The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MON-DAY, DECEMBER 91, 1840

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LONDON:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21. 1840.

The community seems to us to be at present in a
singular condition. The journals of all parties, and
in every part of the empire, are frequently, not to
say continually, engaged in a discussion of the first
principles of government. Even the right of pro-
perty, as it exists, which is the foundation of our
political order, is not considered sacred, wh►le the
claims of Monarchy or Republicanism, of an Esta-
blshed Church or the Voluntary System, of a very
limited or Universal Suffrage, of a House of Lords

or of one Legislative Chamber, are incessantly ex-
posed to criticism. In spite, then, of the praise
which has been heaped on our institutions, it is
clear from these discussions that the public is by no
means satisfied with them, and by no means con-
vinced, as it is convinced that two and three make
five, that there is nothing to be discovered in politi-
cal science. But in this case, as in many others,

practice has preceded knowledge, and though there
is much doubt as to the best form of political insti-
tutions, we have an aristocratic Government united
with a State Church, which enlists in its defence
an immense number of persons armed with great
power. Whether our system be erroneous or not
rewlins to be proved, but in the meantime there
are thousands who say that to uphold it is one of
their highest duties.
This matter becomes of more importance if we
adopt the principle of M. DE TOCQUEVILLE. He
lays it down and endeavours to prove that demo-
cracy is making rapid strides in every part of the
world, and must be in the ascendant. So con-
vinced is he of this principle, that he labours less
to prove it than to induce statesmen to provide for
the safe development of democracy, and to guide
it to a happy issue. Perhaps his principle may be
enforced by considering that taking men generally
they are all—at least all those of the same tribe, or
race, or community—created equal. As they are
created equal, so whenever the equality is disturbed,
and by whatever means, there is a continual effort
to restore it. Nature, therefore, establishes a de-
mocracy amongst mature men, whatever despotic
power she may confer on parents, to whom the
young owe life and subsistence, and her laws always
tend to restore and preserve what she establishes.
That is a short explanation of M. DE TOCQUE.-
VILLE'S principles of democracy, but if that be cor-
rect the establishment of our aristocratic system is
directly opposed to the laws of nature, and our costly
and painful efforts to preserve it, though they can-
not in the long run be successful, may serve to ex-
plain the vast misery to which society is now a prey.
No person doubts that there are laws of nature in
the moral world as in the physical world, no person
doubts either that to run counter to the latter
causes injury or death, and how then can it be
doubted that to run counter to the former must be
equally injurious. We run carriages, sail ships,
excavate mines, and raise balloons, by our know-
ledge of and in obedience to the laws of gravity; and
we act contrary to those laws, our carriages are o'
turned, our ships sink, the shafts in mines give away,
or balloons are tumbled to the earth and me.. crushed
by the fall. Some corresponding facts are true in the
moral world, in relation to the government of so-
ciety ; and the present misfortune of the community
is, that before it acquired a knowledge of the natural
laws it established an aristocratic system, which, in
spite of them, it subsequently laboured, and now
labours incessantly, and sometimes by terrible and
sometimes by wicked means, to uphold and preserve.
A numerous class supposes itself interested in main-
taining it, and they try to maintain it at all risks.
We know no worse effect of this system than the
bribes it holds out to some men of talents and in-
genuity to blink their own convictions, and write in
its support. Thus the editor of the Times, erewhile
a stout contemner of the aristocracy, is now one of
its most powerful advocates, and on Saturday pub-
lished a laboured argument to refute opinions which
it at the same time acknowledges " are too influen-
tial with some classes even in the British Island to be
treated with the neglect which may be abstractedly
their due." As we have given the benefit of our
circulation to the whole of our Contemporary's arti-
cle, we suppose that we are in some measure bound
to correct his errors, and we shall do that in one or
two instances, leaving the remainder—after we have,
we trust, damaged tire whole—to the good sense of
our readers, We do not, however, adopt the rea-
soning of the American writers referred to by the
7in/se ; we confine ourselves to our Contemporary's
own observations. He almost begins by saying—
It is instructive though strange, to behold how men.
with minds well able to apprehend both the evil of
power when coqfined to the hands of a privileged few,
and the true reasons why such power is an evil, can yet
be blind to the still broader and grosser evils of the same
power when committed to the universal mob ; and bow
hopelessly impatient is modern Republicanism of any re-
straint upoa the despotism of the majority.
In that statement lies the great error of our Con-
temporary, and of all those who fear democracy,
and we think unreasonably, because democracy is

consistent with the laws -of nature. " The power

possessed," to adopt the phraseology of the Times,
" by the universal mob," is not the same power
" which is confined to the hands of a pri-

vileged few." Each unit of the universal mob
wields only his own power, and there must be two
minds to concur, and two hands to work in concert,
before be can move any power but that of his own

right arm. In an aristuc racy, or in every form of
government where the universal mob submit to the
privileged few, whether' from custom or conquest,
or however the dominiott ► may have originated, the

power which those few exercise is not in reality
their own power, but tt ,e power of the confiding
many. They give command, and the rest of the
people obey. Now, bc,...tween the power of the '
whole, dispersed throw gh the whole as Nature
disperses it, and wielded by each individual and the
power of the multitude, wielded by a few, there is
such a vast difference that they cannot be called

the same or even similar.
Prima facie, there in our judgment an ad-
mirable reason why dc.crt ocracy should be the best

form of government. in it each unit of the mass
has to judge only for himself, and to act for his
own interest. Before ,can put another unit in mo-
tion, that unit must be convinced that what is to
to be done will be for interest ; and it may be

supposed, as every individual is allowed to be the
best judge of his own ii tterest, that the whole of the
units, or the majority- of them, acting as indivi-
duals, will, in the :majority of cases, judge
wisely and act wel f. In the aristocratic
form of government the select few, in
whose hands power i ; confided, have to act, not
for themselves, but the whole, and for that the fa-
culties of the silent few, arc not adapted. Naturc
endows no class with its culties to govern, and cre-
ates no Queens for men, as she establishes a Queen
Bee. In fact the select; few talk of the public good,
and consult their own. The results correspond to
the prima facie view. 'The universal mob in Arne-
' rica are governed for th-4eir benefit, wh;le the univer-
sal mob in Europe are oppressed for the benefit of
the privileged few to ovhose hands power is con-

tided.
The Times, sensible that the condition of the
people, under the two) forms of government, will
not bear out its theory.,, forestalls the objection
which it sees will be mra3 e from the discontent and
poverty of the people «of Europe, and the prospe-
rity and contentment of the inhabitants of the
United States, though Oley wholly consist of colo-
nists, or the descendant of colonists, from Europe,

by saying—
In the United States, -.a here the democratic doctrines
have been pushed to a g Ivat extent, though not nearly
far enough to satisfy weir votaries, the mischief of
them must long since ha re been glaringly obvious, but
for the peculiar circums :-.ances of a country abounding
in new lands, which halve furnished a hitherto-unex-
hausted resource against that heaviest of all pressures
upon either a sovereign population or a subject one—
the want of subsistence. It is needless to observe,
that this resource must become less and less available
as the new lands become appropriated by daily-accu-
mulating swarms of Europ•!an, in common with Ameri-
can settlers ; and as the appropriation of the near land
increases the &stance, and consequently the expense,
the anxiety, and the hazard of migration, to the subse-
quent occupiers. As long, however, as there continues
to be in the United States anything like a cheap facility
for the obtaining of land, which is the obtaining of a
livelihood, it is ridiculous to talk of the democratic ex-
periment as having been fairly made in that country,
Has our Contemporary yet to learn that it is not
land, any inoTe than tile sun or rain, but labour
which supplies the subsistence of man ? He wins
food from the salt wave as well as from the fat soil.
in fact the trouble of cleating, preparing, and ferti-
lizing an unused soil is a hindrance to production,
which men having a cleared, prepared, and ferti-
lized soil have not to encounter- There is no
bounds—there can be, as yet, no bouutls—set to the
productive labour of man, and we are better entitled
now to argue that fifty millions of human beings
may live comfortably in Great Britain in the year
1900, than our ancestors were entitled to argue in
1700 that there would be sixteen millions in 1840,
Even were the delusion of un exhausted Jands
well-founded, is it not plain that the lands of _Eu-
rope are no more fully occupied than those of
America—that, in fact, except as they are mono-
polized by the select and privileged few, they are
as inexhaustible in Europe, for all we know, as
in America ? Even if it were.not so is not Ame-
rica open to Europeans ? Is not the land there
as much part and parcel of the great combined
system of production, by which cotton is produced
there, and manufactured into cloth here, and the
inhabitants of both hemispheres fed and clothed, as
the soil of Ireland or Kent ? May not emigrants from
London or Liverpool reach a new home in Illinois or
kiintucky almost as easily and cheaply as the emi-
grants from Boston ? Does not, therefore, the inex-
haustible soil of the United States offer precisely
the same advantages to the aristocracy-governed
people of Europe as to the democratic inhabitants
of the United States ? To be sure it does. It is
offered for their use on the same terms as it is
offered to the inhabitants of Massachussets or New
Jersey ; and not the inexhaustible soil, therefore,
hut the democratic government of one country, and
the aristocratic government of the other, is the
cause of the comparative poverty, misery, and dis-
content of Europe, and of the comparative opulence
prosperity, and contentment of the United States.
We cannot enter further into the subject, but we
hope we have said enough to make an indulgent
reader mistrust the long defence of our landlords
which, under the name of a select few, the Times
published on Saturday.
Iver-

Mr. TOOKE has sent a second letter to the
newspapers, on his pious endeavours to " purify
the representation of Finsbury," and has thereby,
in an eminent degree, proved that JOB knew human
nature well, when he exclaimed, " 0 that mine
enemy
might write a book !" All that Mr. DUN-
COMBE or Mr. LEIGHTON, or Whig or Tory
newspapers, have said, or written, or published
against the Treasurer of the Society for the Diffu-
sion of Useful Knowledge, is harmless, compared
with his last letter, which appears in The Sun this
day. He utterly denies that he used the influence
of his office to turn out Mr. D u NCOMBE, and at the
same time states that probably he asked Mr.
COATES to sound Mr. LEIGHTON 011 the subject
of the requisition,
cheque for a bill due by
that
by the Society,
filling up ari
he expressed
his sorrow that Mr. LEIGHTON had forgotten an
o!d friend. This is the admission of an accused
person, not a full confession ; and we are therefore
bound to conclude that if he had told the whole truth,
he would have said, "I am verily guilty. I have
used my influence as Treasurer of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, for my own
purposes. I have said I was desirous to redeem
from its present state of political degrada-
tion, while I humbly confess my object was to raise
Finsbury
myself and turn out a useful and independent re-
presentative of the people ; and I have also wickedly
said my paramount object was to purify the repre-
sentation of Finsbury, while Mr. COATES and all
my colleaguei knew that I had no such object in
view ; and that while professing to be a pious man,
I was backbiting two of the most consistent men of
my own party, in order to oust one or the other,
and get into Parliament." This is the confession,
no doubt, that Mr. TooKE will make, when he has
leisure to revise his second letter and reflect on the
ii,jury that lie lizts done to almost every person to
whom he alludes. He praises only one individual,
the. Treasurer of the Society for the pill. usion of

Useful Knowledge, who punctually discharges
pecuniary claims, %silo is trustee for several consi-
derable estates in the borough, who is desirous of
redeeming Finsbury from its present state of poli-
tical degradation, and who pledges himself to pu-
rify that corrupt and degraded place by his patriotic
and disinterested services. The electors of Fins-
bury may well say, " Save us from our friends I"

We have received the French Journals of Friday.
The Moniteur Parisien states that the Prince

DE JOINVILLE has been promoted to the rank
of a Hear-Admiral ; but, as no such promotion is

recorded in the official columns of the Message/.

or the Moniteur Universel, we presume the state_
merit to be incorrect. But that some promotion
awaits the Prince for having conveyed to France
the remains of NAPOLEON, can surprise no per-

son. Even the National must admit that such a

service is entitled to something more sul

stantial than the consciousness of having per

ormed a duty, the imposition of %%hie.

was the highest honour that France could conic
on the son of her King.
_ _ _

The National states that the Minister of Public
Works has ordered the suspension of the fortifica-
tions of Paris. This journal, with characteristic
propensity to mischief, hazards the supposition that
the determination of the Cabinet to suspend the
works, was the consequence of threats held out by

the great Northern Powers. The Commerce, with
more truth and better temper, humorously remarks,
that it was " the great Northern Powers" that
caused the works to be suspended, and that their
envoys are Sir John Frost and Captain Snow.
Perhaps the state of the French Exchequer had
some share in influencing the resolution of the Ca-
binet. Now that the first excitement is over, it be-

comes a serious matter to put France to an expense
of about forty millions sterling in the present ex-
hausted state of her finances.
The following account of an election riot at
Cherbourg is from the co!umns of the Messager.
M. QUENAULT, the returned candidate, is a sup-
potter of the SOULT-GUIZOT administration :
" As soon as the result was known a group of per.
sons in front of the Palais de Justice raised cries of ' A
bas Quenault! A bas les laches qui ont vote pour lui :
Vive Briqueville !' and they also sang the ' Marsellaise.'
The Mayor having exhorted the mob to disperse, a po-
tion of it did so, but another portion proceeded to the
house of M. Quenault, where it uttered similar cries,
attempted to force the door, and threw stones at
the windows. This mob, which was composed of
from 150 to 200 persons, then proceeded to the
house of M. Chevrel, an avoue, and one of the pro-
prietors of the Phare de la Manche, and also to the house
of M. Rossignol, a Judge. They threw stones at the
windows of both these houses, and one of the stones
struck the mother of Madame Rossignol and wounded
her slightly. Some windows were also broken at the
house of the Mayor. The mob next visited a house
lately occupied by M. Lode, the Registrar of the Civil
Tribunal, but now occupied by M. Trigan, a Lieute-
nant of Marines, who, on making his appearance to in-
quire into the cause of the tumult, was struck on the
arm with a stick. The Procureur du Roi has ordered
an investigeion, with a view to discover the authors of
these different outrages."
The Commerce draws the following picture of
the present state of France :
" We should seek a long time in history beforc we
could find a situation so complicated, so unsteady, so
obscure as respects futurity, as that in which France
is now placed. Nothing is firmly seated, all is un-
certain. Our financial condition is in progress of
disorganisation, and deficits daily on the increase ;
the Administration is without force, capacity, or esprit
du corps; the Chambers are morselled to indi-
vidualism, all political creeds are shaken, and we
have seen treason itself impudently claim the homage
of the people. An improvident and disastrous policy
suffered our exterior power to be debased more and I
more, and ultimately annulled. By its repeated con-
cessions, it has induced Europe to array itself against
our interests ; it has wounded all the feelings of the
1 country ; it is with them at complete variance." The
Commerce concludes by proposing as the panacea for
all those evlls, the dereliction of the British alliance
for that of Russia.
The Toulonnaise of the 13th instant brings intelli-
gence from Algiers of the 3d instant, a few days before
which date the Bishop of Algiers proceeded to Blidah,
accompanied by three clergymen, and, in the presence
of Marshal Vallee and Generals Bellonet and Chan-
gamier, consecrated the principal mosque of the town,
which is to sale for the Catholic worship until the
construction of a church, for which funds have been
provided by the Government.
The Courrier du Bas Rhin of the 15th instant an-
nounces that the Duke of Orleans was expected in
Strasburg towards the close of the month, when a
corps of 15,000 men would be concentrated in that city.
BOURSE.—PARIS, FRIDAY, DEC. 18.
' Ira Highest Lowest Cast
Price Price. Pricy. Price
French S per Cents
4 per Cents 97 SO ... 97 50 ... 97 50 .. 97 50
n per Cents 77 ~. 71 20 ... 76 95 ... 77 20
Bank 01 ir,ince
I.l.tlitte Stank I, 000 f. St lOB5 ...lein ... 1085 ...1590
SOCOf. Shares 52e0 ...,5;-.01 ...5200 ...52;10
Ilrelg.;n Bank
5 per Cent, 9) ... )8 ... 98 ... 18
Dutch 2% per Cents ...... ...... 51 ~. Si ... n ... 52
S ).11,11 Aceive 23;44 ... "23;,,, „,,,,, zlsi „. '23 li
Passive 5% ••• 5% SX; —5%
101 ... its ... Inl ... iOl
,Teapolitan
Roman 99% ... 99% ... 99% ... 993 t
RAILWAY SHARES,
St Germain
Versatlicadt. ii 390 ... 390 ... 390 ... 39J
L. 8....
485 ... 480 25 ... 485 ... 456 25
Orleans .
Strasburg to Bale

The Madrid Gazette of the 11th inst., which
we have just received, contains the four financial
decrees of the Regency to which we alluded on
Saturday. The first declares that the purchasers
of all national property, except convents, are to
pay one-third of the purchase-money in bonds of
the consolidated debt, bearing interest at five per
cent ; anodic' third in bonds at four per cent. ; and
the remaining third in bonds of the debt without
interest, at the rate of 50 per cent., in unconsoli-
dated credits, at the rate of 66 per cent., and in
bonds of the debt, bearing five per cent. interest,
at the rate of 68 per cent. All convents and con-
ventual churches not yet disposed of, are to be sold
at the expiration of six months, and to be paid for
in coupons of the public debt, which are to be re.
ceived at their full nominal value, without regard to
their present depreciation either at home or abroad.
Regarding this matter merely in a financial point of
view, it is just in principle, but the extent to which
it may relieve the public creditor depends wholly
upon the amount of conventual property remaining
unsold in Spain. It was, however, expected that
these decree.; would create a stir in the Money
Market, by restoring some degree of confidence in
the financial good faith of the Spanish Government.
The determination of ESPAKTERO to march an
army into Portugal unless the Portuguese Govern-
ment consented to the free navigation of the Douro
was generally talked of in the political circles of
Madrid. ESPARTERO has work enough on his
hands without entering upon a war with Portugal,
ur any other Power. His proper business is to re-
generate Spain, by purifying her institutions,
establishing an uniform administration of justice,
festering industry, and developing the natural
resources of a country which is capable of being
changed from one of the poorest to one of the
richest and happiest of the nations of Europe.
The Madrid Gazette of the 12th publishes a
firman of the SULTAN ratifying a treaty of com-
merce concluded between Spain and the Sublime
Porte on the 2d of March in the present year.
By this treaty Spain is placed on a footing of
equality with the other European Powers in trad-
ing with Turkey. The firman itself is a curiosity
of its kind. Queen ISABELLA 11. is described as
" the most glorious of the eminent Sovereigns, pro-
fessing the religion of JESUS, the most illustrious
among the Sovereigns professing the creed of the
MESSIAH, the most high and most august
Queen of SPAIN, the SULTAN'S most dear and
sincere friend." Royal friendships are strange
affairs, and this partiality of his Highness for the
Infant Queen of SPAIN among the strangest of
Ithem. The SULTAN is not so fortunate as many
of his subjects if he have no dearer and sincerer
friend than the Ro)al ISABELLA.
The funds improved on the 11th and 12th, in