The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We gave in our French express yesterday all
the intelligence which had reached Paris from
Lyons on Saturday, and we insert to-day all the
additional facts which we can glean from the
Paris Papers of Sunday morning, and from our
private letters of Sunday afternoon. This ad-
ditional information is of no great value, as it
details no events of importance, and gives no
results subsequent to the 24th. It is of great
interest, however, to learn from our correspon-
dent the slight effect of the news on the Paris
agitators ; for though the starving weavers of
Lyons have not yet git en their insurrection a
political cast or aim, the factious in the capital
might have been expected to supply the de-
ficiency, and to aggravate a revolt of the belly
in a general rebellion. We know as yet but
imperfectly the circumstances which provoked
the explosion—the preparations made by the
workmen to resist their employers, or to over-
power the public force—the amount of their
demands, or the causes of their perfect organiza-
tion ; but we know enough to convince us that
the crisis is of no ordinary kind, and that Go-
vernment is apprehensive of its acquiring a po-
litical character. The insurgents, after a struggle
of two days, have got complete possession of
the second town in the kingdom. They have
driven out the civil authorities—overpowered
with the arms of the National Guard
their wealthier brethren of that civic militia,
and beaten a strong detachment of the King's
troops. To gain these advantages, they seem
to have resorted to the most approved methods
of Parisian warfare, by firing on the public force
from their windows, by unpaving their streets,
and by intrenching themselves behind their bar-
ricades. They appear to be acting under lead-
ers who are acquainted with the use of arms,
and are perfectly aware of the advantages
of their position. They occupy the heights
above the city, and have intercepted all
communications by the roads: or bridges
which lead to it. The Prefect seems to be
their prisoner or their hostage ; and even their
susprising order and moderation appears dan-
gerous from the perfect discipline and resolute
purpose which it manifests. The troops in the
immediate neighbourhood, or within two days'
march of Lyons, are evidently insufficient to
make an impression on the insurgents in their
present position. The Ministry, alarmed at the
complete overthrow of all order, or at least
aware of the gravity of the circumstances, not
only make a communication to the Chambers on
the subject, but despatch a Marshal of France,
the Head of the War Department with the Heir
Apparent of the throne, to the scene of confusion
and rebellion. In enumerating these things
we have said enough to show the magni-
tude of the evil in the eyes of the French
Government : but other circumstances, less
obvious to common notice, describe it in more
alarming colours. The number of killed and
wounded in the two or three days' tumultuous
resistance at Lyons, is nearly as great as in the
revolution of July, 1830, at Paris. National
Guardsmen, of one rank in society, have used the
arms entrusted to their patriotism by the State
to combat National Guardsmen of another. The
former have acquired the necessary discipline to
be dangerous, without the spirit of submission
which would make them safe. The greatest
exasperation must have been generated between
them and those whom they have been resisting ;
and it is not likely that they will soon return to
ideas of order or to feelings of confidence.
They are under leaders who are the heads of
sections, and those leaders are likely to be the
boldest of their class. Suppose, relying cn their
numbers and the strength of their position, they
should attempt to resist the immense militar)
f rce now directed against them, a great and
I,seless effusion of blood must take place. If it
were possible to suppose that they could beat off
the military force, their distress would indeed be
greater than if they were overpowered ; but
Lyons is not the only city in the kingdom where
a stagnation of trade, or a want of employment,
is felt, and the example might prove contagious.
Already Government has been obliged to disarm
the National Guard of Strasburg and two other
towns, on account of the mutinous conduct of that
force. Will those of Lyons and other places like-
wise allow themselves to be disarmed ? Men
who have gone so far, as under the pressure of
distress to hoist the flag of rebellion, and to
usurp the authority of the Government, are not
likely to return to obedience without some pro-
mise of higher wages or some security against
what they call oppression. And what promise
or pledge of this kind can the Government
give ? The workmen had a tariff of prices,
which the masters, before the insurrection,
were unable to pay without suffering a loss ; will
they be more able to pay it, now that their ma-
gazines are pillaged, and their houses sacked ?
Difficulties in the way of an adjustment present
themselves on every hand; and Marshal Soult,
to smooth his path, should have taken with him
a civil commissioner of high capacity, instead
of the inexperienced heir of the Crown. It is
gratifying in these circumstances, however
otherwise painful, to hear from Government,
and to see it admitted by their enemies in the
_ _

Chamber and the Press, that the insurrection
bad not at first, and has not yet acquired, any
political direction. The Prime Minister, in his
apparently frank and manly disclosures in the
Chamber of Deputies, declared that he had
heard of no political dissatisfaction before
tile revolt,—that the cries of pillage and
murder were heard, but not those of trea-

son,—that the rebels made war on property
and civil order, but not on political institutions.
He even cites a sentence from a most extraor-
dinary despatch on the 19th instant, the day be-
fore the commencement of disturbances, which
announces that Lyons was never more tranquil
—the still and serene atmosphere before an
earthquake. With the support of the Chambers
and the confidence of the country, the new Go_
vernment will suffer nothing in credit or stability
from a convulsion which it has done nothing to
occasion or justify. All the Prefects at the head
of the southern departments have left Paris for
their respective posts, though there appears to
be no evidence that the spirit of revolt extends
beyond Lyons. With greater order and disci-
pline than the " heroes of July"
at
Paris,—
possessed of more physical power. and better
arms—with as great success purchased by nearly
as much carnage, what prevents the insurrec-
tion of Lyons from spreading even to a surround-
ing hamlet, while that of Paris, in a few days,
embraced the whole of France ? Nothing but
the total want of political object in the Lyons
revolters, and the general opposition of every
man of influence or property in the kingdom.
No well grounded fear, therefore, need, we

think, be entertained for the ultimate result, if
the affair is managed with wisdom and discretion.
—Times.

The period during which English politics,
turbulent though they be, have withdrawn our
attention from those of Ireland, has been to us
a season of comparative repose. But the daily
letters wereceive from the latter island, and the
reports which crowd every Dublin newspaper,
recall us, in spite of habitual and extreme repug-
nance, to the necessity of once again, however
briefly, glancing at the devices through which
Irish faction is ever ready to intercept and frus-
trate the noblest national prospects. Mr.
O'Connell has for some time busied himself in
bolstering up the cause of Anti-Reform, under
the cloak of a repeal of the Union. His watch-
word is " Ireland," but the thing signified is
himsey. What can any reasonable man think
of him who announces to the peOple of Dublin
that he will not attend the House of Commons
before Christmas, because his Irish Political
Union is more worthy of attention than any pro
ceeding of the Imperial Parliament can be ? !
Is this real enmity to Reform ?—No ; it is but
indifference, and nothing worse—indifference as
compared with that hungry passion, by which
Mr. O'Connell seems constitutionally impelled
to sacrifice every great and generous purpose to
vindictiveness and selfishness. Who does not
see through the project of another agitation ?
We say nothing of what has been hinted to us,
as to the certainty of its terminating in another
" O'Connell fund," because we really conceire
such a hope to be as frantic as the motive, after
what has already happened, would be unutterably
base. But we can well understand the dejec-
tion with which an ambitious and not very high-
minded demagogue might behold the near ac-
complishment of a mighty measure, which by
opening a legitimate organ for the expression of
every Irishman's complaints and desires, would
supersede the Learned Gentleman in his
vocation of official mouth-piece to Irish dis-
content, and thus compel him to canvass on a
fair footing with other competitors for a share of
that influence over the labouring poor of
Ireland, which he has hitherto, from a con-
currence of accident anti ability operating
upon a vicious representation and an ill-judging
Government, been enabled almost wholly to
monopolize. Part of Mr. O'Connell's present
demonstrations are aimed against the machinery
(or assumed machinery) of the Irish Bill. But
the genuine and unaffected bitterness of his
venom is spouted forth against the Secretary for
Ireland, his hatred for whom the Learned Agi-
tator seeks not to disguise. We are not behind
the curtain, so as to ascertain by what personal
offence Mr. Stanley has secured to himself a
freehold in Mr. O'Connell's animosity. That
the Right Honourable Gentleman means well
to Ireland, nobody appears to doubt; that be
might have withheld a late mark of acknowledg-
ment shown to the Learned Gentleman's pro-
fessional eminence, is, we suppose, equally un-
questionable. Was any .thing more expected ?
Was any overture on one side declined, or on the
other omitted ? Was the coyness of the Learned
Gentleman too languidly besieged, or did that
of Government betray too much of virgin terror?
These surmises have occurred to many people,
on seeing what a vein of unfired personality
Mr. O'Connell on all occasions indulges, when
the name of Mr. Stanley rises to his tongue.
Of that Right Hon. Gentleman we do not
scruple to say that his popularity bears no pro-
portion to his character for talents. There is
something in his temper, or at least in his offi-
cial demeanour, which has gained him as few
friends here as in Ireland. We wish him well;
because, amidst pretty extensive dislike, no im-
putation of more than skin-deep errors has at
any time been laid upon him. But if he aspires
o be leader of the House of Commons, Mr.
Stanley must " mend his manners." To return
for a moment to the subject with which we set
out. Mr. O'Connell is now playing not only a
worthless game, but obviously an absurd one.
lie cannot defeat. the Reform Bill by his diver-
sion of his credulous dupes among the Irish
people from it to other objects. He cannot
carry the repeal of the Union by the Irish popu-
lace aloue,—no, nor with the priesthood for his
Allies. Every upright and enlightened friend of
Reform throughout the empire will abandon it
man who is ready to sacrifice a great cause for
selfish objects.—Tinies.
Lyons being in the possession of the insurgents,
is, of course, entirely at their mercy ; but if the

insurrection do not extend to other manufac-
turing towns in the neighbourhood, as Tarrarc,
St. Etienne, &c., they will be put down in time,
though, no doubt, at a terrible expense of
blood and suffering. The measures of the Go-
vernment sufficiently show the estimate they
form of the difficulty of the enterprise. We
may be sure, that as far as military skill is con-
cerned, the resources of the Government will be
ably employed by the Minister of War. We
subjoin the letter from Manchester to which we
yesterday alluded, on a subject to which the
events of Lyons give peculiar importance at the
present moment, though, as may be seen from
its date, it could not be written with any refer-
ence to that event. There is at this time great
distress in many of the manufacturing towns both
in England and Scotland, but more particularly
Scotland. We have already alluded to the state
of -.things in Paisley, and we perceive from the
Scotch papers that great distress, from want of
employment, is felt in Perth, Dundee, and
other manufacturing towns. One extensive house
in Dundee, which for several years has main-
tained in constant employment not fewer than
seventeen warpers, five hundred winders, and
one thousand weavers, has failed, and all these
people are in a state of destitution. In the iron
districts there are a great number of men un-
employed. We do not find that there is at
present more than the average distress in Lan-
cashire, though the Bolton Chronicle men-
tions, among the signs of the times, that at an
auction last week, of the goods and chattels of
a weaver at Astley Bridge, several looms and
other articles were knocked down for a few

shillings, which, ten years since, would, in the
same condition, have fetched ten pounds at least.
But there is a feeling of uneasiness and appre-
hension throughout the manufacturing districts
in general ; and the Manchester Guardian at-
tributes to a knot of agitators, anxious for riot
and confuSion, a plan for holding simultaneous
meetings throughout the country.
" We find (says that Journal) that the little knot
of agitators who have been so long endeavouring to
produce riot and confusion in this town, are at work
again, and have apparently set on foot a plan for
holding simultaneous meetings through Out the country
on Monday next. A hand-bill made its appearance
on the walls of this town yesterday, signed by Ed-
ward Curran and sixteen others, designating them-
selves householders of Manchester, and calling a
meeting, to be' held in Camp Field, on 'Monday
next, for the purpose of agreeing upon a declara-
i tiou of rights, embracing the interests of ill Wasses

of his Majesty's subjects; also to consider the pro-
priety of choosing one or more deputies to assist the
National Convention in drawing up a Reform Bill,
to be presented to the King, his Ministers, and the
Commons' House of Parliament, expressive of the
just claims of the British nation.'"
Ihe Wakefield Journal of Friday notices a
communication from Manchester, recommending
simultaneous meetings in Yorkshire, from which
an inference is drawn that the plan has reference
to all parts of the country.
" This (observes the Manchester Guardian), we
believe, will be the third or fourth attempt made
within a few weeks to procure simultaneous meet-
ings in different parts of the country."
We have no wish to create unnecessary alarm ;
but we think we may, without exaggeration, say
that there is at present much distress from want
of employment in most branches of our manu-
factures, and that the distress appears to be on
the increase. The population of France con-
gregated in large towns bears no proportion to
the same description of population in this
country ; and hence, if the distress of the ope-
ratives, as they are called, should induce them to
break out into insurrection, the difficulty of en-
forcing order would be infinitely greater here
than in France. Our Manchester correspondent
says—" Do not let it be supposed that when
the Reform Bill shall have been passed (which
it will be) all things will go on quietly. No—
the lower orders, the uneducated, and the unre-
fleeting, still struggling with difficulties, will be
disappointed, because immediate relief is not af-
forded to them. There will be tumults, dreadful
riots and bloodshed, such as it sickens the heart
to contemplate." Our correspondent calls on
the Government to institute corps of volunteer
infantry on the plan of the corps at Salisbury, to
the effective state of which he bears testimony,
as the only means of guarding against the con-
sequences of distress and discontent. We are
not fond of drawing invidious distinctions be-
tween middle and lower classes ; but it is obvious
all who possess property have a strong interest
in the maintenance or order ; and that confusion
can have no terrors to men in a state of destitu-

tion. The scenes at Bristol sufficiently show
with what ease a mob can throw a great city into
confusion, if there is no adequate organization
of the respectable inhabitants to preserve order.
A handful of soldiers can be of little use in such
circumstances ; and as the yeomanry cavalry, or,
indeed, cavalry in general, they can only be effi-
cient in an open country. Let us take warning
by what is passing around us. The example of
Bristol has shown us that if our mobs are not
so sanguinary as the populace of France, they
are more brutal and disorderly. We subjoin the
letter--