The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-14 00:00:00

etyienta

LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1848.

Although the ultimate calculation of votes cannot
be expected much before Christmas, it is already cer-
tain that Prince Louis NAPOLEON, the representative
of the imperial dynasty, has been elected President.
It is not only certain that he has been elected, but
that his election has been triumphant. The prestige
of a great name has enveloped him with an almost
superstitious popularity. He has risen to the altitude
of power, sustained solely by the memory of that im-
mortal man whose glory has revived in the nine-
teenth century the marvels of the most wonderful
heroes of antiquity. Never, most assuredly, since the
histories of nations were first written, has a more
magnificent tribute of homage been offered to the manes
of any hero than that,which is now emanating from the
soul! of Republican France, and which is being laid
with reverent and loving hands upon the mausoleum
of the Emperor NAPOLEON. The melodious predic-
tion of the poet BERANGER is already working out
its fulfilment—that graceful vaticination in which
the bard sang of the enlarging celebrity of the Con-
queror t.—

" On parlera de sa gloire
Sous le chaume bien longternps ;
L'humble toit, dans cinquante ans,
Ne connaitra plus
impassioned prophecy
htstoire
The truth of this
rophecy is verified by
the suffrages cast into the u
rns the Presidential
election ; and the enthusiastic
about
f oadbmutiration of pos-
terity is resounding already
the anointed sadier —" under thethedtomb of
in
the midst of the temple consecZade,
religion to the GOD of armies." The vengettuce-Yf
the people is at last being articulated against the
fabricators of the treaty of Vienna ; and the earnest-
ness with which the French citizens are labouring to
invest the son of King Louis and Queen HORTENSE
with the dignity of their first magistrate must be
regarded as an expression of their horror at the deeds
which, in 1815, showed that the Sovereigns of
Europe were altogether devoid of magnanimity. It
has been eloquently said by CHATEAUBRIAND, that
had NAPOLEON combined with his own heroic quali-
ties some of the meek and civic virtues of WASHING-
TON, "he had named liberty the universal legatee
of his fame r The result of the great political
struggle for the chair of Presidency would seem to
indicate either that the condition implied by the au-
thor of Atala, was not requisite, or that the EMPEROR
had really combined the patriotic sincerity of a WASH-
INGTON with the imperial pomps of a CHARLEMAGNE.
Whatever may be the decision of the future historian
upon this particular, it is manifest that the triumph
of Prince Lours NAPOLEON, through the medium of
universal suffrage, is, as we have already observed, a
magnificent homage to the memory of the EMPEROR.
As an augury of the aggregate number of votes de-
posited in the urns of ballot, the proportion of
the suffrages given to the several candidates 'by the
inhabitants of the capital and its banlieus, acquires a
peculiar importance. Before the intelligence from
the departments has been received, before accounts
hare reached the Executive from Corsica or Algeria,
the decision of Paris must be accepted as a portent