The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-13 00:00:00

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LONDON; FRIDAY, DEC EMBER 13. 1850.

A second anniversary of the Prince Lours Nara-
LEON'S election, on the 10:h of December, as Presi-
dent of the French Republic, was happily celebrated
on Tuesday. In the Hotel de Ville—that palatial
edifice which is associated with so many revolutionary
and constitutional occurrences, with the deliberations
of the Terrorist Triumvirate, and with those me-
morable councils of February which reposed the des-
tinies of the country, at a crisis of unparalleled peril,
in the hands of the Provisional Government—the
municipal authorities of Paris assembled together for
the purpose of offering the homage of their sympa-
thies and of their gratitude to the elected chief ma-
gistrate of a democracy, himself the son of a King, and
the nephew of an Emperor. The occasion was one in
every respect gratifying to the illustrious personage in
whose honour the fête was given, affording as it did
the assurance that his power as Republican President
had been well employed in the estimation of the com-
munity by whose free and pontaneous suffrages he
had been elevated to:that supreme dignity. It was a
testimony of respect for his integrity, of confidence in
his prudence, of admiration for his abilities, of affec-
tion for himself personally, and of veneration fur his
high and responsible position. When it is considered
that the PRINCE ascended the magisterial chair at a
period of incomparable difficulty, that he did
so in the midst of curling lips and shrugging
shoulders, that his talents were gainsayed,
and his character pronounced to be that of
a half crazy adventurer, that he was re-
gareled by some as a madman and by others as a fool,
the puppet of circumstances, and the catspaw of a
cornspiracy—and when it is remembered, that in spite
of all this he has maintained himself in the rank of
President, with no diminution to his popularity or his
independence, it must assuredly he confessed that he
had ample cause for satisfaction at the approach of
this second anniversary of 'the 10th of December.
Those who were deputed to express to him the
entiments entertained in his regard by the French

multitude, gave utterance to ideas somewhat of this
very description—expatiating upon the mingled pride
and satisfaction with which the people reviewed the past
conduct of their chief magistrate. They availed
themselves of the opportunity more especially for the
purpose of commenting upon the circumstance, that
during the period of his two years' administration the
Republic had enjoyed uninterrupted peace and a per-
petually increasing public prosperity. While many
temptations were held out to the PRINCE, as the repre-
sentative of a warble dynasty, as the represen-
tative of the imperial house founded by the
greatest warrior of modern times, to enhance
his influence and extend his popularity, by
plunging into the chances of battle and
of winning not only the spurs of knighthood, but the
diadem of Emperor at the point of the sword, he has
unceasingly directed his energies to the maintenance
of tranquillity, preferring the sober merit of pacific
achievements to the melodramatic glory of conquest,
or the renown of territorial spoliation. Instead of
gaining victories in the field, LOUIS NAPOLEON has
been vanquishing ,the enemies of the Republic by de-
liberations in the closet, employing as the defences of
democracy official decrees and political ordinances,
rather than the blade of the bayonet
or the missiles of artillery. In lieu of
gratifying his ambition by taking cities or storming
fortifications, he has been contented with reviewing
the troops, with surveying the progress of maritime
development, and with presiding personally at the
inauguration of railroads. Not only have his endea-
vours been sedulously directed to the encouragement
of internal enterprise throughout the country at
large, but they have likewise been directed to the
decoration of the capital, and to the improvement
of its principal thoroughfares. This, moreover, has
been done, be it remembered, at the very time
when the mind of the PRESIDENT might have
been presumed to be wholly engrossed and pre-
occupied with the direction of the general affairs of
the Government. The circumstance was particularly
commented upon by the Prefect of the Seine, when
proposing, at the banquet of Tuesday, a toast to the
health of the Prince Louis Naroeeoet. " This
city," said he, addressing himself directly to the
PRESIDENT of the Republic, " this city is the con-
stant object of your solicitude, and the sentiment of
this solicitude, so precious for her, is with you a dy-
nastic heritage. The immortal author of the name
which you bear so well has left in our streets many
imperishable remembrances. Streets, squares, monu-
ments, all bear the imprint of his creative genius, and
even in the works now being executed may be recognised
the fruitful thoughts of N►roLEoN. The Rue de
Rivoli is following the line which he traced out, and
already we may see the day when the new approaches
of the Hotel de Ville will bear that glorious name.
The Halles, the Louvre of the people, as the EM-
PEROR called them, are on our part the ob-
ject of serious studies, which are animated by your
sympathetic encouragement. Thus already your Go-
vernment has its page honourably inscribed on the
tablets of our Parisian history. Streets, boulevards,
new quartiers open themselves in the bosom of the
capital ; and at the same time that art is erecting
splendid palaces to the novel industry of railway
enterprise, three hundred houses fall under the
hammer of demolition, ruins fruitful in employment
for the workmen, ruins happy for the embellishment
and salubrity of the metropolis." Responding to
these generous but deserved eulogiums, the PRINCE
called forth the enthusiasm of his auditors yet more
loudly by reminding them that his influence was contem

poraneous with the revival of peace and the re-ap.

pearance of prosperity, with the re-organization of
the social fabric, and the re-establishment of consti-

,utional tranquillity.

"To what," he exclaimed

" do we owe the circumstance of haring sub

stituted order for disorder, hope for discou

ragement ? It is not because at once the
son and the nephew of a soldier, I myself have
replaced another soldier, but because on the 10th of

December, for the first time since February)
the chief power emerged from the exercise of
a legitimate right, and not from an act merely
revolutionary " The salvos of applause which
greeted this reminiscence of his election af-

Forded a sufficient evidence to the PRESIDENT the'

his advancement to the rank of chief magistrate is
looked back to u the starting point of a Legiti-

matised Democracy, as the dawn of constitutional

hope upon Republicanism after the storms and
darkness of Revolution. The reflection cannot fail

to yield him encouragement in the fulfilment of his
arduous responsibilities : and, sustained by it, the

PRINCE may, with the permission of DIVINE PROVI

DENCE, pass with as much success through the two
last, as he has already done through the two first,

ye ars of bis brilliant and memorable Presidency.

The recent Transatlantic intelligence under the
date of New York, November 26th, informs us that
" the arrival of gold from California continued to be
regular, and that the receipts of the week had been
2,000,000 dollars," or in other words 400,0001.
sterling. In order to estimate the real productiveness
of the " diggins," it must be borne in mind that the
above enormous sum represents but a small portion
of the gold actually collected, what had been sent to
one pert alone, without taking into account the sums
transmitted to Australia, to China, to England, or to
any of the nations of Europe. It did not include
the sums brought by passengers, who, having realised
fortunes, were hastening to enjoy the fruits of their
good luck ere the precious metal became depreciated
in distant countries, as it has already become in the
neighbourhood of San Francisco. Nor did it infrirge
upon the large and continually increasing amount re-
tained in the country itself for the purpose of an in-
ternal currency. It cannot be supposed that from
80,000 to 160,000 persons, procuring and bringing to
light from half an ounce to an ounce of gold each per
diem on an average, and living pretty nearly up to the
smaller amount, would send away their gains without
retaining a large proportion for their own use to fall
back upon in the event of any failure of the supplies,
or their being debarred from further search by the
interference either of Indians or of the American Go-
vernment, which, now that California has been form-
ally admitted into the Union, may probably adopt
some energetic measures to secure a monopoly of
" treasure hunting" to those who owe allegiance to
" the stars and stripes." The we( lily importation
of 400,000/. to New York is therefore but a small
part—certainly nut a moiety—of the sums actually
realised, and yet it is equivalent to 20,800,000/. per
annum, or rather more than four times the amount
yielded at any former time by all the mines through-
out the entire globe, or which, according to the
views of the bullioniste, can be required to provide for
the wear and tear of the precious metals and the in..
creasing population of the world. It requires no ex-
traordinary powers of vaticination to perceive what
must be the inevitable results of this enormous addi-
tion to the stock of bullion. Although many years
must elapse before the natural consequences of the
charge can be fully developed (it took more than half
a century after the discoveries in Peru and Mexico
before the great depreciation in the value of coin was
apparent), its effects are already becoming perceptible;
and they must become more palpable in every sue
cessive year.

The great and sudden " appreciation" in the value
of silver, and the increased demand fur it in every
market, are the first symptoms of the change• The
relative proportions of the precious metals have been
attend, and as the quantity of gold increases, and the
amount of labour required for its production is re-

duced, so must its value diminish ; and there must be
a continued depreciation so long as the existing causes
continue in operation. The change hitherto has been
little more than 3 per cent., bu'. it must be borne in
mind that has been the fluctuation of a few weeks

only, and it is about what the ascertained arrivals 01

1 gold from California up to this period would most
probably occasion. In order to avoid any controversy
on the premises, we shall take our data from the great
organ of the moneyocracy, the Times, whose asser-
tions will not be disputed by any bullionist.
The Times then has recently estimated the amount
of gold received from California at 10,000,0001.
sterling, and it has further declared that it sees little
reason to doubt that a similar.sum will be obtained
each year from that country. It also states the
metallic currency of the world at 330,000,000/.
and from the Ural mourf-
As we may suppose that the ordinary sup•sterling.
and that the only
tialiiness,fianamvle Snooutthbetr
withdrawn,rica,
disturbing element has been the golden stream from .

California, the addition of 10,000,0001. to the former
stock of 330,000;0001. should produce, as nearly as
possible, a diminution in its value of 3 per cent., and
this is as nearly as possible the amount of the change.
Silver having improved from 59id. to 61,d.
according to the Times' calculation, there will be a
further addition of 10,000,0001. sterling in gold in
each and every year ; this must in like manner pro-
duce a further decrease in the value of gold, or in-
crease in the value of silver (the terms are nearly
convertible) of three per cent. per annum. This will
lead to " depreciation," with a vengeance. How
will " the integrity of the standard," for which the
nation has sustained so many serious trials, he pre-
served ? what will speedily be the state of our foreign
exchanges with nations that continue to preserve the
silver currency, when their circulating medium is
increasing and ours deteriorating in value day after
day ? These are interrogatories requiring distinct and
categorical answers. The consideration cannot be evaded
or postponed. The imperative necessityof a speedy settle •
went of the currency question is rendered more
manifest than ever. The moneyocracy will at
length begin to perceive its propriety. But if they
desire that these interests should be at all regarded,
they must seize the golden opportunity that still re-
mains. An equitable arrangement is still practicable.
If it be long delayed they will be the chief sufferers.
The industrious classes will not forget how strenu-
ously they have insisted upon the letter of their
contract, in total disregard of its spirit. They have
demanded their " pound of flesh"—perhaps they may
speedily be required to accept it, being at the same
time reminded that they cannot take with it a single
" drop of blood." They will receive their 5 dwts.
3 grs. of gold, without any;regard to its purchasing
power or command over the necessaries or comforts
of life.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 13, 1850.

'ME FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The report of M. DE MONTALEMBERT on the Sab-
bath Bill is the subject of comment in all of them.
The wily Jesuit has for once over-reached him-
self, and has excited the disgust of every sensible and
educated person of every party; under pretence of a
Bill for the better observance of the Sabbath, M. DE
MoyrArzsusErer has proposed a measure prohibiting
all labour on saints' days as well as on Sundays, and
that on the express ground that it is so ordered by
the Church. But in his report on the Bill, the
eulogizer of the Inquisition goes much further. He,
in the following passage, boldly lays down the prin-
ciple that the State must on all occasions be subser-
vient to the Church. He says—
" Without doubt the State is incompetent to govern
religion, but not to protect and defend it. The in-
tervention of the State in favour of religion, when it
keeps itself within the limits prescribed by the very
nature of the two powers, spiritual and temporal, is not
only licit and useful, but necessary. On the part of the
State indifference tow ards religion is not neutrality,
it is war.
In another portion of his report he denounces tolera-
tion, speaking of it as
" That liberty of nothing, claimed and conquered by
the modern spirit, under the name of tolerance."
Not only has he disgusted all the liberal party by
this report, which is another overt act of the great
conspiracy for the restoration of obscurantism, but
even the sober and serious Journal des Debats feels
it necessary to speak of it in such terms as the
following:—
" We have read with all the attention of which we
are capable the report of M. de Montalembert on the
project of law regarding the observance of the Sabbath
and holidays. We have read it with the most sincere
desire to find ourselves in accordance with M. de Mon-
talembert, or, at least not to have to feel ourselves
obliged to mark our dissent, and it will be readily,
understood that the violent and insulting in-
terruptions of the Mountain had already predis-
posed our minds in favour of the reporter and his report.
It is with reluctance that we feel ourselves compelled to
take an opposite part ; but having read the report of M.
de Montalembert wecannot restrain ourselves while doing
justice to his upright and pious intentions from expressing
our surprise and our regrets. We have strong objec-
tions to the proposed law itself ; but we have objecticts
infinitely stronger to the report ; for it must be acknow-
ledged that between the Bill and tire report the dispro-
portion is strange. The project of law might pass for
a simple act of propriety and religious decency ; the e-
port, on the contrary, looks like the gigantic froMis-
piece of a whole social system differing from that ;Weis
is established amongst us, and which has entered deeply
into our mariners."
The attempt of Count MOLE to establish a Conser-
vative Club has failed. He could not bring about a
fusion of Bonapartists, Orleanists, and Legitimatists.
The Moniteur announces that the Count DE HATZ-
FELDT, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary of his Majesty the King of PRUSSIA, has
presented to the PRESIDENT of the Republic the reply
of the KING to the letters recalling M. PERSIGNY
from Berlin. It also contains a decree of the PRESI-
DENT, promoting M. THEODORE LESSEPS 7 Director of
the Consulate of the Foreign-office, to the rank of
Commander of the Legion of Honour.
Madame DE FALLoex, mother of the ex-Minister
of Public Instruction, died on Friday evening last, at
her Chateau of Bourg d'lre.
There was a considerable amount of business trans-
acted at the Bourse, and a further rise took place in the
price of Government stock. The Five per Cents.
opened at 94f. 80c., fell to 94F. 65c., rose again to 95f.,
and closed at 94f. 95a.; the Three per Cents. closed at
57e. 50c.; Orleans Railrcai Shares, 825 f.; Rouen, 625.;
Havre, 247 f. 50c.; Great Northern, 46Sf. 75c.; Avig-
non, 192 e. 50a.; Vierzon, 4001.; Basle, 1:35f.; Bordeaux,
383 f. 75c.; Paris and Strasburg, 348 f. 75c.; Tours and
Nantes, 2401
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT TOE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, DEC. 12.
Boulogne and Amiens, 81,x—Central of France (Or-
leans and Vierion), 161,4—Great Indian Peninsula, 174—
Luxembourg, 214—Namur and Liege, 7M Northern of
France, 14-g
—Orleans and Bourdeaux,2%—Paris and Or-
leans, 34—Paris and Rouen, 25—Paris and Strasbourg, 9
Rouen and_Havre, 10—Sambre and Meuse, 2%.

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