The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-24 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Pays has the following " communicated note"
respecting the ceremony of the 10th of May :
To all those who during the last few days have an-
nounced to us the proclamation of the Empire for the
10th of May, we reply, That cannot be serious; it
shows a complete ignorance of the character of Louis
Napoleon to admit for a moment such a supposition.'
The official note communicated by the Government to
the journals, confirms our previsions. Thus, it is a cer-
tain thing that the Empire will not be proclaimed at the
review of the 10th May. To those who have studied as
we have done the life and character of the man who is
now placed at the head of the French nation, that study
shows a very remarkable fact. This Lid is that Louis
Napoleon has always professed respect for the national
sovereignty. Even when he attacked legal order, he
respected it. At Strasburg and at Boulogne, he did
no come as a pretender to hereditary right, but as
a pretender to election. We have read and reread
his proclamations, and we only fi❑d in them a formal,
explicit, and absolute recognition of the nation to
found its own government. It was therefore from
election that Louis Napoleon demanded power; it is
from the people he has received it. As pretender,
exile, prisoner, candidate for the Republican Presidency,
President of the Constitutional Republic, and Chief of a
Constituent Government, that principle has been the
invariable rule of his conduct. At that solemn hour,
when he was paramount, when the Legislative Assembly
had just vanished, when the army was with him, and
when the rural populations hailed him as their chief,what
did he do ? He departed from the Constitution,
but he only did so to have recourse to election. Now,
the Empire is talked of. Certainly nothing is im-
possible. The Empire is a dazzling name of the
past, which may have its reflection on the page of
the future. Thus, as Napoleon one day said to
Prince Metternich, Human life is a cycle.' Asto-
nishment is felt at succeeding events resembling each
other ; that is caused by nature eternally resembling
itself in the passions and the feelings which are pe-
culiar to it. The moral world is like the physical
world—it incessantly turns on itself. Only at every
evolution it makes the circle increases like civiliza-
tion itself, and like science, every step of which is
one in advance. But how can the Empire be made if it
is ever done? It is by an acclamation of the people and
of the army at a Fite? Will the legions raise a new
standard for a new Caner? Are we at Rome at the de-
cline of a people and of a world? and are we about to
see military despotism raise itself on the ruins of the
country? No, thank God ! We are France, we aro
a nation which has a feeling of its independence and of
the rights of its sovereignty, and which can only find in
its government the image of its force, and respect for
its dignity and for its will. Thus, whatever may arrire,
whether we remain a republic, or leave it, national
sovereignty will be respected. In no case can military
acclamation replace popular election. We were before
convinced in our own minds of this, and the official de-

claration just made gives to that conviction the charac-
ter of certainty. We rejoice at it, as a striking homage
paid to the fundamental principle of the political right
in modern society, of the right on which authority re-
poses. We think that the whole of France will rejoice
with us."

We read in the Patric of yesterday evening :
~
" The Univers complains of the privilege which foreign
journals, journals, and particularly those of Belgium, appear
act -
have over those of Franco. A privilege from which,i
et en d.
caobrrdeiandg
are to the
permittedU/i iv cr sit
oi t
circulateresults
withpr
con-
tents
Go-
vernment has already turned its attention to
the Belgian
tents that are interdicted to French joi!rnaltso.
thiTs bime
por
tant question, and, if we are well
oisinformed,t their entry into
journals have received notice.
Cher details of the proceedings.
~
to give any o
of the official minutes. .
France will be immediately interdicted,
legis-
lative body than those
has returned to Moulins, but
if
fthoeyf thcoentinueGeneral CANEOBERT
;mutations of punish..for Bourges. About
granted by General CANROBERT to
he made but a very shoBrotsetaoym he started soon after
ments have been
wheret o make
thethemselves
facts
o n
of the Military Commissi. _
the political prisoners.of.etheeefAjullieeursThheave members
La Pelisse and Donjon,
which they will have to .
decide
took place.
1 n order
acquainted with the localities
The Memoria Wordelcas states that the frost of
the night of the 20th has been very disastrous for
department. At Barsac, Sauternes,
&c., where the vines were
Bommes, Podensac,
the vines in department.
very forward, serious fears are entertained that the
mischief will be irreparable.
The Mediterranean squadron, under the command
of Vice-Admiral DE LASSUBSE, has arrived at Toulon,
from the islands of the Hy eres. This squadron con-
sists of the Ville de Paris, 120 guns ; Henry IV.,
100; Jena, 80; Jupiter, 8G; and Bayard, 90.
The Constitutionnel contains a grave statement
with respect to Spain, the substance of which is that
not only is the electoral law to be changed, but the
Constitution is to be altered in such a manner as to
reduce the Cortes to a position resembling rather the
French Corps Legislatif than the Belgian or Pied-
montese Chambers, not to speak of the British Par-
liament.
The same paper rejoices that the triumph gained
by the Moderate and Conservative party at Berne
puts an end to all apprehension on the score of Swit-
zerland. The Grand Council have had a majority of
7,000 votes out of the 80,000 polled, so that the pre-
sent Government remains. This is the first time,
since 1830, that the Conservatives have achieved a
victory over the Radicals, at Berne, and the fact
marks a reaction in the spirit of the country, which
will probably save it from occupation by a foreign
army. The Debats remarks as follows on the
triumph of the Conservatives at Berne :
" It is unnecessary for us to enlarge on the importance
of such an event. It will have for effect to stop the pro-
gress of the Radical party, and the development of a
system to which the cantons of Argau, Zurich, and
Thurgau, as well as the whole of French Switzerland,
the Radical tendencies of which, it is well known,
were about to rally. The victory of the Conservative.s3o
party will have another consequence. Since 1000_
every time that the people of Berne have been
50
the
stilted, their votes have always been contrary to 1
it has
established system. This is the first time tent. „,,.__
declared for the maintenance of its Goverinine_
on
__.1u.,,74
i we not conclude from this that a favourable
_ib_ogeog,°w7o
I taken place in the feelings of the PoPul" wit

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