The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-30 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.
THE RUSSIAN CONSPIRACY.—On this subject we have the
Following letter.—

" POSEN, Nov. 18.
" At length we have received some certain information re-
specting the events at St. Petersburgh. A conspiracy has
been discovered in that city. The number of conspirators was
not very considerable, but there were among them Several
Boyars of Russia, and about 30 officers of the Imperial Guard,
all sons of families belonging to the great nobility of Peters-
burgh and Moscow. The Emperor has not thought fit to give
publicity to this affair; he has contented himself with sending
away from the capital, under a good escort, the guilty officers,
and it was reported that the Minister of War had already
received orders to send them to do duty in the garrisons
of Siberia, or the army of the Caucasus. It is now affirmed,
that the conspirators were in communication with the malcon-
tents of Poland; that they had agreed with each other to
meet very shortly at Vitepsk (in Russia), in order to arrange,
their plans, and that their delegates had already had five con-
ferences in that town. What seems to confirm thin report is,
that an Ukase of the Senate has deprived Lieut.-General
Count Jarkievitsch of the office of Governor-General of the
Province of Vitepsk, and has ordered him to be struck et' the
army list; but that the Emperor immediately annulhd the
latter part of the Ukase, and has granted that officer a small
annual pension, with permission to wear the uniform and the
badges of his rank—a measure which perfectly agree& with the
intentions of the Czar to conceal from the public everything
relating to the conspiracy which has just been discovered."--
Co 'amerce.
Marshal Count Lobau died last night, being carried off in
a few hours by a disorder in the chest. France loses one of
her most illustrious, as well as best citizens. Having risen
from an obscure origin to the highest dignities of the State,
always devoted to the country which be defended against fac-
tion, as he had done it honour in the field td battle, Marshal
Lobau was one of the national glories 'which unite all the
generous sympathies of the country. France will not now
forget the numerous services which Vie had rendered to the
Ministry of July ; it will new forget his devotedness to the
constitutional throne- The death of Marshal Lobau is a
painful loss to the Natonal Guard of Paris; it was his manly
frankness, his
.arde:
tnbuted to ma lit and sincere patriotism, that mainly con-
noble see ..main in all ranks of those citizen soldiers the
4:nuent with which they have always been animated,
and 'ixhich has rendered it an insurmountable barrier to
ariarchy.
This morning as soon a, the King learned the death of
Count Lobau, his Majesty immediately sent a letter of condo-
lence to the Countess. Lieut.-General Jacqueminot, being
absent from Paris, to which he cannot return for some days,
the King has given to Count de Friant, one of the Briri,adier
Generals of the National Guard, the provisional command of
the National Guard, of the department of the Seine. Viscount.
Rampon will continue to act as chief of the staft—Mondeur.

HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
AI4 STERDA Al, Nov. 27.—( From the ;landlesblad.)--W e re-
ceived by the Batavier highly imii;cirtant news from London.
The policy of France, which al.;ns more and more at a new
universal Sovereignty, becomes from day to day more manifest.
It is, however, still possible that the French Cabinet may
change its system before the opening of the Session,
not
take act in unison with its allies. But should this
place, and the Conference, in consequence of
the refusal of Belgium to accede to the recent proposals,
be unable to arrange the differences between Holland
and Belgium, it is more than probable that the Confer.
ences will break up, and that Germany will begin to assert
the rights of the Confederation, and expel the Belgians from
Luxemburg, whether France agrees or not. It is superfluous
to dwell on the serious consequences to which this measure
may lead. At all events, it seems certain that the calm and
dignified attitude of the Dutch nation, which must by no
means be confounded with indifference or lukewarmness, has
done essential service to the cause of Europe.
HA MBLIRGII, Nov. 24.--There is no change in the prices of
Foreign Funds to. day.
DUTCH FUNDS.—AMsTERDAm, Nov. 27.
Money.
,ictueil Debt, 2,4 per Cent
Ditto, ditto 5 per cent.
tnott Svntlic,4!, per ....era 94 9'.04
Ditto, ditto, 3!; per
173', 174
oc:Ditto (1, 3i and le.t:nertimpceenornettie. 101%
ni1....... 1 >9lO 1°11134 3°991.4
Two months 12 02X,

PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOUR.N ALS.

It would coldly express the feeling which pervaded the
Corporation yesterday, in reference to the proposed public
tribute of respect and honour to Thomas Clarkson, by
saying that it was one of perfect unanimity. It was more.
The response to Mr. Sheriff Wood's motion, seconded by
Sir Peter Laurie, was an expression of warm, heartfelt, en-
thusiastic applause. The only objection was, that a more
important, and, if we may so express it, a more historical
memorial of the services of the father of African emancipa-
tion should be voted than the freedom of the city in a gold
box. After some discussion upon the species of tribute
that would best express the sense which the Corporation
entertained (as will appear from our report) of the merits
of Mr. Clarkson, the " gold box" was substituted by a
" marble bust," and the resolution thus altered was carried,
as we had expressed a hope it would be, by acclamation.
So far the Corporation of this great metropolis has
done its duty in vindicating the fame of the veteran bene-
factor, not only of the people of Africa, but of his country
and the whole human race. It is not as a matter of per-
sonal gratification to a gentleman whom we have never hap-
pened to see in our whole life that we rejoice at this. But
being lovers of that true liberality of which justice is the
foundation, and knowing that recent attempts, equally un-
just and ungenerous, have been made to deprive the origi-
nator of the great plan of slave trade abolition of the well-
earned laurels of his virtuous enterprise, we rejoice that the
testimony of a great public body, like the London Corpora-
tion, has been thrown into the scale of truth in vindication
of the claims of modest virtue. In treating of this subject
some time ago, we thus expressed ourselves :
" Who were the leaders of that great movement? It is
only just that upon the imperishable and sublime monument
which they raised to humanity their names should be rightly
recorded. We regret to see an attempt lately made in a
quarter where it was least to be expected, to efface or throw
into the shade the name that is undoubtedly entitled to the
first place upon the list of the practical opponents of the
slave trade—for the efforts of Granville Sharp, noble and
successful as they were, in legally establishing the great prin-
ciple that the slave who sets his foot in England becomes that
moment free, went no further.
" We venerate the name of Wilberforce ; but be was not
the first in this great field of philanthropic enterprise. We
respect the fidelity, we appreciate the perseverance, we admire
the eloquence which he brought to the task ; but still more is
that man entitled to the respect and admiration of an en-
lightened people who made the first practical efforts for the
assertion of African liberty and the vindication of British jus-
tice, and that man was Thomas Clarkson."
Why should the names of Clarkson and Wilberforce
have been thus brought in conflict, which had so long
been in noble co-operation ? We did not do it. None of
the vindicators of Thomas Clarkson's claims did it, but the
coons of Mr. Wilberforce did it. To them the " Edinburgh
Reviewers" joined themselves in the first instance. The
reviewers have since retracted, but the authors of the
" Life of Wilberforce" have not. If, then, that work
were hereafter to be taken as an authority by the future
historian, a false impression would be created in the public
mind of the origin of that great enterprise which Thomas
Clarkson planned—of which Mr. Wilberfoce was the elo-
quent auxiliary, and which terminated in one of the most
magnificent moral conquests that ever delighted the
heart of civilised man. It is under such circum-
stances that the tribute offered to Clarkson by the
city of London has a value far beyond what
.attaches to a mere memorial of personal re-
gard or even of public veneration. It becomes, as the
decision of contemporary judges, a historical testimony, to
guide and determine future opinion. It is a proceeding
which puts upon national record evidence of a truth which
some parties have disputed, and which, if not vindicated in
the most open and public manner before some contem-
porary tribunal, might hereafter be supposed, by many who
take up impressions without examining the grounds of con-
troversy, not to be so much a matter of certainty as it has
been proved to be. Public memorials contemporary with
facts have always been considered great collateral helps to
the elucidation of historical truth. We have seen that in a
popular assembly, composed of men of various parties, poli-
tical and religious, Conservatives, Whigs, Radicals, Church-
men, and Dissenters, a resolution was passed, without one
dissentient voice, proffering a tribute of honour to Thomas
,Clerkson, as one " who has the merit of originating, and has
the consolation of living to witness, the triumph of the great
struggle for the deliverance of the enslaved African from the
most oppressive bondage that ever tried the endurance of
afflicted humanity." Now the notice of such a proposition
being about to be moved in the Common Council of Lon-
don, had been before the public eye in our columns, and
those of other Journals, for some time. The word origi-
nating appeared in all the published reports of the notice,
although some were incorrectly given in another respect.
If, then, the party that have set up the claims of Mr. Wil-
berforce, whose memory we greatly venerate, in opposition
to those of Mr. Clarkson, and whose statements are at this
-moment circulating through all the reading-rooms and sub-
scription libraries in the kingdom, felt confident that their
cause would bear the breath of free discussion, how has it
happened that not a single person came forward in the
Corporation of London to protest against the validity of
Mr. Clarkson's claims as the originator of the great
plan of African redemption, or to disturb the enthusi-
astic unanimity which prevailed on the subject ? By the
public notice all the world was challenged to dispute the
peculiar merits atrributed, by the terms of that notice, to
the venerable person named in it, but nobody answered
that challenge. In his judicious and able speech on intro-
ducing the motion, Mr. Sheriff Wood happily remarked
that the circumstance which induced Thomas Clarkson, at
the age of 2.4, to contemplate the mighty project of abo-
lishing the slave trade, strongly illustrated the good ef-
fect of imprinting just and sound moral principles upon the
youthful mind. That circumstance, as we stated yester-
day, was the Latin theme on slavery, proposed by the
Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge for a prize essay, and in the
competition for which the youth who was destined to lay
the foundation of African liberty distanced all rivalry.
The following is the simple and interesting account
which Mr. Clarkson himself gives in his History; of
the Abolition'of the Slave Trade, of the influence which
his labours for the prize essay had in directing his mind
towards some practical means of extinguishing the abomi-
nable traffic which inflicted on the Christian civilization of
England the worst stain of Pagan barbarism :—" As it
is usual," he says, " to read those essays publicly in the
Senate House soon after the prize is adjudged, I was
called to Cambridge for that purpose. I went and per-
formed my office. On returning, however, to London, the
subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I be-
came at times very seriously affected while on the road ; I
stopped my horse occasionally, and dismounted and walked.
I frequently tried to persuade myself in those intervals
that'the contents of my essay could not be true. The more,
;however, I reflected upon them, or rather on the authori-
ties on which they were founded, the more I gave them
.credit. Coming in sight of Wade's Mill, in Hertfordshire,
3 sat down disconsolate on the turf by the road-side and
held the horse. Here a thought came into my mind,
that if the contents of the essay were true, it was time
some pe,rson should see those calamities to their end. Agi-
tated in t:sis manner I reached home. This was in the
summer of 1785." In the November of that year he re-
solved to operate upon the public mind by translating and
enlarging his Latin essay. He began that work in the
November of the same year. This work was his " letter of
introduction" to Members of Parliament and other persons
,of influence whom he wished to interest in the great object
he. had in view. It was by this means he become acquainted
with Mr. Wilberforce, and proposed to him to become
the Parliamentary leader in the enterprise, which he
undertook in the year 1787. The " Society of Friends"
had at that time a Committee on the subject, which Mr.
Wilberforce joined. From that Society, commonly called
a, the Quakers," emanated the first petition ever presented to
rliament against the slave trade. The second was
fros a Bridgewater, and originated in a suggestion
to
,the Mayor of that borough by the Reverend
Gorge White, who, like Mr. Clarkson, was a Clergyman
-of the f.stablished Church. That the person who first
contempla,'-ed the abolition of the slave trade as a practical
question shoo;
eld have lived to witness not only its extinc-
tion, but that 61 slavery itself, is an instance of a life-time
embracing events. such as are not often crowded into the
experience of a
siog;ss
igeneration,. But many gene: ations
acdhr andisi ian civilizationtrinmph
will it take to unfold all 1, mighty advantages, social and
moral, which not Africa aloa:
ek;mut England ngla
itself will ultimately derive f
that is yet to call forth on the vast African continent the
resources and energies of legitimate eqommerce, and to
open the desert itself to the footsteps of civilized inter-
course. When the news of the illustrious hav-
inglF:rraanaenkl,inmira
finished his earthly pilgrimage reached
ssembly
Mira-
beau thus announced the event in the National A
—" Franklin is dead ! The genius that emancipated
ErnuAmee-
rica, and poured a copious stream of knowledge over
,
Las returned to the bosom of the Divinity—classic antniyilny
would have erected altars to the memory of such a ma
erable
the course of nature it cannot be long before the ven
than
Clarkson croes to receive a brighter and stetter reward
any which human gratitude can bestow. He will then be
)oken of as the man that emancipated Africa, and began
t work by pouring " a copious stream of knowledge over
ars 'Pe
" "to convince his countrymen and all civilized people
the awful criminality of the slave system in all its forms
of c suelt and revolting horror. Franklin emancipated
°' c' e by his pen than Washington by his sword ;
Ames Ca more by
to a benevolent Providence for
but Ai:clerical
0.,.1-iich it bestowed, continues to keep the
the fre, edom
slavery riveted upon a large portion of
chains of. degradins;
the hum an race, and, amidst her republican institutions,
violates vvithout remorse or shame the sacred and inalien-
able rightsis lost of m the very altars erected

to " equal liberty" the chains of captives are fercred and
human victims sacrificed !—./116rizi7ry klerahi