The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-13 00:00:00

The Moniteur de la Elate gives the following
details respecting Cherbourg, which may be inte-
resting at this moment :
"Cherbourg is the result of the long-continued rivalry
between the two nations,. After our disasters of La
Hogue, Tourville impresed upon the great King that
it was of urgent importance for France to possess a naval
port in the Channel. This necessity having been ad-
mitted, Vauban was commissioned to indicate that point
of the coast where it was most desirable to found a naval
establishment. He selected the spot now occupied by
Cherbourg. They went to work, but slowly, and until
the reign of Louis XVI. nothing, strictly speaking, had,
been done, when France, entering once more into a
struggle with England on the occasion of the emancipa-
tion of America, again felt the utility of creating the
port demanded by Tourville. The gigantic project of
Vauban was resumed. The revolutionary storm pre-
vented its realisation. It slumbered—if one may say
so—till the imperative necessity of the policy of the First
Napoleon caused its revival to be decreed, always with
a view, it is hardly necessary to remark, to offensive
and defensive hostilities in case of a war with our neigh-
bours. Such is the history of the port and arsenal of
Cherbourg. Now, is it not Wonderful that, at the mo-
talent vt hen the finishing touch is about to be given to
this formidable establishment, the reciprocal sentiments
of England and France are so changed that in an
arsenal which in some sort typified the ancient spirit of
mutual distrust the two sovereigns meet to extend the
hand once more to each other in sign of concord and
peace? Certainly, pretexts would not be wanting to the
English people, if they entertained a less high and less
clear notion of the interests of the epoch—pretexts, we
say, would not be wanting to the English people to be
uneasy, both at the ground and the form of the visit of
Napoleon 111. to Cherbourg tinder existingcircumetances.
In fact, the Emperor is not going to visit this or that
town, some one or other of the naval ports of the empire
indifferently ; he is going to Cherbourg, our advanced
post, preeminently, on the Channel coast. Nor is the
Emperor going to Cherbourg for an ordinary ceremony ;
he goes there, in the first place, and specially, for the inau-
guration of that magnificent inland dock which crowns our
works in that town, built, armed, and ready for war.
What would have taken place if the work commenced
by Louis XIV. had been completed during his long reign,
or during that of Louis XVI., or teat of Napoleon I. ?
Do you think that the ideas then in the ascendant on
both ides of the Channel would have permitted Louis
XIV. or Louis XVI. or Napeleon I. to invite the reign-
ing Sovereign of England to come iu person, on the day
of inauguration, to witness, in the midst of Cherbourg,
adorned, brilliant, re-echoing cur national f.tes, our
public rejoicing, the most glorious of the triumphs
of our maritime genius ? Surely such an invitation
would never have been sent; still less would it
have been well received. Opinions, then, have
changed with the times, If, on the one hand,
England feels herself, with just pride, sufficiently
strong not to fear the increase of our means of attack and
defence ; on the other, she had acquired by experience
too high an estimate of our character--she has under- (
stood in a manner too conclusive the advantages of cur
alliance—she knows too well the sincerity of the senti-
ments and of the words of cur Emperor—to suffer a
maritime and military fete, merely because it puts in
evidence and sanctions the progress of our strength, to
awaken the susceptibilities of the English Sovereign and
people. Tail is the reason, no doubt, why the Emperor
Napoleon 111., whose tact in such matters is so delicate,
has not hesitated to invite Queen Victoria to add, by
her pretence, an additional charm and prestige to the
rejoicings at Cherbourg; this is the reason that, with
an equally exquisite tact, her Britannic Majesty
has accepted with cordiality the invitation of the
Emperor. Both Sovereigns have felt that, by a
compliment agreeable to the two nations the most
nearly interested, they would give to the whole
world a salutary exarnele, and a new pledge
of a good underetanding—that is, of universal prosperity.
If we enter into details of the ceremonies in preparation
at Cherbourg the demonstration of all that we have ad-
vanced will be by that means made more evident. We
have already said that the great fact, that which is the
principal cause of the journey of the Emperor, is the
inauguration of the magnificent harbour, which is the
completion of all the works previuu ly executed. It is
400 metres in length, 200 metres in width; the height of
the quay it 18 metres, and the depth of water 9 metres,
It has been hollowed out, not merely of the rock, but of the
granite itself, by* mining system not tried heretofore,
or, at least, of which the prodigious results bad not been
as yet tested. Never had the resolute will to conquer
stocks
se attemptedaf thithis
basin
eoarh
a succeededship v sr, well.eN a n tOe
s h
On theas
been built. Is it not evident that the launch of this
fine vessel, in presence of their Majesties, will add en
° m
theu much,
additional feature to the special character of the journey
to Cherbourg ? Some days previously the railway will
be opened for public accommodation. What addition of
strength does not Cherbourg derive from this railway,
which is to connect its port with all the resources of the
Empire ? The true author of Cherbourg, such as it
exists, he who conceived, or revised, the final plans ac.
cording to which it has been built, was, as every one
knows, the Emperor Napoleon. Heree it appears natu-
ral that be should be honoured with a statue at Cher-
bourg. Is it providential that the inauguration of that
glorious statue should take place, on the very day
when the last of the docks opens its s:uices to the sca—
the very day on which the descendant of the modern
Charlemagne renews implicitly with the English people,
in the person of its Sovereign, a treaty of forgetfulness of
the past and of friendship for the future ? What we
must not pass over in silence is, that the Empe-
ror has anticipated by two days the date originally
fixed for his arrival at Cherbourg, in order to be able to
devote a whole day to the discl:arge of his duties as host
of her Britannic Majesty. The Emperor and the
Empress will probably pass the day on board tee Tlre•
tagne, a ship carrying an ~,Di!e Queen
Victoria wi!l the day on board the Eng-
car.ying her flag. Visits will be exchanged
by means of yachts. Thus the two Soverelgus of the
two greatest maritime nations of the world, each in
command of imposing forces in friendly waters, will
give to astonished Europe the spectacle of their mutual
friendship in a locality where so efteo, in a past still
near our own times, proofs of rivalry between the two
nations have been manifested—a rivalry glorious in
more than one respect both for our neighbours and for
ourselves, but, on the whole, unfortunate for them, for
an, for the world. That is a great spectale which re-
calls to the mind the noble words pronounced at Bsr-
deaux by the chief of the State ire October, 1852,—
"The Empire is peace. Peace, siuceFrance wishes it ;
and when France is satisfied, the world is tranquil."