The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-23 00:00:00

THAMES.

THE PAWNBROKERS' ACT.--A police constable applied
to Mr. Woolrych for a summons to compel Mr. Harper, a
pawnbroker, to show cause why he refused to give up a
silk dress on principal and interest being tendered. There
had been a previous summons, which had been disobeyed.
Mr. Woolrych directed that a summons should issue direct-
ing him to attend and show by what right he retained the
property.

The French Press on Prince Napoleon's
Speech.

The Paris journals make no allusion to the final decision
in the Senate on the Polish question, their comments not
having as yet gone beyond the second day's debate. The
Marquis de la Rochejaquelin stands in the unenviable posi-
tion of nut finding a single organ of public opinion to de-
fend him, and in general of being very strongly disapproved
of for his language.

The Steclo:after remarking that the speech of Prince Na-
poleon is fully equal in talent to that which he delivered on
the Italian question, says :—" We could not help being
most painfully affected at seeing, to use the words of Count
Walewski, the historical, political, and diplomatic heresies
accumulated by the Marquis de La Rochejaquelin. Wo
should think that his ancestors must have shuddered in
their graves when ho thus treated suffering Poland.
La Vendee, whose bands they led in defence of the
programme of God and the King ' was in arms against
the country, against the central Government, and against
the will of the vast majority of the French nation. Ilas not
Poland this immense advantage, in fighting also for its
faith, of never having fellow-citizens for enemies, and of
only struggling to throw off a foreign yoke ? The indigna-
tion naturally excited by the Icng and cruel oppression un-
der which Poland groans, the curse which rests on the
treaties of partition, were vigorously expressed by Prince
Napoleon. Will his elcquent appeal to the principal re-
presentatives of the clergy, of the army, of the law, be heard
with favour ? At the moment we write we may still hope
so. As Prince Napoleon demonstrated, the Polish ques•
tion cannot be made one of party. All classes of French
society, all shades of society, are unanimous respecting
that country. You, fervent Catholics, you demand the
free exercise of their religion for a nation whose churches
are threatened and Catholic schools suppressed; you, men
devoted to the principles of 1789, you claim liberty
and independence for a nation deprived of all its
rights; you, the zealous advocates of order and conserva-
tism, you invoke respect for treaties and diplomatic stipu-
lations. All France is agreed ; what i, more, in London as
in Paris, in Stockholm as in Naples and Turin, cordial ac-
clamations encourage the glorious defenders of Polish na-
tionality. And yet there are persons who would not have
the Senate echo all these voices!

The Union makes the following observations :—" In
truth, if anything in the world could be fa al to the great
and noble cause of Poland, it would certainly be support so
dangerous as Prince Napoleon's speech. The breath of
the resolution has passed into it toto corpore, and excites
every seditious passion. There are singular aptitudes, and
resources of unbridled talent and unlimited audacity at
each instant there bursts fo th the ardent invective which
respects nothing ; there is aggression, which is as perfidiou-
when it discloses as when it holds back. The speech is the ap-
peal of passion to passion; and for what object! To end in im-
potence, or rather in a factitious agitation, which is worse than
impctence itself. The Prince knows nothing, but is
afraid of nothing. He wished not to speak; at the com-
mencement of his speech he asks Must we go to war ?
Must we abstain from going to war P Have we any allies.
What is our situation abroad? He would be very clever
who could say what it is. As for himself, he knows
nothing ; he has not before his eyes the portfolio of Prince
de Metternich ; that portfolio which is on its way, and
which no doubt contains peace or the .urning upside down
of Europe. Every element of discussion is wanting; we
are in ignorance; the Government alone knows what to
look forward to, says he. Be it so ; and here the Prince is
in the right. The Government alone it is that has the se-
cret ; the Government alone has the power, and the Go-
vernment alone has the responsibility. The votes of the
Senate ' can have no direct influence upon the vast pro-
jects of the Emperor reap, cting European solutions. But
to cast words of fire to the four quarters of the horison,
is an act which cannot be without influence upon public
opinion. That the signal should start from the
Luxembourg is a fortune to which the Prince cannot be
indifferent. Ho will therefore speak, he will ru-h through
the darkness of ignorance. Ho will display deceiving hopes
before credulous eyes; he will have it understood that he
believes himself shackled, and that at bottom he supports
with impatience the greatness which binds him to the shore.
The Debats has the subjoined remarks :—"As the dis-
cussion of Poland goes on, it not only proves the unan•mity
of the feelings of the country in France, but betrays the
difficulty which we feel in acting, and reveals the delicate
situation imposed upon France and her Government, in the
circumstances in which Eurcipe is now placed by the Polish
movement. Prince Napoleon, who cannot, however, be ac
cused of sinning by too much taste for oratorical precau-
tions, and who is accustomed to speak less as a Prince
enslaved by politic,d forms than as a party-speaker, anxi •
ous to express with sincere energy what he thinks and
what he feels, commenced his speech by declaring that
he would dissimulate none of the perils and n)re of the
obstacles of the Polish question. ' I have great sympathy
for the Poles,' said he, ' but 1 am entirely wanting in the
necessary information upon the practical means of execu-
tion for changing those sympathies into political sets.' And
his conc:usions did not differ much from his exordium. ' I
arrive at the great question. To us, it is said—You wish
for war. To that I reply plainly--No. But I will not
have peace either.' We see by the official report that those
words excited exel,,matians of surprise. They respond,
howev, r, very well to the state of public opinion, wh ch
hesitates b.tween peace ane war, or to speak more correctly,
which would do everything for Poland, and does not know
how to proceed to do anything. Since such is the state of
the public mind in our country, the referring the petitions
to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be, on the part of
the Senate, the resolution which would the best respond to
general expectation. After all, what else would the

senate do, in voting the reference to the Ministry, but
change into a solomn act the eloquent protest which
full even from the mouth of a minister—Count Walewaki
—formerly a soldier of the Polish war of independence, who
again found ace nts worthy of the young volunteer of 1831 ?
The pure and simple order of the day would be like declara-
tion of indifference. The referring of the petition will give
to the feelings of France the only sanction which cannot be
mistaken by the Powers which signed at the Congress of
Vienna. All that part of Prince Napoleon's speech devoted
to demonstrating the necessity for the referring of the peti-
tions is conceived in terms as sincere as they are oonclusive.
There are perhaps persons who will regret that Prince Na-
poleon should hQ.ve mingled the expression of the legiti-
mate and generous anger which the Russian administration
inspires, with rather severe personal criticisms upon the
Emperor Alexander 11., which, by offending the St.
Petersburg Cabinet, risk adding to the difficulty of the
nego,iations commenced, and which gave M. Billault an
opportunity of alluding to ' the inconveniences and perils
of the discussion going on in the Senate.' But if
in the period in which we live the Princes seated
upon the steps of the throne do not think fit to respect the
inviolability attributed to their rank by the tradition of na-
tions, and to profess a superstitious adoration for the per-
sons of kings, it is not for simple private individuals like
ourselves to complain."

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