The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-06 00:00:00

AST LEY'S ROYAL AIiIPIIITIIEATRE.

Under Le ?atrona.ze oir:s;3l,o4estyanclilsitoya! highness
Prince Albert.
p e nr and 31 snager, Mr W. Batty.
The most successful and popular Theatre in London.
PHIS EvENING,

Will be produced new grand Spectacle, from the pen of E Fitzball,
. founded on the celebrated Opera " II Prodigo," and written
expressly ter this establishment, entitled AZ I. L, THH: PROD IGAL
On' ME vIPHIS, In which Will be introduced the same highly-trained
Horsea and Camels that appe red in the Opera at her Majesty's
Theatre, with an addition of Ostriches, Zebras, &c., &c., the whole
of the well known resources of Astley's. To give due effect to the
representation, Mr. Batty has entered into engagements with several
artists of eminence.

With Batty's Grand Scenes of the Arena, embracing the largest
Equestrian Company in Europe, represented by Foreign and British
Male and Female Artists of superior talent.
To conclude with a laughable Afterplece.
Tickets to be had at tab acs-otlice from Eleven till roar daily.

At/we Mariswer. Ar. T. 'Munnpson

A F t 3T ;,0,1():IN tißll)(4k

Tins DAY —Morning 19 min. after 12 Evening 38 min after 12
To-Moaaow—Morning 55 min, after 12 I Evening 12 mm after 1

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, NOVEMBER 6
THERMOMETER, IN TEM SHADE.
40—highest since noon yesterday.
37—lowest this morning and during the night.
43--this day, at noon.

BiROMHTER, 29.93.
WIND N.N.E.--cloudy, with occasional sunsihine.

DAILY WEATHER TABLE.

Stabs of the Wind and Weather at each of the following
places at Nine o'clock yesterday morning.—The stations
are arranged in order of latitude.
BRIGHTON—Wind N., gentle breeze—cloudless.
/TeamGs—Wind N.:V.. gentle breeze—cloudless.
BouTHANtrros—Wind N., strong breeze—cloudless.
Fotrits-roxn—Find N.W., gentle breeze—cloudless.
TUNBP.IDGS—Wind N.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
Ge.E WlCH—Calin—frost.
S,,vl3fnorr—Viind N., light airs—frost.
COLCHESTEI. Wind N.E., strong breeze—partially cloudy.
CAARRIDGR— Wind N.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
YARMOUTH— \ 'rind W., strong breeze—cloud v.
LANcisTEP—Wind N.E., calm—principally clear.
DARUNGTON—Wind W. by N., gentle breeze— frost.
The returns from the following places indicate the state of
the wind and weather on Tuesday morning at nine
o'clock :
Diuw}foitft—Wind N.W., calm—partially cloudy.
!'oohs—Wind N., strong breeze—partially cloudy.
LA,reAsTsn—Wind S.W., calm—principally clear.

TO COR RESPONDENTS
No communication can be attended to unless autken.
ticated by the name and address of the writer.
Rejected communications cannot be returned.

,1.3 )1 ,
A tt,:qt, •
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(2:17/40
LONDON. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1851
ar,

By this time we should imagine that M. L
NAPOLEON BONATARTE must be convinced of this
gross mistake which he committed when he lent his
aid to the parti pretre and reactionaries to escanwter
the Republic. No MAO ever so completely perfortned
his portion of any political bargain as did M. Louis
NAPOLEO2I. Did he not dispatch the expedition to
Rome to crush a sister republic, and to restore the
obsolete and obscurantist despotism of an ignorant,
corrupt, and persecuting priesthood ? Did he not
deprivea the University of France, which numbered
its professors every literary and scientific
notabilityhand
ofthe
day,
ollf ail control over public edu-
cation, n
over
.the schools and schoolmasters
of France to be dealt a
with by the Count DE MONTA•
LEMBgaT and his Jesuit col eagues as to them might
seem most fitting? Ras he
no
in a state of siee proclaimeddepartments
g , dismiesedt
some 300 300 mayors, dis-
solved 126 municipal councils,
National Guards, as
be himself
tells u 139 regiments of
,s in his
Massage, in order to secure theirs;
aPr
he now
And did he
not against his better judgment,
n°w tells us,
cotsent to introduce a law clisfranchisin
of electors ? And now, finding that he L ss,obyoo, this
000
wholesle disfranchi3ement precluded all chance
of his re-election, the only consideration
e
which he asked for all his services, when
he proposes to repeal that law, the whole of the

reactionaries turn upon him as one man, denounce
him—him the author of the expedition to Rome, of
lElvs public instruction, of the law fettering the

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press—him,the prosecutor of GENT, him the persecutor
of KOSSUTH—a s an ally of the Mountain, and therefore
to be crushed a t all hazards ; and, had it not been for
the votes of the Republicans whom he had denounced
as conspirators in the opening paragraph of his Mes-
sage, his Ministry on their first appeal to the Assembly
would have been left, not in a minority, but absolutely
without a single vote. Well may the National
call Wednesday the day of reparation. We
had hoped that the PRESIDENT would have at length
perceived the folly of attempting to carry out any
further the vacillating and personal line of policy which
he has pursued during the last three years, but, up to
the time of the delivery of the Message, it would ap-
pear that he still clung to his old hallucinations. How
otherwise are we to account for the introduction into
his Message of such a passage as the following
A vast demagogical conspiracy is now organizing
in France and Europe ; secret societies are endea-
vouring to extend their ramifications even into the
smallest communes. All the madness and violence
of party is brought forth, while these men are not
even agreed on persons or things."
By this time we imagine that M. LOUIS NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE must be convinced that it would have
been much better that he should have denounced the
Absolutist conspiracy organizing in the Cabinets of
Russia, Austria, and Prussia, for the suppression of
liberty in Europe, and for the territorial division,
if need be, of France, than have lent himself to the
propagation of this absurd fable of a demagogical
conspiracy, of which, if it exists, he himself must be,
according to the Assemblie Nationale, a member.
That veracious journal, which supported him in every
measure calculated to ruin and betray himself and
the Republic (for however much he may imagine to
the contrary, his own interests are indissolubly con-
nected with the maintenance of the Republican form
of government in France), now turns upon him,
and not mollified by even his denunciations of con-
spirators, or by his vigorous application of martial-
law to two additional departments, thus casts
him out as Anathema .maranatha. " The PRESIDENT
of the Republic," says the Assemblie Nationale,
has ceased to be the elected of the party of order; he
has for ally the Mountain; he has just agitated the
country ; he has just compromised the sad remains of
our prosperity ; he has just given arms to civil war."
After this declaration of the accredited organ of that
large section of the 30-called party of order, which is
known as the Fusionist, and which is represented by
MM. GUIZOT, BERRYER, MOLE, and DE BROGLIE—
after the no less solemn repudiation of himself, and
his pretensions by the Ordre, representing the
ODILON BARROT and TRIERS clique, the_ Union,
representing the moderate Legitimatists, and the
OpinionePublique,representing the ultra- Legitimatists,
M. LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE must be in-
deed deficient in spirit should he ever
again truckle to this " party of order," or
seek, or even accept if offered, a reconciliation.
The Journal des Debats thus justly appreciates
the self-contradiction of the PRESIDENT'S Message
it says—" As to its political portion—the only par
which we will allude to—it is confined to two essen.

tial points—it proposes the repeal, pure and simple,
of the law of May 31, and announces the intention
of persisting in the policy of order and of resistance
to anarchy which the Parliamentary majority has
supported during the last three years. From the
very first the pretension to conciliate the two articles
of this programme appeared to us difficult,
adventurous, nay impossible." The Journal des
Baal: is right, it is impossible to con-

ciliate the two articles of this programme ;
and if M. Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE will, even
at this late period, do his duty honestly to the Re-
public, and observe in spirit, and not in letter merely,
the oath which he took when inaugurated President,
to maintain the Democratic Republic (for it was to
that he swore), we see, in this very impossibility, a
chance of his yet regaining his lost ground.
Let him at once recognise the impossibility, and as
Chief of the Republic, chosen by universal suffrage,
declare his determination to restore the Republic to
its integrity by maintaining, at all hazards, the cause
of universal suffrage ; but, in order to secure
the support of the Republicans he must not ,

be content with this, he must at once

cast in his lot with the democracy, he mus
propose the repeal not only of the Electoral but o:
the Educational and the Press Laws, of all anti•

democratic laws in fact, and, having done
this, and by so doing having convinced the

French people of his sincerity, he will be in a position,

as the chief, the trusted chief of the Democracy, to

call upon the Absolutist Powers to cease their

.ntrigues, to disband their armies, and to leave Italy and

Germany to manage their ow❑ affairs. In the even

of their refusal, the French liberating army might again

make the tour of the capitals of Europa, and whether
they refused, or whether they gave way, Louis NA-

POLEON BONAPARTE would be hailed by the eman

cipated nations as the Liberator of Europe. That
it is in his power to do all this we doubt not, and if he
only act honestly he will do all this. Will he act
honestly?

The new Law of Evidence Act, which came into
operation on Saturday last, has already been resorted
to on several occasions of trials at nisi prius at
Westminster Hall. Indeed, the absence of the testi-
mony of one or both of the parties in disputed cases,
will henceforward prove the exception, and not the
rule. What barrister can ♦enture to argue on pro-
babilities, or to put for ward a glowing description of
supposed " facts," that had no better foundation than
his own vivid imagination, when his client might, if
he had thought proper, have come forward and given
a clear and satisfactory explanation of every doubtful
point ? The practical ingenuity of the Learned Gen-
tleman must, therefore, with few and rare exceptions,
be restricted to actions for breach of promise of mar-
riage, or of cries. con., which have been perhaps judi-
ciously excluded from the operation of the recent
statute. In every other case, any person who can
throw any light on the subject under investigation is
a competent witness on his own behalf, or he may
be subpcenaed by his opponent, and a refusal
to attend will be regarded as fatal to his interests,
unless the cause of his absence be fully explained
and accounted for. Even a wife may (except in
criminal cases, or actions of the kind above referred
to) be examined for or against her husband. Some
degree of doubt had been expressed on that topic,
many experienced and able practitioners contending
that the well-known rule of law, which made the con-

fidence between married persons inviolable, was still in
force, and that, although the husband might be
called on to give evidence against himself, the
wife could not be required to do so. This view
of the subject was sustained by a description of the
probable dissensions that might arise between those
" whom GOD had joined together," in the event of
either suffering injury in consequence of the evidence
of the other. The verata questio has, however,
already received a judicial decision : Mr. Justice
ERLB on Tuesday held that "in other
than criminal cases the wife was a good
witness." This opinion of the Learned Judge is BO
much in accordance with common sense, ,that we
have no doubt it will be maintained by his judicial
brethren. It would indeed be strange if, when the
ord
party
himself, whether plaintiff or defendant, would
to come forward, and, regardless of pa
cunia
9 consequences, declare the truth, the
whole
truth, and nothing but the truth,
as his agent in the transaction,tha tmight,
and
his wife, who
been hcaovgenizaanctteof
d
every circumstance
aprpee .quired elucidation, should
be prohibited from
such were the case, the salutaryng on either side. If
effects of the Act
might be got rid of by persons who contemplated
fraud taking care that their
re-
present them in every wives should ntemplated
negotiation and con-
tract. It is not always that the law
and common sense are in accordance. -vv,„
have no doubt, however, that the ruling of Mr.
Justice .E3L2 is as sound in point of law as it is nu_
questionably judicious on the more extended view of
the subject.
Different versions of the same transaction have
already been put forward bydiffarent parties, and th ere
is no doubt that such discrepancies will but too Ire-
quently arise, even where the opponents may be bath
actuated by conscientious motives and anxious
to give accurate accounts of all they ku ow.
Such thi •
ngs cannot possibly be avoided. Men, where their own r own interests are at
stake, are acouto
rued to regard matters through