The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-11 00:00:00

will ultimately extinguish the franchise of the free-'
man and the scot and lot voter. But will the
Aristocracy ultimately or really gain by the sub-
division of counties ? Lord Yarborough may nomi-
nate two Members for Lincolnshire. Lords Foley
arid Beauchamp may divide between them the ad-
mirable county of Worcester. Derbyshire may be
awarded in part to the (present) patriotic Duke of
Devonshire. A moiety of Warwickshire may be
given to the Marquis of Hertford, and Wiltshire
apportioned among three great landed Autocrats.
But what will the Peers, as a body, gain by these
feudal assignments of the representation of the
people ? Will it not again create an imperium
in imperio—a minority of influence opposed to
a majority of Peers without these partial posses-
sions ? Would it not infallibly create a deep prejudice
against property, against possessions by pi imogeni-
tore, against hereditary legislators usurping the
rights of the Commons ? Would it not involve
my Lords Spiritual and Temporal" in an early
and irresistible contest for the ballot ? Let the
Lords reflect on these objections on their part, arid
we are confident that they will see that their interest
and that of the people are one and indivisible.
Yorkshire has always been considered as three coun-
ties, and may advisably be severed in the exercise of
the elective rights. Lord Althorp, by postponing
the consideration of Lincolnshire, appears to treat
that county as a separate case of division. Its no-
minal " marked boundaries" afford no argument for
halving this county, arid we know that the strongest
local objections are entertained against division.
We trust that the Ministry, on this important prin-
ciple, will not make a " Government question" of
clauses which have excited so much objection in
and out of the House. The division can in no way
affect the success of the Bill. A division of the
counties may suit the personal interests of a few—
very few—of the landed proprietors of both parties ;
it cannot be consistent with the opinions or interests
of the body of Lords or Commons. If the borough
system is fortunately destroyed without a revolution,
it will be worth no one's while to traffic in the
franchises of the people, and the real influence of no
order of English society will be so much advanced
as that of the Peerage, when the memory of their
usurpations yields to the superior influence of their
personal characters and property.—Moan. Chico.
Ministers, by the questions asked them in Parlia-
ment, touching their relations with Poland, have had
an opportunity of stating fairly to the world, what
are the feelings which they entertain towards that
unhappy and heroic land. The opportunity offered,
we grieve to say, has not been laid hold of. On
the 20th of last month we declared, in no measured
terms, our anxiety for the deliverance of the perse-
cuted Polish nation, and our full conviction that a
direct interference for their benefit, on the part of
the British and French Governments, was not only
consistent with, but powerfully enjoined by, every
principle of wisdom, justice, and honour, which can
be appealed to as safe directors of the affairs of men.
Several letters which we have since received upon
this most interesting subject, afford us an oppor-
tunity of ouce more inviting to it the earnest
attention of our readers. It has already been
confessed by every upright man in Europe, that
those independent Governments which looked on
while Poland was racked and torn to pieces by Russia,
Prussia, and Austria, in their former partitions,
that those independent Governments—England
and France more particularly—were passive sharers
in the most atrocious villainy that ever was perpe-
trated by conjoint fraud and force. It is admitted,
that notwithstanding the eternal blot which this
crime impressed upon the character of contem-
porary States, and the fatal overthrow which it gave
to the whole equilibrium of European power, no
sufficient reason could have been deduced from either
circumstance for breaking up a general peace, when
it really existed, whether-with a view to redeem the
disgrace, or to restore the subverted balance. But
the partition, in so far as Austria and Prussia had
been concerned, was greatly modified by Napoleon.
By the treaties which they made with him. Austrian
and Prussian Poland—that is, the provinces of the
last partition—were partially released from the grasp
of those plunderers. It has been said that the
treaties made between Napoleon and the military
despots whom he crushed with their own weapons,
were extorted from them by fear, and were no
longer binding than so long as he had power
to enforce them. Then of what validity were the
obligations incurred by Poland herself under
the several treaties of partition ? Was she a free
agent in accepting them ? What virtue was there
in the treaties of 1814-1815 which re-forged the
drains of Poland, and settled Europe by enslaving
it ? Were the nations bought and sold like cattle,
and disposed of to masters whom they knew not, or
abhorred,—weie t hey to be for ever bound by the
acts of a Congress which they execrated; while no
compacts entered into from the fear of Napoleon
were to hold good ? Of many attempts which had
been made to shake off or lighten the yoke of that
dreadful coalition of 1815, those of i 7 ranee and
Belgium are the only ones which have yet suc-
ceeded. If the treatie; of 1815 were to be main-
tained at all events, and oia the ground of public
principle and necessity, why were France and Bel-
gium, after one of them had expelled the House of
Bourbon and the other that of Nassau,_---why, we
repeat, have they been recognized as independent
States, non obstantibus the conditions made in
1815, by the alliance so-called 14 Holy ?" Why,
but because it was more expedient to make the re-
cognition with a decent grace, and without a war,
than to go to war and then be forced to grant it,
But if free France and free Belgium have been ac-
knowledged by the parties wino lied placed them
both, in 1815, under a bondage which was proved
afterwards they detested, and which detesting they
have both indignantly cast off, what principle is'
there that can be alleged as opposing itself to the re-
cognition of Poland ? The Poles are made subject
to Russia, not absolutely, but on conditions ; they
were to be a separate people, and ruled as such, by
a Russian Monarch; they were to have a Constitu-
tion—that is to say, laws,—as their securities
against arbitrary and despotic power. The condi-
tions were one and all broken ; the States by whiz-al
they had been stipulated were grossly and daringly
insulted—France among them, England at the head
of them. Good cause of quarrel was provided by
Russia years ago, through the breach of fraith
to the British nation, in respect of our Polish
brethren, for whose rights and liberties we had
solemnly contracted in 1815. The Dutch troops,
though beaten out of Belgium, were not de-
stroyed, arid at this hour have renewed the contest,
The Russian troops were beaten out of Warsaw,
and retired from the whole country west of the Vis-
tula; they have not yet subdued the Polish army,
after all their mighty efforts, and the noisy boasts cif
their master. Then we do aver that Russia is now
in the possession of no rights derived from acknow-
ledged sovereignty—that she is in the act of, for
the third time, repeating that atrocity, the non-pre.
wention of which by Great Britain slid France in
1793 will ever be a stain upon their respective an-
nals ; the permission of which by France and tinge
land in 1815 must be lamented as a cruel effect of
the relative imbecility to which the events of the
great war, and the position of the European con-
tinent had reduced them, and of which their
passive endurance would at the present moment
be a shame more indelible than that of /793, and a
calamity more deplorable than that of 18i5, Jut
the question, since all difficulty on the score of
pri:iciple has been removed, is simply whether, on
calcui,:tions of mere general advantage, it would be
better to see Poland still a galley-slave of Russia),
independent, and frontier member of the
or a great, the bed.those. who
European commOnwolth. t,
find immense obstacles in the way (4 a 'rect. inter-
ference for an object so inestimable, we ace among
pcair
those who see more hazard of every kind, more
tive toil, and expense, and bloodshed for all nations,
in the (not remote) consequence of a tiEird extinc-
tion of the Poke, than in any effort which need nuwf
be made for their delieerance from the grasp o
Russia. it ie strelitiously recommended from many