The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-31 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY. JANUARY 31, 1846.

Two amendments stand for discussion in the French
Chamber of Deputies of considerable importance to this
country, not from their intrinsic merit, or indeed for any
new idea they convey, but for the angry debates and the
expressions of national antipathies to which, in all pro-
bability, they will give rise. They come from two Mem-
bers of the Opposition always hostilely disposed towards
England—MM. BERRYER and MAUGUIN—and the ob-
ject of their motions, therefore, cannot be misunder-
stood. The amendment proposed by the former is so
vapid and pointless, that it comes under the character of
a simple truism, and were the contingency to which it
refers not of the most momentous consequence, it would
require no notice. His words are :—" If peace should
be disturbed by the conflict of the pretensions
of two great nations, France reserves to herself the pri-
vilege of taking care that no attack be made on the prin-
ciples of public law, which protect on the . seas the
liberty and the dignity of international relations." M.
BERRYER is a good lawyer, he is an useful member of
his party, and may be a very honest and worthy man ;
but can any one deny that this motion is brought for-
ward in a malevolent spirit, or that it is either neces-
sary or becoming to make speeches and excite the
worst feelings of human nature on an event which
is contingent ? Besides, England has no wish
to violate the principles of public law—she wishes to
make no inroads upon French rights and privilege s,
whether by land or sea, and M. BERRYER knows that
the British Government, and we may add the British
nation, would be the very last in the world to give any
just cause of offence to France. Their happy unani-
mity on many great public questions of international
law, their friendly relations, and their united
power, have preserved the peace of the world for
more than thirty years, and why, therefore, should
any French senator, however high his name and autho-
rity, impute to England motives which have been contra-
dicted by her whole policy during that long period ?
We, however, are not inclined to blame M. BERRYER
entirely. We believe he has been insidiously
urged to the step by the bitterest enemy of England—
ono who, while he professes to be strongly attached
to the English alliance, and who was received as a
friend in this country, thinks and dreams of nothing
else but a war between France and England, and the
realisation of those ambitious schemes of BONAPARTE
which led to his destruction, and which this vain man
believes he is yet destined to accomplish. His object
in this measure is obvious. It would be a great point
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that the islanders are still the despots of the seas, and
that it is the duty of every patriotic Frenchma❑ to join
America or Russia, or any maritime power, to
curb or subdue a nation which he regards
as an eternal enemy of his country. His object
is to work upon the worst passions of human nature,
in order to lead to a war with England when she is
engaged in a contest with America. But, like the ge-
neral policy_ of this statesman, such a mode of bene-
fiting France (if, indeed, any benefit could be derived
from it), is in the highest degree contemptible and hu-
miliating, for he in fact admits what the English do
not, the inferiority of his country, and her inability
to contend single-handed against England. France is
not a third-rate or a second-rate power. She is one of
the first powers in the world, and w e know only one
able to enter into contest with her. Why, therefore
should she degrade herself into a condition in which she
virtually admits that she cannot fight alone ? But
this restless and mischievous personage has no

national pride or real patriotism. He forgets
that America insulted France with impunity,
by insisting on compensation for losses said to have
been sustained by the American merchants through the
Berlin and Milan decrees. America demanded one mil
lion sterling as the amende honourable. The Chamber of
Deputies rejected the demand, but M. 'limns,
and other patriots of the same stamp, interfered. The
Chamber humbled itself, yielded and voted this large
sum, which they did not consider due, and to which, in
fact, the Americans had no just claim. And what
apology can this fighting statesman make for the
result of the Syrian affair? He brought France to
the brink of war, and then miserably gave up the contest.
Will gallant Frenchmen trust to such a leader ?
will they follow his advice in forming an alliance with
a people that have grievously insulted France, and
attack their near.st neighbours—their best customers—
and break up a connexion which every day is beaming
more profitable to France, and which will be still
further improved by the liberal tariff of Sir

ROBERT PEEL ? We may, however, leave the

defence of his policy to M. GULZOT. He can
protect himself, and the only regret is that any state-
ments or arguments he may advance will not counter-
balance the mischievous effects produced on the people
of both countries by the speeches of such orators as
MM. TRIERS, MAUGUIN, BILLAULT, BEREVER, and
DE LameirriNE. The amendment proposed by M.
MAUGUIN requires no notice, for every person must
concur in his sentiments, but still it is a peg on which to
hang a hostile declaration.

A double excitement seems to have seized upon Mr. BUS-
FEUD FERRAND, goading him on to the most outrageous
demonstrations of his incapacity to forward the interests
of a pricciple soirreparably lost as that of monopoly ; the
excitement consequent upon the forlornness of his posi-
tion ; the excitement resulting from his invariable and
and long-continued discomfiture. Allowing, therefore,
for the impulses of such frequent rebuffs upon a disposi-
tion so acknowledgedly irritable as that of the Hon.
Member for Knareaborough, we may possibly in some
measure excuse a portion of his violence and a moiety
of his absurdity. It; would, however, require an acu-
men absolutely superhuman to discover any wholesale
means of palliation for the full extent of his extravagant
and unstinted license of tongue ; nor could we readily
produce a reasonable explanation of the precise rule of
consistency upon which his proceedings bave been re-
gulated. For example, a more thorough forgetfulness
of the requisites which should be expected in the repre.
sentative of a constituency, but especially at this re-
markable epoch in our commercial legislation, could not,
by any chance, have been evidenced than in the circum.
stance of dragging forward Mr. GEORGE LANE Fox: as a
candidate for the important seat of the West Riding of
Yorkshire—that gentleman being perfectly incompetent
to undertake the arduous duties of a Parliamentary ses
lien, from the unfortunate debility with which his con-
stitution is afflicted. This oversight, or, probably, this vo-
reckie.sness on the part of Mr. FERRAND requires
no elaborate commentaries to excite the opposition—we
had almost exclaimed the iddignation—of all those
sticklers for activity and enterprise in a Member of the
Lower House, that must undoubtedly abouCfl to the loea..
lity. A proposition so manifestly unwise as that of noel
nating Mr. Fox, is clearly an insult to every enfranchised
Party in the West Riding ; and, in originating this pro-
position, Mr. FERRA2ND has shown his inherent contempt
for anything but the advantage of a
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