The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-29 00:00:00

LONDON,

them to act, they are, in justice to themselves and to
their numerous and influential constituency, com-
pelled to state that, " until they are placed in this
position, it would be impossible for their company to
enter into advantageous competition with another com-
pany who have an extensive contract for the con-
veyance of the mails. In accordance, therefore, with
their original prospectus, the directors have refrained
from Making any call on their shareholders, until they
have made such terms with her MAJESTY'S Government
as, in their judgment, will justify them in so doing?'
They further state that " having obtained a Charter of
Incorporation, limiting the liability of the share-
holders, and their deed of settlement being signed by
a most respectable proprietary, they would not hesi-
tate to recommend them to embark at once, and
actively, in the prosecution of their undertaking, if
the transport of letters was left open to free compe-
tition, and, looking at the recent discoveries in
Australia, and their probable consequences in the
increase of traffic with that colony, they would not
hesitate to recommend the immediate establishment of
a line of steamers between Singapore and Sydney."
Any decision would enable them to act. They might
carry out their original intentions either with or
without a contract for the conveyance of mails, but,
as they justly remark, "their efforts as a company are
paralyzed by the state of uncertainty in which they
, remain as to the intentions of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
L ment. They entertain confident expectations, bow-
ever, that the period is not distant when those uncer-
tainties will be removed, and when they shall bo in
• the gratifying position of announcing the active pro-
I secution of their undertaking in which the welfare
of the docks is so much involved."

We now ask, then, on behalf of the country, whe-
ther anything is really to be done by the Go-
vernment, or whether the report of Lord JOCELYN'S
Committee is to be consigned to the /imbch.whioh
is said to be paved with good intentions? Strfar as
the particular companies are concerned, we have no
interest one way or the other, save that as members
of society we must recognise the impolicy of dis-
couraging enterprises calculated to produce
very beneficial results to the commercial com-
munity. But these untoward, these unaccount-
able delays must be deeply injurious, inas-
much as they must either prevent the establish-
ment of a competing company, or by largely increas-
ing the expenses of that company, by compelling them
to make the arrangements within little more
than twelve months, which, according to the
opinio❑ of the Committee, it would take at
least eighteen months to complete, induce
them to demand a higher scale of remuneration. For
all these annoyances and inconveniences we are in-
debted to Sir CHARLES WooD, who will not disturb
his vacation by any reference to business. We trust
that if the Right Hon. Baronet cannot be induced to
act, even in a matter of such pressing emergency,
some of his colleagues many undertake the task on
his behalf, and that the question of Steam Commu-
nication with India may not be shelved for a further
indefinite period.

THE FIENI,H REPUBMC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Constitutionnel gives the following anticipa.
;ory resume of the forthcoming message of the PRE

81DENT :-

" Ic is true that the great political game is to commence
on the ath Novemlyr, and will b 3 played and decided
over the heads of Ministers. The affair will take place
between the Assembly and the President.. It remai. ato
be seen if the message will be a challenge. The mes-
sage, if we are well informed, will be lull of wisdom
and good sense; it will cause to pass, as it were, in re-
view before ua that numerous and powerful demagogical
army which threatens France and Europe. Between
the National Assembly which refuses the revision, and
the two millions of petitioners, the eighty councils-general
which demand it, there is a natural and sovereign arbi-
trator—the country. The President of the Republic,
opening of his own will the arena to all pretenders, de-
mands an immediate appeal of this arbitrator. It is not
more wise to put an end in the month of November, be-
fore the claims of all kinds which become due at the end
of the year, to the fever of uneasiness which will pre-
vail in the public mind, than to wait on a bed of agony
fur the crisis of 1852? If in this election, approved by
the prudence of the National Assembly, accomplished
under the most absolute univeral suffrage, and when it
will be allowed to vote for every one, Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte a second time obtains a majority of votes, he
will appeal to the wisdom of the present representatives
to modify the Constitution. Let any sensible man be
applied to: will the country in the midst of the dangers
hich increase every day, incur the risk of being sub-
merged under the tumultuous waves of the election of a
Constituent, and would it not be threatened with de-
struction under the storms which would take piece
during the arduous and tumultuous labours of this new
Assembly? The President of the Republic will confine
himself to pointing out some important points to be
trcat«l of in the new Constitution, such as the abolition
of tho scrutin. de Bate, and the co-existence of two
Chambers. Since we are in the vein for prophecy, we
will go still further, and we will Fay, confident as we are
of the elevated sentiments and the disinterestedness of
the representatives most engaged—we will say, with joy
for the future tate of civilization and of our society, that
Franca will he once more saved, and that everything
will be settled by honourable and patriotic compromises."
In another article in the same journal, bearing the
signature of M. GRANIER CASSAGNAC (ex man-of-all-
work to M. Guizoz), the appointment of a Military
Dictatorship is recommended. The Patrie, the Pays,
and the Presse, as supporters of the personal preten-
sions of Louts NAPOLEON, are of course sup-
porters of the new Ministry, which is also supported
by the Legititnatist Gazette de France. The ap-
pointment as Minister of the Interior of M. DB
TuoaiGetv, who has as an advocate successfully de-
fended the Gazette when under prosecution, has pro-
bably secured to the Ministry the support of the
Legitimatist journal.
The other journals, without exception, declare
against the new Ministerial combination ; the Debuts,
the Ordre, the Assemblee Nationale, the Union, and
the Opinion Publigne, vie with each other in their ex-
pressions of contempt, both for the personnel and
policy of the new Cabinet. We give the following
from the National as a specimen of the tone adopted
by the Republican journals:--
" We have got a Ministry. But have we really got one?
The Moniteur affirms it, and it ought to know. We have
read the ordinances signed Louis Napoleon Bonaparte;
and what more can be demanded? I truth, however, it
is an astonishing ministry, but perhaps it will be all the
better for that, We have passed fifteen days in stirring up
all the names and all the candidateships possible. One
day a Billault Ministry was brought to us, the next a
Persigny Ministry. M. de Lamartine had his day. M.
de Falloux himself was brought forward. There was a
good deal of talk about a new Ministry of
huts. But no one could have foresee the Mi-
nistry we possess—the Thorigny Ministry. The
President likes to surprise people. If the best guesser
had guessed a thousand times he could not have ap-
proached this admirable combination. Discontented
people maintain that M. Lacrosse meddled in the matter,
and that the drawing of lots—we mean of portfolios—
was made by him between eleven o'clock and midnizht;
but we prefer to ascribe all the honour to the President
himself. We make war ou him sufficiently, to render
him justice once in a way. It is he who has invented
the Thorigny Ministry. Thorigny, be it so! The new
Minister of the Interior was Advocate-General under
Louis Philippe. He has since become an ardent Legi-
timatist, and as such the affairs of the Republic may safely
be confided to him."
The Permanent Committee of the National Assem-
bly met on . Wednesday, General BEDEAU in the
chair. After the reading of the minutes of the pre-
vious sitting, the Committee received M. GIRAUD, the
new Minister of Public Instruction, who presented to
the President a letter from the PRESIDENT, notifying
to the Committee the formation of the new Ministry.
After a few observations of no importance the Com-
mittee adjourned to Thursday next, which will pro-
bably be its last meeting. The sitting of yesterday
did not last more than half an hour.
The new Minister of the Interior, M. DE Two-
RIGNY, has chosen for chef de cabinet M. DE MAUROY,
wbo filled the same office under M. 13AaounE.
BERTHIER, who was the chef de cabinet of M. LEON
FAUCHER, has left for his estate, in the department of
the Cher. M. PELLETIER, who was the chef de
cabinet of M. FOULD, resumes his functions in the
division do personnel. He is not replaced as chef de
cabinet, the office being provisionally suppressed.
A letter from Macon states that M. DE LAMARTINE,
who was to leave for Paris on Thursday, has been at-
tacked with acute rheumatism in his knee, and his
medical attendant fears that he will not be able to
leave bed for several days.
M. DE MAUPAS, the new Prefect of Police, has
published the following proclamation :
" INHABITANTS OF PARIS,

"A decree of the President of the Republic has in-
vested me with the functions of Prefect of Police. My
first desire is to command yuur confidence. That senti-
ment once mutual would be for me the surest condition
of the success of my mission. The most important of
nay duties and the, object of my most strenuous
exertions, will be to maintain public tranquillity, to
oppose au insuperable barrier to the spirit of anarchy,
to respond by an energetic attitude to the
menaces of the eternal enemies of society, to defeat
their culpable manoeuvres, and to reduce them to im-
potence. Under the hand of a firm Administration,
under the salutary influence of protecting laws and mea-
sures, under the wgis of the Chkf i,t the Ste and his
of order, the traLquiliity of Parisis re•
u
your wants, to protect your interests,
ticon applyl:l:eii b
l'i ‘-)ve friEt(thiul idpiirteverence a prudent system of progres-