The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Democratic party on the Continent
has always asserted that the French Revolution was
not a mere historical event bounded by definite
epochs in time, but a movement which has never
ceased in its operation up to the present hour. The
French Revolution is still going on, they say. As
it may be said to have been in action for years—no
one can tell how many—before 1789, since, of course,
the outbreak of that period was only the manifesta-
tion of forces that had been in existence for a gene-
ration past, so the French Liberals hold that it is at
work still, undermining all the political fabrics which
are built on the oppression of man by man or nation
by nation. Of course, we see that they merely
make the Revolution synonymous with the advance
of the principles of private and public right, and,
using the word in this sense, no candid observer
will differ from them. But it remains to be ex-
plained how so large a body of acute and earnest
thinkers should look upon a bloody phase in human
history, a period which began with anarchy and
the guillotine to end with military despotism and
desolating wars, as identified with the triumphs of
civil and national liberty. The chief reason is, we
think, to be found in the existence of that body of
monarchical compacts which are known as the
Treaties of 1815. Doubtless the 'philosopher may
say that 1789 consecrated the principles of liberty,
equality, brotherly love, and so forth, and that
wherever these advance 1789 has the glory. But
this vague doctrine, founded upon French self-
esteem, would never have influenced men of every
continental nation ; and yet, certainly, the re-
newed activity of the French democracy has been
looked for with hope by Italians and Poles
struggling against foreign usurpation, as well as
by German Liberals worn out by the tyranny and
folly of their Sovereigns. The reason has been that
the French were the conquered of 1815. The
Sovereigns who banded for the most just and holy
of causes—that of asserting national independence
—overthrew the intolerable despotism of Napoleon,
of which no better proofs can be found than those
extracts from the new volumes of the Correspon-
dence which may be read in our Paris letter this
morning; but they no sooner found themselves all-
powerful than they used their power to secure their
own imagined rights against their subjects, as well
as the real rights of their respective nations against
French aggression. The consequence has been that,
by a strange perversion, the military disasters of
Napoleon have been associated with the wrongs of
liberty; the highhanded usurper and his circle of
weak and unprincipled vassals have been re-
gretted by those who fancy that their's
was a golden age in comparison with the leaden
oppression of later days, and that however much
they might tyrannise in fact their theoretical
principles were those of democratic liberty.
Nearly half a century has passed since those famous
Treaties were signed. The proud and elated poten-
tates of that day probably thought that they were
immortal. A final settlement of the great European
questions then took place. Hardly a subject of dis-
pute, small or great, which had ever engaged the
attention of the Sovereigns failed then to be brought
for ward. On the whole, they were in excellent
temper with each other. There had been a serious
difference the year before on the subject of Poland,
which had exhibited the five Powers in the same
combinations as at the present day, but after the
return from Elba and the campaign of Waterloo all
irritation was suppressed through the strong desire
to make a firm and lasting disposition of Europe.
They were all so much of one mind that they did
the work too completely. The English Ministers
did not, indeed, forget the traditional princi-
ples of their country, and some of the redeeming
clauses of this compact are due to them—notably the
stipulations in favour of Poland which have been the
ground of the latest appeal to the Vienna Treaties.
But on the whole the Kings and statesmen of Eu-
rope were of one mind. They saw nothing but a
dread vision of anarchy and irreligion—the making
opportunities for unscrupulous usurpers to torment
the world. The belief that mankind was by nature
doomed to perpetual tutelage, and must be led either
by a legitimate ruler or by an adventurer—a Crom-
well, or Robespierre, or Bonaparte, was general not
only among hereditary Princes but among statesmen
and writers. Even men like Talleyrand and Can-
ning to the last believed that the desire for a more
popular Government in England would lead to
events like those of the French Revolution. Napo-
leon in his exile thought that the Duke of
Wellington would assuredly make himself King,
If these were the ideas of master minds, can we
wonder that the narrow and half-educated con-
querors, who had been bred in German, Russian,
and Italian Courts, should resolve to take good
security against what they considered as popular
madness. They acted, on the whole, generously
to each other. There was not much desire on
the part of the great potentates to rob their
weaker brothers. They mediatized sparingly, and
only in obedience to the plain interests of Europe.
Germany was left with too many Courts, and Italy
was given up again to the Papacy and the minor
Sovereigns. But no precaution was neglected by
which the nations could be united against France,
by which the Sovereigns could be interested in
opposing that aggressive Power and the spirit of
popular discontent by which it had been made so
formidable. Tho Treaties of 1815 were not the
work of tyrants hostile to humanity, as is believed
by Continental Republicans; they wore approved
by the public opinion of the time, and held by not
illiberal statesmen to bo masterpieces of policy and
I foresight ; and yet they had hardly been in exist-
ence five years before their weight was felt to be
grievous, and the history of Europe since then has
been little but a struggle to escape from the condi-
tions they imposed. Attention is now more particu-
larly directed to them by the alleged assertion of Lord
Russell that they are abrogated by the act of Russia
iu refusing to fulfil the stipulations made in favour
of the Kingdom of Poland. Lord Russell did not,
indeed, go so far, and the interpretation of the
French press is more in accordance with its own
wishes and traditions than with the actual words of
the British Minister. But it may be allowed that
these treaties have been so habitually violated by
the chief parties to them, and have received at last
so fatal a blow through the repudiation of the great
Conservative Power of the Continent, that any fur-
ther appeal to them would be idle. England is, in
fact, almost the only Power which has cared to ad-
just its proceedings by the literal terms of these
agreements. In ceding the lonian Islands to
Greece our Government has been careful to recog-
nise the rights of those who committed the Repub-
lic to its protectorate. The assent of France, Austria
Russia, and the other Powers has been formally
asked, and the cession will be made with as much
diplomatic seriousness as if the Treaties were only
ilia months old. But with the Continental Powers
the course has been widely different. The Vienna
treaties they have always been ready to cite against
their opponents, never against themselves. We do
not complain of the result. The treaties made an
injudicious distribution of European territory, and
indirectly by the confidence they gave to the
Continental Sovereigns, tended to retard the pro-
gress of civil liberty. Most of what has been done
in spite of them has been well done ; and, though
it will be rather strange if their death-wound
shall be owing to one of the few just and humane
stipulations that they contain, yet we must be
content. The good and the evil have been alike
contemned, and, as each of the greater Powers for
its own convenience has violated them, it is now
beyond the rights of any to oppose theta to claims
that may be founded upon reason and humanity.
Russia and Austria, with the assent of Prussia,
have destroyed the freedom of the city of Cracow ; '
France has incorporated Savoy and Nice, and
broken up the Italian system as it was founded
anew in 1815. Numberless other changes have
taken place, the most important being the sup-
pression of the Constitution and independent Go-
vernment of Poland thirty years ago. Although
we have had no part in breaking up the Vienna sys-
tem, yet we have no reason to fear accepting the
work of others. The independence of the European
nations will be better secured by domestic content
and harmony between rulers and subjects than by
the text of Treaties which have, rightly or wrongly,
become odious.
DAILY NEWS.—Another death under the wheels
of an omnibus has taken place, and the coroner's
juila though they have absola eel
particular instance, have
the drivers and the
owners from blame in this parthiceir
thought it right to append for
actic°
of " nursing,'
verdict a strong
remonstrance against the
which they declare on theirrkonuogwillfeadr ge
se. t o
So
oe
still in full force in frequente
personal
P ct h o
chief streets a heap
it would seem that the horrible spectacle of last
August, when k a tho spot where a victim
of bloody in one of our
sawdust tuari ee
ere September was out,
had been slaughtered,
has,
The death of one female
ceased to act as
buy the
Blondin bufficedatntrour the sacrifice of more lives
in that particular form of Sentiatiouttl eireCt)