The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-23 00:00:00

§5

TR P SSP() P

YSTE.-Lll.

the Times.)

The Ministerial er.es r, of (mere. ,
very euery at the relive tes, wiecli we hive i ,
our ilut t. make o tie I inpei ial system of govel n-
mont. To prohibit the trans!ation of any docu-
ment, and then to disoeit paragraphs so as to be
able to contradict them, is the usual conduct of the
authorities in such cases, and it has not been
wanting on the present occasion. But, on the
whole, the answer of the Government papers has
been only a passionate denial, interspersed with in-
dignant complaints of our falsehood and malignity.
Now that they have all had their say, we may
reply that the facts we stated are unhappily too
true, and that no one acquainted with the present
condition of France will doubt them. Repression
and surveillance have been carried to their extreme
point, and are producing a social uneasiness, of
which no one can predict the result. We return to
the subject, not because we are affected by thecon-
tradiction of the Moniteur or the objurgations of
the semi-official organs, but because it involves
matters of great importance to our own country, to
France, and to the world in general. We cannot
consent to remain silent while a system is esta-
blished which changes all the relations heretofore
subsist'ng between Englishmen and their nearest
neighbours. We cannot cry " peace" where there
is no peace, and, in deference to those who would
purchase immediate quiet at any price, forbear to
notioe events which seem to us full of calamity to
Europe. A still further responsibility is thrown on
us by the extinction of French journalism as an
independent power. Till of late the world could
learn the opinion of France from the Parisian news-
papers, and there was no reason why we should in-
terfere to tell Frenchmen what they should desire
and what they ought to think of their own Govern-
ment. But now the French press is in London.
In this country alone can the sentiments and
wishes of large classes of educated Frenchmen be
made known ; in this country alone can facts which
pass from mouth to mouth in Paris be boldly
printed and published. Both Europe and the New
World look to the English press, and notoriously
to this journal, for intelligence by which to direct
their steps in political or commercial matters, and
it would be a great loss to every community
should we practice an undue reticence through a
belief that because Governments are at peace there-
fore a veil is to be thrown over every misdeed of
power. It is certainly the duty of Cabinets and
Ambassadors to speak no word which can give
offence to a friendly State, but a public journal
exists for other purposes, and as it in no way
compromises the Government of its own country
it is at liberty to comment upon any deficiencies
which it may observe abroad, and to give
its own citizens the best means of forming an
opinion on other nations.
The manner in which Englishmen are affected
by the system now established in France is of the
deepest concern to us all. So much is this felt that
the motion of Mr. Monckton Manes this evening
on the new passport regulations will, no doubt,
attract a large attendance in the Commons. The
fact is, that next to the French themselves, we,
the busy, active, travelling English, are the greatest
sufferers by the fear-inspired precautions of the
Imperial Government. The connection between
the two countries has been for years becoming
closer. Tens of thousands of English are habitually
domesticated in France. Economy, or health, or a
more genial climate is sought by multitudes of
temporary exiles from this country, and certain
towns in France contain complete colonies of Eng-
lish of every rank and condition. Then there are
a large number of boys and girls at school for the
purpose of acquiring the French language ; there
are vast numbers of English workpeople employed
on the great engineering enterprises of the country ;
there are English grooms and coachmen and nurses
in many of the wealthier families of the capital.
Then there is the crowd of visitors to Paris ; those
who go to spend a season, those who go for a
month, those who go with an excursion ticket to
look about them for a few days in that pleasant city
as a respite from many months of toil. Altogether
it may be said that his Mejesty Napoleon 111. has
a large population of temporary English subjects,
all of whom are now exposed to the operation of
his new system of police. Last of all there are the
travellers merely passing through the country.
France is in the centre of Europe, and her railways
are in a high degree supported by those who are
travelling between England and the New World on
the one band and the Continental States
on the other. Confiding in the maintenance
of liberal regulations, we have given every
help to our neighbours in making their
country the great central station of Europe.
Our communication with the East, with India, and
Australia is by Marseilles, and to favour France
we discouraged the rising port of Trieste. Then
the way to Swi zerland, to a great part of Germany,
to Italy, to Spain, is now through the French ter-
ritory, and when Englishmen tolk shares in the
railways which have given France this advantage,
it was with the belief that France could never
be anything but a wisely and liberally governed
State. We need not mention the great and in-
creasing trade between the two countries, and tbo
interest which so large a proportion of our people
have in free coming and going between England
and every large town of the French empire.
But what is the prospect which we have before
us ? Thera cannot be a doubt that if the Emperor's
Government persists in its present course, all these
relations must be utterly deranged. It must be
remembered that our present intimacy with France
grew up under a milder and wiser system. We are
told much about the empire and the alliance, and
the old hostility of the French people which INapo-
leen 111. has either repressed or turned to good-
will. But we are a practical nation and look to
facts, and we remember that previous to the estab-
lishment of the imperial power Englishmen were
able to go to France without a passport and live
there for months, and that all that was required was
a simple permis to leave the country. Domestic
servants, workpeople, seafaring men, cattle-dealers,
and the like, passed to and fro with hardly a ques-
tion from the police. In short, it was recognised
that the passport system, if maintained at all,
should at least be a mere form with those English
who only visited the country for business and plea-
sure, and whO conferred by their enterprise or their
expenditure no small benefit ou the Continent. But
now it appears all this is at an end. Grateful
for all the kindness of the Emperor in restraining
his legions, and his help in settling the Princi-
palities or Schleswig-H.olstein, we are to acquiesce
in the overthrow of all to which we had become
accustomed during the last 40 years. Paris is to
be forbidden ground for every one who excites the
susceptible suspicion of the French authorities by
a word or a motion. We are told that the Legisla-
tiveß dy have just granted 1,200,000 francs for the
secret police, in addition to 2,000,000 francs voted
before, and that the cost of this worthy body is
nfessedly more than three times as great as intho
time of Louis Philippe. Travellers from England
are especially the objects of its vigilance. If a man
described as a British subject does not come up to
the ideal which the Prefecture has formed of John
Bull, if lie wears a beard or speaks French fairly,
he is likely to be committed to the peculiar care of
a secret agent in plain clothes.

But even the chance of being followed and spied
upon is a less intolerable nuisance than the absolute
obstruction which is placed in the way of travelers.
No one may land in France without a passport,
and an Englishman must have a passport granted
by the Foreign-office and via by the French
Consul of the place where he resides. This, it will
be remembered, concerns every person passing
through France on his way to the neighbouring
States, or to Turkey, or Egypt, or India, or China,
or Australia. The whole English nation is forced
to undergo the trouble, delay, and expense of ob-
taining this document, and no exception is made in
favour of any class. The inconvenience and suffer-
ing have already been most grievous. Our police
reports contain narratives of persons unable to find
an acquaintance who is also acquainted with a ma-
gistrate, and consequently obliged to remain in
London, although called by the most pressing
business to some place in, or beyond, the French
territory. Even those who possess a Foreign•offrce
passport are obliged to have the French Con-
sul's vise repeated for every trip, much to
their annoyance and loss of time. It is evident
that the great body of our poorer countrymen
will be almost totally debarred from communic i-
tion with the Continent, and commercial enter-
prises will, consequently, suffer from the
want of a free circulation of labour. Furthermore,
our Government is made, as it were, an accomplice
in the system of espionnage. Why should it bind
itself to give recommendations of character for the
benefit of the French police ? An Englishman
wishes to go to France, and the French will not let
him land until Lord Malmesbury has given him a
paper requesting the world in general to protect
him. Why should Lord Malmesbury or his succes-
sors refuse this request unless the said Englishman
knows a mayor or magistrate or a friend of those
functionaries ? It seems to to that every English-
man has a legal right to a passport, and that it is
for the French authorities to decide whether his
character pleases them. It is, we think, a mistake
for a British Government to mix itself up in any
way with the system ; for by granting a passport to
one, and refusing it to another, it makes itself in
some degree responsible for the behaviour of the
favoured individual. The present odious regula-
tions certainly cannot last, and the best thing the
Foreign-office can do is to grant passports to every
British subject who requires one. We cannot hope
that while the present system reigns in Paris the