The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-25 00:00:00

of its provisions from oozing forth. If it was left
to himself, we should not anticipate anything ac-
ceptable to the nation ; and if we obtain it, it
will only be through the fierce competition between
the rival candidates for the golden apple.
A Reform Bill is inevitable. No procrastina-
tion or evasion will be tolerated for a moment.
It is the touchstone by which the competition will
be decided. Lord DEBBY has a chance, but it will
be long before he obtains another, should the
golden opportunity be neglected or misapplied.
It is nearly six years since he announced his
reasons for accepting office. Let him profit by
the painful yet salutary 1-sson which he then
received. He can only sustain himself by obtain-
ing the co-operation of the People. Let him
tender good measures for their acceptance, and
that co-operation will not be refused. Any
mistake or error will be promptly seized hold
of. Should he reject the Ballot, it will
be accepted by one, if not both, of his rivals, and
ensure his downfall. His position is difficult, but
by no means hopeless, provided he can only make
up his mind to sacrifice antiquated notions, and
to legislate in accordance with the spirit of the

age.
As we recently pointed out, there are already
many indications of unfair and factious opposi-
tion. Those who declared that the nation did not
want Reform, and urged its postponement sine die,
now see in it the one thing needful in political
matters. It is not that they loved Reform more,
or that they have changed the opinions so pomp-
oiDly enunciated, ore rotunda on the 18th Novem-
ber and successive days. But they see a means of
injuring Lord DERM thereby. They have detected
the flaw in his mail, and unless he contrives to
repair the defeat a formidable blow will be in-
flicted, against which he cannot maintain his

position.
As we have already stated, we, as an inde-
pendent organ of the many, will give the new
Premier that which is dear to every Eng•
lish heart—fair play. By his acts he shall be
judged, and if they are calculated to prove
beneficial to the People, we shall sustain him
against all who are not prepared to show still
higher claims to popular favour and national
support.

It is not easy to over-estimate the importance
of Friday night's vote. Its tendency will be
altogether pacific. Peace is best preserved by
mutual respect, and how could France have re-
spected us if we had passed no vote of censure on
the Counts and the Colonels whose addresses and
despatches degraded us before all Europe in the
pages of the Moniteur Would it have been
favourable to amity between Frenchmen and Eng-
lishmen, that the former should think us easy to
be alarmed with a little Thrasonic bluster ? When
our countrymen had managed to get a passport,
and to get it vised two or three deep, and to journey
as far as Boulogne or even Paris, notwithstanding all
recent attempts practically to increase the distance
—would Englishmen have returned at all better
disposed to their neighbours, after hearing them
discuss the glories of France, as illustrated by
British laws, passed at the instance of her Colonels
and her Counts Especially when, with a French-
man's shrug of his shoulders, it was intimated that
Counts had roundly lectured our Ministers, and
Colonels offered to burn London to the ground,
if their EMPEROR. would but lead them thither.
It is said that a Frenchman never forgets Water-

100, and that its memory is still dangerous to
peace. Most certain it is that Englishmen would
never have forgotten a bill passed in accordance
with French threats. It would have rankled in
our minds for ever, or rather it would have
given rise to annual motions, till the White
Feather Act had been expunged from our Statute
Book.

It is almost amusing to see how completely a
the blusterers are taken aback. A blusterer is a
great man if he succeeds. MENSCHIKOFF would
have been the first diplomatist in Europe had he
but succeeded in bullying the Porte ; but, since
the destruction of Sebastopol, and the loss of the
Black Sea navy, and of command of the Danube,
all the world seems to have forgotten poor
NiENSCHIXOFF. Had the Counts and Colonels but
succeeded, how would they not have strutted
before Europe as the fellows to manage English-
men Alas, they have utterly failed 1 They have
now only to remember a certain saying of the first
NAPOLEON respecting the single step between the
sublime and the ridiculous. But the other day
they were the grandest of Frenchmen ; now they
,vould give something not to have drawn the eyes
of the world upon them. They hear from all sides
allusions to certain old fables of an animal which
clothed himself in the skin of a lien, or of a bird
which adorned itself with feathers not its own, and
heartily do they wish they had not attempted to
act a part above them. On all sides, as the Paris
correspondent confesses, it is acknowledged that
they were rude blunderers, and did not know how
to deal with Englishmen. The truth is they were,
we verily believe, every man of them, actors.
Their wrath, and fury, and fears of the insuffi-
ciency of the English law, were all assumed. They
well knew that England would not tolerate con-
spiracies against the life of the poorest French-
man, not to say an Emperor. It was not for its
own sake that an act of Parliament, especially
such a one as they could hope to get, was wanted
from us. They had another object in view : they
were actors, therefore, and Friday night's vote
has exhibited them to all France as clumsy actors.
Mortifying, that
The real object of all this artificial fire and
smoke, no doubt, was twofold. One was to get
a locus standi for asking yet greater alterations in
our law ; the other to point all the small free
States of Europe to the Great Asylum of Free-
dom, and to be able to say, even England has
made alterations in her alien laws, why should
you hesitate ! The French Government had be-
gun with Sardinia, Switzerland, and Belgium, at
the same time, as with England ; and the argu-
ment was to be, if Old England yield but an inch,
surely Sardinia seventy and seven inches. And
then, when fresh conspiracies were hatched, as
hatched they will be, while European oppressors
drive every active-minded patriot abroad, of
course fresh demands would be made, and Colonels
would threaten to burn Manchester and Birming-
ham next time as well as London ; and Counts
would accuse us, in unequivocal terms, of preach-
ing assassination ; in short, the furnace of military
and diplomatic wrath would be heated seven times
hotter to frighten us out of fresh concessions.
We believe, therefore, that the cool resolution
oefu cut the
e off Too
cuassei oonfs Coi,o
fom f umt rues dwi Ipl taet
atuhde
isl amei
tiled'
will cheer the hearts of patriots all over Europe.
Already
we
are
informed, and we hope it is true,
that M. LAT„,
GiCE, the 'French Minister
Turin, has written home, announcingtii through
difficulty,
if not hopelessness, of
dragging
pro-
posed Alien Bill, which the Sardinian the
nian. Govern-
ment, under pressure, had offered to the repreaent
I tins. The vote of the English Rouse of Commons
will resound from Antwerp to Turin, and enable
Liberals everywhere to breathe again. It was a
European importance. The Co-
yote, indeed, of
and Naples will receive it
vernment of A.UStrla