The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-12 00:00:00

SALE OT GAS BILL.

The house went into committee for consideration of the
Sale o Gas Bill as amended. Some further amendments
were made; and the bill was reported, read a third time and
passed.
THE BOROUGH OF WAKEFIELD.

In t e sitting of the House of Commons, on Wednesday,
a moti n was made and agreed to that an humble address
be pr ented to her Majesty, praying that she would be
gram sly pleased to direct that a Royal commission do
issue to inquire into the alleged corrupt practices in the
borough of Wakefield at the late general election, but the
address could not be presented without the concurrence of
the Loxds, and a conference with their lordships was ac-
cordingly requested. Their lordships having signified their
assent; the following:menabers were accordingly nominated
to represent the Commons as members of the conference,
namely, Mr. Forster, Sir George Grey, the Solicitor-Gene-
ral, Mr. Griffith, and Mr. Bailie Cochrane. These hon.
membOrs accordingly proceeded to the Conference Chamber,
and there met the appointed peers.
On the return of the members of the Conference to the
Commons,
Mr. ,FORSTER. appeared at the bar of the house, and
reported that their lordships had assented to the Commons'
request that they unite in the presentation of an address to
the Crown for the .issue of a commission.
ATTORNEYS AND SOLICITORS BILL.

On the motion that the bill as amended be considered,
Mr. ,KNIGHT rose, and was calling attention to the
provisions of the bill, of which attorneys and solicitors had
to complain. and which were the concoction and production
of the Law Sobiety, sitting in Chancery- lane, when an hon.
member moved that the house be counted.
"The count" accordingly took place, and there being
only 28 members present, the house adjourned at half-past
seven o"Clobk.

THE FORTIFICATIONS OF ANTIVE.RP.

" Has .Belgium a right to fortify Antwerp ?"
Such is the somewhat curious thesis which is now
in discussion between the press of Paris and the
press of Brussels. The Patrie and the Constitu-
tionnq incline to the opinion that fortifying the
harbour of the great Belgian seaport is very like
an insult to France. This is so extravagant a pre-
tension that. we should have thought it an unmean-;
ing impertinence of certain individual writers, if
the Belgian Government had not appeared to take
a different view of it, and published in the Inde-
.vendance Beige a semi-official reply. At first sight
it appears impossible to understand that France can
see cause of umbrage in a neutral Power performing
its duty by keeping itself in a position to make its
neutrality respected. France might be supposed
to see a pledge of peace in every new stone put upon
the rampart of Antwerp, and every new protection
added to its harbour. So far as the records of his-
tory extend, the soil of Belgium has been the cock-
pit of Europe. Every town recalls to mind some
one or more great sieges. Every name suggests
the turning point of some great war. Every district
has given place and title to some mighty battle.
Dig where you will, you may turn up the bones of
Austrians, and Spaniards, and Dutch, and French,
and English; look where you may over those rich
flats, you will see towns that remind you of old
bloody histories, such as Namur, and Mons, and
Ghent, and Bruges, and Liege. Walk or ride hither
and thither over the well-tilled flats, and you will
find yourself passing corn districts and villages
bearing such names as Landau, Ondenard, Fontenoy,
Jemmapes, Malplaquet, Rarailies, ani Waterloo.
The topography of Belgium is but a jumble of the
histories of European slaughter. Fertile to its own
sons, and affluent in rich Flemish towns, it is a place
of • Ilood to the stranger. It has been walled up
by general consent ever since 1831. No more
fighting is to be allowed on those premises. The
Belgian Government is just now repairing the
wall. It might have been expected that France
would look on approvingly. A comfortable house-
holder would certainly say "Well done" to his
neighbour if he saw him repairing his dilapidated
shutters and putting a new chain to his door.
France does not intend to break into the house;
France has no design upon the silver forks ; France
does not intend to steal into the plate closet in the
dark, or force away into if'on a sudden. Why,
then, do those writers whose names are supposed to
carry an authority which certainly neither the wit
nor the. wisdom of their writings would alone de-
serve come forth to tell us that France is not af-
frighted, but afflicted, at the repair of the Antwerp
fortifications ? It is a question difficult to answer.
Perhaps, after much meditation, we may, how-
ever, guess at the cause of solicitude to our allies.
It is a sensitive regard for England and her safety
which dictates this jealousy of the Belgian defences.
True friendship is always suspicious. France sus-
pects Belgium of a secret intention of conquering
England. All the sayings of the old Napoleon are
being now coined into proverbs. The Great Em-
peror declared that Antwerp was by its situation
" a loaded pistol pointed at the heart of England."
Las Casas' Reports of the Conversations at St.
Flelenare now' the Sibylline book in which France
reads her immediate destiny. The French are re-
membering that Napoleon chose Antwerp ai the
central point where the chief arsenal for the sub-
jugation of England should be established. The
Independ-4;tee.Belge refers its French opponents to
the archives of the French War-office for details of
the plans by which Napoleon made Antwerp the
greatest naval station on the Continent, and by
which he proposed to extend its harbour and forti-
fications to most gigantic dimensions. We read in
Las Cases that Napoleon even attributed his over-
throw to the pertinacity with which he adhered
to his design of keeping this
." pistol charged
against England," for it was his disinclina-
tion to part with Antwerp which prevented,
his concluding a peace at Chatillen, He . in-
tended, he said, to have made it by sea a point
whence a mortal stroke could be dealt against
his great. enemy, and by land a fortress. strong
enough to receive an army in case of defeat, and to
sustain a year of open trenches. The Belgians in-
sist that they are not about to do nearly as much
as this ; but France is suspicious and afflicted.
France is affectionately unwilling that Belgium
should- retain in her hands this " pistol charged
against the heart of England," and that she should
keep so firm a grasp of it that no one can take it
from her. She might make a bad use Of it. She
might .let it off, .and England might be severely
hurt. To England this fortified harbour must be
a perpetual menace ; to France the land fortifica-
tions are a perpetual insult—to put up bars and
bolts and to lock street doors is an imputation upon
the honesty of the neighbourhood. Surely it ought
to be sufficient for Belgium to know that France
has no intention of making any attack upon her ?
It is true that the old Napoleon, in the same con-
versation in which he told Las Casas that Antwerp
was to have a province, a little kingdom, added
" France without tl.e frontier of the Rhine and
Antwerp was nothing ;" but we are not to under-
stand that France is going to work out her Sibyl-
line book all at once, and Belgium ought to be con-
tented with the word of a French Emperor, and
not to take these impertinent precautions against
France, or to make these offensive demonstrations
against England, the ally of France. It leads to bad
results to doubt what Napoleon 111. says. Francis
Joseph doubted the peaceful intentions of the Em-
peror, and lie was 'punished for his incredulity by
.a war---a war which we are now come to under-
stand had no other purpose than to punish Austrian
incredulity-. " Raze your fortifications, and I will
spare you; build up defences, and I will test them."
So. the Belgians, if they are well advised, will draw'
the . charge and blow out the priming from that
pistol so'dangerous to England.
Of course we are greatly obliged to our careful
and watchful friends. We should hardlyhave dis-
coVered the danger if they had not pointed it
out so forcibly. Nor, • indeed, now that' we
are made to see it can we tell how to avoid it.
The Belgians Will, if we join in this remon-
strance, toll us, probably, that France, whom no
one threatens; and who can never require to put on
armour, tuiles for aggressive purposes, has fortified
'Paris , that Cherbourg, which was the twin brother'
to Antwerp in the love of Napoleon the Great, has
been only lately Completed; that we English, who
have never known a foreign invasion since the time
of Williath the Norman, are fortifying our chief
outputs ; and that the advantages which Napoleon
-saw in fortified Antwerp are equally valuable to
the' natives of the country. iu which it is now the
only great fortre,i,;. We confess we should have
some difficulty in meeting these arguments. They
would possibly also urge that the word of an Em-
ipneorrotral ofm
dents teaches how immediately .France falls into
consistent
et hriee
swoofr word
roefc
ea_
aFZiainced its,
at
her periodical spasm of republicanism the first
thing she does is to move an army into the Low
Countries and besiege Antwerp. They will tell us,
also that these,defences are not against France:or
against England, but sminst all the world ;. that
Beloiurn builds her fortifications as a herald buckles
on his-sword,. not dreading an attack: from a civi-
lised enemy, who would of course respect his sacred
character of a guaranteed non-combatant, but as a
defence against any chance brawler or robber ; and
the Indepenclance Beige does urge that if a Belgian
fortification is en insult, a Belgian army must be a
mortal offence. We must confess that, with all
kindly appreciation of the interest taken in us by

•
our Parisian friends, we cannot see chat we are
aggrievecL or that thev'are insulted by these Ant-
werp fortifications.- Of course, it is very anpleasant
to have a loaded pistol pointed at you I ►y any one,
but it might be in more formidable 1 lands than
those of Leopold.—nnes.