The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-08 00:00:00

THE PROBABLE DURATION OF THE
IMPERIAL DYNASTY.

The question whether the imperialist form of
government will last, or at least elaborate itself into
a satisfactory settlement, does not depend upon the
fact of its being objectionable in parts, but upon
how far, in spite of such drawbacks, it still responds
to the real requirements of the French people. The
first thing that strikes our attention is the wide
difference between the circumstances of the nation
at the epochs of the erection of the two empires as
compared with the identity of their institutions.
The first empire arose, not unnaturally, in a season
when the requirements of the state, distracted by
intestine conflicts of the fiercest kind, and reduced
by the strain of gigantic wars abroad, called out
for captainship as the one thing immediately needed.
The temper of the nation was therefore affected by
a feeling which directly tended to make military
government popular, while brilliant success and the
continuation of warfare caused" its stringent disci-
pline to be borne with at home for the sake of its
value against the foreigner. But the second em-
pire has no such plea for its introduction, and no
such patriotic purpose to pursue. It has nothing
to grapple with but the subtle element of political
principles. Instead of being called upon to
gather an arsenal of strength to be discharged
upon a hated enemy, circumstances oblige it
to apply itself to that internal economy which
can no more he satisfactorily regulated by mere
force than the organic action' of the human
system can be corrected by castigation. The second
empire, finding itself face to face with a state
labouring under a deeply-seated administrative
disease, pretends, with the recklessness of quack
practice, to have healed it, when in truth it only re-
moves outward signs of virulence by driving it in-
ward, while that iron hold, formerly tolerated as a
gauntlet for the nation's champion, now lies upon
the neck of the people with the unmitigated weight
of coercive oppression. Louis Napoleon's diplomatic
glance has not been blind to the difference in the
present situation of France from what it was in
his uncle's time, and therefore the second empire has
been proclaimed a social dictatorship, purporting to
give that settled expression to certain principles for
which France is affirmed to have vainly struggled
since the revolution. He announces himself to be
the representative of 1788, and declares his system
to be but that absolute form of seasonable principles
which is best
.suited to the French character. Now,
this we hold to be an entire fallacy with regard to
the import of his Government. The principle for
which France struggled at the revolution, and ever
since, is liberty. The manner of that struggle natu-
rally bears in itself traces of those failings which,
from the fact of their prevalent extent, first induced
an effort at reform, but had also been productive of
obnoxious habits by their duration. The struggle has
been complicated by circumstances to be expected
from so violent an effort and from the emancipated
speculation of the age. Liberal tendencies have not
proceeded with prudent evenness,and under influence
of the strongest impulse that has yet occurred in
the history of the world, political aspirations have
straggled beyond bounds. Thus a torrent which,
duly guided, would at once have permanently
changed the face of things, has weakened its force
by straying to the realms of Socialism and Com-
munism. But these extravagances do not materially
affect the bulk of disposition, being incidents as
inseparable from a great movement as depredations
on banks are from the flow of a great stream ;
the cause of every French event since 1788
has always been a desire for freedom. Freedom
was the cloak under which the Bourbons stole
back ; freedom was the motive of the revolution of
1830 ; freedom was sought in those parliamentary
struggles which unfortunately resulted in the
catastrophe of 1848 ; and freedom now still re-
mains the object of desire. But owing to events,
and also to a peculiar disposition in the French
people, the executive in France has been allowed to
attain proportions incompatible with a free people.
Now, although the irksomeness of this rule has
irrevocably disaffected public opinion, yet the men
who strove for reform having contracted infection
from the atmosphere of their early association,
carried into rebellion pernicious habits. Reform-
ing zeal has, consequently, remained comparatively
barren, because, whereas the remedy required for
France was freedom, each effort at reform has,
on the contrary, proceeded despotically. Cen-
turies of resignation to authority acting in be-
half of public welfare in the manner of injunc-
tion, have so wedded French minds to notions about
its efficacy, that, when actuated by a passion
for reform, they have always been hurried into the
fatal error of believing the substitution of a new
authority, armed for its purpose with the same ex-
cessive prerogative as the old one, to be all that
was requisite for the achievement of a better state
of things. Instead of perceiving how the evil lay in
a practice which must exhaust the general system
by draining its vigour for the nourishment of an
organism fostered into monstrous proportions,
France, alive but to the fact of its want of health,
has mate efforts which themselves are all deeply
affected with the disease in question. Spasmodic
attempts to contrive new machines of governinent,
big enough to fill up the whole space out of which
the old one had been just ejected, characterise the
whole course of French reform, and, consequently,
a dictatorship really to promote the good of France
would have to proceed in the most self-denying
spirit—to wean the people from its vicious super-
stition in power resident in the state as something
by itself apart from the collective result of indi-
vidual combination, to instruct in the duty of per-
sonal contribution to the action of the common-
wealth, and to give an impulse towards those inde-
pendent habits, of civism which alone can ensure a
nation's health. Vainly do we, however, look for
the smallest indication which might connect the
second empire withthe furtherance of these objects.
On the contrary, so thoroughly does it partake of
the faulty principles which have caused France's
misfortunes, that instead of being the expression of
its requirements, it is rather the consummation of
errors, and instead of giving any shape to that relief
from executive oppression which alone can save it
from ultimate prostration, it has lent the deceptive
confirmation of a settlement endowed with all the
semblance of power and the insignia of recognised
government to those schemes of arbitrary despotism
which, while presented in the nakedness of mere
theory, could never command extended attention.
Disabled by its nature from engrafting itself upon
what is genuine and wholesome in French reform,
the empire identifies itself not unnaturally with
those distortions which have crippled its progress,
and in fact, as regards the baneful intervention of
an engine superseding the emotions of independent
men by a discipline which is to drill them into
puppets, the difference between Louis Blanc and
Louis Napoleon rsiuces itself to a difference be-
tween two names and two men. The regeneration
of society, professed to be achievable by the former
through a system which in the name of humanity
exacts a mute and equal submission to inexorable
maxims, practicable only by, the sacrifice of quali-
ties which, though easily misdirected, are yet es-
sential to all manly worth, is by the latter pro-
claimed in the name of august authority and by the
undisguised method of compulsory enforcement.
Misconception, the origin of the second empire, is
therefore also its inheritance, for instead of being
the legitimate fulfilment of the revolution, it is
but the legitimate consequence of indulgence in
that political vice which inspired the worst ex-
cessses of its peremptory temper.— Westminster
Review for October.

GREAT SKIFF RACE.—The great skiff race be-
tween Clasper and Campbell was pulled yesterday qn Lech
Lomond. The distance was upwards of four miles. Clasper
came in the winner by forty yards. The match was £lOO
aside, and the championship of Scotland.—Scotsman.
THE VACANT COUNTY COURT JUDGESHIP.—The
Lord Chancellor has appointed Mr. J. B. Dassent, of the
Norfolk Circuit, to the Judgeship of the Northumberland
County Court, vacated by the death of Mr. Losh.
THE BAIRDS OF GARTSHERRIE AND THE
WESTERN BANK CALL.—On Tuesday the Messrs. Baird
of Gartsherrie paid the full amount of the call upon each of
the shares held by them. As the family held 1,886 shares,
the amount at £lOO per share was £lBB,6oo—a total loss to
the family, taking the shares held by them at only their
original value: of more than £330,000.
ROEIIAMPTON PARK.—The magnificent mansion
built by Chambers, the seat of the Earl of Bessborough,
and so long the residence of the late W. Robarts, Esq., the
banker, together with the park, pleasure grounds, &c., up-
wards of 110 acres in extent, have passed into the hands of
the Conservative Land Society. This fine property, which
has for boundaries Richmond Park, Putney, and Wimble-
don Common, in the county of Surrey, with a frontage also
on the Putney-road to Richmond, was offered for sale by
Messrs. Norton, Hoggart, and Trist, in August last, who
have now effected a sale for the noble earl to the Conserva-
tive Land Society for the entire freehold estate as it stands.
lAoehampton adjoins Putney, both localities having historical
associations, the former as the place where Hobbes, the
metaphysician, died, and the latter as tho birth-place of
Gibbort, the historian. William Pitt died at the Bowling-
green2house.

A FEARFUL SITUATION.—A young man named
Lister, who was sojourning a short time ago at St. Bees,
took a stroll on the bluff headlands,which all our readers are
acquainted with if ever they have sailed t?Liverpool, known
by the name of St. Bees'-head. His footing, as he contem-
plated the gulf below, slightly gave wah the shingle slipped,
and he slid down about seven yards, when he caught a
ledging of the rock with both his hands. In this perilous
position he remained for three hours, suspended over a rocky
chasm, 30 yards deep. His cries attracted the attention of a
student who was providentially walking on the beach below,
and the gentleman immediately called out to the man to
keep his hold, and throwing off his gown, hastencl to the
nearest house for a rope, which he lowered from the top.
Both Lister's hands being eneged, he was only able to avail
himself of the rope with his mouth; and not till he had
grasped it firmly between his teeth did he venture to release
his hands. He was then drawn up to the top, and his mi-
raculous escape was a theme of rejoicing both to himself
and his preserver,—Carlisle Journal,