The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-08 00:00:00

;s4' telli3l4 7-,:ii-----AL

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 8, 1848,

On Saturday the Provisional Government solemnly
abdicated from its dictatorship, resigning into the
bands of the national representatives those powers
which had been confided to it by the acclamations of
the people—po wars, born like order from chaos,
emerging like light from darkness. Saturday, y
6, 1848, witnessed not only the formal abdication of
the statesmen of the interregnum, it was rendered a
day still more memorable in the calendar of the
Republic by the explanatory reports delivered from
the tribune of the Assembly by the Ministers of the
different departments of administration. As Pro-
visional Minister of the Interior, M. LEDRU ROLLIN
endeavoured by an assumption of integrity to justify
the proceedings of his arrogant and unconsci-
eans p
tious emissaries. M. CREMIEUX, in his capacity
the lenity,
Minister of Justice, explained
wa thbeut the imperturbable resolution evinced i
u da
magistracy, and the solicitude
-with which that vast and responsible body of admi-
nistrators had been and purified under his
particular
of " his noble friend, the
CitizenSp eaki nAgL.BaEsitt.rh7,
:‘,I. colleagueii oui s
ofß LA
Democracy—hisexpatiatedG
esto as to the Organization of
jabour,and endeavoured illustrate Ministry
the necessity for
the establishment of a
pollistircja-1 oefonTseoieilneaensdofPrmo-.
gress. Subsequently, the
CARsior, the Provisional Minister of Public Instruc-
tion, of M. GARNIEE. PAGES,IithuLo
NProvisional Minister
the Provisional
of Finance, and of M. Bev
deliberately
pubbiriately and satin-
of Commerce, werene
factorily shrived, to the
3nddindignation
Saving, he 'Never, the alternate curiosity Legislators.
addri:ers" with
evinced in the " rumeurs et cituchoteiny„'
which the Deputies interrupted the
LEDBAT Rows, or the exhaustion of voice of M.
which
compelled M. GARNIEB. PAGES to reserve
olfcthee
pero-
ration of his discourse for the columns
niteur—the explanations of the Provisional the Gover-
nment would not have risen above an interest at
once
evanescent and mediocre, but for the circumstance,
the man, and the oration by which they were intro-
duced.

When the venerable Dtrtorn (de l'Eure) craved

the indulgence of the National Assembly in conse-
quence of the abatement of his physical energies, when
he entreated its members to permit the substitution
of one of his colleagues as the deliverer of the pre-
amble to the different reports prepared by the Minis-
ters of the Provisional Government, and when, above
all, President BUCEIEZ announced the name of that
illustrious substitute by demanding a hearing for the
Citizen LAMARTINE—no marvel that the Palace of the
National Representatives resounded with their en-
thusiasm. For LAMARTINE is recognised throughout
Christendom as the high priest of the political religion
of France. With his name are identified all those
beneficent acts of moderation which have proved the
salvation of his country and have covered with
an imperishable glory the councils of the
Provisional Administration. His voice was not
more audible when he apostrophized the tri-
colour from the staircase of the Hotel de Ville with the
pikes of an infuriated rabble at his breast, and their
swords brandished before his noble and unblenched
visage, than it has been in every one of those benign
proclamations which have, from time to time, testified
to Europe the purity, the amenity, and the disin-
terestedness of French republicanism. His hand was
not more visible in the composition of his celebrated
manifesto to the diplomatists of the eastern hemisphere
than it has been in each of those memorable deerees
which have afforded practical testimonies of the reign
of fraternity. In spite of this, LAN/ART:NE on
behalf of himself and his provisional associates ap-
pealed for forgiveness to the National Assembly.
"Citizen representatives," said he, "bestow. upon us
an amnesty for our involuntary. d,tctatorship—
Aranestiez noire dictature incolontatre. An am-
nesty I Yes : the amnesty of France will be her
eternal gratitude. Without following the orator
throughout his brilliant address, a translation of
which will be found elsewhere, we cannot but direct
attention to a few of those sudden ebullitions
of eloquence with which he stirs up the whole
soul, enthralls the senses, and entrances the
imagination of a multitude. It was in a splendid
moment of inspiration that, referring to the
abolition of the punishment of death as the first act
of the people after their emancipation on the 24th of
February, he exclaimed—" France and Europe com-
prehended (in that act) that GOD had in truth his in-
spirations in the crowd, and that a revolution in-
augurated by greatness of soul, would be pure as an
idea, magnanimous as a sentiment, and holy as a
virtue—La France et L'Europe comprirent que
DIEU avait sex inspirations dans la foule, et qu'une re-
volution inauguree par la grandeur d'ame serait pure
comme une idee, magnanime comme un senti-
ment, sainte comme une vertu." In a con-
enial spirit he spoke of the people during
the crises of the Revolution thus :—" Each citizen at
Paris was at one and the same moment a soldier of
liberty, and a spontaneous magistrate of order—
" Cheque citoyen a Paris etait a la fois soldat de la
liberty et magistrat volontaire de l'ordre." Remem-
bering, indeed, the glorious conduct of those citizens
during the three days of February, and long after-
wards, posterity will corroborate the panegyric of
LAMARTINE ; and, bearing in recollection two inci-
dents of this final Revolution—the abolition of
capital punishment, and the reverence paid to the
marble crucifix of the Tuileries—the historian will
date the close of that famous month of February as
the epoch in which the predilection of the humane
romancist was realised—" The cross shall re-
place the gibbet !"4 Congratulating himself and
his compatriots upon the result of their recent endea-
vours, M. DE LAMARTINE thus gives articulate mean-
;rig to his emotions :—" Thanks be to GOD, who has
never more evidently manifested his intervention in the
cause of the people and of the human mind—thanks be
to that people itself, which has never more majestically
revealed its treasures of reason, of civ ism, of generosity,
of patience, of morality, of that true civilization
which fifty years of imperfect freedom has matured
in its soul, we have been enabled to accomplish, very

imperfectly without doubt, but not without good

fortune, a portion of that immense and pe-
rilous labour of which events have imposed
upon us the responsibility. We have founded
the Republic, that government declared to be im-
possible in France, unless accompanied by foreign
JL.,r411,1,1,
we have shown the Republic to be happily compatible

with European peace, with internal tranquillity,

with voluntary order, with individual liberty, with the
sweetness and the serenity of the manners of a nation
to whom hatred is an abomination, and to whom har-
mony is a national instinct." In a preceding portion
of his harangue, this great orator had pre-explained
his meaning as to the source of the proclamation of
the Republic, and he had done so in these vivid and
burning words—words that moved the heart
of the Assembly as the sound of the
trumpet stirs the heart of the war horse—

" The throne subversed, the dynasty self-exiled,
we did not proclaim the Republic : it had been
already proclaimed by th? mouth of an entire people :
we only recorded the cry of the nation." Of the
many passages of this oration, however, which appear
to us suffused with the glory of a superb elo-
quence, the last perorative sentence appears to us to be
the very noblest. It is the sublime aspiration that
History, in recounting the great deeds just accom-
plished by France, will apportion her eulogiums with
justice. " May she," exclaimed LAMARTINE,

" in-

dead of the obscure and perishable names of

men who have devoted themselves to the com•
mon safety, inscribe upon her pages two names

alone—the name of the people who have saved all,
Ind the name of Goo who has blessed all, upon the
foundations of the Republic." Nobly, bravely,
generously, sublimely, has the Provisional Govern-
ment abdicated with that farewell aspiration en its
lips--on tile lips, at least, of its illustrious leader, the
poet, statesman, orator, historian, LAMARTINE.

The United Irishman has again appeared, and on
this occasion without having been subjected to the
indignity of a lawyer's revision, as a guarantee for the
moderation of its contents, and for the safety of the
parties who would in any manner aid or assist in its
publication. One printer, or we should rather say
machine-owner, only in the Irish metropolis could be
found with sufficient hardihood to endorse the politi-
cal acceptances of Mr. MITCHELL without such a col-
lateral security, and he, it appears, was only enabled
to
print half the usual quantity of matter. Eight
pages, therefore, only appeared on Saturday, and
the falling off is not limited to the quantity alone,
but the quality has also deteriorated very consider-
ably, at least in the opinion of all those who admire a
good,
high-spiced, unequivocal, seditious, or treason-
able article.
In the latter respect, it
place of being fully up to the mark
in the former alternative,
involves the editor
e himself
geand this, although he was
indulge allowed to in
toT the full extent of his
his own discretion (Mr. Mi
influences
l.'s discretion !! !)
the unfettered by any external n
Notwithstanding the bombast and fury
whatsoever.
y,
there
aan
high-
sounding language and pretended fearlessness,
is a manifest withdrawal from the position d
two short weeks ago, before the Crown
assumed but
Govern-
ment Security Bill had as yet become the lanwiof.th:
land. When mere words could not by a pssn
lit
have been regarded as an act of treason, Mr.
-
CIIBLL declared that be would speak high treason ;
but now that his wish may be gratified, at least to the
extent of felony, he pursues a more prudent course,
and has undoubtedly studied the provisions of the
law with the most critical and attentive considera-
tion,to understand how far he may go
witesuot absecly
being entangled in its meshes. He still
sneers at the distinguished Nobleman who so worthily
fills the viceroyalty of Ireland, but
" Heti! mihi quanto muiabus ab illo llectore."
He no longer calls upon the multitude to smash in
Dublin Castle, or gives instructions as to the most
approved method of waging war against the mili-
tary and police. lie is now contented with address•
log G. W. F. VILLIERS, Englishman, as if in condo-
lence, because the Irish will not gratify him (?) by
risingT in open rebellion.
This is not all. He tries to sneak from his former
topics under the guise of a quarrel with his quondam
associates.
It appears that Messrs. O'BRIEN
and Mx"HER were by no means prepared to "go
the whole hog" with the prosecuted patriot,
and that their differences are of older standing than
either the Limerick
demonstration, or even than the

* In his Derniers J urs dun Condamne, Victor Hugo
has uttered that prophetic sentence—that sentence pro-
phetic of the revolution of February.

atrocious attack upon the memory of O'CONNELL,
which so highly exasperated the people. Mr. MIT-
CHELL says—" The truth is, that before any of us
went to Limerick at all, and before the objectionable
paragraph was printed in the United Irishman, Mr.
O'BRIEN intimated to me his aversion to any public
association with me, and his strong wish that I
should not accompany him and Mr. MEAGHER in
their proposed tour to the south, in which they con-
templated the holding of meetings at New Ross,
Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. lat once yielded
to his wish, and undertook to use the leisure
which must intervene before the trial in visiting
some towns of Ulster, in company with my
friend Mr. MARTIN. Mr. MARTIN, however, being
confined to his house by an accident, and not being
able to make any preliminary engagements, I accepted
an invitation to some meetings in England, and
actually went to England, but was suddenly recalled
by the Attorney-General, who required my presence
in Dublin. I then went to Limerick on the special
invitation of the Committee of the Limerick Re-
pealers." So then, after all, JOHN MITCHELL was an
unwelcome intruder upon the territory of his asso-
ciates—the other members of what was once the
triumvirate who probably anticpated the warm re-
ception he would receive from the Southerners. He
then enters fully into the nature of the differences,
and fairly reveals the dissensions that really existed
among the members of that apparently happy family
the Irish Confederation, and which led to the
threatened resignation of Mr. O'BRIEN on Monday
last—a resignation which he was only induced to
recal upon being assured that Mr. MITCHELL and his
fidus Achates, Mr. DEVIN REILLY, would wholly
withdraw from the society, and leave him without
a rival near the throne. This was acceded to, and
letters were sent in by those gentlemen, stating—and
certainly in fair and moderate terms—the true
reason of their withdrawal. The truth, however, did
not suit the managers of the Confederation, and the
resignations were ascribed to the Limerick occur-
rences—a line of conduct which Mr. MITCHELL con-
siders by no means justifiable.
Two circumstances are now perfectly clear from
the publication to which we have adverted ; first,
that the differences and dissensions that exist among
even the leaders of the Confederation, and the
" Young Ireland" party generally, are such as to
render them utterly feeble as a body, and to prevent
the possibility of any real danger to the well-dis-
posed and loyal inhabitants of the country ; and,
secondly, that the new Act has proved more effica•
cious than even its most strenuous advocates could
have expected, and that so long as its salutary pro-
visions are in force the writers in the United Irish.
nian and the Nation, the declaimers in the
Confederation and at the various meetings throughout
the country, " et hoc-genus omne," will take good
care to keep themselves free from the penalties that
may be incurred for " open and advised speaking and
writing," and that they will prefer remaining in Ire-
land even under what they are pleased to term " the
Saxon domination," to making a voyage at the
national expense to the British settlements at Norfolk
Island or Macquarrie Harbour.