The Sun.
London, England, 1831-09-06 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1831.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Lord Aberdeen, last night, prefaced his presenta-
tion of a petition from the merchants, manufacturers,
and ship-owners, concerned in the commerce of this
country with Portugal, praying for a renewal of the
ancient commercial relations between the two coun-
tries, with a long speech, or rather lecture, to his
Majesty's Ministers. According to his Lordship,
the intercourse with Portugal was subject to many
difficulties and dangers, which had been much
in-
creased by the conduct which his Majesty's Minis-
ters had lately pursued in regard to Portugal. He
contended that the present state of our connection
with Portugal, and the suspension of the friendly
and intimate relations between the two countries,
was most injurious to our own subjects trading with
Portugal, and also most injurious to the Portuguese,
and also exceedingly dangerous to the peace of the
Peninsula, and even to the peace of all Europe.
His Lordship then proceeded to lay down the prin.
ciples which ought to govern us in our foreign rela-
lations. To his position, that our concern is not
with the kind of Government a country possesses,
but with the conduct it observes with regard to us,
there can be no objection. Whether the Portuguese
like or dislike Miguel—like or dislike absolute Go-
vernment—this is no affair of ours. But his Lord-
ship thought this a favourable opportunity for eulo-
gizing the Portuguese for the satisfaction with which
they hug their chains.
" It was clear (he said) that the Portuguese did not
desire a free Government, but that was no reason why any
change should take place in our friendly relations with
that people. Mr. Canning had declared in almost the
last speech which he made in Parliament, that the people
of Spain were adverse to a free Government and Constitu-
tion, and the same might tie said of the people of Portugal.
We might rail at them for a superstitious and ignorant
race, but the fact was indisputable. And when they saw
what had been the consequences to those countries in
which revolutions had of late taken place, it was not to
be wondered at that they were averse to change. They
saw what had been the effect of the glorious days at Paris
and Brussels. They saw the bankruptcies that bad fol-
lowed, and the miseries which hail been produced by these
revolutions, and having seen these consequences, the Por-
tuguese might well hesitate before they followed the ex-
ample of France and Belgium. Then we ought to con-
sider whether our own attempts to introduce free
Constitutions into other States had been so successful as
to induce us to attempt the same experiment in
regard to Portugal. The Portuguese did not want
a free Constitution, and the attempt to impose such
a Constitution upon them would be like that of the father
who was determined to make his daughter happy by
compelling her to marry the man whom she of all others
detested. ' I am determined (said be) to make her
happy, if I break her heart for it.' "
God forbid that the Pottuguese should not in-
dulge their fondness for Don Miguel. But really it
is presuming a little too much on the ignorance of
his hearers, to attempt to persuade them their fond-
ness is the result of an enlightened comparison of the
state of things in Portugal, with the result of the
glorious revolutions at Paris and Brussels. The
Priests who have the upper hand in Portugal, did
not wait till the Revolution of July to evince their
love for Don Miguel. They discovered his many
excellent qualities long before that Revolution.
Don Miguel was popular with them from the mo-
ment of his return, and an easy explanation of this
attachment is to be found in his subserviency to
their interests, and the recent memory of the inter-
ference of the Liberals with tithes and Church lands.
Unfortunately for his Lordship and his political
friends, the hitch in the case of Don Miguel is their
own work, the delay in recognising him, which, ac-
cording to the petitioners, has been attended with
so much inconvenience, is chargeable on his Lord-
ship. Nay, the mo,t abusive language ever uttered
in Parliament against Don Miguel was tittered by
Lord Aberdeen. His Lordship's apology for the
man he branded as a monster, reminds one of the
sympathy of Burns with the Devil :
" O wad ye tak a thought an' men' !
Ye aiblins might—l dinna ken—
Still hat a stake."

He violated, indeed, the solemn promise he had
given at Vienna and in this country to his late Ma-
jesty ; but then, when he made these promises, he
was not aware of the fervency of the attachment
of his subjects to absolute Government. His seve_
rities, too, had been greatly exaggerated. In short,
he would have been an excellent Sovereign, but for
the unpardonable error of allowing himself to be
biassed in favour of Constitutional Government by
Prince Metternich and George the Fourth. But
be Don Miguel whom he may, if the people of
Portugal are determined that lie shall be their King,
it is not for us to controul theta. At the same time,
we fear the hopes of the Liberals, now suffering in
dungeons and in exile, were fed by the Government
of this country, so that we have always acted with
impartiality, and the Liberals have something like a
claim on us. It is pretty well known, that though
Mr. Canning sent a force to Portugal professedly to
repel the Spaniards, there was another object in
view—the encouragement of the Liberals. This
ought at all events to obtain from us some attempts
in their behalf. Still the principle ought not to be
lost sight of, that the settlement of the Portuguese
Government is no affair of ours. Lord Aberdeen did
not show that Ministers were to blame for any thing
that has taken place in Portugal. The Duke of
Wellington abused the French Admiral ; and Lord
Londonderry, on the authority of Sir J. Campbell,
abused Mr. Hopper our Consul at Lisbon, for seek.,
ing to overturn the Government of Miguel, and
imitating too successfully the language used by Lord
Aberdeen regarding him. Lord Londonderry read
the Duke of Richmond a lecture on discretion—a
virtue of which he furnished himself so bright an
example. But the discussion left us just where we
were with regard to Portugal. It was stated by
Lord Aberdeen, with regard to Spain, that for some
time past no country in Europe had advanced further
in amelioration, and was at present in a more rapid
progress of improvement.—Morning Chronicle.

We can conceive nothing more petty than the
attack made on Ministers, last night, for having
directed Messrs. Dawson, Drinkwater, and Saun-
ders, three of the gentlemen in the list of Com-
missioners, first communicated to the House on the
2d of September, by a letter dated on the 24th
August, to apply frit' information and ascertain the
boundaries of St. Mary's, Guildford. The Go-
vernment surely are not only justified, but bound
to endeavour to obtain the best information on all
matters connected with the Bill; and it matters
not a straw when the names of these gentlemen
were first named to the House as Commissioners„
if Ministers only employed them in doing what they
were at all times authoried to do. They were
not employed, said Lord Althorp, as Commissioners,
and had not the authdrity of Commissioners. The
Opposition, finding, themselves foiled in their at-
tack, resolved to derive some advantage from the
new light received by them ; and Mr. Baring Wall
had the littleness to say that he " wished it to be
known to the country that these Commissioners
had no authority, and that individuals were not
bound to give up their papers and documents tothem." The kindred mind of Sir B, Sugden caught
up this
suggestion, and he declared, too, that
" it was very material that it should be known that
the persons who were at present acting had no au,
thority but that of the Secretary of State." For
Gou's sake, let us do all in our power to induce
persons possessed of information to withhold as
much of it as they possibly can. Mr. Coker is un-
questionably a clever man, but it would seem that
he has the failing of affecting a peculiar ignorance of

every thing low, from the miserable ambition of
concealing that he is a low-born Irishman. His
ignorance of Russell-square has been the subject of
frequent remark. Last night he was again at fault
in the same way. Mr. Hughes Hughes remarked,
that Mr. Baring Wall seemed, to use the language
of another place, to have " found a mare's nest."
Mr. Croker " did not pretend to understand the
slang dictionary, and perhaps no Honourable Mem-
ber could give a be:ter definition of the words than
the Honourable Member." 0 no, Mr. Croker is
too high-bred to have any idea of what is meant by
finding a mare's nest. Mr. Croker will not, however,
prevent the world from giving him credit for a more
extensive knowledge of the language and manners of
St. Giles's than he wishes to claim. Mr. Hughes
Hughes, we will answer for it, possesses no supe-
riority over him in this respect. This hopeful sub-
ject is to form a special motion by Sir Charles
Wetherell, on Wednesday—he looking upon it as a
gross infringement of the privileges of Parliament.
—Morning Chronicle.
The importance of the Polish question seems to
have again vindicated its place in European estima-
tion; and surmises, or pretended facts, which beat
upon its ultimate solution, are once more the leading
features of the Journals of almost every part of the
continent. In looking through the contents of our
arrivals last night, French, German, Prussian, and
even Belgian, we find little else in them than state-
ments which, as the politics of each incline them,
lead us to hope that the struggle between despotism
and national independence of Poland is not yet en-
tirely hopeless, or that the triumph of oppression is
assured beyond the possibility of escape or compro-
mise for the cause of the patriots. But it is to be
deplored that, as the catastrophe of this awful drama
draws near, and the undoubted crisis of Polish ex-
istence appri aches, the information which we receive
of its progress becomes every day more contradic-
tory, confused, and unsatisfactory. The chronicle's
of the events of this extraordinary campaign
hitherto have been the writers in the Prussian
Stale Gazette, who seemed apparently to describe
all its phases with plausible accuracy ; but the
honesty of whose motives, as the paper is knows
to be under the strict controul of the Prussian
and Russian Governments, has been always
held in distrust. At one time there were Warsrru
Gazettes, which used to find their way to this
country, filled, of course, with the details of transac-
tions which were so interesting to them, and which,
though chargeable with a natural share of exagge-
ration, yet formed a set-off to the interested Prussian
Journals, and the truth might fairly be said to lie
between them. Of late this source of intelligence,
owing to the near approach, if riot almost actual in-
vestment of Warsaw by the Russians, has, however,
been entirely dried up, and we have had no other
guide to trust to in treading the maze of Polish war-
fare than the very doubtful and fallible writers at
Berlin. For some time past, we have mechanically
and most unwillingly re-echoed the statements in
the Prussian Slate Gazette, of disasters cumulated
upon each other to the Polish cause, the desperate
state of Polish affairs, the efforts of fraternizing Li-
thuania and in the neighbourhood of Cracow de.
feated, their strength neutralized by intestine di-
vision, and the capital itself made the prey of rabble
riot, murder, and intestine commotion. These state-
ment
s were repeated from day to day, and there
seemed to be no doubt but that the safety
of the Polish cause was very much compro-
mised. Very recently, however, we have had
the satisfaction of receiving assurances of a very op-
posite description, and, if any credit is to be attached
to them, there is still substantial ground of hope for
Poland. In the extracts which will be found from
the German Papers in another place, our readers
will find in the same column evidence to prove that
the Polish cause is at once in a triumphant and
desperate condition. The adverse account is this—
that General Paskewitsch, the Russian Commander-
in-Chief, having succeeded in bringing up the whole
of his tremendous artillery almost to the gates of
Warsaw, Skrzynecki, the late Commander-in-Chief,
became convinced of the futility of attempting to
make head against him, and therefore made over-
tures for a negotiation. Paskewitsch is represented
as not indisposed to treat, but the only conditions
which he offered were those of absolute surrender,
pledging the honour of a barbarian to use his good
offices in obtaining better terms eventually from
his Imperial Alaster for the Poles. Skrzynecki, it is
libellously added, was made sensible of the absolute
necessity of complying with these dishonourable terms,
and even some of the heads of the Government at
Warsaw had made up their minds to betray the sacred
trust, when luckily the popular ebullit.on burst
forth there, arid, it would appear, saved Poland.
Skrzynecki, whose virtue appears to have been
found fire-proof by a thousand trials, has been sus-
pected upon this occasion ; but it is impossible to
say with what truth or injustice. It is certain, how-
ever, that he has been removed from the command
of the army, and Dembinski placed in his stead.
The incorruptibility of the latter was beyond suspi-
cion, for it will be recollected that he lately, being
then a subordinate of the base Gielgud, cut his way
back from Lithuania to Warsaw with those of the
expedition who were not treacherous enough to fol-
loweni huGsiiealsgmud,:vsh
ei:lrple. It is to be hoped thg the
Dembinski's rieme might be sup.
posed capable in inspiring through the army, was
thought a sufficient reason for bestowing upon him
the chief command, without necessarily conveying
any imputation upon Skrs,yneclfi, who has great
claims upon the
gratitude of his countrymen. It
is ' even said that the appointment took place
with the concurrence of the late Coniniander,
in-Chief himself ; and from the valedictory address
which ho made to the army he seems capable
of any act of self-denial which can be reconciled
by a recompense of his country's good. Ks I.ltreat,
however, seems to have. diseceocerted Paskewitsch
very much, and from that moment the Russians
drew back from the capital, and the negotiations
have wholly ceased. Both armies are not? ia ;he
immediate neighbourhood of the capital, but in a
state of complete inaction; the Russians, it is said,
from an indisposition to attack till they are joined by
Rudigei s corps, which is expected from the outlf,
and the Poles from a tlegree, wove or less, of disor-
ganisatioa, which has necessatily ensued upon the
change of Generals. Such was the unfavourable ass
spect under which the Prussian Papers presented
the condition of the Poles. Hamburg Papers last
received contradict these statements altogether,
They deny the popular excesses which had been ate
tsibuted to 'Warsaw, the insubordination of the
people, or the disorganisation of the army. So far
from 10diger's being
able to crush the Polish i:i,e-
neral, who was said to have failed in rousing the
landstutm near (‘racow, and being able to join
stplu.
r:enkd, l s been beaten and driven int() the, Ail"
e territory,where he and his followers have
been disarmed by the authorities. Skrzynecki is
gone into Lithuania, and been sk.lc,i
C
the peasantry to rise the spirits
of
patriots
exciting
are onbrolten, and their hopes of ul-
timatesaeistitslflute
ol i(l
2 have
aCe tit'g
S as lively as ever. Concurrently with
the latter cheering intelligence, we And e :moo-
strance addressed by the commercial people of Igo-
nigsburg to the Kling of Prussia, against his par-
tiality to the Russians; and throughout the Prus-
sian territories generally, as well as in Hungary, the
sympathy for the Polish cause is said to he greatly
upon the increase. The conflicting nature of the

' accounts contained in these journals will increase
the impatience and anxiety which we feel for more
exact details. Amongst the miscellaneous contents
of the German and French Papers we find it stated
that the suburb of Pera, the chief residence of the
Europeans at Constantinople, has been entirely de-
stroyed by fire, with a lamentable loss of life as
well as property. King Leopold is said to have
applied formally to the Conference of London to
allow a portion of the French army to remain in
Belgium ; and that there have been some slight dis-
turbances at Paris in consequence of a sudden rise
which has taken place in the price of bread. The
Emperor of Russia and the King of Sardinia are
both said to be alarmingly ill. The French Mi-
nistry were daily acquiring new strength in the
Chamber, and every thing seemed to promise the
continuance of peace.—Morning Herald.
The accounts from Warsaw, by yesterday's Ham-
burg mail, are full of deep and melancholy inte-
rest. Two orders of the day are brought to tip by
the above conveyance, signed respectively by Ge-
nerals Skrzynecki and Dembinski, the former on re-
signing, the latter on assuming, the command of the
patriot army of Poland. Skrzynecki's address to
the troops is imbued in every line of it with a spirit
of generous and self-forgetting devotion to his
country's service, at the same time that it requires
from the soldiers, in terms of affectionate solicitude,
that they will follow the example he himself pro-
po,es, while fighting in their ranks, to set them, of
implicit obedience to the authority of the new com-
mander, and of unconquerable zeal and courage in
the cause of liberty. There is an apparent calm-
ness as well as modesty in all the public documents
that have been published with Skrzynecki's name,
which possesses an indescribable charm. But we have
heard it hinted, even by those of his own country-
men who unfeignedly admired that distinguished
chief, that the constitution of his mind was not fitted
for occasions which demanded extraordinary and
daring enterprise. They complained that he played
according to the maxims of every-day prudence, a
game in which success could be earned no otherwise
' than by the most audacious risks ; as if delay, with
the consequent stagnation of public spirit, and the
thousand chances of disunion and insubordination to
be expected from it, were not in itself a system
fraught with infinitely more peril for a small in-
surgent State, than for one of ten times its magni-
tude and physical power, with all her resources in
organized and active operation. However, Skrzynecki
will not be lost to Poland. He will no doubt have
important duties confided to him, and as an admi-
nistrative officer, when he has merely a plan to exe-
cute, not to originate, there is little fear of his fail-
ing to perform essential military service. Dembinski's
proclamation is full of buoyant confidence,—full,
also, of earnest eloquence, of patriotic energy, and
of promise to lead them (if we construe it rightly)
direct against the enemy, without giving him
longer time to repose, or the Poles them•
-elves any further leisure for distrust of their
own ability to beat him. The next intelli-
gence from Warsaw must be of surpassing mo-
ment. Already news has arrived from Cracow,
—but it requires to be more completely attested
than by private correspondence, however numerous
and respectable,—that Rudiger, having sustained a
decisive overthrow, has been driven to take refuge
on the Austrian territory, where the Imperial officers
were about to disarm his troops. if Austria act
honestly, beyond all question she must apply the
same treatment to the Russian fugitives as to those
from the Polish army ; and we will add, that it is
no more than may well be expected, on grounds
both of sound policy and principle, from the upright
and prudent character of the Emperor Francis, whose
moral obligations have, in general, when he ender-
stood them, been correctly fulfilled, and whose Hun-
garian subjects (we might go farther) are ready
to a man, to fight in defence of Poland. It is
not from the Court of Vienna that we apprehend
unfair measures for the re-subjugation to Ttussia of
that unhappy kingdom, or for arty serious hindrance
to the efforts of other friendly Powers on her be-
half. There is in the conduct of Prussia indeed,
enough to fill every friend of European security, of
recognized law, of public honour, 4nd of the rights
ef nations, with utter disgust and abhorrence. If Om
be any force or virtue in the principle, (as it is called)
or rule laid down by protocolsmakers, of non-inter-
vention to be observed between two Powers de jure'
et de facto independent, and if England and Franca
be parties to the establishment of such rules, we
must ask the Governments of both these great
countries, whether Prussia has adhered to them
throughout this contest bete een the Poles and Russ
sians ? If Prussia hare actually violated tha non-
intervention principie in all its partaasss--if she have, in
spite of the law and system of neutrality agreed on
by the five Great Powers, for the plain reason that,
besides the gross injustice, a breach of thte rale by
one Government is air invitation ts.., a general inter-
ference, that is, to 4 general war,—if we say,
Prussia have done this—refused all aid and countea
Dance to the Poles, nay, withheld the moss ordi-
nary rights of hospitality from the travellers of
other nations within the Prassian frontiers, while
on their route to Poland,—if Prussia,
harsh, inhospitable, and, indeed, inhuman, thus
wards one belligerent State, have not merely
furnished in abundance to the iseore powerful enemy
of that State, food, and necessaries, and various acs
commodations, but has contributed the most active
and important assistance, provisions, snores, con-
voys through her dominiees., every thing but an
actual and formal syraly in the field,—then, is it tea
much to assert that Prussia so acting has 4fiofded
to France and England the rnusat indisputable
grounds of complaint, and ii.;?oi-nplaint be unattended
to, of effectual --.'ounteraction by measures mote
coe:Nive The bold and unscrupulous manner, too,
in which Prussia has avowed this, breach of a gene-
ral contract between the Powers, adds insult to the
serious injury intlicied, and aggravates the painful
feelings With which every British and French states-
man nnist behold the treatment experienced by their
Polish neighbours, Without resting merely 04 the
question af e.:dreme right, how many and how
weighty are the practical considerations which urge
the Governments of “raat Britain and France
to make repri:al4 upon Prussia for her iniquitous
mea,velog, and to tell Russia, as Turkey
was told within these three years, " You must not
obstruct the commr.sce of Europe by cont ;titling tins
dreadful war in a quarter whence England (and
Prance also) has derived in s,easons of tranquillity
immense supplies of food 3 nor shall you endanger
Governmentsthat
the
t toetri
the repose of Europe, by prolonging a struggle out
of whieh may arise casualties so trying to the pas-
sions of men, that the people of .I.4trope will, sooner
taking
later,a
ri,anrsti
nitwit h
must give way, and in the issue the whole continent
s Their
strenuously,
will become one scene of terror and convulsion." if
ever a true Godssead came down to men, it has
beellthi gsatrid movement of the Pad: nation to
redeem itself from the most revoltieg bondage, and
to restore in the same boar to Europe her most effi-
cient and most precious barrier. If this opportunity
be lost by Great Britain, the lass may never be re.
paired. If from apathy or timidity she fail to profit
by it, the disrepute—we use no stronger word—will
be affixed to her for ever, It is not the mere
glory of saving a Christian people from extinc-
tion, nor the honourable anxiety to wipe out
a former stain from our flag, nor the solid and in-1
estimable good of re-adjusting, upon moral, sound,

---- -7-- ---1
and enlightered.principles, that equilibrium of inter-
national power towards whose destruction the par-
tition of Poland was the first effective step of the
last century, as certain clauses in the treaties of
1815 were notable imitations of that exemplary
model; but it is all these together—the achievement '
lostesta bi
isil character,me n t
otfhEe
urreoppae
upon her old foundations—all these, which England,
-,
roaf t i glory,
ot, of cruelthe
as we verily believe, has at this moment the faculty
ri en
jduermi
eps t, i
tohne or fe -
of realizing, if she will but speak a single word in
the ear of Russia, and of her obsequious and lawless
ally. We hope our Government will look to it in
time, and before a catastrophe befall the Poles, or
a final victory crown them; for in the first case, the
interference of England would be fruitless; in the
second, thankless. In either the grace of the act
of tardy virtue would be sacrificed.—Times.
An Evening Contemporary gives rather a strange
version of the condition upon which the French
Government have promised to withdraw all their
troops from Belgium, viz., a guarantee from the
oilier parties to the Conference to secure Belgium
from any further aggression by the Dutch. We are
gravely assured, moreover, that this information is
derived from an official and authentic source. Surely,
our contemporary must have made this announce-
ment without due consideration, or it would not have
represented France, one of the parties in the Con-
ference for the settlement of Belgium, presuming to
undertake a separate and armed interference, and
then demanding, as the condition upon which its
troops would be withdrawn, a guarantee from the
o•her parties that the ostensible object of this armed
interference should be accomplished. Unless with
the consent of the other parties France had no right
to march her troops in Belgium; and if with their
consent, upon what conceivable ground could she
now demand a guarantee from them before she with-
draws her troops ? While negotiations were carry-
ing on by the five Powers, of which France was one,
France could not take up an independent part with-
out a breach of faith, and a direct insult to the
other parties engaged in the Conference. In the
absence of any evidence to the contraty in the shape
of remonstrance, we are bound to take it for
granted that the entrance of a French army into
Belgium was an act sanctioned by the Conference,
as we are likewise bound to suppose with regard
to the continuance of that army in a kingdom
for whose settlement the other four Powers are
guarantees equally with France. The British Mi-
nistry is accountable for the entrance and the con-
tinuance of the French army in Belgium, unless it
can be shewn that it protested against such entrance
and such continuance; and if it did so,and that pro-
test have been unheeded by France, and she dares
to keep her army their in spite of our remonstrance,
and pi esurnes to ask of its guarantees before she
I will withdraw an army which she had no right to
order across the frontier except with our consent,
the course that we have to take is tolerably obvious.
We have indeed good reason to believe, notwith-
standing the "official and authentic" information of
our contemporary, that our Government has at last
found out that they have been the dupes of France
in the various negotiations and explanations which
have been so adroitly managed in London ; and that
however plausible might be the words of the French
authorities, the deeds of Fiance have shewn the
same lust of aggrandisement and contempt of na-
tional justice as before we last beat the French, and
obliged them to learn a lesson of brief humility
while our troops, arid those of our Allies, occupied
their capital. Our " official" contemporary will, we
suspect, very soon discover that ;f the statement of
the John Bull, relative to the last despatches from
our Government to that of of France, be not to
the letter correct, it is much nearer the truth than
that of France having had the audacity to demand
guarantees from the Powers with whom she must
either act in concert or prepare foc war.—MorninP
Post,