The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-11 00:00:00

In,
13"1011X

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 184,

The inhabitants of Manchester have ever assumed
a Prominent position when abuses were to be reme-
died, or the nation restored to rights that had been
unjustly invaded. In the present instance they are
not unworthy of their ancient reputation. They
have assumed a prominent position in the great
struggle that has already commenced. They have
joined their brethren of Liverpool and Edinburgh in
a temperate but Arm demand for financial reform,
and have expressed their determination " to cooperate
with the Liverpool Association and other similar
bodies in their efforts to reduce the public expenditure
to it least the standard of 1835, and to secure a more
equitable and ecenomwal system of taxation?' And
the men of Manchester will accomplish what they
have thus undertaken. The magnificent meeting
held last night in the Free-Trade Hall ; the vast
numbers by which the doors of that spacious edifice
were besieged, and its area and galleries crowded to
excess long before the hour appointed for the com-
mencement of the'proceedings, afforded the most com-
plete and satisfactory evidence of the strength of
purpose, the unflinching resolution by which they
were actuated.
It was, indeed, a cheering spectacle to behold the
ch itnpions of free trade assembled together, in the
ec,ne of their former labours, and their former
triumphs—to witness GEORGE WILSON, the respected
and indefatigable chairman of the Anti-Corn-law
League, again presiding over an assemblage of many
thousands of his fellow-citizens, and RICHARD
ConnaN, and JOHN BRIGHT, and TROMAS MILNER
GIBsoN, and ALEXANDER HENRY, again addressing the
people in fervent and eloquent language, and again
teaching their associates the manner in which political

victories may be achieved. The good old days of the
Anti-Corn-law League were forcibly recalled to our
recollection—the same earnestness and decision were
perceptible on every side, and the same machinery
will be brought into operation to attain their objects.
After such a demonstration we cannot entertain—who
can entertain ?—a doubt but that the most complete
success will attend their exertions ; that peaceful and
constitutional agitation will again obtain the required
reforms, and that Parliament will recognise and
submit to the voice of public opinion clearly and
unequivocally expressed.
The Chairman stated the objects of the meeting,
briefly but intelligibly. There could be no mistake
or misunderstanding. He told the assembled multi-
tudes that "he bespoke their co-operation in favour
of no ill-advised scheme, of no immature project—of
nothing which should involve violent changes, or
changes to be accomplished by violent means, that
"their aim was to collect into one focus the mass of
floating opinion in the district—to give it force and
direction—and to concenti ate it, for a time at least,
upon the practical objects of economical and financial
reform." The torrents of applause with which the state-
ment was received evidenced the unanimous assent of
the hearers and how fully and cordially they par-
ticipated in the sentiments of their Chairman.
The Honourable Member for the West Riding
proposed the first resolution, and we rejoice to say
that its terms were not limited to measures of
economy and retrenchment merely, or to bringing
back the national expenditure to the standard of 183 i,
but that coupled therewith was the determination to
secure a more equitable and economical system of
taxation. This looks as if the Honourable Gentleman
had reconsidered the opinion put forward in his
letter of the 18th ultimo, and that he no longer
considered it inexpedient to propose any " modifica-
tions or substitutions of existing taxes." The resolu •
tion implies not only that a more economical, but a
more equitable, system is required ; and no system
can be equitable or just that places the greater por-
tion of the burdens upon those least able to sustain
them—that impedes production—that subjects the
people to domiciliary visits on the most frivolous and
vexatious pretexts—that imposes restrictions upon
our commerce with other lands—that makes the
precarious earnings of the merchant or trader
contribute as largely to the exigencies of
the State as the certain income of the
possessor of landed estates or of accumulated
thousands. The resolution means that direct taxa-
tion is to be sought for, that there is to be a total
alteration of the present system, or it means nothing.
We rejoice to find that Mr. COBDEN has in this
respect yielded to the general feeling, and that he
has sacrificed his own views in order to ob-
tain general unanimity. We are, perhaps,
wrong in saying " has sacrificed his own views," be-
cause we cannot dcubt that his keen and vigorous
intellect clearly perceived not only the inexpediency,
but the injustice of the present system. He
has found, however, that there is " a very great
force of public opinion in favour of direct taxation,'
that it has been " already created and organized,'•
that the nation is ripe for an onward movement, in
that respect, as well as in the demand for economy
and retrenchment.

It is not now necessary to enter into the argu-
ments adduced by the Honourable Gentleman in
support of the resolution, they are already familiar
to the public, having been put forward in the letter
to which we have just alluded, and commented upon
by ourselves and other journalists.
The second resolution, proposed by Mr. INIILNEu
GIBsoN, related to the franchise; it stated that no per-
manent reduction of taxation could be effected until

the people obtained a more direct control over the
House of Commons by an extension of the electoral
representation. This important subject has, there-
fore, again been supported by the men of Manchester,
and on a fitting occasion. Taxation and representation
have been intimately connected together. "No taxa-
tion without representation," has been a well-known
watchword, and they will again be united together.
The third resolution, proposed by JOHN BRIGHT,
spoke of the manner in which the contest is to be
carried on. The extension of 40s. free-
holders, which was found so efficacious
when adopted by the Anti- Corn-Law-League
and the system of watching the register is again to
be pursued, and the Chairman was authorised to take
steps for the promotion of an association to secure the
objects of the meeting. Again, we congratulate the
inhabitants of Manchester and the people of England
on a demonstration so glorious, one that must excite
such lively feelings of hope—such joyous anticipa-
tions in the heart of every Briton.

Her MAJESTY'S Chief Secretary for Foreign
Affairs may rest assured of this, that before the
approaching session of Parliament has very far ad-
vanced he will be severely catechised by his anta-
gonists. It is the evil fortune of Lord PALMERSTON
to have more rancorous and petulant assailants than
any other statesman among the present ad visers of the
SOVEREIGN. It is his good fortune, however, to
possess at the same time a perfectly inexhaustible
share of equanimity, and to be less liable to be sur-
prised into a dilemma, whether in the toils of diplo-
matic correspondence or in the collision of political
debate, than any one amongst the Ministers who hold
office under Lord JOHN RUSSELL. Never, perhaps,
will these invaluable qualities prove of more signal
advantage to the Foreign Secretary than during the
spring of 1849, for never, we are satisfied, will his
opponents be more vituperative in their attack or less
scrupulous of infringing the delicate bounds of
secresy hitherto preserved round the administrator
entrusted with the duties devolving upon the office of
the Foreign Department. Although our appreciation
of the Noble Lord's ability in warding off the blows
levelled against his line of policy is, if possible, more
full than ever, in consequence of the success with
which he has recently passed through so many and
such extraordinary difficulties, we must, nevertheless,
confess that we look forward to the cross-examination
to which he will be most certainly subjected with a
considerable degree of trepidation. For human
nature is still human nature, even in a bosom steeled
against the ordinary weaknesses of irritability by a
lengthened familiarity with the invigorating in-
fluences of, government. Lord PALMERSTON will
require an almost miraculous amount of self-com-
mand to baffle the wiles of a fierce and infuriated
Opposition. He must strengthen himself against
the seductive warmth of his indignation, by a re-
membrance of the integrity of his motives, by a
conviction that the decision of posterity will be more
just than the judgment of contemporaries, and by the
reflection that the very policy which is being now
traduced as un-English, and almost unconstitutional,
has maintained peace between Great Britain and the
insurgent nations of Europe, without derogating in
any manner from the dignity of his own country, or
interfering with the respective interests of the popu-
lations of Christendom.

Latterly it has become actually and literally the
fashion to condemn the Ministerial acts of Lord
PALMERSTON. No matter what may be the course
adopted by this eminent statesman, simply because
that course has been followed according to his sug-
gestion it is at once vilified as odious to humanity
and disgraceful to civilization. And against the man
who has steered the fortunes of England through the
hurricanes and the revolutions of 1848, is pitted that
excellent ABERDEEN, whose character has been
damaged, as visibly as the rind of a
bad orange. The under - secretary of the
middle-aged gentleman who is endeavouring
to lull the anguish of his conscience by writing
sophistical pamphlets in a back drawing-room in
Brompton, is seriously matched against the man who
has proved himself a Master of Diplomacy in the
Administrations of RUSSELL, of MELBOURNE, of
GREY, of WELLINGTON, Of GODIRICII, of CANNING,
and of LivEizcooL.

To show the consistency, moreover, of those dis-
sentients who mention the policy of Viscount PAL-
MBRSION either in abusive or in depreciative lan-
guage, it is only necessary to look to a few of the
charges levelled, sometimes directly, sometimes
indirectly, against that policy during the course
of the great Year of Revolutions. In refer-
ence to one country he was too Conservative,
while in regard to another he was too Democratic.
One while he interfered too much, at another too
little. If through the medium of his brother, as
Minister Plenipotentiary, he strove to compass the
escape of the Sicilians from the grinding and de-

basing tyranny of the Neapolitan despot, he was at
fault. If, through the lips of the same relative, in
an unofficial capacity, he expressed sympathy to
Pits IX. in his undeserved misfortunes, he
was still more grievously and irredeemably in
error. In every quarter, according to these
Smolletts of politicians, those Smellfunguses of
diplomacy, he committed state crimes, and—worse
than state crimes—mistakes. Yet, beyond all his
other atrocities, he has been more incessantly accused
of being guilty of the most flagrant acts of lize
majeste against the various Sovereignties of the Con-
tinent. Like M. DB LAMARTINE, be has been taxed
with participation in the infamous labours of the re-
volutionary propaganda. Lord PALMERSTON has his
risquons tout as well as the poet-statesman of Fe-
bruary. Like that eminent man, the Noble Lord has
found his conciliative efforts distorted into struggles for
the excitation of an universal rebellion. Both have
been attacked as the arch-enemies of peace—the one
a secret and the other an avowed conspirator. Both
in their several degrees have experienced the un-
caused animosity of the multitude. Both have
tasted the bitterness of a systematic misrepresenta -
tion. Both have discovered to their sorrow, that with
the fickleness proverbial among all races and in all
times, it has become the fashion to assail and reprobate
two of the most illustrious servants of the French and
English peoples. Against this mania—this mania so
degrading to France and England—we lift up our voices
unceasingly in tones of earnest regret and profound in-
dignation. For the justification of M. DE LAMARTINE
we refer again and again to every one of the gene-
rous measures which marked the three months of his
Government, and to every one of those eloquent syl-
lables which fell like oil from the lips of the great
orator upon the troubled waters of a general and
appalling insurrection. For the justification of Lord
PALMERSTON we point to the brilliant success with
which he has for upwards of thirty years participated
in, or guided, the administration of the foreign
affairs of Great Britain, and last, but not least, of all
his Ministerial achievements—the felicity with which
he has conducted the destinies of his native country
through the perils of 1848, that memorable year
which will be known for ever as the Year of Revolu-
tions. Traduced to• day—both these men will be
I estimated correctly hereafter.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
In the National Assembly on Tuesday, M. GREVY
presented the report of the Committee appointed to
consider the proposition of M. RATEAU for a dis3olu
don of the Assembly.
The following is an abstract of M. GREVY'S re •
port :

M. Grevy—Our Hon. Colleague, M. Bateau, pre-
sented a proposition, couched in the following terms:—
"Art. 1. The Legislative Assembly is convoked for the
19th March, 1849. The powers of the National Con-
stituent Assembly shall expire on the same day.

" ' Art. 2. The election for the nomination of the 750
members, who are to compose the Legislative Assembly ,
shall take place on the 4th of March, 1849. Each de-
partment shall elect the number of representatives deter-
mined by the table annexed to the present Bill.

" Art. 3. Until the period fixed for its► dissolution,
the National Assembly shall occupy itself principally
with the electoral law, and that relative to the Council
of State.'

" This proposition was referred to the committee of
legislation and of justice, where it gave rise to very
animated discussions, and opinions were divided equally
upon it. The committee of justice, charged with the
report, has confided to me the mission of making know n
to you its conclusions. The duration of the Constituent
Assembly is determined by its mandate ; it can neither
withdraw before it has fulfilled it, nor can it prolong its
existence beyond that period. In the first case it would
be guilty of desertion, and in the second of usurpation ;
in both cases it would betray the confidence placed in
it by the people.—(Hear, hear.) The question as to
whether the Constituent Assembly should dissolve
itself is, therefore, reduced to this e—Has it ful-
filled its mandate ? The National Assembly itself
at the moment of commencing the discussion on the
constitution decided that with it should be adjoined the
organic laws, both of which were necessary for the well-
being of the Republic ; in fact, without these laws,
the Constitution itself would be but a dead letter. At a
later perioi the Assembly decided by an article in the
Constitution that it should itself pass these laws. It
cannot either dissolve itself without having finished its
work, or tear up one of the articles of the Constitution
which it has voted. It has been said that in presence of
the election of the President his power was incompatible
with that of the Constituent Assembly.—(Hear, hear.)
But where then is that incompatibility? It existed
neither in a legal nor in a political sense. Apprehen-
sions had been entertained that the National Assembly
would be hostile to the President of the Republic; and
certain persons even had at last persuaded themselves of
the fact, in consequence of so earnestly desiring it; but
the attitude of the Assembly in presence of the power
of the President has given a contradiction to that
supposition, and its late votes bear testimony to its
desire to maintain concord between the great powers
of the State. This question of the dissolution is one of
life or death for the Republic. Those who entertain
any doubts on the subject may be convinced of it by the
ardour of the party spirit and by the violence of their
attacks against the Assembly. Is it necessary for it to
justify itself against the reproach addressed to it of
wishing to make its sittings permanent? Who is there
that is ignorant that its mandate, and consequently its
duration, are exactly determined; that a little time will
suffice it to complete its task, and that its existence will
be much shorter than the Constituent Assemblies which
have preceded it. In consequence the Committee of
Justice, in accord with the Committee of Legislation,
has the honour to propose to you not to take the propo-
sition of M. Ratean into consideration.

" After a few remarks the report was ordered to be
printed and distributed, and the discussion fixed for
Friday."
In the course of the sitting the Works in Prisons
Bill was passed, and the election of M. LUCIEN NA-
POLEON BONArARTE for Corsica declared void for ir-
regularity.
The efforts of the re-actionaries to get up a sham
display of popular feeling against the Assembly are
likely to prove abortive. The old system of " enor-
mous lying" is, as usual, with the re actionary party
unscrupulously resorted to, a sort of free trade in ca-
lumny being established among the re - actionary organ s
on both sides the Channel. The falsehood, too bare-
faced for immediate production in the French market,
makes its first appearance in the English re-actionary
journals, and is immediately copied into the French
organs of the conspiracy. This, however, has been
tried too often. The French people are becoming
aware of the existence of the reactionary conspiracy ;
they know the conspirators and their motives, and they
will not suffer themselves to be duped so easily as here-
tofore. It is true a great splutter is kept up by the
Phillipists, Legitimists, and Parti Pretre about the
unpopularity of the Assembly, and petitions got up
after the fashion of the Chartist monster petition,
and bearing fictitious signatures, are every day pre-
sented from places of which no one ever heard, pray-
ing for its immediate dissolution ; but when any at-
tempt is made to get up a bora Vide petition, or a lona
Jide demonstration against the Assembly it signally
fails. Several lithographic petitions, praying for a
dissolution of the Assembly, have been hawked about
the Bourse but without success. The touters were
Indefatigable, but they did not get ten persons to
attach their names to them. It would be well that
the Assembly should adopt some method for testing
the genuineness of the signatures attached to petitions
presented to them. The associates of the CURIBRES,
the TESTES, and the PRASLINS, and the defenders of
the Freres LEOTADES would not scruple to forge a
signature to a petition.
M. ODILoN BARROT is still desirous of being
appointed Vice-President. Should he be no-
minated to that office, the PRESIDENT of the Republic
will, it is said, confide the task of constructing a new
Ministry to M. DUFAURE.
In the course of the sitting of Assembly on Tues-
day M. Bixio gave the following explanation of
the causes which led to his secession from the
Ministry. He said,
" The Assembly will do me the justice, I think, to
allow that I seldom abuse its patience. In the late dis-
cussion, relative to the ministerial modification not hav-
ing been personally referred to, I did not think myself
called on to make any statement. Yet I had a serious
interest to give some explanation, for I was perfectly
aware that the cause of my resignation had been vari-
ously interpreted, and that calumny had even seized on
that act of mine, to attribute it to I know not what
embarrassment in my private affairs.—(Movement.)
As long as this calumny remained in the state
of a rumour which could not be laid hold of, it was my
duty to despise it; but at present, when It has assumed a
palpable form in an article of a provincial journal, the
organ of the most flagrant defamation, I am obliged to
notice it. It is, no doubt, an artful system of tactics to
depreciate certain men, in order thereby to undervalue
the work in which they are concerned—in which they
have taken part. I have considered myself called on to
lay before the Procureur of the Republic the number
of the Courrier de la Gironde of January 5. In
doing so, I obeyed not only a sentiment of personal
dignity, but, at the same time, a feeling of respect
for the National Assembly, which frequently honoured
me with its suffrages, and with the Cabinet, which
I had the affliction to leave. Since I am in the tri
bone, I will just say a word relative to other rumours
which have been in circulation. It is altogether false
that during the time that I was a member of the Cabi
net, any difference arose amcngst the persons composing
.
it; we were always perfectly in accord, both men and
things. The same accord did not cease to exist amongst
es when, in consequence of the conflict, much. to be re
fretted, between the President of the Republic and. the
Minister of the Interior, the whole Cabinet thought itself