The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-06 00:00:00

~i~ ~

Sun

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 6, 1863.

It is of the utmost possible importance that the
precise nature of the subject-matter now in dispute
between the French and English Governments
sheuld not on any account be lost sight of. And
for the very simple reason, that it has suddenly led
to a position no less grave than this—that it in-
volves within it a startling question as to who it is
that ought to be believed. The Saturday Review,
always bent upon coming at once directly to the
point at issue in any misunderstanding, no matter
who may be the disputants, puts the Query yet
more plainly, by asking, point blank—Who is it
that has told the Lie ? Whether is the person
whose veracity is at fault—Mr. ROEBUCK (and
with him, of course, Mr. LINDSAY)—or Baron GROS
—or Earl RUSSELL (and with him, of course, his
Under Secretary, Mr. LAYARD)—or--the Emperor
NAPOLEON ? Among those personages there have
within the last few days, sprung up statements so
distinct, so positive, and at the same time so
diametrically opposed to each other, that some
one amongst these great personages must for cer-
tain have done a very great deal worse than
simply quibbled or equivocated. The whole
question, therefore, when regarded as the
plainest possible matter of fact, resolves itaelf
to this—Who amongst them all is the one
at fault ? Who is the author or promulgator of the
untruth that by one or another of them undeniably
has been put forth ? Another week must elapse
before the adjourned debate upon Mr. ROEBUCK'S
motion—out of which it all grew—can be renewed.
During this intervening week we are left purely to
conjecture. Mr. ROEBUCK and Mr. LAYARD have
already, in the House of Commons, contradicted one
another quite flatly. Since then Mr. LINDSAY has
corroborated to the full every statement put forth by
his colleague in the late eccentric expedition to the
EMPERORat Fontainebleau. The member for Sunder-
land has done this in a letter to our chief morning
contemporary. That letter we reprinted in our co-
lumns on Saturday; so that our readers are au courant
with the whole course of the dispute from its very
commencement. Subsequently to the exchange of
cieriAls between Mr. ROEBUCK and Mr. LAYARD
in the Hours of Commons, and to the publication of
the letter of Mr. LINDSAY in our leading contem-
porary, the .Moniteur has given to the world, whet
we publish a literal translation of, in another part
of our impression of this evening—the version of
this unhappy little incident as panned by the hand
of the EMPEROR himself. It is a version in
every point of view so remarkable of its kind that
it is entitled to very particular consideration.
According to Mr. ROEBUCK'S statement, for the
perfect accuracy of which, in all particulars, Mr.
LINDSAY deliberately vouches,ride his letter already
referred to, as transferred to our columns on Satur-
day—the Two Ambassadors Most Extraordinary,
aa, Mr. BRIGHT humoroursly dubbed then), went
Over to France in order that they might, if pea-

sible, by means of a private interview with the
EMPEROR, clear up a mtsunderstanding as to the
exact views of his MAJESTY in relation to
the recognition of the South. The EMPEROR
himself, however, through the official state-
ment just put forth authoritatively in the columns
of the Moniteur, now gives an entirely different
account of the purpose of that strange mission of
theirs ! " Messrs. ROEBUCK and LINDSAY says the
Itioniteur," visited Fontainebleau to engage the Ertl.
peror to take o fficial steps at London for the recog-
nition of the Southern States," and so on. Here
are the ipsissima verbu : MM. ROEBUCK et LIND-
SAY soot venus a Fontainebleau (On d'engager
Empereur a faire une demarche officielle aLondres
pour la reconnaisance des Etats du Sad, dans leur

opinion, cette reconnaisance mettrait nn terms a
la lutte qui ensanglante Its Etats-Ur.is." Not,
observe, to clear up any misunderstanding as to
what might be the EMPEROR'S views, but actually
to urge his Majesty—to "engage" him "to take steps
at London"—in other words to induce a foreign ruler
to move—to a certain policy atLondon,the councils of
her Britannic MAJESTY'S Government ! Hardly the
kind of work, this, we submit, to have been under-
taken by any two members of the British Housnhe-
eof
Commons! A kind of work, indeed, wholly u
fitting any English Member of Parliament at all--
however eccentric, or however independent.
Again, it should be particularly borne in recol-
lection that in bringing forward his motion, in mak-
ing his original statement to the House of Commons,
the member for Sheffield (TEAR'E3I, with his teeth
drawn, and yet for still greater security talking
as one may say through the elegant French
muzzle strapped on him by imperial hands at
Fontainebleau)—spoke of himself very grandly as
one authorised and empowered to address the
British House of Commons, on the part, and in
the name, of his Majesty the Emperor of the •
FRENCH. Recall to mind Mr. ROEBUCK'S very
words—" I know certain things about the state of
the mind of the great French ruler, which I am
authorised to lay before this House." Again—" The
Emperor of the FRENCH said, and he gave me au-
thority to repeat it here"—this, that, and the other.
And speaking then in the House, as though it were
the EMPEROR himself who was talking, be added—
" I give you full liberty to state this my wish to the
British House of Commons, and to say to them that
I have determined," so and so ! What says the
EMPEROR himself, however, now, in the official
statement his Majesty has just put forth autho-
ritatively in the columns of the Moniteur
Why, words could not be more explicit in
the way of contradiction to all this astounding
fanfaronade. The imperial statement closing
with the very emphatic declaration that "Every
impartial person will see by this simple explanation
that the Emperor has not attempted, as certain
papers pretend, to influence the British Parliament
through two of its members, &c." Here again, how-
ever, we give the very words themselves :—" Tout
homme impartial verra, par ce simple expose, que
l'Empereur n'a pas cherchd, comme le pretendent
certaines feuilles, a influencer le Parlement britun-
nique par l'entremise de deux de ses membres, et que
tout s'est borne a de franches explications echangees
dans une entrevue a la quelle Sa Majesty n'avait
aucune raison de se refuser." Another time, we
conjecture, his Imperial Majesty will hardly feel
disposed to prove himself so over-courteously
accessible to travelling English gentlemen, even
be they eminent members of Parliament. For,
out of his latest over-courtesy in this way—

surely an over-courtesy in Mr. ROEBUCK'S in-
stance, remembering all that hon. member's re-
cent railings and personalities in regard to the
personage he now speaks of with 'bated breath,
as the great ruler of France—out of the Em-
peror NAPOLEON'S latest over-courtesy, in this
way, has sprung this vexatious and almost
alarming imbroglio between the English and French
Governments. Remembering Mr. ROEBUCK'S esca
pade in Austria, and now again more recently,
and far more flagrantly, in France.—TEAß'EM runs
the hazard of being better known in future, or
we are very much mistaken, as the MARPLOT of
Imperialism.