The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL.

" As for Lord Durham," says the Times, in an
article in yesterday's number, " we really fear that
he is, as he has before been, too much overpowered
by the hollow flatteries of the Czar to leave his na-
tural good sense and love of country room to act
with freedom. The press of England, the Times
included, has, within the last few months, borne not
unfrequent, though sometimes, perhaps, unwilling
testimony to the zeal and the firmness with which
Lord Durham discharges the arduous and important
duties of his mission at St. Petersburg. The benefi-
cial effect of his services has been kit and acknow-
ledged by a class of men whose approbation, we dare
say; will compensate Lord Durham for the ignorant
censure of a party scribe. The Times itself has upon
two or three recent occasions published letters of
thanks to Lord Durham for his invaluable attention
to British interests ; but it is quite true these acknow-
ledgments proceeded only from British merchants.
However worthless the Times maybe disposed to regard
such testimony to Lord Durham's diplomatic character,
while we continue to have any commercial intercourse
with Russia, the people of England will not regard it
as altogether valueless. In fact, the merchants of
England attach the utmost importance to his Lord-
ship's mission, for they know that their interests were
never before so ably and so zealously attended to by
any ambassador in Russia. Did we not feel assured that
our interests required the superintendence of a firm and
upright representative at St. Petersburgh, we can as-
sure the Times we should be much better pleased to
see Lord Durham in his place in the House of Lords
than at the Court of the Czar. May we take the li-
berty of suggesting to our Contemporary, that instead
of engaging himself with unfounded apprehensions
that the " naturalgood sense" and " love of country"
of Lord Durham may be overpowered by the flatteries
of the Czar, it would be much more reasonable to con-
gratulate the country upon its escape from the inflic-
tion with which it had been threatened by the Duke of

Wellington. If the presence of Lord Durham at St.
Petersburgh be an advantage, how much is that advan-
tage enhanced by the reflection that he fills a mission
destined by a 'foxy Government for the Marquis of
Londonderry ?—Morning Chronicle.
If we wish to insure the just punishment of a felon,
to frustrate the persuasive powers of an advocate, the
wiles of a pettifogging attorney, the perjured evidence
of an alibi witness, the familiar aid of saws, files, vi-
triolic acid, wigs, moustachios, ladders, jemmies, and
accomplices, there is still one resource possessed by
the friends of public justice—one which experience
proves to be infallible—give the thief "rope enough,
ami"—we all know the rest ; and it applies not more
iuslv to Old Bailey society than to that which figures
in Downing-street. The years 1834 and 1835 were
passed by the British nation in serving out "rope" to
the Whigs and their accessories of the Movement.
The year 1836 has been employed by the compound
gang in preparing the work of self-suspension. What
we state is a strict truth, known at this moment to
every man who makes use of his opportunities for ob-
serving the state of Gr:etthiLtin generally, or watching
the petty transactions of the most obscure village into
which politics have eve' ;trade their way. To demon- I
steate to the world the absolute unfitness of modern
Weias for even the meanest function that belongs
to civil government, viz., that of executing the com-
mand,: of a task master, it was essential at the same
time to wove the incapacity of the faction called revolu-
tienists to dictate such commands without entailing
ruin on the countrv. Th:3 Radicals might still in time
eyes of some, have been " Imperium &gni, nisi impe-
ressent ; the -o.7higs to others might have seemed
" Pares ne,rotiis." But the accession of the first to
power. and of the second to place, has at once dis-
oelled the bright illusion ; both have been tried, and
•
both found miserably- wanting. The nation is sick
of the experiment. We ask any honest man who re-
members the state of England six years ago, and who
secs what it is at present, to answer us plainly—what
progress have Whigs and Radicals united, or has
either faction separately, if to consider one apart front
the other be practicable, made in the esteem or affec-
tions of their countrymen since the year 1832 They
havo held in their hands the monarchy ; they have had
carte blanche for the display of their whole magazine
of legislation, intellectual as well as moral they
have possessed, and they have not spared, that vast
machinery by the application of which to the corrupt
purchase of opinions which could be no otherwise con-
ciliated, they used to charge it is a heavy crime to their
opponents that the good old times of Toryism were
distinguished. The Whigs and Radicals have created
a more enormous portion of patronage—mere gross,
jobbing, bribing patronage—and have thereby, directly
or indirectly, provided for a greater number of merce-
nary adherents than all their predecessors for 50 years
put together. If the coast guard be meant as a nur-
sery and depot for seamen, sure we are that the corn-
misioners, registering officers, corporate, police, and
parochial functionaries, under the innumerable and in-
describable denominations which have been invented
by these Whig-Radical Reformers to reward the purity
of their adherents and to stimulate their zeal, would
furnish a dozen nurseries for as many armies, even
when war raged loudest. There is nothing like it in
the records of' party profligacy, but the day draws near
when a full return can be moved for. And what
is the result of all ? Are the Whigs with their Ra-
dical confederates the stronger for it, or likely to
be the more long-lived as a Ministry ? Are they not
felt to be the scourge of the empire, even by those who
hold in derision their genius for aught but evil ? Are
they not, we ask in melancholy mortification, are they
not looked upon as a sort of Brummagem gilt-copper
Government, as a set of Bartholomew fair performers
transferred to the boards of the regular drama ? With
the State to administer and the Church to protect,
they have earned for themselves the reputation of
being the bitterest, if not the ablest, enemies by which
Church and State were ever assaulted. Their Reform
Bill, which gave full swing to the popular impulse, has
ruined Whiggery and Radicalism as a whole. The
Municipal Bill, which set in motion every local power,
and was reckoned on as the sure destroyer of Conser-
vatism in detail, has raised such an outcry among all
the decent classes of the community, in every town
and borough where it has been brought into ac-
tion, the brutal grossness, the rancorous vengeance,
the niggard meanness, the scandalous irreverence
for things great and holy, the sum total of plebeian,
pothouse despotism, Making itself instrumental to
the basest purposes of personal selfishness and
greediness on behalf of those by whom it is exer-
cised, has filled the minds of the great bulk of those
who honestly within these 18 months believed that a
municipal reform, letting into the local administra-
tion of towns persons who had previously been ex-
cluded from it, would be a wholesome and beneficial
measure, with such utter disappointment and disgust,
that if a Godsend from Heaven had been prayed for
by the Conservatives, none so prolific of salutary re-
action throughout society could have been imagined as
this grand nostrum mixed up by the public enemy for
their ruin. We see on all sides, that among the
classes upon whom this medicine has wrought the best
effect, the hitherto active and zealous citizens who
took habitually a leading part in several parishes and
boroughs of the metropolis, have now become resolute
in their dislike of the ends to which it was designed to
be subservient. Popularity has changed its motives
and its objects in many districts of this capital. The
mushroom members have become unpalatable to those
who at the last election considered them most savoury.
Marylebone is fast recovering her distracted senses, and
is loudly banishing her feeble and frivolous representa-
tive to Brussels, where, however, we have reason to
apprehend that his official exile will not be long.
Another appeal to the people of England will correct
en a striking manner the fallacies of the last, and ad-
minister to the House of Commons that of which it
stands more in need than any former one since the Bare-
bones' Parliament—a thorough purification.—Times.
It is impossible that attention can be too often and
earnestly directed to the aggressions and designs of
:11tussia. On whatever point of her empire we cast our
cll.'s we may perceive appalling evidences of her en-
ciaettchments ; everywhere she has instruments at work,
either completing or consolidating the acquisitions
already made, or preparing the way for fresh exten-
sions of usurpation. Yet, with such glaring and un-

deniable proofs before us of the necessity of an imme-
diate interference on the part of England, to check the •
progress of schemes most vitally affecting the safety of
the British empire, we find some of our affected liberal
contemporaries, with an air of supreme sagacity, an-
nouncing that they see no cause for alarm in the con-
duct of Russia; and others, on whom may be distinctly
traced the palpable impression of the cloven foot,
endeavouring to disparage and break up our relations
with the Ottoman empire, in which consist the best
means of averting the common danger. The conduct
of the former, we are ready to admit, may arise as
much from overweening confidence in the power of
England as from impenetrable stupidity or ignorance of
the actual position of affairs ; but in the course pur-
sued by the latter, we plainly recognise that irresistible
influence which Russia is accustomed to apply to those
who require weightier considerations than justice,
sound policy, and argument to engage their advocacy.
Of the Tory Press we bear unhesitating testimony,
that in respect to Russia, the general tenour of its
policy, unless where it indulges in false accusations
against the English Ministry, is an honourable excep-
tion to its general character ; but of the Liberal Jour-
nals, who, from being liberal, exercise greater influence
on public opinion, there is one or two whose observa-
tions on Russian affairs ,should be received with ex-
treme caution. In the last number of the Portfolio
an article on " The Affairs of Circassia, Russia, and
Turkey," exposes with fearful truth the advances of
Russia on the territories of these people. The im-
portant castle of Silgik, on the coast of Circassia,
has been lately carried by the assault of twelve
thousand Russian troops. Herat is threatened by
Persia, and a Russian Minister has volunteered to
take command of a regiment in the expedition. Thus,
on the one hand, Russia has made an important
step towards laying open a free ingress to Persia
and Asia Minor ; and, on the other, if she succeed
by the instrumentality of Persia in getting pos-
session of Herat, she will have surmounted one of the
chief obstacles to her invasion of India. With such
facts before us, shall we be told that there exist no
just grounds of alarm ? We pass over for the present
her outrages, in conjunction with Austria and Prussia,
on the independence of Cracow. Her insolent inter-
ference between England and the Porte, with regard
to the reparation sought for the tyrannical imprison-
ment of Mr. Churchill—the instigations used by her
to detach the chiefs of the Turkish provinces from
their allegiance—her numerous intrigues in every
Court and country in Europe, these are prolific themes
for animadversion ; but we keep them in reserve, and
come at once to the consideration of the extent of
territory she has actually usurped from surrounding
states. In Europe she has appropriated more than
one-half of Sweden, the whole of Poland, a large portion
of Turkey in Europe, of Turkey in Asia. of Tartary,
independently of her acquisitions in Persia and Cir-
cassia—in all exceeding in extent and importance the
entire of her original empire. Taking this in conjunc-
tion with her present attitude, is it not madness to
assert that there is • nothing in her policy to excite tile
apprehension of England ? In little more than half a
century Russia has advanced her frontier, both on the
side of Europe and the East, to the extent of several
hundred miles. And we are assured that there is no-
thing in all this to alarm us ! What does it signify
whether these conquests have been achieved by diplo-
macy or force of arms—the result is the same. Great
as arc the military resources of Russia, she is infi-
nitely more to be dreaded in the cabinet that the field,
and it is not by slighting her power in either that we
may best prepare to give it effectual opposition. We
' have the fact before us, that with less than half the
means which Russia now possesses, she has appro-
priated territory more extensive than all the other states
of Europe together. She may now employ the part
which she has subdued, for the subjugation of the re-
mainder. By means•of the conquered, she may achieve
further conquests, and with one half of Europe al-
ready prostrate before her, what may she not effect
a,ainst the other ? Her power is indeed formidable.
Through their fears or their hopes, she makes the other
despotic Cabinets of Europe parties to her aggran-
dizement. The Governments of Austria, Prussia, and
France, are the ready instruments of her designs,
whenever she pleases to employ their agency. Where,
then, is England to seek the means of opposing this
terrific combination ? Amongst the people of the
several States of Europe, who, when the crisis ar-
rives, whatever may be the conduct of their rulers,
will rally round the standard of the general liberty.—
Morning Advertiser.
The state at which our position with regard to fo-
reign affairs have arrived, under the management of
Lord Palmerston, is both disastrous and disgraceful,
whether we look at the kingdoms into which we have
been admitted as friends, or from which we have been
excluded as the patrons of a political system hostile to
firm and well regulated Government. If the attention
of the politician be turned to the Peninsular Govern-
ments, or rather to those confused and frightened de-
positories of official authority, which ought to be Go-
vernments, he will there discern what Great Britain
has gained for herself, or established for her allies, in
countries where there can be no question of the exten-
sive influence which she has exercised. Whatever
may be thought of the honour or honesty of the
mode in which the Ministry of Great Britain has in-
terfered in the affairs of Spain and Portugal, there can
be, we presume, no doubt, that it did interfere, and
concentrated in those kingdoms the cases for foreign
adjustments which in no other European States it
would be permitted to exercise. We are by no means
disposed to deny to Lord Palmerston and his col-
leagues all the glory which the present state of the
Peninsula may be considered to shed upon those
who have contributed to bring about that consumma-
tion. Whatever advantage Spain, or Portugal, or Great
Britain, or the world, enjoys from the condition of the
Peninsula at the present moment, the credit of it be-
longs to Lord Palmerston's policy. We make him a
present of it, and wish him much joy of whatever re-
nown he may be able to extract from it. Well, then,
Spain and Portugal having presented to us the brilliant
picture of the effects of Lord Palmerston's policy,
where he has done something, what lesson do we
derive from the state of those European nations when
he has done nothing ? What do we find to have hap
pend in kingdoms where British influence, though once
very powerful, has been wholly annihilated, since that
influence has been under the direction of Lord
Palmerston ? Is there any one of them in a state of
distraction ? Is there any one of them in which revo-
lution is setting house against house, and family against
family—in which Government is this thing one day,
and that another, according to the interests of Stock-
jobbers, or the temper of the troops ? France,
Austria, Prussia, all have held aloof from the Palmer-
stonian policy, and have employed—successfully em-
ployed—the energies of their respective Statesmen in
consolidating the principles of government to which it
has pleased Lord Palmerston, in his wisdom, to
oppose himself. Each of them has been growing more
powerful as a political State—more firmly organised in
its internal affairs—more independent—better provided
with means of defence. Can Great Britain make the
same boast ? Whether she can or not, it is very clear
that the kingdoms of the Continent in which her in-
fluence has been so active cannot. But, above all,
what has Russia been doing ? Russia certainly has
not paid much respect, either in the form of imitation
or applause, to Lord Palmerston's policy ; but she has
Euclonerpe
ofar more to make herself the paramount power in
has i3n peddling thanee any other State. While Lord Palmers-
tonand pokiner and working his
Government into- disgrace
;ace in the Peninsula, the states-
men'' of Russia have been doing all that vast power and
ingenuity, impelled by insatiable ambition, can do, to
make that empire the head of the political world. Of
all the States in Europe it most behoved Great Bri-
tain Policy, and to counteract it ; but we
nothingthis
to this end. We have done worse
than nothing ; for while employing our power in
havecl to
o watch e
n
mean, underhand, and disgraceful transactions, we have
allowed encroachments to take place, which otherwise
would in the ordinary course of affairs have been pre-
vented. The consequences are now seen in the tre-
mendous aspect of 1Z ussian power and territory—a
power which lifts up its head before us iu the north
of Europe, and stretches its giant limbs in menacing
attitude towards the south of Asia. Lord Palmer-
ston's obsequious scribes endeavour, with servile imi-
tation of their patron's manner, to treat all this with