The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-08 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEM BER 8, 1848.

Reaction is accumulating its energies from all
quarters, and striving by every possible device to win
back the ground already conquered by the Revolu-
tion. It is doing this, now covertly, now openly, now
in the forensic arena, now in the literary ambuscade.
No slanders are too gross for its purpose. No vitu-
perations are too boisterous for its malice. These
exertions of the counter-revolutionists are visible more-
over in a thousand different directions at the
same moment. Their language is heard in
the halls of Parliament, in the courts of law,
from the pulpits of religion, from the rcs-
tzums of the University, from Cabinets and
corporations, from philosophers and artisans, from the
cabin of the mariner and the meadow of the agricul-
twist. All classes of the community contribute their
vain either of power or of virulence in furtherance of
a cause which has latterly become desperate—the
cause of the reactionaires. And it is precisely because
their cause is thus desperate that its votaries are com-
pelled to resort to so many extraordinary extremi-
ties. Seeing that Absolutism must sink under
the assaults of the Revolution unless all the
supporters of Absolutism abandon for a time
their various jealousies, and unless, in addition
to this, they throw aside all consideration of prin-
ciple, they have at length determined to coalesce tem-
porarily, and to, adopt every means, no matter how
base or dishonourable, to hurl back destruction on
the heads of their antagonists, and to further the
views or the different despots of Christendom. This
conviction it is which has resulted in an Aristocratic
Coalition more infamous than any of those. Regal
Coalitions which were first
employed as the arms of
the Counter-Revolution, This conviction it is which
has united in one homogeneous
sectio mass the many hetero-
geneous grades and
.oprsed to the progress
of constitutional regeneration
upholders of the red flag, lovers ofa rtthe izans of the lily,
of HENRI CINQ and of the white feather
cockade
PHILIPPE, admirers of legitimacy, aspirants ntsof r anar-
chy,f Loris
the creatures battening upon Spanish cttion and Croatian pillage, the courtiers of oizutp.
and the sycophants of Sans Souci—all unite heart
and soul, and body, and mind, in their detestation of
revolutions, and in their preference of any result
whatsoever, from the establishment of a despotism to
the organization of the Reign of Terror, rather than
yield the palm of victory to the champions of a mo-
derate and rational system of Democracy.
To this end are striving—GulzoT, the wily refugee
—IIETTERNICII, his twin-brother in chicane—D'A to•
TON SHEE, the professed infideI—LAMENNAI3, the
renegade priest—NARVAEZ, the arbitrary soldier—
CAPRAL, the intriguing diplomatist FREDERICK
WILHELM, the Charletan. King—Paounnosr, the
rhapsodist of politics—CANlNo, the crack-brained
Quixote in search of popularity—and, beyond all
these, we are rather disposed to suspect, those
gentlemen who under the mask of Ultra-
Republicanism have caused so much anxiety, first, to
the provisional Government, secondly, to the Execu-
tive Commission, and lastly, to the Councils pre-
sided over, by General CAVAIGNAC. Some of these
men (the
-conspirators conspirators we mean, last mentioned) held
dike for a while under the successive revolutionary
Cabinets constructed out of the chaos of February.
Some of them were seized with arms in their hands

during the insurrection of May, and were incur-
jut. -Vincennes. Some were merely sus-
pected;` were impeached before the National As-
- sembly,A and were forced to fly in secret from the
rigours of republican justice. While ALBERT lan-
guished in the Donjon, Louis 13LANc disported him-
self in Piccadilly. Our suspicions as to the sincerity