The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-21 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1848.

While the different peoples of Europe have evinced
a cordial sentiment of admiration and friendship for
the French Republic, it would have been an anomalous
circumstance if Switzerland had alone reserved its
gratulations. It would have been a coincidence as
incongruous and inexplicable as though the demo
crats of Marino had maintained a sullen appear-
ance of indifference when the Bolognese were first
proclaiming their civic independence. History, how.
ever, will not, in this instance, have to record any
such inappropriate demonstrations of jealousy, for
the confederates of Switzerland have revealed a pro-
found reverence for the victors of February, and a
sincere delight at the new-born institutions and un-
paralleled achievements of the Parisians. Among
the many brilliant manifestations which have, in
various countries, welcomed the triumphs of French
democracy, not the least memorable or significant
was the precession organized on the 12. th instant by
the Patriotic Association of Berne, a procession which
indicated the thoughts of the whole Confederation
towards France, by the acclamations with which it
greeted General THIARD, the representative of the
Provisional Government. Was it as an accidental
parody upon the effete royalism of the Continent,
that Lona lloevrez witnessed this jubilee of
Republicans from a balcony of the official
residence ? If accidental, was it not felicitous 1
Does it not breathe a reminiscence
those antique pageants of the imperial city
in which the captive lemans of subsidiary princes
were dragged as trophies behind the chariot-wheels
of Rome, when bands of lictors armed with the axe
of the People preceded the concubines of Pamphylia,
when the symbols of a conquered despotism were
mingled with the eagles and the 5.P.Q.8.---those
initials of what might almost be termed without
impiety a terrestrial omnipotence. Yes—the compli-
ments exchanged between the Republicans of France
and Switzerland were listened to by the favourite of
the abdicated Louts of Bavaria. Not with the pert-
ness of a NELL GWYNNE, or with the ostentation of
a Poesranota, or with the abject slavishness of a
Du Battier—but covertly, through the half-opened
joints of a jalousie-blind, as if in acknowledgment of
the fact that the foibles of kingcraft can no lc.nger
blazon their seductions in the sunlight of a victorious
revolution. Poor LOLA may rattle her castanets in
the face of a monarch, be he a popinjay like OTHO,
.s dumb,
or a sensualist like Louis-1" an
aged vice,
t a grey
every
iniquity, a vanity in years"—but her
voice
and her feet are motionless, and herlineament
is expressive of timidity in the presence of the majesty
of a triumphant People. If, say we again, this
coincidence at Berne was an accidental homage to de-
mocracy, it was also singularly felicitous.
Another incident, such as may be chronicled here-
after in an anecdotal chapter upon the Republic of
February, is said to have occurred recently at Non_
tron, according to the declaration of the Perigord 01
the Dordogne. At a banquet given by the inhabi-
tants to the Government Commissary, that officia_
proposed a toast to the: health of M. LEDRU Roeux,
when his voice was drowned by a significant outcry
from the assembly—" Vive LAMARTINE !" Was not
that outcry the spontaneous announcement of a prin-
ciple ? Was not that principle antagonistic to Com-
munism--a principle of peace, of order, and of fra-
ternity? Looking at the occurrences throughout
Europe, you would swear that the future is no
longer ominous of bloodshed, you would become san-
guine " to the march of intelligence, you would feel
disposed to regard with some degree of credence the
prediction% of a Iho ef
And you would notp u and prophetic statesmanship.
be. wrong. Europe vouches for
the truth of those pacific predictions, even amidst the
smoke and blood of her battle-fields. 'The voices of
and Fraternity,
Peace, and Order, are audible above
the
the guns of Goito, and cannonade of Flensborg.
For although the oppressors of ef
elite Venetian
have
Lombardy,
and the insurgents
evoked the agonies of war from
Italy and Denmark, the spirits of P the soil of
Peace,
and Fraternity are visible in teh,eand Order,
ieulletins
of CHARLES ALBERT and of FREDERIC
later these generous aspirations of the multie tU7lner or
inevitably be realised. Sooner or later the °-
must
P
sophic hopes of LAMARTINE must be fulfilled. It has
recently become the fashion to ridicule the peaceful
doctrines of Mr. COBDEN, because, forsooth, the
large-heartedness of that distinguished man has in-
duced him to advocate rather prematurely the estab
lichment of a perfect entente cordiale among the dif-
ferent nations of Christendom ! Of Christendom !
Our words appear on the anniversary of that divine
day when the coming glory of Christendom was
Aywsiaaligstclaimed among the hills of Palestine, when its
int of radiation was Calvary, when the blood of its
e' *nity incarnadined the rocks of Judaea. Upon
ee
ee.." august anniversary it is not unbefitting to main-
-41 'E e the possibility of a permanent and universal
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