The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-04 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1856.

Saragossa has at length surrendered to the
Spanish Government. General DoLcz made his
entrance on Friday, in due form. The conspiracy
against the Constitution was too completely orga-
nised, in the first instance, to permit any reason-
able prospect of success to those who were goaded
into demonstrations on behalf of their abrogated
liberties. The spasmodic resistance offered to the
arbitrary proceedings, was suppressed in the most
sanguinary and inhuman manner. Not only was
" war to the knife" proclaimed against those who
arrayed themselves beneath the banner of the
Constitution—not only was quarter refused to
all who appeared] in the streets, but the scaffold
was glutted with political victims, whose lives
were made the stepping-stones of the unscrupu-
lous O'DONNELL to official rank and emolument.
The coup d'etat (we use th 3 term advisedly,
notwithstanding the arguments of the Govern-
ment scribe in the !illoniteur) has thus far been
successful. But how long will it remain so ?,
The time-honoured adage tells us that, "finis
coronat opus," and it will be well to wait for the
results, before the reactionaries can chaunt exult-
ing pcsans at their temporary triumph.
One of the most extraordinary and significant
circumstances connected with the affair is, that
the betrayer of the Liberal cause—the unscrupu-
lous shedder of the blood of the Liberals--
seems to calculate on the support of the progres-
iska to sustain him in the position which he has
achieved. He well knows that he is not loved
by the Court—that NARVAEZ is the favourite in
that quarter, and that he will be recalled the
moment that the "instrument" can be dispensed
with. ISABELLA "may love the treason, but she
hates the traitor." She cannot forget the humili-
ation which she sustained but two short years
ago at his hands, and will be desirous of

avenging it at the earliest opportunity. A
prudent caution has been given on high auth o-
Tity, to " place no faith in princes," and
certainly Queen ISA.BELLX cannot be cited as
an exception to the rule. No one is more tho-
roughly satisfied on this point than the present
Minister of Spain. He is, -therefore, already
bidding for the support of those whom he has so

basely betrayed, whose friends and relatives he
has so cruelly butchered. Without them he mu_
not stand. His vine is to play the Court and
the people alternately the one against the other.
Mindful of his Hibernian origin, he may think
that he can easily conciliate those with whom he

has been fighting but the day before. But he
>may find that his calculations have been made a

led/6 too fine, and that none will be willing to
adopt the cause of the double-dyed traitor who
• has betrayed all parties in turn, and on whose
professions, however earnest, no confidence can
be reposed.
It is asserted, and with much appearance of
truth, that he is now holding out the promise of
a "perfect constitution,"—one that will satisfy
all parties, from the most thorough-paced Abso-
lutist to the enthusiastic and uncompromising
Liberal. This almost miraculous achievement
of human wisdom is not to be submitted
to the Cortes or any, constituted assembly. The

late body has been dismissed at the point of the
bayonet, and it is not quito convenient to permit
the meeting of any successors. Everything is to
depend on the wisql9m and patriotism of Marshal

O'DONNELL. He demands unlimited confidence,
and seems to think that he can draw to any
amount on public credulity. We doubt, however,
whether his credit stands quite so highly as he
appears to think—whether what he proposes
will be accepted without consideration or re-
monstrance. We have witnessed too many
shnilar attempts, and the worthlessness of the
quasi constitutional bantlings of despotism have
been too frequently and too clearly demonstrated
to permit ug to pin our faith on any promises,
however plausible, or pledges of even the most
solemn character. Besides, he himself has shown
us how easily such a Constitution may be set aside
whenever its operation may become inconvenient
to the predominant power. It cannot possess the
elements of stability being altogether one-sided.
To have the slightest chance of permanency it
must be the result of mature consideration be-
tween co-ordinate bodies in which the interests
cf all are fairly represented, so that there may be
several parties to the solemn contract. At present
there may be an apparent tranquillity, but it is ana-
logous to that produced by those " who made a
desert and called it peace."
One of the most ominous symptoms connected
with the untoward event, which seems to show
that O'DONNELL is not relying solely on his
own strength to overcome the difficulty which he
has created, is the movement of a large body of
French troops towards the frontier. The Cour-
rier de la Gironde announces the passage of
numerous battalions en route for Bayonne. This
menacing demonstration is palpably directed
against any effort of the Constitutionalists,
and seems to show that O'DONNELL had promises
of more powerful support than could be offered
by any section of Spanish politicians before he
entered on his daring attempt. It is with deep
regret that we are compelled to direct public
attention, and to point out the dangers to Eurc-
psan freedom from the uncontrolled spirit of
" Imperialism," which is now becoming as ram-
pant as that of Germanism. We fear that the
Imperial and Princely conferences have not been
very auspicious for constitutional liberty in any
part of tho world, where an interference may
he attempted with any prospect of success.
We must-, at least, see that Great Britain
be not subjected to any such interference. Against
that every nerve will be strained to the utmost ;
and it is essential that the Government for the
time being shall at any cost resist the establish-
ment of a precedent that may be acted on against
England. The people of the United Kingdom
will, however, know how to defend themselves
gainst the machinations of Czar or Kaiser, Em-
oeror or Prince, and woe be to those who unduly
iasten the rapidly-approaching contest between
;he conflicting principles of Liberty and o'
,espotism

Considerable stress is laid by the Messrs.

RENDEL and SIMPSON, in their Report on the pro-
ject of another new bridge at Westminster, upon
the fact of the bridge at that site being " the
only free bridge above Blackfriars !" And no
wonder ! No wonder, we say, that stress is laid
particularly upon this very notable circumstance
—a circumstance, we cannot but think, unparal-
leled for absurdity even amidst the throng of all
the monstrous absurdities resulting from our
seemingly systematic mismanagement of every-
thing in the shape of metropolitan projects of im-
provement. Westminster Bridge the only free
bridge above Blackfriars ! It is a thing
worth remembering. It is a grievance
which, although notorious for years past,
is still to this very day scarcely conceiv-
able. Between Blackfriars and Westminster
not one single free bridge, so that the interme-
diate traffic, in striving to evade the tolls of Wa-
terloo and Hungerford, is driven to the necessity
of a monstrous detour either eastward or westward,
as the case may be, to a most extravagant expen-
diture of time, and to the blocking up of some of
our most important thoroughfares. Yet, remem-
bering all this, it is still perversely and prepos
terously proposed that the new bridge shall be
erected upon the old site—the unstable site which
has swallowed up so much already. Without the
glimmering of a hint as to the erection of any
other free bridge lower down the river,
with a view to the simultaneous advantage
of the people of Surrey nnd Middlesex ! Obvi-
ously the first most advisable improvement of our
metropolis in regard to the throwing open of fresh
facilities for traffic across the Thames, would be
the purchase of the tolled bridges from their re-
spective companies by our Government ! That is
infallibly what would be first thought of, and
first acted upon, in any similar instance, by the
French Government I Instead of everlastingly

grumbling, and hesitating, and humming, and
hahing over the evil as it is—that is precisely what
would be done at one s.Roke of a despot's pen.
Another fortnight scare* would be allowed to
elaßse (supposing them to be suddenly conjured
over from London to Paris) before Southwark-
bridge, and Waterloo-bridge, and Hungerford-
bridge would be opened from that time
forth in perpetuity without the chance of
their echoing any more at either extremity
to the sordid jingle of so many miserable
halfpence. The immediate expenditure would
be immense, of course, but the advantages
resulting from that expenditure would at the
same time be scarcely in any way at all calculable.
What we really appear to want just now in regard
to our metropolitan improvements—" not to put
too fine a point upon it," as Mr. SNAGSBY would
say—is the inauguration of a dictatorship of un-
limited power, but of limited duration, at the
head of the Public Works Department.

Then we might, hope to get rid at last of any
further tolls at Southwark, Waterloo, and Hun-
gerford Bridges—we might hope to see Middle-
row swept away frcm Holborn and Holywell-
street from the Strand—we might hope to have
the Thames purified, St. Paul's opened up to the
River, and the access to London by the Silent
Highway rendered permanently magnificent b a
series of grand and solid parallel embankments !

Among the amiable and certainly very pardon-
able weaknesses, if it be a weakness, of human
nature, ,is the desire most men experience who
have won distinction, to be especially honoured
in the place of their nativity. High as their
ambition may have soared, and great as may have
bean its success, nothing, in all probability, in
the shape of -reward is more acceptable to such
men—is anticipated with greater pride and satis-
faction than the plaudits of those who are associ-
ated with their earliest recollections. Perhaps it
is wrong to describe as a. weakness that which in
the nature of things must be an incentive to noble
deeds, quite as powerful as others which are gehe-
rally founnd placed in the most prominent part pf
the category. Be this as it may, our readerts,
we doubt not, like ourselves, have been pleased
to observe how generally this desire has been gra-
tified in the case of those gallant officers wAto
most signally distinguished themselves in the
Crimea. The fact is honourable to both partiis,
to those who have gratified the desire in questiin
.
as well as those who have most had it