The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY

press prior to the establishment of the Cape Monitor.
Surprising and incredible though this may appear,
it is altogether as true as it is remarkable
The affairs of those possessions were as entirely
under the influence of the home Government as
could by possibility have been arranged ; and the
popular sentiments were as completely under the do
minion of Cape Town journalism as Cape Town itself
was under the sway of her MAJESTY'S Colonial Secre-
tary. But a single party could contrive, under any
circumstances, to obtain a bearing from the South
African newspapers. But one section of the com-
munity was represented in the persons of their con-
ductors. But one colour of politicians was permitted
to blazon itself before the community in the pomp of
und
isputedn
.s o vHe reei gee
en ti yt
wa n the r
e sd
that atrheogse an c
whoe of
wereeur
en sti fled
unac
f meraitetdersunidnertthhaet
quai n ted
labouredw i t with the
forarea l
quarter position
considerable p
very erroneous impression that there was unanimity
where dissension alone existed, peace where there
were only broils, and contentment where there was
nothing but dissatisfaction.
Fortunately for the real majority of the colonists,
for those who had hitherto been without any means
of acquiring an organ for the articulation of their
sentiments, and who had, consequently, scarcely even
dared to cherish a hope of their ulterior triumph
over their antagonists, an opportunity was at length
afforded for the announcement of the genuine views of
the colony in reference to the numerous questions
involved in the problem of that among other Colonial
Governments. A volume relating to the matter in
question has within the last few days been issued from
the press,* in which the rise and development of this
opportunity are traced with the distinctness of au-
thenticity and the emphasis of a most earnest convic-
tion. Now that the attention of the public
generally throughout England has been directed to
the progress of events in Southern Africa, the
statements of the pamphleteer cannot but be wel-
comed as singularly opportune and acceptable, bear-
ing as they do at the same time upon their very front
the evidence of their trustworthiness. From them
may be seen the manner in which the dominant fac-
tion were at length deprived of their self-assumed
dictatorship. It will be seen, for instance, how on
the memorable resignation of the so-called " popu-
larly elected members" of the Legislative Council,
there simultaneously appeared before the colonists the
initial number of a journal, entitled the Cape
Monitor, in the columns of which were printed the
opinions entertained, not only by the minority, bur
those also cherished by the hitherto obscure and
neglected body of the majority. It cannot be for-
gotten that about that period the Governor of Cape
Town appointed the remaining seven members of the
Legislative Council a Commission for the purpose of
considering and reporting on a new scheme of local
and representative government. In opposition to
this legitimate conclave were the four seceders,
already mentioned as the " popularly elected mem-
bers" of the Council, who formed themselves into an
antagonistic Commission, with a view to sketch the
outline of another and a very different constitution.
In the Cape Monitor, and subsequently in the
volume here alluded to, appeared the detailed reports
of these rival Commissioners for the discovery of a
really desirable constitution. From these reports
may be recognised the tendency of the views enter-
tained by the opposing parties in Cape Town Colony,
and the relative proportion of the majority before
then entirely overlooked, and that minority
which had hitherto reserved to itself an undis-
puted, an undeserved, and a most pernicious
supremacy. " That two opinions existed," says the
pamphleteer who has adventured upon the compilation
above noticed, " was long privately known, but to
utter a free opinion openly was attended with diffi-
culty, in consequence of the means of intimidation and
the inhuman threats which had been put forth under
the Anti-Convict Reign of Terror, the war of which,
it was publicly stated, should continue from genera•
tion to generation." After the breaking up, how.
ever, of the long-preserved silence all doub

upon the diversity of public opinion was entirely
dissipated. Neither in Cape Colony itself, nor in the
mother country, could the community be any longer
hoodwinked. The mask had been stripped off once,
and could never consequently be re-assumed. The
least observant spectator could not fail to recognise
on all hands the tokens of that overwhelming power
which reposed in the hitherto quiescent hands of the
majority, a power which they themselves appear to
have in no way suspected, and which promises hence-
forth to direct the energies of the local Government.

For this extraordinary change in the position of things,
the colonists have reason to be thankful to a
singular concurrence of circumstances, and among
these not the least remarkable, and not the least

effective, the appearance of the Cape 411onitor as a
guide to the popular sentiments—a guide at once and
a mouthpiece. Those who are interested to examine
into the detailed occurrences which alternately led
to these very fortunate revelations would do well,

we conceive, to refer directly to the volume of parti-
culars already specified—a volume in which will be
found collected together all the most important facts
which in any way conduce to the late constitutional
changes effected in the government of our South
African provinces.

* " Cape of Good Hope Goverement end Legislation
Considered." Bvo., pp. 303. Londun: James Ridgway,
Piccadilly, 1851.

Whilst the Irish Brigade are pursuing their laud-
able policy in the House of Commons, obstructing
the business of the session by every species of guerilla
dodge, and voting black to be white, and vice versa
with a patriotic pertinacity, their spiritual prompters
at the otner side of St. George's Channel are keeping
up the steam in no inactive manner. Petitions against
the Papal Aggression Bill are being daily manufac-
tured, and by the latest tidings of the proceedings of
the committee engaged in that congenial task, we
learn that the soi•disant Archbishop of CasiiiEL, and
several other Prelates of the Roman Catholic Churcb,
gave directions to their clergy to hold simultaneous
meetings in their respective chapels on Sunday last ;
and, further, that a great number of petitions have
been received by the committee, the welcome pro-
duce of these assemblages. The Right Reverend
person who is known in Ireland by the title of the
Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe has.addressed to the
secretary of the committee a note on this subject, the
significance of which is worthy of observation. Thus
runs the precious document :
_ _

" Letterkong, May 11, I_llsl.

"Dear Sir,—ln reply to the circular forivarded to the
Catholic clergy throughout Ireland, I beg to inform your
committee that I have given directions to all the parish
priests of this diocese to have petitions signed this day at
their chapels, and to send them to Liberal Members for
presentation without loss of time.
" I am, dear Sir, your faithful, obedient servant,
" James Burke, Esq." " -IT. APGETTICIAN.
The value to be attached to the petitions which
will be speedily poured into both Houses of the
Legislature in cart-loads may be appreciated with
tolerable accuracy - from the above specimen of
episcopal interference. It is for the people of Great
Britain aad their representatives to judge how these
rlem
no
coney are nstrances have been gotten up, and whether or
to be regarded in the light of free or
deliberate
expressions of public opinion. It is, in
truth,
' l -n O rganised system of priestly coercion. The
mandate is issued from head-quarters. Tne Roman
Catholic priests are
meetings
in
theirchapels, not that we suppose such
peremptory directions ordered by their prelates to hold
yoffer any violence to their
Banyte tshould
consciences, or that the harbour the thought that
political discussion ca
desecrate an edifice consecratedn
pur-
pose of Divine worship, byut even
such an unhallowed idea seek for a moment
to usurp possession of the mind of a parish priest
obedience, the grand principle of the order of L
opYoena,
whose spirit now triumphantly inspires the actions of
the hierarchy of Rome, would rise forthwith in its
irresistible terrors, and claim implicit and unhesitat-
ing compliance with the behests of the superior
authority. The tactics of the priest to carry out to
its desired extent the injunction imposed upon him
possibility,
the
are simple enough to involve no burdensome
fatigue. He posts no aches on his chapel doors,
nor does he canvass his parishioners either
by circular written or printed, or by viva voce
.solicitation. While the dawn of the Sabbath
los,.riPebing into day, the petition is placed at the door
laid : none
atevohtieo sacred edifice. None can enter, to -fulfil his
1111 witll°.nt passing by the table-on- which it is '
t 3
the
deeumeTtliteionitilera affixingi:vaibthaouu.ut.ti.
e d
is
htihsesa3igynstyre

of the pen, or, as in the majority of instances must
be the case among an unlettered and uneducated
peasantry, without making his mark, indicative of a
full approval of a concurrence in the spirit and letter
of a paper which he is totally unable to decipher.
" His Reverence, glory be to GOD, puts it there
or us to sign, and sure we know it must be
all right when he bids us." G Finally, in
order to cut a splash in the provincial, and pcssibly,
in the Dublin newspapers, when the ceremonies of the
mass are over, the assembly is constituted, ex cathedra,
t public meeting. It only remains to put the peti-
raon, thus unanimously signed, to the ♦ote, and of
course it is carried by acclamation, and blazoned
abroad as the full, free, and deliberate expression of
he sentiments of the patriotic and intelligent clergy
and parishioners of the parish of Ballybotherem.
We trust that when, as may be expected within a
very few days, a mass of petitions thus concocted
after the recipe promulgated by Dr. APGETTIGAN,
come to be shovelled into the precincts of the Senatorial
Chambers, they may just be estimated cuantunt
valeant, or in an inverse ratio to their numbers.
Many illustrious and indignant orators will indubita-
bly appeal to such emanations of popular feeling from
the Isle of Saints as an insurmountable proof of the
fearful tyranny of the proposed Ministerial enactment,
and the stern determination of the pious Romanists of
Ireland to resist even to the death the insult attempted
to be offered to the gracious condescension of the
Holy Father in granting a Christian hierarchy
to :this benighted land. But, as for any real
influence or importance, such wholesale scrawls are
worth precisely their respective weights in waste
paper. Lord Joule may, if he thinks proper, shrink
before the shower of paper pellets; and, indeed, after all,
the carrying of his measure, as it is at present emascu-
lated, is of no very vital moment. But the public
mind of England, gullible as JouN BULL proves him-
self to be on many occasions, is neither to be brow-
beaten' by braggadocio, nor humbugged by palpable
and glaring trickery. If the " Cardinal Arch-
bishop" is yet, according to the aspirations of the
faithful, to purge the isle of infidel heresy, and cele-
brate high mass in Westminster Abbey, the sages of
the Vatican may rest assured of this, that such an
eventuality must be realized by some more potent
and convincing instrumentality than either the
championship of the Irish Brigade, or the gentle per-
suasions of the IPGETTIGANS, their subalterns, and
their herds.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

---
We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
On Monday the renewal of the Bureau of the Na-
ional Assembly took place, when M. DUPIN was re-
elected President by an immense majority. General
BEDEAU was the only candidate for the Vice-Presi-
dency who received a sufficient numher of votes.
MM. CHAPOT, LACAZE, PEUPIN, and BERARD were
elected Secretaries.
The Aational thus comments on the disgrace of
General D'HAUTPOUL
" We have endeavoured to ascertain the causes of the
marked disgrace thus inflicted on General d'Hautpoul,
rind the best-informed persons have replied to us that
here was but o: a —the divided incapacity of the Governor
of Algeria. It is certain, in fact, that the dismissal of
General d'Hautpoul is not to be in any way attributed
to a sudde❑ fit of respect for the Constitution and the
electoral law, for General Magnan, who has been, not
for six months, but nearly two years, at the head of the
4th military division, is continued in his command. It
is said that General d'Hautpoul is furious against the
,ngratitude of the Elyrea. We can well believe it, but
why is he of so little ability? All that would be only
amusing, if Algeria was not the sufferer by the political
orabinations of the Elyria. To recompense the orga-
of the reviews of Satory, General d'Hautpoul was
made Govircor of Algeria fur six months, and God
knows what that step has cost. At present, a presump-
tuous and ignorant pasha is got rid of, and a governor
appointed ad interim; and all this because M. Bonaparte
could not make up his mind to discontent two or three
ambitious mediocrities who figure in his saloons."
It is said that Dr. VERoN has had a serious
quarrel with Lipari FAUCHER, and that the Constitu-
tionnel is to be considered as the organ of the
Elysee as contradistinguished from the Ministry.
M. EMILE DE GIRARDIN has declared against any
revision of the Constitution, and in favour of the
candidature of General CAVAIGNAC for the President-
ship of the Republic. The following article appears
in the Presse:—
" The situation has ceased to be obscure. The light
of the sun at noon is not more clear-1. The respect of
the Assembly for the letter of the Constitution is in-
vincible' (declaration of the Constitutionnel of May 10,
1851); 2. The right of petition is dying—the right of
petition his dead' (declaration of the Messager de l'As-
semblie of May 11); 3. M. de Falloux is as opposed
as MM. de Labonlie and Nettement to all prolongation
of the President's powers' (declaration of the Opinion
Publique of May 12). Thus, no revison of the Consti-
tution—no pressure from without by means of petitions
—no prolongation of the President's powers. Manufac-
turers and traders, you can fabricate and purchase
in all security; you have ten long months before
you ! It will be time in March, 1852, to get un-
easy; that will, in fact, be too soon, for if the law of
May 31 is before then repealed, everything will pass
over most quietly. The elections will then take place
as in 1848, with perfect tranquillity. The great party
of order has already its candidate, namely, General
Cavaignac. Already General Cavaignac has the sup-
port ot the Sikle; the co-operation of the Dibats will
not be wanting to him; and probably that of the Con.
stitutionnel will be also given to him. It is useless to
speak ot the Legitimatist, fusionist, and Orleanist press;
for, as it made use of M. L. Bonaparte against General
Cavaignac, so it will make use of M. Cavaignac against
M. L. N. Bonaparte. From every side the rumour
r, aches us that the candidateship ot General Cavaiguac
is making rapid progress, and that it is above all well
received by the banking world, the manufacturers, and
!he merchant class. Everywhere this idea is gaining
ground—to vote unconstitutionally for M. L. N. Bona-
parte would be to render M. Ledru Rollin constitu-
tionally eligible, three millions of votes being ready to
vote for him."

A report of M. GODELLE, in the name of a com-
mittee recommending the taking into consideration of
the proposition of M. Mom/4r, relative to the periods
at which motions for the revision of the Constitution
may be brought forward, was yesterday dis'ributed to
the National Assembly ; as was also a report, like-
wise by M. GODELLE, in favour of the proposition of
M. MOULIN, to the effect that motions relative to the
revision should be referred to a Special Committee.
We read in the Presse :—" The fusion is settled,
General ST. PRIEST and General CRANGARNIER have
had a long conference.' Such was the rumour pre-
valent yesterday at the Assembly. It may be, that
the fusion has taken place at Paris, but it is not so at
Claremont, where it was on Friday last altogether
disapproved of; for the Duke DE NEMOURS, whatever
may be asserted, is on this point of the same opinion
as his sister-in-law, the Duchess of ORLEANS, and
his brothers, the Duke D'AUMALE and the Prince DE
JOINVILLE."
A homicide, named MONTCHARMONT, brought out
for execution at Chalon on the 10th, after a desperate
struggle with the executioner, escaped from the
scaffold, but was secured by the gendarmes, who re-
conducted him to prison, refusing to be instrumental
in bringing the criminal a second time to the guillo-
tine. An immense sensation was created in the town
by this incident.,
The Bourse was again very much depressed, and
Government Stock was offered for sale in large quanti-
ties. The Five per Cents. opened at 901. 5c., and
closed at 89f. 60c. ; the Three per Cents. closed at 551.
55c. Orleans Railroad Shares, 817 f. 50c. ; Great
Northern, 471 f. 25c.; Avignon, 2181. 75c.; Vierzon,
423 f. ; Basle, 1451.; Paris and Strasburg, 363 f. 75c.;
•
Tours and Nantes, 2731. 75c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, MAT 13.
Boulogne and Amiens, 93/4—East Indian, 15%—llitto,
224—Luxembourg, 3til—Namur and Liege, 7i/B—Northern
of France, 143/4—Paris and Strasbourg, 101%—Toara and
Nantes, 5% —West Flanders, 314.

always ready, to fall upon the insurgents the moment
they make their appearance.
MADRID BOLSA, MAY B.—The Three per Cents. were
done at 35; for time; the Four per Cents. at 14; tha
Five per Cents. at 16; the Debt without Interest at 61;
and the Coupons at Bf.