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

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LONDON/ MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1851.

Acumix FouLD 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 moat 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 Deiats ; 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
marked, out by the C )nstitution. Besides which, in
the very document announcing his decision to the
Assembly, LOUIS NAPOLEON 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 I
majority of the prominent statesmen of France. M.
DE GEnxisy, tho Minister of Finance, and

KIM NE, -thilitilliSter of YtiOn Works, may be
viewed as den representing the sentiments of M.
Ac Irma FOULD, the former as his friend, the latter as
his lateisUnder-Secretary. Consequently, through
these two important members of the recently nomi-
nate d administration, may be conjectured the ten-
dencl 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-
BAUD, 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. DEI ROY ER 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 messages
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 CHANGARNIER. 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
auch 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.
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 LANAItTINE and C AILV AIG Pi AC 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 risen to be a statesman,
the Pretender who has been transformed into a
Republican PRESIDENT.

What shall be done with Cardinal WisemAN,?-,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 he 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 Pore 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 with the principles of the Emancipation Act. He
therefore concluded that we bad 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 isjnow proved beyond the possibility of doubt thatthe
Papal pretensions and Papal usurpations were as
vigorously opposed, even while England was in com-
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. Wisemme violated the law ?t is the in-
terrogatory which Mr. EDWATI,I) 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 AucusTlN 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
and constitution spiritual power of the State was, by the
laws
of
of the realm vested in the
Crown
England. This is, indeed,, tendering a
most sturdy supporter of the
bold and a decisive issue. It can hardly be as.
speorl eo dy
ofb th
y
the
Vatican, that Pm Norio possesses
greater or more extensive jurisdiction in this country,
in the middle of the nineteenth century, than was
e
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
nasal, who should do homage for this
kingdom, 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, N-w-
Eiond.strzet.
_

-1
"Has Dr. Wiseman Violated the Law." By Ed-
ward James, Esq., M.A., Barrister-at-Law. James
Ridgway, Piccadilly.

by GOD'S help, the dignities and usages of the king-
dom of England shall not during my lifetime suffer
any diminution. And even were I—which GOD
forbid!—so far to suffer myself to be abased, my no-
bles, nay, the whole people of the land, would not in
any wise permit it."
In support of his propositions Mr. JAMES adduces
numerous: instances of the exercise by the legally
constituted authorities of the land of functions purely
spiritual independently of the Porn, and inconsistent
with the notion of spiritual supremacy being lodged
in him. He also shows that the commands of the
POPE, in matters where obedience would necessarily
be exhibited by. obedient children and subjects, were
systematically contemned and set at nought—that in
the supposed palmy days of Romish influence, or what
the parti-pretre would term the times of Catholic
England, the bulls of the Porn were treated
as nullities by the highest tribunals of the
land, and that the same tribunals repeatedly held
that the POPE had no power to excommunicate or
to absolve from excommunication the subjects of this
realm.

It is absolutely impossible, within the limits to
which we are necessarily restricted, even cursorily
to allude to the immense and varied mass of authority
bearing on this important subject, which the learning
of Mr. JAMES has brought to light. He has shown
that even before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in
England, early in the sixth century, deputies were
sent into Gaul, in order to obtain the assist-
ance of learned men to preach down the
Pelagian heresy, Britain not seeking comfort in
her spiritual distresses from the PONTIFF, as she
would have done if she acknowledged the spiritual
supremacy and allegiance that has since been de-
manded. Again, on the arrival of AUGUSTIN, the
native bishops refused to recognize or to adopt the
`rites and observances of the Romish Church, ad-
hering to their ancient practises. He has shown the
native princes, in the period of the Heptarchy, ap-
pointing and setting aside bishops of their
own absolute authority, and EDWARD the
Confessor, who was deemed worthy of a
place in the Romish calendar, acting in
a similar manner, subdividing bishoprics and sup-
pressing monasteries, ex mero motu, a course that was
likewise pursued after the Conquest. We even find a
portion of that authority delegated, and the right of
appointing to the bishopric of Llandaff conferred by

the "English Justinian" on the Earl of GLOUCESTER,
and his wife, JOANNA, the daughter of that sagacious
monarch. There are also instances of abbeys
being exempted by the, Royal charter from
episcopal jurisdiction, writs issued under the
great seal prohibiting prelates from passing
sentences of excommunication, the establish-
ment of new tribunals, not by the Papal authority,
but by the constitutional powers of the realm, with
full jurisdiction in ecclesiastical and spiritual causes•
Even ANSELM himself, the greatest stickler for the
Papal supremacy, could resist it on occasions when it
interfered with what he believed to be his own right
and privilege as Primate of England. Again, we find
INNOCENT 111. abrogating Magna Charta, and LANG-
TON, the Archbishop of Canterbury, refusing to publish
his decree. Again we find the illegality of bulls ap-
pointing to benefices declared in the law courts and
the statutes of provisoes and prcemunire enacted by
the British Legislature. These measures were what
are called " declaratory Acts," explaining the ex-
isting state of the law, rather than making any
changes or alterations therein, and were in that respect
similar to the " Constitutions of Clarendon," all being
clearly and unequivocally opposed to the Papal pre-
tensions.

We cannot conclude without emphatically recom-
mending this exceedingly clear and lucid view of the
much disputed question to the consideration of the
English people, and more especially of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, Lord Mum', and Sir Jour/ ROHILLY. It
Will materially assist them in deciding on the
measures that may now be adopted, and which we,
echoing the sentiment of Mr. JAMES, sincerely hope
may be framed in a spirit of "the highest respect and
consideration for the feelings and sentiments of our
Roman Catholic brethren which is consistent with a
due regard for the safety of Protestant England."