The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-05 00:00:00

OV.eiliratT

e-S7'
LONDON, IVEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 1848.

There is an article in the Edinburgh Review just
published, commenting upon the character already
assumed by the "French Republic." It is a contri •
bution as small in bulk as it is large in deduction.
Written, and, in all likelihood, printed, before the
insurrection of the 23d, 24th, and 25th of June had
desolated Paris, it breaths a remarkable air of vatici-
nation. For example, in one paragraph (p. 228),
when speaking of the inaugurative acts of the Pro-
visional Government, it observes that " the institu-
tion of the Garde Mobile was perhaps the most
fortunate device of all," and, in another paragraph
immediately afterwards (p. 229), it whispers a few
syllables about " the impending appointment of a
triumvirate, in which the name of a popular militaire
—General CATAIGNAC— assumes a most significant
prominence." Scarcely could the sheets of this
distinguished publication have been dry after its
passage through the printing-press when its pre-
dictions were verified by a stupendous and unimagin-
able catastrophe—the Garde Mobile had evinced a
courage which combined the impetuous audacity of
recruits with the stern aud inflexible determination
of veterans, and if the Executive Commission had
not been replaced by a military triumvirate, General
CAvAiGNac had risen to the supreme irresponsibility
of a Dictator.

Of the heroism of the young Garde Mobile volumes
might be written without recording all those beau-
tiful acts of daring and patriotism which have covered
their sags with glory, and secured to themselves the
grateful admiration of their fellow-countrymen. His.
tory will commemorate such deeds as those of MARTIN
IirAciNTHE, who killed five men and captured five
banners, on the summit of five different barricades;
such incidents as that of the striplings who were
lowered by ropes into a cellar, their muskets in their
hands, and by that means seized or destroyed a body
of armed insurgents—or that of M. ALPHONSE DE
POLIGNAC (the son of the celebrated Minister of
CHARLES X.) fighting side by side with the labour-

ing men ere blouse—or that of M. Itouß, one of the
ez-Deputies, who charged a body of the rebels at the

nevertheless which we conceive to be certainly
equalled by those of BUGEAUD, BEDEAU, LAMo-
RICIERE, and other eminent warriors of Algeria—we
cannot but regard with sorrow the necessity which
has been forced on France of selecting a soldier
instead of a civilian as her First President. That

it is a necessity we acknowledge at once; there
was no other guarantee for the maintenance of
the sovereign power of the people ; . the establish-
ment of a temporary dictatorship was requisite
to secure the very existence of the Republic.
Still, we conceive that some larger amount of mag-
nanimity might have accompanied the movement by
which the powers of administration were being
thus • forcibly concentrated'; we think that the
zeal, the devotion, and the achievements of the
,Pro. 7
visional Government and of the .Executive Commis•
sion had entitled the immortal statesmen of February
to some slight token of gratitude, instead of ren,•
dering them indiscriminately the objects of dastardly
abuse and insidious slander. Without trial; without
any evidence whatever beyond that of a hinted letter
and a rumoured passport—manuscripts which no one
has yet dared.to adduce in open court—such a man
as LAMARTINE has been condemned. Condemned• of
what ? Of complicity with the very rebels against
whom he imperilled his life.;..of conspiring against
that Republic of which he more than any other man
in existence was the Originator ; of plot-
ting to dissipate' by a fratricidal carnage that su-
blime policy of moderation which his great
heart first conceived, and which` for upwards of
three months, either in his Cabinet as a. Statesman,
or in the. Tribune as an Orator, he has advocated at

the risk of everything that was roost precious to his
genius and his affections. For ourselves we cannot
but regard the fall of .Ax.rnoNsE DE LAMARTINE
from power as a panegyric upon the preceding
triumphs of his career as a politician. If he fell
through any fault of his own—he fell through an
excess of Moderation.

Among the industrial resources of Ireland which
still remain almost wholly undeveloped, but from
which, if properly attended to, the most important
results might be obtained, there are none that could he
more easily brought into full operation, and which
would be attended with more beneficial consequences
to all classes, than the deep sea, the coast, and the
inland fisheries of that much neglected land. It is
an indisputable fact, that there is upon the coast of
Ireland more fish of every description, with greater
facilities for taking them, than on any coast of equal
extent in the world. The bays and harbours with
which the island is indented, swarm at certain sea-
sons of the year with myriads of fish, which
might be converted into a source of national
wealth, giving an abundant supply of wholesome and
palatable food to the starving population, and afford•
ing ample employment to the immense masses of
labour which are now useless drugs in the market.
True it is that perhaps one hundred, thousand persons
are actually engaged in these fisheries, but the labour
of the great majority thereof—perhaps we should be
justified in saying of five-sixths of the entire number
—is practically thrown away, from want of proper
appliances and the means of making their exertions
really productive of profit. Their fishing is carried
on in small] boats, with rude materials, so that,
when the favourable moment arrives, and the
shoals of fish are encountered, golden opportuni-
ties are lost, while the open boat is seeking the
shore with some trifling cargo, and when it arrives,
from want of proper means for curing and saving the
fish so taken, a great portion thereof is absolutely lost,
the consumption being limited to a few miles from the
locality where they have been captured.
The illustrious nobleman who now so ably fills the
Viceroyalty of Ireland, and who has directed his
closest attention to every mode by which prosperity
may be restored, has felt the deep and vital impor-
tance of the subject. In a speech which he made, in
returning thanks on Saturday last, at the opening of
the Great Southern Railway to Limerick, his
Excellency, when speaking of the national
advantages derivable from the extension of
railway communication throughout the land, said
"But I think there is one branch of native industry'
to which more benefits will accrue from the facilities
afforded by railway communication than almost any
other—l allude to the fisheries of Ireland. That mine
of wealth has hitherto been unexplored for want of
a market; but when we call to mind, that up to a few
years ago the use of fish, except as a luxury, was un-
known to the interior of England, and that the annual
amount now carried on the railways alone exceeds
30,000 tons, we must all rejoice in feeling tha
bright days are about to dawn for the Irish fisher,
men." When we find a nobleman like the Ear

of CLARENDON using such language we are indeed
encouraged, for we feel well convinced that he would
not hold out such hopes unless fully resolved that the
same should be realised to the utmost extent of his
power and ability.
It may, perhaps, be vain to expect any very im-
portant ameliorations in the deep sea fisheries at this

late period of the session, or the grant of an adequate
sum of money for the full development thereof in the
present state of the Exchequer. Something, how-
ever, may be done ; and in the inland branch espe-
cially, where the most serious injury is inflicted, in
consequence of some defects in the present law,
which might most easily be amended. Defects
with the full assent of persons of every shade
and variety of political opinion. Indeed, we believe
that the requisite alterations would be unanimously
approved of by every Member of either House of

Parliament connected with Ireland. For some
time past a committee of gentlemen, interested
in the inland fisheries of the country, have
taken measures to point out the changes
required in the sth and 6th Victoria, chap. 106,
which repealed no less than 30 other statutes, which

had been previously passed on the subject, from the
time of HENRY VIII. up to that period. This Act,
however, has not been found to work efficiently, from
a variety of causes, and it is to render it practically
useful that is now the object of those gentlemen. In
March last a deputation waited on the Lord-
Lieutenant, to solicit the aid of the Government
in their efforts to obtain the required amendments in
the fishery laws. Ilis Excellency received that de-
putation most graciously, and promised to make all
necessary inquiries, and so far as lay in his power
to assist in improving so important a branch of the
national resources of the country. Subsequently
thereto, the, committee finding that little or no pro-

• Port St. Denis, and took from them with his own
hand the standard of sedition--or that of the
boy-soldier who was visited by the Pre-
sident of the National Assembly—or of the
youth who wept with emotion when the
guard in front of the Palace of the Republican Legis-
lature received him with military honours. History
will not disdain to eulogise these unostentatious
heroes of the faubourgs—she will enumerate their
acts of valour as well as those of their more illus-
trious contemporaries—she will record their achieve-
ments during the three deplorable days of the insur-
rection ; while she will not fail to mention the bravery
of Lieutenant-General PIRE, who knocked up the
the muzzle of a pistol placed against his forehead by
an ouvrier, and cheered his men on to the capture of
the barricade in the Rue Nationale St. Martin—of
ARAGO, the astronomer, who led on a battalion of
the National Guard against the insurgents in the Rue
des Mathurins—of LAMARTINE, the poet-statesman,
who, at the head of another battalion, carried the
barricade raised at the top of the Rue St. Severin—
of Prince PIERRE BONAPARTE, who had a horse shot
under him during the cannonade—of General BREA,
who was murdered by the discharge of a pistol-ball at
the very moment when he was pleading for the life of
his assassin—and of DENIS (A FFRE), the Archbishop
of Paris, who died the sublime death of a martyr to
patriotism. All of these memorable incidents will be
chronicled by the future historian ; they require no
prolonged notice from ourselves; they are destined to
occupy a conspicuous place in the most glorious annals
of the human family.
That which more immediately commands the con-
sideration of contemporaries is the posture assumed at
this moment by the French Republican Government.
By a calamity which no sagacity could have forseen,
and which no arrangement could have prevented, a
young soldier has been suddenly elevated to supreme
power, the Dictatorship having been confided by ac-
clamation to the hands of EUGENE DE
CAYAIGNAc. With a full appreciation of
the merits of General CAVAIGNA C—merits