The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

which recently polluted the city of the acropolis
with its plots, under the auspices of the
deceased COLETTI. At Copenhagen the Right Hon.
H. W. W. WYNN observes, with an interest that can
scarcely be appreciated in the soporific and lulling
regions of Belgravia, the fortunes attendant upon the
Danish standard on the banks of the Eider, and
under the wails of Friederichstadt. From the revo-
lutionary movement of Lombardy, the irritable de-
mands of Bohemia, the imperative petitions from
Gallicia, and the annihilation of the power exercised
fir half a century over the Austrian councils
by the Lord of Johannisburg, the Em-
peror FERDINAND has been compelled to
adopt a policy such as three months ago could never
have suggested itself to the sanguine imagination of
Viscount PONSONBY. Even among the pageantries

results

of Saint Petersburgh Lord BLOOMFIELD must recog-
nise the precarious posture of affairs along the con •
fines of Lithuania and in the interior of Russian
Poland. At Lisbon Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUZ iS COM-

pelled to witness the insane and retrogressive system
enforced by the Ministerial advisers of the
SOVEREIGN. And at Madrid the Right
Honourable HENRY BULW ER has received a
polite intimation that his recal by Lord
PALMERSTON will be regarded as a pleasant, frag-
ment of intelligence by the members of the Narvaez
Administration. Everywhere is doubt, trepidation,
or annoyance to our Ambassadors and Plenipoten-
tiaries. Everywhere are the representatives of her
Britannic MAJESTY tormented, worried, importuned,
threatened, badgered, or regarded with suspicions.
And through the whole of this Lord PALMERSTON is
expected to preserve an equable temperament. Teazed
to distraction himself in the House of Commons, one
while by the petulant personalities of Mr. URQUHART,
at another by the monstrous impeachments of Mr
ClizsmoLu ANSTEY, the Chief Secretary for Foreign
Affairs is expected to preserve the equanimity of his
disposition, despite all the annoyances pouring into
his official portfolio through the medium of his con-
tinental dispatches.
Of all the shades and diversities of insolence evinced
by certain of the Cabinets of Europe towards the re-
sident Ambassadors from Great Britain, the conduct

those useless articles, when they can no longer with
impunity take part in grand spectacles, and attract
the attention and excite the envy of their gaping as-
sociates by their proficiency in military tactics and
evolutions. The consignment of the officers and ring
leaders to the several gaols and houses of correction
throughout the country will moderate the ardour o
the enthusiastic recruits, and induce them to have
recourse to other pastimes, leading to less unpleasant

Meanwhile the leader par excellence, Mr. JOHN
MITCHELL, appears resolved that the gagging Act
shall have no effect upon his conduct, and if the tur-
bulent passions of the people should be appeased, it
will not be owing to any failure on his part
of the usual amount of stimulating writing and of
" open and advised speaking." On Monday,
when, as the editor of a public journal, he
must have been well aware that the Bill for the secu-
rity of the Crown and Government had received the
Iloyal assent on the preceding Saturday, and was,
consequently, at that time part and parcel of the law
of the land, Mr. Mircem. presided at a meeting held
at the Princess's Theatre, Abbey-street, when he an-
nounced that the English Chartists and the Irish
people " had one common enemy to destroy—the
Legislature of Englund." And he further proposed
that the former " should undertake to make Eng-
land ungovernable by any English Government,
Whig or Tory, which withheld from them
their full rights, while the Irishmen would
engage to make Ireland ungovernable by any Mini-
stry, good, bad, or indifferent." This is certainly
tolerably plain and unequivocal. To do justice,
however, to the " War Editor," he is by no means
mealy-mouthed on such occasions ; and if sufficient
grounds for a prosecution, under the new statute,
were required by the law officers of the Crown, they
would not long be withheld.' No religious enthusiast,
in fact, ever knitted for a martyr's crown more fer-
vently than Mr. MITCHELL pines for a prosecution
for something more than a misdemeanour, and it
would be hard to disappoint so earnest a demand.
If, however, the political horizon is cloudy with so
many portentous and threatening indications, the
prospect is not altogether dark ; there are some blue
spots in the heavens that warrant favourable expecta-
tions that the tempest and storm may pass away
dwri
et
shsoeus toefx g
cpoenntiddi
n tehieni r t
hf uer yon
Government,
ove Irishrnm
engr a
t,
and un
e. x
pAd r
es
sive of the determination of the parties from whom
they have emanated to support the con-
stituted authorities in their efforts to protect the
lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of all
classes, are flowing in from every quarter of the
country. A knowledge of the well-disposed and
loyal inhabitants is thus obtained, and if the Go-
vernment should see a necessity for calling on Irish-
men to come forward and enrol themselves for the
maintenance of the peace or the country, we are sa-
tisfied that they would manifest similar alacrity to
that which recently reflected so much credit on all
classes of society in the British metropolis.

The French elections are passing over with un-
expected tranquillity. Universal as is the interest
concentrated upon them, and momentous as will be
the result to which they must inevitably lead, their
progress is only marked by an unusual quietude and a
profound calm. And it is but right it should be so. It
is but right that the interest elicited by these elections
should be of too gra-ve and anxious a character to be

manifested by any outward demonstration, even among

a peopic so demonstrative as the French; and it is more
especially well that an affair of such vital importance
to the whole nation should not be marred by any,

even temporary or trivial, inu-ute. The first general
election of Republican France is for many reasons a
subject of deep interest interesting from the

present circumstances which occasion it, and in-
teresting from the future consequences which

may follow it ; interesting to those who
are actors in the scene, and interesting to the spec-
tators observing it. A general election is at all times

worthy of attention and productive of serious thought,
that is to those who have time to consider its abstract

importance. Generally speaking, when an election
takes place iri this country, for example, public atten-
tion is too much occupied with speculating as to who
will get in and who will be rejected. to look upon the
affair in any more extended light. But removed

from the immediate scene of action, as we are now in
contemplating the French, the grandeur of the spec-
tacle as a whole, its sublimity as an idea, becomes
apparent to us. We recognise the full merits
of that triumph of civilization—a representative con-
stitution. We witness the marvellous combination of

popular liberty and public order. We see all the advan•
tages of the veriest democracy enjoyed without
their degenerating into the evil consequences a
anarchy. We find a people, at the same time, ezer,
cising authority and yielding obedience—exercising
their rightful prerogatives as individual men, or se-
lecting their law-makers, and yielding ready obe-
dience, as loyal citizens, to the Legislature thus
chosen by themselves and their countrymen. By this
proceeding—and by this alone—the power of the
people is at once proclaimed and preserved. By
those unpretending and, apparently, unimportant en-
tries at the polling-booths, a minority of the people
are invested by the rest with that power which is the
birthright of all the members of a free nation, and
hence the acts of that chosen minority become the
acts of the whole people, whose representa-
tives they are. No form of government
could by possibility be devised more liberal
to each, and more just to all, than is a representative
constitution when equitably organized. Errors and
faults, inseparable from all human institutions, too
often detract from the perfect character of this form
of government, for the form of government itself is a
perfect one. Errors and faults have crept into our
own mode of organizing a representative Legislature
—errors and faults which we are solicitous of having
avoided and amended for the future ; but notwith-
standing their existence the people of this country are
fully impressed with the inestimable advantages of the
Constitution which they enjoy, and consequently they
experience no common interest in the now *happily
accelerated progress of other nations towards a parti-
cipation of those advantages. All the people of
Europe will, ere long, be ruled by their own repre-
sentatives. France has for a considerable period
possessed a representative legislature, but the im-
portance of such a Legislature will just now be
manifested in an especial manner. Free from the
control of a Sovereign, and free from the corrupting
influences of a regal Ministry, the 'French Parlia-
ment will be now invested with peculiar poWer, and
through recent events become the observed of Europe
and the warning lesson, or encouraging example, of
surrounding nations. The representatives will be pos-
sessed of no ordinary responsibility. Their position will
be a most onerous and important one. No selfish de-
sires, no vain ambition, no miserable pride, should,
more especially in the present instance, stimu-
late any citizen to solicit the suffrages
of his countrymen. No interested motives,
no personal friendship, no promised reward, should
induce any elector to give a vote for his representa•
tive—a representative who will have to represent not
his constituents alone, but France and Republicanism.
Let us hope theta due sense of their awful responsibility
now influences the people of France whether electors
or elected. In a few days the result of their delibe-
rations will be made known by the publication of
the names of the members of the new Parliament ;
and, ere long, the consequences of the
election must be manifested by the decisions
and resolutions of the Chamber. If—though happily
such a misfortune is hardly probable—if the present
elections be influenced by suck a spirit as LBDI.
Roman's, the result will be speedy and inevitable—
trouble for France and destruction to Republicanism.
But such is not likely to be the issue of the trial. It
is more than probable that the new Assembly will be
comprised of men of politics and characters as various
as their occupations, of which, judging from the lists
of the candidates, they are likely to present an extras
ordinary variety. No doubt the new Chamber will
be occasionally agitated by some outbursts on the
part of the violent and ultra-Republicans, and also at
intervals led away by the specious reasoning of some
secret partizan of the old, regime. Perhaps there
may be in the list ofne new representatives
unknown,someperretsentatieswh
men
o
of genius and ability,
themselves
no
unimportant
influence
conspicuous
i
debate,m
overtY thea speedilyfn future perhapsrak ee ser
of the country. All this,
e destinies m
however, is doubtful. But one thing is, happily,
t