The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The President's Message contains two or
three points requiring some further notice than
that which we were yesterday enabled, amidst
the press of other matter, to bestow upon them.
In discussing the foreign relations of the United
States, the language of the President with re-
gard to France is not distinguished by the most
acquiescing or complacent spirit. It is well
known that although England has long since
paid over a large sum of money to indemnify
American citizens for losses which they had sus-
tained by reason of our military operations in the
Southern States, the prompt and full measure of
British compensation beieg such indeed as t_.)
extort from Mr. Adams the warmest expressions
of esteem and eulogy, no one of the Presideiiis
who have followed each other in America -siiicst
the downhill of Buonaparte, has Fuccearled in
obtaining by negotiation from Louis XVIII., or
the present Sovereign of France, the least ap-
proach towards a satisfactory adjustment of
claims, of which, at the same tithe, the equity
has not been disputed. This delay, if not de-
nial, of justice, formed more than once a grave
subject of complaint with General Jackson's
nreCecessors, in their addresses to the United
States ; but on the part of the present Chief Ma-
gistrate, the dissatisfaction assumes a deeper tone,
and finds vent in more peremptory language.
Ile says, that " the claims of our citizens for
depredations upon their property, long since
committed under the authority, and in many in-
stances by the express direction, of the then Go-
vernment of France, remain unsatisfied, and must
therefore continue to furnish a subject of un-
pleasant discussion, and possible collision, be-
tween the two Governments." This is broad
and plain speaking, and bears on the face of it an
index that the President means all 'that he ex-
presses. No doubt it must appear revolting to a
Prince of the House of Bourbon, that he sho,ild
be made an instrument for wringing from Royalist
and legitimate France, retribution for outrages
which France was compelled by an unlawful tyrant
to perpetrate; and a taunt may well be flung in the
teeth of America, that she declined, from fear
or favour, a quarrel, for which she had ample
provocation, with him by whom she was grossly
injured and insulted, while she threatens to raise
one with a sovereign from whose family, instead
of suffering wrong, she had received the most
inestimable benefits. As a personal appeal, we
do not see how such an observation could ho
fairly, or at least very gracefully, answered by a
negotiator acting for the United States. 'l''•fi
rule, however, is positive upon this subject, and
the identity of France in 1829 with the .Go-
vernment to which she submitted herself from
1801 to 1814, can in no sense, and with no re-
gard to law or reason, be brought into serious
controversy. The President does not appear to
be quite contented with the spirit entertained in
Mexico towards the representative of the United
States in that neighbouring (and, we fear, at
Washington not much loved) republic. But
it is believed among well-informed people,
that if ever a diplomatic agent, by over-
stepping
nshciusoufsulnyctiiirst„heanddomiensvtoiclvisntgrughgimles-
of the nation to which he was accredited,—
if ever such a functionary gave just cause of
offence to an independent Government, Mr-
Poinsett was that man. General Jackson ex-
cuses his intrigues but lamely, and has acted
with prudence in readily recalling this Minister,
notwithstanding his great and active talents.—
General Jackson speaks with elaborate, and
even somewhat ostentatious, sympathy of the
wretchedness to which the long-suffering Indian
race have been reduced by the tyranny of their
white destroyers. The redress, however, which
the President proposes for wrongs of which he
idoes
nnhoatnt
dhdeai
rsyseteom
bebenleetne trhei itnoa painfulgc
en
ri
tttauoi (.1 et,oi
fae n
tdhKeoef:ll NetVtuli 11( iiishy,
does not consist of any thing in the shape of
sacrifice on the part of the . republican persecu-
tors. There is no restitution suggested of even
a fragment of those wide regions from which
the unfortunate aborigines have actually, by
force or fraud, been extruded; but he recom-
mends that they shall be henceforth relegated to an
ample district " westward " of the Mississippi,
which is to be formally " guaranteed to them.
Guaranteed ! Yea ; but is it to be so far gua-
ranteed that no individual or state of the vihole
confederacy can henceforth legally get possession
of this land by any pretence of purchase ? If
not, we would not give a straw for the guarantee,
while rum, or dollars, or powder and shot, form
subjects of back-settlement barter. At all events,
this panacea for the Indian sufferings is but a
repetition of the system which occasioned them,
namely, yet another banishment from lands
whereon they 'have peaceably subsisted. With
General Jackson's views upon home politics, it
becomes not us to meddle. For those who are
quainted with the circumstances which accom-
panied his former contest for the chair of Presi-
dent, and which determined it in favour of Mr.
Adams, it may be curious to trace the apparent
connexion between Mr. Jackson's theories and
his party feelings. Those, likewise, who still
recollect a former dissertation of Mr. Adams,
on the just distribution of powers between the
central and the local Governments of the Union,
will be at no loss to find a more than accidental
repugnancy between the doctrines of the present
Message and of that which issued from the Ex-
President, relatively to the same interesting topic.
On the Tariff, from which most was expected,
General Jackson has afforded the slightest ma-
terials for estimating his precise line of policy.
In truth, on this subject, the President does by
no means shine ; since, apart from the obscurity
in which he leaves the world as to the degree in
which he underrates his own intentions, he leaves
no doubt upon the mind of any man as to his
entire and extraordinary ignorance of the tariff
itself, and of the important questions involved in
it. His elementary position is not merely un-
statesmanlike,—it is lamentabl) absurd. He
lays it down as " the general rule " for graduat-
ing the duties on articles of foreign growth or
manufacture, " that which will place our own in
fair competition with those of other countries."
It follows, then, that we are to raise a competi-
tion in our own country with all the articles
which are grown or manufactured in every other
part of the world. England, therefore, ought to
levy such duties on rice, and cotton, and silk,
and furs, and pitch, and sugar, and tea, and
tub Ice°, not as are calculated to increase her
revenue (the lawful and unoffending purpose of
taxation), but as will prevent her, if possible,
from having any revenue, by enabling her sub-
jects to produce at home silk, cotton, pitch, tea,
tobacco, &c., in so great quantity, and of such
a quality, as to prevent the importation of
each of these articles, and to render them un-
productive of revenue ! General Jackson's rule
happens to be an exception to, the wise
and politic rule, and -a rare exception.
It goes to encourage attempts at produce and