The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-21 00:00:00

~`aamx

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 21, 1851.

Marvellous and incomprehensible at the first glance
though it may appear, the National Assembly
has accepted and yet refused the project for a revi-
sion of the Constitution. The riddle, though ap-
parently bewildering, may nevertheless be very rea-
dily explained. Saturday last witnessed the division
upon the long-agitated question, immediately after
M. CII4RAMAULE'S withdrawal of his amendment.
According to the numbers counted off upon their
division, there were found to be 446 in favour of the
revision, and only 278 against it, 724 having voted
altogether. Yet, with a clear majority
by this means of 168 in favour of the
revision, it was decided that the proposition had en-
countered a rejection from the circumstance of the
votes in behalf of the scheme of innovation not amount-
ing to three-fourths of the whole in the aggregate.
The supporters of the change in the Constitution find
themselves therefore by this time in the anomalous
position of men vanquished even at the moment
when seemingly victorious. No marvel that the re-
sult of the division was greeted by the Mountain
with shouts of Vice la Republique.
The political difficulties of France have by
the decision of the Assembly on Saturday
been marvellously simplified, and we doubt
not but that the effect will be very materially to con-
solidate her det.,o,:tatic institutions, stabilitatiog at
the same time the whole framework of the national
administration. Influence of the nature here hinted
at were of all others the most desirable, in order to
prepare
for that great struggle which is to be wit-
nessed in 1852 the struggle between treason and
patriotism, between candour and conspiracy, between
the revolution and the counter revolution. Upon the
upshot of that momentous encounter will be dependent
the safety, the liberty, and the prosperity of France,
and not these only, but the peace, moreover,
and happiness of all the principal powers of Christen-
dom. It is with eager eyes, therefore, that the pub-
licist watches every new phase in the affairs of the
French Republic, calculating from each the proba-
bilities or improbabilities of witnessing the fulfilment
of his most ardently cherished aspirations. From the
latest of these fluctuations in the position of parties in
the Legislature much that is satisfactory may not
unreasonably be anticipated ; the result of the debate
upon the revision having long been looked to
as the index to the events stored up
in futurity. To the moderate Republicans
especially the consequence of the discussion must be a
source of delightful self-gratulation, the Constitution
being, as it were, the child of their loins, the palladium
fabricated by them for the conservation of the new
Democracy. Removed though he is in a great mea-
sure, by this time, from the agitations of public life,
ARMAND MARRAST must receive the event which has
thus decided against any revision whatsoever with
profound and singular satisfaction. For upon
his head particularly has descended most of
the obloquy which the enemies of the Con-
stitution have directed against its more promi-
nent originators. Vilified as he has been
se grossly and pertinaciously as one of the authors of
the Republican Constitution, it must be exquisitely
gratifying for him to witness his vituperators
baulked in their efforts to subvert, by one spasmodic
effort of temerity, the produce of so much anxious
and patriotic deliberation. Henceforth, however dis-
tasteful to themselves, the enemies of the Republic
will have to bow in obedience to the ordinances of
the Constitution. They will have to defer to some
remote and as yet invisible opportunity the chances
of bringing about the modifications which they had
hoped to effect before this time, the modifications which
would have been used by them only to undermine the
democracy, and to open a breach in its institutions
large enough to admit of the entrance through it, ot
another and yet more detestable Restoration. Orle-
anists looking alternately to the Comte DE PARIS and
to the Prince DE JOINVILLE; Monarchists directing
their attention exclusively to the Cumte DE CHAM.
sofa); traitors of all colours and all principles, or ot
no colours or principles at all, must consent, re-
luctantly it may be, but for that reason not
the less implicitly or inevitably, to the abet,-
donrnent for an indefinite period of all their dearly-
prized dreams of domination. The Republicans
themselves, by biding their time, by allowing events
to take their own course without let or hindrance, by
watching the machinations of their antagonists with
an air of bewildering indifference, have in the most
effectual manner disarmed and crushed a very dan-
gerous opposition. Never, perhaps, has the justice of
a cause conduced more sublimely to its success, the
patriotic portion of the Assembly triumphing by
reason of its very quietude. While the advo-
cates of one faction or of another have
ascended the tribune in succession, and from that
rostrum inveighed in the most inflammatory diatribes
against the Constitution of the Republic, the framers
of the Constitution have, so to speak, folded their
arms in confident anticipation of the result, and while
thus goading their enemies into yet more stormy dis-
plays of passion have thereby brought about only
the more surely the rejection of the project of revi-
sion. From this course of proceeding on the part of
the democrats in France, both within and without the
walls of the Legislature, nothing could by possibility
be more commendable. Reflecting, as it does, honour
upon their own civism, it has cast in so doing,
according to the holy aphorism, coals of fire upon the
heads of their calumniators.

Invigorated and encouraged by recent events, the
moderate Republicans will go to the country with the
greatest likelihood of achieving a victory at the next
general election. Added to which, we may rest as-
sured that the excellence of their present position will
in no manner be abused by them through a false
confidence in the honesty of their antagonists,
experience having shown that a feeling of
this nature cannot be numbered amongst
their weaknesses. From all these considerations we
conceive that even the least sanguine may regard
themselves as justified in looking forward with newly
awakened hope to the period which must shortly de-
cide throughout France for or against her demo-
cratic institutions.

Among the measures relating to Ireland, of which
notice had been given for the present session, none
had been more anxiously looked forward to than
the Securities for Advances Bill. It was not merely
each person interested in the proceedings of the Com•
mission for the Sale of Encumbered Estates in
Ireland, who had anticipated the most fa-
vourable results from it operation ; it was not
each embarrassed proprietor, who saw the inherit-
ances, which be had derived from his ancestors,
passing from his hands without leaving the slightest
residue, on which he might be enabled to wage
" the battle of life," or the puisne creditor, who
saw the savings of his industry, or the provisions
[wide by the prudence and care of his parents,
suddenly swept away, through the disposal
of the lands on which he was charged
for less than half their real value only,
whose hopes were excited. Every person in any
degree connected with land, whether as owner or oc-
cupier, or incumbrancer, or even in the more humble
capacity of labourer, were alike interested in the suc-
cessful progress of a measure which afforded more
favourable auguries for the regeneration of their un-
fortunate country, and the development of its won-
derful national capabilities, than any other that had
been introduced during the present century. It was
not merely that it would have occasioned increased
competition for the lands offered for sale, that it would
have made the demand more in proportion to the
supply, so that something approaching to a fair value
might be obtained at the almost daily auctions in
Henrietta-street. These important points it
! would unquestionably have accomplished. But
it would have done far more; it would,
when generalised and extended to real pro-
perty of every description, whether encumbered or
not) hat. stimulated the ugieng industry and so.