The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-12 00:00:00

ebneiliu4

MAY 12, 18,18,
LONDON, FRIDAY,

Although we object as strongly as any on to
the 1
gratuitous disfranchisement of a constituency
upon suspicion, we cannot but regard with satisfac-
tion the decision of the House of Commons last
evening, in reference to the issuing of a new writ
for the borough of Horsham. Not but what
we deprecate as strongly as the Honourable
Baronet the Member for the University of Ox-
ford anything like a partial adjudication in a
matter of this character. Writs have been granted,
it is true, in succession for Lancaster, Carlisle, Sligo s
,
Lincoln, Aylesbury, and !Harwich, and a veto ha
been suddenly put upon the bestowal of a similar in-
dulgence to Horsham with some apparent degree
of prejudice. At the first superficial view
of the transaction there is certainly an aspect of
undue harshness towards the constituency of Hors-
ham, since the corruption of the electors is as yet in
a
greatcameasure only conjectural, and the majority of
the of bribery and treating very far indeed
from
being actually proven. Nevertheless we are
rejoiced at the resolution of the Commons refus-
ing the issuing
o
he is 4 out of a
a
suing new writ for Horsham by a rcajo-
city House of 240 Our gratification at
this result of last night's division is in no manner
contradtutory, because it arises from our sense of the
dubious probityof the inhabitants of Horsham, as
well as from our solicitude to witness the previous
success of the Bill introduced the Honourable
Baronet the representative 7.. the by
Flint boroughs.
Before any concession 0
grantedaroan beylectpoararlliamkeinndt
can be conscientiously
to the population of Horsham,
it is essential, if only
; sorst that,
a further investi-
there should be
from motives of simple
justice,
two preliminary- proceedings
gation into the imputed corruption of the electors,
Sir j
and secondly, the rapid passage of
ohn
these
two
IhNm Ea's
Bill through the Lower House. Until
essential preliminaries have been completed, Parlia-
ment would be acting with an inexcuswabloesselepnuitryityin
issuing a fresh writ to a constituency h
to say the very least of it, i 3 so amazingly suspicious.
It was argued by Mr. STarioan with
some spicious.
indig-
nation, that because some of the most conspicuous wit-
nesses examined before the Committee in reference to
the treating system:, practised at Horsham, were an

ostler and a potboy, that, therefore, the results of that
original inquiry were scarcely worthy of considera-
tion. The hit was by no means so unsuccessful as
that made the other evening in the National Assem-
bly of France, when one of the Republican repre-
sentatives, an intelligent ouvrier, interpolated the
exclamation into an apologetic discourse de-

livered by M. Louis BLANC, that it was surely
unjust to stigmatise the conduct of the Com-
mission of the Luxembourg, seeing that that Com-
mission had actually done nothing ! The joke of
Mr. STAFFORD about the ostler and the potboy as
" mysterious persons" was, when contrasted with
this, an exceedingly dry joke, a joke as unprofit-
able as an empty filbert, all vegetable- leather and
shell. Even the most aristocratic could not pre-
cisely comprehend why an ostler and a potboy were
not calculated to be the most important witnesses,
from the very circumstance of their calling, in
reference to any imputation of election-treating.
Nor was it incomprehensible to our representatives
that a reported conversation outside a tavern door
was just the very incident most likely to affect in a
visible manner the decision of a Parlia-
mentary Committee upon questions of elec-
tioneering corruption. It was because the report
of the Committee upon the borough of Horsham was
so peculiarly inconclusive that it became necessary
for the House to procrastinate the issuing of a new
writ. Either the accused electors were acquitted, or
they were convicted, or their guilt still remained
questionable. If acquitted the case would not, could
not have continued ten minutes before Parliament. If
convicted the constituency would long since have re-
ceived intimation of its disfranchisement. As every
circumstance has tended to demonstrate, the corrup-
tion of the electors was neither proved nor disproved.
Parliament was undecided as to the morality of
the constituents ; it therefore delayed the issuing
of a new writ. The Prime Minister him-
self acquiesced in the justice of this determina-
tion, and the opinion of the Noble Lord was coin-
cident with that afterwards expressed by the Right
the
procrastination
instance
Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth. For this '
reason, a reason sufficiently cogent, we take it, there
taherperovvc.raassttihnaetpiorno,mise
of a
wwaitshinthatcoupled
Bill affecting the inte • grity of representation by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, and ultimately the Bill of a private
`!ember (Sir JOHN HANMER) has been substituted
for the Bill announced
by the Government.
In all these transactions we see no cause whatever
for complaint, inasmuch as the Committee, the Par-
liament and the Ministry have acted from a con-
sciousness of their several responsibilities. If the
constituency of Horsham has reason for complaint,
the complaint should certainly be directed against
those unprincipled electors who have cast discredit
upon the entire borough, and rendered their reten-
tion of the franchise singularly dubitable. If one
truth more than another has been exposed by the
various cases of corruption brought under the
scrutiny of the Committee of Inquiry into Elections,
that truth is most assuredly the necessity of the
Ballot. In France the Ballot has been tested under
very severe and unparalleled circumstances, and we
are bold to say that but for the protective
influence of the Ballot, Universal Suffrage would
only have proved a most disastrous boon. Guarded
by the Ballot, the Republican Institutions of France
have been inaugurated under favourable auspices.
We are now satisfied that the time has come for a
successful agitation of the Ballot.

The recent extraordinary changes in the political
affairs of Europe have given rise to so many incidents
of a remarkable and interesting character, from their
historical associations, and from their striking evidence
of the mutability of human fortunes, that such inci-
dents have now almost ceased to attract attention.
Nevertheless, there was one event which took place
last week of too memorable a nature to
pass over without comment. A meeting took
place in Paris last Friday, which has been almost
overlooked in the general interest excited by the
meeting of the National Assembly. On Thursday,
the 4th instant, the first Parliament of the new
French Republic was inaugurated, and that inaugu-
ration attracted the attention of all Europe, for on the
doings of this new Parliament the destinies of France
and, indirectly, the destinies of Christendom, in a great
measure depend. The meeting of the National Assembly
was, however, most propitious, both on account of
the high character of its leaders and the moderate
spirit evinced by the people they represent. The
presiding deity of the great solemnity of Thursday
was undoubtedly Hope. On the day following,
Friday, the sth of Nay, another solemnity of a very
different nature, possessing a retrospective rather
than a prospective interest, took place. On
that day, the anniversary of his death, a
funeral service is annually celebrated in the
Church of the Hotel des Invalides in memory of the
Emperor NAPOLEON. This commemoration is of
annual recurrence, but on Friday last it possessed a
peculiar and extraordinary interest. The members
of the family of NAPOLEON, for the first time, as-
sembled around the grave of their illustrious chief—
and for the first time the brother and nephews of
NAPOLEON were permitted to kneel and weep
beside his remains. And those remains now repose
not only in France, as he fondly desired they should—
"an milieu du peuple Francais que j'ai tant aime
They repose not only in France, but in Republican
France. The mutability of human fortunes, the in-
stability of royal dynasties, has long been too mani-
fest to need the additional corroboration of events like
these. Were such evidence required, however, it is here
most emphatically afforded. On the sth of May
1821, NAPOLEON expired in his exile at St. Helena—
NAPOLEON, whose own career had been an amazing
series of vicissitudes—NAPOLEON, who had been a
student at college during the monarchy of a Bour-
bon King, who had made his debut in the army
during a reign of terror, who had been General- in-
Chief under a Republican Directory, who had
been First Consul during the establishment of,
a Consular Government, who had been Emperor
when the French Republic merged into an empire,
who had been Emperor of France, King of Italy,
and directly or indirectly arbiter of nearly all the
kingdoms of Europe ; who had suddenly found his
vast empire a realm—
" Surpassing that of Charlemagne,
Which stretched from Moscow to the southern seas"—
dwindled into one small isle, so insignificant in extent
that the Emperor of Elbe could not refrain
From
exclaiming, on surveying it, " Eh,
islemon est bien petite I" and who, lastly,
t() co
lmp t•te the chain of marvellous circum-
stances, had died in exile, subjected to every species
of privation
wh
o.had died in exile in St. Helena,
while Europe way once more subservient to the here-
ditary rule of
Kings,
as and
the theories of Re-
publicans considered the
have elapsed since the
visionary dreams of
madmen. Twenty-seven
Sears
memorable and mournful sth of
May
have taken plac
The ashes of the French Emperore.
haveirreepose in his
been re-
-1821. Durin
that period most astonishing event
whiexhishted
s
moved from the place of his exile to
native land, and—a yet more happy c e
the enmity which for so long a period
between England and France, an enmity
been productive of so much misery to both nation's
and to Europe, has, according to the beautiful
aspiration of Lord PALMERSTON, been interred for 1
ever in the grave of NAPOLEON—in the grave of him
who was, perhaps, in some degree, its cause, and,without
doubt, its victim. Since the sth May, 1821, a political
earthquake has changed the face ofEurope. France is
once again a Republic. Despotism has abandoned his
stronghold at Vienna, and retreated in forlorn hope to
St. Petersburgh. The dismembered kingdom of
Italy is again coalescing, and in the strength of
unity asserting its nationality. Even in the cold
ashes of Poland some latent sparks of independence
are manifesting themselves, which promise ere long
to kindle into flame. Such is the changed aspect of
European affairs, now that another sth of May
brings back the anniversary of the death
of NAPOLEON. It is impossible to con-
jecture what must have been the emotions which
thrilled the hearts of the Napoleon family as the
for the first time, solemn service resounded through the chapel in which,
or
me, they knelt together round the grave
of their friend and brother. No longer exiles
from the landacef of
wandering on the f
chief glories their name is
.the. world, expa-
triated.their
.thheritance, the
with
lvhunited,whose
the brothers,and im-
perishablylan land
thegenerals of Neroianl, the nephews, and
assembled, with mingled