The Sun.
London, England, 1815-06-08 00:00:00

TiIE RIGHT OF WAIL

In the nAthe of Gad, ILA Rif tlsesc Itight4,
"‘.Advauce your statitlards, draw your swords."

SSI.AXESPZARRI

It might have been expected, that after the de-
cisive arpment of Lord CASTLEREACII, the ques-
tion of our right to go to war with-France bad been
set at rest for ever. New sophistries are, how=
ever, started ; and as unanimityi hot only of
hand but of heart, is essential to our good cadse,
these delusions ought not to be passed without
exposure,

The ground-work of every argtiment which the
emissariesmf Napoleon Can contrive, is either the
preferableness of peace to war, or the priVil4,,,e of
nations to choose their own Government. The
application of the former queition—unless as it is
theme for school-boys; depends on the, latter,
which mast be taken out of the abstract into its
particular reference to France, the rights which
site has been permitted to retain, and the rights
whit h she has surrendered'. -
France is to be considered in two points of
view as A conquered-country, and a' a country
restored by her conquerors to -a qualified inde-
pendence. Let us examine her situation, as she
stood •in 1814 ; and, if possible, let the Napo-
leonites qtradrate it with the cases which are put
by the writers on' the International Law.
Arter a war, waged successfully against France
by confederated Europe, her capital was sur-
rounded, and a portion only of her
,army remained
with her new Ruler, whose aggressions had deter-
mined the Ames not to make %tit!) him any peace.
He therefore abdicated the Sovereignty. A Pro-
visional Governlnent was created ty"the Citizens :
and the city was spared upon terms stipulated with
that Government, and expressly founded nu that
abdication. The ancient Government was then
re-established, under mOdifications and arrange-
ments with which the Allies did JIM interfere and
the Treaty of Paris, ascertaining the boundaries of
France and her external reltuions, was executed by
the restored King.—Thus,
.three distinct treaties
were made, one with Bnonaparte as to his abdica-
tion and place of retreat ; one with:the Provisional
Government na to his expulsion ; and one with.
the recalled Dynasty as to' the terms of Peace.—
The firs`t applied to Buonaparte and not to France;
the second and third applied to France and not to
Buonaparte. Even a(tmitting
sthat the one was
broken as to Buonaparte, Prance had no right to
resent it ; and, conceding still farther, that the
others Were broken as to France, Buonaparte had
no right,to assert them. At the moment of his
abdication Bnonaparte and France were politically
separated far as the poles asunder. If he had a
right to re-enter France, France 'had no right to
receive ; and if she had a right to call hint
back, he had no right to attend the summons.—
It is a dikinnetion which can never be re-united,
nor could even the infraction of the three Treaties,
010110 simultaneous and co-operative; have creat-
ed such a re-union. The infraction of one Ar-
-tide may Cancel' the whole Treaty; but the
infraction of one Treaty cannot cancel another,
More especially when that other is made with a
person who is neither the Ally nor the connection
Of the contracting parties.
Internally, France is independent ; externally
she is bound by a certain coodiion, winch was
stipulated by the Allies, trot for the Bourbon but
against the Corsican. To argue, that because she
cannot have Bnonaparte for her Ruler, sire is
therefore a vassal, is as absurd as the argument
which Doctor Johnson so strongly expresses in
the case of that tither Demagogue, Johu Wilkes :
" the People of England are slaves, because i\lid-
dlesex cannot select her Representative from a
Gaol."-;--Alight the allusion be ventured without
irreverence, we would quote the highest of all
Authorities :—" Of every Tree in the parden
thou tnayest freely oat ; but if thou eatest of _this
Tree, thou shalt surely die,"
Among the many r Writers on International
Law, not one case is adduced which tallies with
our present question. It is an anomaly which,
as it cannot be referred to any -particular prece-
• dent, so it must not be decided by any general
'principle. Nations have been conquered„ and the
conquerors have sometimes remitted them to their
former independence, and sotne:imes ohliged them
to a particular GpVerllnielit ; but never until now
was a Nation left to :t qualified independence ;
prohibited only frdm one mode of Government,
and left to the freeadoption of every other. The
Imperial Dynasty Was extinguished, not merely
by the abdication, of. Buonaparte, but by his de-
position,- and even if he could retract the one,
France could nut revoke tit other, which was not
her own mere act, but the pnrehaie of her pardon,
stipulated with her Conquerors. if they, in their
confiding clemeney, regaired -no severer condi-
tions, it must not. be perverted into the abandon-
ment of their justice.