The Sun.
London, England, 1815-11-25 00:00:00

r

111E' SPtLLS OF PRANCt,

into such strange mysteries ?"—StimisPEAuE,

sc
If it passible, that the Siiells of France shonld jitgrle men

We might have thought not ; but FraneeYs6ems
.t° have lost none of her paltering power` : neither
time nor misfortune have impaired her faculty of
tleception

110 W long has the King of FRANCE been now
teseated on his 1 hrone ? Four Rionths.—How
many of his rebel subjects have been brought to
Punishment ? ONE.—And that one neither the
strongest nor the guiltiest.
It might have been thought sufficient, that the
grand
criminal was liberated from all allegiance,
and absolved from► all liability. But it is rather
t" much that this monstrous anomaly should be
extended to his subalterns ; this subversion of all
national, and of all particular law ; this noxious
privilege, this perilous impunity, which appear
designed for the safeguard of treachery, and the
abandonment of honour.

Justice raised her hand ; and rested after the
first blow• Never ought she to have commenced
The work, or never to leave it unaccompliOled.—
Row must that vigour be derided, which evapo-
rates in ordonnances, and harangues, and accusa-
tions; which ponders " about it and about it"
through four months, bringing the criminal to
trial, then bringing him before the wrong Tiibu-
tial, and in every failure giving new courage to

its enemies !
Yet, why trouble we ourselves upon the fears,
the follies; or the imbecilities of France ! Not
for her welfare, but for the peace of Europe.- If
the Jacobins suffered their vigour to evaporate in
a violet or a pink, iou tri-coloured watch-ribbaud,
t'r a wet wafer, we might be equally careless of
them also, We dread them only when their re-
sentment breaks out in recollections of military
glory, and mingles with professions of obedient
Ityalty.

This is an evil, which King Louis may be as
'unwilling. as unable to correct. We must correct
it for !dip. When France becomes unanimous, it
our business to watch her unanimity.
But whence is .the strange inconsistency, that
be BOURBONS cherish, and compliment, 3" ""
iole that military pride, which, by its success, pro-
-I"ge- their exclusion ; which submitted to their,
-'restoritiou only in its defeat ; and which halloo4
rn
ti •
neir ear its ansi-regal victories, its republican
Itiln4Phs, and its imperial spoliations. •
VA •
''"TY is the pervading
'and of principle of France,
-Writes all
. uer children, Boonapartists anti Bour-
.0.
' v Aury is her prevailing passion, which
cue tt
t "lion Europe the calamities of twenty-
Jearab war, and 'hook to their seats Thrones,
.4stalishtnents, and Morals; which brought upon
riko, ,
te toe peril of retribution, and which 'con-
lino •
es la her abasement the danger of her ascen-

41'd vve accord with this vanity ! And wr.
,
It°')the, and Console, and flatter it, and allmoSst
4P°l°gi" fOr the wound which we have inflicted
Ton it
Ifistory is consulted in vain, and antiquity
.3earched for novelties Of such capricious mis-
'ellier'''A romance, perhaps, or a melo-drame,
%ay supply us with precedents ; but we do not
mid:
to the sobrieties of life for. striking incident
.71" stage-effect. It • looked very handsome, cer-
,l"Y) t° make our enemy a present of an bun-
heedrtil"sand prisoners, for the pleasure of their
ling retaken next summer by our Ally ; and it
wit( have an equally pretty appearance, now, to
evacuate France to the re-expulsion of her legiti-
-I,:te Sovereign and the re-spoliation of Europe.
experiment will be tolerably amusing, while
}s'iastsfor the Allies to withdraw the props from
,odder the'bnilding, one by one, it will skew them
I°og the BouaßONs can continue their Castle
`ll the Air.
tit' When we assume the splendid virtue of
alctgnanitnitv," and expect its praise, let it be
4t the cost of ourselves alone when we pardon
:Juries, let
us have the previous consent of the
• 'the we have wrested the torch from
41e incendiary, let us not restore it into, his hand ;
least let us
extinguish it before the fatal re-
st, .
r atlon!
v.4llill's is neither elegant nor exalted : it sup-
, ('ac
not any materials for the poet or the painter,
the
it may compensate so uncourtly a defect by
etbtthible merits of wisdom and of justice.
an 'lrope leaves some twenty millions of vain and
1):'Y Frenchmen, smarting with defeat, and
e_ening with vengeance, under the controul of
h"dred and fifty thousand foreign Victors
hd site;
their tApects them to keep the King's peace and
Aft,/ _
e nwn promises !—Nearly one hundred and
34
pitched
ptives to one conqueror ! Really the
thar
some lengths beyond the honest
,11-
411,
g them. Who took only ten prisoners by surround-
'
/alto We laugh, n e say this seriously.—Our
1' !zd seritius indignation. Let any man

look at the proceedings of NEy's two trials, and
decide, Whether the Royal Councils have will
without power, or power without will.
We care not which—it matters not which—no,
not a shred of NAroLnoti's old purple. Did
,not
the peace of Europe require the punisbnient of
French Treason—be the Traitors one, one hitn-
dyed, or one hundred thousand—we should trouble
ourselves, how little ! whether the King consigned
them to the scaffold, or received them into his
bosom.

But, even in the conduct of NEY'S trial, for
crimes committed publicly, unblushingly, and
avowedly, mark we the hesitation of the Tri-
bunals, and the character of the Judges ! Already
he has escaped one JurisdiCtion, by the privilege
of his Peerage..—His Peerage !—The Peerage of
NEY !---A Peerage created by the Usurper, and
confirmed by the rightful Sovereign !A Peerage
into which Treason intruded him, and by which,
Treason now entitles him to be tried fin. Treason !
Thus, his crime is his privilege ; and, by a reci-
procal reaction, his privilege is his crime.
If an added proof were requisite, this sheers
the folly and the weakness of the French Govern-
ment. Instead of sweeping away every institu-
tion of NAPOLEON as originally invalid, they have
plunged themselves into the absurdity of trying
NEI' as a Peer of France for the 'treasonable act
of supporting that Government which created his
Peerage.

Again we say, this must be remedied. If Ilse
knot cannot be unravelled, it must be cut asun-
der. The axe of French Justice may be too blunt.
Is it ?—Then we must try the sword of Eul•opean
Power. •

Look now at the French Tribunals, even un-
der the very eye of our victorious Arniies
NEY stood forward as a criminal, his Ad-
vocate, his Accusers, his Judges, all vied with
each other in vaunting forth his military glory,
and identifying his piratical exploits under NA-
POLEON with, the honour of France.

Piratical!—Even so ; digest the epithet as you
may. If NAPOLEON was a Usurper, his acquisi-
tions coulf! not have been lawful ;—if NAPOLEON
was a regular Sovereign, why warred we against

his Sovereignty
But to return to his sub-agent, Nay :—This
man's Advocate praises the Usurper's Marshals as
L'inen '' whose names are dear to their country, and
belong already to posterity." In our plain Eng-
lish, " belonging to posterity " sometimes means,
possessing a page in the Newgate Calendar.
The Reporter styles Na' "one of his C
try's most glorious Defenders ;" and thus vindi-
cates the Usurper under whom she was " defend-
ed." More :—he applies to NEY the ancient pri-
vileges of the Royalist French Marshals, of To 7
RENNE,'Of TALLARD, and of VILLEROY, in those
honourable times when French Marshals were
,GENTLEMEN.
.
Oh, SHAKSPEIRE, live for ever !—Thy pro-
phetic pen has well described these lording up-
starts, bandying their civilities between the dock
and the bench ; and well it forewarns us of the
issue—

When these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at
hand comes the master and main exercise."

If this were an insult to the King alone, we
might:leare the King to resent it, but the insult
is to Europe, to her combined and victorious Ar-
mies, who occupy the place where the insult was
uttered.

The danger also 'is to Europe. We may love
Legitimacy well ; but we need not hold it quite so
precious as to cherish for its sake the mischiefs of
Usurpation. The 'Legitimacy which returns af-
ter twenty-three years of expulsion, must destroy
every trace'of the intermediate Rebellion ; until
that salutary purgation shall be accomplished, it is
not legitimate.

France and Europe seem hastening on ward, with
most concurrent union, to the third Punic War.—
Vol' the sake of human life, and as even such a
Victory as WaTERLoo is at best but a sorrowful
matter, it would have been better, perhaps, to do
at first what must he,done at last—and TUMBLE
PARIS INTO HER. CATACOMBS :
" if it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twerc well
" It were done quickly."

WfxDsoß, Nov. 23.—The QUEEN is recovered
from her cold, and took another airing in a coach
and four, accompanied by Princess ELIZABETH and
a Lady in waiting, to Englefield Green,. &c. yes-
terday, and rode out again to-day.
Bullion has fallen again to 41;35. an ounce, for
Portugal gold in coin and foreign gold 'in bars ;
silver, in .new dollars, is now ss. 4d. an ounce.
Captain HENDERSON, late Assistant Quarter-
Master-General,
.had some months ago a very
providential escape at sea. The ship Sitwarrow,
of. Liverpool, in which he was a passenger, hay-
ing fallen in with several islands of ice during the
most tempestuous weather, oil the banks of New-
foundland, amongst which she was driven abotft
for several days, until literally beaten to 'pieces.
by it. Captain H. with. the passengers and crew
of the ship, had just time to escape from her iu
the boats, when she foundered.