The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1838.

pamphlet, in which he recommends annual meetings,
and said we were well satisfied to quote such a pas-
sage, as a confirmation of our opinion, that public
meetings will always be necessary.
Our Contemporary might have been convinced, by
his own contradictory statements, that our observa-
tions " were worthy of the Post," and " went to the
establishment of the worst kind of democracy," that
he had, somehow or other, misconstrued our remarks.
He will, we hope, publish our answer, to undeceive
his readers. The article of our Contemporary does
not require any other notice from us, as it all proceeds
on his own mistakes. Like the American gentleman
recently mentioned in the papers, he has been shooting
his own fowls, wrongly supposing them to be ours.
We may, however, be permitted to say a few words
on the practical question at issue, namely, the pro-
priety of seeking constitutional or organic reforms in
preference to seeking such improvements as the aboli-
tion of the Corn-laws. Though the art of govern-
ment has been practised for many ages, modern ex-
perience has taught us that the theory or science of
government is very imperfectly known. So many
hopes have in our time been disappointed, that we are
disposed to place but little reliance on extensive
changes, of which it is impossible for any human
being to calculate the bearings and the result. Al-
though, therefore, we advocate the Ballot as a prac-
tical cure for a practical evil, and Short Parliaments
as of old right, and because short reckonings make
long friends—and would gladly see an Extension of the
Suffrage, as bringing more and more of the people
within the pale of the Constitution—yet should we
prefer to each and all of them the abolition of the
Corn-laws. The decision of that question is now
placed on the basis of right and wrong, and whenever it
be decided, from that moment these principles will be
acknowledged in the Legislature. An end will be put
to those vague schemes which at all times, if re-
commended by some plausible man, have been
deemed sufficient as a foundation to despoil
the property of the people by taxation. From
that time the Legislature will have more respect than
at present for our property. Its sphere of operation will
be circumscribed, and men of property will feel less
reluctant to extend- the suffrage in proportion as
imagined expediency shall cease to be considered the
proper:; basis of legislation. The abolition of the
Corn-laws, too, would release the farmers from de-
pendence on the landlords, and silently destroy the
preponderance of the landed interest in the Legisla-
ture. It would probably compel the community to
relieve the land wholly from the tithe tax, and would
thus effectually Christianise the Church. We know no
measure so rich in beneficial consequences, which
a nodr s
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es
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organic this
question the working classes would have with them
the bulk of the middle classes in the towns, and would
surely succeed. On the Universal Suffrage question
they must depend wholly on themselves. Even the
Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments, are likely to meet
with a less general support than tht abolition of the
Corn-laws. But what, above all, recommends it to
us, is that it is a restoration of right, and a return to
honesty and freedom, while the best that can be said
of them is, that they will probably be beneficial.

The attention of such of our readers-as take a lively
interest in the Circassian struggle for independence,
is directed to the Proclamation of the Russian Gene-
ral-in-Chief to those gallant mountaineers, with the
spirited answer of their Chiefs, which will be found
in another part of The Sun. The conditions upon
which the Circassians are offered all the rights, im-
munities, and privileges of serfage—of bowing their
necks to the iron yoke of the barbarian—are every
way worthy of a Government steeped to the lips in
the life-blood of unhappy Poland.

The advices received this morning from Madrid are
very far from indicating an improved state of public feel-
ing in that capital. They are of the 29th, and acquaint
us with the melancholy fact, that owing to a dread of
having their throats cut, the one by the other, both the
citizens and the army in the vicinity of the capital,
passed the night of the 28th in sleepless apprehension
of a new scene of slaughter in the bloody drama now
acting in Spain. The rumours in circulation were
most conflicting. According to one report, the Muni-
cipality had agreed to the assassination of General
NARVAEZ, the execution of all the Carlist prisoners,
and the establishment of a Revolutionary tribunal for
the trial and instant execution of the suspected. This
rumour was communicated to NARVAEZ, but instead o
treating it as an attempt to embroil him with the civic
authorities and the people, he mounted his horse, and
placing himself at the head of his troops,
kept them
under arms all night to provide against the worst. In
the mean time, the abettors of this infamous scheme
spread a report all over the city that NARVAEZ,
with his troops, had resolved to plunder the
city, decapitate the Magistracy, and proclaim the Pro-
vince in a state of insurrection. The people were
dreadfully alarmed, and prepared to defend themselves
Coffee-house meetings of mob orators, were called, at
which, to:,increase the ferment, the National Guards
appeared with arms in their hands. Fortunately the
night passed without bloodshed, although not with-
out leaving a fearful impression of insecurity
and distrust on the public mind. Persons on the spot
do not hesitate to attribute this attempt at an insurrec-
tionary movement to certain Members of the Cabinet,
who, it is reported, will not desist from such attempts
until they shall have drenched the capital in blood.
For the details of this affair we refer our readers to
the intelligence from Madrid, which will be found in
another column.

We have received the whole of the Paris Journals
of Tuesday, but with the exception of an article on
the Mexican blockade, which will be found elsewhere
in our columns, they contain no political strictures or
intelligence of any interest. It is true that reports
have reached the French capital from Africa,
of the defeat and death of ABD-EL-KADER,
but they are not credited, simply because the
EMIR has been reported killed an hundred times
within the last six years, and all without any
ostensible diminution of his attacks upon the
theue
way of comment French in that quarter. The accounts of the irrita-
tion of the Catholic" population of Rhenish Prussia
are daily receiving confirmation. If we can afford
space to-morrow t
upon we
islhatlhe
few
ioffsterricatures of observationscu rri byr
Francais upon the policy of our sending a fleet for
the protection of our trade in South America.

The last accounts received from Spain furnished us
with a picture more frightful than any hitherto exhi-
bited even in that devoted country—infamous in former
times for its treachery:and cruelty to a harmless, unsus-
pecting race in the New World, and no less infamous
in our days for the treachery and cruelties of the inha-
bitants to one another. It has been a varied scene,
but ever marked with blood, either by wholesale execu-
tions, under the semblance of justice, or by cold-blooded
massacres, followed by sanguinary and indiscriminating
acts of revenge. It is now " war to the knife," not
with foreign enemies, but with members of the same
community, and even the same family ; and the troops
of the QUEEN, in place of directing their Whole ener-
gies against the Carlists, have sufficient occupation in