The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THU DAY.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
W e understand that at the meeting of the French
Cabinet on Tuesday, three courses were proposed by
three different sections of the Ministry. One section,
inclined to the preservation of peace, proposed that the
Chambers should be convoked for an early day in No-
vember ; by whose sentiments on the present state of
affairs the Ministry should be guided, with the under-
standing that in the meantime nothing decisive should
take place. Another section of the Cabinet, at the
head of which was M. Thiers, agreed to the convoca•
tion of the. Chambers, but proposed to do something in
the meantime ; by which it is understood he meant the
occupation of Candia, or some other movement in the
East. The. third section, with which was the King,
disapproved of the course proposed by M. Thiers,
but suggested that France, in a communication to
each of the Four Powers, should state the course
it was her intention to pursue with reference to the
state of things in the East ; that if, for instance,
the Four Powers, in giving effect to the Treaty of
London, should take certain steps, as the depriving
Mehement Ali of the government of Egypt, France
would consider them a declaration of war against her,
and act accordingly. We will only for the present ad-
vert to this last course, which is the ultimatum, laying
down the casus belli to which we yesterday alluded.
We can make great allowance for the difficult n
which the Government is placed by the general ies.
i excite-
ment in France. This excitement is a very natural re-
sult of the p.lius taken in the journals to impress the
people with the idea that in concluding a treaty for
the settlement of the affairs of Turkey, to which
France was not a party, a slight was intended to
her, and that her honour is compromised by her
exclusion. Lord Palmerston has,
indeed, shown
in a most triumphant manner that France has herself
alone to blame for whist has taken place, and it will
be difficult for the statesmen of that country to meet
satisfactorily the statements and arguments of that
able paper.
But, though the Allies have much to
complain of in the inconsistency of the French Go-
vernment, while the conduct of the Mlle, towards
her has been that of forbearance andhacsobnbeceielviniacttioreone:
it is not the less true that an impression
duced on the people of France, which cannot
without apprehension either by foreign
_ States
.or.by
their own Government. To a wish to allay the irrita-
tion of the people by some step
.might exhibit
the Government taking a decided t,ichwithout at the
same time necessarily leading to hostilitiespar
with the Four
Powers, we are to ascribe, no doubt,.the course of the
section of the Cabinet to which the King adheres. But-
we need hardly observe to so acute a people es our
neighbours are, that this apparently moderate course iev,
one pregnant with danger. We would entreat tiai
statesmen of France to, endeavour to act upon a higher
and more just sense of the weight and consequence of
their country in the European commonwealth, than is
implied in the supposed necessity of doing something to-
vindicate her importance in the of
the world. The:
idea of France not beinre eyes
apowcrofthevery first rate,,
and that her movements can ever be a matter of indi f-
-1 ference to the other Powers, is ono which no man of o r-
dinary understanding, end in his sober senses, ivou )(I

entertain. But what is more, no statesman, Worthy of
the name, would wish that Franca should not be a
Power of the first magnitude. Certain we are that the
British statesman who could for a moment entertain a
wish to displace France from the rank she holds, and
ought to hold, in Europe, would be execrated by his
countrymen ; and any intention to wound the pride of
our neighbours, or to take any step with the intention
of leading, by necessity, to a diminution of their in-
fluence, never once entered the head of any English
Minister. Our neighbours are, indeA, in a fa:se po-
sition ;.but they have been' placed in it by their own
Government, and not by the Government wither of this
country or of any of the other Allies. ‘Ve ere asto-
nished that so very acute a people as our neigebours
should not at once perceive that the Mika could
act in no other way than that in which they have
acted, without stultifying themselves, by. prockim-

ing that their declarations and resolutions to pre-
serve the integrity of Turkey were a farce. Let

our neighbours disabuse themselves as soon as pos-
sible of the idea that they arc called on, in vin-
dication of their own dignity, to -take a step
which must defeat the very object they have in
view, and interpose obstacles in the way of a
good understanding with the four allied Powers. In
the first place, let us approach the question of right. It
may be good policy on the part of Turkey to accept. of
the submission of Mehemet Ali, and to allow him to

. ,
continue in the Government of Egypt, and it is probable
that the allied Powers would allow the Sultan to adopt
such a course. But when this is dem:-:.nded from the
Sultan as a right, then arises the question whether auy
State can have a right to dictate, under a menace of
war, to the Sovereign of another State, the officers whom
he should retain or displace.. Mehemet Ali, though a
powerful subject of the Paella, is still but a subject ;
and neither France nor any other Power has ever yet
impeached the title of the Sultan to the sovereignty of

Egypt any more than to the sovereignty of Thrace.
See, then, what a dangerous precedent to all Govern-
ments would be set by the very allowance of a claim
of any one natio❑ of Europe to make the condition of
war or peace with it dependent on the mode in which
a Sovereign shall exercise the attribute of continuing
or removing one of his officers. The French Govern-
ment might with as much right demand, under a me-
.

mice of war, that Lord Ebrington should be removed
from the-Viceroyalty of Ireland, or that Lord Syden

ham should be recalled from Canada. But the course

is not only fraught with danger as a violation of all in-
ternational law, but expressly calculated to add to the
difficulties of the Sultan and the Allies, and to lead to an

unnecessary effusion of blood and expenditure of money.
It is one thing to allow Mehemet Ali to believe that

by submitting in time to the Sultan ha may he allowed
to retain the Government of Egypt, and another to tell'
him that France insists, as the condition of her neutrality,
that he shall not be molested in Egypt. Mehemet Ali,
depending on his own resources alone, might be a very
different person from Mehemet Ali with whom France
proclaims that she will make common cause. say,
the moment a notification is made by France. und'r

a menace of war, that the Paella must not be dis-

turbed in Egypt, is there not even an imminent danger
that this crafty old roan—filled, no doubt, as he
is with vindictive feelings, on account of the crushing of

his ambitious hopes of rising on the ruins of Turkey,
and taking his station as one of the great potentates of
the world—will purposely dare the Allies to the adop-
tion of extreme measures against him, in oz der, if pos-.

sible, to precipitate them into a war with France? If
the French Cabinet be desirous of peace, they ought

carefully to abstain from a course which, in Eny case,
throws formidable obstacles in the way of the Allies, and

has a necessary tendency to force Mehemet All into a

course which must reader his continuance iu the Go-

vernment of Egypt impossible. We then2fr}re entreat
them to beware of advancing- on this most treacherous
ground. That Government may be placed in difficulty
with reference to its own subjects ; but to adopt
the course alluded to would precipitate the very
event for the averting of which it wr.s intended.
Where there is a will there is a way. Why should
the French Government adopt the perilous course of
menacing the Four Powers, when the object may be
accomplished by other means ? There can be no wish
on the part of the Allies to do more in the case of the
Pacha of Egypt than the occasion requires. The Go-
vernment of a great nation like France ought to he
above the adoption of any measure not• justified by in-
ternational law, and injurious to the Four Powers,

. ,
merely to produce a temporary effect on a people ex-
cited improperly and injudiciously by appeals to their
pride, founded on a distortion of the most simple facts.
The Allies have justice and right on their vide, and
. _

ought either to be combated fairly or not at all. Why
attempt, without rig/e:, to effect that by menace s‘hich
the French Government may have a reasonable assur-

ante of otherwise, while menace must produce rer:u!ts
the very opposite of its professed object? Great will

be the responsibility of those who, without a valid justi-
fication, draw down on Europe the calamity of a g

neral war. Every nation would feel in all their interests
the consequences of such a war, were it attended by no
other results. But who can say, when once the
sworn is drawn, where violence shall stop ? Or
who, however, strong, can consider himself secure ?
As to the threat of the propaganda—we are aware that
there arc sore places in Europe—but France herself
roust be baptised in blood, before she can hope to reach
her neighbours. And after all she may he mistaken.
France has not the best character in the world for
honest intentions with regard to her neighbours. Na-
tions are not fond of being considered merciy tools to
be used when it suits the policy of others. As for Ger-
many, from one extremity to another, the people are im-
bued with more than a distrust of the French. Withia
the bounds of Germany no Frenchman will ever enter
but by violence. VVhatevor the views of the Ger-

mans may be with regard to their own intf.rnal of
fairs, they have learned one inirottlat lesson from
their former faith in France, never to allow strangers
to help them in the settlement of their concerns.
Between France and Poland there intervene wide-
spread regions bristled with armed men. 'We wish
not to give offence to France, and therefore we
will content ourselves with entreating her states-
men not to undertake the resources el her neighbours,
We may here observe that we yesterday inadvertently
adopted the statement of our Malta correspondent,
that a Russian squadron was expected to come through
the Dardanelles, which might lead to a collision with
the French fleet. There is an express stipulation in
the Treaty of London with respect to the circumstances
under which the forces of any of the Allies should cuter
either the Dardanelles or the Bosphorus. ' The circum-
stances under which alone the Allies could agree to
execute in common the stipulation of the treaty, with
respect to the entrance of the Dardanelles or the Bos-
phorus, have been rendered all but iinposbiblo by the
events iu Syria. Russia has a powerful fleet in the
Baltic, and should her co-operation be required in the
East, she would proceed with it to the Mediterranean:
There is little reason, therefore, we believe, for appre-
hending a collision between the French and the Rus-
sians, through that suspension of the law of the Otto-
man Porte which closes the Dardanelles and the Bos-
phorus to the ships of all nations.
(From the Times.)

It would be useless and unworthy to disguise the
truth, that within these two days the aspect of public
affairs, with reference to the great question of peace or
war, has assumed a somewhat darker colour, and that
the difficulties to be encountered by the friends of peace
across the Channel appear to have been considerably
aggravated. We are very reluctant, without full proof
of a feet so alai ming, to ascribe any portion of such a
change to the definitive :adoption of a system of what
must be termed " war policy" on the part of the French
Government. That the sentiments of Louis I'eil:ppe
are far from favourable to measures of violence or pro-
vocation towards this country. or indeed to airy course
of action by which the repose of Europe and the
dearest and most enduring interests of France her-
self would be inextricably compromised, the well-
known justice and humanity of that sagacious Prince
afford the most satisfactory assurance. But the lan-
guage and character of a large proportion of the
French Press, and indeed some recent freaks exhibited
by what assumes to the the French, or at least
the Parisian, public, must convince the most incre-
dulous that the feelings of the King, and of the more
enlightened divisions of society, who can rightly ap-
preciate and sympathize with him, arc not responded to
by the whole community, nor to be reckoned upon as
tests of the unanimous, though we trust they may as
indications of the predominant, spirit of the national
mind in France. Unhappily, those among the Parisian
Journals which appear to be actuated by dispositions
the least conducive to the maintenance of continued
peace with Great Britain, the most intolerant of anything
like independence on the part of other countries
s
whatever happens to be the will or purpose,
„hton_wrweiciri
arbitrary, of those who call themselves the
people"—.as Mr. Daniel O'Connell calls F
"the people of Ireland"—such Journals, t
immediately
people"--as Mr. Daniel O'Connell calls himself
are
understood as those which are mpa
under the influence of the French Ministry, and ofs
We all know what
M. Thiers, who is its head.
the pay of the Mi.
nister—how absolute is the
meant by a French journal being
the political exist-
the master in
sale'—
howin
n complete the
property possessed by
Prostration of the journal-
istence of the slave ! b t
atrona
—what a denial of all
Treasury directs! What,
utterance but that.wet
o.hf a
French " Treasury" news-
is implied by suchrca
of an English one sl-
tihketrpact!
paper (or,
tanced)? It is that of an organ of
"lann:uwage of the Minist
er
publicity, pu speaking for aught
if, no language w I
he
does I rac-
net .approve
tmhielanr,lyis cti:recunti:scalingthe
sTe-;noouhat is the condition of the Constitutionncl?
It is notoriously a Thiers newspaper. And what is
its course of proceeding at this momezit? Why, it
has from the first been clan; touring furiously against
the allied Powers, and specificallyagainst England,
for having virtually made war upon France—for
having insulted her, provoked her—isolated France
from the rest of Europe—threatened to partition Tur-
key, under cloak of protteting her. It has v.ithin these
three days called the capture of 1333 rout by a British
and' Austrin armament in strict pursuance oe the