The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-31 00:00:00

no less calculated to give umbrage to ourselves. So
that, in reality, England has been placed by Lord
Palmerston's acquiescence in M. de Brunow'a contri-
vance in the position of a second-rate power, with a
great deal to be apprehended, and very little to be
gained, by either event, and a total absence of control
over the complicated elements of the question. In such
a state of things it is not surprising that a strong feeling
of uneasiness should pervade the country. The danger of
war is apparent ; the enormous, incalculable, and execra-
ble evil of war is still more so ; but such is the mystery
and the confusion in which these negotiations have
been buried, that we do not even know what war it is
that threatens us. An accidental collision between a
French and English brig in the Levant may suddenly
bring down on us a declaration of war from France ;
or the slightest indication of a movement on the part of
Russia may require the most decided and rapid mea-
sures to prevent the occupation of Constantinople.
This stat of things has now lasted a month or six
wicks ; andi it is not surprising that we hear serious
complaints from the quarters most interested in the
preservation of peace. Merchants are uncertain as to
tie chances to which their ships and cargoes are ex-
posed ; the rates of marine insurance have risen to an
extraordinary height in many instances ; and the general
uneasiness and ignorance of the real state of the case
wl.i h prevail tend to paralyze several of our most im-
portant branches of commerce.
(From the Morning Advertiser.)
Notwithstanding the undeniable wrongs which ac-
companied the Union of Ireladd to England, and the
corruption and perfidy by which it was accomplished,
it must yet be ranked among the wisest and most
politic acts of Mr. Pitt's Administration. Granted, as
Mr. O'Connell proved in his energetic speech to the
people of Liverpool, the other day, that millions were
spent in bribing her corrupt Members to vote for its
accomplishment ; that every obligation of honour, nay,
of right, under which it was assented to, was violated ;
that had it been a private compact, coming within
the jurisdiction of a Court of Law, instead of a
solemn covenant of the Legislature, it must have
been held void and null, from the failure of one
party to perform the stipulated conditions—granted
all this, it remains an undoubted truth that good
has been the result of evil in this instance, in a
far greater degree even than it was in the case of
the union of England to Scotland : compassed by the
same foul ends, abused by the Scotch for a quarter of a
century as the ruin of their country and its liberties,
and finally acknowledged by every unprejudiced man
as the corner-stone of their physical amelioration. It
cannot be denied that every condition promised to Ire-
land at the time of the Union has now been performed.
Ireland has now got Catholic emancipation. That
great justice, so long and so fraudulently denied to her
in the teeth of terms upon which the Union, even in
her corrupt Parliament, was passed, cannot be pleaded
as an unfulfilled condition. Neither can the advocates
of Repeal plead the non-fulfilment of any of the com-
mercial or fiscal conditions agreed to at the time. So
long as Catholic emancipation was refused we grant that
Ireland had a right to hold the Union an empty parch-
ment ; but if at present every condition agreed to by
England at the period of its signature be fulfilled, we
cannot see how, legally speaking, Ireland can depart
from her pledge merely because her repesenta-
tires were corrupt and sold their country. That
misfortune was the business of Ireland herself,
and not of England, and it was then that she
should have seen to it. She is equally bound by the
act of her native Parliament, as England is by those of
her unreformed Parliament of boroughmongers. No
man, surely, will argue that Ireland has the right to
demand Repeal, because she did not obtain immediately
thereafter absolute justice from England ; because she
did not obtain the abolition of tithes, the acknowledg-
ment of the Catholic Clergy, the reform of her Uni-
versity and Corporations, a suitable number of Mem-
bers of Parliament, and, finally, a five-pound franchise
and a Parliamentary Reform. In demanding these
things she would have been demanding more than Eng-
land and Scotland themselves enjoyed at the time.
She may certainly demand them if she thinks proper
now, but sbe has no right to demand the alternative of
Repeal if they be refused ; for the conditions of the
Union are specific and precise, and once fulfilled, the
Union is binding for ever.
(From the Morning Herald.)
We believe it will be found that we gave some time
since the true explanation of the conduct of M. Thiers,
in imputing to a morbid rage for popularity the national
excitement which he has stirred up in France touching
the Egyptian question and the Convention of the Four
Powers. We have told Thiers already, and we are
sure he will find it so, that it is easier to raise the spirit
of military ambition in France than to lay it again.
According to Lord Palmerston, the French Govern-
ment has repeatedly pledged itself that " in no case will
France oppose the measures which the Jour Courts, in
concert with the Sultan, may deem necessary to obtain
the assent of the Pacha of Egypt." Unless, then,
France means to observe her Egyptian pledge as she
did her Algerine pledge to England, her threats and
preparations of war on account of the Pacha of Egypt
must be idle and bombastic demonstrations, only calcu-
lated to lower her diameter in the eyes of the civilised
world. If Mehemet Ali should even prove to be as
" obstinate "in maintaining his pretensions as the King of
Holland was, France stands pledged not to interfere on

his behalf—that is, unless Thiers can positively deny,
as we before observed, the material averments of Lord
Palmerston's letter to M. Guizot. Whatever may be
'the means which the four Powers choose now, or even-
tua'ly, to adopt in order to compel the assent of Mehe-
met Ali to their demands, the French Government has
tied itself to a strict abstinence from all intervention.
The sooner, then, the political tone of France suits with
its moral position in reference to the affairs of the Le-
vant, the seoner will it consult for its own dignity,
which is now sacrificed for the sake of a brilliant chimera. 1
Whether our own Government is acting wisely in unit-
ing with the three great despotic Powers of Europe, in
the perhaps vain hope of restoring vitality and strength
to the decrepitude of the Ottoman empire, is quite
another question. Whatever becomes of Turkey or
Egypt, Russia will take care to turn the bargain to her
own advantage.

(From the Morning Post.)
Commercial letters from Constantinople state that
the decision of the Northern Powers, in regard to the
affairs of that part of the world, obtained publicity there
on the 6th instant. The effect was, it appears, quite
electrical. Not an:inhabitant could calculate upon his
personal safety, or that of his family, for the period of
a single month. That Mehemet Ali would take the
more desperate course open to him there was no doubt
whatever. He is ;not now a young man, and it was felt
that, so far horn submitting quietly to the dictation of
the parties to the quintuple treaty, as a mere stripling
unconfirmed in power might have been disposad to do,
with the chances so much against him in the event
of resistance, he would determine upon march-
ing at once upon Constantinople. The consternation
of the people of the Turkish capital was evidently
not much diminished by the knowledge they possessed
that, although the Sultan had but an inferior force at
hand to defend the city, the Russians were at a con-
venient distance, and that they would be prepared to
face the invader the moment the bugle should give in-
timation of his presence. The march of the Egyptian
troops would occupy about twenty-five days only, the
country being perfectly free and practicable. The
underwriters at Lloyd's have ceased insuring sea risks
otherwise than at war premiums. This change neces-
sarily opens the eyes of all commercial men to the deep
importance of the pending difficulty.

ST. MARK'S CHURCH AT VENICE.—St.
Mark's Church reminds one certainly of St. Sophia's, at
Con,tantinople, but, on the other hand, has so much that
is original, contains so many peculiar works of art, and is
erected amid so many extraordinary surrounding objects,
that, aster all the books already written about it, abundant
materials may be found for as many more. Less
imposing than St. Peter's, less solemn than the
cathedral of Milan, St. Mark's may, neverthe-
less, say anch' io son chiesa I and will go
unconquered nay, in some respects unequalled,
from the conflict. Yesterday evening I saw the church
lighted up, and beheld in reality what is seldom seen,
except as a theatrical decoration. On the one
side, the pomp, solemnity, and festivity of Catholicism,
together with its outward evidences of faith,
impress the mind strongly ; but on the other side, I was
disturbed, as I have often been before, by the chattering,
thu running to and fro—l may almost say the bawling, of
the clergy. More purely sounded the choir as it struck in
at intervals. A handsome, well-dressed girl knelt before
a small picture of a saint, that was preserved under a glass
case. I was about, in spite of all my protestantism, to
commend, nay, t') envy her zeal and faith, but when I saw
her spit upon her handkerchief, and wipe the glass, pre-
paratory to kissing it, the whole Fata Morgana, I must
own, vanished in a moment —Raunier's Italy and the

S,
en rTm. Bt Aorrthl-ei ObLodoieMs Eainvd re
' S CHURCH.—The
URns is. being— T
int(
with as much decorum as possible, none being removed
conducted
di
sin
-
after six o'clock in the morning, and the vaults and graves
remains
are well ventilated with chloride of lime in order to neu-
tralise any unpleasant smell or dangerous effluvia. The
interi.r of the church is excavated throughout, and there
is scarcely a pew under which is not a rep'sitory for many
of the dead. Tee excavations have been made to a
depth of 15 to 18 feet, and every portion of a skeleton,
however small, is carefully deposited in a shell, which,
when filled, is removed to the neighbouring church of St.
Margaret. Fifty-seven shells have been removed to the
vaults of this church, which have been enlarged for the ac-
commodation of as many more. Some of the leaden coffins
present a singularly decayed appearance, having been acted
upon by the lime with which the soil is strongly impreg-
nated. It is proper to add that every propriety of atten-
tion is shown in consulting the feelings of friends and re-
lations.

BITTER OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH
On Monday, Me!moth WP.
alters, ,
—., summoned tw
.---
industrious individuals for violating the Sabbath, for beeilnvge
in a tent on Sunday preceding Lansdown fair,on the
ground whore the fair was held, The Nlagistrates asked
the gentleman if any disturbance or riotous conduct took
place ? To which be answered " No." The whole of the
summonses were i consequence immediately dismissed.—
Bath Journal.