The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUIITAC JOURNALS.

It will be avmembered by the readers of Italian
poetry that . Dante, in his Purgatory,—the most
divine part of his Divina Comedic,--has represented
the inmates of that unhappy region as animated
with all the anti-social passions, hatreds, and jea-
lousies, which actuated them in their previous more
fortunate condition upon earth. The common suf-
ferings had not produced a common sympathy :
their endurance of tortures, inflicted by a common
enemy, had not allayed their mutual animosities.—
The purgatory of the Italian poet has, we are afraid,
been too faithfully realized in the exile of our peninsu.
bar patriots, both as regards the depth of their common
sufferings, and the violence of their intestine quar-
rels. Hence we have seen most excellent men, and
sincere patriots, among the Portuguese and Spanish
refugees, denouncing each other es traitors to their
common country, while their patriotism was ad-
mitted by all the world but themselves ; and quar-
relling about rank and precedency which could only
be enjoyed after their common success, while they
abandoned that concert and union on which their
success depended. Hence, at the present moment,
the Marquis of l'almella ims not probably a more
titter enemy at the Court of Lisbon than among the
friends of Saldanha at Paris ; nor Mina a more
zealous detractor from his (sine and renown than
among his countrymen along the line of the Pyre-
nees, now attempting to recover their rights by
efforts, to the success of which, probably, his name,
counsels, and conduct are indispensable. It is now
generally known that the latter distinguished chief
had been the object of serious suspicions with some
of his countrymen, before they arrived near the fron-
tier line of Spain,—that their mutual jealousies had
prevented their military combination, for the common
purpose of invasion,—that while one party declared
for Valdez, and the General whom lie acknowledsre
another looked to the fortunate star of
superior direction ;—and that their gunarrel about
rank had led to their disagreement al.
jo• Ut a new loan
to aid in commencing the camreeign, Such would
appear to have been the ste.l.e of matters before the
16th or 17th instant—a, state which we frankly re-
presented on Tuesde4., without attempting to con-
ceal the suspiciwis which were attached by his rivals
to the chara".rer and proceedings of Mina. We are
now hapr;iy to state our hope that these suspicions
have !Sot been justified,—that Mina has not been
deferred from the performance of his duty by the
reluctance of some of his countrymen to confide
themselves to his direction, and that, disregarding
the jealousies of Valdez and his friends, he has en-
tered Spain to support a movement which be did not
suggest. This must decide the question of Mina's
fidelity to the constitutional cause, and silence for
ever those who have hitherto doubted his patriotic
devotion to liberty, or misrepresented the motives of
his delay in attempting an invasion to restore it.—
" The chief obstacle of the success of the refugees,'
says the Messager des Chambres," is their intestine
dissensions, their jealousies, and their unbridled pre-
tensions to rank and honours. The proclamation of
Valdez represents them less as deliverers than as
the .conquerors of their countrymen." The same
paper says that the movement is general along the
whole line of the Pyrenees, from Bayonne to Per-
pignan. A few weeks or a few days will therefore
decide the cause of the Spanish Constitution for the
present. If the exiles are received with favour by
the Royalist troops, and supported with zeal by
their countrymen on the frontiers, disaffection and
revolt must soon shake the Throne of Ferdinand,
though surrounded by the Camarillo and guarded
by a triple line of Monks anti Apostolieals. If, on
the contrary, the country is neither prepared for
their exiled friends, nor for freedom, they must soon
be driven back over the frontiers as the Army of
the Faith was, by the superior forces and able
generalship of Minn, immediately before the French
invasion in 1823. A rumour was prevalent yester.
day in London, that Corunna had declared for Mina
and the constitutional Caine. Mica was at One time,
during the Constitutional Government, Captain-
General of Galicia, and confidence in his principles
and talents may be one reason for this early move-
ment in this important place.—Times.
The late Anti-Union Society in Ireland, strangled
at its birth by the Lord Lieutenant's proclamation,
has already re-appeared under another form—viz.,
that of the " Association of Irish Volunteers for the
repeal of the Union." The " Irish Volunteers"
are unknown to history but as an armed body, raised
for one class of military purposes, and gradually
rendered applicable to another. But we are told
that the new volunteers are to proceed legally, con-
stitutionally, and above all, "peaceably," for the
overthrow of the laws and constitution of the United
Kingdom. " Petitions from every county, city,
town, parish, village, and hamlet, in Ireland, tire to be
got up in favour of a repeal of the Union. Every
male person is to sign these petitions, or affix his
mark (I); and the unanimous voice of the people of
Ireland, thus expressed, will convince England that
t is absolutely necessary to repeal the Union !"
There is no doubt whatever that Mr. O'Connell
may, whenever he thinks fir, produce an entire
unanimity among the " marksmen" of Ireland for a
repeal of the Union, or any other equally en-
lightened and patriotic object. Ilis having recourse
to them on this occasion is a proof, as well of the
wisdom of the end be aims at, us of the legitimate
and pacific means lay which alone it is to ha
accomplished. ilis industrious allusions to France
and Belgium afford pretty fair inferences re-
specting the scope and nature of the Learned
Gentleman'e undertaking. All hie proposals tend to
operate upon the mind of England, and on Irishmen
of property, through n system of direct and over-
powering terror; and this is what be calls " peace!"
Nor is the thing itself meditated by this aspiring in-
cendiary to be mistaken for a moment, lie seeks
to get rid of an Imperial Parliament, which distrusts
or despises him, and to establish a little Irish Par-
liament, returned by Catholic voters, under the half-
bullying, half-cajoling influence which has already
been set in motion by him and his agents throughout
large districts of Ireland. The scheme, in fact, is
one of daring revolution. The results of it—the
intended results—are to make Mr. O'Connell the
virtual Sovereign of the Island, by so attenuating
the tie between her and Great Britain, that the
rocking of the first political storm will snap it, and
leave the O'Connell politics anti faction to swing
clear of every embarrassment from the pre-existing
and heterogeneous institution of two legislative
bodice, acting on sentiments of reciprocal jealousy
and defiance, yet each demanding as a necessary
completion of its measures the official sanction and
concurrence of one and the same King. The op.
polite courses of policy pursued by the Parliaments
•
of Great Britain and Ireland, on the great Regency
question of 1789, furnish ample' illustrations of the
impossibility of securing the supremacy of the same
Sovereign, when the other branches of the legisla-
tive body are distinct. This danger to the con-
nexion must be foreseen, at least as clearly by Mr.
O'Connell as by many other contemporary politi-
cians in both countries; and, foreseeing it, the
learned gentleman hiss no doubt prepared his remedy
--to vitt, a separation of the person of the Prince,
as well as of the other branches. of the Legislature.
This, too, is to be effected by " peaceful means,"
and without the slightest shock to property or order !
Verily, the proselytes to such a plot will be just
commensurate with the dupeseegendering faculties
of the learned projector. We repeat, Idler full
consideration, that such an atrocious attack upon
the State must be met without flinching by the
strangest and most uncomproinisiog hostility. We
may examine briefly, when wa have time, whitt are
the means on which Mr. O'Connell tam reckon for
assistance in this illsomened enterprise, just hint' Ina
our present conjecture to be, that except the phyer.