The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-30 00:00:00

prizing neighbours seem anxious to show that they
have not made these preparations to no purpose.
The Constkution►tcl, after alluding to Italy, Belgium,
and the approaching punishment of Don Miguel,
which will put an end to the military pre-
parations and intrigues of Spain, and prevent
the necessity of keeping an army on the Pyrenees,
concludes with this apostrophe :—" Ministers,
you do not wish for war; you may have the
highest and most powerful reasons for seeking to
turn aside this scourge, which at this moment drags
after it another scourge, a hundred times more for-
midable; undoubtedly this last calamity is enough
to afflict unhappy Europe, which has only had
within these few years a breathing time, after half a
century of combats. But we do not owe merely ad-
miration to heroic Poland, we owe her both grati-
:tide and support. Without this ancient ally,
whose generous sons have received with ours the
baptism of blood in every field of battle in the
wcrld; without the prodigies of courage which she
has shown in an unequal contest, in which, accord-
ing to first appearances, the last Pole in arms ought
to have perished, the Autocrat of Russia would have
joined hands with his Allies, our old enemies, and
Europe would have poured herself, for a third time,
on France, passing over Belgium, our natural ad-
vanced guard. Such a noble devotedness has involved
us in an immense debt towards Poland. Let us haste
to acquit this debt." This, we are inclined to think
is a language which speaks to the hearts of all
Frenchmen. We fear a general war is almost un-
avoidable. We say we fear it, because experience
[as sufficiently shown that the cause of the people
always gains by peace, and the efforts of even the
worst Governments are unable to prevent these re-
sults; and because war is the enemy of all improve-
ment, the parent of all the worst passions of our na-
ture. War may yet be prevented by the Govern-
ments of Austria and Prussia, and we are not with-
out hopes even from that quarter. The publication
in the German Papers of an Address of one of the
districts of Hungary to the Emperor of Austria, in
behalf of the Poles, the example set by which has
been followed by twenty-two other counties, would
seem to indicate something like a return to a more
enlarged policy on the part of the German Sove-
reigns. The language of the Address is striking :
" We cannot (say, these noble petitioners) conceal the
profound sorrow which we feel at the unjust war waged
on our frontiers against a nation with which we are allied
by neighbourhood, and which, when the increasing power
of the Ottomans threatened Vienna, stretched out to us a
helping hand, and having joined its victorious arms with
ours, aided us in triumphing over the tyrant of the East,
preserved the Throne to the House of Hapsburg, liberty to
our country, and conquered for our ancestors the hope of a
repose which nothing has troubled. "
If we apply this example to ourselves, it ought to engage
us to oppose a barrier to the Colossus of the North, who
since that epoch has increased in an inconceivable manner,
not by successions to hereditary dominions, nor by the will
of the nations over which be rules, but by the force of
arms; we ought to labour for our own safety by dis-
charging a sacred debt towards Poland, which combats
with an heroic courage for its nationality and indepen-
dence, that if, when Poland is not only conquered but
oppressed, we and our descendants should be threatened
with the same lot by the same enemy, we may not have to
exclaim with sorrow, there is no longer a Sobieski.' "
A contemporary (the Times) justly observes,
"The Sovereigns of Europe—even those belonging
to the Holy Alliance, if they were not themselves
steeped in the infamy of the partition—might safely
interfere in behalf of the Poles, without affording
any encouragement to the revolt, or giving any
countenance to revolutionary principles." We are
inclined to think that the instinct of self preserva-
tion will have some effect in improving their sense
of justice. They must be aware of the immense
strength of France in a military point of view, and
the great support which France must derive from
her cause. To redress the wrongs of Poland, would
be to deprive France of the only colour for an ap-
peal to arms ; and this act of justice would besides
secure both Austria and Prussia against a neighbour
that, secure in her strength of position, can only
choose her time for attack. It would be for the in-
terest of Austria and Prussia to detach themselves
from Russia on this occasion. All Europe would
suffer from a general war, but these States would
probably suffer the most, and a war might even
cost Prussia her existence as a first-rate Power.—
Morning Chronicle.
For the last three or four days all the Newspapers
have been dwelling upon a clause in the new Re-
form Bill limiting the right of voting in towns,
Ex. to those whose rent was payable not oftener
than once in the half year. It was manifested that
this clause would almost nullify the new franchise
in towns, as seven-eighths of all the tenements which
pay rent pay it by the quarter. After four days'
outcry upon the subject, the Courier yesterday an-
nounces from authority that the clause in ques-
tion got into the Bill through inadvertence ! Such
an announcement as this at once excites indig-
nation and provokes ridicule. A mistake is
made by persons who fancy they possess skill
to remodel the Representative Constitution of
the nation—a mistake evincing the grossest ig-
norance upon a practical matter, and which,
had the error not been pointed out, would
have rendered the whole measure an absurdity, is
described by the gentle term an " inadvertence," as
though it had been an error in the date of a dinner
invitation. For our own parts we are glad of the
" inadvertence," if we see to call it by that name,
since it will serve to show the public, if any thing
cart, the pitiable ignorance upon practical matters
of those who presume to meddle in a system inter-
woven with, and deeply affecting all the practical
affairs of the kingdom, There has been no one
proposition of the present Minister; applying to the
every-day business of the people which has not been
scouted as absurd—be witness the Budget and the
Tia-,ber Duties. If the people generally understood
the whole pf the Reform Bill as well as they did
that clause wii;.:l; went upon the theory that rents
were generally paid half-yearly, they would reject it
ac a wholesale and blundering interference with
matters not understood by those who izterfere.—
Morning Post,

The public were surprised at reading in the re-
ported debate on the Address, the speech of a Noble
I✓arl who took that opportunity of announcing his
decided hostility to the Ministry, and consequently
his opposition i-. 9 their measure of Reform. Their
Lordships, who renaemil;rered the cordial and even
confiding support which, two giipnths ago, he had
t4.4ered both to the authors and the wipeiples of
the Bill, ur.ere equally astonished. This marareet in •
consistency couLl. not escape any body, in doors or
out ; for the Noble i..7a;:l himself took occasion to
erzblazon the change, and attemi?ted an explanation
of its 34d,7ep occurrence; but not being L'o:.;rid to
remember every hipg which the Noble Earl had
said two months ago, few people were fully aware '
of the complete revolution wincil hay ta)cen place in
bic sentiments since the Ist of April last, We nave
now befce us a speech which Lord Winchilsea
made at Maidstcoe, at a county meeting to petition
for Reform, on the 2ith of March last, and ano-
ther which he addressed to ;ill; House of Lords
on wesenting the petition which ernanated from
that meeting, end, contrasting the declarations and
doctrines announced i;4 these orations, with the doe-1
trines and declarations which r.:.artled the Ministerial
benches in the debate on the Atla':T.ss, we can
scarcely believe that we are listening to the 321;1c'
per3on, and are almost tempted to think that some
of thou strange metamorphose ,s have taken place,
described in thp Latin poet, where the stir,-,e name is
continued to criijects perfectly dissimilar. The Lord
Winchilsea of the end of March was an admirer
.of
the character, and a supporter of the policy, of the
preset Government,—the strenuous advocate of
oPfarhiamentar,iy.eform, and the indignant denounce::
4 to ctonefohuyniTtrhi
et efsrioeradcs calumniators nloa,rt.
mo rsw.‘ivt
with
who endeavouredh: enemies
of
our institutions.' The Lord Vverlichile.2. or that period
endeavoured to prove, that a'
tentecelnsathrye_reepirtzeena7
tenon was. ot only expedient, btuha
gratitude of their
;aatsivarae—as
for his Majesty's Ministers'
country for having introduced augeT
and, wising in the fervour of his admiration