The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-27 00:00:00

SPITAIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

"The Times has at length " taken an opportunity of' ad-
verting to. the able exposition of Lord Lyndhurst." Our
readers will remember that the ob.i,ea of Lord Lyndhurst's
speech was to prove that the amount of our exports had
*diminished di:ring the administration of the present Go-
vernment. We first convicted the Noble and Learned
Lord of 'an unworthy artifice in taking the year§ 1..?!..36 and
1837 ar his standard, and we then showed, by reference to
authentic Parliamentary returns, that during the time Lord
Lyndhurst himself was in office our export trade decreased
in 1828 from 37,181,3351. to 36,812,7561., and in 1829 it
still 4:urtber decreased to 35,842,623/. ; while, on the other
'weld, in 1832, when the policy of the present Government
may be fairly supposed to have come into operation, it in-
creased to 36,450,594/., ir, 1833 to 39,667,347/., in 1834
to 41,649,191/., in 18:15 to 47,372,2701., and in 18?,f's to
53,368,572/. U these conclusive facts, lir:Weyer, our
Contemporary is totally silent. Not the sl.:.ghtest attempt
is made either to impeach cur statement or to defend
that of Lord Lyndhurst. Bet, curiously enough, we
are accused with " not having ventured to reply to
the facts 'respecting the diminution of our foreign
exports !' The Times, however, is even less fortunate
in whet it says, than in what it has left unsaid.
" Cracow," we are tell, "is one of the most important
commercial emporiums on the Continent." This is cer-
tainly a new view of unhappy Cracow. That poor city
has suffered enough from the injuries of its enemies to en-
title it t' be spared such mockery from pretended friends.
As a proof of its assertion, the Times states that the for-
mer population of Cracow was great, and that in 1632
it lost 193,000 people by the plague. It is to be feared
'that Cracow has never recovered this said plague t for in
1826 the population of the city was computed tobe 26,000,
and the whole Republic did not then Contain more than
!10,000. As trade is carried on with the living and not
with the dead, with the population of the 19th, and not
of the 17th century, the importance of Cracow in a com-
mercial point of view remains to be proved. The Times,
indeed, says, that " Cracow offers us a direct communication
with the Black Sea, the Baltic, and the Adriatic." It is doubt-
less very obliging of Cracow or of the Times to make us this
handsome offer ; but unless the map of Europe greatly de-
ceives us it is just possible that our own goods might get
to the Baltic and Adriatic by a shorter and more direct
course than by going through Cracow ; and it is not im-
probable that they might reach the Black Sea by the
Mediterranean or the Danube fully as cheaply as by being
tugged thither overland through Cracow. But the Times
is determined to titstinguish itself in smartness as well as
in geography. We asked on Tuesday, " How could Lord
Lyndhurst expect to have a trade with Poland when he
refused to take her corn, almost the only thing she pro-
duced, in exchange ?" And in reply, our Contemporary
knowingly inquires—" Does our refusal to take the corn
of the United States prevent us from having a trade with
America?" Though there are in England. Corn-laws,
there do not happen to be any cottorelaws, and per-
haps the economist of the Times; will tell us what is
the amount of the produce of Cracow in cotton
and tobacco ? Then comes a spice of historical lore,
and that, too, of me3ern history, nay, what may
be called newspaper history, of which the Times
ought to blush at being ignorant. Our Contemporary fan-
cies that the treaty of 1827 precluded France from attack-
ing and coneinering Algiers. Why, the treaty of July 1827
related tq nothing but the pacification of Greece, and the
separthon of that country from Turkey. England, France,
and Russia, who signed that treaty, took the engagement
that in the settlement of the affairs of Greece they would
seek for no exclusive advantage, and no accession of terri-
tory. But the treaty of 1827 had no more to do with the
French expedition to Algiers than it had to do with the af-
fairs of China, or with the speech of Lord Lyndhurst.
Therefore to say that " no further treaty than the existing
one of 1827 was necessary to prevent France from retaining
possession of Algiers," is to betray t'ne most laughable igno-
rance. Equally unhappy is the Times in its attempt to
expound the len, of natireos. It contends that the Eng-
lish Government ought not to haveacknowledged the Meal.
can blockade till it had been approved of by the French
Government. Our Contemporary seems not to know that
an Admiral may establish a blockade, and that a block-
ade which is effective and executed by an adequate
force becomes at once legal, so far as regards the turning
away of ships ; although ships trying to enter the
blockaded port cannot legally be captured till after the
blockade has been sufficiently made known. But if the
Times had taken the trouble of looking at the Gazette,
which it surely might have done during the four days it was
ruminating its article, it would have seen that the official
notification of the Mexican blockade was, in fact, founded
upon an announcement from the French Government itself ;
so that the blockade was both" known to" and "approved
by" the French Government before it was notified by the
Government of England 1 Luckless Tiniest who
" Dives for its brains and finds nobottom there,
Then writes and flounders on in mere despair."
" Must we again remind this writer that the restrictions
of our trade with Circassia are attributable," not to the
fiscal regulations of 1831, but to the treaty which gave
Russia le right of imposing them ? To Lord Aberdeen
we are indebted for that treaty ; and therefore let those
who deplore the evil ascribe it to its true source. To the
evidence we adduced of the rapid and enormous increase of
our trade with Greece all the Times ventures to say is—
" it is no wonder I"—Morning Chronicle.
There are some men, excellent persons too in the main
who, nursed in educational prejudices-too strong. +,O
be
counteracted by their,TC;i:eCf 'reasoning powers, are always
exhibiting a cnn_c_ni:reuous discrepancy between their specu-
latiyee-saas and their actual conduct. Not that, knowing
what is right, they deliberately and consciously do what is
wrong ; but that, while showing the utmost perspicacity in
reasoning out correct conclusions, they are nevertheless so
powerfully and insensibly acted on by certain forces opposed
to those conclusions as to yield at length to their influence,
without being in the least aware of the moral obliquity
which this must seem to involve. To speak on one side of
a question, and to vote on the other, is an old Parliamentary
odium which is said to have attached even to so upright a
person as the late Mr. Wilberforce. Of course, less
creditable examples of the same thing might be multiplied
indefinitely ; but, beyond all doubt, the most notable
living instance of the sort of inconsistency we are com-
menting on is to be found in a quarter where we should
least expect it—even in the Most Reverend Prelate who
wears at present the Archiepiscopal Mitre of Dublin.
In many respects, Archbishop Whately is both a re-
spectable man and an able one. With most of his old
college friends whom he has latterly shot ahead of in life,
be still maintains, we know, the same kindly and familiar
intercourse as when they were more upon an equality. In
spite, too, of his excessive passion for generalizing, which
often betrays him into the confusion it affects to avoid, he
is, as a writer, considerably above mediocrity. On points
of civil policy, whereon we may be permitted to differ
from his Grace without presumption, as well as on some
spiritual questions, in regard to which the most Rev. Pre-
late ought to be a much better authority, we have at
various times felt constrained to impugn Dr. Whately's
opinions, though certainly never without serious reason,
and seldom without regret. But, with all the credit which
we arc really disposed to give to that distinguished dig-
nitary, the more sincere that it is not indiscriminate, we must
plainly say, that on no previous occasion have the anomalies
of his Grace's mental and moral structure been so
strikingly illustrated as in his recently published Charge
delivered at the triennial visitation of the province of
Dublin. What are the most appropriate topics for such
a season it would be sheer sacrilege ou our part to con-
jecture ; neither can we determine whether the professed
object of exhorting and encouraging his clergy be a legiti-
mate opportunity for introducing at great length and with
much adroitness a laboured, though unsuccessful disclaimer
of the Archbishop's supposed addictedness to partisanship.
Such, at all events, is the sole leading purpose of the pub-
lication which his Grace has put forth. The way in which
this large proportion of alcohol has been incorporated with
the lesser quantity of purer element wherewith it is scarcely
diluted, is not only curious for its dexterity, but furnishes
a complete proof of that peculiarity whereby his Grace's
practical operations are often exhibited in strange discor-
dance with the soundness of his speculative opinions. After
assigning reasons for departing from the ordinary range of
remark in episcopal charges—reasons, the inconclusiveness of
rwhich is mainly attributable, we suppose, to their brevity—
Dr. Whately proceeds to discuss the danger accruing to re-
ligion, first from the general diffusion of education without
a sufficiency of instruction in the evidences of Christianity
and secondly, from the prevalence of what he calls a " po-
litico-religious" par spins.ty
an On the first of these heads,
taking care to repudiate
participation in the cry of church
in danger, he sensibly remarks, that " an evil is not neces•
sari'y ..l ogether unrealbecause it
avouching it
alivaesofitnegn
ebneeinlisfeaorwedn
vii ho. t just cause ; all
knowlselse that numerous clubvsaroieftyinfiedfelsweixseistaanmd
he
onugset
lower classes,
advances .
thoughts on the subject of misdirected education. Our
does not enable us to
limited space, we regret
to
enrich our columns with Dr.
‘s%arl'i'ately's weighty testimony
in favon• of the views which from time
(wed in this Journal, in opposition to to time are advo-
cated the
existing
But de-
magogue-clamour for " education withoutreligion."
that the most Rev. Prelate should etttrtiinsuclrm
views,a.
and yet be able to retain his place on thel Boardl fio
raging the national Irish schools, wherein religious instruc-
tion -
tion is not necessarily provided for, is one of o
inconsistencies, exhibiting sound opinions in allii:
Grace's
iance with
contradictory practice, which we have already alluded to.
The fact is, that the absence of Christen teaching in
those schools, and worse still, the inculcation of Popish
error, are found to be insuperable obstacles to their re-
seiving the countenance of the Protestant clergy. The
shrewd Archbishop is awake to this ; and therefore, with