The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

SATURDAY REVIEW.—The French Government
is perhaps, on the whole, well satisfied with the
result of the elections. In the provincial towns and
country districts, the mass of the population has
once more illustrated the unfitness of a numerical
majority for active political functions. The pea-
santry of France, as far as it is capable of a
se.ntlment, retains that admiration for the dynasty
of Napoleon which Thiers and Beranger have sub-
stituted for all other national traditions. With
the legendary faith in the first Emperor there is
combined a well-founded belief that military des-
potism is distasteful to the upper classes, and
that its uniform pressure best secures the perma-
nence of equality. On the whole, the constituencies
would probably prefer the official candidates,
although they might not be disposed to make any
strenuous exertion in their favour; and the prefects
and their subordinates take all the burden of the
elections on themselves, justly relying on the habits
of passive obedience in which ordinary Frenchmen
are trained. The people, if they ever think on the
subject, by no means desire that their representa-
tives should take any conspicuous part in the ad-
ministration of public affairs. A deputyis
appointed and paid, not to control the Executive
Government, but to assist at the ceremony of legis-
lation, as ministers and officers of State are sum-
moned to be present in the ante-Chamber when a
Royal or Imperial birth is expected. To foreigners
who are accustomed to superintend the transaction
of their own public business, the working of the
French Constitution scarcely presents an edifying
spectacle ; but a certain admiration or surprise is
suggested by the successful ingenuity of a para-
doxical contrivance. When the present Emperor
before assuming his title, invented the machinery
by which he still governs, it seemed difficult to be-
lieve that a regular elective system could be per-
manently reconciled with absolute government,
Experience has shown that it was safe to rely on
the harmlessness of a promiscuous constituency, pro-
vided sufficient vigilance was exercised by the
Imperial functionaries ; and there are great advan-
tages in the forms of representative government,
when they have been effectually reduced to the
condition of fictions. As an ostrich retains the.i
character of a bird, though its wings are not avail-
able for flight, the French empire claims the im-
munities and the credit which are associated with
elective institutions. Perhaps the peasants of the
departments may be flattered with the beliefth at
once in five years they participate in the establish-
ment
or renewal of the Emperor's unlimited power.
SPECTATOR.—The worst danger, perhaps, of the
present situation of the cotton trade is that, as
everybody knows, a sudden termination of the Ame-
rican war would suddenly reverse it. The sudden
confluence of the American stock with the increased
stock from other sources would reduce the price of
the raw material lower than it has been for many
years before the war, and stimulate the demand for
manufactured goods, which has been so much dis-
couraged by recent high prices, to a point that
would strain to the utmost the powers of the Lan-
' cashPre labour market, diminished as it is by the
present distress. It is the possibility of this influx
which, in fact, gives rise to any little speculative
increase of mills or machinery which may exist
beyond the range of the districts of which we have
spoken. That Mr. Edmund Potter, the member for
Carlisle, was right a few weeks ago in asserting that
the statements about the over supply
been at least absurdly exaggerated, is now of 1860 had
concln-