The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-23 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 23, 1870.

The proclamation of the Plebiscitum was on
Saturday last celebrated in the Salle des Etats, at
the Palace of the Tuileries, with all befitting state
and ceremonial. As a mere spectacle, the scene pre-
sented to view appears to have been magnificent.
From among the assembled dignitaries of the Empire,
the Cardinals alone were absent, their Eminences
being still detained at Rome, in attendance at the
Nineteenth (Ecumenical Council, the first Council
of the Vatican. Otherwise, France (and, through
diplomacy, the same might be said alike also of
Europe, and even of the World) was completely re-
presented. The Ambassadors were there, the Marshals
were there—the Ministers of the Empire, the
Senators, the Deputies, the great personages
officially illustrating all departments of the
Imperial Government. Precisely at one o'clock in the
afternoon the EMPEROR, the EMPRESS, and the PRINCE
IMPERIAL, accompanied by the other members of the
Imperial family, and attended by the Court, entered
the Grand Hall of the Assembly in the midst of
reiterated and enthusiastic shouts of Vive l'Empereur !
Vive l'lmperatrice I and Vice le Prince Imperial ! This
latter cry being again and again repeated significantly
—in remembrance of the appeal made by NAPOLEON
111. to his people, that by their affirmative response
through the Plebiscite, they should facilitate the
transmission of his imperial crown to his son. The
response made by the nation has entirely justified
the confidence thus reposed in its loyalty by the
SOVEREIGN. And bearing in mind the grandeur of
the majority again obtained by NAPOLEON 111.--
actually, for a fourth time in two-and-twenty
years, as the EMPEROR himself reminded
his audience on Saturday—it is impossible to wonder
that the proceedings of the 21st instant gave evi-
dence, on the part alike of the Monarch and of his
Government, of exultation at this signal and crown-
ing triumph achieved by the dynasty.
Since the May of 1815, when the cause of Liberty
and the name of NAPOLEON were, for the first time,
associated—when BENJAMIN CONSTANT, one of the
greatest constitutional reformers France has ever
produced, exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, when
speaking of the First NAPOLEON, " Why have I not
known and understood him sooner ?"—when LUCIEN
BONAPARTE, hitherto implacably opposed to
his brother, the EMPEROR, was first re-
conciled to him upon a tardy appreciation
of his character and became then, first enrolled upon
the list of imperial princes—since the date of the
great historical day of the Champ de Mai, there has
been witnessed no such spectacle in Paris as that
which took place on Saturday in the Tuileries, when
again as signally, but with a yet greater deliberation,
the cause of Liberty and the name of NAPOLEON were
once more harmoniously and this time, we will hope,
permanently associated. Their association, in 1815,
was the tocsin that roused Europe in arms, from the
Tanais to the Thames, to oppose the one un-
daunted mortal of whom all the kings of the
earth were then in terror—a truth expressed,
almost in those very words, upon the morrow
of the Champ de Mai, in a letter addressed to Lord
BYRON, from Paris, by the late Lord BROUGHTON,
then Sir JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE, Sir JOAN having
himself but just then returned from witnessing that
far grander and far more magnificent spectacle than the
Field of the Cloth of Gold. Europe, in startling
contrast now to the Europe of fifty years ago, looks
on, not antagonistically, but sympathetically, at this
new May celebration of the union of NAPOLEON and
Liberty. Upon the morrow of the Plebiscite, in
the May of 1870, the Sovereigns of Europe
independently and without concert, flashed
through the electric wire their congratulations
to NAPOLEON 111. Upon the Proclamation of the
Plebiscite in the Salle des Etats at the Palace of the
Tuileries, the Diplomatic body were conspicuously
and unanimously in attendance.
According to wont, the EMPEROR'S Speech was
worthy of himself and of the occasion. Elsewhere in
our impression, the translation of the Speech will be
found in its entirety. There are passages in this re-
markable address, however, which deserve to be espe-
cially particularized. Foremost in order, and in one
sense also it might even be said in importance, was
the EMPEROR'S intimation that " the Plebiscite had
for its sole object the ratification by the people
of a Constitutional Reform." That " amid
the conflict of opinions, and the excitement of the
struggle the discussion was carried beyond this,"
his Majesty regards, as he says, immediately after-
wards, as no cause for regret ! And why ? Because,
as he put its epigrammatically, " The adversaries of
our institutions have raised the question between the
Revolution and the Empire." And, he adds, with
tranquil exultation, "The country has solved it in
favour of the system which guarantees Order and
Liberty." Strengthened upon its foundations, the
Empire, observes NAPOLEON 111, calmly and grandly,
" will show its force by its moderation." His Govern-
ment, he asserts, " will not deviate from the
liberal course which it has traced." Its one
aim and purpose, he declares, will henceforth
be—" to rally round the Constitution which has just
been sanctioned by the country, by the honest men
of all parties, to insure public security, to calm
party passions, to preserve the social interests
from the contagion of false doctrines, to find by the
aid of the highest intellects the means of increasing
the greatness and prosperity of France, to diffuse