The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Our Manchester letter of Monday's date, which we give
in another column, will be found to deserve an attentive
perusal. The underhand bungling conduct of the Whig
Government, and of their agents, in the affair of Mr. Ste-
phens appears to be duly appreciated in that neighbour-
hood ; nor has it escaped the shrewdness of the inhabitants
of Manchester and its vicinity, that the Government Com-
mission, composed of two Bow-street officers, Sir F. Roe,
Mr. Maule, Mr. Poor-law Commissioner Chadwick, and
Sir Benjamin Backbite (which has been prowling there-
abouts for some time with no ostensible object), was sent
thither to get up such a case as might furnish an excuse for
bringing before Parliament the favourite 'Whig plan for the
establishment of a rural police. It may astonish some
that the Government—with appetites so keenly whetted
forinew patronage by the creation of new places, and with
the conviction that without furnishing new means of cor-
ruption they must speedily fall—should not have pro-
ceeded with more outward decency in the prosecution
of this job ; but all wonder at this impudence will va-
nish when it is recollected how successfully our ‘' no
patronage" Ministers hate contrived to humbug the
reformed House of Commons not only into allowing,
but even into encouraging, them to increase their mesas
of governing by patronage to an extent which ■o
former Administration ever had the want of shame or the
want of principle to meditate, much less to ask, even from
an unreformed House of Commons. As to the pretence
that the Government care any thing about seditious
speeches or their consequences, our fellow-subjects in the
North, like all sane men in all parts of the empire, laugh
at it. The men of Lancashire point to Ireland—to the
speeches of O'Connell and his rebel gang—to the death's
head and cross-bones system—to the bloody murders which
the seditious and treasonable speeches of the Irish agitators
have caused for years past, and are daily causing—to the
threats that the empire shall be dismembered, and that
the first moment we have a foreign enemy on our hands,
the brave O'Connellites, the millions of fighting men,
will break out into open rebellion—to the avowed
conspiracy to put down the Protestant religion in
Ireland, and to seize upon the revenues of that part of
the Church Establishment which is planted in Ireland, &c
&c. Our fellow-subjects in the North, we say, point to
these sayings and doings of O'Connell and his traitorous
band, and they ask how a Government, which has not only
not instituted any prosecut:ons in Ireland, but which is ac-
tually kept in office by the sedition-mongers of that part of
the kingdom, can possibly have been moved merely by their
abhorrence of sedition in their prosecution of Mr. Ste-
phens ! The Whig Government may depend upon it that
they are now much too well known to persuade any portion
of the community that they are capable of being actuated
by honest, disinterested, or constitutional motives.—Times.
How is the country to be tranquillized ? That is the
question. Arrest the agitators, suppress public meetings
by proclamation, suspend—no, they dare not say, but they
hint—suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and gag the
Press, say one party. Repeal the Corn-laws, give cheap
food to our artisans, and thereby a fair field of competition
with other countries to our manufactures, sae another.
Give us Universal Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and Short
Parliaments, say a third. Let us keep cur places and pa-
tronage, and leave the country to Providence, say a fourth.
And while these several propositions are directly or indi-
rectly urged on public attention, the time is ra•
pidly approaching when the choice of means to
tranquillize the country will be wrested from the
hinds of the Legislature, and the preservation or the
restoration of order will rest in the theory of chances.
Let us examine the propositions seriatim. The ap-
plication of arrests, proclamations, &c., to those acquainted
with the actual condition of the country, so far from appear-
ing Ecalcu!ated to tranquillize the country, arc the very
means most of 211 others likely to kindle the flames of civil
commotion. The repeal of the Corn-laws, which, by the
way, is a hopeless expectation in the present constitution of
Parliament—whatever chance there may be of establishing
a low and fixed duty—might for the moment appease the
agitation of hungry stomachs, but it would not in itself s,t
tisfy the intellectual wants of the age. For our own part
we have but little hope for the country in the repeal of the
Corn-laws, or in any other measure not calculated to give
to the people a fuller and fairer representation of
their opinion in Parliament than they enjoy at
present. The game of holding place and patron-
age, and trusting the country to Providence, is
one which cannot last ; through whatever favourable occur-
rences it may be protracted, it is liable at any moment to
be brought to an abrupt conclusion ; and, therefore, in re-
ply to the great questron—" How is the country to be
tranquillized r the extension of the Suffrage, the Ballot,
and the shorter duration of Parliaments, is the only propo•
sit;on which really is worthy of public consideration. Such
is the complexion, baffle, elude, or disguise it as they will,
to which we must come at last. Much diversity of opi-
nion exists as to the actual state of the country, but the
broad fact is, that if about two or three years since there
was a re-action towards repose, after the excitement inci-
dental to the passing of the Reform Act, there is now a
se-action towards—we shall not say what—of a contrary
character, which can be set at rest only by concessions
eitniler to those which on the former occasion lulled it to
quiescence.—Morning Advertiser.
The forthcoming Number of The British and Foreign

Review cotains an interesting article on the subject of the
Austrian Comnirelai Treaty—the information on which,
we are assured, is derired from the most authentic sources.
" We have it in our power," says the writer, " to state that
an Imperial rescript has received tug Emperor's sanction, and
will perhaps be in operation before these pages are in the hands
of our readers, by which the entire prohibitory system of Aus-
tria is abolished. We lament that we are at present unable to
give the details of this great measure : but such are the singular
habits of the Imperial Government in these matters, that even an
act of this public importance is only allowed to transpiee by de-
grees, and to be learned by the world from the agents who are or-
dered to put it into execution. We are able, however, to
affirm, that the change is of the best and most extensive kind.
Duties ad valorem, upon no immoderate scale, are to be sub-
stituted in all instances for the existing prohibitions of the
tariff; and the commercial policy of Austria is actually about
to place her on the footing of the most enlightened nations.
" This important change has been forwarded by the perse-
vering zeal of Count Kollowrath, whose active and benevolent
spirit—never more conspicuous than in this conquest over the
jealous traditions of the Administration of Vienna—have long
since earned for him the respect and gratitude of every pro-
vince in the empire. It has been finally approved of by a
statesman who has never allowed the love of popularity or even
the material interests of the empire to make him swerve from
his strict but subtle political combinations ; and who, it
may be believed, would not have assented to the English
treaty, and this reform of the Austrian tariff, if the Prussian
commercial league bad not been formed in despite of his in-
fluence in the German Confederation ; if the Danube had not
been opened for good or evil by modern enterprise ; if the
political state of Hungary had not urged the Austrian Govern-
meat to grant her a large instalment of concession to satisfy
her claims of improvement and encouragement; if Russia
were not lying on the Bessarfabian shore of the Danube, ready
to seize her scarce-relinquished prey again; if Turkey were
not open to the invader, and more than all, if Eng-
land were not bound by her interests and principles to
combine with heart and hand for the maintenance of in-
dependent states—for the spread of prosperity and im-
provement in the world—for the defence of the East from
the calamitous inroads of Russian barbarism and the mortal
gripe of Russian bonds. Such have been the motive 9, such
have been the secure grounds, on which Prince:Metternich has
decided to take this step : his decision being once made, he is
prepared to make our reciprocity complete, and to confirm by
iiiit,rnal measures the spirit of his foreign treaty."
Though some branches of manufacture have made con-
siderable progress in the Austrian dominions, yet Austria
must be considered as a yet agricultural state. The manu-
facturers do not constitute one-eighteenth part of the popu
Istion ; and a departure from the prohibitory system must
be highly beneficial both to England and Austria, if we
are prepared to take due advantage of it. The author of
the work of " Austria and the Austrian?' considers the
ironmongery and cutlery, manufactured from the excellent
iron of Styria, superior to any other on the Continent.'
But on the whole, the Austrian manufacture, though ap-
parently in a prosperous state, owes that appearance solely
to " the low price of bread and animal food." Our land-
owners seem to think that the high price of bread and ani-
mal food is indespensable to the prospeitY of manufac-
tures. We must abandon our present system. The
question lies either between an absolutely free trade, or
importation on a low fixed duty. For our own part, we
should think the charges on importation more than coun-
tervail any duties to which landowners are subject. The
Austrian treaty furnishes an admirable occasion for return-
ing to a healthy system. We shall revert to the subject of
this article.—Morning Chronicle.

A few days ago, about half-past six o'clock, a
young lady, about thirty years of age, passing along
Leadenhall-street, was observed to stagger and fall. She
was immediately carried in the house of Mr. Sapwell,
where a medical gentleman was sent for, who pronounced
her to have been attacked with paralysis. She was then
placed in bed ; but up to last night had not rallied. No-
thing was found to lead to a conjecture who she is. She
svore a black silk dress, new black silk cloak, with velvet
collar, white straw bonnet, open stockings, and leather
shoes ; has dark eyes, and hair dressed in bands. She had
in her possession a dark merino cloak, a bag containing a
Prayer Book, (on the first leaf of which is written " P. S.
Forster, 1837,") two cambric handkerchiefs, a pair of
slippers, a thimble, and a piece of lace on a card. Hand-
bills, headed " To anxious relatives," have been printed
and freely circulated ; but no one has as yet come forward
to recognise her.