The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-27 00:00:00

paved his way to his present ele►ation ; and i

was from this country that he started on the expe-
dition that ended in his being successively a deputy
of France, and then the President of the Republic,
and eventually the Emperor of the French. How,
then, could he with any consistency demand, or
even wish for, a change I
He may take warning by the examples afforded
by his immediate predecessors. CHARLES the
Tenth had found shelter in England when Count
of Anjou. He eventually ascended the French
throne, and believing himself to be firmly seated,
would gladly have had the privileges abolished of
which he was eventually glad to avail himself. Louis
PainiPrz had also been a fugitive while a young
man. He also ascended the throne of France ;
believed himself and his dynasty established, and
was urgent for the expulsion of—his successor.
Louis NA POLZOIi has also been a fugitive in
England ; is now, as he believes, safe, at
all events for his own life time. Let,
however, the moral sink deeply into his
soul. He may be as CHARLES X., or
Louis PHILIPPE, when he would deplore having
tolerated the onslaught on British rights and
public opinion, the value of which he once ear-
nestly advocated. This will appear from the fol-
lowing brief extracts. He states, as a fundamen-
tal law of individual liberty in England, that
"No inhabitant of Great Britain (excepting con-
victs) can be expelled from the United Kingdom.
Any infraction of this clause (the Habeas Corpus
Act) would be visited with the severest penalties."
• • • • • 4

" There is in England no public prosecutor, for
the Attorney-General only intervenes in very ex-
traordinary cases. There is no doubt that many
criminals escape justice from the want of sueh a
functionary, but, on the other hand, personal
liberty incurs less risk of being violated. But it is
' not merely the laws which protect the citizen ; it
1 is the manner in which they are executed ; it is
the manner in which the Government exercises its
power. In England authority is never influenced
by passion ; its proceedings are always moderate,
always legal. In England those violations of a
citizen's domicile so common in France, under the
name of domiciliary visits, are unknown. ID EpolAW
the aocrots u.
- rn
•
wa s intact. In England the first of
all liberties, that of going where you please, is
never disturbed, for there no one is asked for pass-
ports—passports, the oppressive invention of the
Committee of Public Safety, which are an embar-
rassment and an obstacle to the peaceable citizen,
but which are utterly powerless against those who
wish to deceive the vigilance of authority."
'1 • * * *
" But then the accused would appeal to a power
which has never been found wanting iu England
when it is invoked for the protection of liberty—
I mean public opinion. For it must be admitted,
that however good the laws may be, the Govern-
ment might infringe them, or turn them to its ad-
vantage, if public opinion were not ever ready to
arrest it when it deviates into injustice. In truth,
a law or a charter deprived of the general support
of opinion would be a mere scrap of paper. But it
becomes a sacred ark when the publio interest
guarantees all its words, and that to efface but one
of them, or not to execute the whole, is for the
Government a sentence of death."
* * * * *

" It suffices for us to note this fact, that in
France, where such jealousy is shown of everything
which touches equality and national honour, people
do not attach themselves so religiously to
personal liberty. The tranquillity of the citizen
may be disturbed, his domicile may be violated,
he may be made to undergo for whole months a
preventive imprisonment, personal guarantees may
be despised, and a few generous men shall raise
their ',voices, but public opinion will remain calm
and impassable as long as no political passion is
awakened. There lies the greatest reason for the
violence of authority ; it can be arbitrary because
there is no curb to check it. In England, on the
contrary, political passions cease the moment a
violation of common right is committed ; and this,
because England is a country of legality, and
France has not yet become s• ; because England is
a country solidly constituted, while France struggles
by turns for 40 years between revolutions and
counter-revolutions, and the sanctity of principle
has yet to be created there."
After these unbiassed expressions of deliberate
opinion, how can the EMPEROR lend himself to
any attempt to set aside or alter matters which
ho has so eloquently eulogised.

Here and there, as our columns from time to
time attest, the boroughs are beginning to move.
They should lose no time. The days before Par-
liament meets are numbered, and it can hardly be
long after its meeting before the Premier will
launch his Reform proposals. " Stay till then,"
some may say ; and we do not deny that some-
thing may be said for doing so. It is easier to
criticise the shortcomings of a Government pro-
posal—and no doubt there will be margin enough
for that kind of criticism—than to dilate with
freshness and interest on points with which we
are familiar. Still it would be of the greatest
service if, prior to the meeting of Parliament—if
only a few days before, so much the better—good
telling meetings could be held to inform the Mini-
.er
would an
and
his
aristocratic Cabinet that the country
tolerate no shams. Ministers are like
L'a a troublesomeimieprepi
SelloYa, they raisint
areent
incident to
lae ttf trnege
constitutionthem
up the steam for any a„einareedatlb.
and progressive
that we must get
like routine roothuetirn:
t;vl eosrskt they best,it. know tohwajiti7ttl.in ..
t Cabinetsue,fertaaklel
ysopimplltical 1
i perhaps their existence, depends u elr
P. opularity,
y",R.lltieilis
Lot asked for," is a very convenient ite.pl
Reform in any department, eapeciall;
Reform, is demanded. It seems even
polite to the country, implying as it does that
Ministers are the country's servants, and that if
it did but speak unequivocally, it would be
attended to. Let the country take our Govern-
ment at its word.

The Attorney-General has', as we learn from

the Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News, just