The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-03 00:00:00

rooms.

The inspection of the various rooms occupied the
commissioners till past two, after which they pro-
ceeded to examine the books and the mode of keep-
ing them. When the commissioners finished this
portion of their labours it was too late hear any
evidence, and the inquiry was adjourned till 12
o'clock this day.

M. DE MONTALEMBERT AND THE

FRENCH PRESS.

(From the Times.)

Just as the prostrate adulators of arbitrary
power have proved to their own entire satisfaction
that the trial and conviction of M. de Montalem-
bert was wise, merciful, and just, imperiously de-
manded by the wants and creditable to the exist-
ing institutions of France, the. Emperor shows his
sense of the saccess which has attended the efforts
of his apologists by annulling that iniquitous sen-
tence altogether, and restoring the illustrious pri-
soner to as much freedom as under existing circum-
stances it is the lot of any Frenchman to enjoy. We
receive this information with an astonishment
hardly less than that with which we learnt that
it was the intention of the Government to pro-
secute at all, or with which we heard that, having
undertaken this prosecution for the sake of a
salutary public example, it had forbidden its
own press to give any account of the trial, iind
confiscated every English newspaper from which
any of its incidents could be gleaned. How
singularly must that mind be constituted which
could •deliberately risk such a step, entertaining
at the same time the utmost apprehension for
its results, and, having done and dared all that
it most feared to execute, could draw back
at the moment of completion, and • thus render its
enterprise as futile as it was imprudent ! How are
we to account for this-sudden change of purpose ?
The force of habit may go for something, for we
are now accustomed to see the " iron willn'Of the
Emperor undo what he has just done, and to -be
edified with the spectacle of Imperial penitence.
This is the third time within the last ten months
that we have seen the Emperor of the French' vo-
luntarily and solemnly retracting his acts. We
have seen the French Colonels set upon us, and then
flogged off like unruly hounds. We have seen the
slave trade supported by an armed force, and im-
mediately after denounced ; and now we see law,
justice, and freedom trampled under foot in the
case of M. de Montalembert, alid the iniquity no
sooner completed than annulled and disavowed.
No doubt there are those who will be loud in the
praise of Imperial magnanimity. We shall content
ourselves with the expression of regret that the
Emperor should do so many things of which he is
compelled immediately to repent. We lose confi•
dente in a will that is perpetually reversing itself,
and are little edified by the tenderness of a cos.
science that is silent till a deed against which it
should have been a warning has been committed.
What can have induced the Emperor to reverse
the sentence on M. de Montalembert ? Not the
feeling of the nation, for he has purposely deprived
himself of that mighty advantage which a Govern-
ment gains by studying the opinion of those among
whom it is placed. France can have given no
opinion on the trial of M. de Montalembert, for
France has not been allowed to read it. There is
no reason to suppose that sympathy for this elo-
quent writer and impassioned speaker has pene-
trated into the ranks of the French Army. We
know of no influence capaple of approaching the
throne of the Emperor and pleading the cause of
liberty and justice with the slightest chance of suc-
cess. We can therefore only adopt one conclusion.
We believe the Emperor has not excluded himself
from those means of learning the state of opinion
on this side the Channel from whichhe has so com-
pletely shut out his people. Surrounded by a police
who are able at a word from their chief to plunge
a whole kingdom in darkness, protected behind
hundreds of thousands of bristling bayonets, the
voice of honest expostulation has reached the in-
most recesses of the cabinet of this king of men,
and carried conviction, its
.tawelcome companion,
with it. France looked on in silence, for she had
no organs with which to fq-Aak, but the voice of
England has made itself heard, and, though ex-
cluded from every one else, has found its way to
the ear of the only man who could give effect to its
pleadings and could profit by its. warnings.
We claim the release of M. de Montalembert
from the unjust sentence with which he had been
stricken as adding one more to the numberless
triumphs the press of this country has achieved—as
a gratifying proof how impossible it is for any
man, however highly placed, however resolute,
however irresponsible, to emancipate himself from
the influence of his fellow-men. Why should the
Emperor Napoleon regard the opinion of England?
Above all, why should he condescend for a moment
to listen to the voice of the English press ? Has he
not eight millions of subjects by whose suffrage he
reigns ? Has he not a countless army, the very
impersonation of material force, drilled, disciplined,
and informed by the very highest intellectual acti-
vity ? Has he not silenced throughout France
every tongue that would speak, every pen which
would write, that which he might not wish to hear
or read ? Yet even this man, so raised above his
fellows, cannot exempt himself from the laws which
makes mind nervously sensitive to the action of
mind; he cannot prevail upon himself to shut his
ears to murmurs which he cannot silence, or resolve
to disregard criticisms which he may, if he please,
shut out as completely from himself as from the
meanest of his subjects. If he listens to us it is
simply because he cannot help it. He has dwelt
among us, he knows the independence with which
English feeling is formed, and the openness with
which it is expressed. He has striven to make his
own will the only rule and guide of his actions, but
he cannot do it. Ile is driven by a tendency which he
cannot master to seek for a standard of right and
wrong external to himself,and that sten dard the man
who has carried despotism over a civilised natio a to an
extent which the world has never witnessed before
finds, after all, in despite of himself, in the honest
voice of a free people
Of course we also rejoice, for M. de Montalem-
bert's sake, that he has escaped the indignity and
suffering which a week ago were prepared for him
—we wish we could also add that by the remission
of the sentence the whole effect of the proceeding
was done away. The blow has, however, been
struck. That scanty but brilliant literary class,
the small and yearly- decreasing remains of 30 years
of eloquence, of literary and political life, had
hitherto been respected by the hand of power, and,
on the understanding, faithfully observed on their
part, that they should abstain from political con-
spiracy and agitation, they were left the enjoyment
of their saloons, their institute, and the pages of
their literary periodicals. This state of things is
gone by. The generous and humane toleration
which, perhaps from some ineradicable feeling for
the honour, the learning, the eloquence, and the
consistency of the days before France was tame and
mute, was extended to the relics of her statesmen
and orators, has now been withdrawn. The fore-
most man among them has been stricken down with
an ease which shows how vain is the slightest
struggle ; the poor satisfaction of a last eloquent
protest in favour of liberty is denied, and France
knows nothing of him but what is communicated in
the dry formula of the sentence. Henceforth all that
can be hoped for is the liberty to preserve a deep
and mournful silence, to confide their opinions to
none but tried and faithful friends, and to give
up that literature which has been the solace of their
misfortunes, lest in some moment of generous
enthusiasm they should by praise of something free
and noble be held to have attacked the existing
Government of their country. Such is the career
of despotism. Let no man who enters upon it
think that he can set limits to himself or define the
point to which he will not go. Anger and fear,
flattery, envy, and hate, the evil counsellors that
ever wait on arbitrary power, perpetually urge
him onward. First, liberty of action is prescribed;
then writing, except to order, is prohibited; speech
becomes dangerous, and thought itself is hardly
free. The throne is surrounded by an atmosphere
of falsehood and deception, which- first silences
truth . and then occupies her place ; the manlier
virtues droop and perish, and the nation, which
at
first struggled in its fetters, loses the habit of poli-
tical life and thought, and sinks into apathy, igno-
rance, or despair.

CARD-SHARPING.—It is the intention of the Lord
Advocate to introduce into Parliament, next session, a bill
for the suppression of vagrancy, and the measure will also
contain provisions having for their object the putting down
of card-shr ingg.--,6cotoinna.

At the usual meeting the Middlesexinagistrates,
held at the Court-house, Clerkenwell-green, yeiter-
day, Mr. Townall in the chair,
The report from the Finance and General Pur-
poses Committee stated that a loan of £20,000 had
been raised at 4 per cent. on security of the county
rate, £15,000 of which was to be applied to Colney
Hatch Asylum, and £5,000 to Vie:lndustrial School
at Feltham.

There was a motion on the paper in the name of
Mr. G. F. Young, on the subject of disputes arising
between -the coroners and the magistrates about the
disallowance of fees in certain cases ; but. when it
was called, Mr. Young was not present. The chair-
man said he regretted this the more; as the atten-
tion of the court might have been called to certain
observations published by the Registrar-General,
reflecting on the magistrates in their judicial capa-
city, in dealing with the coroners. •
The .CHAIRMAN also called attention to what had
taken place in reference to a claim put forth by Mr.
Wakley and a jury, to have a prisoner charged with
homicide in custody brought before them. There had
been for many years a dispute on this subject, but
in this
An
a new ' feature had been intro-
duced. An application had been made to the Home
Secretary to order the prisoner charged with this
murder to. be produced before the coroner
and jury, and Mr. Walpole, in reply; said 'there was
no objection to the prisoner's being taken before
the coroner while on the way to the,--•police court.
The prisoner was delivered into the custody of the
police, according to the magistrate's remand, and
on the way to the police court they_ took him in a
roundabout direction to the coroner's inquest, so
the responsibility was with the *Ake, and not the
prison officers.
Mr. N. LAVRIZ said he presumed it was not in-
tended to ask . the Home Secretary what Act of
Parliament gave him the authority to make such an
order; but irhe should be called upon to specify it,
the right holiourablepntleman, he thought, would
be placed in a very difficult position to answer.
The Home Secretary had no power to make any
such order.- .

The eIIAIRMAS said that in consequence of what
had now occurred, some magistrates might think
that, as a /patter of course, all applications for a
prisoner to be taken before the coroner must be
winged with. It was nothing of the kind, and
the I.istratcs in performing their duty must well
weigh the matter before they acceded to any such
request.
Mr. lionixsox said the prisoner was given up to
the police by the prison officer, in the regular way,
on the expiration of the remand, and was then taken
by the police to some place where an inquest was
being held. The prisoner was not sent there by the
magistrates, nor by their authority. They had to
keep the prisoner in legal custody, and they had
done so.

Mr. N. LAURIE said the Secretary of State had no
authority to make- such 'an order, and had the
man not been taken in due course before the magis-
trate there would have been. an action for escape,
and were the governor .to obey an order to take a
prisoner before the coroner while under a magis-
trate's committal; he would be dismissed.

Lieutenant HILL, governor of the House of De-
tention, said the prisoner was not taken to the in-
quest by any of his officers, but by the police, and
he should not have allowed him to leave the prison
if the period of -the remand not expired. The same
course had been taken in the case of the foreigners
lately charged with murder. _ _ _

M-r. N. LAURIE said the court had made an order
upon the subject which must be carried out. The
Secretary of State had no authority to order other-
wise.

The matter then dropped.
Some ordinary matters were then disposed of,
and the court adjourned.

IBEL.IND.

• 1)13:13LIN, TurgsDA.Y.
ELECTION OF MAYORS FOR 1859.

Yesterday Alderman James Lambert was elected
to serve the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin. for the
ensuing year.
CORK—John Arnot, Esq., has been elected to
serve as mayor of this city.
BELFAST—W. Ewart, Rsq.jun., has beeneleeted
to serve as mayor of Belfast.
LIMERICK—MichaeI Robert Ryan, Esq., LP.,
was elected yesterday, by a majority of one over
Thomas Boyse, Esq. The numbers polled in the
corporation were 17 to 16.
DROGHEDA—Patrick Ternan, Esq., has been
elected mayor of this town.