The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-07 00:00:00

minnit ix 3 AM+

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1847.

It will be interesting to observe the difference of
tone with which the Legislative Chambers of Eng- I
land, France, and Spain, will be opened by their
several Sovereigns. In accordance with the delicacy
of the position of the two latter kingdoms, the
tongues of LOUIS PHILIPPE and ISABELLA SEGUNDA
are restricted from the candid utterance of their senti-
ments. The wires by which the royal puppets of
Madrid ore set in motion, have been extended beyond
the Pyrennees to the Council Chambers of the
Tuileries. When the Queen of the Hidalgoes opens
her lips from the throne, she is merely echoing the
voice of the King of the Barricades. The edicts
sanctioned by her signature are literally the pro-
clamaticns of an Afrancesado statesman. As
the disciples of LOYOLA are said to re-
main as corpses in the hands of their su-
periors, so is the form of Iberian royalty
passive under the influence of the Gallic Cabinet.
With Louis PHILIPPE, again, there are a variety of
repressive considerations to prevent the possibility
of his inaugurative address to the session of 1847
from being characterised by any quality but that of
consummate duplicity. The reproachful shadows of
his own perfidy will rise before his imagination from
the hospitable galleries of Windsor; the recollection
of the flagrant manner in which he had broken the
solemn engagements of his ancestor, PHILIP of
Orleans, in the marriage of his youngest son with a
princess of the Peninsula will necessarily clothe his
thoughts with the language of guile ; the formidable
movements perceptible in the direction of Vienna, St.
Petersburgh, and Berlin, must, in addition to all this,
secretly instigate the constitutional SOVEREIGN to ba
doubly cautious in the expressions of his actual
opinions. BelgiuM has afforded a totally different
spectacle. Her ruler has there spoken to the repre-
sentatives of the people with the utmost candour and
honesty in relation to the past, with decided congra-
tulations in regard to the present, and with
confidence and satisfaction in anticipation of
the future. In England the spectacle will
be calculated even more strikingly to fill the
national heart with gratification. It will he the
office of Her Most Gracious MAJESTY to recur to the
strenuous efforts of the Government to ameliorate the
sufferings of the impoverished multitude in Ireland,
to comment upon the munificence of the officers of
the Treasury in striving to compete with the progress
of destitution, to refer to the flourishing condition of
the last quarter's revenue. In allusion to our rela-
tions with foreign countries, her MAJESTY will not have
to reproach the Administration with having in any
manner embroiled this empire with foreign Cabinets,
or with having, by the slightest error of commission
or omission, endangered the peace of Europe
and of the two hemispheres. Should her -MAJESTY
allude to the improvements effected in the laws
relating to commerce, her MAJESTY or her MAJESTY'S
Commissioners will have ample reason to speak in
terms of exultation. Should her MAJESTY or her
MAJESTY'S Commissioners, on the other hand, refer
directly to the advisability of further efforts to
assuage the sufferings of the community by sanatory
and other similar measures, that reference can be pro-
nounced with perfect reliance upon the Parliament
and the Administration. In every essential parti-
cular the approaching session in England can be
looked forward to with unalloyed pleasure, and with
the most sanguine anticipations.
In France every preparation was duly made for
the meeting of the Peers and Deputies. The different
political chieftains, with the exception of M. DE
LAMARTINE and M. ODILON BARROT, have assembled
in the capital in anticipation of the forthcoming dis-
cussions. M. GUIZOT is fully primed for the Minis-
terial explanations. M. DUCHATEL is prepared for
any emergency which may summon him to the tri-
bune. M. TRIERS, M. DE REMUSAT, and M. BM"
LAULT are all equally in readiness.
In the Peninsula the hum of preparation has been
sounded through the streets of the capital. Queen
ISABELLA has opened the Spanish Cortes in person.
The speech delivered on the 31st of December, 1846,
by her MAJESTY to the Senators and Deputies—a
translation of which speech is given in another
column of The Sen—is precisely the description of
announcement which might have been expected. In
the whole range of political matters the question of how
far the friendship previously existing between Spain
and other countries has been recently endangered,
was the most difficult and even hazardous. And
how has this difficult and hazardous question been
treate Iby ISABELLA ? With masterly simplicity.
A myriad of intricate eclaircissements are avoided in
one inimitable sentence :—" In our relations with
Foreign Powers there is no change worthy of re-
mark!" The felicitousness of the brevity !—" in our
relations with Foreign Powers there is no change
worthy of remark." What a bold and magnificent
quibble, what a delightful resignation under the for-
feiture of external confidence, what an ingenious
adaptation of the style employed in domestic compli-
ments ! "No change worthy of remark," for-
sooth, when for the nonce the Peninsula has
estranged itself from the fountain head of the world's
commerce, for the enviable privilege of lay-
ing itself, bound hand and foot, before the throne
of the French Sovereign ? "so change worthy of re-
mark," when Spain is virtually insulated for the time
being from the current of political regeneration ? The
remainder of the royal address to the Spanish Cortes
is proportionately straightforward with the foregoing
sentence. The young QUEEN does not appear less
inclined to listen to the insidious dictates of the
Afrancesados than previously to her nuptials. Although
the very name of la grande nation is scrupulously
avoided in this amusing speech, it is manifest in every
paragraph that it has been modelled upon the plea-
sure of the French SOVEREIGN. The speech to
the Spanish Cortes, indeed, is as anomalous,
and as r
grisusit ievse as a dis-
SolvingpartiallyYhincongruities
ne
Parts o
view only f
the picture of Spanish policy
in the most bewi'dering manner with parts
policy of the picture of Gallic : the will
of GUIZOT peeps out in the most • impossible
manner through the transparent will of ISTURITZ—

the machinations of the Parisian Court are just dimly
discernable through the vapoury indications of the
sentiments entertained in the Court of Madrid. There
are, nevertheless, several auspicious recommendations
as to mercantile and social reform in the address
which may, if interpreted with wisdom by the mul-