The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1851.

It is said that the Honourable Gentleman the
Member for Inverness-shire, anxious to avoid occa-
sioning any additional difficulty to the already suffi-
ciently-embarrassed Government, has declared his
intention'of postponing his motion respecting the
affairs of Ceylon for some time, until the Ministerial
wisig has pq:,(l away. We can easily understand
the natura at.7:loty of Mr. BAILLIE to bring the Cey-
lon question, rospe,:ting which be has taken so deep

an interest, under the consideration of Parliament at
the earliest opportunity. The special Committee ap-
pointed by the House of Commons have already closely
investigated the various transactions alleged t , have
taken place in that island, but they have not, we
regret to say, received that assistance from the Colo-
nial-office or the Government to which they were
entitled. It was, therefore, perfectly right that the
Chairman of that Committee, the gentleman who had
originally introduced the subject, and who had
exhibited the greatest activity, zeal, and intelligence
in his management of the entire affair, should call
upon the House to support its Committee, and
to act upon the report and the mass of evidence which
had already been delivered. The motion was, how-
ever, regarded by the Premier as tantamount to a
vote of censure, and he announced his intention of
delaying the amended financial statement, about which
the nation was so greatly excited, until the Ceylon
question had been disposed of. On Saturday we
pointed out the probable reasons by which the Noble
Lord was influenced in adopting this extraordinary
course; he would rather sustain a defeat on any
subject than on one of finance. Gladly would he
get rid of the unpleasant topic until the Ecclesiastical
Titles Assumption Bill had been finally disposed of,
and the only obstacle to a junction with Sir JAMES
GRAHAM and the more liberal section of the Peelites
were completely removed, and he could rid himself of
the incubus that has been more intolerable to the un-
fortunate Prime Minister than the old man of the
sea was to the sailor SINBAD, or the abhorred hag to
the merchant ABUDAH, viz., the presence of
Sir CHARLES WOOD as Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer. _ _

If defeated on Mr. BAILLIE'S motion, the farce
of " resignation " could be re-enacted ; a few
more weeks might thus be got rid of. Lord
STANLEY might again be sent for, but the impedi-
ments that already proved insuperable still exist. His
followers have acquired no great experience during
the few weeks that have elapsed since he deplored
their deficiencies in that respect, declaring that there
were " few, if any," who had the necessary knowledge
of,official matters for carrying on the Government. And
if he Wit felt that he could not safely appeal to the
country or resort to a dissolution of Parliament, while
the Supplies were unvoted and the annual Bills—
the Mutiny Act, Fic .—unsanctioned, his position
has not been in any degree ameliorated since. Indeed
the expiration of the income-tax on the sth of April,
without any substitute :therefor, converting the
anxiously-looked for surplus into a deficit, would ma-
terially increase his difficulties if about to assume the
helm of the vessel of the State. The " Heir of Derby"
would, therefore, again fail, if he should even be so
rash as to undertake the responsibility for a single mo-
ment, and a plausible excuse would then be afforded
for again resorting to the assistance of the Right
Hon. Baronet the Member for Ripon, and sacrificing
the emasculated and mutilated Bill, the "ridiculous
mouse" produced by the parturient mountains of
" Protestant feeling" and " national independence,"
so loudly vaunted by the Noble Lord.
It would indeed be but " a trifling offering"—by
no means worthy of the importance attached to it by
either party—to the negotiations carried on during
the Ministerial crisis, and one to which we believe the
community in general are now totally indifferent.
If it can be carried in its original form, well. Although
that was feeble enough, it was good for something ;
but we say advisedly that the abridged and at-
tenuated proposition now brought forward by the
Government is nothing but " a mockery and delu-
sion," that it is in every respect worse than useless,
and that it is absurd to occupy the public time on such
insipid trash.

The opportune withdrawal of Mr. BAILLIE'S motion,
will, however, take away this excuse. The choice
of weapons wkereby to perish is no longer
open to the disheartened Premier. TEE BUDGET
MUST BE BROUGHT FORWARD, and the country must
be enlightened with respect to the four weeks' labours
of Sir CHARLES WOOD. We must know how
Schedules D and E are to be disposed of. We must
know whether the taxes on light and air are to be re-
tained in their present obnoxious form, or whether they
are to be really and truly abolished, without an
equally objectionable substitute being enacted in their
Place. Abovo, all, we must know whether the ridi-
culous attempt to pay off the national debt, by main-
taining the most obnoxious imposts, is to be perse-
vered in.

There is no choice, no evasion—Lord JOHN
RUSSELL must either at once repudiate his imbecile
colleague, and act according to his own better judg-
ment, or he must be prepared to meet his fate with
resignation, certain that the unanimous verdict of
the community on his defunct Government will lay
the catastrophe to the account of Sir CHARLES
WOOD.

Politicians of even the most democratic order
throughout France have been compelled all along to
acknowledge that the election of the Prince Louis
NAPOLEON to the Presidency was attributable en-
tirely to the devotion cherished by the people for
their imperial souvenirs. Upon any other conjec-
ture the triumph of the previously exiled son of the
ex-King of HOLLAND would have been altogether un-
accountable. lit was manifest, to employ the expres-
sion of M. DE LAMARTINE, that France wished to
shelter herself, after so many troubles, under the
shelter of that great name which, after an interval of
more than thirty years, still exercised over the
imaginations of her children a kind of posthumous
dictatorship. Sorely wounded by the insurrection of
June, when civil war desolated the streets of
her capital, and when a patricidal band
of rebels smote the very vitals of the
Republic, France was carried away by a
profound solicitude to assure to herself, by some
means, however eccentric, the chances of recruiting
her strength by a period of tranquillity. Hence it
came to pass in the December of 1848, that a man
without any antecedents whatever as a statesman and an
administrator, was chosen by the electors of the depart-
ments in preference to CAVAIONAC or LAMARTINE—
in preference to the soldier who had crushed under
his heel the bloodstained form of Rebellion, or of the
poet who had, with his persuasive voice, called a
regular system of Government into existence out of
the chaos of a Revolution. Fortunately for the mul-
titude, their choice fell upon one not altogether un-
deserving of their confidence. Had the heir to the
fortunes of the BONAPARTES been some mere adven-
turer, indifferent to all the laws of public morality, and
resolved at all hazard to further his own interests, ir-
respective of every generous consideration, the
Republic would have been delivered over, bound hand
and foot, to the mercies of a powerful and, under the
circumstances, an almost irresistible aspirant for
despotism. As it was, the PRESIDENT turned out, to
the surprise of his deriders, a man of honour, courage,
probity, calniness, reserve, and circumspection—all
qualities essential for the happiness of the country in
its most embarrassing position, and absolutely requi-
site for its chief ruler, if he would maintain himself
against his innumerable assailants. Instead of con-
spiring at once to transform his household into a court
and to transfer his residence from the magisterial
abode of the Elysee to the palatial dwelling of the
Tuileries, Louis NAPOLEON showed himself from
the very outset solicitous to testify his scrupulous al-
legiance to the Constitution. Ms policy was perse-
veringly one of conciliation, of moderation, and of
amenity. All classes and parties without distinction
were admitted to his assemblies. He conferred pri-
vately with the Legitimatist and the Communist,
with the secret aspirants for a regency and the pro-
moters of the cause of ultra-democracy. He listened
tteostheewho
arguments advanced by the dreamers of a
Socialist millennium, and to the sophistries of
h
would fain have brought down upon the
land the
Penalties of a precocious restoration. From
the first moment of
his inauguration he evinced
reP.cliaess to listen to politicians of all colours, to the
reds and the whites, to the revolutionists and the
counter-revolutionists—ready to acquire from all
quarters advice that might appear to him calculated
to secure gomething like a revival of peace and pros-
perity to the population. During all those agitating
censor was steadily-
and capricious months which
supreme
followed
of General CAVAIGNAC from
andres"pi-ca.onPslieirbeiePttiiebs r,
lYacquiringwe
leis
sue
en
acquaintance with thedevolving upon
an administrator. So far as the conduct of the
national affairs was concerned, the lessons taken
by the Prince Louis NAPOLEON in this most
difficult of all the sciences proved most

effectually beneficial. Unhappily, while looking to
the advantage of the country at large, the PRESIDENT
fell into a terrible indifference as to the proportion
maintained between his income and his expenditure.
Insomuch was this negligence on his part productive
of embarrassment, that before long he fbund himself
compelled to apply to the Legislative Assembly for
an increase to his dotation. Doubtful as to the con-
sequences that might issue from a refusal of this de-
mand, the Assembly consented to acquiesce for the
time being in its reasonableness. In consequence
of which impunity for past extravagances, Louis
NAPOLEON appears to have become impressed with a
rather dangerous, because most erroneous notion, that
he could count henceforth upon the willing grant of
additional millions of francs to himself by the gene-
rosity of the Republican Legislature. The results of
this calamitous miscalculation of the PRESIDENT are
by this time pretty generally notorious throughout
the length and breadth of Christendom. Louis
NAPOLEON has fallen more and more into arrear
with his creditors. The Legislative Assmbly has
at length peremptorily objected to tolerate any such
lavish disbursements as would be necessary for the
liquidation of his liabilities. The two con-
flicting powers of the Republic have thus
been brought prematurely into a state of
open antagonism. An extra-Parliamentary Go-
vernment, that is to say, a Cabinet composed
of men selected elsewhere than among the ranks of
the national representatives, has been the daring
retaliation determined upon by the discomfited PRE-
SIDENT. Until now this Ministry of Transition has
worked with unexpected success, and an interval has
been afforded thereby to the belligerents for their
preparation of further hostility. Meanwhile, the
Prince Louis NAPOLEON has very judiciously, for
his own individual interests, contrived to keep alive
the popular enthusiasm in regard to all imperial
recollections ; and this, moreover, without any-
thing at all approaching to treason against the
Republican Constitution. Aware, of course, that
he owes his position exclusively to the imperishable
glory of the fame of his uncle the EMPEROR, he has,
with a rational regard to the maintenance of his dy-
nastic influence with the multitude, endeavoured to
propitiate their ardour in reference to their sou-
venirs of NAPOLEON. To this end, and with a lau-
dable resolve to expiate a prolonged and unjustifiable
ingratitude, he appointed the only surviving brother
of his Majesty the EMPEROR and KING to the Gover-
norship of the Invalides—of that refuge for the veteran
soldiers of France under the consecrated dome of
which repose the remains of the great Hero. Added to
this, he has shown an anxiety upon all occasions to recal
vividly to the remembrance of the French population
the glorious achievements recorded in the history of
the imperial domination. It was thus that the
teur only the other morning announced to France the
elevation of General EXCELMANS to the rank of a
Marshal of the Republic—that brilliant officer who
first evidenced his heroism on the field of Wertingen,
and who obtained from the hand of NAPOLEON him-
self the recognition of his meritorious conduct in the
presence of his fellow-soldiers at Donaulwoethen. In
acting thus sagaciously, it would be absurd for the
most fanatical among the Republicans to cast blame
upon the PRVlDENT—conscious, as they must be,
that in every one of his public acts he has proved
himself faithful to Democracy, and that, coupled with
this fact, is the consideration that he owes his investi-
ture as chief magistrate to the influence of dynastic
associations.