The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-27 00:00:00

[NEW TIMES.]

It appears by a dispatch of the 10th inst. from ;
Marshal Moncey, that part of General Donnadieu'a division
has at length been able to bring some of the Revolutionary
troops to action. The Times says that Donnadieu's account is
" much ado about nothing."—Let us inquire a little into this
assertion. In The Times of the 26th of last November we
find the following statement—" The Government is about to
confer on Mina the title of Commander-in-Chief of the three
Army Corps of Critalonia, Navarre, and Arragon. Generals
Torrijos and Velasco will serve under him; the first army will
be increased to forty thousand men, the other two to ten thou-
Sand. All thole forces are to be united by the Ist December in
the line of operations." Again, in The Times of Dec. 2, we
read " Mina was, on Sunday, Nov. 17th, at Real, at the head
of sixteen thousand men, the whole force under his orders, in
Catalonia only, being thirty thousand."—Now, either this was
a gross deception on the readers of The Times, just like the
fictions of that paper in the Neapolitan Campaign—or it was
not. If it was not, then, surely an account which proves this
wondrous force of thirty or forty thousand men to have dwindled
away to almost nothing, and to be on the eve of entire annihi-
lation, is one which The Times should be the last journal to
regard as unimportant.:.—The most important fact, however,
that we learn from the dispatches, is the amount of the forcesl
under the different revolutionary leaders. Mina was at Cellent
with four thousand men (the very number we mentioned on Sa-
turday), and the united force of Rotten and Liobera together
amounted only to three thousand ! It' we add 3,000 more for
those under Minns, the whole of the mighty army of Mina
(the onlyy, one remaining in the North of Spain) will be ten
thousand'men, and these ten thousand, scattered, beaten, and
surrounded by the enemy. Instead of overwhelming Marshal
Moncey's corps, they have only on this one occasion met any
part of it in the field ; and they have been defeated by a
small portion of one single division of that corps. How dif.
ferent this from 1000, when General Ducheame, with fifteen
.
thousand French troops, was shut up from June December
' in Barcelona by the Insurgent Spaniards, and when General
Gouvion St. Cyr, who entered Spain with another 'Corps in the
beginning of November, could not establish his communica-
tion with Duchesme till the 17th of December. St. Cyr did
not venture to advance till after hd had reduced Rosas and
this place, which Marshal Moncey took almost without re-
sistance, cost General St. Cyr a regular siege of 27 days. Such
is the difference between contending with a nation, and con-
r tending with a faction !

LMOILNING POST.]
It is truly gratifying to observe the progress of
liberal and enlightened principles in regard to trade. The
prevalence of opposite principles on this subject has contri.
hilted perhaps more than any other cause to obstruct the career
of human improvement, and to foster between nations, and
even bet Ween different classes of fellow-countrymen, the senti-
ments of jealous rivalry and inveterate hatred. From the fix-_
dual extinction ger/railes; ..
fuvouliitre"-tCrtheli-Oral con-
Act,ffrt the commercial prosperity of social corn.
=tildes. Cherishing such opinions as these, we are never-
theless Prepared to maintain that it is the duty of Govern.
inents to deal tenderly with prejudices which have beenlio
long predominant, to which a long course of erroneous legi.
siation has given its sanction, and by which thus sanctioned,
great and important interests have been created. A Govern-
ment exhibitsl we think, a higher degree of wisdom, when in
'patters of this nature it suffers itself to be borne along by the
great tide of enlightened opinion, than when it strives to out-
run the general mind of the community. In the former case,
any great and violent shock is prevented by the popular antici-
pation of its measures; and in the latter case, in that of the:pre-
mature adoption in practice even of the soundest general pond-.
pies, such confusion, perplexity, suffering, and dismay are likely
to be prOduced, as must tend to discredit theprinciples themselves
and to retard the moment of their beneficial application.--The
British Government is at this moment engaged in the delightful
and beneficial duty of,relasing or removing several of those in-
judicious restraints which were imposed in times comparatively
barbarous upon the domestic trade and foreign commerce of its
subjects. It has in every instance shewn itself eager to seize
the first moment when sound principles could be prudently
restored to their legitimate dominion. It has indeed made.
no incautious or premature effort ; its effbrts therefore have
in no case been abortive or mischievous.—The Opponents.
of Ministers, ,unable to raise any objection to the course
they are pursuing,. affect to appropriate to themselves the
merit of having been the first to advocate. the principles of free
trade, and to urge their practical adoption. If in their de.
jectiori, after _numerous . and fatal defeats, they can derive any
solace from their self-complacency upon this subject,. 'there
were perhaps some degree of cruelty in any attempt to disturb
it. The facts they alledge are unquestionable. At all times,.
during the most arduous periods of the late war—during the
period still mote arduous which succeeded it, their cuckoo cry
has alwaytibeen, '‘‘ recur to sound principleS of trade." '`What
have circumstances to do with political wisdom ? Is not that
high faculty displayed in its highest perfection by sounding.
one invariable note ? just and natural the exultation of
the man, who, meeting his friends lightly clothed in the dog
days, exclaimed, " I thought you would come over to ,my Opt.
mon ; you remeniber I told you last Christmas that a great cost
WAS an useless incumbrance 1."