The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-21 00:00:00

I

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

:1c eLvt ' yes r
d :row Quebec, trom
J. u ,
sources on which we place the firmest reliance, we learn
that intelligence had been received there that an extensive
and formidable organization was going on in the United
States to aid the " patriots," as the rebels were called, in
their next attempt ; that about forty thousand of the loose
population of the States were already enrolled and pledged
to rendezvous upon a day to be named. It may be sup-
posed that when this intelligence, of which some vague in-
dications had been some time before received, came in a
shape, and from a quarter, which left no room to doubt
its authenticity, the greatest sensation was produced.
As a sample of the intelligence received at Que-
bec, we may quote a letter, from a most respect-
able individual at St. John's, dated the 11 th of Octo-
ber :—" The plot thickens around us ; having attained
to a state of maturity which three months ago would have
been deemed incredible. And yet, even now, many un-
acquainted with passing events are slow to believe the facts
to which the ears, the eyes, and the observations of us on
the spot, bear testimony. lam persuaded, however, that
present and permanent security may be attained by the
adoption of a simple and politic system in the re-organiza-
tion of the militia. . . . Our friends at La

Colle and Odell Town are in a desperate fright, but I
must confess that I think them inclined to magnify the
threatened danger. About L'Acadie the Loyalists are in
a much worse plight ; indeed 1 should not be astonished
to hear of some atrocity in that vicinity. Colonel
Taylor, the Military Superintendent of the St. John's
district, has, however, his eye constantly on the pro-
ceedings that occur ; and as he has established the
means of obtaining speedy and accurate information, it
is hoped that he will be able to defeat the plans which are
in progress." New York is the spot in which the rebels
hold their councils. A letter from that city, of the date of
November 11, from one who had peculiar sources of in-
formation, stated that " immense numbers of persons are
enrolled all along the frontier, who are to take part' at the
proper time,' that is to say when all is ready for another
attempt. The numbers employed on both sides of the lines
and in various towns this way (New York), amount to
60,000. There are plenty of people here deeply engaged
in keeping the flame alive." From the language in these ex-
tracts our readers will see that those who had the best op-
portunitiesfor knowing were persuaded of the existence of an
extensive organization. All these enrolments, however,
are to be understood as contingent for their effect on
events ; and it may happen that the measures adopted in
Canada may have the effect of reducing the probabilities
of success so much that the adventurers of the United
States may deem it advisable to hang back. We learn
that the 2d Dragoon Guards, Colonel Cathcart, left Three
Rivers on the 15th of October for Chambly, which is
getting into a very bad state. It was intended, however,
that the regiment should winter there. It had been some
months at Three Rivers, and so well had it behaved, that
not one complaint of a riot or desertion of any description
was made during all that time. Lord Durham could
not with propriety have proceeded through the States,
after the receipt of the intelligence to which we have
alluded ; and we are, therefore, of opinion that he
has acted wisely in abandoning his first intention.
However friendly may be the tiisposition of the Go-
vernment of the Union, it must always be borne in mind
that the general Government possesses slight control over
the people of the several States ; 'and as it is possible that
the Yankees may be implicated in the meditated insurrec-
tion, his presence at Washington or New York would in
snch a case be very untoward. His Lordship was to sail
from Quebec by the Inconstant the end of October or be-
ginning of November. The accounts received from Li-
verpool last night are, as our readers will see, in accordance
with the intelligence which we have received direct from
Quebec. The excitement at Quebec and Montreal was, as
may be conceived, very great ; and the British inhabitants
were fully impressed with the belief that a civil war was
close at hand.—Morning Chronicle.
It is not, we are bound to confess, without some appear-
ance of reason, that so many of our correspondents have
addressed letters of complaint on our seeming disregard of
the melancholy intelligence brought to us by each daily
post from the seat of (miscalled) "government," as well
as from the seat of (still more unfitly named) " war," in
the Spanish Peninsula. The Government is Anarchy ; the
war is butchery. The Anarchy of Madrid is without the
excuse of patriotic zeal : the butchery in the provinces is
without that of military passion. Both capital and provinces
are stained by the most horribly cold-blooded, vindictive,
selfish, and measured cruelties. To dwell upon the details of
each day's crime in that country, abandoned as it is by
Heaven, and scorned and reprobated by the 'good and wise
among all nations of the earth, would be utterly disgust-
ing, if it were not vain and unprofitable. Not an hour
passes that would not fill volumes with records of sangui-
nary treachery and manifold baseness, revolting to human
nature. Nor is the practice of these fiend-like abomina-
tions confined to either set of bloodhounds by which the
realm of Spain is disgraced and torn to pieces. Carlists
and Christinos are much alike for that. The tiger spirit
of Cabrera was first roused to fury by the wanton massacre
of his unfortunate mother. But his vengeance appears not
to have been quenched by the retaliatory sacrifices which
he inflicted upon her murderers. Fresh offences, though of
minor atrocity provoked him to successive reprisals in kind,
and his name, with what accuracy of truth we know not,
now stands foremost is the accounts, whether public or pri-
vate, from that country, as an individual shedder of human
blood. This may, perhaps, be a comparative slander upon
Cabrera, who in the field of battle has entailed :so much
mischief upon the cause which assumes to be that of
" liberty" as would explain the eagerness of an enemy
less prepared for fighting than calumniating to cover
with obloquy the name of one whose sword has in-
spired them with terror. But if not the foremost of
military executioners among Spaniards, he is one, at
least, among the many, no one of whom is innocent.
With regard to the Christinos, the appetite for murder
has laid hold, not of one or two fierce and unre-
lenting leaders of that faction, but has actually infected
whole masses of the people with a thirst for the blood of
their helpless and unresisting fellow-creatures. At Barce-
lona, at Saragossa, in Madrid itself, the degenerate multi-
tude, in their paroxysms of cowardly persecution, can be no
otherwise appeased but by the sight of unarmed prisoners
shot in companies, or lodged in dungeons, to be led out for
slaughter on the first convenient day. As for the Govern-
ment, how is that composed ? And by whom, or by what
power, supported ? Its Ministers are changed weekly—if
not at hap-hazard, they are named under the dictation, as
is imagined, of puppet-movers behind the scenes, or by the
caprice or desperation of a woman not secure of her own
safety for twenty-four hours. Each Ministry in its turn
succeeds to place, without a particle of authority or influ-
ence over the stormy elements around it. The taxes, of
which it ought to be the receiver, are not permitted to ap-
proach the public treasury, being seized upon by the military
commander of each district to quell the insubordination of his
starving troops. The orders issued in the name of the Crown
to its Lieutenants arc treated by them with open contumely
and derision, every one of the latter claiming, like Lord
Durham, a dictatorship, and reviling the nominal Govern-
ment, as his Lordship has done, for the state of confusion
to which (he says) it has reduced the country. The greater
portion of the Spanish territory is, in fact, possessed and
ruled over by the commanding officers of the troops, who
seem to retain their several portions as perpetual fiefs of
the Crown, save that they hold themselves exempt from
the conditions of suit and military service, for nothing sub-
stantial in the shape of either have the Generals at the
bead of armies rendered to the " Constitutional" Sove-
reign. Then, as to the financial system of this thing,
nicknamed a " Government"—where is its treasury ?
where its credit ? what are its resources ? what its
means of existence ? It has none. Not so much as a
single dollar can this pretended " ally" of the Queen of
England's Whig Cabinet raise from any merchant or
banker in the world, were it to pawn the inheritance of
Queen Isabella's sceptre for the next five centuries. The
faith of Spain is notoriously so worthless, its principles of
public morality so depraved, that it has not left at this
moment the materials for fulfilling a single pecuniary obli-
gation to states or persons, be the amount ever so insigni-
ficant. And such is the creature of empty worthlessness,
profliffacy, perfidy, and cruelty to which the wisdom and
public spirit of the Whig Ministers have tied down the na-
tional energies of England, as to a carcass in the last stage
of decomposition—such is the channel through which, such
the cause for which,
the arms and warlike stores, a consi-
derable division of the navy, and some thousands of the
brave maritime forces of Great
b Bwriittbadinr,awhnavea,nddurdiinvgertthede
last three or four years, been
from objects of high national
ainmdpoartuatzer—ityfroimn tqhuearstuepr;
port of British ascendancy d
adretbsrtuiullgbseuriut-
where both have been deeply woun ed,
ously threatened, in the East of Europe,
.
andan
When the
among the
the whole of the Mediterranean and its coasts.
Duke of Wellington found this civil war
Spaniards raging, and his own hands tied
laying an
posterous rashness of the Whigs of 1834 from
up by the pre-
independent part, what was the course adopted
not terminate
illustrious warrior? Why, since he could ,
by that
*he war, be strove to humanize it. He did his utmost, by
treaty binding on both parties, to stop the ravages of
ferocity and cruelty, and to retard,' at least, the downward
progress of Spanish civilization. How, and with what
success, has Lord Palmerston trodden in the footsteps of
his great predecessor? Let the universality of cowardice
and murder throughout the whole Peninsula bear witness.
We trust that one of the first measures of the ensuing ses-
sion will be to save England from any further sacrifice of
resources or reputation through her unhappy league with a
worthless and irreclaimable faction, and in a cause now
admitted, on all sides, nay, announced by the Regent her-
;self, to be utterly desperate and ruined.—Times.