The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-16 00:00:00

Affairs to the Emperor, are characteristic of the
independent views and logical precision of M.
Drouyn de Lhnys. The complete series will serve
to place his general policy before the world; and,
unless we are very much mistaken, it will reflect
very high credit on the principles under which he
directs the foreign relations of France. M. Drouyn
de Lhuys is a statesman who enters upon office with
the full conviction that a Minister has his distinc-
tive resposibilities whatever may be the form of the
government or the individual capacity of the Sove-
reign. He is one who assumes these duties with
the resolution to carry out certain general views of
his cwn, and on the condition that ha shall be him-
self an antecedent party to the foreign policy of the
Government. As such he is certainly marked out
for the confidence of the French nation. Office in
itself appears never to have possessed any great
charms,for M. Drouyn de Lhuys. He has hedstldihiingcht
stations, and has resigned them under two
a INAllininisisteterr
uunnddeerr
Sovereigns and dynasties. As
Louis Philippe, and as
Napoleon 111., he has regarded office not as in itself
an end, but as a
means to the
maintenanceattainment
and
of an End,
exten-
sion of his own
and
that end has
views beep
of
what has been most advan-
tageous for France and for Europe. In offering to
M. Drouyn do Lhuys, without measure or stint,
this tribute to the honesty of his purpose and the
clearness of his aims, we do not pretend to coincide
in all the opinions he may entertain as Minister of
France. Between two great and independent
Powers, possessing mighty interest& in different
quarters of the world, it is wholly impossible that
there can be any exact conformity of opinion ; and
there are certain positions put forth in the present
report of the Foreign Minister to the Emperor from
which we are:disposed to dissent. The manner, for
instance, in which M. Dronyn de Lhuys here deals
with the Servian and Montenegrin questions appear
to us to be neither just nor defensible. To the
Eastern views which he here takes up we shall after-
wards advert more at length ; and we think that
upon those points the general opinion will be found
to be that France has been carried, in part, perhaps,
by sympathies with Powers which have long been
inimical to Turkey, but in part also by undue
and almost sentimental sympathies for her co-
religionists, irrespectively of the real merits or
demerits of their cause, far beyond what was
due to the cause which she professed to
espouse. It may, however, be remembered, in jus-
tice to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, that he WAS not him.
self the author of this line of policy, and that, in
enunciating the sentiments which the present offi-
cial report contains in regard to the affairs of the
Ottoman Empire, he is doing no more than follow.
ing in the wake of his predecessors. From the
trammels of such traditions even the boldest and
most independent Minister cannot wholly disen-
tangle himself. Obligations, for example, are en-
tered into between Governments rather than be-
tween Minister and Minister ; and it is impossible
to accept office without acknowledging in some
measure the principles to which the Government
has been committed by predecessors. To a certain
extent, M. Dronyn de Lhuys has broken through
the usages to which he was most opposed on his
appointment to the French Foreign-office. That
he has not done so upon all questions in which the
policy of France and England differs may, perhaps,
be a subject of regret in this country, but it can
scarcely be matter for surprise. Not the least im•
portant of the diplomatic proceedings recorded in
these papers is the narrative of the progress which
the French Government has made in negotiating
treaties of commerce with neighbouring States.
The French Government here records with reason-
able pride the great advance which it has made in
the trade and interchange of France. " The Em-
peror's Government," says M. Dzouyn de Lhuye,"
" has succeeded in obtaining from Europe in the
course of last year new and precious adhesions to
the liberal policy inaugurated by our treaties of
commerce with England and Belgium; a policy
which, though of recent date, has already the
authority of a tradition." To these treaties are
added a commercial alliance already concluded be-
tween France and Prussia, and another in course
of negotiation with the Italian Government. It is
not often that retrospective documents of this sort
really contain any intelligence, otherwise than as
eliciting the bias of the Government which pro-
duces them. Bat we learn with great satisfaction
on the present occasion that the difficulties which
the treaty between France and Prussia interposed
among the different States of the Zollverein are in
a fair way of being surmounted, and that the
Southern States of Germany, hitherto so averse from
its provisions, and threatening .even to leave the
Zollverein rather than submit to such an inroad on

their monopolies, are beginning to yield to a better

judgment. " The intention and aim of the Berlin
treaty," continues M. Drouyn de Lhuys, " are every

day better appreciated ; and in the South of Ger-

many the manufacturing classes even, enlightened
as to their own interests, more confident in their
strength, now daily solicit as a benefit the execution

of a contract whici. they not long since rejected as a
danger." The Dutch Government and the Hanse
Towns have also announced their desire to be more

closely allied in commerce with France, Thus the

Second Empire appears to be gradually allying
itself with the commercial interests, which are
necessarily the pacific interests of all Europe. Tbis
guarantee for peace and prosperity is one of inesti-
mable value ; and its completion will, when attained,
be in all probability in no slight degree the work
of M. Dronyn de Lhuys.

HERALD.—We regret to see, by the tone of all
Ministerialist speakers, that the Government has no

intention of modify ingita American policy in defer-
.

ence to the opinions, or is regard for the interests

of the country. That policy means the pro:ongation
of war in America—a war of devastation, of revenge,

we fear soon of reciprocal massacres in cold blood—.

and the indEfinite protraction of distress in Lanca-

shire; a distress which !mist end in the total ruin of

our cotton manufacture. That policy has brought
upon us misery at home and disrepute abroad.

It has alienated the affections of the Southern

I people, always inclined to
regard and d
check the hostile propensities of the mongrel
population of the Northern States. Had vvo
Pt
o to
holdh
e their
in r
had to do only with the Southern colonies, it
may be doubted whether the rebellion of 1776
would ever have occurred; had those colonies formed
a confederacy of their own we should probably have
been now on closer terms of amity with that confe-
deracy than with any other power in the world,
slavery notwithstanding. The Southerners are
English in blooi, in habits of thought, in policy, in
religion; the Northerners are aliens in all but lan-
guage; and the sympathies of the South have
turned to England all the more strongly by reason
of the causeless and venomous antipathy of the
North.
We might have had in the Confederate
States an ally bound to us by ties
of interest and