The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-20 00:00:00

Obienina

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1850.

It is at all times satisfactory to witness the ex-
istence of a' thorough understanding and warm cor-
diality between a popular representative and his
constituents. Such feelings are alike honourable to
all pirties—to " the one," as showing that he has
justly merited the confidence repo6ed in him by faith-
fully and efficiently discharging the arduous duties
incidental to his high position—to " the many," as
proving
,that they duly appreciate the exer-
tions which have—bzen made on their behalf,
and that they feel . grateful to -the man who
has truly represented their wants and wishes
in the Imperial Parlitment, who, while he has
taken just and enliOltened views on those questions
of general policy that affect the entire community,
bas been peeulisrly diligent in all matters relating to
the locality-in- Which he is (-specially interested.
In the present state of parties it seldom falls to the
lot of aey member to satisfy all claases among his
constitu;mcy. Lie may be well contented if he can
maintain, his hold upon former allies, if he has fir-
feited
no portion of the support he had previously ob-
tained. But it must indeed be a subject of no ordi-
nary' pride. and self-gratulation if he should, have con-
cili ,ted opponents without alienating, friends—if he
3h,ould have won golden opinions from those who met'
him at the hustings with a manly and,streightforward'
opposition, when ignorant of his high qualifications
for the legislatorial function!, while he has more I
firmly cemented the bonds by which ..he was con- I
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it 4
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netted with those to whose suffrages he was indebted
for his seat in the House of Commons, and if he
should have achieved these triumphs without any sa-
crifice of his own convictions and his own indepen-
dence. Such a person will have little to fear from a
dissolution. A general election will carry with it no
terrors to induce him to vote contrary to his real
opinions, in order to avert the much•dreaded " ap-
peal to the country." He can, therefore,' be
far more useful than another of equal competence,
who has not the assurance that under any possible
circumstances his seat is safe," that he holds dum
se bene gesserit.
We have recently perused with great pleasure the
accounts contained in many of our Irish contempo-
raries, of a magnificent entertainment given to the
Hon. Gentleman the Member fur Athlone by his
constituents. On the termination of his Parliamentary

labours, Mr. K.Bocir, before availing himself
of the welcome relaxation—the pleasing vaca-
tion, that is as anxiously coveted by le-
gislators as by schoolboy, had not hesitated
to render an account of his stewardship, and to in-
quire whether he had not fulfilled the expectations
that bad been formed of his conduct—whether his
performance in any degree fell short of his promises
and undertakings ? The answer to these interroga-
tories was the banquet to which he alluded, in which
men of all creeds and parties, Protestant and Catholic,
Whig and Tory, Conservative and Radical vied with
each other in friendly rivalry to do honour to their
tried and faithful representative. • •
The chair was filled by the Protestant Rector, one
who, to use his own language, had " early seen the fit-
ness of Mr. KEOGH, to whose return he was mainly
instrumental," while the vice-chair was occupied by
the respected parish priest, once the most strenuous
opponent, but now one of the fastest friends of the
Honourable Gentleman. Along the festive board
were seated the most respectable inhabitants of the
towd;those wlio took active parte at either side during
the election, and those who, trying to maintain poll.-
~tical neutrality, had formerly abstained from regis-
tering their votes, but who then pledged themselves
-to do so, in order to ensure the return of Mr. KEOGH.
on all future occasions.
The speech of the Hon. Gentleman, on returning
thanks for the high compliment that had been paid to
him, was characterised by the ready wit, the grace

and eloquence for which he is so distinguished in Par

liament, and which has given him the well-merited
reputation of being one of the most skilful Idebaters
and rising aspirants for legislatorial laurels in the
House of Commons. He alluded in a peculiarly fe-
4icitous manner to his conduct on questions of
local interest, and the relationship between a
Member and his constituents. The moment
he was returned as representative fur Athlone
he buried in oblivion the opposition he had received ;
he only remembered that his constituents, whether
friends or enemies, had the first claim on his services
and these services were freely placed at their disposal,
and he spared no exertions to benefit the borough.
These exertions were truly valuable, and the electors,
even those who differed on minor points, discovered
the importance of securing such a representative.
It is unnecessary to dwell on the topics of local
interest so happily alluded to by the Honourable
Gentleman in. his eloquent address."! ;But there are

_ . .
points of general interest which every Irish
—every British constituency—must consider of
vital importance to the welfare and prosperity of the
community at large. The "profession of faith" on
these deeply interesting topics may serve as a model for
other Members.
.Our space will not permit us to do
more than touch upon the great cause of " legal
reform," to which Mr. KEOGH has proved so effi-
cient an auxiliary ; but we cannot refrain from
dwelling at greater length upon his views and
opinions on free trade, tenant-right, extension of the
franchise, and the foreign policy of the country—a
policy which was so unfairly attacked and so nobly
vindicated in the popular branch of the Legislature.
On the first of these subjects—" the great question,
whether man who has been ordained to eat bread in
the sweat of his brow," shall eat that bread taxed or
untaxed, he stated, -epiaking of the time when he
came to the hustings—
" I then believed, and I still believe, that this great
country *as by the timely carrying of those free-trade
measures saved from those political convulsions which
have swept Europe. I saw nothing in three years of
famine to Ether ray uoinions,r9reittiaturjalimdttitsja:_
operation a code of laws, fratsied, I say, with the direct
purpose of increasing artificially the incomes of the
higher classes it the expense of the toiling, struggling
artisans in every gradation throughout this great com-
munity. Lim I any reason to change my opinion
now ?"
And he pertinently asked—

" Who is the man daring—nay, I will use a stronger
expression—audacious enough to ask the Parliament of
England to tax the food of the people ? Protection
indeed ! Protection to keep up rents which were created
by war prices, in those sanguinary -conflicts which we
maintained in Europe at the expense of those hundreds
of millions of debt, which are now pressing down the
energies of the country. I say the first protection we
shall all demand is, protection for the lives of the people.
I value:the life of a fellow-creature far more than all
their incomes. I will first guard with a jealous eye the
food of the millions, and then if there is to be protection,
let it befor the industry and capital of the tenant, who
will never improve the soil so long as
the fruit of his exertions is not guaranteed by
some legislative enactments. I say that God and nature
intended that the soil should grow and increase in culti-
vation, and that the man who, by his labour and by his
capital, increased the value of the soil, should have a
property in that increased value. That is the inalienable
right of the tenant, that is • tenant-right,' and that I
promise you I will labour to obtain for him."
These are just and liberal sentiments, honourable
alike to him by whom they were promulgated, and
to those by whom they were received with rapturous
and enthusiastic applause. His opinions on the ex-
tension of the Parliamentary franchise and the
foreign. policy, which induced him to lend a disinte-
rested and independent support to Lord PALMERSTON,
on the recent question of " confidence," were alike
laudable. To other Liberal Members we shall now
only say, " Go ye and do likewise," and you will
reap similar rewards in the approbation of your own
consciences, and the continued Support and confi-
dence of your respective constituencies.

Although the intelligence brought by the last Over-
land Mail from our Indian empire is not of the nature
which is commonly called interesting, yet it cannot
but be considered as of great importance, as showing
a defective working of the' machinery of Government
in that country, which may, one day or other, occa-

sion us much loss and much trouble, if not speedily re

medied, but for the remedying of which we shall fortu-
nately have an opportunity afforded us in the course
of the next session of Parliament, when the question
of the renewal of the charter of the East India Com-
pany shall come to be discussed. The retirement of
Sir CNA/ILES NArIER from the command of the
Indian army, brought about as that retirement
has been, by a conflict with the Governor-General
,with regard . to • the extent of their respective
jurisdictions, is one of the indications of the '
defects to which we have- alluded. Had the
respective powers and jurisdidtions of the Governor-
General and the Commander-in-Chief been
accurately defined, such a conflict as this
(a conflict which in the event of a sudden attack from
the Afreedeer, or bf a sudden outbreak in the Pun-
j sub, mad► jeopardise the safety of our empire in the
East) could scarcely by posaibility have arisen.
It would be well that on the renewal of
the charter the- respective jurisdictions of
these two high offi:!ers should be so accurately
defined as to render such a collision for the future
impossible,' or, beiter Still, that recourse should be had
to the old practice of consolidating the two offices,.
and that every future head of the liidian Government
should be, as the Marquis of HASTINGS was, " Gover-
nor-General and Commander-in-Chief." •

We recommend the attentive study of that portion
of the intelligence which relates to the murderous
plans .of the Afreedees to the members of the
Peace Society, whom we advise to reduce
their theory to practice, by holding their
nett meeting in the passes between Peshawur and
:,Kobat, and converting the Afreedees to the doctrines
of peace.

Ti.e escape of the Seikh prisoners is a circum-
stance calling for the strictest investigation, and
for the ccrid;gn punishMent of those 'who could
dispatch such desperate MED, $o slightly guarded.
How came it that the persons on board the steamer
were unarmed ? How canie it that the steamer her-
self had not a pivot gun on her deck loaded with canis-
ter or grape ? Three discharges from such a gun as this

would have given a very good account of the Seikh
prisoners even after they had gained possession of the
boat in which they were confined ; or, having no such
gun, how happened it that the persons in
command of the steamer did not, when they
found the Seikhs had possession of the float,
immediately run them down ? An example of
this sort made on the spot would be-far more effectual
in preventing attempts at escape than fifty recaptures,
even although followed by subsequent punishment.
It is evident that there is something very wrong
in the whole system- of guarding prisoners in
India, or we should not so often hear of their escape.
We trust that the authorities will cause a searching
investigation to be instituted into the circumstances
attending this last escape, and will devise some
method to prevent the recurrence of such an event
for the future. It has always struck us as most
impolitic to suffer Indian princes and Indian chiefs
whom we may find it necessary to hold in captivity
to remain in India. They should be removed either
to some of our settlements in Malacca, to Labuan, or,
at all events, to Ceylon, so as to inter-
pose the sea between them and the
scene of their former intrigues. Ilad this
been done in the case of the Ranee of LAHORE, she
would not now have been intriguing against us at the
Court of Khatmandoo. We hope that the practice
of transportation beyond the ses will be substituted
on all future occasions fee imprisonment in cases of
Indian prisoners of state.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday;
The Moniteur publishes the following telegraphic
dispatch :

" Lons-le-aulnier, August 17, in the evening.
"The President of the Republic, who left Lyons thia,
morning at nide o'clock arrived here this evening at ten
o'clock. Throughout the whole of his passage, the
populations assembled to greet him, and everywhere
they gave him striking marks of the warmest sympathy."
All the journals comment on the remarkable speech
of the PRESIDENT of the Republic, at Lyons—all
consider it as a complete disavowal of any intention
to attempt a coup detail, even the National quotes,
and quotes with approbation, the declaration of the
PRESIDENT, that he will never make a coup d'etat,
but they on the other hand, all agree as to the inten-
tion of the PRESIDENT is to resist any attempt of any
Royalist pretender to restore Monarchy and at the same
time to present himself to the people for re-election
as PRESIDENT for a prolonged period. The cor-
respondent of the Constitutionnel clearly indicates
this in his letter from Lyons. He says.—
" This ,morning the President's speech has been
posted up at all the corners of the streets, and has been
read with avidity. I loitered amongst some of the
groups of people for sake of hearing their observations,
and I. noted down a dialogue which I beard, because it
renders in the moat exact mariner the effect produced out
of doors by the President's speech. After that, said
one, ' why should the journals be bothering us every
morning with their coups d'etat ? You see he has no
intention of the kind.' To which another workman re-
plied, He is not such a fool as to make coups d'etat. He
does not want the like, the. thing will come of itself.'
Commentary is unnecessary."
The Republican journals protest against any at-
tempt at the prolongation of the Presedent's powers,
as being contrary to the Constitution, and the Legi-
titnatist journals all declare openly against him. The
Opinion Publique threatens him with the vengeance
of the Assembly. -The priest-ridden Univers is hor-
rified at his declaration " that he will save by order
the great principles of the French revolution."
" Why," says this organ of the admirers of the
Inquisition—" Why, this is M. CAUSSIDIERE Over
again. As the Prefect of Police made order with
disorder, so would Louts NAPOLEON with order
save the principles of the revolution."
- The Assembles Nationale is bitter in its denuncia-
tions of the (PRESIDENT, and the Union, the most
moderate of the Legitiinatist journals, which has
always hitherto supported Louis NAPOLEON, now
declares against him.
The Union says—
" We have not been hitherto either partisans of or op-
posed to the journey of the President,. but from this
moment we do not hesitate to say that this journey ap-
pears to us to have exercised a favourable influencs on
the mind of Louis Ntilklion. In proportion as the Pre-
sident removed lrom Paris, be more and more under-
stood the necessity of assuming a clear and defined posi-
tion. After hearing his speech at the banquet at
Lyons, we know what the President wishes, what he
desires, and What he hopes. The groundwork, the
parent idea of that speech, is nothing but a praise of the
French revolution. The 'President of the Republic
places himself at the disposal of the country; he re-
cognises no other law than its will, and he hurls forth
an anathema against the parties who do not like him
trio tliFini"ttirs:yria'ventt*rirti-
spired us with excessive terror. Where some
people have seen boldness, we have, alas! only seen
weakness. However that may he, the declaration of the
President is good to point out; we have stoicism enough
to rejoice at it, even though the President of the Repub-
lic, in ace part of his discourse, wished maliciously to
direct attention to one important fraction of the majority.
The President spoke of guilty pretensions. We could
bare wished that he had been more explicit. The ex-
pression guilty pretensions might, in tact, apply with
justice enough is the past conduct of the President him-
self, to the cherished councillors of Strasbourg and of
Boulogne, and perhaps also to the society of the Dix
Decentbre, organised, as every one knows, with an hn-
perialist object. We de not like half words and half
allusions. Taking eierything, however,. into account,
we decide on applying the expression to oursekes.
It is not natural that the President should dis--
avow his best • and probably his only • friends. In
return fur •our good will the President must al-
low us to
.say that our party his rio pretension in-
compatible with the rights of the nation. It knows that
the nation is master of its destinies, and it confines itself
to respectfully pointing out to it the solution which it
considers the best. This situation and this language
wits publicly known when the President pretended to
impose himself bel et Bien on sovereign France, probably
in virtue of his right of birth. This pretebsion, be-
sides, ie put forth with sincerity enough at the com-
mencement of his speech; only we find in it a counter-
part of that sentence of the Chief of the Police under
the Provisional Government, wish to make order ,with
disorder.' Louis Napoleon has invented a variety to it;
he wishes to save by order the great principles of the
French revolution. As to self-denial and personal
ambition, we take note ,of the disposition of Louis
Napoleon ; he pledges himself to set an example,
if it is necessary. This expression is sufficient to
lere to the Assembly all the necessary liberty
when it shall examine, the question of the revision of
the Constitution; it may be now certain that the Pre-
dent will, if necessary, obey the constitution, and that
he will imitate, in case of need, the conduct of General
Cavaignac, who relinqUished power with self-denial and
a noble simplicity. The Assembly will not have to
pronounce the judgment of Solomon, for France cannot
be' compared to a child whose parentage is doubtful;
she has her history, which teaches her from whom she
sprung, and from thence proceeds her grandeur; there
is no need of an adopted father, when a legitimate one
exists,"
These articles are valuable because they clearly
show that a Legitimatist restoration means not
merely the restoration of the Count of CEIAMEORD to
the throne of his ancestors, but the restoration of the
absolutist regime as it existed before 1789, the re-
storation of a privileged noblesse, the restoration of the
taille et corvie, the revival of the degradation of the
Ro4urir class, the restoration of the despotism, per-
chalice, also of the property of the priests. In no
other light can we look upon this protest against any,
attempt on the part of Louis NAPOLEON " to save by
order the great principles Of-the French revolution
The Union publishes the following :—" Some inha-
bitant& of • Brittany; desitous. Of presenting their
homage and the expression, of their devotedness at
the feet of the Count de Chambord, have just arrived
in Paris. This deputation,; composed of AIM.
Mathurin Robert, Guillawile Marie Lernenet, Syl-.
vestre Robino, Bazile Gilet, Claude le Yondre, and
Maturin Guillemot, farmers ; Pierre le Blerenec,
baker, and Joseph le Barb, shoemaker, with MM. G.
Macaire de Rougemont, L'Ecuyer de Villars, and G.
de Alirabeau, are about to proceed to Wiesbaden. All
of them are delighted and proud at being the repre-
sentatives to the descendant of St.- Louis of their
friends of the Morbihan." Brittany, it will be remem-
bered, is the country of the Chouans, and this deputa-
tion by farmers and peasants is suspicious. Royalist
outbreaks_ in La Vendee have ever been preceded by
similar deputations.
M. DE CRAMPEAU, the private secretary and friend
of M. DE LAMARTINE, died on board the vessel which
brought back M. DE LAMAETINE to France two days
before her arrival at Marseilles, of a fever brought on
by the extreme heat of the season.
The artillery of the , National Guard of Langres
have been suspended from their functions by the
Prefect of the Haute Marne, in consequence of their
having refused to assembly under arms the day on
which General CASTELLANE passed through the
town.
The National Guard of Vollone, Chateau Arnoux
do Sisteron, and Manosque have been disarmed.
Their bayonets were found to have been nee ly
sharpened.
Pasts BOURSE, AUGUST 19.—Latest Prices.—Five
per Cents., 96t. 35c.; Three per. Cents., 58f. 5c.;
Bank Actions, 2,345 f.

111;SLNESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDO.:. STOCK-EICHANt4E, Aca. 19.
Boulogne and Amiens, 71:i—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 14 k Dutch Rhenish, 244—East Indian, 7%
—Luxembourg, 15A— Narnur and Liege, 6‘,—.Noithern
of France, 14%—Orleans and Bordeaux, 2%—Ruuen and
Havre, 9%.