The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-27 00:00:00

onin4 ~71111:

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 27

1851.

ACRILLE FOLLD is reported to be the veritable
though invisible leader of the newly-appointed Cabi-
net—called by the PRESIDENT of the Republic the
Ministry of transition. Everything considered, this
extraordinary mode of terminating the late crisis
must be regarded as most ingenious. Baffled by one
and all of the various political parties in the Assem-
bly, Louis NAPOLEON at length decided upon select-
ing for his counsellors men totally disconnected with
the Legislature. In taking this unusual step he was
notwithstanding the circumstance of the course
being unprecedented—empowered so to do by his
acknowledged prerogatives. Thus much is con-
fessed, almost in so many words, by the Jour-
nal des Debats and the imperturbable tranquillity
with which the Presidential message to the Legislative
Assembly was listened to both on the right and
on the left, on the centre, and on the mountain, would
seem to come as a tacit confession of a like kind from
the popular representatives. Strange and startling
as the policy of the Elysee proves to be in its latest
phase, it is yet strictly legal in every particular, the
first Magistrate of the Republic having throughout
kept within the due boundaries of his power as
nstitution. Besides which, in
marked out by the Co
the very document announcing his decision to the
Assembly, Louis NArOLEON avows that that deci-
sion was only intended for temporary application—
the Ministry being one of a strictly transitory
character. Intimations have already been given
through our Parisian intelligence of the precise nature
of the relations in which the new heads of the various
departments stand with regard not only to each other,
but also with reference to their predecessors and to the
majority of the prominent statesmen of France. M.
Pa Guam; the Aliziater of Finance, and M.

Doubtless exertions of a very energetic kind will
be made, and that forthwith by the outwitted
and discomfited Members of the Republican
Legislature. The end of all their contentions can
only be in the highest degree satisfactory to the mo-
derate leaders of the Democracy, and advantageous,
in every respect, as a means of rendering their lofty
principles of administration predominant. The luck-

less Legitimatists can, consequently, look for little
benefit indeed from the struggles that may still be
maintained in the bosom of the Assembly. All the
good must tend to strengthen the political phalanx
yet holding together under the banners of such
men as LAMARTINE and CAVAIGNAC, while
it redounds continually to the honour of the repre-
sentative of the Napoleonian dynasty, the Prince who
has voluntarily thrown aside his imperial titles to as•

sume the no less brilliant position of an honest
citizen, the refugee who has then to be a statesman,
the Pretender who has been transformed into a
Republican ?EVIDENT.

What shall be done with IVISEMAN?*was
the inquiry of an English Journalist, to which we re-
cently directed the public attention. In that ex-
ceedingly able, but, we regret to be obliged to add
exceedingly mischievous publication, the writer re-
vealed the views and feelings of the Ultramontanists,
asserting the perfect legality of the late pontifical re-
gulations, that the POPE had full and complete autho-
rity to map out the English soil into episcopal dis-
tricts, and to nominate prelates, to preside therein, at
his mere will and pleasure, not only with-
out the assent, but contrary to the wishes
of the British Crown and the British
people, or, in other words, advocating the propriety
of the Papal pretensions that had been so strenuously
resisted by our forefathers through so many succes-
sive ages, and practically rendering the United
Kingdom a province of the Roman See. The Jour-
nalist endeavoured to show that any interference with
that which he regards as the unquestionable preroga-

tive of the " Holy Father" would be an act of reli-
gious intolerance that would heap discredit on the
Government—that it would be a persecution of the
Roman Catholic population of this realm, utterly incon-
sistent wi' h the principles of the Emancipation Act. He
therefore concluded that we had nothing for it but to
" eat our leek" patiently, and to submit to that which
could not be denied or resisted. As we render our
willing testimony to the great ability of that remark
able production, which we believe faithfully repre-
sents the opinions of a large portion, but by no means
of the entire, or even a majority, of our Roman
Catholic brethren, we rejoice to find that an " Eng-
lish Barrister" has provided an antidote for the poison
disseminated by an " English Journalist," and that
it is now proved beyond the possibility of doubt that the
Papal pretensions and Papal usurpations were as
vigorously opposed, even while England was in corn-
munnion with the See of Rome, and before the prin-
ciples of the Reformation were recognized or known,
as they can be at the present moment.

Has Dr. WISEMAN violated the law is the in-
terrogatory which Mr. EDWARD JAMES, of Lincoln's
Inn, answers in a pamphlet displaying a power of
reasoning, a depth of research which we have seldom
seen equalled on any subject or under any cir-
cumstances. The Learned Gentleman has gone
back to the earliest period ; he has dis-
persed the mists which time had accumu-
lated round the subject. He cites precedents
from and even anterior to the days of AUGUSTIN to
establish his proposition that " the Court of Rome—
that is, the POPE had not, before the Reformation, by
our laws and Constitution, any recognized or ad-
mitted spiritual authority in England ;" but that " the
superior spiritual power of the State was, by the
laws and constitution of the realm vested in the
Crowno of Eglan .This is, indeed, tendering a
b issue. It can hardly be as.
ldend a decisivend"
serted by the most sturdy supporter of the
policy of the Vatican, that Pro MONO possesses
greater or more extensive jurisdiction in this country,
in the middle of the nineteenth century, than was
legitimately enjoyed by his predecessors prior to the
reign of HENRY VIII. If he then had no authority
to subdivide our island into districts, or to interfere
in the appointment of its bishops, how, or under
what circumstances, can he be said to have acquired
that power ? There was unquestionably an arduous
contest on the subject. The wearer of the Triple
Crown endeavoured on many occasions to reduce the
English Monarch to the condition of a mere
kvainsagld,
om,who should do homage for this
but these encroachments were steadily
resisted, and HENRY I. only gave expression
to the unanimous feelings of his people when
he declared to PASCAL, "Be it known to you that,

* " What Shall be Done with Cardinal Wiseman," an
Inquiry by an English Journalist. C. Dolman, New
Bond street.
t "Has Dr. Wiseman Violated the Law." By Ed.
ward James, Esq., M.A., Barrister-at-Law, James
Ridgway, l'iccediny.

MAGNE, the Minister of Public Works, may be
viewed as men representing the sentiments of M.
ACHILLE FOULD, the former as his friend, the latter a 3
his late Under-Secretary. Consequently, through
these two important members of the recently nomi-
nated Administration, may be conjectured the ten-
dency of the opinions indulged in by their various
colleagues in office. It is true that but little can be
guessed of the capabilities of the chief portion of the
Cabinet—M. WaissE, the Minister of the Interior,
being as yet only known by his position as Prefect
of the Department of the North, M. GI-
RAUD, the Minister of Public Instruction, as
Inspector-General of the University, and M.
SCHNEIDER, the Minister of Commerce, as pro-
prietor of large iron works at Creuzot. But of the
capacity of M. DE ROYER to fulfil his ministerial
duties as head of the department of Justice, we may
rest confident from the great abilities already dis-
played by him as Attorney-General of the Court of
Appeals of Paris. While their military and maritime
careers are a sufficient assurance that General RANDON
and Admiral VAILLANT are duly qualified to preside
over the offices of War and Marine. So much for the
principal features of the temporary Cabinet just in-
augurated. More remains to be said and to be con-
sidered in reference to the indications of the future
policy of the; Prince-PRESIDENT, as shadowed forth
in his brief but pithy, and most significant message
to the Republican Legislature.
Viewed as the articulation of sincerity, nothing
could possibly be more admirable in every respect
than the document in which LOUIS NAPOLEON, on
Friday last, proclaimed to the Assembly his determi-
nation in regard to the Executive. Every sentence
in this message breathes the language and the sen-
timents of conciliation. Throughout, it indicates to-
wards the Legislature itself the most respectful con-
sideration, while, at the same time, it intimates
an inflexible resolve on the part of the PRESIDENT
to maintain in every iota and fraction the
great powers entrusted to him by the spontaneous
voice of the people in 1848, on the memorable 10th of
December. " The union of the two powers," says the
Prince, meaning the Legislative and the Adminis-
trative, the Deliberative and the Executive, " is in-
dispensable to the repose of the country, but as the
Constitution has rendered them independent of each
other, the only condition of this union is reciprocal
confidence. Penetrated," he continues, " with this
confidence, I shall always respect the rights of the
Assembly while maintaining intact the prero-
gatives of that power which I hold from the
people." Than these, no words could be more explicit,
or, in their way, more singularly commendable.
They constitute a literal denial of the charge re-
cently thrown out with more boldness than had hither-
to been adventured upon by the calumniators of the
PRESIDENT, the accusation that he is striving by every
possible intrigue to bring about an open rupture
between the two great powers of the Democracy.
Even his assailants must acknowledge that from the
first the Assembly has been the aggressor—Louis
NAPOLEON having only exercised a notorious
right in dismissing CHANG-ARMEE. Added to the
inevitable recognition of the fact that the
PRESIDENT is blameless in reference to the recent
misunderstanding between himself and the Legisla-
ture, must come a confession from all parties that his
latest communication to the Assembly is in all re-
spects remarkably conciliatory. Nevertheless, while
such is indisputably the prominent feature of the do-
cument, it contains not the faintest semblance of a
concession to the enemies of the Elysee, being, on
the contrary, calm, dignified, and inflexible in its
character.