The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-30 00:00:00

On this ground alone we entertain no doubt
that the verdict will be set aside, and
a new trial granted when the case is more maturely
considered by Lord DENMAN himself, aided and as•
sisted by his judicial brethren. _ _

But there is a stronger reason for setting aside that
very extraordinary verdict than any founded on
merely legal technicalities, or the improper admission
or rejection of evidence, or on the erroneous
ruling of a judge. The very existence of a free
,press is involved in the result. On the issue will
depend whether a public journalist is to be permitted
to comment unrestrictedly on the public acts of public
men, or whether he is to be for ever gagged and si-
lenced from what has heretofore been considered a
perfectly legitimate topic. We have it on the high
authority of Baron PARKE that " a writing may be a
libel on a private person which would not be so on a
person in a public character or office; for the
acts of public men, which concern the subject,
may be lawfully commented on without malice,"
(Parmiter v. Coupland, 6 Meeson and Welsby, 105);
and, indeed, unless such were the law, not a single
paper could safely appear. Were it otherwise the de-
struction of public journalism would be accomplished,
the liberty of the press would be for ever annihilated.
Can it then for a moment be asserted that the articles
complained of were of a private or personal character?
They related wholly to those acts which led to the
substitution of another Sovereign on the Grand
Ducal throne of Brunswick, which led to
the conflagration of his quondam palace and
his own rapid flight to the hospitable shores of
merry England, which ever afford a place of refuge
to all who seek it in misery and distress. The Duke
himself repeatedly published addresses to his sub-
jects those which appeared on the first day
of every year as advertisements in the columns
of a leading morning Contemporary cannot be for-
gotten, and it was the duty of every champion of
liberty (and the Weekly Dispatch has well and nobly
vindicated its claim .to the title) to show that the
invader of the rights and privileges of
(his subjects was justly hisSed from the
throne he was unworthy to occupy. It could not be
the private acts of such a person that were dealt
with. In private life he might be—although we do
not offer an opinion on the point—a most amiable and
deserving person, but his public acts were
those alone that could influence " his out-
raged and indignant subjects." The Duke
of BRUNSWICK has, unfortunately for himself, been
brought prominently before the public on many oc-
casions, and he has attained considerable notoriety
from the numerous actions in which he has appeared
as plaintiff, and the very heavy damages given by the
juries. Whether the large amounts so recovered
may have had any influence in inducing
him to institute the present proceedings, or
whether the sympathy that might have existed for
private attacks, led to a verdict so totally unprece-
dented as that to which we are now referring, mr e
cannot of course say ; but of this we can as-
sure the ex-Duke, that neither his credit nor
his position in society will be promoted by such
a proceeding as that in which he has just figured cs
plaintiff in the Court of Queen's Bench against the
respected Proprietor of the Weekly Dispatch.

The conduct of Lord PALMERSTON in relation to the
French expedition to Rome exhibits either a ver-
dancy which, in a diplomatist so accomplished and so
experienced, is utterly incomprehensible, or a careless-
ness which, in one occupying his responsible situa.
tion, is disgraceful. It appears that when the
expedition was first proposed the French Minister in
this country was directed to read to Lord PALMER..
STON the dispatch of the French Government to the
Austrian and to the Neapolitan Courts, announcing
the sailing of an expedition of 6,000 men
to Civita Vecchia, and setting forth the
so-called reasons which had induced the French
Government to dispatch this expedition, and to leave
a copy of these dispatches with his Lordship. It is
abundantly clear that Lord PALMERSTON never ex-
pressed his approval of this expedition, as was more
than insinuated by the PRESIDENT of the French Re-
public in that most mendacious Message which he
addressed to the French Legislative Assembly, but
it is also abundantly evident, from the statements of
r the Marquis of LA-rfa-nowros In the 'Home of Peers,

not only that Lord PALMERSTON interposed no

obstacles to the departure of the expedition—
and herein we think Lord PALMERSTON
was wrong—but that he has permitted that which was
originally represented to be a frie'ndly expedition(' of
6,000 men, dispatched for the purpose of assisting the
Romans in freeing themselves from the yoke of a
handful of adventurers, to be turned:into an army of
30,000 men, provided with artillery, battering trains,
and all the munitions of war, and destined, not for
the liberation, but for the destruction of the Romans
and of Rome, without protest, without re-
monstrance, without even asking for an ex-
planation. Such, according to our present in-
formation, appears to be the state of the case ;
for Lord PALMERSTON'S sake we hope that it is
merely its apparent, and not its real state. We trust
that when the proper time comes he will be enabled
to show that he resorted to every measure in his
power to prevent the commission of this flagrant in-
justice on the part of France, and that to him is not
attributable the disgrace of having permitted the
French Government to proceed thus far without
advice and without remonstrance. But be the conduct
of Lord PALMERSTON what it may, it cannot diminish
by one jot or tittle the overwhelmning weight of infamy
which rests upon the PRESIDENT of the French Re-
public and his Ministers, and beneath which they must
eventually be crushed. Having discovered that the
gates of Rome ware not opened for the reception of
his troops, having discovered that the Government
of Rome was the free choice of the free people, why
did not the PRESIDENT of the French Republic, the
emanation of universal suffrage, respect the Trium-
virate and the Assembly of Rome, equally the ema-
nations of universal suffrage, and withdraw his
army ? Oh ! was the reply of the French
Minister from the Tribune, the honour of France,
is now implicated, and that honour can only be satis-
fied by the entrance of the French troops into Rome.
By the same argument Rusu might have justified the
Stanfield. Hall murders ; by the same argument every,
the most iltrocious, crime might be justified. The
honour of France! the honour of a burglar, for that

is the position which France has occupied in
relation to Rome since the 29th April last. France
has declared herself a Republic—she has gained
her freedom, and her first political act after having
gained her freedom is to crush her sister republic, to
enslave those who have only followed her example, and
to hand them over to the pitiless persecution of a sacer-
dotal despotism, as cruel and relentless as it is mean,
cowardly, and impotent. It is disgraceful to the
French nation to have so long permitted their Ministry
to perpetrate this atrocious act of liberticide ; and
should the crime be consummated by the conquest of
Rome, then will the retribution—the long and bitter
retribution—on the perpetrators of these enormities
commence; then will the just hand of Heaven
" commend th' ingredients of the poison'd chalice
To their own lips;"
then will the unoffending people of Rome be re-
venge& on their oppressors, whose very success will be
their liernee,.
Once possessed of Rome what will
they do withitT-feycannot retain it without
131-.. it up. War, war,
war ; they dare not
therefore, must be the imitable result of
this mischievous interference with the peace and

liberty of the Romans, and when the advancing
Rus-
sians shall make use of the same arguments for invad-
ing France and bombarding Paris, as the French
Government has propounded for invading the
,Roman
territory and bombarding the Eternal City,
the PRESIDENT of the Republic, too late
awakened to the dangers which his folly
has occasioned, will endeavour to seek safety in
flight; M. ODILON BARROT will curse his own
stupidity, which will have ruined his country; while
M. DE FALLOUX, surrounded by a cortege of priests,
chuckling at the success of his intrigues, and pre-
paring a magnificent reception for the " allied
Sovereigns" of the new Holy Alliance, will exclaim,
as did his prototype TRESTAILLON— Vivent nos (marls
les Ennemis.

MANSION. HOUSE.—The Lord Mayor 134 issued
cards of invitation for a grand banquet, on Saturday
next, to be given to the President and Council of the
Royal Society, the President and members of the Royal
Academy, and to many of the literary and scientific
men of the day.