The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-12 00:00:00

L9NPON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1856.

The Emperor of AUSTRIA, apparently reckoned
without his host in anticipating a cordial recep-
tion from his Italian subjects. Vast preparations
were made, great promises held forth to the
people, an extensive amnesty was to be pro-
claimed, every real grievance redressed. But all

in vain. The people who have long and severely
suffered under Austrian oppression . and misrule
are not to be so easily caught. 'They will not
assume an appearance of devotif on in the vague
expectation of the future amerio:ration of their
miserable lot. " The iron has ,3ntered into their
souls." They have had bitter experience of
Austrian tyranny and Austrian duplicity, and
they cannot yield implicit creel ence to the an-
nouncements that have been s nade. They are
manifestly not disposed to pu .t their faith in
Princes—of the House of HAMBURG.
The natural result has folio wed. Not a single
unofficial cheer has greeted t7ao Royal visitant—
not a single unofficial lamp liras been exhibited
in honour of his arrival ; crowds of military and
of persons receiving pay from Government have
attended his levee. The wive s and daughters of
officials have attended the b:o.,1l, but few, if any
others, and those manifestly foam prudential con-
siderations, in which love and hope have no
share. The theatre, but for the uniforms that
appeared, would, even on also command night,
have exhibited a beggarly account of empty
benches. Even the Masquerade has lost its ex-
traordinary attractions, and what, under differ-
ent circumstances, would lave been a most
spirited and joyous affair, was flat and vapid.
The heart was wanting ! The People would not
be made happy on compulsion'.
It is true that there were no outward symp-
toms of disapprobation. Thiere was none of the
" goosing" which in this eciuntry would have
attended an unpopular personage, however ex-
alted his station. " The cu ,es were not loud ;"
they may, however, have bee n " deep," for even
the most skilful Mouchards cannot discover that
which is hidden in the secret recesses of the soul
—particularly when the parties concerned have
so many practical reasons for avoiding publicity.
The Police dungeons still exist, and any person
" groaning" in public would speedily have abun-
dant reasons for repeating the operation in pri-
vate. All
,that they dare display is an ominous
apathy, a chilling indifference to the proffered
benefits. They fear the EMPEROR although profess-
ing to bring with him most acceptable boons.

What else could FRANCIS JOSEPH reasonably
have anticipated ? Although truth does not always
find admission to Imperial ears, he must have
known that the inhabitants of the Lombardo-
Venetian provinces were neceFisarily discontented
—that the very name of Lombardy was, as Mr.
ROEBUCK declared, a talismanic word, sufficient to
excite the apprehensions of his Government.
Why then did he not confer the proposed advan-
tages in the first instance ? Why did he wait for
the time of his visit to alleviate the burdens under
which his subjects groaned ? Under the
most favourable circumstances, the Vene-
tians could scarcely have forgotten the
dignity of their once glorious republic. The
change to military despotism was one that could
not easily be obliterated from their minds. But
still they would have more readily acknowledged
advantages already received than what were merely
promised. It is hinted that the EMPEROR already
finds that important business requires his return
to Vienna. We believe that the nature
of the business can easily be guessed at. He has
been bitterly disappointed. He has discovered
the insanity, or at least the fallacy, of cou rtiers'
speeches, and he will depart from Vienna a sadder,
and, let us hope, a wiser man. Let him profit by
the lesson, which, although bitter, may yet prove
salutary, and learn the unquestionable fact that
a monarch may far better depend on the affection
than on the terror of his subjects.

A sort of a Brummagem figure-head, carved
(in ebony) in grotesque imitation of The Emperor
NAPOLEON-, was affixed, not very long ago, to the
" state vessel" of Saint Domingo. Everybody
recollects it, surely ? In fact there is hardly any
need at all to " recollect" merely—for there The
Thing is to this day—ermined, crowned, sceptred,
and all the rest of it (and black in the face !), in
the person of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor
SOULOITQUE ! Massa SAMBO, Sa !—in ermine and
purple—his wool half hidden by a jewelled dia-
dem—his grimy fist holding the rod of empire—
his splaw feet (" shipped amidships," like the rest
of his race, as JACK would say) thrust into regal
slippers of embroidered satin altogether a
genuine, Black Brummagem Imitation of his
imperial and royal Majesty, NAPOLEON the Great,
Emperor of France, King of Italy, Mediator of
Switzerland, and Protector of the Rhenish Con-
federation.

The Part appears to be just now really a
favourite role in the New World—one in which
the merest tyros in what may be called, for want
of a better phrase, political histrionics, are for
" starring" it, in all quarters of the western hemi-
sphere.

Scarcely has honest " BONES," yonder, in Haiti
"strutted and fretted" a little more than an hour
upon the stage of Public Events, in a " make up"
of the Emperor NAPOLEON—a " make up" actu-
ally funnier in its way, all things considered, than
even the memorable one of the late Mr. GOMER-
SAL of ASTLEY'S Amphitheatre when there
suddenly starts up before the astonished eyes of
the world, a sort of a Yankee Brummagem
Imitation of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, not as Em-
peror, but as First Consul ! The Thing this time
comes under our notice, not in any of the 'West
India islands, but upon the mainland of the great
North American Continent. It occurs, in fact, in
that portion of Central America which tapers
down from the southernmost point of Mexico,
from Yucatan and Guatemala, towards the isthmus
connecting together the two giant continents.
It is no longer a Negro Imitation we have to look
at, but a veritable Yankee Imitation—no flat-
nosed, frizzly-woolled, big-lipped Black-a-moor--
but a genuine lean-muzzled, nasal-talking,
go-a-head, whittling, gouging, bowie-knived,
revolvered Yankee Fillibuster ! Remember,
the " Part" this time is not tha of the
Great Corsican, as the Emperor NAPOLEON, but
as the First Consul BONAPARTE. There he is-
-110 Emperor SOIMOIIQUE now, lording it over .Nig-
ger Dukes and Snowball Princes, but a right-
dßeowpnubliiic unmistakeable
m of is.
NitakceaarbagleulaV:kLlCEß —(not H., but W.)
—General WILLIAM WALKER, President of the
A somewhat amusing insight has been obtained
very recently
into the actual state of things at
the present moment, in Nicaragua, in reference
to the power and policy of this rather remarkable
Adventurer. An insight into the condition and
character of his Government gained through his
untoward squabbles with certain of his diplo-
matic representatives. Already several curious
disclosures have been made in this Wa—
y by Gene-
ral G OIOOIIRIA--WALKER' 8 snubbed, and did-
missed, and disavowed Minister to the Court of
St. James's ! Divers others of a like kind may
reasonably be looked for soon, from the hands of
Citizen A PPLETON OAKSMITII-11VALKER'S hardly
•
less painfully snubbed, dismissed, and disavowed
Ambassador to the Democratic Government of the
United States at Washington. Disavowed him.
self, the former of these two mushroom-diploma-
tists, Senor Golootritia to wit, in his turn not
only disavows, but pointedly and emphatically
denounces to Europe, and through Europe to the

world, his quondam Chief—the Fillibuster Presi-
dent of the new-born republic of Nicaragua. His
denunCiation and exposure of the Yankee " First

Consul" was given at full length in the columns
of The Sun of last Wednesday. It was in the
form of a semi-offieial statement, affecting (rather
materially) the reputation of one whom the
writer sneeringly specifies as " Mr. WILLIAM
WALKER, now President of Nicaragua." After
entering a protracted and elaborate catalogue of
Charges in his immense Bill of Endictment, Gene-
ral GOICOURIA sums up all, point-blank, in these
singularly unmistakeable words :—" I, therefore;
denounce Mr. WALKER as wanting in the first
element of every kind of ability, namely, good
faith ; I denounce him as wanting in ordinary
sagacity and discretion ; I denounce him as
false to the interests as well of Cuba as of the
United States." "So much for"—the Fillibuster !
This already from General D. DE GOICOURIA, dated
New York, Nov. 22. Something else in the
way of exposure and denunciation may be looked
for very soon, we doubt not, from Citizen A.
OAKSMITH, ex-Minister to the Cabinet of Wash-
ington. And so—even now, in the very dawn
of his career General WALKER begins to find the
ground cut from under him, as far as his " repu-
tation" is concerned, by one after another of his
discarded Diplomatic Representatives. Yet, besides
thus wantonly and blunderingly awakening the
animosity of his own associates, General WALKER
has grossly mistaken his part as an American BONA-
PARTE. He has infamously, by the bungle
of one execrable decree, re-established slavery
in Nicaragua as by a single sweep of the sword of
his Dictatorship. Whereas he should assuredly
have borne in remembrance the fact—the glorious
fact, emblazoned in letters of gold upon the too-
often crime-tarnished and blood-stained pages of
European history—that by one stroke of his pen
Slavery was abolished throughout his vast domi-
nions by NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

Could we not contrive to set up a Despot or a
Dictator for a Session, and resume our " venerable
constitution" at the end of it ? It would be worth
while, to clear off the vast mass of needful reforms,
as Lord BROUGHAM, in his short reign, cleared
the lists in Chancery. What a number of things
are advanced to the position of acknowledged
claims on Parliament, and are year after year
brought forward in it, yet nothing whatever is
done. Will any one make us believe that a NA-
POLEON would not have codified our own law, and
decimalised our money, weights, and measures at
any time he decided to do it ? And is anything
wanted now but a man at the helm, with a clear
head, enlightened mind, and immovable purpose,
to settle for ever the questions which waste Par-
liamentary time year after year ?
Sundry clever schemes have been propounded
for making our Parliament a working Parliament ;
the chief thing wanted, we firmly believe, is a
leader who knows how to set it to work and make it
do it. It may be laid down that Government can
command both the highest and the most varied
talent of the nation. No expense incurred in
obtaining full information, or employing high
ability to prepare measures for the consideration
of the Legislature, would be grudged by the
country. It would be the truest economy. The
great obstruction has been that measures of the
best general purpose, like Mr. LowE's Bills last
session, have been so carelessly prepared, and
have overlooked such important facts to which
they should have been adapted, that they had to
be withdrawn either entirely, or for re-introduc-
tion in another form. Now this is discreditable
and blameworthy., It is too bad that Liverpool
should run riot in other people's money for
another year, perhaps pledge it irrevocably,
merely because the Government gave Mr. Dm-
Ram, and the obstructionists, handhold whereby
to drag the bill into a select committee.
What on earth should hinder the getting rid
of those annual bores, the Church Rates and the
Ecclesiastical Courts ? Every one knows that both
are doomed. They are confessed nuisances. The
first is easy enough to sweep away. No one
cares about them but a few old Ecclesiastical
fogies, whom a firm will at head-quarters would
put to the rout in a trice. The latter no
one ventures to defend, but every one
attacks the proposed substitute. A dozen
hours honest consultation with the three
principal schemers would enable any Minister
to settle the principle of a new bill; and a few weeks
would enable his subordinates to shape the details
till the measure should be good against all corners.
The Common Law Judges want work ; and what
needs hinder their being invested with full powers
to deal with all kinds of testamentary property,
and, so far as relates to wills, to deal with ques-
tions of equity as well as common law ? The
proctors, the Chancery lawyers, and the Common
Law practitioners, hitherto have all bustled up
against one another and the public, and frustrated
all attempts. We cannot doubt, however, that a
Premier who could introduce a measure whose
obvious superiority appealed to the country,
would compel the interested lawyers to silence.
Then there is the old rusty, we beg its pardon,
ivy-covered Corporation, London. Everything
was ready to hand ; the Commission had prepared
the forms ; it but needed to be vigorously
handled; when the Government merely proposed
to sweep just enough to offend the tenants already
nestled in their much-loved berths, without
making all clean enough for a new class to enter.
There was no pluck in the Bill. It was a thorough
bit of Whiggism. Had we not known that Lord
JOHN. RUSSELL was out of the Cabinet, we could
have sworn that it was "By the author of the
little Reform and Election Bills." A bill which
had dealt with the real London, not with the
little Lord Mayors and Aldermen, which gave to
all London the benefits engrossed by a little sec-
tion of it, would have been carried, despite the
cunningly-sought aid of DISRAELI and his faction,
and even notwithstanding the terrors of Gog and
Magog themselves.

Sir RICHARD BETHELL has told us of a bill he
means to introduce, by which land is to become
as facile of transfer as fundel property. No one
doubts that this might be done. That with a
strong will at the head, the reasonableness of the
ease, its practicability by honest men, and the
certain increase of value it would give to land,
would force it through the herd of lawyers who
will resent any attempt to dispense with the dark
and costly mysteries of conveyancing. ti But who
believes in the strong will ? No, it will be
bungled in details ; a whole pack of lawyers in
the House will bait it to death, and every land-
lord's solicitor will do his best to frighten his
client with imaginary dangers. The measure will
be read a first time—the second reading deferred,
perhaps for ever, or at best it will be interred in
a Select Committee.

We have given but a few illustrations out of
many of the nuisance we all complain of. We wish
we could look forward with better hope ; but the
truth is, we have clever men now, men who know
how to keep their places by managing parties, but
nowhere a man of commanding genius and firm
purpose. They play with Parliaments as they
do with cards, and are content if between luck
L and skill they win the game.
Well, we suppose we must make up our minds to