The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-18 00:00:00

Everything becomes a matter of importance
which indicates, however indirectly, that the
amicable relations which have now subsisted dur-
ing the last 37 years uninterruptedly between the
French and English Governments, are ripening
into a friendship between the two nations, and
that that friendship is becoming every day more
and more firmly consolidated. It is interesting to
observe every indication of the kindly feelings
entertained towards each other by the two most
civilised races of Christendom. An incident has
very recently been recorded in the public journals
on both sides of the British Channel, such as par-
takes in a remarkable degree of this eminently
satisfactory character. Its commencement has
already been commented upon by ourselves. Its
completion has only within the last few days been
formally announced. Considering its nature,
we conceive that it is in every way entitled to yet
further consideration. It is, on the part of
Albion—once deemed so " perfidious " by her
neighbours—the last tribute of sympathy by
which she endeavours to remove an intolerable
burthen from her conscience by a generous and
touching act of expiation. Expiation for the un-
necessary cruelties inflicted upon the most wonder-
ful of modern conquerors. Expiation, we repeat,
for the needless severities heaped upon that fallen
enemy who had vainly appealed to our magna-
nimity, like a new, but less fortunate, THEM-
sTocLEs—expiation for the ignominies so very
shamefully inflicted during six long and terrible
years upon the Captive of Saint Helena—ex-
piation for the brutalities perpetrated by Sir
HUDSON Low; and for the expatriation sug-
gested by Sir WILLIAM WRAXALL. So far as
those cruelties, those severities, those ignominies,
those brutalities, and that expatriation could be
expiated—they have been expiated by our admi-
nistrators. The Will of Napoleon has lately been
transmitted to France by Lord CLARENDON, as
the Remains of NAPOLEON had been long since for-
warded thither by Lord PALMERSTON. The readi-
ness with which both these graceful acts Or resto-
ration were effected (for as such they must be
regarded) is, to our thinking, doubly significant.
It is significant of the cordiality felt towards the
Cabinet of the Tuileries by the Cabinet of St.
James's, and it is peculiarly significant of the re-
morseful sentiments with which England looks
back to that petty vengeance with which the
close of the last war was unhappily and infa.
mously celebrated.
"For 0 ! it was not well, it was not well,
Nor tuneful with our lofty-chaunted Past."

As the vanquished Chieftain himself proclaimed
to the world in his ever memorable
.Protest—he
advanced to our hearth, he extended his hand in
good faith—and he was immolated ; but bygones
may now, indeed, in this matter be treated as by-
gones both by Frenchmen and Englishmen. For
the ashes of the great Emperor were conveyed to
the banks of the Seine during the monarchy of
Louis PHILIPPE, and those ashes have at length
been followed thither by his Will during the
Empire of Lours NAPOLEON. Nothing more
remains to be accomplished by us in re-
gard to the heroic departed. We have
fulfilled his wish that his body might repose
among the people whom be loved so well, and we
have placed in the archives of that people the very
document in which that wish was expressed by his
dying hand, on the eve of dissolution. That last
will and testament, together with the codicils—
promised by Lord MALMESBURY under the DERBY
Administration—have been delivered up by Lord
CLARENDON under the ABERDEEN Administration.
Consequently, two Cabinets have vied with each
other in evincing their eagerness to comply with a
very reasonable and amiable solicitude on the part
of the French Government.
Immediately on the requisition of the Proc-
tor of the Crown, the Court of Doctors' Com-
mons, it appears, issued an order dated as far
back as the 16th of last February, to the effect
that the required document should be handed over
to the judicial authorities across the Channel with
the utmost possible expedition. Thereupon " the
will with its annexes " was confided to her Bri-
tannic MAJESTY'S principal Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, the Earl of CLARENDON, and was
by him placed in the possession of the Count
WALEWSRI, the French Ambassador. It would
seem from the official account (given in our im-
pression of the 14th instant), of the subsequent
facts connected with this exceedingly interesting
transaction, that Count WALEWSKI soon afterwards
charged the First Secretary of the French Em-
bassy at London, M. CHARLES BAUDIN, to carry
the precious MSS. to Paris for the purpose of pre-
sentation to the EMPEROR, and that accordingly
on his arrival in the latter capital, M. BAUDIN
was conducted to the Tuileries by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and there had the honour of
presenting the will of NAPOLEON the Great to his
successor in the name of his Imperial MAJESTY'S
Ambassador. Since then, it appears, the docu-
ment has been transmitted to the President of the
Tribunal of Premiere Instance of the Seine for the
customary purposes of signature and registration,
and was subsequently conveyed to M. CASIMIR
NOEL, Notary to the Imperial Family, in order
that an authentic copy may be taken for conser-'
vation in his offices—after which the original is to
be placed, by the EMPEROR'S orders, among the
national archives. It can scarcely be a subject of
wonder that the Moniteur takes occasion to allude
to these occurrences with evident feelings of exul-
tation.

Apart from the peculiar interest attached to it
as a circumstance affording a new illlustration to
the chequered history of the Great NA.POLEON, the
incident is gratifying, for inasmuch as it yields
new evidence of the amicable sentiments cherished
at this period between the French and British
Governments. It is an incident, let us add, of
no trivial importance, if that, in truth, be the test
of the most lasting friendship--identity of preju-
dices and partialities, or rather of regrets and
aspirations—idem velle, et idem ?wile, ea demum
firma amicitio est, according to the familiar aphor-
_ _

First Lord of the Treasury, and the Ministerial
Leader in the House of Commons, we should
believe a judicious and equitable arrangement of
of the points in dispute as a matter of certainty.
But, unfortunately, the views of Mr. GLADSTONE
—the responsible Minister—have been even more
freely and unequivocally put forward on the other
side. He argued that any distinction between
permanent and precarious income would be an
act of gross injustice to the public creditor ; and
he has shown that his feeling in favour of the
class is by no means changed by his recent propo-
sitions for the conversion of 500,000,000/. of
Consols, andßeduced on far more favourable terms
than the holders had any right to have antici-
pated. How, then, he can change with these
declarations and acts registered in the pages
of HANSARD, appears to be a mystery almost
as impenetrable as the nature of his own
intentions, of whi h not the slightest inkling
hau as yet been suffered to leak ou'. - The
leap must however be taken. A few short hours
will dispel the mists that have hitherto prevented
a clear perception of the subject.
We would then, ere it is too late, tender our
final advice to the Right Hon. Gentleman. His
gifted predecessor had recognised the distinction
between precarious and permanent income. That
very recognition was made the pretext for the most
virulent and almost factious attack against the
Administration of which he was a leading Mem-
ber, and it proceeded from the present occupant
of the office, who has, therefore, no possible claim
for indulgence on the point. He must expect to
have the same measure which he bestowed on his
opponent meted out to himself, or to assign very
satisfactory reasons why he should be exonerated.
He cannot adopt Mr. DISRAELI'S proposition.
That would be an act of gross piracy—such as an
injunction ought to be granted against—if Chan-
cery could interfere in such matter. He should,
therefore, go much further, offer more liberal
terms if he wishes to obtain popular support. In-
dustrial incomes ought, as we have repeatedly
shown, to be altogether exempted ; if, however,
he is not prepared to go to that extent—to which
it must eventually come—he should at least,
make some approximation to justice, so that the
plain common sense and natural equity of the
nation be no longer offended by the gross par-
tiality exhibited towards the favoured class.