The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-26 00:00:00

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heat please the. Frenclbsttlion.
hia attendance are, as the French natiotikr'A'
wish those of tlie Emperor to be, splendid and
perial. But with this grandeur of display mingles
a true elevationaaf mind. It is an elevation which,!l%.l PP
while it carsie4 him to the greatest heights of. State , -
affairs, does not raise hint above the ordinary duties
of humanity. If he be a great Emperor, he is at
the same time a tender husband. If he be a'keen
diplomatist, he is net the less a tenacious friend.
If he carry nobly and well the high dignity which
be wears, he never forgets to whom he owes it, by
whom he was chosen, and whose interests are en-
trusted to him. In every answer to the many ad-
dresses which pour on him from all classes, and
from all parts of the country, he attributes to the
choice of the people, and to that entirely, the place
which his dynasty once more holds on the imperial
throne of France. Ho has filled that place better, -
we believe, than any other man now living could
have filled it. He has vindicated his &aim by the
strongest proofs. He has brought France, weak, tu-
multuous, disconterited, and miserable, to a state of
' order in which she is strong, at rest, prosperoug, and.
happy. He " has placed her, whom her enemies
',steered at as a sinking Power, once more in the
first rank of nations. He gives her the prospect of
a calm and steady- greatness. Such—so acute, so
firm; so honest, and ao steadfast—is the character
of the man who now stands, by the choice of the
people and by hie own deeds, at the head of the
Imperial Dynasty of France.
No ruler of France could long hold his sway who
could not direct armies, who had no sympathy with
the soldier, who could not make the army feel that
he was the man who should be at their head. This •
Napoleon 111, has done. He .has joined us with
equal ability in the direction of a disinterested war,
and in the making of an honourable peaoe. That
peace once made, there comes his most difficult task
and his-proudest-achievement, the keeping France
rich, industrious, and peaceful, in content and unity.
This will be the strongest test of that consummate
ability in the management of the State which he
has already shown. .This will be the formation of
the noblest legacy to hisiamily. Thi the
ciantinuance•—iu friendly emulation iter-
chanee of commerce—of an alliance with England,
in which he has displayed an honesty and an
swerving frankness which no man has ever exceeded
The blaze-of joy-which the birth of the Prince ex-
cited in all France had none of the commonplace
character of regal or imperial rejoicing about ,t. It
was, as we believe, a real, strong, and cordial feeling,
warranted by the fact that it gave permanence and
stability to the' existing order of things. We have
Seen; not-without regret, the grave yet eager sugges-
tions in which some of our contemporaries have in-
.dulged kir a oharige in the constitution of France. In
Heaven's name, what have we to do with the French
Constitution ? What business have we with the
form of government under which a neighbouring
and allied country thinks it proper to fix itself,
:after sixty years of disastrous trials, from which it
escaped in a condition ,calling loudly for a strong
hand to - set it in. order ? The foolish prejudice
which clamoured against the Emperor as a tyrant
.has passed away for ever. No man is more willing
,than he to give the French nation. all the liberty' it
wants. No man is- more determined to save the
gond and deserving majority from the tyranny of .
the few clover and unscrupulous adventurers who ,
would willingly override all that is independent of
their lathier:co: NO" man, we should think, could
be less auiious to leave the Child of France, who
"fills the ImPerial cradle, and satisfies the hope of
that great country, the dangerous monopoly of
power ; but no man will keep a stronger grasp on
that power, so long as it is for the good of the
nation that he -should dO so. No man has an eye
more keen and more just for what is right—none
has a judgment less liable to be warped—none—has
a courage more unfaltering than Napoleon 111..

THE SOUND DUES.

COPENHAGEN, March 20.—You are aware that the
eround upon which the Government of the United
States has denounced the treety of amity and commerce
with Denmark of the 26th of April, 1826, is their ui -
willingness to surrender to any Power the right of using
the ocean as the "highway of commerce," and to ac-
knowledge the right of Denmark to levy the Sound does
—a right which the United States have reciguised from.
the moment of their entering in•o the class of indepen-
dent nations urtil'lB26, as a not privileged State, and as
a privileged State from that year MCI' it the 14th of April,
1855, -when- they denounced the above-named treaty.
Some of the meet 'eminent Ameriean statesmen—M
Daniel Webster and the celebrated Henry 'Wheaten
—formerly acknowledged the right of Denmark to levy
the Sound dues, as resting upon " iinmemerial usage,"
and sanctioned by numerous treaties ; and the be-t
writers on *public Itw--for example, fltynkershoek aid
Lord Stowell—consider the law of nations as derived
front the usage and practice of mankind. The first
time the right of Detimarleto levy tills upon the tn,a-
chant vessels passing the Sound and the Belt, has been
denied W'IR in 1843, by the then American Secretary of
State Mr Upsh ir, who, in a raport to-President Tyler,
remarked "That Derimar't could not demand this tell
open any principle of natural or public law. nur upon
~say-Esther ground than ancient te-ae, which finds I o
justification in the existing ~tnt,i of things. She renders
no service for this exaction, and"—this, I presume, is
the prineirett -argument —" has not even the &aim of
power In enforte But Mr. Upshur died shortly
after. and, his-successor in office' Mr. Calhoun, the great
juric .nsult, entirety abandoned the stand taken by Mr.
Upshur in this question. Now, the new American
doctrine of public -law might, perhaps be defended, at
leant front an Amerioan point
,of view, if the United
Stales themselves acte.l up te it in their relations with
every other nation. But if you compare the course
pursued by the United States' Government in a recent
negotiation about the free navigation of the St. Law-
rence river with that which they have adopted in regard
to the Sound dues, you will pereeive that the jMIS for.
awls is the real- principle of Americen public law. In
the 'negotiation with Great Britain about the free navi-
gation c f the St. Lawrence the United States.claimed
tha., the stipulations of the Vienna treaties, " by whVt
the navigation of 'the great European rivers had been
-ma le free to all nations, were applicable per analogy
to the navigation of the St. Lawrence." In ,their ne-
gotiations with Denmark about the S ,und dues the
United States (viz., Mr. Marcy, in his despatch to
the American Charge d'Affaires at Copenhagen, of
July 18, 1853) decidedly repudiate the idea of ailostieg
any weight:to the treaties of Vienna in regard to the
Sound dues question, and does not take any notice of
the fact that the Congress of Vienna. although makirg
free the;tiavigation of the'great European river., left the
right of Denmark to levy the Sonnd dues enterely un-
touched. By the 4th article of the reciprocity treaty
with Great Britain of Jllfie sth, 1854, the United States
agreed :—"That the citizens and inhabitants of the
United S!atesshall have the right to navigate the river
-Ste Lawrence, subject only to- the same tolls and other
assessments as now are or may lereaker be exacted of
her Majesty's said subjects, it • being understood, how-
ever, that the 'British 'Government retains tire right of
-suspending this privilege on giving due notice thereof to
the Government of the U..ited Stitee." But to Den-
mark Mr. Marcy ta!ks in a high tone of the "free high-
way of nations," and refuses to have anything to do with
European public law and European balance of Power.
When invited to the conferences about the S yund
'held at ,presmt at Copenhagen, and where Austria, B--17
ginm, France, Great Britain, Holland, Oldenburgh,
Prussia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, and Russ'a are
represented, the United States declined taking a part -n
them, and in all probability the questi in will be resolved
withont their co-epd ratio-.
In a recent meeting of the conference 'the Danish
Commissary, Mr. Bluhtne, submitted a proposal of capi-
talisation of the Sound duel., according to which Den-
mark should receive 35 millions of Danish rixdollars as
indemnity for the abolition of the tolls, on the following
conditions :
"(ct ) Th .t all the Powers interested in the Baltie
trade and navigation participate in the payment, and
that it shall be agreed to by the Powers represented in
the conferences, Denrrark reserving to herself to treat
separately with the Powers not represented as to their
quota share.
"(b.) That a sum of 2,335,083 rixdollars shall be con-
sidered an indemnity for the lighthouse dues, and
32,664,912 rixdollars as compensation for duties upon
goods.
n(0 ) That the payment of the quote, share of each of
he repreoynlel Powers shall he guarant2ed to Denmark
.n a sa-isfactory manner."

The Danish -Commissary futther stated that the above
named sum was the minimum of indemnity which Den-
mark had the right of claiming.
According to this propose.;
would be about 10,000, the uhare of Great Britain
1,200,000/. 000 Danish money (or about
), the share of Russia about the same sum,
that of Prussia .boat 4,500,000 Danish rixdollers, that
of Sweden and Norway about 2,000,000. that. of the Ne-
therlands 1,500,000, that of France 1,250,000, that of
Belgium 300,000,000 rixdollars, that of Spain 1,000,000,
and so on, in proportion to the yearly average amount
of dues each State has paid in later years.
You will easily understand that it is of the greatest
importance to Denmark that this affair should be regu-
late I before the 14th of June, 18.5 a, the prolonged term
of the expiration of the Danish-American treaty of 1826,
as after this time any extremity of violent measures may
be feared on the part of the American Government.
The journals of the Union at least speak of sei zing upon
the Danish West India Islands. especially St. Thomas's,
as reprisals against the Danish Government, should it
exact the payment of Sound dues by American vessels
passing the Sound after the expiration of the treaty of
1826. Many British subjects being settled in those
islands, and St. Thomas's being an important British
postal and packet station, it is to be supposed that the
British Government would not look with indifference
upon such an act of violence on the part of the United
States. But still it would be preferable that, the
Sound dues question being settled before the above-
named term, the threatened complication did not, anise,
—Times.

The 47,0001. of gold brought by the Lightning has
been taken to the Bank of England. In addition to
the further sum of 350,000/. expected daily from Austra•
lict by the Blackwall, 61,7041. will be broughb by the
Brilliant, which eailed from Geelong on the 26th of De•
comber.