The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1852,

A OD. IL-KADER'S liberation will be welcomed by
every one with pleasure, but by no one with more
peculiar satisfaction than by the veteran Marquis of
LONDONDERRY. It will be borne in remembrance
that his voice was the one first raised in behalf of the
deceived and deserted prisoner of the Chateau
d'Arnboise. It was his voice that first penetrated
the Councils of State with the cry of intercession.
It was he who, by his reiterated appeals, elicited that
remarkable promise—" Sooner or later I will liberate
AHD•EL-KADElt—Tcit ou tard je mettrai en liberte
Abd-el-Kader !" And nobly has that promise been
fulfilled—nobly has the word, solemnly pledged, been
redeemed—nobly, before the allotted interval has ex-
pired, before 18.52 has far advanced into October,
with November and December still in per-
spective, have the chains been broken, and
the prison doors unbarred, which, for five
long years, have restricted the movements of
the Arabian hero within the limits of the
veene of his incarceration ! Yes ! France has at
length bad the blot erased from her escutcheon—the
blot of that turpitude by which a valiant enemy was
repaid for his own lofty confidence, by the ever-
execrable treachery of his conqueror. One of the last,
and assuredly not one of the least, of the political
crimes of LOUIS PELMETS has at length been expi-
ated. The brave Earls., who was, in 1847, doomed
by that monarch to a captivity to which one of the
Princes of the House of ORLEANS had pledged his
honour as a soldier that he should never be subjected
—has at length received the long-delayed, but possibly
on that very account the more exquisitely priztd,
announcement of the event of his liberation. That
event, while it is in one respect nothing more than a
simple act of justice, must be regarded, under the
peculiar circumstances of the moment, for a thousand
reasons, as a very signal evidence of clemency and
magnanimity.
England has, doubtless, by this time hailed these
glad tidings throughout the whole extent of her corn-
munity, with a sense of admiration more than is
customarily accorded to an incident of this character
taking place on
the European Continent. Yet we
cannot but conjecture also, that here, in these islands
of ours, the intelligence of Aun-EL-Kensn's libera-
tion will be welcomed, moreover, with a generous
feeling of envy not unworthy of
with
British popu-
lation. It will be thought hh
something likecompunction by
the more reflective,mannerexpiated
that while
t.n
France has in a timely
harshness to the hero-prisoner
fChateauo r
ever h er
f h
d'Amboise—England has been long°
denied the reparation during his lifetime of the cruel-
ties inflicted by her upon the bero-caetiveof the
eLongwood.mean and dilapidated house at Longwood. France
has not permitted her annals to be darkenedbertihe
death of ABD-EL-KADEN. during the period
of his
n.
circeration. England on the contrary allowed her
hatred—might «e
not also say her fear, her abso-
lute terror of that ore great man—to hasten the
period of his death in captivity by enhancing the
rigours which peculiarly characterised his galling
snd most odious imprisonment. Englishmen, re-
membering this, have, therefore, ample reason
to envy the opportunity which has been seizEd
by France in the treatment of the illustri-
ous prisoner now permitted to proceed on his
parole to the dominions of the SULTAN CALIPH.
Such has been the tardy but still timely magnanimity
shown towards the EMIR ABD•EL-KADEn in his rc-
lease from the prison near Tours. Such was not,
alas ! the conduct pursued by England towards aft
grveror KAroLzom in that rocky dungeon of St.