The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-08 00:00:00

I SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TlMES.—After ^ delay sufficiently explained by the
difficulties of the task, the French President's address is
at length before the world. It is seldom that we have
to remark upon the first of a splendid series of political
manifestoes; but unless the hopes of France are ridicu-
lous self-delusions, the address before us is the first
Message, of the first President of the French Republic,
to the first National Assembly of France; at least, in
the normal sense of these terms. Perhaps it is not lair
to record impressions which unavoidably take some co-
lour from events; but we cannot but feel that while the
President promises largely for the future, and opens
many topics of prospective consolation, he fails to
elucidate and adorn the entangled history of the past.
The mystery of French intervention is by no means
removed. Although the President descends to particu-
lars with what we may call an engaging simplicity, se
are still left either to admire the officious inutility of his
foreign mediation, or to suspect metives and
proceedings more than meet the eye. Rome
is the knot which has most embarrassed the ad-
dress. With regard to the other European States
ishich have excited the paternal alarms of France by
folle.vving her example, the President intimates that his
Government has given them the benefit of certain kindly
admonitions, judicious counsels, jealous protests, and
other verbal communications, such as the practised
chiefs of a catve will often address to their weaker and
more excitable adherents. He gives us, however, little
reason to conclude that France has acquired the grati-
tude of Sardinia, of Naples, of Sicily, of Denmark, or
' any German State; he cannot even assure us that things
are altered for the better on the River Plate, and only
conveys a distinct idea when he announces that Russia
has recognised the Republic. With regard to Rome
moire is said because more has been done. But we shall
be very much surprised if the history now related of that
unparalleled affair is admitted either by the Romans, or
tho Austrians, or the Neapolitans, or, indeed, by any
of the parties involved. The gist of that his-
tory is that the Government of France in the
expedition to Rome exercised a direct and in-
, dependent action by its own spontaneous move-
ment; and that it did so to deliver Rome from alien in-
truders and protect it from foreign intervention. That
the approaching march of Austria and Naples upon
Rome should arouse the jealousy of France is intelli-
gible enough, and consistent even with the modesty of a
Republic; but it is not so intelligible why France did
not wait for an invitation; why it studiously ignored the
new Republic of Rome; or why it held correspondence
with parties not in a condition to speak for the people.
" A train of unhappy circumstances" has disappointed
an elaborate calculation. The President confesses sur-
prise at the circumstance that while 6,000 French Re-
publicans where approaching Rome on one side, a band
of Italian refugees, or at least chiefly Italian, entered it
from the other; and that while the latter were welcomed,
the former were inhospitably repulsed. He is surprised
that the " little knot of persons who had seized the
authority for themselves," against the sentiments of the
majority, should have requited so roughly the contempt
and hostility of France. If the President's narrative
be true in its particulars, it will be better understood by
his readers than himself; and while he has related the
fable, they will moralize upon it, somewhat more cor-
rectly, after their own fashion. The President makes
large and fair promises of social restoration and improve-
ment. The projectste enumerates are such as will find
favour with all people, and such as France at least is
accustomed to receive from the bounty of her rulers.
We hardly know whether it is an Emperor who speaks,
or a Communist, or an English gentleman at an agricul-
tural meeting. Agricultural schools, model farms, banks
of aid and assurance, the dispersion of the town popu-
lation into the villages, the deliverance of land from its
burdens, are ideas that remind one of utilitarian Eng-
land and Sir Robert Peel. The task of rectifying the
condition of thirty- six millions shut up in a country far
less wealthy and not much more extensive than ours,
without a single colony to drain off the increase except
a narrow coast snatched from the desert and the Arab,
is so formidable that we will not cast any doubt on the
particular modes of improvement suggested. We are
only beginning to be reasonable when we set about in-
quiring how this miracle may be accomplished. It will
never be done by ordinary means.