The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Emperor's Speech.

SPECTATOR.—The Emperor of the French has
this year realised the expectation of Europe by one
of the weightiest speeches ever delivered from a
throne. He has not declared specifically his inten-
tion to•free Poland, but he has announced that the
"fundamental pact" of the Continent—the treaties
of 1815—has ceased to exist, and proposed, as the
only alternative to war, a Congress of all the Powers
to settle all questions now in dispute in Europe.
They are to " reconstruct the edifice" which is
crumbling away, and to prepare for universal dis-
armament. We have commented on this magnifi-
cent, if impracticable, proposal at some length else-
where, and have only here to notice the paragraphs
devoted to France. They are all of a sanguine
kind. The trade of the Empire has increased by
nine and a half millions sterling, a thousand kilo-
meters of new railway have been opened, only
600,000 children remain to be drawn into the pri-
mary schools, and the expeditions beyond sea,
" commenced to defend French honour, will end in
the triumph of French interests." Above all, the
revenue has been continually rising,and the expenses
is Mexico have been met without fresh credits.
The speech was exceedingly well received, and the
Moniteur was probably right, though vain-glorious,
when it prophesied on Friday that the speech
" could not fail to re-echo loudly through Europe."
The rumble of cannon in movement may be heard
all through. * * Tne hush of strained expecta •
tion with which Europe listens for the annual
speech of the Emperor of the French has this year
been amply rewarded. There is no living Sovereign,
there is perhaps but one in history, who may com-
pete as an orator with Napoleon 111., and he has
delivered no speech to be compared with this.
Couched in that tone of apparent frankness
which is the specialty of Bonaparte oratory,
which was as marked on the 18th Brumaire
as in the apology for Villafranca, or Prince Jerome's
plea for evacuating Rome, almost colloquial in its
references to the living facts of thehour, and studded
with the epigrammatic sentences which royalty al-
ways avoids, it is full to repletion of the Imperial
force which belongs only to great ideas uttered from
a throne. Acknowledging with the faintest suspi-
cion of a mental shrug the result of the elections,
sketching slightly, but ably, the pleasanter features
of his own regime for the year,—the budget which
provides for conquest without a deficit, the immense
additions to trade, the five millions of children pre-
sent in the primary schools, the expansion of French
influence on the American and Asiatic continents,
—the Emperor proceeds to develop his plan for the
re-organization of Europe. And what a plan !
Affairs like the insurrection in Poland, which may
replace an old nationality, questions like that of
Schleswig Holstein, which may cover Central Eu-
rope with blood, even difficulties like the occupation
of Rome, the settlement of which may evolve a new
era of religious organisation, shrink for the moment
into insignificance before this Imperial dream. It
is difficult, as we read, not to forget that the speaker
directs the most warlike nation in Europe, not to
imagine that we are listening to some politician of
the study instead of the master of fifty legions. It
is all real, however, and it is an Emperor of the
French, whose words are themselves events, who
declares that Europe is " everywhere agitated by
the elements of dissolution," that " the jealousies of
the Great Powers hinder the march of civilisation,"
and that the" day has arrived to reconstruct on a ne w
basis the edifice ruined by time and destroyed piece
by piece by revolutions;" who asks whether we shall
eternally maintain a state which is neither peace
with its security, nor war with its happy chances,
and who, then speaking ." iu the name of France,"
that is, of almost irresistible military power, sum-
mons all Europe to Congress to furnish the solution
which " at the North as well as at tae South"--in
Scandinavia as in Rome and Turkey—" powerful
interests" demand. It is not the status of Poland,
or Italy, or Servia, or Schleswig, or even of Ger-
many, but of Europe, which a new Congress of
Vienna is summoned to Paris tJ decide. One im-
mense but peaceable re-arrangement, to be based
on the wishes of the nations, and to disarm the
"subversive parties" by surrendering " narrow cal-
culations" to be enforced by irresistible power,
and therefore without the sabre, and fol-
lowed by a general disarmament,—this is the splen-
did dream with which the Emperor of the French
summons the world to council. It is a dream, too,
deep in his heart, for under his counsel may be
heard an under-tone of menace. " chose who refuse
he will suspect of secret projects which shun the
light of day." There "are but two paths open, the
one conducts to progress by civilisation and peace,
the other, sooner or later, leads fatally to war by
the obstinate maintenance of a past which is crumb-
ling away." There is something so sti iking in such
a proposal coming from such a Sovereign,—some-
thing so utterly unlike anything which ordinary
diplomatists, or Emperors, or Premiers say, or even
think, that the mind, bewildered by its magnitude,
refuses at first to arrive at any defined conclusion.
The facts, too, are, at first sight, in favour of the
Imperial plan. Every man who knows Europe
knows also that Napoleon speaks the truth when he
says that the questions afoot must be solved, and
solved finally, or Europe will, sooner or later,—and
sooner rather than later,—be involved in a general
war. All diplomatists know that he is stating the
simplest fact in the tersest language, when he says
" the treaties of 1815 have ceased to exist. Ger-
many agitates to change them, England has
generously modified them by the cession of the
lonian Islands, Russia tramples them under
foot at Warsaw," and France, we may
add, in Prince Jerome's words, "tore them
up at the point of the sword" at Magenta and Sol-
ferino. They have ceased to exist. Europe does
want a new "fundamental pact." There is the
gravest reason to fear that we shall establish one
after a war to which all modern wars will be trifles,
which will change from a war of boundaries into
one of principles, and be, therefore, without end
save exhaustion, and it is a noble effort to make one
last appeal to the reason of mankind, and strive to
arrange in what would really be "a Parliament of
Man," if not the federation of the world," at least
that of Europe. Since the days of Alberoni, no
dream more brilliant has been put forward by a
statesman of the first class ; but amidst all our ad-
miration we cannot conceal from ourselves that it is
but a dream, a last effort honest or unreal to stay
the European world on a course along which the
new aspirations of nations and the old foolishness of
kings, the uprising of new ideas like those of na-
tionality, and the crumbling of dominions like that
of the Turks in Europe, the want of statesmen in
England, and the existence of a Napoleon in France,
alike combine to urge it.

SATURDAY REVIEW.—The speech for which
Europe has so long been listening has been spoken,
and the world now knows what solution of the dif-
culties that press on him has been accepted by the
Emperor. He returns again to that favourite pro-
ject of a Congress to which he has so often turned
as the readiest escape from his embarrassments. A
Congress is, in fact, a war without expense or blood-
shed, and one in which France expects to play as
great a part as if cannon were really sounding and
regiments were being hurried to the frontier.
That which the leaders in a Congress bring to bear
upon their rivals and subordinates is the influence
of definite lines of policy and the tacit menace of
force. The end of a Congress is to arrive at that
settlement of affairs to which the nations that fought
would be led if war broke out. In this great dis-
counting of the chances of a possible war, Fralles
would have the opportunity of establishing even a
greater supremacy than she could hope for through
an actual conflict. She would come on the stage
with a sort of recognised right of interference in
every direction. She is the friend of Italy and of
Poland, she is the benefactress of Austria, and she is
the terror of Prussia. She alone of the Great Powers
has with her the strength of the revolutionary party,
and yet, apart from the Polish difficulty, she is the
most intimate ally of Russia. No one dreams for a
moment of dismembering France, and France can
bring into the field the largest and best army in
Europe. All the questions, therefore, that a Euro-
-1 pean Congress would have to discuss would be those
which France chose to start; they would assume
the shape which France pleased to give them ; and
the Powers that brought them to a conclusion dis-
tasteful to France would each have to reckon the
cost of incurring such displeasure as France might
treasure up. Above all, in a Congress, England
sinks, if not into a secondary Power, at any rate
into a Power that is scarcely the equal of France.
So long as the open and informal discussion is going
on which, in ordinary times, precedes political
action in Europe, England has all the vast import•
ance and influence that is attached to the only centre
of free discussion. France is obliged to wait until
either argument and reason have determined the
policy o' England, or until a burst of popular passion
shows that England will go to war at all hazards.
During the whole course of the frightful and
tedious struggle in America, England has deter-
mined the action of France. England has upheld,
or altered, or created the rules of international
law that suit her. England has restrained France
from recognising the Southern Confederacy.
England has first imagined for herself, and has
then imposed on the rest of the world, the d
ent
neu-
trality that she thought reasonable and
In the diplomatic struggles for Polan
d
InTehich,
as the Emperor honestly confesses,b
Poland so little good, and in whic.ahevE_ans yet done
g_ l ha na still
occupied a very unsatisfactory postti ne
has averted
it
been the hesitation of thatEngiand
war, and the influence of England that has guided
Austria. But when a Congress meets,. the Powers
of Europe no longer bear the voice of the English

nation ; they have merely to do with an English
nobleman, generally a man of moderate abilities,
timidly anxious to please his superiors, very proud
of his temporary importance, and very willing to
think as Emperors and Kings wish he should think.
As it is known that England will engage in no Con-
tinental war, except in the last extremity, this amia-
ble diplomatist has next to nothing to do except to
distribute his moral support as nearly in accordance
with his instructions as he can; and he and his
gentle distribution of moral support play a very
secondary part when France and Russia are bar-
gaining for Italy. Therefore, it cannot be wondered
at that the Emperor should like European Con-
gresses, and turn to them with the greatest satis-
faction in his hours of anxiety. He feels that he is
even more supreme there than he is when addressing
his own Legislative Assembly, elected mainly by his
prefects, and liable to be dismissed into the streets
any moment if he nods to his soldiery; for in his
Assembly he dictates to a people whom he has con-
quered with grape-shot and bayonet, in the
Congress he dictates to Europe without having had
the trouble of conquest. But although England has
no reason to love these Congresses, it will not be
from England that any opposition will come. It will
not be for us to hesitate, who are always preaching
the doctrine of moral influence, who want peace to
reign, and the anomales of the European system to be
quietly and quickly redressed. Nor have we any right
to be moved by any mean jealousy of France or
any petty disinclination to recognise the position
which the Emperor has achieved. It is a great
thing for him and for France that he should be able
to say openly before the world that the• treaties of
1815, framed to restrain and depress France, are at
an end. It is also a great thing for him and for
France that ho should hold in his hands the issues

of peace and war, and should be able so largely to
determine the fate of Europe. But we know that
he is able to tear up the Treaties of Vienna, and to
dictate the policy of Europe, simply because all the
other great European Powers spent the precious
interval of peace which was purchased by the Trea-
ties of Vienna in one long, stupid, sullen abuse of
physical force; because Austria ground Italy into
the dust; because Prussia deadened the soul of Ger-
many; and because Russia fascinated herself and
her neighbours with the spectacle of her 'magnifi-
cent but barbarous despotism. It is impossible for
Englishmen to refuse to see that the present im-
portance of France in Continental Europe is not
only a fact that refuses to be hid, but is in many
respects salutary and deserved. It is France that
has broken the sway of that dismal reign of order
in Europe under which the lite of the European
nations was gradually rotting away. But whether
the great nations of the Continent will accede to
the proposal of a Congress is a very different matter.
Russia might possibly agree if all the rest of Europe
were unanimous, and all the rest of Europe will
follow the lead of France if Austria consents. But a
Congress raises great difficulties for Austria. The
Emperor says significantly that there are impor-
tant questions to be settled in the South of Europe
as well as in the North; that is, in plain language,
that Austria, if she goes into the Congress, must
submit to hear all the arguments, peaceful and
warlike, that could induce her to cede
Venetia to Italy and take something else
instead. Russia also will know that, if she
agrees to a Congress, it can have no practical and
peaceful result, unless she agrees either to cede
Western Poland to some other Power, or to hold it
on the condition of administering her internal
affairs under the supervision of foreign Powers.
Unless a Congress gave hope to Poland and gave
Venetia to Italy, it could not possibly lay the
foundations of peace. To persuade Austria and
Russia to enter it requires all the influence which
alternate throats and blandishments can give the
Emperor. He certainly is not sparing of the former,
for he proclaims that he insists on a Congress, and
that France speaks through him ; and he certainly
is not sparing of the latter, for he announces that he
has just presented the House of Hapsburg with a
new Empire, and he tells the world that Russia is
so intimate end dear an ally of his, that it was
Russia who supported him through the trying hour
when he annexed Nice and Savoy. But if Russia
refuses to enter a Congress, to enter which must be
a virtual avowal of defeat, it is difficult to see what
remains but war. The Emperor's speech is so con-
structed that everything leads up to the final issue
in which Russia is asked to choose whether war or
peace shall be the lot of Ecrope.
LONIY/N REVIEW.—The Emperor Napoleon has

just opened a session of the French Chambers which
promises to be one of unusual interest. In spite of
all the efforts of the Government and the prefects,
the third legislative body of the Second Empire is
likely to be far more independent than either of its
predecessors. At the same time, as ill-luck would
have it, his Majesty's recent policy has been
singularly unfortunate in conciliating the epproba-
lion of the French people. He has done
nothing in Poland where much was expected,
and he has done much in Mexico where nothing
was desired. A consciousness that he must
run the fire of severe adverse criticism is
visible through the whole of the Imperial
address. Its tone is obtrusively deprecatory and
apologetic. The deputies are reminded of their
oarlis in a manner which betrays an undignified
sensitiveness to the possible frailty of such obliga-
tions. The operations in Mexico and Cochin China
are excused as inevitable rather than vaunted as
glorious. And in dealing with the Polish question
the Emperor is obviously far more anxious to ex-
plain why he could effect little than to insist on the
necessity of attempting much. In spite of the in-
genious way in which he seeks to conceal or palliate
diplomatic defeat under cover of magnificent pro-
jects for the reconstitution of Europe, it is scarcely
likely that he will deceive any on© by a repetition
of devices which he has exhausted on previous occa-
sions. The proposition of a European Congress has
been resorted to on more than one occasion when
French diplomacy has come to a standstill. Nor
can any one seriously suppose that the great Powers
will accept an invitation to confer together on some
mysterious plan for " reconstructing on new bases
the edifice shaken bit by bit by revolutions." If
anything could increase their indisposition to assist
at such deliberations it would be the peremptory
declaration of the Emperor that " the treaties of

1815 have ceased to exist." Nervous persons will
perhaps find in this latter sentence a hint of French
designs against the peace of Europe; but when it
is taken in connection with the highly rhetorical
passages amongst which it oceurs, we do not think
it will boar any very serious interpretation. When
Emperors feel compelled to argue with a popular
assembly, they must submit to the necessity of talk-
ing very much like speakers of less distinguished
rank. Notwithstanding the elevation of its tone,
the latter part of the Emperor's speech is substan-
tially a piece of stump oratory. It is probably in-
tended for the purpose which it will certainly serve,
as a text for the vague declamation under which it
will. be the duty of the talking Ministers to
conceal their master's failure to hurry England and
Austria into a European war. At the same time,
it bears the least possible resemblance to a serious
programme of practical policy. Upon the whole,
the tone of this document may be considered as
eminently pacific, especially when we recollect that
its author was almost compelled to gratify a national
vanity, which is most easily fed by the promise or
the prospect of some kind of foreign influence, how-
ever shadowy.
COURT JOURNAL,—Ever since the Emperor of
' the French announced to the Ambassadors of the
Great Powers his intention of going to war with
Austria, in conjunction with Victor Emmanuel,
Europe has waited with intense anxiety and interest
Iper every speech which he has had to make on an
1 offic;al occasion. It is not often, however, that so
much feverish excitement has been witnessed in
English diplometic circles, and, indeed, among the
intelligent classes generally, as was caused by the
anticipation of the Emperor's address to the French
Chambers. A word of his might have put Europe
in flames, or have produced a startling alteration in
the position which we occupy towards the bellige-
rent Powers in America. That word has not been
spoken, and England, as well as France, owes the
Emperor a deep debt of gratitude for preserving
Europe from a general war which would:have caused
an infinite amount of misery, desolation, and de-
struction ,without doingia proportionate amount of
good to those for weom we sip ould have taken up
arms, and for whom all liberal-Jainded men must
feel the deepest sympathy and
so often had to censure and depli'loit.ry;We have
oheleon that
career and policy of the Emperor Di 7
aPare able to
it is with the greatest pleasure we t former
iswithrec,:nt acts,
express our approbation of his more.
and the wise and moderate course vehi
pur-
suing towards so many nations of the . . s
weilorlde.
all the faults of his Government, and in spite of tire
manner in which it treats the liberty of the press
and the freedom of elections, there can be no doubt
that it has done much for France, and, while care-
fully attending to the selfish interests of the Napo.
leon dynasty, it has still not failed to make France
more important, and more greatly feared and bowed
t,
or all
appearancethat,
at, of
w greaterwee have
ave e generosityarned th e anhd
down to, than any other state in the world—not
even excepting England. Our policy may have the
unenviabledlib.era.lity, but,.
prestige
of being far more pusillanimous
Englishmen were in the time of Cromwell,
b imaginedcnvn g h , oirnPi
theirtt, o rth
wildesta than thosea cringing than
Marl-
future. There is great men could have
history who dreams and fears of the
a. family connected with French
must, in both its branches, command
our respect end admiration, and whom many would
gladly see restored to the homes of their ancestors ;
but, at the same time, it must be admitted that
neither Charles X. nor Louis Pnilippe did half as
Much for thQ greatness of the .French nation as NJ-

poleon 111. has effected during the last few years of
his rule. The speech which he delivered on Thurs-
day, and which has, undoubtedly, had a pacifying
influence on the minds of most persons interested in
politics, was not without its weak points, but, ne-
vertheless, was unimpeachable in its general tone
and import. His Majesty was particularly anxious
to remind his senators and deputies that they had
sworn to maintain his dynasty in power. He was
also ready enough to Uwe credit for the Mexican
and Cochin China campaigns, in lien of greater
achievements, and his promises of reform were not
too profuse or comprehensive, though certainly
more so than most persons had been led to expect.
America was carefully slurred over, and no hopes
were held out to either party ; and we can scarcely
blame his Majesty, as it is notorious that he would
willingly and most readily acknowledge the brave
people of the South if England were not too sub;
servient to Mr. Adams and the wild " statesmen'
(if they may be called) who employ him. But
when the Emperor touched upon the subject of
Polani he spoke words of truth and good, honest,
praiseworthy sense, and though he did not give
much satisfaction to those who would immediately
plunge into hostilities with the Emperor Alexander,
he has satisfied every man of moderation that he is
determined to con ter lasting benefits and freedom
upon the Poles, That freedom will not spring from
the establishment of a Polish independent kingdom,
but from the observance of good faith and consti-
tutional doctrines by the Emperor of Russia as well
as his Ministers towards his Polish subjects. The
Emperor Alexander is too sensible and too just-
minded to object to the proposal of a Conference
which could not compromise his dignity or that of
his Empire, at the same time that it would put an
end to the horrible and barbarous war, which must
be almost as hateful to the Russians as it is to the
Poles. Assuming, what there can be little doubt
of, that Russia will give her consent to this Con-
ference, the question arises—Who are to take part
in its deliberations? England, Austria, France,
and Russia, of course, and Prussia cannot be fairly
excluded, as she has a large interest in the future
of Poland. Russia will naturally object to the ad-
mission of Sweden and Turkey; and Italy can have
no possible right to intrude in a matter which con-
cerns her no more than it does the King of the
Sandwich Islands. With her usual insolence, how-
ever, she will no doubt make an attempt to obtain
the entrée to the Congress, and Russia probably
may make no resistance to her doing so, remember-
ing the remarkable fact that Victor Emmanuel and
his " Liberal" Ministers have been anything but
friendly to the Poles, most probably because Austria,
in a really true and honest spirit of liberality, has
warmly taken up their cause.
EXAMINER.—The passage in the Emperor's
speech which deserves most reflection, and may be
recalled to mind before long, is this :—" Distant
expeditions, the objects of so many criticisms, have
not been the execution of a premeditated plan ; the
force of circumstances has brought them about, and
yet, nevertheless, they are not to be regretted." So
what is said here of war in Mexico and elsewhere,
may a twelvemonth hence be said of war with
Russia, " not premeditated," " brought about by the
force of circumstances," " yet, notwithstanding, not
to be regretted." The force which the Emperor thus
admits to be superior to his own will is the force of
circumstances, which fills the place in pagan times
occupied by the Fates, to whose behests Jove bowed;
and in middle ages by the stars. If France should
obstinately insist on the war of her choice which the
Emperor hesitates to grant, perhaps " letting I dare
not wait upon I would," instead of the wars not of
her choice in which he compels her to waste her
blood and treasure, the force of circumstances will
be pleaded for the compliance. Here is the binge
of the Temple of Janus ready to turn either way,
and smoothly oiled.