The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-13 00:00:00

the way of the wind of public sentiment set. Such was '
the state of Affairs when that very able—and to give it due
praise—that very diligent paper contrived to get posses-
sion of one of the fetters. He would now advert to what
wet said in the TiMes of yesterday.—(Cries of " Oh !"
and some murmurs.) He heard some gentlemen entirmor
—no wonder ; they knew that he wa-e c.l.!,.iUt to e,l);-:tv that
the cr'im'es hed puldshed a letter of which Ministers knew
no more than be had learnt of it when it was read to him
in a burry.—(Cheers.) He took the cuts of •' Oh !" as
a mark of the suprise of Hon. Gentlemen at the conduct
of their own friends, and their modest unwillingness to
give him the effect of their voices. He was tracing by
the newspapers the course of public opinion—and what
did it say yesterday ? '• The King of Holland, it appears
by Tuesday's debate, has been charged with something not
tar short of perfidy, for attacking Belgium without notice
I,f any such design.' Such was the gloss public opinion
lett upon the speech of Earl Grey. " liut (it went on)
the Duke of Wellington affirmed that his Dutch Maj,•sty
had appriSed the conference time enough for such an inter-
position as blight have stopped the march of the French
ti-oopg, that he did intend to support his negotiations by
arms. This was denied in the House, and on high
tiothority, it being alleged that some of those who had
access to the Dutch King's letter could not agree in
giving it such an interpretation." He requested the
House to mark what followed—" We have the terms
of the dispatch before us, and those of our readers who
can ferret out mysteries, where we for our part do not
see any, are now at liberty to judge for themselves." This,
let it not he forgotten, was the very paper which a day or
two before had been t,lking of duplicity and perfidy, on the
authority of Ministers.—(Cheers.) The paper then quoted
the letter referred to in the debate in the House of Lords
and proceeded thus:—" Now, from the above and other
passages of this remit, kable letter, we are compelled to say
that the King of Holland cannot with any fairness be ac-
cused of an intention to di-guise from the Powers in con-
ference the nature of his hostile policy towards 13 •Igium."
The moment this candid organ of public opinion saw the
letter which the Noble Lord did not see, it changed its
opinion, and scrupled not to avow the change, it went on :
—" He said that he had resolved on employing arms si-
multaneously with negotiations, at the very time when he
was sending M. de Nyevelt to this country, who in fact
was the hearer of this very letter. On the point, there-
fore, of alleged bad faith, he appears to us to be altogether
blameless." Such was the verdict of public opinion ; and
what he complained of was this—that Ministers, by their
silence on a subject which was then pending, but which
could not be at all importantly injured by a different course,
had drawn down a most unjust degree of odium on the King
of Holland. Ii they had behaved with the same fairness and
candour• towards that Monarch which they would have oh-
served towards any gentleman, even a political antagonist,
they would not have allowed the imputation to remain for
a week unanswered, and delayed, so injuriously the amende
honorable.—(Cheers. ) He was aware that he had troubled
the House a great deal too touch upon this subject, but
• be considered it most urgent that the matter should be
put upon its right basis. He thought the House would
agree with him, that he had at least made out a case of
injustice and cruelty towards the King of Holland, and it
became Ministers to explain the share they might, perhaps
involuntarily, have had in creating that cruelty and in-
jus,ice.—(Much cheering.) He should move for a copy
of the letter of the Ist August—lie could not ask for that
of the 2d August, became the Noble Lord had it not in
his head, much less in his office.—(Laughter.)

The question having been put,
Lord PALMERSTON said—The Right lion. Gentle-
man having come here to deliver epigrams, has very ap-
propriately concluded with a bull ; wishing to prove some-
thing by a letter of the second of August, he moves for a
copy of a letter of the first.—(Hear, and laughter.) I
think the House has seldom had all opportunity of hearing
a more illogical speech or a more Irish motion.—( Hear,
hear.) I shall not be able to comply with the Right Hon.
Gentleman's wishes, for obvious reasons ; for although the
paper may have been printed in the public journals, we
cannot pick out this document from the rest unless we are
prepared to submit to Parliament the whole series, display-
ing the course of the negociation. lam not about to
enter into any explanation, much less into any defence,
of the numerous and long quotations the Right
Hon. Gentleman made from the newspapers.—(Loud
Cheers.) I can assure him that I, for one, do not
write in the newspapers.—(Hear.) I ant neither editor nor
part proprietor of any newspaper—(Cheers)—and I do not
pretend to be responsible for any thing that appears in
those channels of information.—( Hear, hear.) Another
thing—l shall not he led away by the attacks of the Right
Hon. Gentleman, however they may have been accom-
panied by the most unreserved declarations of personal
friendship. He has certainly taken a very extraordinary
(though possibly to him satisfactory) mode of display-
ing his regard for me.—(Cheers.) He has indulged
himself, if not the House, with a speech of at least an hour
and a half—(Cries of " two hours !")—two-thirds of that
time having been occupied very agreeably to him, and cer-
tainly not at all disagreeable to me, in personal attacks
upon me ; he has charged me with all sorts of loose con-
duct as an individual and a Minister—with carelessness
out of office and negligence in it—with absence from my
post—with betraying the interests of my country—with
injustice and cruelty to an independent Sovereign, and
other trifling offences of the same kind ; but they were
prefaced by the most flattering demonstrations (as far as
declarations can be considered) of personal esteem and re-
spect, with a design of drawing me into a discmsion of the
whole Belgic question,—(,, No, no ! Hear, hear !") He
did what in hint lay by provocation, accusation, and,
what is worse, exculpation ; for I can forgive him any
thing better than his exculpation—(lt-as, and laughter)
—but were I to advert to many of the points he has
touched, I must necessarily enter into the whole of the
transactions—a course which, as a Minister of the Crown,
I feel myself bound to avoid. I think he might have
acted with greater credit to himself, and with more ad-
vantage to his country ; but it seems that in the absence of
the principal performers, he has been to-night allowed the
whole benefit to himself.—(Much cheering and Isughter.)
lie has given us a display, part tragedy, part comedy,
and part tragi-comedy, and I wish I could encourage him
by stating, that be sustained each portion with equal suc-
cess. Every body knows that he is an exceedingly happy
joker—happy sometimes in his self-satisfaction—and erliUe
he confines himself to the light and comic strain, he makes
himself Agreeable to everybody ; but he must not attempt
too much versatility ; he may be a good Statesman of all
work, but I assure hitn that he is not a good actor of all
work, and in his attempts at the heroic he is apt to con-
found pathos with bathos, and over le ips the narrow bounds
between the sublime and the ridiculous.—(Much laughter.)
I recommend lino, therefore, in future if he wish to pre-
serve his reputation, to observe the rules he has himself
so well laid down in some of his earlier and fugitive pro-
deletions on the dramatic art, to cease to vex the grander
passions of the soul—
s. To leave high tragedy and stick to farce,"
lie will yet afford us much amusement ; if it be not very
rational, it will at least be very entertaining.—(Continued
cheers and laughter.) However he may have performed
his part, I apprehend that be would better have performed
his duty as a Member of Parliament if he had acquiesced
in the course so judiciously pursued by the Hon.
Baronet (Sir R. Vyvyan), who postponed the discus-
sion of these transactions at this most important and
decisive crisis. I leave him, however, in full posses-
sion of whatever advantages he may gain by this
forward movement—this resumption of hostilities—this
breaking of the armistice ; and he shall not drag me into
a debate upon the conduct of the King of the N. ther-
lands, or into a defence of our own. If I could prove that
the Dutch King had acted in au unbecoming manner, I
should refrain from doing so, because I feel that his Go-
vernment has been unfortunate, and that it is entitled to
respect and forbearance. —( Hear, hear.) I had, there
fore, rather lie under the enormous weight of the Right
Hon. Gentleman's imputations—the unendurable burden
of his charges—than run the risk of doing that which
might be considered even unhandsome to the King of the
Netherlands. I beg to say that I never charged his Go-
vernment with perfidy. I stated facts to the House, not
opinions; and I again say, that I am not answerable for
the extracts which the Right Hon. Gentleman has had
leisure (and long may he enjoy it) to cull front the news.
papers.--(Hear, hear.) I shall not follow him through
the statements he I:as made ; but the fact is, that while
the Right lion. Gentleman end his friends were in office,
previous to the 17th November, an armistice, or a sus-
pension of arms, was agreed upon, which has now been
oken by the Dutch Government. I will state the fact,
yet the Right Hon. Gentleman asks,
and leave it to others to draw the inference. When did
that you had no notice that they
when, on the Wednesday following a
the Dutch King renewhostilities ? On Tuesday, the
re,to you communicating the fact r-
-2,,dcoafnAyt,iguuspt
r;etaeriiital
bnreeewatdeldte Right Hon. Gentleman's method of
let
slrd
mbwaeays
reasoning, but let me tell biro that it is not consistent
with the ordinaryonly rulessay,that
a logict ifhe
thatu
ras
une rat t iscue
such
should u t
course
in time which is given a day after the event.—(Cheer-
ing.)
in this House, and gives his notices of motions the day
after he has made them, he will obtain a most decisive ad-
vantage over his adversaries.—(Laughter.) That advan-
tage the King of Holland expected to obtain ; for the
fact ir, his notice of intending to break the armistice did