The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-16 00:00:00

last mediocre administration. Again the warlike
candidates for office have :not only secured victory to
themselves in the Eternal City by the elevation of,
Count MAMIANI to the department of the inte
but the portfolio of justice has been awardef- .
PASQUALE DE ROSSI, that of finance to LUNATI, that
of war to Prince D'Osia•PANFILI, that of commerce
to the Duke DB RIGITAIIO, the command of the police
to GirszPrt GALETTI, while the supreme dignity
of the Presidentship of the Council has been
conferred on the Count MARCHETTI. We enumerate
these comparative statistics, so to speak, of the belli-
gerent opposition in the metropolis of the Papal
States and of Republican France, not because we
are impressed for a single instant with any idea of a
resemblance between the situation of Pio NONO, and
that of the pacific majority represented by L AMARTINu.
The citizens of Rome are burning to flesh their
swords upon the plains of Lombardy from the holy
devotion of patriotism, from the depth of their alle-
giance to their nationality, from their profound
solicitude to share in the glory and the danger of
beating down the German banners in every city
southwards of the Carpathian mountains, and of
erecting in their stead the tri-colour of ItalianWithunity,
unity, fraternity, liberty, and independence. With
the clubbists of Paris it is altogether different.
They have no nationality of their own to vindicate ;
they have no foreign foe to expel beyond the frontiers ;
they have no conquerors to punish, no despots to
host
0-f
grade, no land to purge of the presence of a
mercenaries. All the plea which they can show
owfor
the justification of their demands for battle is the po-
sition of affairs in Italy and the torpor or terror of
Poland, madmen that they are ! As if France had
not within the past quarter revealed, by its sublime
maintenance of tranquillity, the omnipotence of
its moral influence on Christendom. As if
the months of March and April, together
with the close of February and the begin-
ning o f Mary, o ,pe
had not beet pregnant with emancipa-
tion to En, precisely ecause France afforded the
nations of the continent the grandeur of its example,
without impelling them along the pathway of retro-
gression by a military irruption beyond her bounda•
ries. As if the explosion of democracy at Vienna,
at Berlin, and at Munich had not revealed the wisdom
of that abstinence from an aggressive policy which
characterised the career of the Provisional Govern-
ment. Prussia arose and responded to the liberative
cries of the Parisians—then Austria, then Bavaria,
then
Lombardy, then Venice, then Hanover, then all
the subordinate jwincipalities of the Germanic Con-
federation. Delimark received spontaneous conces-
sions from her Sovereign. Naples compelled one of
the last of the Bourbons to yield to the requirements
of the populace. Sicily achieved her emancipation.
Spain and Portugal are beginning to display their
sympathy in the great movement of the surrounding
nations. And now—now at the eleventh hour—
when the pacific policy of France is proving more
and more triumphant, the insensate clubbists of
Paris are striving to hurl the whole republican sys-
tem into ruin, by drawing the brand of a revolutionary
war, and marching their armies across the frontier!
With those among the population of Rome who
yearn to mingle in the ranks of the Piedmontese
we can sympathise to the very fullest extent—their
thirst for war is honourable—it is the result of a
national and patriotic instinct. And, while we as
filly comprehend and appreciate the conscientious
scruples of their glorious and immortal PONTIFF, we
are rejoiced to find that those scruples have not been
violated by any overt recalcitration on the part of his
Holiness ; but that he has repudiated bloodshed
in a manner such as admirably became him in his
Pontifical character, while, with the sagacity of a
statesman and the patriotism of an Italian Prince, he
has abstained from any further interference against.
the participation of his subjects in the holy war of
independence. After the solemn and beautiful re-
monstrance of Pio NoNo, published in a decree of
the 2d instant—wherein he exclaims reproachfully,
" Popule melts, quid feci tibit What have I done to
you, omy people I"—it is a matter of inexpressible
gratification to find that the Romans and Pio Nom;
have been so soon afterwards reconciled—that the ori-i
ginator of the liberative movement in Italy is still at
the head of the march of emancipation—and that the
youth of the Papal States will speedily swell the
army which is pressing steadily forward against the
troops Of RADETZIIT.
Our sentiments towards the warlike party in
France are precisely the reverse. That party is
endeavouring to forward its ruthless and unprincipled
ambition under the humane pretext of carrying
assistance to the Pales and the Italians. They have
either forgotten or contemned that declaration of
M. DE LAMARTINE—" The Government will not
allow its policy to be altered by any foreign
nation, no matter what easy be the sym-
pathy which we may experience for that
nation in our hearts." But no ; they have neither
contemned that declaration nor forgotten it—they are
endeavouring to cram it down the throats of the
Executive Committee with the pike of insurrection.
War they are resolved to have—if possible—at all
hazards; at the hazard of morality, of principle, of
Republican fame, of human life, of liberty, and of the
Revolution. Their thirst for war is insatiable—they
must have it or perish. Which will be effected—
war or the annihilation of the clubbists ? Let Paris
reply. We wait for that reply confuiently, for we
know that the Parisians will not dishonour the re-
membrance of February.

When the great principle of free trade was recog.
nised by the Legislature—when it was decided tha
no tax or impost should for the future be levied for
the mere purpose of protecting any particular class
or interest, it became manifest that some great and
comprehensive changes were rendered necessary in
those portions of our commercial code by which our
shipping is regulated, and which have been popularly
known as " the navigation-laws." It was certain
that the present system could not be maintained in
its integrity; but great caution was necessary
as to the nature and extent of the modifications
and alterations that might be brought forward,
The maintenance of our naval supremacy is dear to
the heart of every Englishman, and no British subject
would consent to any change by which the efficiency
of our " wooden walls," or of their gallant and hardy
crews, might be impaired or even endangered. The
magnitude of the interests involved demanded that
the most attentive consideration should be devoted to
the subject. That consideration has been bestowed;
two years have elapsed since Parliament decreed the
abolition of monopoly, and that trade and commerce
should be unrestricted and unfettered by any useless
and vexatious regulations. And still certain
rptraenvtenat nian preventing the magnificent
changeag nifin
from
provisions i sio_ns were enforced which had the ef-
fect'
the important
realised.
Foreign n • •
mcet results
eing fully of
nations viewed with jealousy our
continued, although but partial, adhesion to the ob-
jectionable principle of protection. '
doubt the sincerity of our professions They might well
a when they found
that we still excluded the vessels of other lands from
any portion of our traffic. Those who
were injuriously
bad,
affected, or, what was almost aswho fancied
that they were injuriously affected thereby
con-
tinued their own exclusive system, which t„ still
h y fairly
enough asserted to be but a well•rcerited retaliation
for our on impolitic enactments, and British
ship-
pingl
n
w
was subjected to great disadvantages, in
the shape of differential duties and other burdens%
and even a hint was given on behalf of the Prussian
Government that more stringent measures would be
introduced so soon as the expiration of the then
existing treaty enabled them to deal freely with the
subject; while the Minister Plenipotentiary of the
United States, in a more enlightened spirit, declared
the desire of his country, our greatest rival in com-
mercial enterprise and naval power, to meet its fairly
in removing every existing restriction on interna-
tional commerce, and to establish universal reci-
procity in the widest sense—by which British ships
would be allowed to trade from any port in the world
to any port in the United States and be received,
protected, and in respect to charges and duties,
treated like American ships, if reciprocally American
ships might, in like manner, trade frpm any part of the
world to any port in her MAJESTY'S dominions. Such
a warning on the one side, and so fair and reasonable
an invitation on the other, could not be slighted or
despised. It is due to our colonies also, if we de-
sire to maintain the existing connexion between them
and the parent state, that we should remove the
grievances which they sustained under our naviga-