The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-16 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 16, 1868.

Anxiety has for some time past been expressed
by lookers-on as to the state of public feeling in
France, and in point of fact as to the permanence
of the Second Empire. Twenty years have now
elapsed since the Prince CHARLES Louis NAPOLEON
was recalled from exile to assume supreme responsi-
bility as bead of the Government. On the 26th of
September, 1848, H.I.H. took his seat as represen-
tative of the Department of l'Yonne in the Na-
tional Assembly. On the 20th of the fol-
lowing December he was proclaimed Presi-
dent. Three years afterwards came the coup d'etat,
on the 2d of December, 1851, and before that month
was out the author of the coup d'etat was re-elected
President, but that time for a period of ten years'
duration, again under the shadow of the Ballot, and
again by Universal Suffrage. By the December of the
next year the final step was taken—the President be-
coming Emperor under the title of NAPOLEON 111. by
right of very nearly eight million votes, the ayes being
7,864,189. Since then, as previously indeed, the hold
he has kept, as ruler of France, upon the reins of
Government, has been firm yet temperate. Inso-
much that it would be simply idle to maintain that
the country has been swayed by a grinding and ar-
bitrary authority, what though, as upon the third of
this present month of December, seventeeen years
since the morrow of the coup d'etat, but a few days
short of twenty years since the Emperor was elected
President, it might be said that (as the poet sings in
" Robert of Sicily ") all—

" . . may feel
The velvet scabbard held a sword of steel."
To argue, here in England, as some have done, that
the Imperial Government of France has been in no
way justified by the result in making those enor-
mous defensive preparations against the possibility
of an insurrectionary movement which a few weeks
since was rumoured to be immediately in pre-
paration—evidences, as we conceive, a total
forgetfulness of the Tenth of April, 1848, here
in London. Then, it will be remembered, every pre-
paration was made by the authorities with a view to
suppress the rising of Chartist Insurgents. As many
as 170,000 special constables were enrolled—among
them the Prince Louis NAPOLEON ! As
Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Field Mar-
shal his Grace the Duke of WELLINGTON was
at his post—troops were quartered at important
points of the metropolis—sand-bags, ammunition,
and abundant rations, were stored up betimes in the
Bank of England, at the Royal Mint, and elsewhere.
In fact every conceivable precaution was taken
against the possibility of a threatened or simply
rumoured disaster. The rumour turned out after-
wards to be utterly groundless. The threat was
shown by events to have been simply preposterous.
The Chartists, against whom all these ludicrously dis-
proportioned precautionary measures were taken by
the people and by the Government, by the military
authorities and by the civilians, when they came to
assemble on Kennington-Green, were seen to be

utterly contemptible both in their leaders
and in themselves numerically. Mr. FEARGUS
O'CONNOR was there. A monster petition
was conveyed to the House of Commons iu three
hack cabs—a petition which was to have been signed,

according to the previous boast, by 5,706,000 people,
but which had in reality appended to it only
1,975,490 signatures, many of these, moreover, being
idle, vulgar, and wanton fabrications. Such are
the notorious historical facts in regard to the
10th of April, 1848, here in London. And yet to
this day no one has ever dreamt of impugning the
judgment of the Duke of WELLINGTON as Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Royal Forces, or of casting
ridicule upon the loyalty and patriotism of the
170,000 Special Constables who had there and then
volunteered to he enrolled for the maintenance of
order. Equally idle, as we cannot but think,
would it now be seriously to assail the Im-
perial authorities beyond the channel because of
the no less enormously disproportioned precautionary
measures adopted by them in Paris on the 3d of the
present December, with a view to put down any re-
publican disturbances that might have arisen, under
any conceivable pretext, whether in memory of the
coup d'etat or in memory of BAUDIN. Granted that
the Baudinites proved to be numerically insignificant
not to say invisible, on the 3d of December, 1868—
but so also was it in regard to the Chartists on the
10th of April, 1848, here in London. If the people
of England, or at any rate the inhabitants of the
metropolis, and together with them the Duke Of,IVEL-
LINGTON and Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Government, were
justified, as they undoubtedly were, in the pre-
cautionary measures which were then taken upon
so enormous a scale against the risk of a threat of an
insurrection that the event showed to be nothing
else than a false alarm altogether—so also has it
been, beyond all manner of doubt, in regard to the 3d
of December, 1868, in Paris, when horse, foot, and
artillery were there in readiness to maintain order,
had there been any call for their so doing, in the
name of the imperial Government.

WHILST the Spaniards have settled their own diffi-
culties in kndalusia, the united efforts of the Great
Powers have not yet brought about a pacific solution
of the dispute between Turkey and Greece. The
rising at Cadiz, which was thought to be the
beginning of a desperate struggle between the
Republicans and the Monarchists, did not spread
farther, and has terminated after a well-sustained
conflict in the streets of the famous seaport. On
the other hand, the new phase of the Eastern Question
has become really menacing to the peace of Europe,
The united action of the Great Powers was the
means of securing the reference of the dispute to
negotiation ; but the quarrel has broken out again,
whilst the negotiations are going on. An interval of
several days was agreed upon, during which the
terms of the Porte's ultimatum might be considered ;
but though Thursday was fixed upon as the last day
of the armistice, the Turkish Ambassador left
Athens and the Greek Minister withdrew from
Constantinople on Monday. This is an alarming
symptom, though a war is not the inevitable con-
sequence. It proves, however, how intense is the
bitterness of the quarrel between these two nations,
and how great must be the difficulty of prevent-
ing hostilities. The greater European States may
absolutely forbid a war, or they may exercise such a
pressure that neither of the principal parties in the
dispute will venture to take the initiative against
the other. But this result would be hardly more
satisfactory, possibly less so, than an actual conflict.
There are some situations which are even more