The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-13 00:00:00

w .
/7111r1.
7' .
...,
-w4ch she keeps without regard to the claibi;•4,,
, ~--, , . tt.
tW•protests of Turkey ? • Then France is he ~ .. is-1, i,
. .. L•a2 'V ~ ... • 4,
of Russia against England, but on condit o.i!}; j -4 .„ ,s,c4
• .„,..n...._z ~ 4 _
all the straits, to begin with" the Dardanell ',.. . i 2. ,--A-- ^,.,
,44.45/4..
iii
be neutralised, that all the seas shall be A,27,-•-•e-4-,-L.-• ,
that they shall all be free, and that there shalFhN 11 S
be a single one barred by cannon."
If England does not do all this M. de Girardin
declares she only represents maritime feudality in-
stead
of civilisation. "But, thete(he adds), let not
England be astonished or complain" if France and
Russia combine to press her on the throat. Eng-
land's neck is a long one. • •Tc ,i 1,... 1:e. ILer head in
Europe she stretches he• There is
nothing but to bind her "hatidemthe piercing of
the Isthmus of Suez is the defect in the British
cuirass. The Emperor Napoleon 111. appears to
have seen it, a little late, perhaps; but if he has
seen it no matter. In fact, the moment France and
Russia understand each other and are agreed, the
Dardanelles are in their hands.' Certain to be fol-
lowed by the United States, they may present them-
selves to England and say, ' Strait for Strait ! The
Strait of Gibraltar for that of the Dardanelles.' If
England be deaf to this proposition, founded on
equity, supported by liberty, and dovetailed in
civilisation, France says to Spain, ' Fear nothing,
count upon me; take end keep Tangier." '
Instead of a special Congress on the Italian ques-
tion, which is only loss of time, M. de Girardin
suggests that the Emperor Napoleon should sum-
mon a general Congress, " at which all the Powers
of Europe, great, middling, and little," should settle
the questions of the East, Italy, and Poland by
means of the neutralisation of the Straits, the aboli-
tion of recruiting (this trade in white men), the
suppression of Custom-houses—those reforms which
must lead to unity in money, in weights and mea-
sures, and in imposts."
Constantinople should be the seat of this great
Congress, "in order that each Plenipotentiary sent
to it should be far enough from his country to loose
sight of petty private interests," and clearly see
" the advantages of neutralising every strait and
every sea, of piercing every isthmus, of the free
navigation of every river, and spontaneously recog-
nise that the time of conquests has passed away,
never to return," &c.
" Napoleon 111. has had two capital opportuni-
ties of carrying out this policy, which is his own,
which is that of his books, that of his meditations,
that of his proclamations—a policy the effigy of
the future—a policy without danger, and not
without grandeur. Those two occasions were the
Congress of Paris in 1856, in 1857 the interview of
Stuttgard, the period when England had Hindostan
on her hands, with difficulties of the most serious
kind, which she has ever had to overcome ; dangers
the greatest which she has ever had to pass through;
dangers so great that it was for a moment doubtful
whether she could have mastered them. These two
occasions have passed away by reason of secondary
and fugitive considerations. A third opportunity,
no less propitious, is again offered under cover of
the settlement of the Italian question, the canalisa-
tion of Suez, and the Spanish expedition to Mo-
rocco, and which may lead to the taking and keep-
ing of Tangier."
M. de Girardin enforces this view of affairs by
several other reasons too numerous to mention, and
he ascends by a graduated scale to the wonderful
results which would follow from the simple neutra-
lisation of the Straits.
" The strange spectacle," he continues, " which
Europe now presents to the eye of the impartial
observer is that of Governments dictating to other
Governments what they ought to do, and, conse-
quently, exposing themselves to be asked whether
they will themselves set the good example. Is Eng-
land justified in raising her voice in favour of Italy
against the domination of Austria, the oppression
of the King of Naples, or the temporal authority
of the Pope ? In their turn, have not the Pope,
Austria, and the King of Naples an equal right to
raise their voices in favour of Ireland and of India ;
to summon to the bar Great Britain, as culpable of •
the most monstrous abuses and as stained with the
most infamous cruelties ? To ask her, in the name
of civilisation, for an account of the 3,000,000 of
Irish dead of famine"—this beats Mr. Bernard
Sheehan and the speakers at the Cork meeting—
" mad of countless Indians torn to pieces, without
defence, by cannon ignominiously converted into
an instrument of punishment ? When this accusa-
tion, with all the proofs furnished by the British
Parliament itself, is made before the Congress
against England, what can she answer to the Go-
vernments she has incriminated? Why, keep
silent and hold down her head."

I may observe, en passant, that it would be worth
M. de Girardin's while to commence learning alittle
English, were it only as much as would enable him
to guess at articles in some of the Irish opposition
newspapers, the letters in the Irishman, the occa-
sional speeches at public meetings—the late one at
Cork, for instance—so as to form a comparison be-
tween the freedom of speech and writing in op-
pressed Ireland and the condition of the Continental
States to which he refers. The seizure of M. de Gir-
ardin's.present pamphlet before publication, and his
forced or voluntary omission of certain passages in
its published form—passages which probably are as
eulogy itself compared with what is tolerated by
the tyrannical Government of Ireland, is as good
an answer as any to M. de Girardin, who evidently.
knows nothing of Ireland beyond its name or geo-
graphical position.
M. de Girardin concludes his pamphlet thus :
" From whatever cause it arises, France is in one
of those decisive moments when she has only to
wish to be able to do, but what would be for her
interest merely or for the interest of a nation would
be for the interest of general civilisation. Stipulat-
ing in the name of civilisation—that is, in the name
of all peoples, the more France should demand the
less she would encounter resistance. Demanding
only what is just, she, would never demand too
much. Let her then prepare herself to demand
from the coming Congress what the Congress can-
not refuse her without putting all the peoples of
Europe on the side of the Emperor Napoleon III:'
And so ends M. Emile de Girardin.