The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-07 00:00:00

ON THE POLICY OF RUSSIA►.

Europe is evidently destined, at no distant
_period, .to witness the eclaircissement of thut
policy %villa Rthsia has been so deeply and so
constantly meditating, and if the developemeut
does not draw after it all the evils of a general
war, or at least unsettle the present balance of
power, 64 the signs of the times" are little to be
depended upon.
The obstinacy of the King of Spain secretly
kept alive by the influence of Russia, and the
hopeless condition of that country under its in•
radiated monarch, have filially determined France
to withdraw her troops. As soon as the French
army is withdrawn, the absence of their whole-
some restraint will unfetter the vindictive pas-
sions of those who seek for nothing less than the
total annihilation of political opponents : ‘‘ Quos
-Deus cult perdere Arius dementat. The system
a persecution and terrorism will know no bounds,
110 relaxation, and all the horrors of the French
Revolution will be re-enacted; but the excess of
vengeance will call into action the paralyzed ef-
forts of those against whom the powers of the
government are directed, and Spain will present
to the world an ensaliguined arena of contending
factions.

France, it is true, by her invasion of Spain,
committed a great moral and political wrong, but
the conduct of the French during the occupation,
apart from the original sin, has been exemplary
in the extreme, and deserves the commendation
of Europe. If the advice of France had been
-followed, Spain might have been gradually re-
conciled to the re-imposition of her odious go.
vernment, and by trillium concessions all ,parties
.would have been forced' into comparative tran-
quillity.
England, though not an active aggressor, con-
..curred in the sin of France against a political re-
Aformation, which for the moderation of its pro.
gress and the equity of its promoters, deserved
.the forbearance, if not the approbation, of man-
kind. England, however questionable her jus-
tice, her policy, and her right to such an inter-
- ference, threatened Spain with her hostility if
any attempt should be made against the personal
security of her Sovereign. The threat, undoubt-
edly, did much to preserve a life, which, for the
cause of justice and humanity, one might be al-
most permitted to regret the Spaniards did not
expose on the outworks of the Trocudera to the
hottest sire of their opponents. The result has
been that the invasion and this false economy of
a single life have uncaged the vultures who are
feeding upon the stamina Wire of their country.
Every thing that is good, great, and honourable,
is immolated to the fury of those political
harpies.

Charles the Xth was not, politically, a party to
'the aggression against Spain, and he can retire
from the odious interference with a nation's rights,
without compromising his consistency. The com-
wencernent of his reign is full of promise ; he is
consolidating his sovereignty by yielding to the
prevailing spirit of the age, and he will, if he con-
tinue's his present moderation, and the determin-
ation to put down 'petty and vexatious tyrannies,
gaM the affections of his people, and reconcile to
himself the political enemies of his family. The
tone of feeling, even of the Republican party, is
greatly changed, and in their admiration of the
vii toes of the King, they forget the vices of a
monarchy which they would destroy.
The anarchy which will undoubtedly succeed
the departure of the French from Spain will not
he uninteresting to Russia, who foresees that
France, at no distant period, however adverse to
the' measure and the politics of the new Sove-
reign, will be .obliged again to interfere in the
„ internal state of that devoted country, and with
an overwhelming force, to put down both the
enraged contending factions, who, by the pre-
settee of the French, have been enabled to esti-
mate their comparative strength. Spain will
however require more than ordinary measures of
coercion to arrest the progress of the evil, and
to render it effectual the occupation by France
must virtually amount to sovereign possession.
Thus will be consummated, by the very force
of those circumstances to which Great British' has
given an impetus, the orOginal object of France,
its the celebrated puck de familk, and again un-
der Napoleon, to impede which, the former made
the most strenuous efforts, and sacrificed the
most important national interests. Great Britain
will have then no other alternative, than that of
,forming in Portugal an army professedly of ob-
servation, but yet of sufficient force to baffle the
intrigues of a powerful party already opposed to
her interests, and to stop the further advance of
• ranee, whose thirst for military glory and ex-
. tensive conquest is not satiated, though momen-
tarily allayed.
With France and England thus occupied in
watching each other in positions which they dare
not abandon to the goad faith or forbearance of
the opposite party, Russia will pay no respect
to the opinions of the other Princes of Europe,
but proceed in the accomplishment of that ambi-
tion, which her successive Sovereigns have nou-
rished as essential to the aggrandizement of their
empire. Russia knows her game well ; these
two movements will secure it, and open the way
•to Constantinople. If France should menace
.her progress, the barrier of the Rhine, which the
folly of the conquerors denied to her wishes, will
be sufficient .to silence her scruples, and reconcile
her to Russian aggrandizement. The integrity
of a coalition between France and Russia would
be unimpeachable by the other powers of Furore;
A.ustria and Russia have too much occupation in
preserving their doubtful empires in Italy, Po-
: lam!, &c. to meddle with objects not immediately
interesting to their own existence ; and the re-
. maining powers .of the Continent are too insig-
nificant to avert the progress of Russia for a
moment.

Greece will eventually .become the maritime
ally, if 4iot the instrument, of Russia, from the
mistaken policy of England towards her during
-a struggle to'Aisengage herself from a yoke more
• oppressive and intolerable than any with which
,Spain has•afilicted her. former possessions, in Ame-
.rica. The. Government of Great Britain has
~,.thrown every impediment'in the way of that in.

Ancible people) not from attachment to the Otto-
man Porte, nor from a distaste to the Grecian
struggle per se, but because she would not dis-
member the only power which impedes the
farther advance of Russia into Europe. Present
circumstances, however, impeach the wisdom of
her policy, and demonstrate either the necessity
of a change in the system, or an entire submission
to the force of events.

Russia, with all her professions of peace and
moderation in her views towards Turkey, has
nothing farther from her intentions. Over the
Greeks she exercises a secret but powerful in-
fluence, which time will make manifest. The
policy of Great Britain should have been in
favour of the Greeks, if not openly, at least se-
cretly, by which means she would have attached
them to her latent views of offering a maritime
barrier to the ambition of Russia.

The Archipelago of Greece and its inhabi-
tants, from their geographical position and natu-
ral wants, must become eventually powerful in
their marine, and they have shewn, in their con-
tests with the Turks, how efficacious their al.
Hance might be rendered to thejirst maritime na-
tion of Europe in preserving, a. preponderating in.
fluence in the Mediterranean, the only channel
by which Great Britain van arrest the latent views
ascribed to Russia of divesting her of her Indian
Empire.
Such are the features of that policy which
Russia is pursuing to its accomplishment, and in
which by perseverance she must inevitably suc-
ceed. It is vain to calculate, that the discordant
materials of which the Russian empire is formed
will cause it to crumble to pieces by its own
weight. The power of Russia is a brute force
capable of any direction, until they emerge from
their semi-barbarian state. Before that period
shall arrive, Europe will witness an irruption of
those modern Goths, not less powerfully in-
fluencing her mind and manners than that which
subverted the Lower Empire.

OLD BAILEY.