The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-17 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY

EVENING,

SPIRIT ►►f ti►e PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM TOE MORNING PAPERS OF THII DAY.
TIME conduct of the respective parties;
into which the French nation was lately divided,
until the events cf the last fortnight had thrown down
all Parliamentary distinctions, is still a subject of in-
terest on the approach of the momentous question put
to the country by Louis Napoleon. It is nut, indeed,
possible that the people of France should now be in
condition to choose any other ruler, when in fact no
second competitor is in the field, and when the
President has in his favour the éclat of a military
triumph and the artifices practised by an unscrupulous
Government on en easily deceived people. The
masses of the peasantry and the classes most greedy
of repose, at the expense of every other condition of
existence, will doubtless serve to colour this usurpa-
tion, though not, we think (if the election be honest),
in numbers comparable to those which rallied round
the name of Bonaparte three years ego. But it still
remains to be seen what part the elder political par-
ties, far inferior in numbers, but far superior in intel-
ligence, will adopt on this occasion ; for the
real stability of Louis Napoleon's Government
depends quite as much upon the gradual
assent or adhesion of political parties which he
has not yet obtained as upon the military
array cf his present supporters. The position of men
ardently devoted to the great interests of their coun-
try, jealous of her dignity end her legal rights, and
hostile to the revolutionary elements that have almost
destroyed her, is at this time most perplexing and dis-
tressing; for, on the one hand, to oppose the Presi-
dent's Government is to lend strength to the Socialist
bands that have openly declared against him, and to
expose themselves to the dread and hatred excited
amongst the middle classes by their doctrines ; but, cn
the other hand, to support the President's claims by
an affirmative vote is to condone a series of actions of
unexampled treachery and brutality, and to consign
the country for an indefinite period to the fetters of
military despotism. The general resolution which
we understand to be adopted by the Constitutional
party, as far as it is possible under existing circum-
stances to arrive at any joint determination, is to
abstain from voting altogether. For as the fate of
France depends at this moment upon the rival ascen-
dancy of two extremes, and the only alternatives
are the absolutism of Louis Napoleon or the absolut-
ism of the Red Republic, there is little room in such
a crisis for the opinions of men who hold either of
these deplorable results to be only one shade worse
than the other. To abstain from voting is, there-
fore, considered to be the mute and unavailing pro-
test of men who look on with unabated dissatisfaction
at the successive revolutions that have rubbed the
country of its laws, of its liberty, and of its peace.
M. de Montalembert has, however, taken a more
decided line, and he is as yet the principal person,
being a man of independence, who has openly given
in his adhesion, and something more, to Louis Bona-
parte. But M. de Montalembert hes a very simple
standard of right and wrong in public life; he judges
everything, not as a cititizen of France, but as a
subject of the Pope. The conclusive argument on
which he rests his adoption of Louis Napoleon is the.
filial devotion of that Prince to the Court of Rome.
Who made over the education of the people of France
to the Romish clergy ? Who restored the Pope to
the Vatican by French bayonets, aed still supports
the decrepid iniquity of the Papal Government ?
Who consigned the Pantheon of Voltaire and
Rousseau, Mirabeau and Marat, back to the
tutelary guardianship of St. Genevieve? Be
he who or what he may, the man to wham
these acts can be attributed is M. de Montalembert's
master, and on this specific ground be holds him up
to the veneration of the faithful. The Roman Catholic
Church deals largely in pious compensations, and it is
sometimes said by her enemies that no offences are so
dark that they cannot be set off and discharged by the
offerings of adequate expiation. From the language
of M. de Montalembert and the recommendation con-
veyed by him to the clergy of France, we must infer
that the breach of an oath, the massacre of hundreds
of unoffending citizens, the overthrow of laws, and
the subjugation of a people, are not circumstances of
sufficient gravity to turn the scale of Papal justice
against so faithful a champion of the holy See; and
it deserves remark, that the leader of the Catholic
party in France expressly makes all temporal questions
of government, and even of personal character, subor-
dinate to the one grand object of promoting the
dominion and the interests of the See of Rome.
With such dispositions among the supporters of
the new Government, we question whether mili-
tary power will be the sole, or even the worst,
form of oppression the French will have to
endure. While the President has been successfully in-
triguing with the Church, and has actually obtained
the support of a large fraction of the clergy, acting
under the orders of their spiritual chiefs, he has also
shown a politic forbearance towards the Legitimist
party. The members of that party who were in-
cluded in the arrest of the National Assembly were
speedily released, and they have suffered less from
domiciliary visits and personal annoyance than any
other class of politicians. The Legitimist party had,
in fact, acted throughout the late stormy Parliamen-
tary period with great union and moderation. They
alone preserved good discipline (with one or two ex-
ceptions), when all other parties in the Assembly
were dissolved; and although it was notorious that
they had accepted the Republic from necessity, it has
never been alleged, far less proved, that they. were
conspiring against it. They retained the bearing of
men of spirit and honour to the last moment of their
legislative existence; and we trust that few of them
will be deceived by M. de Montalembert's miserable
argument that those who did homage to the Republic
in March, 1848, against their consciences, have no
cause to withhold their allegiance to Louis Napoleon
now. Out the attitude of the party is not hostile to
the Government. The most strenuous exertions have
been made by M. Berryer, M.
De la Rochejaquelein,
and M. De Fallou
x to prevent the possibility of a
Royalist insurrection in Brittany, which would pro-
bably have been fatal to the cause. Two of the Con-
sells Gaeraux of the western departments appear to
have had someintention of proclaiming
e local Go-
vernment in the King's name. But these rash pro-
jects have been successfully discouraged;
and the
Government, is in reality indebted to the Legiti-
matist chiefs for that species of indirect suport which
has disarmed some of its opponents, .eithout, of
course, admitting the validity of its actions or passing
an act of oblivion over its illegalities and transgres-
sions. Their rule of conduct is to give the Govern-
ment no positive support, but to oppose to it no im-
pediments. No doubt the policy of such a Govern-
ment as that which Louis Napoleon is seeking to
found must be to rally, if
possible, the adherents
of the Monarchy and the largest landoerners of
the country to. his side. He will crush the Repub-
licans by military force ; he will persecute the
constitutional Liberals by the tyranny of hit police
and the extinction of freedom of speech; but he will
cultivate the party most nearly allied to the traditions
of absolute government. On the side of the
Legiti-
mists, in spite of their vigorous protest against the
coup d,
ctet, there may be an opinion that Loins Na-
poleon isworking.unconsciously for themselves; and
that as his power is not of a nature to be easily trans-
mitted to a direct heir, the natural successor V the
authority he may re-establish is the King of France.
The same illusion was common among the French
in'gres at the time of the First Consulate. The
more sound and hopeful opinion would seem to be
that by these events the cause of monarchy is ioen•
tilled with the restoration of those free institu-
tions which Bonapartism has destroyed ; and Vat
when the short-lived mania for despotic govega-
ment has passed away, the rights of the Crovn
will be united to the hopes of temperate liberty.
And this is already the view taken, not only by such
Royalists as M. Berryer, but by many of the moat
liberal of the Parliamentary chiefs, including, we be-
lieve, M. Odillon Barrot himself. It were scarcely
reasonable to discuss contingencies so remote and un-
certain, if they did not serve in some degree to ex-
plain the motives by which men attempt to justify
their acquiescence in a state of things otherwise so
indefensible. The Ultra-Monarchical party consented
to submit to the Republic because it avenged them on
the House of Orleans, and they will submit to Louis
Napoleon because he has avenged them on the Re-
public, while he flatters their devotion for the Church
and their preference for Absolutist alliances. But the
greater are the qualities—the intellectual capacity,
the official aptitude, and the political integrity—of
French statesmen, the less can they stoop to share
the resposibilities of such a Government. For such
men there is no choice but to stand aloof. The
throng of vulgar adherents or rapacious speculators
doubtless await but the first opportunity to prostrate
themselves before the new power, and to mimic the
exultation of the first three months that followed the
18th Brumaire. But such reinforcements are a source
of weakness and contempt, rather than of strength
and consideration. A few names of secondary emi-
nence or of notorious servility have been obtained
with difficulty for the Consultative Commission; but
all real power is still in the hands of adventurers,
with whom no prudent statesman can consent to share
it; and different as are the accounts and opinions we
receive from from various quarters in France, they all
concur in one point—that the principal difficulties of
the President will begin when the tranquillity of the
country is restored, and when he proceeds with his
present adherents and his future constitution to govern
the French nation at his pleasure.
DAILY NEWS.—It is difficult to imagine an
expression of opinion upon French affairs so discre-
ditable and disgraceful as that just put forth by
Count Montalembert, head of the ultramontane church
faction in France. An opinion BO negative of all
morality, so destructive of all liberty, so hypocritical,
and so cowardly, certainly never emanated from any
one that has ever figured even in the annals of revo-
lution. Louis Napoleon has appealed to a secret and
mock universal suffrage, to be given in the absence of