The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-04 00:00:00

OtfieilinA

ONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, MO.

Something more than mere wordy declamation
against the titles, dignities, and ceremonials with
which Authority has been invested by the universe'
consent of mankind, is requisite to ensure the ad
vancement of Democracy. Such, however, does not
appear to be the opinion of one C. Losesus, who hat,
ventured to controvert the arguments contained in the
political dissertation published last year by Mons.
GUIZOT. Assuredly it is unnecessary for us to
disclaim any kind of sympathy whatever in the
majority of legislative dogmas advanced by that
eminent statesman, .publicist, historian, and adminis-
trator. Nevertheless, while the main portion of our
creed of government is diametrically opposed
to the social belief of the late Prime Minister
of France, it is altogether beyond our en•
durance to witness his clear, pithy, and rhetori-
cal pages sneered down by a fribble in the dis-
guise of a politician, and flippantly criticised by s
verbose and prurient pamphleteer. Parodying the
exclamations of Loris PAUL COURIER, the writer of
this extravagant brochure* thus enlarges upon the
ejaculation—" May the LORD preserve us from the
spirit of evil and from metaphors," by inveighing it
this fashion against the titles of public dignitari.e
(absurdly called metaphors), " What a spirit of evil I
What metaphors ! My Lord ! Your Grace! YOU]
Highness! (do not cry baby). Your Holiness!
Your Majesty ! Perhaps insane ; what a metaphor! !
The Reverend ; and the Right Reverend Father
in God !! !" and so on to very nausea. We
would ask the author if his very incoherent interpo-
lations, "do not cry baby" and " perhaps insane,"
are intended as allusions to himself, seeing that other-
wise their meaning must remain somewhat inexpli-
cable. Be it remembered that in the age of BACON
and ELIZABETH this question was written down in
imperishable letters by one WILLIAM. SHAKSPERE—
" What's in a name ?" Three centuries or so elapse,
and the inquiry of the mightiest genius of England
is responded to with a sublime impertinence by the
dictum of a pamphleteer. While the poet implies, or
we should rather say, expressly indicates that in a
name there is " Nothing," the pert scribbler of a
pamphlet, or, more correctly speaking, of a
pragmatic criticism on a pamphlet, declares
to the contrary, " Everything." According to
the latter the voice of the pursuirant, or
the trumpet of the tabarded herald renders virtue
criminal, beauty hideous, and grandeur contemptible.
So at least he intimates in the sarcastic ejaculations
transcribed from his pages by ourselves, ejaculations
emphasised by capitals, and pointed by notes of ad-
miration. To his jealous and depreciative imagina-
tion the noble, however illustrious by his services to
his country or his fellow- creatures, is transformed
into an object of contempt by the prefix of any lofty
appellation, no matter whether it were won bravely
and chivalrously. For him the beautiful legends of
Heraldry possess no romantic charm or poetic fasei•
nation—he can recognise no indication of heroism in
the origin of the fine old Scottish family NAPIER in the
exclamation of the armed Sovereign on the field of
battle that one of its earliest ancestors, in prowess had
" Nee peer." Again, there cannot possibly be fur
him any subject of emotion in the first elevation of
the house of the BLENNERHASSETS to distinction,
when the national banner was reclaimed from the
enemies of his country by the most celebrated of their
progenitors amidst the cry of the whole army—
" BLENNER has it !" With ourselves and all the lovers
of Shaksperian wisdom, a name may thus be fraught
with a slight value by reason of its many agreeable
associations. But with C. Laserus it is otherwise—a
name acquired by honour, by virtue, or by valour being
pregnant with every species of atrocity, an object of
so much and such detestable importance as to be

" Mons. Guir)t; or Dern,Jcracy. Oligarchy, and
Monarchy." By C. Pp. 102. Ftx, London,
1819