The Sun.
London, England, 1823-11-25 00:00:00

have received on-thin subject. Two we have se-
lected as going to practical measures-of unques-
tionable utility-41m encouragement of the Irish
Fisheries, and the distribution of Reels and
Wheels to the female peasantry in' Ireland. fow.
much better would Lord Fitzwilliam and Mr.
Lambton have employed their Thousand Pounds
each in distributing wheels to two thousand poor
Irish families in a state of starvation, than in buy-
ing muskets and gunpowder for a set of Spanish
runaways, who used neither the one nor the other !
A. Sunday Paper laughably enough ridicules the
Spanish subscription, by stating that Sir Robert
Wilson, anxious to make a good use of the Com-
mittee's gunpowder, had carried it to the pira-
tical Dey of Algiers ! We sincerety hope that
some public-spirited. and influential individuals
will promote either of the plans mentioned above,
or some others in behalf of our own distressed
labouring poor.

PRESS.]
The hour, we fear, is but too fast ap-
proaching when England will pay the severe
penalty of her concurrence with the combined
Powers of the Continent, in suppressing- the ef-
forts of Spain to give herself a. Constitution,
which had for its object to establish a reform-
ed Government, to make the rights of the na-
tion respected, and to frame a system of laws
for the protection of public freedom and the
essential interests of the people. France has set
at defiance every principle of honour, of grati-
tude, of humanity, and of justice, in her invasion
of the Peninsula: and she will set them equally
at defiance in her meditated attack upon the
commercial interests of this country. The late
Foreign Secretary was a willing witness to this
violation of the rights of nations. lie was op-
posed, at all times, in principle and in practice,
to the establishment of freedom. His character was
estimated with precision. The popular judgment in
England is formed with suprising correctness; and
no public man can pass long for more than he is
worth. Mr. Canning has a fondness for popu-
larity ; and this, if it leads to that course Of con-
duct which may deserve it, is a favourable bias.
t will compel him, we hope, to keep aloof
from the Continental Allies. Their policy is
not for us ; Great Britain cannot throw in her
lot with theirs ; their whole system is as foreign
from our interests as' from our honour. Mr.
Canning has a mind too highly cultivated not
to feel this ; but has he a spirit of independence
strong and firm enough to act upon it ? We
think he has. The crisis, however, is fast ap-
proaching that will bring this to the proof.—
There is no maxim more unalterably true—true
alike in politics and in morals—than the old,
homely maxim, that " Honesty is the best
policy." The high and open path of rec-
titude is safer than all the cross-roads ; and
is not only the' safest, but it is infinitely
the best. Mr. Canning must leave off the
language of the school in which he has
been bred ; his early preceptors in politics are
out of repute ; there time is gone by ; they have
been buried with all the honours of their race ;
aukthe only concern of their successors is to be
made wiser by their errors, and to taking warn-
ing from their fate. As the age advances,
and with it the progress of knowledge, those
in authority must be content to pass a stricter
ordeal. Men are beginning very generally
to think for themselves, in affairs both of
Church and State. They have ceased submis-
sively to lay down their reason on the Treasury
steps, and their faith at the Church door. No
man is more fully aware of this than Mr. Can-
ning. He is gifted with qualities which lit him
for his station ; but it yet remains to be seen,—
and we are watching him with some earnestness,
—how he will exercise, in the events that are
before him, the great power placed in his hands