The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-24 00:00:00

VI

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1848.

Economy threatens to become the ignis fatuus of
politicians. Regulated by justice and refined by
humanity, we believe that the system of poli-
tical economy, established by the philosophic
mind of ADAM SMITH, is destined to operate
most beneficially upon the workings of social go-
vernment. Yet, for this very reason, we are only
the more anxious that a policy calculated in itself to
prove so advantageous to mankind should not, by
the negligence or precipitation of our legislators, be
permitted to lose a portion of its still powerful pres-
tige. What we would maintain is, that a Go-
vernment may husband the resources of a
nation without being essentially parsimonious
—that statesmen may be generous in their
expenditure of the public monies without being pro-
fligate guardians of the Exchequer—that to be muni-
ficent it is not necessary to squander, and that an
exercise of prudent frugality on the part of an
administrator does not by any means imply a mean
and niggardly disbursement.
The discussion of yesterday evening has forced
upon us these considerations. Mr. BRIGHT is fearful
lest that unfortunate wiglit, John Bull, should be-
come, as he has facetiously imagined it, " a grand
milch cow, from which every one is to have
a draw!" In a hundred particulars, no doubt,
we coincide with the Honourable Represen-
tative for Manchester in this laudable anxiety ; in
a hundred particulars we believe John Bull to have
been made the veriest gull-in Christendom. Every
day we behold fresh evidence that he is rendered the
dupe of a multitude of those " knavish tricks" which
he himself anathematizes so lustily in the National
Anthem. We see him fleeced in one quarter, bam-
boozled in another, and almost always in consequence
of the noble and delightful stupidity of his benevo-
lence. Yet, while we sympathize in the indignation
expressed by Mr. BRIGHT as it is applied in a general
sense to the corruptions of the State, we can by no
means agree with him in reprobating the generosity
hitherto evinced by the British Parliament to
the most interesting of all the Continental refugees—
the destitute children of Poland. Long, and ear•
nestly, and eloquently, and disinterestedly, and chi-
valrously, as the cause of that heroic but unfortunate
race of men has been advocated by Lord DUDLEY
STUART, we are satisfied that the Noble Lord the
Member for the borough of Marylebone never be-
fore addressed himself to the subject of their
wrongs and misfortunes more felicitously than
he did last evening, when repelling the demand
of the Honourable Gentleman the Knight of the
shire of Middlesex, to the effect that no further
assistance of a pecuniary character should be granted
to the Polish refugees out of the public Treasury.
Of the motive which actuated Mr. OSBORNE we
make no question whatever, being satisfied that his
objection
.to the continued grant of 10,7001. to the
exiles from Poland originated solely in a patriotic
yearning for frugality in our expenditure. His
judgment, we believe, to have been in this instance
eclipsed by his patriotism. Granted that in the Par-
liamentary session of 1834, when this pecuniary aid
was first yielded, that it was declared to be merely
temporary by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer
—granted that Lord ALTHORP acknowledged that
the wants of the expatriated Poles would only con-
tinue to call for the charities of England during
a period of a very limited duration granted
that the session of 1848 is drawing to a close, and
that still the vote is required—granted all this, and
we still maintain that the assistance.is demanded from
Great Britain in compliance with every honourable
and humane principle. When King CHARLES 11.
was an exile s money was generously and • spon-
taneously voted for his support by the Polish Diet •
shall England then withdraw the. historical compen-
sation of her humanity from the unhappy refugees
who
who have sought shelter in these islands ? Is the
sustenance of a profligate prince everything, and that
of high•minded people nothing? Belgiam is munificent
t
to these children of misfortune—even the impoverished
share cantons of Switzerland
Rose their crusts with the
i
banished compatriots of
itsKo, Prance,
exiled as
Poles
m
i n
much
chhe
sitting of her Deputies only last year,
thear
voted
as 50,0001. towards the support
in her dominions, and shall England,
wretched spirit of economy, withdraw the out of a
compara-
tively
paltry grant of 10,7001.,
simply because
Polish
nationality is not yet restored? Would this, w
be becoming in us ? Could we allow such aneinask-'
dent to be recorded in our history? Heavenl
forbid !—No : as Lord DUDLEY STUART well
observed, better to diminish the expenditure
of public monies in the purchase of Elgin
marbles and Egyptian antiquities than to withhold
the pittance of our doles from the suffering remnant
of the Slavonic race ; better to save this country the
expenses incurred in the entertainment of foreign

Ambassadors, Princes, and Sovereigns, than to refuse
10,7001. to those Polish exiles who have been
driven upon our shores by a great political catas-
trophe.

We are rejoiced to see the sensible and generous
compromise proposed by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer and accepted by the House of Commons. Sir
CHARLES WOOD declared that the Government were
prepared to make a rigid investigation into the con-
dition of the refugees in England, for the purpose of
erasing those names from the list which belonged to
men capable of supporting themselves without the
aid of the Legislature, or who were in a position such
as enabled them to return without peril to their
native country. Upon this understanding the
amendment was withdrawn, and the cause, advo-
cated so nobly and consistently by Lord DUDLEY
STUART, was happily not insulted by the parsimony
of the Parliament.

It is not France alone that has been saved from
the horrors of anarchy, massacre, and plunder by the
energy of General CAVAIGNAC and the bravery of the
Gardes Mobiles, the National Guards, and the troops.
It is every country bordering on France, it is th
whole of Europe that has been preserved by the de-
feat of the party of which LEDRU ROLLIN, CAUSSI•
DIERE and Louis BLANC are the chiefs. Had the
victory on the 25th June rested with this party,
there can be no doubt but that France would have be-
come the active and belligerent ally of all those in
every country who profess the convenient doctrine
that " all property is theft," and that that contest be-
tween the principles of disorder and of order would
have commenced, the advent of which was pro-
phecied by CANNING, the end and conse-
quences of which can be foreseen by no man
The revelations now making before the Criminal
Court at Antwerp, on the trial of those concerned in
the insurrectionary attempt at Risquons-Tout, prove
to demonstration that it was ,through no fault of M.
LEDRU ROLLIN and his coadjutors that France did
not commence a war of Communist propagandism,
and declaie Belgium annexed to the French Republic.
It appears from the evidence that the expedition for
the invasion of Belgium was organized in Paris ; that,
to use the words of the Brussels journal, "it was
quasi-official, as it was prepared and encouraged by
the two principal members of the Provisional Govern-
ment." and it was only through the good sense and
chivalrous honour of General NEGRIER, whose life has
since been sacrificed in the cause of order, that
Europe was saved from a general war.
During the period of the organization of
the expedition in Paris, SPILTHORN, DELESTREE,
and the. other ' chiefs were lodged at the
Tuileries, and were in constant communication with
certain members of the Government. The insurrec-
tionary legion was openly organized in Paris and
was furnished with provisions from the Government
stores. On the 7th March, thirty thousand muskets
were promised to the insurgents by the Provisional
Government, and were delivered to them before they
crossed the frontiers ; the Provisional Government at
the same time dispatched M.ll. REQUIN and DELAFOSSE
to Belgium to open communications with the dis-
affected. At the same time the insurrectionary
legion was permitted to form a camp at Seclin on the
French territory, close to the Belgian frontier, where
they were drilled and trained by pupils
of the Ecole Polytechnique, and of the Ecole
de St. Cyr, and while encamped at Seclin
M. DELESCLUZE, the Prefect of the Department of
the North, who had been recently appointed to that
office by M. LEDRU ROLLIN, distributed every day to
the legion 1,800 rations, and paid each man daily
35 centimes ; so that this insurrectionary legion
was actually in the pay of the functionary of M.
LEDRU Rommt. Previous to the invasion three
waggon loads of muskets and two waggon loads of
gunpowder were sent from the citadel of Lille, and
distributed among the insurgents by two of the pupils
of the Polytechnic School, who afterwards com-
manded the insurgents at Risquons-Tout, and one
of whom was killed in the skirmish. A letter in the
handwriting of M. llnnEscLuzE, the Ledru-
Rollin-appointed. Prefect, proves that it was
he who procured a guide for the in
surgenta to direct them on their

route.

It would appear that the report of the spies was
not very favourable to the cause of the insurgents ;
for before the departure of the expedition from the
French territory M. DELESCLUZE became convinced
that it would be impossible for these armed bands to
conquer the country, and he therefore devised the
following notable expedient as an excuse for sending
in a large French force to republicanise Belgium,
destroy her nationality (we wonder if he had ever
read what M. DE LAMARTINE said about " oppressed
nationalities "), and annexing her to France. The
bands of insurgent Belgians were to have been
backed by a certain number of French troops, drawn
up close to the frontier line, for the alleged purpose
of protecting it. On a given signal these troops
were to have joined the insurgents, in conformity
with secret instructions which had been given to them
not to attend to the orders of their officers.
As, in all probability some of the French
soldiers would have been killed or wounded in
the course of the action, the Belgian troops would
have been accused of having commenced war:on thejße-
public, and an overwhelming force would at once have
been marched into the Belgian territory. Thanks to
the chivalrous honour of General NEGRIER, who at
that time commanded at Lille, the whole scheme
proved abortive. To the peremptory demand of M.
DELESCLUZE for troops, he opposed as peremptory a
refusal, declaring that he would never lend himself
to such shameful machinations. But it was not
against Belgium alone that this plot was directed. That
country, changed from an independent kingdom into
a portion of the French Republic, was to have been
made the advanced work of Communist propa-
gandism, and from the banks of the Meuse and of
the Rhine armed expeditions were to have carried the
banner of the Red Republic into Holland and Prussia.
Thanks to the honour and firmness of General
NEGRIER, to the good sense of the French people as
manifested in the elections for the National Assembly,
and to the energy, judgment, and courage of Ge-
neral CAVAIGNAC, all these evils have been averted
and the peace of Europe has been for the present pre-
served. But the authors of these attempts should be
visited with condign punishment. The complicity of
M. DELESCLUZE is clearly proved; if he acted without
orders his guilt is to the full as great as that of the au-
thors of the attempts of May and June; if he acted ac-
cording to orders, he should be forced to produce them,
as they would prove most important links in the chain
of evidence necessary to bring home the crime to
those really guilty. We trust the Assembly will in-
stitute a strict investigation into the matter, and will
inflict an exemplary punishment on those to whom
the guilt is brought home.