The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-18 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1856,

Secret societies for political purposes are the
curse of any country in which they are organised.
Ireland owed much of her misery to the opera-
tions of ➢efenders and Whiteboys, Sharavests
and CAravats, Peep-o'-Day Boys, Rockites,
Ribandmen, &c., who, under innumerable deno-
minations, vexed and disturbed the island. Nor
were the operations of Orangemen and Purple-
men much less injurious to the country. It is
true that they dicl not deal in assassinations, as
their opponents, nor was there a " black sheep
office" to condemn to death harsh landlords, too
zealous agents, "informers"—under which generic
term they classed all who gave evidence fairly
and truly before the criminal courts—or persons
who took vacant farms contrary to the regulations
of the agrarian legislators. But they created and
kept up an irritation that was productive of the
most mischievous consequences. A. single Orange
lodge produced twenty Riband. lodges. The
secret signs and passwords in the former
were imitated in the latter, and the oaths
sworn by men who fancied that they were acting
the part of loyal subjects and patriotic citizens
were parodied by others with fearful additions.
Whatever the colour, the results were almost
equally destructive to the peace of the district
and the welfare and prosperity of the nation. Of
Course, we do not include in this censure Free-
masons, or the numerous benevolent institutions
known as Odd-fellows, Foresters, &a., Arc. It is
only the secret political societies of which we co n-
plain.

It is to he regretted that the objectionable
system appears to have taken deep root in France,
and that its ramifications are spreading through-
out*
the length and breadth of the land. " The
Marianne" is the most important, and p-Ahaps
the most objectionable of these confederations.
The proposed objects are the overthrow of the
present Government, the establishment of the
Social and Democratic, and the complete triumph
of the ouvriers, or working classes. To achieve
these purposes the predominant principle is that
the end justifies the means." Therefore, murder,
robbery, forgery, any and every crime, ho fever
atrocious, must he perpetrated in order to attain
the great end. The ties of family, property, or
religion, are all to be disregarded when compared
with the paramount demands of the " Marianne"
—that exacts a blind and servile obedience
from its subordinate members. In other words,
they are 0 be blind tools in the hands of the san.
guinary ruffians by whom the business is managed
and the orders issued.

We do not deny that the republican party in
France may have many grave causes of complaint,
and that they may feel bitterly the consequences
of the "coup detat," which established the Em-
pire on the ruins of the republic. But they may
rest assured that any cause, however meritorious,
was never benefited by such means as those con-
templated. by the founders and members of " The
Marianne." Assassination in any form must dis-
gnst every right-minded man, and induce him 4o ,;
throw his weight into the opposite scale. How
many ertteutes and disturbances have been directly (
traced to the Police bureaus under despotic Go-
vernments ? And why have they been got
up ? Merely because the acute and wily agents
are well aware that they can get rid
of all
suspected or dangerous characters under the spe-
eious pretext.
They are also kept fully informed as to the

most private transactions of these secret societies,
and are thus enabled to form countermines and
defeat the objects of the conspirators. Persons
of all grades in the society are actually ro eiving
police pay, and are neither more nor less than
spies on their unsuspecting brethren. Every
project is thus defeated, save when it suits the
purposes of the guardians of the public tranquil-
lity to permit the fall of some petty victim, in
order to exact bitter retribution for a crime which
could have been prevented if it were considered
desirable to do so.

We would therefore earnestly impress on the
minds of all who may have been induced or been
solicited to join this or any other secret political
society the absolute folly of the scheme, which,
can only damage the cause it professes to advocate,
and may ruin the comparatively innocent members.
No good cause was ever advanced by bloodshed,
murder, or secret conspiracy. They are the chief
weapons of despots, by which chains are rivetted
on the people. Let those who feel that
there are objectionable points in any political sys-
tem, meet openly and proclaim their wants and
wishes. We are aware that public discussion is
not id accordance with Continental usage. Bat
still the voice of public opinion will penetrate
into the most secret recesses of Palaces, and will
cause itself to be respected, whenQver it resorts
only to legal and constitutional means for the
purpose of obtaining legitimate objects.

" What went ye out for to see ?" We don't
mush fancy, as a matter of taste, the practice of
quotation from Scripture ; but not a few passages
are so striking in their phraseology, so welded
into the language, and so apposite to passing
events, that, if desirable, it is somewhat difficult
to refrain from turning them to account. In
connection with the spectacle about to be pre-
sented in Moscow the temptation is irresistible ;
and as most of the adventurous British sight-
seers who are to be present at the approaching
coronation of the Emperor of RUSSIA. are now on
their way to or arrived at St. Petersburg, we
may repeat, without any alteration of tense, the
inquiry with which we set out—" What went ye
out for to see t"

It may be necessary to premise that the par-
ties to whom the question is addressed are Eng-
lishmen, citizens of a free country, confessedly
indebted to liberty for its greatness, and to religion
for the tone of its morals, and rightfully claiming
at the hands of all whom it has nurtured respect
for those principles which have contributed so

materially to its grandeur and renown. "What
went ye out for to see?" A solemn ceremonial,
in which the recognised ruler of millions of human
beings binds himself before GOD and man to wield
the sceptre he inherits in accordance with human
rights and to the development of the better in-
stincts and capacities of humanity ? He would
be a bold individual who returned an answer in
the affirmative. The spectacle actually to be pre-
sented is that of a monarch to whom directly and
by implication the ineffable misery and the

slaughter of countless thousands of his subjects
are owing, and who nurses at his heart an insane
ambition, which must be productive of like re-
sults, invoking from HEAVEN a recognition of "the
right divine to govern wrong "—the right to im-
prison, torture, exile, or put to death all who
oppose his will—to put down every rising germ
of liberty, and erect barrier after barrier to the
progress of intelligence in every quarter to which
his power extends. That is part of what so many
Englishmen, with a special Imperial ambassador
at their head, have gone " out for to see."

As a matter of course, then, it is not to a spec-
tacle in which religion, any more than freedom,
will be honoured their curiosity is leading them.

Religion is merciful, progressive in its tendencies,

has respect for the rights of the meanest human
being, and holds forth in terrorerm the DIVINE
vengeance to the oppressor is his pride. Tho
spectacle to be presented is that of crowds of
priests in garments blazing with gold, censor in
hand, and with all the accessories of pontifical
pomp, paying solemn homage to a tyrant, and,
as ministers of I:l4a.vEY, invoking on his head all
the blessings throughout his career, whatever it may
be, the most just and merciful ruler can possibly
receive, and pronouncing him the god of Russia
on earth. A pretty spectacle for Englishmen to
travel so many miles by sea and land to honour
by their presence, and for a special English am-
bassador to be seat by the English G.)7ernraent,
at an enormous cost, to take part iu !

To the abstract impropriety of such a proceed-
ing, however, must be added a peculiar infelicity
of time. It is at the conclusion of a war brought
on by Russian aggression, of which the monarch
to be crowned has expressed his entire approval,
and to which, in addition to the injury inflicted
elsewhere, the waste of thousands of British lives
and millions of British treasure aro entirely owing.
It is with the massacre of Sinope and Hango fresh
iu the recollection, and with not an apology nor
a stiver in the way of atonement for injury done
of any sort forthcoming. It is while a Rws'au
campaign is being carried on against the inde-
pendent tribes of the Caucasus, gun-boat upon
gun-boats is being launched at Cronstadt, and an
imposing Russian fleet scours the B tltic. It is
while the latest Russian perfidy is the talk of the
hour, and,shows its audacious front at Kars, and
on the banks and at the mouth of the Danube.
It is while we axe saddled. with a debt of a hun-
dred millions for the expenses of the War, and a
double Income Tax oppresses the energies of labour
—all owing to Russian aggression—that English-
men hasten to honour by their presence a bar-
barous ceremonial, and a special ambassador is
sent, at an enormous cost, to signalise our respect
and good-will for the monarch whose treachery
has cost, and is costing, us and our ally so dear.
Liberty outraged, religion desecrated, mala fides
honoured, and English gold wasted—all this, and
more, is to be witnessed at the Emperor ALEX-
ANDER'S coronation !

The spectacle, no doubt, not too deeply consi-
dered, wi!l be imposing. The picturesque and the
barbaric are often synonymous, and no doubt the
Rusiian nobility, and the representatives of the
various tribcs of which the empire is composed,
will don their bravest apparel to harmonise
With ambassadorial pomp and the magnifi-
cent array of the Greek priesthood. A fine
thine, too, it will be to win expressions of
good-will from the mercantile population by a
1 lavish expenditure of gold, more c.inccia!ly at the
Embassy, where nobody will be the poorer how-
ever much may be wasted. Bat we submit that
a recognition unworthy of English:nen at any
time, and above all unworthy at the present, had
ao,fla thtehatcottihnetrysql:aavne.
better for the credit
been dispensed with,
dering of thousands of the public money in
doing honour to the unscrupulous Potentate
whose misdeeds have altoady cost us so much,
and are likely to cost us much more, is an act
of
folly not far removed from the very wantonne.s
of wickedness. Who cares to honour a tyrant,
who, being the scourge of his own subjects, lacks
only opportunity to be the scourge of Europe—.
who is least dangerous when opposed in arms, and
when challenging most trust is most to be sus- I

THE SUN, .LONDON

petted 1' Say that the Embassy to the Corona-
tion is a mere form, still it must be conderelleci
JA gettirg
as a degrading farce, the cost alone CL
which up should have prev-,ntna its being
enacted.

THE CAB FARE AT THE MANSION.

ROUSE.

U-

Under this head we inserted a report stating
that Ad ,viral Collier was summoned. There being
two Admirals of that name, we regret that our Re-
porter, did not specify which it was. It should have
been Rear-Admiral Henry Collier, Grosvenor-
street, Grosvenor-square, who was summoned, and
r,ot Rear-Admiral of the Red, Edward Collier,
C. 8., who was at that time ou the Continent.