The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-27 00:00:00

67)

LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING. SEPTEMBER 27, 1836.

In the Number of the " Quarterly Review " just
published, there is an article entitled the " Last Ses-
sion," which deserves attention, not from any sophis-
tical ingenuity it manifests, and still less from its vigour
or novelty of thought and argument, but simply from
the subdued and desponding tone in which it is writ-
ten. It is throughout a confession of weakness and
sheer despair, which we must confess we were not pre-
pared to expect from such a reckless, red-hot Conser-
vative Journal as the " Quarterly." Instead of cheer-
ing up the saddened spirits of his party by an adroit
show of bravado, the Reviewer contents himself with
goihg over the same ground that Lord LYNDHURST
has already trodden—namely, recapitulating the events
of the last session as they were influenced by
the Upper House ; but this not in his Lordship's con-
fident, devil-may-care fashion, but in a whin-
ing, lame, crest-fallen spirit, as if they were
rather to be apologised for than defended. In fact,
the whole article betrays a consciousness of an inde-
fensible cause, and a lurking feeling of regret that the
House of Peers should ever have been induced to place
itself in such a false position, as that it can neither re-
treat nor advance with- safety. In his opening para-
graph the Reviewer hazards a remark which in a Re-
former would be characteristic and appropriate enough,
but in a Conservative is inapposite, and indeed inex-
plicable. He says, "we have endeavoured to show
from general analogy and historical experience, that in
any frame of Government capable of uniting liberty
with stability, the supreme power of the State cannot
be safely vested in one body." This is a strictly
correct hypothesis ; and is one of the many reasons
which induce us to advocate Peerage Reform. As at
present constituted, the government of the State
is directly " vested in one body," and this " one
body" is the House of Lords. Does any one attempt
to deny this ? Let him look at the irresponsible do-
mination claimed and exercised by the titled Tory Oli-
garchy during the last Session. Of what use was it
that the country, through its liberal majority in the
Commons, was anxious to secure to Ireland the be-
nefits of Municipal Reform—that petitions after peti-
tions were sent up from all quarters in its favour;--the
House of Lords was against the boon ; and the peo-
ple and their Parliamentary representatives were alike
compelled to give way. Does not this striking fact
shoW—whatever theoretical Conservatives may allege
to the contrary—that the Government of the State
is distinctly vested in one body," whose " abso-
lute Shall" there must be no gainsaying ; whose decrees
are immutable and irreversible as those of the Medes
and Persians ? On minor legislative points, we grant
the other branches of the State may be allowed to
have a voice, and exercise an authority ; but certainly
in no instance where the whims and prejudices of their
Lordships are concerned. In such a case they are
omnipotent ; and take special care to let it be felt and
seen that they are so. How long is this irresponsible,
predominant influence to be permitted to continue un-
checked ? Is Reforni still to be adjourned to the Greek
Calends—still to fly, like the visible horizon, before
us—a thing to be pursued, but never to be grasped ?
Impossible ! The Reforms we have so long struggled
for, we must gain, be the risk to the House of Lords
what it may ; and it is evidently a conviction of this
unpalatable truth that has caused the Reviewer to in-
dulge in such a tame, lachrymose strain as pervades his
article on the " Last Session."

The Most Noble the Marquis of CHANDOS has
been holding his annual jollification with his " tenants
at will" at Aylesbury. • On such an occasion it was
to be expected that the " Farmer's friend"—as the
Noble Marquis has, we believe, dubbed himself—
would tell the country folks all about the mishap that
befell him and them in the House of Commons last
Session. It was about this time last year, if we
recollect right, that the " agricultural agitation" was
set on foot, which was to produce such a harvest
of good things for the farmers, provided they entered
into it heartily. They performed their part of the
agreement faithfully. They punctually obeyed the
calls of their masters, summoning them to attend meet-
ings, sign petitions, and do every thing else that they
were told was for the good of the cause. They have,
therefore, a natural anxiety, and some little right, to
know how it happened that all. their labour was in
vain, and all their hopes ended in moonshine.
Accordingly,p the Noble Marquis, on his health
beingl n
a drank, applies himself to the task--by no means
a p
explaining the causes of the mis-
carriage, and the failure of his own magnificent pro-
st a
one—of
pro-
phecies, under the modest guise that " it would not be
inopportune on his part to state a few opinions in re-
spect to matters that concerned them all, identified
as those opinions were with the agricultural interests of
the country." This exordium was calculated to

arrest the attention of the audience—the Marquis has
studied Qui NTILIAN--the farmers sat with open mouths
conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant—when their
ears were greeted with the following oracular intelli-
gence :—" Previous to the meeting of Parliament, the
feeling of the country was decidedly in accordance with
the fact that agricultural distress existed to an alarm-
ing extent, and the assembling of Parliament was
looked to with great anxiety, in the hope that some
measure would be devised by which that distress could
be alleviated." Now this is about as poetical a de-
scription as we have stumbled upon for a considerable
time. We venture to affirm that even the thaw-bacons
of Buckinghamshire must have seen through the hoax
when they were called upon to bolt so bouncing a
statement as this. Not only was the feeling of the
country not decidedly in accordance with the fact here
assumed ; but it is matter of notoriety that neither the
feeling nor the fact had any existence except in the
minds of the landlords. If the landlords consider
themselves " the country" as the tailors of Tooley-
street called themselves " the people of England," then
indeed, but not otherwise, can it be said that
the feeling of the country was in accordance with the
Noble Marquis's fact ; and as to the fact itself, we
beg to ask the Marquis of CHANDOS why his Select
Agricultural Committee broke down so lamentably ?
Simply because the evidence failed to establish the fact
—the all-important fact—upon, the faith of the exis-
tence of which the landed interest, by their agitation,
had goaded the Government into a compliance with
their demands. If there be one thing more clearly
established than another, by the evidence laid before
the Committee, it is the total absence of anything like
general distress. Nor can the Noble Marquis, and
those who adopt his views, be allowed to impugn this
evidence, as they did that brought forward in 1833, on
the ground that it was the evidence of corn-factors and
others, whose interests were opposed to those of the
agriculturists. In the present case we have the almost
exclusive testimony of practical agriculturists, to bear
us out in our assertion, that there was not general
agricultural distress.

We have received letters and papers from Lisbon
of the 12th inst., and others of a more recent date are
hourly expected. At six o'clock on the evening of
the 10th, her Majesty the QUEEN, with his Highness
the PRINCE ROYAL, proceeded to the Municipal
Chamber, and swore to the Constitution of 1820. On
her way she is reported to have shed tears, and to have
appeared greatly distressed. Her MAJESTY'S previous
acceptance of the Constitution was at two o'clock P. M.,
the same day, when it was presented for her signature
by Count LUMIA RES and Viscount DE SA DA BA N-
DEIRA, in the Audience Chamber of the Palace of
Necessidades. Her MAJESTY o*Cted to the form
in which her acceptance of the Constitution was drawn
up, inasmuch as she was not a free agent. She fur-
ther observed, that having sworn to maintain the
Charter, she objected upon conscientious grounds to
to take the oath then proposed, but that she would
abide by the decision of the Cortes. The two
noblemen who acted as the organs of the Con-
stitutionalists, roundly asserted that a delay of a
few hours, or even the semblance of hesitation, would
endanger her life. Several Foreign Ministers, includ-
ing Lord HOWARD DE WALDEN, Baron VAN DE
WEYER, Count REVENTLOW, Count ST. PRIEST,
and M. M A CEDO, were present at this painful inter-
view between the QUEEN and her Ministers, and
finally entered their formal protest against the violence
offered to the will of the SOVEREIGN. The British
Ambassador appeared highly incensed, and offered
her MAJESTY a safe reception on board his Britannic
MAJESTY'S ship Hastings, provided she would pre-
fer leaving the capital till public order would be re-
stored. This offer she declined, but the Ministers
fearing that she might change her determination, and
take refuge on board a British man-of-war, took the
precaution to oblige her MAJESTY to accept the
Constitution in the Town-Hall, at six o'clock the
same evening. There was not the slightest manifes-
tation of popular disorder in the capital, during
these extraordinary proceedings. The greater part
of the people were as passive in the affair as if
it related to the government of a colony in the Moon.
Whatever therefore Foreign Ministers may think of
the Constitution, there is at present little chance of its
being immediately abolished. The troops and National
Guards are to a man staunch Constitutionalists, and
they are in reality the nation. As for the mass of the
industrious rural population, they care not three straws
whether they live under the Constitution or the Char-
ter. All they want is repose, and a moderate system
of taxation.

The following is a copy of the document presented
to the QUEEN for her signature, by Count LUMIARES
and Viscount DE SA DA BANDEIRA on the 10th,
and which provoked the Protest of the Foreign Minis-
ters present on that occasion. The words objected to
by the QUEEN are printed in italics :

" Having concurred with the representations made to me by
a great number of citizens, and taken into consideration the
other clear demonstrations of the national opinion in favour of
the re-establishment of the political Constitution of the Mo-
narchy of the 23d of September, 1822, with such modifica-
tions as circumstances may render necessary therein, I have
thought fit to declare that Constitution to be in vigour, and to
order the convocation, under the forms thereof, of the General
Cortes of the Portuguese nation, to whose Deputies are
granted, besides their ordinary faculties, all the powers re-
quisite for effecting the modifications in the said Constitution
which the before-mentioned Cortes may judge proper. Thus
the Minister and Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment is to have the present decree understood, and to cause it
to be executed, proposing to me forthwith the measures neces-
sary for the prompt taking of the oath to the Constitution and
the assembling of the Cortes.
" THE QUEEN.
" MANOEL DA SILVA PASSOS.
" Palace of the Necessidades, Sept. 10, 1836."
The New Cabinet is completed, but the appoint-
ments had not been officially announced in the Gazette
up to the afternoon of the 12th instant. They are as
follows :--.

Presidency of the Council and War—Count De
LumIAREs ; Home Department—MANOEL DE
SILVA PASSO3; Grace and Justice—MANUEL Lo-
PEZ VIEIRA ; Finance—Viscount DE SA DA BAN-
DEIRA ; Foreign Affairs--Senhor BRAENcAmP ;
Marisa and Colonies—ANToNio CIESAR DE VAS-
CONCELLOS CORREA.

The whole strength of this Cabinet consists in the
attachment of its Members to the Constitution. The
persons of whom it is composed are more notorious
for their violent opposition speeches than for any spe-
cific services they have yet rendered their country.
The Viscount DE SA DA BANDEIRA is the only
Member of the present Government who held office in
Portugal since the accession of Queen DONNA
MARIA. The Cortes will meet in November. In
the mean time all functionaries throughout the king-
dom will be compelled, under penalty of forfeiting their
situations and offices, to accept the Constitution which
has already been solemnly proclaimed in Villa Franca,
Almeda, and several other towns of lesser note. The
QUEEN was indisposed on the evening of the 12th, in
consequence, as was reported, of the fatigue and an-
xiety she had undergone on the two preceding days.
The PRINCE ROYAL was silent and sullen—in fact a
gloom pervaded everything but the faces of the populace.

The Paris Papers of Sunday received this day con-
tain some intelligence of importance. According to
the Gazette de France the hermetical blockade of
Switzerland has already commenced. Letters from
Geneva received in Paris, state that the movement of

a large body of troops towards the Helvetian frontier
was observed in the direction of Chambery. Austria
and Russia had signified to the Directory that they
were prepared to second the course adopted by France.
All this has been done, observes our liberal Gallic
Contemporary, to draw attention from the movements
now going forward in Spain and Portugal—or in other
words, to keep the eyes of England from being con-
stantly fixed on the Quadruple Treaty. The crooked
policy of the King of the FRENCH will soon surround
him with enemies who are a thousand times more to
be feared than the FIESCHIS and ALIBAUDS whom
the police are so busy in arresting. These enemies are
no other than the brave people of France, who will not
long remain passive spectators of the disgrace with
which a son of PHILIPPE EGALITE is covering the
national escutcheon. Since the downfall of the late
Cabinet the KING is hourly losing ground. He has
no confidence in those about him ; and his Ministers
are well enough acquainted with the tenure by which
they hold office, to be sensible of their own degra-
dation. Count MOLE and His MAJESTY hate
each other most cordially ; and M. MARTIN (Du
NORD) would keep his bed for six months to
come, if thereby he might have even a chance of es-
caping from the infliction of a seat at the Council
Board. The people look on with apparent indiffe-
rence ; but notwithstanding the laudatory strain in
which the Debats speaks of their loyalty, we have good
reason to know that thousands of the most peaceable
of them are ready at a moment's notice to effect ano-
ther revolution. They now perceive that they were
betrayed by the KING from the very outset; that his
MAJESTY never intended to observe the conditions
imposed by the Charter of 1830 ; and that to obtain
regal and imperial alliances for his children, he would
gladly accept the assistance of Russia towards &-
Wishing an absolute despotism in France. Their ap-
parent indifference is the result of extreme caution.
They know how fatal a failure might prove to France ;
and therefore they will be careful to remain inactive
till the fitting opportunity. When that moment pre-
sents itself—and it cannot, in the very nature of
things, be far distant—a revolution as eaceful
as that which placed LOUIS PHILIPPE on thr throne,
will hurl him as far from it as is CHARLES X.
M. GUIZOT has recommenced his career as Mi-
nister of Public Instruction by the establishment of
eleven new primary schools, of which one is for the
instruction of the children of Jews, and six for Pro-
testants.

Letters from Bayonne to the 22d instant, have been
received. They speak in very favourable terms of the
improved condition of the British Legion. In a letter
addressed to our Contemporary, the Chronicle, by a re-
gular correspondent, under date of the 21st inst., we
find the following gratifying intelligence, which we
hasten to submit to our readers :

" Mendizabal's appointment as Minister of Finance, has
already produced a most salutary effect in restoring confidence
to those parties on whose assistance to the Spanish Govern-
ment, at the present moment, the fate of the country mainly
depends. I mean those connected with it in a financial
point of view. There is now little room for doubt that—
within the next fortnight—the army will be almost en-
tirely paid up, and their future payment secured, while,
already, the completion of the requisite contracts, for ra-
tioning and supplying of warlike stores for the ensuing
six months may be announced. In fact, confidence in the
Government is on all sides springing up, and unless the people
themselves, by any acts of violence or oppression, destroy the
efforts of the Government to secure this much desired attri-
bute, all must go well for the Constitutional cause. Mendi-
zabal, justly elated by the triumph he has achieved, throws
himself heart and soul into the business ; and respected as he
is to a degree, every effort he may make to free his country
will be warmly backed by the great mass of the people." *
SEVEN O'CLOCK.—I have just seen an official communica-
tion of the arrangements made for the,payment of the Legion.
They have been agreed to by Mendizabal, on the part of the
Spanish Government; and Colonel de Lancey and Deputy
Commissary-General Grindley, on the part of the Legion.
25,0001. is to be paid down (that is. the sum for which the
Lieutenant-General has already received an order to draw);
16,000/. by a Treasury order, dated Ist of October ; 16,000/.
more by a like order, dated Ist November; and 15,000/. by a
like order, dated 15th of November. For the due payment of
these Treasury orders, Mendizabal gives his pledge. Thus
the Legion will obtain in this payment 72,0001.

We have no doubt but that as soon as General
RODIL shall have taken the field in person against
the rebels, the Commander-in-chief will afford the
troops under General EVANS a fair opportunity of
signalizing themselves. Betrayed by CORDOVA, and
exposed to the constant attacks of the Carlists, the
British Legion instead of acting on the offensive, was
compelled for want of arms, provisions, and military
stores, to coop itself up in San Sebastian under
shelter of the guns of his MAJESTY'S steamers. Dis-
affection, disorder, and a temporary neglect of all dis-
cipline was the consequence ; and with a neglect of
discipline disappeared that respect for, and confidence
in, the officers, so essential to the very existence of an
efficient military force. Latterly, however, General
EVANS has succeeded in restoring the spirit of disci-
pline in the corps : and the prospects held out to the
men by the new Spanish Ministry have had the
effect of re-kindling all; their earliest hopes of ulti-
mate success. As soon as RODIL can make a di-
version in their favour, he will ; and from that moment
we augur a better fate for our countrymen than they
have yet experienced in their Constitutional expedition.

We beg to direct attention to the copy of a confi-
dential despatch from Count NESSELRODE to Prince
LIEVEN, dated January 9th, 1827, which we have
copied from the last Number of the Portfolio. Want
of room is our excuse for not dwelling upon it at a
length commensurate with its importance ; but per-
sons of even the most ordinary perception will easily
observe, without any direction from us, how strongly
the subject of this despatch confirms our repeated as-
sertion, that nothing does or can escape the vigilance
of Russian diplomacy. It also proves the great ex-
tent of the moral influence of the British Government,
when its foreign affairs are conducted by such master-
spirits as the late Mr. CANNING. Only fancy an
Emperor of RUSSIA trembling in his palace as he
peruses the speech made by a British Minister in the
House of Commons Nor was the Imperial trepida-
tion, mentioned in the despatch, the result of violent
anger, or strong contempt. It was fear—and fear only
that affected the CZAR'S nervous system. Russia
was never more conscious of her own weakness than
she was then ; and the caution with which NESSEL-
RODE seeks to convey a menace to the British Minis-
ter proves that his object was rather to conciliate and
cajole the Cabinet, to save appearances, and to soothe
the vanity of CANNING, than to provoke a re-avowal
of his opinions. If England were but true to herself—
if she only understood the power which she derives
from her geographical position—and if her affairs were
only entrusted to the management of statesmen of

liberal and comprehensive views conversant with the
state of Europe, she might bid defiance to the intrigues
of a whole conclave of continental sovereigns.

Brussels and German Papers have been received
Lis morning. Extracts from them will be found under
Le head " Foreign Intelligence."

Yesterday morning, at six o'clock, a number of
workmen commenced draining the immense body of water from
the Serpentine River, on the Kensington-garden side, prepa-
ratory to cleansing it, and improving the bottom. The novel
system of draining the water causes many persons to stop to
view it, viz., a number of men arc stationed on planks on
each side of the dam, at the new stone bridge, and with large
wooden scoops, each containing nearly twelve gallons of water
is emptied into the river below the dam by three men to each
scoop. At present the water in the river below the bridge is
(as it has been all the summer), considerably below the
sluices.