The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-11 00:00:00

THE SUN,

began to verify the most touching and the most
beautiful of all the golden ballads of BELANGER.
The memory of the EMPEROR, cherished under the
cottage thatch, raised to the supreme post of Republi-
can President the representative of his historic
dynasty. Never before had the world witnessed a more
spontaneous and decisive testimony of the homage of
a great nation to the fame of a great ruler. Upwards
of thirty years bad elapsed since his footsteps had
trodden the country rendered more than ever re-
nowned by the magnitude of his achievements,
a new generation had sprung up, possessing only the
traditions of his glory, and yet the nation, as with one
voice, unbribed, unsolicited, in the teeth of contend-
ing parties, in spite of the efforts of contemporary
ambition, in the face of the Revolution, in
the view of all Europe, pronounced its
inalienable attachment to the great man's
memory by elevating the exiled heir of his renown
to be the chief magistrate of the Republic. It was a
magnificent retribution for all the petty injuries in-
flicted upon the Conqueror of Europe, when that
conqueror became a captive, and when the terror of
his name induced " the most just and the most generous
of his enemies" (I !! ) to break through all the prin•
ciples of public faith and national magnanimity, to
wreak an infamous vengeance upon ONE MAN. Yes,
it was a grand expiation of:those cruel and dastardly
insults forced upon him in the days of his calamity,
when they called the anointed Sovereign with whom,
as Emperor and King, they themselves hadaroade so-
lemn treaties, " General BONAPARTE," forgetting
that what they intended as an expression of shame,
was nothing less than a perpetual reminder of his
real greatness. "I appeal to history," was a say-
ing continually uttered by the Esti-Elton, when his
acts were assailed and his fame vilified. History has
already responded to that appeal ; and she has spoken
in language that cannot be misinterpreted. The
election of December 10th, 1848, and the anni-
versary of that election on the 10th of December,
1849, are facts for the biography of the Emperor
NAPOLEON. They are syllables in his epitaph.
• They are keys to unlock the enigmas of his genius
and character.

While commemorating the circumstances of this
memorable selection of the representative of the
Napoleonian family as the first PRESIDENT of the
French Republic, it is impossible not to speak in
terms of the warmest admiration of the capacity, the
sagacity, the prudence, the courage, the temper, the
resolution, and the truthfulness displayed by LOUIS
NAPOLEON—a chieftain whose very name seems to
be a significant blending of opposite forces,! com-
bining the name of the legitimatist.with that:of the
revolutionary dynasty, yielding to France as a
talisman of peace, strength, and reconciliation the
name of—

was entirely lost. The prices were, indeed, enor-
mously increased, but not so the profits of the
manufacturer. The demand was diminished in an
inverse ratio to the price :
" The rich purchaser expended so much less money
in the purchase of other articles. The middleman was
obliged to content himself with using one-half thecloth he
had formerly used, while the poor man soon beeame
only half•clothed. Additional pauperism followed, and
rates increased from the same cause. In the end the
duty had to be withdrawn altogether, and efforts
were made to restore it, but public opinion
was so strong against it that it was not attempted, and
cloth became cheap from foreign competition. The
consequences of the withdrawal of the duty were pretty
near the same as the consequence of the withdrawal of
the duty of corn in this county had been."
There was, as we have already stated, one excep-
tion, and one only, to the harmony and unanimity of
the evening, to which we shall not now allude further
than to state that the " Jeremiads" of Mr. MILLINGS,
M.P., were more suited to the taste of the Reigate
farmers than to the manly and independent yeomanry
of the Cotswold Hills.