The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-08 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 8, 1869.

During the EMPEROR'S recent illness, it cannot but
be remembered, that there was for a long while a
sustained panic on the Bourse. Rumours the most
sinister were set afloat in Paris—rumours which
spread thence their evil influence—like the circles ex-
panding upon the surface of a tranquil pool of water
at the dropping of a pebble—far and wide among the
surrounding nations of Europe. The French SOVE-
REIGN'S health was described as utterly gone: his life
was not simply precarious, it was said—his death
was imminent and inevitable. It was even intimated
at last that he had already "shuffled off this mortal
coil," and that, for mere purposes of State, meaningby
this through fear of the announcement instantaneously
causing a revolutionary outbreak, the fact of his
death was, for the time being, suppressed. As for the
EMPRESS'S proposed excursion to Corsica, even it was
pronounced at one time a thing altogether impractic-
able. As for her MAJESTY'S journey to the East, its
notion was abandoned. Since the time when all this
was crowding the papers from day to day, we cannot
but think that events have demonstrated, beyond the
possibility of any further doubt, the monstrous ab-
surdity of all these insidious exaggerations. The EM-
PEROR'S life has not only been spared, but is very well
known now, never cnce to have been, during these
last few months, even momentarily endangered. He
has been suffering, but it was from no mortal disease.
He has recovered from his indisposition. He has
never once meditated abdication. His little son, the
PRINCE IMPERIAL, is still engaged alternately in
boyish studies and in boyish pastimes, and is not pre-
paring prematurely to wear the purple in
imperial companionship with his father NAPO-
LEON 111. The Empress EUGENIE has not
only been to Ajaccio and back again, to the
delight of the loyal Corsicans, in celebration of the
centenary of the birth of the Great NAPOLEON, but
her MAJESTY has actually set out now upon her
two months' journey through Turkey, and Egypt, and
just possibly, before Ler return homewards, through a
pilgrimage into the Holy Lands. However this may
be in regard to the realisation or non-realisation of
her MAJESTY'S long cherished wish to visit Jerusalem
and the other divinely consecrated localities of Pales-
tine, it is at any rate certain that, en route for Constan-
tinople, Cairo, and Alexandria, she has within these
last fel,v,days, been enjoying herself am ong the amphi-
bious hospitalities and splendours of the Venetians.
The mere fact of the EMPRESS'S departure, upon:a tour
which will necessitate her absence from France for so
protracted a period, is proof positive that the sinister
rumours about the EMPEROR'S health have been from
first to last marked by the utmost extravagance.
Precisely in the same way, we are, for our own part,
entirely convinced that the evil suspicions entertained
in regard to the sincerity of the EMPEROR'S recent
reforms in the Imperial Constitution are com-
pletely without foundation. Because there have
been delays, therefore, it has been argued, the
whole scheme of constitutional transformation is,
from beginning to end, a mockery. The delays, to
begin with, are in themselves sufficiently moderate.
The Corps Legislatif will be opened, after all, not
next year, but next month. The session will be in-
augurated before the close of November. A few
weeks more and the Legislature will be engaged in
that labour of love to the Senators and the national
Representatives of perfecting, as far as may be in
every way possible, the grand changes upon which
the EMPEROR himself was the first to adventure.
Personal Government will then cease, and the EM-
PEROR will thenceforth reign at the head of a Consti-
tutional, or Ministerial, or Parliamentary, or Re-
sponsible Government. The pyramidal form of a
Democratic Empire, under the Napoleonic Dynasty,
will be then once more (as it was, first of all, in the
May of 1815) formally inaugurated. It will be
inaugurated this time, however, under immeasurably
more favourable auspices. Then, in the May of
1815, " the whole earth was rising from the Tanais
to the Thames," as the late Lord BROUGHTON impres-
sively, but in no way extravagantly expressed it, to
crush one dauntless mortaI—NAPOLEON. Now,
as Lord CLARENDON—fresh from his interview with
NAPOLEON 111. at St. Cloud—very recently, and cer-
tainly very emphatically, declared, all Europe is
in a state of profound, and, so far as he can form
any opinion upon it, of secure and lasting tranquil-
lity. A happier juncture than this could not pos-
sibly occur within which to consolidate the Imperial
system upon the broadened basis of a Constitutionally
Responsible Government.

THE letter which Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH has
addressed to the Daily News on the Canadian ques-
tion comes very opportunely. Written on September
20, in the United States, it has been published during
the session of the Social Science Congress. The
whole subject of the relations between the colonies
and the mother country was very fully discussed
at the Congress, and as the preponderance
of opinion was largely in favour of main-
taining the existing connection, it is well to
heat what a man of Mr. SMITH'S knowledge and
ability has to say on the other side. The first point
to notice is that the Sociologists scarcely attempted
to show that there was any advantage in the connec-
tion between England and her dependencies. This
was taken for granted, and the whole object of the
speakers was to devise some machinery by which the
colonies might on the one hand he properly taxed
for their own defence, and on the other hand
be properly represented in some imperial
body which should be entrusted with the
duty of levying taxes. It is manifest that if the
present connection is to be continued, some changes
of the kind suggested by the Duke of MANCHESTER
and other speakers ought to be made. It is simply
monstrous that the poor of Bethnal-green and Tip-
perary should pay for defending prosperous Canadian
farmers against the United States. This most unfair
allotment of burdens and advantages has been
allowed to continue far too long. 'With pauperism
increasing at its present fearfully rapid rate, the
arrangement cannot be endured for another year.
As Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH points out, the English