The Sun.
London, England, 1823-06-16 00:00:00

[NEW TIMES,]

Among 'the curious occurrences • which took
place at the Meeting at the London Tavern on Friday, one,
and not the least curious, related to a person described
in 'The Times, as s' the Editor of The Sun," and in The Morn-
ing Chronicle as a Mr. Mudie, who stated himself to be one of
the Editors of The Sun newspaper." Of The Sun newspaper
'we know very little, and of 51r. Mudie we know nothing at all.
How many Itlitorii The Sun has ; whether:or not one of them
is named Mudie ; and, if so, whether or not he was the indi-
vidual who attended the Meeting,. we possess no information
whatever; but certainly the story told by this person was suf-
ficiently extraordinary. From the various , reports, of what he
, said, we collect it to be in substance as follows :—That the
French Government, wishing to delude the 'British- Public by
false information relative to the affairs of. Spainl applied to a
person in Paris to write articles of this kind in an Lnglish news-
paper—that this person thOught The Sun a paper of very limited
circulation, but that he nevertheless wrote a series of letters to
,51r,...111udie, containing articles to be inserted therein—that the
first letter was dated at Paris on the 17th of last month--that
it frankly avowed the writer's engagement at 500 franks per
article, and offered Mr. Mudie 250 francs per article to buy
snuff—at the same time begging the whole matter to be kept
a profound secret—that the inclosed article hinted some mat.
ters of news as doubtful, but assured Mr. Mudiethat they would
be verified—that three such communications were sent to Mr.
Mudie without his taking any notice of them—that at length
he found they. were likely to unfold important information re-
lative to the views of France—that therefore, in order to entrap
the French Government,,he inserted one of the articles a little
altered—that he wrote to the person at' Paris to send him more
communications,. and the money—but that the money has not
yet arrived I —The person who related this singular tale on
Friday read the letter of the 17th of May, which he designated
an insult to himself; but said " he could not give up the name
of the author for reasons which must be obvious." Now,
really, what reason a man who is insulted can have to publish
an insult, but to conceal the name of the person insulting him,
is so fai from being obvious, 'that it is altogether beyond our
conception.—But let us look a little more closely into the pars
rative:—Twenty pounils per article, for a continuance, is tolera-
bly good pay ; and we should think that the people who had to
pay it would he careful to get their pennyworth for their penny.
We can't say how the French Ministers manage such matters ;
but it is rather odd that they should he quite satisfied with ap-
plying to Monsieur A. at Paris, and leaving him to settle the
matter as he chose, and with whom he chose, in London. It Is
also odd enough, that, though the affairs of Spain have
been so long on hand, The Sun newspaper should not have
been thought of, as a powerful engine for influencing public
opinion, till the 17th of last month ; and still more so, that
the reason alleged for then applying to it, for such a pur-
pose, was its having a very limited circulation ! As to Mon-
sieur A., if he had to bribe the Editor of a Newspaper with ten
pounds, lie must have been a sad bungler to begin by confessing
that his employer paid twenty. And surely never was any
thing so clumsily managed as the opening a course of bribery
and corruption by a post letter from Paris to London, without
even the ceremony of sounding the person addressed, as to any
little scruples which he might possibly entertain against the
business ! No answer is made to the first offer; and yet Monsieur
A. goes on : he writes a second communication, nay, a third, be-
fore any notice whatever is taken of his proposal! This is
improbability upon improbability. And after all, what do
his articles contain? Mere doubtful hints, which the writer
asserts will be verified; and information, which 'Mr. Mudie
thinks 4. important," relative to " the views of France." But
if important, the information must, of course, be true; and
then we are to understand., that the French Government are
closing their real views to the English Public ! Far be it frinn
willing to pay twenty pounds per article for the liberty of tbs..
us to say where the hoax lies in this matter; but that there
is a hoax, somewhere or other, any person must be very
soft indeed to doubt. Perhaps the last circumstance in the
transaction may afford a key to the whole. Mr. Much;
it , appears, wrote to Monsieur A. requesting " that a
remittance might be., made as soon as possible. —The com-
munications began a month ►o ; 'but, alas ! " the remittance
has not yet arrived."—Oh, Monsieur A.; Monsieur A. !—We
suspect you are a bit of a wag.—Our attention, perhaps, would
not have been much directed to Mr. Mudie and his tale,
but for the concluding sentence of' his speech, and the little ad-
dition to it that appears in the report of our old friend, The
Times, as follows He (the Editor of The Sun) left
the meeting to .decide, after this statement of facts, whether
it was not probable that similar arguments had been
applied to and accepted by the Editors of some other
of the Papers.--(llear, hear, hear I—and a murmur of The
New Times, no deubt.") It Is very true, that for the last'
*
twelve months we have constantly endeavoured to open
the eyes of our countrymen to the real state of Spain ;
it is very true, that we have, to a great degree, succeeded;
that we have saved. hundreds of British 'families from ruin
and have prevented millions ofmoney from being sent to the aid
oftheSpanish Jacobins. On the Spanish question we have, in the
course of that time, written at least 300 articles ; and if 260
francs per article was a reasonable offer to The Sun, it will
heftily be disputed that The New Times might have expected
at least 1000. Here then is a sum of 300,000 francs (about
12,0001. sterling) which we should have earned in the course
of the last twelvemonth. It is hardly necessary for us to say.
we have not received that sum, nor the half, nor the quarter
of it but if any man dares to assert; that for any one of those
articles,. or for all together, we have received, or been pro-
.mised, or expect to receive, from the French Government, or
from any other source,. directly or indirectly, one single
franc , or 'one single farthing, the English language will
lifforti us but one appropriate term to characterisestich an asser-
tion—it is a lie. Will people never believe that the truth can
be spoken from any but interested motives? AVhy did we for
years expose the tyranny and predict the downfal of Buona-
parte ? Why did we contend that the Regicide Fouche, and
the Liberal Decaze, were unfit Ministers for a King of France,
and that they must be driven from office ? Why did we main-
tain the legality and applaud' the firmness of the conduct pur-
sued by the Manchester .Magistrates and Yeomanry ? Why did
we' resist the popular madness in' the case of ' the . late de-
to the
graded and worthless Queen ? Why 'did we, refute the impu-
dent falsehoOds of the Neapolitan Rebels, and foretel their
speedy subjugaiion all those cases we stuck 'resolutely
the truth, we were 'abused,- calumniated; belled, and 'charged
plhin sfinple truth : and in' all those cities, for speaking
with venality and corruption.—Even so it is with the Spanish
Questimij We haVabeen right in it throughout ; we have
proved the statements' of our, antagonists to be replete with
error and &helloed ; and thence it is iinist logically inferred
that The New Times must necessarily be in the pay of the
Bourbons !! ! • " '

14sYoxwE,JnNE 7,7—We have seen Isere, a Spanish Officer,
to whom we could 'not 'refrain from expressing our astonishment
(after all that has been. said) at the tardiness of hie coun-
trymen in taking measures to defend their country. He,
however, replied,
that every
thing was in conformity with the
plan that had been adopted from the beginning, which was, not
only, to let the French penetrate as far as possible into the in-
terior of Spain_, but even to inspire them with a degree of con-
fidence, that they tn_ight'be thrown' off their guard and relax in
their.precautions. But now, said he, the ,moment to strike
decisive, blows is come. A general attack is -going to be made
at a given signal... Such a kind of, military vespers may do
great injury to' the invaders, and -produce a profound impres-
sion, and in fact such a blow if well contrived. arid executed
with ability and energy, may decide the fate of the eemPaighl
by making the French army precipitely 'retreat ' ((Avarua the
frontiers. We shall Noah see how far these notions are built on
any substantial foundation.
};eaters from Catalonia say that Mina still continues the
same system of bperations, and though the actions in which he
is engaged are not very brilliant,' their multiplicity gives them
importance and fatigues the French troops.

An extract, of a letter frorniValparaise, dated
February, states, that. not only BAnNaitn
O'lltaertil, the Director of Chili, is- dismissed,
but all his Ministers. The once. British brig
Indian) that was taker •on the coast of Peru by
the licensed freebooters from Chili, and unjustly
condemned by these fellows that are now dis.
missed the GOvernment, is at present in the bay,
having just arrived from Valdivia in a deplorable
states being employed by the Government.