The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-10 00:00:00

FRANCE UNDER NAPOLEON

(Tram the Daily i'Veas.)
Ten Sears ago, on December 10, 1848, Louis
Napoleon was elected President of the French Re-
public. For the greater part of the period which
has elapsed since that date he has wielded a power
as absolute and uncontrolled as that of the most
despotic monarch of Europe. The pretext for the
Coup d'Etat of December, 1851, was the necessity
for establishing a strong government, as the only
panacea for the chronic evil of political discontent
which retarded the progress of the French nation,
and prevented the establishment of permanent and
sound institutions in that country. The time has
now arrived when we may reasonably examine how
far the prophecies of the admirers and abettors of
the Coup d'Etat have been borne out by events.
As regards the position of the Chief of the State
himself, and of the French people,
.politically con-
sidered, there can be no two opinions. The fre-
quent " warnings" given to the press, and above all
the prosecution of Count de Montalembert, are
official declarations that the dynasty Louis Napo-
leon hoped to found has as yet taken no real root in
France, and that his throne is so insecure that it is
shaken by every one that criticises unfavourably
the acts of his Government. Nor has he been
more successful in obliterating the political dissen-
sions of the people, for his legal authorities have
told us that to speak of the free institutions of
England, or to refer with regret to those which
France possessed before the Coup d'Etat, is to
bring on danger of civil war. The "strong govern-
ment," in those respects, has, therefore, been an
utter failure.
Happily for our neighbours, however, there is a
brighter side to the picture. In spite of M. St.
Marc Girardin's bitter and clever article on the
Danubian Principalities, it can hardly be contested
that the influence of France on European politics is
as great as at any time during her recent history.
When looking back to the position she held before
Louis Napoleon arrived at absolute power, we can-
not avoid attributing to , him personally a large
share in strengthening that influence. His alliance
with En-gland, and, above all, the good faith with
which he has carried it out, has largely contributed
to consolidate the diplomatic position of France.
That alliance gives the two nations, as united, an
overwhelming preponderance in the councils of
Europe, and we trust that the blunders or preju-
dices of no individual Minister on either side may
ever seriously affect their peaceful relations.
But the most remarkable feature of the ten years
which are completed this day is the progress of the
material wealth of France. The advance made in
her manufacturing industry is not less striking
that that in her foreign trade ; and. it would be
unjust to deny the share which the Emperor has
had in bringing about those results. Although
there is still a compact body of manufacturers who
hold that their private interests should override the
public advantage, and who arrest the progress of
free-trade doctrines and legislation, it is to Napoleon
111. that France is indebted for a series of acts
which have modified the absurd tariffs and fiscal
regulations of former years, and given an impulse
to manufactures and commerce most beneficial to
the community-at large. Ile has done but little, it
:s true, compared with what remains to be done;
but we must estimate the merit of his progress by
a reference to the past, when neither unlimited
freedom of the press nor of the tribune prevented
the parliamentary influence of the manufacturers
from effectually stifling every tendency towards
more rational and liberal fiscal regulations.
The result of the system which prevailed under
Louis Philippe was that the official value of the ex-
ports and imports increased between the years 1837
and 1847 only £41,920,000, while during the subse-
quent ten years the augmentation was £79,140,000,
being an increase in the first case of 67 and in
the latter of 75 per cent., notwithstanding the
disturbing causes of deficient harvests, war, epi-
demics, and inundations. But it must be remem-
bered that the period of Louis Napoleon's rule has
had the entire benefit of the results of the gold dis-
coveries, which have given such an extraordinary
stimulus to commerce throughout Europe; and if we
compare the progress of France with that of neigh-
bouring countries, it becomes a great question how
much of that progress can be fairly attributed to a
regime which shuts out the nation from any voice
in the regulation of its own affairs, political or com-
mercial. The extension of the railway system of
France is undoubtedly, in a great measure, the work
of Napoleon 111., and the especial patronage he
bestowed on the Bourse largely facilitated that ex-
tension. In 1847 the length of railways absolutely
made was only 1,250 miles ; the gross receipts,
£2,549,308. In 1857 the length opened was 4,662
miles ; the gross receipts, £12,442,000.
It cannot be doubted that these circumstances
must have had a direct effect in increasing the
general wealth of the nation, but at the same time
it is equally certain that the general burthens the
country II a3to bear have been also largely increased.
The corrupt influences exercised at elections, and the
extravagance of the executive, were among the re-
proaches addressed to the Government of Louis
Philippe, and the attempt to limit the right of ex-
pressing public opinion filled up the measure of
the disaffection which existed, and which hurried
on the Revolution of 1848.. The Government prose-
cutions for distributing electoral tickets, and the
scandalous interference of Government enzployes
which was disclosed at the trial of Count Migeon,
show that the art of nmaging elections is not suf-
fered to rust under the Imperial sway. Public opi-
nion is not only shut out from the tribune, but
from every other channel through which it could
make itself heard ; while as to public expenditure,
the figures will speak for themselves. The budget
of 1847 estimated the expenditure at £58,349,000,
of which, however, £3,548,000 was for railway
works; that of 1858 was estimated at £68,686,000.
The chief items of increase are, £4,748,000 on the
charge for the national debt ; £991,000 for flota-
tions; £296,000 public worship; £1,625,000 mini-
stry of the interior ; £1,687,000 ministry of war;
£544,000 ministry of marine; and £485,000 for
the new department of the ministry of state. The
two items which show a 'diminished expenditure
are, for public instruction, £125,000 ; and £1,832,000
for the Ministry of commerce and agriculture.
These figures are very suggestive.
The funded debt of France, which was £229,791,000
in 1847, had grown to £321,239,000 in 1857, an
increase of £91,148,000 ; while the floating debt of
France, which was £18,335,000 in 1847, had
reached £38,621,000 ten years later. It is, how-
ever, but just to point to the fact that while the
direct taxes have only increased £1,000,000 during
the above period, the produce of the indirect taxes
has increased by £5,200,000 ; and as these an-
swer to our Excise duties, they may be fairly taken
as indicating a larger consuming power in the
people, and consequently an augmented degree of
prosperity.
But taking every favourable feature into con-
sideration, we must arrive at the conclusion that
the programme of 1851 has yet to be carried out :
Louis Napoleon has enjoyed his "strong govern-
ment" for seven years. The trade, the commerce,
and the revenues of France have, it is true, in-
creased but the burdens on the nation have in-
creased with them. He has not succeeded either
in introducing economy into the finances, or in
extinguishing the political uneasiness which reigns
among the people ; for France has been for seven
years under a sort of martial law, and only slaves
and parasites will say that the degree of materia
prosperity which has been attained is a compensa•
tion for the extinction of liberty.

PATENT LAW AMENDMENT.—Last night a public
meeting was held, at the Belvidere Rooms, Pentonville, to
consider the present Elate of the patent law, and to take
measures for its repeal or modification. The chair was
taken by Mr. Sergeant Parry. The Chairman, Mr. Yeatcs,
Mr. Campin, Mr. Browne, and other gentlemen, addressed
the meeting, and argued that the fees paid on patents were
a tax on industry, inasmuch as they discouraged inventors
from the publication and development of the manufacturing
industry of the country, and were, moreover, altogether
disproportionate to the benefit they secured the patentee.
They also held that, as there was now a large surplus fund
in the government office for the issue and regulation of
patents, the proper time was come when a reduction at least
should be made in the scale of charges upon inventions.
Authors had a copyright in their works, for which they paid
no taxes, and it was but fair that inventors should also have
a property in their inventions, without having to pay taxes
for it. Resolutions, condemnatory of the tax on the
grounds above stated, and pledging the meeting to co-ope-
rate with the RN ational Patent Law Amendment Associa-
tion in getting the law altered, were then agreed to, and a
memorial drawn up for presentation to the legislature,
praxing for the abolition of a tax they held to be so ob-
noxious.

—PROPOSED PUBLIC DINNER TO LORD BROUGHAM
AT EDINBURGH.—In accordance with a strong feeling
found to exist among all ranks and sections of the inhabi-
tants, the following invitation was yesterday put in circu-
lation, and signed by the Lord Provost and Magistrates,
oa, M.P., Mr. Black, M.P., the Dean of Faculty,
Sir W. Gibson Craig, and others :—" To the Right Hon.
the Lord Brougham—Edinburgh, Dec. 4—We, the under-
signed, the Lord Provost, Parliamentary representatives,
magistrates, town councilors, and other citizens of Edin-
burgh, desirous to give some expression to the admiration
and gratitude with which we regard your lordship's long
and illustrious services to civil and religious liberty, to li-
terature, to education, and to social welfare, and rejoicing
in the prospect that an opportunity•for such, an expression
convenient to your lordship is likely to occur by your wel-
"come presence here as president of the Burns Centenary
Festival on the 25th of January next, respectfullysolicit
the honour of your acceptance of a public dinnerin this
city, by means of which some utterance, however imper-
fect, will be given to feelings which the undersigned know
to pervade all classes and parties of their fellow-citizens.—
Scotsman.
At the meetings of the Council of the new Prus-
sian Ministers, which are frequently held, the Prince
Frederick William is now almost constantly present, and
the knowledge of the wants of the country, the judgment,
and the aptitude for business which he displays are spoken
of in high terms.

!DEATH 0.1%1 THE SISTER OF ROBERT
BURNS.

- 4.- - -

Our obituary list to-day contains a name which
will arrest the notice of very many; both here and
at a distance, and, at this particular time especially,
excite regret and sorrow—l he name of Mrs. Legg,
the youngest sister of Robert Burns, the poet, and
the sole surviving child of that family circle of
which he was the elder brother. She expired
quite unexpectedly at her cottage near Ayr, on
Saturday morning, at half-past 8 o'clock. Isabella
Burns, or, as she was more familiarly known, Mrs.
Begg, was born at Mount Oliphant, near Ayr, on
the 29th of June, 1771, and had she lived till her
next birthday would have completed her 88th
year. She was the seventh child and third daughter
of William Burns and Agnes Brown, the
members of whose . family we may men-
tion in the order of their age Robert,
Gilbert, Agnes, Annabelle, William John, and Isa-
bella. About the year 1794 or 1795 she was mar-
ried at Mossgiel, Mauchline, to John Begg, who
was accidentally killed at Lesmahagow in 1813,
and whom she thus survived for the long period
of 45 years. Her history has all the charm which
a tale of humble and honourable independence can
possess; and as such we shall give it with the de-
tail of which we are capable. Her husband was
an orphan who had been brought up by an uncle,
Mr. Campbell, Roughdyke, parish of Sorn, and he
assisted him in his work on the farm. On his mar-
riage with Mrs. Begg, his brother-in-law, Gilbert
Burns, who had by this time taken a lease of the
farm f Dinning, in Dumfriesshire, on being ap-
pointed factor to Lord Blantyre, sent him and his
newly married *ife to take charge of Dinning,
where they lived for several years. Here their
four eldest children were born, and being near the
Academy of Wallacehall, had superior advantages
in point of education. Mr. Beggs afterwards ob-
tained the situation of factor to Mr. Hope Vere of
Black wocd and Craigie Hall, and removed to La-
narkshire. There he lived till the period of his
death, whicn happened at Lesmahagow, in conse-
quence of his horse falling upon him. His widow
was left with a family of nine children, the eldest
of them being only 18. Except an allowance of
£2O per annum for three years from Mr. Vere, she
had no other means of support; but with the inde-
fatigable spirit of a Burns she set herself to eke out
her scanty income by teaching a school at Kirk-
moorhill, a small village near Lesmahagow, where
she continued for three years. Her eldest son,
who, as we have said, had received a superior edu-
cation, and had been intended for the medical pro-
fession, was unable to follow out his original views,
owing to the slender resources his mother had at
her disposal ; and after having prosecuted his
studies a certain length, he obtained the situation
of parish schoolmaster at Ormiston, near Tranent,
where he taught for nearly 10 years. A younger
son, Robert Burns Begg, subsequently became
parochfal schoolmaster at Kinross, a post which he
has long and honourably occupied, and where he
continues to this day much respected. Wil-
liam took his mother and all her _ family to live
with him. Here too Mrs. Begg resumed her work
of teaching, in a female school at Ormiston main-
tained`
-by the Countess of Hopetoun, and from that
noble family, also, considerable employment was
obtained in the way of sewing, knitting, &c., suffi-
cient to keep the girls' needles going, and to enable
them all to contribute to the common stock. A few
years after this, two of the elder girls, Agnes and
Isabella, set up for themselves as dressmakers in
Tranent. Her son William afterwards went out
to Canada, and Mrs. Begg removed to the house of
her two daughters in Tranent, where by the united
exertions of the family they managed to support
themselves honourably, if not by any means in
affluence. For a long period they struggled on in
Tranent. In those days the name and fame of
Burns made comparatively little noise. Few even
of his admirers knew their relationship to the bard .
at all, and those who did know it had probably to
make the discovery for themselves, at least the fact
was never obtruded upon public notice. One gen-
tleman in Edinburgh who had dealt with the family
for twenty years never heard of the relationship
till they came to live in this neighbourhood, al-
though he was an enthusiast about all relating to
the Scottish poet. At last, however, interest was
made with the Government, and a pension of £lO
was obtained for Mrs. Begg, if we mistake not,
through the late Mr. Fergusson, of Raith, M.P.
Afterwards, in 1842, by the exertions of Mr. Robert
Chambers, a sum of £4OO was raised by public sub-
scription, part of which was sunk in an annuity for
Mrs. Begg, and which dies with her, £l9O being
reserved for the two daughters. The proceeds of
Chambers' life of the poet, which amounted to
£2OO, also fell to the daughters, and the late Sir
Robert Peel, when in power, granted them a pen-
sion of £lO each ; so that in coming to reside in the
neighbourhood of Ayr, the united sums of mother
and daughters made up about £73 of annuity, no
great stipend certainly, if we remember that it was
given to those who are in a manner flesh of the
flesh and bone of the bone of one who has made our
country so illustrious, one, too, out of whose own
reputation and writings so many splendid fortune&
have been made.—Ayr Observer.

INDOPHILUS AND THE NEW ALPHA-
BET FOR INDIA.

' The Persian running hand is, as is well known
.• to all Indians, hard to decipher, and by no means
such that he that runs may read. Some may think
• that it is called Shikastah, or "the broken," be-
' cause lie that attempts to read it will rend the col-
lar ofpatience and break the strings of perseverance.
India was long afflicted with the curse of this
inscrutable character, and only grey-bearded
munshis, who in learning it had forgotten all else,
could penetrate its mysteries. At length time, the
great mediciner, produced the decree which swept
it, for ever it is to be hoped, from the offices of
the Sahiban i 'Anshan, that is, of the English gen-
tlemen, and from general use. Unfortunately., the
same decree substituted a dozen curses for the one
defunct, in proscribing the use' of the vernacular
dialects. Of these the Urdu is the least formidable,
being a very mild approach to the terrible Shikas-
tah. The written character of the Hindi, how-
ever, compensates amply for all that is gained by
the comparative facility of the Urdu. It is called
the Kaithi, from the Kayasths, or writing class, of
natives, who use it, and who, if they can read what
they write, must be men of extremely subtle parts.
The difficulty of the Kaithi, again, is barely equal to
that of the written character in the south of India,
where the. Telugu, Lanarese, and Tamil rejoice in
a system of scratches which can be made revoltingly
obscure. All these, however, must hide their
minished heads before the Mod, or letter character
of the Marathi. This ingenious mode of torment
is said to have been invented by one Himar Pant
in the end of the eighth century, A.D., who, if he
was really sensible of the miseries he was about to
inflict by it on a large family of mankind, must,
indeed, have been a fiend in human shape. Some
ingenious persons with more ,imagination than
etymological truth have supposed the name Mod
to come from a word signifying "an ant," and to
imply that the character is such as if ants, escaping
from an inky grave, had run over the paper and
blotted and scrawled its fair surface. But Mor,
" ant," is a Persian word, and the odious Mod is
Marathi, from a Sanskrit root, which signifies "to
twist or break." Mod, therefore, in Marathi, cor-
responds in sense to Shikastah in Persian, and
hopelessly illegible as it is, it sinks into utter insig-
nificance in that respect when compared with the .
Marwari and Sindhi. Concerning these latter
scribblings many strange tales are told, as of a'
pleasant gentleman, who having received a letter
announcing something undecipherable that had
happened to his son, went through the ceremony of
lamenting for his decease in the morning, and gave
a fete in honour of his nuptials at night, not know-
ing which of the two events had occurred.
The above is a very frigid and tame account of
some of the difficulties which attend what may be
called the India i Har ICaran, or general corre-
spondence in India. Now as life, leisure, and vision
are all limited, it does seem an utter absurdity to
hesitate about the adoption of an easy substitute for
the abominable scrawls used by the natives. The
English alphabet, properly adapted to express
the Indian letters, is that substitute, and to
Indophilus is due the gratitude of all par-
ties for recommending it. This is not a question
as to the disuse of the Indian languages in business
transactions and official proceedings. Such a pro-
posal would be preposterous ; but it is simply a
suggestion for an alteration which would be as
convenient and beneficial to the natives as to our-
selves. We are well aware, indeed, of the difficulty
attending all such changes; but, in the meantime,
we give to the proposal of Indophilus our heartiest
good wishes and support.—Homeward

EMBLEMS OF PROGRESS.—Mr. Mayhew, the
cab proprietor, of Great Ormond-yard, has commenced
running Hansom cabs with patent caoutchoue wheels, from
the inventor, Mr. Davis, of Lyon's-inn, Strand. Wo have
no doubt all England will pledge success to the wheels Lat
do not chop the roads into filth, relieve us from the tax of
maintaining disgraceful public ways, and produce cir state of
happy peace and quietness.—Horning Post.
RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN LINCOLNSHIRE.—On
Monday morning, as the train. from Manchester to
Hull, starting at 9 15 a.m., was proceeding- between Gains-
borough and Blyton, at ordinary speed, the tire of a first-
class carriage wheel flew off. Ile driver immediately
pulled up, and, consequently. the injury to the carriages
and rails was riq serious? A gentleman named Stewart
sustained -a fracture of one of the ribs on his left side, and
was subsequently taken back to Sheffield, where he re-
ceived medical attendance, and is likely to recover in a few
days. No other passengers were injured,