The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-09 00:00:00

Canard.

" Ha ! ha! Capital race, wasn't it ?' I exolaimed,
on entering, with an effrontery which wag intended to
remove all suspicion. Never enjoyed mysblf so much
in my life. Saw hosts of people—glorious sport—course
covered with carriages ! Saw one man lose thirty thou-
sand pounr's with the greatest coolness in the world, and
make a good dinner after it. Wouldn't have been ab-
sent on any account.'

" ' Why, you don't mean to say— 1'
"'Of course I do. All London was there, and if I
hadn't been I should have been ashamed to have looked
London in the face again.'
"'But really it seems impossible that'—and the pub•
lishez consulting his watch, compared it with my own
chronometer, and arrived at a careful correctness—
' that in the time you could.'
"'Oh, am I the first back ? Ah! well, we came spank-
ing along the road with four famous nags in first rate
style, I assure you.'
" The road ! What, all the way from Epsom in half
an hour r

" Did I say the road ! Pooh ! absurd. Too slow for
me. The rail of clurse. Finest engine in the world,
and never stopped a minute for anybody.'
" But such a quick return'-
" For a small prophet,' I added quickly, hazarding a►
feeble joke, in the vague hope of smothering the obvious
impossibility, seems extraordinary, but it isn't. To
save unnecessary delay, I took a return ticket.'
"'But the first train after the race wcn't have bronght
its passengers to London-bridge for the next half-hour at
least r

" 'Train ? Pooh ! did I say train ? Not half quick
enough. I took my return ticket by the Emscrazo
TELEGRAPH ! ! !' " _ _

Who is this "Man About Town ?" Certainly,
beyond all manner of doubt, a very waggish gamin
d 3 londres !

SUPPRESSION OF A FAIR, AT DEPTTORD.—On Sunday
morning some hundreds of persons assembled on some
ground near the Deptford Station of the Greenwich
Railway with the intention of holding a fair. Superin-
tendent Mallalieu apprehended a man who was driving
stakes into the ground for the purpose of erecting a
marquee. In the evening a great number of vans as-
sembled on the same ground ; and the police having
stopped three which were entering, were informed that
they belonged to a Mr. Manley, who had taken the
ground to hold a fair, who came up and was taken int)
custody. Manley and the man who was driving in the
stakes, and who was in his employ, were brought up at
the Greenwich police-court yesterday. A letter was
produced from Mr. Davidson, solicitor, of Spring-gar.
dens, stating that no one had power to let, or hatteniteetr,
the ground tor the purpose of holding a fair. The magis-
trate ordered Manley to find bail in 401., and to
into his own recognisanoes in the same amount for his
good behaviour for t rae months. The other prisoner
was discharged.
THE FRENCH PEASANTRY AND THE GOTERNMENT.
The changes which have taken place in France since 1789
had thrown into the hands of the peasantry a large pro-
portion of the land of the country. As every owner
peasantrylarge oro
hold f a small
an overwhelming
s aland,
nequal
the
whether of estate,
h
majority in'the franchise. The constitutional monarchy
bad unwisely debarred this large class of the landholders
of France from political power; but by that principle of
society which seems to be one of the most deep-seated
and irresistible conditions of political existence' no sooner
were the existing institutions of the country overthrown
than the supreme power in the State reverted, as it were,
to its soitrce, in the owners of the soil. There, and there
alone, the Government of the second empire has a basis
—that is the main, if not the solo, condition of the pre-
sent tranquil submission of France to a form of sove-
reignty which has annihilated every semblance of free
dote ; and the only claim to originality we can discover
in the fabric raised by
the Emperor Napoleon 111, is
his discovery that a Government may be founded and
maintained for a considerable period of ,time, by the sole
support of the landed peasantry, in spite of the disaffec-
tion of the towns, the aversion of the upper ranks, and
the ridicule and vituperation of the educated classes.
Toe peasantry were roused by the exercise of universal
suffrage to the consciousness of political power ; but
suppose that a wide
no tceh i
se error
among
that class of society
idtti3ffrwisesltuo of tli
to free
eeac:frPal government And liberal principles. In
France the result has been just the reverse. Unable to
exercise that power by any direct machinery of tLe'r
own, they delegated it absolutely, and in the most
simple form, to one man ; and they view without rte
pugnance the uses which may be made of that power
against liberties and rights to which they are strangers,
provided their own independence and ascendancy be re-
spected, and their own prejudices and passions flattered
by the head of the State,—Edinburgh, &view.