The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1869.

Since NAPOLEON 111. has been in power as the
supreme ruler of France, there have been rumours of
every imaginable description afloat in regard to
him, frequently rumours of the most sinister and
always of the most extravagant description. He was
a sworn member of the Carbonari. He was reso-
lutely bent upon avenging w aterloo. He was re-
England. Ile was going, for
solved upon invading
certain, to abandon the POPE to the tender mercies
of the Italian Revolutionists, lie was, as a fatalist,
firmly convinced of the truth of some mysterious
prediction, to the effect that he would die in the
streets of London. As proof of his identification
with the Carbonari, the EMPEROR and his wife
were all but destroyed by that " noble gentleman '
but base assassin, Signor ORSINI. As to avenging
Waterloo—well, there it is true, Rumour, though in
in a very Delphic way, spoke very oracularly. For
has not the EMPEROR avenged Waterloo, and avenged
it magnificently, by his loyal alliance of France with
England during upwards of twenty years, in peace
and in war, on the battle-field and in the Council
Chamber? As to his invasion of England—so long
said to be looming in the future—well, there again,
Rumour has been so far justified that he has
certainly enterel our capital in triumph, but
then it was as a guest, and without his
army. His abandonment of the SOVEREIGN PONTIFF
has been so entirely part and parcel of his European
policy, that he it was who by the aid of his arms and
of his diplomacy brought Plus IX. back from Giteta
to the Eternal City ; and it was his present Minister
of State, M. ROUHER, who solemnly averred, and that
not so very long ago either, that France never—ja-
mais—would abandon Rome to the Revolution. As
to his MAJESTY'S conviction, as a fatalist, that he will
eventually die, here, in the streets of London—well,
it never seems to occur to any one of the fatuously

credulous people believing in the EMPEROR'S cre-
dence in that absurd prediction, that he would show
himself to be the most wantonly misguided of mor-
tals, if—so thinking—he laid himself open to its ful-
filment by ever courting the catastrophe. Ludicrous,
however, though all these lying rumours have been in
respect to the French EMPEROR, the absurdest that
has ever yet sprung into existence in his regard is
this, that he himself, through his own police agents,
got upthese recent insurrectionary movements in Paris
in order that he might put them down immediately
afterwards. The notion is nothing less than abso-
lutely preposterous. The astutest Sovereign in
Christendom is the unlikeliest man in the
whole world to be playing with those edged tools !
He, if any man, has studied French History with an
eye, and a judgment, and a conscientious scrutiny of
the keenest investigation. If he understands any-
thing upon earth it is the French character. Born in
the purple—the first of all the Imperial Princes—in
the old Bourbon Palace of the Tuileries, whither he
was to return home, upwards of forty years after th's
date of his birth, himself as Emperor—NAPOLEON 111.
acquired the wisdom of experience and of observation
in the best school of all, that of adversity, for a very'
long interval in exile, for six years together as a
student-prisoner in the Fortress of Ham—a wisdom
the stores of which he has more recently had the op-
portunity of wonderfully enhancing in more than a
score of years of supreme power as ruler of France,
since the time when that supreme responsibi-
lity first passed into his hands. The notion of
the successor of Louis PHILIPPE, wantonly
and wilfully, provoking a collision in the streets of
hp.tween the mob and,the police, is heynn.l a
moment's question of it the most extravagant impu-
tation yet directed by the enemies of the EMPEROR
against his character, and against his capacity as a
ruler of men. It is not simply a denial of his good
faith, but of his common sense.

WHATEVER be the fate of the Irish Church! Bill,
the debate upon it in the Upper House has afforded
one of the strongest arguments ever urged for the
retention of the bishops in the House of Lords.
No one, whatever be his views upon the
great question now before the country,
whatever be the religious communion to which
he belongs, can read without a glow of pride the
speeches which have been delivered by the Arch-
bishop of CANTERBURY and the Bishop of St.DAvm's
on the one side, and by the Bishop of DERRY and
the Bishop of PETERBOROUGH on the other. The
first were fine specimens of cogent logic ; the second
were even finer specimens of magnificent rhetoric.
In truth, nothing grander than the speech of the last-
named prelate has been heard since this question
was first raised, nothing grander, we had almost ven-
tured to say, has ever been heard in either
House of Parliament. It is impossible not to
feel that the House of Lords, nay, the whole nation,
would have sustained a heavy loss if it had been
deprived of these speeches ; it is impossible not to
regret that one result of the Irish Church Bill will be
the exclusion of Bishop ALEXANDER from Parliament
or to rejoice that the bill does not involve the exclu-
sion of Bishop MAGEE. Altogetherit must be admitted
that the reputation of the Upper House as a debating
assembly has not only been maintained, but greatly
enhanced this week. There is something, after all, in
" blood and culture."

One of the most satisfactory features of this great
debate is the unanimity with which the leading peers
on both sides of the House have agreed to repudiate
the antiquated objections respecting the Coronation
Oath and the Act of Union. The Bishop of PETER-
BOROUGH-by far the most effective debater against
the bill—commenced his speech by referring to
these objections with a candour that was only
just short of being contemptuous. Considering the
vehemence withwhich they were urged on the hustings
and have since been urged at the "demonstrations,
considering too that there are still one or two peers
who believe that these objections have weight, the
plainness with which Dr. MAGEE shelved the absurdity
of them is worthy of all praise. He could well
afford to dispense with such lumbering weapons as
those. As well might the modern artillerist resort to
the old fashioned hooped guns of three hundred years
ago, as an orator of the Bishop of PETERBOROUGH'S
type insist that an Act of Parliament passed nearly
seventy years ago was binding for all time, or that the
QUEEN, having promised Parliament not to alter the
laws, is not free to accept any alterationof them when
Parliament sanctions it. There was, however, one
fallacy which ran through the whole of the Bishop
of PETERBOROUGH'S speech, and also through those
of the Archbishop of DUBLIN and other members of
the Opposition. They spoke of the Church being
sent forth stripped and naked, and waxed elo-
quent and pathetic over the pitiable spec-
tacle. We need hardly remind our readers
that it exists only in the imagination of the speakers.
A. Church which starts upon its new career with
between seven and eight millions sterling—with
nearly double the income per head of its members
that the English Church now enjoys from endow-
ments—can hardly be in the deplorable plight
that . these two prelates represented. Another
incident worth notice is that there is still
a strong feeling among individual peers of
both parties in favour of a concurrent endow-
ment of the Roman Catholic Church. We all
know that Lord RUSSELL desires this, and Bishop
THIRLWALL, Lord PENZANCE, and even Bishop
MAGEE himself would seem to prefer it. But the
second and the third of these frankly admit that the
nation will not have it, and that the time is, there-
fore, gone by for proposing it.
While the Conservative Cave grows larger every
day, while Lord DERBY'S old Cabinet colleagues
entreat him not to reject the bill, and so throw away
the opportunity which now offers for amending it,
the talked-of Liberal Cave has come to nothing.
Earl GREY has too often called down upon himself
HOOD'S sarcasm that

" He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way,
Tormenting himself with his prickles."
and it was generally supposed that he would be found
going against the party with whom he is nominally
associated. But he has done the opposite.
His speech was one of the most argumentative
and logical that has been delivered against the policy
of Lord DERBY and his friends. He pointed
out, as the Duke of RICHMOND did after him, that
while it may be doubtful how far the nation has ap-
proved the details of Mr. GLADSTONE'S measure, it
has unquestionably approved the main principles,
and that there is not the smallest reason to
suppose that a fresh appeal to the country
would produce a different response. He pointed
out, too, how good an opportunity the Peers would
have of altering the bill if it went into committee, an
opportunity that would never recur if the bill were
rejected. He reminded his fellow peers that in
yielding to the will of the House of Commons in this
matter now, they would but follow the example of
that House when, thirty-one years ago, it yielded
to the will of the House of Lords upon the very
same question—the Irish Church—and for a
similar reason—because the nation supported
hes judiciouso f Lord
the Upper as it now supports the Lower House.
T
RUSSELL,remarks,
andshe thew approvingthat
hat
all
hope 44 hreoamr,
hear
any divisions among the Liberal parties is now cut
away from the Conservatives. In speaking thus,
Lord GREY did such good service that he
may well be pardoned for the ill-natured remarks
which he made as to the origin of the present
controversy. In fact, he answered them himself ;
he himself refuted his own accusations. Finally, all
those who love the Constitution, and deprecate any
violent change, such as would result from a conflict
between the two Houses and between the Lords and
the nation, cannot sufficiently express their gratitude
to the Peers who, like the Duke of Ricirmorin, the
Archbishop of CANTERBURY, and the Earl of
CARNARVON, have separated from their party or
their order in the hope of sparing this country a
great calamity.