The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-08 00:00:00

FRANCE.

``ON ME FOREIGN POLICY OF E..VGLAND, AND Plik
1,771.... S WHICH RESULT FROM IT Td CML AND
ILELIGIOUS LIBERTY ALL THE WORLD OVER!
XLECTIONS AT PARIS.

To the EDITOR of the MORNING CLIRONICLE.
Paris, .luly 5, 1631.
must speak out shall not be happy till I
bare done so ! Our duties are seldom pleasant, but we
insist discharge them without reference to (see feelings or
sem fears. I love England, and I lode the English ! I
know the nation to he generous) humane, honourable, re-
ligious, virtuous, and well-informed. But yet the foreign
policy of England has been, and is, so ungenerous, so dis-
honourable, so unwise, and so ignoble, as to inflict serious
and lasting evils on the cause of civil and religious liberty
a'l the world over. This is a serious charge, but I am
prepared to prove it. I tell you teandidly, that the
fate of Europe at this moment depends on the foreign
policy of the Grey Cabinet, and yet I fear to add), that
I believe in my cornrcience the policy will be such
as to militate against the interests Of the people,
and to serve most essentially the cause of despotism.
You must not be offended at what I am about to say, ,
You must not suppose that I belong to the Anti-English I
party which exists in every country town and village of
this old continent. You must not imagine that I envy
Great Britain her rank among the nations—her glory on
the sea--or her fair fame on eaten the field of battle—her
manufactures, industry) agricultural improvements, or her
wise and liberal encouragement of the arts and sciences.
You must not suppose that I deny to her the posses•ion of
great Statesmen, wits, poets, philanthropists, and divines.
You may be sure that I would nut wish to dim the glow
which shines on all her religious, charitable, end Mime-
tional associations, since these are connected with the hap-
piness of man and the proaress of civilization. In justice
to myself I must add, that, Without stating to what
country I belong, I never hesitate on proper and justifiable
occasions to defend Great Britain from unjust attacks, and,
above all, to keep the cause of the people from being iden-
tified with that of the Government ! And yet lam bound
to add that the foreign policy of England has inflicted,
nay, continues to inflict, serious and lasting evils on the
cause of civil and religious liberty all the world
over. Nor will you class me among those who ab-
surdly suppose that they pour contempt upon England
by calling her a " nation of shopkeepers," just as if in-
dustry were not more meritorious than indolence—and just
as if talent, virtue, and patriotism were hereditary, and
deecended from Lethbridge "Pere" to Lethbridge "fits 1'
The middling classes of society in England are, on the
contrary, without exception—and I do not speak from
prejudice or at random—the most enlightened, reasonable,
patriotic, and humane of any class of people all the world
over. Ido not even except the United States of America,
which is great concession on my part, since I take the
United States to be the most happy of all the nations in
the known world. To tall Eugland a nation of shop-
keepers would, according to my views, amount to the
highest eulogy, though those who make use of the phrase
use it as a term of reproach. In my letter to the Morn-
ing Chronicle I address the middling classes. I select the
Morning Chronicle because it is read by the people; and
if I look for the triumph of liberty in France or in Great
Britain, in Poland or in Belgium, in Spain or in Italy, it
is because I see daily, in my intercourse with persons from
all nations who visit this capital, that the middling cl 'sees
are making rapid progress in knowledge, in love of free-
dom, and in a determination to sacrifice private interests
for public and general good. I protest, therefore, against
being classed with those who are avowedly Anti-English,
and who profess to believe that the English think of
nothing but bales of cotton—dream of nothing but the
prices of rums and sugars, and desire nothing but to be-
hold peace at all prices in order that the Thames may be
full of craft, and the merchants of Mincing,-lane say, " I
am warm, lam rich !!" But though Ido not belong to
this party, I am bound to declare, that the foreign policy
of England has, and still continues to inflict the greatest
evils on the cause of civil and religious liberty all time
world over.
At the risk, then, of offending the prejudices of some,
the suiky insolence of time lovers of high prices, and the
careless about liberty, civilization, and human happiness,
I am resolved to speak out ; and though I do not adopt
to their full extent the following nervous and tremulous
lines of a poet, whose name can never die, yet I ant bound
to tell you, that if my Lord Grey should truckle to
Russia, court Austria, and flatter Prussia, eulogise Spain,
and make terms with Portugal, sigh scornfully for Poland,
and say the cause of Italy is " hopeless," the stanzas of
Byron, which are partly prophetic, will be Inure than ac-
coinplished in the general and enthusiastic indignation of
all the nations of civil zed Europe ; for then, indeed, will
Britain have proved that her foreign policy is opposes to
freedom, to civilization, and to th happiness and dignity,
honour and perfection, of human nature.
" Alas : could she but fully, truly know
How her great name is now throughout abhorr'd ;
How eager all the earth is for the blow
Which shall lay bare her bosom to the sword;
How all the nations deem her their worst foe—
That worse than worst of foes—the once adored
False friend, who held out freedom to mankind,
And now would chain them to the very mind."
lam prepared to go into the history of this feeling. I
am prepared to show the date of its birth—to trace its
infancy—and, alas ! to conduct you to its maturity. lam
prepared to show, that men Mr. Canning, whose foreign
policy has been so much praised of late, because so little
understood, knew of no word but England in all his ne-
gociations and treaties, and who ever looked to the ad-
vantage to be gained from a country for British commerce,
and never to the advantage to he conferred on a country
by British aid and protection. lam of course well armed
on the history of the Wellington and Londonderry Cabi-
nets—the former of whom was—
" Call'd " Saviour of the Nations'—not yet saved
And Europe's Liberator'—still enslaved."
Yes, yes—we must not forget the truth, the solemn,
practical truth, taught by the Prince of Poets and the
Bard of Freedom, when to the Duke of Wellington he said—
'. Never had mortal man such opportunity,
Except Napoleon, or abused it more ;
You might have freed fall'n Europe front the unity
Of tyrants, and been bless'd from shore to shore;
And now, what is your tame? Shall the muse tune it ye?
Now—that the rabble's first vain shouts are o'er ?
Go hear it in your famish'd country's cries!
Behold the world!! and curse your victories."
But example is the school of mankind ! and though it
were useless to mourn over the vicious policy of the Bri-
tish Cabinet during the last forty years, yet it is not use-
less to refer to past experience, if, from that which has
occurre 1, we derive salutary lessons for the present and for
the future.

Now, then, let me ask Lord Grey what he imagines
history will say of the foreign policy of Great Britain dur-
ing the last three months? The eulogies of the Duke of
Wellington will be forgotten—the applauses of Lord Aber-
deen will no longer encourage the untravelled, nor make
the ignorant believe that in Europe the foreign policy of
Great Britain is approved and respected. Ministerial majo-
rities will no longer give confidence to a party, and inspire
the leader with courage and energy. History—calm and
impartial history—will thus record its opinion of the
events which have just pasted, and which are now pass-
ing :—" After fifteen years of inaction and oppression,
Europe awoke from her slumbers and degradation, and re-
solved on becoming free. In France this determination
was first evinced, and it was so national, spontaneous, and
resolute, that even the Duke of Wellington felt it to be
irresistible, and was the first to send to Paris an Ambas-
sador to represent his King and Master. But, though the
Duke yielded to circumstances, he was in heart no friend
to freedom. He denied to the people Refoim, and the
King of England changed his Ministers. This was an
important moment for the cause of the people, and Europe
beheld with delight and acknowledged with gratitude her
obligations to the King, for naming a Whig Administra-
tion. The Cabinet was composed of Lord Grey, a friend of
freedom for more than half a century—of Lord Brougham,
whose exertions in the cause of liberty and knowledge had
received for nearly twenty years the progressive and marked
approbation of all the civilized nations in Europe—of Lord
Althorp, who belonged to a family to whom the people
smveern of
ere attached, and in whom they confided—and of other
similar principles and opinions. The Cabinet, so
constituted, received the support of the British Empire,
and it proclaimed its determination to secure to Great
Britain a national representation This measure was
combated by the enemies to liberty, improvement, and
education ; hut the people supported the King and his
patriot Ministers he eventually the
car-
ried. But whilst the Greymeasure was :e
contended for the liberties of Englishmen,
tening fetters on those who in foreign lands haladedriisnenfats:i
assert the dignity of human nature and their right to lie
free. It assisted at the conferences of foreign power,,
who were combined to destroy the hopes of the Belgians,
and to re-establish the doctrine of the divine right of
Kings. It denied to the Belgians, under the pretext of
the injury which British commerce would sustain, the
right of becoming Frenchmen, and uniting, as they de-
sired, their country to France. This refusal subsequently
IA to wars which might have been avoided, and to misery
and bloodshed, which a wise and liberal acquiescence would
have rendered wholly unnecessary. It rejected all appeals
which were made to it by the Polish nation ; and,
although it preserved the most strict neutrality, yet allowed
Prussia to supply the Russian army with ammunition and
provisions—permitted the same Government to stop the