The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNAL

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Morning Herald.)
From the exulting tone in which the ministeria
journals, and those Tory papers which support Lord
Palmerston's policy in the East, speak of the destruction
of Beyrout, one might be induced to suppose, who knew
no better, that some mighty achievement of arms had
been performed—some exploit of astounding magnitude,
sehose success could only have been accomplished by su-
perior genius, acting with consummate bravery and skill.
What in reality is the feat of arms which British
prowess has achieved on the coast of Syria, and which
has been made the subject of much boasting and triumph ?
—The battering down of the habitations of an open
town the slaughter or dispersion of the inhabitants
of an unwalled, unfortified city, by the broadsides of
five or six British line-of-battle ships ! It has come to
a sorry pass indeed with England's naval glory, when
the materials for triumph are derived from such an
achievement as this. The Standard vies with the
Globe and Chronicle in admiration of the event. That
the old houses of the open town of Beyrout should
have been battered about the ears of their inhabitants
by the broadsides of a British fleet of war in the space
of two hours, quite overpowers our Whig and Tory
Contemporaries with proud amazement. It is quite
possible, however, that five French, or even five
Egyptian vessels of war could batter down Gravesend,
just as speedily as Napier laid Bcyrout in ashes.
If the pages of English history did not contain
nobler warlike achievements than any which have yet
signalized the Whig reign of peace, protocols, bom-
bardments, and blood, Englishmen would have more
reason to blush than boast whenever they perused the
records of their country's " military and naval glory."
It must be exceedingly satisfactory to the author of
all the misery which Europe, as well as Asia, has yet
to derive from Lord Palmerston's Anglo-Russian
war in the east, that the Standard has discovered tho
intimate connection between the religious destinies
of the world and the first bloody outrage upon
the peace of mankind of the new holy alliance.
What goodly fellowship is Palmerston placed in
for the first time in his life—a life distinguished by
as many changes of political principle as there was
variety of tint in Joseph's "coat of many colours.
Palmerston is now introduced into the company of the
Iraclitish patriarchs, and hailed as the follower of the
prophets, the denouncers of Egypt, " the basest of
kingdoms." The prophecies themselves appear to have
awaited their completion in the protocols, and their
actual fulfilment in the execution of the Treaty of
London. Profane history is brought to the aid of the
sacred records, and the Lichfield House Whigs find the
merits of their eastern policy "confirmed beforehand"
by Strabo, Lucan, Polybius, Aulus Gelling, /Dian, and
Maimonides, who ‘• charge upon Egypt the having per-
verted the Saracen race from men to beasts."
(From the Mornin? Chronicle.)
Our accounts from Paris of Tuesday, received by ex-
press last night, represent the French Cabinet as hay.
ing come very nearly to a determination as to the line
of conduct to be pursued by them in the present crisis.
On the one hand, the Chambers were to be convoked
for either the 7th or the Ist of November, the war
party being for the nearest day. At the same time
there was to be an ultimatum drawn up, and ad-
dressed by France to each of the Four Powers, full,
of course, of remonstrance and protest, and exhortation
to peace, but at the same time distinctly lying down
the cams belli. The great differences which still
existed in the Cabinet on Monday concerned this casus
belli, some wishing to declare it a casus belli if
Acre or South Syria was attacked, others confining it
to Egypt. Such a note is an exceedingly serious step.
It is that menace of war which M. Thiess declared
some time since in the Consitutionncl to be unadvisable,
because it dared the Powers to commit certain acts, and
at the same time laid bare the projects of France, so
that they might be prepared for and frustrated. An
ultimatum, too, declaring that France would make war
if Egypt were attacked, might be construed into a tacit
concession of Syria. The Duke of Orleans was con-
sulted on Monday respecting the tenor of this meditated
note. The discussion of the subject was adjourned till
'Tuesday, when the Cabinet was to meet under the presi-
dency of the King at 2 o'clock. The result was expected
with some impatience. Well-informed persons, however,
declared that the cants belli, as laid down in the note or
ultimatum, would be the insisting on the decheance of
Mehemet Ali. Now. we know that the Powers will
not insist on the dechcancc, nor trouble Mehemet in the
quiet possession of Egypt. If this be the case, the
ultimatum is decidedly pacific. There can be no cer-
tainty, however, till the breaking up of the Council.
Our Paris Correspondent writes at four o'clock on
' Tuesday as follows :—" I feel so confident of the Con-
vocation of the Chambers for the first week in Novem-
ber being decided, that I will not send a courier to-night,
even if the fact be officially announced. M. Guizot is to
quit London for Paris, not to break off diplomatic
relations, but to prepare for the Parliamentary earn-
p4ign." We arc far from deeming the convocation o"
the French Chambers a warlike act. The revolution
ary party is beginning to show itself openly, and
attempt to take the lead. It made, as we see, a
moneration at the Opera on Monday night, calling for
the Marseillaise, and taking the advantage of the re-
F presentation of William Tell to get up a war-cry even
in the Opera audience. Sonic of the criers were ar-
rested, a poliec-officer coming forward to state that no
song should be sung that was not announced in the
bills. The National Guards of the Republican party
are about to proceed to Marshal Gerard, and demand
- war. If anything could render the Chamber of
Deputies and the middle class of France averse to
war, it tv. uld be such symptoms as this.
In add.tion to the convocation of the Chambers,
and the note, a warlike resolve has also been taken by
the French Government, which may have serious con-
sequences. It will be seen from our Malta letter (in-
deed we before stated it) that Reschid Pacha, Turkish
Minister for Foreign Affairs, had expressed to the Rus-
sian Envoy the desire of his Government that Russian
• ships should join in the blockade of Syria. A Russian
squadron was therefore k xpected to come through the
Dardanelles. The French fleet has received orders to
[ proceed from the Piraeus to the Dardanelles, and there
attack any Russian fleet that may sail out of the Straits.
The French can plead, they say, that they do this by
• virtue of old stipulations with England. This, however,
is impossible. On the contrary, we believe our Cabinet
has taken the determination of supporting whichever of
our allies may be attacked in the fulfilment of the
Treaty of July. The French think that the best way
of commencing a war would be an attack on the Rui-
shins, leaving to the English the necessity of coming to
the support of the Russians. We should hope that the
French Ministry has taken no such extreme determina-
tion, though we learn from the best quarter that it has
done so.

FROM TUE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
The Times has this morning an amusingly weak and
disjointed article, the object of which is to prove that
the differences existing among the leaders of the
Tory party are not such as would incapacitate them
for constituting, a strong and united Government.
This proposition is made to rest on a fallacy and a
fals...thood. The fallacy consists in confining the dif-
ferences to the Tory leaders, to the exclusion of he
considerable_ number of impracticable ultras, who folltow
the Tory leaders as opponents of the existing Govern-
ment, but who would embarrass and oppose those very
leaders were they in office, by. urging upon them their own
extreme measures, ecclesiastical and civil, and insisting
upon these forming part of the policy of Government,
as the condition of their adhesion and support. Tile
falsehOod consists in confining the disagreements among
the leaders to the China and Canada measures, as
though there wPre no oth. e7s ; and in the obviously in-
appropriate designation given to the dissensions among
the Tory leaders in these questions, terming them
"nominal," when they were obviously real and essen-
tial, such as any tyro in politics is sufficiently versed in
the immediate and relative bearings of these questions