The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

We have observed at vat ions times paragraphs in
the Tyne Mercuu, respecting the return of Lord
Durham to this copntry, and !he object of it, which
had all the appearance of having emanated from the
Tories, and of having been written with a view to
create jealousy and bad feeling between the King and
the establishment at Kensington. To all who arc ac-
quainted with the mysteries of journalism it is unne-
cessary to observe, that it is by no means unusual to
insert a certain description of paragraphs in some
newspaper, published at a distance from the spot, for
the meridian of which they are calculated. In the
case of the paragraph to which we are about to allude,
it was, no doubt, conceived by the contrivers that sus-
picion would be more easily disarmed by its appear-
ance in a newspaper published in the neighbourhood
of Lambton Hall, as it would thence be naturally
enough attributed to some person belonging to Lord
Durham's family, or in communication with Iris Lord-
ship. The following is the paragraph, inserted in the
Globe of Wednesday night :
" LORD DURHAM.—It is rumoured that Lord Durham's re-
turn from St. Petersburg is not influenced by the effect of the
climate on his health, but is in compliance with the wish of the
Duchess of Kent, who intends his Lordship to be placed at the
head of the distinct household of the Heiress Presumptive,
who comes of age in May.— Tyne Mercury."
We knew that this move would soon be followed by
another, and that the contrivers would not fail to reap
all the advantage which they could derive from seeing
the paragraph copied into a Ministerial Evening Paper.
The Times, which,. if it had no hand in the concoction
of the paragraph, could very probably tell its paren-
tage, pounced on it the very instant of its appearance
in the Globe. We can easily conceive the joy in Print-
inghouse-square on discovering that the train had
taken effect. But parental affection often betrayS
itself -somewhat inopportunely. The unfortunate
mother who exposes her child is discovered by the
anxiety with which she watches to see whether
her child is in safety. The glee of the Times was
so unbounded at the success of the contrivance,
that it required -no great penetration to discover
the existence of some motive more than usually
powerful for the pains taken yesterday with the para-
graph. " A paragraph (says our honest Morning
Contemporary) appeared in a Ministerial paper of
last night, which, though but of small size, was
meant to be a pregnant one. It is to this effect, viz.,
that Lord Durham is coming home from St. Peters-
burg, and that the cause of his return is the intention
of the Duchess of Kent to place the Noble Lord
at the head of the Princess Victoria's establishment
on the occasion of her Royal Highness attaining her
majority, which will occur, please God, on the 24th
of May ensuing." We will not contest with the
Times what the paragraph was meant to be, aware
of the peculiar qualification which our Contem-
porary possesses to supply a commentary to the text.
It was not convenient, in noticing that the para-
graph had appeared in a Ministerial evening paper,
to state the further circumstance that it had been
copied from a Newcastle paper, by that Ministerial
paper and by other papers, loth Ministerial and
anti-Ministerial. 0 no, for then the design to
fasten disrespectful conduct, towards his Majesty on the
Duchess of Kent, and the establishment at Kensing-
ton and Lord Durham, would have been frustrated.
We have reason to know that the whole story is
founded on falsehood and malice. We are sorry to
say the cause of Lord Durham's return is the state
of his health. The malicious tendency of the para-
graph is obvious, and whatever intrigue may have been
set on foot to impose on the editor of the Trine Mer-
cury, it is unquestionably of Tory manufacture, or at
least of Tory origin. The Times may not be impli-
cated with the concocter of the paragraph ; but our
Contemporary, when it composed its tirade respecting
it, must have been as well aware, from its obvious
tendency, as if it had been the author, that it neither
emanated from the Ministry, nor from Kensington,
nor, from the Earl of Durham or any of his friends.
If any friend of the Earl of Durham could have com-
mitted the folly of writing so mischievous a paragraph,
his Lordship has particularly good reason to exclaim
in the language of the adage, " Preserve me from my
friends !" The Times has the baseness to ask " if it was
put forth as a feeler or a claw ?"and to add the ex-
clamation, " The Duchess of Kent intends' for-
sooth 1" Whit is there in the prudent conduct of the
Duchess of Kent, from the first day she landed on our
shores till the present moment, to justify the supposi-
tion that she ever, even in imagination, contemplated
such a departure from propriety as to show the
Tightest disrespect towards the King? The Duchess
of Kent could not require to be told by the Times
that " the most intimate political relation of the
Princess Victoria is with the King ; and it is in the
discretion of his Majesty, and of him alone, to arrange
the form and extent of her future establishment, to di-
rect the amount of income for the maintenance of her
rank which shall be proposed by his Ministers
to Parliament." Her Royal Highness had too
deep an interest in understanding correctly the
nature of the relation in which her illustrious
daughter stands to his Majesty not to have
long since informed her mind on this subject.
The whole of the article in the Times is a tissue
of malicious insinuations and calumny. How
dare the Tories, and the Times, their organ; insinuate
" that her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent is so
little cognizant of her own station in. this country, and
its incidents, as that she could entertain the prepos-
terous ambition to play a great part in
politics, and
become a species of imaginary Queen Mother or
Regent, after her daughter's maturity, and before his
present Majesty's demise ?" Fortunately the mali-
cious intention is in this case counteracted by the stu-
pidity. His Majesty must resent the insult to his un-
derstanding by those who supposed he would be unable
to perceive their drift. For the sake of the illustrious
daughter in whose welfare she is so deeply interested,
the Duchess of Kent has the strongest of all motives
for steering clear of all disrespect to the King. We
cannot reprobate in too strong terms the mean attempt of
the Tories, at a moment when they have lost all hopes of
succeeding with the Court to turn out the present Govern-
ment on public grounds, to endeavour to effect their
object by turning their hands to private and malignant
falsehood, regardless of the peace of the Royal
Family, • -and -of - the mischievous consequences to
the. country which -'might result from the success of
their machinations. • The indignation of the King
should fall, and we trust it will fall, on the authors of
the calumny. With respect to the various other insi-
nuations in the article in the Times,
.connected with
the supposed attempt to impose a consort on the Prin-
cess, without her own free consent, or that of the Mo-
narch of these realms, we will not condescend to notice
them. We could not, however, allow a single day to
pass without holding up for merited reprobation the
vile attempt to incense the King against the Duchess
of Kent, and to fill his mind with suspicions that the
establishment at Kensington entertain designs irrecon-
cilable with their duty to the King and the country.
On the foundation of a mischievous paragraph fabri-
cated by the Tories they have raised a goodly struc-
ture of calumny; but we place -too much reliance on
his Majesty's good sense to allow us to suppose for
one moment that he will be influenced by the fraud.
In the meantime the exposure and the indignation with
which the country must view-the attempt will, we trust,
have at least the effect of rendering the parties some-
what more cautious for some time. They may rest
assured 'that their conduct shall be closely watched—
Morning Chronicle.
The tactics of the Rump Cabinet for the remainder
of the Segsion arc now made sufficiently clear. They
}lush forward their Irish Municipal Bill for the 7th
of April, but keep back the anti-Church-rate measure
until the 21st of the month, and postpone the Irish
Tithe Bill, with the " appropriation clause," sine die.
Why is all this ? The reason is plain, as it is dis-
graceful. They can make nothing of the Irish appro-
priation clause, the original rallying post of the Mel-
bourne Ministry, because the people of England, in a
very few months, saw through the degrading humbug,
reprobated the proposition as an iniquitous attack
upon the first principle of every Church Establishment,
and have fairly flung. the appropriation clause out of
the window. The Ministers, therefore, must find
something else to stand upon. They can do as little
with the Bill for the abolition of English Church-
rates, because their majority upon that measure wa

even more paltry than on the
_appropriation clause,
being 29 upon the latter scheme, and 23 upon the
other. They have therefore put off the consideration of
the anti-Church-rate Bill until the 21st of April—that is
to say, until 11 days after the time fixed for bringing
out the Irish Corporation Bill. The obvious mtnning
of the whole manoeuvre is this,—they have had a
majority, disgraceful to the House of Coihmons, of 80
votes, on the Bill for establishing Popish Corporations
in Ireland, and creating under a false pretence a power
subversive of the Established Church. They reckon
on carrying their Bill through the House of Commons
by a majority of perhaps within 10 or 12 .of that
which opposed the motion of Lord Francis Egerton.
They send it to the House of Lords, where its nature
and character are well understood, and where, being
recognized for a measure more unprincipled, because
more insidious and more framed for the ultimate de-
struction of the Church, than either of those which
carry their hostility to the Establishment on the face
of them, it will assuredly be rejected. Upon this they
hope to raise an outry against the Peers. They are bound
by solemn engagements to the country to resign at once
upon the failure of this Irish fraud ; and so they fancy
they will make a case for themselves by representing that a
measure which had a majority of perhaps 70 on its third
reading in the House of Commons was thrown out.by
the other House of Parliament. Let them do it—
the nation is prepared for them, and so, if we don't
mistake, is the King. We have already described this
majority to be the result of a complete delusion in the
House of Commons—a rank hallucination, produced
by a jingle of names upon the ear, which have no
sort of reference to realities. The Municipal Bill for
Ireland is not a Municipal Bill, nor anything like it—
an Anti-Protestant Church Bill is the proper title of it.
There never was a grosser trick—there never was a
majority so bamboozled—there never was a richer
clann upon the derision of an intelligent' people than.
the Irish Corporation vote ; and most fitting it is, that
with such a vote should be connected the fate of such
a Ministry. In the mean time, they escape, by a
timely reference to the " vitality" of their Irish Muni-
cipal Bill, that series of disgraces which would await
their perseverance in the two.measures of more direct
warfare upon the Church Establishment, which they
leave, therefore, to be disposed of by their successors.
Such is the dignity, honour, and manhood of the Mel-
bourne Whigs.—Times.
It has often afforded us a subject of congratulation,
that however violent and acrimonious the contests of
party on subjects of home policy, whenever questions
seriously affecting our relations with foreign Powers
come under discussion, domestic dissensions have given
way to the desire of protecting the interests of the
Commonwealth, and faction itself has stood forward to
defend the national honour and welfare. At present,
however, the Tories, in their ravening after office, seem
utterly reckless how far the good of the State may be
compromised at home or abroad, provided an opportu-
nity be afforded to calumniate the Ministry. In an ar-
ticle which appeared a few days ago in their leading
journal, on the capture of the Vixen, written expressly
for the purpose of vilifying Lord Palmeraton, the
most shameless abandonment of British interests, and
the grossest disregard of facts and consistency, are
at the same time manifested. The whole blame of the
seizure of the Vixen is first thrown upon Lord Pal-
merston—next it is asserted that by the Treaty of
Adrianople—ratified in defiance of the protest of
Lord Aberdeen, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Russia has an indisputable right to that part
of the coast where she has asserted her sove-
reignty ;" then it is alleged that the present Govern-
ment has been guilty of " a departure from recognized
principles," and not only is it re-asserted that " Rus-
sia has a right under solemn treaty to the line of coast
claimed by her," and the Circassians denounced as re-
bels, but the seizure of the Vixen, the odium of which

' it at the outset flung upon Lord Palmerston, is de-
fended, and attempted to be justified on the plea that
" Russia had- formally intimated. to Lord Ponsonby,
our Ambassador at Constantinople, that she. intended
to adopt fiscal and sanatory (?) regulations along the
coast where the Vixen was seized." That the present
Government should be calumniated, and Toryism eulo-
gized by the journal in question, is no more than we
expect, such being its contract ; but that the outrage
committed upon the British flag should be defended, that
Russia should be cheered on in her aggressions, and Bri-
tish interests and British honour should be basely sold to
the stranger by a London journal, is a climax of turpi-
tude and depravity to which we had not supposed that
even our apostatizing contemporary had reached. Butfa-
die descensus—aftcr selling itself to the domestic enemy,
and incurring universal execration, it had no additional
penalty to dread. from accepting the largess of the
foreign foe. Great criminals,, knowing their doom to
be the worst that can be inflicted, frequently commit
the most wanton and extravagant crimes, from the con-
sciousness that the severity of their punislunent admits
of no augmentation. The article is altogether one of
Russian-Tory concoction. If Lord Aberdeen saw it
necessary to .protest against the Treaty of Adrianople,
why did he not take measures to make that protest
respected ? Russia treated his protest with scorn, and
now the advocates of his Government infamously arro-
gate for Russia rights conceded by a treaty executed
in defiance and derision of the protest for which he:is
eulogised. Turkey ceded a portion of Circassia to
Russia, ergo Russia has a right to such territory ! It
must first be proved that Turkey had either the right or
the power to make the cession—at least, if die British
Government protested against the Act, there cannot
be any " departure from recognised principles " in re-
fusing to acknowledge the claims founded upon it. At
one time the seizure of the Vixen is defended on the
plea of municipal regulations, at another of blockade—

two pleas manifestly inconsistent with each other.
But. the diplomatist who states that Russia had an
indisputable right to make the seizure, certainly should
not in the same article denounce Lord Palmerston far
not enforcing redress. By his own. showing, the first
aggression was perpetrated under Tory auspices, and
if the wrongs be redressed under the present Adminis-
tration. which it must bc, we do not suppose that Eng-
land shall have any reason to regret " the departure of
the Government from the recognised principles," of
which the great apostate appears at present so ena-
moured.—Morning Advertiser.
Lord John Russell appeared I,tst night, for the first
time since lie became Secretary of State for the Home
Departrnent, in the character of a philosophical and
systematic reformer of the Criminal Law. His speech
upon the occasion (or should we not•tather say his
string of quotationS ?) is before our readers ; and we
think they will collect from it that the Noble -Lord would
have taken a more accurate measure of his own capa-
city - had he contented himself with an attempt to re-
move, one by one, such anomalies or imperfections
as he can show to exist. That it is desirable to assi-
milate as far as possili!e the letter of the law to the
mitigated practice which the opinions and feelings
of society have gradually introduced. in •its execu-
tion, is a truism which scarcely needed all the
parade of argument, authority, and illustration, with
which the Noble Lord thought fit -last night to amuse
and enlighten the very few Members of the House of
Commons who could be brought to listen to the volu-
minous extracts which his Lordship read from his
common-place book. The propositions which his
Lordship took so much pains to establish, when simply
and clearly stated, are, that it is not wise or beneficial
to allow a wider range to the discretionary power of
a Secretary of State for the Home Department,. in
the administration of criminal justice, than experience
shows.to be necessaly ; and that when this discretion
ary power is too extensive, criminals are apt to regard
the administration of justice as a kind of lottery, doper.-
dent less !limn principle and precedent than upon indi-
vidual capacity or caprice, and to flatter themselves by a
miscalculation of the chances of this legal lottery in
their own favour. These are propositions which do
not challenge opposition, and there never perhaps was
a Secretary of State for the Home Department who
might more safely have excused himself from the task
of proving them by elaborate argument than Lord J.
Russell. Some experiments have been made, and
much speculation has been hazarded in different coun-
tries, with a view to ascertain the practicability, and
determine the efficacy, of various modes and degrees
of secondary punishment. This is the qucstio vexata
which obstructs in every nation all considerable pro-
gress in the improvement of criminal legislation.. Upon
this Most important branch of his subject the

reasoning of the Noble Secretary.is, hOwever, as
loose, uneonsequential, and obscure as, can be ima-
gined. It casts a- deeper shade upon pre-exi:fm;
darkness; and renders " confusion worse confounded:*
It would appear, from the chaotic mass of facts
and authorities.= the rudis indigesiaque •moles—
which the Noble Lord presented last night to the
House of Commons, instead of a clear and statesman-
like exposition of the state of the Criminal Law, and
of the improvements of which he deems it susceptible,
that he has been led by sonic circumstance or other to
the opinion that, in his position, time is very precious;
that what he meant to do it would not have been quite
safe to postpone—and that if he waited until after the
Easter recess to complete the materials and mature the
structure of his intended lucubration, there would be
Considerable danger of its ►ever being delivered, from
the right side of the Speaker's chair, or with the weight
and dignity of official authority.—Morning Post.