The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Globe.)
The President's Message is of course mainly occu-
pied with the detailed Apology of the monetary system
of his own end the preceding Administration. It may
be termed a well-reasoned document as regards the
political part of the question. But that is the
smallest part of the question ; just as the Federal
Government is likewise the smallest part of the
government existing in the
.United States. That a
national bank and a national debt are not required for
the use of the Federal Government may be very true,
and may be a subject of fitting congratulation by the
head of that Government, But it is also true that the
several States have provided themselves pretty de-
cendy with those appendages of old governments,
known by the name of Public Debts. The Pre.
sident talks of " the known necessity which so many
of the States will be under to impose taxes .for the
payment of the interest of their debts." It is more-
over certain, that, whether the Federal Government
wants a national bank or not, the commercial interest
wants Banking and Currency placed on a solid basis.
The President may be right in' " viewing the aggre-
gate powers of the General Government as a voluntary
concession of the States," and ise thinging, therefore,
that such only should be exercised as were, at
the time, intended to be given." But in that case,
it follows that the General Government must be a
stranger to the most material interests of the actual
community. It may be very right that it should be so ;
we do not mean to dispute the doctrine of President
Van Buren, as regards the loose federation of the
States. But it follows that the elaborate statement
of the doings and duties of the Federal Government,
which is annually put forward, includes, in reality, very
little in the shape of a comprehensive estimate of internal
interests and administration. President Van Buren
disclaims all share in internal improvements, all regu-
lation of the public currency, all promotion of public
works. The very roads which approach the capital may
boast their freedom from central authority, and citizens
may be jolted and upset in the most constitutional man-
ner—and in snore remote localities Judge Lynch may
perform his circuits—without the Federal Government
calling any new powers into action, to meet the new sets of
circumstances or exigencies, throughout the community.
'the Presidents who have stood upon most purely de-
mocratical principles, have assuwed the character ra-
ther of ibis faineants than anything else, and have
congratulated their countrymen on letting their rulers
meddle with their affairs so little. In the meantime
affairs wi!l arise which require some central superinten-
dence ; and the democratic Executive prides itself on
being entitled to afford—none.
(From the Courier.)
The annual message of the President of the United
States on the assemblage of Congress is, under aley
circumstances, a document of much importance, but on
the present occasion it derives additional interest from
the fact that it. may be regarded as the valedictory ad-
dress of Mr. Van Buren, the term of whose presidency
is now so nearly approaching, and the renewal of the
four years' lease of which has so recently been decided
against him. Accordingly, the message is more than
ord•nari►y general in its purport ; and whilst less space
aad less attention are bestowed upon the enumeration
and consideration of the current concerns of the republic,
with such occurrences of public import, external and in-
ternal, as may have supervened since the close of the last
session of the Legislature, more than common earnestness
is displayed in the assertion at unwonted length of the
leading principles upon which the administration of the
retiring functionary has been conducted, and the con-
tinued and permanent action of which are held to be as
indispensable to the progress and prosperity of the
Union, as they are maintained to be strictly in accord-
ance with the forms and spirit of the Constitution as
drawn up and understood by its founders. It may be
looked upon therefore not only as the review and vindi-
cation of Van Buren policy during his four years'
tenure of office, but as the manifesto of principles
to which one of the two great parties into which the
Federation is divided professes adhesion and adopts us its
rail) ing ensign. It is not our purpose to follow the
message in the discussion of the two great " contested
points in our public policy," which are signalised as
more peculiarly the line of separation between the fede-
ralist party now in the ascendant, and the democratic,
in whose hands the destinies of the United States have
reposed for an unbroken period of the last twelve years,
inasmuch as questions of a " national debt and a na-
tional bank" are more purely of domestic concernment,
and therefore attractive in other countries chiefly to
the curious in fiscal and economical speculations. But
there are principles of government, not now for the first
time avowed and acted upon, of which the statesmen
elsewhere may be usefully reminded, and the lesson of
which can no where be more serviceably repeated than
in Downing-street.

From the Standard.
In reply to the demand upon us for some authorita-
tive statement as to the pardon (the 'virtual pardon we
again say) and the promotion of Frost, we copy the
following from the Sydney Monitor of August 18 :
ENCOURAGEMENT TO CIIARTISSI.—The good people of
Newport will be gratified to learn that their old friend
Frost, the celebrated Lord John Russell's Chartist Magis-
trate, conducted himself, during the voyage to Hobart Town
in the Mandarin, to the satisfaction of the Surgeon-Super-
intendent. He was appointed, immediatey on his arrival at
Hobart Town, a Clerk under the Commissariat Officer of
Port Arthur ; and we bare no doubt that he will soon receive
some still bett situation under the liberal government of
Sir John Frayn. We would recommend Sir George
Gipps to forward by the Pilgrim a dispatch to the Colo..
nial-office upon the subject of an opening hero for the
unemployed, discontented, starving Chartists of Great
Britain. It would certainly be more humane to forward
them here as immigrants, through the aid of a parlia-
mentary grant, than to drive them to this country through
the instrumentality of state prosecutors. We wish it to
be understood that we are willing to receive them."
This, then, is our answer to the charges of
" fabrication," " folly," falsehood," and the rest,
poured out upon us by the Globe, and repeated with
all candour by the Conservative (!) Morning Post.
This is our replication to the positive and absolute denial
of all and each of our statements given by authority
in the Globe. It is thus we meet such slanderers and
enemies of truth, and we scorn to meet them in
any other way. The present is not the fiftieth
occasion in which we have had to thrust their false-
hood down the throats of the same parties ; nor will
it, as we well know, be the last. We wish no more
severe revenge than to compel them to wriggle
out of their dirty and embarrassing position in
just that manner in which the Globe of last
night and its servile echo. the Morning Post, of this
morning, have been compelled to extricate them-
selves. The gist of their exculpation is no longer,
that the Standard fabricated the story, or swallowed
it upon hearsay, but that the Sydney Monitor is a
journal sold for three-pence ! The truth is, that the
Globe was seven weeks in nrrear as to Australasian
news, as it is generally in arrear as to all intelli-
gence ; and professional jealousy combined with
party malice prompted its abuse of the more
vigilant and active Standard. The Morning Pest
of course followed its patron journal. We have allowed
our Liverpool Correspondent to give utterance to the
indignation which a gentleman must feel when his
honour and veracity have been so rudely impeached, as
his have been ; but we own that we grant the indul-
gence with reluctance ; we have for ourselves no seri-
ous quarrel with such adversaries as the Globe and
Morning Post. " Peace to all such."