The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-18 00:00:00

ticians, all the Vii, outente4 with things as-they
are, publish at once their tract, their pamphlet,
their weekly or monthly organ. Air the uneasy
mind of England rushes into print, if it is only
through a speech at a public meeting, or a letter
in a newspaper. No such indicator or safety-
valve exists at all in France. The Moniteur's
praise of the Legislative Body is, that it initiated
nothing, upset no ministries nor could do it, re-
pressed discussion, and agreed on all points with
the Government ; and the praise of the French
Press is, that after repeat3d warnings it " knows
its mission"—the mission of having no mind of
its own, but of grinding imperial ideas into whole-
some nutriment for renovated France. With no
press, no public meetings, no free discussions in
the Legislature, and no full publication of such
discussions as are permitted, we can only guess
the state of things from external symptoms.
We must, then, take this governmental puff-
ing of its own praise, as the indication thit all is
not right. Legitimists, Bourbonists, Fusionists,
and Republicans, are, perhaps, all taken together,
a minority of the people ; and they are at war
with each other ; the illiterate peasantry aro Lours
NAPOLEON'S strength ; yet they are, to a large
extent, if workmen, Socialists ; if agriculturalists,
indifferent. M. BILL&ULT exhorts the Prefects
to urge the latter to the poll, " for they made the
Empire, and they love it." If they love it what
need of this urgency

The truth appears to be that no one cares for
the Empire but the soldiers—they made
it, they profit by it. The parties of
course do not care for it. The secret societies
do not ; the workmen do not, at least, no longer
than work is found for them by an increasing
tazition. The agriculturists plainly need the
whip to get them to the ballot box. France is
quiet, for it has not yet rested quite long enough ;
quiet because 'disturbance by any party must,
now, end in immediate discomfiture by the mili-
tary ; quiet because its intellect is entirely
silenced ; quiet because it foresees that the pre-
sent regime has no basis but the life and will of
one clever man. To us these Imperial electioneer-
ing documents are but so many proofs that the
EMPEROR cannot trust the people t ) understand
the merits of his Government, except as they are
proclaimed by himself. We could wish for some
better quiet than that of the universal compres-
sion of such an explosive people.

This evening, the Bill for the Abolition of
-Minister's Money in Ireland will be brought
under the consideration of the House of Lords,
and the Earl of DERBY has given notice of his
intention to oppose it with all his powers. We
trnst, however, that the Peers will hesitate before
they provoke a collision with the Commons on a
question recommended to their consideration by
the decisive majority of 139. And what is the
important matter in dispute ? Merely 12,0001. per
annum, which can be paid to the present proprie-
tors out of the unappropriated balances in the
hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, so that
none will really suffer, but which is justly re-
garded as an insult and badge of degradation by
the Roman Catholic inhabitants of eight of the
principal towns in Ireland. If our Dis-
senting brethren feel acutely the Church-
rates, to which they are so improperly sub-
jected, still more will the payers of ministers money
complain of that which is but a partial charge,
from which the Protestants of Belfast, of Ennis-
killen, Newry, Lisburn, and other towns in
Ulster, are exempted.
From the day that Sergeant, now Commis-
sioner igIIRPHY, made his powerful and con-
vincing speech in the House of Commons, the
iniquitious and impolitic impost was doomed.
It was impossible that it could be main-
tained, and although his well-merited pro-
motion prevented him from conducting the
contest to a triumphal termination in the Legis-
lature, his mantle descended on a worthy suc-
cessor. Mr. W. FAGAN has laboured zealously,
indefatigably, and efficiently, and he has had the
satisfaction of seeing the case taken up by the
Government, who very properly permitted him to
reap the honours he so well merited.

We cannot conceive anything more ear-
nestly to be deprecated by the friends
of the Established Church in Ireland
than the temporary success of Lord DERBY'S quasi
amendment. It would create a storm in Ire-
land that could not easily be allayed. It
would be impossible to calculate the conse-
quences of the fearful hurricane I Sufficient
is known of the proceedings under what was
termed
" the tithe rebellion" in Ireland, to pre-
vent auy well-wisher of the Church from incur-
ring the risk of such another conflict. Lord
DERBY himself was a witness to the former struggle;
he should therefore cautiously abstain from any.
thingcalculated to produce a similar catastrophe by
just ground to the opponents of the
one State endowment be
aolrbonredxiinogus a impost.
If
successfully resisted, others may share a similar
fate. The Irish Church may therefore well ex-
claim, cc save us from our friends for their
triumph would be far more prejudicial than the
most vigorous onslaughts of our avowed oppo- ,
nen ts !"