The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1847,

The enthusiasm with which Sir ROBERT PEEL is
received, in the different places whither he has been
conducted by circumstances altogether irrespective of
matters political, must prove, in the end, something
more important than the ephemeral or local popularity
of a single individual. There is a moral of no mean
consideration in the language of eulogium and confi-
dence expressed towards the ex-Premier by the de-
putation of Darlington and the corporation of Sun-
derland. The import of these laudatory addresses is
already manifest to such whose judgments are neither
obscured by ignorance or prejudice. It will ulti-
mately be recognised by the whole of the next gene.
ration. It will then be remembered that the states-
man who had been reviled in the House of Legisla-

tura by those who were formerly his most obse-
quious adherents was received with acclamation when
traversing the country, although shorn of his authority
over the once powerful and obedient party of Conser-
vatism. The cause of this extraordinary change in
public and private opinion will by that time be clearly
comprehended, however much animosities and predi-
lections may now-a-days endeavour to distort their

meaning.
From the almost undisputed dominion of a faction
Sir ROBERT PEEL has voluntarily seceded : and he
who had been hitherto regarded with suspicion by the
vast majority of the population, has, in lieu of a
species of Parliamentary despotism, obtained the
applause, the gratitude, and the cordial reliance of
the multitude. To conceive for a moment that
the tables have been thus turned by some one
of the ordinary accidents of political war-
fare would be a frivolous and illogical sup-
position ; and it would be equally frivolous and
equally illogical to imagine that the sovereignty of
a strong party has been sacrificed for an idle whim,
or that the devotion of a great and enlightened nation
has been acquired Isy an act of flagrant dishonesty.
Yet such is the gist of all those atrabilious vitupera-
tions which have been enunciated against the Right
Hon. Baronet in the midnight discussions of St.
Stephen's, in the indulgence of Protectionist festivi-
ties, or in the vulgar personalities of the hustings.
Whether Sir ROBERT PEEL has witched away the
hearts and judgments of the people by a species of Sa-
tanic puissance, or whether he has accidentally hit
upon a means of transferring his influence from so
many hundreds of the popular representatives to so
many millions of the community, continues to be
without doubt an enigma to those who regard his
recent proceedings through the distorting medium of
bigotry and abhorrence. We can conjecture the
awe with which, for example, Colonel SIBTHORP
Will scan the visage and proportions of Sir ROBERT
on the re-assembling of Parliament—marvelling
whether the mesmeric influence of the ex-Premier
has flooded over the municipal authorities
of Darlington and Sunderland from the ex-
pansion of his buff waistcoat, or the calm self-
possession of his eyes. That the corporations and
citizens have been, in some manner, cajoled by a sort
of political necromancy, such men as Colonel Sin-
THORP must infallibly believe. Otherwise the
frenzy of the multitude must remain to them inexpli-
cable.

We cannot but ourselves think that another motive
beside that of approbation has incited the deputations
of the north to waylayr
The light Honourable
fo
Baronet the Member
mwsoortinh withh. scrolls
of complimentary parchment.
civic curiosity and municipal unanimity
beside
instigated the good folks at Seaham and InStockton-
on-Tees. There has been unquestionably at the
bottom of all this a solicitude to discover, through some
incidental sentence uttered in the fervour of gratifica-
tion, the future intentions of the late Prime Minister.
And with what exquisite tact has not Sir ROBERT
evaded the inquisitiveness of his encomiasts ! By a
few well-turned expressions of pleasure, whetting the
appetite of the listeners for those political revelations
which they anticipated, and from the making of which
he most sedulously refrained ! It was a game of cross-
purposes, carried on in a shower of the most sugary
oratorical comfits.

'Throughout these proceedings, however, there is
discernible a truth, which must affect in a beneficial
manner the mind of every embryo or youngling
statesman now living. That truth is that fame—even
contemporary fame—and goodwill are the inevitable
compensations of those Ministers who forget all per-
sonal considerations in the discharge of the duties
for which they are morally responsible, not merely to
the whole kingdom, but to all posterity. That
truth is eloquently proclaimed in the congratulatory
addresses presented to Sir Roaaa.r PEEL in various
parts of England ; and it must operate in a salutary
manner upon the plastic imaginations and ductile
intellects of the next generation of politicians and
statesmen.

Resistance to the payment of poor-rate in Ireland
is, we regret to say, becoming of daily occurrence.
Cattle, which had been seized for the amount, where
the parties were able, but unwilling to pay, have been
rescued ; and it is much to be feared that a general
organization will take place in many districts in order
to oppose the collection by every means practicable.
It is necessary that the most prompt and vigorous
measures should be adopted to meet this difficulty.
One single instance of successful resistance to the
law would have a most pernicious effect in that
country—the example would spread with the greatest
rapidity, and would entail the necessity of many
arduous contests. The difficulties of the case are
considerably enhanced by the fact that the movement-
is to a certain extent countenanced, certainly not vigo-
rously opposed, by the landlords. Many have erroneously
believed that a general combination would have the effect
ofinduciag the Government to waive altogether their

claims to the repayment of the advances made under
the Temporary Relief Act, and perhaps to render fur-
ther national assistance in aid of the rates. Such
expectations are utterly unfounded. .1N o Ministry
could venture, in the present state of the public feel-
ing in this country, to bring forward either proposi-
tion. We willingly consented that our industry
should be taxed, our resources lessened, and our
comforts abridged, in order that famine and destitu-
tion should be averted from our Irish brethren. We
unhesitatingly interposed ourselves between the ap-
proaching destruction and its victims. The required
outlay was advanced from the national Exchequer; an
addition to our public debt of no less than 8,000,0001.
sterling was thereby rendered necessary, and con-
siderable tightness in the money market, an increased
rate of interest for money, and reduced accommo-
dation to our merchants and traders, was the
natural result ; and yet we did not regret our interpo-
sition, or desire to withdraw ourselves from the posi-
tion we had assumed. These advances were at first
made on the faith of the whole amount being repaid
by the parties primarily responsible, by easy instal-
ments, spread over a period of ten years ; but when
the full extent of the distress became known, and the
enormous amount that would be required could be
calculated, it was felt that to a certain extent it
should be regarded as a national calamity, and that,
therefore, one moiety only should be claimed from the
parties liable, and that the residue should be a free gift
from the public purse. Two conditions were, however,
annexed to this great concession ; they were that the por-
tion that was to be demanded should be punctually
and honestly repaid, and a law should be enacted by
which the property of the country should from
thenceforward be made responsible for the support of
its poverty, and the full amount of the debt was kept
alive until these conditions should be complied with•
The Irish Poor-law of last session partially effected
the latter of these objects, but the first still remains
to be performed.
While we claim that the landowners of Ireland
should perform their part of the contract, we do not
desire that they should be unnessarily harassed in
so doing. At best there will be great difficulties to
be encountered in the first instance, although ulti-
mately it will be found that they will be the greatest
gainers by the change. Their own characters and
that of the people will be materially ameliorated by
the alteration ; there will no longer be the careless-
ness and disregard for the condition and welfare of
the wretched occupants of the soil, which formed the
great blot upon the escutcheon of the landed pro-
prietors. They will now know that in elevating the
people to a more fitting position—in enabling them
to eat the bread of honest industry, earned by their
daily toil, they will best promote their own interests,
and that as they must support the people under any
circumstances, it will be far better to do so by pro-
viding them with useful employment than suffering
them unproductively to consume the resources of the
country. We are anxious that the great experiment
should have every fair play, that it should be tested
under the most favourable auspices, that every impe-
diment should, as far as practicable, be removed.
If any doubt as to the intentions of the Government
is suffered to prevail it may have the most injurious
results. The people, aware of the statement made in
the Legislature by several influential members of the
Cabinet, that one moiety only should be levied, and
that by instalments, might be led to suppose that a
breach of faith was intended if a rate was struck
for the entire amount, and might have recourse to
illegal demonstrations, and to acts of violence
in order to intimidate the authorities, and to induce
them to refrain, and any subsequent indulgence
would inevitably be ascribed to that intimidation,
whatever might have been intended ab initio. It is
far better to make no claim that it is not intended
rigidly and effectually to enforce ; above all, it is
necessary that no colour or shadow of right should
be on the side of the opponents of the demand. No
rate should be struck that would not be strictly
recovered by every means known to the law,
even to the sale of the property of the defaulters in
the lands, if so extreme a course should be rendered
necessary. The amount of the instalment of the ad-
vances, calculated according to the rule laid down by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, should only be
demanded by the Commissioners, and it may be pru-
dent to consider whether even that should not be
postponed for a brief period, until the new law is fully
brought into operation. By such a course the most
mischievous results may be avoided. A carefully
considered reply by the Commissioners to the resolu-
tions of the poor-law guardians of the Fermoy Union,
which we recently noticed, and the proposition
therein contained, of paying the moiety of the ad-
vances by instalments, is looked for every day, and
we sincerely hope that it may be of such a character
as to satisfy the rate-payers of the district, and to
avoid a collision that must be productive of the mos
injurious consequences.

We refer our readers to an article which appears
in another column under the title of The French
Post and the Weekly Dispatch, for a small sample of
that system (for it has long since been reduced to a
system) of " enormous lying," by which the interests
of that which on the lucus a non lucendo principle
was, in 1830, facetiously termed " the best of re-
publics," are sought to be upheld in France. Some
time since the Constitutionnel brought a series of
charges against the French Post-office authorities,
accusing them of plundering money-letters, of open-
ing, examining, and detaining correspondence, and
of habitually detaining, or as we should say in plain
English, stealing certain English and Belgian news-
papers. M. DEJEAN, the official organ of the French
Post- office, leaving untouched the grave charges of
corruption, of plundering money-letters, &c., seizes
on the charge of stealing newspapers, as the only one
against which he was called upon to make any
defence ; and, in a letter to the proprietor of the
Constitutionnel, says—
" It is true, that for some years the Government has
ordered the Custom-house and Post-office authorities to
seize two little English newspapers, Punch and the
Weekly Dispatch. In doing so, the Government was
not afraid of injuring the important transactions of
merchants and bankers, as the Constitutionnel supposes,
by suppressing those two journals, which contain no-
thing but caricatures or humorous articles ; the
bankers and merchants of London would not suffer on
their side by the suppression of Figaro and Charivari."
In the first place the confession involved in this
admission, that the circulation of Punch and the
Weekly Dispatch in the French territories would be
dangerous to the French Government, betokens a
consciousness of something " rotten in the state of
Denmark"—a. consciousness so profound as to be
more damaging to the stability of the Government
making the confession, than could any series of
articles that could be published in any journal. This
prohibition is the more absurd, because it cannot pos-
sibly be carried into effect; for notwithstanding all the
vigilance of the French authorities, Punch raises more
laughs at the expense of Louis PHILIPPE in France
than he does in England; and the fearless and honest
advocacy of Liberal opinions, the sound argu-
ments by which that advocacy is supported,
and the energetic language in which. those
arguments are clothed in the Weekly Dispatch,
produce to the full as great an effect in France as
they do in England. We are the more surprised at
the wilful falsehood in which the French authorities
have chosen to indulge in speaking of the Dispatch,
as a journal which contains nothing but caricatures
or humourous articles, because it is so transparent
that it was impossible it could pass undiscovered.

" These lies are like the father that begot them,
Gross as a mountain, open palpable."
It is as well known in France as it is in England
that the Weekly Dispatch is, to use the words of the
National, a " most intelligent weekly newspaper,
circulating largely amongst the English people,
and printing, at the lowest figure, 55,000 copies ;"
that it exhibits " the most remarkable sagacity in its
criticisms on the manufacturing and commercial
operations of England, and that, as the Government
of Lolls PHILIPPE knows full well, it is intimately
acquainted with 'continental proceedings, and in
commenting on them exhibits the energy, the
eloquence, the thorough-bred English honesty of a
CHATHAM united to the cutting sarcasm of
VOLTAIRE." Was it less intimately acquainted
with continental matters—did it comment on them
in a less honest spirit, the Dispatch would be probably
free of the French Post-office, and though less fre-
quently read by the French Ministers, would be more
often quoted by the French Ministerial journals.
Or, perhaps, M. Dg.TE4Lic, aping his betters, considers

honesty a joke, consistency a joke, hatred to
corruption a joke, the advocacy of Liberal principles
a joke—in which case he may consider that the
honest, consistent, corruption•hating, liberal Dis-
patch is a journal of jokes ; but then the profit de-
rived from the enormous circulation—that his betters
would, we will answer for it, consider no joke at all,
but a serious and much-to-be-coveted reality. So
M. DEJBAN, you have, after all, committed a mis-
take, and have not imitated your masters quite so
closely as you desired.

At the sitting of the Swiss Diet on the 30th ult.
the President read the letter from the Government of
Lucerne, the substance of which has already been
given. It was referred to the Committee appointed
on July 30. The question on the order of the day
was the refusal of Lieutenant-Colonel ZIEGLER, of
Zurich, to attend as a federal Colonel at the Federal
Council of War, on the ground that its President, M.
OCSIIENBEIN, had in 1845 been struck off the federal
staff for having taken part in a rupture of the public
peace. In consequence of this declaration, the Fede-
ral Council had in conformity with its rules re-
placed him pro tempore by another, but as Colo-
nel ZIEGLER continued to absent himself, the De-
puty for Glaris proposed at one of the preced-
ing sittings that the Colonel. should be sum-
moned to perform his duty as a member of the
Federal Council of War, and in case of his
continued refusal, that he should be considered as
having resigned. This motion on being put gave rise
to three different opinions. One, that it was not a
subject•matter for the consideration of the Diet—
which was supported by eight cantons and a half—the
second, for the dismissal of Colonel ZIEGLER, in favour
of which three cantons only voted—and the third, that
Colonel ZIEGLER should be desired by the Diet to
attend the sittings of the Federal Council of War, and
in case of his refusal, that his place should be declared
vacant. This motion was supported by thirteen can-
tons and a half, and consequently was carried. After
this the Diet proceeded to the election of a Secretary
to the Federal Council of War, in the room of M.
LETTER, who had resigned in consequence of his ob-
jection to its having for its President the chief of the
Free Corps. Upon the ballot, M. VON Aux, of So-
leure, the Liberal candidate, had thirteen votes, and
was elected, against M. GERIVER, the Conservative
candidate, who had only six votes.

A letter from Rome of the 25th ult. has the follow-
ing:—" General BENTIvoGuo, an old soldier of the
empire, Colonels BINI and BOCCANBRA, and other
distinguished officers, with Major PROVINCIALI of the
Engineers, who also gained his experience under the
empire, left here yesterday to decide upon the ground
for the establishment of the camp. It is believed that
they will fix upon the Catolica as the strongest posi-
tion from which to repel an invasion. The Pope de-
sired to see these officers before their departure, and
they went to his HOLINESS, who took leave of them
with these sublime words—' Gentlemen ! The sword
is drawn, and must not be returned to the scabbard
without disputing foot by foot the ground which be-

longs to us, and recovering that which has been lost.
I feel assured that my brave soldiers will justify the
confidence placed in them by me and the State.' I

leave you to imagine the emotion which these noble
words have produced in Rome, through which they
have spread like a flash of lightning."
. —. .

A Piedmontese journal announces that the Papal
Government has established two military posts at
Forte Urbane and Malalbergo, to intercept commu-
nication between Ferrara, Bologna, and Ravenna.
The Austrians also have established an advanced post
six miles from Ferrara, and another at some distance
from Comacchio. The same journal states that the
number of muskets which Captain LOPEZ is commis-
sioned to purchase in France is 12,000.
The Lucca paper of the 2lth ult. contains a decree
establishing a corps of Royal Dragoons in lieu of the
corps of Carabineers, who had by their arbitrary
conduct highly offended the population. It also pub-
lishes the first order of the day of Lieutenant-Colonel
GUINIGI, who declares that the military are never to
use their arms except when violence is offered to
them, and when resistance is such as is only to be
overcome by the use of weapons.
The Grand Duke of TUSCANY has issued two de-
crees, both tinted August 94, by which the Supreme
Chamber of Judicature, called the Consulta, is in-
vested with new powers, and organized on a different
footing. It ii composed of ten ordinary and nine
extraordinary members, comprising the Presidents of
the Courts of Justice, the Governors of Pisa, Leg-
horn, and Siena, and other functionaries, besides the
Marquis CoslMo RIDOLPI, and the Marquis Guro
CAPPONI, two individuals of ultra-liberal opinions.
The principal attributions of the new Consulta Reale
di State consist in the discussion of new laws and
regulations, maxims of government of general ap-
plication, and financial affairs; but it can neither
propose measures or receive petitions. By another
decree, a department of Justice and Grace is created
having equal prerogatives with the other depart-'
ments of State, Finance, and War. It is invested
with the supreme judicial powers formerly belonging
to the Consulta, the superintendence of the Courts of
justice, and the decision of appeals from the resolu-
tions of the higher police department. The latter
offers a guarantee against the hitherto arbitrary and
uncontrolled power of the police, and both decrees
have a decided liberal tendency.
The Italia of the 28th ult. contains a decree of the
Grand Duke of TUSCANY of the 26th, in virtue o
which the new Consulta is directed to take under its
consideration at its first sittings the petitions presented
in favour of the establishment of a civic guard. This
decree, besides its principal object, has also the effect
of tacitly acknowledging the right of petition, a
right hitherto refused in the collective form. The
approval of the Civic Guard by the Consulta is con-
sidered certain. Thirty thousand Piedmontese troops
are said to be stationed along the frontier of Lom-
bardy, and part of the Austrian troops occupying the
left side of the Po have been suddenly recalled to
guard the frontier. At Pisa and Florence numerous
popular demonstrations had taken place in favour of
the establishment of a Civic Guard. The refugee
MINABDI has been given up to the Papal authorities.
A rumour was current on the 26th, at Pisa, that the
Austrians and Papal troops had begun hostilities, and
the former had been worsted. At this news crowds
paraded the streets amid loud cries of, " Long live
Pius IX., LEoroLD 11., the League of Italian
Princes, the Consulta, the Line, and the Civic
Guard!"

Letters from Lisbon of the 29th ult. announce the
arrival of COSTA CABRAL in the city on the 27th
from Cadiz.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S squadron had arrived in
the Tagus.

We have received the Paris papers of Friday and
Saturday.
____

The Presse makes the important announcement of
the failure of the attempt of NARVAEZ to form a
Ministry, and,
of course, attributes his failure to
English intrigue, instead of attributing it to its true
cause—the just indignation of a young and high-
spirited woman, whose confidence he had betrayed,
by re-opening negotiations with Don FaArictsco,
after the heartless insult offered by that miserable
creature to the unfortunate lady who had been in-
veigled into a marriage with him under false pre-
tences. The Presse says—
"We receive grave news from Madrid. After all
kinds of efforts and attempts, General Narvaea had,
on the 30th, renounced the task of forming a new
Ministry. He bad failed, in presence of the will
of the Queen, the opposition of M. Salamanca,
and, above all, the indefatigable intrigues of Mr.
Bulwer. The representative of England bad moved
heaven and earth, and brought into play all
his most powerful machinery. The Queen, aban-
doned to her own suggestions, and reflecting
calmly on her personal position, as well as that
of Spain, had very naturally received General
Narvaes, as the man marked out, by his influence, his
character, and his services, to re-establish order in public
affairs, to restore calm in men's minds, and to bring
back to the throne the consideration and influence which

it appeared on the point of losing altogether. It was
then that Mr. Bulwer, particularly menaced by these
viows, proceeded to the palace, where he did not fail to
soon re-assume that fatal influence which he has known
how to obtain, by means of which English diplomatic
agents have the secret. He terrified the Queen with the
projects of General Narvaez, whom he represented as
the head of a conspiracy got up in Paris against the
royal authority; he pledged himself to get the divorce
pronounced, and to obtain for the Queen the hand of
one of the sons of the Queen of Portugal, of whom she
should bo simply the betrothed until such time as he
should be of an age to be married. Meanwhile she