The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-07 00:00:00

TUE SU,

world in the highest degree problematic. The staka
is in the hands of the multitude. The competitors
are eagerly awaiting its award the one
sustained by the sense of great constitutional pri-
vileges—the; other, inspired, by a dynastic ambi-
tion and an almost miraculous popularity. The
decisive language in which the Prince Lours
NAPOLEON recently expressed himself when (on
New Year's-Day) receiving a deputation from the
House of Legislature, and subsequently the represen-
tatives of judicial authority connected with the
Courts of Cassation—indicates on his part a con-
viction in his own potential influence with the
multitude. Meanwhile the resolute conduct of the
Assembly in passing to the order of the day, when the
Prince NAPOLEON BONAPARTE endeavoured to com-
pass the overthrow of General CHANGARNIER,
betrays among the antagonists of the PRESIDENT a
determination as vigorous as might have been antici-
pated from the representatives of a great democracy.
The resignation of the BAROCHE Ministry im-
mediately afterwards attests the energy of the
Assembly, and the uncompromising conduct of Prince
Lours NAPOLEON since that event displays his own
impassable resolve as President. Each of the belli-
gerents imagined for the moment that his antagonist
was checkmated, and both of them in so doing
have been most egregiously deceived. The PRESIDENT
when, authorising the late proceedings of his cousin
and of the Patrie, he fancied he had brought about
the effectual discomfiture of CHANGARNIER ! The As-
sembly when, in passing to the order of the day, and
thereby necessitating the withdrawal of the Ministers
from office, it imagined it had utterly broken the
power of the PRESIDENT ! Nothing could nossibly
have been more erroneous or shortsighted in every
way than the line of policy adopted throughout
these transactions. Either no step whatever should
have been taken on one side or the other, or the
effort should at least have been rather more effec-
tive. As it is, the whole proceeding has been
an abortive attempt to bring to a close the anoma-
lous state of things at present surviving the out-
break of the revolution.

Every one recognizes and has long recognized the
impossibility of maintaining the constitution of
the French Republic in its existing form—
where the chief authorities of the Government are
mutually irresponsible, and equally averse to yield
superiority to the other. Until this system is in some
manner modified, until the prominent powers of the
country are placed upon a more secure and inde-
pendant foundation, the people will continue to
be perpetually liable to have their hdurs of tranquillity
disturbed and their anticipations of political security
disappointed. The urgency of this position is, in
truth, the motive power in which the whole of the
recent events have originated. And the necessity for
the constitutional improvement alluded to must con-
tinue to exercise an irresistible influence over the course
of occurrences in France until the period shall have
arrived which shall witness the settlement of this
enormous difficulty. It is not in reality a question
about M. YON or about M. CARLIER, about M. 8.1-
ROCHE or about General CHANGARNIER, about
DUPIN or about the Prince NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE—but it is a question as to whether the
legislative and administrative powers of the Republic
shall be reconciled and woven amicably together ; whe -
ther, in short, the Assembly and the PRESIDENT shall
afford each other mutual support and encouragement,
instead of remaining always at "daggers drawn,"
ready at any moment to foment the passions
engen-
dering insurrection. Supposing this desired recon-
ciliation had actually taken place, the poisonous sting
would have been extracted from intrigue—the bond
of union would have been bound round the now
scattered authorities of the Democracy—and that
strength would have been at length secured to the
Government which was once so admirably typified in
the fable of the separate sticks and the faggot.
Happy for France would it be if this modification
of her Republican C onstitution could be brought
about without the necessity for those preliminary
disputations which may result in all sorts of as yet
unimagined disasters. To the records of the Assem-
bly and the official columns of the Moniteur public at-
tention must continue to be for some considerable
time directed for some hints of the probable
issue of the pending', struggle. From the utter-•
antes of the gauche and the droit, or from the decrees
dated at the Palace of the Elysie, we can, yet awhile,
alone obtain some glimmering notion of the relative
proportion of the force of the belligerents. Thither,
consequently, our observations must continue to tend
until some more decisive end is attained by one or
other of the disputants than the passing to the order
of the day , or the changeof an Administration.

We are told that there is
" A tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,"

and there have been, alas! but toomanycases in which
the misery and wretchedness of an entire life have
been occasioned by the thoughtless folly of an hour.
There are, we believe, few individuals who cannot
from. their own personal experience detail in-
stances of

" Great events from little causes springing,"

As with individuals so it is with communities. The
elder DISRAELI has shown us how the
destinies of nations have Leen altered, and
dynasties overthrown, owing to matters apparently
of the most trivial importance ; and there can be but
little doubt that many striking illustrations escaped
the notice of that talented author, and some may
perhaps have occurred even since his day. Indeed, if
matters were all referred back to their fountain and
origin, we might find how insignificant was the
source from whence issued the streamlet that
ultimately grew into a mighty river, bearing the
commerce of nations on its ample bosom.
In like manner a case of inebriety that was heard at
a police-court on the day after Christmas-day, and
the appeal of a prisoner to the magistrate to escape
the infliction of a fine of 5s the usual punishment
of the offence of which he had been guilty, may
have the effect of directing the public attention to
the entire system of imprisonment for contempt of
court, or for debt, and procuring a large and com-
prehensive measure of reform that will no longer
permit exasperated and perhaps vindictive creditors
to become the sole judges in their own cases.

In the case now under notice, a man named
TAYLOR was taken into custody vino gravatus, or, in
plain English, very considerably drunk. He exhi-
bited the usual independence of persons in that
happy condition, snapped his fingers in the face of
the police, and was finally locked up for the
night, as much for his own protection as
for the punishment of an offence that was
regarded with some degree of leniency during the
Saturnalia. When brought under the terrors of the
magisterial power, and called upon to show cause why
he should not pay the additional sum of ss. for his
night's lodging, Mr. TAYLOR brought forward a
very unusual plea, but one of irresistible force.
He had, it appeared, been only just released from
imprisonment, and had been celebrating his liberation
after an uninterrupted incarceration for seventeen
years under a contempt order from the Court
of Chancery. And it would appear, from
what fell from Lord CRANWORTH when ordering his
discharge (for it appeared that his excuse was per-
fectly authentic), that he might have obtained his
liberty at any time during the last fourteen
years, if he chose to have applied for it, or to
have availed himself of the opportunities that
were within his reach, at any time during that
peried.
He was, of course, at once discharged, for
he had too large a balance is his favour to be punished
for any offence that could be expiated by mere impri-
sonment ; but his defence sunk deep into the public
mind, and excited at the same time a-strong feeling
of sympathy for the sufferer, and of disgust for the
system under which such a case of protracted con-
finement could have
ap-
pears, however, from the evidence
occurred,of an unimpeachable
witness, Sir EDWARD SUGDEIq, thatTAYLOR'S
im-
prisonment was not altogether owing
f
Chancery, but that there was a detainer to r
for the
debt Court
against
lsav o
e th
ha atd f
, ti o
him during the greater part of that time,
"purged of his contempt," he would still
appeal to the Insolvent Court, and were it otherwise
he seemed desirous of continuing in custody, avoiding
the visitors who might have obtained his release
that he was, in fact, to all intents and purposes, a vo-
luntary prisoner, who would not accept the freedom
which would readily have been granted at any moment.
Althoughlthis statement may to a certain extent di-
minish the pity we entertained for TAYLOR at first