The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-11 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1870.

Another appeal to France has elicited in favour of
her Imperial ruler a cry of approval from between
7,000,000 and 8,000,000 voices. Thrice previously
the chosen Sovereign of the foremost nation of Con-
tinental Europe had received a like magnificent evi-
dence of national approbation. Anything comparable
to this reiterated attestation of confidence in the
Prince seated upon the throne of the modern CESAR,
SESOSTRIS, and CHARLEMAGNE, is not discoverable in
the modern annals of Christendom. The smallest
majority ever obtained by NAPOLEON lII.
namely, that by which he was first of all
called to power immediately at the close of
1848—surpasses immeasurably the largest majority
ever accorded to another potentate. It approached
the then unparalleled aggregate of 6,000,000 suffrages.
This, when the ballot-urns were under the guar-
dianship of the Prince PRESIDENT'S rival, CA-
VAIGNAC. Upon the occasion of the second of these
most memorable and historical appeals, the grand
total very nearly reached was one of all but
7,000,000. This was upon the morrow of the coup
d'e'tat when the population of France thundered its
approval of the course pursued at a crisis of supreme
emergency by the Chief of the State, who preferred
to outwit the whole of his antagonists rather than
allow them to mature their seriously meditated plane
for his own incarceration in the Castle of Vincennes.
The aggregate attained upon the last two occasions
by the ruler of the French people being even yet
larger, advancing not from 6,000,000 to 7,000,000,
but from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000. To depreciate
the value and importance of these astounding statis-
tics would be simply preposterous. They are
nowhere, in the history of any country, to be, in any
one particular, paralleled. They attest, beyond the
possibility of contradiction, the fact that the reign-
ing Emperor of the FRENCH is one of the most legiti-
mate of living Sovereigns. Uncrowned though he
is to this day, these four plebiscites constitute, in
a manner, his quadruple coronation. Raised to
power two and twenty years ago, the Heir to the
fortunes of NAPOLEON the GREAT has so acquitted
himself of his immense responsibilities, that
the country under hie rule has prospered alike
in peace and war, has acquired new glory on the
battlefield, has very largely increasel its re-
sources, both by the expansion of her com-
merce and by the development of her
agriculture. Paris, already wittily said to be
France, has, under the magical wand of his wonder-,
working Edile, been Trajanised into a magnificence..
rendering it not unworthy of being called the repre-
sentative capital of the whole Continent. For
eighteen years the EMPEROR has swayed the destinies
of France with absolute authority. His sceptre has
been the rod of an Imperial Dictatorship. During
that epoch of despotic power,he has himself, as Com-
mander-in-chief, led the armies of France to victory
upon the plains of Italy, at Magenta and Solferino
Since when, his effigy upon the gold, and silver, and
bronze coinage of France, has, by right, according to
the science of numismatics, been encircled with the
laurel crown of a Military Conqueror. Having
wielded the sceptre of irresponsible power
during nearly two decades, the reigning Sove-
reign of France has, now, in obedience to the
requirements of the age, but at the same time, in the
deliberate exercise of his own free will, taken the rod
of empire—twice accorded to him, first in the Decem-
ber of 1851, and afterwards in 1852—and, voluntarily,
with his own hands, snapped it in twain. He has
fulfilled his promise of Crowning the Edifice. He has
conceded Liberty of Speech, Liberty of Writing,
Liberty of Printing and of Publication. The Tribune
may be ascended, and turned, in the open day, into
the rostrum of the enemies of his Government. The
Legislature and the Administration are brought into
satisfactory relations with each other, the Ministers
being dependent—not as hitherto, upon the whim
of the EMPEROR, but—upon the choice of the
Le Corps Legislatif and of Messieurs les Senateurs.
At the same time Order is still maintained, Anarchy
is still vigorously repressed. The barricades, for
example, which, upon the morrow of the day of the
Pldbiscite were sparsely scattered over the disaf-
fected quarters of Paris, were only hurriedly erected
to be swept away instantaneously by the armed guar-
dians of the legitimate authority of the' Liberalised
Empire, France has spoken, and, in speaking, has
ironounced deliberately and most emphatically
in favour of the EMPEROR'S recent acts of
Liberalization.

ONE man sows and another reaps. A few weeks ago
Mr. HENRY BERKELEY went to his rest after labour-
ing for more than thirty years in behalf of vote by
Ballot. On Monday night a Liberal Government for
the first ti me gave its official sanction to the principle
of secret voting, and introduced a bill which,
according to all appearances, will become law
without serious opposition. The last general elec-
tion shewed that we are still a long way off from
the enjoyment of that perfect law of liberty which
ought to prevail. We cannot afford to wait any
longer for it. We have extended the franchise ; we
have increased the number of voters who are depen-
dent upon others for their daily bread ; and we are
bound to protect them in order that the gift which we
have bestowed on them may not prove a curse. The
Parliamentary Elections Bill of Monday night is the
inevitable sequel of Mr. DISRAELI'S Reform Bill and
the general election that followed.

We do not care to discuss with Mr. LEATHAM the
particular mode of conducting a Ballot. We are
sure Government desire only to obtain that
which will best answer its purpose. It will be impos-
sible even for Professor FAWCETT to see in the shape
of the Ballot-box or in the size of the Ballot-paper
any ground for suspecting the chief whom he
nominally follows. The one great advantage which
the Ballot is bound to secure is the protection of the
voter. To attain this in the most perfect manner
must be the determination of the House of Commons.
If Mr. LEATHAM can chew that his plan is better
than the Marquis Of HARTINGTON'S, the House will,
we trust, adopt it. The Ballot will undoubtedly
get rid of one incentive to bribery. It is the hourly
state of the poll, with its neck-and-neck race, which
does all the mischief. Honest men lose their honesty
when they find that a few pounds will make all the
difference between victory and defeat. The temptation
is too great for them to resist, and they buy up the
venal men who have been waiting idle in the market