The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-
Two questions connected with the policy of this
country towards foreign nations were brought before
Parliament on Friday last—by Lord Aberdeen in
the House of Lords, and Sir Stratford Canninr, in the
Commons. Lord Aberdeen's motion for papers "show-
ing the efforts that had been made by his Majesty's
Government to mitigate the sanguinary warfare now
carrying on in the northern provinces of Spain," was
at once aceeded to by Lord Melbourne ; but we must
say that the arguments with which his Lordship
attempted to meet the indignant and striking repre-
sentations of the Noble mover were in the highest
degree feeble and unsatisfactory. Lord Aberdeen
passed over lightly, as a matter on which, what-
ever opinion he might have formed of it, he did
not mean to dwell, the nature and provisions of the
quadripartite treaty, which, strongly as he had from
the beginning disapproved of it; he would, now that
the faith of the country-stood pledged, be the last man
to abandon. He confined his charge against the Go-
vernment principally to their having continued the con-
tribution of military supplies to an immense amount—
of arms, for instance, for double the number of troops
that had ever been enrolled in the Queen's cause, and
had prolonged their encouragement of the auxiliary
services rendered by a corps of 10,000 Englishmen,
after the character of the war had pronounced itself to
be such as was utterly without precedent in modern
times, and marked by atrocities and horrors so revolt-
ing to the usages of civilized nations, that it was a
deep disgrace to England to have any participation in
it. This is a very painful subject. Had the war in
Spain been of a more manly and accustomed nature,
public opinion throughout Great Britain was far from
unfavourable to the Order in Council which permitted
the voluntary co-operation of British subjects with
what has long been regarded here as the cause of
constitutional monarchy, and of that portion of the
Spanish people who, it was oped, would be most
likely to maintain an amicable and cordial inter-
course with this country. But, unquestionably, a
principle just in itself may be dishonoured, and a
beneficial object may be defeated, by gross errors
and vices in the means resorted to for their execu-
tion. It is quite true, as was powerfully stated by
the Duke of Wellington in the same debate, that
Great Britain, by changing her character of a neutral
and friendly mediatrix for that of a party, and a party
violently hostile to Don Carlos, has forfeited all
the moral ascendancy which she might previously have
exercised over that Prince, and employed in compelling

him to a faithful observance of the engagements stipu•
lated in the Duke of Wellington's convention. Thai
was an evil altogether inseparable from the Order it
Council, which produced the entrance of a force of na
tive Englishmen into a conflict, of which the end was
to be the overthrow of the Pretender to the Crown.
But in proportion as the British Government lost in-
fluence with one of the combatants, it ought to have
acquired omnipotent authority with the other, and we
are sure might, by a discreet and vigorous use of that
power, have curbed the fury of the Queen's partisans,
extorting such orders from the central Administration
at Madrid as would restrain the retaliatory measures of
the Christino troops within the bounds of civilized
warfare. Lord Melbourne will, of course, be acquitted
by everybody of a disposition to countenance the cruelties
of his Spanish allies ; but it was no answer to such a
reasonable, clear, and temperate speech as that of Lord
Aberdeen, to bring the childish accusation against
him and the Peers with whom his Lordship has
usually acted, that they ought to have made a motion
condemnatory of the Order in Council at some earlier
period. It is, we say, no exoneration of a Govern-
ment from the responsibility of those disastrous conse-
quences which have been progressively growing and
accumulating out of a particular measure, that those
statesmen who disapproved of such a measure, have,
at the time which seemed to them most expedient,
brought the subject under the eye of Parliament... Nor
was it a fair or logical reply to Lord Aberdeen, who
spoke with alarm and disgust of the barbarous pro-
pensities and moral degradation which was likely to be
engendered in the minds of English soldiers, by their
connection with a system so peculiar and so brutalizing
as that of the present Spanish warfare—it was, we
say, not manly nor logical in Lord Melbourne to ask
" what sort of education did war generally impart ?"
War, among civilized and Christian nations, has its
laws, as definite and beneficent as those of peace ; but
between these Peninsular savages, there appears to be
no other code of reciprocity than ferocious passion.
We repeat the apprehension we expressed some weeks
ago, that neither Lord Palmerston, nor the Cabinet
of which he is a member, has been prepared for pro-
bable results of the enterprise in which they have em-
barked this country. It is plain that the efforts hither-
to made have proved altogether inadequate to any suc-
cessful issue, and the country waits to be informed by
his Majesty's Government how much further they are
inclined to go.—Times.
It was obvious to everybody that the proceeding taken
by Sir Stratford Canning on Friday last with reference
to the occupation of Cracow by the troops of the
three military Governments was not suggested by any
adverse feeling towards Lord Palmerston or his col-
leagues. The speech of the Right Hon. diplomatist
was calculated more to draw from the Foreign Secre-
tary an expression of his own views and feelings upon
a question of deep concern to the people of this coun-
try, and eventually to the equilibrium and the peace of
Europe, than for the indulgence of an unfriendly spirit,
had any such existed, which there manifestly does not,
between the two diplomatists. Sir Stratford Canning
laid down with sufficient clearness the competency of
England to interfere in defence of one or all the stipu-
lations of the treaty of Vienna, and for the protection
of whatever political interests, or whatever communities,
might have been thereby created. In her quality of gua-
rantee to the grave and complex engagements formed
under that important compact, she has the formal right
to watch over their strict and honest execution. In her
quality of a power which made immense sacrifices, co-
lonial and pecuniary, as the price of those engagements to
which she thus obtained by purchase the deliberate
assent of other Powers, she has an equitable and
moral right to interpose in case of their infraction. It
would be too mach to pretend, when Great Britain
bought the integrity of Poland and the independence
o fCracow by the surrender of possessions which the
whole world would vainly have striven to wring from
her by force, that she is bound to look on tamely, and
see, first, Poland extinguished even to her language
and her name, in spite of the treaty thus dearly earned ;
secondly, the little republic of Cracow seized upon,
and this pledge and evidence to the nature of that in-
strument upon which alone Russia can found the sha-
dow of a title to retain a footing in the rest of Poland
swept from among the living records of Europe. The
independence of Cracow was established for wise and
salutary purposes, and one of them was, doubt-
less, that there should exist within reach of the
unhappy Polish race a safe and tranquil refuge
from the persecutions of military despotism. This
asylum has now been tyrannically disturbed. This
sanctuary has, on pretexts the most frivolous and
wanton, been outraged by open violence. This per-
fidy towards Cracow itself, and this cruelty towards
hundreds of its peaceful inhabitants, domiciled therein
for many years, and now barbarously transported like
felons to another bemisphere, is aggravated by down-
right insult towards Great Britain and France, which
Powers, though signing parties to the treaty of Vienna,
and guarantees of all the rights created under it, have
never received the common decency of an official com-
munication from Russia or Austria announcing the
design against Cracow. Now, it is certain that if
England be a protectress of the rights established
under the treaty of Vienna, she is equally justifiable
in assuming to be a redresser of such wrongs as may
be perpetrated against it. If England had, in part-
nership with France, the means of military redress at
her disposal, there is no disputing that she would
require no justification of a recourse to such means
against Russia and her confederates or tools on
this occasion, beyond the flagrant insult which
has been offered to her by this audacious and unan-
nounced invasion of the independence of Cracow. But
of the means of direct coercion England is so far
destitute, that she could not approach the scene of the
aggression with a military or naval force. The appli-
cation of either, or both of these, will be reserved most
fitly for other, perhaps not remote, emergencies, and

for a more extensive theatre. In the mean time, we
feeling of the British Parliament and nationhas not been
unequivocally shown. There was, we are glad to say
for Lord Palmerston, no absence of either a right
spirit, or a judicious view of the question, in his reply
to Sir Stratford Canning on Friday last. His Lord-
ship appeared sensible to the offence received by
England ; but he and Lord John Russell behaved
more consistently than Mr. Joseph Hume, by abstain-
ing from verbal warfare in relation to the encroach-
ments of the military Powers, which he, the said
Joseph, would have been the last individual in the
empire to enforce by acts of corresponding dignity or
spirit.— Times.
There is more business upirn the Order Book of the
House of Commons for this evening than could be got
through in a month, according to the present
are dilatory
and talkative habits of that House. There
Tithe Bills—that of Sir R. Peel for the second reading,
and that of the Government for a further consideration
of the Report. The new Registration of Births Bill,
and the Dissenters' Marriages Bill; are both set down for
second reading this evening. So is Sir R. Mulgrave's
Bill for the Relief of the Poor in Ireland. A further
consideration of the Report on the Municipal Corpora-
tions Act Amendment Bill, and of that on the Irish
Constabulary Bill, are also in the paper of business, to
which are to be added two Mutiny Bills. And all these
are quite independent of the various motions fixed for
discussion this evening, which, if they really were dis-
cussed, would occupy much more time than the House
will sit, from its hour of assembling to that of its adjourn-
ment. It requires no argument to prove that there is
something wrong in this parade of work to be done with-
out the possibibility of doing it. To use a coarse, but ex-
pressive word, it looks very like humbug ; and however
patiently we may be disposed to endure even that in
some quarters, it is rather too much that in the Assem-
bly of the Representatives of the people, convened
for the despatch of the nation's business, such an im-
practicable list of matters should be huddled together
—matters which must either be pushed out of the way
without due consideration, or neglected altogether.
This is really the formality of nonsense, and ought to
be put an end to by men of business. There would
be less reason to complain if the time of the• House,
when it is at work, were generally occupied upon the
most urgent description of affairs ; but we appeal to
the common sense of Englishmen, whether exactly the
reverse of this is not the fact ? We have before re-
marked on the undue proportion of time devoted to the
affairs of Ireland, but even with regard to Ireland it is
not the really important affairs of that kingdom which
receive consideration. Since the House of Commons
assembled, in the beginning of the last month, they
who should be the leaders of the House have allowed
it to be occupied chiefly with discussions about new
Corporations for the -Irish towns. Will it be pre-
; tended that this is the most urgent matter to which
the British Legislature can apply itself ? No one can
seriously maintain such a proposition. It may be very
important to the interests of Mr. O'Connell and his
section, but it is not to the empire. Night after night
the time of the House of Commons is expended
in a mere party struggle—in deciding whether the mi-
serable-advantages of influence and patronage, in the
Corporations of Irish towns shall remain where they
are, or be transferred to the hands of Mr. O'Connell and
his party. Suppose this Bill carriedthis Bill to
which all otter public business is postponed—what
will be the ;result? Nothing but this, that the demo-
cratic party, with all the noisy clamour of vulgar vic-
tory, will rush upon the Corporation prizes ; and the
gentry of the towns, who have, perhaps, hitherto de-
rived some consequence from their exclusive pationage,
will go away from them to places of more peace and
quietness—
" Where nc'cr was known the form of mock debate,.
Or seen a new made Mayor's unwieldy state."
For the obtaining of such results the Government 'aifi
the House of Commons have employed their precious
time, and all this time the great and appalling evil in
the state of Ireland has been neglected. The question
of a provision for the destitute poor of Ireland is still
postponed by the Government and its supporters. On
Friday night Lord John Russell, in a tone more
of anger at being interrogated on the subject, than of
concern, at being unable to give a satisfactory answer,
said that he did not know when the Government could
bring it forward I Is it, we ask—is it reasonable or
Statesman-like, that, while nights are consumed in.
wrangling on the Corporation question, because Mr.
O'Connell happens to take so very lively an interest in
it, the poor of Ireland should be left in that state which
the report of the Government Commission has described?
It is a people in beggary—a whole population steeped
in poverty to the very lips—an enormous multitude
plunged in the lowest depths of degradation and of
savageness, from sheer destitution of those means,
without which men are scarcely superior to the beasts
that perish. The unmcasureable superiority which God
has given to man in the scale of creation lies in the ca-
pacity which he has bestowed upon man of turning to
his advantage and improvement all that is beneath
him. But destitute of every material of improvement,
with his whole faculties absorbed in seeking the gratifi-
cation of the lowest animal wants—with his powers of
endurance only devoted to the bearing the pain of
hunger, cold, and nakedness—with his body and his
mind equally starved, and occasionally equally surfeited
with the worst food, what can we expect, even of man,
but savageness ? What can we hope from Ireland but
a continuance of its- evil condition ? And yet the
remedy for all this—the physical and moral
improve-
ment of a whole country, is to be indefinitely postponed,
in order that the triumph of a faction may not be de-
layed. The leader of that faction beholds England
with a legal provision for its poor, and Ireland without
anything of the kind, and yet his cry for " equal jus-
tice" is not heard with reference to that subject. Can
he think that the difference of the constitution of Mu-
nicipal Corporations is more important than the dif-
ference between a provision for the poor and no pro-
vision ? Does the inequality of justice seem to him
monstrous with regard to corporate privileges, and but
a little thing where the whole body of his poor coun-
trymen is concerned ? No,- this is not the reason ;
but the reason is this—that his politics arc the politics
of faction, and not of patriotism—that the strengthen-
ing the hands of his party is his real object, and not
the bettering of the condition of his country. An in-
dependent Government ought to hold itself above the
influence of an individual with views so selfish and so
narrow. We can make allowances for the difficulties
of Ministers, who must, we admit, work according to
the circumstances and powers which they have to ma-
nage. But there is an ultimate point of condescen-
sion in these matters, which every British States-
man should feel, and beyond which accommodation, to
circumstances, is a violation of public duty, and a for-
feiture of official honour. When" Ministers yield to a
powerful individual that which they cannot yield with-
out delaying an act of paramount justice—when after
having the facts laid before them, under the authority
of their own Commissioners of Inquiry, they suffer to
continue, for a single day longer than it must continue,
a state of circumstances at once frightfully dangerous,
and exceedingly disgraceful to the empire ; and when
they do this, in order that the party projects of an in-
dividual may be accelerated, they deserve, and they
ought to be visited with, the reproaches of every honest
politician. So far we have considered this subject, as
regards the affairs of Ireland alone. But Great Bri-
tain has, on her own account, great reason to com-
plain i
that her national affairs are neglected in the
House of Common* -in order that Mr. O'Connell's
may be attended to. There seems to be no chance
etihancie
for
of any important measure, except that
thre egardius e
Ho of
Irish Corporations, being ready
Lords, when the Houses re-assemble after the Easter
Recess. The Tithes Commutation Bill, so deeply
important to the agricultural
drags England,
andslowdebatedts•
.
Dissenters' Bills lengthso full
along, ffi,
and
dlt and
were merely described, brought in,
and laid on the shelf. Until after Easter the House
will have no leisure for settling the law regarding mar-
riages, or providing for the better registration of births.
The Lords will probably not receiv these Bills until
late in the season. The Bill for abolishing the existing
barbarisms in the law of imprisonment for debt is not
yet introduced to either House. But the affairs of Irish
Corporations, preparatory to-the transfer of them to
Mr. O'Connell and his friends, have been discussed
over and over aaain usque ad nauseam. Whatever