The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-16 00:00:00

address by Mr. Steele,. the mover, to the thrilling
fervour of whose oratory it is imposSible to refuse
our admiration, though we are under the necessity
in
some points of dissenting from.his conclusions. That
every man has a right to support from the soil on
which Providence has placed him, we consider _an in-
disputable truth ; but every man has also duties to
perform to society, and the community has fully as
much right to the exertions of a man, eroportionably
to his ability, as he has to be supported by that com-
munity. These rights are reciprocal. In a healthy
state of society these rights are mutually acted upon
without even the question of their abstracejustice being
mooted. The individual by his industry procures the
supply of his necessities, and sOciety.in return reaps
the benefit of his exertions. But it is only when the
individual is robbed of the fruits of his industry, or the
opportunity of employing it, that the abstract right of
his support from the soil forces itself upon the atten-
tion. We consider poor-laws, so far from being a
'realization of this right, as is implied by the mover of
the resolution, to be a-compromise equally injurious to
the individual and to society. By means of unjust
laws the individual is excluded from the means of pro-
curing subsistence, and then poor-laws are proposed as
a plenary relief. In such light we reject them with dis-
dain—nay, if it were not for the agonizing, the appall-
ing state of destitution in which a large portion of the
Irish people -arc plunged, whose wants brook no de-
lay, we should not even receive them as an instalment.
Man, no doubt, has a right to support from the soil—
lug poor-laws are not the consummation of
.this right
they are merely the. pittance of legal chanty, given
not so much. in regard to the wants of the poor as a
means of screening the property of the rich from the
assaults of pauperism made desperate by famine. Open a
field for which in Ireland there is ample scope, to the in-
dustry of the people—abolish the abuses of the Church
and Corporations, and let the law recognize no dis-
tinctions of religion or party—let justice be done by
impartial legislation, and an impartial administration
of the laws, which will heal feuds, restore tranquillity,
and develope the national capabilities ; this is the way
to establish and give practical effect to the right of the
individual to support from the soil, or rather from the
State. In a word, do justice to Ireland, and she will
neither need, nor look for the application of poor-laws
—of which the object, both at the first and now, was,
and is, rather to make people content with their degra-
dation, than to restore them to an independent exist-
ence.—Morning Advertiser.
" How is the King's Government to be carried on ?"
So asked the Duke of Wellington when the Reform
Bill was in progress ; and so asked the Duke of Wel-
lington's opponents when the results of the Reform
Bill are beginning to make themselves felt. His Ma-
jesty's Ministers, when Sir Hussey Vivian informs
them that their supporters in East Cornwall require a
pledge upon the ballot—when Lord Ebrington warns
them that the Liberals of North Devon are tired of the
House of Lords—when Mr. O'Connell forwards them
the resolution which pledges the Papist Parliament to
the establishment of the voluntary principle in Ireland
----4nust be inquiring one of another, with anxious cu-
riosity, "How is the King's Government to be carried
on?' A solution has been found for the difficulty, which
is strongly recommended by the ingenious Mr. H. Bul-
wer and the honest Sir W. Molesworth. "There are
some subjects," say these profound philosophers, " on
which Reformers are agreed—on these let us all follow
the course of the Government ; there are some subjects
on which Reformers differ—on these let us all fol-
low our own. The propriety of confiding charity
trusts to our own political partisans, the exclusive. right
of Liberals to sell seats in Parliament for two thou-
sand pounds, the necessity of disfranchising those elec-
tors who vote against our orders—these are important
matters,, on which we are all agreed, and on which we
can steadily co-operate : the introduction of the secret
suffrage, the extinction of the hereditary Peerage, the
abolition of the Established Church—these are trivial
questions, upon which some shadef of difference are
found to exist : let us consider them open questions."
The suggestion is original and curious. It is proposed
that Ministerial influence should be energetically ex-
erted, when measures arc introduced for the removal of
a local abuse, or the correction of a temporary incon-
venience ; and it is required that Ministerial in-
fluence should be totally paralyzed when. schemes
are propounded for the abrogation of the whole
course of our ecclesiastical discipline, and the demo-
lition of the entire fabric of our civil institutions.
We wonder whether his Majesty's Ministers, not
very clear-sighted, nor very considerate, have ever seen
or ever considered the real purpose with which their
sulky retainers and their angry friends recommend the
" open question" policy. Their professed object is union
—the avoidance of fatal discord between parties engaged
in the same cause. Is this the true object ? Look
back to the effect produced on Lord Liverpool's Cabi-
net by its recognition of the " open question " policy
on a single point. The Catholic question was made
the test of the liberality or illiberality of the political
crod of each Member of that Administration. The
pro-C'eholie was lauded, and:conciliated, and excused ;
the anti-Catholic was ridiculed, and-defied, and con-
demned—Mr. C',,lnning was claimed as almost liberal
enough for a Whig ;' Lord Eldon was anathematised
as almost too illiberal for a Tory. Did the distinc-
tions thus drawn tend to cement .an union between
the members of Lord Liverpool's Administration ?
Look back again to the effect produced on Earl
Grey's Cabinet by its partial adoption of the open
question policy on a single point. We allude
to the appropriation question ; for long before their
discord 'broke up .the Cabinet, the individuals_ who
composed it were known to entertain discordant sen-
timents upon that question, and asserted the right of
an. open avowal each of his particular views. The
inviolability of the revenues of the Irish Church was
made the touchstone of political merit by the support-
ers of the Government., To the appropriators was
attributed all the praise of whatever was popular : to
the anti•appropriators was ascribed all the guilt of
whatever was odious. Lord John Russell was early
designated as a fit ally of Mr. O'Connell—Lord
Stanley was early stigmatised as a worthy associate of
Sir Robert Peel. Once more, did the comparisons
thus provoked tend to cement an union between the
Members of Earl Grey's Administration ? Oh, no !
the Radicals do not desire to make the union firm,
but to make the disunion public. Establish the
" open question" policy let Sir Henry Parnell
vote for the ballot ; let Sir John Campbell move
the abolition of the Peerage ; let every hireling
of the Government select the particular topic on
which it may suit his necessities to be indepen-
dent of and wiser than his leaders : the immediate
consequence will be the apotheosis of all tine conceding
Ministers in fulsome panc!!yric and riotous applause
—the exposure of all the resisting Ministers to coarse
suspicion and malignant vituperation. When tine Ca-
binet, as a body, shall be neutral, and the Cabinet Mi-
nisters, as individuals, shall take their own course, woe
betide the Noble Lords and Right Honourable Gen-
tlemen whom Mr. Grote shall find personally hostile to
the ballot, whom Mr. O'Connell shall see personally
favourable to the Protestant Church I These arc con-
siderations, however, which would be more fitly urged
by those who wish well to the Government than by
those who rejoice' in its approaching downfall. It is
for us that if Sir Robert Peel is not Premier
before the cud of ,February, his walk to Downing-street
hardlyivill
be delayed by the adoption of the " open
question' policy,_-1 Morning
.Post.
The readers of our Journal are aware. that (Thrill,'
the last i egat or ter, days rumours prevailed in Paris of
some great calamity having befallen tine French arms
Constantine, with the Chief of in the attack upon
Gallic allies had con,
which cit:),,iciA igilueatrrßele!
t,hoiuuk,
lug
trived to they conld make an
easy capture of. the place, amid thus- add it to their
they have meditated to carry into
Algerine dominions, in pursuance of air extensive plan
of conquest which
effect along the southern shores of the Mediterranean.
The destruction of British commerce and maritime
power in that sea, both Prancin e and Russia—each for
herself, or, as it may be, both combination—hope to
While France, striving
achieve at no distant day. to
lay the foundations of an African empire at Algiers,
was meditating this revenge upon England, for having
been driven by British arms out of her conquests, both
in America and India, our incapable Ministry were as-
sisting to get her out of the scrape into which dishonesty

side

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1836.

and insolence had brought'her with the American Pre-- I
it. Subsequently, this same incapable Ministry.=
.ie antiquated and juvenile Whigs of Downing-street,
assisted by whatever influence they possessed the tyran-
nical and disgraceful policy of the French Government;
in bullyiks the little republic of Switzerland, and
making a most unwarrantable attack on its indepen-
dence. We copied some time ago from the Lausanne
G2zette what showed that our Whig rulers took care
that the Swiss Directory should know that they sym-
pathised, not with the victims of French treachery in
the affair of the spy Conseil, but with the perpetrators
of that treachery. In the mean time the same French
Government was maturing the plan for the future an-
nihilation of our trade in the Mediterranean ; and
having baited the diplomatic hook for our Foreign Se-
cretary with that alluring absurdity called the qua-
druple alliance, played him as a keen angler plays a
silly fish. How Louis Philippe and his Doctrinaires
must have enjoyed the sport of our sapient Foreign
Secretary, gorging the bait, and splashing and
floundering about on the end of the line, amusing
all Europe with hiS grotesque gymnastics I niers,
who had done the menial work of the northern
Powers in regard to Swiss independence, was allowed
to play the part of an interventionist in Spanish af-
fairs to a certain extent, for the purpose of keeping the
attention of Lord PalmerSton fixed on the Penin-
sula—the great scene next to the Netherlands for the
fantastic freaks of his peculiar genius ; but 'niers
• ha:ing overplayed his part, and, like some other
actors, having fancied himself to be really the cha-
racter which he was - only intended to mimic, was
dismissed from his situation as stage-manager to
the Citizen King, and the Guizots and the Moles
taken back again to play the • interlude of non-inter-
vention with new dresses and decorations. But
whatever changes took place in . the French .Cabinet,
the French plan of conquest in Africa was persevered in
with the most ambitious spirit'Aind unceasing activity.
One of the grossest delusions ever practised by one
" friendly" Government upon another was that prac-
tised by the Court of the Tuileries upon the Whigs in
respect to the foreign legion organised at Pau, and
which Lord Palmerston was made to believe was in-
tended to be sent across the Pyrennees to assist. his
Lordship's warlike non-intervention plans in Spain.
No rational mind can entertain a doubt that from the
beginning that army was organised with the intention
of being sent—where it ultimately was sent—to Algiers,
to " carry out" the plan of conquest meditated there.
It was professedly organized, however, for Spanish in-
tervention. So far it perfectly met the views of our
Government ;—and, when all was prepared, it was pre-
tended that the Citizen-King knew nothing at all about
its intended destination. To make this appear more
plausible, M. Thiers was dismissed. All the blame of
making those preparations without the knowledge of
Louis Philippe was thrown upon him. But what was
to be done with the newly-organised army ?—lt could
not be allowed to go into Spain ; it was not wanted
at home ; it never was intended for Algiers ;---but, on
the . whole, it was thought better that it should go to
Algiers than remain at home or go any where else,
and to Algiers it was shipped. There appeared to
our sagacious Ministers nothing of premeditation
about this. It was merely the transportation to a dis-
tant colony of a supernumerary force which the Go-
vernment suddenly found on its hands at home, and
had no other employment for. The whole thing was,
however, from the beginning, part and parcel-of
,the
long-cherished and deep-laid scheme of African con-
quest. The intervention story was only the dust
thrown in the eyes of our Government, yet it seems
superfluous to take that precaution with such purblind
politicians. Again the story of intervention was re-
vived, causing Lord Palmerston's spirit to rise and
sink with alternate hopes and feats—but the expedition
to Constantine was in progress, and the eyes of our
Foreign Secretary were fixed upon Bilboa. Fortune
has, however, done more to check French ambition in
that quarter than the prudence of our Ministers. The
despatch of Marshal Clausel will explain how. Gar-
bled as that despatch has been by the Government that
so reluctantly and by piecemeal issued it, enough ap-
pears on the face of it to show that a terrible and de-
structive fatality has befallen the French arms. Much
ridicule and sneering there was in the French Press,
even the Government Papers, upon the disasters of the
British Legion in Spain:. The military powers of our
Gallic allies has received such a castigation from the
barbarians of the desert as ought to abate its vanity.
Even while the expedition of Clause! was on
its march to the .anticipated conquest of Con-
stantine, the Arab cavalry of ,Abdel Kader carried
terror and devastation to the very gates of Algiers.
It was understood that a solemn pledge was given
by the French Government to the Wellington Admi-
nistration, at the period of the capture of Algiers, that
France intended to make no permanent settlement
there, and that no plan of conquest was intended. The
:Government of Louis Philippe, we need not say, has
grossly violated that engagement. , The line of coast
now bounded by the French settlements of Algiers and
Bona, is more than 300 miles in extent. Constan-
tine lies between, and, though somewhat inland, is ex-
ceedingly desirable for the purpose of consolidating
and strengthening the line of conquest, which is chiefly
valuable for its maritime advantages. Cannot Louis
Phillippe persuade our Whig Ministers to enter into
another Anglo-Gallic convention with him, for the
purpose of reducing the refractory Bey of .Constan-
tine, and extending the French conquests along the
shores of the Mediterranean ? By the former Anglo-
Gallic convention our Whig Ministers reduced Belgium
virtually to the condition of a province of France, for
which purpose France will use it, whenever she dares
to go to war with this country, in the hope of effacing
the memory of Waterloo. Why should not our liberal
Ministers " co-operate" with their Gallic allies in sub-
duing Constantine ? Perhaps the French think that,
if Lord Palmerston made a hostile demonstration
against Achmet Bey, his intervention, as in the case
of Don Carlos and the Portuguese anti-Peerage revo-
lutionists, would render him more flourishing and
more formidable than ever I We have said that dur-
ing eight or ten days before any official account was
given of the disastrous result of Marshal Clausel's
expedition, rumours of its defeat were afloat in Paris,
which may be traced to the ship Phare, that left Bona
on the 28th ult. Marshal Clause!, as the Courier
observes, describes the disasters of the army as hav-
ing commenced on the 21st ; so that there was suffi-
cient time for the authentic accounts to have reached
Bona, and thence be conveyed by the Phare to Tou-
lon, and telegraphically announced to the French
Government at the time when the unfavourable ru-
mours, which appeared from day to clay in our
Parisian correspondence, were first circulated in the
capita! of France. Now this being so, can any thing
be More disgraceful than the conduct of the Government
in withholding the intelligence from the public, and in
doubts upon it through their semi-official
orgevenans
h owi
Louis Philippe with
the high-sounding title of the " Napoleon of Peace."
hnlis flatterers dignify
The fate of his grand expedition to Constantine, the
city of Achmet Bey, which was intended to give
a different eclat to his reign from that of peace,
shows that he is not destined to become the Na-
poleon of war. Perhaps he is more deserving-of the
title of Napoleon of the Bourse than of either.
When the .koniteur did at last reveal a portion of the
official news, it ended with that part of the despatch
which strangely enough, states that "the expedition,
on its way from Bona to Constantine, encountered no
enem-y—no obstacle." Then the lucky intervention of
nightfall cut the thread of the story. It was resumed
the same night by the evening organ of the Govern-
ment, La Charte, which got as far with the
statement,
of the tragic narrative as the bursting the gate of Con-
stantine by the French artillery, and then only supplied
that significant little. adversative particle " but" to point
at the untold catastrophe, the tale being cut short by a
fortunate interposition of bad weather, just as the ex-
pedition itself was, if we are to, believe the official nar-
rative, which is curiously inconsistent with itself, in
saying that the expedition encountered no obstacle on
its way from Bona to Constantine, and then showing
that it had encountered such obstacles as put hors de
combat more than 3,000 men, before the expedition
came within sight of Constantine. But Marshal Clau-
sel ought not to be held accountable for the tricks of
the Doctrinaires, whose power this catastrophe has
dreadfully shaken.--Alorning Herald,

SHIPPIN

EAGENCE,

VESSELS ENTERED INWARDS AT THE CUs
TOM-HOUSE, DEC. 15.
The Sir R. Barclay, Aitkin, from Havre; Gleaner, 'Steb-
bles, Konigsberg ; Leda, Lyall, St. Petersburgh ; Ant, Pye,
Quebec; Eletheria, Wheatley, Quebec; Albion, Airtb,
Smyrna; George Canning, Gibbs, Memel; General Liver-
pool, Lomax, Ostend.
ENTERED OUTWARDS FOR LOADING.
The Gustaf, Eklen, for Gottenburg ; Caledonia, Whittin,r-
liam,. Hamburgh; Giraffe, Major, Rotterdam ; Rattlesnake,
Eloughton, Smyrna; Michael, Radson, St. Kitt's; George
Anson, Oakley, Naples.
CLEARED OUTWARDS WITH CARGO.

The Advena, Jameson, for Naples; Earl of -Clanoarty,
Williams, Rotterdam ; Catherina, Ballehr, Bremen.
CLEARED OUTWARDS IN BALLAST.
The Eole, Cavallo, for Gravelines; Edward, Zeplin, Got-
tenburg ; Johan, Lofton, Baltic.