The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-22 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

_ -
SIR,—As a very old subscriber to your paper, you
have often allowed me a little space on which to record
my feelings and sentiments. Pray extend to me now
this privilege, and allow me to pour out in unstudied
language the surprise and indignation which the perusal
of your leading article of this evening has aroused in
my mind.
I confess, Sir, that I shall not attempt in this note to
argue against the wrong which I think you have com-
mitted; to argue with an able political editor, and that
in his own paper, involves many considerations, and re-
quires some leisure; but a newspaper we have long and
constantly read and approved, takes such a hold upon
our feelings, and becomes in our imagination so much
our own, that we instinctively wish it to bear some
marks of our own feelings on the subject-matter it
contains. You are not hero, Sir, to bear
us ofttimes exclaim " Bravo !" while reading your
leaders, neither are you here this evening to see our in-
dignant astonishment. Do let me, then, write it, that
our owe paper may, at least, have in it to-morrow some-
thing like ourselves.

Sir, your leading article almost commences with a
falsehood (forgive the word); for after stating that " the
Neapolitan and Sardinian Sovereigns are prepared, with
the concurrence of all the Powers of Chri,tendont, to in-
tervene simultaneously in the territories of the Pupal
States and of Tuscany" to reinstate the Pope, you ae•
sert that " not the most earnest of those lovers of liberty
who recoil from the notion of foreign intervention in the
settlement of the government of any country, will lament
the fact of the arrangement here intimated."
Sir, I am one of those earnest lovers of liberty, and I
am surrounded with other like lovers of liberty, and wo
do all recoil with amazement and indignation at such an
intimation.

If foreign intervention in the government of " any
country" be wrong, how can it be right towards Italy?
You speak of the " rights of the banished Sovereigns."
What rights have Sovereigns as sovereigns independent
of the wishes of the People t Surely the old and
childish nonsense that one man has a divine right to
tyrannize over millions, or to act even as a wise governor
over them contrary to their wishes, is not about to be
re-established ! and if not, why advocate the principle
in the case of poor Italy, poor long-benighted and op-
pressed Italy ?
Sir, unlike yourself, you speak of the " ungrateful
and despicable people." Why should a people be
grateful for having what they do not want ? Why
should they be branded as despicable at a time when
they are asserting their rights, and lifting up mightily
their power ? Despicable, indeed when they are
showing, in the face of the world, a rightful omnipotence,
and which, it appears, requires all the combined powers
of an un-Christian " Christendom" as an equal and
unholy antagonist.
Six weeks have scarcely passed away since you de-
lighted the circle of your readers here with the just and
opprobrious epithets you applied to that bloodhound like
monster, the crowned vagabond of Naples, and now you
laud a conspiracy of all the great powers with this un-
holy demon of blood, for the purpose of trampling down
the young and rising liberties of Italy. Christendom!
Christendom! is this the composition of the " Great
Powers of Christendom?" Forbid it humanity, forbid
it reason, and Scripture. The reply is, " I know them
not."

Allow me to call your attention one minute to the
question, What have the Italians done? The simple
answer is, they have decreed that the Popedom is
divested of its temporal authority, but remains in full
exercise of its spiritual power. Have they not the na-
tural, the moral, the political right to do this ? If not,
why not ?

Now, Sir, let one thing, I pray you, be borne in mind,
a thing which I ha►e not seen regarded by any writers
on this subject, but which is of paramount
importance—viz., the declaration of the Pope himself,
openly and plainly- made not long since, that his duty
as a Prince and his duty as a pastor were so contradis-
anguished and opposed, that he could not perform one,
without a violation of the other. I would c3rry out this
true position to its just consequences, but must forbear.
Yours obediently,
Cheltenham, Feb. 20, 1849. DALETH.

[Our esteemed correspondent is perfectly correct
in deprecating the notion of anything like foreign
intervention in the affairs of Italy, or of any other
country. In his indignation at the bare idea of such
a project, we sympathise cordially. If he
.imagines
that in our leading article of the 20th
instant we advocated the principles of fo-
reign intervention, we repudiate altogether any
such meaning—the fault was in the manner in which
we expressed ourselves. The intervention we spoke
of was not by foreigners but by Italians—not by
force of arms but by diplomatic negotiations. As to
the people, our correspondent must surely be satis-
fied, from his long acquaintance with The Sun, that
our sentiments as to the popular rights are
unalterable : we regard the political rights of the
people as paramount. As we have said before, how-
ever, our feelings upon foreign intervention and the
popular rights are identical with those of our worthy
correspondent—" the fault was in the manner in
which we expressed ourselves."—En. Sun.]

TIIF INDIAN Austr.—We understand that the
Court of Directors have announced to the Bengal Go-
vernment their appointment as an infuntry cadet, of
Hugo James, a volunteer with the Irregular Force at
Menitan, under Major Edwardes. "In forwarding,"
writes the Major to Mr. James, " a gratifying extract
from the Resident of Lahore's comments on the action at
Soorujkoond,when you led part of the force in the repulse
of the enemy. and the subsequent attack on the entrench.
ments, I take the opportunity of expressing to you the
personal obligations I feel for the enthusiasm so becom-
ing in youth, which prompted you to take a long journey
to share the dangers of an irregular force embarked in a
hazardous enterprise, and the gallant example which you
have shown to that force over since you joined." To
Lieut.-Colonel Sykes's appreciation of Mr. James's
merits this nomination is due, and it is one among many
instances of a disinterested exercise of patronage on the
part of the honourable body to whom ho belongs.