The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIM PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The French Globe—a clever and philosophi-
cal, though somewhat affected and coxcomical,
journal—contains in its number of Wednesday,
which reached us last night, an article on the
foreign policy of France, which, as speaking the
sentiments of a large French party respecting
this country, deserves from us some notice. It
begins by telling us that France, under the pre-
sent Ministry, is destined to act only an inferior
part in European diplomacy, and it ascribes this
state of huro2niation to the pernicious influence or
English counsels on the French Government.—
An allusion its then made to the charge so often
repeated, and so often contradicted, that the no-
mination of the present Cabinet is the work of
the English Ministry, who, jealous of the rising
greatness and improving liberties of our neigh-
bours, intrigued to inflict upon them Prince Po-
lignac and his detested colleagues, as a source of
weakness abroad, by creating alarm and menacing
counter-revolution at home. But considering
this point as already settled, or looking upon the
journalist in that happy state or secure prejudice
that he would resist the most authoritative expla-
nation, we shall pass on to some of his other re-
marks. While the writer admits that " no real
or permanent interest can lead England to
_desire the abasement of France," and that
no mercantile calculation exists to induce us
to obstruct her prosperity, he yet asserts, that
it is a received maxim in England that we
must exert ourselves to keep France a secondary
power. Where he obtained this information, or
from. what premises he drew his conclusion, we
kre unable to divine. We have not seen it
avowed in any English publication—we have not
heard it in any English society—we are not
aware of any public act of the English Govern-
ment from which it can be inferred. Though
we were even ready to allow (which we are not)
that the present discredited and insulted Cabinet
of France had been recommended to Charles X.
more by English influence than his own politi-
cal tastes, still we would deny that the motive
was either envy of French greatness, hatred of
French liberty, or a desire to cripple French
power. The Government of this country might
find and avow that a Ministry taken from one
party in France might, on certain points, be more
congenial to its wishes, as being more disposed to
co-operate in its views than one taken from another,
without at all affording any ground for believing
that it indulged such a partiality from a desire
of arresting the progress of French pros-
perity, or of endangering French constitutional
freedom. The objects to be obtained by a change
of Councils night even appear to be as much
in the interest of the one country as of the
other, or to he indifferent to the internal institu-
tions of both. Though, therefore, the nomi-
nation of the chief of the French Cabinet had
been placed as directly in our First Lord of the
Treasury as that of his own secretary, and he
had selected Prince Polignac, it would not fol-
low that the unpopular choice was made for the
purpose of overturning the French Charter, or
diniinishing French power. This could only be
considered as demonstrably proved by the same
writer, who can see nothing in the long struggle
between the two countries, from the commence-
ment of revolution to the restoration of the
Bourbons, but a furious opposition of Mr. Pitt
and his successors to the real interests and glory
of France. Governments and nations have their
passions and prejudices as well as individuals,
but it would betray an uncommon refinement in
malignity to labour to obstruct the welfare of
others without any prospect of benefitting our-
selves. " Arthur Wellesley," says the Globe,
" cannot love France; France hates him even to
injustice. There is between him and her a
difference that cannot be made up, and it would
be a senseless pretension to demand either from
the patriotism of a great nation, or the pride of a
great captain, a shadow of impartiality !" In
this case the writer may speak .for. his own feel-
ings; but he has no commission to become the
interpreter of those of others. We can by no
means believe that it is a duty of French " pa-
triotism," though it may be the characteristic of
a French faction, to hate the Duke of Welling-
ton ; and our gallant neighbours may rest as-
sured that the Noble Duke, satisfied with the
glory of having overpowered that faction in the
field for the benefit of his country and the tran-
quillity of Europe, terminated his antipathies
with the war, and has no desire to re-visit on
the mass of a generous and high-minded people,
in the character of a British Minister, any of
those humiliations which he inflicted on its mili-
tary partisans in the character of a British
General. But the French journalist is not con-
tented with imputing hostile feelings to our Go-
vernment : he ascribes an unworthy jealousy of
France to the great body.ol the English nation,
while lie seems to hug himself in the belief that
he is exempted from similar prejudices. It
seldom happens that two nations can justly
appreciate the defects or excellencies, the
vices or good qualities, of each other :
it never happens that they agree in the
judgment mutually pronounced. Having no
common or admitted standard, their deci-
sions are often the result of a compromise be-
tween pride and prejudice, conceit and misap-
prehension. But in striking the balance between
ourselves and our neighbours, as to partialities
and prejudices, we should require to borrow a
greater share of modesty than is usually found in
domestic estimates of national character, to
allow that the account is against us. We never
read an article about France or Frenchman in
any French book or jouriial, without seeing
their country extolled as the centre of civiliva-
tion, the grand depot of art and knowledge,
the model of every excellence, the seat of every
social delight—of every civil, moral, and intel-
lectual perfection. How far we ourselves pro-
ceed in this strain on fitting occasions, we leave
our rivals to say ; but whatever are our compa-
rative opinions of them or ourselves, the desire
to see their liberties overturned, their prosperity
arrested, or their grandeur decay, seldom ac-
tuates the lowest or the most ignorant portion
of cur population. Prince Metternich may be
anxious to see a check put to the develop-
ment of free institutions in France, from a fear
that the contagion may spread to Germany and
Italy ; but in this country we require no poli-
tical quarantine, as we dread no liberal pesti-
lence, and therefore have no need:to secure our-
selves by using our influence to elevate Abso-
lutists and Jesuits to administer the rights of
Frenchmen. If the liberal party in France is
viewed with any suspicion on this side the Chan-
nel, it is not because we envy them the greatest
latitude of their constitutional freedom,—it is
not because we would grudge them the fullest
development of the industry of_ their active
people, and-of the resources of theiafine country,
—it is not because we dread the estimation in
which France may be held in Europe, or wish
to reduce it to " a secondary power,"—but be-
sting,. Some of that party have avowed projects of

ambition and territorial aggrandizement, which
are as dishonest and flagitious in themselves as
they would be calamitous to Europe. We of
couse allude to plans announced and defended
by Baron de Richemont for the conquest of
Iclgium, and its annexation to France,—a pro-
posal made in the time of profound peace, with-
out any provocation from the King of the Ne-
therlands or any threat of aggression on the part
of his allies. Though these dishonourable and
dangerous designs were embraced by a consider-
able faction, we are happy to see that the Globe,
whose article has been the subject of the above
remarks, lends no countenance to the Baron's
views. It calls his invective against England
useless and passionate." With what epithets
ought it to have branded his projected invasion
of Belgium and his intended appropriation of the
Rhine.—Times.

We look forward with much anxiety to the
approaching Session of Parliament for the re-
vival of those measures of legal reform on which
Lord Lyndhurst was about to enter, when, in a
manner, and' for reason's never satisfactorily ex-
plained, his Lordship's initiatory Bill was last
year withdrawn by Mr. Peel in the House of
Commons after it had passed the Lords. We
are quite aware that the veteran sticklers for
abuses have availed themselves of the interval
thus afforded, to magnify the real difficulties
attendant upon carrying the proposed measures
into effect ; and that they have tasked their in-
vention to suggest numbers of other mischiefs,
sure, according to their ill-omened augury, to
spring froni innovating upon the established
order of things. That in modifying a juridical
system so subtle, complicated, and ramified as
ours, some partial inconveniences are to be en-
countered, there is no advocate of reform so
sanguine as to deny; and that as more nearly
viewed, such inconveniences should enlarge both
in importance and in number was to be expected.
But after a survey of the frightful and enormous
evils engendered by the present system, there
will not be much to scare us in the aspect of
the projected amendments or their train of
consequences. Of Lord Lyndhurst's disposi-
tions on this subject we are disposed to think
well. We should say, indeed, that he is
pledged to proceed, were it not that we appre-
hended the doubtful virtue of consistency holds
a mean place in his Lordship's system of
Ethics ; and that with him such an argument
would have little force. Our expressions are
rather founded upon his peculiar situation, and
on what is known of his Lordship's powers of
mind and energy of character. He is a person
of excellent practical good sense ; and as such,
must regard with aversion all those hindrances to
the dispatch of business which the frivolous sub-
tleties and ill-contrived processes 'of our Courts
occasion. Flis understanding does not seem
oppressed, as was that of his predecessor on the
woolsack, by the learning of cases ; nor is it
affected by that passion for refining which, with
all his powers of intellect, rendered Lord Eldon
so inefficient a Judge. Although a very com-
petent lawyer in that department of the profes-
sion which was the theatre of his practice, we
doubt if, with the exception of the great Lord
Mansfield, any man ever sat on the Bench less
a bigot to the established system of Juris-
prudence than Lord Lyndhurst. Called at
an advanced period of life to administer justice
in a Court the doctrines and practice of which
are altogether alien to his previous pursuits, and
prevented by the variety and multiplicity of Mi-
nisterial duties from applying himself to acquire
the knowledge necessary to enable him to dis-
charge the functions of that tribunal with lustre,

it is natural (supposing him to possess any
honest love of fame) that he should aspire to
repay that debt of obligation which Lord Bacon
says every man owes to his profession, i❑ the only
mode which remains to him—that is, by renovat-
ing and purifying its practice and principles, and ac-
commoitating them to the enlarged exigencies of
society. In this way, although precluded the
praise of becoming a Great Equity Judge, Lord
Lyndhurst may earn for himself a nobler and a
higher name.. Such are the considerations which
induce us to indulge the hope of seeing him
ameliorate, according to the suggestions of the
two Commissions of Common Law and Real
Property, the present defective, and at the same
time cumbrous machinery of our judicial insti-
tutions. There is, however, one point on which
a warning may be needful to him. Of all the
schemes at various times suggested for lightening
the oppressive weight of business in the Court
of Chancery, there is none so simple nor any
more effective than the separation of the jurisdic-
tion in bankruptcy from the other functions of
the Court, on which that jurisdiction is an ex-
crescence of recent origin. For the public inte-
rests, however; it happens very unfortunately that
bankruptcy is a department of business with
which Lord Lyndhurst's common law practice
has rendered him familiar, and in which he is
able to make a much better figure than in the
more appropriate jurisdiction of the Great Seal.
It may, therefore, be apprehended, that personal
considerations might make him loth to surrender
that branch of business ; and as no inconsider-
able portion of the Chancellor's income is de-
rived from fees payable in bankruptcy, the inter-
ference of motives less respectable may, possibly,
be suspected by those who attribute to eminent
public servants the same interested views which
too often govern men in humbler stations , Nor
is it merely as a measure of relief to the- Court
of Chancery that the erection of a new bankrupt
jurisdiction is desirable. The turbulence of the
meetings of the Commissioners, the small degree
of respectability and authority belonging to tri-
bunals constituted as they are—the Commis•
sioners being for the most part the mere Tyrones
or Emeriti of the profession—together with the
enormous expense of the system, loudly call for
reformation. It was only on Saturday that' our
columns presented a specimen of the disgraceful
turbulence to which we refer. By the report of
the proceedings at a meeting under the Com-
mission of Marsh and Stracey, it appeared that a
gentleman's pocket was picked ; but, at the time,
such was the confusion, that, although an alarm
was instantly given, the thief escaped in the
crowd. 11 have the Lord Chancellor and the
Vice-Chancellor been labouring ever since the
holidays to reduce the bankrupt petitions spring-
ing :out of this jurisdiction ; while all the other
business of the Court remains at a stand !
Morning Chronicle. •
We refer our readers to our Report, for an
account of the proceedings at the County of
Norfolk Meeting, on Saturday last. The Re-
solutions adopted only go the length of the
abolition of the Malt Tax. " The repeal of
the Duties on Malt (it is said in the eighth
resolution) would greatly benefit the consumer
generally, but more especially would it relieve
the labonring and industrious classes, by placing
within their reach the means of brewing their
own beer, and making their own bread, by the
want of which they are now driven to the use of
ardent spirits, to the destruction of their health

and morals:'* Ultimately we have no do-Uhi,if
the duty on malt were repealed (allowing the
Beer Duty to continue), means would be fallen
upon to enable the poor to dispense with the
common brewer. Associations might, for in-
stance, be formed, for buying malt and brewing
for those belonging to them. This, however,
must be the work of time. As to the idea of
brewing ever becoming again general among the
labouring classes, it is visionary. In the infancy
of society each family does everything for itself.
In Norway, at this day, every farmer is also
blacksmith, weaver, tailor, shoemaker, butcher,
baker, brewer, &c. With the progress of
society labour comes always to be more end
more divided. The Norfolk genttemen
may be quite assured, that whenever in
a society like ours, any practice is once
laid aside, it will never become general
again. There is no impediment in the way of
baking ; but whenever a baker is within reach,
the making of bread in families is abandoned.
Nothing but necessity will ever induce a recur-
rence to practices once abandoned. But -the
Norfolk gentlemen are wise in their generation.
They think, that by asking only the repeal of the
Malt Tax they may succeed, but that if they ask
the repeal of both Malt and Beer Tax they can-
not succeed. Besides, said one of the speakers,
Mr. Postle, " there was, likewise, another con-
sideration which demanded their attention. If
they asked for the remission of both the Malt
and Beer Tax there would be danger of a Pro-
perty Tax being imposed upon the country, and
not one confined exclusively to mortgages on
property and Government securities,.. but like-
wire extending to all landed property. Now, if
this were the case, would not the Members of
Parliament be sure to oppose anything that was
likely to produce a tax calculated to bear so hard
upon themselves ? In the Upper House, in
particular, where they were all men of landed
property, every exertion should be made under
such circumstances to prevent the remission
prayed for." What a libel this on the House
of Lords I Would their Lordships, guided
as they are exclusively in their decisions by
considerations of what is most advantageous
generally to the country, after hearing the
pathetic tale of the Norfolk 'Squires, of
the demoralization and suffering caused by the
malt and beer duties, hesitate one moment to re-
peal such obnoxious duties, because the conse-
quence might be a tax affecting themselves more
particularly ? No ;we know that British Sena-
tors are never influenced by sucli narrow conside-
tions. They excluded foreign corn, not to raise
their own rents or to keep them from falling, but
on the contrary, to make corn cheap ; and lest
there should be any doubt about the matter, we
have their own recorded declarations of the ex-
pectation that the Corn Bill would make corn
cheaper. No ; Nlr. Postle is not aware of the
disinterestedness of the body which lie thus libels.
Self-interest is never felt within the walls of Par-
liament. Nothing but the community, the good
of the whole community, is known there. We
rejoice to hear such a general condemnation of
the Licensing System from the country gentle-
men. Mr. Postle was applauded for declaring
that it should be imperative on Magistrates to
grant licenses—that they should have no dis-
cretion whatever. Mr. Wodehouse, not con-
tent with the Repeal of the Beer as well as the
Malt Tax, wished also the Repeal of the Du-
ties on Tea, Sugar, and Coals. "It was evi-
dent (he said) that by this high rate of taxa-
tion, the comforts of the lower classes were
abridged ; and while things remained in this
state, it was a scandal to the Aristocracy of the
country.—(Cheers.)" A scandal indeed. But
Mr. Wodehouse should remember what a load
of national honour and glory we have obtained
as a counterpoise to the load of debts and taxes !
How often have we not balanced and re-balanced
Europe, subsidizing this Power one day, and
that Power the next ! It is now a scandal ; but

it was glorious when we were contracting the
burden. But so it is always—wisdom comes
with lack of food. It would not surprise us if
the members of the Pitt Club were to couple
the name of the Heaven-born Statesman with
the Pope and the Pretender ; and in truth we
have suffered far more from Mr. Pitt's bank-
ruptcy of 1797, than ever we suffered from the
other two. Indeed, Mr. Coke candidly owned
" that the revolutionary war had been the
cause of all the distress and bankruptcy which
had taken place since, and of the present
impending danger to the country." The allu-
sion of the Hon. Gentleman to the lives and
fortune men whom he saw alive around him, was
most appropriate.—/bid.
The provincial papers-, with the exception of
a notice of some foolish speculations in cotton,
are almost totally silent with respect to the state
of trade. It is intimated, however, that neither
wages or profits live increased ; and as we ob-
serve in almost all these papers repeated inti-
mations of the benevolence of the rich to great
numbers of the poor, we fear it may be but
truly inferred that no improvement has yet taken
tilace. This circumstance reminds us of a duty,

h ich, as public journalists, we must not omit
to perform—we mean, to call the attention of
our readers to the innumerable claims upon
their benevolence, which the poverty of great
numbers in the metropolis, and the extreme in-
clemency of the season, present. Notwithstand-
ing the legislative provisions for the poor, the
fact is notorious that great numbers die from
want of the necessaries of life, and that there
are still greater numbers who, especially during
a severe winter, drag on a painful existence. To
these, rupplies of clothes, of food, and of coals,
would be of inestimable benefi.. ; and truly be-
nevolent as the metropolis has always proved
itself to be, we entertain a confident hope, not
only that every exertion will be made to aid the
funds of those institutions which are expressly
destined for the relief of the poor, but that the
hand of private charity will be diligent in minis-
tering to the wants of those who have no means
of relieving themselves.—Morning Advertiser.

Six hundred carts and 4,000 men were
employed in carrying away the ice and snow in Paris on
the 4th inst.
A few days since a young lady, and daughter
of a gentleman of a large estate in Shropshire, was missing
from her brother's house, who is also a Bev. Gentleman
in an adjoining county. Being informed that his sister
had long evinced a strong regard for the footman, who a
few days before had suddenly left his situation, and, as it
now appears, to enter into the service fur life of the fair
one, he having since been married to her at Manchester,
her brother, on Christmas-eve, in pursuit of the fugitives,
steered his course towards the eastern part of Staffordshire,
and reaching his father's mansion at midnight, a pair of
horses were in immediate readiness, and be, attended by
an,ther brother, soon arrived at the village where they
supposed them to be, and eallieg at the Shrewsbury Arms,
the inmates of which they speedily roused from their beds.
The doors being opened, up stairs they went, and drew
poor old Ezra, the footman's father, out of bed by the hair
cf his head, demanding at the same time, to know where
his son was. The old man pleaded ignorance, notwith-
standing their positive assertions to the contrary, and they
left the house, still ignorant of their retreat.—Stockport
Advertiser.