The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS •F THIS DAY.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)

Some of the statements of our Contemporaries re-
specting the comparative state of the British and
French navies are so injurious in their effects, and so
incorrect, that we feel it our duty to call our readers'
attention to the subject, and to express our hope and
conviction that the public will discountenance the sys-
tematic attempts to lower the British nation in the eyes
of Europe, by persons whose sole object in doing so ap-
pears to be to create a prejudice against political oppo-
nents. In the United Service Gazette of the 17th of
this month we find, after the usual allowance of abuse of
the authorities at the Admiralty, the following remarks :
" We cannot better accomplish this object than by
placing before our readers a comparative view of the
effective and non-effective naval strength of France and
England at the present moment. The following list
of the ships of the line of the British navy afloat in or-
dinary, in dock, and building, has been compiled with
the greatest care from personal inquires at the respec-
tive ports and official sources, and is, we believe, per-
fectly correct."
Here follows a list headed" Nam esjoree, and tonnage
of the ships of the line afloat, in ordinary, in dock, and
building at this date ;" from which our Contemporary
proceeds to deduce certain " general results," which our
readers will :Agree with us it is not worth our while to
quote, when we inform them that from this table of the
" Names, force, &c. of the British Navy," all ships of
the line at present in commission, amounting to thirty in
number, most of them now in the Mediterranean, or ac-
tively employed elseWhcre, have been entirely omitted.
We shall, therefore, be pardoned for not taking the
trouble of scrutinizing the conclusions which our Con-
temporary has drawn from the false data with which he
has flu niched himself. We now come to the table of the
French navy, and here we find that every ship the
French possess, whether out of commission or in commis-
sion, is carefully reckoned up ; and last Saturday our
Contemporary, remarking upon some: statements of an-
other newspaper (a:French one, by the bye) invites " John
Bull" to " tremble," because there arc twenty French
sail in the Mediterranean. We were ourselves sur-
prised at the sudden increase from fifteen to twenty,
which, according to this, had been made in the num-
bers of the French fleet, but we think we can explain
the circumstance in the following manner. There are
in reality fifteen French sail of the line in the Mediter-
ranean. Of these, five were lately ordered to the west-
ward, and they have accordingly returned to Toulon.
Tnese ships are counted as a fresh squadron, and as a
reinforcement to the fleet which they have just left; and
the authorities upon which our Contemporary relies,
having added five to fifteen, instead of deducting five
from fifteen, a very gratifying " general result" is ob-
tained in favour of the French, and against the English
navy. We have not space to notice at present the in-
numerable instances of misrepresentations of the same
sort which are to be found in the columns of the Times.

Never, we believe, was public feeling more generally
and unequivocally expressed, than in the case of the
Earl of Cardigan. On taking his scat on Wednesday
in the theatre at Brighton, he was assailed by a storm
of hisses which lasted for half an hour, and on his
quitting his box, three cheers were called for for Cap-
tain Reynolds, and responded to most lustily. Printed
subscription lists have been sent to us, of which the
one from Maidstone, iu our columns of this day, is a
sample ; and we are assured that the names of numerous
subscribers are appended to them. It is only neces-
sary to give the word, and subscriptions will be raised
in every town of the kingdom. Some decided step
must be taken soon for the guidance of the public.
Since writing the above, we perceive, from an adver-
tisement in this day's Chronicle, that in order to afford
a full opportunity to the public, who have expressed
their feelings so strongly on this subject, a meeting is to
be held at the British Coffeehouse, Cockspur-street, on
Tuesday next (Nov. 3), at one o'clock.
(From the Times.)
We are desirous that the observations which we
have thought it our duty to make upon the case of
Captain Richard Anthony Reynolds and the Earl of
Cardigan should not be misunderstood. Among the
numerous letters which we have received upon the sub-
ject, many of which it is impossible for us to publish,
some reflect severely upon the conduct of the Comman-
der-in-Chief, and others recommend a course to be pur-
sued for the exhibition of public sympathy towards
Captain Reynolds which appears to us unsuitable to the
circumstances and inexpedient in itself. Equal-handed
justice to the more powerful, and such lenity as
may be consistent with the interests of the
service to the weaker, offender, we have contended
for, and we contend for still. But we never enter-i
tained a thought, or suffered a word to escape us,
which could operate prejudicially to the discipline of
the British army ; and we shall lend ourselves to no
project, however well intended, which we think likely
to encourage a disaffected or insubordinate spirit. It
has been because we were satisfied that nothing could
tend so inevitably to the destruction of discipline as the
protection of a superior officer from the consequences of
misconduct, while a subaltern was severely punished—
especially in the relative circumstances of Lord Cardi-
gan and Captain Reynolds—because we were convinced
that insubordination would be the necessary result of
suffering such a Lieutenant-Colonel as Lord Cardigan
to continue, unreproved, at the head of the llth Hussars
—it has been emphatically for these reasons that we
considered ourselves bound to offer the comments
which we did upon the result of the late Court-
martial. Lord Hill has done justice to our expectation,
and vindicated himself from the charge of partiality,
by sternly and publicly reprimanding Lord C irdigan
at the head of his regiment., and has, in language not
to be mistaken, advised him to restore unanimity. to
that regiment by voluntary retirement from the service.
" The officers," said his Lordship, " are gentlemen.
Can it he believed that they can perform their duties
frankly, fairly, and cordially, as such duties ought to
be performed, under the direction of a commanding
officer with whom so many of them are is a
state of hostility ?" There is no misinterpreting
this. Lord Cardigan knows perfectly well whether
those officers whose feelings he has outraged
would
be likely to continue in a state of hostility with him
should he continue their commanding officer or not.
We fear there can be as little doubt upon this point
as upon the course which Lord Hill indicates !or
his adoption, in case he should feel that this question
must be answered in the affirmative. Let us hear no
more, therefore, of injustice or favouritism at the Horse
Guards as connected with this affair. To bring the
Licutonatit-Col Ate] f Pace, Albert's 1-I:4:..sars to tt
outlet-marital, and t,t exposo to the public eYe, 1111113'
c; t;oavters of tiro hrnentable 'a-
-1 recently filled our own columns and those of our Con.

tenaporarieg; is•surely no desirable matter ; and if the
necessary r*sillt can be obtained without it, we are not
animated by vindictive a spirit against Lord Cardi-
gan as to refuse him the opportunity of relieving the
regiment from his presence by a quasi voluntary act.
On the other hand, the course pursued with the
noble Lieutenant-Colonel appears to us to warrant
the expectation, that clemency will at the proper
season be extended to Captain R. A. Reynolds, if not
prevented by the unwise acts of those who esteem
themselves his friends. It is a mistake to look upon
the case of this gentleman as if the provocation under
which he acted was fully disclosed to the Court•martial.
The disparaging conversation at the party in Lord Car-
digan's house was evidently no more than the final cir-
cumsta:•ice in a course of injurious or offensive conduct,
the spark which set fire to a train already laid. This
must always be remembered, and ought to form an es-
sential element in our equitable judgement of the case,
though, from reasons which we do not thoroughly ap-
preciate, the Court refused to receive the evidence ten-
dered upon this point. On the other hand, when the
same Court consented to receive evidence of previous
conduct and character, it must be considered to
have made an acknowledgment that the case
was one in which such evidence, if satisfac-
tory, would operate in mitigation of punishment.
More satisfactory testimony than that actually borne
to the general conduct and character of Captain
Reynolds, it would be impossible to conceive ; and we
therefore take it for granted, that, when the present ex-
citement has passed over, and the necessary impression
has been made, that evidence will have its weight. We
cannot, however, conceal our fears, that the plan of
public meetings, and of a public subscription in favour
of Captain Reynolds, which many generous sod warm-
hearted men are strongly recommending, will (if adopted)
prove more prejudicial to his true interest than anything
else which could be devised. The Crown in not to be
forced or intimidated into the exercise of its prerogative
of mercy, and it would be a serious blow indeed TO
military discipline if officers were taught to look for
an indemnity from the consequences of insubor-
dination from the sympathy of the public at large.
Besides this, though we consider Captain R. A.
Reynolds to be a brave and honourable man, with
very considerable claims upon the clemency of the
Crown, we cannot see either the wisdom or the pro-
priety of applauding and rewarding his conduct on this
occasion, as if it had been that of a hero or a martyr. ;
He was to blame, seriously to blame, beyond all ques-
tion. The letter addressed by him to his commanding
officer was one which the circumstances under which it ,
was written would not have justified if both parties had
been civilians. We cannot shut our eyes to this fact,
because we think the conduct of Lord Cardigan was,
in his superior position, still more culpable. What
then ? Ara we really to approve and to encourage inso-
lent recrimination and contemptuous disobedience to or-
ders in a subaltern for the sake of proving our hatred
of intemperate arrogance in a commanding officer ?
Others may if they please, we never will ; we will main-
tain an even and impartial course, demanding justice,
but not trampling upon discipline. Captain R. A. Rey-
nolds may depend upon it, that those are his truest, or
at all events his wisest, friends who protest against any-
thing having the semblance of popular agitation in his
favour.

(From the iWorning Herald.)

It is idle to speculate at present on French Minis-
terial combinations and their results. Whether a Soult-
Guizot or a Guizot-Soult Ministry be formed or not,
the fate of France and the decision of the question of
peace or war cannot be ascertained before the assem-
bling of the Chambers. The comparative calm in which
French affairs appear to be at present lulled, is no proof
that warlike intentions are suppressed, or that angry
passions have subsided. It may be but the sullen calm
prelusive of a fiercer tempest. For our own part, we
have, ever since the bursting forth of those
national ebullition of jealousy and rage which
the infatuated rashness of our Whig policy,
touching the Eastern question, have provoked in
France, looked more to the temper and spirit of the
people of that country, to ascertain the probability of
war or peace, than to any Ministerial combination or
Court intrigue. We greatly respect M Guizot as a
man and a politician, but we cannot go so far as some
of our Contemporaries, who seem to look upon him as
a statesman of that commanding intellect that is capable
of controlling circumstances which all but the mightiest
genius must fail to master ; in fact, that he is a giant in
political resources,

" With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies."
But M. Guizot -is a politician of much-more -moderate
abilities. He is a Doctrinaire ; and no Doctrinaire,
however dictatorial and pompous in the closet, has ever
achieved a high reputation for success'ul genius, dis-
played in grappling with the difficulties of States. We
have politicians of the Doctrinaire class in this country,
and if the salvation of the State depended upon them,
we should despair of the commonwealth. They are
men whose minds arc squared to certain t'.-ieories,
often more pedantic firm practicable, and fitter to
furnish matter of speculation to ingenious sophists, than
to engage the attention of real statesmen. If England
should sleep, and dream of peace, until awakened by the
thunders of war, how will she ho prepared for the con-
flict ? Will Melbourne, emerging, like the Sybarite
Italian Emperor, fiddle in hand, from the luxurious in-
dulgences of the palace, be able, by his skill in his
minstrelsy, to dissipate the terrors of burning Rome ?
Will Palmerston save us by the ponderous artillery of
his protocols ; or Macaulay, by the sparkling squibs and
crackers of his rhetoric glittering through the political
gloom ? Can Baring, by any cabalistic process of
figures, supply us with the " sinews of war ?" Can
Lord John Russell, with the sage Sydenham, prevent
Lord Durham's seed of sedition in the Canadas from
" fructifying" into actual rebellion ? Or can Lord Nor-
manby, forgetting his habits as an Irish " gaol deli-
verer," basilic " repeal' and " Chartism," until the
danger be overpast ? Or will Mr. Sheil, in the " fine
frenzy" of theatrical heroism—
" Ride on the whirlwind, and direct the storm ?"

THE JEOPARDY OF SOUTH
AUSTRALIA.

(From the Spectator.)

During the considerable time that has elapsed since

we last paid attention to South Australia in the Spec
tator, the colony has been placed in a dangerous posi-
tion, through the mismanagement of its civil govern-

meat. The present Governor, Colonel Gawler, was
sent out with instructions limiting his yearly expendi-
ture to 12,0001. ; with an extraordinary credit, in case
of unforseen emergencies, of 5,000/. Colonel Gawler
has neglected those instructions : he has launched into
a variety of local " improvements," and indulged in a
general profusion of the most extravagant kind : to such
an extent, that, in place of 12 0001., he has been spend-
ing, latterly, at the rate of 200,0001. in one year. By
the last accounts, he was building a government-house
vying in magnificence with the government-residences of
the oldest colonies. A stream of bills has consequently
been poured in upon the Colonization Commissioners in
London, which they had not the means of meeting. At
first those bills were paid, at the expense of the fund
accruing from the sales of land, which ought to be de-
voted to purposes of emigration ; and the Commission-
ers were even betrayed into infringing, or at least stretch-i

ing, the terms of the Act of Parilanient. By the sup-
plementary South Australian Act, it is permitted to
borrow from the land fund, for the use of the civil
service ; but the sum so borrowed must not exceed one-
third of the year's receipts on account of the sale
of land. The Commissioners, however, have
placed the civil service in debt to the emi-
gration fund, by no less an amount than 90,0001. ;
a sum, it is conceived, greatly exceeding the proportion
allowed by law. A decessary consequence of thus mis-
appropriating the land-fund, was a total stoppage in that
supply of labour, hitherto uninterrupted, upon which
the colony depends :no emigrant-ship was sent out in
September ; none this mouth ; and there is no announce-
ment of any for next month. And even that illegit -
miae resource proved unequal to the demand upon it.
In the mean time, the Commissioners endeavoured to
negotiate a loan in the City ; but their invitation to the '
moneyed world was not answered by a single tender.
were obliged to refuse payment of the
uAntbrieonkgetnh they
string of bills. The civil service being thus
declared insolvent, and the emigration-fund having been
involved in the same insolvency, the Commissioners
adopted the only course which was left open to them,
and threw the whole matter upon the Home-Govern-
ment ; under whose consideration it still remains. The
South Australian public in London have been greatly
alarmed : they have held several meetings upon the
subject, and have made strong representations to the
Home Government as to the necessity and justice of
relieving the colony, and the large interests involved,
from the embarrassment brought upon it b
conduct of an officer of the Government, beyond their-
tmheigir.
recapitulation was
paper,nece whichssaryto the full under-
standing of the following
control. Th.
appearedto inw hl
iacsht
one of a series.]
Having Wednesdays
p pointed
nt e Colonial
d out Gazette,the
dangersremoter
South Australia is exposed by the apparent madness of
Governor Gawler, we proceed to notice others of more
pressing urgency, which indeed threaten the very exis-
tence
It o
isf the
supposedcolony.
that Governor Gawler's bills will
amount, before his reckless expenditure can be stopped,
to at least 200,000/
t., ; and as the Commissioners are
the y, tV$ r3emand on their exchequer,
of teh',l- will probably be returnoq (Ls-
Lie inanediate consequaices are sufficiently
obvious.

In the first place, from the moment when a d ili"
honoured Government bill shall appear in the colon r•
it will be impossible to raise another shilling for pubh a
expenditure of any kind or degree: Governor Gawleh, '
may draw away, but nobody whetake his psipee,, 'lt ' 1.
follows that the payment of eve *erica will be stop-04,
tollloll‘, with the surveys, an sot?l,lacr public Weak* :0r
necessifi.l All government, t ra, /taw ~,,aii,„-,11,..;,
_ --.
end. ... come to an n Not only the gyir . youiptt7lie perlow,A
and officers or justice will be ulpiraft pp -e q...4,,,ey:‘
nor himself will be dependent on charily irk( 7vgrx
meatis of subsistence. Nor is the stoppage oT thee
functions of government the only evil that must re-
sult from din-payment of salaries : Governor Gawler's
extravagance has crested, as it were, a large body of
public servants, who will be thrown out of employment
without notice, and therefore out of bread.
Secondly—We have said out of bread as well as em-
ployment, because it i 3 impossible that those wh.o will
have lived -on Government pay should procure em-
ployment in an infant community of 15 000 souls bud-
deftly oppressed by a debt of of 200.0001. For let it
be observed that the Governor's bills will have been
passed to the settlers, who again will have parsed them
into the n,ighb:)uring colonies in payment for live stock:
and food ; and that when they arc returned dis-
honoured, each of them will reach the person who ac-
cepted it as maney from the Government, in the Angie
of a pressing debt. Tne greater the mmaber of hands
through wh;eh these bills shall have plssed in the colony,
the more extensive will be the mischief ; since every
one who may have held a bill will be called upon to
pay its amount as a debtor, iind will as a md:tor press
on his neighbour or the Government—but equall its
vain. In such eircurn-tanus private credit will be
at an end, like credit and the functions of the Go-
verment. And further, while the public expenditure
of 200,000/. in one year will have occasioned an ex-
tensive dependence on public employment, the issue
of Government trills to that amount will have coiled
into existence an excessive amount of currency, which
must be suddenly depreciated when its foundeion is
taken away. A large proportion of the Governa,eret
bills will doubtless have been discounted by the kcal
banks, whose notes will be hastily returned to them in
demand for specie when it shall be known that the
public paper is valueless. We cannot see how either of
the bankS shotild avoid a suspension of cash peyineets.
In that case, their notes wil, be without value, and the
colon) will necessarily be drained of what sticesie it may
contain ; for no other money will pay debts or buy loud
in New South \Vales and Van Diemen's Land. The
community, therefore, will be not oily withut govern-
ment and without private credit, but also without a.
currency. _

Thirdly—South Australia, though now abundantly
supplied with fine-woolled sheep (the number being esti-
mated at 150,000), does not yet raise a quarter of the
bread-stuff required by its inhabitants. Agriculture was
rapidly advancing by the last accounts, but the colony
was still an extensive importer of flour and rice. The
imports of food must cease when credit and currency
fail, excepting only the small quantity that the colony
may be able to purchase with specie. Famine, conse-
quently, among all classes, from the meanest labourer to
the Governor himself, seems almost inevitable. We
wish that we could be justly accused of exaggeration in
saying that thousands of the colonists may be starved to
death.

Such an extent of disorganization and calamity as we
have depicted under these three divisions is not readily
suggested to the mind by experience only. In order to
estimate it by analogy we must exert our imaginations,
and suppose a town population suddenly deprived of all
government, and of all credit, and all currency at the:
same time. What would happen in such a case ? It is
plain that, unless there were help from without, the whole
population would soon die of hunger. South Aus.ralia
differs from a town only in this, as respects the present--
subject—that it produces some of the food required to
support its inhabitants ; and therefore a total stopilage
of credit and currency will not destroy all the people ;
but as it is not in the power of this or any other com-
munity instantly at pleasure to increase its production
of food, so surely, unless again there be help from svith-
out, when the colony is deprived of the means olimport-
ing the requisite quantity of food over what is produced
there, the deficiency will be measured by hunger and
positive starvation. This arises from the newness of.
the infant community—we had almost said from the ra-
pid progress of the settlement—combined with the sud-
den ruin of its public and private credit, anal destruc-
tion of its currency by an act of its Government. The
case is the same as if a quantity of land had been re-
claimed from the sea in this country, and inhabited by
people engaged in preparing for its cultivation, drawing
their food, meanwhile, from the old farms in the neigh-
bourhood, by means of a money capital, and then cia-
tirely cut off from intercourse with the district wherct
food was superabundant. Such a community woukk
suffer in such an event just in proportion as they had
rather been nccupied in rendering the new land habit-
able and apt for production, than in merely putting tile
seed into the naked earth. If their mode of colonising
the new land had been more ruee, they would have*
been less liabie to the evils of a moaetary convulsion.
But let us not in darning on this case, which bas beets
supposed for the sake of illustration, lose sight of the
true causeof the dangers which beset South Australia.
The sole author of the disaster is the reckless Governer.
His extravagance alone occasions this colonial bank-
ruptcy. Though the crash will be great in proportion
to the artificial or civilized character of the settlement—
just as a state of anarchy would be more disastrous in
England, where only a third of the people are ernsaged its
raising food, than in France where two-thirds are rgri-
culturists—yet we are not to regret that the colony had
credit and a currency to destroy, and a town population
to starve, but that the unbridled folly of an individual
should have done such enormous mischief.
We must repeat once more, that it the colony is to
be saved, it can only be by means of help from without.
The obvious remedy is to prevent the return of Gover-
nor Gawler's bills. But here, again, as misfortunes
never come singly, two difficulties pent themselves.
The first is, that the Commissioner., who would be
authorized by the South Australian Act, to cover there
hills by a loan, creating a colonial debt equal to their
amount, do not enjoy public confidence in this
country ; and, in the next place, whatever were
the credit, of these new Commissioners, nobody would he
disposed to advance money for the purpose, or at least
with the effect of enabling Governor Garchr or some
other irresponsible officer to play such a prank over
again. Without an efficient check on public expendi-
ture in the colony—without the only cheek that we
Englishmen can suppose to be efficient, namely popular
control by means of representation and executive res-
ponsibility—it will be vain to appeal to private
capitalists here for the means of paying Governor
Gawler's bills ; and even with the best guarantee
against future improvidence on the part of the Colonial
Government, it may be doubted whether money would
be advanced at the call of the Commissioners who
were appointed without the least regard to the wishes,
of the South Australian public in this country, whose
time is occupied with the affairs of many other co.
lonies, and who, as Commissioners for South Australia,
have done nothing since their appointment but remove
their office from the Adelphi to the Bird Cage Walk—
the part of London the most perhaps out of the way
of all sorts of business relating to colonization—as if their
object had been to tell the world that they intended t
do nothing. Failing a loan to the Commissioners, there
is no resource but in the Treasury and Parliament. A.
pledge from the Government to apply to Parliament
for a guarantee of any loan within sonic specific amount
to be raised by the Commissioners, would procure the
requisite funds without delay. South Australia has
never yet appeared in the Estimates. Lord John Rus-
sell must, we should think, be aware of the extreme
urgency of the case, and the really awful danger of de-
lay ; and he is not apt to shrink from a suitable respon-
sibility. What could become him more than the re-
sponsibility of saving this colony from destruction ? what
less than that of leaving it to its fate ?