The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-29 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1864.

If there is any one man upon the European Conti-
nent who, .himself not an Englishman, does, never-
theless, thoroughly understand our English Consti-
tution, that man is, beyond all manner of doubt,
CHARLES the Count de MONTALEMBERT. If there

is, on the c)ntrary, any one man, anywhere dis-
coverable upon the European Continent, who does
not, the least bit in the world, understand our Con-

s.titution, its nature, its mechanism, its working—
that man WO should now quite as confidently
ass'irt is, equally beyond a doubt, in our
mind, M. the Duke DE PERSIGNY. But
yesterday, so to speak, we should hardly have sup-
posed that the ignorance of the latter (in our regard)
was so complete and so absolute... DE PERSIGNY
we knew, nay, for that matter, we had pleasure in
remembering, had himself personeelly resided here
amongst us, in Eogland, in London, and that for
sevetal years, as the Emperor NAPOLEON'S ambas-
sador to the Court of St. James's. Upon his recall
from that post, to the end that he might assume a
ministerial effice of the highest responsibility, in
is way, amongst his own ccuatrymen, it will be
remembered how very gracious, nay, what was
far more, how very propitious were his allusions
to the liberties of speech and of writing enjoyed
here, in this country, by the subjects of the
British Crown. These allusions augured welic
augured the very best, for the emanci-
pation, if not immediately, at any rate
very soon afterwards, of the Press—of France
generally, of Paris in particular. How futile were
such anticipations, hardly a journalist of any im-
portance in France bat knows full well—some
among them, even,to their cost. M. DE PERSIGNY so
Long as he remained Minister of the Interior ruled
the French Press, not with a spray of olive, but
raeher with a rod of iron. His retirement from
office left that Press still in its old thraldom—only
—with the galling shackles drawn a little tighter,
thanks to his benign system of administration !
And, now, indiscreet though he has been often
enough before, and that, upon certain occa-
sions, rather flagrantly it should be said—M. de
PERSIGNY has within the last week surpassed even
the most flagrant among all his former indiscretions
by his astounding speech at St. Etienne !
That speech in which he proposed as a
toast the health of his Imperial master, "NAPOLEON
lll."—(this absolutely being M, DE PERSIGNY'S
way of putting it)—" the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.,
the Founder of Liberty in France'" What was
it TALLEYRAND hinted, so wisely, to one of his
diplomatic agents, some ingenuous youth, we will
suppose, who was probably burning to distinguish
himself—O, that M. DE PERSIGNY Could somehow
have borne the familiar phrase opportunely in his
remembrance before delivering his speech the other
day at St. Etienne—Pas de :ale ! "NAPOLEON 111.
the Founder of L.bnty in France!" M. de PRES.
SIGNY, it is simply the wrong word that, in your
over zeal, you have selecfed. The Founder or the re•
storer of Order, if you will—Yes ! The vigorous
restorer of Order ! The magnificent embellisher of
Paris! The daring revivifier of the Napoleonic
Empire ! The rehabilitater of the imperial dynasty
established by the later, and greater than, CumtLE-
MAGNE! Nay, for that matter—we will even go so
far as to believe it—the intending Founder (when
he shall himself deem the right time to have
arrived) the intending Founder, cr rather (to
be a trifle more accurate) the intending Restorer
of Liberty to France ! All that, if you like,
M. DE PERSIGNY, when speaking Of the
great man who now for more than a dozen
years has ruled the destinies of France with so
much power and splendour, but who has yet to
fulfil his own fair promise of " crowning" the
edifice he has himself built up anew, almost,
We might say, from its very foundations !
While eutogisiog NAPOLEON 111, thus cx-
travagantlY, as the Founder of Liberty in
Fr3cce,
DE PERSIGNY coolly essayed to jus-
tify his hyperbolical encomium by contrasting, or,
rather, by placing side by side in comparison with
with each other, the Constitution of England
and the Constitution of France ! Evidenc-
ing in this, while he die so, such astound-
ing ignorance as to what it, is that really
constitutes the former, that ►e actually
went the length of saying in this mar-
vellous speech of his at St. Etienne, that—
" There is there (in England, that is) a whale poli-
tical class, scattered all over the surface of the
country, which being a traditional heir to the Con.
quest, possesses, since the days of William the
Conqueror, all existing means of influence, which
administers the counties, which renders justice,
which collects taxes (!) secures public order; and,

in a word, enjoys all the prerogatives which, in
France, belong to the administrative hierarchy."
Sufficient, will it be, here, to direct attention, in
Passing, to the words above italicized—words that
we should hardly have expected could ever by any
possibility have fallen from the lips of a some.
time French Ambassador to the Court of St.
James's ! However all this may be—the
Koniteur du Eoir has ingeniously endeavoured
to "let down," as far as might be in any way
possible after so preposterous an escapade the
perpetrator of this Gargantuan or Brobdingnagian
panegyric. Quoth the official paper just mentioned,
in touching upon this most delicate indiscre-
tion "M. DE PFESIGNY explained the toast
(to NAPOLEON 111. Founder of Liberty in
France) in a speech, wherein he demonstrated,
that the conditions of liberty were not the
same in all countries—[we should think not, in-
deed !]—that France could only be a loser by bor-
rowing from her neighbours institutions which are
not adapted to her social state—[perfectly jast and
admirably well put IJ—that she required a kind of
liberty—[ahem!]—suitable to her temperament, and
that that sort of liberty she had received at the
EMPEROR'S hands." "That sort of liberty !"
precisely. "Very good of its kind, but the
sort's queer"—is a homely colloquialism that
has here (thanks to the Moniteur du Soir's way of
putting the above extenuation of M.tle PERSIGN Y)
a colloquialism, we say, that has here its dis-
tinct application ! No—surely, surely, never did
mortal man have more reason to exclaim, " Save
me from my friends," than the reigning Emperor
NAPOLEON. A great man he unquestionably
is. i Whatever Mr. KINGSLAKE, et hoc genus
°inn°, may think of CHARLES Louis NA-
POLEON BONAPARTE—Row the E mperor NAPOLEON
lll.—a great man he has shown himself to be, a
great man he indisputably is, bat not the Founder
of Liberty in France! The Restorer of Order in
France, if you will—the Preserver of Peace again
and yet again among the nations of Europe—the
magnanimous ally (at times under every imaginable
provocation)—Yes, the magnanimous ally of Eng-
land—himself, on the battle-fisld, the victorious
leader of French armies—the Liberator of Lombardy
in the old world, of Mexico in the new, the former
from Austrian domination, the latter from a ruinous
state of chronic anarchy—a powerful Sovereign, a
profound Statesman, a skilled master in the art of
war (instance his Italian campaign) a successful
administrator, in a word, to repeat the simple
phrase with which we , commenced—a great
man, but not—at any rate, not as yet M. DR PER..
SIGNY—not the Founder of Liberty in France !
NAPOLEON lll.—great and gifted monarch though
he is—has never, himself, to this day, been crowned !
And, for that matter, the same must, in truth, be
said of the majestic edifice his powerful hand has
built up anew there in France—that stately edifice of
the Napoleonic Empire, which, according to the
promise of NAPOLEON 111., is yet, in the fulness of
time, to be crowned—with that most radiant
diadem of all—Liberty ! I

It seems as if we are to have no respite from the
conflicting opinions which are entertained relative
to matters connected with the American war. As
the prospects of peace are most indefinite, it is the
more unsatisfactory that these vexed questions
should be constantly arising. The chief disadvan-
togs under which all labour when these difficult
topics are discussed is that the conduct of our Go.
rernment is inconsistent and uncertain to the last.
If there are wrongs to be redressed who shall say
they will be attended to with alacrity; if there are
investigations to make they may be postponed in-
afinitely, and so on to the end of the chapter. The
last scandal committed by the Federals has been
the capture of the " Georgia," and it seems quite
an uncalled for act on their part. The whole cir.
cumstauces of the case seem to show that the most
unwarrantable liberty has been taken with a vessel
which was pursuing a harmless trade, and cer-
tainly at the time of her capture was not inter-
fering in any manner directly or indirectly with
the United States Government. It will be much
less irritating to peruse the details of this transac-
tion had we a hope or belief that justice would be
rendered, and that the offending parties would be
treated by our Government with the determina-
tion whieh is needed. There is too much reason
to fear on the contrary that there will be a long list
of communications, questions, and answers which
will little avail in the emergency, and the inquiry
will leave the matter very much as it finds it. One
decided act is worth a hundred speeches, and
it ie always found that the shortest tours:
to be adopted is the surest one in the end.
Mr BATES has been most unfairly treated, and it is
putting the affair in its correct form to say that he
has a right to demand satisfaction. It is the
bounden duty of the Government to protect him,
and the further this matter is investigated the
plainer it will appear his case is a very hard one.
The ship was registered as a British one on the
30th June, and it seems difficult therefore to deter..
mine how all the impertinence of Federal effron•
tery, and the assurance of their friends over herb,
from Earl Reessenn downwards, can make it out to
be bona Me American property. When it had
been clearly settled that Mr BATES was entitled to
the ownership, negotiations were entered into with
the representatives of the Portuguese Government.
These were desirous of engaging a steamer to pro-
ceed to the Portuguese settlements on the West
Coast of Africa. It is perfect nonsense to say that
this was in any way prejudicial to the American
Government; and if, as is stated, the officers of the
Niagara were in Liverpool some time, they must
have had ample opportunities of finding out
this important information for themselves.
It is most extraordinary that the difference
cannot be seen between a Confederate
vessel and one that has been transferred to an
English owner. There was not even the ex-
cuse to be alleged that she was about to run the
blcckade, for it had been arranged that her desti-
nation was in quite a different quarter, and her
business had nothing whatever to do with the
Americans. It is therefore not too much to expect
that some practical attention will be paid to this
affair, and that for once our Government will give
themselves the trouble to institute inquiries with
the intention of arriving at an impartial conclusion.
It is time that some decision should be cane to in
these matters, for there will be great loss and an-
noyance, besides the dignity of the country will be
compromised if affairs are left to the uncontrolled
jurisdiction of Yankee opinions. Their estimate of
national rights and customs was pretty well evi
deuced by their capture of the Confederate agents
on board of the Trent, and their whole conduct since
has been in keeping with that initiatory act which
inaugurated their proceedings in a very clean°
teristic manner. Had our Ministers gone on in the
way they began, and distinctly told the Government
at Washington that if they interfered with the
rights of our subjects and inflicted insults on
this country, it would be a casus belli,
then different things would have turned out.
We should not then have heard so much of arro
gent boasting and ridiculous assumption on our
part, or seen so much annoyance end rigorous treat.-
meat received on the other. Since 'he beginning