The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-08 00:00:00

consequent depreciation in the value of English '
laliour, and reduction► in the rate of wages. Is it to
be presumed, that the Parliament of Great Britain
would any longer forbear to impose a tax on the
entrance of Irishmen into British ports ? or that
any impost could be devised so popular among the
working classes of our countrymen. Thus we see
in this single topic what momentous Irish interests
are involved :—The British corn-market and labour-
market closed at once against the rich and poor of
Ireland,—against the grower of corn, and the emi-
grant reaper. The Irish farmer forced to sell his
produce cheap ; and if the Irish Parliament retaliates
by protecting duties on manufactures, lie will he
forced, ut the same time, to buy his comforts dear.
For let it be well understood and remembered,
that Ireland cannot find throughout Europe a
market half so good as this country for her corn,
nor a source whence she can obtain manufacturet'
goods so cheap ; while England can every where
buy corn cheaper than in Ireland, and can in
every country where she buys that corn find a fah
indemnity for the loss of the Irish purchaser of bet
wares. We cannot at present pursue this argument
further—nor need we. Let the Irish labourer who
now shouts in phrenzy for O'Connell, and with mad
hatred execrates the name of England, bethink him-
self of the charge of 11. Is. levied on every passenger
from Dublin to Liverpool, ere he can set foot on
our shores. One word on absentees, and one only.
We consider the great proprietors of estates in Ire-
land to be, morally speaking, the worst of all rest-
dents for that country. Let the country hut enjoy
repose, and money and commercial industry will
flow into it. Before the lapse of one generation, a
new and incalculably more valuable body of propri-
etors will be created ; the old estates will be gradu-
ally broken up by piecemeal transfers into the hands
of manufacturers and merchants, and the obsolete
aristocracy, as Nvo r Hess and useless a cross of people
as any to be found in Europe or out of it, will leave
no subject of regret, but that they did not perish
sooner. We have not forgotten our pledge of Thurs-
day last to touch upon the grievance of Ireland,—
those grievances, without the redress of which, we
do not hesitate to say, that the " repeal of the
Union" will be carried. But that we must resume
by and by.—Times.

We give in another part of this day's paper the
latest accounts which have reached us from Poland.
The most important part of them respects the Grand
Duchy of Posen,—which, it would appear, is not
likely.-to rise in aid of the people of Warsaw ; and
t buS the latter are deprived of what might have
been, and may still be, consideredxone great mean,
of their making head against the dreadful act of it,-
ju,tice which is about to be perpetrated upon them.
We think it a matter of some doubt, however,
whether a rising in Posen would have actually
benefited the inhabitants of `'Warsaw; or even
whether a further rising in Austrian Poland
would have strengthened their hands. Had such
been the case, the insurgent Poles would have
had to contend, not with Russia only, but with
Prussia and A ustria, to which ought to be added
the additional disadvantage, of not only fighting on
three different frothiers, but of having to contend
with the jealousies of individuals, and the occasional
opposition, in point of feeling, of one Duchy toward,
another. As the insurrection now stands there is
only the Russian force to oppose ; and that force
will be opposed by a• population, not only mot e
numerous, in proportion, than could have been brought
to (bear against the three Powers, but more united,
more enthusiastic, and better commanded. The
chances are, in fact, more in favour of the people of
Warsaw now, than they would have been had they
been joined by Prussian and Austrian Poland ; but
the odds, eve must say, notwithstanding the opinion
to the contrary of our evening coternporary The Sun,
are sadly against them.
" Though we are not without apprehensions," says it,
" for the gallant patriots, still we are fir from looking on
their cause as one of extreme desperation. We even think
that the chances are equal as to the results of the first en-
gagement ; for though the Russians may be superior in
numbers, they are immeasurably inferior to the ,Poles in
asiivity, skill, veteran discipline, and, above all, in the in.-
tense energy of their patriotic devotion. The latter well
know that defeat will be to them extermination ; that not
merely their freedom, but their very name as a nation, are
embarked in the struggle ; while the former have no such
extraordinary stimulus to inspire them; success will insure
them no such advantages, defeat inflict on them no such
disasters. Under these trying circumstances, when every
soldier in the Polish army must see the necessity of exert-
ing himself ti the very utmost, as if the fate of his country
hung upon his individual exertions, we shall net, we con-
ceive, err much in our calculation if we set down one
Pole as equivalent to two Rus-ians. Granting this, upon
the principle of the Shakspearian adage—which expe-
rience has a thousand times proved to be correct—' Thrice
is he armed that bath his quarrel just,' it will be per-
ceived, that though there be a disparity in point of num-
bers, the two armies are, in reality, pretty nearly equal as
regards strength and power."

We cannot altogether agree with this reasoning.
the Poles are, indeed, more gallant, more active,
more nevoted soldiers than the Russians, and they
will be animated in the glorious cause in which
they are about to be engaged by a love of country,
a desire of independence, and a sense of national
wrong, wholly unknown to their opponents ; but
our contemporary seems to us to forget that the
Russian Generals, and Russian army, have lately
had an opportunity of refreshing their knowledge of
warfare, and that the Polish have not—that the
army of the one is composed of veterans, and that
of the other of those who may be considered, in
great parr, only volunteers—and, finally, that there
is no comparison between the amount of force
which can be brought into murderous play by the
Autocrat of the Itussias and the insurgent popu-
lation of Poland. But still, as is most justly observed
by oar cotemporary, " should the Poles be defeated
in the first encounter, their cause is far from being
so hopeless as may at first sight be supposed.
Events are working for them in every nook and
cranny throughout Europe. Let them but contrive
to make a show of opposition for some months to
come, no matter how faint or imperfect, and they
will scarcely fail to reap the benefit of such perse-
verance. Russia has many angry spirits to quell,
and cannot afford the hazardous monopoly of a
Polish war. The claims of Finland—of Persia—of
Turkey, are yet unsettled, and here Poland will be
revenged as surely as by her own exertions." Ayes
let them but make even " a :how of opposition"
for some months to come, and their cause is safe—
their independence sealed—and all Poland, we will
venture to assert, relieved from the dreadful yoke
whose weight it has had to sustain since the hi.s
infamous partition ; for then Fmnce and England
will be equally bound to interfere in favour of the
people of Warsaw, as they were in favour of those
of Belgium ; and when (Mee the former have been
liberated, the Prussian and Austrian provinces will
rise in insurrection, and revenge long years of op-
pression by, we hope, one glorious day of revenge
and liberty.—Morning Advertiser.

THE PRUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES AND
&nonLs.—The sums assigned by the Prussian Govern-
ment for the maintenance of their six Universities in the
year 1329,. were as follow :

Berlin, independently of 5,54(1. paid for the sup-
port of Scientific Institutions £13,150
Bonn 1.1,5;10
Breslau
Halle 10,290
Konigsberg: 9,010
Griefswakle 8,3'20

Total C 86,110
These sums go to provide for the current expenses of each
institution, and include certain allowances to indigent stu-
dents, as well as the official salaries of the professors,
whose remuneration, however, is principally derived from
the fees paid for at'endance upon their pi selections. The
gelehrte schulen, or " grammar schools," are also esta-
blishments subject to the controul of the Government,
and supported essentially at the expense of the State. Their
number in 1829 was—for Eastern Prussia, 8 ; Western
Prussia, 6 ; Brandenburg, 18 ; Pomerania, 6 ; Silesia, 21 ;
Posen, 3 ; Prussian Saxony, 22 ; Westphalia, 19; Ju-
liers, Cleves, and Berg, 12 ; and the Nether Rhine, 17 ;
in all, 132.