The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-07 00:00:00

instance.

•OW looming in the future may poasib

;-• save some

p-cf:ent trouble to the E3iPEROR.

Under any circumstances, it would be impossible
for England to become concerned—save as an. arbi-
trator—in the first instance. We have no sympa-
thies with Austria. Her treatment of Hungary, of
Gallicia, and more especially of Italy, excludes
her from any kind consideration, and certainly we
would not consent that British blood should be shed
or British money expended in such a cause. But
it is of vital importance that the peace and tran-
quillity of Europe should be maintained in-
violate—that there should be no disturbance,
in which, sooner or later, we should become
involved. England, then, may properly inter-
fere. A difficulty has been ostentatiously
announced, has been proclaimed to the world by
Imperial lips. If, then,,. the clause in the Treaty..
of Paris, which was almost the only beneficial re-
sult of the. Crimean war, be good for anitliini
there should be a reference to a friendly Power.
We are convincyd that England would, not. be
selecte.d. She is rather too liberal for either.of the
opposing parties. But still our good offices should
be tendered,. and the fair responsibility cast on
those by whom they may be rejected. We do not
suppose that there will be actual hostilities-, but
DVCn the dread of them occasions much mischief,
and the sooner it can be got rid of the better for
all parties concerned—not merely for France and
Austria, but for Europe.

The BROUGHAM banquet gives promise of being
one of the noblest demonstrations that will have
taken place for a long time past at Edinburgh.
We can hardly help looking forward to it as an
incident of almost national importance. It is no
mere provincial evidence of a remarkable public
benefactor. It is more than even a Scottish evi-
dence of sympathy and admiration. It may be
regarded—it ought to be regarded as a token of
respect and gratitude offered to one of the greatest
men now living, in the name and on behalf of the
whole community. The good citizens of Edinburgh
will hardly grudge us the satisfaction of so regard-
ing it. We have, all of us, throughout these islands
for years past been so largely indebted to thegifted
and learned ex-Chancellor, that we have a right to
participate in feeling, at any rate, if we cannot aid
personally in swelling the enthusiasm of this ad-
miration demonstration.
Edinburgh has not inappropriately assumed to
itself the privilege of according this expression of
national homage to Lord BROUGHAM—for there in
that good city of Edinburgh, in a house situated at
the north-west corner of St. Andrew's-square, the
great Lawyer, Critic, Orator, Statesman, Philoso-
pher, first drew breath, now more than eighty
years ago, namely on the 19th of September,
1778. There, in the High School of that, his native
city, he received his earliest education. There, too,
at •the precocious age of fifteen, he first. entered the
noble University of Edinburgh. Scarcely, a year
after the date of his matriculation he had trans-,
mitted frOm Edinburgh to the Royal ,Society.a
treatise on Optics, deemed worthy of being at once
enshrined among the Philosophical Transactions.
Other documents of a companion character followed
this preliminary one--papers, for the most part,
evidencing such an ingenious originality of re-
search and speculation, that they led to a Latin
correspondence between the young stripling and
certain erudite professors upon the continent. It
was after his return to Edinburgh from a journey
through Deutschland that BROUGHAM began his
great forensic and oratorical career, began prac-
tising at the Scotch bar, began debating in the
Speculative Association. It was there, among the
familiar haunts of men of genius, as a contemporary of
JEFFREY, and SMITH, and MURRAY, and COCKBURN,
and HORNER, and MACKINTOSH, that BROUGHAM
commenced his splendid career as an Edinburgh
Reviewer—roused into life the dormant powers of
BYRON by his scornful criticism—wrote so swiftly;
so wisely, and so well that it is upon record among
the intellectual marvels of his life that, with the
exception of two articles, he produced with his
own hand the contents of one entire number of the
_Edinburgh. Let the volume in which that number
may be found by the curious in such matters, be
marked, as the phrase is, with a white stone—it is
the seventeenth. Finally, it was from that classic
birthplace, whieh was the scene of these magnifi-
cent preliminary labours, that BROUGHAM emerged
at last upon the more conspicuous arena in which
he was to win so many triumphs, and to secure to
himself such varied, prolonged, and abounding ad

miration.
How diversified his achievements have been since
then—how important, and some of them how unpa-
ralleled, we all know. The record of them crowds
the history of the last half century. For it IS now
more than fifty years since BROUGHAM finally
quitted the city of Edinburgh. It is upwards of
fifty years since he was first called to the English
Bar by the Society of Lincoln's-inn, . Within that
time his labours as a law reformer have been so
vast and herculean, that the history of- themoi..-few
months back, appeared in the form of a: huge
volume of many hundred closely-printed 'pages
—a bulky- tome, in itself monurnentuna are
perennii regard to his superb reputation.
Then his heroic efforts to aid in bringing
about the emancipation of the slavers have
secured to him permanently the glory of having
his name associated with those of CLARKSON and
WILBERFORCE. His genius as an orator has won
him, in our Parliamentary annals, a fame seer('
to none upon the glorious scroll. Combined with
hia lore as a Greek scholar, it has enabled him
to be the fitting interpreter of the utterances of
DEMOSTHENES. His researches, all the while, in
the domain of natural philosophy, have rendered
him one of the active and conspicuous members both
of the Royal Society and of the French Academy.
As an author, his luminous pen has portrayed for
us, one by one, the statesmen of the reign of King
GEORGE 111., one of the longest reigns in the na-
tional annals, and one of the most memorable and
wonderful epochs in the history of civilised man.
Together with these various and remarkabl:
labours, there have been other, and, in some sense,
yet grAnder labours achieved by Lord BROUGHAM—
those by which he has striven to raise the social
and intellectual condition of the humbler classes of
his fellow-countrymen. Together with that prac-
tical benefactor of the population, Mr. CHARLES

out for want of something to do. Like CARLETON'S
inimitable tailor, they are " blue moulded for want
of a be ating ;" and even the notion that there is a

We dc, not conceive that much weight should bZ.,,
attached to the tardy announcement in the Moni-
teur. It is merely following up the send-official
assertions to which , we have already refer-
red. But it cannot "rail the seal from
off the bond." The startling fact still remains
On record that, at • a public levee, the EMPE-
ROR addressed the representative of his Imperial
brother of Austria in terms that proved that there
were grave complications pending, and that some
decisive steps would speedily be taken. It would
stultify the EMPEROR to suppose that his signifi-
cant words and gestures meant anything of less
xnagnitude, unless, as we have already suggested,
it, was merely a " feeler" thrown out to elicit the
state of public opinion.