The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-19 00:00:00

sidered the power of seizing a man's person, and incar-
cerating him for debt, as a slavish brand, a stigmatising
solecism in a free country. It did not exist among our
Saxon forefathers,—no man dared to touch the person
of a free man. It was introduced, like every. other
slavish badge, by the execrable horde of French ban-
ditti—nameless, or aliases—vomited from gaols, and
fresh from the pillories of Normandy, whom the great
Norman robber, William the First, brought to this
country. The law bears more resemblance to the bar-
barous legislation of China, or of ancient Egypt, where
the embalmed body of the debtor was imprisoned for the
satisfaction of his creditor's claim, than tliit of a
Christian land. It is as unjust as impolitic, since
it confounds misfortune with guilt, and poverty
with crime, while it palsies the inclinations of the
honest debtor to pay by subsequent exertion. It
may be. said that the .law checks extravagance—we
say, on the contrary, that it encourages extrava-
gance, by creating a system of thoughtless, reckless,
and indiscriminate credit. The chances are two to
one, says the calculating tradesman, that so and so, in
the way he lives, will not be able to pay in time. I
must therefore charge him double, and bring him up
to the mark by menace of arrest. Society would reap
inestimable advantages by the abrogation of this bru-
tally stupid and self-defeating feudal law, which has no
terror whatever for the dishonest insolvent, who con-
tracts debts without intending to pay, and therefore
does not care what he is charged for goods—they
will be cheap to him at any price, since he is pre-
resolved, by means of the machinery of the Insolvent
Court, to have them for nothing. In case the law were
abrogated, tradesmen would not give credit, and what
would be the consequence ? Requiring and obtaining
ready money, they would lower their prices to the scale
of a fair average profit, and they would thus benefit
their customers and themselves, while they would es-
sentially relieve the distress of the poor, who suffer
severely by the artificial elevation of price, caused
directly by credit-s-but indirectly by the law of arrest.
—Morning Advertiser.
We do not envy the feelings of Lord Palmerston.
Surely he must, if accessible to the motives that influ-
ence other men, feel that his reckoning has run out,
and that the national honour and interests demand his
retirement. There are two countries in Europe in
which he has had unlimited sway—in which he has over-
turned
the ancient form of Government, and estab-
lished a fanciful system of his own ; and what has
been the results both in Spain and Portugal ? In the
one a reign of terror has been set on foot—murder and
rapine stalk the land ; and in the other the train has
just been laid for the commencement of similar enor-
mities.
The monarchical principle has been put aside
in both, and a new phantasy of the popular will, re-
presented by the dregs of society, clad in the uniform
of national guards, has been erected in its place.
Either the Noble Lord has willed these things, and
has been an agent to produce them, or they have oc-
curred without his participation, but in consequence of
encouragement which he has given by preceding
acts. In either case lie is equally dishonoured. He
has to choose between crime or incompetency. We
will pass by Spain for the present, and glance at
the course which he has pursued respecting Portugal.
We found the people of that country either strongly
devoted to or acquiescent under the Government of
Don Miguel ; but, disresterding their feelings, lie sent
a hostile expedition in British vessels, made up partly
of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and the pressed men of the
Azores, which landed and took possession of Oporto.
When that expedition was in the last . extremity, be-
cause the people of Portugal refused to haVe anything
to do with it, lie supplied it with illegal assistance in
every possible shape. Recruiting was allowed to go on
in defiance of the Foreign Enlistment Bill. Vessels
were fitted out in the Thames—arms and ammunition put
on board them from the Tower; an English navy and
au English army were created ; and finally the Govern-
ment of Don Miguel was overthrown by English mer-
cenaries—the great event that led to it, namely,
the capture of the fleet, being altogether done by
an English Captain and in English bottoms. For
what was this breach of all international law
committed ? To gratify the vanity and private pique
of the Noble Lord—to place his favourite Donna
Maria on the Throne. From that moment Portugal
and all that belonged to it was his. He disposed of
the legitimate Sovereign, and took possession of his
ally on Carlos. He patronized the Queen, and in-
duced the foolish English public, on the strength of
his moral aid, to give eleven million pounds sterling to
be shared among her followers. He became responsi-
ble fur the conduct of the Government, -for the fulfil-
ment of its engagements, and for its continuance in
that course which entitled it to a place among the re-
cognised Monarchies of Europe. If at the moment.
when enthusiasm, owing to the misrepresentation of
the public press, was at its height in this country in
favour of Donna Maria, any person had said the re-
sult of all that was doing would be the revival of the
Constitution, how anxiously would his Lordship have
stood forth to declare it was a base calumny to say so.
Nay, how often did he. rebut anticipations of that na-
ture, and tune his soft accents in praise of a Monarchy
founded, not upon a Democratic Constitution, but on
the Royalist Charter of Don Pedro. But he was the only
person deceived—if, in order to avoid the imputation of a
wilful crime, we admit that he did not calculate on the
revival of the Constitution. Every other Statesman
acquainted with the Peninsula knew that when once
discord was let loose, and the principle by which the
Monarchy has hitherto been supported was abandoned,
that the savage emigrants would gain the upper hand,
and elevate themselves on the ruins of their country.
The result which had been so often predicted has just
taken place. The very refuse of society, into whose
hands Lord Palmerston has put arms, have demolished
the:gingerbread fabric of the Charter, and compelled
the Queen to agree to the Republican Union of
1820. The British Minister is at Lisbon, but his
voice is not heard—the British fleet is in the Tagus, but
no assistance is given to the Queen. She is made a pri-
soner in her Palace. The Ministers who have been no-
minated at our instance are prevented having access to
her. At the very point of the bayonet her consent is ex-
torted. Is it to produce this result that Lord Palmerston
has laboured so incessantly, and provoked the enmity
of all the great Powers ? Is he weak enough to ima-
gine that England, whose confidence he has so much
abused, will be willing to rush into a war for the sup-
port of such atrocities ? It is clear that the Repub-
lican system cannot be permitted to exist in Spain and
Portugal. It is the act, not of the people,-but of a
few grasping emigrants and their adherents, collected
from the dregs of society. The repose of Europe
cannot allow so disgraceful a precedent to he esta-
blished, and we are certain, whenever the determina-
tion to set it aside is made, that the common
sense of the English people will rejoice at the
event, and will not allow its Whig Government to rush
into a war for the protection of this revolutionary
charter. We have already paid severely for our in-
tervention. Eleven millions in the course of three
years have been absorbed by the Portuguese plun-
derers and the stockjobbers who set them at work.
.We stated in a late article that the Republican party
in France que la jeune France was in correspondence
with La jeune Espange and La jeune Portugal. Al-
ready has our 'assertion been made good. The move-
ments in Spain and in Portugal have been planned at
Paris. The wicked faction that seeks to set all Eu-
rope in disorder has for the moment constituted the
Peninsula its nursery, from whence the seeds of agita-
tion are to be transplanted to Germany, and afterwards
cultivated with more care in their native soil. But,
thank Heaven, there is a. power. superior to it inherent
in all settled Governments. Its origin and extent have
been fully developed. It remains for the power of le-
gitimacy, combined with order, to put it down. Spain
and Portugal exhibit a melancholy picture, galling in
every sense to British pride and to British interests ;
but still there is a andconsolation,
of the v
thatina\ybheig givei
in a few words--the incompetency
Go-
vernment, so fully displayed both at home and abroad,
that its existence can be no longer tolerated.—Morn-
inn- Post.

A tremendous storm of thunder and lightning, ac-
companied with rain and hail, passed over Willingale Doe, in
the afternoon of the 6th inst., between one and two o'clock,
and the electric fluid striking an oak timber tree, about 7 feet
in;girth, shivered it from the top to the bottom, some of the frag-
ments being thrown a distance of 45 yards northward, and
others about 50 yards in an easterly direction.—Essex Herald.