The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-06 00:00:00

Q:flflt

LONDON, WEDNESDAI, JUNE 6, 1849.

The motion so anxiously looked for throughout the
entire country was last night brought forward by
JOSEPH HumE, the honest and consistent advocate of
popular rights, and was, we regret to say, rejected by
a majority of 186. Those who are pleased to term
themselves the representatives of the people refused
to take into their consideration a measure calculated
to amend the national representation—to extend the
elective franchise to millions who are mere
political cyphers, without any voice in the
election of those by whom laws are to
be framed, and taxes imposed—to enable the
voters to exercise their rights freely and honestly,
and to bestow their suffrages, without fear, upon
those whom, in their consciences, they believe to be
best qualified to represent their wants and wishes in
the national Legislature—to preserve that just re-
sponsibility of Members to the constituencies by
whom they were selected, and to remove the
extraordinary disproportion that at present
exists between the various electoral districts.
Such were the objects contemplated by the Hon.
Member for Montrose; but he was denied liberty
.even to bring in his measure—to lay the new " Re-
form Bill" upon the table. The advocates for
finality have prevailed on the present occasion. All
those opposed to any species of reform—all those who
would still keep up an extravagant and wasteful ex-
penditure, who would make the industrious classes
provide for the interest of the National Debt and the
maintenance of the national establishments, who would
withhold the life blood of industry, a currency ade-
quate to the wants and energies of the country, mus-
tered strongly on the occasion, and succeeded in
obtaining a temporary triumph. Unfortunately the
Reformers, although strong out of doors, are nume-
rically weak within the walls of Parliament. The
rival parties, the aspirants to official rank and emolu-
ment, whatever may be their difference in other re-
spects, are cordially united on one subject—to
prevent any accession of strength to the popular cause.
For that purpose they will heartily co-operate, and
for a time may succeed. But the voice of popular
opinion, temperately and constitutionally expressed,
must ultimately force itself upon their unwilling
ears. The pressure from without must be attended
to, and will become particularly potent on the eve of
a general election. When Hon. Gentlemen are about
to appear again before their respective constituencies,
and solicit a renewal of former confidence, then, in-
deed, greater respect and deference will be exhibited
towards measures strongly advocated out of doors,
and eagerly desired by the great body of the people,
questions that at present are " pooh-poohed," or
superciliously rejected, will be more seriously de-
bated; the honest and uncompromising minority, at
first few in number, but zealous, energetic, and de-
termined, will gradually attain more respectable
dimensions. The majority will become " small by
degrees and beautifully less," will dwindle away day
by day, until at last it vanishes altogether, 'hen a
complete victory crowns the exertions of the cham-
pions of democracy.
From statistical statements last night brought for-
ward by Mr. HUME, it appears that no more than
one in ten of the adult male population of Great
Britain are at present represented, while in poor,
unhappy Ireland the disproportion is still more
glaring. There are but 820,000 registered electors
in England, Scotland, and Wales, while the
people number twenty millions of persons, nearly
two-fifths of whom—eight millions of souls—are adult
males. The number of inhabited houses for that
population are about three millions five hundred
thousand. So, that if Mr. Hume's motion were car-
ried, and the franchise bestowed on every house•
holder, more than one-half of the people would
still be unrepresented. It would, however,
more than quadruple the number of electors,
and might therefore be received as a con-
siderable instalment of justice, which would for
the present be accepted by the nation, in order to
unite all honest Reformers, and to conciliate those
differences of opinion that will be found in every
body of rational men thinking for themselves, and
forming their own judgments on passing events.
The questions of the ballot and triennial Parlia-
ments have, each in their turn, received the assent of
the House of Commons. They are required to protect
the voter in the exercise of his constitutional privi-
leges, to enable him to avoid the coercion and undue
influences too frequently resorted to, and which
renders the franchise a curse in place of a blessing to
its possessor. The cases of intimidation cited
in the discussion on the motion of the
Honourable Member for Bristol sufficiently
prove how essential it is that the same mode
of voting for Members of Parliament should be
adopted that has so long and so beneficially prevailed
in clubs and societies of various kinds. The Mem-
bers should also be bound to appeal to their con-
stituencies more frequently, to ask whether they
have fulfilled the promises made on the hustings,
if they have fulfilled the reasonable expectations
of those who elected them to seats in
noble
Mayor,lsturgeon,
Robertl
Clements,
that the Legislature. The ballot and triennial Parlia- ROCHESTER.—On Friday last was caught, in this
alertw
to prove Thea
his
ments are now looked upon by every sincere Re- fine river, t
the Medway,
edy
snyco and attention;
instantly
td
measuring
former as measures that cannot long be protracted,Esq.,n,
everfeeton th
in length.
that must speedily be conceded to the wishes of the E
instantly gave instructions for its loyalty
conveyed
people.
Buckingham Palace, which place it reached in fine con-
But, perhaps, the greatest anomaly of all, the most
indefensible of the existing regulations, which carries dition on Saturday. It was most graciously received,
and the Mayor's polite attention acknowledged.
on the face of it the greatest absurdity, is the dispro-
SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY MORNING. -- The
portion between the sizes of the various boroughs.
Hence the statement of the Hon. Member with re- Erin, Captain Russell, has arrived here with atesfrom.Coe.
Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's ship
spect to this inequality. He says—
tar 31 : she brings 28 passengers, a large and valuable cargo,
stantinople, May 19 ; Smyrna, May -1 ; Malta, 26, Gibral-
" He had made a comparison between the great and
small constituencies. He had taken 16 boroughs con- learn that there were constant arrivals of Turkish
.andtLgyp.
taming a population of 2 917,000, being one-half of the tian steamers bringing great numberstt of
prevailed
tts
atoreotlni!
and specie value 50,000/. sterling. From Constantinople,, we
whole population of England. Those 16 boroughs re Turkish army. consequencey of the
turned 32 Members. He wished the House to c,,rnpare stantinople in equipping
troops Letters from Cyprus announce
them with 23 small boroughs, where there were only menacing attitude of Rassia.
dreadful havoc amongst the crops.
100,000 inhabitants, and yet they returned as many that the locusts have. m
The greateq activity
Members as that immense population in the former 16 tehat has received pratique at that
boroughs. Nor could any man say that was a fair par- the Erin is the first vessel
Gibraltar was a passenger from Con
ticipation in the elective franchise to which all were en- Quarantine restrictions andaelY been removed at Gibraltar, and
port. The Bishop oflt
i the Erin. Tier Majesty's frigate
titled by the constitution? He asked a fair participa- tan tin ople toGfibi
orrra
Garibraltar on the 31st ult. for England.
Lion not as a favour, but as a constitutional right. Exchange Spartan sailedc
on London,' 90 days, 501/t.
Would any man place himself in the situation of any
EsuAiE HER. HIGHNESS RANEE CHUNDA,
one of those who were deprived of those rights, and see MornEn or DIIULEEP ClNGlL—tier Highness the Ranee
how he would aet if he was compelled to remain in that Chunda Koonwur, of Lahore, escaped from her guards, and
situation."
ns-
Here then are one hundred thousand persons re- Bth instant (May). No particulars of her
bribedeseai thiro'e
of the
the fortress of Chunar, during the night of Wednesday, the
turning as many Members, and exercising as much speipreody,sboufthtehreglntaartize whorepor t
aided is
'hetrbaatndsehe
scaped with her, it is
political power as thirty times their number, who believed towards the hills of Mirzapore or liewah.—Benares
inhabit the metropolitan districts and the large wan Xewspaper,

Yet, i❑ spite of all these brilliant and decisive argu-
ment,‘, M. GuizoT nears at the instability, at the
insecurity, at the evanescence of moderate democracy
in France ! It remains yet to be shown upon what
right the bankrupt politician of Old Bromp-
ton pr(sumes to advance any opinion whatever
upon the political institutions of his country. Why
it is notorious by this time to every schoolboy that
this elderly gentleman, who takes upon himself the
office of talking oracles about French government
in the pages of a dry panaphlt t, was such an igno-
ramus as to the real nature of the rights and wishes
of the French multitude that he brought the whole
monarchical system down about his ears by his
blindness and his obstinacy. To show the facility
with which every one of the sophisms advanced
by M. GUIZ9T in his " Democratie en France'
may be exposed, a book hai recently been
published in London and Paris, from the manuscripts
of one of the WELLESLEYS. Although written by an
Englishman, the work is not only penned in very
graceful and flowing French, but displays a remark-
able familiarity with the exigencies of the age in the
great continental democracy.* Upon one or two
points no doubt the two pamphleteers are of the same
opinion. In their detestation of Communism they
thoroughly sympathise, abhorring with an equal inten-
sity doctrines subversive of all society—of all family—
of all good government. The English publicist, how-
ever, is wholly in favour of a broad, national system of
government, the French being, on the contrary, wholly
for the compacted but brittle concentration of the
administrative powers, a system which his antagonist
rather felicitously terms " cette funeste politique
d'isolement." As to the sincerity, nevertheless, with
which France regards the democratic, principles, the
fact does not repose on the argument ofa pamphleteer,
it is blazoned in the history of France between this
present time and the revolutionary explosion of
February.

W hen HYDE DE NEUVILLE, in the April of last year,
said, in answer to the question, "What do you think
of LAMARTINE ?" " Il a bien Fair dun in-
cendiare qui s'est fait poinpier—He seems like an
incendiary who has turned fireman !" he spoke with
a witty appreciation of the position of France at that
extraordinary period of emergency. The bon mot
expressed felicitously enough the extremes of action
to which France had just then been driven by the
wicked rulers expelled by the recent outbreak. But
it failed to acknowledge the truth which has become
an axiom with historians from the time of TACITUS
to that of MACAULAY, that revolutions are never, can
never be the result of a conspiracy, the deed of a little
band of intriguers—that, on the contrary, each
revolution is the fruit of ages, the act of a whole
generation. France, not LAMARTINE, was the in•
cendiary in February. LAMARTINE, not France, was
the fireman. Had not the people been ripe of
themselves for the revolution, not LAMARTINE, great
man as he is, nay not a hundred Lamartines,
could have brought about the catastrophe of Febru-
ary ! On the other hand, had it not been for the
courage, the eloquence, the integrity of LAMARTINE,
on the night of the 25th of February, 1848, the con-
flagration would not only have ravaged France, but
would have spread with irrepressible fury over the
Continent. These things should not be forgotten
They cannot be repeated too frequently. Time has
shown not less conspicuously than the purity of M
DE LAMARTINE'S patriotism, the devotion with which
France clings to that Democracy which his noble ora-
tions were the means of inaugurating.

" " De la France Contemporaine, et de ses Divisions Hie-
rarchiques. Reponse I'Ouvrage de M. Guizot, De la
Demoeratie en France"' Par W. Wellesley..Bvo., pp. 212.
Bailliere; Londres et Paris. 1849.

Tim FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
There has been another delay in the presentation
of the PRESIDENTS Message. It had been promised
for yesterday, but at the sitting of the Assembly it
was intimated that the Message would not be pre-
sented on that day, although a sort of promise was
made that another day would not be suffered to elapse
without the presentation of this important document.
These delays have occasioned considerable uneasiness
on the Bourse, as they are considered indicative of a
schism in the new Cabinet ; indeed the Presse ex-
pressly declares that the new Cabinet is in a state
of dissolution, and that M. DE FALLOUX and Ge-
neral RULHIERES will be compelled to leave,
as they insist on active intervention in the
affairs of Rome for the restoration of the tempo-
ral power of the POPE, and on introducing a measure
which shall place the whole system of education
throughout France under the exclusive superinten-
dence and control of the priests, to neither of which
measures are the other members of the Cabinet in-
clined to give their support.
La Patrie states that the Message of the PRESIDENT
of the Republic had not been delivered on Monday,
in consequence of the extent of the exposition of the
general affairs of the Republic, into which it was
necessary to enter according to the terms of the Con-
stitution, and which could not ba completed within
the time specified by M. ODILON BARROT.
The National Assembly on Monday elected MM.
DE PANAT and BARE as Questors. General LEBRE-
TON, however, who had resigned in order to
prevent the authority of the Questor being insulted
by General CHANGAREIER, polled 140 votes. A
motion of M. EMANUEL ARAGO, for a Parliamentary
inquiry into the elections of Lot and Garonne, was
rejected by a majority of 319 to 191. The allega-
tion was that the election in question had been influ-
enced by the dispatch of M. LEON FAUCHER.
In the same sitting, M. DuFAURE announced the
speedy introduction of several measures for affording
assistance to the labouring classes; and M. LEDRU
ROLLIN gave notice for Thursday of several inter-
pellations which he intends to address to the Govern-
ment on the subject of their foreign policy, and more
especially with regard to the affairs of Rome.

'The French Government received yesterday an
ofi•'icial announcement that M. LESSEE'S, the Envoy
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Rome, has
positively become deranged in his intellect. A letter
is said to have been addressed to the PRESIDENT of
the Republic by M. LESSFPS himself, in which he
proposes to him (the PRESIDENT) a detailed plan of
a bedchamber. It was believed this unhappy inci-
dent would still further complicate the Italian
question.

The Minister of Commerce and Agriculture has
received a telegraphic dispatch from the Prefect of
the department of the Lower Rhine, dated Stras-
burg, the 24th of June, announcing that the em-
bargo placed at Manheim on the steam-boat which
plies between that town and Kehl had been removed
on the 2d inst., and the boat had resumed her occu-
pation.

The reactionary club of MM. BUGEAUD, MOLE,
and THIERS held a sitting on Monday night,
at which it was determined to introduce a
measure by which the majority of the National
Assembly will be enabled to ride rough-
shod over the minority, and to stifle all discus ion
they propose to increase the authority of the PRESI-
DENT, and to give the Assembly the power of impri-
soning and expelling any of its Members; they also
propused to suppress the standing committees of the
House, and to introduce a law, authorising General
CHA.NGARNIER to unite the command of the garri-
son of Paris with that of the National Guard, in
violation of the fundamental principles of the Consti-
tution. On the recommendation of M. Limns the
further consideration of this last question was ad-
journed. The meeting agreed to support the new
Ministry, on condition that it should introduce a strong
measure against the clubs. The great majority were
opposed to any amnesty.
We regret to learn from these papers the
sudden demise of the Countess of BLESSINGTON
on Monday night. Her Ladyship had been
present at a large dinner that day, and returned to
her residence in the evening in her usual state of
health. Shortly atter her return she was seized with
illness and died in the course of a few hours ; from
apoplexy according to one account, from the cholera
according to another.
The cholera is at present making dreadful ravages
in Paris. CARLOTTA GRIM was attacked by it on
Sunday, and was yesterday in a state of imminent
danger.
M. LUCIEN MURAT has likewise been attacked by
it, and is not likely to recover.
The Envoys sent by the revolutionary Govern-
ments of Baden and of the Bavarian Palatinate have
been refused an audience with the PRESIDENT of the
Republic, or even with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs.

BOURSE—PARIS, TUESDAY, JUNE 5.
THREE o'CLocx.—The continued delay of the Presi-
dent's Message created a further decline on the Bourse
tc-day. Exchanze on Londun (30 days), 25 45, money;
ditto (90 days) 25 35 money.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, JUNE 5.
Boulogne and Amiens, 7—Central of France (Orleans and
Vierzon), ItN —Namur and Liege, 7—Northern of France,
91/.2—Orleans and Bordeaux, 3—Paris and Rouen, 191,—
Rouen and Havre, 93x.