The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-07 00:00:00

cannot bribe every one of the inhabitants. But we
will not insult our readers by dwelling longer on such
puerilities. Municipal Reform has annihilated a hOSt
of supporters of the Tories. The whole resources- of
the Corporations were at their command. A refor-
inition of abuses may weaken a bad Government, but
they will always strengthen a good one. We may be
sure, therefore, that a Reform Government, sincerely
desirous of carrying the Reform Bill into effect; has
everything to hope, and nothing to fear from time tri-
umph of reform in the Corporations.—Morn. Chron.

fhe last Number of the Portfolio, viz., Number V.,
contains a document which, in the midst of the argu-
ments, pro and con., raised by Russia's German de-
fenders, or opponents, will be considered not less curious
than important. It is a dispatch from the Russian
Ambassador in this country, Prince Lieven, to the
Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs at St. Peters-
burg, Count Nesselrode, and it bears a remarkable
date, viz., that of the 16th of January,
1829, which,
as our readers will recollect, preceded by a few days
the opening of the parliamentary Session which was
characterized by Sir Robert Peel's " agonizing" re-
cantation on the Catholic question, in concurrence
with a similar recantation on the part of the Duke of
Wellington. The time and matter of the dispatch
derive interest from the critical position of things when
the communication was made, not less than from the
adventitious circumstances of interest growing out of
the present designs of Russia, which accompany the
present publication of the document in the 'Portfolio.
We have heard of several instances of " friendly
franknesS" lately. For example, we have instanced
the "friendly frankness" of the speech of the Emperor
Nicholas at Warsaw, where, " for their own good,"
he tells the Poles they are liars, and that he will blow
their town about their ears. We have witnessed the
" friendly frankness" of a Conservative writer, who, as
he says " for their own good," calls the Conservative
minority who support Sir Robert Peel some of the
hardest names be can find in the vocabulary, from
" frivolous incapables" to " criminals," &c. We
have now a similar exhibition of " friendly frank-
ness" on the part of Prince Lieven, the friend
of the Duke of Wellington, in writing an ac-
count to Count Nesselrode of the proceedings
of his illustrious friend in 1829. The picture which
he sends of the greatest captain of the age to his offi-
cial superior is by no means a flattering one. Per-
haps he may have borrowed a few traits from the Con-
servative paper to which we have referred—then
opposed to the Duke and Sir R. Peel, and whose cue
it then was to say " that his Grace's mouth was only
fit to whistle with." It must be %admitted that Prince
Lieven depicts the illustrious Premier of 1829 as little
better than an imbecile ; but we have no doubt, as in
the two former instances, he considered his sarcastic
derogation to be entirely " for his Grace's own good."
If, indeed, he is described by his Russian patron as an
imbecile, while acting the part of Premier, his Grace
ought to be thankful to his friend for not having taken
his description from his own mouth, by which he pro-
nounced himself to be " a madman " for undertaking
such a task. The purview and substance of the des-
patch is that the Duke being not only incompe-
tent, but perfectly convinced of his own incompe-
tency, endeavoured to bolster up his party pre-
vious to the meeting of Parliament by ingenious expe-
dients, which are not generally deemed to be politically
honest. " The Duke," says this moral Russian diplo-
matist, " has employed the interval between last session
and the one about to open in increasing, to the utmost
of his power, the number of his adherents, and in this
vital interest he has employed more money and address
than any of his predecessors." This is " cool, quite
cool." Considering that this comes from the mouth of
a well-wisher and ally, it will be considered as rather a
startling admission of political corruption. Mr. Joseph
Hume should look to it. But really, viewing the com-
bined incapacity and embarrassment in which the Peel
and Wellington Ministry appear to have been at the
'time in question plunged, we are willing to put as fa-
vourable a gloss as we can on the shifts which they
resorted to in order to maintain themselves in place, at
the expense of every thing like public principle. Their
recantation upon Catholic Emancipation constitutes a
very fair pendant to the recantation which they now
express their willingness to make on the subject of
Reform. Sir Robert Peel might indeed exclaim, with
regard to the last sacrifice of principle, as to the first,
and in the same terms of self-humiliation and' self-re-
proach—
" Oh ! bitter pangs of agonizing shame."
But the document, as we have said, if it does not fur-
nish any thing like a moral apology, moves a kind of
contemptuous pity for the Ministry which it exposes.
The Russian diplomatist very frankly says, that not-
withstanding this questionable outlay of public money,
" if the Duke has obtained the superiority of num-
bers, that of talent is against him." " Loripedem
rectus derided." But the next passage is still more
contemptuously sarcastic—" Although he has made
every effort to conceal his intentions, it is evident
that he has formed no plan whatever, except
that of waiting in order to adopt in the end the
opinion which will appear to preponderate." • This
is what the friends of " Old Van ' used to call the
" lucky turn-up" system of conducting a Government.-
There is nothing like waiting the fall out of events
with the mouth open. " Perhaps," as the proverb
has it, " the skies may fall,
,and those who look out
may catch larks." But the Calmuck portrait-painter
could not leave his picture without a parting touch ;
and he does so, con amore, in the following passage :
The Duke could only take to himself the merit of
the first of these causes ; the honour of the second be-
longs to the measures of political economy adopted by
the last Ministry. But as the nation in general is lit-
tle capable of appreciating this distinction, the Duke
will reap the merit as well as the fruits of the work of
his predecessors." According to this view, the Jack-
daw of Toryism—sorry bird as it is—had stolen every
feather in his tail from his opponents. 'rhe Tories are
not very nice about the distinctions of meum et tuum ;
but it is " too bad" for a friend to make the allega-
tion. However, the party have considered it conve-
nient to adopt the same " Old Bailey Dock " prin-
ciple up to the present day. It saves a wonderful deal
of trouble, time and thought. Steal any measure you
'can, is their device ; do any thing to keep the plunder,
or to avoid being turned of" But we quit this ex-
quisite picture of " The Duke," sent by his Russian
friend in London to his Russian friend in St. Peters-
burgh ; in order to come to the concluding pith of the
matter, the " sting in the tail" of this brilliantly epi-
grammatic composition. " The Duke" is cunningly
hinted to have his hands so full with the above official
trickeries and political embarrassments of his own crea-
tion, that Russia may take her full swing of encroach-
ment without obstruction. The soothing and " hush-
ing up" system must be adopted. ",He will be dis-
posed to conciliate rather than exasperate;" &c. Such
is the substance of the concluding paragraph of the
letter of Prince Lieven. And so the event showed ;
for in six months' time from its date, the Russians
were crossing the Balkan ; and in nine months after it,
were 'in full march on Constantinople—a prize which
they have never de facto relinquished to this very day,
and never will.—Morning Advertiser.
It would by no means astonish us, if in a short
time, the Liberal papers were to be as clamorous for an
amendment of the Municipal Corporations Bill, as they
were noisy in their joy when it was proposed, or in
their eagerness that it might pass. Even if we had
not seen a similar change on the part of these worthies,
with respect to another measure, which was not found
to work quite so well as they had predicted—still we
should anticipate, with some confidence, the time when
they would discover the imperfections of the present
Bill. When it was in progress they did indeed en-
deavour to bear us down with unfounded assertions and
gratuitous assumptions ; but, unfortunately for that
favourite style. of Whig-Radical argumentation, the
Bill is nowlaw, and a mere child will be able to test its
merits or demerits by its practical effects. When those
effects shall, as they daily promise to do, be felt in
such an increase of local debt, and consequent tax,
ation, as was unknown before, save only in such cor-
porations as had been already liberalised—when
discontent 'shall possess tlie, multitude, to whom
the Whigs and Radicals equally look 4 she uncon-
scious instruments of their own advantage—then we
shall hear that the J3ill requires " modification." And
that we are not calculat;rig upon an extreme or impro-
bable case, appears pretty evident fruit} the proceed.