The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—If the tenor of French political life be
such as to make us doubt the accuracy of the Duke
of Persigny's opinion that Napoleon 111. is the
Founder of Liberty, yet there is much to favour the
other boast of the Imperialists, that he has closed
the period of revolutions. This much is certain—
that revolutions have been made and French Sove-

reigns have been dethroned for violations of politi-
cal right which the public now sees with an indif.
ferent eye. Charles X. fell for threatening to treat
the Press as the Imperial Executive has treated it
for the last 10 years. Louis Philippe and the last
scions of the Bourbon race were rejected because
they were guilty in the popular judgment of inter-
fering with the right of free association for ele& oral
purposes. Two old Kings, successively driven
from an ancient and splendid throne, and retiring
hastily into exile, not without fear of violence from
an enraged populace, may be justly held to give a
warning to future rulers. But at this moment their
successor has no reason to take their example to

heart. The amusements of Compeigne need not be
interrupted for a moment by the cries of " Liberty"
or the indignant protests of her moat eloquent de-
fenders. As a violation of all that we understand

by electoral freedom, in contempt for the most ordi-
nary rights of citizens, the attack on the meeting
which was convened for promoting the return of
the Liberal candidates for Paris and the prosecution
of its members seem to go beyond anything that has
ever been attempted by the French police. Toe
details of that singular event must be in the memory
of our readers. The house of an eminent citizen was
invaded, the street in which he lived was filled with
gendarmes, his guests were turned out of the house
with ignominy, on the ground that in meeting they
formed an illegal association forbidden by the law.
Thirteen gentlemen were prosecuted for having
been members of a society consisting of more than
20 persons. To make up the number of 21 neces.
sary to satisfy the law it was pretended that there
were others in league with them. They were con-
victed by the Tribunal of the First instance, and
some days since their appeal came on before the
higher court. Yesterday the Court of Appeal gave
judgment affirming the decision of the court below,
and consequently declaring the view of the law
taken by the police to be the true one. It is by this
extraordinary decision that the relations between
the Opposition candidates and those favoured by the
Government will henceforth be regulated. In spite
of all the eloquence of Berryer and Dufaure, Des-
merest and Favre, a law of public meetings is de-
clared to exist in France which will not only make
it impossible for any candidate to organise an oppo-
sition against his Ministerial competitor, but almost
forbids him to have any personal communication
with the electors whose suffrages he seeks, The

main point contended for by the advocates of the
accused WllB that such meetings as that held in Paris
could not have been contemplated by the framers of

the law, inasmuch as tho law only assumed a liberty
which had never been questioned for 50 years, and
was, moreover, necessary for the conduct of electoral
affairs, since, if meetings of this kind were prohie
bited, all political life must cease and universal
suffrage, with its apparatus of districts and ballot
boxes, be merely an illusion for placing the nomi-
nees of power in legislative functions. The Pro-
cureureGeneral almost accepted this doctrine, and
did not scruple to declare that electoral committees
such as those which had existed under the Restora-
tion and the Orleans dynasty could not be suffered
any longer. "So much the worse for the Govern-
ments which tolerated them," he is reported to have
said ; "they were wrong ; they have fallen, and we
du not wish to fall." This sentence expresses, no
doubt, the intention of the Government; it indicates
the full importance of the Court's decision. This
judgment will be received with such equae
nimity by the French people that we feel, in
speaking of the trial and the brilliant display of
eloquence which took place, that we are merely
discussing a performance which has no practical bear.
ing, and only serves to show the genius and opinions
of a certain limited class of Frenchmen. M. Ber-
ryer, who defendel M. Fery, was the most famous
advocate employed, and his speech was worthy of
him. It is of no use to enter into the technical
questions involved. When a barrister goes into
court he must argue according to the existing law,
however unjust and oppressive he may think it.
The defenders of the Thirteen were obliged to take
for granted the law of 1834 and the law of 1852,
and to do their best to show that their clients did
not come within the scope of either. The law for-
bids public meetings without permission, but it
could not, in the opinion of the defence, ho held
that a committee sitting to conduct the election of
a friend was a publ'o meeting within the meaning
of the law, which was directed against assemblages
calculated to disturb the public peace. Accordingly,
M. Berryer protested against this attempt to turn
an old law into a now use. If it was required to
restrain the action of electoral committees, why
was not a bill brought in? Plainly because it was
sought to do by means of a legal decision what the
Government had not dared to demand from the
national Legislature. To show that the law did not
apply to such meetings as those at the house of M.
Gamier Pages, which were " reunions," and not an
associstien, M. Berryer recalled to the memory of
the Court the history of the Restoration and Louis
Philippe's reign. Under these Governments, as
well as under the Republic of 1818, there were
continually meetings for electoral purposes. "Need
I inform you," he says, " that in Paris in 1848 and
1849 there was, among other committees, a great
committee called the Union, and at the same time
there were Napoleonian committees? I have some-
times chanced to see their numerous circulars."
This home-thrust must have had its effect on the
auditory, if not on the Court. M. Berryer cone
eluded by appealing to the usages of England, as
those of a country where Parliamentary liberty was
old and well understood ; and he anticipated the
answer which is always made to these comparisons
—that England is a country where the Throne is
placed above the passions of parties or the attacks
of sedition. The difference, he said, consists in this
—that in France the Government considers as an
enemy every one who does not blindly submit to it,
and no one can express a desire without its assent.
The speech of M. Dufaure was equally effective.
In answer to the arguments that former Govern•
ments had been lenient and had fallen, he declared
that, even if it were so, there were others,
the Convention and the Empire, which had fallen
from opposite causes, and history would say whether
there was not more honour ie being overthrown
through respect for the laws than through having
outrageously violated them, The speech of M. Des-
merest, which followed, was in the same style.
These eminent men, sheltered under that profes-
sional privilege which is the only strong protection
now left in France, pleaded the causes of their clients
and friends with a vigour of argument and a breadth
of view which the political importance of the case
demanded. But their speeches are, to the minds
of the French,public, little more than the exercises
of skilled and ingenious rhetoricians. If an election
were to take place in Paris immediately they might
have their effect, as the outrage on M. Gamier
Pagel had its effect at the time. An Opposition
candidate might be elected. But to stir up the
French people to struggle against a decision which
places every candidate at the mercy of the Govern-
ment, and makes the departmental elections almost
a mockery, seems for the present hopeless. Yet we
cannot believe that the Minister of the Interior will
use the extraordinary powers with which this de-
cision invests him. To stretch his privileges too far
may be to run the chance of losing them. The law
which allows a Ministerial candidate to retain in
his service all the officials of a department, from the
Prefect downwards, but does not permit a party of
friends to meet for the conduct of his opponent's
election, is one which even in France must be judie
ciously and sparingly put in force.
Post —The discussion about the Victoria, which
is still kept up in certain quarters, is very like
Henry IV.'s supper with Sully—"Poulets en ragout
—poldeis en hachis—poulets en fricassees"—always
the same dish, though with a different sauce. When
the Secretary of the Admiralty spoke out last Friday,
and gave the reasons for the despatch of the Victoria
to the Mediterranean, he gave what, to every im-
partial person capable of judging, was a very suffi-
cient reason. But there arc persons in the world of
a cross-grained nature to whom no reason ever ape
pears satisfactory, and to whom every explanation,
however frank and straightforward, suggests only
a fresh objection. Hitherto the one point against
the Victoria, incessantly insisted on usque ad nau-
seam to every sailor, has been that she was useless
as a man-of-war. But now that Lord Clarence
Paget has come forward and shown that such a
ship, as a man-of-war in times of peace, is not only
useful but highly serviceable to a fleet, the question
is gravely asked, "If such a ship is usAtil, why
don't you render her useless ?'' and the country, we
are told, would have no objection to pay for her
without her guns, because with her guns she is an
"extravagant specimen" of enormous cost. One
moment's consideration will exhibit the very little
worth or wisdom there is in this proposition. If
you deprive a man-of-war of her guns, you deprive
her of her great element of usefulness as a man-ofe
war, and you reduce her at once to the level of a
hulk. The object of commissioning and sending to
sea such a ship as the Victoria is to get together and.
drill into the perfect discipline of a man-of-war a
large body of men, who if occasion should arise
might be drafted off ready for work into ships of
smaller complement and crews. There never has
been any other class of ship, and never will be, in
which you can keep together for any length of time
in perfect health, and drill and discipline with such
ease, comfort, and success a large body of men, as
you can on board that commodious class of ship