The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-07 00:00:00

Zfn

LONDON:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 7. 1840.

TRIUMPH of the SOULT-GUIZOT

CABINET.

By extraordinary express from Paris, we have
received the gratifying intelligence that the Minis-
terial Address in answer to the speech from the
Throne, was carried, after post hour on Saturday
evening, by a majority of 86 votes—the numbers
Upon the division being—

For the Address
Against it .....,
Majority in favour of Ministers... -86

247
161

The conclusion of the debate has not yet reached
us,but a full report of the proceedings, up to post hour
on Saturday, will be found in another part of The
Sun. This long and important debate being now
over, we ate in a condition calmly, but earnestly to
make a few deliberate observations upon it.
To the English reader, who peruses attentively
arid dispassionately the whole of this long debate
in the Chamber of Deputies on the Address, more
correctly in fact, though not in name, the Parlia-
mentary debate upon the Eastern question, nothing
will appear more surprising, upon reflection, than
the absence of ail regard for political honesty, truth,
and righteousness which characterises it. By such
a reader it must he regarded as the language of an
assembly, in which the avowed want of honesty in
a Minister produces neither a sense of shame in him-
self, nor the smallest feeling, of resentment in his
auditors. This is the worst symptom which has
yet appeared in France. When M. TILLERS avowed
his intention of duping Lord PALMERSTON by false
professions—when he proclaimed aloud that, with
peace upon his lips, he had war in his heart—when
his colleague, M. DE REMUSAT, admitted that the
whole Oriental policy of France, as understood by
the Great Powers in 1839, was a falsehood which
contemplated with indifference the downfall of the
Ottoman sway at Constantinople—when, by ex-
posing the avidity of France to obtain possession of
the Ottoman fleet, he indirectly corroborated the
well-known fact, that France had advisad the be-
trayal of that fleet to the VICEROY—..nay, even
when M. BERRYER, as ungenerously, as meanly,
and ungratefully invoked the manes of NAPOLEON
against England, who so nobly restored to France
the mortal remains of that world-destroyer to be
made the gewgaw of diseased national vanity—
the object of a harlequin procession,—not a voice
was raised in the Chamber i❑ execration, or even
in deprecation of such open and undisguised wicked.
ness. On the contrary, shouts of applause followed
the avowal of sentiments which no member of the
British Legislature would dare to utter without in-

curring the whole weight of the national resent-
ment—without the certainty of being hunted like a
tiger from the precincts of public life. But in
France not only political justice, but a pretension
to it, is not essential to the character of even a
Prime Minister. M. TDIERS gloried in his dis-
honesty, and was applauded by his friends ; M. DE
REMUSAT avowed his participation in the delin-
quencies of his colleague, and wag complimented
on resuming his seat by M. GuizoT ! No orator
thought it worth his while to touch upon the inte-
rests of Turkey, the progress of civilization, or
the relative duties of the European States
to each other and to humanity, as regarded
the Eastern Question:, but -each was content to
wrangle about and bluster about the. immediate
interests of France. This is so well and so forcibly
expressed in the Tablet of yesterday, that we have
pleasure in quoting the paragraph which embodies
it—less to confirm our own impression than to sa-
tisfy the war party in France, and the Protestant
theological incendiaries in England, that the British
Catholics are even more decided than ourselves in
their condemnation of the policy of the late French
Ministry, and of the language of the Representa-
tives of France, with respect to it. Nothing so
harsh of M. TlllERS—nothing so condemnatory
of the essential character of French statesmanship,
has appeared in the Tory Standard as the following
extract from the weekly organ of the British
Catholics :

M. Thiers entered this debate with every chance against
him. He had for his opponent a man of high character,
;
great ability, and much reputation for probity and a man,
too, who had, side by side with himself, conducted the ne-
gotiations upon which the debate was to turn ' • who had
been the recipient of " upwards of a hundred of his pri-
vate notes," as well as of all his public despatches ; who
had, consequently,. at his fingers' ends all the turns and in-
ti 'cams of the question, and was as fully acquainted with
the weak points of the case as himself. He entered it
after a policy of fraud, treachery and perfidy ; of blus-
tering, boasting, and bullying ; of extravagant expendi-
ture and extravagant double-dealing. He entered it after
having made himself the ridicule of Europe by his im-
mense armaments, which ended in nothing ; and " an
imposing attitude," which made the world ring again with
laughter at the solemn farce. He entered it after having
brought the King within a hairs' breadth of despotism or
abdication, end the capital of his country within a hair's-
breath of pillage by a ferocious mob. He entered it after
having str,pped France of everyone of her European allies.
He entered it after having caused the only ally which his po-
licy bad left her, and about whom all Europe is convulsed
and agitated— the Packa—to be almost annihilated by the
tremendous blows which his treachery has brought down
upon him ; whereby, as he himself declares, the French in-

flucnce in the Mediterranean is annihilated. He entered
it with the Wood of two thousand men upon his head, who
have been offered up in Syria at the shrine of his treacnery
and ambition. Ile entered it, in a word, after having most
richly earned a rope from the rest of Europe, and a guillo-
tine from his own countrymen; and be comes out of it
almost in triumph ; complimented, congratulated, lauded
by the opposition ; unscathed, and rather exalted than cast
down, by the Conservatives.
We have said that the reputation of being able to conic out
of dishonesty with hands tolerably clean in appearance, is
the very best kind of reputation for a French Minister ;
and the reason is, because the policy of France is essentially
dishonest and fraudulent. There is among the—stetesexa
(shall we call them ?)—of that country no conception of the
difference between probity and fraud. The most vile and
doshonest maxims are put forward by the most respectable
men of every party, with an effrontery and an unconscious-
ness of their being in the slightest degree liable to excep-
tion, which is perfectly shocking. We have read through
the whole debate so far as it has gone, and we do not be-
lieve that in discussing a question in which were involved
the rights of Sovereigns and subjects in the East, the
rights of the leading Monarchs of the West, and the pos-
sibility of a moat terrible war throughout Europe and
Asia, the word Justice hat passed the lips of any one of
the speakers, or the notioro of justice flitted even tran-
siently across his mind. The question has been on all
hands nakedly and coarsely stated to be one of interest.
Is Mehemet's Syrian dominion worth a w ar, all chances

being taken into account ? "It is nut," says one party,
and therefore we ought not to have war. '• It is," says
the other, and therefore we ought to have war." The
conclusions arrived at arc different, but the rogue's logic
is the same in both.

Appalling as this sketch is, we fear it will be
found not so highly coloured as we would fain be-
lieve it. In the progress of a debate upon an
Address which deplores the prostration of Poland,
several speakers recommended a close alliance with
Russia, with the avowed object of trampling upon
England—the leader of the vanguard of western
civilization ! Provided they gratified the nations
hirst 'for vengeance, they professed themselves
wholly indifferent as to the means. They were
ready to league with the CZAR or the Devil in a
project for the humiliation, perhaps the dismem-
berment, of England. What, then, ought we to do ?
Abide the result calmly and firmly, taking care to
be well prepared for the worst. While France
continues her armaments, it is the first duty of our
Government not to relax a moment in
its exertions to place our navy on the
strongest possible footing. The spring should
find us as well equipped for battle as our neigh-
bours. Let what like happen we shall not
suffer so much as France from the cost of naval
armaments. We can always turn our ships to
some profitable account, should we happily have no
occasion for converting them into engines for the
merciless destruction of our fellow-creatures. If
France, by wickedly and profligately continuing her
armaments, compel us to arm in self-defence, it is
of the first consequence that not a minute should be
lost in effecting our preparations. For nothing
now short of the discontinuance of the military
preparations in France can assure us that there is no
longer any danger to this country. The mere
defeat of M. TRIERS upon the address cannot now
satisfy us.We must have some less equivocal manifes-
tation of the pacific intentions of our Gallic neigh-
bours. Already we begin to perceive what we take
to .be symptoms of new troubles brought on by
French intrigues in Spain. In the professed reck-
lessness of French statesmen as to the means of
humbling England in every quarter where she is
supposed to have any influence—at Alexandria, at
Constantinople, at St. Petersburgh, at Madrid, and
at Lisbon, we anticipate little regard for principles
however liberal, or for institutions however popular.
The very same Republican faction now ready to
league with Russia—to forego all resentments on
the score of the atrocious denationalization of Po-
land, would to-morrow, merely to humble England
march across the Pyrennees and re-elevate.
the sceptre of Carlist despotism in Spain.
We can no longer, therefore, trust such
men. We can no longer rely upon the wis-
dom and virtue of a Representative Assembly
which hears without censuring their flagitious opi-
nions and sentiments. Hitherto France has ma-
' 'raged to keep all eyes upon the Treaty of July—
all ears employed in listening to her complaints of
the insult offered—all tongues busy in deprecating
the violence of her wrath, and in expressing sym-
pathy for the burning intensity of her wounded
feelings ; but the guilty revelations made by M.
THIERS and his colleagues in the Chamber of
Deputies, have found other employment for the
eyes, ears, tongues, and minds of Europe. We
have discovered that our oft-repeated sympathy for
the mortified feelings of M. TRIERS in particular
does more credit to the warmth of British hearts
than the soundness and depth of British penetra-
tion and judgment.

The Chartists and the Radicals are requested by
the Times to consider what it said on Saturday of
the Presidential election in the United States. We
are quite willing, acknowledging ourselves Radicals,
in the most liberal interpretation of that term,
to attend to the request of the Times, and having
carefully considered all that it has said, we cer-
tainly feel not at all daunted by its conclusions.
To begin at the beginning—the first of its re-
marks is a sneer against cheap government, which
scarcely requires a word to refute it. The United
States, it admits, have " a cheap Government ; but
they obtain, as in every case where a good price is
withheld, a very inferior article." Ina hat respect
is the Government of the United States inferior to
any Government of Europe ? Surely property and
life are as well protected in New York as in Paris
or London. Commerce is as little injured by the
American tariff as by our regulations, or by those
of France. Agriculture mg.kes as rapid advances in
Kentucky as in the monarchies of Europe. Enter-
prize is encouraged, or at least allowed, in the
United States ; and there is more steam navigation
on the Hudson than perhaps on all the rivers of
Continental Europe. One of the most approved
tests ofgood government is general education, and
that of the United States equals, if it do not surpass,
that of Prussia, the pattern State for education of
monarchical Europe. The survey of new lands, the
location of new settlers, the appointment of magis-
trates for them, the extension to them of the Post-
office, and all the advantages of the Government—
including schools, militia, and roads—the means of
communication and defence, are all in America well
provided for. Now these and similar matters are the
great duties of Government, so far as the internal
administration is concerned, and all these, in which
the people are far more interested than in the splen-
dour of a Court, are at least as well done by the
cheap Government of the United States as by the
most extravagant monarchy of Europe.
With respect to their external relations no man will
say that the interests of the United States are in any
country or place neglected. Their people are every-
where safe, their Government everywhere respected.
Their diplomatic agents certainly equal those of any
monarchy, and it becomes no Englishman to
depreciate their navy, the great atm of its de-
fence, for it has made the Ocean Queen tremble
for the safety of her dominion. But while
all their interests abroad are proteocdtetteirwflhailge
their pennant is respected in every sea, a
in every port, their Government has shown how
dis-
position to embark in foreign war, meddlewhiatdl
o
other nations, and has set an example, w
it been followed by the monarchies of Europe,
the subjects of them would not now liavebeenfillh)ed,
with alarm. Not judging of Governments
European prejudices, or Europeatnhatoppirnitilocnils3le of
, re-
garding therefore as mischievous
coercion in which the Europeans delight—calling
terror a strong Government—but looking only at
the substantial interests of the people, to promote
which Government is established, there can be no ,

EVENING EDIT O,

_
doubt that the cheap Government of the United •
States is a very' superior article to any of the dear
Governments of Europe.
But the Times, rating very highs the authority' of
M. DE TOCQUEVILLE, who was puffed—as his
recent exhibition in the Chamber of Deputies
amply proves--into the most unmerited celebrity by
some silly and pragmatical Doctrinaires in England'
of the Radical-Absolutist school, and estimating the,
exaggerated statements of an American party jour-
nal as perfect truth, has come to the conclusion that
a powerful and an elective executive are incompati'
ble, and that the interests of a State w.ll be better
taken care of by an hereditary than an elective sove'
reign. The Tory Times is quite enraptured aPlw
rently with the learned Parisian's speculations in
favour of hereditary monarchy, end seems to hill-
gine that the little embartassment, or even suspen.:,,
sion of the functions of an elective President everY
four years, outweighs all the advantages of haviog
the Chief Magistrate not nominally but reallY
sponsible to the people. M. DE TOGO/EVIL"
says—
" The dangers of the system of election, *Plied to
the head of the Executive Government
people, have been sufficiently of a great
and by history (p. 184). To attempt rile! rP e r
thec nree
presentative of the State a powerful sovereign, end ata
the same time elective, is, in my opinion, to entertai
two incompatible designs."--, (P. 185.)
In a constitutional monarchy successive rninistrive:
are rapidly formed ; but, as the principal representan •
of the executive power does not change, and the cha?ge•
which take place are rather in details than in woo'
pies ; so, to substitute one system for another, as is don!.
in America every four years by law, is to cause a sot
qf revolution ."—(
advaBnP. 19.)
The great (
advantage of hereditary rona.rehc:t
(says the same authorS " is, that as the private internecte d
s.
of the reigning family is always intimately con
with the interests of the State the Executive
ment is never suspended for a 'single instant ; whereats;
in elective states, the wheels of Government ceas!
act, as it were, of their own accord, at the approach.
that
an election, and even for some time previous to th.i;
event. . . The head of the State is wholly occuel,'"
with the coming struggle ; his future plans are doubt 111!!
he can undertake nothing new ; lam so near the tuna
of my retirement from office' (said President Jeffer
six weeks before the election in 1809), that it aPPe_..:=
Govern-
to me to be just to leave to my successor the comale°7o,
meat of those measures which he will have to Pr 11336
cute, and for which he will be responsible."---( Pp-
-187.) t. At
" For a long while before the appointed time
hand the election becomes the tnost important oo! r,"...
all-engrossing topic of discussion. The ardour et
,t!''_,
tion is redoubled, and all the artificial passions
the imagination can create in the bosom of liaPPY,lthe
peaceful land are agitated and brought to :iglit• ref
President, on the other hand, is absorbe.l by `be
est
of self-defence. He no longer governs for the inter
ca,
of the State, but for that of his re-election ; he dee' nit,
mage to the majority, and instead of checking
passions, as his duty commands him to do, fret
quently courts its worst caprices."
maginarry.
We must boldly affirm that this is an i
evil. At present there have been thirteen or fou_ e
teen Presidential elections, and no cessation of
executive powers, to the least injury of
States, has beets experienced. That no imp
first
evil can result, may be easily shown. the
,firb
place, the executive power is much over-rated
M. DE TOCQUEVILLE, who appears tothink (2t
as a European, the subject of a monarchy. 11
monarchy every commission, every magistrate
de-
pends on the Throne, and the suspension of in
executive is the suspension of the government ;
the United
but though the President in the United State
should do nothing for six weeks or two months,
many functionaries are independent of him, that I
would be of far less importance than to place the
sovereignty of a European monarchy in. abeyante
for a week. Because the elective President is sor'
rounded by representative institutions, and has far
less power than a European King, the suppos"l
suspension of his functions is of little consequence.
But notwithstanding the observation of JEk..
FERSON, we will venture to opine that the sue'
pension scarcely takes place. The President, ih
retiring from his office, or being superseded, does
not receive complete impunity. He falls back
amongst his fellow-citizens, whose good opinion he
must still be desirous of retaining ; and even the
desire not to trammel his predecessor will never
make him neglect any important duty. But all
the members of his Cabinet, though they are to
quit office with him, are men who look up (0
higher stations and the continuance of the confidence
of their countrymen. They do not expect, suppose
such to be the case with the President, t 5
retire into private life, and they therefore will be
sure to execute punctually and properly all the
duties of their office. At least the country has
as much security for that as it has at any thee
for the performance of their duties, and that
security, being real responsibility to the peoples is
much greater than the security possessed by 11'6
subjects of any monarchy. Supposing, therefore,
the executive to be of as much 'importance as
M. DE TOCQUEVILLE thinks--all opinion vve
Co not share--we have no reason to believe, either
from experience or the principle of the American
Government, that its duties will be neglected
when the President is changed.
It must be further considered, that under an
European monarchy
depends on the Sovereign or his Minister, and that
the line of policy resolved on
a change in either of these may imply a complete
In the
change in the policy of the country.
United States the policy depends on pub-
lic opinion, it is settled and determined
with
hi
the majority, and it is far less likely to change
the change of the President than the policy of a
European monarchy is liable to change with the
change of Ministry. England, which approaches
to a popular form of government more than France,
has, like America, its policy mainly determined by
public opinion, and a change of policy from a Bub change
of Ministers occurs comparatively rarely. i9
France there has been, within tell years, some
eight or ten Ministries, each of which has had
a peculiar policy, and as i ntrigue has displaced
one, public affairs have been differently managed
by the other. In America, because public opinion is
the ruling power, a change in the President, except as
that may be indicate a change in public opinion,
produces no alteration in the public policy. We
maintain, therefore, that the policy of an elective
executive, such as that of the United States, is
more stable than the policy of such a monarchy as
that of France.
It is a false assumptionona rchh of M.
as, DE
or will have, TuCQUEVILL
the
I
that an hereditary m
same interest as his people. His interest is to pre-
serve Isis power—their interest is to abate it, and
establish their own freedom. The two interests are
in opposition, while the elective executive of Allied
ries, depending on the people, has at all times the
sali.e interest as they have. The temporary coo-
tests for the Presidency, so almost exclusively dwelt
on by M. DE TOCQUEVILLE, occur comparatively
rarely, but unless in such cases as those of Prinse
METTERNICH, who succeeds in grasping the
powers both of the Sovereign and the Minister,
contests
rnieli
ne sesoanatint:lB(eti somewhat
underloatwt
uhsi
cfnrileiLi
ql
matnulr
European
buto:pt
a dependrly cni
oou.tmr stooeoi ozan ortiutiree:
areG intrigues,ei
n the
of an
hin
proof,famou however, of nel
States' Government is toot. in be
the
found utility
not of
theories
but in facts ; and happily it has already existed
its
long enough to refute its calumniators and laugh to
scorn the theorists of Europe. While the moor"
cities of Europe have all been tumbled one over
another, and no one has been safe but sea-girt PO'
twin,--while here thrones have been overturned, 01:-
stitutions given and taken away,—while the peoPtic
throughout Europe are arrayed in thought.. °

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