The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-04 00:00:00

Eltentiv

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY:4, 1848.

Austria has obtained a Liberal Constitution, a

aistitution modelled upon that inimitable combina-

ion of interests which was first compacted into a

iurable Government in England, by a series of re-

!brins spreading over many centuries. One after
inother the obsolete and bungling systems of legisla-
r,ion which have weighed like nightmares on the

ations of the Continent are being oestroyed—one
iter another, those nations are adapting to their

political and social institutions the great
:,ruths of jurisprudence which were origi-
tally discovered and adopted by ourselves.
Phis is only in accordance with the divine
tnd catholic community of ideas. In philosophy,

irmciples are common to all, to those of mediocre

,bilit; as well as to those of abstruse intellect, no

natter how tedious may have been the processes by
vhich the founder of the new system may have ap

)roached the result of his deductions. In astronomy,
he same beneficent fact is recognisable ; as was strik-

ingly illustrated in 1846, by the profound calcula-
tuns of that immortal youth, w hose mind could
travel, by the analogy of numbers, to the orbit of
to unknown planet; and whose supple knees could
mind before the throne of a Sovereign unworthy to
loose the buckle of the shoes of LE VERMEIL In
chemistry, in mechanics, in navigation, in archeology,
in all the branches of the tree of knowledge, in all the
channels which intersect the field of research, the
same benign: law is ever in operation—übiquitous in
ispect and omnipotent in principle. In consequence
of this ennobling and humanising law, the merest
trtizin could grapple the ides of a new world so soon
as COLUMBUS had returned from his voyage to the
tirthainas, the poorest pedlar in Florence could ap
~reclate the revolutions of the celestial bodies so soon as
GALLILEOhad recognised and recorded the movements
if the satellites of Jupiter, the lowliest pedagogue in
the meanest hedgeschool in Ireland could corn
prebend the application of the differential
calculus so soon as the illustrious competition fur its
discovery arose between LIaBNITZ and NEWTON.
We thank Got) that such is the generous necessity
of a social communion—that thoughts cannot be
patented—that a caveat cannot be taken out for a
constitution
Sky tar from regarding the transference of our poli-
Lical institutions to the foreign seats of Government
.vith any degree ut j-alousy, it is impossible for us to
„xperience other than the most profound gratification
ic the diffusion of those bles,ink.ts, front which our pu
pulation has ilerived its happiness, our commerce its
prosperity, our conquests their gl,)ry,aii
England
our na-
tionality its permanence. What though
.tself toiled to the acquisition of this constitution over
ioountains of disaster, and wildernesses of delay, what
though the boon of its present greatness has been
earned by its transit through all the
vicissitudes of experience— it is a glorious and con
so;atary rt-flection that the people of Europe
are capable of bounding n7lj single
daycons ttituoti theon pos-
es-ion .en7ion of this rationa
l tke ses t‘own our
t t d •th
British ancestors. h a rLveet- si,c:fir)g ttlo
rand rested corien eby they are reaping
terhoeinprtth,setigpie
i;ovt, that
that
rfaimliset wryfi,ictiihactanfamneevewrhbiceh tushe
rn
fame
has obtained by the patience, the toil, thhefgheneiin h
ugs, and
the blood of her children, the
rchies
founder of the great system ot re.prelsednetinatoicvreacey,isth%
tiun, the organizer of a mona
King-
doms of the union of the thri e p
State, the King, the Lords, and the Commons. owers of the
are involuntarily offering up to her the
insence of their imitation, empires are paying her
the homage of mockery. On the 3d of February,
1847, Prussia received the shadow of a Free Con-
The a
sotitution, modelled upon 'he Constitution of England.
we then
u 25thof
Aprils
trust, 1848, Austria received more,
tution:t,
thanh
latter concession w documentof in a ErweehiCchonstthie-
as proclaimed to Christeedom by
FERDINAND, the Emperor of Austria, is among the
of
must memorable and significant the im • peria • 1
ordniances of the age. e publisha trans-
lation of it elsewhere. is iscomprised
in fifty-nine articles, and in the compass of those
fifty-nine articles, such advantages are guaranteed to
the 36,950, 511 subjects of the RAISES. as the follows
representative Legislature- a responsible