4 DECEMBER 1858, Page 11

Iligultauton

HEAD TO THE RESCUE!

Sir Francis Head has written from Croydon to the Times in defence of Louis Napoleon. What he tries to prove is that "the Emperor Louis Napoleon is not the despot—that the French people are not the slaves— and that Count de Montalembert is not the martyr" he has been said to be by the Times and others. His mode of proof is to show that the French people hated the Republic ; that they approved of its fall; that they elected Louis Napoleon President for ten years "as a mark of sub- stantial approbation" ; and that in 1862 "in further acknowledgment to Louis Napoleon of their gratitude for having dissolved their Republic they deliberately created him their Emperor. In reply, he had the boldness to tell his army and his people that the principle of the Empire would be 'Peace.'" Louis Napoleon has been a "faithful ally," &c. The French people love despotism, and so on. And if so, is it not unbecoming the dignity of Great Britain, whose in- stitutions are admired by the French Emperor and by the French people, that its press should embarrase France by printing and publishing every angry document that can impede its advancement to the freedom we enjoy ; meddle with internal affairs which do not concern us; and betty, offer in- sulting language to a faithful ally, and to a brave, intelligent, and excit- able people, possessing an army of 400,000 men who, at a moment's notice, tvould be ready and eager to invade any nation Which, in a moment of-pro- found peace, unjustifiably attacked the honour of their country ?"