The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-28 00:00:00

PIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
CHRONICLE.—The great drama of the French
Presidential Election ended, as such dramas should,
with an "effect." The characters, tragical and
humorous, who have been developing the intricate
plot of the past two months, crowded the stage in the
best scene. Cavaignac, the wrongful possessor, divests
himself of the splendours no longer his own, in a
neat, sentimental speech. Louis Napoleon, the
rightful heir—the twenty-years' wanderer over the
face of the earth—comes to the front of the boards,
wearing a grave expression, and attired (say the
French journals) in an elegant suit of black. He
lifts his hand to the sky, as heroes do on the like
occasions, pronounces a cabalistic sentence, and
straightway M. Armand Marrast, who does
the heavy business of the Republic, I pro-
nounces him united with Liberty, his blushing
fiancee. Then follows a general shaking of hands.
Republicans of the Eve embrace Republicans of the
Morrow, the President of the Republic accolades the
ex-President of the Council, and so down goes the
curtain. From all we see and hear, we are justified
in concluding-, that the hero and the heroine, since
the conclusion of the piece, have been living the
life which it is only decorous to attribute to the
dramatis personce of a drama which has terminated
happily. Even the National, the unquiet demon
who has striven, through five long acts, to prevent
their union, grumbles half-involuntary congratula-
tions. The household of the newly-wedded pair
seems prudently organized ; there is no rumour as
yet of the smallest bickering, or of undue assumption
of superiority on either part. It appears quite pos-
sible, that the bride may live to be a widow, and to
inscribe a laudatory epitaph on the tombstone of
the man who has been so pertinaciously repre-
sented to her as a fortune-hunter, and an inevitable
domesfic tyrant. It is even so. Louis Napoleon may
become a Republican saint, and be worshipped on the
Sans- culottides. Is it fair to anticipate the argument
of that formidable personage, the devil's advocate,
who, in the practice of the Roman Catholic Church ,
regularly opposes the pretensions of candidates for
canonization ? He may be supposed to urge the case
of the French people against the French Republic.
He may hint that Louis Napoleon's five millions of
constituents had something else in their heads, at the
moment of voting, than the election of a decent
republican official. He may insinuate, that they were
intolerably disgusted at finding they had got Cato,
after supposing they had given their suffrages to
Cmsar. He may ask, why the President troubled the
democratic Israel at all—why he stirred up all the
anti• Republicanism from Marseilles to Lille for
the sake of manifesting his devotion to the
Republic ? The nation did not place him in
his present position as a field for the
display of Spartan self-command. It will not always
do—the agent of the evil spirit may assert—to take
men at their word. And in this last respect the
devil's prompting may, perhaps, be correct. A cynic
might, pass one of these December nights pleasantly
enough, if the malicious Diable Boiteax himself
would unroof for him some nine or ten edifices in
Paris—the Palace of the National Assembly, where
France speaks of Liberty and Equality, in public ;
and a few back shops in the Boulevards, or the Rue
de Rivoli, where she talks of Louis Napoleon and
reviving credit, in private. The Invalides might
teach something : the conversation of the old soldiers
probably turns, at this moment, on the brother and
nephew of their new Imperial Governor. St. An-
toine, where the democratic and social Republic
matters its execrations, has no doubt its lesson. So
has the sombre dwelling of M. Thiers. And so
has the Elys6e National. But what proceeds there,
is the question. Its inmate is just now passing
through a great crisis in the public life of conspicuous
men. It must be owned that history pronounces dif-
ferent judgment on such periods, according to the
temper she is in. Sometimes she condemns in dig-
nified tone, the personage who has seized oppoftunity
by its scanty hair; sometimes, in her melting moods,
she will even excuse the deed, or, at the least, shut
her eyes when it comes before her. Ought we to
add, that she occasionally neglects to do justice to
the self-denial of him who lets the chance go by ?
The gods!ess, as the epigrammatist significantly said,
is a lady : she may, perhaps, sympathise with the
weakness which the charge of the calumnious French-
man imputes to her sex—that when there is a feeble
moment, so far from thanking the man who refuses to
take advantage of it, they are terribly apt to call him
a fool. But there is, on the other hand, much to be
urged against the suggestion that in Loss Napoleon's
circumstances honesty is the worst policy. To have
preserved one's self-respect is something ; and it is
also something to have had the ball at one's foot, and
yet to have declined propelling, it. That they re-
mained deaf to unmistakeable hints, conveyed in the
thunderous whisper of five million voices, is what will
be said of few men to the end of time. It is true
that the French President is no Washington, that he
should reject the diadem with great indignation. But,
if he has not deserved so well of the Republic, he
has certainly been nearer the Monarchy. And the
Frenchman's refusal will not lose, but rather gain,
by contrast with that of the American, when it is
considered that the former has far less to fall back
upon. His antecedents recal nothing that resembles
Bunker's Hill. His retreat, when his four years of
office are expired, will be no Mount Ver-
non—no bourne for Democratic pilgrims. Ire
will be a danger escaped. But his honour will be
the brighter, and his name the more unblemished.
And his period of office will ever be memorable as
synchronising with the fall of sectarian tyranny and
the restoration of debilitated order and damaged com-
merce. It must be owned, however, that no political
prophet is likely to be right in vaticinations based on
the present aspect of French affairs. All is calm—
but it is the sort of calm which proves and promises
nothing. The new Ministry merely recognises the
past contest. Each section of Louis Napoleon's sup•
porters has its representative, though, of course, these
representatives have been selected with as much
restriction on free choice as is implied in the necessity
of their not being too much out of harmony with the
status quo. M. Odilon Barret, at the head, represents
good faith, and, perhaps, symbolizes the particular
species of distinction which the President wishes to
attach to his own memory, and that of his temporary
supremacy.
ADVERTISER.—It is gratifying to find, that so
far as the new state of things has proceeded in France
there has occurred nothing to warrant evil forebod-
ings for the future. Louis Napoleon, in his new and
responsible office of President of the Republic, has
demeaned himself much better than his warmest
friends could have expected. He has been guilty of
no grave error of judgment; neither has he said or
done anything since his instalment in the Presiden-
tial chair, of which his foes can make a handle. None
were more strenuously opposed than ourselves to the
candidateship of the Prince; We opposed him solely
because we did not deem him the " man" which
the " hour" demanded. We feared that he was
not the person either to consolidate the Republic,
or to preserve the tranquillity of the country,
menaced as it has unceasingly been for many
months past. We supported Cavaignac for no
other reason, than that, judging from his past
services, and the character he bears, we believed him
to be, of all others, the person best fitted to uphold
order and preserve domestic tranquillity. The French
nation willed it otherwise. They chose the man whom
we should wish to see rejected, and rejected the man
whom we were anxious to see selected. From that
moment our opposition to Louis Napoleon ceased ;
and right glad shall we be should we never have oc-
casion to enrol ourselves again in the ranks of his
opponents. At all events, he will receive no opposi-
tion from us unless his acts shall be of a naturef calcu-
lated to peril the internal tranquillityw France,
.or
involve Europe in the evils of In the election
of Cavaignac France would havear. hadd a guarantee
demesgteicneroarl order and Europe
for the maintenance of
for the preservation of a
guipneeacte,. Let us
hope, that though not so sae
results will be insured by the la
elecatti these
Louis Napoleon, the event will show that thr of
We are gratified to find. that even thus fa are.our
something have proved to be without foundation. It is
something to be able to say, remembering, ll
must do, the antecedents of the Prince, that evena
fortnight should elapse without anything disastrous
or ominous arising out of his Presidency. For his
own sake, as well as for the sake of France and Eu-
rope, we trust that we shall have to record the same
state of matters, week after week, during his entire
term of office. There is no rock on which he is in so
much danger of making shipwreck, as on that of
foreign war. This, we fear, is a peril to which he is
much exposed. His temptations are great to embark
in warlike enterprises. The associations connected
with the memory of his uncle, the military spirit
-which so erensively prevails in France, and the
struggles now going on in various parts of the
country, between popular principles and those of
a despotic kind—are all circumstances likely to
operate on a mind constituted as his is known to
be, and to precipitate France into hostilities with
some other power. It is, indeed, asserted in some
of the Paris papers, with as much confidence as if
the fact were notorious to all, that the Government
of Louis Napoleon have already determined on an
armed intervention in Italy on behalf of the Pope.
We are unwilling to believe it. We fervently hope
it is not correct. Such a course would be opposed
to those principles of non-intervention which the
Provisional Government, and the Government of
Cavaignac, not only recognised, but on which they
so scrupulously acted. Louis Napoleon has also
assumed the reins of power amid protestations of
his determination to abstain from interfering in the
affairs of other countries. If it be true, that an
armed force is to be sent to Italy, to reinstate
Pius IX. in the sovereignty of the Roman States, it
flagrant breach of faith with those of the

French people who are anxious for the preservation
of peace. Nor can such a course of procedure be in
accordance with the views and wishes of other
Powers. If France interfere in this case, there can
be no security against her intervention in the affairs
of other countries. If she dispatches her armies to
crush the Liberalism which has dethroned the Pope,
and compelled him to seek an asylum in another
land, what reason have we to suppose that she will
not, before the lapse of many months, find some pre-
text or other for interfering in the affairs of Austria ?
She has no more right to interfere with the Romans,
because they have overthrown the temporal sove-
reignty of the Pope, than she would have to inter-
fere with the people of the United States, should they
take it into their heads to repudiate a republic, and
declare in favour of a monarchy. Let the Pope and
his quondam subjects fight it out between them-
selves, in any way they choose. If Louis Na-
poleon have judicious and enlightened advisers, they
will not fail to warn him, that he will
have enough to do to maintain his own ascendancy as
President of the Republic, without seeking to uphold
the thrones of other Powers, or re- estab:ish sovereign-
ties which, within the last ten months, have been
shattered to pieces. The stability of his own Govern-
ment, is more dependent on its abstinence from in-
terference in the affairs of other countries, than on
anything else that can be imagined. If he observe a
peaceful attitude to other countries, and identify
himself with the maintenance of order at home, his
Government may last ; but if he heedlessly, as in the
case alluded to, rushes into quarrels with other go-
vernments, andinterferes, where he has no admissible
pretext for doing so, in the affairs of other European
States,—his Presidentship will be but of short dura-
tion. The day on which a French expedition starts
for Rome, will see the doom of Louis Napoleon's
Government sealed. But we hope better things of
the Prince. We trust he will not fall into so fatal
an error.

THE FATAL OCCURRENCE AT
THE VICTORIA THEATRE.
ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.
Yesterday morning an inquiry was instituted by
the lessee and other officials of the theatre with a view
of ascertaining the precise cause of the disaster, and
for the adoption of such steps as should prevent the
recurrenee of a similar calamity. From all that
could be ascertained, it appears that the heat occa-
sioned by the immense numbers on the stairs had been
for two or three hours before the occurrence took place
most oppressive, and those about the middle of the
stairs were scarcely able to breathe, or to move an
inch backwards or forwards. The noise occasioned
by the people shouting was most deafening, but as
such scenes are of frequent occurrence on the open-
ing night of a pantomime little notice of the affair was
taken by the persons behind the curtain. Those who
were waiting on the landings prevaricate considerably
as to the manner the deceased lost their lives. The
boy, Leonard Tickner, persists in his statement that
he was taken up by some man, and then thrown upon
those below; whilst another person, who was near
the same place, states that the man who did so had
no intention of injuring any one, but, on the contrary,
tried to rescue the lad from the crowd. His opinion
is that when the boy fell it was by accident. Mr.
Brooks, one of the surgeons who attended at Mr.
Se well's, is of opinion that the youngest of the de-
ceased bad died from suffocation, and had most pro-
bably been dead some time before he fell. The body
presents all the appearance of having been closely
wedged in, and if surrounded with grown up people
he would he as unable to breathe as if a pillow had
been put over his mouth. The other lad presents every
appearance of something heavy having fallen upon his
head, which no doubt stunned him for the moment,
and then falling down, was trampled upon and
smothered. The face looks as if it had been kicked
and trodden on by-shoes with heavy nails in them.
Mr:Knight, the assistant to Mr. Sewell, states that
when Henry Frazer, another of the persons injured,
was brought to the surgery, he was perfectly insen-
sible and appeared to be dying. He, however, ad-
ministered stimulants, and he partially recovered,
when some idea of the agony the lad must have been
in may be formed from the fact that a 2 oz. graduating
glass used for administering medicine was bitten in
half by the unfortunate boy. This patient was kept
at Mr. Sewell's, where leeches and other remedies
were applied, but several hours elapsed before he re-
covered sufficiently to be removed to his own home.
Upon making inquiries yesterday, it was ascertained
that the lad still remained in a very precarious con-
dition. The three other sufferers who were not dead
when brought to the surgery were all much bruised,
but fortunately no bones were broken.
During the forenoon of yesterday the bodies of the
deceased were identified by their relatives, when it
was ascertained that their names were William Phil-
lips, of 5, Turk's-row, Chelsea, about eleven years of
age ; and John Castillo, aged 15, of 2, Plough-court,
Fetter-lane. Several hundred persons made applica-
tion during the day to inspect the bodies, and it was
not until they were owned that the churchyard could
be cleared.
I'Vorkmen were engaged during the day in repair-
ing that part of the rail which had been torn dewn.
1 It is now so constructed that it would be impossible
to force it down, no matter how strong the pressure
against it might be. It is also intended to have a
number of barriers erected on the stairs similar to
those at Her Majesty's Theatre, by which means the
public will be protected from extraordinary pressure.
Had it not been for the exertions of the police, it
is more than probable that several other persons would
have lost their lives. So great was the crowd outside
the theatre that it required the efforts of between 30
and 40 police-constables, who were under the direc-
tion of Mr. Superintendent Rutt, Inspector Rogers,
and Sergeant Rodles, to keep the people back, so that,
the sufferers could be removed from the stairs.
The whole of the other persons injured were found,
upon making inquiries at their respective residences
yesterday afternoon, to be going on as well as could
be expected, and no fatal result in either case is ap-
prehended.

_ -
SINGULAR CHARGE OF ARSON.
LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY. -- At the police-court
to-day William Comforth Demain, a stationer and
paper ruler, lately occupying premises in
Swift's-court, in this town, was placed before Mr.
Rushton, on a charge of having wilfully set fire to
his premises in November last. The charge was pre-
ferred by Mr. Robinson, of the firm of Lowndes,
Robinson, and Bateson, solicitors, on the part of the
Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Company. The
case had been remanded from Friday last, for the
production of additional evidence.

Several witnesses, previously employed by the pri-
soner, were examined, with the object of proving
that a fire, • which happened on his premises, on
the 6th of November last, was caused by his own
hand.

Thomas Powell, who had been employed as an
errand-boy by the plaintiff, before the fire, stated that
he had, on two occasions, keen kept by his master
beyond his usual meal hours, to pull at a wire in the
lower part of the premises, the object of which he did
not understand.

Two witnesses, named Webster and Tomlinson,
apprentices of the prisoner, deposed to having disco-
vered a singularly-constructed wire, communicating
with a loft in the premises, in which were deposited
shavings, and other combustible materials, some time
before the fire. The wire came down the walls of the
premises to the outer door. And on the evening of
the fire, on closing the premises, they found a diffi-
culty in closing the door, and on shutting it, felt
that they ha broken some cord, or wire
which had been affixed to it behind. About
an hour afterwards they heard that the premises were
on fire. These two witnesses further deposed to hav-
ing had suspicions that the prisoner had set the pre-
mises on fire by the application of these wires ; and
also that they told him of their suspicions, on which
he promised to set them up in business if they would
say nothing about the fire, and that he cancelled their
indentures, and gave them certain sums of money with
which to carry on business.
Other evidence went to prove that in the loft or
garret of the premises there was a box of lucifer
matches, sand-paper, and shavings, communicating
with the wires spoken to, and that on the night of the
fireF the prisoner was seen to go into the loft, about 7
o clock, and afterwards leave the premises before the
apprentices eft.
The casel was then farther remanded to Fridax-

Dr.. IN NORTHAMPTON.--Yester-
day morning
ciintyformicon was forwarded to the Metro-
politan,OßltlltLE Mutt -------'
beene Commissioners of a most and
hor-
rible murder havingtherpetrated in the open streets,
at Northampton. Frona few particulars sent by the
telegraph, it appears that
walking through the
"sshaebayzls overtaken by a
ford, on Tuesday evening wwoulan, named Mary Bed••
at Northampton when
suspected murderer is
stout made,
man, .supposed to be named
gufwehiskers,
Clayton, a shoe-
maker, who murc?ered her. The
described as being about forty lung hair,
five feet six inches high; dark long
a dent on the lower lip, and under-droopingn
lid. lie was dressed in a black surtout coat anAlebebytpe;
waistcoat. He formerly worked with a man named ----
James, in Lauver• street, leading out of Ratcliff,...h,Way. I-1.1 left Northampton at on minutes before eight
last last night by train fur London. The moment the news
was received the commissioners dispatched a number of
the detective and other officers to those portions of the
metropolis whither it was expected Clayton would re-
sort, and there is no doubt that before long he will be is
safe custody.

According to advices from St. Dizier, of the 21st
inst., the metal trade of that place is in a very depressed
state. One communication says, "It is impossible to
conceal the present position of the metal forges, which
is extremely bad. The old markets do not pay. Irons
are selling at a depreciation of 30 per cent., and tins at
that of 50 per cent. We are informed that travellers
accept any price they can obtain, although we quote
sheet-iron, at 240 f., and welded-iron, at 270 f., Or deli-
yer7 bete.