The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-27 00:00:00

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1833, and

THE BIBLICAL ANNUAL, 1833.
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Published by Edward Bull, 26, Holles-street, Caven-
dish-square, London.
On the Ist of January, 1833, uniform with Lodge's and
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Yesterday the Bishop of WORCESTER read prayers in
one of the apartments of the Pavilion before their MAJES-
TIES, the Princess AUGUSTA, the Duke of GLOUCESTER,
Prince GEORGE, and the Royal suite and household ; after
which he administered the sacrament to their MAJESTIES.
The QUEEN, accompanied by the Duke of GLOUCESTER,
the Bishop of WORCESTER, and the Hon. Miss BAGOT,
attended divine service yesterday afternoon at St. George's
Chapel.
The commanding officers of the Scots Fusileer Foot
Guards, and the 3d Dragoon Guards, were honoured yes-
terday by the KING with audiences.
A messenger arrived yesterday afternoon from the Fo-
reign-office with despatches for Sir HERBERT TAYLOR,
which were immediately laid before his MAJESTY.
The dinner party last evening at the Palace was formed
of the Princess AUGUSTA, Duke of GLOUCESTER, Prince
GEORGE, Duke of DEVONSHIRE, Captain WOOLMORE, the
Bishop of WORCESTER, and the suite and household. 1
Colonel Fox and Lord ADOLPHUS FITZCLARENCE, have
arrived at the Palace on a visit to their MAJESTIES.

The Bishop of WORCESTER will continue at the Pavilion
until after the holydays.
The health of the Duchess of GLOUCESTER since her
arrival at Brighton has considerably improved.

MEETINGS OF CREDITORS,
AT THE COURT, BASINGHALL-STREET.

(From the London Gazette.) j,

TO-MORROW, Dec. 28. M. H.
H. Palmer, timber-merchant, Alfred.street, Bow
G. Price, bookseller, Clapham-road 2 I
W. Caffall, sen. , butcher, Rickmansworth 2 11
J. Pearce; licensed-victualler, Museum-street 2 12
S. Harrison and Co., nurserymen, Old Brompton
G. Beeby, haberdasher, London-wall 2 1
J. Saunders, schoolmaster, Corbet's Tay, Essex 2 10
J. Laver, tallow-chandler, Clapham 2 11
11. Grace, painter, Regent-street
W. Jarvis, victualler, Peterborough
W. Smith, fishmonger, Billingsgate 2 1
J. Joy, bricklayer, Ashford, Kent
'H. Back, grocer, Margate
E. Howell, wine merchant, Bread-street

THE MARKETS.

KET.—Dec. 26.

Per Ton. F. d.
Walls End Newmarch.... 17 3
Walls End Riddell's ........ 18 3
Walls End Lamhton 19 3
W. E. Russell's Helton— 19 3
Walls End Adelaide..... 17 6
W. E South Durham 17 0
Walls End Tees .............. 19 7
New Flockton, Milne,
and 17 0
Greenwich 15 0
ice last market-day, 3.

merce. I have done so because the phrase is
eloquent and impassioned, and truly French.
It .expveassa-tha4Tininn 22nti 'faolin the wIQJIpQ
and the hopes d.: the millions in this country ;
and although you .may not be prepared to go
all the length of M. Victor. Hugo in his previous
admiration of Napoleon, yet you will not hesi-
tate to admit that he was a " great man," as you
will be sure to maintain that " liberty" is indeed
a " great principle." We have lost the man,
let us retain the principle.
The question which has been discussed before
the Tribunal du Commerce is grave ; one of the
gravest which has been raised before any Court
in the modern history of France ; and on the
decision of which will partly depend the realiza-
tion or the denial of the promise made in 1830,
" That henceforth the Charter should become a
reality." The question is this, " Has the Mi-
nister of Louis Philip King of the French, the
legal and constitutional right, since the Revolu-
tion of 1830, of prohibiting the performance of
any Drama he may think fit ?" This is the
question at issue, and we will take care that
it shall be understood and duly appreciated.
And, first of all, let us give the facts of the case
—the history of the prosecution, and the argu-
ments of the author—.the Theatre—and the
Doctrinnaires—and then examine whether, after
the revolution of 1830, this Theatrical Censor-
ship can possibly exist in France. M. Victor
Hugo is a poet, a dramatist, a patriot, a gentle-
man, and a scholar. He has a school of his
own. You may admire or censure it, as it ac-
cords kit9rary opinions, your ideas of
poetry, or your standard of imaginative compo-
sition. He has''enthusiastic admirers, and he
has literary opponents. lam not about to dis-
cuss this question, for it would be foreign to a
political correspondence. I belong not to
his school. I may be wrong or right. I
will not enter into that examination ; but
I must render justice to his talent, and ac-
knowledge that he is a genius. M. Victor
Hugo, as a poet and a dramatist, has published
a poem and drama, entitled "Le Roi s'Amuse!"
Some of his enemies accuse him of having writ-
ten this piece out of revenge for a cool or dis-
respectful reception he met with at the Tuileries.
His friends deny the statement. Some of. his
enemies state, that his object in publishing the
piece, and desiring its performance at the
Theatre Francais, was, to bring royalty into con-
tempt, and to render Republican principles and
institutions more popular. His friends reply,
that these are nothing more than the arguments
of his opponents on the impression which. the
piece made on them, and that " Le Roi s'Amuse"
was written as a drama by a poet, without any
real or hidden intention than that of amusing
and interesting the French public. M. Victor
Hugo goes further than this, and maintains that
" his drama is of the highest morality—contains
nothing offensive to the Government—and that
as to an allusion which his enemies and prose-
cutors believed to have discovered in the piece
to the father of the King, Louis Philip—that
it would have been ignoble and cruel on his part
to have done so, and that the blindness of some
wretched courtesans, who endeavoured to cause
it to be believed that such was his intention, was
as insolent to the King as it was to the poet:"
But I will not enter into this question. I
will neither admit that M. Victor Hugo is a
Republican, a patriot, or a lover of a constitu-
tional Monarchy. I will not say whether he ap-
proved the.' programme of the Hotel de Ville,"
or the niirable system of the " juste-milieu."
Nor will dissect his drama, or analyse his
poem. I will not trouble you with an analysis,
which enters into the province of a reviewer, but
not of a political journalist. All these are very
minor questions. Nay, I will go further ; and,
in order to state broadly my proposition, and
to place before you strongly the memorable pro-
cess which is about to be decided, I will say, that
for the sake of argument I admit M. Hugo to be
a Republican—l admit M. Hugo to desire to
alter the present state of things in this country—
I admit M. Hugo to have such an intention
when he wrote this piece, " Le Roi s'Amuse"--
I admit that he desired it to be performed at the
Theatre Francais for this very reason—l admit
that, if performed, it would have this national
tendency—and now I maintain, after all those
admissions (made for the sake of form), that still
the prohibition of this piece was illegal, and op-
posed to the letter as well as to the spirit of the
Charter.

" Nous n'avous plus le grand homme, tachons d'voir la
grande chose."

Let us go on with our facts. The play being
written, M. Victor Hugo presented it to the
Theatre Francais. It was announced, looked
forward to, and performed. When performed
it gave general satisfaction, excited general cu-
riosity, and would have been sure of a brilliant
success. Before its performance, M. d'Argout,
the Minister of Public Works, whose business

it is to look after the theatres, objected to the
spirit of the new play. M. Victor Hugo waited
on the Minister, protested against the censor.
ship—declared that since the Revolution and
Charter of 1830, that censorship could no longer
exist—but yet assured the organ of the Doctrin-
naires that there was nothing in the drama
which was calculated to disturb the public peace,
or offend public morals. The poet went yet
further, and said, that rather than expose his
work to the censorship, after the triumphs of
July, 1830, he would withdraw the play altoge-
ther. To this proposal, M. d'Argout replied in
the negative. The piece was performed—then