The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-13 00:00:00

111114
ttStreMniT
LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1850.

The visit of inspection paid within these few days
to the French fleet at Cherbourg, by the PRESIDENT
of the Republic, is suggestive of consideration on our
own side of the British Channel as well as on the
shores of our opposite neighbours. However grati-
fying may be the manifestation of that friendly feeling
and cordial understanding which the interests of civi-
lization and liberty in Europe, ns well as those of the
two respective nations, require should ever be main-
tained between France and reat Britain, and which on
this occasion were signally developed by the courteous
attentions paid by the gallant hosts to those of our
countrymen who had the good fortune to be present
at the splendid display, the mind cannot
fail to be impressed by a serious ap-
prehension. Within a few hours' sail of
English ground, in a port rendered all but impreg-
nable by the gigantic genius of a IsTaroLaos, lies a
fleet of line-of-battle ships, frigates, and steamers, of
sailing qualities unequalled, and manned by thousands
of admirably disciplined seamen. Is there no latent
meaning in this ? Are those castles of the deep, the
Friedland and the Vainly, with their huge com-
panions and swarm of attendant vessels, paraded for
mere idle show, to mike the multitude a passing holi-
day, or is it not rather a significant demonstration of
those formidable means of aggression which are ready,
at a moment's notice, to be launched against our home-
steads, should the ancient fires of rivalry be uns
happily rekindled, and the blood of the
two bravest of Christian nations be doomed
again to flow in hostile torrents? With what
other possible view than that of preparation
for a war with England, do fleets so mighty and
works so immense, the consummation of vast and
continuous labour, loom within so short a distance of
our southern coast ? Far be it from us to insinuate
that the Republic is likely to take any undue advan-
tage of those extraordinary capabilities, dedicating
them to the treacherous purposes of wanton aggres-
sion, but, doubtless, unless there be a steadfast and
unwavering determination on the part of the Mini-
ster and people of England to maintain the prepon-
derance of our naval strength, and not to relax one
jot or tittle in every sound preparation for the
emergency of offensive and defensive war, the day
may come of too late repentance for neglected
opportunities and suicidal parsimony. Si vis pa-
cent, Para belluin, is a maxim the truth of
which we are bsld enough to maintain,
notwithstanding the dogmata of Herr CORBY and
the twaddle of the orators of Paulskirche. Will the
men of peace solicit from Par'sian statesmanship the
disarmament and dismantlement of Cherbourg, or will
they content themselves with counselling in the pleni-
tude of their wisdom that our essential precautions
and necessary expenditure should be diminished in an
inverse ratio to our liabilities ? In either case, we
opine, the honour and profit they are likely to reap
from their exertions will be pretty much the same.
Had they gone about striving to sow the seeds of
pacability in social circles instead of mountebanking
on metropolitan stages, the Honorary Member of the
Frankfort Congress might have been more philan-
thropically treated by the sons of beer. That •

amicable- veteran HAYNAU. —had the principles of
moral force been duly incaii sated by these beneficient
apostles upon the popular mind—might have fared
,more gently at the hand* of the BanLide avengers,
and the friend of ROTIISCRL:D, the pet of Printing
House-square, been spared the over-warm tickling
of carters' whips, and the tingling taps of coalies'
fantails. In-such fields let them expatiate, and we
can safely promise them numerous and applauding
audiences, provided the Ojibbeway be specially re-
tained ; but until they can succeed in convincing us
that the bastions, the guns, and the steamers of
Cherbourg are but pasteboard toys, or the mere
phantasies of a diseased imagination, we must beg
leave to decline being gulled by the professors of
Peace Congressism, any more than by those of Sab-
batarianism, Paseyism, or any other such humbug
of the day.
Elated as Louts NAPOLEON must have felt as he
viewed the magnificently stera
,array which wel-
comed him as the First Magistrate of France,
with the thunder of its countless brazen throats of
war, he cannot fail to have remarked, that although
received with respect and warmth, no indication of
an imperial spirit was manifest among the marine
on this momentous occasion. There was no dis-
respect or dislike to the nephew of the great EMPEROR.
—far from it—but the evidence of a feeling perfectly
in accordance with that for which we are willing to
give full credit to the PRESIDENT, namely, the im-
policy, nay, insanity, of snatching at the diadem of
empire by a coup of etat. .We believe LOUIS NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE to be a man of truth, as he is of honour,
kindliness, and courage ; and we accept his disavow al
at Lyons of any such culpable design as the candid
emanation of his mind ; but his ear may be
abused by intriguers, or by unwise friends,
to whose jesuitical or imprudent suggestions he may
possibly be induced to yield himself. He is in a
proud, though it may be a precarious, position. In-
vested with the dignity of chief of the Exe-
cutive by the suffrages of six millions of free-
men, is he not a mate for the proudest of
the crowned heads of Europe, and will he vio-
late his solemn word for the prize of a bauble ? We
hope he will not ; we believe he will not. We cannot
but smile at the infatuation of those musty dreamers
who Clink the restoration of the elder House of Bour-
bon, in the person of the Count DE CHAMBJRD, a
thing possible or tolerable for France. Heaven
forbid we should ever witness the debasement of the
gallant children of that fair land under the re-
rivetted yoke of those imbeciles, whose motto
it is neither to forget nor to learn. But it is
not outside the range of human probability that a
day may come when the national will may pronounce
in favour of a monarcho-republican system of govern-
ment, somewhat similar to our own, but of necessity
more democratic in its elements. Louts NAPOLEON
is at present the keystone of the Constitution of 1848,
but he may yet be invited to assume a more durable
and resplendent position ; nor do we fear that, should
the voice of France pronounce in favour of an altera-
tion of the existing system, and invest with constitu-
tional sovereignty the nephew of NAPOLEON the
Great, he would be found unequal to her requirements,
or undeserving of the high trust. But that voice yet
remains to be pronounced; and let the PRESIDENT
guard his sacred pledge inviolate in loyalty and obe-
dience to his country, or his will be deservedly the
fate of Phaeton. Of himself, left to himself, we
entertain a sincerely trustworthy opinion, and we
think he is possessed of sufficient sagacity and expe-
rience to penetrate the mask Qf pretended friendship. If
there be any who would goad him to the madness of
usurpation, to the infamy of high treason against his
country, we would invite their attention to the cour-
teous Republicanism of the reception of the PRESI-
DENT by the crews of the grand fleet of France, as
an evidence that any aggression on the Constitution
for the furtherance of personal ambition and aggran-
dizement will meet with no very enthusiastic or en-
couraging countenance from those who have some-
thing more efficacious within their means than noisy
acclamations and intoxicating vices, and whose disci-
pline are ever at the command of the interests and the
honour of France, obedient to, and conservative of,
constitutional authority.

The remanets from the long list of Bills- intro.
duced in the last session of Parliament, which Minis-
ters were either unable or unwilling to carry through,
were unfortunately bath numerous and important,
and whether these short -comings of the Government
arose from inability or unwillingness will bs tested at
the opening of the next session, which we anticipate
will be one of the busiest and most critical since that
epoch in our political history—the Reform Bill of '32.
The political atmosphere is charged with antago-
nist:c elements, and clearly indicates a gathering
storm. The Protectionists and Free-Traders are
numerically closely balanced, and the melancholy and
lamented death of one great man has left freedom of
action to the few who could always turn the scale of
party. The late Sir ROBERT PEEL eminently de-
served the high tribute which the whole British
nation has fitly paid to his memory. Born
and nursed in the school of monopoly and
intolerance, he yet dared to think for him-
se;f, and had the moral courage to fling aside the
prejudices of education and party, and place at the
service of his country the results of long experience
and extensive knowledge. Happily for his own fame,
but still more fortunately for his country, " HE GAVE
NOT to party what was meant for mankind." He tore
himself from the ties of a strong but narrow-minded
party, he trampled faction under his feet, and in the
zenith of his matured years and his ripened judgment
he thought only of his country. To his successors,
to those who acknowledged him as leader, we would
say, " Go ye and do likewise."

An attempt will no doubt be made, and has been
indeed made already, to cajole the friends of the
departed statesman in the house of CJmulons.
Every inducement will be held out to en-
tice them into the ranks of the Protec-
tionists, but shame on the recreant who
shall sully the fame of his departed leader by
banding with his enemies. We trust none of them
will be entrapped into the snare prepared for them,
but will continue the firm advocates of those measures
of relief and reform which the late statesman carried
out in the fullness of honest conviction, after the
mature deliberation of a whole life.

It must certainly he admitted that several measures
of great public utility and importance have become
law during the past session. I'Ve may instance the
County Courts Extension, the Brick Duties,
Charitable Trusts, and Mercantile Marine Bills, with
many others ; but far the moat desirable and
meritorious were the Bills for Australian self-
government and extramural interments ; still
we cannot overlook the short-comings and
failures. The window-tax is still unrepealed ;
the savings banks are left without protection ;
the Railway Audit Bill is on the stocks:; the Woods
and Forests left to the usual mismanagement ; the
Jewish question unsettled ; the nuisance of Smithfield
unabated ; the Stamp Act but little improved, and
Chancery left unreformed. But though these are
sufficiently evil, yet the emissions in regard to Ire-
land are still more to be deplored.
The Security for Advances Bill, which was looked
forward to with hope and aexiety as a means of
working with advantage the Encumbered Estates
Bill, has been postponed. But the monster grievance
of all, that grievance in comparison with which all
other sins of omission or commission sink into utter
insignificance, the Irish land question, has been left
untouched.

To the midnight legislator, whose laws are fre-
quently written in blood, is still left the adjustment
of the relations between landlords and tenants in Ire-
land. Cruel murders and murderous evictions still
bear hideous testimony to the dire necessity fur the
settlement of this question. Yet some of our con-
temporaries advance the preposterous notion that the
Legislature is not to interfere ; that it should be con-
signed to the Utopian hope that a better state of
things will arise ; that better feelings will spring up
between landlords and tenants ; that some imaginary
influence will disarm the assassin, and soften into acts
of kindness and justice the hard-hearted landlord.

We have no such hopes, we cannot indulge in
such vague fancies in the teeth of the direful
assassinations and fearful cruelties which this question
has been the pregnant cause of fur ages ;' and we
most ardently hope that this subject will be the very
first—as it most certainly is the first in importance—

to occupy the attention of the Legislature in the
coming session of Parliament.
Upon several occasions, through the columns of t'ais
paper, we have exhibited the absurdity of the propo-
sitions of those who, in entire ignorance or forgetful-
ness of every principle of constitutional law, would
place all contracts about land beyond the reach of le-
gislation ; and who would snake PROPERTY IN LAND
so holy and so sacred as to exempt it from all the
social-and political regulations to which every other
species of property is liable. Upon this point we do
not feel it necessary to add a word, for even the
" Thunderer" grumbles not forth a rumbling sound
in justification of such incomprehensible stolidity.
Legislative interference must speedily take place
on this all-important subject. The most pressing
necessity requires it ; the people demand it ; the
Government is pledged to it. 'Without legal inter-
phsition there is and can be no security for life or
property in Ireland. None but the enemy of peace
and order would attempt, under such circumstances,
to throw obstacles in the way of legislation. The
influential journalist, insteadLof expending his power
and talent in a fruitless opposition to what the
force of circumstances has rendered of imperious
and pressing necessity, should rather aid the friends
of social order and good government in endeavouring
to settle this question upon principles of equity and
justice. We should wish to see the person and pro•
perty of the landlord secure by circumscribing the
rights which he might abuse, and by enforcing,
under the sanction of the law, the performance of
those duties which he might neglect. Why should
the RIGHTS of that man be held sacred who
fails in the discharge of the DUTIES WHICH THOSE
RIGHTS IMPOSE

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The National has the following on the return of
the PRESIDENT :

" The return of the President was fix2cl for the 13tb.
Various rumours have been in circulation on this sub-
ject. An unconstitutional manifatation was to have
taken•place under the auspices of a society now becom-
ing celebrated. The Parliamentary Commission having
been warned had directed steps to be taken for the sup-
pression, if necessary, of all attempts at disorder. These
rumours were subsequently contradicted in a letter from
Cherbourg, published by the Evenement. After all, we
have reason to believe such rumours unfounded, for we
have just received intelligence that M. Louis Bonaparte,
hastening his return by a day, will reach Paris via Rouen
this ( Thursday) evening. Have the Tenth Decembrists
been warned of the fact? We cannot say; but, how-
ever that may be, the Republicans, even should they be
made the object of culpable provocations, will know how,
by the dignity and calmness of their attitude, to defeat
the calculations of a zeal which we are sure the Presi-
dent of the Republic condemns as much as we do. To
insulting cries uttered by a faction, hostile to order and
to democratic progress, the public conscience will, for
the honour even of the man who has sworn to defend our
institutions, respond unanimously by the cry which
ought to be so dear to the Chief Magistrate of the Re-
public—' Vivo la Constitution !' "

It is now admitted by the organs of the Elysile that
the sailors at Cherbourg on several occasions raised
the cry of " Vive le Prince de Joinville," and the
Pouvoir contains a vehement attack upon the Prince,
whom it suspects of intending to start as a candidate
for the Presidency in opposition to Louis NAPOLEON.
It declares that the Prince DE JOINVILLE is a man of
mediocre abilities and mediocre wealth, whose only
claim to distinction is his connexion with Royalty,
which alone must prevent him from ever accepting
office as President of a Republic. To this the Ordre,
the especial organ of the Burgraves, replies :
" We know not what might be the intentions of the
Prince de Joinville in the eventuality imagined by the
Elysean journal, mar what candidate France would
name supposing that an election of a new President
should take place in 1852; but this we do know, that
the action, if it continues a Republic, ought to be
free to choose for itself; of legitimacy, we fancy we
have enough, without any one being at the trouble
to invent a second. It is not probable that France
will think of electing the Prince de Joinville
mcdgre lui; the Pouvoir may then spare those fine reason-
ings it has heaped up oa this subject; but if this Prince,
or any other candidate should be chosen, and that on
account of those very alarms which are raised by the
agitations and menaces of the party which calls itself
Napoleon, we should like to know by what right, or in
the name of what principle could this same party enter
a protestation? If we are under the empire of national
sovereignty, it is for the nation to pronounce; if we are
to fall back upon old hereditary right, it is not M. Louis
Bonaparte Wee is its representative. His title is, that
he has been elected for four years, and he has no other."
This may be considered as an Orleanist declaration
of war against the Bonapartiits, and as an official an-
nouncement of the Prince DE JOII,-T" Qfn hr. Pre-
sidency.
The Moniteur announces tha•
mittee, charged by the Minister o.
tide on the measures to be takeri relative Exhi-
bition of 1851, met on the sth instant, M. ti. DUPIN
acting as President. It appears from what was
stated, that up to the 3 ISeptember 1,212 applications
to b 3 allowed to exhibit had Ix en sent in, cf which
793 wore from the department ef the Seine, and 419
from the other departments. Amongst those persons
144 had obtained at former French exhibitions gold
medals, and 212 silver ones. A great number of ap-
plications have still to be decided on. As the space
allowed by the committee (9,500 yards) is filled up,
new applicants are required to state the space they
may require.

The colon steam-corvette which left Toulon for
Tunis about a month ago, returned to that port on
the 7th. Its mission was then kept a secret, but it is
now know❑ that it was to receive two fugitives—
SIDI CaDOW, a near relative of ABD-EL-KADER, and
his servant, who had escaped from Fe•z. They were
taken on board the S ilon, where thy still remain.
They are to join ADD EL-FADER.
PARIS BOURSE, SEPT. 12. —Latest Prices.—Five
per Cents., 93f. 90c.; Three per Cents., 581. 15c.;
Bank of France, 2 305 f.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON S E WH.ANGE, SEPT. 12.
The only sales to-day were—Northern of France, 14%—
Paris and Strasburg, 7!.4.