The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

son for English institutions and English practice.
There is no gammon about either one or the
ther of these great palladia of national indepen •
dence. It is true, that a journal is occasionally
subjected to serious annoyance in consequence of
actions that should never be instituted. But
they cannot complain of censorship, nor are they
liable to warnings, leading to eventual suppres-
sion. Their opponent is but a private indi-
vidual, and the whole power of the Government
cannot be flung into the opposite scale—besides,
the verdict of a jury must be obtained before
they can be exposed to very serious injury I
Again, in elections, the suffrage is not so gene-
ral as it ought to be, nor does it exercise due pro-
tection. The electors are liable to a variety of
undue influences—to bribery, corruption, and in-
timidation in all its multifarious phases—the
intimidation of landlord, employer, and customer,
even of the bludgeoneers, who, stick or brickbat
in hand, are ready not merely to hoot down any
opponent, but also to cudgel or stone the man
who does not exercise his franchise in favour of
their employer. But still the Government does
not dare openly to interfere. It could not degrade
a returning officer, or close a newspaper office,
because the former had not been favourable to
the Ministerial candidate, or the latter had written
powerfully, though temperately, on behalf of an
oppositionist aspirant for legislative honours.

Now, in France, both these dodges have
just been resorted to. The Government of
the EMPEROR, whose throne professes to be
based on the popular will, has not only made
direct, and we regret to be obliged to
add, very unjustifiable appeals to the electors,
but has also, in total dereliction of every principle
of fair play and impartial justice, attempted to
put down with the strong hand every argument
that could be used on the opposite side. Not
only is the worst species of intimidation resorted
to, that which deprives Government employees of
their situations, unless they vote in accordance
with the wishes of the Minister for the time
being. Not only is undue influence openly exer-
cised with parties not immediately dependent, but
every thing that can be said on the other side is
regarded and treated as the worst kind of sedition.
There is to be a phantom of Parliamentary autho-
rity—a quasi representative assembly, but accord-
ing to the present regime there might just as well
have been a direct nomination of members as that
which is about to take place. Not only do we
find the several Prefects putting forward mani-
festoes, in which the opposition candidates are de-
signated as " declared adversaries of the Imperial
Constitution, seeking only the suffrages to reject
them with disdain," but dismissing every employe
who manifests the slightest symptom of in-
dependence; and summing up the important
question at issue in the following manner :
The Prefect of the Seine declares that—

" To vote for the candidates designed by the Go-
vernment is to ratify their conduct by your votes,
to approve what they have already done, to faci-
litate the execution of the projects of the EM-
PEROR. To vote, on the other hand, for the
hostile candidate is to enter a path without a goal
with men who, most of them, have really no
sympathy with the people ; who, in the exercise
of power, have already given proofs of their in
sufficiency and weakness, and who can only re-
establish their party on the misfortunes of their
country. Your choice cannot be doubtful."

But, far beyond all, they have the hardihood to
assault the Fourth Estate, through the independ-
ent Sieele. That journal has received a
third warning ! By no means a mere brict,unt,
funnen—for the sword is now suspended over
its head by a ♦ery slender shred, and may fall at
at any moment that the expression of its honest
and conscientious convictions, may give offence to
the Imperial Government. It is admitted by the
Decree to be 'cone of the most energetic and
active organs of an Opposition, the beAring of
which public opinion will appreciate ;" but it can-
not be permitted to appeal to that opinion, nor
are all the arguments of the Government organs,
of the official Mon,iteur, and the semi-official Con-
stitutionnel, deemed sufficient to meet the straight-
forward and convincing views of the Opposition
Journal.

There is one comfort to be derived from this
very untoward state of affairs. It is manifest
that the Government must consider its conditioa
to be very shaky, when. it can resort to such pro-
ceedings—that-it must be thoroughly cognisant of
the national enthusiasm in favour of an indepen-
dent Legislative Assembly. Were it otherwise it
would not adopt such unjustifiable means to carry
out its objects. It is now palpable that the incte-
pendence of the Legislative Assembly is at best
" a mockery, a delusion, and a snare," and when
the substance is wanting, it wound be just as well
if the shadow were also anaihilat A, and that the
Government of France should profess to be what
it really is—an absolute despotism, as u nfettered
as the autocracy of the CZAR over " Holy Russia."

It is really quite delightful to think how com-
pletely the "Strong Government" was defeated
on Thursday evening iu the New Parliament.
Consider the occasion of that defeat, and then an-
swer if it may not be spoken of as a matter of
very general congratulation ! Recollect that it
was a clear majority of ten. gained over the Minis-
terialists by the supporters of the motion of Sir
DENHAM NORREYS—a motion to put a stop, sum-
marily and totally, to the continuance of one of
the most preposterous instances of extravagant ex-
penditure perhaps ever yet heard of ! Literally
nothing less than the cool appropriation of thou-
sands upon thousands of the public money—for
their own private ends—by the wealthy landed
proprietors of Scotland ! To be plain—ln the
general Ordnance Survey of. the United Kingdom
it has been found that a survey conducted upon a
scale of six inches to the linear mile, or, in
other words, of no less than thirty-six square
inches to the square mile, proved for all practical
purposes amply sufficient. No wonder !—for, as
Sir D. NORREYS stated to the House the night
before last, so minutely accurate was the delinea-
tion upon this scale that any gentlemen might
at pleasure find " his own garden walks mapped
out, and even his spring and the position of his
pump"—in the maps thus executed I It is not
surprising, therefore, to find that considerable
portions of England, and as much as four-fifths of
Ireland, have been been surveyed upon this scale,
and not upon a scale more extended. That this
arrangement, as it so stood, was to all intents
and purposes costly enough, even while thus
(if we can reasonably so employ the word)
restricted—any one may understand at once on
learning that the Irish survey alone necessitated a
disbursement of no less than 1,200,0001. ! Yet
actually this was not enough for the worthy Scot-
tish landowners—for the canny lairds of Cale-
denia l A six-inch survey might suffice for
England and for Ireland it was true, but not for
the land of
cakes and of the thistle. There, posi-
tively, they must have a survey not of six inches
merely, but of over twenty-five inches to the square
mile ! And they have actually been having a con-
siderable portion of it ! The chains and the
theodolites have been hard at work, not
only in the rich pasture and arable lands