The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-07 00:00:00

TEN YEARS AGO.

It would be hard to imagine anything more en-
tirely. different froth. the state of things which all
the signs of the times prognosticated in 1848 than
the state of things which we now witness in Europe.
Almost every expectation which the wisest man
might then have fairly entertained has been utterly
falsified. The events of that time have led to any
results but those we look for, and the actors
have:any parts but those they promised us. Smith
O'Brien has been round the world; has come home
somewhat sadder, and we feel sure much wiser, and
now makes almost as strange a figure upon the po-
litical state as if he were a man of another genera-
tion. Thomas Francis Meagher, from the brilliant
orator and whilome candidate for Parliament, with
a gorgeous future before him, has dwindled into a
lecturer on Costa Rica, with appropriate illustra-
tions, and editor of a local Irish newspaper. John
Mitchel, when last seen, was the frantic defender
of the rights of the poor labourer, of the liberties
of the " mere caste" against the Anglo-Saxm
caste. To-day he devotes his life to preach-
ing the transportation and perpetual en-
slavement of a race weaker, more helpless, and
more persecuted than even the Irish Celt. Louis
Napoleon is no more seen on the shady side of Bond
street, in seedy habiliments, or sneaking into the
grand dining-room at St. James'. A thousand guards
turn out and a thousand drums roll as he passes
along the streets of the gayest capital in the world,
the sovereign of one of the most powerful of empires.
The Pope is back in Rome, and is safer there than
ever he was since he assumed the triple crown—is
disgusted with political reform, but deeply inte-
rested in infant Jews. Charles Albert is dead ; the
Austrians are back in Lombardy ; Radetski and
Haynau, the great men of 1848, are no more ; Kos-
suth is earning an honest and a painful living for
himself and his family in Upper Gower-street, Lon-
don ; Georgey is making experiments in chemistry;
Ledru Rollin muses over the decline of England
at Brompton ; Louis Blanc seeks new material
in the British Museum ; Laraartine is getting
up subscriptions, not for the regeneration of na-
tions, but for his own support. Gavan Duffy is a
leading politician at the antipodes. The repeal of
the Union is never heard of in Ireland, and, in
short, everything and everybody has disappointed
everybody else. All the despotisms of the world
are to all outward appearance a great deal more
firmly rooted than ever they were. The cause of
constitutional monarchy has gained Piedmont, but
it has lost France, and no gains can co.mpensate. for
such a loss, and the men who. served most faith-
fully are either, like Guizot,living in close retirement,
or are, like Montalembert, pursued by the police..
Nowhere has the change been more marked than. in
Ireland,where SmithO'Brienpasbeen gently. stirring
the ashes of the old fire of agitation.
. Since 1848 she
sent a third of her population over here. Over
100,000,000 dols. worth of her real estate has changed,
hands. Since the Elizabethan and Cromwellian con-
fiscations, no such revolution in property has ever
taken place. Title-deeds Nvhich were given by Black
Tom Wentworth, and still blacker Ironsides, and
have ever since been untouched in the same strong
boxes, have crumbled before the hammer of the
Encumbered Estates Court. Mort gages and charges
and liens which 150 years of riotous living have
been piling up to crush the unhappy peasantry into
the dust have been swept away at one blow. The
most gratifying feature in the change is that of the
£93,000,000 worth of estates which have been sold,
£20,000,000 have been bought by Irishmen, and
only about one-third byEnglishmen or Seotchmen.
This is all that that great year of trading, writing,
beseeching, specching, and fighting—ever me-
morable, sad, ridiculous 1848—has bequeathed Eu-
rope. Would it not be as well, under all the circum-
stances, to let it sleep in its grave ? To talk over it,
as Mr. O'Brien is doing, can only serve to dis-
hearten the most sanguine patriot or philanthropist
Europe can produce. The lesson the past teaches
most strongly is the folly of being over-confident.
—New York Times.