The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The statement we made some days since that Thiers
• was dismissed because he would not take upon him-
, self the disgraceful responsibility of evading the obli-
gations of a treaty, we now repeat. We should un-
hesitatingly retract the opinion if we believed it to be
unfounded. We have, however, been but the more
confirmed in it, and in recurring to the subject, with
the experience of the efforts made by Lou is Philippe
to construct a new Administration, we bring. new and
. strong arguments to the support of our original posi •
. tion. Since we first called attention to the disastrous
effect that must result from a perseverance in the po-
licy that led to Thiers's dismissal, the British Govern-
.-
ment have received assurances, that so far from desir-
ing to withdraW from the Quadruple Alliance, the
King and the Government of France are most anxious
and determined to adhere to it. We, never said—we
never insinuated—that Louis Philippe was disposed
formally to withdraw from that alliance. We kne*
he would riot,--we knew he dared not do it. But
against his professions we placed and again place, his
acts, which demonstrate that, while nominally a
member of the *Western Alliance, he is in effect in
league with the Northern Despots. What importance
the British Government may be disposed to attach to
• the assurance of French fidelity to the Quadruple Al-
liance we do not pretend to conjecture. It would, we
may observe,have been Tess maladroit if Louis Philippe
had intimated an intention of returning rather than ad-
hering to the fulfilment of his obligations. Applying,
however the trite but common-sense test, non verbs sod
facia, to the conduct-of the French Government, or of
the French King, the people of England will be dis-
posed to place but little confidenee in his assurance.
Why was the Administration of Thiers broken up ?
No one has given—no one has attempted to give—to
this question any other answer than what we ourselves
suggested—because he shrunk from becoming the dis-
creditable instrument of a discreditable purpose. We
blame not the French press—in part fighting the
battle of a political party—in part watching over
their own freedom, threatened by the infliction of such
a calamity as Persil in the Government—for overlook-
ing the more remote but not less serious consequences
of the Ministerial change. It was, however, too ob-
vious that the immediate cause of this change laid
bare the despotic predilections of him who effected it
to pass it over altogether unnoticed : and, accordingly,
it was by a part of the press strenuously maintained
that Thiers had asked not merely for the fulfilment of
the terms of the Quadruple Treaty—not alone for co-
operation but for direct intervention. For such a de-
fence of Louis Philippe's conduct there was no ground.
His Minister asked merely for that which was guaran-
teed under treaty—this we cannot repeat too often or
too forcibly—and was dismissed because he insisted on
its fulfilment. Judging, then, from the single fact of
Thiers's dismissal, we at least place no reliance on the
assurance of the French Government that it is anxious
to adhere to the Quadruple Treaty. Whatever be the
names we may find gazetted in the Moniieur, we know
that virtually the 'Foreign Minister of France will not
he changed. Will its foreign policy ? The question
must receive a speedy answer, from the line of conduct
adopted towards the cause of the Queen of Spain
—the Queen of the Constitution of 1812. France is
hound to eo-operate in the consolidation of her throne.
The King of the French has refused to cc-operate.
Will he persist in his refusal ? Louis Philippa
cannot remain—he cannot be allowed to remain—a
merely nominal party to the Quadruple Treaty.
little time another "assurance" that he is anxious to
adhere to the Alliance may be—certainly ought to he
—followed by a refusal to permit him. Bear in mind
that we epee?: not of the French nation, nor of the
French Government, as it should be constitutionally
constructed, but of the concentration in an individual
of the functions of Sovereign and Administration.
That the people of France can be detached from our
liberal alliance we have no apprehension : and we con-
fess it is not altogether without satisfaction we see the
pro Tress paripasszt of an abandonment of the Quad-
rueie Treaty, &c,, and a menaced crusade upon the
liberties of France. The appointment of Persil and
Gasparin will go down well in history, as facts con-
tcmpo;•aneous with the violation of the national ho-
nour. It will, however, he well if the former do not
lead to results that may, in consequence of the latter,
find no sympathy among the liberal Governments of
Europe.—Morning Chronicle.
Time," says Lord Bacon, "is the greatest of all
innovators." The position, we believe, has never, tie
to the present moment, been disputed. Now some
people begin to question its truth. There are persons
who maintain that the Tory Peers are the greatest of
all innovators. It is beyond all doubt that in their own
case, at least, they are so. Time has been trying his
hand at an innovation on the constitution of the Upper
- House for more than a century and a half ; but the
progress he had made in the operation was, until within
the last few years, scarcely perceptible. As if wearied
with his slow, though, in the long run, sure mode of
going to work, their Lordships have determined on
doing the thing themselves ; and doing it they are with
a vengeance. We are sure that old father Time must
now be ashamed of himself. The Lords. have effected
more during the last Session in the way of innovation
on the construction of their House, than lie has done
since the revolution of 1688. Let them only proceed
as they have begun, and the labours of the great in-
- novator mentioned by Bacon may be dispensed with.
There is a very homely, but very expressive phrase,
" Give a man rope enough, and—" our readers, we
doubt not, can finish' the sentence. Let the Tory
Lordlings only get their own way a little longer, and
they, will do for themselves what might otherwise have.
cost the Reformers a lifetime of hard incessant labour.
It is quite a misnomer to call them Conservatives--
there never was a more glaring perversion of language.
They are Reformers, and of the right sort too. No-
matter what they call themselves—no matter what
name others apply to them, they are, practically, the
best Reformers extant I To be sure, they do not see
this ; but, as Locke says, a man's perceiving or not
perceiving a fact, does not affect the existence of that
fact. Lord Lyndhurst, however, we are persuaded,
sees clearly what he is about, and with us it is now a
question whether he be not a greater Reformer than
O'Connell himself. What, if it should turn out that
the real cause of the hostility which exists between the
two is, that they consider each other as rivals in the
great cause of Reform ? What matters it that the
one goes covertly to work, whilst the other openly ap-
plies his battering ram to the hereditary House. The
services of the former may, notwithstanding, be greater
than those of the latter. Of this we are certain, that
Lord Lyndhurst is, in point of fact, the most efficient
coadjutor that O'Connell has. It is, then, a most un-
grateful thing on the part of reformers to call the Noble
Lord a Tory or Conservative, or any such thing. He is
nothing of the kind. He only assumes that guise that he
may the more-effectually serve the cause of Reform. Let
his Lordship notbe disheartenedbecause his motives have
been impugned, his principles misrepresented, and
himself treated with ingratitude by the people whose
interests he is labouring so zealously to promote. This
has been the fate of many a patriot before him, and
probably will be of many a patriot after him. His
Lordship is doubtless sustained and encouraged in his
present course by the conviction that he is counteract-
ing the effects of his labours, when he really was a.
Tory, and he sees that this can be most effectually
done by affecting still to belong to that party. He
commenced his career as a Republican, and no man
of discernment, who watched his conduct during last
Session, can doubt for a moment that he has returned
to the principles of his early life, and is determined to
close his public career as he commenced it. What
greater proof could he furnish of his having re-
embraced Republican principles than is afforded in the
means he is taking to destroy the Upper House.
Before twelve months elapse the poor deluded Peers,
whom he is leading like so many sheep to their own
ruin, as hereditary Legislators, will see, aye, and feel
too, the force and justice of Lord Melbourne's remark,
that God has given their leader the possession of
great talents, but that the devil directs their applica-
tion." They will think that the last-meritiOned per-
sonage has at any rate directed their application in this
particular case, though the country may think differ-
ently.—Morning Advertiser.
All Europe has, lately seen how adroitly the Russian
Government has " diddled" this country on the sub-

In a

ject of the "Greek loan." But who can
.wonder at
this or any other humiliating proof of the servile sa-
crifice of British interests to Russian ascendancy,
seeing that our transactions with the Court of St.
Petersburgh are managed by two such incapables as
Lord Palmerston and Lord Durham, the one as chief
of our foreign policy, the other as representative of the
Majesty of England at the Court of Czar ?, It would
indeed be difficult to say whether the " juvenile
Whig" or the " Aristocratic Radical" has on all oc-
casions exhibited more of that innocent credulity of
disposition and meek complaisance of temper which in-
vites the practice of Russian frauds and the infliction
of Russian insults. When the Whigs basely aban-
doned the Polish nation to their fate, whose wrongs
were the fertile theme of their generous declama-
tion while out of office—when they refused even to
make a manly remonstrance on behalf of that op-
pressed people to the haughty Czar, they were not
satisfied with allowing the treaty of Vienna to be
cancelled by the extinction of the nationality of Po-
land. This was not sufficient evidence of their pusil-
lanimous subserviency to the will of the insolent Auto-
crat ; so, under the guidance of Lord Palmerston, as
.
the genius of our foreign policy, the Whig Ministers
extracted from the pockets of the overtaxed people of
this country some millions sterling, under pretence of
a compact, which, by the severance of Belgium and
Holland, had " ceased and determined," in order to
recruit the nearly exhausted Exchequer of a Govern-
ment which has, ever since the subversion of, Napo-
leon's power, been indefatigably engaged in endea-
vouring to supplant the influence and damage the in-
terests of Great Britain, by all the treacherous arts of
an insidious policy. That disgraceful transaction of
the Russian-Dutch loan job, which enabled the Mus-
covite tyrant to give the last blow to the liberties of
Poland, we denounced at the time that it was ender
discussion in the Legislature ; and when many of the
" Liberal" Members of the Commons, who have since
affected great sympathy with the Poles, were assisting
to sacrifice that ill-fated people at the altar of Russian
ambition, in order to gratify the recreant Whig Minis-
ters of the Crown, one of whom—the " candid" Lord
Althorp—intimated that even if Russia had no right
to the money it was politic to bribe her to maintain a
pacific course of policy. Thus, England, that van-
quished, under a former Government, the mighty
Napoleon with the resources of genius and civilisation
at his command, has been brought to such a depth of
political debasement by our Whig rulers as to purchase
with gold the treacherous friendship of the chief of
the barbarians of the North. Whenever Russia raises
a monument to her political benefactors, above the
names of her own Diplomatists, Statesmen, Generals,
and Admirals, she should inscribe those of Lord
Palmerston and his Whig colleagues. Nor, indeed,
upon the pillar of Russian ascendancy should the
name of Lord Durham be omitted. The insults
which he bore with on his voyage to St. Petersburg,
by way of Constantinople, have been soothed by abun-
dant
,cajolery since. The good terms on which he
stands with himself and the Imperial oppressor of the
Poles, may be collected from the following panegyric
upon his servile submission to the ambitious barbarian,
with which his friends have favoured the public,
through that Press which the ultra-liberal Statesman
vainly attempted to gag by criminal informations :
Notwithstanding his ultra-liberal politics; Lord Dur-
ham is personally very acceptable to his Imperial Ma-
jesty (of Russia), who is said to be charmed (so it
appears the Autocrat does not close his ears to the
voice of the charmer'), as well as his august Consort
(how sentimental !) by the soft and conciliatory man-
ner of the Noble Lord, which no one can more happily
assume, when he pleases, than the chief of the lions::
o Lambton." If he could assume the tone of a
manly and energetic representative of England, it might
be less pleasing to the Czar and his " august Consort,"
but it would be better for the dignity and interests of
England, nor should this great nation he so readily
befooled in Turkish affairs, or ,defrauded in regard 'to
the " Greek loan."—Morning Herald.

Any person who has witnessed the simpering,
self-satisfied manner of Lord Palmerston, and had
the misfortune of listening to his lady-like and hesi-
tating accents in the House, must he satisfied, after
reading through the leading article in the Globe of
last night on Spanish affairs, that none but the im-
mortal chief himself could have penned it. If we
are to believe that article, the state of Spain is the
most desirable possible. The Quadruple Treaty has
worked out the object for which it was made—the
Queen is prosperous and content—and England and
France, happily united to the last, are able to in-

dulge the soothing satisfaction of being the authors
of so much good. No one could imagine that the
country alluded to in that pastoral was Spain, from
which the nobility and every man with a shilling to
lose are flying to Italy and France—where the
Royal power is put under by a drunken soldiery—
where provincial Juntas defy the authority of the
central Government—where a bankruptcy exists
in fact, and is about to be officially declared—and
lastly, where an insurrection, which began with
seven hundred men, is now extending its arms to every
part of the kingdom, with organised forces amounting
at least to one hundred thousand. No one could sup-
pose that the treaty alluded to is that famous con-
vention by which England has been left all the work
to do, and all the money to pay, while France has
played a double part, and kept on terms with both
parties—that convention, in consequence of which the
blood of Englishmen has been sold in a mercenary cause,
and British subjects compelled to eat the bitter bread
of a French prison allowance. None but an incorrigible
egotist could, in the face of the myriad of facts which
have falsified every one of his predictions since the
beginning of the contest, and in defiance of the present
miserable state of Spain, indulge in that self-com-
placency which distinguishes alike the language of tile
Noble Secretary in his speeches in the House and
his articles in print. Can he imagine that there is
any person in society so ignorant of passing events
as to be deluded by his statements, or that all classes
are not agreed in looking upon him as the main
author of the calamities in which the Peninsula,
particularly the Spanish part of it, is to-day involved ?
He took up the Queen's cause when it was sound at
heart, and likely to be respected abroad ; the revolt,
only nominal in the Basque provinces, the people dis-
posed to support a progressive system of improvement,
and the public credit so good, that 70 was the price
of stock in the Foreign Markets. We need not say
how he leaves the cause this day, or look with a pro-
phetic view on the greater calamities which are now
impending. Let any unprejudiced person glance upon
both pictures, and must not the profound conviction
be the result, that the imbecile policy of the British
Government has been the main cause of the ruin of the
Queen of Spain ? The writer of the article we allude
to is not content with smiling over his own handy-
work, but he goes out of his way, to sneer at those
independent journals which have given the pub-
lic true information on the -course of events in
Spain. He assumes it as a fact, that they have
announced the occupation of Madrid by Don Carlos
and the ruin of Isabel as events certain to take place
instantly ; but we look in vain into our columns for
any such anticipations. We have been content to
place the gradual rise of the Carlist power before our
readers, without venturing to assume the termination
of events which rests on a greater will than ours—as
we do not say to-day that Don Carlos must reach Ma-
drid, but that the chances in favour of his doing so
are hourly rising in his favour. It will be his own
fault i
of he
ca does not. The Globe, in a paragraph
is calls
us
a semi
apart from its leading article, quoting from the _Morn-
ing
-official Carlist organ. Now,
really this
making a little too free. We are not
the organ of either party, and we observe on this and
all other questions a neutrality and independence
which our Contemporary would do well to copy—
in those parts of its columns which are
not
t allotted
y,
to
Downing-street.—/Iforning Post.

SUDDEN DEATH.—On Sunday evening Mr. Chas.
Benton, a wine merchant, residing in Portland-place, was at-
tending St. John's Wood Chapel, with his wife and four
children, when being suddenly seized in his pew by a fit of
apoplexy, be fell down, and almost immediately expired. A
surgeon, who was in attendance, used every means to resusci-
tate the unfortunate gentleman, but in rain ; and is his opinion
that the attack was brought on by the crowded state of
the ehapel, which caused such excessive heat that several ladies
fainted in consequence.