The West of Ireland Land
Investment Society have, however, entered as pioneers
on the promising field of speculation, and joined with
it other objects which must ensure the welfare
and prosperity of the tenants on the purchased
estates, and the labourers in their vicinities. As we
have recently noticed, at considerable length, on two
separate occasions, the able pamphlet of Mr. Wu,
hth h the
has cle
Llam DIGBY SEYMOUR,* the principal promoter of the
company, it is scarcely necessary again to allude
cat any length to the points adverted to by the
Learned Gentleman, andh i
unequivocal testimony w
in favour of the production
and manufacture of beet-
root and flax, and also the cultivation of chicory in
ar,
brought distinct,
forwardand

A' 6, How to Employ Capital in Western Ireland, &e."
By William pigby Seymour. Third Edition. London:
EffiDgbam Wilson, and Ridgway. 1851.

Western Ireland. We would, however, invite
attention to an article which we have
extracted from an esteemed and talented
contemporary, the Bankers' Magazine, and which
will be found in another part of this day's impression.
On all connected with the investment of capital our
contemporary is a high authority, and therefore its testi-
mony in favour of the new company is peculiarly valu-
able. There is only one point on which we do not quite
agree with our contemporary. It suggests that the
company should in the first instance restrict itself to
the " obtaining land," leaving out for the
present " the manufacture of produce." Now
it appears to us that the combination
of these manufactures will eminently promote the
success of the undertaking. A ready and convenient
market will thereby be afforded to the occupiers,
and the company, as landlords, must participate in
the prosperity of their tenants. If, therefore, no profit
could be derived from these manufactures, they would
prove exceedingly beneficial ; but, as Mr. SEYMOUR
has shown they must be very remunerative in them-
selves, they appear to us to constitute the most im-
portant features in the undertaking. From those who
may entertain any doubts or difficulties on the sub-
ject, we only ask a calm and attentive consideration
of the arguments put forward by Mr. SEYMOUR,
which will well repay perusal, and after which, we
are satisfied, they will no longer continue sceptical.