The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-02 00:00:00

LON DON,

scribe to articles of religion), whilst Parliamentary

representation is conferred o❑ such exclusive bodies
as the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where
the members of one sect of religion only are ad-
mitted ; where the professors and others concerned in
the administration of the University notoriously neg-

lect their duties in the most open and flagrant man-

ner ; where only two branches of learning, viz.,
classics and mathematics, are taught, and that but
indifferently ; where the expense is excessive and the
discipline is at the same time so ridiculously rigid, in
the compulsory daily attendances at chapel, for ex-
ample, as to annoy and fidget the students, to the ob-
taining of no one good purpose ; and so deplorably
lax as to lead to the most serious consequences, pecu-
niarily and morally. We recently transferred to
our columns, from the Greenock Advertiser, an ad-
mirable article on the representation of the Scottish
Universities, and we trust that every journal in Scot-
land will, without distinction of party politics—for
this is not a party but a national question—lend a
helping hand in seeking to get this great injustice to
Scotland remedied, and this insult to Scotchmen
atoned for. The Universities themselves should also
stir in this matter, and the town-councils throughout
Scotland should petition Parliament on the subject•
The graduates of Scotch Universities, of whom a
goodly sprinkling is to be found in every town in the
kingdom, should also be up and doing. Let them call
meetings to petition Parliament to enfranchise them,
and entrust their petitions to the representatives of
the town or of the county in which they may reside,
so that within one week after the assembling of Par-
liament the table of the House of Commons may be
loaded with the petitions of the graduates of the
Scottish Universities, praying that on those Univer-
sities may be conferred the privilege of returning
Members to Parliament.

The Greenock Advertiser, in the article to which
we have above referred, makes mention only of the
proposal to confer Parliamentary representatives on
the Universities of Scotland. It should be borne in
mind, however, that our original proposition went to
a much larger extent, and we are not now at all dis-
posed to shrink from carrying it out in the fullest
manner. We proposed that the University of Lon-
don, comprehending as it does University College,
King's College, Lampeter College, and all the great
Dissenting and Roman Catholic Colleges of England,
should likewise have conferred on it the privilege of
returning representatives to Parliament, and that the
same privilege should be conferred on the Queen's
Colleges in Ireland. There is not to be found in the
kingdom a constituency more worthy of exercising
the franchise than would be the constituency of the
London University, composed as it would be solely of
men of education, of men every one of whom must
necessarily be competent to form a judgment on all
political questions, and at the same time embracing,
as it would necessarily do, men of every party, and of
every shade and variety of religious opinion ; we
should in such a constituency have the Alite of every
sect, religious and political, but their religion would
be without bigotry and their politics without faction•
It would be even a greater benefit to Parliament and
to the country to have the graduates of the University
of London represented in the House of Commons
than it would be to the University itself. The Queen's
Colleges i❑ Ireland have also strong claims to the
Parliamentary franchise. The conferring on the
members of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland the pri-
vilege of returning representatives to Parliament
would at once give them a prestige which could not
but elevate the social status of their graduates and
students ; it would give them an impetus that would
at once throw them twenty years in advance of the
station which without such privilege it would be pos-
sible for them at present to attain ; it would be confer-
ring a well-merited reward on those liberal and edu-
cated Roman Catholics who have had the sense and the
courage to value the denunciations of PAUL Cum.rrs
and his satellites at their true worth ; it would be an
encouragement and an inducement to others to follow
their excellent example, and it would be the best
practical answer that could be given to the ridi-
culous and malignant resolutions of the patrons of
obscurantism and ignorance at Thurles, in synod
assembled. Wre hope that the agitation for the en-
franchisement of the seats of sound learning will go
on with vigour during the recess ; we call upon all
those whose battle we are fighting to be up and
doing ; we call upon all who wish well to the cause
of an educational qualification to aid and assist us in
our endeavours, and we do not despair with such
assistance of seeing, before the conclusion of the year
1852, the Scottish Universities, the University of
London, and the Queen's Colleges, represented in
Parliament.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday,
but their contents are rendered of little importance
by the receipt of the submarine telegraphic dispatch
which appears in another part of The Sun, and which
announces the dissolution of the Assembly, and the
appeal by the PRESIDENT to the people, to whom
universal suffrage is restored. This coup d'etat has
been for some time in preparation, and it was doubt-

less with a view to forward it that Gen. PERROT was
removed from the command of the National Guard,
which command was on Sunday bestowed on General
LOWCCSTEIN. Rumours of an intended Socialist in-
surrection on Sunday in Paris, on the occasion of the
election, were spread, in order to afford an oppor-
tunity for the concentrating a large force in the
capital. The election of M. DEVINCIC, the Orleanist
candidate, for Paris, probably hastened the coup
cl'etat for which M. Duels furnished an excuse by his
barefaced falsification on Saturday of the vote of the
Assembly, on the subject of the length of domicile
required to confer the suffrage. The following article,
which appears in the Constitutionnel of yesterday,
seems intended as an act of accusation against the
Assembly, preparatory to its dissolution by a coup
Ztot.
• The Constitutionnel says :—" We were desirous of
avoiding all observations on the division on Saturday
before seeing what the 111onzteur should say, but,
with it now before our eyes, we declare that the
amendment of Messrs. MONET and DE LAROCHEJA-
QUELEIN has had for it two votes of majority. The
verification of the division gives 641 votes in place
of 655, owing to double and triple votes. General
DE CHASSELOUP-LAUBAT voted twice against, and
General RET twice for ; M. RICHE twice against, and
M. PERRINON twice for ; so that in these cases all is
balanced. M. LAUREAU voted once for and twice
against, and M. DOUSENEL twice against and once
for ; so that here again all is balanced, and hence the
rectified division gives the same result as the other.
But then comes the declarations of Messrs. COQUE•
EEL, Bac, and DETOURS, who all affirm that they
voted only once, and then for the amendment,
whereas they are represented as having voted both
ways. It is clear that, if three negative votes had
not been attributed to these gentlemen, the amend-
ment, in place of being rejected by a majority of
one, would have been adopted by a majority of two.
What can be the moral authority of a law, the prin-
cipal enactment of which has an apparent majority
in its favour, and the real majority against it ?"
The subject was brought before the Assembly again
yesterday by the application of several Members for a
new ballot, an application which was refused by M. Du-
PIN, who thus furnished the PRESIDENT of the Re-
public an excuse for dissolving an Assembly the
decisions of which were falsified with impunity by
its own officers. That the coup d' itat will not be
resisted is searcely credible, and a civil war may be
the consequence of this day's proceeding in Paris ;
but the Burgraves have greatly strengthened the po-
sition of the PRESIDENT by allowing him to go to
the people as the champion of universal suffrage, and
thus compelling him to throw himself upon the Re-
publican party. One thing is perfectly clear, that
whatsoever may be the result of present events in
Paris, the Burgraves and Bourbonista have fallen,
and, like LUCIFER, have fallen to rise no more.
The Princess MONTLEART, mother of the late King
CHARLES ALBERT of Sardinia, has just died in Paris,
at the age of 72. her remains will be conveyed to
Vienna for interment.