The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 23, 1 52.

THE FRENCH EMPIRE.

who, after having been so long imprisoned at
Naples, has had his punishment lately commuted
into perpetual exile from the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, and is now in Turin, has obtained letters
of naturalisation as a Sardinian subject.
The Messaggere of Modena states from Rome
that the consulta for the finance has named a com-
mission to examine and propose means for providing
for the deficiency in the coming year's expenditure
which will exceed that of 1852, and another com-
mission for the consideration of the projected rail-
ways, that in particular, which, touching at
Ancona, is to connect Rome with Bologna. The
tax on professions is henceforward to be exacted by
the communes, which are to be held responsible for
the amount.

THE CARLTON CLUB.-MR. GLADSTONE.

On Tuesday, the Emperor visited the Hotel
Dieu and the - Hospital at Compiegne. He
was accompanied by General Canrobert, the
prefect of the Oise, and the mayor of the
town, and was received by the directors and the
attendant seeurs de charite. After going through
the different wards, and addressing many of the
patients in the most affable manner, his Majesty
retired amidst_marks of the most respectful sym-

pathy.
The Emperor has just sent two handsome flower
vases in bronze, and a magnificent Russian snuff-
box to the authorities of Agen, and a splendid silver
sugar-basin to those of Privas, to form prizes in
lotteries which are being organised in those places
for the benefit of the poor.
The Pays states that a company with a capital of
25 millions of francs, has been formed for turning
to profit the forests and other property of the State,
now comparatively unproductive in Corsica.
Captain Renson, the aide-de-camp of General
Pelissier, arrived at Marseilles on the 18th, with
the colours taken by the French at Laghouat, in

The Austria, a Vienna paper, gives an account
of the progress of railways in Austrian Italy, from
which it appears that the Verona and Brescia line is
to be opened in June, 1853, as well as the Brescia
and Coccaglio section. The remaining section from
Coccaglio to Milan is already traced. The Milan and.
Piacenza, Mantua and Borgoforte, Verona and Bol-
zano, Trevisio and Isonzo, lines are being at present
surveyed.
The Chamber of Deputies at Turin was to dis-
cuss, on the 18th, the bill relative to the sequestra-
tion of ecclesiastical property, the object of which
is to put a period to the pretensions of the munici-
palities with regard to the said property.
The city of Turin had resolved to construct a
commercial dock, on the plan of the Dock Napo-
leon in Paris. _ _

Algeria.
The Moniteur Algerien contains a new list of
commutations of punishments accorded to persons
transported in 1852, amounting to 67 in all-53
from the department of the Lot-et-Garonne, 5 to
the Var, 7to other departments, 1 Italian, and

1 Swiss.
In the Rads there is a long article on the Derby
Ministry, ending with an appeal in favour of the
free trade principle in France. The Debats says :
" Although they retire from office, the assent given
by Lord Derby and his colleagues to the principle of
free trade puts an end in England to the discussion
which had arisen on the subject of that freedom. It
remains definitely master of the field, and it cannot fail
to excite the attention of Europe. Already, in conse-
quence of the demonstration made by Sir Robert Peel,
all the powers who exercise any ascendancy in the world
have materially modified their tariffs in the sense of free
trade ; in Europe they are Austria and Russia, and in Ame-
rica the United States ; to this list we may add Spain, Pied-
mont, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal. To this im-
posing unanimity of civilisation, France alone, absorbed
as she was by internal cares, has hitherto made the ex-
ception ; she retains the most prohibitive tariff in Europe,
although at the Exhibition of London in 1851 she, to
her own astonishment, eclipsed every nation, including
England, in a number of branches of industry. Now,
that France has no longer to dread the anarchy which
had threatened her, there is nothing to prevent her from
joining in a commercial policy which is recommended
by so many suffrages and by so many examples. We
have thb experience of the whole world and the conver-
s'_en of the most decided English Protectionists to give
confidence to timid minds. We have, in order to secure
every interest, the moderation of the most devoted
friends of free trade, who all declare that time and gra-
dation are the necessary elements of all reforms. We
have besides, in order to secure respect for this salutary
transformation of our commercial legislation, the solemn
words of the speech at Bordeaux—r Empire, c'est la paix
What more striking pledge of peace can be given to the
Powers than to substitute for the commercial system of
isolation that of commercial relations, which would be-
come every day more and more intimate ?"
The Constitutionnel, in a leading article, traces
the causes of the late change of the government in
France, and congratulates the country on the
accession to the throne of a Prince wbo has an-
nounced his determinntion to promote the develop-
ment of the resources that it possesses for grandeur
and prosperity when favoured by the blessings of
peace. The Constitutionnel draws a faithful picture
of the evils which have been brought upon the
French nation by a succession of revolutions, and
observes with truth that the natural result was the
eager adoption of a government able to put down
the spirit of anarchy, and protect society against
the machinations of the designing few, and the
turbulence of an ignorant and misled mass. This,
as the Constitutionnel says, is the natural and in-
evitable result of all revolutions which have not
reason and justice for their bases, or which, when
founded on both, become greater evils than those
which they were intended to throw off, when
the administration of affairs falls into the hands
of bad or unskilful men. It is in the natural
and indeed inevitable course of things also, that
when a nation at the point of anarchy is rescued
from its danger by the intelligence and energy of
an individual, the extreme of absolutism must, for
a time at least, replace that of unbridled freedom ;
but it must not be forgotten that a government
which derives its strength and the confidence and
obedience of a nation from a feeling of gratitude
for being rescued from impending destruction,
must, in order to preserve that strength, gradually
enlarge the sphere of liberty, in proportion as the
nation feels security against the advent of anarchy,
and yearns for the constitutional liberty which the
experience of past errors will protect against abuse.
Extremes are always dangerous, and are always
transitory. The strongest governments become
weak when they do not take into account the spirit
of the age and the demands of intelligence. The
surest mode of preventing revolution is to exercise
power with energy but prudence, to make no com-
prise with the revolutionary spirit, but to remove
from the minds of the intelligent and well disposed
anything like regret for the past.
The market was firm, without much business
doing. The Four-and-a-half per Cents. opened at
106 f. 50c., and closed at 106 f. 35c. for the end of
the month. The Three per Cents. closed at 82f. 80c. ;
Orleans Railway New Shares, 1,040 f. ; Rouen,
975 f.: Havre, 325 f. ; Great Northern, 902 f. 50c. ;
Basle, 365 f.; Paris and Strasburg, 837 f. 50e; Paris
and Lyons, 927 f. 50c. ; Lyons and Avignon,
777 f. 50c.; Western of France, 795 f.; Caen and
Cherbourg, 635 f. ; Dijon and Besancon, 577 f. 50c ;
Bordeaux and Cette, 617 f. 50c. ; Shares of the New
Bank of Credit Mobilier issued at 500 f., 995 f.

jv
The Sardinian Government had contracted for
the construction of a screw frigate in England, for
the sum of 2,214,000 f. It was M. Cavour, who,
during his journey to Scotland, signed the con-
tract with a shipbuilder at Newcastle.
LetteTs from Ticino, of the 13th, state that on
that day a letter from the Archbishop of Milan was
communicated to the Grand Council, complaining
of the suppression of the Convent of Capuchins,
and of the inhumanity with which the measure had
been executed. The clerical party has resolved to
show the greatest interest for these expelled friars.

THE CONTINENT.

SPAIN.

The Madrid Gazette of the 17th publishes a royal
decree, annulling the prosecution which had been
commenced against the Heraldo, for publishing the
address to the electors of the Electoral Committee
of the moderate party. The Heraldo mentions a
report that M. Pio de la Sota, the fiscal of the
press, has either resigned or been dismissed, and a
Madrid letter of the 17th informs us that the poli-
tical chief of Madrid, under whose authorisation
the prosecution had been instituted, has also ceased
his functions. The Diario Espanol, which had
shown some hostility to the new government, was
seized on the 16th, and a fine of 500 reals was in-
flicted. In its number of the 17th, the Diario
says it shall abstain from any further comments
upon the new Ministers until their policy shall be
more clearly defined. The Espana announces that
the government had refused permission to the
electors of the Progressist party to hold a public
meeting. The Madrid Gazette announces the ap-
proaching payment of the dividends on the 3 per
Cents.

BELGIUM. •
A statue of the King of the Belgians was inau-
gurated on Sunday, in the Place Communale of
Ixelles, near Bruxelles. Although no extensive
announcements of the ceremony had been made, it
attracted a large attendance of the inhabitants of
the commune and the capital. The Prince Royal
and his brother attended ; they were received by
the mayor and common council. The mayor de-
livered a brief speech, and it was greeted with en-
thusiastic cries of " Vive le Roi !" " Vivent les
Princes !" When the statue was uncovered canons
thundered, and several bands played. The diffe-
rent societies, communal schools, and national
guards of the commune and the neighbourhood,
together with detachments of troops, afterwards
filed off before the Princes.

THE NEW MINISTRY.-SPIRIT OF TBE
PUBLIC JOURNALS.

PROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—We may as well state at once, for the
relief of those legislators who wish to spend the re-
mainder of this week otherwise than in dancing at-
tendance on Parliament, that, according to Lord

Aberdeen's first and very reasonable intention, no-
thing will be announced this evening. Of course,
we must regret, on Lord Derby's account, that his
fervid curiosity and irritable temperament will be
deprived—the one of its satisfaction, the other of

a new stimulus ; but after his lordship himself took
a whole year to form his own Cabinet, out of one
political section, he cannot complain if his succes-
sor has not finally arranged every particular be-
fore the expiration of one week. The House of
Lords will be adjourned this evening to next Mon-
day, when there is no doubt the country will pos-
sess a Government with a fair promise of support
and durability. We say the country, for notwith-
standing the special anxiety with which a crisis is
watched by expectants of every degree, the nation
is far more interested even than would-be Minis-
ters and ambitious subordinates. It certainly is

for the interest of the country that it should have
not only a good Government, but one which can
command a Parliamentary majority of its own,

and which is therefore a source of security, in-
stead of being, like our two last Governments,
itself an uncertainty, a weakness, and a trouble.
Something like terra firma we trust to arrive
at before long, though .how that is to be done
in the present state of parties, without a
good deal of mutual forbearance and gene-
rous co-operation, no one ventures to say.
Notwithstanding the wear and tear of heart and
sense by our late political controversies, there is
happily enough patriotism left for the formation of
a comprehensive Government. There are not many
men who would rather fish in troubled waters for

the great prize of power than help to reconcile fac-
tions. The proper policy of the country is scarcely
any longer a matter of dispute. In all the declama-
tion that we read in and out of Parliament, we
don't see so much as an attempt to make out that
the grand principles of our Government depend on
the selection of this or that set of men. The only

quoation io why Will best carry nut fhc.
already adopted by Parliament and the nation at
large. Attacks by anticipation are at least under-
stood. When writers are so candid as to infoim us
that they intend to abuse Lord Aberdeen, his col-
leagues, his Cabinet, and his policy, whatever they
are, to give no quarter to anything or anybody that
crosses the threshold of Argyll-house, and to think
worst of those measures that look the best, they

necessarily disarm themselves of what strength
they might accidentally possess. For our part, we
are always disposed to give a new Government
fair play, especially when its very formation is an
act of patriotic risk or self-denial. That is not
the course adopted by Lord Derby and his sup-
porters. Though they claim to be the largest party
in the State, they are not strong enough, as they
confess themselves, to wait. They must crush
the new Government in its very cradle, or it will,
they seem to think certain, speedily be too much
for them. They cannot afford to be candid or
patient. The stakes are planted, the faggots piled,
and the sentence pronounced, before there is any-
body to burn. We may judge how rapid will be
the process of justice when the men and the mea-
sures are in court. Next week we shall know the
men. Then will come storm the first on the de-
voted heads of the unfortunate statesmen from the
phials of disappointed protection. In February we
shall know the measures. Then will come storm
the second. How kind to be told all this before-
hand ! What an immense improvement it would
be on the existing state of things if all people pro-
claimed their purposes and character on their very
forehead so promptly and so plainly as our late Pro-
tectionist contemporaries ! When the fatal out-
break of ungovernable passion, -unlimited personali-
ties, and scandalous insinuation is at last poured
upon us, it will be a great comfort to reflect that we
had fair warning, and that as it was threatened be-
fore the men or the measures were so much as set-
tled, no choice of men or measures could have averted
the infliction. But before these gentlemen de-
nounced so very positively the men and the measures,
whatever they may happen to be, of the new Admi-
nistration, they might as well have agreed among
themselves what ground to take as to the known
facts of the case. Whatis the particularcrime or folly
of which the statesmen in consultation at Argyll-
house are guilty ? Is it that they are too well pre-
pared, or that they are not prepared enough ? In
one speech or one column we are assured of a long,
a deep, a well-organised conspiracy to wrest the
Government from the Conservative party ; in a
sister speech, or an adjacent column, we are as-
sured that all its surprise, confusion, disagreement,
and everything that usually argues want of pre-
meditation in the statesmen charged with this sin-
gular conspiracy. Both these charges cannot be
true. Will the assailants be so good as to elect
which charge they mean to insist upon ? Is it a
conspiracy, or is it a misadventure ? Were the
parties agreed before the opening of Parliament,
the terms arranged, the spoil divided, or, to take
the other alternative, are there no parties as yet,
no terms of co-operation, no agreement as to the
spoil ? Just now the last seems the favourite topic ;
and when it becomes known that the Cabinet is not
yet entirely filled up the run will be stronger in
that direction—namely, that the three anti-Protec-
tionist sections of the Legislature have been taken
by surprise. There is actually some truth in the
charge. But as contradictions cannot be equally
true, it is not so true that there has been a league
of long standing to overthrow the Ministry and
divide the places among the confederates. The
fatal division of last Thursday night happened to
be about as little premeditated or concerted as fatal
divisions have generally been of late years. An
unusual variety of motives contributed to the re-
result. Besides merely political considerations,
every one of the five measures constituting the
Budget furnished its quota of dissentients, and if
the debate on them, as it went on, turned more
and more on the question of confidence, that was
owing rather to the Ministerial orders that it should
be so than to any mischievous combination of par-
ties.

HERALD.—AII sorts of rumours are of course
afloat as to the arrangements in progress for the
formation of the new Cabinet. Many of the minor

appointments are said to be settled, and we think
probable that this evening Lord Aberdeen will be
able to state in his place in the House of Lords
that matters are progressing, although not finally
arranged. Amongst the on dits, we may mention,
that it is strongly rumoured Lord John Russell is
to be pitchforked into the House of Lords, and is to
be Lord President of the Council ; that the leader-
ship of the House of Commons lies between Sir
James Graham and Mr. Gladstone ; and that the
first-named of these two gentlemen is to be First
Lord of the Admiralty. That
.Sir J. Graham
may be desirous of securing this appointment
we think extremely likely, but when we take into
consideration how he acted when occupying the
same position in a former Administration, we
cannot imagine a more injudicious appointment,
especially at the present time, when it is a matter
of essential consequence to the country, that this,
the most important arm of the public service,
should be rendered efficient, as we do not hesi-
tate to say it is not at present, but which
Lord Derby had determined upon effecting without
any delay. A more injudicious appointment, we
say, than that of Sir J. Graham to be First Lord
of the Admiralty, we cannot conceive, or one more
likely to disappoint the great mass of the English
people ; and should the report of his appointment
turn out to be correct, we shall take an early op-
portunity of proving what we now assert. We
have reason to believe that this place was offered to
L ordPalmerston? and in our opinion his lordship
is eminently qualified for the post, and his appoint-
ment would, we are convinced, have given great
satisfaction to all naval men, but we are informed
that his lordship has flatly refused to have anything
to do with the embryo Cabinet ; and we are not, we
confess, surprised at this determination, for we can-
not understandhow a nobleman of Lord Palmerston's
high character and gentlemanly feeling could for
one moment sit in the same Cabinet with Lord John
Russell, from whom he has received so flagrant an
insult. Another rumour, and one which some of
our Liberal contemporaries seem to give credit to,
is that Lord St. Leonard's has been strongly pressed
to retain his office of Lord Chancellor. No doubt
Lord Aberdeen would be glad enough to avail him-
self of the noble lord's splendid talent and high
character, but then the difficulty remains—the
Lord St. Leonard's has a character to maintain,
and his lordship has too much penetration, to say
nothing of his feelings as a high-minded nobleman,.
not to know that he has nothing to gain in public
estimation by lending himself to assist a cabal
which has overturned one of the best Governments
the country has seen for many a
year, and which
can only obtain power by swallowing all its former
opinions. It is an affront to Lord St. Leonard's to
suppose him capable of such conduct for the mere
sake of remaining in his present position, and, but
that we are compelled to allude to the matter, as
some of our contemporaries have already done, we
should be ashamed of seeming to countenance such
a report, even whilst we are contradicting it.

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE YELLOW FEVER.—The
Lords of the Admiralty have issued instructions to the Ad-
miralty agents on the West India station not to permit in-
valids and distressed seamen from places where the yellow
fever is raging toe be received ou board the homeward-
bound mail-packets.