The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-08 00:00:00

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LONDON,
FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 8, 1830.

Despatches were received at the Colonial
Office this morning from Lieut.-General Sir
GEORGE Dos, Governor of Gibraltar, dated
Dec. 12 ; also fiorn Lieut.-General the Hon.
F. C. Possosny, Governor of Malta, dated
Nov. 24; and from Corfu, dated Nov. 18.

The Earl of ABERDEEN and Mr. Secretary
PEEL had a long interview with the Duke of
WELLINGTON this morning in Downing-street.

SUDDEN DEATH OF SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE.
We regret to announce the sudden death of
this distinguished artist, who expired at a late
hour, last night, at his house in Russell-square.
II
• A 1 •
011 Sir THOMAS dined with Mr. Secretary PEEL
other on Saturday, and then appeared to be in his
lo by usual Cecil,
good health and spirits. Sir THOMAS,
we believe, was upwards of 50, and was elected
tebrest to the Presidency of the Royal Academy on
eet&
4eet- the death of the late BENJAMIN WEST. As
[lords a portrait
~ieingpainter, he was unrivalled for th,z . finish and delicacy of Li.e'likettesses which, in
ester-. point of expression, were by many people con-
astie. sidered nearly, if not quite equal to, the chef
d'ceuvres of Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
at, in '
dl by

resort

s ace The Message of the PRESIDENT of the
p
pro-. UNITED STATES is a document of a very mild
)er of and conciliatory character towards this country,
rs,
lar to and indeed towards the world generally. The
and
rapid progress made, and making, towards the
final reduction of the National Debt is highly
important to the interests of the American
people—and we should be happy could the
example be followed nearer home. The Message
of General JACKSON will greatly disappoint
those who calculated on a warlike flourish,
merely because war has bfleit the field in which
his talents have been hitherto rather conspicu-
ously exhibited. But though inured to arms,
the PRESIDENT is not insensible to the less ob-
trusive but more beneficial arts of peace.

)ut CO

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repeal
Nor-

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Royal

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of the
House

We have received the following, this morning,
from our Paris Correspondent :

vithin
(*un-
irneye,
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tOpped

" The reports to which I alluded in
m IS,
yJAN letter of
yesterday, of the reception which the Members of
Royal Court of France were said to have expe-
rienced flom the lc;
---mg on the first day of the year,
!lave naturally attracted some attention to the sub-
ject of the laws, by which trials for literary offences
are regulated in this country. The late prosecu-
tions in London, at the suit of the Attorney-Gene-
ral, have, as was to be expected, become the sub-
ject of eulogium by the friends of the French
Jovernment, who loudly proclaim that English
Wh 46es have shown themselves more devoted to
at
-` they call the interests and well being of
-(/elet7) than even the French Judges. On
the
Oeothaescriouhts7da,ndhowever, the Liberal party, although
Peed. proudly so, of the purity and inde-
--ee of the present occupants of the judgment
:14,4t3 are yet perfectly aware of the serious defects
it; the system under which the offences of the Press
illeoigtlyitotio trial. They know that the mere im-
tory a Judge is not of itself a satisfsc-
Yregfiodrar public freedom, so long as
pointrn of judicial ap-
o sort of hierarchy, if the word ad-
nath;teoilf- ei:sllu.lisra'Y interpretation, in which the supreme
e higher offices afford a bribe and a tempta-
oil the occupants of inferior stations. They
0,41ew also that a jury selected indiscriminately from
,:t great body of the people becomes on the aye-
oil? Et true interpreter of the opinions and sentiments
ne country at large, and that even when they do
CO4l.
01 41
4 It mistakes their errors are less dangerous
for 11 those of the Judges. The Jury, as it does not
11 separate body, but is renewed from hide.:
,iiii'deot materials on every occasion when it
ceded to exercise its function?, is not, like the Judges,
or,ll down by forms and precedents, but consults
slons
I!, i immediate impres • and conviction ,and,
itript 15 at this moment felt to be of considerable
et°"'e, the Jury does not go to the Tuileries to
lort4t.4'"
54 their feelings to the Sovereign, or to meet
41,111 with a flattering or a cold reception.
re4s64-metically, however, the French have every
tlat,tl to be satisfied with their present judicial
ia-111, Which is, in fact, at this moment the most
thent4ot bulwark of public liberty in France; and
11,,4 system works well in practice, it is needless
Notti th4t any attempt at improvement should be
party'vith the utmost caution. The Ministerial
of cr,'
ielthough for the present loud in their. praises
hY jury, are perfectly aware that if Julies
'4 he regarded as the representatives of those

in his
tweire
eggs:
ch she
She -
s
con-
ppears

1490,
ated in
and of
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of the
he oh-
con-

middle classes, which are so rapidly gaining.ground
in France, and asssimilatitig the manners and habits
of this country to those of England, they would
soon shew by their verdicts in cases of libel, that
they were decidedly favourable to the utmost freedom
of discussion, and equally adverse to the restraints
of arbitrary power. As yet it is in Paris chiefly
that the middle classes, consisting of snccessful
tradesmen, and the higher orders of shopkeepers
and wizens, have acquired such an important in-
fluence on the general frame of society. It is
known that the capital of France bears a very dif-
ferent relation to the provinces than London dues
to the counties of England. Paris, in fact, is the
great centre of knowledge and intelligence, as well
as of capital and industry in France. In
France there is no Liverpool or Manchester,
no Glasgow or Edinburgh, where capital is accu-
mulated, commercial enterprise is developed,
and the regions of intellect extended. When any
new branch of manufacture is to be established in
France, it uniformly originates in the capital, how-
ever unfavourable its situation may be to the pro-
posed undertaking•. if it affords any reasonable pro-
spect of success, it is transferred after a temporary
trial, to some situation where labour is cheaper, or
where the means of transport, the security of fuel, or
other circumstances entitle the projectors to entertain
a better prospect of success. Thus, I have re-
marked, that when a new manufactory was about to
be established in Paris the buildings have in general
been so constructed as to admit of their destination
being easily altered to some ordinary purpose, and
where tall chimneys have been necessary they have
been composed of sheet iron rather than of brick or
stone, from the probability that the necessity would
soon arise for the removal of the manufactory to
some more favourable situation. It is, perhaps, one
of the chief advantages of England over France, as
a manufacturing country, that its capital, industry,
and knowledge are so generally diffused, as to en-
able the projectors of any new undertaking to look
far around them, and, after maturing their plans, to
set down their establishment precisely on the
spot where it will be most favourably situated
with reference to the cheapness of labour, the
facility of communication, and every other
circumstance which enters into the , general ba-
lance of profit and loss. In France it is uni-
versally admitted that no such progress has yet been
made, and that for many years to come they must
be content to follow in the wake of their insular
rivals.

" The same causes which give England a decided
superiority in the useful arts, appear to me also to
have an important influence on the question of in-
troducing the trial by jury in libel cases in France.
In the capital, indeed, as I have already hinted,
there would be no difficulty in finding intelligent and
independent juries, but I have reason to believe that
in the departments the case would be materially diffe-
rent ; and while they continue to enjoy the services of
such men as the Baron Seguier and his high-minded
associates, it would be my advice to the good people
of France to pause before exchanging a positiTe and
well known good for a system which, although it
has been found to work well in a country like Eng-
land, where so large a proportion of the inhabitants
are qualified to discharge the functions of a juror,
might be found in France, with the single exception
of the capital, to be attended with less good than
evil.

" The late change in the office of Chancellor of
France has attracted a new degree of attention to
the question of the immovability of the Judges, par-
ticularly as p, I:erryfie this important office, which
comprises the complicated iaztjma. of
_Keeper of
the Seals, of the chief place in the magistracy, and
the administration of all that regards the judicial
system. In an able paper by the Abbe de Pradt in
this morning's Courrier, it is contended that these
functions ought to be, as indeed on former occasions
they have been, separated. This formerly took place
when the Chancellor Meaupon was exiled by Louis
XVI., and the charge of the seals, with the direction
of the magistracy, was given to liliromesnil with the
title of Keeper. The Constituent Assembly abo-
lished all such immoveable offices, thinking
with reason, that no administrative appointment
should be held immovably or independently, and
that the Chancellor having ceased to judge, should
cease also to be invested with the attributes of the
judgment seat. M. de Pradt appears to have formed
an erroneous estimate of the nature of the office of
Lord Chancellor of England, to which lie is de-
sirous of assimilating the corresponding office in
France. His information on the subject appears to
be derived from such theoretical writers as De Lolme
and Montesquieu ; but, although sometimes misled
in point of. fact, his views are uniformly guided by
a spirit of liberality, and on the irmsent occasion. T-
may say, that the paper I have alluded to is worthy
of your attention."

The proceedings at the Medico-Botanical
Society appear to us to be of a most singular
description. We shall keep our eye upon them,
for we shrewdly suspect that the developement of
the affair will bring before the public a scheme
of quackery and imposture that has rarely been
equalled in this or any other age or country.

It has been customary with many who specu-
late on the probable result of the unsettled state
of the Netherlands, to lay great stress on the
desire which is said to prevail for a union of
Belgium with France—a desire which many do
not scruple to affirm is quite commensurate with
the wish for an extension of territory, which un-
happily fills the minds of so many of the subjects
of his Most Christian MAJESTY. That " La
Grande Nation" would gladly push her frontier
to the Rhine is extremely probable, but we
doubt whether any corresponding eagerness exists
among the Belgians to bury their country in the
grandeur of the French monarchy.
It is quite true that the French language is
spoken by all the higher and middle classes in
Belgium, and that a very active communication is
carried on between the two countries, particularly
among men engaged in literature and politics.
The same sentiment pervades the journals of Paris
and of Brussels, and they arc used respectively
as the means of promulgating opinions on the two
Governments, which it might be dangerous to
hazard at home. But the end of all the resist.
ance that is making, either to the POLIGNAC
Ministry or the Dutch KING, is the possession
of free institutions, and the unmolested enjoy-
ment of liberty. It is the common object which
is struggled for, in truth, from one end of Europe
to the other. All nations are striving, with more
or less effect, to rid themselves of the shackles of
tyranny and priesteraft, which bind them down
after different fashions, and to be governed not
in name only, but it deed, by their own repre-
sentatives, under the security of their Constitution.
In France it is the ascendancy of the Priest
party in the KING'S councils that is formidable.
In the Netherlands it is from the Throne itself

that danger is apprehended. Ti: the former,
therefore, the great point is to turn the apos-
tolical faction out of the Cabinet ; in the latter,
it is essential that the people should be secured
from oppression, by making the Ministers re-
sponsible for their actions, by rendering the
Press inviolable, and by establishing public
opinion on so firm a basis as to intimidate the
Government from favouring one class of its sub-
jects at the expellee of another. If such secu-
rities had existed, the late attacks on the Press
would not have been hazarded ; more especially
since the Atouture tax (out of the animadver-
sions on which, by the banished Frenchmen, the
whole arose) would, without a doubt, have been
abolished years ago, instead of a fortnight since,
when it was withdrawn with so ill a grace, after
the refusal of the Budget.
It is too much, however, to infer, because the
French and Belgians make common cause, as it
were, in defence of their liberties, that they are
therefore desirous of being re-united. So far as
personal observation goes, and communication
with several individuals who have been very
honourably conspicuous in the late transactions,
we venture to state our belief that the intelligent
classes in Belgium have any thing but a dispo-
sition to merge their nationality within the
French territory. Some manufacturers possibly
would be glad of the French market, from which
the system of prohibition has excluded them ;
but the dissimilarity of language, of manners,
and ofcharacter between the French and Flemings,
prevents the wish, arising from an interest of
such a kind, from being very generally dif-
fused. Between Holland and Belgium a
strong jealousy undoubtedly subsists, arising
partly from the conflicting demands of the mer-
chants of the one, and the manufacturers of the
other, for the free trade and prohibition ; and
principally from the partiality of the KING to
his Dutch subjects, as evinced by their almost
exclusive possession of civil and military offices.
The receut appointment of M. DE LA COSTS, a
Belgian, to the Ministry of the Interior, seems,
however, to indicate symptoms of repentance for
this practice on the part of the KING. We
trust it really is so, for we are convinced it is in
the power of the Government to treat all its sub-
jects without favour or affection, if it only sin-
cerely endeavours to do so ; and if it were to
continue to act fairly, there would be no good
reason for enmity between the Belgians and
Dutchmen. On the contrary, the interest of the
latter in obtaining seenr+—
.1-IVICS
their freedom, is quite as strong as that of the
rest of the nation, and the rejection of the
Budget is a proof that the Deputies of Holland
thought so. As to language, we stated on a
former occasion that inasmuch as the Dutch
language is not in use in Belgium, it is most
unreasonable to compel the Deputies to address
the States-General, or the Advocates of the
Courts of Justice, in a language not familiar to
them. All persons in Holland, above the lower
orders, speak French ; and there are more
grounds, therefore, for compelling that tongue
to be used than the one which is established.
But, after all, this is not a matter of great im-
portance ; there are other questions of far higher
interest under on• the result of which
depends whether freedom in the Netherlands
will stand or fall. We have, ourselves, little
doubt of the issue. Let the people be united
and firm, and their bark will, once more,
weather the storm in safety.