The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-06 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOV. 6, 1863.

NAPOLEON'S Speech, yesterday, was worthy of
himself, of France, and of the occasion. His MA-
J EST Y has often before now spoken admirably well,
and always to the purpose. This last Imperial
oration of his, however—the longest and evidently
one of the most carefully elaborated to which he

has yet given utterance—is, in many respects, the
ablest, as it is certainly the most remarkable, he has
delivered. Looked forward to, with eager expecta-
tion throughout Europe, its purport will create
neither disquietude nor disappointment. The tone
of the harangue, while it is eminently dignified
and even authoritative, is also, and in an especial
.manner, eminently conciliatory. Not a syllable in
it can be pointed to that is so much as even vaguely
or indirectly irritating to either of the belligerents
'no -North America. There is no word or hint of
defiance directed against the councils of the Russian
Autocrat, And yet the French EMPEROR is most
plainly and
-r most emphatically outspoken alike in
:reference to
thepctre:ent conquest of Mexico and to
the stillrotra
intensified and embittered, and frightfully
olish
nsurrection. If there were any
serious expectationl at the long imminent alterna-
tive of Peace or war
by NAPOLEON M. in Europe would be decided
his
Legislative
from the Throne
on opening his new
may
be regarded
Chambers, perhaps
that expectation
:garded now as hav-
ing been realised
se
we may call the nte°n
nee sentence—by what
harangue. Referring in the the Eet PEROR'S
anYel
polish
t explicit terms
that could well have been empl
ia order to
:possibilit y of
express his meaning, to the utter
Question,
France solely dealing with this
The EMPEROR adds, in one of those felicitous
ten ces of his, which have about them almost t
flavour of wit, certainly the terseness of a, epigram
—" An insult to our house or a threat against our
frontiers alone impose upon us the duty of acting
witl:out previous concert." So that Europe is given
to understand now, quite distinctly, that France Will
nut go to war with Russia in the interests even of
Poland, if left (as the champion of the inalienable
rights of Poland) alone and isolated amongst
the Powers of Christendom. Yet does the Eel-
renoß refer, almost in the same breath, pointedly,
almost poignantly, to the immense temptation he
has had—" to raise my voice," he says, meaning by
that to draw the sword of France, " in favour of a
nation rebelling in the eyes of Russia, but in our's
the inheritor of a right written in history and in
treaties." Tempted by the instincts of a noble and
ha elety ambition, incited by the passionate BYrn-
Patlai,e of hie own people in favour of Poland,
at the
has nevertheless refrained from
viadicating
point of the sword that sacred
`
right—:uu—
et.i t:h e
hus
thus formally right—inheritance eof which his Imperial Majesty
proclaimed before Russia, before
all Christendom b """'"A
—n insult to French
honour, or a threat
against the French frontiers
could alone kop
of
acting ,e
the duty wPitehtt, Ithe Soeereign of Fracce
t
alli:s.co,ncert—that is, with-
out concert with his
e declaration, thus
made, is more thanmouientaril
d,-finitive. NAPOLEON 111. insteYadreassuring ; it is
f declaring war
against Russia, submits the proposal
of
a Congreso
to the consideration of Christendom.

The proposition of his Majesty we take i,
is about as chivalrous and as impracticable a,
his twice proffered and twice declined sole,:
of mediation between the American belligerents.
While (as we dread that it can alone Prove to
be) thus impracticable, the suggestion of the
French EMPEROR is in itself none the less mag-
nanimous of its kind. The proposition is so re•

m Eirkable in every way, that the mere manner in
which it is put forth yesterday in the Imperial
S ;eech from the Throne is deserving of our most
serious consideration. " Without resorting to arms,"
says the EMPEROR, " and without being silenced,
one resource is open to us. That is, to submit
tb,e Polish cause to an European tribunal.
Russia has already declared that conferences
in. which all the other questions which agi-
tate Europe should b 3 debated would in
no degree wound her dignity. Let us
note this declaration. May it serve
to e xttaikne
of -
I guish, once for all, the ferment of disorders ready
to burst forth upon all Bides; and from the uneasi-
ness in which Europe
I diraeyctiaonesetwraveerraseodf
by the elements of dissolution
isiaall
may
order and peace spring forth." It sounds Utopian.
1t breathes like a foretaste of that Christian Arcadia
the Millenium of which the Laureate dreamed his po-
litical daydream in "Locksley Hall," where he sings
of "the Parliament of nations, the Federation of
the world." Yet the edifice, the rehabilitated, or
to be rehabilitated edifice, NAPOLEON 111, alludes
to, in his very next sentence, is surely no
chateau en Espagne ! "Is not the time
come," asks his MAJESTY, "to reconstruct
upon fresh bases the edifice undermined by
time and destroyed piecemeal by revolutions ?" It
is a most momentous question. But the EMPEROR
adds another immediately afterwards—a question
eminently practical : " Is it not urgent to reorganise
by new conventions that which has been irrevocably
accomplished, and to carry out by common agree-
ment what the peace of the world requires ! The
Treaties of 1815,"—with what secret exultation the
words must have fallen from the lips of the heir
to the fortunes, the successor to the throne of
NAPOLEON-LE-GRAND—" The Treaties of 1815
have ceased to exist." A fact which his Imperial
MAJESTY thereupon immediately goes on to demon-
strate by illustration—rather superfluously ! By
categorical reference, that is, to what has oc-
curred of late years, some of these things very
recently in Greece, in Belgium, in Franee, in Italy,
in Germany, on the borders of Russia, in
the midst of the .l can Sea. And the
Emperor NAPOLEON adds that the proposition of
an European Congress, such as the one now for-
mally submitted by him to the consideration of
Christendom, might be addressed to the consciences
and to the reason of statesmen in all countries :
Have not the prejudices and rancour which
divide us already lasted long enough ? Is the jealous
rivalry of the Great Powers incessantly to obstruct
the progress of civilisation ? Shad we be constantly
casting defiance at each other by exaggerated arwa-
meets ? Are our most precious resources to be in-
definitely exhausted in vain ostentation of our
strength ? Shall we eternally preserve a position
which is neither peace with its security nor war
with its chances of success ? Let us no longer give
factitious importance to the subversive spirit of
extrema parties by opposing ourselves with narrow
calculations to the legitimate aspirations of peoples.
Let us have the courage to substitute a regular and
stable situation for an unhealthy and precarious
condition, even if it should cost sacrifices. Let us
meet without a preconceived system, without ex-
clusive ambition, animated by the sole thought of
establishing an order of things based henceforth
upon the well-understood interest of the sovereigns
and of the peoples."

Even if, as is only too much to be dreaded, this ap-
peal which NAPOLEON himself says sanguinely he
" cannot but believe would be listened to by all,"
should come eventually to nothing—it is something
to have articulated it. Having thus emphatically
put forth his proposition of a Congress, NAPOLEON
111. closes his remarkable speech of yesterday with
words that, after all (it should, nevertheless,
be most seriously borne in mind), may (by
the rejection of his proposal) prove to
have been the ominous muttering of a
threat. " Two ways," he says, " are open. The
one leads to progress through conciliation and peace,
the other, sooner or later, conducts fatally to war by
the obstinacy of maintaining a past which is rolling
away !" Progress througa Conciliation and Peace,
the French EMPEROR has already avowed he
deems to be alone attainable by means of
a project like this very one of the grand European
Congress he has now proposed. Reject that pro-
position and—the inference is—War! Decliue to
enter the path which leads to this Congress and
" the other," he tells Europe quite plainly,
" sooner or later" must conduct us " fatally to
WAR ! " An intimation could not be plainer. An
oracular sentence could not be more easily con-
strued or more transparently comprehensible. Yet
is this intimation of the EMPEROR'S, after all, hardly
a threat of what will arise in the event of his pacific
proposition being declined by the nations of
Christendom. It is hardly what can be called a
threat. It is, more properly speaking, the plain de-
finition of the actual situation—the exposition of
an inevitable alternative.

That there is something very faulty in the manner
in which our poor laws are administered is abun-
dantly proved by the startling disclosures that are
continually made under the head of "Death from
Starvation." A casual observer might naturally
think that in this wealthy and benevolent city,
where there is no lack of wise heads, kind
hearts, and able hands to help the indigent, such
catastrophes would be absolutely unknown. That
they are of such frequent recurrence is certainly
not from the lack of meacs of relief, nor for want of
an extensive and regular system for their preven-
tion. By the existing arrangements, if fairly car-
ried our, every pauper should be provided with
sufficient to preserve life, and, if necessary, accom-
ated with quarters inside the Union. As the
coamseei actually stands, however, the business of parish
1 ''' than to seems rather to get rid of applicants
the granting
administer relief. In the first place, when
the father or mother of a family applies for relief,
dition of
to etter.
euteriit is usually coupled with the con-
dition
the Hous©. At first sight this
would seem to
the guardians knowlby adding to the expenses, but
invincible dislike They know the almost
tg under that inhospitable
surrethdee breaking up of the
shelter, their objection
o
n
family, and the entire
their wretched
homes. So long as they can fight
rof
melancholy case
it off, therefore,
they and theirs will stay outside, and
the porter is no more troubled. .
mae accordingly
eh is the excep-
tion just come to light, however, ee4iai
to this rule. A poor shoemaker, 49 years r
age, lived at Shoroditch, with his little 500. Prom
long-continued illness the poor men .was
unable
to earn a proper living. The boy got 2i. 3d
per week, and it was not often that be.
tween them they mustered twelve shillings
weekly. And off this, of course, must come the
inevitable rent. It was not often, said the boy,
when telling his touching story to the coroner, that
they had enough to eat. "Sometimes they had a
bit of dry bread, and occasionally they got a drop
of tea. They could not get food." They used to
buy a pennyworth of coals, he said, though they
could not afford it, because his father was so ili.
On Monday week the father went to the workhouse
to be taken in. He was told to ge before the Board
of Guardians on 'Wednesday. This delay was not
very cheering to a man in his circumstances, and he m
_ must probably have marvelled at it, for it i 8 not