The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-17 00:00:00

LOUIS PHILIPPE'S treachery only accelerated the
events it was intended to crush for ever. The poisoned
chalice has returned to his own lips, and he must now
quaff it without a mask. His attempts to betray the
liberties of Spain, and to involve Switzerland in a war
with the absolute Governments of Europe, are all
discovered.

Since the above was written, we have received pri-
vate assurances from a well-informed quarter, that the
Queen of PORTUGAL was always favourably disposed
towards the Constitution, and that at no time since her
accession would it have required force to cause her to
accept it. On the contrary, she has frequently
expressed surprise that the people did not call for it,
and as often stated that she would be delighted to
comply with their wishes. With the Constitution
given by her Imperial father to the Brazilians in 1823,
she is well acquainted. The change of Ministry, by
which the proclamation of the Constitution of 1820
was accompanied is an event of minor importance.
Count LUMIARES is mentioned as the new President
of the Council ; but nothing positive is yet known
respecting the reconstruction of the Cabinet. We
shall await with some anxiety the next arrivals from
Lisbon.

Among our extracts from the Madrid journals of
the 7th instant, will be found a remarkable article
from the Gazette of that date, officially contradicting
the various rumours respecting the insecurity of life
and property in the Spanish capital, which frOm time
to time appeared in the Moniteur and other French
Papers. The writer of this article deliberately asserts,
in the face of Spain and the whole world, that, since
the Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed in the capital,
no disturbance, except a drunken brawl between some
soldiers, has taken place ; that the Royal Palace is as
much respected, as it was in the most peaceable days
of the monarchy ; that the QUEEN-REGENT is not
subject to the slightest restraint ; and that, in a word,
all that has been published to the contrary, are pure
inventions of the enemies of Spain. This article is
written in a too vindictive spirit, for good to result
from it. Instead of conciliating, it will exasperate not
only the French Press but the Government.

The whole of the French Journals of Thursday
have been received. Their contents arc unimportant
in a political point of view. They contain, however,
various accounts from Spain, which will be found un-
der their proper head in another part of The Sun.

The Conservatives have been more busy within the
last few days than they have been for some months
past. They have been getting up a storm in a slop-
bason, with a success proportioned to the magnitude
of the tempest, in Essex, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and
Northamptonshire; and have succeeded in enlisting all the
respectable inhabitants of those counties under the ban-
ners of rampant Toryism. Such is their version ; but
as we are well acquainted with the Munchausen qua-
lities of the faction ; as we have a vivid recollection of
their " lies of the day," so indefatigably propagated
during the past Session ; of their anti-O'CoNNELL
calumnies and anti-MEL BouRNE insinuations, of course
we pay as much attention to their assertions, as we should
to those of a FERDINAND MENDEZ PINTO, whom
CONGREVE so lavishly eulogized as a " liar of the first
magnitude." It is not because a few zanies make
long, dull speeches at Beverley, Peterborough, and
Chipping-Ongar, that we are to infer that the counties
in which these towns are situated, are converts to
Conservatism. No, we are to look to the registrations,
and more especially to the sentiments of the majority,
and these, it is notorious, tell a far different story.
Our Tory Contemporaries, we perceive, dwell with
peculiar complacency on these Conservative Meetings.
According to them, there has not for years past been
such' an influential array of rank, wealth, intelligence,
and respectability, as was assembled last week at Be-
verley and Peterborough. Certainly the Meetings at
both these places were well attended, as far as mere
numbers are concerned ; but if common sense and right,
feeling are to he taken into consideration, never were
such arrant failures. Not a syllable was spoken worth
speaking ; not an argument advanced worth refutation.
This was particularly remarkable at Beverley; for there
a clergyman was one of the chief speakers ; and of
course the burden of his lamentation, was the dilapi-
dated state of Mother Church's finances. The good
old gentlewoman, observed the Rev. Mr. COLTMAN,
was in the most piteous plight possible, being " ever
the first object of attack in the crusades made against
the venerable and valuable institutions of the country."
We thank the Reverend Speaker for this 'word " cru-
sade." It is the most appropriate phrase he could
possibly have selected; for the crusades, it may be re-
membered, were wars carried on for the purpose of
rescuing the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of In-
fidels ; and in like manner the crusades of the Re-
formers against the Church are for the purpose of
rescuing it from the hands of Mammon. We have
no desire to destroy the Church ; far otherwise, we
desire only to purify it. We would not deface one
stone of the sacred edifice ; we would only prop up
those parts which are weak, and require strengthening.
But this, of course, the 'Conservatives will not hear
of. This, in their opinion, is downright sacrilege ; and
if such be indeed the case, then was MILTON, whom
Englishmen hitherto have been taught from their cradle
to look up to with a reverence bordering on idolatry,
one of the most sacrilegious wretches that ever lived.

The Rev. Gentleman went on to lament that " the
elergy of this kingdom were passing through a fiery
ordeal." We do not exactly know what Mr. COLT-
MAN means by this, unless it be a pathetic allusion
to the case of the Archbishop of CANTERBURY,
who, it may be remembered, passed through the Re-
form " ordeal" a few weeks since, and came out of it,
unsinged,- with fifteen thousand per annum in his
pocket—if this be the Rev. Speaker's meaning, surely
it would be more becoming in him to rejoice, rather
than shudder at, an " ordeal" attended with such sa-
tisfactory results to those who have already passed, or
may yet have to pass, through it ! But clergymen
are never satisfied.' Improve the Church ever so
much, or ever so little, still these rooks must have
their croak. Like the drummer when flogging the
negro, the Reformers are always hitting the parsons in
-the wrong place—either too high or too low.
The Earl of WINCHILSEA chaunted the same
touching ditty- at Peterborough that Mr. COLTMAN
' chaunted at Beverley. He too bewailed the afflictions
-of Mother Church, and sat weeping among the ruins
of_•the " ter! Irish Bishoprics,'.' like MARIUS among,
those of Carthage. We • had fallen -upon evil times,
observed this disconsolate Peer: The spirit of anarchy
was abroad; the very, air we breathed was tainted by it ;
but thank GOD there was still a Housd of Lords,
-which had registered a vow in Heaven to do its
best to clear our political atmosphere. His Lord-
ship must have surprising confidence in the obtuse-
ness of his hearers' intellects, to utter such nonsense
as this.

The Commissioners, we are happy to find, have
lost no time in setting the new machinery to work for
the commutation of tithe into a rent-charge. 'lt will
be recollected that the direct interference of the Com-;
missioners is not required, until it shall have been
ascertained that the tithe-owners and land-owners are
not disposed to avail themselves of the provision which
the Act makes for a voluntary adjustment of the mat-