The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

A thousand questions are asked, and the keenest
curiosity evinced, with respect to the state of
France! The questions can only he answered, or
the curiosity satisfied, by the narration of events as
they occur; for we will really not take upon us to
prophesy what will be the result of the late extra-
constitetional attack upon the chartered rights of
the people. We Will not even attempt to predict
one hour what may happen the next, for popular
movements are more uncertain than the changes of
the wind; and where bloodshed is hazarded, we at
least shall be cautious of saying any thing calculated
to produce excitement on either aide. We will not
urge others on to dangers in which we cannot par-
ticipate. We are friends to liberty ; and if we were
to be asked how liberty was to he secured in France
without insurrection and revolt, we could hardly
Any; but in this country the tribunals and juries
would afford the next civil resource. If the same
or similar remedies exist in France; let those who
think the late ordinance Of the King illegal bring
the matter to a trial, either by refusing the taxes, and
obliging the Court to sue for them, or by com-
mencing process against those who have broken up
the printing-presses, If juries, chosen from the
people,.decide in favour of the Court in these cases,
there is an end of the matter for the present, and
the French people cannot have liberty and the
charter, bee:we they are unworthy of them. But
if, as it is more natural to expect, juries decide in
favour of the sehjeet, then the King must either dis-
miss his present Ministers, and recall his late edict,
and give back the charter pure anti unsophisticated,
or he must shut up the courts of law; and this last
step would of course dissolve all allegiatiee and be
the signal for a civil war,-,if the French have any
civil-war blood in thorn. Reasoning and legitimate,
resources would be at an end, and brutal force
would take their place. If; as it is stated, a pro-
test has been signed by a great number of the Peers
in France, against the obnoxious edict, this men-
mire may have great effect upon the !lord mind, and
the minds of his Majesty's Ministers. For our
own parts we think that the objection token to the
edict has great force,---that in annulling a Plan-
tricot which has never sat for the despite)) of bosi-
sieso,—in dissolving a legislative body which ho
never been assembled, it fires a shot into a vncant
space,--it does nothing; and that the deputies
ehoiten must at least meet once before they can be
dismissed. But suppose the new little departmental
Parliumeot, chosen necnrding to the rides prescribed
in the Royal edict, were, when assembled, to lean
to the popular side, where would the King then be ?
And if it were to dean to the King's side, where
would the little Parliament itself he ? Does his
Majesty expect to govern France by means 'of an
oligarchy of 258 Members ? If so, he would soon
find himself the slave of that oligarchy, instead of
the ruler of the nation. Ile would not dare to be-
stow a place, or confer an honour, except on its
members or their coneexions. Ile had better at
once throw himself upon the affections of his people,
than.enter upon such a course even if he could run
it with cancers.---Tiotes.

We lay before our readers the latest accounts
from the French capital, on the subject. of the very
extraordinary proceedings of the Government. We
may Ray conscientiously that no person in this cruel-
try was prepared for the measures in Paris. The
hole proceedings are so foreign to our habits, that
speculation is quite paralysed. It semi to us that
this is the eevermt blow which has been mina for
many years Against crowned heads in Europe. The
inference which ell men celestite of reasoning must
draw from the measures of the French Governmeet,
coupled with the proceedings in Spain, Naples, and
Sardinia, is, that Kings do not consider themselves
bound by any of the ohligatioes which are binding
on other men, mold that they deem convenience
their only rule. This case of France is such a gluing
de/Arline from eeerythieg like legal preteiple, that
she suspicion long entertioned, from what has taken
place in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, must at length
be siewed as incontrovertible truth, that Kings are
not to be tied down by any contracts. We know
of no men who have so deep en intermit in disap-
proving of the conduct of the French Government
as the crowned heeds of Europe. The people of
France have shown no indisposition to confine them.
selves within the limits of the law, and to consider
their king us the first Magistrate of the country.
lint this, the only sovereignty which does not infer
the degradation of the people, has not satisfied
the French Government; and accorditigly we see
that that Government is bent on reducing the French
to a state of, the most humiliating subjection. We
need Hot observe, that the oily tenure of Kings
which can be recognized in the present day, is the
consent of the people. The King who is Not sa-
tisfied with holding his Creel) by this tenure, and
would wish to be considered as possessing the right
of disposing like cattle of hie subjects, ie the great-
est of all enemies tn. Kings. 'tie entueic Kings to
be viewed as irreconcilable enemies of his species—
as beings who are to be treated as wild beasts,
. every man ought to (loamy whenever be has an op.
portunity of doing so. The Kings of Europe
ought not to deceive themselves. They can in no
other way prove their not participating in the
measures of the French Government, than in dis-
tinctly condemning the departure from truth and
principle of the French King. The ,people have
seen so much of perfidy in the Revolutions of Spain,
Portogel, anditaly, that they will believe this a
part of a common system, if they have not distinct
evideeee to the. contrary. They will believe in a
conspiracy of Kings against Nations, in a separate
morality for Kings, and that no arrangement, m
contract, can be safely lettered into with them.
There is already but too strong an inclination to be,
litre that the Holy Allianeu was at the bottom
of the counter-revolutionery movements in the
Peninsula tied Italy. The mere disavowal of
ell participation in the proceedings of the
Nolo Government will not, therefore, be
sufficient. The people must be taught to believe
that the other Kings of Europe are as hostile to the
measures as they are themselves. 'Silt repeat it,
that the present is the cause of the eroweed heads.
With the rack diffusion of intedligenee, and the
lumen distribution of property in Europe, it is quite
impossible that tiny Government errs Ictig maintain
its ground, if tin will of the people be not deemed
the guide of those. Who rule, It is therefore the
interest of Kings to identify themselves as much
as partible with the people, to cause themselves to
he viewed as first Magistrates, and not us owners
of the country. For their common interest, there.
fore, they ought to separate theinselvis from the
French King. If they do not necommodate them-
ielves to the spirit of the age? they will kroner or
hater trample them *in the dust. Every prudent
King ought, therefore, to consider the cause of
Kings es inseparable from the good-will of the
people. The people have every where their eyes
on the Governments. Every step is of importance.
Let it' rust be forgotten that a victory over time
people is never final, and that the conapiraey of all
the Sovereigns of Europe would be insufficient to
extitiguish in the people the love for independence,
Which growls with the growth of nations in industry
etett Civilization, The only effect of such a con•
eitteeey would be the lesson, that Kings are to
be eon,ideted as beasts of prey, which every
roan ought to &vont. On the other hand,
every men would be taught• to believe that as
Knelt can keep no faith with the eople the
people can keep Ho • fieri h
°Milt do 64 people :sit "Conn:111g, oKfiraiglisepartreZ
the justice to sel, that
of ;thee
roue
yesterday but omit,
loud condernmata
French Government. We tut" P""e0 by the
co not think so ill
the Ministry as to believe that they do tit t•I of
common feeling of abhorrence. Nay, Whatever4lerf the
other Sovereigns of Europe may think I* thesee
working of the French Conetitutiore it would ere
quire good evidence to induce us to believe three 1
It would sanction the daring steps of the French
Government. They dare not, they will not I* fir
insult the nations committed to their care, as to

countenance the -immoral conduct of the French
Government. The -letter of our Correspondent,
whicheemei down to a late hour on Tuesday even-
ing, leads us-to expect serious proceedings in Pitris.-,
Every hour is pregnant with important events. We
will not believe that the French people will tamely
yield to the u-urpation, of their Government. The
Government, however, -arust have calculated on
the army.' But an army in a civil wards worth
nOthing. In this country, in which the army is
more aristocratical than in any other, we would
undertake, -in any commotion in which the people
should be on one side and the Government on
another, to draw over the soldiers to the people
with little difficulty. In moments of excitement all
ordinary motives cease to be operative. In the be-
ginning of the French Revolution the army soon
gAve way. In the present day the army must be far
more identified with the people. We would not be-
lieve a soldier himself were he to tell us that he
would act uga;nst the people in a conflict. He may
be perfectly sincere when he promises to act against
the people ; but when once he is brought into col-
lision with an enthusiatitie population he yields.—
Soldier% have mothers, and wives, and mistresses,
-and children. They are brave and resolute, but
they are not monsters. We have no fear of the
army. In all times of excitement, the army partakA
of the general excitement. Even in Russia, the
army has been of late a subject of constant terror
to the Government. But a clever people like the
French cannot have on army n inch does not enter
• into the common feeling. • The conquests which
followed the French Revolution made the soldiers a
iheporate caste, and • Nalioleon, for .s time, was more
• with the army than the nation. But an old Priest.
ridden man of 70 years of age, without talents,
whose name is only associated with the conquest of
their country, can have no hold over the soldiery.
We shall not think so .ill of the soldiery till we have
some evidence of their base subserviency. We re-
, petit it—the cause of Kings has not received such a
shock for many, many years, as it has at this time in
France.--Morning ebronicle.

The letters we publish to-day from our private
correspondent itithe'Prthich capital will be read with
a painful interest, as they show the frightful lengths
to which power, as soon as it has broken through
the restraints of law, justice, and decorum, is ca-
pable of proceeding. The Ministers, who have
just thrown a great and enlightened nation, which
was reposing in perfect security in the shade of its
institutions, into the midst of the MOO neolifeniug
passions, have followed up this first act by others
worthy of such a beginning. The details furnished
by our private correspondent can excite no surprise,
whatever indignation they may provoke, for a suc-
cession
of violent acts, one more outrageous than •
the other, were the necessary coneequerice of the melt-
Sures just adopted by the French Government. The
employment of themilitary force to give effect to those
measures was a thing to be expected, as was the gene-
rid confusion which has ensued. We shall quit this
subject, therefore, for one which is every way calcu-
lated to throw a gleam of joy over the seene,because it,
shows that there exists a spirit in the nation, which,
in the first place, will dispute every inch of ground
with its rulers—acquire, in the next, strength by
collision, until it achieve, at last, one of those tri-
umphs which induce us almost to rejoice nt the ex-
cesses which led the way to it, on account of its
complete and beneficial character. The example
which the opposition Journals have set to the
country at large, and which is so worthy of the
spirit and ability with which. they are conducted,
will, recording to all appearances, be generally fol-
lowed, and is likely to have . the same effect in
France as the resistance of the sieve's Bishops pro-
duced in Regim] about a century and is half
ego. The whole of the opposition Provincial
Press will, in all probability, follow it; and, though
it may prove unavailing to prevent the suppression
of those Journals, it must, by increasing the ge-
;lend indignation against the Ministry, and compel-
ling the latter to divest themselves of even a shadow
of moderation, bring about that issue which every
rational .man, anticipates, and every good man wishes, •
much sooner that it t. ould otherwise have taken
place. In the mean time, the most ardent imagina-
tion would find it difficult to picture to itself the
projects of deep revenge which every Frenchman,
who takes the least interest in the happiness and
.glory of his country, is forming at this moment.
War, without quarter, and pushed to the last
extremity to which civil war can be carried,
is • the unly image that suits the passions of the
moment ; and is it to bring things to this point,
which madmen alone could cmitempate• with
nnemicere, that the French Ministry have been
plotting 'so. long against the Charter, granted by` the
late, and • sworn to by the present, Monarch? If
those who are opposel to the Government at this
juncture constituted the minority, still, with the
sentiments we have just described, they would com-
pose such formidable antagonists as would have de-
terred any Other Ministry ; but, when it is con-
sidered that nine-tenths art least of the nation are
now converted from submissive citizens into furious
enemies of the Government, the • whole of the
danger to which that Government is exposed
forcibly rushes upon the mind, and every one asks at•
the mane time, " Are the tranquillity of France anti
the peeve of all Europe of so little value as to be
left to the discretion of such reckless adventurers as
now unfortmiately preside over the destinies of the
former ?" To germs, transient iticcess in the course
upon which Churles X und his Ministers have j ust en-
tered the cordial co-operation of the army is necessary,
whilst the army must be very differently constituted
to what it is to lend itself to such us purpose. It.
ohould have no home but the camp, no attachment
except to its leaders, no principle of action, beyond
pay and indulgence in licentious pleasures—in a
word, it should consist of such desperadoes as the
Duke of Bourboe led against the walls of Rome in
the 14th • century ; whereas the French soldier is
more iidluenced,perlivps, than any other by the feel,
inv.' which the images of parents and home recall.
To count, therefore, upon the assistance of the
military in the execution of measures which, in a
particular degree, threaten that class of small pro-
victors from which'the army is chiefly recruited, is
only *mother proof of the inconceivable folly and
rashness in which those measures have originatede--
Illaraing Herald. •
. We do not remember such an insistice of political
Nel&COnderllntitiOtt as the friend.- of the • Ministry
seem inclined to exhibit at the • ensuing General
Election. At not one single place, as yet, where
popular feeling CAM show itself, has a single candi-
date started avowedly as a Ministerial man; while,
in places where the popularity of the Government
might be put most unequivocally to the test, all is
silent as the grave. In Middlesex, the metropolitan
county, where votes are more equally distributed
between men dell descriptions than in any other--;
if we except, perhaps, the counties of York and
Lancaster--Mr. Hume, the most indefatigable oppo-
nent of Government, is, it seems, to be allowed
quietly to walk over the course ; while in West.
minster' comprising that part of the metropolis in
which the very seat of the Government with all its
influence is placed, the old Members are to remain
unmolested, though it is qiiite notorious that so
weak is their personal bold upon the great body
of their constituents, that almost a breath of
opposition could shake them. These must be
very mortifying circumstances, especially. to a
man of high spirit like the Duke of Wellington ;
and will not his Grace stop to ask why these
allege are so ?—why he, who was the most
popular man in the country, and who has ac,
(pored, in one capacity, the strongest claims to its
lasting gratitude and applause, should, as a Minister
of • State, sink so comparatively low • in the public
estimation ? - The answer, if his Grace does ho-
nestly ask the question, may be mortifying, but it
Moo be useful. His Grace hut taken a false esti-
matO of the eituation of the country, and, setting
,
liiiitiet
oeffe4lll.4v alikeel'riis:to:3es oheuirssr.on:We airietasvdeaon tnbieolis4conclusiols
say that
heratf the
s

own creating ; on the contrary, we are free to con-
fess that he found much of the mischief ready pre-
pared to his hand. His Foreign situation was the
work of Mr. Canning—his Free-Trade errors those
of Mr. Huskisson—and those of the Currency the
mistakes of a band of political theorists, of whom
his colleague, Sir Robert. Peel, was, unfortunately,
the organ. But, when the Duke of Wellington
found himself involved in the blundering imbecilities
of the convention of Cintra, he soon had the man-
liness and good sense to emancipate himself from a
contamination equally injurious to his own good
name, and to the interests and destinies of his
country. And why- has he not displayed the same
courage and foresight in his civil, as he exhibited on
all occasions in his military capacity P Does he think
that nations cm be governed with the same facility
that armies are commanded; or that a mere name su-
premely eminent in a military point of view as his
own is, can supply the want of that knowledge
which is alone the sure passport to real and useful
power in civil affairs ? But the Duke of Wellington
is, we conceive, by far too sensible a man not,
sooner or later, to see his errors; and we know
nothing more likely at once to sting his just pride,
and awaken his recollection, than the galling fact,
that, while professing to appeal to the people in the
election of a new Parliament, in no one place where
that appeal can be really made, and fairly put to the
test, is there a candidate with boldness enough to
come forward, and manfully call for the Teeple's
suffrages on the ground of being the frit nd and sup-
porter of the Ministry. We speak of the failings
of the Duke as a statesman more " in sorrow than in
anger." he sycophants who, for their own selfish
purposes, applaud his errors, and cheer him on in
measures subversive of the welfare of the country,
are the worst enemies of his fame. We have always
done justice to his merits; but if we were to sacri-
fice truth to flattery, or to allow our reason to be
dazzled by the splendour of his former exploits,
when it is our duty to form a correct estimate of his
present measures, we would be justly reckoned
among those who sacrifice the interests of a country
to the fascination of a name.—Morning Herald.
Judging from the articles in which some of the
Paris Journalists on the Liberal side of politics have
expressed their indignation on the occasion of the
recent Ordinances of the King, and their determi-
nation, to resist them to the extent of their power,
we are led to conclude that the censorship of die
Press was intended to have been one of a mild and
tolerant character. Jr appears that argumentative
discussion would not have been prevented, the
Governmtnt merely assuming the power of putting
a summary stop to the spread of seditious doc-
trines inciting to violence and rebellion. This
power has been at once imperatively called into
action, for the toleration of the public journals in
proclaiming that " the Government has lost the
character of legality which commands obedience,"
and that " obedience has ceased to be a dUty,"
would have been a virtual resignation of the Mo-
narchy into the hands of the revolutionists. It is me-
lancholy to rvflect thnt the periodical Press of such
a nation us France should be compelled to wear re-
maining fetters ; and still more melancholy, if
las we incline to think) its conduct has been such
as to render their imposition a necessary measure
of prudence and self-defence on the part of the
Sovereign. The Liberal Journals concur in assert-
ing or insinuating that the blow struck by the Royal
authority ut the Constitutional Charter of France
is the first, as well as the moat terrible, it has re-
ceived—that this attack of Royal power upon no-
tional freedom was as unprovoked as it seems likely
to be fatal. This is an obvious and violent misre-
presentation. It will scarcely be disputed that it
was one of the intentions of the Charter given to
France by her restored Monarch, to reserve in the
French Crown a considerable share of real power
and authority in the government of the country, or
Oar the assumption and exercise by the Climber
of Deputies of an absolute and arbitrary veto in
the appointment of the executive and responsible
nnisters of the Crown, would have been wholly
incompatible with the continuance of this indepen-
dent authority and power. It is equally clear that
tiny act or any pretension plainly hostile and destruc-
tive to the principles or spirit of this Charter, could
not change its character, or not at least become less
hostile or less destructive, from the circumstance that
the means employed in the performance of such act
or the enforcement of such pretension consisted
chiefly of the very machinery which the Charter it-
self had provided for other and opposite purposes.
Bearing in mind these undeniable fads and indis-
putable principles, it remains only that we should
see what the conduct and pretensions of the Chant-
her of Deputies have been, and the -manner in Which
the elective machinery established by law hau
wrought to give support, confirmation, and validity
to this conduct and these pretensions, and we shall
be at once enabled to decide the question of priority
between the attacks respectively made upon the
constitutional Charter of France, by die Monarch of
that country, and the Liberal party among his sub-
jects. It would be a gross error to imagine that the
conduct of the Chamber of Deputies presented the
mere ordinary case of a Parliamentary opposition
to the Ministers of the Crown, or that it was a case
which had been provided for or even contemplated
by the Charter. It amounted, in truth, to an es-
pies% denial, or an open and undisguised invasion,
ut least on the part of the Chamber, of the King's
constitutional right to appoint his own Ministers,
and the submission of the King would, therefore,
have been a virtual abrogation of the Charter, and
a substantial surrender to the Chamber of Depu-
ties of the whole power of government, executive
and legislative. Had there been any charge against
Ministers, could it have been said that, since their
eppointment to office, they had adopted arty mea.
sures of a pernicious or dangerous tendency, could
any special grounds of opposition have been alleged,
the Chamber of Deputies, in refusing to co-operate
with the chosen servants of the Crown, might
have been within the letter and spirit of the
Constitution ; but, when the whole accusation
against these Ministers resolved itself into the mere
fact that they were at once Ministers and Royalist'
—when the case was one of simple and undisguised
conflict between the violation of the Chamber and
the volition of the King, in respect to a choice
' which the Constitution bad expressly confided to
the latter, the triumph of the Chamber would evi-
dently have been equivalent to an entire subver-
sion of the Constitution, and would here led of
necessity to the utter extinction of monarchical
power in France. The very nature of the unrea-
sonable opposition offered to the King's will must
compel every impartial observer to infer that it was
dictated by a revolutionary spirit, aiming at nothing
less than the overthrow of the existing Constitu-
ees'. It had appeared to us, previously to the issue
of the ordinances, that the King wood have pur-
sued the wisest policy in suffering the Liberal party
so far to carry their projects in the Chamber as to
procure a dismissal of the Ministry. The ulterior
attempt to effect encroachments upon regal autho-
rity would then, it might be supposed, have given
him the vantage ground in a contest for the preser-
vation of his constitutional rights. The meeting of
the Chambers would, however, have been the ac-
quisition of a formidable power in the bands of
men whom we are justified in designating as the
uncompromising enemies of the Monarchy, They
have been prevented horn Inspiring or exercising
this power, and though the course adopted by the
King be a dangerous one, we must believe it to be
less dangerous than the alternative.—Morning Path
We give in another column the best information
furnished by our Evening Contemporaries of the
of the ordinances suspending the liberty
state of feeling and of parties in Pars, after the pro-
' mulgatiou
of the Press—!dissolving the Chamber of Deputies
—and changing the representative system ; and we
now return to a more mature discussion of the mea-
sures taken by the French Government,' and the
probable issue of events, than it was in our power
'to enter upon its our Paper of yesterday. From the
observations which we then made, we see no Om.

sion ta make any abatement. We still consider the
conduct of the French Government as not only un-
called for, but dangerous and insane—tending to in.
volve the country in civil discord and bloodshed, and
to render an appal to the sword a much more pro-
bable manner of settling the disputes between the
Crown anti the people, than ii recourse to those con-
stitutional laws by which- both have sworn to abide.
Nay, more, we will go the length of saying that a
more iniquitous course was never pursued by any
Government, in any modern time, than that which
owns Prince Polignac and his confederates for its
authors. For between whom, in fact, does the-dis-
pute lie ? Between the. King and his Ministers
on the one hand, and nearly 20,000,000 of
people on the other—between the King and a
few courtiers, who could not be missed were they to
disappear to-morrow, and a whole nation, for whom
the former are properly only trustees, and 'who may
not unfairly challenge a comparison with almost any
-country in Europe, in point of-civilization and envied
eminence in arts, sciences, and literature I And is
the happiness of such a number of human beings to
be placed in jeopardy merely for the sake of humour-
ing the caprice of a man whose equal might be
found any where, and of persons whose superior.
reside in every quarter of the country ? The idea
is monstrous : and yet such is the slender basis
placing the whole matter in ita proper point of view
—on which the King end his advisers have dared
to violate the Constitution of the country, and arm
against one another the two great parties into
which the country is divided. Again, on the
other band, what can be thought of the integrity
of the head of a great kingdom, and a numerous
people, who, after pledging his honour that he held
the Constitution sacred, and would abide by
it to his latest breath, embraced the earliest op-
portunity of violating it, when, had he simply
changed his responsible advisers, he might toot only
have avoided nll chance of any disagreeable omit-
rence, but even added to the happiness and comfort
of the people ? Will the people of France forget
such conduct, or ought they to forgive it ? That
the feelings of the people of France are in perfect
accordance with these observations, we have now
the most ample evidence. They have not, indeed,
risen en masse to overthrow the existing order of
things ; but they have exhibited sufficient indica.
tions that no time will be lost, nor any exertion
spared, to restore constitutional freedom to France.
The editors of all the !Iserel papers have joined in
signing what may be termed a round robin against
the existing Government—namely, to resist the
ordinances of the Government, in so far as re-
spects themselves, and to call upon their fellow-
citizens to do so likewise. They observe, with a
spirit which we applaud,- that " the Government
has this day lost the character of legality which
commands obedience. We resist it in what concerns
ourselves. It is for France to determine how far
her resistance might to extend." In the same de-
claration the Deputies who have been elected, ate
called 'moo to meet, as if the illegal ordinances
which had been honied had not taken place; and
upon the ground, that as the Chamber has never
been assembled, nor the elections verified, it could
not be legally dissolved, because, until these matters
had been verified it could not, with propriety, he
considered as having any existence. There is much
plausibility and semblance of reason in this argu-
ment; but we are much mistaken if the people of
France do not take the bull by the horns, and,
in-
stead of waiting to d.....vide the matter by a meeting
of the newly-elected Chamber of Deputies, resolve
the point in dispute: by en appeal to the sword.—
Disturbances have already taken place, and lives
been lost—crowds have assembled in different quar-
ters of the city, and moon, in eise of general in-
surrection, been placed in the Court of the Tuille-
ries for the defence of the - palace, and of the Royal
Family. This is a sample of the present state of !
things in Fiance, and us an additionul iestance, it is •
worthy of mention, that neither the Constitutionnel
nor the Journal des Debuts appeared on Tuesday
last. The stoppage of these papers, even for one
day, must cause no inconsiderable excitement
throughout the country, and we are indeed egregi
()wily mistaken in what we have been accustomed
to think of the French character, if a general in-
surrection is not on the eve of breaking out.—
Morning Advertiser.