The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-01 00:00:00

wak,
114 it in a lk

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1850.

Our Republican neighbours are certainly find of
imparting a theatrical colouring to their political de-
monstrations. Latterly, however, even in their most
melodramatic proceedings, there has been a profound
and earnest significance : ex. gr. the triumphant re-
turn of the sensuous, or we might rather say the
sensual, romancist M. EUGENE SUE, as the Parisian
representative. The announcement of this event as
the result of the late parliamentary contest in the
French capital has startled the timorous into an un-
usual display of timidity. During the earlier part
of Monday night the streets and boulevards
of the Republican capital swarmed with an
anxious multitude, betraying in their whole
bearing and conversation the extent of their excite-
ment. Under every lamp-post collected a group of
eager politicians devouring the evening newspapers.
Elsewhere the stump orators gesticulated and de-
claimed with their habitual fervour. Speculators
congregated in the Passage de l'Opera, and very
speedily, or rather forthwith, the funds dropped down
two-and-a-half per cent., threatening a yet greater
depression before the closing of the Bourse. Never-
theless, in spite of the general agitation, patrols were
allowed to pass unmolested to and fro throughout the
. night, and the consequence was that Paris was pre-
served in a state of comparative tranquillity.
All these appearances go far to prove how deeply,
the popular anxiety has been probed by the im-
portant election just brought to a conclusion. M.
LECLERC, the representative of the party of
authority, called the party of order, contrived to
secure only 117,177 rotes out of 249 sections o'
the department of the Seine ; whereas M.
SUE, the Socialist, and ultra-democratic candidate,
obtained from the same number of sections no less a
majority than 8,175, his supporters being estimated
at 125,352 ! Subsequent returns from the two
remaining sections of the 251 into which the
metropolitan department is divided, brings up the
majority of the Socialist candidate to very nearly ten
thousand over and above the number of votes conceded
to his Conservative antagonist. The victory thus
secured to the ultra-Republican is regarded less as a
personal ovation of a very brilliant but demoralising
genius, whose romances have long been investing him
with an enormous popularity, than as a stern demon-
stration against the Droit in the Legislative Assembly,
the Conservative conspirators who are plotting treason
to the Republican Constitution, the agents o'
a disguised royalty and a covert absolutism. It ie,
moreover, conceived by the more sagacious observers
of these occurrences, that the triumphant election of
M. EUGENE SUE, as the representative of the Parisians,
is remarkable for a double significance of a most ex-
traordinary character. It is said for example, Bed
with no inconsiderable show of reason, that a certain
attractive theory of idealized Communism was ad-
vanced by M. EUGENE SUE in his celebrated fiction
of the Juif Errant, and that, therefore, his suc-
cess is a step en avant for the Communistic
multitude. It is suggested again by others that,
seeing the villanous portraiture of le Pere RODIN
in the same romance, and the grim representation
of the whole ecclesiastical fabric, with its regu-
lations and its functionaries, the triumph of M. Eu-
GENE SUE must be regarded as nothing less thaw " a
heavy blow and a great discouragement" to the
clerical faction called the parti-pretre. The rea-
sonableness cf all these conjectures with regard to a
candidate such as M. EUGENE SUE must be suffi-
ciently obvious, especially in reference to a con-
stituency as excitable and eccentric as the Parisians.
Should the election of the Socialist in preference to
the Conservative, the nominee of the Gauche instead
of the Droit, the ultra• democrat in place of the ultra.
reactionary, be productive of no other advantage to the
cause of true freedom among the citizens of the French
Republic, it will act as a powerful (would that
it might prove an adequate !) warning to
the royalist conspirators. Unhappily these men
are so blinded by the engrossing fascina-
tion of their plots, that it is scarcely possible they
will hear the present any more than they have done
any previous warning, uttered though it be in a
voice of thunder, and glaring before them as it does
with the vividness of lightning. Much as is said
about the fickleness of the French, and especially of
the Parisians, it is certain that of all the races of Chris •
tendom they have been perhaps the most long-suf-
fering. For 18 years they tolerated the evil govern-
ment of a Prince, raised by them to the monarchical
dignity only to betray, and to fleece, and to disgrace
thirty millions of benefactors. During many centu
ries they bent their necks obediently to the yoke of
the ancient dynasty. In 1789, and in 1830, and in
1848 they rose only at the last extremity to rid them
selves cf the intolerable and grinding domination of
their oppressors. Yet these are the men who are denied
the virtue of enduraace. Yet, yet these are the
men against whom the royalist conspirator:,
the apologists of absolutism, the ultra-conservatives,
the ultra-reactionnaries, are plotting with such insane
audacity. Madmen as they are, these schemers in
behalf of despotism " have forgotten nothing, have
learnt nothing," they have seen to no purpose the
awful truths disclosed in the giant outbreaks of Sep-
tember, of July, and of February. They think not,
these miserable beings, infatuated with the glitter of an
imaginary regalia, of the irresistible force of those
national

" Hopes and fears long subdued,
Subdued and cherished long."
Let them know, before too late, that this force has
grown at last to be incapable of resistance, and that
the energy inspired by those hopes and fears can defy
all opposition, whether that of open antagonists or of
secret conspirators.

One of the results of the alteration in the corn-laws,
and that, perhaps, not the least remarkable or im-
portant, is the total change effected in the views and
sentiments of the Protectionists, or, as they love to
style themselves, the Country Party. They have now
become zealous and energetic financial reformers,
bringing forward and voting in favour of economy
and retrenchment, and scrutinizing the national
expenditure with curious eyes. Even the veteran
reformer, JOSEPH 11-mu, is scarcely more urgent
for the application of the pruning knife than some of
those who, in the " good old times," when monopoly
reigned paramount, and the prices of all the chief
necessaries of life were nearly double the present rates,
would have thought such topics beneath their notice.
We shall not, however, repudiate the services of our new
allies because of their former errors. We shall not
inquire too curiously into the nature of the motives
by which they may be actuated, but shall freely
accept their proffered aid. The change is not on the
e
are
faithful to our
part of the ancient frienfdosrmoferecopnroimacyipls;
economy. We i
we l re-
maincontinue to wage " war to the knife" against every
arrayed under the glorious standard, and we shall still
species of extravagance, notwithstanding the unsoli-
cited adhesion o:` former opponents, and the more
unexpected desertion of former friends.
Mr. llesmEr last night brought forward what
may now be regarded as his annual motion, " for
an address to her MAJESTY, praying that she
would be graciously pleased to direct that a careful
revision be made of the salaries and wages paid in
every department of the public service, with a view
to a just and adequate reduction thereof, due regard
being had to the efficient performance of the several
duties." We cannot conceive a proposition in every
respect more unobjectionable, or better deserving
support. It did not imply that all salaries should b 9
diminished without inquiry or without exception. It
did not suggest that those which are already too low I
',lloUld be further reduced without considering the •