The Sun.
London, England, 1824-05-26 00:00:00

HOLY ALLIANCE.

MR. EDlTOR—Nothing is more deserving of
public attention than the league which some of the
leading Powers of Europe have formed to op.
pose a barrier to the improvement of man-
kind. That such is the real object of the Holy
Alliance, cannot for a moment be doubted by
any one that has paid the least attention to its
proceedings. No sooner had the principal Sove-
reigns of the Continent succeeded in effecting
their emancipation from the yoke of Napoleon,
than we saw them enter into an alliance, the
avowed object of which was the maintenance of
legitimate authority, and the preservation of the
peace of Europe, but whose secret views went to
prevent the efforts which they anticipated would
be made by their respective subjects to obtain a
less arbitary form of government. In this matter,
it must be owned, that their apprehensions were
not groundless ; but they had themselves been
the means of propagating notions of liberty and
of independence. When they were aroused to a
due sense of what they had to apprehend from
the ambition of 13uonaparte, and were convinced
that their own safety could be secured only by
his destruction, they manfully prepared to enter
into the awful contract which must either make
them free, or lay them prostrate at the feet of
their foe. England not only hailed, but, fanned
the bright flame of patriotism, which seemed now
bursting forth from every part of the continent.
Her forces, but, more than all,her treasures, were
placed at the disposal of her Allies. On their
part, they will shew that unless their subjects
entered cordially and with zeal into the con-
test, its final issue must be doubtful. Hence
they failed not to arouse every patriotic feel-
ing, by the most animated addresses, and they
fully succeeded in calling into activity ail the
talent and energies of the people over which
they ruled. It was truly, as they imagined,
for freedom and independence that the peo-
ple were now called upon to fight ; for the Al-
lied Sovereigns had found no method more effec-
tual of arousing them to action, and of obtaining
from them great sacrifices, than that of promising
to give them the advantages pf a more limited,
and even of a representative form of Government.
It was in the name of freedom that they'-ware
called into the field ; it was in the name-of fa‘e-
dom that they were led against the formidable-
post of their foes ; it was for freedom that tfep
fought, that they bled and died. Hence did tVe
contest now assume a character it had never had
before. The Allied Armies were inspired with
an enthusiastic bravery, an heroical contempt
for fatigue and for death, which finally enabled
them not only to free their country from the fo-
reign oppressor, but even to fix their triumphant
standards upon the very walls of his capital, and
finally send him, who had seep Kings at his feet,
a lonely exile, to die upon a barren rock in the
midst of the Atlantic. It was the revival of na-
tional honour, and the love of national independ-
ence, that occasioned his downfall. It was be-
cause these Sovereigns, protesting against the
existing- system of despotism, held out the hope
of more liberal institutions, that the people ex-
hibitedso much zeal, and displayed „so much
heroism. It was the love of freedom, inherent,
in every human breast, that gave them a decided
superiority over the tools of military despotism,
and proved the cause of its final destruction.
This important object having been now acc6m-
plished, Mere was, for a while, only symptoms"
of good humour, and of cordiality, between the
people and their Sovereigns. The former were
now in arms, the spirit of liberty was aroused,
and now blazed forth with surprizing brillancy,
from one extremity of Europe to the other. This
was no time for throwing off the mask, and ex-
hibiting the falsehoods of despostism, in all their
native deformity. Hence, Charters were readily
granted, and the promise of Constitutions spon-
taneously and openly. renewed. But this con.
descention on the part of the Governor, and the
good humour on the side of the governed, did
not prove of any long duration. The great work
of emancipation having been completed, the
tools employed to perform the task, being no
longer useful, were now considered as mere pas-
sive instruments, which, when they were no longer
wanted, might be laid bye with contempt, or at
least with impunity.
Strong, by mutual alliances, and closely united
by similarity of views, the Sovereigns soon re-
lapsed into the very follies and abuses of power,
which had been the cause of former disasters.
Forgetting at once all their promises, and despis-
ing the opinions of their subjects, and wholly
indifferent as to the possible results, they imme-
diately pursued the most arbitrary measures.—
They scrupled not to revoke the charters they
had granted, to break the solemn promises they
had made, and put forward the most offensive
pretensions, to countenance the most revolting
prejudices, and unblushingly to sacrifice the in-
dependence of minor States at the shrine of the
slavish doctrines, which they openly avowed,
they were determined to maintain by the sword !
And is it for this, that during above thirty years,
Europe has been deluged with blood, and mil-
lions of human beings have met an untimely
end ? Is the human mind no longer capable
of progressive improvement ? Do human affairs
revolve in a circle ? Must the principles of civil
liberty blaze for a while, then be for ever ob-
scured ?—No, no, this cannot be. The energies
of a nation may be kept down for a time, and
for a while arbitrary power may raise its throne
upon scaffolds and dungeons, but so unnatural a
state of things cannot long endure in an en-
lightened age.
The more one reflects upon this matter, the
greater must be the. conviction of every impartial
man that the system at present adopted by the
Members of the Holy Alliance is hollow and in-
secure. The human mind cannot be made to
retrograde. Tyranny and oppression may for a
time impede its progress, but no earthly force can
its steady
whichs d y
Providenceadvance t o ard s
ameliorationthat itself
has pothat ssibly
re astonished etov forins man. Events such as those
,prevent
ed the world during the last
thirty years, have" left 'behind them traces which
will never be erased. Holy Alliances may be

formed ; a system of political tyranny may be
established ; liberal sentiments may be prescrib-
ed, and the arbitrary form of government may be
rigorously supported ; still, so decided is public
opinion against it, and so much are its maxims
opposed to the present general prevailing notions
of rational independence, that the whole fabric
of despotism must inevitably crumble sooner or
later. It is not in the nature of things, that any
advance towards improvement should be irre-
coverably lost. Time, and the events which it
brings forth, leave behind them as they roll on,
impressions that are necessarily durable ; and
this is eminently the case in respect to the
times upon which we are now looking back-
A mighty struggle has occurred, and violent
storms have arisen, which shook the founda-
tions of society to its very basis : but the
storm gradually subsided. The States and Em'
pires which had been submerged began to re-
appear. The sun of national independence once
more shone serene over the political horizon, and
all seemed restored to its original state of order
and of tranquillity. But these appearances are
fallacious, and it is because the sovereigns seem
determined to take them for realities, and to di-
rect their conduct by such a notion, that a terri-
ble re-action may be jointly anticipated. It were
folly and madness in them to imagine that they
are restored to their former condition, because
they are replaced in the same situations which
they formerly held. The spell that once sur•
rounded them is now effectually broken. A
king may be again seated upon the throne
which his ancestors occupied ; he may nomi-
nally, be possessed of the authority they once
enjoyed ; but the changes that have taken
place in the opinions and ideas of his subjects,
have produced a material change in his situation,
relative to them. He rules indeed over the same
nation, but not over the same men. It is not
upon former institutions that the stability of s
government depends, but upon a similarity in the
political notions of the Governors and the go-
verned, without these no stability can be
expecte4 •
_ _

But-the ,erei„ans of Europe are well aware
of the differen'ce the revolution has made in their
situation, and it is this consciousness that has in-
duced them to adopt what they considered as the
most 'effectual method of preserving their autho-
-city. netyle, it is, that they stand forth us the
avowed enemies of every form of government,
-bf which the form is not consonant with
-..he principles which they uphold. It ;5
in pursuance of this plan, that we now see
the Holy Allies, strenuously labour to pre-
vent the establishment of every institution
that has for its object an increase of the liberty'
of the subject, and thus declare themselves full,'
determined to arrest the progress which the hu-
man race was making towards a more desirable
mode of existence. How long these vain efforts
may be attended with delusive success, it is not
easy to foresee ; that this must eventually ter-
minate in the discomfiture of their plans, it
is scarcely possible for any reasonable matt to
deny. A. P.

MET EOROLOGIC A L JOURNAL.

BY R. BANKS.

PHILOMOPHICAL INFTRUMENT MOKBR.

Thermo-

meter.

Weather.

I "-c
4'
47, .4
• -• • a, • e.
0 0 Inches
May 17 49 56 47 30.10 Fair Cloudy
18 50 56 47 .05 Cloudy Rain
19 49 56 44 29.95 .01 Fair Do.
20 48 52 40 .80 .02 Do.* Clout!!!
21 48 55 40 .9.3 Fair Fair
22 44 53 42 .99 .05 Rai nf Do.
23 50 59 50 .98 Fair Cloudy

of Rain h

lave fallen
H. B.

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,howl

1- Wit

Flail.

COURSE OF EXCHANUE, May '25