The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

We are not surprised to find that in certain quarters
a very strong anxiety should be felt to throw discre-
dit on the documents which have lately appeared in
Th.e Portfolio. At first they were stigmatised as
downright forgeries, though executed, it was admitted,.
with very considerable literary' skill. Their author-
ship was ascribed to a certain German, who had been
formerly in the Polish service of Russia. These broad
assertions haying found no credit—having indeed, been
refuted by the evidence of authenticity contained in
the itocuments themselves, another story is now set
up--viz., that the said German, one fine morning, de-
camped from Warsaw with copies of several important
:State Papers, to which he had obtained access ; that
due notice of his flight was given by the Russian au-
thorities to the other Governments ; that he was in
consequence arrested by the Prussian authorities, on-
the borders of Hanover ; and that not only the copies
of the State Papers in question, but every other docu-
ment in his possession, were seized and, forwarded to
St. Petersburg. The adventurer, it is added, arrived
at Paris without a single scrap of paper, but, being
-gifted with an exceedingly good memory, and being in-
troduced to a literary individual of very lively talents,
in that metropolis, the contents of the Portfolio in due
time appeared. We confess that when this publica-
tion commenced its career, we were not disposed to
treat it with much respect. In the first place, sup-
posing the documents to be genuine, their very appear-
ance implied somewhere a breach of official confidence,
of the most criminal. description. Secondly, we ob-
served, that neither the editor nor the publisher gave
any distinct pledge for their authenticity, but referred
the reader for satisfaction on that point to the
papers' themselves. Accepting that reference, we
perused each successive.-number with great care,
:an4l we found' that the "copies of dispatches which
they presented tallied so exactly with dates and
circumstances of which we had a perfect recollec-
tion, that we came to the conclusion, that such, at
least, of those papers as we have copied and commented
upon, were genuine in every respect. Had any doubt
still remained' upon the subject, it would have been re-
moved by the contrivances which have been resorted
to, in order to create a contrary impression. It will be
remembered that the dispatches of Prince Lieven and
the Count Pozzo di Borgo were addressed to the Im-
perial Cabinet at St. Petersburg. Now, the . story is,
that copies of these dispatches were stolen from War-
saw. We should like to see some explanation of
the circumstances which induced the Imperial Cabinet
at St. Petersburg to communicate to the Viceregal Go-
vernment in Poland copies of important dispatches, full
of peculiarly delicate matter, which dispatches had no-
thing whatever to do with the affairs of the latter country.
It May be true that a German in the Polish service
did abstract from its secret archives several papers
that he was afterwards arrested, deprived-of every scrap
of writing in his possession, and that he afterwards at-
tempted, with the assistance of a literateur, to compose
copies the.rn :tom his memory. All this may be
correctly stated, and yet it may have no connection
with the documents hitherto, at least, disclosed in the
Portfolio. We shall only add, that in the diplomatic
circle the copies of dispatches which we have extracted
from that work are believed to be undoubtedly genuine.
One distinguished member of that body finds it ne-
cessary, of course, to hold a different language ; yet
even that astute personage admits that they are founded
upon the recollection of some one who had seen the
compositions.—Morning Chronicle.

To quell a faction which has been so many years
dominant in Ireland as the Orange Society, and of
which the leaders hold the principal share of local pa-
tronage, and wield the chief strength of subordinate
authority in the country, while their agents arc distri-
Imted most effectively through every department of pub-
lic life—is a hold and difficult undertaking. It wonid.
be so in any condition of parties, and notwithstanding-
the concurrence of the
,most pliant Legislature that
ever wheeled. or marched at the word of command.
But with so powerful a minority in one House of Par-
liament, thwarting every measure that is proposed for
the peace of Ireland ; and against the all but unan:-
mons—sensc, shall wc call it ?—of tile other House,
which.upholds and instißes every act of factious re-
sistance, and every indication of factious contempt,
for the King's Government—no Administration, but
one invincible- in honesty, and in the confidence
of the people, could hope to effect such an object. No
servant of the Crown, unless he were endued with the
highest courage, and an almost chivalrous sense of
duty, would attempt it. Yet it will be effected. It
has been, and continues to be attempted, and there
needs only an inflexible adherence to the rule laid
down by Lord ildulgrave, of exacting from the known

or zuspected Inein!)ers of the faction an abjuration of

its lawiess and n: schievous supremacy, before 1w will
am it them to any post of trust or power of which he
can contra! the appointment. It needs but this, we
say, to despoil that &sing confederacy of its Corin-
thian capitals, -and make orangeism the same. as.
Ribbonism—the exclusive badge of the ignoble and
the base. If the Lord Lieutenant had the power, or
if it were consistent with prudence, in the present
posture of afrairs, to carry, his purifying prin-
ciple into the interior of the temple, and sweep out
whatsoever he should find there openly at war with the
ascendancy of thclaws, or practising underhand against
their spit, the reformation he is woriiz out would be
more rapid and decisive. But the standwhich he has
taken at the door, to repel further intrusion, has a
strong effect. It has struck a panic amongstthorle who
are without, by which even the gentlefolk, who are
comfortably entrenched have been.wholesomely
affected. We infer this from their silence on two or
three late occasions. For it is a sign of grace when
such magnificoes store up their wrath; like that of an-
tient Pistol, for future opportunities, and " eat the
leek in earnest of revenge." They hare been known,
on less provocation, to brawl and cry out against
O'Connell's dictation. But the subject grows too
serious for jeers of that sort, when they see some
of the tallest poppies of their garden cast aside
without any ceremony or circumstance at all.
They well know, and knew all along, that Lord

- ,
Mnlgrave wants no prompter to point out tne path of
his duty. But they have only lately found out the
futility of their endeavours to scare him out of it, fly
imputations which, however they may serve to capti-
vate the great and little vulgar, are of no power to
turn a man of firm nerve and high principle from his
purpose. They have, therefore, abandoned that tack,
and brood over their wound in silence. More than
one of the Orange Proccres have been rejected from
offices to which they had been nominated : and yet no
outcry has been raised, as in the case of Mr. Deane.
On the contrary, the facts have been studiously con-
cealed from the public and from their own party, whom
they truly consider to be disheartened enough already.
These cautious indications, where so lately all was
swagger and braggadocio, betoken fear ; and fear, in
such minds, is the beginning of repentance.—Morn-
ing Chronicle.

The appointments of Equity Judges are now settled,
,by virtue of which Sir C. PEPYS becomes Lord-
Chancellor of England, entitling him to a pension of
.5,0001. per annum after two or three months'—nay,
or one month's—service, should the O'Connell Mini-
stry endure so long ; Mr. Bickerstcth succeeding as
Master of the Rolls, with a salary of 8,0001. a-year
for life, and retaining his eligibility to a seat in the
House of Commons. To us it would appear unques-
tionably that, in a mere worldly point of view and,
more than that, in a political sense also, Mr. Bicker-
steth's is the better bargain. It is not for us to make
captious objections against either of the two sound
and able lawyers thus promoted, with reference to their
capacity to execute the duties which have now respec-
tively. devolved upon them ; on the contrary, we ac-
knowledge them both to be gentlemen in the first line of
their profession, and peculiarly'' well acquainted with the
business of equity Courts. The objection which the
country will make to this arrangement is one which
the Ministers ought have foreseen ' • and we can-
not but impute their apparent blindness to a degree
either of impudence or stupidity as regards their own
position, beyond, if it were possible, that for which
they had ever before obtained credit. The Ministers
must know (for who is ignorant ?) that their tenure of
office, according to all human calculation, is not worth
six weeks' purchase. They have long had before their
eyes the fact that four ex-Chancellors, English and

Irish, are simultaneously receiving pensions from the
Exchequer—to wit, Lords Eldon, Lyndhurst, and
Brougham for this country ; and for Ireland, Sir Ea--
ward Sugden. The effect, therefore, of this new no-
mination will be the addition of a fifth ex-Chancellor
within a period—Heaven knows how short—making
a gross judicial dead weight for the one Court of
Chancery on both sides of the Channel, and for the
single situation of Lord Chancellor, of 24,0001. a-year.
As for a separation of the political from the purely
judicial office, and an opening on that side for Lord
Brougham, the thing is out of the question. His
Lordship may " throw his wig at it ;" no such pro-
posal will be carried through Parliament ; and for
sufficient reasons why it ought not to be carried, we
refer to the recent publication of Sir Edward Sugden.
An attempt, by dividing the jurisdictions, to brave in
the person of a Cabinet Minister, and of a holyday
parade lawyer on the woolsack, an incompetent judge
of appeal becoming, by his want of intercourse with
the courts in Westminster Hall, and with their pro-
ceedings, hourly more incompetent, may serve, perhaps,
as a temporary bait for the jaws of a certain restless
and mortified personage to play with, but the Learned
Lord may depend upon it
,that he is shelved irre-
trievably. In the tempestuous weather of these revo-
lutionary times, as his • quondam colleagues are well
aware, he would swamp the most buoyant Cabinet
that ever floated. In stating, as we have here done,
that Sir C. Pepys and Mr. Bickersteth are the new
Chancery appointments, we have merely repeated the
announcement of the Ministerial journals, but our own
belief is, that Sir John Campbell, and not Mr.
Bickersteth, is the new Master of the Rolls. It is
true that a different arrangement was contemplated,
and that the Attorney-General was to be flattered
and cajoled by magnificent panegyrics of his dis-
interestedness into a surrender of his fair pre-
tensions to promotion. But • Sir John Campbell
is too good a Scot not to prefer "solid pudding"
to " empty praise ;" and he determined on exhibit-
ing a specimen of his disinterestedness.which the Mi-
nisters had not contemplated, but which he had the
sagacity to see would at once alarm them into a more
practical appreciation of his merits than the one which
had occurred to their imagination : he therefore sent
in his resitation ! Oh I-) what a clutter and clatter
throughout Downing-street and all its adjacencies—
Lord Melbourne was startled out of his easy chair,
and uttered a ‘,‘ pious" ejaculation. Mr. Spring Rice
overthrew the ink-bottle on the neat manuscript of his
embryo budget ; Lord Palmerston looked as aghast as
when he hears of a newly-imported epigram of M. de
Talleyrand ; Lord Glenelg slept on indeed, but
dreamed that the whole colony of Mauritius was rav-
ing round his bed ; and Lord John Russell fainted as
he fancied he saw the Learned Member for Edinburgh
denouncing, instead of supporting, his " constitu-
tional" projects for separating Church and State. The
agony was too intense to last ; it could not be borne ;
one and all—Lord Glenclg, though in sleep, joining
the chorus—shouted out " He must not resign—make
him Master of the Rolls ;" and Sir John Campbell is
Master of the Rolls accordingly. How Mr. Bicker-
steth is to be appeased we have not heard ; but we
suppose the honour of serving- under Sir Robert Rolfe
will hardly console him for the loss of the high and
valuable appointment of Master of the Rolls.—Time,:.
The icports which had been prevalent since the
opening of Term in Westminster Hall, respecting the
appointment of a Chief Judge in Equity, assumed
more of certainty yesterday than heretofore, and all
agreed in designating' Sir C. Pepys, the present
Master of the Rolls, to the high office of Lord
Chancellor. Opinion was divided, however, with re-
gard to his intended successor at the Rolls, some
stating that Sir John Campbell, others that Mi.
Bickersteth, • was appointed to that office. But we
presume all doubt on the matter:is set at rest by the
announcement made in the Evening Ministerial Papers
last night, that- Sir John Campbell- is doomed a second
tune to content himself with the responsible, but pre-
I carious post of Attorney-General, while a more fortu-
nate- rival for the honours of the profession mounts
over his head to the Bench of the Rolls Court, which
many lawyers consider, and not without reason, to be
the most eligible piece of legal preferment under the
We remarked the other clay upon the impro-
priety of the practice of appointing Common Law
lawyers to preside over Courts of . Equity, which
imposes upon the Judges of those Courts the
necessity of becoming learners when they ought
to be teachers—of appearing as pupils in a
branch of legal science, of which they ought
to be masters—an av?,:ward and unseemly posi-
tion for a Judge, not calculated to exalt the dignity
of the Bench, or inspire respect and confidence to the
public anti the profession. Were the Chief Judge-
ship of a Court of Common Law vacant, we should
have thought it as improper in the Government to
have appointed Sir C. Pepys or Mr. Bickersteth to
it, in preference to Sir J. Campbell, as to have pre-
ferred the latter to either of the -former gentlemen for
the Chief Judgeship of a Court of Equity. Another
zeport in Westminster Hall yesterday was that the
Attorney-General had intimatedhis intention to resign,
and that tlle threat of resignation had produced its
cfrect, and obtained him the Mastership of the Rolls ;
but. if the :Ministerial papers be correctly informed of
what has been determined upon at heed-quarters touch-
ire,a- these appointments, that report was groundless—
at least the latter part of it. In alluding to the in-
tended appointments the other day, we said that the
Ministers would not find it an easy matter to sup-
ply- the place of Sir John Campbell from the
Whig-Radical portion of the Bar, and that his very
ffficieacy in his present position might be an obsta-
cle to his promotion at present. If, indeed, the At-
torney-General lias been passed over, as seems to
he the case, it is probable that this is the reason and no
other, for we cannot give the Government that con-
trived the Chancery Commission-job to avert the hos-
tility of Lord Brougham the credit of caring more for
the interests of the suitors in Equity than for the suc-
cess of their own political schemes. \ The report which
stated that Sir John Campbell had resigned, or
threatened to resign, nominated Mr. Sergeant Wilde as
his intended successor, for no one thought it likely that
the present Solicitor-General would accept the office,
when the almost certain consequence must be the loss
of hiS seat in Parliament, which everybody knows, he
secured by merely a measuring cast majority" at the
last election. We do not think it at all probable that
Sir John Campbell would resign his present office
while his party are in power, unless for something
better, and, therefore, we are not under the necessity
of making any comment upon the reported promotion
of Mr. Sergeant Wilde. It is not yet mentioned who
is to be Speaker of the House of Lords, in the event of
the Bill being carried for separating the political from
the judicial functions of Lord Chancellor. Perhaps
the office may be intended for Lord Brougham, but at
present this is mere conjecture.—Morning Herald.
From long and. close observation we have acquired
a tolerably accurate knowledge of the instincts of Ra-
dicalism and Whiggery ; and by relying on the ulti-
mate ascendancy of these, we. can generally predict
with considerable confidence what will be the issue of
any dispute, or difference of opinion, which may hap-
pen to arise in such a Cabinet as the present. Thus,
upon the question of the appointment of a Lord Chan-
cellor, no longer than two days ago, when the organs
of the party were busily engaged in proclaiming and
enforcing the discordant views of a distracted Cabinet,
we ventured to anticipate not only that peace would
speedily be restored, but that it would be restored by
such means and in such a manner as involved the
greatest possible gain to the faction in power, and the
greatest possible loss to the country. Our expression,
we recollect, was, that, job
iagainst job, the double
job against the single one, the odds were vastly in
favour of the former. And we were right, for
we learn by the two Ministerial journals of last
night that the double job is already perpetrated.
The Globe and Courier inform us that the pre-
sent Master of the Rolls, a learned person, who, in
the acute judgment of the Morning Chronicle, " is,
perhaps, not eminently qualified for the highest juris-
diction," will be Lord Chancellor, and Mr. Bicker-
steth will succeed to the judicial office vacated by this
promotion. In applying the term job to these judicial
appointments, we would not be understood to speak
disrespectfully of the legal acquirements or the per-
sonal character of either of the fortunate Whig lawyers

Crown.