The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-30 00:00:00

[BRITISH PRESS.]

The Courier triumphs in the idea that the meet-
ing to aid the *Spanish people is indefinitely de.
ferred. This is a feeling worthy of this paper,
which exulted in the butchery of the Greeks by
the savage Turks—in the enslavement and op.
pression of Italy; and that for years has slander.
ed and vituperated freedom, wherever it raised its
bead throughout the world. But in this instance

the Courier reckons without its Isost. The meet-
ing of the friends of Spanish liberty is only de-
ferred to bring it forward with greater effect
and energy. There has been no intelligence
from Spain to damp the best hopes of the friends
of freedom ; on the contrary, every-post speaks
increasing effort and resistance against the in-
vaders. Whether Abisbal is a prisoner or still
free, his defection lessens nothing of the con-
stitutional strength oT ,Spain. Mina, Banes-
teros, Morillo, the Empecinado, and the Pastor,
are still in the field, and each day their forces
are increasing. All that is wanted in Spain are
arms and money. With these, her population,
devoted to the Constitution, would unite in thou-
sands. The cause is one every way worthy of
Me support of this great country. If liberty be
crushed in Western Europe, Britain will stand
alone amid confederated tyrants, and her quar-
rel will be the next. We hope to see the
intended meeting here most numerously and re-
spectably attended. It is a cause from the
support of which no friend to liberty and ra-
tional religion should be absent. If Angou-
leme succeeds in Spain, the gloomy despotism
bf the faithless Ferdinand, and the horrors of
the Inquisition, will be revived. Already the
dungeons are filled, and the reign of terror has
commenced wherever the French troops have
penetrated. The bloodhounds of the Faith have
been let loose to carnage ; and Saragossa, filled
with murder, is only one dreadful example of the
scenes about to be acted all through Spain. The
game bloody tragedy will follow wherever the
ecclesiastics and monks have returned, with
the ruffians of the Faith as their sanguinary
executioners. The deeds of these wretches,
and the objects of the faction who have
invaded Spain, are abhorred by the people
of this country ; they are opposed alike to
their political and religious feelings. The courier
is not the organ of the people of England, or of
any respectable portion of that people. Its vile
rind venal principles are utterly foreign to their
hearts. Their wishes accorripany the Spaniards
in their present glorious struggle against foreign
force, and in their chivalrous resistance to one of
the most atrocious attacks ever directed against
the rights and liberties of any nation. This
country rescued Spain, by unparalleled exertion,
from French thraldom before ; and though the
Ministry of England may not commit the
i re-
sources of the nation by a formal war, t is
in our power to afford the Spaniards 'the
most essential aid. Apathy under the pre-
sent state of things in Europe would be disgrace-
ful to this country. We hope therefore to see in
the coming week a meeting assembled worthy of
this great city, and of the sacred cause in support
of which it is about to be convened; and we trust
that meeting will not stand alone, but will be a
signal to the entire country to meet and unite,
for the same great purpose, and afford efficient
aid, by its generous contributions both in money
and arms, to the brave Spaniards,aad thus defeat
the objects of the_ confederated despots now
leagued against that country, and united to
trample down liberty throughout Europe.

[MORNING POEM]

The Petition to the House of Commons of the
individual now under prosecution for a libel as
the publisher of the " Vision of Judgment," a
poem forming part, as our Readers probably
may recollect,of the first number of the Liberal,"
in which that Gentleman complains of the manner
of striking the Special Jury by which he is to be
tried, is deserving °Nome notice. This Petition
was presented by Mr. Hume, and gave rise to some
conversation, during the progress of Which that
lion. Member expressed his intention to submit
a measure next Session to improve the method of
striking Special Juries. Whether the method to
be proposed. may be more free from objection
than that now in use, may be very rationally
doubted. At all events it is clear, from the si-
Jence of those who most' warmly attack the pre-
sent course, that the practical evils which result
from it are yet to be discovered. We are not,
however, disposed to contend, that even theoretic
imperfection, in a matter of this importance, ought
to he, disregarded. Purity in the administration
of justice ought unquestionably, to be rescued
as far as possible, from any dependence upon in-
dividual character. if there is any way left open
by which partiality may even approach the stunt-
'Wary of the laws, the most effectual bulwarks
should be erected to repel the unhallowed intru-
sion. Those who loudly declaim against a sys-
tem so favourable as they allege to the commis-
sion of injustice, and at the same moment confess
themselves unable to produce an instance in which
injustice has been actually committed, are pro.
liably not quite aware of the conclusion to which
their statements necessarily lead. A conclusion
honourable to the character of Government, in
exact proportion as their denunciations of this
source of possible abuse are well founded.—The
more easily the temple of Justice might have
been invaded, the greater merit in having kept
it so entirely free from profanation. We believe
that there has never existed in the world a Go.
vernment so incessantly assailed by libels the
most gross, malignant, and atrocious—never one
to, which the feelings of resentment and hos-
tility against certain classes of political writers
could have been more natural and excusable;
—yet with all these provocations, and with
the full means of secure and easy vengeance
(unless_ the complaints are altogether ideal),
we find by the unanimous acknowledgments
of their adversaries, that they have disdained
the device of placing in a situation of great
public importance a subservient officer, and have
committed the interests of justice to one whose
integrity and impartiality are allowed practically
to countervail the defects of the system he, su.-
perintends. The popular complaints of the
system of striking Special Juries, when thus
considered, shed a lustre upon the character of
Administration, in which it would shine more
glorious than In ,the fullest splendour of all its
other excellent and noble" qualities.,Some rays of
this glory, however, ought we think to fall upon
the character of the English people. The 41°4
inspection of an acute and enlightened nation
is more constantly and jealously directed to-
wards those departments of the national affairs,

where, from theoretic imperfection, abuses may
obtain their easiest access. Public opinion directs
its most anxious cares, and exerts its utmost
force, wherever the public interest seems to be
the least effectually guarded. We are not quite
certain that this watchful and active spirit, in a
nation like England, should be left without its
appropriate objects; and it is this, among other
reasons, which leads us to think, that in its eager-
ness for speculative improvement, it frequently
pursues a doubtful good.

[Tut TIMES.]
Sir Henry Parnell has given notices that he
will this day move as an Amendment, on the se-
cond rending of the Irish Insurrection Bill,
" For the appointment of a-secret Committee, to
" inquire into the extent and object of the dis-
" turbances existing in Ireland." Ministers are
not fond of secret or any other Committees,
except for purposes of their own. Had
their object at present been to exaggerate
an existing evil, with intent to apply some
novel mode of restraint and severity as w cure
for it, they would have produced their
Green Bag—that expedient which never fails
them; and would have named some score or so
of persons to inspect it, the, most renowned for
readiness at the discovery of crimes and punish-
ments. But the Government is not yet run so
hard. The mischief need not—alas ! it cannot
—be exaggerated, nor can the system of coercion
already employed be exceeded, inasmuch as un-
der it every inhabitant of Ireland is, at the dis..
cretion of the Lord Lieutenant, placed beyond
the protection of the law. What harshness,
indeed, can outstrip the imprisonment of a
family in their own house after nine o'clock
every evening—and this at a season of the year
when much useful work might be performed, after
that hour—unless it be the turning people out of
their houses, setting on fire the deserted dwellings,
and driving a whole population, as in the year 1798,
to take refuge in that rebel camp;where, if found,
they are shot,or turned over to the, hangman ? Now,
it is because the actual state of Ireland sets all ex-
aggeration at defiance., and because Ministers have
DO remedies to propose but such as are old and inef-
fectual that we are-anxious for the success of Sir 11.
ParneWs motion—for the institution of some new
method of inquiry—for an attestation and descrip-
tion of facts, by some authority less suspected
than that of men in office—and for the suggestion
of some remedy (if that should be practicable) not
composed exclusively 011 hemp and gunpowder.
See what has been done in Ireland ; and how
much remains to be effected. All Europe has
advanced in the tuts of civilization, and in the en-
joyments of life, Ireland alone excepted. A
fourth part of the globe—the whole continent
of America—has been, morally speaking, creat-
ed—has grown from infancy to manhood in the
last three wonder-working centuries, which yet
have worked no other miracle like that of re..
.raining Ireland what she was at their corn-,
in,nc,inent—one deo of misery, turbulence, and
confusion. It is inconceivable how much the
forms and the names of things have changed—
how much the exterior of variety has been re-
sorted to, for, by, and against, that singular
nation ; and in whatever concerns the substance
of their condition, how they stand unaltered !
Repeated conquests have produced no inter-
mixture of the people with their conquerors.—
The Reformation and the Revolution, whence
England dates all that she enjoys, were barren
gifts to a barbarous and ill-fated 'race ; from
the first they drew no light, from the last
no liberty. In 110 one phasis, and under no cir-
cumstance, has' the institution of a Parliament
answered, with regard to Ireland, the ends for
which it was established. Before 1782, it was a
slave to the English merchant ; from 1782
to 1800, a slave to the British Minister.—
Separate - from that of England, it gavo no
independence to its countrymen ; merged in
that of England, it has failed to, bring with
it their affections. The Catholics are more
dissatisfied than before they were partially made
free, because the lowest orders of Popish pea-
santry, at once savages and vassals, were let into
the constitution, while the nobles and gentlemen
were shut out. Yet, the excluded part is loyal,
while the favoured are insurgents against the
laws : these insurgents have but one aim—it is
to make war upon property of every Aenomina-
tion against the State, as such, they have no de-
sign. They are destitute of leaders to make
them formidable, except as banditti ; but in
their character of banditti, they are more for-
midable than. if they assumed the name, and
carried on the operations, of a rebel army.
By any measures which they have yet proposed,
Ministers, it is plain, have touched only the surface
of this dreadful malady. The Commutation-bill,
which report gays will be thrown nut, might have
some tendency to do gond hereafter. But M
rtGoul-
burn's I nsurrectionA ct will only lay thefoundation
of another such act, and of others hereafter, in end-
less progression ; it is mere force, which always
reproduces force ; and we want wisdom. If a
committee be the seat of wisdom, we trust the
Proposition Will not be at once rejected.

'THE SCILLY IsLANDs.—In consequence of re-
presentations lately made to Government, respecting the die-.
tressed condition of the poor of the Oil Islands, the Lords of
the Treasury have granted through the Commissariat 100 quar-
ters of corn, to supply the most necessitous with food ; and
have authorized the advance of 1001. far die purchase of cloth.
ing, &c.
Yesterday, according to annual custom (on
the .9th of May), all the in-pensioners at Chel-
sea College appeared in their new clothing,
and at one o'clock they were all mustered
in the great square; where they were review-
ed, and, fired. a feu de joie in honour of the
'(h y---all had boughs or oak in their hats.—
They were afterwards regaled with bread and
cheese in the Great Hall and each of them was
'supplied with half a gallon of strong ale. The
first toast from the officer who commapdeds was,
" The Memory of the Royal. Founderi" which
was drank in solemn silence. " The King and
Rival Family" were afterwards drank, und
prayer for the King was read by the Chaplain.
On Wednesday seven men fined in the Police
Court the sum, of ss. each for distributing hand.
hills on the street', that being declared a nuisanca
by the Police Act.--(Edinhurgh Even. Courant.)