The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-29 00:00:00

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THE FRENCH PRE.S ON LORD JOHN

RUSSELL.

If Lord John Russell be not completely crushed
by the " disdain" of M. Grandguillot of the Con-
stitutionnel. it may comfort him to know what jour-
nals that have some claim to consideration and
independance say of the veteran Liberal :•.(6 Lord
John Russell," says the Temps,
" Who is raised to the Peerage with the title of
Earl Russell, has just bid farewell to the city of
London. England mgy have had greater, or more,
brilliant statesmen, but she hag never had ailY
who placed more honest convictions, more per-
severance, and more devotedness in the promo-
tion of liberal ideas than he. Lord John Russell's
has been a noble and laborious career, and it
is one to which England owes a great deal.
Electoral referm has been, as it were, the
great dream of his existence. Free trade
found him at the proper moment; and reli-
gious freedom has had no more persistent and
conscientious advocate. in more recent times,
and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he introduced
into diplomacy an unwonted frankness. His de-
spatches are without any reticence; and this sin-
cerity, everywhere and always deserving of praise,
pleases us most of all when it is liberty which is
advocated so loftily before the eyes of Europe.
Such a man, even when he is not of our opinion,
tvieonnel has not
merits far more regard than that shown him
e which
this morning by the Constitution,:i
and wn
article
onfoermwushtircehgtet.
there
.wrhaes
cnoonmstiottui
reflected that its attacks on the speech of Lord Sohn
Russell completely miss their aim, since the head
of the Foreign-office took the greatest care to leave
out of the question the intentions of the French
Government. Lord John Russell, moreover, only
spoke of the Island of Sardinia ; and our readers
have not forgotten those words in which the future
of all Europe is reviewed with a loftiness and a
firmness of hope truly worthy of the Minister of a
great and free people."
Even the Gazette de France forgets its extreme
opinions on religion and politics, and exposes the
unutterable absurdity of M. Grandguillot talking
of his " disdain" for Lord John Russell. M. Grand-
guillot expressed his surprise that Lord John had
not " imposed silence on Mr. Kinglake" when al-
luding to Sardinia. "It is easy to see," observes
the Gazette de France,

" That M. Grandguillot has taken the affair in a
tragic point of view, which, if it do not justify his
disdain,' may at least explain it in a certain de-
gree. But the tragic passion appears to have car-
ried him beyond what tragedy itself permits. He
must know that in. England no one imposes
silence' on a member of Parliament, even when he
does yield to unjust suspicions;' and a Minister
who should try to impose silence' would be soon
called to order, not only by the unanimous cry of the
house, but by the feeling of the whole country. There
is not an Englishman, how vulgar' soever (M.
Grandguillot's epithet), who would not feel him-
self hurt in his dignity as n man and a citizen by
such a pretension. Moreover, are the declarations
of M. Cavour,' that were not wanting in energy on
several occasions, which we need not repeat, of a na-
ture to give incontestible value' to those of his suc-
cessor, however.' energetic' they may be ? However
disposed one may be to disdain' other people, a
little memory, is not a thing to be disdained' when
we wish to judge the present by the past. The
capital defect of disdain is to reduce the thing to
itself. However grand and perfect M. Grandguillot
may be in his own esteem, it seems to us difficult
I hat he can reasonably hope to completely mould
Europe to his own fashion. He would, perhaps,
find England, for instance, rather hard to mani-
pulate in this way, and she would probably ener-
getically resist M. Grandguillot's handling. Instead
of trying to crush the statesmen of. Great Britain
with the weight of his ' disdain,' M. Grandguillot
would, in our opinion, do much better if he tried to
refute the errors they may commit."
"In the days when there were such things as
semi-Official journals," observes the Siecle :
." One might be disturbed by the long article of
the Constitutionnel on the speech of Lord John
Russell. In that article the English Minister
of Foreign Affairs is handled roughly. It calls
him ' Don Quixote ",and ill-bred boy,' ' a ranter,'
8:c. He is described as ' burning incense on the
alter of popularity,' as throwing the telunz itnbelle
of the Parthian ;" he breaks open, with much
comic noise, a door which he perfectly knew was
open ;' he is intoxicated with applause won by ex-
citing thevery worst passions,' &c. What a crowd.
,of metaphors ! We ask can Lord John ever con-
sole himself for all that he has thus brought upon
his bead ?"

The " mediatised" Debuts observes :
" We should like to know what answer Lord
John Russell would give to an English journal that
asked him what alliance he would seek if Franca
accepted the rupture with which he menacts her ?
What Government in Europe has not causes of
complaint against the English Cabinet ? What
support did Lord J. Russell find on the continent
when ho had the pretension to prevent the annexa-
tion of Savoy, or even to modify the conditions cn
which that extension of French territory was
effected ? The Constitutionnel sharply reminds him
that France took Nice and Savoy against the will
of England. If a similar case again occurred, what
guarantee has 'Lord John Russell that his remon-
strances would not be received in Europe with the
same mocking indifference with which Austria,
Prussia, and Russia replied to him in the affair of
Savoy ?"
The Constitutionnel said:—

" The provocation of this enfant terrible, let him
be well persuaded of it, will find our country proud
and impassable at this day as it was at the period
when we annexed Nice and Savoy against the will of
England. England, let it be well borne in mind,
then protested with much less bragging before the
thing was done."

The article of the Constitutionnel will not do
much in neutralizing the effect produced by the
article of the Patrie ; nor will it add much force to
the Communique inserted in this journal. In the
meantime the Moniteur remains discreetly silent on
the affairs of Sardinia. •