The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-15 00:00:00

[MORNING- 'POST.]

The more one reflects upon ti►e Decree which
the King of Spain has promulgated respecting
the kingdom of the Indies, the moreinscrutable,
indeed the more absurd, appears the policy which
dictated such a manifesto. Neither the framers
nor suggestors of the measure could in the -na-
ture of things .have the remotest, or the most
shadowy conception that any individual would
ever dream
.of carrying its provisions into ef-
fect ;—we must therefore consider it an indi-
rect declaration of the right of Sovereignty
which Spain once possessed, and would now pre-
tend to claim in the New World, and at the same
time, perhaps, an experiment, to ascertain more
specifically the feelings of this and other Cabi-
nets,► on whatever embryo projects may have
been-entertained by the Holy Alliance for sub-
ieeting.the independence of South America. In
the name of common sense, where has Ferdinand
men, money, credit, or resources of any descrip-
tion to attempt to reduce his former transatlantic
subjects under the yoke of the Mother Country ?
Or how are his European proMpters to obtain the
means vf supplying his wants in those respects,
if it were even probable that they had the prac-
tical disposition to do so ? And yet it would
seem from the alarm with which some per-
sons 'receive the Salmonean thunder of the Es-
curial, that they absolutely believe in the mira-
culous potency of the King of the Indies, and
feel assured he could, aided and guided per-
chance by Prince Hohenlohe, create navies and
armies, and, what is still more difficult, the money
to pay them, at a nod of his most Catholic Head !,
We. really deem it a waste of time and space to
Owen on such impertinent chimera, and once
again repeat our conviction that nothing has yet
occurred to disturb the peace of the world which
now so happily prOttils.

[NEW TIMES.]
Consols closed yeSterday exactly as they did
the day before, viz. at 89 for the 16th instant,
aup 894 for the February Account. The fluc-
tuations in Spanish Bonds wore very immaterial :
those of 1821 closed at 244-, and those .of 1823 at
16i. The South American Securities, on the
other hand, were in a very agitated state through
the day : Colombians fell from 63 to 612, but
recovered to the former prices : Chileans opened
at 768, sank to 74k, and finally closed at
751. The parties in •general were making

rap their accounts, and preparing for the
settling day, to-morrow. Of foreign news there
was nothing at all interesting.. People hear, with
supreme indifference, about naval armaments fit-
ting at Brest to occupy Cuba, and at Lisbon .to
conquer Brazil. The latter piece of intelligence
-is accompanied ' with a statement that Count
Palmella is coming to England to solicit the
aid of the English Government in this nota-
ble project. 'We presume, if he does, he will
take up his lodgings at the large building in
St. George's-fields, destined for projectors of
such a stamp,, An article in the Journal des
Debats enters at some length into the pre-
tensions of various Powers to colonize the Wes-
tern Coasts of North America. The result
of the whole seems to be, that England, Spain,
and Russia, 'have well-founded claims to make
such establishments if they think fit, and that the
pretension of Mr. Monroe to exclude the Eu-
ropean Powers from those coasts is an impudent
assumption of uafounded power. For our part,
we are not satisfied that the United States have a
right to;it foot. of land on the West Coast of
America ; if they have, they owe it solely to
priority of discovery, which perhaps may apply
to one or two points of the coast, not more.

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
king Ferdinand's. Decree has now been before
the public of this metropolis twenty-four hours,
and, if we can judge of the impression of.others
by our own, we strongly suspect that those who
have read it attentively *ill be inclined to think
with us, that it is : nothing but a tissue of non-
sense, and is calculated rather to bring the Spa-
nish Monarch and his Government into contempt,
than answer any salutary purpose. The pream-
ble is-certainly the most remarkable part of the
composition, and. the Marquis de Casa Irujo
has evidently consulted his own reputation
in feigning illness, and being consequently ab-
sent from his post at the time this memorable
paper was to be sent forth to the world: The
high-toned compliments, however, therein paid
'to the " Son of France, who flew so swiftly to
'the banks of the Guadalethe," are intended for
effect on the inmates of the Tuileries ; but it
is not very clear to us that even all their power
and ingenuity could cause this ominous document
of the self-styled Monarch of . the Indies to
travel with the same rapidity to the banks of
the La Plata or of the Rimac. Through the
English Papers it will no doubt reach the
Wester: World quicker than through any
other channel, yet it. would be as singular
an anomaly to see the inhabitants of those
distant regions singing a Te Deum (as they are
politely ordered to do) from what they bad read
in an English print, as it would be to see the Em-
peror of China offering up fervent congratulatious
on Ferdinand's happy deliverance from the claws
of the Constitutionalists,. from what had been
translated to him out of the Restaurador, or any
other of the Madrid Papers. Indeed, the more
this docUment is considered, the less calculated
will it appear to produce any effect in those
countries for which it is intended. In the " Do-
minions of America," which King Ferdinand
still calls his own, the downfall of the Consti-
tution in Spain will be viewed with the utmost re-
gret by the inhabitants, because itsexistence was a
sanction to rights, of which its despoiler now seeks
to deprive them, and because the
principles on
which they have built their own independence
and happiness are the same as those the Spanish
people called. to their aid,
with a view to stop
the 'inroads -of arbitrary power. The Revolution
of Spain in ~1820, which had for object the re-
storation of the Constitution which Ferdinand
VII. had-destroyed 41.1814, was hailed with en-
thusiastic joy. in the whole of the new world, not
only on account of the immediate benefits- it might
bring to Et people from whom-its inhabitants were
themselves descended, but because its promoters
publicly professed that their ,object was to
save their own country, rather than consent to
carry chains and slavery, among their brethren in
another hemisphere. The South Americans can-
not, besides, forget that the .great hardships and
ill-treatment they experienced were in the inter-
val between the year 1814 and 1820; when 'Fer-
dinand wielded no other than a despotic power.
The several Chiefs who then went over to- the
South American Provinces with armies, to quell
the rebellion, as it was termed, were vauntingly
styled Pacificators, no doubt to give a colouring
to their transactions in the eyes of Europe ; but
the sequel soon proved that their real business
was to burn, murder, and devastate. Their
plans and instructions were no doubt drawn up
by that very. Supreme Council of the Indies of
which King. Ferdinand again seeks to avail him-
self, and whosis.constant zeal he then expe-
rienced ; and to their eagerness for the public
good he now entrusts the management of what
he calls " his distant possessions." The Decree
in question may, consequently, be considered as
the forerunner of other more important measures
he intends to adopt, in concert with his-magna-
nimous Allies, for the purpose of pacifying the-
New World ; but of what character they will be,
or to whose hands their execution will be con-
fided, time only can shew.

rATORNING HERALD.]
The decree of the King of Spain, respecting
" all his Domains of America," is one of the
most curious of the many strange State Papers
of the present day. % iewed by itself, and with
a view to any immediate practical purpose, the
renowned Knight of La Mancha himself never
issued a more visionary mandate in the height of
his chimerical power. But as it has its pleasant,
so also it has its serious side. And indeed
it is in a serious, a very serious that
it should be, and generally has been viewed.
It is impossible to read the preamble with-.
out recognizing not merely the views, but
the very vocabulary of the circulars of
Laybach and Verona. There is even some
internal evidence 'of its having been ori-
ginally written in French. There are strong
glimpses of French rhetoric and French idiom.
What then is this document viewed in the lat-
ter light ? It is nothing else than a manifesto
of the intention to proceed against the revolted
colonies of Spain in the same manner as the

.great allies have proceeded against the Neapoli.
;tan, Piedmontese, and Spanish Revolutions. It
would be idle to waste a word upon the right of
the King of Spain, to re-establish his authority
in America, or the respective rights of other
powers to assist or oppose him. The law of na-
tions is just as useless and idle as the pleadings
before Judge Bride-Poie, who decided causes by
the cast of the die. The great question is the
interest which nations have respectively in the
issue., As to Europe, there are, in reality, but
two powers at this moment—England, and the
Allied Sovereigns,—all the minor States of the
Continent, including even Portugal, are in the
train of the latter. It is evident, altnost to a moral
certainty, that the same powerful confederacy
which has already obtained sin easy triumph in
Europe is about to carry its arms with the same
views and principles into America. It is equally
evident that nothing could be more
,at variance
with the views and interests of Great Britain.
No one is so little acquainted with the state of
public affairs, as not to know that nothing short of
case of pressing necessity would justify the Go-
vernment of this country in going to war—and
perhaps, if a mere sordid view of commercial inte-
r rests were the only one that presented itself,the loss
in that respect, supposing the confederacy to suc-
ceed, would hardly be worth the exertion. Even
supposing the Hispano-Atnericans re-conquered,
and again under metropolitan dominion, the com-
merce of England could not be cut off or ex-
cluded. But there is- another question, and'a
most important one. The political estimation,
the moral dominiori,and,therefore, the real power
of this country are at stake. Who does not know,
that England has sunk in estimation at, and par-
ticularly since the Congress of Verona,and on the
subjugation of. Spain ? The Journals of the French
Ministry openly say, that England has abandon-
ed her place in European politics, and has .no
other resource for propping up her sinking
thence than Parliamentary speeches—(discours
de itibune) and " harangues after dinner," ob-
viously alluding to the - Noble Earl -at the
head of his Majesty's Councils and the Foreign
Secretary. The affair of Spain might
.pass..
It was not an- unequivocal abdication of the
place of England as an arbitress of Europe.
But what will the world say, if after our ac-
know ledgmentof the New States of America, we
quietly look on whilst our accredited 'agents are
driven out as individuals without legitimate mis-
sion—perhaps Treated as criminals; and those
whom we acknowledge as members of the corn_
triunity of nations, punished as traitors and rebels.
The instant effect must be that England would
be regarded, and would actually become a sub-
ordinate power. There is surely something in
this to startle all who possess a particle of British
feeling, and to alarm persons of reflection.