The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-02 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 2, 1858.

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

(From the Oorrespondent st the Times.)
I hope to be able to tell you by the next mail that
we are at least " before Canton." All our powers
of force and persuasion are arrived, or are upon the
eve of arrival. Mr. Reade is come in his gigantic
ship, the Minnesotta, and although the monster
made an involuntary breach of etiquette in the
number of guns fired, the Plenipos have fraternised
in cordial fashion. It is understood that on the
16th the Calcutta flagship will change her anchorage
for Tiger Island. The rest of our fleet will gradu-
ally
gather about her up the river. Then in delibe-
rate strength our heavily-armed vessels will move
right up and occupy the river under the walls of
Canton. They will clear the water, remove all
sunken obstacles, protect the necessary recon-
naissances of the land approaches to the city, and
make matters comfortable for the final assault.
Then the great Yeh will be summoned, not to treat,
but to surrender the city. Should he neglect or
refuse, proclamations will be issued directing the
unarmed people to depart the city during the im-
pending operations. Then will come the final scene
—the landing of the Marines and the land forces,
the shelling the forts, the breaching the walls, and
the storm.
According to all precedent Hong Kong is full
of rushing rumours. "Yeh has been degraded."
" Yeh has abandoned the city." " Yeh has asked
to open negotiations." "Yeh will give up the city
without a fight." "Yeh will die at his post."
" Teh has mined all the gates, excavated all the
streets, turned every highway into a tiger pit, put-
ting upright spears at the bottom and light bam-
boos, covered with earth over the top." "Yeh
has 22,000 men within the walls, and 200 guns on
the fortifications opposite the river-" It. will be
hard if some of these opposing predictions should
not turn out to be rattler like the event, but all we
know with any certainty is, that the Chinese
Government have been sending down troops from
the north, and have been mounting guns upon the
walls.

The two sister ships the Imperador and the Im-
peratrix, are now both arrived, and have discharged
their cargo of Marines in good health at Wantung,
opposite the ruins of Bogue forts. Captain Sher-
rard Osborne, in the Furious, goes to Manilla to
bring up the last two of his squadron of gunboats.
Captain Osborne has acquired great credit by the
success which he has brought all his chick cocka-
trices home—not to roost. To the Drake belongs
the honours of the race;: but they have all done well.
Many are the adventures of these wee things, all
flight and sting, in their passage through the waste
of waters. The big ships of commerce, when they
sighted one of these specks in mid ocean, took
various ideas of the unusual sight. Some bore
down towards it as a wreck offering hope of salvage
money, and bore away again as they grew nearer,
frightened at its vicious and piratical looking hull.
Some recognised the little daring vixen thing, and
came near to see, dipping ensign and offering sea
luxuries. One Scotoh ship fairly bolted at first
view, and crowded all sail to escape when the terrible
little cruiser manifested a desire for an in.
terview. The commander of the gunboat had his
reasons for a closer interchange of compliments ;
he mado all sail, started up in pursuit, then got up
his steam, and a regular chase ensued. At last the
Scotchman was overhauled, having led the gunboat
some way out of her course. The officer boarded
her in no very good humour, and asked why he
had been led this dance, and whether the master
did not know a pennant when he saw it.
"El," said the Scotchman, " I kenned vera weel
what ye war; but I thought sure eneuch ye'd just
be in distress for something."
The Adelaide at this date has not been heard of,
but as her consorts have arrived she may be daily
expected. We ara also entitled to expect a return
of some 400 or 500 of the Marines and troops lent
to India. The authorities there have received the
assistance they have obtained from the Chinese
expedition with less acknowledgment than might
reasonably have been expected, and quite neglected
to avail themselves of the moral influence which
might have been drawn from the sudden arrival of
Lord Elgin with no inconsiderable nor opportune
force ; but I suppose they will keep their promise
and send us back these men, the rather because
there must soon be a glut of troops at Calcutta.
They will probably arrive faster than they can be
sent up the country.
In a few days, theretore, we may reasonably ex- .
pect to have 700 guns and 7,000 men in these waters.
Of the latter we shall probably be able to land
4,000 ; but, alas, the great bulk of them will be
blue jackets,—capital fellows afloat, but terrible
stragglers ashore. Jack's habits all induce him to
consider that going ashore means going upon a
spree. Jack will help to take the city, or would
take it single-handed ; but we must not trust him
to hold it.

I believe I may now say that the Baron Gros has
determined to co-operate in our enterprise. He has
3 frigates, 2 corvettes, and 4 gunboats here, and
about 1,000 men, whereof he can land about 600
seamen. We have plenty of force to do the work
single-handed, and some delay may possibly be oc-
casioned by waiting until he can get his frigate,the
Capncieuse, now in dock at Shanghai, down south-
wards. So far, therefore, as actual assistance goes,
perhaps we might as well have been alone ; but in
other points of view this co-operation must be very
satisfactory. What his casus belli may be lam not
informed. and as it is no part of my business to spe-
culate upon it, I take for granted that it is sufficient.
It is clear, however, that it cannot be stronger than
ours. The action of the French, therefore, will
justify in the eyes of Europe the course which we
are now taking, and as the two squadrons will
doubtless act cordially together, this will be another
public proof of the friendship and common policy
of the two nations.
It is equally well understood that the Americans
are to retain their position of lookers-on. Judging
from the great draught of water of the Minnesota,
even this " looking-on" must be a ♦ery distant
view.

The torpidity of the last five months, therefore,
has changed to the bustle of preparation. The sea-
men are being drilled to act ashore, the 59th are
being marched and countermarched, targets are set
up in the secladed valleys of Hong Kong, and the
sharp ring of the rifle may be heard at early morn
and dewy eve. every one who can smuggle him-
self on board a gunboat has been up the river to
get a peep at the doomed city. Many who did not
need this smuggling process have yielded to the
same curiosity. General Ashburnham is said to be
under orders for departure for India, and is about
to exchange " Head Quarters House" for the Ave,
Lord Elgin taking the house and the General taking
the steamer. If these orders should be imperative
in their character, I apprehend that nothing can be
done until he is gone, for it would probably be in-
expedient that operations of magnitude, such as
must occur after tho taking of the city, should be
originated by a General whose engagements else-
where will not allow him to conduct them to a
close. The General, however, was loth to depart,
and not unnaturally so. Colonels Wetherall and
Packenham and Major Crealook have been hard at
work for months arranging the plan of operations,
and must be equally disappointed at having to
leave their laboratory just at the moment of pro-
jection. Major Macdonald might reasonably ex-
pect to exercise his talents as Provost-Marshal in
the city of Canton, instead of joininghis regiment in
India when the hard fighting will probably be over.
But altered circumstances compel altered arrange-
ments. Our staff officers and our doctors
and our commissariat are ludicrously dispro-
portionate to our present force, and the public
service must silence private hardship,. When
General Ashburnham, therefore, went up to
Macao Fort and to the Fort of the Fatshan
Creek, it was, as I suppose, only to take a Pisgah
look at the promised land. It is said that he waits
to see what the next mail may bring. Before this
goes he may possibly have taken his departure.
Lord Elgin, accompanied by the French Secre-
tary of Legation and Col. Foley, has also been up
to Macao Fort, and taken a careful survey of the
city from the top of the Pagoda. He called upon
Baron Gros at the French anchorage at Castle Peak
Bay and held long converse. The Chinese, who
profess to be quite convinced that all this " bobbery,"
to use their word, is only to frighten them, and
who still repeat "Englishmen no can take Canton,"
are quite certain that "Number one Mandarin" only
went up to try and open negotiations with Yeh.
I also have been cruising about in these waters.
After 4 months' absence it was pleasant to revisit
more tranquillity than upon a former occasion the
fort on the Fatshan creek, now called "Seymour
Fort," and to look again upon the city from the
Macao Pagoda. I cannot detect any alteration in
the defences of the city since I was last there. The
Shameen forts at the end of the 3-mile reach still
look minor's. Gough Fort seems to be surrounded
by rathei fewer tents than when I last saw it. All
the traps and pitfalls are probably completed. There
is, however a closer interest now in bringing a
powerful glass to bear upon the heights which must
so soon be won by British daring, and in examin.•

ing the ground along which our forces must proceed.
It is broken ground, capital skirmishing ground,
but very difficult for the transport of guns
Mr. Power, who now conducts the Commissariat
Department has organized a corps of 750 coolies—
" Hakkas„" or men drawn from a mountain district
which has always had little respect for Mandarian
authority. They look very well when they are
paraded at Hon°. Song, and they work very well,
but whether those fellows will drag field-pieces up
over those inequalities in face of fire from the fort
is yet to be seen. I believe it is not proposed to
bring this,novel transport corps actually under fire,
but the question is at what distance they will take
frigh*.
I passed also by Wharnpoa, which has not been
seen except by the Earl and the General and their
protecting gunboats since the commencement of
the war ; I beg pardon, I mean since the commence-
ment of the misunderstanding between the local
authorities at Canton and Her Majesty's civil and
military officers there. 1 only know by description
how populous and busy the place once was, how
thronged by boats, how crowded by shipping, how
echoing with drunken shouts, how rife with fierce
debauchery. The town is apparently very moral
now. There is scarcely a boat on the river. The
docks are all destroyed and the blocks of granite
emulate the eccentricity of the blocks of the Bogue
forts. Many of the wooden houses that advance
upon piles into the river are losing their per-
pendicular and leaning forwards like a drunken
man poising himself ; some are already down ;
all look ruinous and desolate. Here and
there a few Chinese were gathered together to
stare at us as we passed, but they were more hag-
gard than any Chinamen I have ever seen. They
made no sign and-laughed no laugh. They were
Probably tlle vi-Oct'44.4ll.o4oes:lWlF radii:rot: • _
tpassed also by the French anchorage, and had
some communication with their fleet. This is a
beautiful spot in this clear cool weather, and I dare
say they derive immense satisfaction in perforating
the hills by their ball practice, and setting fire to
brushwood by their shell practice. But still I don't
quite wonder that they should be ready to fight
anybody in any cause to get a little distraction.
The Baron's suite are all Marquises and Counts, and
grand seigneurs of high degree, who had come out
with the idea of a sort of Royal progress to Pekin.
They have been six months at sea, cooped up in the
Audacieuse, and are still in their floating prison.
One of the officers said to me, "We get up every
morning at daylight because there is such a deuce
of a noise (tappage d'enfer) with washing the deck
that no one can steep all day long, ashe would wish,
and we see always that same sea and those same
rocks, and that everlasting sugarloaf hill—ee n'est
pas gai. Now and then we have our distractions.
The Admiral, who is very amiable, allows us occa-
sionally a spectacle. But the sailors only play one
piece, and the women are represented by two broad-
chested mariners. One of them tells us in the course
of the dialogue, in a male bass voice—" Helas !
vous voyez que je suis belle. Comma c'est mal-
heureux d'etre belle !—Ce n'est pas amusant." I
hope their friends in Paris will cease to envy them,
and sympathise with their sufferings.
My letters from the North tell me that the
Chinese have just issued an impertinent proclama-
tion, warning the barbarians not to venture into
the interior, and declaring that even if they should
not create disturbances there punishment will await
them. It is just as well that I made my survey of
Hangchau before this proclamation appeared, for
nobody doubts the power of the Mandarins to in-
cite the population to force on!" a disturbance"
with the most peaceable Europeans.
Count Putiatin is back to Shanghai. He has
made a new treaty in Japan, and it seems that
the terms are liberal, showing a tendency on the
part of the Japanese to throw over their exclusive-
ness. Russia has been granted land to build Go-
vernment storehouses, and the Japanese have
bought several European merchant ships. They
have heard cf Queen Victoria's gift to the Emperor,
and are anxiously looking for her arrival. She is
now being ornamented in Hong Kong harbour, but
she will diftappoint the Japanese. She is neither a
ship of war nor a pleasure yacht, and is specially
ill adapted for the habits of the people for whom
she is destined, The Dutch naval officers have
been to see her, and chuckle at the little respect she
will obtain for British naval architecture.
I learn from the same source that Pekin is nearly
in a state of famine. Rice is said to cost 300 cash
(about 6d) a pound.
The same letters tell me of the death of Mr.
Beale, one of the Medici of Shangha;. He had
accumulated an enormous fortune without contract-
ing the limits of a most lavish expenditure. He
had just resolved to return home. I was his guest
for some time at Shanghai, and was indebted to
him for much information. He had discussed with
me his plans for his new career in England, and his
influence would have been great upon all questions
relating to China. But while he was gathering in
the threads of his multifarious operations Death
put his hand upon him. He died deliriously, point-
ing out the headlands and the cities he fancied he
saw in his voyayge towards England. Well, Pas-
cal says,
"La mort est plus aisee it supporter sans I
Y penser que la pewee de la mort sans peril." So
perhaps he washappy in his death. I am told also by
the same mail of the death of a young and honest-
hearted missionary at Ningpo with whom I had had
much converse. It is frightful to look back upon the
number of youthful and energetic men whom I
have known intimately during my few months'
sojourn in the East, and who have succumbed to
this climate.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNAL&

spbosency, gr.
lEEE CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.
(From the Daily News.)
There are two or three considerations connected
with the recent change in the Cabinet that deserve
a serious notice, for they affect the character and
stabilty of the Cabinet-, and the situation of the
country.
First of all, no congratulations are addressed to
Lord Palmerston on having secured the services of
the Marquis of Clanricarde in the political govern-
ment of the empire. Lord Palmerston's most de-
voted organs in the press are silent as the grave ;
they have not one word to utter on the occasion ;
they shun the subject ; not even the reproaches of
their opponents can extort a word of excuse,aubaegrvyi,
explanation, much less praise. There is,
then, it seems,
a point beyond which the political
descend, and that point has been reached by Lord
of the Government journals will not
Palmerston.
In the second place, no public man, no politician
of eminence or sagacity, no poison with any posi-
tion in life, no one possessing a particle of serious-
ness, earnestness, or regard for the public welfare,
but expresses astonishment at this act of Lord
Palmerston. At clubs, in private society, in all
public places, the feeling is the same. Everywhere
the inquiries are--" What can have been the
motive 7 what does it mean ? is Lord Palmerston
intoxicated with success 7 or has he been subjected
to influences he could not control !" Neither the
warmest admirer, nor the most indifferent
Liberal ; neither the bitterest Tory nor the most
lukewarm Conservative, can suggest a reason
or conjure up an explanation. " It looks like
insanity," says one man. "It is another in-
stance of Palmerston's levity," remarks a second.
" It is the prelude of some approaching catas-
trophe," exclaims a third. But with all alike,
the hardy caprice of Lord Palmerston in passing
over respectability, character, and talent, in order
to light on—Lord Clanricarde, is perfectly in-
explicable.
In the third place it is to be remarked that the
choice is Lord Palmerston's own act. In such
appointments there are no common ministerial re-
sponsibility in Cabinets. The Prime Minister
gnuoes and on this occasion
exception to the general
e a complaint against Lord
rule.is e,
ol er cd t BP
Ia tl hie
La
hase ownrsbt
oe
ne
acmoml
al
dea ade
John Russell that while Prime Minister he once,
gnorance of his inten-
to his confidence be-
fore net wst!hcaeennid. kepttolofhki st
hc
ea bpi nuebtl
iien iin
so, Lord John no longer stands
alone in this respect ; for it is apparent that the ap-
pointment of the new Lord Privy Seal came with as
much surprise on several:members of the Palmer-
ston Cabinet as it did on the public. Loyalty to
p
their chief may forbid any vain attempt to undo an
together a cabinet
keep
pat fact has mortally
wounded, but the mortification of the country is
whichacc o accomplished pt lhi se hae
accomplishment
c o fact,m liasnhdmmenatyokf
not greater than that of Lord Palmerston's col-
leagues.
And lastly, it is to be observed that on that
seetion of Liberal politicians which have hitherto
felt itself bound, by what it deemed to be con-
siderations of public duty, Ito give the present Go-
vernment more support than it really deserved,
the effect of this appointment has been seriously to
diminish, if not entirely to destroy, all activity and
earnest interest in the Cabinet over which Lord
Palmerston preside:l. On this point we speak with
a knowledge of opinions most reluctantly but
seriously (al:l:awed. Interest has been converted

into indifference : and though support may be
continued, its character will be completely changed.
Thatfwhich was earnest will become perfunctory ;
and the maintenance of Lord Palmerston in power
will no longer be regarded as a primary duty or a
political obligation.
Men of high honour, of elevated sentiments, of
public morality, and of deep interest in the country,
' cannot do otherwise than accept this act of Lord
Palmerston as indicative of a personal recklessness
and a disregard of enlightened public opinion,
wholly unsuited to the position to which the gene-
rous feelings of the country have raised him. j They
did not see without pain the recent abuses of minor
patronage which the premier and Mr. William
Cowper have been guilty of in the appointments of
the Hon. Mr. Howard, Lord Mulgrave, and Mr.
Tollemache ; but for them some excuses and some
apologies, however miserable and inadequate, could
be suggested. But in this last act they find an
occurrence for which ne explanation can reconcile.
It has deeply wounded political suseptibilities, and
most justly provoked a resentment which past ser-
vices will not remove. It is more than an indiscre-
tion ; it is a fatal error which illuminates and
brings into strong and unmistakeable relief the true
character of the man who now governs England.
Without exaggeration, then, the public may
safely conclude that the rst great and serious shake
has been given to the Palmerston Cabinet ; and not
by the skill of its opponents or by the desertion of
its friends, but in the moat unendurable way, by
the inherent and insuppressible levity of its chief.
At first the very limited field of choice which Lord
Palmerston had for the formation of his Cabinet,
though it brought together a weak combination, so
far as political ability or administrative power were
concerned, operated wit t a .confidiu
&Avail:dam*:

the people to its support, and the impossibility of
retaining Lord John Russell gave it the co-opera-
tion of his friends. But as Lord Palmerston has
grown in strength and increased in power, be has
waxed insolent. Instead of improving his Ad-
ministration he hash diminished its moral force ;
instead of recruiting it, he has weakened it. And
the reason is plain. Lord Palmerston wants
tools and instruments, not competent and sufficient
colleagues. Such a system never lasts in England ;
and we are now witnessing the "beginning of the
end." It will fall to pieces of itself, if only rope
enough be given to it, and the game be left for Lord
Palmerston himself to play out.
And just as Lord Palmerston has in this instance
abused the generosity of the country, its enthusiasm,
and its overweening confidence in him, so, it is im-
possible not to perceive he means to try and abuse
the majority which the General Election gave him.
His intention to propose without inquiry a transfer
of the Home Government of India to the Political
Government of the day is announced, although
three short years ago Lord Palmerston, as a mem-
ber of the Aberdeen Cabinet, rejected that propo-
sition when it was brought under the consideration
of that Government. He means to try and take
advantage of the excited condition of the public
mind as to India, of the misery and woe produced
by the Indian revolt, and of the alarm occasioned
by the state of India, to precipitate and force
through Parliament a measure which he then re-
jected, but which will inordinately augment the
power of the Crown, and make portentous and
hazardous changes in our constitutional system. To
aid him in this serious project, he calls in Lord
Clanricarde, a desperate politician. Concurrently,
a large increase in our military establishments will
also be proposed, to the unavoidable augmentation
of taxation and the complete disarrangement of that
financial scheme which has.
abeen deliberately adop-
ted by Parliament with view to the ultimate

relief of the country. The situation of public
affairs, and the prospects of the Empire, are daily
becoming graver and graver. The hopes of secur-
ing the abolition of the Income Tax and a reduction
of the duties on tea, sugar, and coffee two years
hence grow less and less. It is no longer possible to
separate the cousideration of India from the general
situation of the empire, its domestic policy, and its
financial condition, and how Lord Palmerston, who
has never been able to take a comprehensive view of
any subject affectingethe general interest of the com-
munity, is, even with the aid of the new Lord
Privy Seal, to rise equal to this emergency, defies
all conjecture.

The public ought, therefore, to look ahead in
time ; it ought to be alive to a comprehension of all
the approaching difficulties ; it ought not to believe
in the permanence of Lord Palmerston's Cabinet.
Hitherto, the present House of C iinmons has been
tame and characteristic enough, because all was
plain and simple enough. The Palmerston cry
which gave many men their seats had not ex-
hausted its influence. But in England a hot fit is
not seldom promptly followed by a cold one ; and
nothing so chills and freezes English sympathy as
so senseless and wanton an act as that for which

Lord Palmerston has now made himself solely re-
sponsible.
There is no need of combinations, and there ought
to be an absence of all action out of which new
charges of intrigue, coalition, and conspiracy can
be fabricated, The course is clear. Let us have
the full policy of the Cabinet out ; its India Bill
for augmenting the power of the Crown, and its
Reform Bill for increasing the power of the people ;
its propositions for increasing the English and the
Indian Armies ; its Estimates ; its financial plans ;
its account of its foreign policy ; its explanations
of why it has submitted to the incarceration of
British subjects in foul Italian dungeons for seven
months without trial ; its account of what it means
to do with the Principalities ; its declaration whe-
ther it means to tolerate a revival of the African
slave-trade. When all this is laid before us, we
shall be better able to appreciate the necessity of
Lord Palmerston to England.

THE NEW INDIA SECRETARYSHIP.
(From the Morning Herald.)
A rumour is in circulation to the effect that
Lord John Russell has received a communication
with reference to the new India Secretaryship.
The member for London has tried his hands at so
many different tasks, that little doubt need be en-
tertained of his undertaking, if actually invited, the
regeneration of India. Prudence is not one of his
lordship's particular characteristics, or he might be
induced to pause before he ventured, even with his
damaged reputation. to join a Cabinet that has of
late evinced an alacrity for sinking. Lord John
Russell's vacillations at the Vienna Conferences are
not forgotten, and assuredly the people of this coun-
try will look with suspicion upon any scheme for
the reconstruction of India which is to be carried
out under his direction. The secession from the
Palmerston Administration of Lnrd Harrowby,
who, though not commanding much influence, was
certainly generally much respected, and the ap-
pointment to his post of the notorious Lord Clanri-
carde, have created great sensation. His lordship's
character may be gleaned from his acts as they stand
recorded in the public prints of the last few years.
Lord Clanricarde is, moreover, animated by the
bitterest hostility against the East India Company,
and the necessity of inviting the co-operation of
such an ally may afford the public some idea of the
sweeping nature of the measure that Ministers have
in contemplation. At any rate some desperate work
is in progress or Lord Palmerston would not seek
the co-operation of a nobleman whose influence
must prove detrimental. His presence at the Coun-
cil Chamber will disgust many of the Premier's
warmest friends, and that Lord John Russell can
consent to be his colleague will excite some sur-
prise. The member for London, however, has one
weakness—love of place ; and, tired of the back
benches, he may be thoughtless enough to rush back
to the old familiar spot, even at the risk of a greater
fall than that by which two years since he was pre-
cipitated from power:
Should it turn out that an alliance has actually
been effected between these ri-val politicians, the
ex-Prime Minister and the present Premier, one
inference may be drawn from the fact, viz., that
Lord Palmerston has decided upon a thoroughly
Democratic Reform Bill. His own feelings and
sympathies are in favour of doing nothing, and
he would gladly postpone the consideration
of reform either in Parliament, or any-
thing else, for an indefinite period. The
impatience, however, of those who afford him a
qualified support made him commit himself, and
the hour for the performance of his pledges ap-
proaches, For some time he has wavered between
Conservative principles and Democratic illusions,
unable to decide, not which suited him best or
which might prove most beneficial to the country,
but which would ensure for his frail venture a
longer lease of power. If hehas really induced Lord
John Russell to enlist amongst his rank and file,
the character of the new reform scheme will no
longer be a matter of speculation. Upon this point
the member for London's views are pretty well
known.
With respect to India, the determination seems
general that henceforward this mighty empire is to
be governed upon Christian principles. Without
embarking in a crusade against infidelity or false
systems of religion, we are to raise the Christian
standard, and not to be &shamed of the faith we

THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE.
(From the Times.)
The Protestants of France are in rather a sad
case. They are a small minority scattered over
the country, and overwhelmed everywhere in num-
ber by their rivals, who compose the great mass
of the population. It is not worth the Govern-
ment's while to be civil to them, or even to be fair
to them. Suoh justice will only offend one large
portion of the majority, have no merit in the eyes,
of anetber rtiona and will positive] -*lease 'only_
e of etwieVlMPolltW' h wok to
principle, and whose principle is state impartiality
in religious matters. It is not worth a Govern-
ment's while to please a small sect and still smaller
circle of Doctrinaires, as they will be called, at the
cost of offending the mass—though when we speak
of the mass we are speaking really of the priest-
hood—that compact body which represents and at
the same time misrepresents the mass. The mass of
the French people, Roman Catholic as it is by pro-
fession, would not be disposed of itself to bully a
small Protestant minority ; it is only the priest-
hood which does this. But the priesthood is a
powerful, compact phalanx, acting with unanimity,
and wielding a large influence, though its influence
is formidable rather for the area over which it
spreads than for the quality of the intelligence
which it controls. In this state of things it would,
we suppose, be Quixotry in a French Government
to be insisting on punctilious justice to t'ee Protes-
tants—a significant mark of the great difference
between French public opinion and English. Here
it would be Quixotry in a Government to favour the
largest and most orthodox denomination or to spite
the smallest or most eccentric one. Here it is in-
justice ; in France it is justice—that is, Quixotry.
The least act of unfairness to the meanest sect in
this country would raise a cry from millions, aid
bring Government to its senses in the course of a
morning. We might not care two straws for the
doctrine of the sect, but the principle of State im-
partiality is so rooted in our soil, and has taken
such hold of the English mind, that any violation
of it would be immediately set down as a violation
of a fundamental law.
The French Protestants are not, it would, seem,
allowed schools enough to carry on the education
of the young members of the communion. The
French law provides nominally the amplrst liberty
on this point; but, as a writer in the Journal des
_Debats observes, French laws take away in one part
the liberties which they allow in another. The law
of 1850 on primary instruction provides that every
French citizen of 21 years of age, and furnished
wit4i a regular diploma testifying his capacity, can
open a school atter formally announcing his inten-
tion to do so. This is the gift, but now comes the
drawback. The Rector of the Academic Council
of the Department of the Prefect filling the same
functions may object on the ground of "
moral." This proviso is, of course, only legally
directed against a bad character in the schoolmas-
ter; but, once inserted in the law, it is interpreted
to apply to any bad consequence whatever which
may be supposed likely to follow the erection of a
Protestant school. It is voted a danger to "public
morals " if the Roman Catholic part of a district
dislike the erection of this new school, and if there
fore discord and irritation can be apprehended. If
the priesthood of the district communicate their
apprehension of this result to the authorities of the
commune, the authorities of the commune decide
against the erection of the school, and the refusal
is confirmed by the Academic Council. If the Min-
ister of Public Instruction is appealed to, be dis-
owns any power in the matter, and pronounces the
decision of the Academic Council final. Of course,
such a rule of interpretation is simply to say that
whatever displea, es t e priesthood is opposed to pub-
lic morals. But not only are the Protestants denied
schools, but even pieces of worship. Churches
raised by private subscription, and ready for use,
remain unoccupied in many places, for want of the
necessary authorisatioh. The Protestants, after
building their church, come to the Mayor for this
final legal form, and are told, to their astonish-
ment, that there are no Protestants in the place, o-
not enough to make a congregation. What is to
be done ? In one case of this kind the village crier
was sent round to beat up the members of the
communion by " tuck of drum ;" they appeared
personally before the Mayor, who, being a liberal
gentleman, did not deny the evidence of visible
arithmetic, and granted the authorisation.
Here is an instance of petty grinding persecution
from a body which only a dozen years ago filled
Europe with its protests against what they called
persecution in their own case, and on the very same
subject. What limit was there to the complaints
on the part of the French priesthood against the
old law of public instruction, which the law of 1850
superseded I What outcries were there against the
tyranny of the Institute, and the interference of
the State with the liberty of instruction, and with
the right of Roman Catholics as citizens ? What a
watchword was that hardly ten years ago—liberty
of instruction I But then it was the Roman Catho-
lics whose liberty was curtailed. Now these very
men, after protesting so fiercely and vociferously
for their own "liberty of instruction," are denying
the same liberty to the Protestants. They gain
this result by the grossest and most palpable mis-
interpretation and distortion of the law—by a
gloss which would be considered in this country
an impudent outrage upon law and justice, and
which no judge, in no court, high or low, dare
sanction. Yet, with their faces fresh branded with
disgrace by such acts as these, these men have the
brazen effrontery to simulate surprise that English
Protestants should imagine for a moment that
Roman Catholic authorities countenanced persecu-
tion l " What! persecute? Impossible. That was an
error of a dark age, which we have long unlearnt ;
that was the fault of the age—not of the religion."
Yet, with these words on their lips for the benefit
of the English public, Roman Catholic authorities
are now actually preventing the Protestants of
France from educating their own children ! They
deprive them not only of the privileges of citizens,
but of the rights of men.
What are the Protestants of France to do under
the the circumstances ? What are they to do amid
tyrannising majority, which it is noithwwe h
could
Government's while to check ?
We
wish
obstinate
give them better hopes, but w
selfishness of numerical strengt.e whereknow
w it is not
adopted by the
checked by the principle.
ofjo.estoirealed with public
country at large,
they are not much disposed to
opinion. probablyyalihd
tthee solution of the difficulty
emigrate, which
adopted In the 17th on their side—M. Guizot's,
11w7th century. They ha",
do something for them.-
more-
over, a pozerfte
which ought to we able to
One pen has before new
shaken many a hugefabric
still h
of injustice. Exposure
minim
some power
even in France. One ruling mins! in that country,
at any rate, has wider sympathies and u more libe-
ral code than this crooked and grinding tyra;ZoY of
a large sect over a small one represents. It is Ili:-
possible that Louis Napoleon can sympathise with
such a narrow, petty policy ; he has larger ideas ;
he has a respect for enlightened public opinion.
One stroke of his pen would chain this monstrous
spirit of oppression in France and keep down these
displays.

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