The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

the spring of the present year it was
announced, on the very highest authority, that a
terrible calamity had befallen the French Govern-
ment. The Government had not, indeed, to re-
proach itself that this calamity had overtaken it
through its own remissness and supineness; the evil
had been long foreseen and manfully struggled
against. This, in fact, was the only consolation that
an evil fortune had left them. All was lost except
their honour, the honour of maintaining to the last
a stern though unavailing struggle. If Troy could
have been saved it would have been by the hand of
Hector, and if M. Thiers could have been kept out
of the Legislative Cnamber it would have been by
the superhuman efforts of M. Persigny. He fore-
saw, and he proclaimed the danger. If he fought
like lit c!or he prophesied like eas'sandra ; but, like
Cassandra, no one regarded him. We are now in a
position to ask, was the election of M. niers a real,
substantial misfortune, or was it one of the Govern-
ment's own creating? Were their dreadful appre-
hensions the result of reason and good sense, or were
they the frightful phantoms of a distempered ima-
gination? We have had one sample of the reality,
and we confess that the aspect which it wears to our
eyes is not extremely formidable. Perfectly calm
and collected, with unruffled temper and irreproach-
able taste M.[l'hiers moved his amendment for reduc-
ing the amount of Treasury Bonds which the Mi-
nister of Finance is allowed to issue from 300,000,000 f.
to 150,000,000 f. Since he last addressed a popular
assembly twelve years have elapsed, years eventful
and interesting alike for France and for himself.
There has been no demand in France for that clear
and persuasive eloquence which shone so brightly
in the times of Louis Philippe, and swayed with
so much advantage to the best interests of France
the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly.
Some things have happened in the interval the
remembrance of which would not be very favour-
able to a cairn and orderly discussion—things
which no one ever forgets, and very few
sincerely forgive, During those twelve years M.
Thiers, instead of indemnifying himself for the
absence of all opportunities of political distinction
and the interruption of a brilliant career by the
enjoyment of wealth and ease, has undertaken and
brought to a conclusion a gigantic enterprise, the
" History of the Consulate and the Empire," a noble
contribution to the literature of France, and an im-
perishable monument of his own genius. Many
men would have availed themselves of the first
opportunity of speaking in public which had pre-
sented itself for so many years to make some passing
allusion to what they bad done and suffered, and to
define the position which they intended to occupy
with regard to the Government and the Assembly.
With excellent taste and judgment M. Thiers has
risen superior to this temptation. He has felt appa-
rently that his antecedents are too well known and
his position too thoroughly recognised to render
such remarks necessary, and that there would be
little dignity in complaint or oxplanation where it
is quite clear that he could not, without placing
himself in an attitude hostile to his audience and
incurring frequent interruption and reprehension
from the President, do justice to the whole subject.
He promises to give us on a future occasion the
reasons which have induced him to return to public
life. In the meanwhile he has contented himself
with getting up a very pleasant little debate on a
rather abstruse financial subject, explaining the
whole question with incomparable clearness, con-
ciliating the assent of hie audience, and winning the
admission from the Government themselves that his
views and theirs are almost entirely identical. There
was an opportunity, doubtless, for any amount of
sarcasm and invective which M. Thiers might have
thought fit to employ. He who speaks of the expendi-
ture of public money may easily be drawn in to
consider the objects for which that expenditure is
made, and thus to discuss almost any part of the
policy of the Government which he pleases. This
temptation also M. 'Thiers resisted. He refused
to be drawn aside, and M. Picard would have done
wisely to follow his example, into the consideration
of the policy of the Mexican Expedition, to pay for
which 210,000,000 f. out of the 300,000,000 f. were
spent. He started from the plain end sensible pro-
position that the money having been spent under a
lawful authority must, at all events, be made good,
and that the whole question was one similar to that
of a reserve in the case of a private banker, how
much of floating debt was it expedient for the
country to have. He proposed, now that measeres
had been taken for reducing that debt,to take at the
same time steps which would prevent its being
legally increased by the Government up to the
amount at which it now stands. There was nothing
very alarming in all this; it was a practical ques-
tion, treated by r.n experienced statesmen in a
thoroughly business-like way. Everybody seemed
satisfied, and so the debate ended. There is, to onr
eyes at least, nothing very alarming in all this. We
observe in this debate nothing which leads us to
believe that chaos has come again, or that the Em-
peror is likely once more to require furnished
apartments in the neighbourhood of St. Jam
accornmtaeasaste
square. The man who was able to y and
himself to the Chamber of the Orleans
to the Assembly of the Republic has
shown
to the
with the some tact he can adapt dYnowasn- that
islei,enight the tone
Assembly of the Empire. He bas
rove je before ho
of the place, and will probably
which the
leaves it. He will state opinionle,melOme of