The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-26 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1869.

The Opposition to Personal Government manifested
in the large towns of France proves already, as the
Elections go on, to be, in one word, nothing less than
—portentous. The departments are, as a matter of
course, returning in large numbers the official candi-
dates. But the electors of Paris and of the principal
cities of the Empire are manifesting, with astounding
unanimity, their sympathy with the advocates of a
more popular form of Government. "Liberty and the
EMPEROR" are still the double watchword on their
lips. 'I bey aspire after no dynastic change whatever.
They avow their antagonism to anything like a
revolutionary movement. What they look for is
the substitution of Responsible for simply Per-
sonal, or, iu other words, Autocratic Government.
Ministers responsible to the Legislature they would
see installed in office, under allegiance to the Em-
rEnott. What they aim at, in point of fact, is
what M. ROUHER has long opposed, what M.
OLLivrEe has so often advocate I. And with their
aspirations, Paris and the great cities of France most
heartily sympathise.
The peasantry, it is hardly
surprising to observe, in no way realise the force of
all these politico-philosophic considerations weighing
so profoundly with the electors, say, of the metro-
polis. The rural population, in fact, have literally
no cognisance of it. As yet it is " undreamt
of in" their " philosophy." M. HENRI ROCHEFORT,
going about here and there like another DIOGENES
with his Lanterne, has been able to throw no glim-
mering of light into those remote quarters peopled by
the more unsophisticated cultivators of the soil. And
so it is coming to pass, now, very much as it has
come to pass heretofore,' that numerically the suppor-
ters of the Government returned to the Imperial
Legislature are out of all proportion to the aggregate
number of the members of the Opposition. The in-
tellectual strength of the Opposition, however, is still,
for all that, as conspicuously as ever, perhaps more
conspicuously than ever, apparent. Besides which
the Opposition has at its back the sup-
port of the most intelligent and powerful
of the constituencies. Paris and her sister cities,
north, south, east and west—the wealthiest, the most
energetic, the most highly civilized communities
within the boundaries of France—are earnestly,
devotedly, enthusiastically the upholders of the can-
didates of the Opposition. Meanwhile, NAPOLEON
M.—even his enemies admit it—is, appreciably by
all Europe during these last twenty years, one of the
most sagacious men, individually, anywhere to be
found in the length and breadth of all France. He
more vividly perhaps than any one else appreciates
the force and the significance of the continually
reiterated fact, a fact upon each occasion reiterated
with a greater and greater emphasis, that
Paris, that • all the great cities of France,
without exception, are resolutely opposed to
the continuance of the system of Personal Govern-
ment. Upon the complete crowning of the political
edifice mainly depends the lightening of the prospect,
widening outward, extending onward, into the future
for the Napoleonic dynasty. As the years of his life
and of his reign are numbering up, the EM-
PEROR is assuredly acquiring a keener and
a yet keener sense of all this. .He is not
the man to content himself with the epigram of Apres
moi le deluge. The possibility of a Regency under.
the Empress EUGENIE, he has long ago contemplated.
And whether the PRINCE IMPERIAL is to succeed to
his title as NAPOLEON IV. during his minority, or
somelittle time afterwards, the restorer of the dynasty
to power, the author of the Second Empire, the heir
to the fortunes of NAPOLEON LE GRAND, the Sove-
reign now reigning over 40,000,000 Frenchmen,
i,. not precisely the man to contemplate with in-
difference the imminent risk there would be at this
moment of his son's inheriting, together with his
crown, a chaotic jumble of political difficulties.
Problems still urgently requiring solution, NAro-
LEON HI. more effectively than his successor could
possibly have the chance of doing, remain yet to be
solved—must eventually be solved—might any day
that he lists, be solved at once by hint. The
very relations in which the EMPEROR has
long been known to stand in regard to
such a man as M. EMILE OLLIVIER lends encour-
agement to the hope of those who still cling to the
notion that NAPOLEON 111. regards the political edifice
as yet to a considerable extent uncrowned. How-
ever or whenever crowned, in accordance with the
aspirations of the more intellectual constituencies of
France, the Empire has still this broad and solid
foundation beneath it, that it is based upon Demo-
cracy.

TO-DAY Englishmen proclaim their Saxon descent
by performing their great annual act of horse-
worship. The race on the Epsom Downs is to the
19th century what the white effigy on the downs of
Wiltshire and Berkshire was to the sth. Then HENGIST
and HORSA fought for the white horse which they
bore on their standards ; to-day their descendants
bet upon the favourite. It was serious work
in that old time when the two Saxon
chiefs came to the aid of VORTIGRRN against the
Picts; it is a serious play in our time when men win
or lose a fortune upon the event of a few seconds.
There were vanquishers and vanquished then ; there
are vanquishers and vanquished now. The owners
of great names bit the dust in that great conflict of
races ; the owners of great names sometimes bite the
dust now, in a metaphorical manner. But then we
have improved upon the former times. Then men
used to lose life, now they lose merely honour.
There was gallant fighting in the fifth century; there
is underhand plotting in the nineteenth. Ourancestors
used to charge at each other openly ; their descen-
dants get at each other's horses secretly. Civilisation
substitutes cunning for brute force. It is not the
strongest who wins, but the wisest. The race is not
to the swift, but-to the meet knowing.
In all gravity, it is a serious reflection that our
great national holiday is every year becoming less
and less of one, is becoming the most toilsome
and harrassing day in the whole year. It was
pleasant enough in the good old days, somewhat
later than HENGIST and HORSA, to travel down by
road and enjoy the fun on the way, and to watch
the race with scarcely a perceptible,quickening of the
pulse, and to see the winning number announced
without the slightest shadow of anxiety. It was a
pretty sight, and provided the weather was fine
and the company genial, the holiday was a real day
of refreshment and recreation. But the number of
persons who can enjoy it is becoming fewer every
larger
;Every year the attendance of spectators is
every year the number of holiday-takers is
smaller. The Derby is now a serious business; it
has given work for :NU days, and this, the :_:6sth, is
the most laborious day of all. Its result will make
all the difference between luxury and poverty for
the coming twelvemonths. The annual income
depcne.s uron an event that is wholly beyond the
earner's influence. He thinks that by rising up early
and by late taking rest, by studying the prophets and
reading the stable notes, be will be able to secure
himself against loss. But he soon learns that he is
dealing with knaves. it the last moment his
favourite horse is scratched; or, if it runs, it runs not
to win. He can do nothing to counteract or provide
against this. No diligence, no cleverness will pre-
vent him from becoming embarrassed for life. In
any other trade integrity and industry have their
reward; but not in this. Would it not be wise