The Sun.
London, England, 1808-12-26 00:00:00

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T El E : S 15 •N.

SOLEM QUIS DieGRE VALSUM AfiI;EAT ?

L 0 N D 0 iv,
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1808.

A very trifling disturbance which occurred Rome
time ago at Oporto, has furnished the Opposition
Papers with an opportunity of describing the whole
of the North of Portugal as being in a state border-
ing upon revolt. The apprehensions thry have ex-
pressed upon this snbjett, we are happy to inform
them, are wholly without foundation, for, according-
to the last accounts recei,ied by Government, the
most perfect tranquillity prevailed at Oporto, and in
every 'other part of Portugal. The whole of this
important. " revolt," as it is termed, arose from
some regulations which the Governor of Oporto
made respecting ogre of the markets, and the dis-
turbance was quelled hnivediately. The Proclama=
tion which was issued upon the occasion iagiven in a
subsequent Column.

. We venture to present c?ur Readers with 'a few
thoughts on the ohjett of the War which R
PARTE t 3 now waging against Spain, and 011 its pro-

bable issue.

In perusing the Bulletins of BIJONAPARTE since
his arrival in Spain, it is not nnimportant to remark
the tone of rancorous fury by which • they are dis-
tinguished, while his cautious continuance at the
head-quarters testifies the reality of his terrors.—
Born, if we may so express ourselves, in the Re-
volution, and being merely one of the ephe-
m2ral products of that. Revolution, be makes a
difference between a nation armed to preserve
its independence, and an army sent by -a Govern-
ment feeble, corrupt, and already subdued by its
fears, to prevent the conqUest of a part of its ter-
ritories. BUONApARTE finds himself precisely in
the situation of those Sovereigns whom the Revolu-
tion has destroyed, and he is well aware that, in the
war with Spain, net only his power, but his very ex-
istence, is at stake. He knows that it he does not
overcome Spain this winter, his doom is fixed, and
that he will fall by the hand of the Spaniards or the
French !

Our. Countrymen have, in general, a false idea of
the power of Lunt; At'AaTe in t4'rance, because they
are always accustoine.4 to view him as the
,Leader of
the French Armies ; they do not seem to susped
that the Senate of Paris, so submissive at this mo-
ment to the will of BJONAPARTE, SO servile in their
addresses to the Tyrant, might, by a single decree,
precipitate him front the throne, and send him to
the scaffold; that, for this purpose, they have only
to declare him tmi of 11w law, coneuke the Primary
Assemblies, order the Army of Spain to return to
France, and proclaim its determination to make
peace with England.
Pure despotism exists on no poinfof the habitable
globe ; in the most arbitrary Governments it is
modified by religious institutions, by civil prescrip-
tions, or by national manners. We are too ;ipt to
confound tyranny with despotism. Men would never
submit to despotism, if they were offered a Constitu-
tion by which it was established, but tyranny is to
be found almost every- where, because the precau-
tions adopted to restrain it, ar, commonly insufficient.
spotism establishes itself over a vanquished peo-
ple ; tyranny introduces itself in the rear of anarchy,
into Countries which have been long and cruelly
agitated by intestine cornmotions. In ihe litter case,
political institutions, instead of wearing a despotic
form, assume on the contrary, an appearance of
liberty ; they oppose, however, but feeble barriers
against a poN.yer which it is necessary to invest with
a force sufficiently great to restrain the restlessness of
faaion. This is w hat has taken place in France ;
and such has necessarily been the result of the
flevolution, since the dynasty which occupied the
throne had no armed party in the Country to in-
fluence the order of things substituted in the place of
anarchy.

Despotism, every where modified by religion,
civil laws, manners, customs, and national habits,
is a form of Government. It moves by permanent
rules ; and it is this concordance of the nature of
Government with secondary institutions, and na-
tional manners, which gives w despo!ism a kind of
durability. Tyranny, on thc contrary, always in
opposition to•the nature of Government, secondary
institutions, and national manners, is driven to the
necessity of attacking them openly, or undermining
them in secrecy and silence.

This-explains why tyrants and usurpers aspire to
become despots; and why, in many cases, the
_Go-
vernment of a despot is not tyrannic.
This also e;...p!ains why BUONAPARTE Oakeswar
on Europe. The men who dire him know that
the revolutionary principle is not yet destroyed in
France—that it is only kept under,_and that it io
resource to "which vplicatiou must be trade, in or-