The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-19 00:00:00

Tilt SUN, LO

the most eager, impetuouS, and unreflecting spirits in
the community—men prone to violence, and impatient
of the 'restraint's 'of reason. The most improbable and
a'bsurd reports find ready welcome with a multitude
thus composed, and are often converted into formidable
weapons against the law and order of iwirtit tY. Another
ground of just an;oila.,biersion in the Message'', unac-
cotrpatie'd by any symptom of uneasiness on a subject
which must certainly be considered one of grave impor-
tance, is the systematic industry with which the Na-
tional, and other organs of the democratic agitators, en-
deavour tb sow disaffection among the regular troops,
and to persuade them that the Royal Goverment mal-
treats, neglects) or views them with habitual jealousy.
11 e should nbt have noticed articles of this kind, had
they appeared in any but a journal employed by the
Government, and unlikely to bring before the public
any question which the authorities deemed it expe-
dient to pasit over sub silentio. Everybody knows
that whispers have been current, which implied the
progress of a seditious spirit among the French soldiery,
and that the inaugural address of Marshal Soult to the
army had indicated more or less of apprehension upon
that score. This recurrence, however, to the state of
the troops by a journal which would have hesitated at
any such step without authority, tends to show that the
subject is not a sore one, and that the Government is
not alarmed at any investigation of the truth. If an
overpowering majority, therefore, of the national repre-
sentatives, and an army presumed to be faithful, amount-
ing to very nearly half a million of men, are not to be
looked upon as satisfactory elements of strength and
safety for the King's Government, it would imply such a
total separation and estrangement between the bulk of
the French people and the institutions, whether civil or
military, of the land, as to us, at least, is extremely diffi-
cult to imagine. Meanwhile, the public expectation
upon matters of most pressing interest abroad and at
home would appear to be for the moment suspended.
The intelligence from Syria brings military transactions
down to the eve of a battle between Ibrahim Paella and
the Allies, and in Europe no diplomatic result or pro-
ceeding has transpired for many days.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The Caledonian Me' eury wisely affirmeth that the
Attorney-General, Sir John Campbell, is not going to
Ireland. The reason is what we stated the other day,
that there is no place in Ireland for him to go to.
Lord Plunket is resolved to stay where he is as long
as he can, and to make Sir John Campbell stay where
Ire is longer than he likes. It is quite clear that the
" Caledonian Mercury" is not the " Caledonian Argus,"
or it would have seen all points of the question at once,
and have known that,' inasmuch as it is an axiom of
physics that " two bodies cannot be in the same place
at the same time," so it is no less an axiom of law
that two persons cannot make one Lord Chan-
cellor, and that the Irishman in possession must go
out before the Scotchman in reversion can come
in. Lord Plunket will take no hint about re-
signing, not even from the gout, and therefore Sir
John Campbell must, in Caledonian phrase, " bide his
time." And when he does go to Ireland he will not
find everything " tranquillity" there, even under the
successor and admirer of Lord Normanby. At the
very rumour of the " Campbells are coming" the O'Con-
nellites bristled up their quills like angry porcupines
against their old friends, and demanded an immediate
repeal of that " remnant of blind bigotry and degrad-
ing intolerance," the clause in the Romanist Rebel Bill
which still preserves a relic of our Protestant Constitu-
tion in the office of a Lord: Chancellor, which " re-
peal" would enable the man of the death's head, cross-
bones, and begging-box, to sacrifice himself for his
country on the altar of the Irish High Court
of Chancery, and so relieve his Caledonian
friend from the necessity of going to Ireland at all.
We recommend to Mr. Frederick Shaw, and the
Conservative demolishers of the Irish Protestant
Corporations, to think seriously of the expediency of
proposing such a repeal next Session. It may draw
the great agitator's attention off the other repeal for a
time, and please Mr. Shaw's O'Connellite ally, Lord
Morpeth, exceedingly. To see Daniel Lord Darry-
nanc, kneeling to Dr. M'Hale, or confessing to Father
Maguire, and keeping the " Queen's conscience" at the
same time, will truly make it "a great day for old Ire-
land." Even the Dublin Evening Post, and the Lon-
don Globe, must be convinced that the " blind bigotry"
of Protestantism has got its quietus when t hey behold
a Popish Lord Chancellor dispensing Church patronage.
That O'Connell would consider the chief place in equity
a capital substitute for "justice to Ireland," nobody can
have any doubt ; but whether Sir John Campbell would
ike the arrangement as well, is a question which we
eave the Caledonian Mercury to determine.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Standard.)
The official despatches from Syria, which occupy to-
day so large a portion of our columns, are calculated to
make us proud of our country, and to prove to demon-
stration that a quarter of a century of peace has de-
tracted nothing from the gallantry and science of British
sailors and soldiers. Rarely or ever have operations of
so important a character as those which we have been
called upon to record during the last few weeks been
carried into effect with greater bravery and skill, or with
slighter sacrifices on the part of the conquerors. The sti-
mulus of British example, too, does not appear to have
been lost upon the Turkish troops, which have be-
haved nobly throughout this campaign. The con-
duct of the Egyptians has completely verified the
prediction hazarded in the admirable letter on the
Eastern question, from the pen of Colonel Mitchel,
which we published some weeks ago. They can
evidently make no stand against well-disciplined
Turkish troops, much less against British marines.
In each successive contest they appear to have
melted away from their leaders, after the first
few shots. The prudent, energetic, and gallant conduct
of Admiral Sir Robert Stopford throughout the whole
of the recent operations, ought to satisfy Lord Minto of
the folly of his belief that the heroes of the last war are
too old for efficient service in great emergencies. We
cannot understand in what manner the resources placed
at an officer's command could possibly have been more
energetically or advantageously employed, than have
those under the direction •f this gallant veteran and
his Commodore, the brave old Napier, who combining
the prudence and sagacity of age with the hot valour of
youth, has been almost übiquitous whenever danger was
to be found. The simple but graphic dispatch of the
latter officer from Djourni Bay—the anecdote which he
relates in his postcript of the contest, " a complete
race," between Mr. James Hunt, midshipman of the
Stromboli steamer, and Signor Chinca, midshipman of
the Austrian frigate Guerricre, who should first plant
the British colours in the heart of the town at which
they landed, is, indeed, a stirring incident. Long may
our warfare with our neighbours be limited to the noble
strife of emulation.
(From the Courier.)
The Ministry, Soult-Guizot, openly claiming on its
advent to office, to be the " Ministry of reconciliation,"
and as such hoisting the flag of peace, has been left to
struggle with fierce and adverse factions at home, and
dangerous compromises from the policy of its predeces-
sors abroad, without one step in advance to meet its
half-way invitation for the resumption of friendly rela-
tions, and the adjustment of subsisting differences. The
fact does not assuredly augur too favourably of the
peace-loving disposition for which, by his notes or his
journals, Lord Pahnerston so ostentatiously claims cre-
dit. Timely proposals in the true spirit of conciliation
must have proved .a moral support of which the value
may not be overrated in the very first days of the
new French Administration, hastily seated and scarcely
reins in hand as it was, with the popular and almost
ungovernable war frezy at its i,c ghL. The voice of
the party in the British Cabinet, lately so loud for
peace a tout prix, far from rebuking the lethargic or
wilful neglect of action in that sense of the Foreign
office, appears of late to have been somewhat suspi-
ciously mute. The sop of the Duchy of Lancaster
Chancellorship has not been without its soothing influ-
ence on the late irritable developments of Lord Claren-
don. The sudden !Teal of the French fleet from Salamis
was hailed by most of our Contemporaries, both here
and in Paris, as a measure naturally emanating from
the pacific programme of M. Guizot's policy. But the
extraordinary fact is now for the first time announced of
its being one of the grandcs pewees of the Thiers Cabi-
net, preparatory to the concentration of an adequate force
for a coup de guerre—" an energetic blow," as our Cor-
respondent terms it, in sonic quarter or other. The re-
markable and not too-early activity of the Admiralty,
which we have noticed of late, and the indefatigable
perseverance of " My Lords," still, has not, therefore,
been without its urgent and irresistible motive. The
discovery of the meditated treachery of M. Thiers may
have been tardily made, but when made, we must do
both Lord Palmerston and the Admiralty the justice to
say, that the imminence of the occasion has been met
with becoming energy. They have done their best to
retrieve former errors and omissions of duty, which were
almost unpardonable as the consequences might have
been irretrievable. A dismantled or destructively re-
duced navy, with ungarnished shores and outposts, could
hardly escape observation, or fail to invite unexpected
aggression.

(From the Globe.)
Some of our Paris Contemporaries affect to find, in
the principles laid down in Lord Palmerston's note of
the 2d instant, a threat against. the French possession
of Algiers, and " our establishments in Africa." This
is a very idle alarm, as those who propagate it very well
know. When a great nation is bent upon keeping any
such acquisition, it keeps it, and is not to be dislodged
by " principles." But it is rather too much to require that
the principles of our whole Eastern policy should be
adapted to the principle of the French acquisition of Al-
giers. That acquisition rests upon its own ground. It
is not of a nature which can furnish any precedent for
other transactions. France took Algiers, because she
is
chose to take it ; Europe therefore to be deterred
from maintaining Turkeyagainst aggression, because Me-
hemet Ali acts on the same principles on which France
took Algiers ? The .Y.(!tiona/ boldly says yes—and we
delight in having consistent antagonists, who do not
scruple to follow out their views to their logical conse-
quences. The iNrationatof Sunday says—"'There was only
one policy to follow : and that was, to declare that we