The Sun.
London, England, 1822-12-27 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL JOURNALS.

( From the Ear!, Gazette of Dec. 25. )
The firm, consistent, and honourable line of
conduct, pursued by our Government, in regard to its foreign
relations, and the unsophisticated rectitude of the British coun-
sels, as opposed to the crooked policy and clashing interests of
continental diplomatic intriguers, have at length wrung, even
from the most determined opposers of his Majesty's Minister,
a comprehensive but reluctant approval. The great organ of
the faction* has owned, and truly " the zeal, firmness, and
temperance," which distinguished our representation in the
congregated councils of nations—has been compelled to admit
that the fears so loudly expressed and so widely promulgated,
that the honour of our country would be tarnished by a coali-
tion with unrestricted rulers, were vague and unfounded—
that the justice, wisdom, and honour, of Britain are ma.
nifest to the world; and her immense importance in the
scale of nations acknowledged by all the powers of Europe;
since her single d4ennination is found of sufficient force to
restrain, at least for a time, the will of those who fear the
freedom of mankind ; and to sway effectually the concentra-
ted governments of half the civilized world. The truth of all
this has long been felt by a vast majority of the thinking part
of the people of England ; but it has never before been avowed
by the oracle of the right or wrong opponents of administration.
Their praise or blame, it is true, is but of little value, and as
we have invariably treated the latter with measures less con-
tempt, we will not be silly enough to exult in the former; but
we will avow an honest pride in the conviction that the prin-
ciples to which we are devotedly attached—that the measures
which, for the sake of our country—for the sake of mankind,
we hope to see triumphant over domestic malice and foreign
envy—evince in the hour of trial such simple purity and native
strength as to extort, even from their most determined adver-
saries, an unwilling homage—the homage which faction's-self
cannot withhold from integrity, wisdom, and fortitude. To
this country, the abode of so much radical discontent and mis-
chievous machination, the dwelling, the home, of more of God's
blessings than all the world beside can boast or hope for, to this
favoured land mankind stand indebted for deliverance from the
curse of anarchy and atheism ; and to her alone will the grati-
tude of posterity be due, that ignorance, superstition, and sla-
very, are not again permitted to enthral and fetter the march
of the human mind. Alike opposed to tyranny and treason,
she stands the dignified and honoured mediatress between the
dangerous extremes of national error, and labours to reconcile
and harmonise the evils and discords which afflict mankind.
Whate'er her faults, whate'er her giddy factions, never let
her sons forget that all the revolutions which convulse society,
and destroy the peace and happiness of other nations would
cease and be as nothing, were those countries ruled by just such
a government, just such laws, just such a constitution, as Eng-
land is at this moment in full and perfect possession of.

The approaching meeting of all sorts and conditions of men,
in the county of Norfolk, to " take into consideration the dis-
tresses of Agriculture, antf the best means of relieving them,"
it is said will be conducted upon a new principle, as it is intend-
ed to confine the business of the meeting to the subject for
which it is convened. We put but little faith in the report.
For, however sincere the promoters of the requisition may by in
their wish to exclude any extraneous or irrelevant propositions ;
we so well know the disposition of the turbulent advocates of
what they call reform, that we do not believe they will permit
the day to pass without obtruding their contemptible crudities ;
nor suffer a matter of real importance to be calmly de-
bated. They will spout forth their fool-hardy fantisies
and unconstitutional quackeries. To desire a county meet-
ing free from such debasement, argues wisdom ; and if
the wish be accompanied by firmness on the part of

• If at the time we felt dismayed at the result of the Verona
Congress, and, in common with our countrymen, deplored con-
sequences which could, not fail to involve us, and tarnish. our
national honour, in the same degree do we now feel elated at
the change that has taken place, which bids fair to render the
Paris negociation the
_most successful of the kind in which we
have yet been engaged in the course of the present eventful
century. The result has been a triumph on the Fart of principle
and good faith, over deep-laid machinations covered with an
alluring garb, and managed with all the craft and finesse of
which a refined diplomacy is capable.—( Morning Chronicle.)

those really interested, one step towards a reform will be
gained ; a reform in the conduct of county meetings which
may probably rescue the valuable privilege of meeting
to deliberate on evils, and petition for their redress, from the
detestable denomination of landless brawlers, and many-acred
demagogues, and afford men of all parties an equal opportunity
of enjoying a common right : an indulgence which the lovers
of liberty have hitherto carefully excluded every man from a
participation in, who did not happen to be entirely of their
way of thinking. Devoted friends to the constitutional
liberty of the the subject, and foes to tyranny in every
form, we execrate and abhor the shameful practice
which has too long prevailed of branding with opprobium,
men, who never knew dishonor ; and stigmatizing as tools
of corrupton, all who disdain to make tools of the mob. If the
meeting at Norwich would redeem itself from this reproach
instead of hooting and railing and reviling; let it hear and rea-
son and if it can refute. If any of those who will still be prating
forget good manners in their talk, let the general voice of indig-
nation convince the slanderers and bullies that the people of Nor-
folk are assembled, on this occasion at least, not to hear their neigh-
bours traduced, but to concert measures for the effectual redress
of a general grievance, not to defy the Legislature, but to in-
form it, not to insult and rebuke the Government, but man-
fully to state the ills under which they labour, and respectfully
to offer the result of their practical knowledge which may enable
them to point out means of relief. If they act otherwise, their
meeting is worse than useless ; they may be numerous, they
may be wealthy, they may be sincere, but unless they be tem-
perate and impartial, they cannot be respectable. The busi-
ness which calls them together is no party question, and if they
suffer the meeting to degenerate into an election intrigue, they
betray their county to disgrace.

SUSSEX WINTER ASSIZES.