The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1846.

Congratulations are, doubtless, Leing reciprocated
in the Conservative Cabinet of Versailles. Never,
however, has there been less cause for congratulation
in the French Government sinee the glorious revolu-
tion of '3O. King Louis PHILIPPE may rejoice at the
consummation of this Spanish intrigue, but the
French people have infinite reason to deplore that in-
auspieieus ceremonial. To the former the marriage
of the Due DE MONTPENSIBR is a specious assurance
of the consolidation of his dynastic interests. To the
latter those nuptials are only an augury of diplo-
matic embarrassments and disrupted alliances. A
species of fatality appears to have characterised the
recent proceedings of the GUIZOT Administration.
The French Ministers and their subordinates must
have swallowed one of those draughts of fasci-
ration familiar to, Arabic literature ; the magic
rose-leaf of NOURAJAIMAD must have been
secretly conveyed to the shoulder of the Count
va BARSSON ; or that astute ambassador and his
colleagues must have degenerated into the syco-
phantic agents of royal cupidity. Without one or
tither of these preliminaries, the officials of the
Tuileries could never have proceeded with such un-
bending pertinacity in the facilitation of a marriage
ao manifestly inimical to the national interests of
Prance, and so cpposcd to the happiness of present
soul prospective millions. No partialities, however,
could retard this unfortunate union ; no desires were
suei iently powerful to diminish the anxiety for its
realisation. Much as the GUIZOT party had sacri-
ficed for, and long as they had endeavoured to perpe-
tuate the existence of the entente cordiale—the
Entente cordiale was sacrificed because it was an
obstacle to the Montpensier marriage. Valuable and
protracted as had been the European peace, the Euro-
pean peace was placed in imminent jeopardy because
the Orleans family was solicitous for the Montpen-
Pier marriage. Dangerous and even fatal as French
interference in Peninsular affairs had been at the
commencement of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies, that peril was courted, because by such an in-
terference alone could the Montpensier marriage be
arranged. The dignified protests of England, the
lowering aspect of the Spanish population; the histo-
rical warnings of Louis XIV. and NAPOLEON 1., the
dissatisfaction evinced by many Frenchmen, and the
continuance of international friendships, were all
equally despised. And why? Because the only
marriageable son of Ldins Pniuirris would thereby
obtain an opulent bride, together with the possible
reversion of a crown ; because the European
iefluence of that SOVEREIGN would be thereby ma-
t -rially enhanced ; because the old Bourbon aspiration
of virtually annihilating the ryrenees would be
toeyeby accomplished, and because, forsooth, the mar-
riage' of his Royal Iligimess of Montpensier with
the INFANTA would tend very marvellously
to the
ggrandisement of the regal importance of the Orleans
dynasty 1 Surely, this sacrifice' of the wishes, the
interests, and possibly the heart's blot% of a free
reople, 'simply for the domestic advantage of the
grandson' of .EgaW, is but a sorry consummation of
tl-le undying prinCiples and prodigious struggles of
I:.e French Revolution! Surely it is the tacit abnega-
of all those glorious concessions to the majesty of the
‘ec; were then' obtained at the cost of so much
aLd with the exercise of such gigantic powers!
It is but a sorry sequel to the 'first brilliant achieve-
silent of the" present monarch of France. It is not