The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-27 00:00:00

THE SUN,

during the times of peace directed his great in-
tellect to the study of the stellar magnificence
of the universe, he was sneered at as a
philosopher whose steps were in the sky, not upon the
earth, whose capacities lay in the celestial regions of
astronomy, and not in the mundane regions of chi-
cane, hypocrisy, and resolution—the oxy gen, hydro-
gen, and azote forming the atmosphere of statesman-
ship. And yet ARAGO, during two months and
upwards, held the portfolio both of War and Marine ;
and at the period of his retirement from his Minis-
terial duties left both those departments of the public
service in an astonishing state of discipline and effec-
tiveness. DUPONT (DE L'EURE) was derided, because
of his age and simplicity, and yet for a considerable
time that venerable man preserved the dignity of his
office as President or the Provisional Government,
and instilled into the hearts of his colleagues those
sentiments of pure and unselfish devotion which had
throbbed in his own bosom before the first National
Assembly was dissolved. MARIE was scoffed at as
an incapable, as one of the embodied mediocrities of
the law, as a man unfitted for great emergencies, and
incapacitated from dedicating more than the
energies of an indifferent intellect to the li
service of his fellow-citizens : and yet
MARIE was the man whose voice proclaimed
the horror with which the insurgent demagogues
were regarded by the lovers of order and moderation-
LAMARTINE, again, was, in spite of his heroic and il-
lustrious conduct throughout the most terrible periods
of the revolution, rendered for a long while the prin-
cipal object of the calumnies of the counter-revolu-
tionists. Because he had already rendered his name
immortal as a poet, he was pronounced to be a mere
political visionary. Because he had revealed his
matchless powers of oratory in vindicating the glories
of classic literature, he was declared to be fitted only
for the rostrum of a pedagogue. Because he had written
History like TRUCYDIDES, he was asserted to have
disqualified himself from acting History like EPAILI.
RONDA& He was accused of peculations in the
national treasury--although his fortunes had been
injured to the extent of five or six hundred thousand
francs, in consequence of the unexpected outburst of
the revolution. He vdis charged with the shedding
of the blood of the people—although his noble heart
was the first to conceive, his hand to subscribe, and
his life to proclaim, the famous decree abolishing for
ever the punishment of death for political offences. He
wet taxed with a mal-administration of the foreign af-
fairs of the young Republic—although the skilful and
honourable policy adopted by him in the conduct of
that department had kept France in tranquillity and
preserved peace in Christendom. He was said to
have rendered his Government a mere talking Go-
vernment and not an acting Government—although,
in addition to the decree already mentioned, he had
himself created the Garde Mobile, he had himself
secured to the multitude the inestimable prerogative
of Universal Suffrage, he had himself convoked and
inaugurated the National Assembly of nine hundred
representatives. Beyond this, he was actually accused
of weaknesi—he whose daring eloquence had alone
preserved France from Terrorism, Paris from the
Guillotine, and Europe from an inundation of blood
and crime, and destruction in the terrible crisis of Fe-
bruary ! he whose hand had hurled back the red flag
when offered to him with the menaces of an infuriated
rabble ! he who had declared to the Socialist insur-
gents, as early as March, that he would never sign his
name to the words Organization du Travail, not if he
were standing before a whole park of artillery ! he
who had taken the Hotel de Ville in the days of May,
who had incarcerated the rebels in Vincennes, who
had fough► on horseback in the rebellion of June, at
the head of the National Guard, the Garde Mobile,
and the Army, by the side of the Commander-in-
Chief and at the foot of the barricades ! One
by one these accusations emanated from the
conspiracies of the reactionaires : one by one
they were disproved or dissipated. M. DR LA-
MARTINR condescended to reply to the charges of
his assailants, and that, too, in a volume which has
been unanimously declared, even by the exacting
judgment of the ex-Chancellor BaouGuAx, to be a
complete and almost sublime vindication.
Foiled in all their preceding attempts, the Anti-
Revolutionists have aimed one last and desperate
blow at the reputation of the Republic in the person
and character of General EvorNE CAvetoNec.
This adventure was the more formidable, inasmuch
as it was immediately prior to the election
of a President, and the more lamentable,
inasmuch as many of the oldest and most
patriotic of the republicans had been deluded
into a quarrel by the secret influence of their common
enemies. Elaborate, however, as were the precautions
taken to ensure the success of this last effort of malice,
every one of those precautions has proved altogether
ineffectual. On Saturday the discussion took place
in the Palace of the National Assembly, and CA-
VAIGNAC
was pronounced, by a majority of 469 in a
house of 537, to be not only free from blame in re-
gard to the insurrection of June, but to have deserved
well of his country through the patriotism displayed
by him on that occasion, as well as during the subse-
quent period of his dictatorship.

We are by no means desirous of underrating the
advantages that must be derived from the labours of
the Financial Reform Association. The exposures
that have been made through the agency of that body
of the profuse and lavish expenditure in the various
departments of the State, the insight afforded to the
people of the manner in which the enormous sums
wrung from the scanty earnings of their industry are
wasted and squandered, mast be productive of the
most beneficial results. The unjust and im-
politic system of indirect taxation will also
be explained, and all its iniquity made mani-
fest to the people; a spirit will be excited which it
will be impossible for any Ministry to withstand ; the
representatives of the people must bow to the loudly
expressed wishes of their respective constituencies,
and these valuable reformations, will in due time be
accomplished. There is another subject, however of
still more vital importance to the nation, from which
still greater happiness would flow to the great body
of the people, which would properly come within the
sphere of the association's labours, which has not, as
yet, been noticed. What financial reform can be
more urgently required than a change in our mone-
tary code, a repeal of those statutes that crippled the
industry of the nation, that deprived our operatives
and artizans of employment—of wages—of the very
means of existence, that occasioned an artificial
famine in the midst of plenty, and produced all the
sufferings and distress—want of confidence and gene-
ral failure of credit—which the nation has witnessed
since the beginning of last year ? Economy is un-
questionably greatly to be desired; but it is
still more desirable that the country should
have the means of meeting every demand without
difficulty or inconvenience. The utmost frugality
can only effect a saving of a few millions. The in-
terest on the debt cannot be reduced, while money is
scarce and dear, and the payment of that interest
absorbs the greater portion of the national income.
We have Leen told that the cation is impoverished—
that we have expended our capital—incurred debts,
and that like every private individual placed in
similarcvi,bce of
circumstances, we must now suffer the consa-
our former indiscretions ; that we must
sacrifice our enjoyments resign the comforts to
which we have been accustomed,ned,aonaudnrdineivllesnarnedstfarcicttortihees
veryO u works necessaries
m u s t ofb e existenceatdo
idle
the ui'
within the closest limits.
scilgonseedd, t our artizans
earttei znadnesr
mercieskept i
unemployed, con-
bworkh.ouses,
in place of earning their own livelihood by
eplor-
thedir own
exertions. If this were indeed the ease, dr
üble a necessity existed, we doubt not that sthoe
would endure their sufferings with fortitude andpeople
re-
signation. But it is quite the contrary. There
is no want of real capital. The country pos-
sesses an inexhaustible mine of wealth in her
labouring population, all she requires is the means
cf bringing her dormant powers into activity. She
pcssesses the capital but has not a sufficient repre-
sentative there,f—she languishes for want of a
currency adequate t her wants and exigencies. The
circulating medium—the very life- blood of industry—
is deficient, and in ck.nst pence thereof employment
is withheld, production stepped, and those who might
justly be regarded as our most useful citizens become
burdens upon the resources of the country, instead of
the creators of national wealth.

To the working of our absurd and iniquitous
money laws all these evils may be ascribed. Measures