The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-08 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1847.

On Thursday, M. THIERS pronounced from the
tribune of the Chamber of Deputies his opinions
upon the character of the French Administration,
and upon the consequences of its criminal duplicity.
In length and bitterness, if neither in sublimity or
enthusiasm, this remarkable oration has only found a
parallel among the masterpieces of MIRABEAU. Nor
can we feel astonished that a bold and original orator
like M. THIERS should deliver sentences very far re-
moved from mediocrity upon an occasion so pecu-
Early calculated to elicit all his intellectual energies.
What, let us ask, is the position, what are the
dangers, what are the difficulties into which his
native country has been drawn, by the unprincipled
audacity of his political antagonists? Why, those
men are found to have abused the authority reposed
in their hands by a 'generous and confiding people—
by their odious dereliction of their most sacred duties
they have surrounded France with enemies—by
their execrable abandonment of truth they
have placed that great empire in a perilous
and ominous isolation. "La France," exclaimed
M. TRIERS at the very commencement of his her-
rangue, "La France, par l'i'venment deplorable de
Cracovie, est siparee des puissances du continent ; par
les mariages Espugnols elle est separe de r Angle-
terre." Those are the external miseries entailed
upon that country through the proceedings of the
existing Cabinet. Internally the involvements of the
exchequer and the impoverishment visible in several
of the provinces can only be attributed to a similar
mal-administration. Such were the materials which
furnished M. TRIxR3 with those crushing missiles of
sarcasm, vituperation, scorn, and impassioned apos-
trophe which he hurled in such overwhelming abun-
dance upon the heads of his adversaries.
On Friday M. GUIZOT replied to the ac-
cusations of his opponent, but his lan-
guage was no longer that of an unimpeachable
politician, of a dignified statesman, of a candid
and credible debater. No epithet is superlative
enough to express the depth of his present debase-
ment. Only the elegiac tautology of DRYDEN will
suffice : he has

"Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate."

The very efforts made by M. GUIZOT to conciliate
his fellow-countrymen only lead to his further crimi-
nation. Instead ofexcusing is hypocrisy on the
plea of an extraordinary emergency, or for the pur-
pose of ensuring to France an enormous and rightful
extension of territory, M. GUIZOT exults in that hy-
pocrisy for its own sake—for the tact it ex-
hibits—for the wiliness it evinces. He has done
a clever thing, and he loudly rejoices in its
cleverness. He cares not the splitting of a straw
for inasmuch that it is dishonourable. What is honesty,
what is probity,what is the value of the most immaculate
reputation when compared with the performance of a
diplomatic trick like that of the Montpensier mar-
riage ? The Balearic Islands would be splendid in-
sular pickings for the colonial Minister, no doubt of
it: the actual incorporation of the Spanish Peninsula
with France would have been a magnificent revival
of the Imperial system of annexation, it cannot be de-
nied : the acquisition of a snug harbour or so on the
Mediterranean would have been not altogether unac-
ceptable to the nation, we admit ;—but what are these
achievements, what is the most stupendous deed of
political spoliation or of territorial aggrandisement
in comparison with the exhibition of the talent of
Monsieur le Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres ? What
are the holiest rights of a friendly nation, what are
the most solemn engagements, the most implicit
assurances, the most distinct and reiterated avowals,
when weighed in the balance with that ? Nothing—
nothing. Clothe his remarks as he may, in all the
masquerade of Ministerial generalities, and in all the
glitter of conventional terms, that is literally the basis
of M. GUIZOT'S harangue. Anything more vile
cannot be adduced from the most shameful chapters
of the most odious histories of the most abandoned
Governments. M. GUIZOT has diced awry one of the
fairest names and one of the most enviable
reputations that can be found in tile records
of modern statesmanship. Ile has hazarded the
respect accumulated by years of honourable toil
in the most eminent of all professions upon
one casting of the die. He has plainly cheated in
so doing, and his dishonesty has been disclosed to the
world. With the true recklessness of a ruined
gambler, he throws to the winds all show of repug-
nance at the contemptible vice of which he has been
proved guilty, and has the impudence—the impudence
TO BOAST of his diplomatic knavery ! Quosque
tandem abutere patientia nostra r The aspersions of
•Ai.
_ GeizoT upon the characters of Lord PALMERSTON
and the Marquis of NORMANDY form their highest
encomiums.

Whenever the defenders of our country are called
into action, either by sea or land, and gain the
victory over the enemy as they generally do, even
under most untoward circumstances, the English de-
light in both aiding and prompting the Crown to