The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 5, 1853,

THE CITY ADDRESS TO LOUIS NAPOLEON.

(From the Times.)
The Lord Chief Justice of England is not much accus-
tomed to turn his attention to foreign affairs, but he is
as good a judge as any man of what is due to the public
feeling and the political usages of this country, and with-
out all the formalities of a trial be has passed a severe
but just sentence and reproof on the persons who have
lately made themselves conspicuous by volunteering a
declaration of peace and amity to the head of the French
nation. Between the derision attached to Sir James
Duke's self-constituted embassy and the "unqualified
disgust" which Lord Ellenborough thinks the whole
proceeding calculated to excite, this deputation has un-
dergone every variety of ridicule and censure. But Lord
Campbell goes further. He pronounces the act of pre-
senting political addresses to foreign Sovereigns by pri-
vate British subjects, professing to bear a public charac-
ter abroad, to be positively illegal, and he pointed out
last night insthe House of Lords with great force the ob-
vious inconvenience and impropriety of thus usurping
the functions of the constituted authorities of the realm
and the legal representative of the Crown. There can
be no doubt that all acts of a public character abroad,
which are -done by. individuals whose real position
and powers foreign States have no means of ascer-
taining, are liable to great abuse. The authority
of this deputation was entirely usurped. They
were ambassadors without credentials and repre-
sentatives without constituents, for even the persons
who had been duped into signing the declaration were
left entirely in the dark as to the ulterior scheme of
presenting that document to Louis Napoleon at the
Tuileries. The Secretary of Sta-e for Foreign Affairs
had certainly found nothing to condemn in the declara-
tion when it was shown to him, for, as we observed the
other day, the language employed by its authors was
such that there is scarcely a man in England who might
not have adopted it. But, when Lord Clarendon was
asked to instruct her Majesty's ambassador in Paris to
give the sanction of his presence to the deputation, this
request was most properly refused. The whole proceed-
ing had, to use the mildest term, an unauthorised char-
acter, and it is open to all the suspicions and remarks
which are naturally excited by the conduct of men who
intrude themselves into matters with which they are
very imperfectly acquainted. Mr. Smith O'Brien's trea-
sonable excursion to the Hotel de Ville in 1848 with
the green flag of Erin was certainly not a precedent to
be followed. And the mission of Lord Roden and Lord
Cavan to Tuscany last autumn, though it had nothing
of a political character, being altogether suggested by
religious motives, might so far have served as a lesson
that the Grand Duke of Tuscany refused to accept any
address or remonstrance, conveyed to a foreign
court by such' means. But, whether the object of
these demonstrations be factious or meritorious,
the principle is equally mischievous, since they all
assume to carry with them the weight of the public
opinion of England by means over which the British
public have no control. Lord Malmesbury, of course,
approves the thing. He was naturally in Paris, and '
probably at the Tuileries, to welcome the deputation,
and to note with satisfaction that there are a dozen
Englishmen as obsequious as himself to this new Power.
But, if Lord Malmesbury had inquired a little further,
he would probably have been able to trace the original
conception of this declaration to the French Government
itself. Several months ago it was undoubtedly men-
tioned as a desirable measure by a well-known member
of the present Administration of the Empire, and various
means were taken by the persons employed to get up
the declaration in order to avoid that publicity Mich
would at once have defeated the scheme. We do not
cast any aspersion beyond that of levity and careless-
ness on the persons who were led to sign this docu-
ment without knowing what use was to be made of
it. But, although many respectable names are to be met
with in the list, it is not to be denied that the chief
movers in this business are gentlemen verylargelyinterested
in French railroads and other undertakings known on the
Bourse of Paris ' • and, in spite ,of Lord Campbell's inge-
nuous disavowal of such an intention, It is equally clear
that this demonstration was calculated to affect the price
of certain securities, and especially to obtain for its au-
thors a share of those favours to capitalists in which the
French Government is extremely munificent. Suppose
Mr. Hudson, at the height of his ephemeral glory, to
have united political power with his railway royalty, and
we might have seen deputations of the same disinte-
rested character flocking from all parts of Europe. But,
if they had come, we know what we should have thought
of them ; and, to do the continental nations justice in
this matter, the traders of the city of London have set
them an example of servile obsequiousness not at all
likely4to be followed.
It has sometimes been said by those who would depre-
ciate the character and spirit of a great commercial coun-
try, that mercantile pursuits have a tendency to lower
the tone of public feeling and morality, to smother
independence, and even to sacrifice freedom to the
acquisition of wealth. We Certainly do not entertain
so low an opinion of the principles and conduct of our
own countrymen, and we are confident that the pro-
portion of those who would sacrifice the self-respect of
Englishmen for such objects is as small as it is con-
temptible. But to that small minority we must impute
the scheme which has given rise to these obsevations,
and it is. to be hoped that the censure pissed on them,
both in the House of Lords and by the chief organs of
public opinion, will not be without effect. They are told
by the Lord Chief Justice that they have done that which
is illegal, by arrogating to themselves the right of ad-
dressing a foreign ruler in the name of the people of
England ; and it is certain they have exercised that right
without discrimination and without dignity. If it goes
forth to the world without contradiction that any num-
ber of citizens of London may frame addresses to foreign
States, without even the check of publicity, and that Sir
James Duke and Mr. Powles are, with such credentials
as these, to exhibit themselves at courts and banquets as
emissaries of this nation, or even of this metropolis, our
relations with the continent will become absolutely bur-
lesque, and the Ward of Portsoken will supersede the
Court of St. James. The international communications
of States and countries can only be safely and prudently
carried on through the legitimate channel. No other is
entitled to credit beyond the four seas ; and if the people
of England were to desire other Ministers or statesmen
to represent them in their relations with foreign countries
they would probably not select these gentlemen, who
have turned their Easter holidays to account with more
amusement and advantage to themselves than credit to
their country.

DAMAGE BY STORM.—The West of England was visit-
ed on Thursday night last with a tremendous storm;
several places suffered considerably from its violence.
The wind for some time blew a perfect hurricane, and
the rain fell in torrents. At Dorchester a large brick
building, used at the railway station as an engine-house,
was entirely destroyed, burying the engines in the ruins,
and causing considerable damage. Fortunately, how-
ever, there was no person in the building at the time of
the accident. At Starcross, a station on the South
Devon Railway, and about eight miles from Exeter, a
truck was set in motion by the force of the wind, and
carried on in the same way to Exeter, where its arrival
was anticipated by a telegraphic message. The mail
train, which was due about the same time, was detained
in consequence about half an hour, and the mails were
taken on by a special train from Exeter.

EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND.—It appears from the
country papers that the emigration mania continues un-
abated, more especially in the west, where whole dis-
tricts are turning out. A letter from Galway, published
in the Telegraph, states that the city of Galway, and the
towns throughout the west, were filled with lame and
impotent creatures, who had not the means to join in the
exodus. A letter from Gort states that one long street
there, formerly inhabited by thriving tradesmen and ar-
tisans, is now "like a high road between walls, not a
person to be found in the tottering and tenantless houses
—all dead, or in America." The same letter states that
the " farmers who remain find the greatest difficulty in
procuring hands."
MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC
PRIEST.—The Rev. Michael Conway, Roman Catholic
curate, of Cahirconlish, encountered a terrible death on
Thursday night, near that village, where he fell, it is
supposed, upon the spikes of a gate, and was impaled by
the neck, until the police patrol came up and extricated
him, but the immortal spirit had been forced from its
earthly tenement before their arrival at the fatal spot.
The account in town is that the rev. gentleman was
suddenly called out on a very urgent sick message, and,
in his anxiety to- respond to the summons, neglected
ordinary precaution, striving in a dark stormy night to
make his way to the bedside of a dying parishioner by
the shortest route, and against all obstacles. With this
view, struggling to surmount an iron gate, he sunk
exhausted upon the spikes, and there expired.—Limerick
Chronicle.

DEATH OF THE SULTAN OF BORNEO.—The China Mail,
of Feb. 10, states, on the authority of its Labuan cor-
respondent, that the Sultan of Borneo, who had been
ailing for a length of time, has at length paid the debt
of nature, and is succeeded by Pangeran Moumein, who
had long acted as prime minister. The legitimate heir
is thus put aside ; but as Moumein is very popular, it is
most probable that peace will be maintained in Brunai
during Wlifctime.