The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

rejection of the demand of General FABYIER as alto-
gether irreconcileable. All the protestations of gene-
rosity in the world will fail to convince the public
mind of the magnanimity of a Government which
refuses to accede to demands so simple as those relat-
ing to the ratification of a treaty deliberately entered
into by the representatives of France; and the condi-
tions of which were afterwards deliberately evaded,
first by the Monarchy, and then by the Republic.
So painful is the sense entertained by us of the short-
coming of France in this particular, that we could
wish to see in the hands of the Prince Lotus N.:aro-
LEON that plenitude of authority which could
enable him by a single stroke of his pen
to decree the freedom of the Emir. We
are satisfied of one thing, and that is, that the heart of
the PRESIDENT is sufficiently alive to the influence of
generous emotions to be solicitous to yield this prac-
tical tribute of sympathy to a brave man, now under-
going the miseries of that imprisonment the bitterness
of which he himself has experienced. Living now in
the splendour of the Palace of the Elysee, as the
chief magistrate of his native country—the country
of his ancestral glory and of his dynastic daydreams
—he must still cherish a lively recollection of his six
years' captivity in the fortress of Ham, a recollection
so lively as to inspire his mind with a sympathising
regret for the confinement of ABD-EL-KADER in the
chateau of Amboise. By a strange coincidence
Amboise has been selected as the prison
of the dauntless but fallen Arab that
royal Amboise, whose very name, whose very
walls, whose very atmosphere are associated with the
idea of French generosity—Amboise, where the great
Italian artist, LEONARDO DA VINCI, was received in
his old age as the guest and favourite of the First
FRANCIS—Amboise, where his bones have reposed
unmolested since the time of their sepulture. In that
palatial chateau, which was once the abode of LEO-
NARDO,`: the luckless ABD-EL-KADER is now pining
for the land of his many glorious recollections.
Under all circumstances the incarceration of a great
and brave-hearted warrior is always the object of
peculiar sympathy and condolence. The imagination
can scarcely form to itself more painful pictures than
are suggested by the thought of Mortals]) Cmuß DE
LION in his dungeon, of FRANCIS the FIRST in his
Spanish captivity, of ToussAnser L'OVERTURE in his
exile and imprisonment among the European mountains,
or of NAPOLEON in his miserable insulation in the island
of St. Helena. Added to these sorrowful ideas are
others, perhaps on some accounts still more depress-
ing, suggested by the retention of the unfortunate
Aar-EL-FADER at Amboise. To him—the child cf
the desert, the only bounds to whose liberty have
hitherto been the wide and trackless plains of the
wilderness—the sense of bondage must be more irk-
some and intolerable even than to the soul of the lion-
hearted PLANTAGENET. Especially must this be the
case, moreover, when he calls to mind the fact that
he was tricked into submission to the powers of
France by the solemn engagements entered into with
him for the preservation of Li; personal freedom—en-
gagements made, not by a simple colonel of a regi-
ment, by a consul, or by an ambassador—but by the
military commander of a reench province, and by the
Governor-General of Algeria. 'Why, the shameless eva-
sion of the promise given to the EmperorNAronnoN, in
1815, by Captain MAITLAND, lives in history as a
damning accusation on our Government ! But Cap-
tain MAITLAND was merely the commander of the
Bellerophon, whereas the Duc D'AEMALE was the
Governor •Ganeral of Algeria, the official and autho-
rised representative of the French Monarchy ; nay,
what is yet more, the son of the SOVEREIGN. Well
might General FAEVIER, when alluding to this
shameless act of
,"perpetuated treachery, exclaim
against the false position assumed by his mother
country. When a similar petition wan submitted
to the Constituent Assembly, said General FAB-
VIER, " do; you know what was the declaration of
the implacable Moniteur ?" It was that the announce•
ment was received with laughter ! "And this," he ex-
claims in tones of sorrow and amazement, " and this
was in a French Assembly, that is to say among
the representatives of the most moral, the most loyal,
and the most generous people who have ever existed !"
No wonder the voice of a brave soldier like General
FABVIER should give utterance to words of indigna-
tion when recording a circumstance so disgraceful to
the national spirit of his countrymen ! No wonder
that he should marvel at that cruelest of all insults to
the unfortunate—derision—derision expressed more-
over towards a hero like ADD-EL-FADER, by a nation
like France ! That the demands of justice and of
humanity should be overlooked by the Republic we
regret, the more so because we had anticipated better
things from the youthful and generous heart of the
French democracy. Let the Republic bear in mind
the significant fact, that the downfall of Louis
PHILIPPE followed immediately upon his de-
plorable breach of faith to ABD-EL-KADER—as it
were in retribution for an act of turpitude so inju-
rious to the fair fame of European civilization. It
would be a graceful, not to say a sagacious proceed-
ing on the part of whatever power may happen to
succeed the Legislative Assembly, to pronounce the
word which shall open the prison doors of the
chateau of Amboise, and permit the illustrious cap-
tive to depart for St. Jean d'Acre or for Alexandria.
Our hopes have been so miserably disappointed by
the present representatives of the French people, that
we cannot but look forward to some future authority
which may vindicate the national reputation, and in
so doing cover with additional disgrace those who
have only rivetted anew the chains of the Arabian
captive.

The necessity for an adjustment of the relations
between the landlords and tenants of Ireland has been
for some time past the subject of a vigorous and wide-
spread agitation in that country. The people have
spoken out in strong and unmistakeable terms through
the length and breadth of the land. Manifestations in
favour of " tenant right" have been made not only,
in each province, but almost in every county and im-
portant agricultural district of that kingdom. The
exertions of the " Tenant League" have been active,
steady, and untiring, and, with few exceptions, the
language of this extensive confederation has been of
that firm and temperate character which should com-
mand attention, while the important principle it
advocates deserves success, and we hope to see the
settlement of this question effected as speedily as
possible after the meeting of the coming session of
Parliament.
We have so frequently, and at such length, through
the columns of this journal, pointed out the injustice
and impolicy of the present state of land-law in Ire-
land, that the task has become somewhat irksome, and
we should not be disposed again to refer to any of the
arguments by which we sustained our views upon
this subject if we were not impressed with a belief in the
humiliating fact that there is, in the human mind, a
strong, repulsive feeling, against the reception of any
fact, or truth, which jars with its interests or preju-
dices, and that it requires the frequent iteration of
even a truth almost self-evident to fix it upon
the public mind.

We pass over the natural and inherent right of
every member of the human family to a subsistence
upon the soil where he was born, nor shall we dwell
on the unnatural anomaly—not very uncommon in
the sister island—of GOD'S creatures perishing for
want in the midst of a bountiful abundance which, in
' His beneficence, was intended to be APPORTIONED to
all—to the landlord, the tenant, the labourer each in
his degree ; aye, even our laws—and every law
based upon the divine—recognize the right of those
who can no longer labour, the aged and the infirm to
support and shelter. Our law for the relief of the
poor is based upon the recognition of this right. Un-
answerable arguments might be dedaced from these
principles to show that every human being is by all
laws, human and divine, entitled to some share of
the fruits of the earth. But while we admit the cbm-
mon right of all to live upon the products of the
earth, we are by no means the advocates of the ab-
surd and impracticable principles of Communism.
We are rattler disposed to concur in the couplet of
the poet, that—
" Order is heaven's first law, and this confess'd,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest."
And while we would do full and ample justice to
the Irish tenant, we would be no party to the inflic-
tion of injustice upon the Irish landlord.
Looking then upon the Irish land question merely
in a social point of view, as a matter in dispute be-
tween two classes of her I‘IAJESTY'S subjects, let us
see whether it would not be for the benefit of both
parties that this dispute should be settled by the State.