The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-20 00:00:00

we can comprehend it at this moment—full of en-
couragement to her MAJESTY'S Government.
And as certainly those are prospects very dis-
heartening to her MAJESTY'S Opposition. Still
everything will depend upon the tone and tendency
given to the debate about to be provoked upon this
day se'nnight in the House of Commons by the
point-blank Amendment then and there to be pro-
posed by the hon. gentleman the member for North
Warwickshire.

France is preparing to evacuate Syria—but she
is doing it so very sulkily. It appears probable—
though we do not count upon the event with any-
thing like certainty, in fact we shall not believe it
until it has actually been accomplished—it appears
probable that before the first week of June shall
have passed the French troops will have been
withdrawn from the country of the Lebanon. As
a matter of course, however, our imperial neighbour
is indulging in all sorts of sinister anticipations,
in all kinds of lugubrious predictions as to the
inevitable consequences (so they at least appear
now to the darkened views of Frenchmen), the
certain and wholly unavoidable consequences
of this withdrawal of the soldiers of
France from the Lebanon. There is a conviction
even at Paris that hard upon that withdrawal will
follow—fresh massacres. Supposing which to be
the case—and it is, of course, frightfully possible—
certain are we, in our turn, that the old suspicions
will revive about those massacres being instigated
by the MACHIAVELLIAN diplomacy of a race bent
upon finding an excuse, bent upon making an
opportunity for the realisation once more of the
national air of the French empire, Partant pour la
Syrie ! Whether true or false, those rumours
have been afloat before now, those suspicions have
een undeniably entertained. And so surely as the
anticipated renewal of the massacres—the massacres
by the fanatical Druses of the unfortunate
Maronites —so surely as the anticipated re-
newal of those massacres follow upon the
evacuation of •L'he Lebanon by the soldiers of
NAPOLEON 111., acc;qrdin9 to the general conviction
now at Paris—so surely' as that, will (in that terrible
contingency) return tho. Ne rumours, revive those
.
suspicions ! For the fair me of France, for the
credit of the French Governm.'-'nt, it is to be hoped
that the expectations of the Parisians in this
matter will not be realised, that L'he Druses will
not again carry fire and sword throug h the country
of the Lebanon so soon as the French soldiers shall
have recrossed the Mediterranean.
It is a significant circumstance that the ext:vino
section of the French press has become clamoroY
of late about its being—England above all—not the
Turkish ambassador, not the Ottoman Govern-
ment, not the other powers of Europe combined,
but principally, almost exclusively, the English
Government that compels France to fulfil her
engagements at the appointed time and to with-
draw her troops (according to promise) from the
Lebanon. It is a monstrously, extravagantly,
a flagrantly false accusation. But let
that pass—it is significant. It is especially
significant, moreover, that the French press should
argue thus bitterly against the English Govern-
ment, as the Government of an Ally constraining
France to act contrary to her own wishes, to do
violence to her own convictions—immediately upon
the very morrow (as it is) of those stormy, not to
say indecorous and intemperate discussions which
have so recently reflected so much discredit upon
the Imperial French Senate. Ah ! how they do
love us on the other side of the British Channel !
So dearly—so tenderly—so devotedly ! We have
evidences of their affection in the state of the French
army, in thestate of the French navy, in the state of
the French artillery, of the French arsenals, of the
French fortifications. We have had these evidences
of the cordiality of this alliance increasingly be-
fore us ever since that cordial alliance commenced,
And now, as supplementary tokens of the like affec-
tion, we witness these furious scenes in the French
Senate, scenes expressive there of an almost malig-
nant antipathy to England and Englishmen. And
now, as yet farther and yet plainer supplementary
tokens of a similar kind, we have these caustic refer-
ences of the French press to England as the power
obliging France to be true to her own word and to
withdraw her troops from the Lebanon. N'importe,
however—so long as they are withdrawn when the
date arrives for this Syrian Evacuation.