The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-04 00:00:00

come the objects of prosecution under an ultra
'l'ory Mihistry, such writers as those of the
Morning Journal would have pursued a very
different course ; and instead of making com-
mon cause with their persecuted contemporaries,
would, as on former occasions, which will readily
occur to you, have joined in the cry of the mi-
nisterial blood-hounds, and pursued their rivals
to the death. lam delighted to perceive, how-
ever, that such has not been the policy of The
Sun, and the other luminaries of the British
Press, who, when treating of such important
questions of public right, will, I trust, continue
to adopt the spirit, if not the words, of the
motto, Fiat justitia, runt ccelum.'
" Whatever it may be in England, the pro-
ceedings in this country against the Press arc, it
appears, not yet at an end. Having failed in
his attack on the daily journals, ,the Mini•
ster, it seems, is now content to fly at
smaller game. The Almanack of Mathieu
Laensberg has obtained the same sort of popu-
larity in France which that of Moore has in
England ; and hitherto has met with no such
formidable competitor as the useful and excel-
lent work of the Society for the Diffusion of
Knowledge. The predictions of Mr. Mathieu
Laensberg for the year 1830, although carefully
couched in such convenient generalities, or such
Delphic ambiguities, as to defy the chance of
contradiction by future events, yet it cannot be
denied that the tone of the oracle is decidedly
lugubrious in its tendency : winds and tempests,
pestilence and famine, wars and revolutions,
enormous taxes, and other awful announce-
ments, are the favourite topics with this inter-
preter of the stars. For January there is to be
a change in the laws ; a religious dispute in
February ; an atrocious conspiracy in March
a deadly atmosphere in April ; murders and
assassinations in May ; an earthquake and
an invasion in June ; a winged monster and
a fiery meteor in July ; famine, the disco-
very of a great secret, and the death of a dis-
tinguished actress in August ; the failure of a
great banker in September, &c. &c. It does not
appear what particular denunciation has alarmed
the French Ministry ; but from the following
letter, it is obvious that the predictions of the
worthy soothsayer are not regarded, even in the
highest quarters, with indifference :
" Vouziers, December, 1829.
"M. LE MAutE,—A publication, entitled an
" Almanack, calculated for the meridian of Liege,
" by. Master Matheu Laensberg, mathematician,
" for the year 1830, appears to his Excellency
" the Minister of the Interior to contain in several
" passages provocations to revolt, and excitements to
" contempt against the Government.
" I beg you will have the goodness to seize, or
" cause to be seized, all the copies of this work
" which shall be exi4osed for sale in your commune.
" You would also do well to communicate the
" names of the venders, that they may be laid be-
" fore the Procureur du Roi, and prosecuted for the
" contents of this publication, without prejudice to
" the proceedings to which the fact of its fraudu-
" lent introduction may give rise.
" Accept, &c.
" The Under Preirt, IIE MECQUENESSE."
" The offence of Mr. IVlatbieu Laensberg ap-
pears from this letter to be regarded as of a very
serious nature, being nothing less than a provo-
cation to revolt, and an excitement to contempt
aaainst time Government. Whether Prince
Metternich and the Duke of Vlrcllington are
eqhally alarmed with Prince Polignac at such
awful forebodings, I leave you to judge ; but
who can blame the watchful solicitude which has
thus been evinced by the Minister of the In-
terior. For the sake of justifying his alarm, I
must give you a few more specimens of the
prophecies of this organ of the stars :
" The sky, he says, is overcast ; the dark clouds
" are heaped on each other, and every thing an-
" nounces that a thousand thunders are to issue from
" either sides I 1 The powers of the earth consist of
mere mortals like ourselves, who after attracting
the momentary attention of their contemporaries
" suddenly disappear, leaving only the remembrance
" of actions on which posterity will award the meed
"of praise or of blame. The stars announce to us
" that there will this year be several disappearances
" of this nature, but they will only produce a trifling
" sensation."
" Is this, then, the passage which contains
the sting ? And has Mr. Mathieu Laensberg
been foretelling, with all his might, the overthrow
of the Polignac Administration, adding irony
to insult, by saying that it will only produce a
trifling sensation ? Perhaps it is in such a
passage as the following that the seer of Liege
has evinced the spirit of contempt and rebellion
so offensive to the constituted authorities :
" In this age of falsehood it will not be uncommon
.‘ to see preachers of morals and good policy, with
e` virtue on their lips and vice in their hearts."
" May not this be a covert attack on such apo-
stolical and ultra royalist writers as those who
are loudest in their support of the present Admi-
nistration ? But here is a passage equally inso-
lent and insidious :
" The right of the strongest will exist no longer
" except among savages; justice will banish it for
" ever from all civilized codes."
" Is it decent, it will be said, to print such lan-
guage as this when the Minister is preparing to
use the right of the strongest ? And is it not an
outrage on his Majesty's servants to compare
them to savages. Again it is said:—
" Men most disposed to be indulgent will be
taught the sad, certainty that no advancement can
be made in a system where words and men are
" at variance."
"Such, for instance, according to the gloss of
a liberal commentator, as the word charter with
the man Polignac; the word education with the
man Guernon; the word fidelity with the man
Bourmont ; the word capacity with the man
Montbel; or the word politeness with the man
Mangin ! But here, says another critic, is a
clear provocation to revolt. In the month
of November is the anniversary of time
death and interment of an illustrious warrior, who
expired far from his country on a foreign soil.'
Can any thing be more obvious than that the
foreign soil is St. Helena, and the illustrious
warrior Napoleon ?
" But what respect does Mr. Mathieu pay to
religion ? Only read:—
" The false zeal of the new Tartuffes will seduce
" only a small number of persons. The friends of