The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-28 00:00:00

Pitanti

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1844.

The speech of the King of the FRENCH on open-
ing the Chambers on Thursday is important and in-
teresting, from the absence of those very ingredients
which, at other times, would have formed the most
impressive matter of such an address from the French
throne. It announces no brilliant operations ; it
revels on the record of no new victories. These
omissions are the guarantees of a continuance of
peace and undisturbed tranquillity to the other na-
tions of Europe. This royal speech, moreover, is
conceived in very general terms. But that generality
permits us to infer that, happily, there are, at this
moment, no salient questions as to which the con-
flicting policy of France, and of the other States of
Europe, requires any special adjustment. The first
and third paragraph of the speech felicitate, in fact,
the Peers and Deputies on the gratifying circum-
stance, that the "complications" which had existed on
the occasion of his MAJESTY'S last addressing them,
and which seemed, for a time, to threaten the safety
of the French possessions in Algeria, and also cer-
tain discussions pending, at the same period, between
the Courts of St. James's and the Tuileries, which
were calculated to affect the good relations subsisting
between the two countries, have now passed away.
In the faith that this is so, we congratulate the
lovers of peace and order, the friends of civilisation
and social improvement, on an aspect of affairs so en-
couraging for the great and true and permanent
interests of mankind. There is a philosophical, as
well as dignified tone, about the terms in which
LOUIS PHILIPPE avows that " a mutual spirit of
good-will and equity has maintained, between France
and England, that happy accord that guarantees
the repose of the world." In the same wise and
beneficent spirit the King of the FRENCH, recurring
to his recent visit to our young QUEEN at Windsor,
thus expresses himself:—
" In that visit" . . . . "I have been surrounded with
manifestations the most satisfactory to France and to
me. I have gathered in the feelings which have been
expressed to me fresh pledges of the long duration of
that general peace which secures to our country abroad
a situation dignified and strong, and at home a prosperity
ever increasing, and the quiet enjoyment of its consti-
tutional liberties."

It is a happy augury for the advancement of great
empires in that career of improvement which time
and circumstances may have opened to them, when
the Monarchs who preside over their political institu-
tions are animated by views of the public welfare
thus pacific and profound. After all—there could be
no moral enormity much greater than for Great
Britain and France—in whose destinies the hopes
and the welfare are bound up of such vast families of
the human race as acknowledge this dominion, or
are brought within their immediate influence, to
wage, the one against the other, a war which should
be uncalled for by the exigencies of the national
honour or of the public security confided to their
several Governments. In proportion to the natural
and acquired resources of two such mighty countries
—the fortunate accidents of their geographical posi-
tion ; the unprecedented development of these by all
the adjuncts of maritime commerce and discovery and
relations of commerce, and the incessant demands of
luxury and refinement, and the various excellencies of
"Iv" --.Pective institutions in proportion to their
means of contributing to the happiness of so many
millions of our species, would be the responsibility
for their application. Of wars, therefore, waged for
specific objects of mere political ambition or terri-
torial aggrandisement, between two such empires as
France and Great Britain, it would be at any time
impossible to overrate the guilt. But, taking into
consideration the immense progress which in all pro-
tracted periods of external peace and domestic tran-
quillity they have ever made in the march ofall physical
and moral ameliorations, their antagonism as combat-
ants, whenever it can be averted without a sacrifice
of the national honour or security we speak of, is a
species of treason to the whole human race ! In that
really glorious emulation, which proposes for its object
the achievement of the greatest possible amount of
good for the largest possible portion of mankind,
England and France have long ran ahead of all
competitors. If her colonial possessions, her incre-
dibly extended commerce, her well maintained public
credit, the untiring industry of her labouring; popu-
lation, and the freer cast and bolder working of her
political machinery, have secured for long years past,
and will, in all human probability, continue to secure
to England for very many years to come, a priority
in this generous struggle, let us do full justice to the
gallant efforts of France to tread close upon our foot-
steps. She, too, is straining every nerve to give all
development to her intellectual as well as material
forces ; and since among the highest blessings which
follow from the most perfect of human institutions,
peace will ever be among the most certain and the
most permanent, we cordially rejoice at the picture
which is drawn by the KING'S speech of the gratify-
ing condition of France, and of its inevitable tenden-
cies. So clear and just a perception—so deep an
appreciation—of the real indefensible interests of two
such nations, on the part of their several Govern-
ments, avail more, to our apprehension of the matter,
than the most elaborate statistics of military forces.
They far outweigh all the advantages that can ever
be predicted of steam guns and desolating projec-
tiles—monster-ordnance and long-ranging shells. In
such generous sentiments as these we yesterday had
the pleasure to transfer from the declarations of
LOUIS PHILIPPE, we would persuade ourselves that
we recognise the dawn of a more permanent and
substantial era of pacific associations between France
and Britain than any which have hitherto endured
between them. We cordially hail them as "auspicia
melioris cevi."

The Charge of the Bishop of WORCESTER which
he delivered on Monday last to the candidates fo
ordination at their final examination, is a documen
which it is impossible to peruse without the most un-
feigned satisfaction, breathing, as it does in every sen-
tence, a spirit of the sincerest piety, and sedulously
keeping within the pale of judgment and common
sense. The Right Reverend Prelate is strenuously
opposed to the sayings and doings of the Tractarian
heretics, which, he is persuaded, are calculated to
alienate the affections of the clergy from the laity,
and thus to inflict a deadly blow on the Church, which
necessarily depends, not only for its usefulness, but
for its very security, on its power to retain unim-
paired its hold on the affections of the people.
Alluding to the state of the Establishment previously
to the publication of the notorious Oxford Tracts, the
Bishop remarks that it is scarcely possible to point
out a period when the prosperity and efficiency of
the Church were more signally conspicuous. An in-
creased degree of zeal, he says, and a more entire de-
votion to their sacred functions were manifest among
the clergy ; and not only did the most perfect har-
mony exist between them and the laity, but the lat
ter evinced their sincere reverence for the spi-
ritual and temporal interests of the Establish-
ment by contributing :in a most munificent,
unhesitating, and ungrudging spirit to the
erection of new churches and the endowment
of various religious institutions. " Divine service,'
adds the Bishop, " was performed in strict accordance
with the general directions of tha Rubric ; schools
were multiplied; the great truths of the eveilasting
Gospel were more distinctly and generally preached;
and such was the impression gradually made on
those who had separated from us, by such in-
creased zeal and activity, on the part 'of our
clergy, that in several dioceses, not only Dissenting
ministers, but whole congregations of Dissenters