The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-24 00:00:00

/j2g

4,1-4 4?)

L

depended upon his Grace for ground to stand upon.
These will now be wareiering about, as sheep without
a shepherd. They will be a prey of marauders. They
will listen to the exciting tales of the Tripes and Mon-
tagues, and show themselves beggared before the bar
of public opinion, calling frantically for vengeance
upon their deceivers. Lord John Russell can well
understand the loss that many " hereditary legisla-
tors" have sustained.
c
It is truly a matter of serious
to know what the Upper House will do
without the Duke. He bad the same power over a
large number of volatile subjects as Virgil's 'loins
had over the winds submitted to his care. He
was placed, like the classical god, high above his
roving subjects. He held his sceptre firmly.
He alone could soothe their minds . and temper
their wrath. He, like /Eolus, knew his subjects
well, and felt certain that but for him they
would sweep over the political heaven and earth,
over the court and the nation, and create a tumult
which they would have no power to put down. Where
is the Neptune in the House of Lords, who, as in
Virgil's fable, will lift his placid head above the
troubled waters, and bring the jarry elements to re-
pose ? Let us remember, when we endeavour to
speculate upon what will be the future conduct of the
House of Lords with regard to the great questions
that will come before it in the next session, that a
sixty-vote Moderator is gone. Oae broad feeling of
sympathy, which was sufficient to produce a certain
unity of action amongst very discordant elements, has
vanished. The House will be split up into parties,
without having any definite principle to guide them.
They will have all the mechanism of an integral
portion of the constitution, but they will want a
motive power they long relied on. Heine tells a
story of an automatic man, constructed by an inge-
nious Englishman, which, by the means of a com-
plex arrangement of springs, performed all the ordi-
nary functions of humanity. It would have passed
muster as a genuine specimen of the human race
amongst any assembly. Nevertheless, the automaton
had just sense enough to know its own defect. It
found out, alas ! that it had no soul, and it set to
work forthwith to tease its creator to give it the grand
desideratum. It followed the unfortunate artist all
through the world with the reiterated request, " Give
me a soul." The House of Lords will be in the pre-
dicament of Heine's automaton. The only difference
will be that it has lost what the automaton never had.
The Tory members have lost the soul of their body ;
and we know not, however loudly they may cry, where
they will get another. It would be difficult to point
out any other class which is characterised by such
features of hopeless mediocrity as the Tory party in
the present louse of Peers. With respect to ourselves,
we have nothing to fear from that body.
Its power
for mischief has been long since neutralised, and its
power for good has been diminished by the death of
the Duke. With Lord Derby the case is different. He
may find to his cost that a House of Peers
without a
ruling spirit
powerless
in its effect
nation—be a
i terrible upon the may—although
a Minister. may anticipate with a tolerable terr thorn in the sides of
i
Ise m
cer-
tainty an anti-Derby party,his colleagues in the
other House play look
for as
the result of the sins of regard to Protec-
tion. The Prime Minist
each
willwith .
an anti-Disraeli. party, as
shield which has protecteerd
aided so many Ministries. He
many Ministers and
look in vain.. for that
fall by the naked merit of his or
will. have
Noto stand
because
friendly.
power will come to his aid
on." He
se_ "her. Majesty's
Government must be carried
fight the battle of Protection against
tiFeoew_ ilolpehaovfe
aidtdo
lof Bigotry against Liberality, without the trade, and
in case of failure, or a refuge in case
those grieve most deeply on account of thfeet.
wodcemcfueearntr.enclef
of any event, who lose the most by it,
will
have better cause to lament the absence of " the
Duke" than the Earl of Derby.

TREATMENT of the ENGLISH ABROAD.
Another instance, says the Leicestershire Mercury,
has just come to our knowledge of the growing inso-
lence displayed by the despotic Powers of the Conti-
nent towards Englishmen residing within their sway.
The present case, too, is all the more startling because
it has not occurred either in France, Italy, or Aus-
tria. Saxony is the kingdom which is now striving
to share the unenviable and disgraceful notoriety
hitherto only attaching to the Governments of those
countries. Dresden, its capital, is the place of all
others chosen for the first overt avowal of adhesion to
the unholy alliance of the second half of the nineteenth
century. And the party who is the first victim to
this spreading absolutist hatred of the very name of
an Englishman is one in whom we naturally feel an
interest—both from his connexion with this locality,
and from his early services on behalf of Hungarian
nationality and independence. We allude to Dr.
Paget, author of the well-known work on " Hun-
gary and Transylvania."
This gentleman, as many of our readers are aware,
after leaving Leicester, went to reside in Dresden.
There he was leading a very quiet life, and, as he
imagined, a life of security as well as peace. Sud-
denly, on the 2d of this very month, September, his
house was visited by a party of police, who seized and
carried off all his letters, MS. note-books, diaries and
a considerable number of books. The British Minis-
ter, Mr. Forbes—for England has a duly accredited
and acknowledged representive at the Court of Saxony
—was, we learn, very indignant at this outrage. He at
once called upon the Saxon Minister of Foreign
Affairs for an explanation of such extraordinary con-
duct, and, we should imagine, likewise demanded the
restoration of the books and papers so seized. The
most perfect ignorance and innocence were pleaded by
this functionary. Believe it who may, neither he nor
the Minister of the Interior knew anything—so they
averred—of this most flagrant outrage. From them
nothing could be learned, and Dr. Paget was left
utterly in the dark as to what could be the pretext
for such an unexpected and arbitrary proceeding.
Whether the documents and property thus carried off
have been returned, we have not heard. We cannot
think that the British Minister would, on any ac.
count, suffer them to be detained after he had once
moved in the matter, unless some clear and indispu-
table justification of their seizure could be shownand proved. That, from all we know of Dr. John Paget,
we feel persuaded could not be done.
No act
can have justified the ,Saxon Government int treating
of his
can inis
g
him in this manner; and we trust that
outrage becomes known, there will be ,suwchheann the
li
ex-
pression of opinion upon the subject throughout the
country, as shall stimulate, if not compel,
reactionary Government to in •even
cause
quire into the real
and sources of this domiciliary
We use the word ,4 visit. For the
sources" advisedly.
reader will observe that this transaction h not
oc-
curred in any Austrian State where our
the embers of
insurrection and revol • - still fiercely smoul-
dering. It has taken, revolution ainre
Dresden
in Saxony,
against whose ruler and people no Englishman can
have any motive to intrigue and plot' Whence, then,
the inspiration whence the orders to act thus gla-
ringly in violation of international treaties, and
towards the subject of that friendly Power but for
whose aid Saxony would not now have been an nde-
this question we fear there
Pendent kingdom ? To •
Saxony is no longer an inde-
can be but one reply
except in name. Its police can
pendent kingdom,te
d under the sanction and direction
only have so
01Austria ; and the K of Saxony
of the agentse
arded only as a vassal oft he House of
can now be r
g rather, of the head of the Russo-
Hapsburg,
Austrian elnp,
ire. We shall look with great anxiety
to see What will be the course of our Government in
this affair. Their conduct, whatever it be, will give
no unimportant indication of their future foreign
policy, now that the great warrior, to whom the
Tory party professed to look up with so much reve-
rence, almost approaching to awe, has been summoned
to his final rest.

THE PRINCE PRESIDENT_and his CHOICE

OF A BRIDE.

The Paris correspondent of the Independance of Bel-
Pouritnscoemsse a
Bel-
gium states, among other Parisian gossip, that the
King of Westphalia has advised his nephew
otroubleotherhimself
foreign about n
Princess, marriagebu with it toh
picktlse not to
aalsthhoiusgh he has
well-
educated and healthy French female,
the advice of his
uncle, bride; and
we
et
uncle, may take that course. The gossip
some origin worthy of notice, but it tip ratty
have mach
mind of the recent jeuilleton of
Alexander3U s one too muc
.11
which ho relates an account of a so Dumatheely
by a young girl of eleven years
of
aronambAuluicxeprrroep.bsho
had said " that the Count de Chatgoe;datwould be King
of France, and that he would lose his wife: by consump-
tion." And then, said Alexander Dumas, who was tho
magnetiser, "Henry the
Fifth will marry some Russian
or German Princess;" to which the girl replied, " No,
Henry the Fifth will say, I have returned to France by
the w ill of the
French people, and I win marry a girl of
the people."
lie will say, "Go to the Faubourg Saint
Martin, No. 42, and there you will find a young girl
who, when I entered Paris, was seated on a stone dressed
in white, , and havine. a green branch-in her hand. She
in'' tue daughter of acarpenter, and shall be my wife."
The correspondent of the Independanee does not make
Louis Napoleon send fora wits to the Faubourg St.
Martin, but makes tho ex-Klng !Jerome advise him to
pick out a wife from the institution of the Legion of
ionour at St. Denis.

CITY
and common-councilmen of the City assem-
,-. LONDON MILITIA.--On Wednesday the
rnr OF •
pective wards, for the purpose of pro-
abvllided
dei
nr
within
iettnhi;eidnreetPqbauetiiirer'serdsnumber of men for the City of London
royal regiment of militia, in compliance with the orders
isned the Court of Lieutenancy, and also to make a re-
turn of those volunteers who have been approved of and at-
tested. The aldermen presided at their respective ward-
motes. Notwithstanding that recruits are eligible (subject
to the approval of the Secretary-at-War) up to the age of
forty-five, and of the height of live feet three inches, the re-
cruiting for this service proceeds very slowly ; and it is a sin-
ular fact that up to the present time not one freeman has en-
listed, and comparatively few persons who reside in the City
have joined the corps; and although the staff of the regiment
in Bunhill-row and the various ward officers are ind efati-
gable in their exertions to obtain recruits, it is doubtful whe-
L ther the number (600) will be made up.