The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-16 00:00:00

FRENCH -

PAPE R S.

, .
- CIIA.MI3ER OF DEPUTIES.
CONTINUATION OF THE SITTING OF TUESDAY.
M. de Mornay proposed that the following amendment
should be added to the fifth paragraph :—" This happy
harmony affords us a hope that, in concert with Great.
Britain and the Powers *hose interests are connected with
pup, you may be able, Sire; to restore the European
balance; so necessary to the, maintenance of peace, and
that the first pledge-of it may be the preservation of the
ancient nationality of •Poland, which has been consecrated
by treaties."
The PreSident having announced that the Hon. Deputy
whoGe amendment had jus't. been 're.id, was in possession of
the- tribune.
M. de Mornay read a written speech in favour of his
amendment, and communicated to the, Chamber the text
of a letter addressed by one of the Members of the Con-
gress of Vienna to the President- of the PoliSh Senate.
The letter in question distinctly stated that Poland was to
enjoy all her libertics, and S'N as to` be united to RUssia only
by name.
The President of the Council stated, that at the period of
the Polish insurrection in 1831,the French Government took
every possible step to bring about an amicable arrangement
between the belligerent parties, and afterwards protested
against the Violation of the treaty of Vienna by Russia. The
Cabinet had therefore done its duty, and till now the
Chamber had concurred in its policy. He would now ask if
circumstances had changed since the close of last session ?
He thOught. not ; for it could scarcely be contended that the
plwases.of a certain manifesto, which had obtained but too
Pinch notoriety, had as vet assumed the character of an
• decree. If he could suppose that there were any
• " Mein—Deputies in that Chamber who held that the time
for prudent reserve was past, and that war ought to be
declared between France and. Russia, he would entreat
those Hon. Deputies to ascend the tribune, and to discuss
-the point with him .(the:,Minister) ; but it was not consi-
dered desirable to carry matters, to the extremity of war,
and all that was' sought was to obtain a protest. What
object could be gained by the perpetual repetition of pro-
tests, which were unworthy the dignity of a powerful na-
tion ? A prudent and a well-timed degree of reserve had
some powc;, but a common-place periodical protest at last
dwindled into a mere matter of routine—a sort: of pro-
tocol, as little heeded by those who read • as by those who
framed it a wordy protest which cbukl not be imme-
' 'diately followed up i;y deeds, he considered of little use.
Ministers, as well as the members of that Chamber, were
favourable to the cause of Poland ; but was it reasonable
to en•conrage hopes, to accomplish which France 'was not
in a coNlition to lend her aid He wished "to present
another consideration to the Chamber; It was necessary
to think not only of the Poles who were safe in France,
but of those who at this moment were on the banks of the
Vistula and at the mercy of their foe. It might be said '
that Poland had already been exposed -to the very extre- '
-,,•rnity of suffering, With all due deference to the Chamber,
.Zand without the slightest intention of making light of the
,:,calarnities sustained by anleroic people, he would say that
the sufferings of Poland might be still further augmented. ,
1'4,, ,the
had still something to fear as well as to hope. He *as
• aware that it ill became him to take a prominent part in
:,;;;t,h-'debate on the -Address, but he had considered it his
?a '14791-6 lay before the Chamber a clear statement of the
,
intbAble consequence of its vote on this question. He felt
b,cOntinced that a vote in favour of the amendment now pro-
'posed would by no means serve the cause of Poland.-
-("'Hear,7 from tile Centre.)
X Odillon Barrot thought it strange that an amendment
in favour of Poland should now be repelled by the 'Govern-
ment, when a similar amendment, proposed by 'him (the
Hon. Deputy) last session, had been unanimously accepted
by the majority of the Chamber. He Considered it an in-
conconsistency to say that the amendment now proposed
should be rejected in the interest of Poland herself. If this
assertion were true, why had it not been made last year?
It was idle to 'deny the importance of a document which
had been circulated throughout all Europe, Diplomatists
• t'light, perhaps, pay no regard to any other doetunents than
Protocols, and those transmitted through accredited agents :
but nations attached some weight to a document
„that had roused the indignant comments of an entire
I,„lltiarter of the globe.—(" Hear, hear," from the Left.)
of The representatives of France had declared that the
thatneverperishßussianand
Chamber
,now tamely endure theE
inso-
• lent proclamation in the face of urope—that the idea of
• Polish nationality was a criminal chimera, which must he
q• i•
t-fted in the bosom of every Me ? Considerations of mere
fir.„liumanity might formerly have been connected with the Po-
• question ; but since the Czar's late speech to the mu-
4,Dieipality of Warsaw, that question had become identified
1.„ with one of national dignity ; and for his part, he pitied the
man who could remain insensible to an outrage which, he
~,{,rusted, would rouse the indignation of every independent
member in that Chamber, who felt for the insulted honour
ofthis country.—(Bravo, from the left.) The Hon. Deputy
maintained that, since the memorable manifesto of the Ent-
. peror Nicholas, Frenci: diplomacy had not made the slight-
est progress on the Polish question ; and this fact he thought,
• oonclusive, as to the necessity imposed on the Chamber of
passing a formal vote in favour of Polish nationality. He
was of opinion that an explicit and solemn act of that na-
ture, would warn
.the Northern Autocrat that the eyes of
France were fixed on Poland, and that she loudly protested
against the violation of the treaties of 18/.5, and the culpable
aggressions of Russia. After an animated description' of the
sufferings of- Poland, the Hon.-- Deputy 'entreated the
' Chamber not to desert the sacred cause in support of which'
he now raised his feeble voice. A few words, vaguely re-
ferring to the maintenance of treaties, were not, in his opi-
nion, sufficient ; a clear, formal, and precise vote was re-
quired. It mattered little whether the amendment of M.
Bignon, or that of M. de Mornay, or that of M. Eugene
d'Harcourt might be adopted, provided the sacred name of
Poland were introduced into the solemn protest of the
Chamber, which, insignificant as Ministers might affect
to think it, would indisputably have more weight than the
_lukewarm remonstrances of a timid, uncertain, and vacil-
!_ating,polic...
Y The "Hon. Deputy here quitted the tri-
bune, ank on resuming his seat, was warmly congratulated
by his friends among the Opposition DepUties. Consider-
able agitation
e•
prevailed, for some time, in the Chamber,
and the Sittingwhich— was suspended for about ten minutes, after
M. de la Martine ascended the Tribune, and expressed
his conviction that he could not be suspected of a wish
to oppose the generous sympathies of the Chamber, in
favour
of Poland. He was opposed to the introduction
of foreign topics, which, he feared, might compromise
the :dignity of the country. As a member of the Com-
mittee, he felt bound to explain that
.the omission of
thename of Poland in the Address was not intentional.
The Committee supposed that it had been- sufficiently
alluded to in the wording of the document. There was,
however, another reason for avoiding all mention of the
name of that country ; and it was simply that nations
should be careful how they employed irritating language,
Such as .had occurred in the American business. It was
likewise to be feared that the protestations of the Cham-
ber
would only render the condition of the Poles on the
banks of the Vistula worse than it actually was. The
lion. Deputy then gave a summary of the Polish ques-
tion from 1791, and blamed Napoleon for having sacri-
ficed tile independence of. Peland to his oWn ambition.
Ile was of opinion that in 1831 France acted rightly in net
embracing the cause of Poland, and thereby throwing the
whole of Europe into a state Of coinmaiion ; and that. now,
in 1836, the question was altogether changed. He main-
tained that France was no longer isolated ; that she was
united to powerful allied, without Whose concurrence she
could do nothing. If, however, France and England
should thoroughly ttnderstaMl each other, they would
settle the question of 'Poland' in a manner favourable
to the interests of EuroPe, and to the progress
2f liberal ideas. The Polish question was intimately al-
lied with that of the East. The salvation of Poland de-
pended not upon London or Paris, but upon ConstantinOple,
and, without going into all the depths of that question, it
svas necessary to have courage enough to say that the pre-
sumption of some opinions against the ambition of Russia
was ill founded.—(MurrnurS.) Russia had not strength
enough to cherish an excessive degree of ambition. It
Was of no use for the People to blind themselves to actual
liicts, or to bow to the tyranny of prejudice. The Hon.
▪ eputy ended by exhorting the Chamber to dismiss the
dread of Russia, and asserted that the result of such con-
13u_c_itnwroi would be to turn the Bosphoilis to the advantage, not
England only, but of France, and
,9f the whole world.
added, that he would support the Address -exactly as
mathka
framed by the Committee.
Constaotinoe la Redorte proved that the possession of
Potence uponpie
by' the Russians would be of pernicious in-
opinions upon See equilibrium of Europe, supporting his
Helena. rn e assertions of Napoleon, uttered at St.
M. St. Marc Girardin had only a few words to add : he
thanked the illustr'or ,tuber on the right forhaving given
assurances to the
c r
had,:)n the subject of Russia ; he
could only observe that ho '
the use of the Bosphorus -that that NnVoo 111‘d'isblie toa deorimavie-aaygal•aitslit
the progress of civilization. All that
it should not become Russian. he desired was that
wished for tide i
ntro-
, auction of the name at least of Poland into the Addresq
And he was also anxious to point out the unanimity of
the-
Chamber in favour of that country.
ill%
ian
:Atti.-oauget was: of opinion-that
Poland al' because in a representative Goveridim se thould not be
-rn ,
s'lviaosu lodf
. portanee that menaces towards foreign Powers
she avoided..
M. Odillon Barrot declared that himself and 114 friends
were,anxious to have thealationality of Poland mentioned in
the 4ddress ; prudence ,k 4 bee 4 rePoraggincled to them,