The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-26 00:00:00

PRICE
STAMPED '%,1

REVILERS AND EULOGISTS OF THE
EMPEROR.

The Standard has made itself the guardian of Napoleon's
honour, and is very angry at the plainspeaking of the Times
and the Daily News respecting the blunders of that Sove-
reign and the only course which is open to him. It is a
matter for curious speculation, and one certainly that I
cannot explain, why the Conservative press has shewn
itself so strongly Bonapartist. The Standard is fiercely,
the John Bull vehemently, and the Globe mildly so. One
would have thought that the antecedents of the pre-
sent French ruling dynasty would have set the organs
of the most aristocratic party in England against it.
Hatred of the Bonapartes used to be one of the first articles
of the Tory creed, and Fox found it useless to contend
against that feeling. Even now the English aristocracy
have little love for the family of the " Corsican adven-
turer." Visiting Paris they would not attend his levees,
and the fact that Lord Lyons is unmarried has always
been considered an advantage, inasmuch as it enabled our
high-born British dames to find an excuse for not being
presented to the Empress when they were staying at
the French capital. With them Philo-Orleanism
has always been a mark of haut ton. Never-
theless, the Conservative press, and also the horning
Post have been conspicuously Bonapartist for years, and
never more so than when the present head of the family
.t:towaiiit.t.44l44--arima.,..a going to war without excuse.
Whatever be the reason for their partisanship, they have
scarcely the right to complain of the journals who do not
sympathise with them, for plain speaking. Nothing that
the Times or the Daily News has said can be stronger than
what several of the French journals have published. The
tales respecting the Emperor, which the Standard
denounces its contemporaries for publishing were nearly
all originated in the Paris journals. What can be more
severe, for instance, than the remarks of the Siecle respect-
ing the Emperor's alleged visit to the troops at Chalons,
except those of the Avenir National, which said, " the
country cares nothing at all about the Emperor ;
it wants to hear about the army." Another
strange characteristic of English Conservative journalism
just now is the indignation expressed at the
idea of France being deprived of any portion of her territory.
France as all the world knows, went to war in order to
annex the coal mines on the Saar and the Rhine provinces
of Germany, and if she had been victorious England cer-
tainly Would not have prevented her from seizing the
object of her greed. Why, then, now that the fortune of
war has gone against her, should there be any
surprise if Prussia should insist upon repaying
herself for the sacrifice of a war which
was thrust upon her, and if she is resolved
to make a fr4mtier line that shall be less open to attack?
Yet the rumour that England has proposed to make
Alsace and Lorraine a neutral state has made the Stan-
dard furious, though this is so mild a penalty upon France
that Prussia is almost certain not to consent to it. I
need hardly say that England is not at all likely to inter-
pose if Prussia should insist upon material guarante,:s as
the condition of peace.— Western Morning News.