The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-14 00:00:00

SUN.

FOR TILE SUN.

THE GREEKS.

The apathy of JOHN BULL to the Greeks has
also been ascribed to a unconscious statement of
the interests of England with respect to Greece—
some are apt to suppose if Greece were in the
ascendant, our commercial interests would fall—
and as the " crown of the wise are their riches"
it would be consummate folly to favour them at
the present crisis,—and it must be confessed such
is the state of commerce in general, not only in
this country, but every where else, that it is our
duty to pause even when honour and humanity
seem to bid us advance, before we venture to
arrest any one of the few commercial channels
upon which the prosperity of the state itself, and
therefore its very power to assist others so greatly
depend. But where is the proof that as Greece
rises our commerce must fall ? As far as we have
been able to understand the principles of trade
which have been so much more clearly ;aid down
in modern times, we have thought with ADAM
SMITH, that its prosperity depends not Upon one
of the trading parties alone, but upon the pro-
sperity of both. "As the Greeks improve our
Levant Company will meet with more compe-
' titian, but the stream of general commerce, with
' our advantages, will be greatly swelled. It may
be to the interest of companies that commerce
should be exclusive, but it is absurd to suppose
that a country can buy without selling to a pro-
portionate amount. Commerce, in its nature, can
look to nothing but gain, and the more extensive
our commerce, ccelris paribus, the more likely we
are to advance in capital, and if ever there were
a time when it should be our object to extend
our cbmmerc: a intercourse it must be the present,
when our goods are rotting in our own warehouses,
for want of an outlet, or undersold in the markets
abroad, because they cannot find purChasers that
can afford to consume them, Now, it is quite
ridiculous to suppose that Greece and, Turkey, of
their own accord, can ever meet together as friends;
our trade with both will be completely stopped
if we do not use our best endeavour to adjust
their differences upon an amicable footing
nothing will be heard for some time but the cries
of vengeance; and Mercury will be too much
stunned with the thunderbolts of Mars to be able
to keep head. Conscious of this, America, it is
reported, has offered her assistance in the hopes
to obtain some spot where she may fix herself to
pursue her darling projects of commercial enter.
prise. In _such a juncture how can it be the
policy of our merchants to hold aloof, and suffer
these forestallers of profit to stand in the way of
our interest? It would surely be far more expe-
dient at least to preserve the little commerce we
have been accustomed to enjoy from that quarter,
by standing forward as an umpire and friend td
both, and not shewing, as John Bull has been
ever too apt to do, merely his horns for battle,
without reckoning upon the peril and the cost
and after many blows and bruises in hard-fought
campaigns; leaving the whole of the prey to be
divided among his more cunning and rapacious
allies, who unite together at our expence in our
holy alliance, religiodsly attached to its own
aggrandisement, and eager to make all others
crouch beneath the yoke) and fall down at its
very feet to kiss his Holiness's toe.
Hitherto, as far as our information reathesi we
are not- aware of any great commerce now at
stake with Greece in its enslaved state, not
enough at least to repress our feeling of honour or
humanity, so natural toward men, who are at last
roused with a noble and patriotic zeal to vindi-
cate their rights and liberties.
We should be the last people in 3the world to
suffer any but the most determined and uncon-
tested policy to damp the energy of a nation
that will no longer bear its fetters, and dares,
with the true British spirit, to be free.—For this
is the true British spirit, whatever may be the nar-
row doctrine of some among us, who, though born
in a crib so incompatible with slavery, are trying
all they can to propagate its wretched principles
through the medium of the press, which lives but
in liberty, and yet is made the organ of dissemi-
nating servile opinions that would stifle it at its
birth. Such men class all the advocates for
the Greeks among the partisans of Napoleon 11.,
and the Greeks themselves among the Irish
White Boys, the Carbonari, and Illuminati, who
are said to deal in assassinations, and all to be
equally revolutionists."—(New Times.) What
then ? are they to be called revolutionists whoare
bursting asunder the chains which have been so
ignominiously imposed ?—are they to be accused
of murder and a delight in blood, who have only
arisen to avenge tremselves on the horrible and
outrageous cruelties of their tyramiical govern
nors ?—shall the blood of the victim that is se,
crificed to the ir►f'rnal daemon, and that of the
priest that makes the horrid sacrifice be account-
ed the same in the sight of God and man ?—or
shall they be accused of a revolutionary spirit who
are striving to expel their oppressors from a land
which they gained by usurpation in the first in-
stance,. and maintained possession of ever since,
by tyranny and extortion. When we call men by
the odious name of revolutionist (that naturally
inspires the witnesses to a modern revolution
with horror and disgust), we ought to be very
careful that we ar•e not abusing real patriots,
who would never attempt to disturb, as it is call-
ed, the order of things, and old established
rights—if those rights were not so grossly mid
inveterately wrong, and that order were any
thing but the most oppressive anarchy. It is from
the horrors of such ana.rchy that the Greeks are

RICE SEVENPECt:

endeavouring to emerge ; and.such alarmists re.;
mind us of the ultra Advocate-General's speech
upon the conspiracy of La Ittichelle—,who display-
ed all the power of his eloquence to alarm the
fears of the jury with a dreadful account of the
Carbonari, and plots all the world over ; and .;
`.
took the opportunity, in . his
.zeal against that
party, to tell them, if convicted, the prisoners
were guilty. It matt-ers little whether there
were proof or not, they
,must look to the in-
fallible inspiration of conscience and of good sense. •
But, however truely this may be, Or venial at'
least in an advocate who is not supposed to have
any thing.to do with the truth, but leaves that to:
the Judge alone ; or however palatable it may
be to a French jury, who may have the form and
not the substance of the British jury—the jury
and prwsiditim of this country---L-we cannot enter
into his feelings, having been long in the habit
of looking to facts for our conviction, and not once
supposing that the jury can so completely neglect
their duty as to be content with what is called
the inspiration of Conscience, or even td Stiffer the
common prejudice out Of doors, with whatever
evidence it may come. before them, to interfere
with the plain statement of facts as delivered to
them in course. 'When they trust the testimony of
a good conscience, it is the conviction which they
feel from the evidence of the witnesses as they
stand up in succession ; and upon that evidence
alone, and not upon any vain imagination of their
own, or presumption of others, not even upon opi-
nions that have been formed by themselves be-
fore the trial actually took place, they deliver their
verdict, as the whole truth and nothing but
the truth, so help their God,. to whom they do not-
trust for infallible inspiration, bUt only for that.
portion of , good sense, which is able to found a
fair and honest opinion upon what a renowned -
Minister used to call evidence of Nets:.
We select the following obserVations frdai Mr.
Sheridan's pamphlet, rebutting the charges
brought against the Greeks, which attribute their
exertions in the cause of independence to the
worst of motives.

. .
"To throw into confUsion the whole of EUrope,
if their revolt were no more than au explosion of
democratic prindiples; which pervade more or
less every country, but are concealed in many
till a more-favourable opportunity offers of hurl-
ing down Monarchs from their thrones,- and re-
ducing the htiman race to a state of savage and.
lawless equality.- Alas the wretched object
of this invective are Unable to comprehend its
meaning. They understand not its mysterious
import, they are equally ignorant of Jacobins,
Reformers, Liberates, and CarbOnri ; they fee 4,
indeed, that they are subjected to a despotism 0'
intolerable weight, and they presume td inquire
by what right it is imposed upon them ? The
stern answer is ready—by the right of conquest ;
but instinctive reason- then convinces them that
What hag been torn froth the. Owner by brutal
violence, may be brought td be recovered by the
same meant; if there be no other possible me-
thod ; and they reject every argument which is
indolislstent with this first law of nature; as the
hateful offspring of abject and trembling ser-
vility.

" 4 is possible, Sir, that yod mny be under the
influence of that morbid fear of democratic en-,
CrOachment, which has bound with its spells so
many of the spirits of, the wise and good, and
has forced the firmest friends of freedom' by its
baleful delusions to plunge their daggers 'tit° her
heart. But the time is nearly arrived when the
incantations of this blood-stained hag must tease;
her abominations are bedome the scandal and.
execration of the world. It is true indeed that
a knowledge of the real principles of government,
those principles which England was the first
to' practice is rapidly diffusing itself ;' and shall
we be so incredibly selfish as to endeavour to
impede its progress ? Base as tire attempt would
be, it would be still more vain and fruitless.
The devouring blaze of legitimacy is rapidly
Sinking into a pale and flickering flame, and woe
to those who continue to guide their steps by its
faint and ominous light! We may hope to see
the absolute Monarchies of the earth subside,
one after the other, into representative govern.;
ments, equally removed from the despotism of
th'e one and of the many, and the tranquillity of
the world may be secured upon the basis of the
admirable maxim lately laid clown by an en=
lightened statesman, ' that to rebel against free=
dom is the greatest crime, to rebel against
tyranny the greatest virtue.'

FOR THE SUN.

PARLIAMENTARY

Eorroa—We have heard much` of the
" Good Old Times," of Short Parliaments, of
Honest Votets,and of Obedient Representatives!
—All these. in the reign of Good Queen BESSi
bluff Kind Harry; (there is nothing said of CA.•
THOITt Mary) and the earlier reigns. But, Sir,
I begin to doubt about. these Good Old Times,
for I find it stated by the founder of the Illus-
trious House of Cavendish, who was gentleman
usher to Cardinal Wolsey, that when his master
was in danger of impeachment, his Secretary,
Cromwell-, determined to get into Parliament,.
in order to serve him, and therefore rode from
Esher to London where he met an old friend,
Sir TIIOIIAS Rtissur.r.! whose son was a Burgess
in Parliament—that is, sat for a Boroughand
between them it was agreed that young Russell
should go out, and Cromwell come in ; the whole
affair being arranged and completed in three dap !*
—So much for Purity of Election in the Good
Old TiMes! " `V hat do you think• of that, 111 as.:
ter Brooke ?." LG. N.

An historical fact•