The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-03 00:00:00

sycophants of the powers then in existence, were the

first to laugh at it. We are not quite sure that we

can do so as freely at the present day. The Court of
to-day doei not like laughing. Nevertheless, we

shall be curious to see certain representatives—Father
LACONDAIRE, for instance, with his shaven head and

Dominican crown, replacing his white robes for a
black coat, a white waistcoat with lappels, and a tri-

coloured sash, ornamented with a holden fringe en

•
grainer d epznards. What would the citizen MURAT
say, if he returned to life, and found himself deprived
of his immortal cap? But let us be serious. It is

not a change in pantaloons, or in the name of streets,
that changes society. The people have more sense
than you seem to think. The proverb says that from
the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step.

We are very willing to beliere that you are sublime,

but we are truly sorry to say that you hare taken the

other step."
In another paragraph the _Debuts declares that the
Provisional Government might with equal propriety
have ordained that the members of the National
Assembly should appear in a state of nudity because
man was so made by the Divinity, or in the
picturesque blouse of the handicraftsman because the
Deputies are the chosen of the ouvriers. To award
due importance to these absurd and petulant ob-
jections to the decent uniformity of the representa-

tive costume, we must pronounce them at once—
contemptible. -
If the Provisional Government has
given no more serious cause for dissatisfaction, it has
merited the reverence and admiration of the citizens.
A decree of rather more significance appeared in
the Moniteur of yesterday, a decree which shows
that the Provisional Ministers are eminently entitled
to this reverence and admiration—not alone from the
population of France, but of entire Christendom.
It nronounces in the -most absolute language the
total and permanent abolition of slavery in all parts
of the Republic. This noble and admirable document
is subjoined :
In the name of the French People :
" The Provisional Government, considering that sla-
very is an attack upon the dignity of man; that in de-
stroying the free choice of man it suppresses the natural
principle of right and duty; that it h a flagrant violation
of the Ropublican doctrine—" Liberty, Equality, Fra-
ternity." Considering that if effective measures should
not speedily follow the proclamation already made of
the principle of abolition, deplorable disorders in the
colonies might be the result, decrees—
" Art. 1. Slavery will be entirely abolished in all the
colonies and possessions of France, two months after the
promulgation of the present decree in each of them.
From the date of the promulgation of the present decree
in the colonies, all corporal punishment, and all sales of
persons not free, shall be absolutely interdicted.
" Art. 2. The system of engagement, for a time esta-
blished in Senegal, is suppressed.
"Art. 3. The Governors and Commissaries-General
of the Republic are charged to apply the whole of the
measures required to ensure liberty at Martinique,
Guadaloupe, and its dependencies. The island of the
Reunion (Bourbon), Guiana, Senegal, and other French
establishments on the west coast of Africa, the island of
Mayotte and its dependencies, and Algeria.
" Art. 4. All old slaves condemned to affliction and
correctional punishments for crimes which, in free men,
would not have been punished, are amnestied.
"Art. 5. The National Assembly will regulate the
amount of indemnity to be given to the colonists.
"Art. 6. The colonies purified from shivery and the
Indian possessions shall be represented in the National

Assembly.
"Art. 7. The principle that the soil of France frees
the slave who touches it is applied to the colonies and
possessiors of the Republic.
"Art. 8. For the future, even in foreign countries,
every Frenchman is forbidden to possess, to purchase, or
to sell slaves, or to psrticipat, either directly or indi-
rectly, in any traffic or business of the kind. Every
infraction of these rules will lead to the loss of the
quality of the French citizen. Nevertheless, French-
men who are affected by these prohibition at the moment
of the promulgation of the present decree, will have a
delay of three years to conform to them. Those who
may become possessors of slaves in foreign countries by
inheritance, gift, or marriage, must, under the same
penalty, set them free, or alienate them within the same
period, from the day that their possession may commence.
" Art. 9. The Ministers of Marine, Colonies, and War
are charged with the execution of the present decree.
"Done at Paris, in Council of Government, the 27th
April, 1548.
" Signed by the Members of the Provisional Govern-
ment."

The Ultras are, as a matter of course, half delirious

at the victorious majority of the moderate Repub-
licans in the general elections of the capital and the
departments. LEDRU ROLLIN does not disguise his
chagrin in the Refortne.
" A little patience,".says that journal; " our eternal
enemies will not havo patience if we have. Look at
them coming with their propositions for two Chambers
—the suffrage a deux dep ; financial laws favourable
to large property and stock-jobbing. Look at them
crying out communism, when the proportionable pro-
perty-tax is mentioned.
" All partial insurrection is at this moment a crime
and a fault ; a crime, for it causes the purest blood to
flow uselessly ; a fault, for it retards the definitive esta-
blishment of the Republic egulitaire et fraternelle."

Through that sombre passage it is impossible not

to detect the after-thought of civil war.
The ominous manifesto of the Societe des Droits de
rHomme et du Citoyen—placarded so recently upon all
the walls of Paris—has been everywhere torn down.
With the indignant voice of the Reforme are heard
also those of the Commune de Paris, the Courrier
Francais, the Vraie Liberte, and the Ana du Peuple.
Even the National is beginning to grumble at what
it calls the reactionary movement. Speaking of the
rejection of M. Tuiaas, the Constitutionnel ob-
serves:—

" The universal order was issued—any candidate
whatever rather than M. Thiers I Dismissals, calumnies,
manoeuvres of all sorts, violence, nothing was left un-
done; not only were lists with M. Thiers's name torn from
the country people, but the octroi men searched for them
as if for contraband goods; and the town of Aix was
threatened with the loss of its court of appeal, and all
this was done by orders from Paris. The rector of the
Academy of Aix, M. Dufougires, was dismissed by M.
Carnot because be supported M. Thiers."

It would appear that besides the Catholic prelates
already mentioned as among the representatives re-
turned by the departments, the name of the Bishop of
LANGRES must also be enumerated. The Republican
deputy for Aveyrou turns out to be the brother of the
Archbishop of rams, and not the metropolitan him-
self.

di o nc
iatli
ease co of utrihtes
dheapvaer t beent
sr, e caecicvoeudn
ts fromwh
itchhe,
disAtudrdbiet
while they confirm the reports of the restoration of
I corroborate the rumours of tranquillity to Rouen
emeutes at Limoges, at Lyons, and at Nantes. On
Friday and Saturday all the bridges on the Rouen
Railway were occupied by the Garde Nationale
Mobile. Private letters from Limoges, of the 27th,
tell of serious collisions in that direction. Of these
proceedings the Presse says :--
" The disturbances at Limoges have been very serious.
The names of the deputies could not be proclaimed. The
candidates of the moderate party, MM. Maurat-Ballange
and C. Teste, were obliged to leave the town. The
National Guards of St. Jullien, Bellac, and other neigh-
bouring cantons, were on their march for Limoges.
Orders were given for two squadrons of cavalry to repair
thither also. It i 3 stated that M. Pierre Leroux is
inatdled at the prefecture, with some hundreds of
workmen."
According to the Pattie the Provisional Govern-
ment had dispatched a special commissary to
Limoges, for the purpose of effecting its pacification.
At Nantes there were very serious disturbances on
the 27th ultimo. The enteute, which commenced
with the marching of a column of 1,200 men through
the principal streets, singing the songs of the Revo-
lution, excited but little trepidation. After sacking
the house of the Cure of Saint Nicholas with cries of—
" A bas FouraxlEEL—ti bas la Care!"—the mob were
dispersed through the intervention of a commissary of
police, and several of the rioters were arrested.
The fusion of the departmental banks with the
Bank of France is complete, and the latter has accord-
ingly issued a notice that it will discount bills in
Lille, Rouen, Havre, Toulouse, Marseilles, Lyons,
and Orleans, and receive the notes of the backs of
these loans.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, MAY 2.
Boulogne and Amiens, 6%—Northern of France, 31,.;
Orleans and Bordeaux, 04—Paris and Orleans, 23—Rouen
and Hayt), 15—Sambre and Meuse, 4%.

SOUTHAMPTON,
MONDAY, ASAY I.—The Prussian
schooner Speed, from Lisbon, bound to Memel, and the
liainburgh bark Louisa,
with sugar, from Havannah,
bound to Hamburgll,
have arrived at the Motherbank.
These vessels have put in 00 account of having received
news in the mouth of the Channel of the existing hosti-
lities between the Germanic Confederation and Den-
mark; they are recommended by their respective
consulates to remain off the Isle of 'Wight until all fear
of molestation by the Danes ceases. Merchants con-
nected with Germany are using all available means to
warn vessels under the German or Prussian flag bound
to German ports and the north and east seas against
proceeding, and cutters are now cruising in the Channel
to notify to the commanders of such vessels the dangers
to which they are exposed.
SOUTHWARK-BRIDGE COMPANY. The annual
meeting of this company was held yesterday at the offices,
near Southwark-bridge, when the usual accounts were
laid before the shareholders, the result of which was that
small dividend only was declared.