The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-22 00:00:00

THE SUN,

FRANCE.
The Constitutionnel and the Pays contain leading
articles on the great question of the election. The
Constitutioanel says—
'. Electors of France, honest men of all opinions,
Louis Napoleen Bonaparte asks if, in your opinion
and your conscience, the in trepid act of the 2cl De-
cember was good ; he asks you if by that act, ac-
complished
by him in order to save you, at the
price of his own life, he merits that you
should continue your confidence in him, and give
him the right of completing his work ? To this impor-
tant question, on which depend the destinies of France,
he asks you to reply in the ballot which commences
on Saturday, and finishes on Sunday evening, by Yes'
or by No. If you reply Yes, you have a Government
which
.has told you with the certainty of a prophetic
patriotism, in face of the great trials with which a
society may be threatened—' France shall never perish
in my hands,' and who having already proved to you,
by an unheard-of success, the truth of that expression,
will prove it to you still better, when, to the force of his
faith, he should add that of your renewed assent. If
you should reply No,' you will in your blindness open
the terrible abyss which the superior foresight of Louis
Napoleon has discovered in the future, and which his
powerful hand has began to close."
The Constilutionnel proceeds to show what might
have been expected, if the plot of the enemies of the
President in the National Assembly had succeeded as
regards him. A military dictatorship and civil war
would, it says, have been the inevitable consequences.
The article concludes as follows :
" This is a very incomplete summary of the cala-
mities of which the success of the political conspiracy
would infallibly have been the source. And never-
theless this political conspiracy was ready. It only
waited an opportunity ; it had its measures all pre-
pared. The Questure, its military staff, had made
all its arrangements for the act to follow the vote as the
thunder follows the lightning. It will, perhaps, be said
that the conspiracy did not break out, that the bad in-
tentions had been repressed by weakness ! What
then would have been the consequence? The revi-
sion was impossible. France would be carried into
1852 by that cursed Constitution from which she
could not be delivered. Those thousands of secret
societies of which we have before given the sketch
would have organized, recruited, united, and armed
themselves. France having no longer at her head
anything but a Government in its last agony,
would be delivered up to the horrors of a universal Jac-
querie, and perhaps, alas! to the shame ofinvasion. The
act of December 2, therefore, prevented two immense ca-
lamities, and assuredly one of them a political conspi-
racy, which, even if it had the force to conquer,
would have been
radically incapable of main-
taining and pacifying its victory ; and an im-
mense Communist conspiracy, which, if it had
found its field of battle and its time, would have
carried the power of evil to an irresistible degree, and
as far as horrors unknown to humanity. And now,
eleztors of France, honest men of all opinions, Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte, who has warded off such great
misfortunes, who has already changed ell the terrors of
French and European society into a state of security
almost miraculous—Louis Napoleon asks you if he has
done well, if he deserves to retain your confidence, and
to continue his work of social salvation. We have your
patriotism and your good sense as a guarantee that you
will reply Yes."
We find in the Pays an animated appeal to the pa-
triotism and good sense of the French people. The
salvation of society depends, says this journal, en-
tirely upon the moral force to be given to the Presi-
dent. We extract as follows the concluding portion
of the article:—

"In 1814, when a million of foreign soldiers covered
the soil of our country, the Empire crumbled to pieces
under the weight of the humiliation which the invasion
imposed on the country; but the nationality did not
perish on that account, as the Monarchy took it up.
France changed her rigime; but under Louis XVIII., as
under Napoleon, she remained always France. In 1830,
when the hereditary monarchy fled to its third exile, it
did not carry away with it either the country, or society,
or authority, or even Royalty, which was to revive in
another family. It was only a revolution of dynasty.
In 1848, when King Louis Philippe ascended the
hackney-coach on the Place de la Concorde, nearly
at the same spot as Louis XVI. ascended the scaffold,
he carried with him the prestige snd dignity of
Royalty; but he did not carry away the sovereignty of
the nation, which could declare itself in a Republic.
It was only a !evolution of government. But at
present a revolution would cause France not only to
change her name, institutions, and constitution, but
would lead to a change in her nature, since it would
affect her, not in her political right, which is relative
and variable, but in her social right, which is eternal
and immoveable. It would be a revolution of society.
At least, let not this government of a superior and
divine kind, which is at the same time the
origin and the object of humanity, totally perish.
Men are free to act; they may at their own
option cling to error or to truth; they may perform
all the acts of life without rendering an account to
any one but God. But society belongs to no one, for it
appertains to all. It is an inviolable deposit, which we
have received from our ancestors to transmit to our
sons, charged in their turn to hand it down to their de-
scendants. Men cannot sport with it, and cannot ex-
pose it through personal pride. Individuals, parties,
opinions, systems, everything ought to be sacrificed to its
preservation, when such a sacrifice is useful. It is that
sacrifice which we now ask from our country, our friends,
our cnemiel, and, in particular, from those who ac-
cepted the liPpublio as a better form of civilization,
liberty, and progress. Whatever may be our sen-
timents, impressions, regrets, and hopes, let ns make it
without hesitating, and let us vote on Saturday next,
without thinking of legality which has ceased to exist,
and obeying the necessity which calls for our vote. Le-
gality ! we cannot any longer revive it, we can only
avenge it. In allowing a vote of necessity to fall from
our conscience and our hand, we will exhibit the only
useful and possible patriotism, that of common sense."
The Press., which on its re-appearance contained
leading articles in support of the President, is, and
has been for the last three days, entirely silent, and
no motive is assigned by it for this suspension of edi-
torial comments.

The Moniteur du Loiret contains the following :
" One of our trieudi has given us somo curious details
relative to the prisoners at. Ham. He had a few days
since an interview with General de Lamorictere, and
was the first person who had visited the General since
his arrest. M. do Lamoriciere knew nothing of the
events which had taken place since the morning of the
2d of December, and was not aware of the presence of
several other Generals and representatives in the fort of
Ham, where each of them thought himself alone.
General de Lamoricil,-e told our informant that, with
the exception of the loss of liberty, he had no complaint
to make of the manner in which he had been treated."

The Municipal Council of Dijon has transmitted
the following address to the President :
M. le P.Cident,— The Municipal Council of Dijon
has the honour to offer you the expression of its most
earnest gratitude on the occasio❑ of the great act which
his been suggested to you by your love of country.
Sarong in the imposing manifestation by which the
people testified its confidence in you on the 10th December,
1848, you conscientiously tried to effect an amicable
solution of the difflcultiies without number with which
parties encompassed your infant government. In vain
France, by demanding loudly the revision of a Constitu-
tion that had its birth in the midst of tempests, supported
you with her sympathies in that struggle of patience
and self-denial. In vain the Councils-General supported
by their decisions the demand of a reform which seemed
capable of preventing the perils that threatened the coun-
try. Bad passions, reckless of so many warnings, did
❑ot the less continue to prepare for us in 1852 the most
frightful calamities. It is true that, in the name of all
that is most holy in the interests of a great nation, you
adopted and executed the most heroic resolution to be
found in history. The wicked trembled, the good have
bacome re-assured,' in pursuance of the noble promise
you had given. And the population of our fair Bur-
gundy, under the impression of that immense benefit,
will hasten to take part in the grand ballot you have
proposed, in the same manner that they crowded only
some months since, on your passage to our city. We
have the honour, &e.
"Dijon, Dec. 15, 1851."