The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-23 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING-, MAY 23, 1850.

ment and removal, they would see things contrived in
such a manner that the appointment of a medical
officer to a district should be permanent, and subject
only to be rescinded by the President of the Poor-
law Board, or by the director of a board specially
appointed, upon proved charge of neglect of duty,
gross malpractice, legal sentence inferring dishonour
or crime, or other valid cause. Instead of witnessing the
perpetuation of the present scheme of irresponsibility,
they would have it arranged so that a general board
should be established for the superintendence of the
duties of the medical officers of unions, under a chief
medical director and a sufficient number of medical
inspectors, to protect both the interests of the public
and the profession.

Such are the reasonable claims advanced by the
medical officers of unions throughout England
and Wales ;• and, beholding the treatment
they have hitherto been subjected to, we can
scarcely feel surprised at the indignation with
which the Honourable and Reverend SIDNEY Go-
DOLPHIN OSBORNE, writing upon the old system, ex-
claimed :—"lt is time this farce was played out ;
the public are getting disgusted with it, the medical
profession is degraded by it, it outrages humanity,
it is indefensible on any of the principles that
are usually held to be just." Time enough, indeed,
is it, that this grim farce should be brought to a con-
clusion. Pray heaven that its close may be effected
in a manner at once rapid and permanent.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.
We have received the Paris Journals of yesterday.
The debate on the Electoral Bill was adjourned,
after speeches from General CAVAIGNAC, M. VICTOR
Hiroo, and M. PASCAL DMA; against the measure,
and of M. Juras Ds LETSTERIE in favour of it.
The speech of General CAYAIGNAC produced a
deep impression ; calm, lucid, and unimpassioned, it
was one of ths most logical arguments in support of
universal suffrage that was ever presented. The
General laid-it down as a principle that the suffrage
belonged to the person, and not to the domicile, and
on that foundation argued against the justice and the
policy of the proposed restrictions.
Having attacked the right of meeting, the freedom
of the press Land universal suffrage, the Government
has now violated the right of petition. M. Bossy,
Procureur of the Republique at Neufchateau, has, by
order of his superior officers caused a petition to the
Assembly against alteration in the electoral law to be
seized so as to prevent its presentation.
We extract from the Morning Herald of this day the
following admirable exposé of the base and nefarious in-
trigues of the reactionary party against the greatness of
England, to which, we are sorry to say, too many of
our own aristocracy have lent and are lending them-
selves, remembering only that they are aristocrats,
and forgetting that they are Englishmen,:--
"The counter-revolutionary journals, to give them
their right designation, have received the mot d'ordre,
that Lord Palmerston is about to fall in consequence
of the general indignation of the people of England
on the subject of the Greek question. Let Lord
Palmerston fall, by all means, but let not his fall be
isolated from that of his colleagues. Should the Eng-
lish Cabinet be broken up, let it be done on the ques-
tions of internal policy, for a greater danger could not
happen to England at this moment than would arise
from the defeat of the Whigs on the subject of this
fraudulent rupture, fraudulent in design, as fraudulent
in its execution, which . has been attempted rather
than carried by the present French Cabinet, at the
instigation or the counter-revolutionary party.
Take the most honoured of England's Conservative
statesmen--take the great Duke, and he would
find himself, if placed at the Foreign-office, obliged
and necessitated by an imperative sense of high
honour and patriotism, to discountenance and oppose
the notorious designs of this same party, in whose
way Lord Palmerston stands as an obstacle. What
would be the consequence ? Why this ; that the self-
same counter-revolutionary party, checked in its
movements and irritated because checked, would soon
raise the cry that all parties in England, Whig and
Tory, were alike jealous of France, and were equally
opposed to her legitimate ambition ; they would ex •
cite the passions of the country against Englishmen
of all ranks and classes, and would render war with
England inevitable. Such would be the consequence
of a change of Government in England on the iso-
lated ground of a question between Lord Palmerston
and General Lahitte. Oar position at present as
regards French parties is of the best and happiest
kind. The moderate Republican party, the middle
classes, whether they be Republican or Monarchical
in the free constitutional sense, and the people at
large are well disposed towards England. You need
only commit their journals to feel convinced that
such is the case. The feeling has been growing
since February, 1848, because the revolution gave
the country an opportunity of testing the sincerity,
of British principles on the score of non-
intervention in the internal politics of other
countries. That feeling grew stronger as the
British flag was seen to favour constitutional prin-
ciples, even as distinguished from those of a repub-
lican character, while the protection of Turkey in
the Hungarian question raised the fame of Great
Britain in that delightful way which excludes jea-
lousy and envy from the contemplation of glory.
The popularity of England happens to stand now in
the way of the great plot for the destruction of the
Republic, and the object of the counter-revolutionary
party is to destroy that popularity, and convert it
into hatred; because, fur the final carrying out of the
great scheme in view, it is England' that must be
stricken. It is notorious that the two brahches of
the Bourbon family are reconciled. It is notorious
that the throne is destined for Henry V. It is no-
torious that for the sake of giving popularity to the
restoration, of dazzling the army, and captivating the
people, an aggrandisement of territory will be at-
tempted. The unaccomplished treaty of Charles X.
with the Emperor of Russia will be taken up, with
the aid and alliance of Austria. The great question
of a united Germany will be smothered under the
weight of Russian, Austrian, and French bayonets.
The map of Europe will be new modelled, and England,
driven from the Continent, driven from the Medi-
terranean, invaded in India, invaded at home, will
hare to battle for her existence. Yes, such would
be the infallible and inevitable consequence of a
forced change in the foreign policy of Great Britain
on the sense of a successor to Lord Palmerston,
coming in on the principle of countenancing for the
smallest fragment of time this Absolutist plot for a
fresh barbarian invasion of the Continent. What
is Lord Palmerston—or what is any man, when re-
garded with reference to the unparalleled crisis in
which Europe is placed at this moment ? How
miserable would mere party tactics seem at such a
time. Let one unsuspected, independent journal, at
all events, allow the truth to be spoken in its co-
lumns at a moment when God knows too great a por-
tion of the influential press of England i 3 under
foreign Inspiration. The task of exposing this plot is
but too easy. It needs only to be stated to carry
conviction to.all minds not obfuscated by party, or
lured by the blandishments of expelled and runaway
statesmen bringing their poor baggage of imhgivary
state secrets and fanciful hopes to the back offices of
thunderers of the press. It is said that Lord Pal.
merston stands in the way of a counter.
revolution—but only for him all the Cabinets
of lurope would come to a harmonious un-
derstanding for the overthrow of the French
Republic and the restoration of the monarchy.
Taking the question in this simple way, it looks
specious enough, for
it presents a desirable object
prevented by one obnoxious man. Allowing, how-.
ever, this new holy alliance to be justifiable, exclu-
ding from it all suggestions of conspiracy against the
rights of a particular people to settle their own govern-
ment, yet does any man believe that matters would
rest with the return of Henry V. and the inevitable
reintegration of the old regime, that compound of
foppery, Jesuitism, lazy debauchery, and profound
dissimulation, with only one principle, that of abso-
lute government, in the most antiquated sense of the
word, and only • one vigorous passion, that of
tun-
quenchable hatred of Great Britain. We are cer-
tainly on the alternative of two convulsions. The
schemes and falsehoods of the counter-revolutionary
that, in
inhaovuer
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o consequences,
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e oa
shoulddegree wish
them success, if we did not know that the first con-
sequences of the victory would be a general war,
and war at the expense of England. The conse
quence of the overthrow of the counter-revolu-
tionary party might be, it is true, to lead to a
war of principles, in which England would have to
Play the part of mediator and moderator; but the
restoration beginning in the total destruction of
liberty of every kind would lead to a war of territory.
Such are the alternatives before us. If peace is to be
secured at all it can only be done by England taking
up the mdst firm and resolute attitude—that horrible
heresy of the Cobdens and Brights, that England
cannot and will not go to war, will, if not destroyed,
inevitably lead to the most humiliating or the most
costly results. To such mawkish, peddling trash we
owe already the complications that have sprung up in
the Mediterranean. It has encouraged the insolence
of every petty despot, and lowered the high conside-
ration of England in the eyes of nations. The truth
should be told, that for sake of the honour of Eng-
land, there is not a nobleman or merchant who would
not send his plate to the Mint—that no sacrifices of
persons or property would weigh for a moment with
the British people. Had such language as this been
used by British Members of Parliament we should
not now have to put forth the strong arm of our fleet
to destroy a' prejudice of so paltry and dishonouring a
kind,"