The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-27 00:00:00

b;e-'

WITH WHICH
THE « TRUE SUN " IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 27, 18311.

The following very interesting intelligence is taken
from a second edition of the Morning Post :

H'er Majesty's steam-packet Blazer arrived at Malta on the
14th of October, at night, bringing news from Bombay to
the 12th of September. Reports had reached India of the
defeat of the Persian forces before Herat, in which it appeared
some Russians had assisted, the death of a Russian General
Officer being mentioned. Although no official accounts had
reached Calcutta, it seems that the plans and intrigues of
Russia were placed beyond doubt, and must have been very
extensive, since we learn that the papers which have fallen
into the hands of the Government establish that she was dab-
bling with all the Powers and Princes to the northward, and
it was believed that Russian emissaries had been sent to the
Burmese by another route. The Rajah of Sattarah was quite
under the influence of Russia.

The most active warlike preparations were visible in all the
presidencies. Troops from Bengal to the amount of 25,000
men, and 5,000 from Bombay were to march towards Cabool,
and the Nepaulese were to be watched by a force from Madras.
The Indian Government, in fact, had shown a determination
to exhibit activity and energy, in order to overawe, if possible,
the northern provinces ; but the greatest uneasiness was mani-
fest, and the natives did not hesitate to declare their satisfac-
tion at the prospect of the arrival of the Russians, and the pro.
bability of their having new masters.
The British authorities in India, appear rightly to
understand the designs of Russia, and their mode of
counteracting them is worthy of their patriotism.
Promptitude, energy, and the proper application of
her immense military resources, is all that is wanted to
enable Great Britain, to right the balance of
power in the East. We have long regarded a
war with Russia as inevitable ; and every hour
that it is delayed, only strengthens the hands,
and gives stability to the projects of the CZAR,
who for the last five years has not ceased, day nor
night, to prepare for such an event. All things con-
sidered, we do not think that a better field than Persia,
or a more auspicious moment than the present, could
be selected for the solution of a problem which may
be said to involve the civilization of the world. We
will not now enter into those points of the question
which appear alone to occupy the attention of our Lon-
don Contemporaries. It is too late to indulge in recri-
minations, with a view to show whether Whig or Tory
Cabinets have been most negligent of the interests of
England in past transactions with Russia. Both
parties-have been so shamefully guilty as to justify the
country in expecting and exacting from them proofs of
a sincere penitence. The part which we have taken,
during the last ten years, in all questions relating to the
policy of Russia, is well known. We have uniformly
execrated the sacrifice of Poland, which we have as uni-
formly and as distinctly attributed to the pusillanimity of
England and the treachery of France ; while at the
same time we have never ceased to denounce the
pedling policy of the Duke of WELLINGTON in 1829,
in permitting the CZAR to dictate to the SULTAN the
shameful treaty of Adrianople. Having thus hitherto
carefully avoided all identification of ourselves with the
Foreign policy of either party, we do not consider that it
now belongs to us to trouble ourselves with whitewash-
ing either the one or the other. We do not believe that
we are over sanguine in entertaining the conviction
that a blow well struck by England now would repair
every error in our foreign policy since the signing of
Treaty of Vienna. We have a fleet at the mouth of
the Dardanelles, and are therefore in a condition to treat
with Russia on the shores of the Black Sea. Already all
but triumphant in the East, we may by a word give
freedom to Poland ; and thus drive back the barbarian
hordes of the CZAR within the limits of the Empire
which Europe assigned them at the death of the Czar
PETER I. This would be an easy task, were France
honestly to unite with us in executing it ; but expe-
rience prevents us from longer reposing any great con-
fidence in the liberal professions of the CITIZEN
KING. however, if France do not unite with us,
we feel pretty confident that she must remain neutral,
as in giving freedom to Poland we shall have the
national sympathies all enlisted in our favour. An
union with Russia on the part of Lours PHILLIPPE,
would be followed by another revolution, and there
would be an end of the ORLEANS dynasty. This fact
is well known to the CITIZEN KING, and will serve
as a guarantee for the neutrality of France, should she
not consider it her duty to make common cause with
us against a common enemy.
We cannot better conclude these remarks than by
subjoining the intelligence from Constantinople re-
ceived this morning, bearing, as it does, upon the real
stew of this question. It comes down to the 7th
instant :

" An active correspondence had been carried on between
Lord Ponsonby and Admiral Sir Robert Stopford, who re-
mained cruising off the mouth of the aranelles, with the
united squadrons, British and Turkish, from29th of Sep..
tember to about the 4th of October, It wasthe understood that
the subject of this correspondence was the newtreatyofcom-
merce on which Reschid Pacha had been sent on missionb to
London, or rather upon the consequence of this treaty, should
i, be ratified by the British Ministry. The grain tracyle
Russian ports in the Black Sea, it seems, will be materially
in-
jured thereby, and the Russian Minister, having made strong re
nionstrances against it, accompanied by some hints almost
amounting to threats, for the purpose of intimidating tie
Sultan, Lord Ponsonby had invited the British Admiral ;o
Constantinople, and stated that it might be necessary that the
British squadron should appear there also, Si; Robert Stop-
ford, however, i: appears did not immediately comply with
this request, as the British and Turkish squadrons were seen
entering the Gulf of Smyrna on the 6th of October, where it
was believed the Admiral would wait events. By all accounts
our Government has again an opportunity of striking down
the ruinous influence of Russia in Constanti
me inople, if
probably
of Unkiar Skelessi may be put
when the treacherous Treaty
to the proof."
The inhabitants of Edinburgh pay from 10s. to
12s. the ton for the best coals ; at Lynn, in Norfolk,
not a hundred miles from London, the price is 18s. 6d.,
and in London, at present we pay from 325. to 345. ;
and when the coal-factors and the frost combine, the
price will be raised some 10s. more. If the English,
and particularly the Cockneys, were not the most
gullible people in the world, they would rebel as one
man against such a system of extortion. For
what purpose, we ask them, is such a grievous
tax imposed on one of the great necessaries
of life ? To fey, nn4 Trois. .11•
poor pay for such buildings as the Royal Exchange,
or the Mansion-house, which ought to be paid for

sgialy by those who use them, or for the erection and '
repairs of St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, which
they are not allowed to visit without being again plun-
dered by the harpies of
_what is called the Poor Man's
Church. We never had any doubt that the noise
made by the Tory Journals about the hardships of the
new Poor-law, proceeded solely from political motives,
and their silence regarding taxes which press most
severely on the class whom they have taken under
their especial care, ought to leave no doubt of the
fact in the minds of the poor themselves. During
a severe winter there arc thousands in this metropolis
' struggling against poverty and high prices, and making
every exertion:to keep out of the workhouse ; but the
unequal laws passed by the rich are often too powerful
for them—and these laws the Tory Journals mainly
defend. For the article of coals alone, they pay nearly
twice as much as the rich, and three times as much as
they ought to pay, were there any real regard for their
interests. The rich, and even those in middling cir-

cumstances, can make preparations against the winter,
but the poor cannot—they are robbed by the coal-dealer,
in quantity and quality. The rise in price fails en-
tirely on them, and while they have bread barely suffi-
cient to maintain life, they must pay a tax to build a
Royal Exchange or repair a bridge for which ample
funds had been provided, but which had been squan-
dered away by some guzzling City company. These
facts, however, the pretended friends of the poor over-
look—they defend the corn monopoly and other mo-
nopolies that injure chiefly the lower classes, and take
up the cause of the poor man only when his case is
hopeless—when he is reduced to beggary, and contami-
nated by residence in a workhouse.

We have stated in this Journal that it is impossible
for the people by any art or contrivance, unless that
of a despotic Government, to release themselves from
the duty of watching over, controlling, and regulating
public affairs. The inference we are disposed to draw
from this circumstance is, that it is a waste of their
time and means to seek constitutional Reforms.
Such Reforms will not exonerate them from the
toil and the duty of holding public meetings to express
their opinion, and, if need be, of enforcing it on their
rulers by referring to their possession of physical
power ; and by such public meetings, with such a re-
ference to their power, they may at present get all
they would be able to get, after they had effected the
constitutional change they at present seek. There is
nothing in the shape of political enactment they may not
command, if united ; if not united, they will be no more
able to carry the projects some of them may entertain,
into effect, after they have got their Charter, supposing
them to succeed, than at present. They must still
rely on their strength and their union—the former will
not be increased nor the latter promoted, but we think
impeded by their success. If they had Universal
Suffrage what could they possibly obtain by it in
the first instance equal in utility to the abolition
of the Corn-laws ? We know of nothing : and that
abolition they may undoubtedly now obtain by uniting
to demand it. Considering, therefore, that the
union of the people and the expression of
their opinion at public meetings are the only
effectual means by which good government
can be obtained, we quote with satisfaction
the following passage from a pamphlet, by Sir BROOKE
FAULKENER, just published, recommending regular
meetings at stated periods of the people, constituted,
as he expresses it, into a fourth estate, or rather into a
single estate swallowing up all the others :
The people alone can be trusted to manage their own
business, by watchfully superintending and controlling
their Representatives. M, plan is, therefore, to constitute
popular meetings a permanent power in the State, a sort
of fourth estate of the Constitution. We have had enough
of experience to show that desultory gatherings, no matter
what the amount of numbers, can never be relied upon as a
sure and steady check to perfidious rulers, such assemblies
being no sooner dispersed, than the knaves are at their dirty
work again. Besides, while the agitator is left to his dis-
cretion to convene the people, they have no assurance that
they will be called upon to meet, perhaps, when it is most
necessary that they should be up and stirring. I would,

therefore, have these meetings not contingent or casua

but periodical, say annually, at the close of the Parlia-
mentary session. With such a system in force, Tory rule
is extinguished : never, with such a rod over their heads,
would the " detested kites" dare to seize the reins of Go-
vernment or show their face at an election. All the benefit
of Universal Suffrage and Annual Parliaments would be
had in a superior degree by this plan than by your Charter,
as the influence of the people would not only secure honest
candidates for representing us, but keep them honest after
they were returned. No matter, then, who was the M. m-
ber, he could only best serve himself by serving
the people. The Press would then perform its
best service, enlightening and preparing them for
the business of the great meeting. Parliament
would be in its proper place, not our masters as.
now, but fellow labourers in the work of legislation ;
whereas, at present, the people are, by the fiction of being
present in the persons of their deputies, made consenting
parties to every Act of the Legislature, no matter how
atrociously inimical to their best interests. They are made
consenting parties to their own starvation by enacting the
Corn-laws ; by his consent the Dissenter is rated to sup-
port the Church, the Irish are tithe-hunted, the country
800 millions in debt for a ruinous war, and Queen Ade-
laide gets, with your consent, 100,0001. a year. While
the popular meetings were periodical the people would have
constant successive opportunities of discussing their opi-
nions before throwing them ultimately into the shape of pe-
titions to Parliament. Their views, as they become en-
larged by this discipline and the progress of instruction, in
place of being hastily taken up and crudely presented,
would challenge all the respect which repeated and patient
consideration could confer. We should then no longer
depend upon an accident for calling for the expression of
popular feeling ; such as a famine, want of employment, a
commercial crisis, or the like, nor should we be driven in a
fit of revenge, to devise such wild expedients, as starving
our legislators into their duty_by a " strike," "abstinence
from taxed articles," or any such feeble contrivances which
would only recoil upon their authors.

The passage is also worthy of notice as a specimen
of the thoughts and projects which now occupy the
heads of political writers.

The Madrid Gazelle of the 18th inst., announces
the defeat of 300 CarNsts by General BUSTO, at Pa-
redes, in La Mancha, a few days previously. The
victory is scarce worth recording, as it appears that the
Carlists fled at the first shot. The capital was
tranquil.

The whole of the Paris Journals of Thursday have
been received. They bring no news of any moment,
with the exception of the following telegraphic com-
munication from Africa, which we copy from the
official columns of the Meniteur

" TOULON, Ocr. 23.
" MARSHAL VALEE TO THE MINISTER OF WAR.

F de Fran-,."Ct. 1.
" The establishment vihich the ort
army formsce oat Storal ad-
vances rapidly. A part cf the defemive line is complete, and
the works are pursued v.ith activity on all sides.
" The agitation which appeared among the Kabyles is now
at an end. They resign themselves to their new masters, whom
they find amongst them after forty years' independence.
" The supply of the camp is assured by the sea, and in a
few days Constantine will receive from Fort de France the
goods which come directly to it from Bona."
ToceoN, OCT. 20.—The corvette the Favourite, which
has sailed for Tunis, has an order to Admiral Lalande to re-
turn to Toulon. He will :,robably be Commander-in-Chief
in the Levant. The Trident, forming part of the squadrrn ,if
Lalande has arrived. Siie left Tu is on the 11th, leaviz.g
there the Jena, thf. Far: uirite. and the Legere. The arrival
of the Capitan Paella was no longer expected. The Sunti
Petri and the Palinure sailed for the Levant.
The brig Latin sailed with pressing despatches. The ob-
ject of them is not known, but they are said to contain the
recal of Admiral Gallo's.
The steamer which sails to-morrow for Algiers will car:y a
rrreat number of artizans, who go to Africa to seek employ-
ment.
publication of the last Ministerial instructions, the
is eexorp:!tel, at To„,-
population of Algiers has increased by 400 to 500 in
c number.nce the
Madame Latour.. „N. uobrod7,
A steamer !v •Convey her to
lon.
vita Vecchia, from ,-t-t"'''sill go to Rome, to
join her husband The quest.
on of iElectoral Reform la making eon.