The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-21 00:00:00

FRANCE.

CASIMIR PERIER-TOUR OF LOUIS PHILIP-CIVIL
WAR IN LA VENDEE--UNHAPPY POLAND-STATE
()VITAL Y-PIEDMONT-MODENA-PAPAL STATES
-BELGIAN AFFAIRS!

To the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE.
PARIS, MAY 18, 1831.

SlR,—The King has set out on a tour to
the Northern Departments. This is a wise
and prudent step. It is said that he is to con-
verse with the people—to visit the manufac-
tories—to talk to the farmer—to investigate the
state of public feeling, and to learn for him-
self what people think between Paris and Havre,
and from Beauvais to St. Cloud. If this be
so, the journey will be a good one—and some
very important results may arise from the visit.
We learn that his Majesty has been received
with smiles—with acclamations, and with even
enthusiasm. This is as it should be. Louis
Philip was the Monarch of the people's choice,
and although he does not seem thoroughly to
understand why he was elected, yet he is a
young beginner as a King, and experience will,
we hope, teach him the rest. If not—why the
next journey he takes may not be quite so po-
pular a one ; and the third may resemble those
of some of his illustrious predecessors !
But whilst the King is in Normandy there are
troubles in La Vendee. How is this ? Let me

tell you. La Vendee, as you may well know,
was always Royalist. Her Chouan Chiefs are
distinguished in the page of history, and loyalty
in France only exists in this large and important
province. Ever since the Revolution of July,
La Vendee has been in a state of insurrection,
except for a short time, after a visit paid by Ge-
neral Lamarque, who has much influence there,
and whose destitution has tended to increase the
dissatisfaction of the liberal party, and to ei►-
courage the hopes and double the insolence of
the Carlists. For months past the state of La
Vendee has been known to the friends of liberty
at Paris. The white flag has been hoisted on
many a steeple, and been even exhibited at many
a Mairie. The Government has been urged to
change the Royalist Mayors, communal, and
other officers, and to appoint those who were not
merely willing to walk with the revolution, but
anxious to render it popular and beloved. If
the Government had done this, many a robbery
would have been prevented, many a murder
avoided, and La Vendee would not have been
what it is to-day, in a state of civil war. The
Government has proceeded on the principle of
conciliating the Carlists. If the Carlists had
merely cried " Vive Charles X." they might
have been let alone; but when armed mobs
assemble to attack private citizens, then
it is the duty of a Government to take
decisive steps and repressive measures. I
will go the greatest length in allowing men to
entertain, and even propagate by writings and
speeches their opinions, though opposed to the
majority ; but I will never so disgrace the word
" Liberty" as to suppose she requires the aid of
guns, and mobs and brick-bats, to assist the cause
in a country where the millions love her. It is not
because the mobs in La Vendee are Carlist and
Royalist mobs, that I am for suppressing them,
hut it is because the mobs are of a very different
character in La Vendee to those of which we
have so often spoken in Paris. In La Vendee
they poison cattle, burn rick-yards, destroy
houses, turn up fields, attack private persons,
and do all this to create civil war, and thus, as
they hope, overturn the throne of Louis Philip,
and restore to the " arms" of an adoring country
the much-expected and desired Duke of Bor-
deaux ! ! The situation of La Vendee to-day
is very serious. Bands have been long
organizing. A system of ruffianly attack
has been long practised ; and now it will
take thousands of troops to put down dis-
turbances which, if the Government had acted
with wisdom, would never have commenced, or
would have been instantly suppressed. I hate
the argument of cannon balls and prisons
as much as any one can do ; but if a thief
will break into my house and rob me, it is
of no use my looking on and applauding him
from the window. I must take my rifle and
shoot him. At length the forces have been sent ;
a commander has been appointed ; and in a few
days we shall learn whether the modern Ven-
deitns are as bold as the ancient ones ; and whe-
ther they will be disposed to shiver a lance for
the son of the Duchess de Berri. Some letters
from La Vendee state, that the troops sent are
not sufficiently numerous, and that their defeat
will encourage the aggressors. If this be the
case, let us hope that the Government will take
warning, and that at any rate it will know how
to put down civil war. I must not omit to add,
that in La Vendee the friends of liberty have
been discouraged by the destitution of Lafayette,
and by the continuance in office of men who
have served in the departments all the Ministers
from 1814 to 1830.

Poland ! unhappy Poland ! demands from us
to-day more than a passing sigh, or the notice of
a postscript. Left unaided and alone to contend
with the open opposition of Prussia and the
miserable treachery of Austria, as well as against
the troops of the Emperor Nicholas, Poland is
in a position of unusual difficulty, and even of
increasing danger. The revolution in Lithu •
ania, though by no means stifled, is considerably
weakened ; and although nearly all the accounts
which we receive from that quarter come from
Berlin, where the Court is engaged in oppress-
ing and ruining the cause of the Poles, yet it is,
alas, too evident that the millions had not suffi-
cient confidence in the Lithuanian Nobles who
had so long oppressed them ; and the Lithu-
anians thought they perceived that it was only
a change from servitude to the Emperor to
servitude to their local oppressors. Although,
therefore, we are not without hope as to the
cause of liberty in Lithuania, yet certainly that
hope is less brilliant, and every day some
event transpires which tends to prove that at
all risks and all hazards, the Russian Govern-
ment is resolved on putting down the spirit
of freedom in the ancient provinces of Poland.
Bus if the news from Lithuania be discouraging,
how much so is the intelligence from
From Vol-
hynia. thence the news, to which I ad-
verted in a recent letter, is but too sadly con-
firmed ; and Dwernicki, the gay, the brave, the
bold, is now a disarmed prisoner in tl e Austrian
territory. When the Cossacks were defeatd in
Lithuania, and fled
withto the frontiersit of Prussia,
del they were receivedthen sent
ho-
floured, and re-equipped,
anlh
on a
u ilan hands,
andatchk
again to fight for the cause or despotism
legitimacy. But when pressed
Polish troops, to the number of four thousand,e
entered the Austrian territory, soldiers and offi.
cers were disarmed—the arms were given up to
the Russian conqueror. Dwernicki and his
Etat-Major sent to Laybach and Gratz ; and it
is said that the soldiers are distributed in various
parts of the Austrian dominions ! Yet this is
called the principle of non-intervention !—and it