The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-19 00:00:00

LONDON
MURADAY, DECEMBER 19, 1839.

• It is so obviously the policy of the Tories to
sc.4e dise.ensibn between the Whig Ministers and

the working classes, that all the observations of
the Tory journals on the subject of the Chartists
should be looked on with much suspicion. We
would exempt, however, from all suspicion the hope
expressed by the Standard, that mercy will be ex-
tended to the prisoners at Monmouth, should they
.ce found guilty ; but all provocations to carry the
Jaw. unrelentingly into execution proceeding from
the Tories should be disregarded. They will
utter taunts about favouring sedition, being guilty
of misprision of treason, and a host of other un-
flunded insinuations ; but if Ministers can be
p.qued into a particular line of conduct by such
ren.arks, then are they virtually under the guidance
and command of the Tories. It would answer the
nrpose of the Tories to make the Whigs as un-
pet,)nlar as possible, and all their advice which has
any such tendency should be rejected as the temp-
tltion of an enemy.

We have no wish whatever to mitigate
Mr. FROST'S offence. We conceive it to be
a intic;i wore serious offence, indeed, than trea-
on ; for that which the law calls treason may be—
' as In the case of calling on the people to procure
the Repeal of tile Corn-laws, and as in the case
of banishing .JAMES ll.—a great virtue. Mr.
FitosT and his companions have, in our judgment,
according to all present appearances, done much
worse than commit a mere political offence. The
rioters at Newport attempted the lives, and would
have injured the property, of their fellow-creatures.
That is a crime per se—not the consequence of any
fictitious tie between subjects and Sovereigns, de-
rived from feudal times and feudal principles, and
is a much greater crime than can possibly grow out
we such passed-away relations. At the same time,
as t2le humanity of this age has justly put an end
to the punishn4ent of death for offences equally
great as L.
1`
`tat of Mr. FROST, we trust that it will
not slumber' in his case. When forgery, that
crime which mey. carry extensive ruin through
several families,. is no longer punished with
death, why should such a ridiculous plot
as that at Newpurt be so punished, on the
technical description that it was levying war against
the Sovereign, and on the old feudal notion that
levyinlb war against the feudal Lord was a great
offence ? The same untiring benevolence which
lists struck the scourge out of the hand of the slave-
, driver, -and the fetters off the slaves' limbs, will, we
" e-hope, not be weary of well-doing, when it may
pro.')ably save the lives of some erring politicians,
who thought, possibly, that they were labouring in
the cause of freedom and humanity.
We know it is said that unless such offences be
severely punished, there will be no security for so-
-1 y
ciet . But the same reason has always been urged
to repel every amelioration of the criminal code.
lien who are humane Irom principle are not to be
I turned from a right course by such puerile rea-
soning. If the security of society—if' she respect
1.,,r mutual rights—rested on no better foundation
than the fear of the axe or the
halter, they would
be as 1:...eb1e as the dread of death in all aspiring and
ambitious' men. But we are not reduced to the
ne-
cessity of arguing this question theoretically. year
after year have plots and conspiracies taken place
in France—year after year have the heads of poll.
tical offenders fallen under the guillotine—and year
after year have outrages been committed and fresh
victims found for the scaffold. Notwithstanding
the punishment of FIESCHI, IVIOREAU, PEPIN,
and a crowd of others, scarcely a week has elapsed
since a fresh attempt was made with an infernal ma-
chine, intending probably to blow up Louis PHI-
LIPPE ; and at this moment the French Police are
engaged pursuing the threads of a conspiracy far
more dangerous than the open and avowed combi-

nation of Chartists in England. It is not the way
to ensure respect for human life to shed blood on
the scaffold, and loth theory and experience prove
that the safety of thrones, and the security of sub-
jects' rights, are not promoted by sang'iinary punish-
ments.

Let us also remind the public that at present
there is going on in society a somewhat fearful
contest between property and rank on one side, and
industry and numbers on the other. As long as
the numbers cherished what, perhaps, may be called
an old-fashioned, if not superstitious reverence, for
rank and property, there was no danger in enforcing
the law against them. They then enforced it against
themselves. Their opinions, their affections, their
reverence, were on the side of the law, and severity,
if not wise, was at least safe. But much concur-
rent testimony now tends to prove that this super-
stitious reverence has almost passed away. The
authority of prescription is very much weakened,
if it be not quite at an end. Neither
the affection nor the reverence of the masses
is any longer enlisted on the side of the law, and
how they are to be preserved in obedience is a ques-
tion well calculated to excite reflection, not to say
apprehension. The result of the contest may be
to give the upper hand to numbers. Notwith-
standing the great advantages of discipline, or-
ganization, and wealth, we believe there is no ex-
ample of the bulk of a nation being long kept in
subjection by a small portion of that nation, parti-
cularly when the minority derive their chief instru-
ments, the military,for a system of 'coercive rule from
the coerced masses. In India the races are different,
the knowledge of the Europeans is superior to that of
the natives, but here there is no difference of race,
and the numbers are not excluded from any kind of
knowledge. We do not deny that the little we can
see into futurity excites rather dread than hope, and
counsels, like the experience of the past, that the
law be executed with great mercy rather than with
great rigour.

It has now become a very general belief that the
Tories, as politicians, have been very much injured
by their own friends. The No Popery cry which
the zealots, both of the Pulpit and the Press, have
raised on their behalf, leads so directly and imme-
diately to the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation
Act, to political persecution on account of religion,
and to civil war, for the mere purpose of securing
the ascendancy of the corrupted Anglican Church,
that moderate men draw back alarmed. It would
be impossible for Sir ROBERT PEEL, were he to
be forced into office by the intolerants, to follow
any other line of policy, and that policy would have
no other results. On Sunday, the Spectator, a
journal which is at present extremely anxious to
make out a case against the Whigs, assured its
readers that several influential gentlemen would
forsake the Tories, rather than countenance the
persecution which is involved in the principles on
which the Tories are to seize office :
Men of sense, it said, scout the idea of danger to
the " British Protestant Constitution" from the admis-
sign of Mr. Wyse and Mr. Sheil to the Privy Coun-
cil ; yet daily and weekly has the appointment of these
two gentlemen to subordinate offices in the Govern-
ment been paraded as proof of a deadly conspiracy
against the Protestant Church ; and because the
Queen's declaration of her intended marriage contained
nothing affronting to a large proportion—fully one-
third—of her European subjects, the readers of Con-
servative
newspapers and the listeners to Conservative
orators have been assured that the omission proceeded
from a treacherous disposition in the Government to
undermine the Protestant faith. The Times leads on
the Tory Press in striving to stir up " Protestant"
animosity to Catholics ; a very able and distinguished
member of the party, Mr. Thesiger, dwelt upon the
same subject in his recent electioneering speeches at
Newark ; and now the -Morning Post informs us that
Sir Robert Peel is about to strike a blow at the Mi-
nistry, not for their incapacity and faults as statesmen, but
because they are " minions of Romanism." It is useless,
therefore, for cautious Conservatives to pretend that only
the Bradshaws and Robys rail at Romanism, and that
those of highest influence in the Opposition discoun-
tenance the proceedings of the " Protestant" party.
The contrary is seen to be the truth ; and to this con-
viction may be attributed the revival of Anti-Tory feel-
ings, which our private information, as well as observa-
tion of public affairs, induces us to believe has actually
taken place to a considerable extent : not respect for
Ministers, but abhorrence of Toryism. "We will not
allow this High Church faction again to ride rough-shod
over the country : dissent from the Church shall not be
treated as equivalent to disaffection to the State." This,
or of similar import, is the language of some men of
weight, hitherto accGunted Conservative, but in whom
inclination to resist the reinstatement of High Churchism
is stronger than aversion to the official Whigs. Both
in and out of Parliament Sir Robert Peel will expe-
rience the effects of their displeasure. And if the.
blow" he means to strike be levelled at Ministers for
their refusal to act upon " Protestant Ascendancy"
principles, he will do well to prepare for its recoil.

We cannot doubt the correctness of the view of
the Spectator, having long ago warned the bigots
that they would alarm all moderate men, and we are
glad to have such a testimony to their failure. For
many months, and even years, the Times and the
rest of the Tory journals have been bullying the
public, and bullying the Ministers, to adopt a per-
secuting line of policy, and just as they announce
their success—just as they boast of being able to
kick out the Ministers—they are obliged to retreat,
by the defection of their presumed friends, and their
weapons fall from their nerveless grasp. This is
not the first time that the Leading Journal has seen
its efforts to bring about a particular line of policy
completely fail ; nor is this the last time, if it pro-
ceed as at present, that its violence in error will
make it the laughing-stock of all reasonable men.

In another part of our Paper will be found a
highly interesting report of the Edinburgh meeting,
held for the purpose of taking into consideration
the case of JoHN THOROGOOD. The number of
persons assembled on this occasion, is stated by
one paper to have been 1,500, by another 2,000 ;
and seems to have been limited only by the dimen-
sions of the Church in which the meeting took
place. Such zeal in the cause of conscience is
honourable to the people of Edinburgh. The
Scotch of former times suffered much in that cause.
In no corner of the world were the vials of persecu-
tion poured forth as they were in Scotland ; and
that too, be it ever borne in mind, by the very
Church which is now thirsting for the blood of the
martyr of Chelmsford, and others who, like him,
refused to bow the knee to the idol which it has

set up.
But if the Scottish people suffered much, they
also did much in defence of their religious rights.
With them it was not " all talk and no do,"—they
drew their swords, fought like men who felt that
something dearer than life was at stake, and never
retired from the field until they had rendered the
cause of conscience triumphant in their native land.
There is many a bright page in the history of Scot-
land, but none so bright as that which records her
struggles for religious freedom.
The day, we trust, is long gone by when such
struggles could be necessary to establish an inalien-
able right ; but were it to return, we are well per.
suaded that in Scotland the spirit would neither be
found unwilling, nor the flesh weak. We have an
assurance of this in the quick and lively sympathy
with which the pulse of Scotland always beats
when she hears the cries of the persecuted.

Mr. DAVID URQUHART has addressed a long
exposition of the transactions in Central Asia from
1834—the date, we presume, of the rise of his po-
litical eminence—to 1839, to the merchants of
Glasgow, in which he particularly dwells upon the
dispositions of Russia, France, and Prussia towards
our empire in India. The ground gone over in
this " Exposition" has been so very often trodden
of late, that we deem it unnecessary to do more
than glance at it in our columns. Mr. URQUHART
sets out with telling the Glasgow " bodies" that
I PETER the Great of Russia was the first to plan
the conquest of India, and that he was only pre-

vented by t o appearance in P nr. NADTR
SHAH, who, as all the wor'rl '

R

:now

the trouble, by overturning iiiniselt the Mogul em-
pire. Russia, baulked in her first design of con-
quest, was succeeded by France, who, by the merest
accident, and quite unintentionally on the part of
the victor, was beaten out of the field by England.
According to Mr. URQUHART, Russia, so far from
abandoning the idea of driving the English out of
the East, planned the German Commercial League
for the express purpose of giving Prussia and the
German States an interest in her oriental triumphs,
by providing them with new and profitable markets
for their manufactures, and enabling them to com-
pete successfully with English commercialists
throughout Central Asia. France, he maintains,
adopts the policy of Russia in the hope of sharing
in the spoils, and especially in the confidence of re-
gaining a part of the territory she has lost. Thus
Russia, Prussia, and France are represented as
bound up together by the common ties of a common
interest, to act in perpetual hostility to England,
who is said not to have the remotest idea of the
ruin by which she is menaced. As for Russia,
" the accomplishment of her mighty destinies" are
predicted by the same political seer to be marked
by " Calcutta and Constantinople, Alexandria and
Delhi, and other cities scarcely less famed than
these, becoming aeries of the Imperial Eagle !"
This is an uncomfortable prediction for the good
folks of Glasgow ; but if it will at all tend to con-
sole them, we venture to predict in our turn, that
it will not be fulfilled within the range of our pro-
phetic vision, which extends beyond the destinies of
the next generation, and that which will succeed it.
We are quite as jealous of the designs of Russia
as Mr. URQUHART, but to counteract those de-
signs the best course is to avoid ridiculous exag-
geration. The interests of France and Russia are
not, and never have been identical in the East.
France knows that she could not figure as the
ally of Russia in any plan of oriental conquest,
and that the genius of her people and the ideas of
her Government could not harmonize fora single
day in the joint possession of territory with the
Cabinet of St. Petersburgh. If any crumbs were
to fall from the table of a Russian conqueror she
is quite sensible that England only could pick
them up. France, forgetful for a moment of her
true policy, has of late abetted the views of Russia,
in the West, and at Constantinople, and sorely has
she suffered for it. At this moment her dynasty,
purchased by a revolution, is threatened by the
CZAR, who requires only the nod of England to
plunge her main into the horrors of another civil
war. By adopting the BONAPARTIST family into
his own, he has indirectly flattered the vanity of the
French King-makers, and offered a sort of pledge to
Europe that he would maintain the members of that
family in a condition to assume at any time their
pretensions to the Throne of Louis PHILIPPE.
In fact, there are few sacrifices which the Emperor
NICHOLAS would not make at this moment to pur-
chase the alliance of England against France.
In the next place it is not the fact that Prussia
is indifferent to the aggressions of Russia. Already
she trembles as she contemplates the overwhelming
power of her gigantic neighbour. That she is not
over friendly to England, proves no more than that
she dreads the freedom of our institutions, and feels
a conviction that in a struggle with Russia she
could obtain from us but small assistance. If the
truth were known, her sympathies would be found
to lean more towards Paris than St. Petersburgh.
If we look to India there is nothing very dis-
couraging in the political horizon. Our empire
was never more firmly consolidated, nor our moral
influence greater in the East than it is at this mo-
ment. Russia has encountered us there, and all
Europe is a witness of her humiliation. In Persia,
in Affghan, at Herat, Cabool, and Lahore, our
triumph has been most complete. This surely
ought to console us for some disappointments, in-
cluding the non-appointment of the Editor of the
Portfolio to succeed Lord PALMERSTON as
Foreign Secretary.

Brussels and German papers have been received
this morning. M. LIBE AU returned to Brussels
on Saturday from his mission to the Germanic Diet.
On Sunday a Te Deum was performed in the
Church of St. Gudule in Brussels, in honour of
the anniversary of the forty-ninth birth-day of King
LEOPOLD. All the Foreign Ministers and the
Members of the Cabinet were present. The fol-
lowing are extracts from these journals :

BRUSSELS, DEC. 16.—The Independent has the fol-
lowing letter from Ghent, dated the 14th December :
The agent of a house at Liverpool is actually in this
city ; he offers to our manufacturers to export all their
superfluous stock to Singapore, Marseilles, and Batavia,
insuring them against all loss above 10 per cent.
The journals of Ghent announce the departure of a
vessel from that place to Rotterdam, with a cargo of
calicos, linens, &c. Without drawing any inferences
from this act, or pretending to give it more importance
than it really has, we mention it as a proof that the old
markets for the manufactures of Ghent are not so com-
pletely lost as has been asserted.
BRUSSELS, DEC. 17.—The Chamber of Representa-
tives not being able to proceed to business yesterday,
for want of a sufficient number of members, was ad-
journed to this day.
A letter from Cobourg, of the Bth December. says—
" The publication of the intended marriage of Prince
Albert to the Queen of England, took place yesterday,
accompanied with a salute of the artillery of the Cita-
del. The principal public officers, and some deputa-
tions, went yesterday from Gotha to Cobourg. Every
body rejoices at the happiness which awaits our amiable
young Prince, who is so much and generally beloved.
Count Le lion left Brussels this morning to return
to Paris. We are assured that the Ministry is on the
point of laying before the Chambers a complete project
of law for indemnifying the sufferers by the events of
1830, including those of the seige of Antwerp.
The printer of the Meplastopheles has been to-day
found guilty by the Court of Assize for Brabant of
calumny, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment,
a fine of 1,000 francs, and deprivation of his civil rights
for five years.
A general subject of conversation here is an attempt
made by an Englishman, named Murray, to murder nis
wife while she was taking an airing on horseback on
the Boulevards. It seems that the lady has left her
husband, and refuses to return to him. The affair is
in the hands of justice, and a large reward is offered.

BELGIAN /. UNDS—BnusseLe, DEC. 17
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent.
Rothschild's Loan, 5 per Cent .......
Loan of Thirty Millions, 4 per Cent. 92%
3 per Cent. 70%
Loan of City, 1832, 4 per Cent 95
Society of Commerce, 4 Soper Cent ll4
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent. 7534
National Seeiety .
Exchange on London (short)
—Brussels Papers, Dec. 17.
DUTCH FUNDS.—Axerreanate, Dec. 17.
Actual Debt, 234 per Cent Mon
51)6 ey
5215.
Ditto, ditto 5 per cent
Amon Syndic,4 )6 per cent 92 93
Ditto, ditto, 3)4 per cent 70% 'lO%
Cominerch.l Company, 4,,, per cent 165)6 166%
Ditty (1632 and 1833) 5 per cent.
Ditto 1837, 5 per cent. 95)4 1,6
Loon 1837, 5 per cent. —
Exchange on London, One month I 1 9714
Two months ......
—Dutch Papers, Dec. 17.
HAMBURG BORSEN HALLE, DEC. 14.
Bills. Money.
Austrian 5 per Cents.
Bank Shares
An. 10-Russian Loan PIN 106-X
Russian 5 per Cent. Ist series, Certificate
Inscription, Ist Series 10234 10-2!‘
Russian 5 per Cent. Hop and Co. 3d and 4th
Series 9B 97%
Ditto in Certificates
Dutch Actual Debt, 2)4 pe. Cent. 51)4 51
Ditto 5 per Cent —
Polish Bonds
New 1 icket
Anglu.i;anish Loan, 3 per Cent 7l 'k%
Norwegian Loan, 1834, 4 per Cent... WO% 100
S,,anish, New 3 per Cents. 22
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, DEC. 8
rive per Cents. Motalliques
Boar per Cents.
Three per Cents.
Bank Shares
PrussianS t.Sc Ici.Sc
Englishh ~ 4)4
Loan, 1930,
1630
'"•4l,gemeine Zeitung, Dec, 14.
Money.
PRUSSIAN FUNDS.—BERLIN, Dec. 14.
103%
102)6
Lechan . ge on London, three months... 6 21%
—Prussian State Gazette. Dec. 15.
per cent. 11Bf0:3;2iI6

The Paris Journals of Tuesday state, that to
the other difficulties of the Government, is now
added the distressed condition of the working
classes, hundreds of thousands of whom are without
bread or employment. Upwards of 80,000 persons
in Paris are reduced to subsist on public charity ;
in the department of the Lower Seine the working

n
-
, --Alp, .
,;.;. 4111

flfv