The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-02 00:00:00

COAST OF FRANCE.

CALMS, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30.—Since the violent
hurricane of 1808 this coast has not experienced such
dreadful gales as within the last few days, or has the ship-
ping suffered so severely, not even when the Amphitrite
female convict ship was wrecked off Boulogne, in 1833,
when all hands perished, amounting to upwards of 800 un-
happy women and children. On Monday the wind blew
with the greatest fury, but yesterday it was a violent hurri-
cane from the W.S.W. and W., sweeping every thing before
it. The appearance of the sea was most awful, being co-
vered with wrecks which dashed upon the shore, tearing up
the sand in every direction. The pier, or jetty, of this port,
the strongest and best constructed of any in this country,
and which has for years defied the auger of father Neptune
and Eolus, could not stand against the impetuosity of the
foaming element. The huge massive stones that are linked
together by strong iron bars, and hitherto have served as a
breakwater to the pier and harbour, were shaken from their
embedment and broken asunder ; the deep-driven piles of
the jetty then became loosened, and in vain could stand
against the violence of the waves, dashing in the most
furious manner from the W.S.W. At the end there was
a sentry box for the douanniers or Custom-house soldiers,
who were on duty day and night, to give au alarm to the
pilots of the port, in case of any vessels being in distress, by
the ringing of a bell ; that was completely washed away,
and from about five-and-twenty to thirty yards of the upper
part of the pier, or bars, leaving only the piles standing.
'Fhe ancient Fort Rouge, the saluting fort and battery, on
the right entrance of the harbour, and signal staff for the
shipping, by announcing the high, ebb, or low state of the
tide, by hoisting the red flag, and which is built upon strong
piles, driven about forty feet below the earth, was shook to
the foundation, and in many parts gave way ; the whole of
the top of the corps de garde, or signal-house, is blown off,
and had it not been for the heavy pieces of cannon around it,
which caused an aperture for the fury of the wind through
the port-holes, the whole would have been swept away.
In Calais a number of the roofs of the houses were blown
off, and the Funal, the revolving lighthouse, which serves
at night as a beacon to ships at sea, and the dreary traveller
by land, had all the glass and the top which protects the
machinery smashed to atoms, and at one time it was ex-
pected that the upper part of the Hotel de Ville, in the
Grande Place, so much admired by travellers coming to
this country for its beautiful and light Gothic structure,
would have been blown down. At the Besse Ville and
St. Pierre a great deal of damage was done, and for miles
along the St. Omer, Dunkerque, Guinnes (where the noted
aeronaut Blanchard descended in his balloon from Dover),
Boulogne, and Paris roads the trees are torn up by
the roots, cottages in every direction levelled to the
ground, and the country completely inundated, as for
many leagues around here it is nearly a perfect flat
and the boggy and sandy soil, barely sufficient to maintain
the numerous poor peasantry, who are obliged, as
an addition to their miserable existence (there being
no abominable poor-law system in this country), to
importune the benevolent and goodnatured tourists with
their lamentable tales, beseeching a few sols " pour
]'amour de Dieu." At Bologne the top of the colonne
Napoleon, which was erected to commemorate the en-
campment of the " Grand Armee Francaise" which was
to have invaded Old England, under the command of that
ambitious and extraordinary man, with his flat bottomed
boats, had it not been for her wooden walls and invincible
sons of Neptune, had the railing blown, which so frightened
the poor old veteran and his wife who have the showing it to
curious travellers, that they left their little hut to seek re-
fuge at a neighbour's, as they were confident they heard the
most mournful groans proceeding from the fine marble co-
lumn which they had no doubt was that of " Le petit Corpo-
ral," so infatuated are those who have served under the late
Emperor with every thing that relates to him and his former
glories. At Montreuil a most serious accident occurred yes-
terday morning, which might have proved fatal to many. The
Paris diligence of Messieurs Lafitte and Callaird,and that of
the Messieurs Royales, of Rue Notre Dame des Victoires, had
just changed horses, when coming down that steep hill, the
quadrupeds of the former took fright at the violence of the
wind ; and notwithstanding all the hallooing and cracking
of the postillion's (or jack in boots) whip, they could not
go on, so that both the heavy vehicles came in contact with
each other with that concussion that the wheels of both
came off, and the astounded inside and outside passengers
only had a severe shaking on the stones when they got out,
and were politely requested by Messieurs les Conducteurs
to wait in the village at the bottom, until the damage was
repaired, notwithstanding the heavy rain and wind which
nearly took them off their legs. Among the passengers
were several Englishmen, who heartily enjoyed the appear-
ance of the dismayed Frenchmen at this contre temps,
which is not at all an unfrequent occurrence in this country,
as the diligences are of that heavy construction in some
parts that they are often blown over without many acci-
dents happening to the closed up inmates, excepting a few
bruises. Yesterday a Government courier with despatches
for the Russian Ambassador in London, who had been
waiting here for two days with impatience to cross over
to Dover, hired one of the large express boats for 1,000
francs 000 determined to run all risk, although it was
blowing a hurricane, and after regaling the sailors well with
eau-de-vie, they had the temerity to venture out of the
harbour, and bid defiance to the raging elements at the risk
of their lives, notwithstanding the persuasions of their more
experienced comrades. No sooner, however, had they
passed the pier head than the sails of the boat were shat-
tered to pieces, and three of the unfortunate men washed
overboard, two of whom sank to rise no more, leaving fa-
milies behind them. There are no less than fifteen trading
vessels on shore, between here, Boulogne, and Dunkirk, and
several bodies were picked up this morning.

SPIAIT 01 THE PUBLIC ,JOURN.

The article in the Constitutionnel to which yester-
day we briefly adverted, deserves the most. serious con-
sideration of the French people. A sense of its deep
originally to advert to the sub-
importance induced us
ject which has been so ably treated by our well-in-
formed Contemporary ; and in returning to it now we
do so with a strengthened conviction that the tranquil-
lity of France and the stability of the Orleans dynasty
must be greatly endangered by the establishment of
Carlism in Spain. There is a cunning, as there is an
ambition, that not unfrequently " o'erleaps itself;"
and of this perilous nature we fear is the policy that
has recently presided over the councils of France. ViTe
are and have been always ready to admit that the
Constitutional Government of our neighbours would
have much to apprehend from the spread of anarchy
or the establishment of purely democratic institutions
beyond the Pyrenees. But with our eyes open to this
danger we saw another not less imminent in the final
triumph of absolutism. Some days since we noticed
the startling coincidence of the progress of Don
Carlos in Spain with the growing hopes of the fallen
dynasty of France. Will the fact be questioned ?
Is it not notorious that the aspirations of the Royal-
ists in France are rising with the success of those
who are combating with the same principle in Spain ?
Why is this ? Unquestionably because they feel that
the success of legitimacy in Spain opens a prospect of
its triumph in France—that absoluti.l.3m would probably
rise to the same level on both sides e,f the Pyrenees.
The tranquillity of France and the stability of the
Orleans dynasty are the interests endangered. We are
far from saying or from supposing that the energies of
the French people would not be sufficient to .crush any
attempt, no matter how powerfully supporzod from
,without, to re-establish the Bourbons. We know how
smell and how comparatively powerless is the Clarlist
party in France, and do not entertain any apprehension
of its gn.al establishment. But were the white flag of
Henry Ar.. to be unfurled in La Vendee, we dare saybhis
followers would be quite as numerous as were those of
Don Carlos vv,lien he first hoisted the Royalist standard
at Elisondo. And is the tranquillity of France to be
put in peril by ests:blishing upon its frontier the dan-
gerous example of a .successful effort in favour of the
principles of legitimacy. ? Let us not underrate the
power of foreign intrigue:. by supposing that its exer-
tions in favour of a de ju:re aspirant to the throne
of France would not be quite sufficient to throw
the entire country into cor,fusion—temporary it
might be—but pregnant with the most fearful re-
sults. And what security has Louis Philippe that,
with legitimacy established in Spain, Russia would
not use it as a lever to lift his own constitutionstl
throne from its foundation ? It is nonsense to talk a
the contest between Don Carlos and Queen Christi=
as merely involving a right of succession—the triumph
of an individual. It is, as far as foreign powers are
concerned, a war of principle ; and were absolutism
triumphant in Spain to-day, it would make France its
battle-ground to-morrow. This principle has its re-
presentative in the one country as it had in the other,.
and were Don Carlos to succeed, whether by treachery
or intrigue, in Spain, so surely would Louis Philippe
have to encounter the pretensions of a Bourbon aspi-
rant to his own crown. In such a contest France
would triumph, but he and his family would fall.
In what consists his security ? In the attachment
of his people ? They are attached—such of them as
are so—not to him, but to the good order and tran-
quillity of which they believe him the preserver.
Were that tranquillity disturbed, they are too shrewd
not to attribute the effect to its proper cause, and
too prudent, we should hope, to incur the danger
of its influence again. What further security, then, has
the King of the French to lean upon ? Let the people
of France and their Sovereign look to Russia. We tell
them, and upon no light ground, that in the private circles
of the Court of St. Petersburg the restoration of the elder
branch of the Bourbons is talked of and seriously con-
templated. This, which the people can atrozd to laugh
at, ought to be to their King a subject of mow serious
consideration. Has not the Emperor refused ..to ac-
knowledge him as more than King de facto ? Can
lie disguise from himself the fact, that his Governmeo,
in its relations with Russia, is regarded as only pro.,
visional ? Have the agents of that Government ap-
prised it of the manner in which the Duke of Bor-
deaux is spoken of at St. Petersburg ? Have they
ever informed it of his projected marriage with one of
the Archduchesses ? We know how studiously the
Emperor has refused to admit the right of the French
people to change the dynasty of their rulers—and are
tempted to ask if a King who reigns in virtue of that
right can confide in the support of a Power that re-
fuses to recognise it ? We had written thus far when
the Paris papers of Wednesday reached us. There
can be no doubt but that the policy pursued to-
wards Spain will form the subject of an early and most
important discussion in the Chambers. We observe that
the Journal des Debats is beginning to prepare its audi-
tors and partisans, instilling into them the lessons and.
the arguments which they are to repeat and uphold.
This lesson and these arguments are the direct con-
trary of what the Journal des Debats has been preach-
ing for the last five years. Formerly it was the warmest
champion of intervention,and of terminating the troubles
of the Peninsula by the strong arm. Now, however,
as the present Ministry has obtained office by suspend-
ing co-operation with Spain, and can keep it only by
making the neutrality system prevail, the Journal des
Debats turns round, and declares that co-operation is
an absurdity; that 20,000 French would do no good
whatever in Spain ; that the Carlists would disperse,
and the Pretender hide himself at their approach, to
reappear again if they retired ; that now all Spain is
in insurrection, whilst formerly it was confined to Na-
varre, and that then there was a Constitution formed,
perfect and in operation, whereas now there is only one
in embryo. From all these reasons the writer con-
cludes, that however useful it might have been to aid
the Spaniards in 1832, there can be no possible ad-
vantage to do the like in 1836. In answer to all this
we beg to repeat what we said the other day, viz., that
what is most influential in the affairs of the Peninsula
is the moral force of either party. Both seem deter-
mined not to make trial of their physical strength,
or to put it to the proof. Whether it be Rodil,
'or Gomez, or Cordova, or Villareal, who coin-
e mands the superior army, none will hazard an action.
And, it must be owned, that since the commencement
of the war, whichever side has attacked, whichever has
assumed the offensive, has lost, while the defensive
always wins. In this system of menacing and ma-
noeuvring, and out manoeuvring, in which the Spanish
virtue of patience seems to have survived the equally
national virtue of courage, it is plain that whatever
gives an overwhelming moral force to one party gives
it instantly the victory. Twenty thousand French
bayonets in Navarre would instantly extinguish Don
Carlos ; not that his partisans might not number
twenty thousand bayonets too, but that the bare
idea that France
was irrevocably and sincerely en-
gaged against the Pretender would at once annihi-
late his moral influence. In fighting for him the
Spaniards are not fighting for any great national
cause, as they did in the war of independence. Un-
fortunately the great mass of the lower orders arc as
little enthusiastic for the Constitution. But all would
and do rally to the side which they think likely to con-
quer. The Spanish population being in these sentiments,
moral force is everything to either party ; as a proof, we
ne
of
ed but adduce the effects of the dissolution of the French
corps
co-operation—effects so fatal to the Queen's
side--effects fully foreseen by M. Thiers. Had this
force, instead of being dissolved, and by its dissolution
swelling the credit of Don Carlos in a thousand direct
and indirect ways, been marched against him, the Jour-
nal des Debats admits that the result would have been
the momentary disappearance of the Pretender, and the
dispersion of his bands. But this is nothing, forsooth.
What Nothing the occupation of Tolosa and Onate
—of the magazines of corn and powder—of the foun-
deries of cannon—of the artillery itself—of all the ma-
terials of war ? Why, independently of the moral
blow, which we insist would have proved fatal, the
Carlists could not, for a year, recommence a campaign.
And then what objection could there have been to the
20,000 French soldiers in the Queen's service conti-
nuing to garrison Tolosa and Vittoria for a year, or for
any amount of time necessary to allow the effervescence
of the people to subside ? As to the other parts of
Spain, the Christinos, even whilst employing a large

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army in Navarre, are fully able to put down their an-
tagonists. In Catalonia, in Arragon, in Valencia,
the Carlists have been put down, or survived but
in the shape of bands of robbers. And even Go-
mez himself exists but on the condition of eternal
flight. As to the other reason, that the Spaniards
had a Constitution in 1832, and one to make in
1836, we deny that the Estatuto was aliConstitution, or
that Martinez de la Rosa, its author, ever mistook it
for such. The Constitution is now as regular as it
was then ; the representatives elected under it are more
steady supporters of Government, and have proved
themselves as loyal and as attached to public order as
their predecessors. There is not a shadow of reason
for giving aid to Isturiz which might not have been
given toCalatrava. The French Ministers have not
a shadow of reason, in the change of the Spanish Mi-
nistry, for refusing the co-operation which they had
duped the Spaniards into expecting. The grand ar-
gument of the Journal des Debats, and indeed of all
the anti-co-operationists in France is, that the Cham-
ber of Deputies is opposed or indifferent to
such a measure. The Chamber of Deputies, in-
deed I As if any one took its opinion into account,
when a weighty matter was to be decided. No admi-
nistrative machine is so convenient as the French Cham-
ber of Deputies to a French Government. It can
be pushed and driven, manoeuvred or frightened, into
any vote, no matter how contrary to its feelings. if
public liberty is to be infringed, if September laws are
to be voted, then Government soon exerts itself to
work up the Deputies to the vote. But when a liberal
step is to be taken, when Spain is to be saved, or
Poland, oh, then, indeed, Government can do nothing
with the Deputies : they are selfish arrieres, absorbed
in material interests ; they do not understand making
sacrifices for other countries. So do IVlinisterial writers
take care to represent the Chamber, which thus be-
comes the very instrument for any illiberal act, and the
excuse for the non-performance of every liberal one.
By thus allowing itself to become a mere convenient
tool of Government, the French Chamber has disgraced
itself in the eyes of Europe. The Chamber of Depu-
ties will not hear of intervention, or of co-operation,
quoth the Debats. Let us state a case in point. There
is Algiers. The Chamber of Deputies, its majo-
rity and commissioners, have repeatedly declared
their aversion to throwing away money on the con-
quest and colonization of Africa. What Government
has paid the least attention to the wishes of the Cham-
ber or the recommendations of its commissioners ?
Not one. With co-operation it is the same. If M.
Thiers had sent his 20,000 men, and had occupied
Navarre, the Chamber would have applauded. Now
M. Mole comes, and represents success as doubtful,
expenses as great, the step a serious one in the pre-
sent state of Europe ; he hints to the armies of East-
ern Europe on the Rhine, and excites a phantasma-
goria of dire results before the eyes of the worthy De-
puties, with whom fear is ever the prevailing senti-
ment. And fear prevails. The whole history of
France, since 1830, forms a drama, of which fear is
the passion and the key. Governments, Chambers,
press, and people have been conjugating the word fear
through all its moods and tenses, and it has at length
become incarnate in them. They dread Russia,
they dread Austria, they dread Spain ; nay, they are
even in dread of being thought ill of by the Por-
tuguese ; and the end of this system of fear will be,
that a hostile and absolutist flag will float at every
corner of their frontier. The French Chamber of De-
puties may for a time be broken in to this ; but not
long or always. We know nothing so diametrically
opposite as this to French character, which is emi-
nently spirited, philanthropic, and alive to all inte-
rests, however remote, which may affect or touch it.
The French Representative Assembly must sooner or
later show a spirit corresponding to that of the na-
tion. Nor should we be surprised to see it show that
spirit soon. The question of Spain offers a noble
opportunity. And the French have perhaps still time
to retrieve their lost reputation for sympathy with the
Liberal cause, and for courage to show and act upon
it.—Morning Chronicle.
Numerous as have been the manifestoes of Whig-
gery issued from the repertory of Messrs. Ridgway,
there was, perhaps never one so utterly objectless as
the pamphlet entitled The Conservative Peers and
the Reform Ministry. Is it not reasonable in any
one who reads this sounding designation, to suppose
that some proposition is at length to be made by adopt-
ing which the two Houses of Parliament are to he
brought into harmonious co-operation ? One would
naturally suppose so. But what is the fact? Why,
that in 823 closely written pages, we find not one
single suggestion, either for the reform of the Peers,
or the support of the Ministry. Whig crudities in
abundance, and of almost every conceivable kind, we
are favoured with, but not a syllable having any prac-
tical bearing on the great question indicated by the
title of the pamphlet—viz., the irreconcileable differ-
ences between a Ministry of Popish revolutionists and
the Protestant Conservative Peers of England. From
organic change the writer recoils with as much horror
as Lord John Russell did at the Bristol dinner. He
says, " To prepare for battle with the Lords would he to
go on with the work of reform at the wrong end." This
is a novel turn of expression. We have heard of "be-
ginning at the wrong end," but going on at the wrong
end, after having begun at the right, is a notion to us
quite new. The- writer says that this way of " going
on" would be highly pleasing to the Conservatives,
who, according to him, would forthwith exclaim that
" Ministers were about to cut away one great branch
of the Constitution, and with it would go the mo-
narchy, the church, and all those noble and ancient
institutions which have made us what, till now, we
have ever been—a great, prosperous, and a powerful
people." With due respect for the worthy Whig ad-
vocate, lie must be either childishly " juvenile," or an-
tiquated to very dotage, not to be aware of the fact
that, from day to day, during the last half-year, the
Conservatives, at public meetings, public festivals, in
the public press, in short, by every public means, have
said all this, and with such effect, that a spirit of un-
compromising nationality has penetrated to every cor-
ner of the kingdom, and now pervades every class
of his Majesty's subjects, save the craven Minis-
try and their factious supporters. And even they,
judged by this pamphlet, are convinced that " Down
with the Lords" is a cry as vain as it is base ; un-
worthy of any but the Popish rebel who first bellowed
it forth. The " organic change" is, then, as we have
said, thrown overboard by this writer. Has he any-
thing else to propose to resist the following influ;
ences, enumerated by himself, as implacably inimi-
cal to the faction—" the counteraction of the Court—
of the Conservative Peers—and of a Tory party in
the Commons 300 strong?" What does he propose
to neutralise this mighty opposition to the measures of
rtd sett er takenup
and of course
puller
the anti-English Ministry ? " Peaceful agitation."
Yes, these are the words o,po
f
from the text-book of the , the writer,i
down" of the present Ministers. Suppose, then, this
" peaceful agitation" resorted to--what can it effect
not fresh in every
more than it did last year ? it
man's recollection that the peaceful agitation of O'Con-
nell's mission was the proximate cause of those Con-
servative associations', which have combined all'classes
in one indissoluble league for the defence of the cons
in Church and State ? Look at the miser-
able figure presented by the faction, in every one of
their attempts at political display during the recess.
They gave as much " peaceful agitation" as they
possibly could, and on each successive occasion placed
fresh argumentative weapons at the disposal of their
public opponents. At this very moment Mr. O'Con-
nell, the master of the Government, is practising peace-
ful agitation as best he may ; and what is the result ?
Practically speaking, political discomfiture. For, put-
ting out of view the mere money-taking, the " rebel-
lion rent," we unhesitatingly pronounce every public
display recently made by Mr. O'Connell at the Corn-
Exchange meetings a dead failure. Forced, for in-
stance, to crouch in the very dust at the feet of the
man he most hates and fears—Mr. Sharman Craw-
ford—he is yet so thoroughly an oppressor of the poor,
that, though a provision for their destitution can no
longer be withheld, he, with all his hypocrisy, cannot
consent to it with a good grace. Nor is this, perhaps,
to be wondered at in a man who, all his life long, has
been in the habit of " grinding the faces of the poor,"
and of wringing, not only from the " hard hands of
peasants," but also from the palsied hands of penury
and decrepitude, the most degrading impost ever levied