The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-09 00:00:00

eluzing

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1849.

After several delays, and a considerable amount of
expectation, the Message addressed to the national
representatives by the PRESIDENT of the French
Republic has appeared. Our readers, having been
enabled to examine the contents themselves, by its
publication in our columns yesterday evening, will
now, therefore, be the more capable of appreciating
the justice of nny opinion pronounced upon its
character.

It must be remembered in the first instance that
this important document is one annually required
from the Chief Magistrate of French Democracy, in
compliance with the 55th Article of the Repub-
lican Constitution. That a thousand inferences
should be drawn from the circumstance that
the Message, instead of being delivered in
the Tribune, was inserted in the Moniteur,
cannot be matter of surprise, considering the
fierce animosity raging between the various sec-
tions of French politicians—an animosity which not
unfrequently, and at tempestuous intervals, finds a
vent even in the discussions of the Parliament, in-
furiating the minority to such a pitch of madness,
that we have latterly begun to look upon the Moun-
tain as decidedly Volcanic.

As a m fitter of course, the authorship of the
Message has been variously attributed to every one
but the Prince-PRESIDENT. Some whispered that
it was the elaborated production of M. TRIERS.
Others that the original manuscript was in
the handwriting of M. MOLE. Others, again, that
it was solely attributable to M. BARROT. Several
speaking upon "the most unquestionable authority,"
pronounced the whole to be the effusion of two or
three of the leading statesmen ; while another band of
qui dnuncs protested that it was the emanation of the
whole of the ruling administration collectively. Here,
however, to set at rest, at once and for ever, all these
ridiculous rumours, ii the Message itself hearing upon
its every syllable the impress of the hand from which
it has proceeded, and followed immediately after-
wards by the statement of the Journal des Debats,
that the Message is exclusively written by LOUIS
NAPOLEON.

As such, consequently, we accept the Message, and
enter dispassionately upon its examination. Not, be it
observed, without a painful emotion of sympathy for

the embarrassments ,by which the PRESIDENT was sur-
rounded in its composition. An experience of the
reception given to Royal Speeches in our own coun-
try, and to Presidential Messages in the United
States, has long since assured us that whatever may
be said in such speeches or such messages, it is
physically, and morally, and politically impossible to
satisfy the tastes of the population. If the document
is brief—it is superficial. If, on the contrary, it
enters at any length into particulars—it is
tedious, prolix, and unendurable. If it con-
tains any calculations—it is a dry sum
in arithmetic, a dull inventory of receipts
and expenditure. If, on the other hand, no
statistics whatever are given, every assertion in al-
lusion to the Exchequer is gainsayed, every statement
as to the fiscal or financial prospects is treated as hy-
pothetical. So in fact it has already proved with the
Message transmitted to the Legislative Assembly
from the Elysee National. Scarcely one of our
Parisian contemporaries but has some objection or
other to make to the document. One condemns it
as a disingenuous effort to gloze over the position of
the country. Atother assails it as a dangerous ex-
aggeration of the difficulties accumulated round the
Republic. This one cries out with insatiable
curiosity that there is not enough of it. That, with
a manner expressive of the utter exhaustion of his
attention, insists there is a vast deal too much. Here
is a legitimist at white heat calling aloud because
the PRESIDENT has committed himself definitively to
the cause of Republicanism. Here again is a red-
hot ultra yelling with indignation because the
Message is not by any means sufficiently democrat—
for him ! And so the unfortunate document, pre-
pared with so much conscientious and patriotic
deliberation, gets torn to very rags and tatters almost
before the paper is dried from the printing !
All these things confirm us in the opinion formed
by ourselves after a calm and unimpassioned perusal
of the M essage of the French PRESIDENT to the
French Representatives—an opinion that, altogether,
the document is as honest and rational in matter
as its manner is simple, lucid, and straightforward.
As far as our judgment will enable us to arrive at
any definite conclusion, it certainly appears to us thst
the object of the Message is in this initial effort, fully
and boldly realised. What is that object ? Plainly
this—to lay before the National Legislature annually
an account of the actual position of the country, an ac-
count of its position internally and externally, of its
agricultural position, of its financial position, of its
administrative position, of its position in regard to
the encouragement of education, the repression of
crime, the development of legislative improvements,
the extension of commerce, and the stabilitation of
the existing institutiots, of its position as to its naval
and military resources, and of its position as to its
foreign relations. Now this is precisely the sub-
stance of the Message just issued by the President
Louis NAPOLEON from his palace of the Elysee
National. That Message, as far as we can compre-
hend a series of very comprehensible statements, is
an exact and careful delineation of the situation of
France in all these particulars. It presents
a vivid picture of the state of the country both abroad
and at home ; a narrative of the immense dangers
and difficulties which have been surmounted, and a
judicious warning as to those other dangers and diffi-
culties which yet remain to be overcome. Beyond
this, the First Message of the First PRESIDENT of
the French Republic is prefaced by a reiteration of
the guarantees already given by him of the truth of
his patriotism, and of the sincerity of his adhesion to
the cause of Democracy. In this renewed declara-
tion of his loyalty to the popular ambiticn, the
Prince-PRESIDENT again proclaims his resolve—
" To defend society, audaciously attacked ;
"To strengthen a public, prudent, great, and
honest ;
" To protect family tics, religion, property ;
" To cause all possible ameliorations and economy ;
" To protect the press against arbitrary power and

licenFe ;
" To diminish the abuses of centralization ;
" To efface the traces of our civil discords ;
" Finally, to adopt abroad a policy without arrogance
and without weakness."

That is the formula of his religion of govern-
ment. That is the profession of his political faith.
Those are the axioms embodying the principles upon
which a BON AT A.RTE determines to realize that
Democratic Liberty which the BosarAirrs defended
under the armour of Imperial despotism.
That the French PRESIDENT dilates at such
length upon the financial embarrassments of the
country is only an additional testimony that he has
read the history of that country correctly. He has
seen that the cause of her successive Revolutions has
been the financial involvement of France, a financial
involvement tottering down at intervals to the brink
of national bankruptcy. From the time when the
portfolio of finance was intrusted successively to
TURGOT, to CALONNE, and to NECRER, down to its
passage through the hands of GARNIER PAGES, of
GOUDCHAUX, and of PASSY, deficit—deficit—deficit—
has been the difficulty of France. Hence
the PRESIDENT insists so pertinaciously and ear-
nestly that the conquest of that paramount difficulty
must be the first and foremost of all the achieve-
ments of the Republican Government. Of the
Republican Government 1 Let it be remembered
when that difficulty shall at length be overcome—

which with GOD'S blessing it will !—let it not be
forgotten then that while the Republican Govern-

ment shall have cut down and uprooted the Upas of
France, that Upas grew up from a seedling to a vas'

and umbrageous magnitude, shedding around its
deadly and poisonous influence under the
evil reign of Royalty ! History proclaims
this as plainly as she proclaims that under
the glorious sway of the Emperor NAPOLEON,

in spite of the enormous expenditure required in
the prosecution of his wars with all the nations of
Europe, France was for twelve years in a more
flourishing condition than she has been in

for centuries. And yet while this legacy
of debt to France from Royalty is
n•)torious to every man in Christendom,
the reactionists attribute as a crime to the last Revo-

. _
lution that it entailed an expenditure of 10,600,0001.
As well might we charge the statesmen of February
with the bloody civil battle in June, that diabolical

insurrection of anarchists to whom we might have
cried out, in the language of HORACE,

Quo, quo selesti ruitis? aut cur dexteris
Aptarattr enses conditi?"
Both the blood and the increase of debt which have

'ollowed the days of February, falling like coals of

nextinguishable fire upon the head of the daa
Ard exile at Claremont ! No ; if the Re

public of France is to attain a state of pros.
perity it will be in spite of the tremendous in•

culno in the shape of deficit bequeathed to her by
Royalty. This is felt, and felt acutely by the First
PRESIDENT of the Republic ; and it is in consequence
of this that his inaugurative Message is little else than
an argument addressed to the national representatives
in favour of some grand financial innovations,

(RETURN 0? THE COURT TROIA Wirion CASTLE.
—Her Majesty and Prince Albert, accompanied
their illustrious children, and attended by ir suite,
arrived by
arrived at Buckingham Palace this afternoon, from
Windsor Castle. The Royal cortege consisted of five
carriages, and was escorted from the Paddington
terminus by a party of the 11th Hussars. Her Ma-
jesty will hold a Chapter of the Order of the Bath on
Monday next, at which it is expected Sir George
Grey, Sir Charles Hotham, and other Knights, will
be invested with the Order.

MANSION-HOUSE, JUNE 7.—The Lord Mayor
,begs
to announce that, in consequence of her Majesty's ball
on Wednesday next, the dinner which was to have taken
place on that day in the Egyptian-hall is postponed
until Saturday, the 23d inst.
The Drury-lane Thet trical Fund will celebrate its
anniversary festival on Monday next, at Freemasons'
Hall, Great Queen-street, on which occasion his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge, wi h his accustomed
benevolence, will take the chair, supported on either
hand by the Duke of Beaufort, the Marquis of Clan-
ricarde, and a host of influential vice-presidents. The
musical arrangements, under the direction of Mr. Stern-
dale Bennett, are of the most extensive kind, and mill
be contributed to by the following distinguished artistes,
who have kindly volun:eered their services:—Herr Karl
Formes, Herr Pischek, Herr Ruman Muller, Herr
Bahrid, M ssrs. L filer, Charles Braham, and G. Genge,
Madame Marlow, Mdlle. E. Walter, the Miss's Wil-
liams, Miss E. Nelson, Miss P. liorton, Miss Lucombe,
and Miss Poole. A solo on the concertina will be pen
formed by Mr. Sedgwick.
DISTRESS IN IRELAND.—Yesterday was published
a series of further papers relative to the aid afforded to
the distressed unions in the west of Ireland, in continua-
tion of the papers presented on the Bth of May last.
These papers occupy a space of 50 pages.