The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-23 00:00:00

Indeed, if we regard this occurrence with satisfaction,
it is not from any exaggerated conception of its political
importance, but because at this moment it can scarcely
he considered to have any serious political meaning or
effect. The Duke de Bordeaux and the sons of King
Louis Philippe have adhered inflexibly to one rule of
conduct. They have not conspired, they have not kept
up any system of agitation hostile to the Government of
France, they have not courted the support of foreign
Powers, and, whenever they have expressed an opinion
on passing events, it has been publicly, and without
disguise. We know not if the pretenders of Frohsdorf
and of Claremont are regarded with apprehension at
St. Cloud, but certainly never were fewer efforts made
to C.efend a political cause ; and the resignation of these
Princes to a fate which, as far as they are concerned,
is certainly a hard and undeserved one, is only exceeded
by their confidence in that mysterious course of events
which can alone heal the breach between them and
the French people. The day may come, they appear
to think, when France will not disown the liber-
ties for which she once so ardently contended, and
when the stability of her Government will once more
depend, not on the energy of despotic power, but on the
strength of legal rights. Had they chosen to stake
their cause on the hazards of civil war, or on some dar-
ing political adventure, opportunities were not wanting
in the troubled months which followed the Revolution
of 1848, when the people eagerly rallied round the first
name which promised them a refuge from the storm.
But they stood aloof from that temptation, and their
only course is patiently to await the results of the ex-
periment the French nation has since thought proper to
try. It would be the height of absurdity to connect the
fusion which has just taken place in the house of
Bourbon with any scheme for the overthrow of the pre-
sent Government, or any designs against the tranquil-
lity of France.
There are, indeed, in Paris a set of retired statesmen
and disappointed politicians, who cannot obliterate from
their minds and from their habits impressions derived
from the Parliamentary era that constitutes the hest
portion of their lives. To them the formation of what
has been termed "the party of the fusion" has been a sort
of pastime and pursuit, reminding them of the combina-
tions in which they once excelled ; but, now that the fusion
is accomplished, we question it the most zealous pro-
moters of it could inform us to what practical political
object it can be turned. They are perfectly aware that
to the bulk of the French people the Bourbons of
Frohsdorf and the Bourbons of Claremont are subjects
of as much indifference as Louis XVIII. while lie lived
at Mittau or Hartwell. That people worships but one
idol at a time, though it must be confessed that it
changes its faith pretty frequently. But, as long as the
state of things lasts which has consigned France to Louis
Napoleon and absolute power, the regrets of statesmen
who have ceased to play a part in the world, the disaf-
fection of polite society, and even the fixed aversion of
all that is highest, noblest, and best in the land, will not
materially accelerate the fall of the Imperial dominion.
Like all fancy Governments, sprung out of the emer-
gencies of a revolution, the empire commands for a time
the absolute subjection of the country in a higher de-
gree than any form of Government which the nation
has not just called into being ; but with its novelty
the essence of its power declines, and it is the fate
of such Governments to be all-powerful with one
generation, but powerless over the next. Legal
rights, and especially the legal rights of hereditary
monarchy, are less universal and exclusive in their
sway than the caprices of elective Governments ;
but the experience of all mankind favours the belief
that this law of descent is, upon the whole, one of the
best safeguards of a nation. The French people, how-
ever, have shown in the last sixty years that they have
little or no respect for this principle, and in the free
exercise of their national power they have repeatedly set
it aside. They are the sole judges of what concerns
them, and it is perhaps of little importance to the rest
of Europe whether they discard it for ever, or whether
they revert to it. Certainly no other power but their
own free choice will ever again affect to restore it ; and
that choice can only be so directed by great calamities
arising out of the opposite cause, which we sincerely
hope not to witness. But those Princes who by their
birth and station are the natural representatives of this
legal right have a clear duty to perform. They owe it
to the name they bear, and to the services they may one
day be called upon to render, to maintain the dignity of
their position and the union of their family. Whatever
be the power of Louis Napoleon, it is still a power with-
out a future, and a reign without a successor ; and
although we acknowledge no predilection, and we can
form no expectations for those who represent the
ancient monarchy of France, it would be rash to affirm
that among the unknown changes of futurity some tide
may not again float the vessel now thrown so high upon
the shore.