The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUI3LIC JOURNALS.

The French Ministerial Journals of Monday, espe-
cially the Debats, continue to insult the present Libe-
ral Government of Madrid, enumerating with a kind of
ferocious joy the anarchic state of the country and the
army, and attributing all these ills to democratic ideas
and the Constitution of 1812. This is unfair and un-
just in two ways ; first of all, it is unjust on the part of
the French writers who have witnessed and applauded
the revolution of July, which was nothing other than
the dethroning of a Monarch by an insurrection of the
National Guard and the populace. The Revolution,
which brought about the promulgation of the Consti-
tution of 1812, was in full accordance with the Na-
tional Guard of Madrid. The Journal des Debats,
which applauded and profited by the Parisian Revolu-
tion, has no right to play the insolent and affect such
contempt of the Madrid movement. Secondly, these
reproaches are unjust in charging the Liberals with
the present state of disorder in the army and the state.
Heaven knows, the Spanish Liberals bore lona and
patiently the successive trials of the Juste-milieu and
of French councils to put down insurrection, and con-
solidate the constitutional monarchy. And it was
only on the failure of all this, and on the overthrow by
French Councils of the last Government, in which the
Liberals had confidence, viz., that of Mendizabal,
it was only then that they had recourse to the
old national banner of the Constitution. It
was a dernier resort. Everything else had been tried.
The armies were demoralized, betrayed ; the State
without resources, the citizens composing the National
Guard in open distrust of the Government ; it was then
that the Liberals stepped into power, when power was
a burden and a duty, but certainly not an advantage.
If there was anarchy, mutiny, disaffection, clubs, it
was not the Constitution of 1812 which begot or
caused them ; they were in the country, born under
and of the Estatuto ; they are the children of the
Juste milieu. And resistance carried farther would
but have increased the anarchy and bloodshed. No
doubt the present state of things is lamentable. But
the Ministry that proclaimed the Constitution is not
to blame. And even if reproach might be cast upon
the Spaniards, it is not for the French to cast it ; they
who fifteen years back put clown Spanish liberty by
their bayonets, and who, in 1836, refused to make the
amends, owned to be due, by sending to put down Don
Carlos an army already collected, equipped, and pre-
pared. It would not have cost them a maravedi so to
do. But the fact is now manifest, that the ruling
power in France is hostile to liberalism and all liberal
government ; and that it has proceeded so far in ac-
complishing the ruin and betrayal of all such Govern-
ments, that its organs and pensioners think it no longer
necessary to wear even the mask, but avow openly the
preference of absolutism.—Morning Chronicle.

We learn from many parts of England besides East
Cornwall, that the late address of Sir William Moles-
worth to the electors of that division of his county has
produced, as might have been expected from it, im-
portant and salutary consequences, not affecting that
particular spot alone, but the relations of the Con-
servative and movement principle throughout every
district of Great Britain. Amongst the minor circum-
stances which attach value to the address in question,
are the independent fortune of Sir William Moles-
worth, and his personal character. He has not merely
an estate which lifts him far above the tribe of adven-
turers, but the reputation of being an honest and
straightforward.man, wedded indeed to opinions which
we, in common with the "Whig gentry" of East
Cornwall, and with 19-20ths of the educated gentle-
men throughout England, hold to be irrational, revo-
lutionary, and destructive opinions, but acting upon
them, there is no reason to doubt, from motives con-
scientious and disinterested. The purport of this ad-
dress on the part of the Hon. Baronet is to state his
acknowledgment, that a large proportion of the consti-
tuency by which he was returned to Parliament have
withdrawn from him their political confidence and sup-
port to such extent, that on a new election he would
have no chance of success but through the expenditure
of a " larr,e amount of money," and that he therefore
declines oifering himself as a future candidate for their
votes. It is to be observed that Sir William Moles-
worth, from the first line to the last of this composition,
dwells upon the evidence of a growing distaste for
Radicalism among " those who have hitherto com-
posed the Liberal party in our county." it is not
the• Radicals who have deserted the Hon. Baronet,
because of ant suspension or lack of movement in the
revo:ntionery spirit betrayed by him, since, as he him-
self declares, his votes arc recorded against the Coer-
cion Bill for Ireland, of which the object, as explained
by Lord Grey, was to put down sedition, and to arrest
insurrection, in that rogue-bestridden country, and he
was one of the most determined opponent of Lord
Grey's " system of misgovernment in Ireland the
Minister for the Home Department under Lnrd Grey,
and he by whom that misgoverimn.nt was specifically
conducted, being no other then the present self-confes-
sed enemy of Protestantism in liciand—nain::ly, Lord
`Viscount Melbourne. Again, Sir William i4olesworth
voted uniformly for the Ballot—triennial Parliaments
-all extcllsion of the sufri.ac—the separation of Church
and State---he expulsion of the Bishops from the
If11';‘, of Lords, and has avowed his resolution to
:upport what is called " a Reform of the House of
Lords," signifying, we take for rzranted, the mpta-
morphosis or that assembly into an elective body. It is
not, therefore, as we said, for any defect of Radicalism
that Sir William Molcsiverth finds himself deserted
by his constituents ; Sir William overflows with that
virtue which he always laid claim to ; but the result
of a more familiar acquaintance with the
.Tl-flits of
Radicalism by the " timid and irresolute" Liberals,
whom Sr William designates as Whigs, is, that they
like it less, and will no longer encourage it or its pro-
fessors ? Now, we arc not among those who triumph
over such letters as this of Sir William Molesworth to
his constituents for being proofs of the existence of
that gulf which is every day widening, and which
must in the nature of things become soon impassable,
between the two sections of those who call themselves
exclusively and most absurdly by the joint name of
Reformers." The proofs of that schism we did not
want ; they abound in every corner of the kingdom.
But the great and chief merit of such a document is its
being a sample of the practical working of the acknow-
ledged discord, and of its necessary effects upon the
future composition of Parliament. The frank though
ill-reasoned address of the Hon. Baronet ought to be
hailed by the foes of restless change, and of eventual
anarchy, as the representative of that solid, profound,
and irresistible re-action in favour of our ancient national
institutions, which is progressive everywhere, and is
everywhere fraught with the blessings of rational ffo-
vernment, political security, and social repose and com-
fort. There are, however, one or two topics adver-
ted to by this plain-spoken Radical seceder which it
may be as well to notice here. Sir W. Molesworth as-
sumes first as a fact indisputable, that "there is hardly
any county in England the electors of which are a*,
independent as those of East Cornwall," or where a
candidate of his opinions could combat the two aristo-
cratic parties with greater chance of success. Yet in
East Cornwall, that Acropolis of independence, the
Hon. Baronet gives up the battle in despair, because
the two aristocratic parties, that is, Whigs and Con-
servatives, have had good sense enough to join their
forces against him as the common enemy of the whole
upper class of proprietors. If this union, then, which
in East Cornwall is less powerful (according to Sir
William Molesworth) than in any other part of Eng-
land, be strong enough there to drive him from the
hustings, what a dreary prospect presents itself for
Radicalism throughout the test of the English county
representation, and how desperate for the members of
the movement that much vaunted and loudly threa-
tened masterstroke of Melbourne politics—another e -
ncral election ! Sir William Molesworth fairly admits
that even if, beyond all hope, successful in one further
experiment upon the county, the spirit of which has
become so adverse to him, he and his brother Radicals
would enjoy but a transient triumph. He states broadly,
that the intrinsic and permanent power of the con-
stituency is ranged in steady opposition to his prin-
ciples, and that nothing could save him from even-
tually sinking in such a contest but recourse to that
famous quack medicine called the " Ballot." It is
indisputably no bad evidence of the hold a man has
taken of his own good opinion when he makes sure
that if the bulk of the community could venture to ex-

press their feeling towards him, he would carry away
whatever prize they had to dispose of ! But Sir Wm.
Molesworth never disguised his sentiments, as would
appear from his address. If, then, with full know-
ledge that the Hon Baronet was from the first a tho-
rough-going Radical, the independent electors did re-
turn him to Parliament, and would now, if they had
the opportunity, turn him out of Parliament, he must
allow us to draw two inferences from this premiss :-
1. That the Ballot was not necessary to enable his
constituents to declare their suffrages in his favour, so
long as those suffrages were favourable to his politics.
2. That the presence or absence of the Ballot could
not of itself have had the slightest effect in turning
against him those who were formerly his friends. How
does the Hon. Baronet account for this revulsion ?
He says it has been " gradual." It has not, therefore,
sprung from sudden impulse, but has been the fruit of
deliberate and slowly ripening condemnation of his
political principles on the part of the better edu-
cated and more respectable supporters. Yet, with
all this before his eyes, with the consciousness that
it is his own Ultra-Radicalism which has ruined
him with the Whig gentlemen of East Cornwall,
he calls upon them, in the same breath, to set up
a Whig in his ropm, provided such Whig will pro-
mise to vote for the ballot ! The ballot—the most
unconstitutional, extravagant, and odious of all ultra-
Radical propositions, and that by his adherence to
which he himself has mainly lost his seat for Corn-
wall—he would make the test and rallying point for
that candidate in whose favour he (not voluntarily)
recommends that his own pretensions should be super-
seded. This may be Liberalism, but it is indifferent
logic. Sir William Molesworth, like all of his poli-
tical kidney, holde theThoor milk-and-water Whigs in
contempt. He knows that the Whig Ministers, with
the mass of their party, have always hitherto opposed
the ballot. Yet he urges that the Whigs of Cornwall,
who have abandoned him, shall themselves bring for-
ward another candidate who will inscribe the word
" ballot" on his ensigns. Wherein, we wish to know,
would such a Whig be more palatable to East Corn-
will, than would Sir W. Molesworth ? With the dif-
ferences between this gentleman and Sir John Rash-
leigh, upon a point stated by the former, viz., his
assertion that some of the Whig aristocracy had
withdrawn their support from him because of his de-
termination to reform (that is, to annihilate, or per-
vert from its constitutional functions) the hereditary
House of Lords—with any difference arising out of
that assertion, we have nothing to do. The " reform
of the House of Lords," in the actual condition of
the mind of England upon constitutional questions,
may, thank God, be regarded as the cry of maniacs,
rather than reasonable statesmen. The Ministerial
faction, if they have not adopted it as a measure, have
repeatedly and palpably, by their language in both
Houses, and by that of their vassal press, encouraged
it as an effective stimulant to sedition, and it has served
them well, for they are ruined by it. In one word, the
divisions of party are hourly more simplified by the
progress of events. Detailed differences of opinion
and feeling between individuals having some views in
common, swell into masses, and are consolidated with
time. Two or three great questions become keys to
all the rest. Church or none—House of Lords or
none—the mild and easy sway of educated gentlemen,
or the clattering and rough-shod hoofs of a mounted
rabble—these are the alternatives which offer them-
selves to the imaginations of men, as linked re-
spectively with the predominance of Conservative
principles or of revolutionary passions. The night
of debauch and delirium is now ended, and the
senses of our countrymen are at length recalled to the
profitable labours, the moral duties, and sober enjoy-
ments of a sound political existence. The partnership
between temperate reform and headlong change is dis-
solved throughout the kingdom no less decidedly than
in East Cornwall. If the losses of the \Vhigs.at the
last election went in some proportion to the credit of
the Radicals, though in a far greater to that of the
Conservative cause, sure we are that both Whig,s and
Radicals would at another election he found unwilling
contributors to a large Conservative majority. In the
mean time we have one word more for Sir William
Molesworth. The Hon. Baronet promulgates to the
acrid, that he no loneer represents the majority of
votes among the East Cornwall electors, and assigns
it as his reason for retiring from another contest. The
reason is a valid justification of that step ; but it is an
etpiallv cogent reason-for the adoption of a still more
decided and manly proceeding. It appeals to us, as
we think it must? to Sir William himself upon a mo-
ment's further refection, that if he has really ceased to
represent the constituency which returned him, he is
bound in conscience not to wait for a general election.
It is his duty to retire NO WT.-

Notwithstanding the condemnation which we have
so justly bestowed upon that arch-traitor to his coun-
try, and to the cause of freedom throughout Europe,
and the stern opposition which, as Liberals, we have
felt ourgelVes bound to ()Ter to his shameful defizillai:ce
in fulfiliing the stip&ations of the Quadruple Treaty—
his consequent abandonment of the cause of the
Queen, and of free as well as improved institutions
in Spain, and his disgraceful union with despots,
who hate while they must despise the King of the Bar-
ricades—we are not quite certain that the line of con-
duct which, in his base desire to assure the protection
of the absolutists of Europe, by denying the principles
which seated him upon the Throne, he has deemed it
proper to pursue, will not in the end result in greater
benefits to the human race, than he could by possi-
bility have conferred by his most earnest aid and most
cordial co-operation. No thanks will assuredly be due
to him by the free souls of Europe, and the ardent pro-
moters of her civilization and progress in renovated poli-
tical institutions, if good shall ensue from his cold-
blooded and heartless attempts to dethrone the goddess
whom he so long professed to worship, and to the love
of whom he owes the Crown which he has so shame-
fully defiled ; for, as in the moral world, good frequently
springs from evil, and he who soweth knoweth not
what he shall reap—so in the political, he who forgeth
chains for others is not unfrequently himself doomed
to wear them, and to wear out those days in darkness
and despair which, in the vanity of anticipated triumph,
he had pre-ordained for others. So be it with all the
foes of freedom—so be it with every betrayer of the
people's cause—so be it with every masked villain and
pretended professor of Liberalism, who, when tried in
the scale, shall be found wanting ! And so also do we
now think it will be with that abortion of " the best
of Republics"—Louis Philippe, King of the French,
and hater of free institutions. What a proud posi-
tion did he not occupy only six years ago ! What
glory was there not in store for him had he° been true
to himself, and true to the people over whom he still
reigns ! What immortal fame might he not have ac-
quired—what undying reputation for all that was good
and great ! Raised to the throne of a wealthy and
powerful kingdom, by a gallant and liberal people who
would have sacrificed anything, and everything, had he
been true to his professed principles, in order to confer
upon others the blessings of the same institutions
which he might at once have promoted and consoli-
dated, all Europe might have owed to him and to his
people an indelible debt of gratitude—his life, as well
as his throne, secured from assault, and peace and tran-
quillity, as well as honour, secured to his subjects—
his Word, like that of another Cromwell, would have
been law to the despots of Europe—his threats pro-
cured instant submission to his will—but, alas ! how
has the gold become dim, and the fine gold as the dross
from the furnace I He,
who might have been the
mightiest of the
mighty is become the most abjeet and
contemptible of the sovereign slaves of Europe. Trail,-
cuillity is not his—fame
is unknown to him, except
in the shape of universal detestation—Freedom shrieks
at the very mention of his name,
and even the despot
class, whose affection he courts, laugh in demoniac
triumph at his direliction of principle all his schemes,
in fact, for the obstruction and suppression of 'the
principles which placed him upon the Throne of
France, have been frustrated and laid in the
rdust.as
They are as if they had not been, except in So far
he and his dynasty are concerned. Spain is not only
proving herself independent of his traitorous co-opera-
tion, but has adopted a Constitution which is gall and
wormwood to him ;—Portugal has thrown off the yoke
of Royal charters, and adopted a code of institutions
more befitting her actual condition and future pros-
pects ;—even Switzerland has bidden defiance to him,
and subjected him to the dishonour of re-calling his