The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-31 00:00:00

*mutt ttton

SUR OFFICE Three o' Clock.

Nothing is more natural than the universal interest
excited among, and horror expressed by, all classes of
British subjects,, upon learning that a second attempt
has been made upon the life' of one so dear to every
British bosom as our young; and universally-beloved
SOVEREIGN. Taking a cursog glance at the crime, and
its consequences, had Heaved been less mindful of the
protection of our QUEEN, vte repeat it was not only
natural, but appeared only docent that the two Houses
of Parliament should be adjoUrned, and that a meeting
of Privy Qouncillors should be held to examine the mise-
rable man who could be guilty of so cruel and unpro
yoked an enormity.
But calm reflection can hardly defend such a line of
proceeding. The great objedt to which the attention of
the Government, the Legislature„ the Magistracy, and
the public should be directed, is the prevention for the
future of all similar attempts upon ;1, life so precious in the
eyes of her people as that of Queen VICTORIA. Now the
experience of all ages shows that by ex traordinary notoriety
crime may be made as contagious as : a fever, the plague,
or any other infectious disease. Ti As is peculiarly the
case in great cities, where wretch( ts abound who care
nothing for lye; provided they are mire of acquiring un-
bounded notoriety. The extraordinary trial of FIESCHI
in France, for attempting to take th e lift! of King Louis
PHILIPPE, was followed by repetitions of the crime, and
which only ceased when the public tool; no notice of
them, and the ICING declined to give the c limax to their
vanity by cutting off their heads. The BURKE and
HARE atrocities found imitators, and when a young
woman, in a fit of insanity, threw herself from the top
of the Monument, others, as insane as hers elf, chose the
same place for " shuffling off this mortal c: Al," till even
the City authorities became alarmed at the prospect of
establishing a perpetual Coroner's Court in Fish-street-
bill.

We arrive, then, at the conclusion, that the less no-
toriety is given to such crimes, and the less such
criminals are parded before the public ,eye, the
better for the safety of the Illustrious P arsonage thus
rendered peculiarly the object of a natio .n's solicitude,
The person guilty of such an attempt mu it be mad, or
may safely be assumed to be so. No man in his senses,
however wicked, however instigated by the Devil, could
be guilty of such a crime, knowing, as :he must that,
whether successful or otherwise, bent :fit he could
have none, and escape would be imps )ssible. The
worst men do not voluntarily thrust their necks
into halters—do not court national execration—
without some selfish notion . It is -

men, crazed with a longing for notoriety i n any shape.
They will connnit any crime merely to be t alked of.
When, on a former occasion, the wretch OXFORD
fired a pistol at the QUEEN, had he been sent to Bow-
street to be recognised, and thence conveyQ d as a lunatic
to some asylum, there to be kept in strict seclusion for
life, we should not now have to record the repetition
of such an atrocity by JOHN FRANCI! '. Let some
such measure be adopted now. Parliamer Lt is sitting, so
that no time need be lost in preparing and passing a
Bill for the greater safety of the Royal p arson. There
are plenty of people we know who, in the I e:tuberance of
their loyalty and the paucity of their sdom, would
recommend the gibbet 'and chains ; but, us we observed
before, this would only Serve as a provocative to the
diseased imaginations of the crazed creature s who are to
be found in every street of thiFi v. tst asylum
of crime and madness. Make
,all att pmpts against the
life of the SOVEREIGN convictions of .'llcurab le madness,
and let the poor wretches be for ever dead to% the world,
and there will no longer be any danger of red petitions of
such crimes. But, except the Secretaries o:? State, no
persons should be allowed to 'eisit them from without
the walls of their prisons. TIJO violation of this rule in
the case of OXFORD we deer,i highly objectionable, and
of dangerous tendency.

The French Journals a 7 :e in extacie!, at the mortifica-
tion which the English Press is expe3ted to experience
from the result of 'the debate in the French Chamber of

--
Deputies on Saturday, tpon M. LACRC tSSE'S motion for

an increase of .1,240,000 francs upon thi marine budget.
The Government had asked for 23,356,( )00 francs, which
the Opposition considered too little, and moved and
carried the above amendment, in ; order to keep
in a state of immediate servio e for a war
with England eight sail of ;th e line, which
the Minister of Marine proposed laying up in
ordinary. Now for our own part, we fo(r1 no mortifica.
tion whatever that such a vote should be carried by the
Opposition. A Government never refus es money when
it finds the people such fools as to pour i t spontaneously
into the Exchequer. The more France spends in this
fashion the more she exhausts herself, and the less have
we reason to fear her. In the co arse of the debate M.
MAGUINN, who has latterly tal.ked more nonsense than
any man in France, contender', that France wanted no
army ; what she wanted was a good fleet, and she ought,
instead of twenty, to hav sixty sail of the line con-
stantly on a war footing. Continental France without
an army ! There is, a war statesman for you, of
the modern French Sl2hool ! M. MAGUINN next
attacked Mars',ial SEI:ASTIANI for signing the
Right of Sev,reh Treaty without orders, when here as
Ambassad'Jr of the Court of France. Crowded as are
our coir.runs, we must endeavour to find room for the
defenc,e of the illustrious Marshal. With what shame
does it not cover the jesuitical policy of Count MoLE,
hirmerto generally respect,A, because so little known in
I,nis country.. MOLE anti TRIERS are, in truth, a pre-
cious couple—as shamele;ss as dishonest. Marshal SE-
BASTIAN' said :

He came to that tribune to defend an old treaty, that of
1831. He hoped the Chamber would permit him to speak of
the English alliance, for i% was that alliance caused the treaty.
When Minister for Fore ign Affairs under the Minister Perier
he had been always care ful to preserve the alliance as the most
solid guarantee of peace. He was also at that period engaged
in a question which Interested humanity, the treaty fur the
extinction of the slave . trade. At that time all France ap-
plauded the treat, since become the object of so many at-
tacks. The rigl'A of search, it is pretended, lowers France,
and is control.); to the iiaterests of the nation. It would be
so had it been, made in the' interest of England; but the treaty
was reciprocal, and reciprocity humiliates no one. How could
it be onerous for our comim:rce when we had the right of visit-
ing double the number of cur own vessels? He thought we
ought to be proud of a treaty which was legally made, as the
means of abolishing an infamous traffic. On quitting the
Ministry to be employed a s Ambassador in London, said
the Marshal, my whole the and care were to main-
tain peace, and that alliancc, the effects of !which would
have been felt, and which I cannot but regret now.
I was then doubly occupied in the maintenance of
the English alliance and the extinction of the stave-
trade. I have said that I was in the Ministry at the
time of the treaty of 1831, that I applauded the treaty of 1833,
and that I supported that of 184 1, because the question is not
of zones, more or less. 'When the right of search is granted
and contested, it must be contest ed wholly. I signed also the
treaty of 1831 ; I applauded those of 1833 and 1841. I have
been consistent. 1 may. have been deceived, bUt I think not.
In 1836 England proposed the extension of the zones. I sent
to the President of the Council the pi oposition. • I could never
obtain an answer, though it seem ed to me to merit one. In
1836 and afterwards, the President of the Council took it
into his head to put into execu Lion one of the treaties of
1831, which consisted in making al I the powers of Europe ad-
here to the treaty. I own he treated with Portugal, that the
instructions given to our Minister • at that Court were sent to
London and communicated. Not hing direct. In 1838, M.
Desages, first clerk of the political department of foreign affairs,
was sent to London, which he rearihed on the 10th of December.
I signed the treaty. I wrote on the 13th. We were then en-
gaged in a great negotiation. 'it was proposed to me to sign
the protocol by which the Three: Northern powers were ca led io
accede to the treaty. Why., said the British Minister, not
continue the alliance? I was paced in the alternative of
either engaging my responsibility, or of breaking the al-
liance. I signed the protocol, that is the opening of negotia-
tions. I communicated tkiese reserves ; you have the terms of
my letter to the President of the Council. I engaged him to
make some changes, siedie modifications in this protocol and in
the treaty. I will 5a.,.; more ; from 1836 to 1838 I took two
journeys to Paris ; frequently had occasion to see and to
converse upon important business with the President of the
Council ; he never opened his mouth to say a word upon the
treaty. Conseqtently I thought myself authorised to en-
gage my own Tespontibility with respect to the Minister,
nut being able to do so with respect to the State, for I
spoke of modifications, of changes. and he replied not. I
leave you to judge as you will, whether a Minister should
be silent upon affairs of such importance; whether he should
limit himself to sending a copy of the despatches which he has
sent to our Ambassador in Portugal; if there was ever an Am-
bassador or a Minister independent by the will of the Minister,
I think it is the Ambassador of your own country. • I certainly
do congratulate myself for having signed that treaty, for with-
out that the affair would gave been immediately broken up. I
will only say a few words upon the negro question, and the
right of neutrality. These questions have never been taken
up. The responsibility does not reach them. The Marshal
here said that he felt too weak to speak snore, and would merely
add that he would have followed his instructions had he had them.
Not having them, he could only do what he had done.
Marshal SEEISTIANI has acquitted himself like a
brave man, whereas Count MoLt:, by his own previous
boast in the Chamber, that he was all the time only
hoaxing England, has proved himself a person so utterly
false as to be an object of universal contempt.
Royj ordi-
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