The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-04 00:00:00

t4P hentuli

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1843.

Another political constitution is now in a forward
state of preparation in France. In the preamble to
the draft of this new constitution M. ARMAND MAR-
EAST has explained the principle from which the
whole of the recent movement has originated, by
declaring, with the terseness of an epigrammatic
logician, that France is democratic, and that there-
fore the Government of France should be republican.
Earnestly as we hope for the permanent establishment
of this republican Government in Paris, both for the
sake of France herself and for the rest of the
nations of Christendom, we must nevertheless
confess that we can by no means regard the
present scheme of a constitution with anything
like sentiments approaching to an implicit
confidence in its stability. To do so, it would be
necessary for us to be preternaturally credulous. For
whereas the Revolution of February gave promise of
a lasting animosity—the subsequent fluctuations of
the political barometer in the French metropolis
augur little more than a continuance of that French
fickleness, and that_French frivolity which have so
repeatedly tended to convulse the European continent.
Had we the patience of those ingenious philosophers
who draw analogies between the occurrences of
modern history and the poetic fables of the Greek my-
thologists, we should undertake to prove that HOMER
was literally the prophet of French disasters, that
the Iliad was more of a French epic than the gen-
riade itself, and that HELEN, who " set the world in
arms" by becoming the spouse of PARIS, was merely
the symbol of that Goddess of Liberty, crowned with
the Phrygian cap, who was espoused by the beau-
tiful city on the banks of the Seine.
If we look back over the records of the last seventy
years we shall find sufficient reasons for entertaining
doubts as to the permanence of the proposed Consti-
tution. We shall find, as the distinguished Presi-
dent of the National Assembly himself acknowledges,
that during that extraordinary interval France has
attempted everything and undergone everything—" the
cruel afflictions of civil war, the brilliant deceptions
of glory, the bitterness of defeat, the absolute rule of
genius, the moderate monarchy without' genius, legi-
kmacY, illegitimac
everything in turbny' g n
'good, powers b founded on
indifferent interest, 'h' —a s
been employed
, of experiment. Let us
enumerate the moatr wa
y
memorablef of these momentous
changes in the Government
pearance of M France from the ap-
IRADEAU to that CAVAIGNAC.
I. Opening of the States General. 1789.
it
11. Formation of the National Assembly.lay 5,
111. Convocation of the LegislativeA juuenmebil.
Oct. 1, 1791. y 7,
IV. Revolutionary Tribunal formed, Au
1792. g. 17,
SEM Si' 1 I' i*:lW. National Convention. Sept. 20.
'''''---Tif,7l:77'-VI. Republic Proclaimed. Sept. 21.
':-.°'•---:..-..J-----1.,
.'4-7r:1,•:, ~,,, yt. Committee of Public Safety. April 6, 1793,
,(4;--,cii y.:•yL;:'4, -.1 ;111. Triumph of the Jacobins, June 2.
;',.=-_.:=-:•r- j'fjc Triumph of TALLIES. July 27, 1794.
v:47',:-,y- : .
(
..,2.- JA:7),.. :,-,...z7.. Final'Triumph of the Moderates. May 20,
1795.
1,-4. a S X.I. Establishment of the Directory. October.