The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-31 00:00:00

THE CAP-WHOM DOES IT FIT

(Front the Freeman.)
V. we were littleboys our preceptors often set us
asking this question. It was not worth while perhaps
impossible—to name the delinquent, or if suspected, it
might be undesirable to use the birch ; still our Moniteur
wished us to be aware that the dait had come to his
knowledge, and thought that the " cap," if invisible to
others, would keep the memory of the offender warm
and wary. We have known what it was to go about
with the invisible cap on our head, afraid lest M. le Me-
niteur should let us know that it was not invisible to
him ; afraid lest our fear should betray itself in a look
or a blush. In lighter cases we have known the appeal
made to the " feather on the nose " of the culprit, and
seen the laugh exalted by the involuntary act of confes-
sion. The Moniteur on the other side the water seems
to have been trying the cap or feather trick on us de-
linquents on this side the British Channel. It has sent
as over a lecture in the old, as we had hoped, forgotten
style. "Now journalists—you there in the great city
of shopkeepers, or you in the manufacturing city of
Lancashire—l know all about it; I have seen your
odioas anonymous calumnies against the French Go-
vernment ; I treat them with utter contempt ; the com-
monsense and good faith of Englishmen prevent their
doing any mischief, though you want to break up the
alliance between the two nations. Let those whom the
cap fits wear it." Forthwith 4f. le Moniteur casts his
solemn glance around to see whom be has frightened,
or who unconsciously, feels for the feather. But, alas,
for our worthy Moniteur, first a titter runs round the
the whole saucy circle, and sly looks are exchanged, till
at length the whole break out into a hearty laugh
" Haven't you got a cap for all of us ?" shouts out at
last some scapegrace. We should all like to be fitted."
It's all over now with poor Mr. Monitor; he has nothing
for it but to pocket his dignity and stalk back to his
principal with his wings clipped, only to be asked,
" Why did you try it on in that fashion ? Those rude
English won t stand it like Leopold and his Belgians."
To be serious, it really 'must have done Count Walew-
ski's! heart goud, if it can be bettered by rebuke, to see
how his Moniteur's advice was received in England.
Never was professed contempt met by more real con-
tempt. That, is the sting of it. He could not speak in
lois Government organ without showing that he winced
inwardly, while professing unconcern at the "calumnies"
of the English press ; -but the English press shows still
more plainly that it cares not one'.farthing sv:iat he and
his may think of its doings. The presi shares - indeed
the common feeling of the country ; it approves, and
would cherish, the alliance with Frenchmen ; but the
alliance with the heroes of the 2d of December is no
wish, no object, either of the English peoplo or of the
English press. All that the French nation has done we
show respect to ; we have censured but little their rati-
fication of the military absolutism established by psrjury
and ,bloodshed in 1852 ; we felt that they were the best
judgee whether or not it was for their interest to yield
themselves, bound hand and foot, to the man who had
purchased their army with their own money, and who
could even cannonade the Boulevards to show that he
would doanything to be the autocrat 'of France. We
also felt that they had good reason not to forget Water-
loo,iand that they might think it worth their while to
plaoe a Napoleon on the throne, to redeem Fraiice from
the ignominy of subjection to a family imposed on her
by conquest. There is a feeling in every English breast
which would doubtless embrace the first opportunity of
restoring a royal family exiled by fareign troops, and of
banishing the one whom they had seated on our throne.
We can-readily, therefore, understand what Frenchmen
did in 1852. They did but say, "Submit we must to
the master of half a million of bayonets ; and submit we
Gill, for a time at least, even to a suleverter by treachery
and violence of the constitution he baaeworn to observe;
we submit, if but to show that we linve 'shaken off the
yoke of the Holy Alliance." Aware. of all this, the
prese here has carefully avoided annoying Frenchmen,
while it has not shrunk from moderate criticism on their
Government.

Evidently Count Walewski is elated with haring suc-
cessfully brow-beaten. Belgium and warned Sardinia.
Neither country could afford to displease its great mili-
tary neighbour ; and the representative of-England at
the Paris Conferences by no means repudiated so en-
tirely as he ought to have done the threats of Walewski
against the Belgian press. ' The Count, therefore, has
ostentatiously paraded his feats against the Belgian
journals in the document in which he- explained why
Frence and England withdrew their representatives from
the Court of Naples. We wonder who' authorised the
Count to include us as one of the parties-cordial in forc-
ing on the Belgian Government mote rigorous dealing
with the press-? If Lord Palmerston knew what would
appear in the Moult cur on Monday_week (see last week's
Freeman) he has betrayed England ; but, if not, the
Fiench Government has insulted us, or, at least, beets
guilty of sharp practice. Let not Count 'Walewski ima-
gine, however, that he can in the-least influence either
the press of this country or the Government in relation
to it. No one ought to know better than Lams Napo-
leon that the most powerful minister here would not
dare to suggest restrictive laws on the press. Ise would
fare worse than for opening letters at the Post-office.
Hence, perhaps, the modest style of " confining him-
self to an appeal to the common-sense and good faith of
the English people." Confine himself ! Yes, forsooth,
and well he may ; , for any Government to which he had
ventured to appeal would, in self-defence, have been
compelled to read him such a homily as diplomacy sel-
dom sees.
The pretence-for noticing in this vague style—so
vague that whether tales about Cayenne, or about the
Empress, about Spain or hull-fights, are meant, no one
knows—the pretence is that "the alliance" will be en-
dangered by destroying confidence between the two Go-
vernments. But what in the world has Government to
do with; the matter? The pretext is simply silly. No
English writer, from the penny-a-liner to the thunderer
is the Times, ever thinks of asking the Government's
leave as to what he writes. The public, not the censor,
is the only government which controls our press. What
public opinion will deem libellous, a jury will punish
criminally or with damages ; and what the public dis-
believes, or considers foolish or imprudent, it will soon
soon cease to read. Count Walewski may try, if he
likes, to raise up another Mackintosh to defend another
Peltier; our courts are open to him. Or, if he thinks it
will serve " the alliance," he may fight the battle out in
the pages of the Daily News, or of any English journal.
They will readily reprint his defence against the " calum-
nies"—only, he must be prepared to hear the reasons
for believing them not to be calumnies. We may suggeSt
to Count Walewski, however, that it is. of questionable
prudence to attack our Argus-eyed press. It has the
means, if it choose to use them, of performing for the
English public the function of a Hebrew prophet. Eng-
lish gold could tell us the words (few enough perhaps)
that even a taciturn autocrat utters in his bed chamber,
or at least in his council-chamber.
Our belief is, that the French people rejoice in the
absolute freedom of the English press. If not, we do.
Here alone the. naiscloines of Europe's tyrants are dis-
cussed ; here only are the speeches and letters of exiled
patriots published, nor can all the soldiers of the Holy
Alliance hinder it. The photographs of Italian dun-
geons and French penal settlements may well t,e
annoying to tindictive 'cruelty ; the exposure of
de-potc cunning, and perfidy, and especially of sham
liberality, is sufficiently galling ; but it must be sub-
untied to. Eogland the despots' picture gallery, and
our press is the artist. Despots are extinct animals
here, though having too many habitats elsewhere. In
their own countries they can only he painted like the
eketchiugs of the Egyptians, according to a stereotyped
rule ; here we exhibit them as they are, and all the
foreigners -who come overlook at them as ..Eneas did
at the Carthaginian psietings—only instead o' bursting
into tears, they burst into imprecations ; and surely
there eught to be one country in Europe where tyrants
may be openly cursed. As to the press, our conviction
is that its error has been quite in the opposite direction
to,that hinted by Louis Napuleon. The danger has
Uen..that the greatest successful villany since 1849
should be forgotten in its success. Morality has been
almost sacrificed to political prudence. It is this, per-
haps, which has emboldened the tools of despots to
ca;ucaniate trut!i by calling it calumny. Perhaps, how-
ever, the motto about libels is applicable here—that the
greater the truth the greater the calumny.

CON-V.I'6TM re .O.IP '
.11 El Via' HARRISON,

THE LEEDS WIZARD.