The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-13 00:00:00

LONDON:
WEDNESnRY, JANUARY 13. It4l.

We publish in our columns of this day the Par_
SIDENT'S Message—the last which Mr. VAN
13UREN is ever likely to deliver to the Congress (if
• the United States. Copies of it reached us from
Bristol and Liverpool at the same time, having
been brought to Liverpool by the packet-ship
Sheffield, and to Bristol by the Cosmo, which ves-
sels left New York on the 19th u!t. They sailed
five days in company, when the Sheffield fell to
leeward. Our thanks are due to our Bristol Cor-
respondent for the obliging attention manifested on
this occasion.

The Message is moderate in its tone, and pacific
in its tendency. The Presidency of Mr. VAN
BUREN being about to expire, he has taken oc-
casion to submit to the consideration of the Con-
gress the leading principles by: which
..his four
years 'administration were guided. These may be
reduced to two—namely, the maintenance of peace,
and an adherence through good and evil report to
the cash system. The peculiar objects of Mr.
VAN BUREN'S horror are a National Bank and
National Debt, and against these his dying kick is
ruthlessly directed. Mr. VAN BUREN'S objec-
tions to a National Debt, though not over and
above complimentary to the monarchical Govern-
ments of Europe, are sound, and based upon the
safest political policy. We recommend the passa44e
to the earnest attention of our British Liberal

statesmen :--
The policy of the Federal Government, in extinguish-
ing as rapidly as ;,ossible the national debt, and subse
quently, in resisting every temptation to create a new ine,
deserves to be regarded in the same favourable light.
Among the many objections to a national debt, the certain
tendency of publ,c securities to concentrate ultimately in
the coffers of foreign stockholders, is one which is every
day gathering strength. Already have the resources of
many of the States, and the future industry of their citi-
zens, been indefinitely mortgaged to the subjects of
European Governments, to the amount of twelve
millions annually, to pay the constantly accruing
interest of borrowed money—a auto exceeding halt'
the ordinary revenues of the whole United States.
The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners
to scrutinize the manzgcment of our domestic
affairs, if not actually to intermeddle with them,
pre. nts a subject for earnest attention, not to say of serious
alarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with the

exception of an obligation entered into on behalf of the
District of Columbia, which must soon be dischar.,ed, is
wholly exempt from any such embarrassmeut. P also,
as is believed, the only Government which, having fully and
faithtully paid all its creditors has also relieved itself en-
tirely from debt. To maintain a distinction so desirable,
and so honourable to our national character, should be an
object of earnest solicitude. Never should a free people,
if it be possible to avoid it. expose themselves to the ne-
cessity of having to treat of the peace, the honour, or the
safety of the Republic, with the Governments of foreign
creditors, who, however well disposed they may he to cul-
tivate with us in general friendly relations, are neverthe-
le3s, by the law of their own condition, made hostile to tic
success and permanency of political institutions like ours.

" Out of debt out of danger" is a homely maxim,
not truer of individuals than of nations ; nor do
we believe the cotruption of political principles en-
gendered by jobbing in national securities, in coun-
tries deeply in debt, to be compatible with the main-
tenance of simple republican institutions.

Mr. VAN BUREN takes great praise to himself
for having diminished the public expenses during
the four years of his administration. The expenses
of the current year, for example, he calculates wilt
be less by nine or tell millions of dollars than the
expenses of 1837. This is a legitimate subj:ct of
self gratulation ; but looking at the pr. sent financial
and commercial condition of the United States, and
comparing it with what it was at the close of General
JACKSON'S second Presidency, we cannot discover
any peculiar claims which Mr. VAN BUREN
possesses to the gratitude:of his fellow-countrymen
so far as relates to the mere question of financts.
During the Presidency of Mr. ADAM half the
national income was required to pav the interest
and l;rincipal of the debt then existin4. Forty-Fly,:
millions of dollars were expended in this way
during the four years this distinguished statesman

was in office. General JACKSON succeeded, and
during the eight years he administered the
government of the United States, sixty-foul

millions of dollars were required to extinguish the
public debt. When Mr. VAN BUREN entered
upon the Presidency he found the debt extin-
guished, and an overflowing Treasury, and at the
expiration of four sears he makes it a matter of
boast that, after diminishing the expenditure to
the amount of nine millions of dollars, a million and
a half of surplus will remain in the Treasury with-
out there having been any fresh taxes imposed.
'Tis true that extraordinary expenses, to the
amount of twwnty millions, are enumerated, but
even this proves nothing extraordinary in the finan-
cial ability of the PRESIDENT.
We are happy to learn from the Message
that there is a fair prospect of a speedy and ami-
cable settlement of the North Boundary question.
" The excitement," says the PRESIDENT, " which
grew out of the territorial controversy between the
' United States and Great Britain, having in a great
measure subsided, it is hoped that a favourable
period is approaching for its final settlement." And
after enumerating the steps taken by both Govern-
ments to effect a speedy and amicable adjustment,
he continues :—" From the character of the
points still in difference, and the undoubted dispo-
sition of both parties to bring the matter to an early
conclusion, I look with entire confidence to a prompt
and satisfactory termination of the negotiation." We
are well pleased to receive such an assurance
from the mouth of the PRESIDENT of the United
States. The question cannot be settled too soon
for the welfare of Great Britain and the United
States. While it continues in abeyance, evil-dis-
posed persons have it in their power to disturb the
harmony between two nations whose uninterrupted
friendship is essential to the progressive civiliza-
tion of the human race.

The Message concludes with a denunciation of
the atrocious African slave trade, which cannot fail
to give pleasure to the fridnds of humanity in every
part of the world. The PRESIDENT states that
two American vessels are at present cruizing off
the coast efAfrica, charged with instructions to pre-
vent the violation of the American flag by any parti
ciliation in that infamous traffic. But the PRESIDENT
doss not stop here. Finding that the pastefforts of the
opponents of slavery have been unsuccessful. he
proposes, as a remedy of the evil, the suppression
of all trade whatever with the slave factories on
the African coast. His words are worthy of being
remembered :—" I submit to your judgments," he
observes, in concluding his Message, " whether this
Government, having been the first to prohibit, by
adequate penalties, the slave-trade—the first to de-
clare it piracy—should not he the first also to for-
bid to its citizens all trade with the slave factories
on the coast of Africa ; giving an example to all
nations in this respect, which, if fairly followed,
cannot fail t 9 produce the most effective
results in breaking up those dens of ini-
quity." This is a noble conclusion of a
Message which, taken all in all, is of an extremely
satisfactory character. As it will be universally
read, we have touched but upon a few of the
leading points in it, and these we have not had
time to examine very carefully. The commercial
treaties between the United States and Portugal,
Belgium, and Prussia, manifest the zeal with
which America pursues her commercial interests in
every part of the world.
Besides the New York Journals, we have re-
ceived files of Canadian Papers, from n hich
want of space prevents us making any extracts in
our columns of this day. Lord SYDENIIA M had suc-
ceeded in maintaining undisturbed the tranquillity
of the Upper and Lower Provinces, notwithstanding
several attempts to get up once more the steam of
rebellious excitement. The sympathisers, too, on
the American side, were kept in pretty good order
by the Government of the United States, which
certainly has nut been wanting in proofs of good
and kindly feeling towards Great Britain. For
commercial intelligence we refer to our City Article

The Reform Act, the necessity of which the
Times has not yet denied, 4 abolishing a number
of boroughs before held by the aristocracy, places
the Ministers of this country, let them be who they

will, in a state of dependence on the upper an

middle classes. That Act, incomplete as it was,
and little as it has answered the expectations of the
public, and extended, as it must be, to embrace
the great mass of the disfranchised, in order to re-
store public contentment, was the consequence of
previous concessions to the people. It was granted
to their demands, arising from a conviction that the
then existing system was no longer tenable. The
successive increase of the democratic, and the
successive decay of the aristocratic power, which
compelled the several successive concessions al-
luded to, and will yet compel the still further con-
cessions now demanded by Reformers, leads to the
conclusion that the progress which they indicate is
natural and necessary.
Sir ROBERr PEEL was one of the foremost
Ministers to do homage to this necessity. His
Jury law, his ameliorations of the criminal code, his
vely reluctant repeal of the Test Act, his still
more reluctant repeal of the Catholic Penal law,

were fotced from him by public opinion. He and
his party resisted them as long as possible. They
were not able to have their own
way as Ministers,

they were compelled against their will to yield
to the public sentiment ; and yet they
remained in office, they took on themselves the re-
sponsibility of passing, those measures, though they
disapproved of them, and continued for months and
years to gather the sweets of office, though de-
nied, according to the Tory interpretation of the

phrase, the power of governing. They were not
allowed to coerce the governed, the governed co•
creed them. Catholic Emancipation was actually
kicked out of them by Mr. O'CONNELL and the

Catholic Association, as Lord JOHN RUSSELL 1

nrul the Disente,rs kir:l“'d out,

d: t!Ii.:: rcpi:,al of

the Test Act. Yet those doughty, blustering heroes,
those divine-right men, those angels, as they fancy
themselves, appointed to govern and keep in
order, by the help of their endowed priesthood, this
puissant nation, condescended to continue to hold
office till they were kicked out by an ultra rump of
Tories, which they afterwards made their head,
going with the Whigs. So greedy of office, how-
ever, were they while they were denied power, that
it is understood that they would have carried some
modified Reform B:11 when Lord GREY resigned
in 1832, had the nation been willing to allow the
blustering cowards again to assume, with patronage
and pay, the nominal management of affairs.
Such being a brief but correct outline of
the conduct of Tories in office—and it ought
not to be forgotten that in 1835, when Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S friends thrust him in once more,
he adopted Whig measures, arid attempted to
gain the support of the Dissenters by guileful
promises—such being the conduct of the Tories as
Ministers, is it seemly in one of their organs to re-
proach the present Ministers with a willing
deference to public opinion, and with a supposed
detertumation, whenever it may be strongly pro-
nounced by the constituencies, without the support
of which they cannot carry on the Government, to

yield to it whether in office or out of office ? Our
readers cannot have forgotten the extract of a letter
from a member of the League, which vie inserted
in our Journal on Saturday. The Times makes
that letter the subject of the remarks which we have
copied into another part of The Sun, and which at
first read very formidably. Stripped, however, of the
plumage of rhetoric, the facts which this article states
against Ministers are, first, that they do not now,
as the Tories did, give way to public opinion ; and,
secondly, that they will give way, as the Tories did,
when that opinion is so strongly pronounced as to
break up, or endanger the breaking up of the Minis-
try. Their conduct might be justified, if necessary,
by a Tory precedent ; but we maintain that it is
strictly according to the principles by which every
Ministry must henceforth be governed. They
have done nothing to satisfy the Reformers, because
they can do nothing. The Reformers are nut
united in demanding any one reform, and the
Lords are against all reforms. They hate amend-
ment. But when the Reformers are so united and
so powerful as to give an impulse to public opinion in
any one direction, the Whig Ministers who acknow-
ledge the necessity of fo:lowing public opinion—
unlike the Tories, who deny it in principle, and
yield to it in practice—will endeavour, either i❑
office or out of office, to give effect to it. In all
that we see nothing but consistency, nothing but
an honourable attachment to principle. Let the
Walsall election decide that the whole town popu-
lation will have none but Corn-law repealers to re-
present them, and the Ministers, who mainly ex-
ercise the power of the town population, will, as the
servants of the public, become Corn-law repealers.
They will do the bidding of the popular will, as
they acknowledge its supremacy, and will not, like
the Tories, humbly obey it, and at the same time
hypocritically pretend to form and chain it.

The Times should have been taught, by its own
experience, to spare such invidious remarks. It

did, with others, bully the Tories out of the reforms
which they were compelled to give. With others,
very powerful horn wealth, still more powerful from
prescription, and more powerful than all from the
daring quackery and hypocrisy, by an alliance with
!lie priesthood, calling to their aid the powers of
darkness—with these the Times has forfive long years
bullied the Whigs, and bullied them unsuccess-
fully. Dark as it has painted their enntinist, thoy
have not given up their Lichfield House com-
pact, they have not yielded to Lord STANLEY
and the bigots, they have not sacrificed O'CoN-
NELL, and, worst of all, they have not professed
the least inclination to repeal the New Poor-law.
If the Times had been able, consistently with its
allegiance to its new masters, to bully the Minis-

tern, in order to get the repeal of the Corn-laws,
it might have been successful. But it now sees
that the great popular theory of free trade in bread
is to become a living motive for action ; it sees that
its own situation, binding it hand and foot to the
Tories, precludes it from taking a wholesome
part i❑ the great movement of the town popula-
tion ; it foresees the certainty of a great success in
which it cannot participate, and, true to its princi-
ples of conduct, it :tries beforehand to bully the
Ministers from doing what is right. As it has
failed to bully them into repealing the New Poor-
law, so it will fail in bullying them from giving
their assent to a repeal or modification of
the present Corn-law, whenever the town
population shall take up that great question
as it deserves to be, and as, apparently, the town
population arc now resolved it shall be taken up.
Already branded as a recreant and a renegade
from a noble cause, it is only requisite to convince
tile town population that the Times has been an
unsuccessful bully against it, to place that journal
in the proper position to which its wanton and mis-
chievous inconsistency must ultimately doom it.

Our " Bath Correspondent informs us that at
a meeting held in that city on Monday, at which
a host of the clergy of the Establishment were
present, they, and the rest of the gentry who had
met to dole out charity to the people, were dis-
tinctly and repeatedly told that the people wanted
justice, not charity. As our Correspondent ob-
serves, this is a new, and it is a most gratifying
feature in the character of the populace. It shows
that they have acquired the ennobling sentiment of
sitlf-respect, and they disdain to receive back as
alms a small part of the wealth which is extorted
from them by law for the behoof of the priest.
hood. They begin to discriminate between evils
brought on by their own improvidence, inflicted by
the hand of nature, or imposed by institutions ; and
they see that the mass of their sufferings is caused
by those who pretend to be their benefactors, and
claim to be their guides and rulers. While they
thus learn to despise the assumption of an ignorant
clergy they acquire a deeper reverence for the
ALMIGHTY.

We are glad that their feelings and opinions are
taking that turn, for it is impossible that they
should continue in their present miserable condi-
&Lion, and not trace that to the hand of the op-
pressor, or to their own folly, without learning an
ineffaceable lesson of infidelity and impiety. The
clergy rave, at their meetings to promote the Chris-
tian education of the people, about heathenism and
infidelity, lint they never ask themselves how much
these states of the popular mind are promoted by
the contrast between their doctrines and their con-
clu have frequently thought that if they
had resolved to make the people atheists, they could
follow no bett€r course than to attribute all the
misery which they, and the social institutions they
support, are instrumental in bringing on society,
to the great, first and last, ever-living CREATOR.
The Church of England for example, has for
many years been the cause of strife in the land, yet
they affirm that it is GOD'S Church. To gratify
its miserable malignity, the Dissenters were for a
'wig time denied the pi ivileges of citizens, yet they
are told that this malignancy was of GOD. The
wretched avarice and political ambition of the
clergy, doomed the Catholics to slavery in the land
of their fathers; but they, too, were instructed air