The Sun. — London, England, 1837-01-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. Whom does the Morning, Post suppose it can in fluence by the ribaldry it yesterday directed against Lord Durham and this journal ? In introducing the Russian Tariff to our readers, we gave it for what it was, not as a regulation free from objection, but as a great improvement on the previous slate of thing , . The Morning Post has the assurance to say— We have submitted to the trade—namely, to tbr_. Russian merchants of the city of London—the document so pompously put forth for the purpose of ascertaining the opinion which they have formed of it ; and the answer we li.ve received, without one single exception, is—. it is all humbug—sheer humbug: If the Morning Chronicle does not agree with us, we only request that it will turn its atten tion from the classic shades of Downing-street to the more simple but honest retreats of the Russian walk in the Royal Exchange, and if it can find a single merchant there. ex cept those connected with the Board. of Trade, who does not pronounce the word humbug after reading over the Tariff, we will admit that we know nothing of these matters, so important to the real interests of Great Britain." The admission of the Post, that it knows nothing of these matters, may well be' - deemed superfluous, after the proof it has afforded. Wc have only to say, that the Post cannot adduce a single house engaged in the Russian trade, which will hesitate to state that the prospects of British commerce are materially un proved by the new tariff. In many cases, no doubt, the high ditty will act prejudicially ; but little do they know of the superiority of the British manufacturer in the means of facilitating production, who maintain that in many instances in which a protecting duty has been substituted for absolute prohibition, a consider able importation will not take place. The assertion of the Post has no countenance from traders with Russia. But, then, we are told that— " England has had, for a series of years, a real or pre tended quarrel with the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh. There is the Treaty of Constantinople—the blockade of the Cir cassian coast—the quarantine at the mouth of the Danube —we will not argue whether justly or unjustly set forth as accusation against the Emperor. The Whig Ministers were prepared to quarrel for all or for any one of them ; but no sooner does Lord Durham inhale the flattery of the Im perial Court, than all the prepared remonstrances with which he was charged, are forgotten, and he zands home, . in lieu of the abandonment of . the Treaty of Unkiar Ske lessi, the long column of figures which he calls a new Ta riff, and which will be a Tariff to the day of judgment with out any advantage to the British trade." The Whig Ministers have not, like the Tory Minis ters, suffered Russia to make a prey of Turkey. They found that the Duke of Wellington had been duped by the Czar, and that the British Government under him had been wanting in its duty to Turkey at a most important crisis. It has been the business of the Whigs to repair-d-as far as they could—the blunders of their predecessors. The Treaties into which the Turks were forced by Tory blunders, .and their own necessities, could not be unmade by the Whigs—but they have taken care that British interests should not suffer from these treaties. They will not remain passive should these interests be endan gered, but neither will they rashly involve their coun try in the calamities of war. Silistria has been eva cuated at the intercession of Lord Durham. The toll at the mouth of the Danube has been disclaimed, and the complaints of the English merchants in that quarter redressed. Whenever an English merchant has complained of wrongs at the mouth of the Danube, Cronstadt, or Archangel, - Lord Durham has instantly demanded and obtained reparation. There is but one opinion with all who have commercial dealings with Russia, or countries with which Russia comes into contact, that their interests never were so well attended to as during the period of Lord Durham's embassy at St. Petersburgh. The Post had better not provoke comparisons on this subject. The Duke of Welling ton will not thank it. The war between Russia and Turkey is, to speak as mildly as possible, a blot on the reputation of his Grace. It is well for him that his laurels reaped in other fields form a set-off against the disgrace reaped in this.—Morning Chronicle. We lave else - where inserted an excellent letter under the signature of " }Elian," on the subject of some re marks in the Times on the recent elevation of Mr. Fraser, of Lovat, to the Peerage. We will not enter into the question of the validity of that gentleman's claims to the Scottish title (though we ourselves have no doubt on the subject), because the manifestation of his Majesty's pleasure in Mr. Fraser's elevation to a British Peerage renders it no longer necessary to discuss the prior claim. As the possessor of a large estate, and a gentleman highly esteemed wherever he is known, Mr. Fraser was worthy of his Ma jesty's favour ; and, whatever the Tories may think it is quite clear that the Sovereign does not think that his Roman Catholic subjects ought, on account of their creed, to be excluded from offices or honours. The Bill of 1829 put an end to Catholic disqualifica tion, and though the Tories and their organs may wish that the law should remain a dead letter, and that the King should confine his favours to a faction, it is evident that his Majesty does not forget that he is the Sovereign of all his subjects of every creed and denomination. As a manifestation of the spirit in which the Government ought to be conducted, the elevation of a Roman Catholic gentleman of ancient family and good estate to the Peerage will be produc tive of the very best results.—Morning Chronicle. The Melbourne rump have too many irons in the fire. As their dangers multiply, so do their devices; and each expedient, as it is more imbecile and absurd than the preceding one, betrays more palpably the na ture of the apprehended evil, its overpowering magni tude, and its swift approach. One among the tricks of an insolvent tradesman is to deluge the press with puffs of his damaged and unsaleable commodities ; and the advertisements thicken as the fatal - gazette draws near. A Ministerial adventurer, aware of his coming bankruptcy, and desperately resolved to make his exit in a flourish, acts with just the same dignity as any small shopkeeper in a country town, who, with mock precision, describes the amount and value of his " extensive stock of novelties for the ensuing season," a season which he is conscious that he will never sur vive ; reasserts those boastings of " superiority over all competitors," the gross failure of which has already compelled his old customers, one by one, to abandon him ; and promises most largely when he is most in capable of fulfilling even the slightest of his manifold obligations. The Melbourne Ministers, finding the battle of their daily and periodical press run wofully against them, have revived an ancient, but not now-a-days very hopeful, experiment of writing pamphlets to turn, for sooth, the torrent of public opinion to their side. It is pretty clear that for the last 2.0 years the main and most powerful lever of opinion, where it has to be moved and lifted, and its most efficient director, where the purpose aimed at were to impel it in a given course, is just what the French call " journalism." Upon the skill and force of that incessant stimulus which can be admi nistered by a daily press, and by that alone, depends in a great measure the depth and vividness, we do not say the nature, of the sentiment by which the mind of this country is unlaced. But the skill must be that of observation and reflection, and the force must be derived from truth. Mere shallowness will be soon de tected by a nation like the English, where the educated classes reason so accurately, and mere violence is only laughed at by a people amongst whom each indi vidual respects his own independence, and is so fearless in the defence of acknowledged or even ima gined right. Newspapers, of late years, have been nourished and invigorated by the extended growth of education among the people, which supplies the neces sary pabulum for an increased outlay of capital and accession of talent. Hence the abilities and constant efforts of a class of men, not known to the " jour nalism" of even the last generation, have contributed to raise the periodical Press of Great Britain, and have been proportionably withdrawn from the field of occa sional or pamphleteering warfare. In that conflict of political intelligence and principle we are satisfi e d t o let the public judge how the day, as between the pre sent nondescript Government, has been already deci ded. What the unfortunate placemen themselves think of it, is plain enough from the wretched shifts they have recourse to in getting hashed up, by artists of a description which the poorest establishment of the daily Press (Whig-Radical or Conservative), would spurn from the humblest of its offices, the fallacies, mistakes, and falsehoods, which during the last twelve months of the Rump Administration had been tried and dismissed, as unserviceable. The form assu med by the above collection of rubbish, is that of Pamphlet, and the title given to it is the appro priate one of " What next ?" The execution is wor thy of the cause and purpose—it is elaborately feeble, and impudently false. We had at the first glance imputed it to one of those perennial underlings, the ad.xripti gleime of the public departments, whom, igiginally admitted by chance, or pushed in by petty jobbery, no new Administration deems it worth while to remove : but there is, upon viewing it as a whole, more ground fur suspecting it to be the work of some weekly occupant of an official garret. And such a creature comes as a reserve of the rump, - to rally the broken squadrons of daily mercenaries baffled and de feated in its service I If we were to tell our readers that there is one word of novelty in this manifesto, we should imitate time example of its author, and utter a downright untruth. There is not so much as a ins take or an inconsistency which has not long been threadbare. It records, among the achievements of the rump Ministry, the putting down of the Orange Association. We never have been. Orangemen, but let that body have been ever so inconvenient, at least they were loyal subjects of the Crown of England, and devoted members of the Reformed Church. The pamphlet does nut say what were the attributes, or what has been the fate, of the " rebel association," which has grown up under the auspices of these Mini sters, and which has yet displayed neither loyalty to the Crown of England, nor devotion —no, not tolera tion, towards the Protestant Church, nor endurance of any sway but that of despotic Popery, wearing the garb of " popular institutions." The Irish Constabulary Force Bill, with a flagrant contempt for decency and for the understanding of the people of England, is recalled to their remembrance by the " doer" of this pamphlet, who seems . as unconscious as any animal devoid of all moral sense, that had not the House of Lords interposed, and by a sweeping abolition of between 40 and 50 offices, with salaries of 5001. per annum each, proposed by the bill, it would have stood upon the statute book the most audacious and atro- CioiaS-nionument of shameless corruption that ever dis graced the most heedlessi'arliainent, or the most pro fligate Minister ; and yet this bill passed our reformed House of Commons, by connivance between a repub lican majority and a " no-patronage" Administration ! After a laborious enumeration and praise of sundry measures passed through Parliament with the assent of the Lords, this wholesale dealer in false reasonings and quack nostrums proceeds to show that the same House of Lords ought to be cashiered for their incur able obstinacy in resisting all good measures ! He insinuates that the Peers are resolved to invoke a " tangible restraint" upon their independence, " for they may rest assured the nation has no intention of allowing the Crown and the Commons to become mere ciphers in the hands of a compact and per manent majority of the Lords." Why, what will they whom this pamphleteer calls the " nation" do ? They are neither more nor less than , a clique of partisans who support the present Ministers for what they can get, either individually or in the gross. And . does the man flatter himself that the House of Lords, the " old oaks of England," have no friends in the " nation ?" The same degree of independence which the Lords now possess, they have enjoyed since England was an organized and civilized realm. If the Lords he now the exercisers of a " Venetian tyranny," then has Eng land, for 700 yearn, been even more oppressed than she now is by a " Venetian tyranny," for the Lords in past centuries had incomparably more than their present power. And even during the last century and a half, the Lords may be said to have possessed the entire autho rity and management of the State, inasmuch as they go verned the majority of the House of Commons, subject to no definite responsibility but that which they owed to God and to public opinion. We did not, and have proved that we did not, wish to exclude all but those purely moral sanctions : yet we have a right to ask, was Eng land ruined, or disgraced, or barbarized under that no minal supremacy of her Peerage ? Did she under it sink to the bottom in the scale of nations, or was she exalted to the pinnacle of hUnsan fame and greatness ? Let impartial posterity answer those trying questions It will render justice to an illustrious race of men. We hope the democracy, should it succeed them in power, may prove their emulators in the national esteem, and in manly and honourable reputation. We shall not take the trouble of following this penny-trumpeter of the rump and slanderer of the Peers, both individually and as a body, through all his machinations for the overthrow of the aristocracy, or through his programme of the schemes of Ministers for the ensuing session. His machinations and the schemes of his mas ters will have precisely the result which ought to attend them both, ludicrous as they are and futile. It would be provoking enough, were it less con temptible, to hear this blockhead sputtering about Ire land, being driven to rebellion, the union being re pealed, and the Protestant church destroyed by a Conservative Administration It might be equally provoking to Lord Wharncliffe, were it worth the no tice of that clear-headed and well-intentioned Peer, that he should be accused of a design to take an army and " reconquer Ireland" ? Who ever heard such folly from Lord Wharncliffe ; or in either of the satis factory and useful speeches which were delivered by his Lordship in the course of last autumn, what ex pression dropped from his lips that could hear any such ill-judged and odious construction ? The sen timent which perhaps made a stronger impression upon his hearers than any other was his declared preference for the establishment even of Popery in Ireland than of no religion at all. But we have not time to pursue the " puff preliminary" of the rump to its conclusion, nor taste for it. The whole performance is redolent of despair.-- Times. • It must have struck the most superficial reader of the Tory journals, that for the last fortnight or three weeks they have preserved a silence on the subject of the approaching Session of Parliament, which strangely contrasts with the bluster and blarney in which they had indulged so liberally on that subject for some time previously. There ars reasons for everything : there are reasons for this also. The truth is, as we told the Conservatives at the time, that they lost the only little sense they ever had by their " pottle deep potations" at the late provincial feeds. They could not—the To ries never could—eat and drink like other people, in moderation ! They must needs fill their stomachs— commodious as their stomachs proverbially are—to over flowing with the solids and liquids before them. What wonder, then, if the latter operated on them to such a❑ extent as to fill their imaginations with visions of sig nal triumphs ever the Liberal party ? The Conserva tives can dream when awake, especially when inspired by the good Port of some country Boldface, as well as when asleep. They possess the singular faculty of dreaming in the day as well as in the night ; and, what is worthy of observation, their day dreams have usually much more of the fanciful and preposterous in them, than those which date their origin from their nocturnal slumbers. By some unaccountable sympathy which they had with - each other during the laic dinner mania, they all at the same time pictured out in vivid colours, in their own imaginations, the overthrow of the Mel bourne Ministry, and their own return to power on the meeting of Parliament. As that eventful period arrives, however, their visions seem to vanish, just as with the ‘i dawn of Aurora," as a poet would express it, dreams disappear in the moral world. The poor Tories have at length awoke from their political sleep, and behold, all they had said and sung about the ejection of Lord Melbourne from office turns out to have been but a dream ! All they now do is but to rub their eyes, and express their regret that the reality is sadly at variance with the fancies with which they had amused themselves. To speak in still plainer language, the Tories now see that the game is all up with them. They have no hope, not even the faintest, of again enjoying the sweets and pocketing the prqfits of office. They have nothing before them but the melancholy prospect of continuing to perform the functions of his Majesty's Opposition ! And with the utter certainty of defeat staring them in the face in any conflict with the peo ple and the Government, those of them in the Com mons have, if we are not misinformed, lost even the disposition to show fight. Their pugnacious propen sities no longer exist. We have reason to believe, that so far from pressing the House to a division on the answer to the King's speech, they will not even move an amendment to that answer. If we are not arieviously mistaken, the same remark holds true even of the Lords. And this, too, though the royal oration will assert principles and promise measures which will cause the ears of the faction to tingle. We shall see before many mouths elapse the poor Conservatives in a yet more melancholy and helpless plight than they even now are, thus illustrating the well-known obser vation, that " in the lowest deep there is a lower still." —Morning Advertiser. The party of the Nrovement, incontestably inferior _ _ . to the party of the Opposition in numbers, in talents, in respectability, is as incontestably superior to the party of the Government in all. We rate their nume rical strength at about 150 ; but in a comparison of forces we ought to remember that to this actual muster, in itself large,: much moral weight accrues from the avowed sympathy with them in sentiment of many who are wholly at variance with them in conduct. Thus the Movement has with it the os tentatious declamations of the Irish RadicalS in Dublin, although in London the same Irish Radicals are busied day by day in postponing, or averting, or avoiding every debate by which the Government may be embarrassed. Thus many Junior Lords and Under Secretaries, though in the house they must still be with the aves in the new lobby, or with the noes in the old loloby, according to the suggestion of Mr. Stanley, make frequent confession of the Radical faith at public meetings and in private coteries—moved now by time necessity of satisfying some influential cobbler or eminent J slopseller, and now by 'personal jealousy and vindictive hate of the Conservatives, whose speedy triumph they fearfully foresee. With these elements of strength,, and with the advantages which the assailant alwayS, has over . . the assailed, the pursuer over the pursued, it is not to be doubted that the movement would in the first month of the session beat the Government from Downing street, but for the conscientious intervention of a third party, whose upright policy is at once. the foundation of the Government's most sanguine reliance, and the object of the Government's most virulent abuse. Of the abilities of the men of the Movement we have yet, perhaps, scarcely the means of judging. Yet we think we need not qualify our opinion that, in point of talent, they are better entitled to keep the Trea sury than those by whom it is at present occupied. We are no great admirers of the pedantic mono tony of Mr. Grote's oratory ; but we imagine all Lombard-street would cry " libel" if we should sus pect his acquaintance with banking affairs, and the operations of our monetary system to be as superficial as that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We never listen with much pleasure to the petulant personalities of Sir William Molesworth, but he is undoubtedly more fluent, more clear, and more lively, than the not less petulant Lord who leads the House of Commons. Mr. Roebuck could hardly fling deeper darkness on our colonial policy than that in which Sir George Grey from time to time envelopes it ; and Mr. Bulwer may rest upon his novels a much better claim to the Irish Secretaryship than Lord Morpeth can ground upon his hexameters. Of the political morals of this party it is the fashion to speak very contemptu ously. And undoubtedly among other causes which contribute to diminish its hold on the attention of the• people the notorious profligacy, mendacity, and im piety of many of its chief men have no small influenc e . Still, we repeat, the Movement is superior to the Go vernment in respectability. Its leaders have not yet ob truded upon the public censure those shameless ter giversations which when impartial history shall write of these times will win for Lord Melbourne's Cabinet an indelible brand of condemnation and contempt. It is bold indeed to talk of the respectabi lity of a party which numbers Mr. Wakley among its most noisy, and Mr. Harvey among its most acconi plished advocates ; but Westminster Hall, where the names of these gentlemen are familiarly known, knows nothing of them from which we can anticipate so out rageous a neglect of honourable principle as that which has signalized the career of Lords Palmerston and and Glenelg. Nevertheless, thus above their compe titors, as we confess we consider them, in numbers, in talents, and in character, the Radicals have hitherto made little impression on the debates of the House. Sir Wm. Molesworth, in the paper we have before cited, on the " terms of alliance between Radicals and Whigs," attribUtes their failure to " the want of orea nization, and of energetic leaders." The deficiency is deeper. They have not the qualities which are ne cessary for organization, nor the stuff of which ener getic leaders are made. Giants, when compared with their rivals in the Government, the' directors of the Movement sink into dvarfs when measured in their own insignificance. We believe no possible contin gency will elevate a Roebuck into a Danton ; and we are convinced that no magic, short of that which can turn black into white, will tranform a Hume into a Mirabeau. Again, if there were vigour in the captains it would be long before there would be discipline in the soldiers. An English demagogue detests an Eng lish demagogue with a fervent detestation. In no trade is there half so much of envy, hatred, and ma lice. Sir W. Molesworth half discloses this truth when he tells us, " So little unity of purpose is there among them that it rarely happens that one member of the Radical party knows what another is about." Per haps it is from the knowledge of this antipathy to in tellectual precedence among his coadjutors that Sir William seems inclined to lift into the lead of the movement a very facetious, but not very forchle, gentleman, the Member for Liskeard. When it he came necessary to re-establish the union of Whigs and Radicals, which " had been dissolved," says the Cornish Baronet, "by the feeble and discreditable policy of the Grey Administration, some of the most energetic of the Liberals in the metropolis, among whom Mr. C. Buller took the lead, exerted themselves successfully." And again, when, after passing, not unexamined, but unopposed, through its previous stages, the English Church Bill was to be read a third time, " the Radicals, Mr. C. Bailer at the head of them, thought the farce had gone a little too far.' This young gentleman, we conclude, is to organise the Movement, and to be its energetic leader. Without organization, and without leaders, it seems hard to con jecture the policy of the party of the Movement. This is, however, certain. Many of its most stirring mem bers are sick of supporting Government unpaid for their support. They see Mr. O'Connell and his thirty or forty servants well paid for the less valuable aid they bring, in the transfer to them of a mass of Irish patronage, and the adoption from them of a course of Irish policy. Themselves they find expected to work without hire, nightly mounting guard behind the Trea sury benches, but earning neither places for their sons nor a good word for their theories. They think,thereis no cause why they, too, -should not hive a treaty at Lichfield House, and, instead of forcing upon the Government the distant abstraction of a few thousand pounds of Church property, they prepare to force upon the Government the immediate adoption of Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments, and Peerage Refor m . Th ere are, incleeti l already the 'usual differences and dissen sions among their ranks, to which the Spectator of last Sunday ominously alludes. The Spectator "is not ignorant of what has been going on with respect to the Middlesex dinner,"—" prefers silence this week" —" will not aid in fanning the flames of dissension" but hereafter it " will not shrink from the duty of un sparing dissection and exposure." Let our contem porary be merciful. There is but an apparent discord between his honest friends. Their ends arc the same, though the paths to them may be different. The party of the Movement, which we should indeed count formidable, if we did not know that its strength within the walls of Parliament affords a most exagge rated idea of its strength without them, has no par tisans who do not cherish the same hostility to our Established Church, and to our mixed Constitution. They will go as far as they think they Morning Post. No stronger proof can be afforded of the unprinci pled nature of that party zeal which Whig-Radicals exhibit than the gross contradictions into Which they fall, whenever tempted to do so, by what seems to be their interest. We have now before us an essay by a Ministerialist of great pretension, whose most distin g b uishing characteri s ti c as a party writer is hostility to the hereditary Peerage. He admits the value of a second House of Legislature, but is never weary of railing and sneering against the hereditary House. He would have men elevated to the Upper House of Legislature for their merits, of which the people or the King should judge but by no means should they be members on account of their birth, or brinling up. But the spirit of party requires that this writer should not only be hostile to the temporal Peers, who sit in Parliament by right hereditary, but to the Spiritual Peers also, who arc placed there upon his own plan— namely, on account of their merit in their profession, and the choice of the Sovereign, or his Minister. And now let us see how, in order to vent his spleen against the Bishops, he can quite forget the principle on which he is hostile to the temporal Peers. He goes eve❑ so far as to dilate upon the evils which flow from raising men to life Peerages on account of their merit ; he shows the bad effect it has upon the charac ter even of learned and studious men. He says— " Here we come to the question we have often raised. How arc we to account for the overbearing, domineering, grasping, en 1 worldly character of the generality of Bishops? We know that the men raised to the Leach must, with rare exceptions, be at least as meritorious as the great body of the parochial clergy, and consequently we must attri bute the change for the worse in the favoured individuals to the corrupting effects of the pomp, the wealth, and the power of the mitre." After quoting a passage from the pamphlet of Mr. Sydney Smith, in corroboration of his theory, the writer proceeds as follows : " The high station of the Bishops generates other fail ings. Their families are abruptly lift e d t o a f oo ti ng w ith th aristocracy, but as upon the death of him on whom all their consequence hangs, they would drop -down to their original level, there is the greatest anxiety to prop and strut them up with wealth or appointments, so that they may re tain the station in society to which they have been raised per station. Hence grasping, and making the most of all opportunities of getting money or money's•worth, and im proving aristocratic connection, seem to be a parental duty. The same impolitic exaltation which produces this effect, accompanied with insecurity of position, accounts for the inordinate pride of Bishops' families, which is quite prover bial, for the people most tenacious of consequence are always those least sure of having or preserving it." We believe what is given as fact in the above, pur porting to be the effect of elevating clergymen to the Episcopal Bench, is nothing but malignant misrepre sentation ; but still we have a right to use the argu ment which it contains against other arguments of the same writer. Now, what can be more cogent against the election or nomination of temporal Peers for life, or even for a shorter period, than the statements in the above extract ? If these statements are to be taken as general truths, anti as such they are put forward, would we not have just the same complaints to make against the " impolitic exaltation " of lawyers, or squires, or nondescript " political philosophers," as this writer now makes against the exaltation of the clergy ? Would not the abrupt lifting up of their families to a level with the aristocracy have upon them an ill effect ? And as, upon the death of him upon whom all their consequence would hang, they should drop down to their original level, would not the tempo ral and temporary Lord be as anxious to prop his family up with wealth or appointments, as an Spiritual Lord now is with respect to his family ? Would not the insecurity of the position of the temporal and tem porary Lord be likely to produce as much inordinate pride,,aa is now contended to be the result of the posi tion of Bishops' families ? It is, in short, very plain that this violent opponent of hereditary Peerage has 'unconsciously lent himself to the other side of the argument, and it is also plain that he can argue either way, according to the sort of persons whom he wishes to spatter with his malignant foam. Principle has nothing at all to do with the matter, and it is very likely that his next lucubration, being directed against the hereditary Peers, he will find as much to say in favour of raising men per saltum and without here ditary privilege, to the Upper House of Parliament, as he now has to say against that very practice.—Morn ing Herald. The trial of Meunier, we are given to understand, will not last more than one day ; he alone will be arraigned before the Court of Peers. The other prisoners now in custody will be brought either before the Court of Assizes or the Tribunal of Correctional Police, according to the nature of the offence imputed to them. A lady of Falaise has just left a legacy of 3001. per annum to Mlle. do Morell, who acquired so much notoriety in consequence of the late trial of of Lieut. de la Ronciere. The gift was the result of the warm interest inspired by the young lady in the breast of the donor.—Galignani. DON CARLOS.—The following proves pretty clearly the opinion entertained by the friends of Don Carlos here of the prospects of his cause. A well-known Carlist house in Coleman-street, had ordered 8,000 shoes for the us, - ! of the Pretender's army, of an eminent manufacturer in Hatton-garden, who has, however, within the last few days, been instructed to sell them fir anything they will fetch." SILK TRADE, WEDNESDAY.-The return as made up of the delivery of this article during:the past week amounts to 9,5501 b. of the different descriptions. The market still continues in a depressed state consequent upon the two last heavy failures, and the business transacting is but limited. BooK s ELL' NG.—The trade of bookselling seems to have been established at Paris, and at Bologna, in the 12th century ; the lawyers and universities called it into life. It is very improbable that it existed in what we pro perly call the dark ages. Peter of Blois mentions a book which he bad bought of a public dealer (a guodant public° mangone librorum). But we do not find, I believe, many distinct accounts of them till the next age. These dealers were denominated " stationarii ;" perhaps from. the open stalls at which they carried on their business ; though static) is a general word for a shop in low Latin. They appear, by the old statutes of the University of Paris, and by those of Bologna, to have sold books upon commission ; and are sometimes, though not uniformly, distinguished from the lihrarii—a word which, having originally been confined to to the copyists of books, was afterwards applied to those who traded in them. They sold parchment, and other ma terials of writing (which, with us, though, as far as I know, no where else, have retained the name of stationery), and naturally exercised the kindred occupations of binding and decorating. They probably employed transcribers ; we find, at least, that there was a profession of copyists in the univer sities and in'large cities ; and by means of these, before the invention of printing, the necessary books of grammar, law, and theology, were multiplied to a great extent, for the use of students ; but with much incorrectness, and far more ex pense than afterwards. That invention put a sudden stop to their honest occupation. But, whatever hatred they might feel towards the new art, it was in vain to oppose its reception ; no party could be raised in the public against so manifest and unalloyed a benefit ; and the copyists, grown by habit fond of books, frequently employed themselves in the somewhat kindred labour of pressmen. The first printers were always booksellers, and sold their own impressions. These occupations were not divided till the early part of the 16th century. But the risks of sale, at a time when learning was by no means general, combined with the great cost of production (paper and other materials being very dear) rendered this a hazardous trade.—lfillant's Litera ture ofEm.ope. . _ • Cecile Jazot, a young unmarried woman of the vil lage of Sigloy, near Orleans, now scarcely '2l years of age, two years ago gave birth to a child, of which her grandmother took kindly charge. Lately the young wo man again became pregnant, upon which she was re• proached by her father-in-law (her mother's second hus band) for thus burthening her family with illegitimate children. Cecile then decided on becoming an imate of the hospital at Orleans, and on leaving her child after her accouchement in the Foundling Asylum of the department. Th e period of her delivery being at hand she set out, but, on her way, she was seized with the pains of labour, which co mpelled her to withdraw from the road into a wood, to rest herself, till in a state to resume her painful journey. A thick fog came on, and she remained for two days in her place of concealment, subsisting on a piece of dry bread she had taken with her. She then returned home, relieved of her burthen, and told her mother she had been delivered at a village in the way, and had sent her child to the asylum a t Orleans, by a mendicant. This tale, however, not satis lying the magistrates of the district, she was arrested on a c harge of infanticide ; and to the gendarme who took her into custody, she confessed that she had thrown her child into the Loire. On being brought to trial, she related, with every appearance of truth, that, being rendered senseless by her pains, she fell from the spot where she lay to the bank of the river, the current of which, during her insensi bility, carried away her new-born inf an t, an d would have terminated her own existence and misery, but for a small heap of stones, against which she had rolled. She jury, however, found her guilty of infanticide from imprudence, and the Court sentenced her to imprisonment for twelve m onths.—Frearh Paper. Tuesday a Commission of Lunacy sat at the King's Arms Hotel, Palace-yard, to inquire into the state of mind o f Peter Campbell, Esq., lute of Fitzwilliarn-street, Dul lin, and now of New Strand. Mr. Thessiger, in addressing the Commisioners, said circumstances rendered an adjourn ment fur a short time necessary ; Counsel on the other side had agreed to this course. A gentleman stated to the Com missioners that a compromise was expected. It was agreed to apply to the Lord Chancellor on the subject. Counsel retired, and shortly after returned, bringing his Lordship's assent to the postponement. The Could thou rose, Mr, Campbell was in the room during the greater portion of the morning, GRAND DINNER AND PHESENTA TION OF PLATE TO G. 0. DAY, ESQ. ST. IVES, WEDNESDAY. This day a splendid silver vase and a silver epergne were presented to G. G. Day, Esq., by the electors of the county of Hunts, in testimony of their esteem for hiS public and private worth, and more particularly to ccrnmemorate the signal triumph he and the cause of Reform recently achievel over the machinations of the adverse party. The dinfier took place at three o'clock in the hall of an old priory, dimensions about 90 feet by 37, which i s sa id to have been formerly in the possession of the Cromwell family, but which had of late years been used as a barn. It was floored over, and fitted up for the occasion with great taste and elegance, and every attention to comfort and general accommodation. Four tables, running the whole length of the apartment, atTOrded comfortable sitting room for 400 persons, and that number of tickets was very soon disposed of after the announcement of the dinner had been published ; numberless applicants have since been refused up to the very hour of the dinner. Midway down the room was an elevated table, on which the two pieces of plate above described were placed ; and in this part of the room, alas, was the seat of the Noble Chairman, Earl Fitz william ; anti opposite to him, at the other table, that of the Vice-Chairman, J. 13. Rooper, Esq. M. P. The company at table comprised all the principal gentry of the counties of Hunts, Cambridge, Bedford, and Buck ingham, amongst whom we particularly noticed the follow ing :—Earl Fitzwilliam, chairman ; J. B. Rooper, Esq., M.P., vice-chairman ; Hon. G. Wentworth Fitzwillimu ; Hon. F. Dundas ; G. Pryme, Esq., M.P. ; Captain Du berley ; Foster, Esq. ; mayor of Cambridge ; the Mayor of Godmanchester ; W. Simpson, Esq. ; Toogood, Esq. ; .1. Tebhutt, Esq. ; Blythe Foster, Esq. ; H. Foster, Esq. ; E. Martin, Esq. ; R. Newton, Esq. ; C. Newton, Esq. ; W. Williams, Esq. ; W. Fowler, Esq. ; C. Warner, Esq. ; D. Martin, Esq. ; A. Ashton, Esq. ; It. Wallace, Esq. ; J. Clouting, Esq. ; Bate, Esq. ; B. Rooper, Esq. ; Maxwell, Esq. ; G. Croxton, Esq. ; and Messrs. J. and P. Ulph. After the cloth was removed, the Chairman gave the usual toasts. The CHAIRMAN then said, the time was now arrived -....„. when. it would be his pleasing duty to describe the merits and the claims of the gentleman in whose honour they were now assembled.—(Cheers.) If Mr. Day had been only known to them as a gentleman who had raised himself to honourable distinction in a profession which sometimes he was afraid comprised members whose conduct was such as to render honourable conduct in those in whoin it was prominent still more honourable—if Mr. Day had only been known in his character of an honest and up right attorney, he would have been entitled to the respect of all who knew him as a highly useful member of the com munity. This respect Mr. Day was entitled to in a high degree. But this was not all he had done to entitle him to their respect and esteem ; he had devoted his time and his funds unremittingly to the cause of freedom and good go vernment—he had given himself up to the service of the county without fee or reward during many succeeding years. The health of Mr. Day was then drunk amidst enthu siastic and protracted cheering. G. DAY, Esq., then rose, and when the cheering with which he was greeted had in some degree subsided, com menced speaking as follows :—I thank you, my Lord and Gentlemen, for the high honour you have thus conferred upon me. I accept most cordially these testimonials of your esteem. I am • sensible of your kindness, and shall ever cherish its recollection. [Mr. Day was here evidently so overcome by his feelings as to be unable to proceed for some time. The cheering was tremendous.] He then proceeded. It was, my Lord, a saying of the antient Goths, that " when we would brand an enemy, we call him a . Roman," thereby implying all that is base and dishonourable. When the modern Goths seek to brand their 'opponent with in famy, they call him a Radical.—(Hear, hear, and cheer ing.) We have read Goldsmith's account of the village dog. One called him bad—and it was soon reported, and as soon believed, that he was mad. The villagers thought hydrophobia too alarming a disease to stop and inquire into the reality of its existence, and they cudgelled him to death. —(A laugh.) With the Goths, my Lord, I am a Roman —with the Tories I am a Radical—( Hear, hear)—and they have in the outrageous affair I am about to narrate, imitated the conduct of Goldsmith's Pillagers.—(Shame, shame.) In 1835, the members of the Conservative Club in this county expended much strength and money in at tending to registration. We were occupied before the bar rister, I believe, fifteen days, ten lawyers at least were en gaged on behalf of the Conservatives at the Registration Court, and I had, with my partner, to encounter all these single-handed and alone.—( Hear, hear.) The result was, that we got 320 new claimants on the list, and cut up 187 of the Tory claims.----(Hear, hear.) The Tories for that year only cut up the Hertford votes, but the result upon the whole was, that wo succeeded in increasing the registration of that year in our favour to the amount of about 200. This required from me much personal labour, and sacrifice, but I was aided by the most spirited and labouring committees.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) Amongst other claims, I caused the names Messrs. Newton, Robinson, Golborne, and Parry to be in serted on fie list ; and the charge against me in the late prosecution was, that I had conspired, with my clerk Parry, to have inserted such names, knowing that they were not entitled to vote.—(Shame, shame.) I did get them placed upon the register, but I knew at the time that every one of them had as legal, as equitable, and as clear a right to be placed there as any freeholder in the county of Hun tingdon.—(Cries of " Hear, hear, hear," and cheers.) A constitutional Judge and a county Jury pronounced my acquittal, and the Tories have now the mortification of knowing that these, your gifts of silver and of gold, are to become lasting monuments of your kindness and regard, as we ll as of the utter imbecility of their persecutions.— (Cheers.) I accept them as such. I stand before you with a conscience void of the offence with which I was charged, and with my innocence legally as well as morally established. The Hon. Gentleman, who spoke with much 'fervour and energy throughout his address, sat down amidst a torrent of cheering, waving of handkerchiefs, &c. Captain DUBEIILEY congratulated Mr. Day and the as sembly upon the satisfactory answer which he had just made to the malignant attacks which had so unjustly, but so fruitlessly, been made upon him.—(Cheers.) Their Noble Chairman, Earl Fitzwilliam, by his private and public worth, (lid as much honour to the Peerage as the Peerage did honour to him.—Loud cheering, amidst whi c h the health of the Noble Chairman was drank with three times three. Earl FITZWILLIAM, in rising to return thanks for the honour just done him, declared his fixed determination to co-operate with the independent electors of the county of Hunts in supporting a free GOvernment, which he consi. dered to be essential to the happiness of mankind, and con cluded by proposing the health of their respected Represen tative, Mr. Rooper, whose unremitting exertions and unde viating line of conduct in the great battle of freedom, must, he was sure, entitle him to the most rapturous demonstra tion of regard. „ . ” The health of Mr. Rooper, M.P., and the independent Electors of Hunts," which was drunk with loud and con tinued cheering. J. B. Roonn, Esq., M.P., returned thanks. They were now here assembled to signalize the defeat of one of the basest conspiracies that had ever been upon re cord.—(Lout cheers.) This might be strong language ; but he thought it was fully justified by the circumstances. As their respected and noble Chairman had coupled his (Mr. Rooper's) name with the freeholders of the county, he ventured to indulge a hope that his conduct as their repre ' sentative in Parliament had not been altogether unexcep tionable.—(Cheers.) He had heard it said that the object of Government was to destroy the Constitution. lie defied any man to name any one Act of the Government which would warrant such an accusation.—(Hear.) He repu diated the charge, and indignantly cast it back in the teeth of those who had uttered it.—(Loud cheers.) It was not the wish of his Majesty's Ministers to destroy the Consti tution, but it was their determination to destroy those abuses in the Constitution which time and the Tories had caused.—(Loud cheers.) Looking at- the annual increas ing- revenue, and recollecting at the same tint; the reduc tions made in taxation by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was totally at a loss to understand how any resistance could be made to any Government that had con ferred such advantages upon the country. The Hon. Mem ber then gave " The health of Lord Melbourne and his Majesty's Ministers," which was drunk with ' .-eat enthu siasm, and followed by loud an d p ro t r acted cheering. Too Goon, Esq., in a neat speech, proposed " Th e health of Lord Milton."—(Drunk amid loud cheering.) Earl FITZWILLIAM returned thanks. The CHAIRMAN then proposed " The healths of Mr. Pryme, the Right Hon. T. Spring Rice, and the Inde pendent Electors of C a mbridge."—(Drunk with three times three and great applause.) G. PRA MS, Esq., M.P., in returning thanks for the honour which had been conferred upon him, believed he and his Right Hon. Friend and colleagues were the first and only representatives which the town of Cambridge had hitherto had. Of his Right Hon. Colleague, he could aver, that he was an old and well-tried servant of the public —( Hear), —and that long ago, when at college together, at a time when neither of them were looking forward to become legislators, his Right Hon. Friend had always most sincerely the welfare of the people at heart.—(Cheers.) He was now about to propose a toast to them which he knew would be hailed with delight and enthusiasm. - Th e name of Fitzwilliam was dear to him and to the people of England.—(Hear, hear.) In Ireland also it was held in deep and merited esteem, for of that name was the first Lord• Lieutenant of that country who had sought to give equal rights to men of every religion.—(Chec4.) "The health of the Hon. G. Wentworth Fitzwilliam" was then (',rank amid vociferous cheering. Tile Hon. G. W. FITZWILLIAM returned thanks. The CHAIRMAN then gave " The Mayor and Corpora tion of Cambridge," and hoped it would be recollected that if Cambridge enjoyed a Corporation to any us ful puilose, she owed it to the present GovernmCnt.—(l - lear, hear.) E. FosTEn, Esq., Mayor of Cambridge, returned thanks. Earl Fitzwilliam at this period of the evoning left the Chair, amidst renewed cheering ; but the Chair Laving been taken by another gentleman, a number of other toasts were drunk, - and the hilarity of the evening kept up till a late hour. CAPTURE OF AN ENGLISH VESSEL BY RUSSIA. i CONSTANTINOPLE, DEC, 28.—Th e ca pt a i n o f a Mer chantman, which arrived here last week from Kersch, has at length brought us intelligence of the fate of the 17.t:en. It appears that she has been captured by the Russians. After proceeding to Sondjah Kale, the part of Abassia be tween Anapa and Gelinjek, where an unsuccessful descent, as I wrote you some months ago, was made by the Russian troops, she had already discharged the greater part of her cargo, consisting of salt, and not of gunpowder, as Wag erroneously stated before, when a Russian ship of war en tered the bay, seized her, and made prisoners of Mr. Bell, the merchant and supercargo, the captain, and crew. The, latter were taken on the Bth instant to Kaffa, in the Cri mea, and the vessel to Sebastopol. I shall not attempt to describe the sensation produced here by this direct viola tion of the law of nations—this flagrant outrage on the British flag. From Samsoun, Sinope, and Trebizonde, all accounts concur in representing the excitement that prevails along the whole coast of the Black Sea as ua-, precedented. Accustomed—as the inhabitants of these countries have been—to the tyrannical violence with. which Russia has trampled upon their rights and. inte rests—to the frivolous and hypocritical pretexta under which she has endeavoured to extinguish the commercial relations which had connected the shores of tile Euxine for centuries—they had still expeeted to see our flag respected ; for this last act of reckless audacity they were wholly un prepared. The appearance of the Vixen had been deemed decisive of the question of blockade. It was considered, as virtually raised ; nor was it for a moment imagined that. Russia would dare to pick up the gauntlet which England had deliberately thrown down. She has done so, nevertheless, and now all eyes are directed with intense anxiety to the latter. May the course she adopts be worthy of the present crisis, her position, character, and former fame. The conse quences which would ensue from a weak and temporising policy, at a moment when nothing but decision and energy will avail, are too painful and alarming to contemplate. I allude not to the dishonour of our flag. Serious as that may be, there are considerations far more important than that. The moral effects of our conduct on Persia, Turkey, and Cir cassia—in short, on the whole East—will he powerful and instantaneous. The people whom our example would rouse to the most heroic resistance, and who only want that in fluence to render them invincible, will, if they see us shrink, be at once reduced to despair ; will submit to the yoke pre pared for them, without a struggle. All depends on the measures our Cabinet will now adopt ; and, judging from the steps they have already taken, we have every reason to anticipate they will be marked by the firmness which the occasion demands. Twice has this blockade been notified to it by Russia ; once about three years ago, and again in September last, without eliciting the slightest notice of it in the Gazette; and when Mr. Bell, the mer chant, engaged in this enterprise, had addressed a note to the Foreign-office to be informed if such a blockade had been recognised by the Government, the answer he received was a simple reference to the Gazette. Furnished with this document and the letter of our Foreign Secretary, he had no difficulty in obtaining insurance to any amount at Lloyd's. It is generally understood that the ground on which the Government refuses to acknowledge the validity of this blockade, alleged to be for the purpose of insuring the observance of sanitary regulations (which is in itself a proceeding altogether anomalous and unprecedented), is that Russia can have no right to establish a quarantine in a country which not only de facto, but even de jure, does not belong to her. The Sultan could not transfer to her a country which at no time directly or indirectly acknow ledged his Sovereignty. This, in fact, is the true and only question at issue ; and Russia, by the resolute attitude she has taken, seems prepared to dispute it a foutrance. She feels how much she has at stake in it, and ,prefers any alteration to conceding it, excep„t o one—a w ar& Ad,this she will assuredly no t b e mad endugtto.:Orovoke.-. Her only endeavour will be to negociateiltroelistitiat6,' - and ca jole our Ministry if she can. The Turkish Governmefit los at length lade advances to Mr. Churchill, with a view'df indemnifying him for the suffering and losses he has sustained from tl e ti:Otajl'treat meat of his e m pl oyes . A s it wak,,tletir4taq _Otis sho u ld appear a spontan eous act upon its Parerihe E glish Go vern -' ment will not interf ere i n i t . I t i s understood that a snuff it, box, in diamonds, will be presented 'to him on the part of the Sultan, and by way of compensating - fot the detriment to his business here as a merchant, C(ftaiOnnarnerciat -pri vileges will, in all probability, be award4toiim. A clue has at length been ,obtained for ,the detection of the authors of the false coin, with which; as I informed you some"time ago, the Turkish enders* , has lately been inundated. There is now not' the leaf `doubt that they were Frenchmen, and that the central point of their opera tions was the capital itself. About six months ago two in dividuals, representing themselves to be jewellers, arrived here, and in connection with a French house of some stand ing and respectability, establislitd :a mandantiity of gold chains, and other tirtichsalf jesiellery:•''..,,Their besiness, to all appearance, was a prOstie'remi one, t r ot only Gru their style of living but from their. constant Occupation, which they assigned as a reason for mot 'executing the orders that were offered to them. In-the-, meanwhile one of• the part ners paid frequent ,visits to 'Sinyrna, B roussa , and otber trading towns in the interior, where he was known to i h cal a et v iso e n; maiddse traced as e t extensive s u i evtieoi optruieresteheaiaslecislocueostif,teVflekit a fn n e d n6 o y th n ef c • j a reu rti . - housep exchangea s swithconsiderablewhom sums were o f it, associated in t a h n e dp hadua c h a time purchase e of endeavoured Frenchhilhl I to of (which, by the bye, is now supposed to have not a little contributed to 'the fluctuations in the Money Market), suspicion eventually was directed to the right parties, who in conseqqence decamped a few days ago. Their accomplices in the house alluded to still remain here, and it affords an illustration of the state of the law in this country with respect to Franks, that being under French protection such notorious criminals are allowed to remain unmolested. On the 27th September, the Henrietta, Captain Free man, had taken into its lighters at Ibrail a cargo of tallow and staves, and was proceeding below the Algurina shoals. for the purpose of shipping them, when the whole of these goods were seized by men in armed boats, acting under in structions from the Wallachian Government. The house which had shipped them (Messrs. Bell and Anderson) having failed, the parties who had sold the merehandize con ceived they had a right to seize it ; but such a proceeding, after the captain had signed the bills of lading, was clearly illegal, and measures arc being adopted by our Consul for the restitution of the property.—Morning Chronicle. Despatches were forwarded yesterday from . the Foreign Department, for the English Minister at Constan tinople. AN OLD ADAGE NEWLY ILLUSTRATED FROM TILE " MORNING PosT.”—The Tory Journals arc syste matically averse to the undue proudneney of truth ; never theless, in the weaving of their daily webs, of flattery or slander, as the case may require, we may sometimes by close inspection detect a thread of it. Here is an instance. Th e m orn i no Post of yest er d a y, i n i ts est i mate of the personal character of two of its idols, has this paragraph The Duke of Wellington by his calm sagacity, ready decision. incotruptible integrity—Sir R. Peel, by his boundless com mand of political science, of statistical information, of ora torical power, have been seen contributing in their own per sonal presence incalculable energy and vigour to the Ca binets of which they were members." Here is no need to italicise. Contrasts are only another form of comparisons and the old complaint against the latter lies equally against both. It is clear that, even in the eyes of the Post, a cha racter for " political integrity" is not Sir R. Peel's strong hold, any more than " boundless oratorical power," is that of the Duke. The Princess in the Arabian tale contrives to poison half the loaf by anointing one side of the knife ; iin some such fashion has the Post, in dividing to the Duke his fair share of praise contrived (innocently enough) to poison Sir Robert's. THE DUCHESS DE LA VALLIERE AND MADAME Dli MAINTENON.—" This is one of those rare works jo which a swerving from female virtue is converted into o ne of the most touching moral tales, which the most pure an d delicate may not only peruse without a blush, but re flect upon and profit by. It is an exquisite narrative, in which the heart is equally interested by the noble ingenuousness of the young and artless Louise de la Velliere, in the out set of her trials and temptations, at a refined and luxurioti s Court, and touched to the quick by the keen remorse that followed her lapse from rectitude, which would almost ap pear venial, from th e t emptat i ons to w hi c h she was exposed by youth, transcendent beauty, a fond heart, and a Hopi' suitor."—Bath Herald. " The Ministers of the Crown," says Le Charivari► " having declared that there was a surplus in the public Treasury, we are not surprised that Marshal Soult displays such anxiety to re-enter upon office." A Deputy almerved to a friend, that M. Guizot and make a great ma n ; " Y es ," said t 'A i l le . 'fi' :i6 friend, °d togetherinu l thesanl makennlanner as two negatives make as a Ili rmative,"—.4a 41fode. THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1837.