The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-27 00:00:00

THE SUIN,

Having himself participated largely in the change'
produced by that tremendous conflict of the peoples
against the princes, LOUIS PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS has
witnessed the final triumph of democracy, in spite of
c-Alitions and treaties, in spite of military stra
tegies and political intrigues, in spite of the
inost dastardly and mendacious efforts at
deception which ever disgraced the champions
of tyranny. In France especially he has witnessed
the revival of that republican form of government
which it was thought that kingcraft had for ever de-
stroyed in those dominions—the Phrygian cap again
replacing the royal diadem of the Bourbons. Yes !
such has been the fate reserved, as if in expiation, for
the son of Egalite, his vanity and his ambition quail-
ing at last before the majestic lineaments of that
Freedom which he himself had endeavoured to strangle
with his embraces, to betray, like the ISCARIOT,
1 with his kiss, and to poison by the nar-
cotic influence of his insidious and pernicious
blandishments ! As if to consummate to the very
uttermost this astounding series of retributions, be
was compelled, moreover, to see the election as first
magistrate of the French Republic, the spontaneous
election, by universal suffrage and the ballot, of the
heir of that wonderful hero who was both an Emperor
and a King, that SESOSTRIS of the nineteenth cen-
tury, who fulfilled his destinies by rendering demo-
cracy respectable, clothing it with the purple of
the Italian CXiARS, and crowning it with the
golden crown of CHARLEMAGNE! Again, the
lovely vision of the Girondists was realised, again the
throne of the ancient dynasty was replaced by the
curule chair of an unanointed magistrate, again
the baubles of a corrupt court were spurned from the
palaces, and the rights of the multitude redeemed—
this time, however, the labour of emancipation was
accomplished, not by carnage but by magnanimity,
not by ferocity but by virtue, not by confiscation, and
robbery, and massacre, but by the preservation
of property, by the prevention of theft, and by the
abolition of death to political offenders on
the guillotine. It was by a touching dispensation of
PROVIDENCE that Louis PHILIPPE was permitted to
survive his own downfall so long as to enable him to
witness, not only the ulterior consolidation of Repub-
licanism in France, but the selection by the French
people as their first Republican President of the re-
presentative of the Imperial family of NAPOLEON.
Having continued in existence until that latest and
not least significant act of the French multitude had
transpired, he cannot be said to have passed from
amongst us prematurely, although until recently
his frame seemed to give promise of its remaining
many years longer robust and vigorous. Scarcely
affected is any perceptible degree by his almost in-
numerable and most astounding vicissitudes, the re-
markable personage who expired yesterday in his
secluded exile at Richmond appears to have had his
health undermined by the gnawings of remorse and
by the shock of his last thunderbolt of consternation.
As Due DE VALOIS, in his infancy, he_was little sup-
posed to be reserved for so many triumphs and so
many calamities, for so much anguish and so much
exultation, for such abrupt and perpetually varying
fluctuations of fortune. Scarcely more could this
have been conjectured when, as Due DE CHARTRES,
he was listening to the tuition of the Chevalier Boa-
HARD, or standing at the knees of Madame DE
GENLIS, when he was commanding his regiment at
B,u,su and Qaarignon, or reaping early laurels on
the fields of Valmy and Jemappes. Nor would it have
been less difficult fur him to have foreseen,
when Duo D'ORLEANS at Twickenham, that he would
reign more than seventeen years as King LOUIS
PHILIPPE in the Tuilleries, any more than it would
have been possible for him, when, as Mr. CORBY,
he acted as mathematical schoolmaster in Switzer-
land, to perceive himself, long afterwards, as Mr.
SMITH, flying yet once more as a refugee across the
Channel to England. From the multiplicity of his
wanderings he has been not unfrequently spoken
of as the modern ULYSSES, his footsteps having
passed at different periods over the greater parts of
France and England, through Switzerland, Spain,
Hamburgb, Belgium, Lapland, Finland, Stockholm,
Freidrichstadt, New Orleans, the United States, the
Havannah, Halifax, Malta, Messina, Gibraltar,
Palermo, and through numberless other quarters of
the globe, now traversing the sunny roads of Tarra-
gona, now penetrating the arctic circle within
eighteen degrees of the pole. His sagacity during a
large portion of his reign over the French
people as their constitutional Sovereign obtained
for him the magnificent designation of the NAPOLEON
or PEACE, a title which subsequent events proved
to be egregiously inappropriate. The aspect in which
it is most agreeable to consider his character
is that of his domestic relations, in which
his ex •MAJEsrr was up to the, hour of his
death in every conceivable respect most exem
plary. As a brother his affection was unceas

ng in its tenderness, as was shown conspicu

ously on the occasicns of the demise of the
Due DB LIONTFENSIEN, in 1807, at Twickenham,
of the Count DE BEAUJOLAIS, in 1808, at
Malta, and of the Princess ADELAIDE, in 1847, at the
Tuileries. As a father his devotion was earnest, even
to the length of extravagance, a fact painfully revealed
at the deathbed of his eldest born the Due D'OaLEA.Ns,
and subsequently, and yet more painfully, in
those intrigues for the pecuniary and dynastic advan-

tage of his children, which tended to precipitate his
own overthrow by the last revolution. As a husband
his worth bas received a noble attestation in the un-

changing attachment shown towards him by the part
ner of all his joys and sorrows, the widowed and vene

rable Queen AMELIE. Those gentle qualitieswill go far
towards mitigating the severity of the future annalist

when the duty devolves upon him of estimating the
character of the departed Prince, Louis PHILIPPS

D'ORLEANS. When summing up the phases of his
protean temperament and completing the synopsis of
his versatile and supple intellect, the historian will

refer doubtless, in extenuation of his errors, not to the

accomplidunents of the Prince, to the learning of
the scholar, to the valour of the soldier, to the adroit•

ness of the statesman, or to the skill of the royal
diplomatist, but to those humbler merits which re-
dound to his real glory as a man, to the sweetness
and the strength, and the beauty of those af-
fections which prove his heart to have actuated
him aright, even when his head was guiding him

along paths of chicane, luring him thither by in

fluences of the most erroneous duplicity. Insomuch
were these the contrasting peculiariaties a his nature,
that we may say of the extraordinary man who has

ust expired that the antitheses of his character were

:o the full as striking as the chequered aspect of bis

vicissitudes.

The proceedings on the nomination of the Commit-
tee of the House of Commons to inquire into the causes
of the commercial distress, and the operation of the
Bank Charter Act, distinctly showed the transparent
humbug of the so-called investigation that was about
to take place. From the moment that the names of
its members alai the manner in which it was consti-
tuted were made known, it required no extraordinary
power of vaticination to foretel the nature of the
report that would ultimately be returned. The evi-
dence that might be adduced was a matter of but little
importance. It was but too well known that an abso-
lute majority of that Committee had already decided
the matter in their own minds, and that nothing could
alter their preconceived opinions. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer made a great affectation of fairness
and impartiality when announcing the selection he
had made, and by which he abided with the most de-
termined obstinacy. He declared "that he proposed
to leave the supporters of the Bill only four," viz.,
Sir R. PEEL, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Sir JAMES GRA-
HAM, and himself, while there were eleven who had
expressed adverse opinions, so that there would be
"an absolute maj.rity of seven pledged persons !"
This strange assertion, so palpably erroneous, was not
permitted to remain uncoutradicted. The Hon.
Me:nber for Middlesex, with his usual independence,
declare 1 that " the House was about to enact a scene
from Much Ado about Nothing ! and was about to
shelve the question ;" while Lord GEORGE BENTINCK
earnestly protested against the proposition and sug-
gested several changes, all of which were rejected
seriatrn, and the motion, as originally framed, carried
by a considerable majority.

Among the so-called neutral members were the
President of the Board of Trade, who was, of course,
b und to hire the same views as his colleagues
is the Cabinet; Mr. Gotaztuaa, who had filled
the once of Chancellor of the Exchequer