The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-13 00:00:00

and of the confet isional in this life, would command
as many votes for Popery and the POPE'S tempo-
ralities as are obtained now. We do not believe
this. All Rom an Catholic priests are not crazy
political fanatics —we have had in Ireland itself
a MURRAY as well as a CULLEN ;—and we may
feel pretty sure that, with the ballot to shield the
electors, the better part of the priests would be but
too thankful to absta in quietlyfrom political matters,
and devote themselves to their appropriate spiri-
tual duties. Hundreds of the people, also, are not
so superstitious as to believe in the spiritual terrors
of the priest, when he steps out of his spiritual
province, and supplememis the decalogue by con-
structive poiitical sins in the interest of ecclesiasti-
cal ambition—a sin with which not Popish priests
alone are chargeable. The fate of a bill yesterday
hich trod on the toes of canonical assumptions,
may be traced to clerical creation of artificial sins,
and clerical pride in being better than the Bible
itself. People, however, see through all this in
time, and whether in England or in Ireland, by the
help of the Ballot, those who in heart resent cleri-
cal inventions, superstitions, and assumptions, can
give vent to their just resentment without the
hazard of annoyance.
But the more manifest evils of the Longford
election must vanish before an honest ballot. It
would be no one's interest to intimidate and deter
voters, when, for aught the intimidator could
tell, he might be deterring from the poll
a man who would vote for his candidate. The
most conspicuous opponent of the ballot, in the
press, remarks that the priests did not object to
Mr. O'REILLY's support of the ballot, because they
could, even with it, enforce obedience. It is re-
markable, however, that in Australia the persons
who were, and who have remained, most hostile to
the ballot are the Roman Catholic priests ! This
is very significant. The truth is that, be it priests,
or parsons, landlords, or money lords, all the classes
who exercise undue influence are opposed
to the ballot, They hate it as Southern
slaveholders hate emancipation, and for pre-
cisely the same reason. Beth cling to the
unrighteous power which they have over their
fellow men. We do not indeed place the political
slave on the same level with the poor wretch who
has lost his personal freedom also; but we much
question whether, owing to his different educa-
tion, and the better knowledge of his rights, the
English elector does not often feel his political serf-
dom more acutely than the negro his personal
bondage. Of one thing we are sure, that the ballot
is the Emancipation Act which England needs, and
that no liberal is worth an elector's vote who will
not give, for that Act, his Parliamentary vote.

Trivial though the theme, there was something
really touching and impressive in the official des-
patch in regard to the etiquette of the Imperial
Court of France, addressed by Mr. SEWARD on the
3d ult. to the United States Ambassador at Paris.
A chapter upon the courtly pageantries of the
Tuileries penned by a Republican Minister in
the very midst of a civil war threatening the
permanent dismemberment of the whole Ameri-
can Confederation ! A disquisition upon presen-
tations to the Emperor NAPOLEON and the Em-
press EUGENIE—the presentation, that is, of
course, of American citizens and American citi-
zenesses—a disquisition carefully elaborated in
the bureau of the " Department of State," for-
mally signed "W. H. SEWARD," and actually
dated "3d February, 1862, Washington." It
seems like trifling. It reads like the record of a
picnic, not simply in the green hollow of the
crater of an extinct volcano, but rather, it should
be said, of one coolly holden in the midst of the
sulphurous clouds and cencrulent showers of some
dread eruption. It appears for all the world
hardly one jot less indecorous than would be th•
performance of a dance in between the shocks of
an earthquake. One might have supposed that a
responsible Minister of State like Mr. SEWARD
could have found something better to write about
than the readjustment of the refined and subtle,
and almost, one might say, in some respects in.
definable laws of etiquette regulatibg the intro-
duction of American citizens at the Imperial
Court of his Majesty NAPOLEON 111. Or, at any
rate, if the Federal Minister at Washington must
needs descant upon these matters of vital import,
that he might at least have selected some more
appropriate opportunity than the very crisis of a
great fratricidal war between the North and the
South, the Federalists and the Confederates, those
marshalled under the rival democratic banners,
here of JEFF. DAVIS, there of AB. LINCOLN.
The theme, contrasted with the conjuncture, cer-
tainly appears to present to view the very oddest
incongruity—an incongruity all the more remark-
able when contrasting with that theme, not alone
the time itself, but the man also, and the locality,
SEWARD and Washington !

1 Yet, let this apparently eccentric despatch of
I Mr. SEWARD, dated "Department of State, Feb.
li 3, Washington," be only examined into dispas-
-1 sionately, and it will be readily appreciated at its
true value. It will be recognised to have been
written not at all at random, or frivolously, or super-
i fluously, The theme chosen is a mere peg, or, as
lone might say, a mere gilded nail—on which to
hang out conspicuously a timely word or two ad-
dressed to "each and every,"&c., travelledAmerican !
Referring to Mr. DAYTON'S despatch from Paris
under date 14th January, the American Minister
writes on the 3d February from Washington—
with a seemingly idle particularity—" I very freely
confess to the opinions, first, that an audience or
presentation cf any but diplomatic persons at Court
is to be regarded not in any degree as a right of
the person received, but as a courtesy extended to
him. Secondly, that the Imperial Court is per-
fectly at liberty to define and prescribe the qualifi-
cations, conditions, and terms on which strangers
shall be admitted into its society. Thirdly, if Ame-
rican citizens request you to present their wishes
for admission at Court, you can only present them
by complying with the terms and conditions pre-
scribed. Fourthly (and finally), referring to the
questions which have actually arisen, I think you
can properly in all cases give the occupation or
profession of any person whose wishes you present."
Mr. SEWARD going on here to remark with no less
apparently out-of-place solemnity of manner in
regard to things so intrinsically contemptible, only
one might think in themselves—" You cannot,
indeed, undertake to assign the social position of
each person, for that would be to discriminate, or
to seem to discriminate, by European rules, between
persons who, being all alike citizens, may justly
claim to be equals in social position at home, and
therefore equals in the consideration of the Govern-
ment itself when they are abroad." Mr. SEWARD
adding here with delightful gravity (is if he were
in truth, discussing affairs of the most signal im-
portance! )—" It seems to me, however, that in
many cases there are circumstances belonging to
the persons you propose to present which may
be properly stated, such as official position held by
individuals at the time, or even at some previous ,
time—distinctions arising from personal merit,
such as scientific, military, or literary, or a political
Bas founders of scientific, il
character, and distinction
literary, or humane institutions," Having examined 1