The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1848.

...
An inso!ent attempt— at dictation was made on
Monday afternoon in the National Assembly by the
ultra-Republicans, The Citizen DoRNES was the
Gitno FAWKES of the enterprize. He devoted his
reputation to the possible supremacy of the clubbists,
staked his hor...ty upon a motion of surprise, and
sacrificed his name to the insatiable and unscrupulous
egutisms of M. LEDRIT Row's. The scheme was in
genious in its conception, but, it was also harmless by
its very very audacity. Immediately after the Assembly
had to the financial statement of GARNIER
-r
s,and the diplomatic report of LAMARTINE, the
representatives were startled by a proposition, the
mbyernendinanegaerir: uus in its character inasmuch as it was
ripremeditated. It was submitted to
the Chamber
that, coupled with a vote expressive of
gratitude to the
a e_d Assembly, organizing
Provisional Government, a decree
a
sho dop
tem orary
uld be
by the As Committee
t
p
of Administration a
committee consisting of
names had already been five
eetermined upon by
individuals whose
the ultra-section of the democrats. It has subse-
quently transpired that the persons selected for the
Government were LA-
formation of this intermediateppA
1 LEDItt ROLLIN,
MARTINE, ARAGO, GARN/E,
and MARIE ; when, however, :n7attempt was made
catalogue;loy toa n the National
explosion of
exclamations
by M. DORMES to read the
Assembly, his voice was drowned
disapprobatory cries, accompanied
rage and indignation. Even the equable
tempera-
ment of DUPONT (de l'Eure) was ruffled 'OY a project
so insidiously devised. Every one felt that
unless the
plot were quashed by acclamation, the integrity 1
of
the first Ministry of the Republic
emight be
x
seriously jeopardised. Every one experienced
this conviction—from the youthful
who represents the democratic intelligence°l.klinall
Marseilles to the gifted Moderate who occupiesofle
istheof
chair of Presidency. The whole concourse
latorg stormed—BAßnEs gesticulated, SAC protested,g"
'XAVIER DURRIEU became vociferous in the an-
tn mate y
touncement of his pertinacity, and It. 1 the

sittings were suspended by the President Buell=
veiling his head in sorrow. On the resumption of
the debate, M Der .es. 41^e unanimity of
his opponents by expunging the obnoxious para-
graph from his proposition, simply submitting to the
National Assembly the propriety of decreeing a vote
of thanks to the Provisional Government, and or-
daining, as a supplementary decree, the election of
a Commission, for the purpose of nominating the
members of an Intermediate Committee ofAdministra-
tion. The proposal thus amended received the acceptance
of the Assembly, with the exception of such querru-
lous dissentients as BARBES, DERRIEti, FELIX PYLT,
and a few others of extreme opinions. In this chur-
lish and abbreviative fashion was the protest of jea-
lousy raised against the civism, the devotion, and the
disinterestedness, the assiduity, and the patriotic
abnegation of self, evinced during upwards of two
months by the members of the Provisional Govern-
ment. Had the demagogues of the Club de la Revo-
lution, the organ of BARBES, or the fanatics of the
" Central Republican Society," headed by BLANQUI,
or the band of Montagnards, who bowed to the man-
date of SOBRIER, been capable by their numerical pre-
ponderance of such an ignoble proceeding, they
would infallibly have decreed rather the ostracism
of the Provisional Ministers than their coronation
with civic diadems. Thanks be to the moderate Re-
publicanism of France, however, the Provisional Go-
vernment have received that guerdon of approbation
to which they are so eminently entitled, by their
labours, their genius, their resolution, and their un-
conquerable loyalty to the Revolution.
It was an auspicious circumstance that this honour-
able degree of gratitude was immediately preceded
by the elaborate explanation of the financial position
of the country by the Provisional Minister GARNIER
PAGES, and the brilliant narrative of the position
assumed by France in relation to the rest of Christen-
dom, from the oratoric lips of the Provisional Minister
LAMARTINE. Those would, indeed, be of a most
sanguine temperament who could anticipate from
thepic t formerur
eof h
reportte pecuniary any
e on other
e thana r
rtahses gloomiest
o
f
the French Republic. After the profligate
alavisphossdibylneasttyhatantdhe aexochoerroupert
expenditurecabine
ti t owa s f
scarcely
of a great nation like France should be otherwiseci
than in a frightful and precarious state of involve-
ment. Especially must this be the case when that
dynastic extravagance and official corruption has
been of many years' duration, and when it has re-
sulted in the overthrow of mercantile stability and
commercial confidence. A very different theme re-
posed in the portfolio of LAMARTINE, treated with
all the grace of his ductile and poetic eloquence.
That theme was the position occupied by
France in relation to the other powers of
Europe a theme stretched out to its full
dimensions by the Provisional Minister for
Foreign Affairs in all the splendour of a prolonged
and consolatory antithesis. Admirably did LAMAR-
TINE contrast the situation of his country before and
after the revolution of February, and most admirably
did he deduce from that comparison thoughts of hope
and consolation. " Such," said he, in his beautiful
and majestic peroration, " such, citizens, is the exact
picture of our exterior situation. The good fortune
and the glory of this situation belong entirely to the
Republic. We only accept its responsibility, and we
always congratulate ourselves upon having appeared
before the representatives of the country, giving them
the guarantee of greatness, our hands full of alliances,
and pure of human blood." That remembrance is the
panegyric of the Provisional Government.

An Austrian victory is of so rare occurrence that
it appears ungracious, when such an event does take
place, to criticise it severely. But the capture of
Cracow, as recorded in the official dispatches, pre-
sents circumstances that demand our scrutiny, even
at the risk of diminishing in some degree the lustre
which this brilliant exploit has shed on the arms of
Austria.

It appears, as far as can be gathered from the
somewhat confused statement contained in the first
dispatch, that a disturbance took place at Cracow on
the 26th of April, in which Baron KRIEG, notorious
as having been Vice-President of Gallicia at the time
of the massacres of Tarnow, and confessedly an ac-
complice in them after the fact, was roughly handled
by the populace, though not seriously injured. It
might have been supposed that a judicial inquiry
would have been the proper sequence for such an
irregularity ; but a paterna. Government proceeds by
other steps. Baron KRIEG was probably consulted,
and mindful of his success in Gallicia, advised more
decisive measures. The dispatch of the 26th from
Count CASTIGLIONE, the Commandant of the town,
closes with an ominous hint of the proceedings which
were to take place on the morrow.
Accordingly, on the 27th, some tumult having
occurred in the market-place, several companies of
infantry were ordered to the spot, although the newly
enrolled National Guard offered to be responsible for
the peace of the town. Two shots were fired at the
soldiers, with what effect is not stated, but they were
returned. The people threw up some barricades,
which the Austrians did not think proper to at-
tack. They prudently retired to a strong position at
the foot of the castle, and immediately began to bom-
bard the town.

Now, in civilised warfare (which boasts that it
attains its object of crushing armed resistance with
the least amount of cruelty possible), the bombard-
ment of a town is never resorted to except when it
is the only mode of attack that can reasonably be
adopted; for it inflicts injury, not merely on the
hostile armament, but also on those whose destruction
can in no way accelerate the termination of the war,
involving in wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter
impotent age and helpless infancy, women, the sick,
friend as well as foe. Besides, according to the laws
of war, solemn warning must be given to the devoted
city of its impending fate, that the blood of those who
are able and willing to escape may not be laid to the
account of the besieger.
But General Count CasTIGLioNE acted on other
principles than these which we have described. Al-
though the garrison of Cracow consists of several
thousand men completely appointed ; although the
population of this unfortunate little town, worried as
it has been by its " protectors," scarcely exceeds
a dispatch,
d ht fid
uo,fooo. inhabitants ; although it is entirely open and
mynA
Austriansi
sentT:gite:i 4a f
o the
eh
two e fool:
hours of
it is commanded ; although, as appears by the first
measures were
preparedaccordin g forly
less Count—anneveenrietuhlee:
out necessity, sub-jectEci without warning and with-
Cracow, according to the
official st:ahkteeeel
g3lphardd Paris on the
24th February, if the j
bolmfbaLroduni)esntr.imappu
had}:iborn
n
ii Government
amongst
trnment had
ordered a few congreve rockets toebneoi
thrown
eabnahon:
the Chartists assembled on Kennington
Europe would have resounded with c1%°.,.n.„,
f abhor-
-common,
ytrn or
they
might against such deeds of barbarit
might have been justified m ore readily than the tY
bom-
bardment of Cracow ; for they would at least have
been measures adopted by lawfully-constituted Go-
vernments, whilst a flagrant act of usurpation is the
only title which the Austrians can show for the
authority they exercise in a town which they have
solemnly acknowledged as free and independent.