The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It will be remembered by our readers that the
Morning Advertiser was the first to call attention to
the recent violation of the treaty of Vienna, and de-
nounce the insolence and aggression of the three
despotic Powers in respect to the free Republic of
Cracow. Since then Sir Stratford Canning, in the
House of Commons, 'has read the account of the
entrance of the troops of the three Powers into the
territory of Cracow, and asked what measures were
intended to be taken by the Government of Great
Britain in reference to the transaction. The answer
given by Lord Palmerston was, that no official in-
formation had yet been received on the subject, and
that the attention of the Government would be given
to it, but he declined to inform the House what mea-
sures the Cabinet were likely to adopt. Flagrant as
the conduct of the three Powers is, it is no more
than what we have long foreseen, and what appeared
to be invited by the disgraceful indifference, or rather
the tacit acquiescence, with which England and France
beheld the annihilation of Polish independence. But
though we have foreseen the recurrence of fresh out-
rages on the rights of nations, it does not follow that
we are still to permit their perpetration with im-
punity. By the ninth article of the treaty of Vienna,
Russia, Austria, and Prussia undertook " to respect,
and cause to be always respected, the neutrality of
the free town of Cracow and its territory, and that no
armed force shall be introduced on any pretence what-
ever." England and France were equally parties to
this treaty, and guarantees for its maintenance ; and
what faith in future can be placed in such engagements
if they be thus impiously trampled under foot ? The
circumstances under which the infraction has taken
place still further aggravate the enormity of the crime,
which could only be suggested by the implacable
hatred which Russia bears to every member of that na-
tion she has so much wronged, and by her irradicable
abhorrence of the very semblance of free institutions.
Were her power equal to her will, it is not Cracow
alone would suffer ; and as it is, the instruments
which she now wields in the gratification of her
atrocious ambition—Prussia and Austria—will, ere
long, in trembling for their own security and existence,
curse the fatuity which induced them to lend them-
selves to her designs. It was in vain that the Senate
of Cracow remonstrated against the injustice of
expelling from its territory men who for years had
been invested with all the rights of citizenship, and
allied to the State by the ties of person and property
—the persecutors were inexorable, and not alone the
Polish exiles, but all others who are obnoxious to the
now sovereign authority of the invaders are liable to
banishment and exile. Even the subjects of France and
England are not exempt. The plea by which this
outrage is attempted to be vindicated is an allusion,
made in the ninth article of the treaty of Vienna, to
deserters and criminals, who were to be surrendered to
the several governments to which they might belong ;
but this evidently cannot be applied to men settled in a
neutral territory—unconvicted of any moral or political
offence. As well might the same powers call upon
France and England to surrender the exiles who have
taken refuge with them ; and no doubt such demand
would be made if there existed the means of enforcing
it. Are Russia, Prussia, and Austria the only trus
tees of the treaty of Vienna? Are England and
France too contemptible to be even made acquainted
with the intentions of the Sovereign Powers, until their
fiat be issued, and the destinies of nations decided
by a proclamation ? Such would appear to be the
lamentable fact. Every circumstance corroborates
the accuracy of the opinion expressed in the des-
patches of Count Pozzo di Borgo, as published
in the Portfolio, when he advised Russia to ac-
cumulate her resources, and by at once seizing her
prize, leave Europe no alternative but submission. At,
the opening of the Session, Lord Palmerston intimated
that the silence of the Kings Speech in regard to
Poland should not be construed into an acquiescence of
the Government in- the breach of treaties past or to
come. This intimation at the time sufficed to allay the
anxiety of the nation ; but the time is arrived for a
more explicit declaration of the intentions of Govern-
ment. Neither this last nor the preceding outrages
can be redressed by negative explanations—the nation
demands, and has a right to expect some positive de-
claration of the course intended to be pursued. We
urge not premature disclosures, but we expect an as-
surance that the interests and honour of England shall
be vindicated. Let this be declared, and we shall nut
cavil about the means. But let it not be said
that
while II issia openly violated the rights of na-
tions, frittered treaties to atoms, which Great Bri-
tain was pledged to maintain, and in the face of Eu-
rope, successively trampled on the independence of
surrounding States—that the British Cabinet feared to
whisper the intention of demanding redress, and shrunk
from the assertion of the nation's honour, and the de-
fence of civilization, justice, and humanity. Since
writing the above, we have been informed that Lord
Palmerston has dispatched a diplomatic agent of great
consequence to Cracow, to remonstrate against the
outrage upon its independence. We trust that this
proceeding will he followed up with energy and deci-
sion. Russia's chief power of encroachment is de-
rived from the timidity of our foreign policy. Let
12.ngland but once take up the gauntlet which has been
so contemptuously flung down, and under the moral
influence of her name will spring up hosts of chain-
pions to
support me
her in the lists. Of what co-
'p i ence s it if the cabinets of Vienna and Berlin be
steadfast, which they are not, in their adhesion to the
invader—the people of Austria and Prussia will not,
if hostilities commence, lend themselves to the forging
of their own fetters. Despots even nearer home nay
support Russia, but the antagonistic principle is too
widely diffused to allow that support to be successful.
The proclamation of the Austrian General in usurp-
ing the occupation of Cracow, will be found in another
column. It is like all similar instruments of oppres-
sion—a compound of the most false accusations and
violent abuse of the persons mi'rked for persecution.
It much resembles the denunciations of the Tory press
against the Roman Catholics of Ireland—the terms
" vagabonds"—" revolutionary emissaries"—" out-
laws," &c., are most liberally applied. Tyranny often
seeks to palliate the enormity of its persecutions by
slandering its objects—we trust their victims will not
follow their example ; hut as words do not kill, that
they will find a nobler remedy for sorrow.—Morning
Advertiser.

A petition was last night presented by Sir Ronald
Ferguson from a Baptist Congregation at Nottingham,
praying that the duties on th materials used in the
edifices for public worship might be removed, and the
dissenters placed in the same situation in this respect
as the members of the Established Church. Sir John
Hobhouse supported the prayer of the petition, and
said he would take care to direct the attention of his
colleagues to it, and which he thought it not impossible
might be granted. The subject, as our readers are
aware, is about to be brought before the House by the
Hon. Member for Greenock (Mr. 'Wallace). A
Morning Contemporary (the Times) was pleased to
describe the proposition to remove the duties from ma-
terials employed in all buildings dedicated to divine
worship as a first step towards the voluntary system.
It might as well be said, that the exempting Dissenting
.Ministers from serving in the militia was a step towards
the voluntary system. The State establishes the
teachers of one religion, because it does not choose that
any portion of the people should be without the
means of obtaining religious instruction ; but it
does not thereby intend to declare that th people
shall not be at full liberty to worship according to
their conscience, or that their religious belief should
subject them to any disabilities, or place them in a
more disadvantageous situation than the members of
the Established Church. The duty of the State to
secure religious instruction to all, does not imply that
the State ought not to hold the professors of all creeds
in equal regard for this would be a violation of the
principle of religious equality. There can be no ques-
tion that the removal of the duties on building
mate-
rials used in religious edifices would be of the very
greatest advantage to many congregations of Dissenters.
We have been-informed that in many parts of Wales,
which would have been altogether without religious
instruction of any kind but for the exertions of the
Dissenters, the chapels are greatly in need of repair,
from the want of means to meet the expense, and that
the removal of the duties on timber would be hailed as