The Sun. — London, England, 1833-09-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. Not the least interesting portion of the Mi nisterial pamphlet entitled The Reform Minis try and the Reformed Parliament, to which we have more than once adverted, embraces an exposition of our foreign policy and a defence of the late diplomatic transactions in which we have been more particularly interested. This subject is not, indeed, necessarily connected with the history of the recent session of Parlia ment, because no particular acts of the Foreign office have been submitted to its decision, or re quired its support ; but it composes an essential feature in the general conduct of a "reformed" Government. The whole system of such a Government must stand or fall together ; and we can no more conceive a liberal domestic ad ministration combined with a slavish foreign policy, or with alliances intended to promote the continuance or extension of foreign despot ism, than we can conceive a despotic govern ment at home disposed to engage in crusades for the promotion of external liberty and inter national independence. The atmosphere of reform is not limited to one particular locality, or narrrowed in its action to one particular subject; it must envelop every office in the state, and must he breathed by every public functionary. Holy Alliance principles can no more flourish within its sphere than domestic abuses. Downing-street must come as much within its range as the Treasury or Whitehall ; and even the Ministers of the absolute Powers of Europe, in descending from their ambassado rial residences amid Tories to a conference at the Foreign-office, must be made to feel that they enter a new climate, and that they must listen to a new language. It is almost, there fore, superflous to remind our readers that the march of our foreign politics has followed a route parrallel with the progress of our internal reforms. When the Ministers of the Duke of Wellington retired from office in November, 1830, amid foreign revolution and domestic dis order, it bequeathed a most perilous legacy of unsettled diplomatic questions to its successors. Some of these questions had been long agitated without any hope of a satisfactory solution, and the difficulties of others had but re cently appeared. It was necessary to adopt and to announce some guiding principle , which might apply to all, which might satisfy the justice and protect the interests of the British nation, while they were cal culated to inspire no sinister hope nor to pro duce any reasonable alarm either among the subjects of foreign Princes in a state of revolt, nor foreign Governments in a state of suspicion and disquietude. They, therefore, held up a flag to the country and to Europe, on which was inscribed " peace and non-interference," and this banner they have continued to exhibit to their friends and their enemies to the present moment. But the great difficulty lay in the application of these principles to the state of circumstances in which they were left by the late Ministry—where their Wore would have exposed them to unmerited reproach, and their success promised them but very slender or equi vocal honour. We have no room for adverting at present to the chief embarrassments which the situation of Europe presented to our foreign administration on the accession of the existing Cabinet. They had to repair the blunders of of their predecessors, with regard to the settle ment of Greece, by procuring an enlarged ter ritory for the new state, and by establishing a better line of demarcation between it and Tur key. They had to prevent the invasion of Belgium on the part of the French, and consequently a general European war, by cancelling the foolish treaties of 1815, and effecting a peaceful separation between the Belgic and Dutch provinces. They had to manage and protect British interests in Por tugal, so as not to enter into any political rela tions with a perfidious tyrant, who had broken every engagement to which he had sworn, nor to attack national independence by interfering for the rightful heiress to the throne. While this weighty and manifold task was imposed upon them, they saw nearly all Europe in flames. They saw revolutions breaking out in Germany, in Swi , zerland, in Poland, and in Italy, and were told with the most provoking assurance, both by Tories and Radicals, by Revolutionists and Conservatives, that the preservation of peace was impossible, that the attempt to settle the Belgic question without hostilities was pure in sanity, aud that the meetings of the Conference in Downing-street was a ridiculous farce. We all remember the unsparing sarcasms of which the Belgic protocols were the subject, and the dull jokes with which Conservative and Radical block heads were inspired on this fertile topic. We were incessantly told that I .eace could not continue for a month ; that ifthe French were employed to execute any order of the Conference by entering Belgium, they would never retire from that country ; that time English Government was duped by the French ; that a species of Gallomania alone could explain their conduct; that it would be I better to withdraw from every attempt at media tion, and allow the parties to fight out their quarrel, whatever might he the consequence, than to continue the fruitless negociations of Down ing•street ; and that we were merely sacrificing an ancient ally for the chance of preventing a struggle which was inevitable. A plain and satisfactory answer can now be given to all these dogmatic averments and sinister prophecies. The Belgic question may be considered as settled, without a war ; the French army has now entered Belgium and retired ; the general peace of Eu rope has not only been preserved for one month or for three months, but for more than three years, with a better prospect of its continuance than at any former period since the expulsion of the Bourbons ; and the liberal and reform Go vernment of England, more honoured and re spected in Europe than ever, has not sacrificed to a timid policy one atom of its honour, of its consistency, its independence, or principle. In no case can it be made appear that they have interfered in the internal affairs of other States (for their interference between Bel gium and Holland was between nation and nation), white their endeavours to preserve not only England in peace, but to ward off a continental war, have been crowned with the most signal success. Nor has the British Government, in securing these ob jects, abstained from the manly assertion of its constitutional opinions and love of freedom whenever an opportunity occurred. We need only refer for a proof of this assertion to the language held by theta in Parliament, and the tenon'. of those diplomatic papers which have met th • • 'ic eye,—we need only remind the rei ei cr 11 17 . speech of Lord Palmerst on on itki d,.0 . 410 . oflicial journal of St. Peters i Eitagli hit(*i lttemp;ed to answer, of the notes of 41. i'. 'Seymour, and of the; renewal of diplomatic relations with Lisbon. The tol• .4 1 C lowing is the whole @action of the pamphlet on our foreign policy : " If we look to our foreign relations, the result is not less satisfactory than the state of our domestic affairs ; but, in order to take a just view of these matters, we must carry our eyes back for a moment to the condition of things when the present Goverment first took the helm. Three important questions were then pending, in all of which Great Britain either had taken a prominent part, or hail a paramount interest—the affairs of Greece, Bel gium, and Portugal. " The Greek question, as far as England was con• corned, began with the protocol i f 1826. which was at St. Petershurgh, by the treaty of July, 1827, signed in London by Lord Dudley. The object of these instruments was to separate Greece from Tui key, and to place the Greek nation, within a territory to be specially defined. in a rate of independence and self-government. " When the present Administration succeeded to office they found an agreement entered into by their predecessors with the Porte, by which limits were to be imposed upon Greece, so narrow and so ill-chosen, that while important districts of Greece would have been left to Turkey, the Greeks would have had no defensible frontier, and perpe tual collision would have taken place between tie Turkish and Greek population. Such a settlement could only have laid the foundation for future quarrels. " The present Government despatched Sir Stratford Canning to Constantinople, to endeavour to make a more ratb•nal arrangement. That able Ambassador was com pletely successful; and he obtained the consent of the Porte to an amended boundary, as excellent in every respect as the former one had been defective. " Prince °tilt), of Bavaria, selected as King of Greece by the three mediating Powers, in virtue of an authority from the Greeks themselves, has since arrived in his do minions, where he was enthusiastically received ; and Greece, reviving from the tomb, and awakening from the death-like torpor of ages, takes here place among the Chris tian and civilized nations of Europe. " May we not hope 'hit this country, once the peculiar seat of the arts, of science, and of civil liberty, may prove itself not unworthy of the firtunate condition to which it has now been rais d ? " The BrLion question, like the Greek, had its origin in even!, antecedent to the formation of the present Go vernment. They found on this subject a course chalked out to them by their predecessors. They might modify it as they advanced, but could not, even if they had wished to do so, retrace steps already taken. " The revolution in Belgium broke out in August, IS3O. The King of the Netherlands, in October, called upon his allies, and Great Britain among the rest, to send him troops to quell the revolt ; the British Government, under the Duke of Wellington, refused to do so ; the Dutch were almost entirely expelled front the Belgian provinces ; and the Kin?: of the Netherlands, unable to put down the rebels by his own means, or to get succour from his allies, entreated that a Conference might be as sembled, and that an armistice might be imposed on the two parties—himself and his revolted subjects. " His request was complied with ; and in the beginning of November the Conference met in London; and its first set was to declare to the two parties that they should fight no more, and that the line of demarcation between them, during an armistice unlimited as to time, should be the line which, before the union in 1814, separated the old Dutch provinces from the provinces of Belgium. This decree at once established the principle of separation ; for the Belgians had declared themselves independent, and the King of Holland was told the war was to cease. He could not, therefore, recover his lost territory except by the consent of the Belgians, and that consent it was ev:dent he never could obtain. " The task, then, of the present Government was so to settle the terms on which separation should take place, as to provide for the interests and security of all parties concerned. " The arrangement is nut yet completed, hut it is sup posed to be verging towards its close; and when Belgium finally becomes an independent, constitutional, commercial, and neutral state, it will contribute more to preserve the peace of Europe in such a condition of existence than in any other which could have been assigned to it. " The difficulties which have been encountered have arisen from the obstinacy of the King of the Nettier!ands —an obstinacy which during the last two years has bur dened the Dutch with expenses, the permanent charges arising from which will almost counterbalance the relief afforded them by the division of the debt between them and the Belgians. " The citadel of Antwerp was to he evacuated in 15 days, by the armistice which the King of the Netherlands himself had invoked in November, 1830 ; but the posses. sion of that fortress enabled him to liArass the Belgians, and to intercept their trade on the Scheldt. He then fore refused to give it up. England and France proposed to the other three Powers to declare, that Belgium should striker ff horn hi tt debt to Holland, a million of fl irins for every week during which, after a certain time, the Dutch should continue to occupy any part of the Belgian territory. The three Powers refused to agree to this proposal ; England and France, therefore, were obliged to resort to force: hence the siege of Antwerp, and hence the Dutch embargo. These vigorous measures dis concerted all the calculations of the Dutch King and his partisan., whether English Tories or Continental Absolutists. B filed in their schemes, they vented their anger in predictions. The citadel would never be taken; the Prussians would march to relieve it ; the Russians would pour down from Poland ; Austria would take the field ; and the tide of a general war would sweep the French hack to their own frontier. But Prussia only grumbled and cequetted about Venloo ; Austria never stirred ; and Russia contented herself with some angry boasts of what she would have done, if shr had been nearer to the scene of action. The prophets then foretold that Chasse, sooner than surrender, would blow up himself and his garrison, and bury all under the ruin; of the place. But old Chasse went on quietly smoking his pipe. retiring from on- cellar to another, as the bombai dment advanced ; and, at length, when the breach was practicable, and he hsil got to his last casemate, he surrendered, as people in such situations generally do. " Then the embargu was said to be an utter Nhire; harmless to the Dutch, ruinous only to ourselves ; it was unheard of to continue it so long ; we ought to go to war, or else release the Dutch ships ; the measure was illegal, anti, at the same time, ridiculous. These were the argu ments and assertions by which the Tories tried to persuade Parliament to force the Government to take the embargo . ff. But Parliament turned a deaf ear to them ; the em bargo continued ; and the consequence was the convention of tie 21st of May. By that convention the character of the Belgia❑ question was entirely changed. The Dutch agreed to an unlimited armistice ; and Europe was secured against any danger of a general war, resulting from the difference between Holland and Belgium. The question of peace or war was from that moment settled ; what re mained to be arranged was a matter of flat ins, of tolls, and of ditties ;—questions, important indeed, to the two parties, but not threatening the peace i f the test of Europe. This was the fruit of the siege of Antwerp, and of the embargo; and thus has the result wily justified the wisdom of those measures. "'The affairs of Portugal are drawing to a conclusion. The tyranny, which for five years has weigh• il down that wretched country, has been dashed to the ground. Mi guel's fleet has been captured ; the siege of Op .rto has been raised ; 2,500 brave Portuguese have marched in triumph from the Guadiana to the Tagus; Donna M ria has been proclaimed in Lisbon, and a British Minister has again presented hims•lf at the court of the rightful sovereign of Portugal. British valour has, as usu il, been associated with Portuguese freedom, and Cape St. Vincent has again witnessed the exploits of naval heroism. The English Government ha-, with respect to these affairs, steadily ad hered to the course which it had chalked out for itself. It has been rigidly neutral in the contest ; but then it has required other powers to be so too. " When Don Pedro's expedition sailed from Terceira a Spanish army assembled on the confines of Portu g al, under pretence of observation, but obviously ready to strike a blow in supi.ort of Don Miguel, if an opportunity should offer. But the events of 1t321 had not been forgotten, and the experience of the cunduet of Spain in that year was not thrown away. " The British Government did not trust solely to the assurances of the Cabinet of ill.tdrid, but prepared itself for all events. A powerful squadron under Admiral Park, r w,s sent to the Tagus, with orders, as was stated in Par liament, to take active part fur Don Pedro the moment a Spanish force should enter Portugal to assist Don Aliguel. Spain and England have kept faith with each other; and though openly avowing their opposite wishes as to the result of the war, both have stood aloof, leaving the con tending parties to fight the matter out unaided. The part which England took in this struggle was, to keep the ring and see fair play ; and victory has remained with the cause of Justice and of right. There can be no doubt that if a Tory Government tad been estibli: lied in E, gland, some pretence or other would have been found to let the Spanish army loose, and Portugal would have been still under n t t is he e,, ty t r r.ymoofs timportant, doo " m T ed he to re la t:t ui o s t this h ntsim an l d will be extensively felt. Toe atru, , gle wns Miguel. b e tween Pedro and Maria on one side, a n d M iguel on simply other. Portugal was the arena on which the great Eu r.,peart hauls was to be fought by appointed champions. The Twits of England tie Carlists of Francs LA Spain, the Holy Alliance, and the enemies of liberty all over Europe, were the backers of Miguel; the friends of jus tice and of rational Government were the partisans of Maria; and if the cause of the Queen should continue vic torious, the moral effect of her success will be felt through. out the whole of Europe. " While the attention of Europe was absorbed by events in the west, a sudden storm arose in the east,which threatened the destruction of the Turkish empire. The throne of the Sultan was first menaced by his rebellious vassal, and then endangered by his protecting ally. The Porte has for the present escaped from both perils ; the Egyptians have retired from Asia Minor, and the Russians have left Constantinople. It is the business of the Bri tish Government to take care that neither shall return again. _ " The war between Mahomet Ali and the Sultan war not an ordinary case of civil war between a sovereign and his subjects, with which other States ought not to inter. fere. Ttiat contest threatentd so materially to affect the distribution of power in the Esst, that the Governments of Europe were entitled to look upon it as a matter in which their own interests were directly involved. Turkey may be a barbarous and uncivil zed State ; but if it were dismembered, what would beclme of its fragments? Would Europe gain by substituting at Constantinople Russian civiliz ition for Turkish barbarism ? Would the benefit to humaniiy make up lor the political evil ? Could the crime of another partition be thus atoned for? Could we say— - IL " ` liar mercede placent " Undoul.tedly not. The Russian empire is large enough for the purposes of good Government, and for the safety of the rest of Europe; and Constantinople must never be added to the dominions of the Czar. " To name Russia is to think of Poland ; but alas ! what have we to say about that ili-fred and devoted country ? It lies prostrate at the feet of its conqueror, enduring all the miseries which exulting revenge cin in flict upon a subdued and no longer resisting ant , gmiist. Are the statements which have been matie on this matter exsggerated? Fm the honour of humanity we wish they may prove so ; but if they are, why have they not bi-en refuted ? But, indeed, the published arse of the Ru sim Government speak for themselves. Have not those acts been calculated to crush national spirit and extinguish nrional feeling, to wound the hearts of individuals and to add private affliction to pu' lie calamity ? Could Eng land have prevented all this? That is the queston which belongs to our present inquiry. We fear we mu-t answer in the negative; at least we believe that if Eng land and Fiance had attempted to throw their shield over Poland, the certain and immediate consequ ince would have been a general war in Europe, while Polish deliverance would have been a doubtful result. " The kingdom of Poland has no sea-port with which England can communicate ; and it is separated from France by the interposition of half of Germany. Aus tria and Prussia were ready to have supported Russia, and each had an army of 100,000 men on the Polish frontier, ready to march at a moment's notice. If we had declared war against Russia, on behalf of Poland, we should have had to wage that war against Aus tria and Prussia a!so. But what would those three Powers have done ? They would all have united to crush the Poles, which, as their armies were placed, would have been but the work of a fortnight ; and then we should have had to wage a general war in Europe, not to save the Poles, but only to avenge their fall. Tie war, too, would necessarily have been a war of political principle, at a moment when the recent events in France and Bel• gium had excited, to the highest pitch, the p fissions of mankind, and bad brought into active conflict the most extreme opinions. We believe our Government judged wisely. But the Polish nation sleep, and is not deal. Some day or other it may still awake : we trust that the brighter day which must await it will be prepared first by a milder and juster, and therefore wiser policy on the part of Russia, and will not be preceded by a renewal of vio -I,nce and bloodshed. But no administrative ingenuity can extinguish a great people, and no physical force can perm snently keep such a people down in misery and boaddge. With respect to the affairs of Italy and Germany, the British Govt.' nment appear not to have taken a prominent part ; but the correspondence of Mr. Seymour, which was published some time since in the newspapers, shows what their course has been as to the former. The counsels given by the English Government seem to have been such as it became the Government of a free country to give, and those counsels appear not to have been pressed further thin was consistent with a respect for the independence of other states. " With France our relations continue to afford a striking contrast to former periods of our history. Time was when England and France tancie•t themselves natural enemies— when the foes of the one became of course the friends of the other. These days are passed away; may they never return ; long may two great and intelligent nations reap from the friendly intercourse of peace advantages far beyond any which the most successful war cou'd afford to either. The union of England and France has, during a period of unexampled difficulty, preserved the peace of Europe; and we may safely predict that +c bile that union subsists, that peace will not he broken. A general war would now be a contest in which England, France, and the people of every country in Europe would be ranged on one aide, and the despotic Governments with their armies would stand on the other. The immediate issue could not be doubtful, the more distant results might be tremendous. The Englian Government, ue are convinced, will never court such a conflict; the arbitrary Governments of the continent will be too wise to P rovoke it. England, then, never had a clearer course before her, and never held a more dignified, or more honourable station. She stand s umpire between hostile and excited parties; she holds the balance between extreme and opposing principles ; her task is pacis imponere morem ;' and this task she may continue to perform no It as to her own advantage, than fir the bentfit of the rest of the civilized world. Times. An able and useful political pamphlet has just been published by Ridgway, entitled " The Reform Ministry and the Reformed Par liament." It professes to give a digest of the present product of the Reform Bills, and a dis passionate vindication of the Cabinet and the Reformed Parliament from the counter-charges of the Tories and the Ultra-Radicals—their common assailants. The readers of the Morn ing Chronicle have seen, that throughout the Session we have held an impartial and moderate course. We never could divine what good would accrue to the people by an exchange of the Whig Administration fer a Tory Cabinet. The social system and conservation of the pro. perty of this extraordinary nation are deeply in terested in the avoidance of violent revolutions, and no class would so bitterly suffer by the dis memberment of society and the explosion of public credit as the mass of the people, when the demand for labour would be interrupted, and chaos subvert, order, industry, and happiness. Lord Grey's Ministry has been most unfortu nately placed. It succeeded a long succession of Ultra-Tory Cabinets, at the eleventh hour—that is to say, when Toryism had run out to the very dregs. Every national abuse had reached the highest degree in the political barometer of public opinion. Elections wet e swayed by no mination, bribery, and corruption ; pen sions, sinecures, and unnecessary places were upheld ; a moderate share of the elec tive franchise had been blindly and perversely denied to the large unrepresented towns and commercial communities ; the abuses of the established Church were religiously maintained ; the reform of the law was limited to the ped dling and surface alterations proposed by that shallow, short-sighted, but ingenious politician, Sir Robert Peel ; the East India monopoly was upheld ; Negro slavery was favourably main tained by the Tory Governments ; Catholic Emancipation too late delayed—Church rates and Protestant Tithes had incensed to madness the Catholic laity of Ireland ; the English poor laws ground the agriculturists to death under prices reduced by the operationoofligtfaierctigciasllactoivre return - ruption t o o t' c c o a r s p h ortio l i n i e s n w ts as ; palpably protected— Lord Lyndhurst (that swivel-gun politician) de claring their funds to be strictly " private pro perty"—and Sir Robert Peel impudently justi fying the Leicesterjliniacsrteratti f R freemen ; the of then" honorary dmDuke of Wellington was composed of men utterly lacking a grain of popular respect; political unions forming in every populous district, and the boiling cauldron of public feeling foaming to the brim ! Such was the notorious political state of this country, when the crater of the old French Revolution again poured forth flames and lava, and in the heat of its irruption ignited the pub lic mind of surrounding nations. Themilitary Duke appeared to exhibit a corresponding political stupidity and infatuation. The British people loudly demanded; the Duke of Wellington's rash temerity of denial increased proportionably with the loud calls for redress of grievances. With a cunning and ridiculous device, of rein forcing himself by a re-union with his quondam allies the Ultra-Tories, the Duke of Wellington cast away the people and retreated on the Con servatives. He acknowledged Louis Philippe, but clung to the Holy Alliance ; he declared the constitution of Parliament to be perfect, and Public Opinion hurled him from the Premier ship. Under these critical circumstances Lord Grey was summoned to the Councils of the King. His Cabinet was necessarily formed of dissonant political parties ; anti no combination of public men, on the principles of his admi nistration, could possibly satisfy the People and at the same time obtain an ascendant majority in the House of Peers. A conspiracy of Bo roughmongers moreover threatened him with destruction in the House of Commons ! Under these frightful and almost insuperable difficulties the Premier was called upon, in a short space of four months, to mature and propose a scheme of Parliamentary Reform, to repair breaches in the constitution of Parliament made by two cen turies of systematic corruption—such a scheme as would satisfy the people, be approved by the King, ar►d pass the House of Lords ! The signal and unprecedented circumstances which ultimately and safely carried the great national question require no detail or comment ; they will ever live in the recollection of the existing generation. The people with sanguine expecta tion looked for miracles from Parliamentary Reform. Their gratitude to the Ministry was boundless, and the constituency elected to the new Parliament a great majority of Members who professed and pledged themselves to sup port the Government of Lord Grey. The public, excited by triumphant success, under rated the still dominant power of the Aristo cracy. A long course of misgovernment, and the deadly influence of the provincial Oligar chies and Tory magistracy, had singularly limited the formation of public character ; and it was not to be expected that in one session a Reformed Rouse of Commons could supply remedial legislation fot the accumulated evils of two centuries of misgovernment. Un happily Ireland (which has successively ruined the reputation of all its public men) was a pregnant subject of Ministerial unpopularity. ise and timely alteratives in the preceding session would have prevented the necessity of a Coercion Bill, and that unfortunate measure might have been made less " unconstitutional" and equally effective, No reasonable public man can, however, ascribe bad motives to the Government in its proposal ; that is to say, the Cabinet might desire awhile longer to uphold the Protestant EstAlishment in Catholic Ire lind, but they could„not viciously have invented the coercion to reduce public liberty. They must have foreseen its unpopularity, and that it would separate them from the - Ultra-Reformers, with out permanently attracting the Tories. Thus the early and most valuable part of the session was exclusively occupied - -as usual, in " doc toring" Ireland ; and a most melancholy alienation of the ptthlic mind was the natural consequence. All parties, however, must admit, thatthe obnoxi ous powers of the Irish Coercion Bill have been leniently exercised, and have temporarily acted as a preventive of injurious and indefensi ble agitation. We say temporgrily advisedly, because no legislation—no power of military or civil coercion, can long maintain -a Protestant Hierarchy in Ireland. But the period of the session subsequent to Easter has greatly re deemed the character of the Ministry and the Parliament. Many important legislative mea sures have been proposed and passed. Toryism is in fact rapidly dissolving, and no combination of events can again restore its domination. Much political good has been done—much remains to be still done—more will be achieved next session. The wedge is fairly driven in. We shall impartially analyse the contents of the pamphlet on " The Reform Ministry and the Reformed Parliament," which deserves, and will doubtless obtain, an extensive circulation ; and we shall subsequently review the state of parties and the prospects of the people. The times are remarkable : men's lives may be said to be politically quadrupled.—Morn.Chronicle. Parliament stands prorogued for the present to the 30th of October, a period of about nine weeks ; but we rather suspect that it is their intention " to put off the evil day" till February ; yet how they can with any propriety do this, with 134 notices on the order book of the • House of Commons, and half the business of the last Session postponed or undone, we are totally at a loss to imagine. It would be a much wiser course were they to make up their minds at once that Parliament should sit for six weeks before Christmas, when many of the above notices might be disposed of, and much of the future business so arranged and forwarded as materially to curtail the necessity of a dog. day sitting. One great mistake which Ministers have made is apparently the not foreseeing, or apprehending, what must have been quite obvious to every one else, that the Reformed Parliament would necessarily cut out more work for them than its unreformed predecessors had ever done. The worrying of the last session, however, must by this time, we imagine, have convinced them of this : or if they are still in doubt, let them look to the hundred and thirty four notices for the next. It is absurd in the highest degree to imagine that increased busi ness can be transacted within the limits allotted to one half the quantity. On the contrary, is it not obvious to everyone that added labours must be spread over extended space ? But there is one mode of shortening the Session, and if not of diminishing their own labours, at all events of dividing them more equally among themselves, which was alluded to on the last day of the late Session, and which Ministers would do well in future to attend to. This is by arranging that a greater proportion of the public business should originate in the House of Lords than is at pre sent the case. Ministers seem in this respect to adopt the old maxim of compelling the willing horse to draw the whole load. Lord Althorp and Mr. Stanley appear to have done the whole business of the late Session, receiving little or no aid from their colleagues in the Lower House, and still less from the far greater number of them who have seats in the Upper. There we have Lord Grey, Lord Brougham, Lord Ripon, Lord Lansdowne, and t h e Puke of Richmond, if not some other ,leeping Member of the Cabinet, who seem to have had little or nothing to do during the whole session, but just at its close to hurry through the House the eqwally hurried measures of the Commons. And see the degrading dilemma in which this places the House of Lords—that ofeither encountering the odium and inconvenience of thwarting the public service, or else becoming the mere formal adopters of the measures of the House of Commons, and sinking, as such, all the characteristics of a deliberative as sembly. And this is to be regretted on a double score, both as it regards the character of the House of Lords and the interests of the coun try ; for, notwithstanding what the snarling nib blers at revolutionary change may say of that House, we are convinced that we speak the de liberate opinion of by far the great majority of the sober and right-judging part of the com munity, when we say that the discussions which have taken place i❑ that House have, in gene ral, far outstripped in ability those of the House of Commons, and leave the country ample room to regret that more of the numerous acts of the session have not originated in a quarter where they could have undergone a more sifting and satisfactory investigation than has fallen to their lot. Nor is there any danger of the pri. vileges of the House of Commons, as the branch of the Legislature emanating immediately from the people, suffering any diminution or encroachment by such a proceeding. The House of Commons has always in its own hands the power of preventing this ; while nothing pro bably would more effectually tend to promote a right understanding between the two Houses, than that the House of Lcrds should be released from the state of apparent thraldom and degra dation to which the present practice reduces it. —Morning Herald. A pamphlet has been published at Effingham Wilson's, by Mr. John Matson, under the whimsical title of a " Catechism to be learned by a Member of Parliament," but which con tains some " good bits of truth" as the gentle men of the ring express it, couched in plain and unpretending language. It treats of all the great questions which are now of so much vital importance to every individual in the British community—tithe, poor laws, free trade, machi nery, currency, &c. IVe extract the f illowing passages from that portion of the catechism which refers to taxation, as possessing paramount interest. Mr. Matson proposes a property tax. " Q —Would not the Minister find it difficult to lay on a property tax in lieu of other taxes ? Would it not be opposed by all the rich people? " A.—He would have no difficulty in carrying the measure with a House of Commons composed of honest men, for it would only be an act of jostle; ; besides, be would be supported by all the rich who could see their own interest; for it would be a great gain to th e m all, and more particularly to those of them who expend their incomes. It would, al.o, to those of them who did not, for they would have the means of procuring more goods with their then reduced income, than they can with their present income, they would also have the satisfaction to know that their property was secure, and which they t afoot consider it to be at present, while they see so many thousands starving and au many fires bLzing around them. " Q.—l see clearly that the rich would he benefited as well as the poor. But what are the advantages the people would derive generally by the change ? " A.—The advantages are so great and numerous, that it will be necessary to name hut a few of them. In the first place, the labourers would be in a condition to purchase double the quantity of the neces-aries of life. That, of course, would give employment to thousands of others, who are at present out of emph yment, to procure the quantity required. Such increased means baying been given to the productive classes, its beneficial in fluences would be felt by all, and the poor rate would be nearly annihilated. In nearly ad articles an increased consumption would take place, and of course be at tended with the most beneficial re-ults. We should then find that the people were not too numerous ; on the con trary, there would be a deficiency of labourers—industry would be encouraged, and meet its full reward—property would he secure—starvation cease—and riot an(h incen diarim be unknown amongst us. This view is sanguine, but in the main cor rect. However, the people will never be satis fied till the present unequal system of taxation is exchanged for the more equitable distribution of a property tax of some description. To such commutation almost the whole of the pre sent Ministry are pledged, by their speeches in opposition. Lords Althorp and Palmerston, Sir Henry Parnell, Lord Brougham, Sir J. Graham, Mr. C. Grant, Mr. P. Thomson (fol lowing in the track of Mr. Huskisson) have all advocated such a commutation of indirect taxa tion for direct. It is true that Lord Althorp has changed his opinions on this subject, as he has on others. But his objection is chiefly drawn from the unpopularity of the old war in come tax, which the Whigs doubled in 1806, and which was repealed by the Tories. That was a most unequal, inquisitorial, and unjust tax ; but a tax such as the author, and all men who have devoted attention to the subject pro pose, is very different. Precarious incomes it will neither investigate nor retrench. It will only compel such a contribution of rea lized property to the wants of the state, or rather to its own protection, as will be tantamount to the extent of property protected. This mode of taxation is at once consistent with common sense, and with the best theories of the first ap plication of taxation, at the earliest period to which society can be traced ; whereas there is neither common sense nor equity in the blunder ing fiscal system we have derived from feudal ignorance. It is a system which cripples industry ; dams up the future means of the tax-payer ; ihwarts the principle of buying and selling at the best markets ; impoverishes the middle classes ; starves the working classes, and makes bond-slaves of the poor ; a system which suffo ' ewes religion beneath a fatal load of splendid plunder ; and, finally, creates crimes, through the poverty it causes, and then sets up an expen ,-ive machinery of justice to punish the criminal which it has created, for the offences it has caused. A property tax, as the author justly argues, will at once be advantageous to the capitalist and to the poor operative, whose in dustry is his only capital. It will set free the productive energies of the last ; it will give to the taxed capitalist an equal power to purchase commodities as before, because a proportionate fall of prices must ensue. This inference applies more especially to the fundhoiders. To the landowners the sole relinquishment of the malt tax would be a sufficient equivalent for any loss they might sustain by a tax on real property. Differing in some points with the " Catechism, in one point we agree especially with the author. The first step, before a general fiscal commuta tion, should be a broad and searching retrench ,nent ; not a peddling retrenchment, like that which has characterized the reform Parliament, and which was exceeded by an unreformed then n set of taxation. Government under the Tories. Cut down the sinecures, pensions, deadweight, and over-pay, ( t i o i c a t i n v e free pro thaendredtit't Of this the assessed taxes constitute the h i o n ri d e u s s t try lev b e y l, most obnoxious department ; the universal hatred of them is intense. All the dissatisfac tion of the people with the proceedings of the present Ministry and Parliament may be traced to the single circumstance of the Ministers nsos having commenced the Session with taking °lf the assessed taxes. Th e a b o li t i on was hel d I, en i t the people as a pledge of that retrench ri ; e , which Ministers promised as the result of P a , form. Why the pled ge was b ro k e n everyW th / e saw. The Cabinet did not dare to look in w eh i g sinecure list, with its j o bbi ng ram ifi ca tions, SI „, and Tory—the pruning of which would th e y completed their means of retrenchment. oio shrunk from confr o nti ng M rs . A r b ut hnot, fi '. fic Chester, M iss Bath urst, an d Mi ss R. Croke , -, P h cir illce lachryn c e. All th e i r bl un d ers , an d ' I re unpopularity, flow e d f rom t hi s source . t i a would have been no C a lth orpe mee ti n g, and t o police " battue," but for this. Hence to il sneer of the Tories, that Reform od failed. The people were dissatisfied , justly, not, however, with too much Ref° r % h but with too little. They were disgusted ,;/ those broken p rom i ses o f li g h ten ing t ":, burdens of w hi c h t h e y expected the fulfila te 'i What John Bull w an t s i s very intelligible s n ,l straightforward—to g e t th e h an d s o f the opo ui lighfingers out of his pockets. The industr i° classes naturally see n o thi ng very satisfactory i 0 being obliged to rob their families, in orde r of pander to the luxuri e s o f li cent i ous l a ziness', $ 1 to indulge the capri c i ous ex i genc i es o f pnli c s i prostitution. The a s sesse d taxes f o rmed a tee of the Ministerial intentions. Which was W siie sacrificed—industry or lazines s ?—that was " question. The Ministers chose their side, r s i ' t , the people chose th e i r ' s . L or d Al t horp, ° to " could not afford" to relieve them fr ° le the visitations of the Tax-office, and the peqd had an equal right to think that laborious a f ar penurious industry " could not afford" to }AY," luxu:ious extr a v agances o f roya l i m mora . l: ll ), or the callous profli gac y o f m i n i ster i a l 1 0 110 sion. Honest tradesmen natur a lly l oo ked at 0 tinsel extravagance of the Court, and the jobb fs ° o overpay of civil employ ments , iu the midst 0 , 4 many examples of frustr a t e d i n d ustr y an d Wr y! 0 exertion, much in the same light as the cre dit ' of of a bankrupt would do, w h o , i n sp i te ofiu s° ,l vency, persisted in keeping his mistresses his villas, and in lavishing their money at tht gaining-table or the race-ground. Whethe r was thought requisite to suppress this opie je d s or rather feeling, by breaking people's h es o i with police truncheons, we leave to those 1 °,4 7 who are tnore intimate with official secrets. T ee verdicts declared for the people. A Comm its has declared for the Home Offioe, and for : 00 suppression of complaints against fiscal s poliat i o by the " force." The Committee has give ° lll " lie direct" t o th e peop l e . W e s h a ll se e wi , t ; co will prove themselves right in the long run - I t e r, Juries or the Committee.. • • • • MOrninr AdVertis der The honou r o f a G ran d C ross o f the order of the Bath conferred by his Majesty nr e r - t he Right Hon. C. M a n ners S utton , S pea ker c"„ $ 1 House of Commons, is a n exerc i se of 11°1 0 1 grace and favour which all ranks and classe s n d the King's subjects hail with satisfaction sic delight. It is universally felt to be a tribu te b le distinguished merit, which is equally honel o o. to the giver and the receiver. Th e flight j Gentleman has discharged the arduous dung of his situation during the past Session-- - t he rendered more than commonly ar du o us ft . ° d extraordinary composition of the new Parlisi ll o e —in a manner upon which we pronounc e lo t highest possible eulogy when we sa y that % ja y bet n precisely such as was expected of v s; He has the glory of having achieved the gr h e e l t of conceivable triumph in hum a n c o nduct---t r os completely realising expectation?. which I t se t impo.sible to exceed. The friends of the r e g els Administration were, we recollect, a bont, An d. time last year busily engaged in the ta , t, 0 1 ' 00 1 ing or inventing apologies for the refusal' ef al or supposed, of Earl Grey to recoun t ' ne t Mr. Sutton to the King as a Pr ° rhe h v o e m n t s t have a vcrtif confer e t h f e or h f a ll their ingenuity could not accomplish- favo ur object Peerage. on whom Grey, no doubt, intercepted the Royal t his which was then expected to descend tirn on distinguished subject of his Majesty th e . on of fident and certainly well-founded a nticr tl o o o. what has taken place, viz., that the Ittg l , it 0 0 0 , Gentlemen the longer he continued in w e a nd and conspicuous exercise of his ta,.., len o l i s oll virtues as a Speaker of the House of " wet 0 t o h n e o m u r n b would become more and more the ° J „,l th e affection and esteem to the Sovereign a t() th e country, and gather accumulated title, „ c or d : warmest gratitude and the most splendid 1 10 1 which either can b es t ow . I t i s imag i i ne o lii's)j the same system of p os tp on i ng reward'. h founded, of course, upon the same b i g bee t ' honourable principles, would still ha t ha t agreeable to the Noble Premier, htl, t , t i se t i v , authority which shows itself now a",..," lt r ; be higher even than that of Earl t-I r 03 1 nounced in a manner the most deciden, his the case of the Speaker the system of de ll '? est , already been carried far enough. MEETINGS OF CREDITO O f S SI% e , AT THE COURT, BASINGHALL-sTP O' TO-MORROW, Sept. t. ° (From the London Gazette.) ... g 1 H. Lee, saddler, Diwn-street Pcadilly ............. ... 0 1 f C.:Friend, milkman Munster-street, Regent's-P ar '' ', ..•• I I: J. C. Stewart, merchant, Torrington-square .....•••• " 1 o' W. Ballantyne, bookseller, Battle, Sussex ................ 0 / 1 , J. Mannerings, builder, Chatham ... . ............ 0" . R. henry, law-bookseller, Fleet-street ..................... ',O. 1. J. Lucas, timber-merchant, City-road .................. DIVIDEND. ,o''' H. J. Norris and Co., wine -merchant, Bloomibuff e t' a 0 Jo , 61. f ur CARDIFF EISTEDDVOD.--Tne he v i 01 ing of the committee for c+rrying into eff'e t li t 1-1 1 , 1 1 5 0° festival at Cardiff next year, met 4t the I'Li` v . .„pose oir Roy il Hie hness-s the Thursday Lst. Several resolutions were 1: 1- 10 , to . 0 , 4 0 adopted ; among which were votes of th " lie Proed Victoria for the honour they conferred on th , e e • 11 ; ° 0 1 ' 1 by having it held under their special patronao •!ieo",fro . Marquis of Bute for accepting the office ° f 1 : 1- 1, 14 '001 for his liberal donation of 1001. The 11ev,,,d ill' n ",01/ , herne and T. W. Booker, Esq., were aPPT ° t ; 0 pr e .:, ttl e i Secretaries; and Mr. Parry, 01 London (wil. ecn ble l a tif l , conductor. The bards and minstrel' Will 8 . an d k es l-10 14 1 keep of the ancient castle, a most roina n " c he Tol f° 4o situation ; the concerts will take place in , t ~t the g Duchess of Kent vo l t f ieeii t he die Oratorios in the church, and the ball * • A•sembly.rooms in the Cardiff Anne. f l BIRTHS. the wife ° ,>< On the 2cl inst., at Upminster, Eas e '" - e ISM Sterry, Esq., of a son. v t n th , o bire, ' On the 31st ult ,at Repton-park, De n ' fa g Edmund Lewis Crewe, Esq., of a daughter.. Geor ge ll S On the 3d inst., at Westhorpe House, f i r a so . a t Bart., the lady of Rice R. Clayton, E s q , o o joie , S ri -- On the 3d inst., at Wokinghani, hers. 4 , daughter, „ 1 4 '' of • le) , ii, , At St. James's, Piccadilly, MA BRIE D• J. 0. l' o , i o l , p et oi ... Mr. Joshua James Nicholls, second of ...r. Belle l'all.mall, to Juliet, youngest daughter oi by the Rev' ~ N ir, 14 o)er' tt 4 St. John -street. Wo°4° D —ED. .- of S ' LoOdgno,thßee4igthatien:stlrlelya,rraygsar6riylelgatro:, vt t l'' l ist ef. On the 2cl inst., Mrs. Mooret We'ti'lltai'l. On the 4th inst., at his house in Duke-strec , _,,... c 0al j ot , of pocto!;ncalnpc in his 70th year, James Farquhar, Esq., London, and of Johnston Lodge, in the co is . 0 t en , Pr . in parliAn' of N. 8., for many years Represei:tat ive Aberdeen district of burghs. , wife o I I ighgate. ...-- -- y ' ll? ....----- #l' .., PIInNTED AND PUBLISHED BY A: (7 RS 0 Y .„ ° Sum Opetcu, 112, "" f Robert lq °°je' , • ikE t yli( j il pus .„.,... LI ~`g", and (~hed 0 l 'e• Hot t kt. B,e. the }, One Si Wines rt Lately n ~ th b, es 4 tet c, ' Iff Purnith Fine 1 tine Fie et 1141: Btc: To (Of I S o np 0 1 rertilsri 43 AY ' t he! at Tttei t, T il 'u6 late W, E p as TURFandoth f e " ur t i t ureß, h wtr,:l t q, toh ll'e !%ini I I ro(, nl si ro f h) to;.) ()0,