The Sun.
London, England, 1824-07-13 00:00:00

[UR !TIM Pa ESS:i

The last French Papers present nothing of in-
terest. M. sie Chateauhriand renews his com-
plaint against the Ministry for discarding his
ablistance ; and threatens them with the perils
to which he could expose them, 44 were he to
reveal the secrets of the State, and the transac-
tions of the Cabinet." It is now admitted, if not
in terms, as fully as If It were so stated, that the
querulous articles in the Journal des Dauds pro.
coed from the Viscount's own pen. lie stands
before Europe, therefore, as the calumniator of
his quondam colleagues, because they would
no longer co-operate with him. It is not pre-
tended that he vacated his office otherwise than by
compu Ision. The inference is, that he would have
remained there tiftnow, if he could. With what
decency, then, does this expelled Minister ar.

' raign the measures to which he must have been
an assenting party 2 It would be idle to sup-
pose, that since he was driven from the French
Cabinet any acts have taken place which were
not agreed upon when he belonged to it. If, in-
deed, be concurred in the ostensibly honourable
policy of his colleagues, while he was secretly
laying the train for the most atrocious explosions,
by which, if traced home to the Foreign Minis-
ter of his Most Christian Majesty, the good faith
of the French Government must have been inde-
libly stained, how can he hope, by vague insinu►
ations, to enlist any portion of the European
public in his favour, because, as a violator of the
peace and tranquillity of Europe, be was dipos-
sessed of the power of doing further injury I All
his invective and abuse will not mislead one person
from the conclusion, that he has only discovered
his late colleagues to be unworthy of office, when
they would not suffer him to share it with them.
Before it was generally known that M. de
Chateaubriand edited the Journal des Debate,
some effect might have been produced by the la-
mentations of that paper over the fall of its
Marcellus ; but since it is avowed that M. de
Chateaubriand composes his own panegyrics, we
really cannot understand how lie can expect to
persuade the French people that his loss is irrepa-
rable, when only he himself can be found to
declare it so. The author of the Genius of Chris-
tianity was never fitted to be a Minister of State.
That overweening vanity which fills 66 the race
that write," could alone have prompted him to
assume a character so foreign to his habits and
talents. The qualifications of a Statesman are
somewhat different from those of an author of
pretty romances and eloquent travels. It is
to be regretted that M. de Chateaubriand ever
deserted the path in which nature had gifted
him with ability to shine with more than
ordinary splendour; but, because ho had not
judgment enough to perceive where he ought to
have stationed himself, Europe is not to be con-
vulsed, because he is at length pushed from a
a post he ought never to have presumed to occupy,
and from which he is also dismissed for the ad-
ditional and unpardonable sin of using his tem-
porary influence to foment the most wicked and
unnatural of rebellions.

[MORNING POST.)
Since the Restoration of the Bourbons to the
Throne of France, the Government of that coun-
try has exhibited a curious and peculiar cha-
racter. The great aim and struggle on the part
of the King seems to be the preservation of a
middle course of policy between the two ex-
tremes of Democracy and Ultraism ; and accord-
ing as successive Ministers have leaned too touch
to one point or the other, his Majesty apparently
takes measures for restoring the equilibrium.—
When the Duke de Caze was in power, he was
openly accused of adopting a see-saw system,
and governing by the centre of the Chamber of
Deputies, with an inclination to either side,
according as circumstances suggested, rather
than a steady adherence to the right or
the left.— Lt was well known at the same
time that the tendency of that Minister, and of his
administration, was towards democracy, but his
measures were not decisive enough to gain the
favour of the party holding similar sentiments,
and after a violentcontest for absolute ascendancy,
they chose rather to support the entrance of the
Ultras into office, or indeed to force them
into office, than bear a continuance of M. de
Caze's vacillations. Immediately on that event the
politics of France became for the moment almost
purely tdiraistical, and have up to the present
time maintained a tendency towards the prin-
ciples of that party something similar to the'
tendency which they previously kept towards
the opposite extreme. Occasionally too, as hi
the determination to invade Spain, the Ultras
have achieved a complete mastery in the French
Cabinet, and ut other times, as in the recent dis-
grace and dismissal of M. Chateaubriand, they
have been humbled to the lowest state of poli-
tical exists•nee. Even during that jedantic Mi-
nister's duration in office, he merely gave a
higher colour to the tone of Administration ; for
the general course of proceedings in the Cabinet
were still attempered by moderate prin-
ciples, the object of the Court seeming to
be to steer as nearly direct for port as
the prevalence of the exclusively Aristocra-
tical Faction would permit. The ttoyal
confidence which M. du Vitlele has always pos.
seised, and the known desire he has manifested
to keep down the Ultras, sufficiently attest the
real disposition of the Head of the Government.
In short, whether as regards the restraining or
corrupting of the Press, which in France indicates
the inward principles of the Cabinet on all points,
or as it regards the other conduct of the Minis.
try at large, as anxious a wish appears to curb
and silence the extreme right as the extreme kit
of the Chamber. Nay, we might say, that the
real contest is between Ministers and the Ultras,
for th• Democrats struggle but little for them-
selves, or the public good, probably from a con-
viction of the vanity of their strongest efforts.

IMORNING cuttorucr.v..]
Letters and Papers were yesterday received
from Lisbon by the packet to the 9. 7t h ult. The
letters mention, that a great gloom still hangs
over every thing in the capital, and that the
Ministers are filled with terror at the awful
situation in which Portugal is plunged. In
Lisbon no one dares to appear in the streets
after nine o'clock in the evening, for fear of
being taken up on suspicion of some apprehended
conspiracy or other, or robbed by the soldiers,
who are without any kind of subordination. A
Decree had been issued for the incorporation of
the Bank, and it had been declared under the im-
mediate protection of the King. This este-
blishment, it will be remembered, was formed
in the time of the Cortes, and although every
thing done by them has since been annulled,
this concern has nevertheless been left, and
new regulations made for it, without any ma-
terial alterations. The capital originally was
about one million and a half sterling, which
is now reduced to one half. The Government
had already taken for its own uses half a million,
and it was thought no one would venture to NI..