The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-24 00:00:00

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PROSPECTS OF ,A PARTJAMEYTARY
DISSOLUTION IN FRANCE..

The united chambers of the Court of Caseation
will be called upon next week to decide, in the last
resort, a cptestion'of vast political importance. The
mse immediately before the Court is whether one
Delayen, an elector for an obscure town called
Pont-Sainte-Maxence, committed a penal offence
by distributing, without the permission of the pre.
feet of the Seine and Oise, bulletins bearing the
name of a candidate for the municipal council.
The point really at issue is whether the G-overn-
ment will succeed in keeping that formidable baby,
universal suffrage, eternally in leading strings, and
in securing the election of its own nominees to the
Legislative Body in all time coming. This matter,
although the public has not hitherto troubled its
head..much about it, is likely to become one of
immediate interest as soon as the peace
is concluded. The four years for which the
Corps Legislatif was elected expire this time
twelvemonth. The imperial constitution has re-
served no power to prolong the term. There woold
be an inconvenience iu allowing the chamber to
exist up to the latest moment of the legal periol,
because the moral authority of a popular assenah!y
is always weakened in its expiring moments.
Among the members of the house itself a dissolu-
tion and a general election is looked for so soon as
the autumn of this year. Now it is quite certain
that if this election shall take place under con-
ditions permitting any, even the most moderate
amount of freedom of choice to the electors, the
government majority in the chamber will be very
greatly reduced. This must be so, even admitting
that the popularity of the Emperor has'aot
dimi-
pished since 1852. The eloctiou of that year took
place under peculiar circumstances of terror and.
excitement which cannot in the nature of things
occur again under the regular sway of that govern-
ment, which was then battling. with great i n_,rgy,
tstit by unscrupulous means, for existence. It ift
impossible, now that "moderation in sueeese
has been proclaimed from the throne, to trans-
port people to Cayenne merely because they at:.
obnoxious. The electors will have much less fear
than formerly of being noted down in the prefeet's
black book. The apprehension of being roasted
alive by red repub'icans, which impelled thousands
to rush to the poll for the government candidates,
is not now au active principle. Moreover a class
of influential candidates who stood aloof in 1852 are
now prepared to come forward. Then evety man
who was not for the Empire was against it. There
was no room for shades of opinion. However great
might be the local influence of any independentman,
he shrank from exposing himself and his friends to
the danger of a declaration of open hostility to the
power which reigned by a force without control.
Consequently the government candidates walked
over the course almost everywhere. There were not
in all France ten opposition candidates elected.
Tho time is now at hand when the extraordinary
unanimity whicht he power of Dec. 2 contrived to
secure in the popular assembly will be a source of
grest embarrassment, for should the composition of
the new parliament be sensibly different the public
will not fail to see in the fact a symptom of reac-
tion. Many men of mark, who are anything but
friendly to the principles on which the present
government of their country is constituted, are
nevertheless prepared to defer to a certain extent
to de facto success. Without meaning entirely to
sacrifice their pi inciples, they do not feel bound in
conscience to abstain perpetually from taking part
in public affairs. Of course those of the class I have
been speaking of, who would be members of the
Corps Legislatif, are prepared to take the oath of
"obedience to the constitution and fidelity to the
Emperor." But how small a guarantee is a poll,i-
tical oath in France, where there is such high autho-
rity for overruling it at the dictates of political
expediency I It is certain that if a general elec-
tion were to take place to-morrow, many men who
would not be mere registrars of the decrees of
power would be chosen, unless means should
be taken to make it practically impossible for the
electors to return any other than Government
candidates. This means the Government hopes
it has found in a strained interpretation of a law
of July 7, 1849, made diverse isitititu. The object
of this law, as stated in the preamble, was to check
the circulation of " books, writings, and pamph-
lets" containing doctrines dangerous to social orders •
It was objected at the time that the law, if literally
construed, might interfere with the freedom of
election, since a bulletin containing siirply the
name of a candidate was a " writing ;" and an
amendment was actually proposed declaring that
the act was not to apply to electoral bulletin*.
This amendment was rejected on the ground that it
ice&
,anueeeq.ary, inasinuell as the_ right of f. -
buting bulletins was expressly secured to Citizens
by another law, and that it was absurd to suppose
that a card bearing a candidate's name could ever
be confounded with a writing containing some
conception of the mind, such as the act evidently
meant to allude to. Notwithstanding this ab-
surdity, the present government, seeing the im-
mense power which a literal construction of
this law would throw into its hands at the next
general electiou, has instructed the Procureuns
Imperial throughout the cou'itry diligently to pro-
secute all persons presuming to distlibuto bulletins
for the municipal elections. The decisions of the
provincial courts of law have been conflicting. In
the instance which gives rise to there remarks,
Delayer was originally acquitted by the tribunal
of the First Instance of &mils, and again acquitted
on appeal by the Imperial Court of Ifes.uveis. The
Government appeAled to the Criminal Chamber of
Cessation, and this court put the desired con-
struction upon the act, quashed the judgments of
the courts below, and sent Delayer to be tried
again before the Imperial Court of Amiens.
The Court of Amiens has pronounced an ac-
quittal, in a judgment containing very clear and
convincing reasons ; and now, pursuant to
the course of French jurisprudence, the question
is to he solemnly and- finally argued before
the full Colin of Caseation. The ,Siecle, which
from the first has shown itself fully alive to the
immense importance of this subject, and has
from time to time published leaditig articles upon
it, now strenuously upholds the decision of the
Court of Amiens, and affects to treat as a matter
of course that the law must be altered should the
supreme court confirm the view taken by the Cris
initial Chamber of Cassation. It justly observes
that if the electors are not allowed to know the
names of any but Government candidates there
can never be any real election, the electors will be
transformed into pure and simple approvers of
the acts of government now and for ever. The
system of " universal suffrage" proscribed by
the imperial constitution will be
?tanged into
a system of universal approbation. To appre-
ciate at the full value this argument of the
Siccle, it must to remembered that no poli-
tical meetings can take place in France, and that
in favour of an oppo.
any newspaper writing
nent to a Government candidate would tie consi-
dered seditious. Therefore, it is quite true that,
if the Government construction of the law be up-
held, it will always be impossibe for the consti-
tuencies (with very rare exceptions) to agree to
support any names but those circulated by the
prefects. The Siecle observes, with greatboldness,
that if the councils general, the municipal council,
and the Corps Legislatif are really to be the mere
delegates of the Government, it would be better
for the Government to nominate them directly,
and not to mock the people with the idle form of
an election. It concludes by declaring that, as
France cannot have passed through three revolu-
tions only to arrive at the exclusive representation
of the country by authority, it is quite easy as to
the ultimate solution of the present question—
Daily News.

MART'S OFFERING.—You are well aware of the dona-
tions to the British soldiery sent out from the fair sex
in England, from the lowliest cottager to the very high-
est lady in the realm. Among the presents were some
flannel shirts. One cif these fell to the lot of Serjeant
the other day (I am requested not to print
the name, but I know the man well) ; this shirt he
opened, arid then, inside it, he discovered, carefully
pinned, a lock of hair and the following letter, which I
subjoin verbatim. The letter is directed thus :

"This is for you And I
hope it is A young
man
if not Give it ton won."
Inside, the words run thus :
"My dear Friend,—l write those few lines to you
hoping that they Cheer you A little. I think you are dull,
but God w hulp you. lam A young woman And I hop©
that you are A young man, this is my hire (sir. for hair)
Keep it for My sake " from " MART.
" You are now lafing, it is bad writing."
So ends the letter. Neither county nor town is men-
tioned in it. It was wafered, not sealed, and the stamp
on the envelope is a " forget•rne-not." The lock of
hair enclosed is light brown in colour, and plaited in
three, tied with blue and yellow silk threads. Who is
Mary ?—Crimean Correspondent of the Herald.
The ruins of the Temple of Diana, which were known
to have existed at Marseilles, have just been discovered
by the workmen employed in digging the foundation of
the proposed new cathedral.
TUE ISLE OF MAN.—The number of causes tried and
decided in 1853 by the high bailiffs of the Isle of Man
amounted to 759, the highest sum they arc empowered
to decide on being 1/. 14s. 31d., or 40s. Manx currency.
The number of causes tried by the " deemsters " of the
Isle in 1854 was, southern district, 666, and northern
district 400. The number of causes tried and decided
by Mr. Vicar• General Corlett in 1854 was 994. In 1854
1,560 ves!e!s entered the port of Douglas, 627 that of
Ramsey, 768 that of Castletown, &c., and 334 that of
Peel. The money expended on repairs, ac., in 1854 was
as follows, viz. :—ln Douglas harbour, 860/. ; in Cattle-
town, 137:. ; Peel, 113 b ;in Ramsey, 2181. ; eni in
Port St. Mary, 817.