The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-08 00:00:00

Things are certainly carried with a high hand
over in Paris. NAPOLEON is there out Napoleoned
Meaning by this that Le Petit goes far beyond Le
Grand, in some respects at least, in the assertion of
his Autocracy. Not that the reigning EMPEROR
condescends to do this individually. His Imperial
Majesty does it coolly by delegate—through his
Ministers. Wherever the vicarious exercise of his
authority can be accomplished, it is accomplished.
And with so ineffable a complacency. It will per-
haps be remembered, indeed it can hardly by pos-
sibility be forgotten, that at the period (not so very
long since !) when M. DE PERSIGNY resigned the
embassy to the Court of St. James's (handing it
over to the veteran Count DE FLAHAULT)—his
Excellency (that is the said M. DE PERSIGNY)
assumed high administrative responsibilities
in Paris, as Minister of the Interior: a mag-
nificent flourish of trumpets being sounded the
while about the liberality of the principles he was
immediately going to apply and to establish en
permanence, as part and parcel of French jour-
nalism. Credulous people, even the most credulous,
listened and wondered—quietly awaiting proofs
of the Ministerial sincerity before flinging up their
caps in jubilation. Well, certainly they had not
long to wait after all. The looked-for proofs came
thick and fast upon an European multitude of ob-
servers—a multitude more than ever astonished at
these flagrant and absolutely, at last, outrageous
and insulting contradictions. Scarcely had M_ DE
PERSIGNY'S hand got well " in" to work as that of
the so-called Liberal Minister of the Interior (a sort
of Imperial LEDRU ROLLIN we were al-
most taught to look for in his instance),
when one caution after another, one reminder
after another, fines, warnings, threats of im-
prisonment and of confiscation, were dropping down
upon the devoted heads of our brethren of the pen
across the Channel swift, cold, and hard as hail-
stones. Those were the kind of relaxations of the
laws regulating the press of France that befitted
M. DE PERSIGNY'S ideas of liberality, that were
dreamt of as the halcyon visions of " Freedom of
Writing and Printing" in the empyrean of his
Philosophy ! so n,neh had this generous-hearted
and large-minded, politician, diplomatist, statesman,
and administrator profited by his sojourn amongst
us as imperial ambassador ! The crowning of
the pyramid was—postponed. That was all.
France, not less than Dr.
CBARLES MACKAY'S
disciple, was "to wait a little longer." Satisfied
#
with one microscopic crumb of comfort dropped
from the imperial table in the form
of a
vague intimation that, when the Reler of
France saw fit, the still slightly delayed boons ,
of Free Writing and of Free Speech should br
duly vouchsafed according to promise. Since vo.
„et: 1
by the way, the time has sped on rapidly e- dough.
The reputed Liberal Minister of the Interior was not
only warm in his seat, but glued it almost as
tightly, one might think, as Tr..ESEUS to the in-
fernal throne of punishment !
So prepared has he
showed himself to be upon,,
all imaginable subjects
—to resign '
his own ,rowed opinions, to swallow
his indignation, to oat his words (poisonous fare
enough at all trines for any mortal, let alone a pre-
tended Champion of Liberality turned a Satrap of
Despetisln)—ready to do anything, to say anything,''
to write anything, rather than resign his Minis-
terial chair and his Ministerial portfolio. Have we
not seen M. DE PERSIGNY still holding office as
Minister of the Interior at Paris, with the Paris
Press, nay, the Press of all France, subjected
moxs conspicuously than everot twt,unfrequent in-

4 ...e. ~, 01 (21r
trfc, *
...0,1. Qt. I. ~,,,. ...1...z
. .t,-, ' A ..,- ..,,,-.."4
-4, ~,, ____ t•-,,,..)-: , ti, ,
'C :..
--. ~ '1
14
, t N
% , •av .
,
111100? fr ' -61.1. I. —47
41. • ,i t. 4 j ~ PT )‘' I ''''
I, - ,ir.

THE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 8, 1862.