The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-31 00:00:00

FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

There are events which may be felt as they
come, and which are not the less acceptable be-
cause they justify our presentiment. It was natu-
ral to ask what our enterprisins neighbour across
the Channel was likely to do in the present state
of affairs. If he has done what common sense said
he would do, there is all the more reason for con-
fidence in his discretion. He has written, so it is
stated, to this country, soliciting our co-operation
in what may be called a conservative policy as re-
spects the melancholy debris of the Western and
the Eastern Empire, Italy and Turkey. He invites
England to assist in saving Italy from intervention,
and Turkey from disorganisation, so as to sustain
both in their integrity, yet without being scandals
to the civilised world. These are objects to which
France might now address herself with some pros-
pect of credit, and even advantage; but it was
necessary that she should not appear as the single-
handed friend of Turkey or of Italy. There
are enterprises, and that within the sphere of
European affairs, in which France would natu-
rally wish to have the game all to herself. If she
intrigued with Russia it could be for no purpose in
which England had an interest equal to her own.
In the East, Russia and Fray ce are equally our
rivals, and equally jealous of an ascendancy which
they might, either of them, think is rightfully their
own. When France and Austria are met in secret
conclave it is. Italy that trembles for it 4 independ-
ence. If France invited Prussia to council it is diffi-
cult to believe but that the question before them
would be the aggrandisement of both at the cost

of Germany, and the purchase of the Rhenish
Provinces by some such process as that which hate
made Savoy change masters,. „Europe waits
with anxiety die issUe "or rieggiiationn Lei'Vrtra-
France and any of these Powers. There can be no
interest in common between themselves, unless it
be of a kind against the policy or principles of this '
country. But, first of all, it is the interest of the
French Government to be ever on the move, and to
repay the confidence with which a great people
have surrendered their liberties. Pursuing the
tentative process, France has attempted access to
each of the three great Continental Powers during
the last year or two. Her advances have been met
with a coolness sufficient to drive any but the most
confident and persevering back into themselves.
France, however, reappears on the stage of publi-
city, and now turns herself' once more to England.
Her object can only be that which is honest, unless
indeed there be still some lurking thought of that
unspecified benefit which in every new cast of the
die may fall to the State that is for the time master
of affairs. With the secret aspirations of France it
is no concern of ourselves to interfere. There need
be nothing but good when England and Franco
combine to protect the independence and healthy
action of Powers and nationalities threatened from
within and without with -dissolution and decay,
and with the foreign ills Which they ever invite.
No doubt what is called in science the method
of exhaustion performs also a considerable part in
morals and in politics. The mind ever pushes
where it can, and only stops when it finds it is
arrested by the testimony of some conscience
clearer than its own, or by some wide
survey of the dangers of its position. It
then recoils, gathers confidence and strength, and
renews its efforts in another direction, perhaps
there also to experience the same rebuff, or the
same conviction of its error. This is that hard
teaching by experience which adventurers undergo,
and which often gives to their lives an interest
denied to more ordinary men. This is the very policy
of France, and the
Emperor reflects it. By some
mysterious dispensation, France has not that
genuine, orderly growth, that belongs to our race.
She can neither increase at home nor multiply
abroad. So she blindly speculates on this or that
way of cheating the destiny which dooms France to
be France still, not less, but nothing more. Now a
desert, now a Court, now a mountain, now a line of
fortresses, now the world in arms, brings her to a
stand and compels reflection. It is in the season of
disappointment, when France has proved by her
trials that the world does not lie at the disposal of
one man, or one nation, or even one idea, or one age,
that she becomes amenable to loftier motives, and
feels a duty as well as a temptation. On the very
face of history England and France have both had
a wholesome influence,
and a duty to exercise it in
the affairs both of Italy and
Turkey. How so deli-
cate a duty may be discharged is a distinct question ;
and if it be difficult that is no more than can be said
of ell social duties, which are, indeed, difficulties
because they are duties. The present state of things
iu Syria, and that in Southern Italy, spontaneously
invoke the more civilised and more powerful na-
tions of Europe to do all that can be done lawfully
to bring it to an end. If our flags were ever to float
side by side it could only be for some such mission.
It is stated that France has taken the oppor-
tunity of renewing her assurances of confidence
and mutual good offices, not only for the pre-
sent occasion, but for all the purposes of social
improvement. She desires nothing but peaee and
progress, and wishes to see applied to those
ends the vast expenditure now squandered in idle
preparation for imaginary war. Of course, it is
for France herself to set the thee. When she
arms, all arm; when she lays by her panoply and
resumes the garb of peace, all Europe may do the
same. She leads the dance, and if it be any honour
or any proof of her influence we all follow her. She
has lately held a Congress at Baden, and there fol-
lows another at Toplitz. She touches Italy at one
end; the earthquake is felt at the other. She can-
not cross the Rhine, even in peace, without setting
all Germany moving to and fro. This is a mighty
power, and it may well occur to the sounder judg-
ment of France whether she has hitherto made
the best use of an influence which might place her
at the head of Europe. In science, in art, in
philosophy and wit, she has scarcely an equal. Why
is she to be best known as the scourge that periodi-
cally breaks across herfrontier and visits mankind ?
It
share, and permit her neighbours to do the like.
We have not disguised from our readers the legiti-
mate
our rival armaments. They go on till
it is result of
is discovered that war is less costly than peace,
and that it is better to take a course which admits
of a speedy conclusion than one which is bringing
you deeper and yet deeper into the slough. If' we
go on as we have lately, we must some day clash, if
only to stay the folly of an entire self sacrifice, for