The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-01 00:00:00

'V Itenilk.,(l 4:7`'Atz

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1849

Writing, as we necessarily do, before the Speech
from the Throne has been articulated by the silvery
voice of our young and beloved SOYEREIGN, we are,
of course, compelled to allude only in the language
of anticipation to the remarks contained in that Mi-
nisterial document.

Cautious as these Royal orations are upon all oc-
casions, it can be no matter of astonishment, nor do
we think that it can, among reasonable men, be any
matter of regret that that rhetorical caution is ob-
served in the present instance with more than usual
scrupulosity. The extraordinary situation of affairs
upon the Continent, and the dubious posture of affairs
at home—we refer in the latter instance to the
changes inevitable upon the final expiration of the
principles of commercial monopoly upon this first day
of February—render it in a manner incumbent upon
her MAJESTY to speak only in phrases of careful and
premeditated obscurity.
There will doubtless be an express recommenda-
tion of those subordinate reductions in our expendi-
ture, with which the Cabinet vainly expects to " sopr
the Cerberus of financial agitation. And coupled
with the hinted diminution of our disbursements in
regard to the operative departments of the dockyards,
there may also be the indication of a hope that such
modifications may be made in the existing laws re-
lating to navigation as might secure the extension of
commerce and the facilitation of traffic, without in any
manner jeopardising the mercantile enterprise of
Great Britain.

Of all the paragraphs composing the Speech from
the Throne, those which will be examined with the
largest amount of curiosity will unquestionably be
the ones referring to the state of our foreign relations.
In lieu of the ordinary and almost stereotyped decla-
ration that her MAJESTY continues to receive from all
foreign states the assurance of their unbroken friend-
ship, it will, without doubt, be intimated that the
maintenance of such feelings of amity is amongst the
most earnest of all the aspirations of the British
monarchy. No allusion (or, if any, the faintest)
will, as a matter of policy, not to say of common
e reason
_ and delicacy, be made to the spread of
revolution throughout the European races ; and if any
solicitude
whatever
is
tion between the by expressed as to the successful
issue, or the
auspicious progress, of English interven-
llgerent powers of the continent,
that solicitude
will i
have a secret bearing upon the
Sicilian and Schleswig-Holstein questions, as well as
upon the fortunate prevention
of bloodshed by the inter-
position of the squadrons in
the Mediterranean. It
may likewise be safely
averred, as a fact deserving of
felicitation, that the most cordial understanding con-
tinues to be maintained between the Governments of
Great Britain and the French Republic. I
Ireland will, according to what has latterly become

an invariable usage, constitute a prominent subject f o •e•
observation ; and wishes will doubtless be avowed

for the contrivance by the Legislature of such altera-
tions in the Poor-laws now established over that
island as may tend best to forward the interests of
humanity among the impoverished population. No
notice of any very explicit character is anticipated in
reference to the mitigation of the punishment of the
Irish rebels, headed by the late representative of
Limerick.

The allusion to the necessity for economy, of which
we have already spoken, will, as might be reasonably
expected, come as a sort of supplemental recom-
mendation to her MAJESTY'S faithful Commons ; and,
in invoking upon the National Councils the blessing
of DIVINE PROVIDENCE the Q,EEN will not only be
giving words to the hopes entertained by her Ad-
ministrators, but articulating her own royal and
patriotic aspirations.
Such is, in perspective, the nature of that Speech
from the Throne which will be published simultane-
ously with our anticipative observations. It will be
the inauguration of a session of no trivial importance,
and will be redeemed in a great measure from the cus-
tomary charge of inanity and indistinctness in consi-
deration of the wonderful character of the events with
which its delivery is contemporaneous.

The opening of Parliament is always an important
event, but this opening of Parliament is more than
ordinarily auspicious. To-day the Members of the
Legislature assemble at Westminster, and to-day
Free Trade becomes veritably the law of the land.
With the last day of January the last hours of Mono-
poly expired. The ports are now not only legally,
but actually open. In another column will be found
the inaugural address of her Most Gracious MAJESTY
to the Houses of Parliament, and in another column
will be found the last Anti-Corn-law speeches of the
heroes of the League at a grand banquet, which was
last night given in the Free-Trade Hall of Manches-
ter, to celebrate that glorious consummation of
their labours. Her MAJESTY, in her royal
Speech, congratulates herself and her people on
their happy exemption from the troubles and hostili-
ties which have agitated other nations, and she ex-
presses her happiness that, during the recent Revo-
lution, England has been enabled on three several occa-
sions to assume the blessed part of Mediator. Then,
turning her attention nearer home, her MAJESTY an-
nounces some proposed retrenchments in the public
expenditure, and calls the attention of Parliament to
the Navigation Laws—those last vestiges of a system
now happily extinct. Finally, under the blessing
of PROVIDENCE, she once more summons the Lords
and Commons of the Empire to exert their
best energies in the service of the people for which
they are called to rule. We cannot doubt but that
her MAJESTY'S Speech will be worthily responded to,
responded to not merely by the loyal Address of both
Houses, in which the letter of the Speech
only is answered, but by the acts, of
the United Parliament, which may tend to
realise those aspirations for the welfare and happiness
of her people, which invariably constitute the spirit
of all Queen 'VICTORIA'S discourses. Should, more-
over, any stimulus to such exertion be wanting—
should her MAJESTY'S Speech fail in arousing the pa-
triotic ardour of our senators, let them contemplate the
proceedings which took place last night at Manchester.
There they will find at once a stimulus to exertion and
an encouragement to perseverance. They will there
observe the record of the grand banquet attended
in that same city where some ten years
ago a group of seven gentlemen met together in a
little back room to consider how they, insignificant
as they seemed, might overthrow an existing law,
supported by the whole, or nearly the whole, wealth
and power of the country. The paucity of their re-
sources, and the apparently invincible might of their
opponents nothing daunting that little band,
animated by the consciousness of the justice
of their cause and confident in their own singleness of
purpose, they boldly risked the encounter. Years
passed on, but in spite of every obstacle, amid scorn,
ridicule, and contumely, they persevered, and last
night, in Manchester—no longer seven men in a little
back room, but three thousand in the great Free-
Trade Hall—assembled to celebrate the triumph of
that audacity and perseverance.

After this who shall despair? If the cause be but
just, perseverance must and will eventually win the
battle. With feelings of no little gratification
we this day direct the attention of our readers to the
speeches of Mr. VILLIERS, Mr. COBDEN, Mr. WILSON,
and Colonel TuomrsoN, at the last free-trade
meeting. Cordially do we reiterate the exultan
sentiments to which those gentlemen have given
utterance ; for from the first move of the enterprise
we have been with them, heart and hand. But how-
ever sincerely we sympathise with the jubilations
of the Free-traders, still more heartily do we coincide
with the would• not. be Member for South Lancashire,
as Mr. WILsoN happily designated him, in his asser-
tion that this reform, the achievement of which we
now celebrate, must be the precursor of many
more. " I never supposed," said Mr. VILLIERS,
that the repeal of the corn-laws was to be a substi-
tute for other reforms. I just supposed the other
thing ! I never supposed that because the corn. laws
were not repealed, that was any reason why we should
not advocate a better constitution of Parliament, or a
greater amount of retrenchment." Mr. VILLIERS is,
therefore, again ready to devote his whole energies to
the promotion of necessary reforms. He is again
ready to exercise that unwearying ardour, and that
indomitable perseverance to which the triumph of
free-trade is mainly due. It is well now, in the
hour of victory, that we should call to
mind the past exertions by which that
victory was attained. The i'people of England, who
are almost wholly exempt from that most despicable
of national failings—popular ingratitude, will, no
doubt, on this day, call; gratefully to mind the
" unadorned eloquence" of RICHARD COBDEN, by
which the truths of free-trade were so happily dif-
fused throughout the length and breadth of the land,
and the marvellous fortitude of CHARLES PELHAM
VILLIERS—one of the first supporters, if not
the very first supporter, of the cause, and
throughout the struggle one of its ablest and most
persevering defenders. Others have been glad to join
hands with the winning band, but the latter champion
stood almost alone, when to be a free-trader was con-
sidered not a glory but a disgrace. Neither on this
auspicious day will the services of that Minister who
sacrificed for free-trade power and party, his friends;
affection, and his own;reiterated pledges, be forgotten!
That memory which Sir ROBERT PEEL invoked on
quitting office will for ever cherish his name when
the defunct Corn-laws are alluded to. For all these
considerations we cannot but think this Free-trade
Jubilee singularly well-timed. May it inspire our
Legislators with confidence in the prosecution of
popular measures, and may it impress upon them
the awful responsibility of those who can achieve
great things. Viewed in this light, the Free. trade
Banquet forms an excellent supplement to her MA-
JESTY'S Speech.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The proposition of M. RATEAU for the immediate dissolu.

tion of the Assembly will be discussed on Saturday. AI,
Dtw.aultz is to propose an amendment of a conciliatory cha-
racter, which will probably be adopted instead of the original
proposition.

The wound in General CZAWGAILNIEK'S head was the re-
sult of an accident. He was himself discharging a pistol
roseto
p u thett National
io nntale
which had been loaded some time, and the recoil was so great
that the butt•end of the pistol struck him on the forehead.
During the sitting of
ions,tm bl y onth
eT uoens
ed ayr's,
M. .
Sarrans
r pA:I ae
garding Colonel Forestier c •
Natioaal Guards, who
had,beeommanding the 6th legion of
his services is the President of
natutAusnder arrest for offering
con-
cerned the letter of General Changarnier,sbly ; the next
stood was most improper in its ne 1n dwlich he under-
anguage, and
amounted to a denial of the rights of the President of the
Assembly to look to its defence.
M. Leon Faucher, Minister of the Interior, said he 1d
be happy to give explanations on each of the acts broughtw
under notice by the honourable member. With
regard,
first, to the letter of General Changarnier to the President of
the Assembly, he considered that the latter had already dis-
posed of all objections by his own personal expression of satis-
faction yesterday. The President was surely the best judge of
what was due to his own dignity, and when he had declared
himself satisfied he could not understand how any one else
had a right to show more susceptibility than the party
most interested. With regard to the arrest of Colonel
Forestier he would at once declare that if it had been caused
by the tender of services made by that officer to the Presi-
dent of the Assembly, it would have been wholly unjusti-
fiable. He had himself spoken to the President of the
Council, having been under the impression that the arrest of
the Colonel was on account of a supposed breach of discip-
line, but he was enabled to Worm the Assembly that he had
it from the head of the Cabinet that Colonel Forestier was