The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-07 00:00:00

Ministry
it. That

because it shows a determination in the middle
classes to deny to others a privilege which they
claim for themselves, and wanting which they affirm
they would be no better than slaves. They are will-
ing, then, to make slaves of their brethren. It
gives no satisfaction to us to find them ready to
perpetrate an act of injustice, for we can no more
suppose that it will be beneficial to them than
slavery was beneficial to the West Indian Planters.
The main principle on which Mr. MACAULAY
denies the unenfranchised classes the right of suf-
frage, is their unfitness to exercise it. If this
were a valid reason, would it not apply to
himself ? He was a Member, we believe, of
that House of Commons which passed the
Irish Coercion Act, as disgraceful and brutal a law

as ever disfigured a slave code. Mr. MAcAULAY

was also, like a great many of the most enlightened
men of the kingdom, an advocate of the Reform
Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill,
which, by the rigid line of exclusion it draws, on the
principle of property, has immensely aggravated the
bitterness of wanting the franchise. He expected it
would confer an immense benefit on the country,
but if not altered it will end, we are afraid,
in causing wide-spread ruin. Now, if that which
leads men to do a great deal of mischief, be a suffi-
cient reason for withholding the franchise from all
those who do not dwell in 101. houses, it should be
quite sufficient to disfranchise Mr. MACAULAY
himself, and all his friends. Will any reasonable
being affirm that the wildesr of the work-

ing classes would ever propose any enactment
so selfishly diabolical as7the starvation laws ? Are
the landlords then to have the power of making
their unenlightened selfishness the law for the
whole community ? And are other men to be told
because their selfishness is equally unenlightened
—darker it cannot possibly be—that they are not
to have any share whatever in making the laws?
And who presumes to affirm that the lower classes
are unfit ? Those who are enfranchised and wish
to keeps the privilege to themselves. However
satisfactory they may find their opinion, they
will never convince the working classes of its cor-

rectneas ; and if the middle classes do not wish, as
we know they do not and cannot, to follow up Weir
injustice to their humbler brethren, by a continued
series of angry oppressions, they should overhaul
their opinion, and, resolve to do to the unenfran-

chised as they would wish to be done unto.

We think Mr. MACAULAY takes an erroneous
view of the causes of civilization and of the superior
comforts enjoyed by the working classes, as com-

pared to savages ; but that is an important subject,
into which we cannot enter at the end of an article,
though we should like to controvert Mr. MACA U-

which proposed largely to extend 'of hostilities between the armies of Turkey
makes the question of fearful moment, I and Egypt. On comparing dates, however, we find
, t that the news which created such a stir in the
Turkish capital is precisely of the same date from
Beyrout as the intelligence which reached London
' thirteen days ago, and consequently is not entitled
to the least credit. The latest advices from Alexan-
dria received in Constantinople were only of the Ist
ult., whereas letters to the 10th have been received in
London, in which the report of hostilities having been
commenced is positively contradicted. The Turkish
eet consisting of twenty-nine sail of the line, was
preparing to leave the arsenal for a cruise in the
Mediterranean. The lovers of war would have it
that its destination was Alexandria, and that it
would undoubtedly sink, burn, and disable with a
fQw broadsides, the whole naval armaments of the
VICEROY. We are more than sceptical on this
head. But as we consider war, for the present, out
of the question, it would serve no useful purpose to
inquire into the respective chances of success.
We regret to announce that the plague has ap-
peared at Constantinople. Six cases of decided
infection were reported.
The Echo de l' Orient of Smyrna states that
only 8,000 men of the Turkish army crossed the
Euphrates and encamped on a desolate plain, where
IBRAHIM PACHA could have cut them off to a
mar. but for the pacific instructions of the VICE-
ROY. It appears, however, that the Euphrates at
Bir is not the boundary of Turkey and Egypt
claimed by MEH EMET ALI, and that in fact the
Turkish army had not crossed the real boun-
dary. Another division of the SULTAN'S troops
was approaching Taurus on the side of Antah, and
the Egyptian army was stationed in the environs of
Aleppo, selected by IBRAHIM as the most favour-
able ground for a general engagement should mat-
ters come to that pitch.
Since the above was written we have received
German and Brussels papers, the former with ad-
vices from Constantinople of the 18th ult., in which
the view we have taken of the Oriental question is
by implication confirmed, but no new fact is added
to throw further light upon it. The Brussels
papers merely announce the return of Count VIL-
LE:UM/sr to Vienna, as Secretary of the Belgian
Legation, after the ratification of the treaty betwee
Holland and Belgium.

Letters from Alexandria of the 17th ult.—nine
dais later than the previous arrivals--have reached
us this morning. They do not confirm the reports
of any collision having taken place between the
Turkish and Egyptian armies, although they anti-
cipate, from the appearance of HAFIZ PA ci-rA
on the Syrian side of the Euphrates, some such un-
toward event. A war between the VICEROY and
the Shah of PERSIA, for the possession of Bag-
dad, was regarded by many as still more imminent.

The non-interference of France and England in
the fratricidal contest which now desolates Spain
is disgraceful to Governments claiming for them-
selves the glory of being foremost in the march of
civilization. For several years now has one of the
finest countries in the world been plunged into all
the horrors of civil war, to decide whether an in-
fant or a hoary traitor shall ascend a throne which
rightfully belongs to neither—which is the people's ;
and yet though in one day more innocent blood has
been shed than half the Royal dynasties in
Europe are worth, yet France and England -.look
on as indifferently as if it was a spectacle in an
arena for the combat of wild beasts. We have hu-
manity for over-loaded donkeys, for galled hacks,
and for the canine species, and yet the humanity-
mongering Governments of France and England
have probably read with the utmost indifference the
following official account of the capture of the
town of Ripoll in Catalonia, by the worthy soldiers
of the Durango butcher. Nay, it appears in
the official columns of the Moniteur of Wednesday
in the form of a telegraphic despatch to the
Minister of War, without a syllable of comment
—merely as a matter of course. And yet, with
such fearful tragedies performing at our very
threshold, our philanthropists are ranging the re-
motest corners of the globe for objects upon which
to pour out the peace-restoring balm of their sym-
pathies. Lours PHILIPPE'S is a terrible name
to the oppressor in an obscure island of the Pacific

—irreverently to touch the hem of the Papal gar-
ment is there fatal to insular Potentates—but to the
supplications of Spain reeking in innocent blood,
the King of the FRENCH is as indifferent as the
deaf adder to the voice of the charmer. We quote
the despatch :

" A despatch from Campredon arrived at Prats de Molle
on the 20th of May, stating that the Cellists entered at
ten in the morning of the 27th through a breach 20 feet
wide, on which a part of the garrison was killed. The
rest with the commandant, took refuge in the Church of
St. Peter, where they capitulated. No fewer than 2.500
balls were fired upon that town. On the 28th Ripoll was
burnt to the ground, and upwards of 900 persons perished
in theflames. The most horrible cruelties were committed.
In one house 25 women, who had taken refuge there, were
massacred by the bayonets of four Carlist soldiers. A
mother surrounded by her five children, the eldest not more
than nine years old, had them all torn from her, and four
were killed before her face with the butts of the men's
muskets, and the other was thrown out of a window on the
second floor. The mother herself died of the wounds she
received in defending them. Consternation reigns through-
out the surrounding country. Women continue to fly into
France for refuge."

A correspondent of a Toulouse Journal, writing
on the spot, confirms the above, adding that not a
soul in the town but perished 1 The garrison did
not exceed between 400 and 500 men, while the
Carlists 'invading the town exceeded 8,000. The
women fought gallantly by the side of their hus-
bands, brothers, and fathers, and for eight days re-
sisted all the attacks of the assailants, though con-
stantly exposed to a heavy and destructive fire of
howitzers and musketry. The Carlist officer
who led the last successful 'onset, was killed
in the breach by the brave Commandant of the
devoted garrison.
The papers direct from Madrid are of the 29th
ult. The Gazette publishes a despatch from Es-
PARTERO, in which he states that instead of losing
5,000 men as reported by the Carlists during his
late successful operations, he had in all but 99
killed, and 741 wounded. Colonel WYLDE, the
British Commissioner, had been constantly with him.
Don CARLOS held a Council-of-War at Zernosa
on the 28th ult. It was attended by the PRE-
TENDER, his son, young CARLOS, DOn SEBAS-
TIAN, and Generals MAROTO, VILLA REAL,
EGUIRA, MONTENEGRO, SIMON LA TORRE,
and several others. Of what took place nothing
transpired.

There is no domestic news of interest in the
French Journals of Wednesday, except that on
Tuesday the Government thought proper to de-
prive the students of the Polytechnic School of
their arms, which have been all lodged in the for-
tress of Vincennes. This is a curious official com-
mentary upon the Journal des Debats' account of
the KING'S appreciation of the loyalty of these
military youths, and we have no doubt will form the
subject of some bitter sarcasms on the part of the
Opposition Press.

-The Committee to whom was referred the Minis-
terial project of law for granting tPn millions of francs
to increase the French Fleet in the Levant, has sus-
pended its sittings till more authentic news arrive
from Egypt.
The National publishes advices from Alexan-
dria, of the 17th ult., in which a war between
Turkey and Egypt is regarded as unavoida-
ble. The Correspondent of the National
writes very briefly, but he encloses an interesting
communication from Aleppo, dated the 6th ult.,
manifestly written by some French officer attached
to the army of the VICEROY. He rates the army
of the VICEROY at 76,000 men, of whom 30,000
are in garrison in the vicinity of Taurus. The
troops then concentrated at Aleppo consisted of
twelve regiments of infantry, four of cavalry, two of
artillery, and 2,000 Bedouin Arabs. The policy
so cherished by the National of making Egypt a
province of France, is strongly recommended in this
correspondence.

In the Journal (les Debats of Wednesday we
find the following le►ter from CLOT BEY (a French
Physician in the service of the PASHA, dated
Alexandria, the,l3th ult. It throws no new light
whatever on the question of actual hostilities having
commenced:—

" The Viceroy is at this moment in Alexandria, and en-
joys excellent health. Ibrahim Pasha, from whom I re-
ceived, within these two days, two letters, is also very well.
Said-Bey, appointed Captain of a corvette, commands a
beautiful vessel purposely constructed for him. He is
about to take a voyage round the Mediterranean, and will
be accompanied by M. Houssart, M. Kcenig, and a pro-
fessor of the English language. lie will this time merely
visit the harbours, and not proceed into the interior. Yon
have no doubt heard of the provocation of the Porte, and
the hostile demonstrations it has made. The irritation ex-