The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 3, 1848.

Infamous as the 23d of June will for ever be in
French history, the 23d of February will for ever,
also, be most memorable and most glorious in her re-
publican annals. England, in like manner, has re-
cently added a memorable and glorious date to her
calendar. If France has her 23d of February, Eng-
land has her 10th of April, a day which is assuredly
one of the most majestic and momentous in our na-
tional records. Those who regard the 10th of April
merely as a rather dull affair, beginning with a pro.
inenade of special constables, proceeding with the
Poltroonery of the physical-force Chartists,
and ending with the presentation of an obscene peti-
tion to the House of Commons by Mr. PaAaGus
O'CoNIoR, have no faculty for the appreciation of
what is truly great, solemn, and affecting in the
bearing of a mighty people, the people of this Eng-
land of ours—
NEwst.‘l,l
" This precious stone set in the silver sea!"
The ;10th of April was a day both memorable and
;4; glorious, because it revealed to the whole world the
solidity of the foundations of our Constitution, those
{ foundations being the love, the reverence, and the

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patriotism of the population of Great Britain.
Diametrically opposed to each other both in
political and religious opinions, the inhabi-
tants of these islands most unquestionably
are—yet in that one sentiment, the sentiment
of civism, they are bound together as the rods
of the symbolic fasces are bound together by
ligature, rendering the axe of the law both strong and
indestructible. Tories, Conservatives, Whigs, Radi-
cals, Liberals, Reformers, Protectionists, Free-traders,
Agriculturists, Manufacturers, Protestants, Roman
Catholics, Unitarians, Dissenters, Churchmen, shop-
keeper, noble, clerk, gentleman, artizan, the
wealthiest and the poorest, the drudge and
the ennuye, the employer and the employed
—all were ONE, body and soul, in their de-
votion to their country, in their loyalty to the
SOVEREIGN who is the representive of their greatness,
in their devotion to the Constitution which is the
guarantee of their nationality, their freedom, and
their prosperity. This consolatory and most memo-
rable fact was revealed by
.the 10th of April. On
that day all party feuds were forgotten, the squabbles
of faction were thrown aside, differences which had
appeared most deadly only a moment before were
postponed, if they were not actually cast for ever
into oblivion, and all classes stood up together, simul-
taneously, cheerfully, and most resolutely, hand in
hand, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, the cham-
pions and defenders of Peace, Law, and Order. That
can never be forgotten. Posterity will remember
that while in 1848 there was this symbol in one
country—

FRANCE,
LIBERTY—EQUALITY—FRATERNITY ;
;here was at the same time this symbol in the other
country—

ENGLAND,
PEACE-LAW-- ORDER.

Now that this great demonstration has proved
;he stability of the British Constitution, we can
urn with a sense of security to the contem-

elation of the political situation, the political
wants, and the political capabilities of the different
nations of the European Continent. And here
we are materially assisted by the close reason-
ing, the lucid narrative, and the searching inquiries
which have just been published from the manuscripts
of the honourable and distinguished Member for the
city of Glasgow. Mr. MACGREGOR has done yeomen's
service to the popular cause in many other periods of
his career, but never more visibly so than in this
very period which has witnessed the ap-
pearance of his very remarkable pamphlet
on the Progress of Civilization and the Contrast
of the present position (the political position that
is to say) of Europe and America.* The pamphlet is
a work of the soundest logic, and will be inva-
luable to the future historian of England. It is
written clearly, boldly, and directly to the
point. There is no sham in it—no sophism—no
subterfuges of sentiment—or prevarications of prin-
ciple. The great question of the age is fairly put—and
we cannot but think that Mr. MACGREGOR has gone
a great way towards its solution. The argument (we
call it argument advisedly rather than narrative)
—is divided in four parts : first, the
" progress of civilization," secondly the " epochs of
civilization," thirdly " the effects of the American
and first French Revolutions," and fourthly, the
" modern condition of Europe and America." To
give at once, however, some more distinct and accu-
rate idea of the work, not only in regard to its
tendency, but also in reference to its very manner—
hare is the preface :
"In Germany, in the Austrian Empire, in France,
and in the Italian, and others of the Continental States
of Europe, we have during the first few months of the
year 1848, beheld the commencement of the beginning
of the effects, resulting from the folly of those rulers,
who seem to have been incapable of being instructed by
History.
" When Napoleon was departing for Elba, he said in
bitterness of spirit Cs n'est pas la Coalition qui ma de-
trtine—ce soot les idees liberales.' It was not a Confedera-
tion of the States of Europe that drove the mighty con •
queror from the throne. It was the ±power of those
liberal ideas which he had scorned to adopt. Alluding
to his re-establishing himself in power he said Je ne
puis pas me retablir, j'ai cheque les peuples.' He could
net possibly re-establish himself. He had insulted all
the people. He had outraged the public opinion of all
nations. He afterwards uttered an expression which
might serve for his epitaph J'ai peche contre les idees
libirales et je meurs.' I sinned,' said he, ' against liberal
ideas, and I have perished.'
" Le Temps avance au milieu des °rages, vouloir, ar-
refer son impetuosite, ce serait un vain effort;' meaning,
that public liberty could not be arrested in its progress.
Such was the opinion of Prince de Metternich about
thirty years afro, as contained in a dispatch to Baron
von Berstett. It would have been fortunate if the em-
peror had profited by the sagacity of his minister.
Those sovereigns and ministers who seem to have re-
tained their power after the events of February, 1548,
by yielding, though perhaps too late, to the power of
liberal ideas, and those who have een expelled from

their country by the stern laws of necessity, and by the
sovereignty of public opinion, are examples which may
well stand forth as a warning to all others; especially to
all those who are not yet guided by that forecast of the
future, which ought to convince them, that the old order
of things is not compatible with that indomitable march
of civilisation, and that rapid development of intellectual
power, which will not long submit to any except to an
equitable distribution of !the public burdens, and a ju:
share of all civil and political rights.
" The spirit of the age would not, even in Russia, new
tolerate the Czar Peter, were he to come forth with axe
in hand, chopping off the heads of his soldiers. ' Quid
leges sine moribus.'
" May we in the United Kingdom profit, in time, by
the experience of the past, as well as by the aspects of
the present. Let is reflect upon cause and effect in
studying the history of events, and we shall, with as
conclusive a certainty as that of a mathematical corollary,
be assured, that of all the evil causes which produce dis-
astrous effects, none have ever been, or ever can be,
more fatal than that absence of sagacity and judgment,
in legislation and in government, which disregards pub-
lic opinion. We mean that public opinion which is
created, not by mere sudden incidents of fear or hope,
but, by the indomitable progress of civilization, and the
sound diffusion of all useful knowledge—including
moral and political science. For upon this disregard to
intelligent public opinion, and upon the shallows of
arrogated, however antiquated, historical rights, and of
the prestige of right of any ono class of the exclusive
few to power, irrespective of the commonweal of the
many, have been wrecked almost every government,
and every ruler, and minister, who have been discom-
fited—who have perished.
"It will, indeed, be wise for those who consider
themselves statesmen among ourselves, if they will
study history as the Egeria which teaches wisdom by
experience. If they do not—their power will irretriev-
ably vanish before the intelligence and wisdom of the age.
"At no period of the history of this country, has
the condition of the United Kingdom question
claimed more attentive and more serious consideration
than it does at this very time.
" Taking the British empire with the magnitude and
complication of its moral, political, and material inte-
rests, and the enormity of its taxation and expenditure,
that Minister has but feeble claims to the ability of a
wise administrator—little of the magnanimous patriot—
and less of the sagacious statesman, :who does not rise
above the prejudices of his education, and the preten-
sions of his class, when great events have changed the
political aspect of the empires and states of Europe—
when the people of these kingdoms are harassed by
unequal, and burdensome, taxes—and when the real dan-
gers of the state arise—not from without, but, from any
further procrastination of a thorough reform in the sys-
tem of taxation, and a real, and most assuredly practical,
economy in the public expenditure.
" In making the above observations, and in the course
of the following sketches, we are anxious that it should
be understood that our remarks and comments are upon
the proceedings, omissions, and acts of rulers, adminis-
trators, and statesmen, as such ; without any invidious
feeling or reference to their personal characters : for we
hold it as a maxim, that it is a political immorality,.
in a public writer or speaker, to use the vile weapons of
abusive personalities. We also believe that there is no
truer index to the absence of common sense, practical
wisdom, and sound judgment—no sign more certain of
puerility of mind, and of the utter want of magnanimity
of sentiment, than that of personal virulence, either artis-
tically, satirically, or invidiously, which is too often too
lengthily exhibited by public writers and speakers; and
even within the walls of Parliament, where no man
should ever enter except for the discharge of that so-
lemn and responsible duty which by the fact of his
election he owes to the people, and to the country.
Having by this prologue afforded his reader some
tolerable conception of his political sentiments as to
the nature of the requirements of the present
century, Mr. MACGREGOR plunges at once into the
consideration of those abyssmal problems which are
now convulsing the nations of the civilized globe.
After insisting upon the great truth that "the
History of Navigation and Commerce is the History
of Civilization," the representative of Glasgow main-
tains with RAYNAL, that " the nations who have
civilized all the others have been commercial." In
illustration of the truth of this assertion he
traces civilization successively through—Tyre and
Sidon, Carthage, Spain, Constantinople, the
Hanseatic towns, the Venetians, the Genoese,
the Pisans, the Florentines, and so downwards to

* " Sketches of the Progress of Civilization and Public
Liberty ; with a view of the Political Condition of
Europe and America in 1848." By John Macgregor,
M.P., Bvo., pp. 72. Whittaker & Co., London, 1848.