The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(FRO4I TILE DAILY FAPIRS OF SATURDAY.)
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The attempts of the Tory press to undervalue the impor-
tance of the intelligence received from China can excite no
feeling but ridicule among those who remember their for-
mer efforts to magnify the very difficulties which they now
affect to disparage. " A party of policemen despatched
after a herd of pitiable runaways," is now the only simili-
tude which the Times can find for a war which, a few
months ago, it designated in more sonorous language, as
" an arduous contest with an empire of boundless popula-
tion and resources, in which Britain had been involved by
the presumptuous rashness of an imbecile Administration."
It is all very well for the Tories now to turn round and
declare that success was easy and certain : their language
was very different before the event. We have already had
occasion to allule to Sir James Graham's highly wrought
picture of the difficulties and dangers with which a British
force would have to contend, in carrying on a war in
such a distant and unknown quarter of the globe.
Nor was the language of Sir R. Peel less emphatic.
"Do not conceal from yourselves," said the Right
lion. Baronet, in his speech to the House on the memo.
ruble occasion of Sir James Graham's motion, " do not
conceal feint yourselves the perilous nature of the conflict
in wnich you are now engaged, a conflict which must ne-
cessarily be uncertain in its result." And in the conclu-
sion of his elaborate harangue, he solemnly declared,
" that the only consolation he could find amidst the
gloomy prospect of impending calamity, was thet fur-
nished by an appeal to toe Almighty Disposer of events to
avei t the disasters and disgraces with which the nation
was tureatened, and which, in his deliberate opinion,
woe mainly attributable to the neglect and incapacity
of itt rulers." And now, when the " neglect and in-
capacity of its rulers" have carried the country to a
triumphant termination of the difficulties which once
appeared so formidable, what shall we think of the can-
deur wbich, in order to deprive political opponents of
their just weed of praise, endeavours to represent
the enterprise which as been attended with such
glorious Success, as of little more consequence than a
strict *affray between a party of policemen and a runaway
mob"? Be it so, if tho Tories like ; they cannot escape
fre,n this dilemma. Either the war with China was at-
tended with difficulties which required the exercise of
skill, judgment, vigour, arid decision, to bring it in such
short space of time to a favourable conclusion ; or Sir
Robert Peel and all the principal leaders of the Tory
party made the most egregiously mistaken estimate of the
espect and posture of affairs whicii over exposed the
incapacity of political pretenders. The announcement of
signal sea:messes in China appears a strange opportunity
fur reviving the old story, which we imagined the
t vents of the East had pretty well disposed
of, of the misconduct of Ministers in reducing
the naval and military establishments of the coun-
try, and eicrificing its interests and honour to the
narrow visws / a mistaken economy. Syria cleared of
an hostile arm", of 60,000 men in a few weeks ; the
famous fortress of Acre, which baffled the efforts of Napo-
li on, cap• used after a couple of hours' cannonade ; the
B itish fleet in the Mediterranean reinforced in the course
of a single autumn to a strength which renders the idea of
°westing our naval supremacy absolutely hopeless ; and
at the very same time an expedition sent to the opposite
extre:eity of the world, which dictates an honourable and
advantageous peace to the Emperor of three hundred mil-
lions of mete at the gates of his capital these are
results which few, we imagine, except the writer of
the Times, will con true Imo proofs of the "inefficiency "
ot cur wariite e stablishments, and the "imbecility "
of the Government by which they are created
end directed. On the contrary, if we mistake not
giea•ly, the country edl see, in this accumelatioe of for-
tunate cycles, a signal proof of the falsehood cf the
eccusa ions which have been so unsparingly hurled againq
the Ministry, of allowing the army and navy of Britain to
fall into thee) ; and, at the same time, a no less signal
proof of the is isdom of the policy which refrained from
lavishing the resources of the country in raising our este.
L:Liiments to a footing altogether uncalled for by the
exigencies of the occasion. In estimating the degree of
secrit due to Ministers for the success which has attended
their measures, it must not be forgotten that these sue-
ces,es hose been attained without imposing upon the calm.
try the stcrifices which uecessarily accompany extraor-
dinary effort'. No new taxes have been imposed—no new
loons have been raised—the course of commerce and peace.
tul industry has not been for a single moment disturbed,
sod yet results have been obtained as important as any
is hick ia dal s gone by were purchased by the lavish ex-
penditure of blood and treasure. Surely it is an
abuse of language to call " good fortune" the sagacity
which discerned the true posture of difficult and eimpli-
caned affairs, and kept the naval and military establish..
mewl of the country at the precise footing which rendered
them aufficient to meet every event, and yet entailed upen
the country no unnecessary burden or expense. This is
what the Tories sneer at as carrying on " little wars."
We snow that their passion is for a very different sort cf
wae--4 war diversified with a few Walchcren expeditions
see Continental subsidies, and ending with a grand finale
Se the shape of eight hundred millions of debt, and a
eueeyer of titles and pensions on those who have been in-
eeemental in creating it. The countra, however, has had
enough et' wars like these, ani in the absence of any more
'Fury •• great wars" with " little results," will, we believe,
feel pretty well satisfied with the Whig system, of "little
wars" with " great results."
From the Morning Advertiser.)
IL,* the Tory Press, after all the evidence which has
lately bean laid before it of the success of the exiting Go.
•erienent in all its fercign relations, can by possibility lay
the flattering unction to its seta of being able to substeute
A Tory fur a Liberal Government, it is impossible to com-
prehend, upon any other principle than that of such an in-
Ilene rage fur office as to blind it to the most self-e iderit
truths ; for if feces be any test cf the folly or wisdom of
counsel, facts must now speak trumpet-tongued in favour
if the Melbourne Cabinet. If the result of a measure be
the perfect attainment of every one of the objects in
view, what higher gratification can the Government have
for the policy by which they sought to vindicate the
honour and interests of the country, than the news re-
eeiaeri from India and China ? Granted that the means
d forming a correct opinion of the resources and power
of the Chinese empire were to a certain extent imperfect,
does it say nothing for the sagacity of the Governmeut
that formed a batter opinion of them than the Tories, and
that they planned and executed with success what the lat-
ter deemed to be hopeless ? Does it say nothing for it
that while the Tories, blinded by faction, and careless of
all the moral bearings of the case, insisted upon a " base,
dishonourable, vile submission" to the inflated and insolent
Asiatics, the Government, on the contrary, contended that
the time had arrived for settling upon a safe and honourable
basis our future relations with them? Had the Tories suc-
ceeded in their attempt to eject the Ministry on this ques-
tion, their policy, judging from their speeches, would have
been to have shuffled ingloriously out of the dilemma
with, perhaps, the sacrifice of the two millions of pro-
perty confiscated by the Chinese. Instead of advancing
our power against the walla of Pekin, we should have ,
had, according to the Duke of Wellington's memoran-
dum, the melancholy spectacle of a eouple of supercargoes
sent out to bring things back to their former bearin,
backed by a " stout frigate" making periodical visits toga
port seventy miles distant from Canton. The moral effect
of such a policy, both upon the Chinese themselves and
upon the natives of India, at the time in question suffici-
ently unruly, may be easily guessed at;—insurrection and
rebellion against our supremacy in the East would have
spread far and wide Affghanistan would have been
lest to us—the Burmese have protested against our
dominiine and Nepaul have poured forth her millions
of brave inhabitants upon the fertile plains of India ;
but mark how the scene is changed I India is tran-
quil from east to west, and from north to south—
boat 'Mahomed, notwithstanding the predictions of Sir
it. Peel on the passing of a vote of thanks to Lord Keene,
fres surrendered all his hopes and expectations : and,
finally, everywhere has the Government succeeded either
in placing our foreign relations upon a secure footing, or
Advancing them to a full expectation of early and satis-
factory settlement. Our " little wars," if little they are
to be termed, have succeeded better than European con-
elegration, in establishing the constitutional thrones of
.Spain and Portugal—the integrity of the Turkish empire
--and our ma-itime and commercial interests;—and all
these achievements have been accomplished at the expense
or than enemy, or without any great additional taxation.
jt is not long since the Tory press resounded with
ataily diatribes against the cowardly supineness of the
itgoigis, and their visible neglect of the surest defences
of the country. We fancy, however, that we shall
he'r '
0 rrore either of its supineness or its imbecility, after
the events of the last few months in Syria, and the last ac-
counts from China. To return, however, to the point
from Willa We set out—we ask again, with what face can
she Toriee attempt to turn out the Men who have thus
guided the helm of the State through so many dangers and
difficulties ? Let them do so, if they think proper, and
tine nation will then be able to judge whether their motives
Are t 1460111 or patriotic. It
knows how directly contrary
to its present good fortune would have been the result result had
the 'furies been in power—it knows that we should have
railed in every one cl the objects.
in which we have suc-
ceeded, had the views of Sir Robert Peel been acted
ase,son instead of those which have directed the policy of the
(feeling Administration.

A CHILD SOLD FOR A SOVEREIGN.-0n
Friday evening last, as a gentleman who resides in the
neighbourhood of Huddersfield,
was coming to this town
from Liverpool by the seven o'clock train, he observed a
rather well-looking young woman seated in the carriage
•with him, having an infant on her knee. The gentle-
man entered into conversation wish her, and after asking
liter several times whether sho was inclined to part with
the child, in mere badinage, and to carry on the joke, at
tan proceeded to offer her a sovereign for it. This
tender she accepted, in jest, as he supposed, although
it is not improbable it may turn out a serious affair
to both. She placed the child upon his knee, and the
interlocutory joking went on between the parties, and, as
we are informerl. she took the sovereign. When the
train t.topped at Manchester, the female gsoutppdeouste,lez;
ing the child with its male protector, who
uniglit have some inquiry to make, and would return
sati,l fet,„th her baby. But no, she did not come back ;
.anti, no 'being searched for, it was discovered that she bad
friend in
alone off altogether, leaving
It. sebeemr. sn,erttoowever, that nut undisturbedbeitm
}%ossessiou of his prize.
di 'posed to take it home with him Huddersfield, whe!e
he .Nis rwife, and two children "lawfully born in holy
oedl4clt," he conveyed his young charge to the Manchester
polico-oifice, and deposited with the officers there a sum
of motiey to provide a nurse for it for the present, with
instrut tions to look out narrowly for the unnatural creature
by whom it has been abandoned, sad with whom, when
found, it .is his intention to rescind his bargain. We do
slcA understand, however, that as yet any clue has been ob-
e4;„ ed to her retreat, and therefore the matter remains at
pees. tat precisely is the position we have stated.—Mon"
eliester' Chronick,
Her Allijoty and the Court will leave Windsor
Castle fe thickinghjam Palace on Tuesday, the 22d inst.

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