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

Aloes on nous prenalt notre liberte, c'est vrai, main
Tel jour, a telle heure, j'entreral dans are capitate ; et on
y entrait au jour dit et a l'beure dite. On detronait tine
dynastie avec un decret du Moniteur. On faisait se
coudoyer toutes et rtes. roie dans les antichambres.
Von avait la fantiasie d'une colonne, on en faisait fournir le
twonze par l'Empereur d'Autricbe. On reglait, un pen
arbitrairement je l'avoue, le sort des comediens Francais.
mail on datait le regrement de Moscou. On nous prenait
tau es nos libertes, dis-je, on avait un bureau de censure,
on metrait nos livres au pilon, on rayait nos pieces de
l'afficbe, mitt a toutes nos plaintes on pouvait faire d'lnt
seul mot des responses magnifiques, on pouvait nons re-
pondre. Marengo ! Jena! Austerlitz !! ! • *
" Alore, je le repete, c'etait grand; aujourd'hui, &est
petit. Nous marchons a l'atbitraire comme aloes, mail
nous ne sommes pas des colosses. Notre gouvernement
nest pas de ceux qui peuvent consoler une grande nation
de la perte de la liberte; en fait d'art, nous deformons les
Tuileries ; en fait de gloire, nous laissons perir la Pol,igne,
eels n'empeche pas nos petits hommes ci'Etat de traiter la
liberte en despotes, de mettre la France sons !emirs pieds,
comme s'ils avaient des epaules a porter le monde. Pour
peu que cela dure encore quelque temps, pour pen que les
lois proposees solent adoptees, la confiscation de tons nos
droits sera complete.

" Aujourd'hui, on fait prendre ma liberte de poete par
un censeur; demain, en me fera prendre ma liberte de
citoyen par un gendarme. Aujourd'bui, on me bannit du
theatre ; demain, on me bannira du pays. Aujourd'hui,
on me baillonne ; demain, on me deportera. Aujourd'hui,
i'etat de siege est dans la litterature ; demain, it sera,
dans la cite. De liberte, de garantiea, de Charte, tie
droit public, plus on mot, neant. Si le gouvernement,
mieur conseille, ne situ rete sur cette pente pendant qu'il
en est temps encore, avant pen nous aurons tout le des..
potisme de 1807 sans sa gloire, nous aurons I'Empire san.
l'Empereur.
" Je n'ai plus que quatre mots a dire, Messieurs, et je
desire qu'ils soient presens d votre esprit au moment nu
vous delibererez. II n'y a en dans ce siecle qu'un grand
nomme, Napoleon, et une grande chose, la liberte ; nous
n'avons plus le grand homme, tachons d'avoir la grande
chose."

To such an examination and to such a reply
not a word of defence could be offered. It was
in vain to talk about " the letter of the decree,"
for the revolution of 1830 had destroyed its
spirit. It was in vain to attempt to shelter this
ordinance of M. d'Argout,l under the mantle of
a period of glory and bravery which no longer
existed ; and public opinion, both within and
nut of the Tribunal of Commerce, decided im-
mediately, that unless the charter of 1830 was
to become a vain illusion and a splendid trick,
the conduct of M. d'Argout had been both illegal
and unconstitutional.

But what will be the decision of the Judges
of the Tribunal ? To this question I can offer
no reply. -If they decide not in favour of M.
Victor Hugo, then the censorship will continue
to exist in France in spite of the charter of 1830 ;
then all the contests of the last thirty years have
been in vain—then the blood of heroes and of
patriots has been uselessly and cruelly shed, and
then the battle must be re-begun, and re-con-
tinued between absolute power and public right.
Let us hope then that the Judges will under-
stand their mission, and the importance of their
decision ; and let us trust that, as they have
taken 15 days to consider their verdict, the re-
sult will be not that we shall lose the great
" principle," as we have lost " the great man,"
but tkat though we have done with the age of
"glory," we may at least preserve the era of li-
berty. Your obedient servant,

O. P. Q

POPULAR NOTION OF PREACHING.--Otie
Sunday, the Rev. Rowtrom HILL was preaching at the
Tabernacle, Tottenham-court-road, in the bearing of a
lady who remarked the uncommon attention paid to him
by a very old person sear her. When the discourse was
ended, the attentive hearer exclaimed--" God bless his
sweet heart, he's as funny as ever !"

TRADE OF AN EXECUTOR.—One of our
Judges is fond of telling curious anecdotes. Travelling in
one of the Northern counties, he met a boy, with whom
he entered into conversation, and was much amused by
the shrewdness of the boy's remarks. On being asked
what trade he intended to be ? the boy hesitated a little,
and then answered, that of all trades he thought he should
like to be an executor ! An executor, said his Lordship,
why an executor ? Because, replied the boy, formerly our
family was very badly off, but ever since my father was
wade an executor we have wanted for nothing !
ABHORRENCE OF WAR.-4 wish you joy
of the marvellous conclusion of the strange and terrible
drama which our eyes have seen opened, and I trust,
finally closed, upon the grand stage of Europe (date, July,
1814). I used to be fond of war when I was a younger
man, and longed heartily to he a soldier; but now, I
think there is no prayer in the service with which I could
close more earnestly, than " Send peace in our time, good
Lord !"—Sir Walter Scott's Letters.

MURDER.---On Thursday night an atrocious
murder was committed in the New Vennel, High-street,
fellow Part partaking
i
on the body of a poor man named NIEL ADAMS, a war-
per, under cirumstanees of rather a peculiar and mysteri-
ous character. It appears that the deceased, on the night
h
somewhat fr
same
yoef
s
ng
workman, inthe
street where the murder was perpetrated, and that in re-
peiftoirten-amu es n
liquors too ed, had
tsi t
hbee a n
turning home, and with. 44 a few paces of his own dwelling,
he had been assaulte4 by some person who had inflicted a
violent blow on the head of the deceased with a heavy
stick or bludgeon, which almost instantly proved fatal, as
his lifeless body was shortly afterwards found weltering in
blood, at apparently the same spot where he had been as-
saulted. The deceased, it is believed, bad no money on
him at the time] but it would appear that the perpetrator
of the crime had carried off the hat worn by the unfortu-
nate man, and left his own in its stead, as an old bat was
found lying near the body. No satisfactory trace has as
yet, we are given to understand, been found of the assas-
sin; but an individual of the name of SUTHERLAND (a
labourer), who had been Observed by the watchman lurk-
ing about the spot on the night in question, was seen in a
spirit cellar in High-street with the deceased's hat on his
head, and on being questioned as to how the hat Caine
into his possession, he immediately took it off and left the
shop, from which he proceeded to a broker's stall on the
Bell o'Jhe Bree, where he purchased a bonnet, with which
he has since absconded. ADAMS has left a widow ia a
state of mental derangement, consequent on her melanch ,iy
bereavement, and six children, to deplore this fearful ea..
testrophe,-- Glasgow Courier,