The Sun.
London, England, 1823-04-29 00:00:00

[MORNING

The Debate on Mr. James Macdonald's Mo-
tion on the subject of the late Negociations has
been adjourned to this day. Indeed, from the
number of those who must be anxious to express
their sentiments on this question, it would not
surprise us if the Debate should be'still further
prolonged.; There is nut a reflecting person in
the country who does not believe that Ministers,
by acting with proper firmness, might, have pre-
vented the unholy IVarogainst Spain. Even Mr.
Wilberforce shares this belief. But, then, the
Government of England is identified with the
Holy Alliance.—The cause of Spain is not the
cause of King's and Boroughmongers.—The great
fear expressed by Ministers is not for Spain but
for France.—Mr.Stuart Wortley admitted, " that
the conduct of the Allied Sovereigns struck at all
the principles on which our CotOtitution was found-
ed, and attempted to shut the door to the admission
into any State of any thing but rational liberty,"
,and that there was "a perfect agreement through-
out this country," with respect to the conduct of
the Foreign Powers towards Spain. Lint this
agreement throughout the country will not de-
tach the Government from that Holy Alliance of
which he so much reprobates the conduct. The
curious spectacle is just now exhibited of the
nation honouring the Representatives of Spain
and Portugal by every possible demonstration of
respect, while, in the highest and most influencial
quarter, they are ail but insulted, But Mr.
Wortley knowns, or ought to know, that an Un-
reformed Parliament wilt not and cannot prevent
this contradiction. Does he think The Courier
Newspaper' does not know in which character
honour lies ? Whatever be the result of this
contest, there can no longer be any mistake
hereafter with respect to the character of the
English Government. The day of delusion is
gone by for ever.

[NEW TIMES.]
rm. Lisbon Papers of the 18th present a me-
lancholy picture of the state of Portugal. The
civil war, which has coutinnPd ever since the
21st of February, still rages with unabated fury ;
and the Constitutional General Luez Do Itego
has rendered himself infamous by ordering a
whole town to be- burnt ! it is deeply to be
lamented that the cause of Liberty should
be -disgraced by such horrible enormities:—
Yet the only three individuals who, in modern
times, have actually resorted to this barbarous
and inhuman mode of warfare, all professed to
act in the name of Liberty—namely, Buonepatte,
Mina, and Do Rego. Buouaparte, in 1796, burnt

the towns of Binasco and Lugo ; Mina, last year,
issued a Proclamation of Castelfollit, in pursu-
ance of which one of his subordinate officers
burnt a town in Catalonia; and Do Rego has
now burnt the town of Trindade, in Tras-os-
Montes. Without entering into the merits of
the particular systems of Government which each
of these men was at the time defending, we do
wish, that for. the sake of humanity, some pro-
test should be entered against the cruelties which
they practised. It is particularly incumbent on
the avowed Friends of Liberty and Humanity
in the British Parliament to do this, for the
sake of vindicating their own consistency. Let
them reflect on the dreadful consequences
which must ensue if these examples should be-
come precedents to he universally followed. Let
them consider that it is rank hypocrisy to ex-
claim against single and double instances of
alleged cruelty, and wilfully to slur over the
savage barbarity of burning a whole town to the
ground.—Be it remembered that Mina and Do
Rego, who now exercise such cruelties against
their insurgent countrymen, were themselves in-
surgents no longer ago than 1820. Ere a short
time elapses, they may need the exercise of that
humanity which they now deny to others. At
all events, some public and solemn reprobation
should be expressed of a mode of warfare so
shocking to humanity and so disgraceful to a
civilised age.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
The debate on Mr. Macdonald's motion on the
Foreign Policy of the Country, and the Nego-
ciations at Verona, was last night adjourned, on
the motion of Mr. Peter Moore, to this day. Mr.
Macdonald's ispeech was a very able one ; but
there would be little wisdom indeed in marking
out at present for Great Britain any line of con-
duct.but that of a firm and honourable neutrality.
She needs repose after her past mighty exertions,
and without it the country never can recover from
the pressure that weighs upon it. We are far
from indifferent to the cause of-liberty in Spain,
nor have we a doubt that it will ultimately tri-
umph. France cannot conquer the Peninsula,
or retain a permanent possession of any part of
it. Spain, thrown on her own energies and feel-
ings, will yet meet the invader at every step.
We must regret that a higher and a firmer tone
was not assumed towards France before the ne-
gociations closed ; but a war would now be ruin-
ous to the finances of the country and the pro-
sperity of its people. Peace is essential to the
welfare of Great Britain ; and we think Mini-
sters wise in the determination, if possible, to
preserve it

[MORNING POST.]
Lord Holland has embodied the very acute
reasoning of the Opposition, upon the advice
offered by the British Government to Spain, in
the imperishable form of a Protest against the
division of Thursday in the House of Peers.
--England, anxious for the preservation of
peace, although she had deteraiined for her-
self not to embark in the existing quarrel,
naturally and wisely interposed her good offices
to remove, if possible, the ostensible grounds
of complaint, so far as she deemed that
they might be removed, not only without
injury, but with positive and obvious advan-
tage to that party in the threatened conflict with
whose cause her immediate feelings and her con-
tingent interests were more intimately blended.
This, it is said, was wrong, because the existing
Government of Spain was bound by oath not to
effect any change in her institutions till after a
certain period, which has not yet arrived. It is a
sufficient defence of the British Government
against this charge, that the proper construction
of this oath is a matter in dispute amongst the
Spaniards themselves ; that it was no part
of its duty to define the precise extent of its
obligations ; that, in fine, it merely suggested
what -it thought a prudent and beneficial line
of conduct, leaving every question, whether
of policy or of consequence, where it ought to
be' left, to the free determination of Spain.
The British Government did not undertake the
duty of casuistry as well as that of intercession.
The conduct of England is condemned also, be-
cause it offered its advice to Spain, ignorant whe-
ther its acceptance would have propitiated
France, and without any assurance of her own
intention to assist Spain in the war, if the
changes she recommended should prove insuffi-
cient to avert it. If these changes had involved
any sacrifice on the part of Spain—if they bad
tended to produce any injury, or any chance
of injury to her, there would have been some
weight in this objection. But so far from this,
they were no other than the very changes which
the most enlightened and influential of her own
Statesmen wish to effect, when the period fixed
by her Constitution for the reversion of its
forms and establishments shall arrive. England
besides, it is obvions,could not have received from
France and communicated to Spain the precise
constitutional changes which would alone satisfy
the former (if any such changes would indeed have
satisfied her), without degrading herself into the
agent of a Power, asserting by the very communi-
uation terms,a pretension the most haughty,
overbearing, and unjust ; nor without at the same
time divesting her own friendly suggestions
of whatever value or authority they might be
supposed to possess, by blending them with the
insolent dictation of a menacing and hostile
Slate. If England, on the other hand, had
made the compliance of Spain with her recom,
mendations the condition of her ultimate assist-
ance, would she' not thereby have violated the
great principle of her own policy, and lave be-
come a direct party in the whole transaction ?
Would she not have incurred the imputation of
being also a dictator ? Might she not have exas-
perated that conflict of parties in' Spain which it
was so important to allay ?

The Solicitors to remedy. the evil of Counsel
being called from one Chancery Court to another, have agreed
amongst themselves to give briefs to certain 'Counsel for such
l.usiness as they wish to go before the Chancellor, and the same
for such as is brought before the Vice-Chancellor.
SUOCKING SuictnE.--On: Saturday morning, a
gentleman named Bates, a ruler in the King's Bench Prison,
put a period to his existence in his bed-room. His arms and
throat were cut in a dreadful manner; and he was found under
the bed, with a razor grasped in his right hand.

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FASHIONABLE ARRIVALS.

The Duke of St. Albans and the Ladies Beauclerk, at thei
house in St. James's-square, from their seat, Gatton, Surrey ;
the Marquis and Marchioness of Tavistock, from Harewood
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Fair.

DEPARTURES.—Mrs. James Cobb, for Brighton; the Earl
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