The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM TM MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.
:(From the Times.)
We published on Wednesday a despatch from Lord
Palmerston to Earl Granville dated the 2d of Novem-
ber, which appeared in the Ministerial Paper of the
preceding day. This despatch was written in reply to
M. Thiers' communication of the Bth of October, and
it evinces the same vigour and acuteness which Lord
Palmerston has already displayed in previous parts of
this correspondence. But the circumstances under
4bich the despatch was sent, and those which have
more immediately preceded its subsequent publication,
appear to us to deserve more attention than the lan-
guage
of the document itself. M. Thiers' despatch of
the Bth of October was officially communicated to the
British Government on the 10th. That Minister re- '
signed on the 23d of October. M. Guizot succeeded
Sim on the 29th, and on the 2d of November, just after
the news of the formation of the new Ministry bad
reached London, this argumentative despatch to Lord
Granville was sent to be transmitted by his Excel-
lency to the new Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris.
Was this a suitable or courteous greeting to the
statesman who had accepted office under the manifold
difficulties which his predecessors had bequeathed to
him, and which the Opposition was preparing fiir him ?
Thiers' communication required no fisrther reply,
emisa if he bad remained in office. A statement having
been road s& published on one side, followed by a
counter-sati'dlint on the other—the French despatch
relatiag to the deposition of Mehemet Ali from Egypt
having been met by the explanation contained in the
English despatch of the 17th,of October—it ts difficult
to colleen what purpose was answered by a refuta-
tion, `wever keen and stringent, of certain general
principles which M. Thiers had thought proper to
adopt ; but if such a refutation was required, it might
at least have been written before M. Thiers had re-
signed the seals of office and M. Guizot assumed them.
We advert to this circumstance, not because it is
very important in itself that Lord Palmerston should
indulge in a little superfluous logic and superfluous
acrimony, but because the tone of this despatch is
strongly indicative of the absence of that conciliatory
spirit, which was never more wanted, and never less
shown. The first great advantage of M. Guizot's ac-
cession to the Government was the opportunity it gave
to all parties of letting the past alone ; but, instead of
availiAg himself of it, Lord Palmerston hastened to
fling the noose over M. Guizot's head, and to accost
him with the supercilious language of polemical argu-
ment direeted against propositions for which he was not
responsible. The absence of the slightest allusion to
the change which had taken place in the French Cabinet
is in itself an indication that no change had taken
place in Lord Palmerston's feelings towards France.
Vet the chief object of this discouraging commu-
nication was to assert a pr'nciple " which may proba-
bly not have any practical bearing upon events now in
progress," viz., that whatever may be the opinions en-
tertained by foreign Powers as to the limits to be
granted to Mehemet Ali, those opinions can only sere
to regulate their advice and to determine the extent of
their assistance, not to Justify them in any attempt to
control the Sultan in the discretionary exercise of his
independent sovereignty. This distinction between ad-
vice and control involves one of the nicest shades of dif-
lerence in the world, especially when the advice
is administered by four strong Powers to one very
weak one. We advise the native Princes of In-
; we advise some of dflie- minor Allies, and the
more feeble they are the more active do our
opinions become. We advised the Sultan to reject
the overtures brought by Samy Bey from the Pacha ;
;ye have advised the sultan to establish a blockade ; we
advised the Sultan to depose Mehemet Ali from the
government of Egypt, and then advised his Highness
coaditiunally to reinstate him ; in all these proceedings
there was not the slightest attempt to control the Porte
.4' in the discretionary exercise of one of the inherent
and essential attributes of independent sovereignty,
beyond an intimation, perhaps, that if his Highness
ftilt disinclined to adopt the advice of his Allies, he
might finish the conquest of Syria with his own re-
sources. But, such is our reluctance to interfere with
these high prerogatives, that we cannot venture even
to discuss the limits which the Imperial clemency
taiay assign to Mehemet Ali's delegated authority ;
and that we had rather see the whole of Europe involved
in war than attempt to control the Porte in the execu-
tion (with our own assistance) of the measures which
we have advised. This language can impose on nobody.
The independent authority of an impotent Prince can-
not he trifled witb one day, and exalted to the dig-
nity of Soliman the Great on the morrow. The events
which may result from the treaty of the 15th of
July rest upon the responsibility, and ought to be sub-
ject to the control, of the great Powers in whom that
Convention originated ; and in determining the final
errangement which may be adopted with their sanction
(for none can be now adopted without that condition)
we may fairly look not only to the integrity and inde-
pendence of the Ottoman empire, but also to the peace
of Europe. It is, therefore, a subject of great regret,
that in Lord Palmerston's first despatch to by laid be-
fore M. Guizot, his Lordship could put fOS.ward no
more conciliatory and straightforwardmoreu liea
tion of
principles
.
for future agreement, and the p
current is certainly rather
calculated to strengthen tl
suspicions we have already expressed of Lord Palmgie
ston's wilful opposition to every species of concession,
than to encourage those hopes of an amicable arrange-
ment which are so warmly and generally entertained in
this country.

FROM THE D;%.,1 LY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
Those reverend itinerants, whose Exetetrhliinkallitebul-
litions we noticed yesterday, appear t
o trernely hard that they are reproached as rather ad-
dicted to lying, nay occasionally convicted (as the Rev.
Hugh Stowell) of libel. Certainly, it is extremely
hard that holy
en should be so handled. But what
remedy? m
People will, judge from facts when these are
so flagrant. " When my brother M‘Ghee," said this
same Rev. Hugh Stowell, whom we quoted yester-
day," in the sintpllcity and honesty of his heart was led
-lway—ri.(to not justify the want of judgment, but I
-ay inival a very slight error, for there was no malice
iopepeiaeolo conscious Want of rectitude, no toilful de-
c. *ion from truth, there was simply the reading to o

••••••••,!•16
suddenly a paper teat was put into his hands—then oh
the yell and cry that the whole Popish crew raised
against that honest and honourable own." That there
is no conscious deviation from truth and rectitude on
the part of these gentry, in the most mostrous , . .
they tell, is possible ; for it requires some fixed standard
of rectitude by which to estimate deviations, and if Mr.
ITGhee is Mr. Stowell's standard of the " honest and
honourable," and Mr. Stowell Mr. M'Ghee's, we cannot
be surprised at the consequences. The naive emotionsjof
these honest and honourable men, when they find them-
selves convicted of . . . . and libel, remind

us a good deal of those of one of Beranger's rather
indiscreet heroines, who cannot conceive how she has
got into a little scrape.

Ah fiche, ah chien !
Non, je n'y coneois rien—
Maisfaccouche, foi d'honnete fille I
Even the warning example, however, of Brother
M'Ghee, and the warning verdict of the Jury that
convicted himself of libel, cannot keep the Rev. Hugh
Stowell from drawing the long bow against Papists
We say nothing of the legend of " the highly respect-
able Yorkshire gentleman," which we noticed yester-
day ; for that matter remains to be cleared up. But
we find in the Manchester Guardian, of yesterday,
another rich specimen of the degree of regard these
honest and honourable men have for plain truth.
(From the Standard.)
The ignorance of the character and feeling of the
English people which prevails in France, and more
particularly in Paris, is matter of regret, and would
be matter of astonishment, if we did not know
how little addicted to travelling our neighbours are,
except for those purposes by which men are seldom
made wiser—the indulgence of a frivolous curiosity
or of vanity. As to the samples of Englishmen that
find their way to the eyes of the Continental
people, generally, though often very good men, they
wrap themselves up in a reserve through which even a
coach companion can scarcely penetrate to individual
character. But an inscrutable sample affords little in-
formation of the nature of that which it represents.
However it happens, it is scarcely exaggeration to say
that the mass of the French people have still tile
notion of Englighmen ludicrously ascribed to them
30 years ago—namely, that the natives of this island
are fat, very rich, insufferably haughty, and wear
gaiters ! Now, this ignorance of England by our
next neighbours is not merely mortifying ; it is mis-
chievous to France, and through France it reflects
mischief upon us. It is mischievous to France, be-
cause, independently of fomenting causeless jealousies,
and,perhaps, sometimes encouraging an undue arrogance,
it prevents Frenchmen from profiting by the advances we
have made in social knowledge and political science,
which are certainly not smaller nor less important to
human happiness, than those improvements which
we have made in physical sciences, though the evidence
of the former cannot be presented in substance, and to
the eye, as we can transport a steam-engine, or any other
exquisite piece of machinery, in proof of British genius
and British skill. Our press, reflecting as it does the mo-
ral and intellectual state of our country, might in part
serve this purpose of letting Frenchmen know what we
are, if the English language were generally understood in
France, or if our newspapers were fairly and fully trans-
lated by the journalists of Paris. But the English
language is cultivated by comparatively few Frenchmen ;
and in fact, the number of English journals that
find their way to France is small, while the few
and meagre extracts that the French editors condescend
to make are generally so ill-selected, and so unfaith-
fully rendered, as not merely to misrepresent, but
grossly to travesty our political writing. The Paris
journals, indeed, seem to be enamoured of their own
vices, and to like nothing among us that is not as exag-
gerated, as full of modern cant, and as miserably af-
fected as the material of their own columns.
(From the Courier.)
The abstinence of the Ministerial Press for the last
few days from the customary daily dose in laudatio❑ of
their patrons' feats of policy, however curious from its
rarity, argues, however, a degree of sensibility to the shame
and degradation reflected by that policy on the nation, if
not an awakening conscientiousness, which is becoming,
if not commendable. The note of Lord Palmerston,
affectionately conceived so complete a masterpiece by its
noble author as, impatient for his laurels, to be trans-
mitted for publication, through his orders, simultane-
ously to the Foreign Office in Paris and the bureau of
the Chronicle-office in the Strand, remains untrum-
peted and unnoticed among Ministerial organs, save by
the one solitary recipient of his confidence. Later
still, moreover, the triumphal career of his arms and di-
plomacy in Cabul and Beloochistan remain uncomme-
morated, even by the least scrupulous of all his satel-
lites of the press. Not one word has yet escaped the
most devoted of adherents to celebrate the new edition
of the storm of Ghiznee and the overthrow of
Affghanistan, as now publishing from India, enriched
with notes, commentaries, and illustrations by the
Belooches and Affgbans, of the capture of Kbe-
lat, the disaster of Poolajee, and the re-entry
of Dost Mahomed into his kingdom. If, how-
ever, the Ministerial people be too much " crazed
with care," just now to patch up, if possible, the crack-
ing cause of their employers, the Conservative Press is
still with laudable perseverance in its duty, holding up
to the nation the rags and tatters of the policy of its
rulers. Thus, the Timer this morning we find reiterat-
ing and reinforcing with its usual vigour its former pro-
tests against the weak and wicked no less than deplorable
consequences of Indian misrule.