The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-15 00:00:00

S N DECEMBER 15, 1848.

. .
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIM`FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
ES.—The more the returns of the French Presi-
dential election become known, the more do they per-
plex and confound all foresight and judgment. A result
so uniform, decisive, and overwhelming, was anticipated
neither by the friends nor by the opponents of the Bona-
I park family. For, although it may be possible to form
a correct estimate of consequences arising from definite
or rational causes, it is impossible to set bounds to en-
thesiasm, or to sound the depths of illusion. The
universal character of this vote could only havo been
obtained by the real merit of the most exalted genius,
or by a fortuitous combination of conflicting ele-
ments momentarily pressed into the service of an
I imaginary power. Since an immense majority of
the French nation have declared that Louis Napo-
leon Bonaparte shall be President of the Republic,
they must either have obeyed some paramount
and irresistible impulse pervading the whole country, or
that majority must be formed and constituted by a great
diversity of motives, all conspired to promote the
Prince's election, and each of them more powerful than
the influence of his competitors. The primary cause,
we have little doubt, was irrespective of the person of
the candidate altogether, and would have operated with
equal power in favour of the Prince de Joinville, or any
conspicuous anti-Republican candidate, who could have
been proposed to the suffrages of the people. This de-
cision is a distinct protest on the part of the French
nation against the Republic, the Republican party
and the revolution by which that party dethroned the
late dynasty, and grasped the supreme power. If
the votes of the French nation in the month
of April last had not been given under an abject
fear of civil war, and of that monstrous
Government which had suddenly sprung into life, like
the monster of Frankenstein, to be the curse and terror
of those who made it—if France could at that period
have summoned up the courage and the composure re-
quired to pronounce a deliberate and unbiassed judgment
on the Republic and the Revolution, we have no doubt
that the Provisional Government in all its shades, from
M. Marrast down to Albert ( courier) would have been
condemned and deposed by a majority not less decisive
than that which has now swept away the last of these
men to make way for an Imperial Pretender. But the
violence done to the nation had paralyzed its voice and
its conscience; it submitted tamely to the rascals and
fanatics who set up the cry of "Vive la Republique ;" and
it had not yet been learned by actual experience the bur-
den and the shame of such a Government as that of the
National and its allies has since proved. The Republic
is now, however, judged by its fruits. It has not plunged
into that sanguinary terrorism, the mere dread of which
compressed opposition and induced many a reed to bend
before the blast, but it has inflicted on all classes an
amount of privation, distress,:and suffering, eminently
calculated to provoke general opposition and discontent.
The first Republic struck like the lightning, blasting and
destroying all it touched, but leaving many parts of the
nation unscathed and the condition of the peasantry ab-
solutely improved; the second Republic spared nothing—
its operation was universal, and though it shed no tor-
rents of blood and proscribed no classes of society, it ar-
rested the vital circulation of the country, it attacked
every man in his calling and his property, and sunk
the whole community from the summit of prosperity,
luxury, and greatness, to the depths 'of humiliation,
unrest, and disease. If, therefore, the Republic had
few partisans in February, beyond the turbulent popu-
lace of the great cities, and the adventurers who specu-
lated on the audacity of the few and the debility of the
many, it is not surprising that the resistance of the na-
tion to the faction which imposed this revolution upon it
should have gained strength and courage before Decem-
ber. To censure and eject the men of the Republic was,
therefore, the first desire of France. This general cause,
however, has been reinforced by a multitude of particu-
lar and accidental motives. The name of Bonaparte
unquestionably had great weight in the rural districts.
When universal suffrage is granted to a people wholly
unprepared to form an enlightened political judgment, it
is atter all for a name, and no more than a name, that
the votes of an enormous class of the community are
given. The candidate is to them an ideal being, and even
in the midst of our own more circumscribed electoral
contests the experience of every day shows that a
public candidate is at once invested with a host of ima.
ginary qualities by party zeal and popular ignorance.
When, therefore, the name of the candidate was Na-
poleon Bonaparte, and awakened all the associations of
a time of which the splendour and the glory have been
studiously held in memory, whilst its miseries and bur-
dens have been forgotten, no wonder that the more en-
thusiastic part of the nation were carried away by it.
But, as there is nothing so likely to enlist popular sup-
port as a great name which has done nothing, as there
is nothing so apt to alienate popularity among the
masses as the performance of the arduous duties of Go-
vernment. All Governments are vulgarly held respon-
awe for a large portion of existing evil which is wholly
beyond their COM! vl , .11 rrovornments nave
disappointed solicitants and rivals ; all Governments
must employ power to repress disorder, and are hated
by those whom they repress. In France, where inordi-
nate expectations have been raised by the promised or-
ganization of labour—where solicitation of office is
carried to the last excess, and the distribution of
patronage is odiously disputed—where the peace of
Paris can only be maintained by rigorous precautions,
it is not surprising that General Cavaignac should have
created in five months of power more enemies than he
deserved. It is clear from the returns that a very large
number of the extreme Republicans throughout France
must have voted for Louis Napoleon, in order not to
throw away their votes on impracticable candidates. In
Paris at the last election in July the ultra-party re-
turned Raspail by 66,000 votes—on the present occasion
the whole amount polled in the capital for Ledru
Rollin and Raspail together does not exceed 33,000; and
it is evident that the force of the revolutionary party is
not correctly indicated by the suffrages given to the Red
Republican and the Socialist. Those factions probably
speculated on the election of Louis Napoleon precisely as
the Royalists have done, though from the opposite mo-
tive; both these extremes were opposed to Cavaignac
because he threatened to give stability to the existing
form of government, and they have promoted the election
of Louis Napoleon as the means of transition either to
the restoration of the Monarchy, or to the horrors of a
more violent convulsion. It is not impossible that the
enormous amount of the majority may have disconcerted
these calculations and produced a result very
different from that contemplated .by those who contri-
buted to promote it. Louis Napoleon undoubtedly as-
sumes power with greater chances of duration and suc-
cess than were thought possible a few weeks ago; but
with the instances of popular inconstancy which this
revolution has afforded, we cannot allow the mere enthu-
siasm of the hour to dissipate at once real and well-
grounded mistrust. Something of this mistrust already
manifests itself in the very first act of the new Govern-
ment,—the choice of a Ministry. Far from aspiring to
the honour of serving in the Cabinet of the President of
France, it would seem that every man who has a reputa-
tion to lose acquired in the service of the state shrinks
aside, stands aloof, and leaves those places which are
commonly the object of such intense ambition to second-
rate and untried inen. The President, it appears, is to
be the head of his own Government; the choice of the
Vice-President, which rests with the National Assembly
upon the presentation of three names to it by the Presi-
dent within one month of his election, is still undeter-
mined; and amongst the names attributed to the future
Cabinet we find none, save that of Odilon Barrot, en-
titled to higher official rank than that of an under-
secretary.
CHRONICLE.—The immensity of the majority in
Louis Napoleon's favour has defeated the sacred mys-
tery of the ballot-box. We are as sure of his election
as the Committee:of the Assembly will be on Christmas-
day. We are, accordingly, not a little delighted at
escaping the harassments of deferred expectation, and
very much so at being freed from the necessity of again
replying to the National. For the "governing journal"
was found a precious jewel in the head of adversity.
The Constitution, which it despaired of contingently a
few days ago, has gained a new lustre in its eyes since
the defeat of Cavaignac. On Monday it lectured us
severely for subordinating the mighty question of the
Presidency to miserable considerations of commerce and
stock-jobbing. On Wednesday it discovers that, with
its hand on the Constitution, it can afford to
despise a round dozen of Presidents. Before
the election, an Imperial President was the
" eternal disgrace and temporary ruin" of the Republic—
after it, he becomes a democratic accident, a mere bubble
on the waves of popular government. So that the
National has very nearly come round to our opinion.
We exalted commerce; our contemporary magnifies the
Constitution. We were content to neglect a deficiency
of Republican sentiment, in comparison with the revival
ofthe
of
the
the
virtuesNationa of theabsolutelyle
l .T
contemnshe p .t, in
con-
sideration Constit-
ution! it certainly needs some one to believe
of lip-service in
p- sitery II
icap on
to
the end :of last week, it was the object
the part of all France.
On Sundayrccoradnedd its Monday,
ocnodnatyemaplti
France, under cover of the ballot,
or abhorrence
there is now noteoftheFetishit onehas tnbeeaini
iu pa
worshipping.
imagine that pripsi,o; We
time
departments, who is not aware that, if
titegoodstandsfaith
three
months longer, it will endure through the
sotfand Louish e tNw ae pe
no lietoann. d idesst
rouact
thi
otno. t h
FoAr
Con-
stitutionly
? " What is a law?" was oncewith in-
describable
s whats
° askedmb is willts alneopmfmniteenr,s.and"hletaldseda
eheotofpepeoffr
,ecptrinteinod by urHthoeusieiionfg,a C
by the King's arms—until the
breathed into it the breath of e.
lasfse,n,t of
jutslatesopewoiptlhe hastile
French Constitution. It is the production of fifteen
gentlemen, sitting round a green table, witelii.e ae a
cotpydoisfotrhee.
American Code before them, and ear! u

tion. It might have been more, conditionally. But the
condition has not been fulfilled. Thrce-fourths of the
French people have just shown that they will neither
be bullied nor cajoled into dissembling their dislike of
this document, and their 'detestation of its orig;nators.
The enormous majority of Louis Napoleon is composed of
three elements. It is swollen by the numbers of those who
care nothing whatever for the Republic—of those who hate
it altogether—and of those who confine their abhorrence
to the phases it has assumed since February. The first
category embraces all the French peasantry. The rustic
population has availed itself of universal suffrage to in-
dulge the only romantic feeling it is in the habit of ex-
periencing. It 145 used the balloting papers as it Would

a dead wall—it has scribbled on them the rude record of
its sympathies. Who does not remember the beautiful
prophecy of Beranger—that exquisite song, in which he
foretells, that though Paris may do homage to the Bour-
bons, on parlera de sA'gloire in the cottages—father tell-
ing the tale of the Imperial victories to son, and grand•
mother to grandchild! So it is. The glory of Napo-
leon is the sole theme of the con teur of French village
life, not even obscured, at the present time, by the
shadow which dims it in Beranger's poetry— the
memory of the misery which HE spread far
and wide. And it is as independent of Re-
publics, as it was of Bourbon restorations and Or-
leans substitutions. Whoebut the narrow dreamers of
Paris, would have supposed that, instead of the glorious
substance of these traditions, the peasants would be con-
tent, or able, to grasp the loose generalities and dog-
matic crudities of Republican theory?—that a clique of
Parisian journalists could change the direction of an
enthusiasm like this, and bring it to bear on the senti-
ment, whatever it may be, embodied in the starched per-
sonality of Cavaignac? The second class of Louis Na-
poleon's supporters is composed of the adherents of the
two Bourbon dynasties, indiscriminately mingled. The
Orleanists are, probably, greatly in the minority. The
larger part of them, though the least eminent, seems to
have passed over to Cavaignac with M. Dufaure. In-
deed the position and antecedents of the lately exiled
family almost excluded that pertinacity of re-
trospective regret which creates and sustains a
party like that of the Jacobites and Legiti-
mists. Their worthiest supporters were supporters
from reflection ; and these are, of course, a•tuated by
motives very different from the chivalrous hope, and no
less chivalrous despair, which dominate alternately the
energies of the Carlists. , Sentiments very much mixed
—designs half understood, and plans half matured—in-
fluenced, in all probability, the voting of these latter.
Louis Napoleon can hardly have many attractions for
them, and they have too little hypocrisy to disguise their
state of mind in relation to Cavaignae and Marrast. No
bad exponent of their doubts is, perhaps, their honest-
hearted leader, M. de Larochjaquelin, who is said to
have inscribed on his balloting-card the name of Abd-
el-Kader. The remainder of the majority comprises
such Frenchmen as have sincerely accepted the Re-
public, and will continue to support it, should it prove
separable from the policy of the men of February.
There is abundant proof, that many of the soundest
patriots and clearest thinkers of France are inclined to
disregard particular forms in government, provided that
certain all-important ends can be attained. These have
no prepossessions against a Democratic, and in favour of
a Monarchical regime, except in so far as the machinery
of the former is prima facie clumsy and cumbrous. If
the Republic be compatible with the stability and well-
being of society, they will become its loyal and devoted
servants. Louis Napoleon will almost certainly select
his first Cabinet from among them. Their administra-
tion will show how much moral elevation and material
prosperity is possible under the new Constitution. Should
they fail, it will perish utterly. An indignation will
throw it to the winds, and Louis Napoleon may crown
himself, if he pleases, at Notre Dame.
ADVERTISER.—There is no longer gany:doubt
about Louis Napoleon's return—not merely any doubt
as to his having a majority, but of his having the abso-
lute majority, and by that means taking the Presidential
question altogether out of the Assembly's hands. Here
then we have the first results of universal suffrage on an
extensive scale. We do not venture any prediction as
to what influence the choice which the French people
have made will have on the future destinies of their
country. If the event be not productive of infinite evil,
those who have brought it about will not be entitled
to the credit of the negative good. No thanks to
them if the elevation of Louis Napoleon to the Presi-
dentship ne not speedily followed by scenes of dis•
order and bloodshed of the most appalling kind.
They have pursued the very course which of all
others held out the greatest promise of producing that
result. To have rejected such a man as Cavaignac,
would have been sufficiently foolish; it would have been
the height of ingratitude to boot. But to elect such a
man as Louis Napoleon is the very consummation of
folly. We go still farther than this: it involves, in the
case of many persona of high standing in society, no
small measure:of positive criminality; for there can be
no question that their sole inducement to support the
Prince: was the hope that his success would pave the way
for scenes of anarchy, which they might turn to their
own private purposes. We envy not the discernment
of the man who could for a moment suppose, that
such men as Thiers and Odilon Barrot—Marshal
Bugeaud and General Changarnier, gave their
suffrages and support to Louis Napoleon, because
they thought him the fittest man for the office of
President. It was because they were satisfied that he
was jest the contrary that they exerted themselves so
I strenuously in his favour. The two former hope that
the effect of his notorious incapacity for administering
the affairs of France, will promote the cause of the Count
de Paris: ae.:ie the two latter cateut-,-_ with fequal
confidence, on subserving the wahrrations of the
de Bordeaux to the throne of France. It is to this most
unnatural and corrupt coalition, in conjunction with the
dense ignorance of large masses of the constituencies,
that Louis Napolean owes his success as candidate for
the Presidential chair. There is not a man in all
France,whose vote was solely dictated by a consideration
of the relative fitness of the two candidates for the pest
of President, who did not heartily support the claims
of Cavaignac. Republicanism will receive a heavy blow
from the result of the Presidential contest. It is one of
the great principles of Republicanism, that the suffrage
ought to be universal. Here we have an illustration of
the way in which such a principle is calculated to work
among the masses. The result proves that the masses
are not fit to be entrusted with the electoral franchise.
They have made, in this instance, the very worst use of
it which it would have been possible for them to do.
There is no reason to suppose that, while so.much igno-
rance prevails among the masses, the franchise will, on
a future occasion, be exercised to any better purpose.
Away,' then, with universal suffrage, until the people
have, by universal education, been rendered fit to make
a proper use of the electoral qualification. Let no one any
longer advocate that " point" in the Charter. Let those
who feel so disposed, stick, by all means, to the remain-
ing " points;" but let no one whisper a word in favour
of universal suffrage. Henceforth we shall have no
patience with them. We will not condescend to enter
into any argument with them. We will silence them at
once, by referring them to the result of the Presedential
contest in France. That will be a standard and un-
answerable argument in all time coming against the
adoption of the universal suffrage principle. To an
hour's harangue in its favour, in the House of Commons,
or out of it, a triumphant answer will always,be found in
five brief words—" The return of Louis Napoleon." We
deeply feel for Cavaignac. He deserved a different fate,
He ought to have been chosen to the Presedential chair,
amidst the universal acclamations of the people. Alas!
for national feeling, and national justice. Whatever
may be said of other countries, there is neither feeling
nor justice, as national sentiments, in France. It treats
with the grossest ingratitude its greatest patriots. It
knows no sense of obligation to the man who has saved it
from destruction. It prefers the man who has made
France ridiculous all over the world, by his Boulogne
and Strasburg exploits, to him who rescued it from the
horrors of anarchy and human carnage in June last. But
let not Cavaignac be disheartened. The day is coming
when full justice will be done to him. Nor is that day
distant. Bitterly, ere long, will Frenchmen rue their
preference of Napoleon to Cavaignac. If the result of
the choice they have made, should be to plunge their
country anew into the depths of anarchy, and lead to II
repetition of those scenes of butchery and bloodshed,
which, in June last, filled the world with horror, they
will have themselves to blame. They will then, if not be-
fore, open their eyes to the enormous error into which
they have fallen. Bitter will be their self-reproaches--
pungent the qualms of their consciences. What, if be-
fore many months have elapsed, the very men who, to
serve their own private and party purposes, have de-
prived Cavaignac of the Presidency, should be obliged
to implore him, as he was implored in June, to put
down some new insurrection in the streets of Paris?
The contingency has not the impress of improbability
about it. Should it occur, and the power of a military
dictator be again placed in the hands of Cavaignac,
we cannot conceive of a greater triumph for
him, nor mortification for them. Then will come his
time. Then will be his day of victory. The lessons
of experience will by that time have made
their impression ; and the man who, notwith-
standing his inestimable services to his country,
is now neglected and treated with the worst ingratitude
by his fellow-citizens, will become the idol at whose feet
they will fall down, and to whom they will offer their
moat profound homage. In the meantime Louis Na-
poleon is the god of French idolatry. He is not to be
envied on that account. He may not think so now--be
will before many months have elapsed. He has been
suddenly raised by the power of public opinion to the
highest pinnacle in the land. It is a perilous emsitnenHcee, as he will most probably soon discover to his
stands on a giddy height. A breath of
populcaor indig-
nation may, in a moment, precipitate him
to the ground.
But we will indulge in no references as to the probabili-
ties of the future. Events will speak for themselves
much sooner, we fear, than either himself or his friends
are prepared to expect.
POST.----The Presidentship of the Republic of France
may now be considered as settled. Louis Napoleon is
the mar. Should we have said the fortunate man? We
are not sure. That must be left for time to decide. The
result of the election is no surprise to us, for it is that
which our well-informed Paris correspondent gave us to
expect, and gave the public to expect, ever
Slue the candidates have been in the field.
Certainly, when we compare the present position of
Louis Napoleon with that which he occupied when first
elected to the National Assembly, and while yet re-
strained by circumstances from leaving London to take
his seat, we must acknowledge that so great
a change within so short a time has seldom
taken place in the condition of any man.
Not often in the world's history has Fortune so
rapidly turned her wheel, or through so wide a range of
circumstances. Still, however, the progress of events
since the election of a President was determined upon
was such as might be calculated by an observant eye,
and therefore we have had it in our power to assure our
readers, all through the struggle,. that the end would be
such as the returns prove it to hate been, The lucky

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—John Kaye, Esq., of Dalton-
hall, near Huddersfield, in order to prevent impositions,
has consented to have his coat of arms and a fac-simile
of his signature appended to the directions wrapped.
round each box of the celebrated family medicine pre-
pared by him, and known throughout the kingdom as
"Kaye's Worsdell's Vegetable Restorative Pills." For
billions affections, indigestion, and all diseases of the
liver, these Pills are unparalleled for their speedy efficacy.
No fewer than three hundred testimonials have recently
been published, demonstrating their surprising efficacy.
No wilily ought to be without them, as an occasional
dose will prevent many disorders, and will preserve the
blood free from those obstructions which are the cause
of most complaints. Observe that the arms of John
Kaye, together with a fac-similo of his signature, are
printed on the directions for use wrapped round each
box. Price ls. lid., 2s. 9d., or 4s. 6d. per box • to be
had of all respectable Chemists and Medicine Venders.
POOLE AS A CHANNEL ISLANDS STATION. •-•.- The
superiority cf Poole over Southampton as a Channel
Islands station has been fully exemplified during the late
gales. The Courier steam-packet, which left Southamp-
ton at her usual hour on Monday se'nnigbt, put into
Studland Bay for shelter in the course of the night, and
Subsequently on Tuesday into Swanage Bay, which
latter she did not leave till one o'clock on Wednesday
morning. For the information of persons not intimately
acquainted with the geography of these bays, we may
state that one forms a portion of the outer harbour of
Poole, and the other is separated from :it by but a bluff
headland and jutting rock. Had Poole been the port of
departure the passengers would not have suffered the
inconvenience of the very rough passage from the
Needles, and the company would have been saved a large
consumption of coal. Further comment on this we consider
to be at present unnecessary. We last week announced
that there were six French vessels in our harbour.
This
number has since been doubled, there being now twelve
alongside our quay,
principally
he vessels employed in the
iFardeennc with
ivthessels corn. lying
T
New-
foundland trade are also arriving, five being at present
discharging their cargoes, and others are daily expected,
as well as several additional cargoes of corn.—Poole and
Dorset llt DEATH EATING ENWHOLES
Elera y
Yesterday Mr. Baker held an_ adjourned at the
London Hospital, on Neriah Cochlin, aged nineteen
years. It appeared that deceased was taken into White-
chapel workhouse, on the afternoon of the 6th instant.
She presented the appearance of a dying person. Every
remedy was tried, but she never rallied, and died in about
twenty minutes, supposed to be from an attack of cholera.
Dr. Letheby analyzed the contents of the stomach,
which contained a quantity of cheese ; this being placed
tinder microscopic inspection, was found to contain
small fungi, which is indicative of decomposition, and
he attributed death to the deleterious effects of such
cheese. It is supposed that she bad purchased the cheese
from one of the hawkers in the streets who are at
present extensively vending what they term a new
cheese, at the rate of threepence per pound. The jury
ultimately
.returned a verdict that the deceased died from
the deleterious effects of putrid cheese, and think it right
to caution persons against purchasing a similar article so
sold in the streets.

MELANCHOLY DEATH OF TWO CHILDREN.—The
following painfully interesting and lamentable ocnr-
rence took place last week in our neighbourhood. The
heroic tenderness of the poor sister, even in death, is
nearly without a parallel, except in romance:—On Fri-
day se'nnight (the same night on which the death-ship,
the Londonderry, was making her fatal trip from Sligo),
two children, a broth and sister of the name of M'Grath,
he being 14 and she 16 years of age, were returning,
between nine and ten o'clock at night, from Dergbridge
market. Their way for two miles lay across the bleak
mountains of Tern where there was neither road nor
dwelling. There, it seems, the storm and cold of that

tempestuous night became too much for their physical
powers. In the morning they were found dead by each
other's side. The girl on leaving home had a shawl and
small woollen handkerchief; ono of these was found
wrapped round the brother's feet and legs, and the other
round his head and neck, while his two hands were folded
in her bosom; she, it seems, was:trying to preserve his
life while her own was fast ebbing away.—Dublin Free-
man's Journal.

- -
THE TRAGEDY ON BOARD THE LONDONDERRY.--.-- •
It is stated that several of the survivors of the late fatal
voyage, who have lost their relatives, are about to insti-
tute law proceedings against the proprietors of the
steamer, who, however, have undertaken to discharge
all thei; MGM