The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-02 00:00:00

Zbt 10.1+

LONDON:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2. 1840.

We conceive that it is highly creditable to the
press, and still more to the people of England, that
they have on the occasion of the present dispute
with France, shown none of the anti-national pre-
judices which prevailed throughout the land less
than half a century ago. Scarcely a word disparag-
ing France or disrespectful to Frenchmen has ap-
peared in the English journals. We look on that
as a remarkable circumstance, 'indicative of a great
improvement in our civilization. If the threatened
or apprehended war should not overtake us, our
fears will be richly paid for by the manifestation of
this important change.
It is another for us most gratifying circumstance
that there is no cannibal wish for war amongst our
population. On the contrary, the bulk of the
journals which speak the sentiments chiefly of
the lower classes, the country and provincial pa-
pers, are nearly one and all for peace. They de-
precate war in the strongest terms. That the
people might not be goaded into an appetite for
war by national insults we will not affirm ; but at
present they display a remarkable aversion for war,
and a wish for peace. That is greatly to their
honour, and it is another proof of their Frogress in
civilization. The upper classes, and even the
clergy, must take care lest the manufacturers, mer-
chants, and mechanics should read them on this.
subject a lesson of Christian morality.
The people are not averse from war because
they dread defeat, but because they think war un-
wise ; and were they compelled by any outrageous
attack, they would exhibit, we have no doubt, the
indomitable courage of their forefathers. Though
former Governments have hampered the country,
and though our iniquitous Corn-laws have kept
down our resources, our people were never stronger
than at present, nor had they ever greater resources.
Whatever may have been the increase of other Euro-
pean States in population and wealth since the peace
none of them have equalled Great Britain. She
is rich, too, in all the elements of defence. Since
the peace steam has become a most important pelt
of the art of navigation, and Great Britain sur
passes all other nations, indeed all the nations of
the world united, in the number of her steam-ships.
In the Mediterranean alone she has thirteen large
steamers, which, from their facility of motion, may
be pronounced adequate to a fleet of so many first-
rates under the old plan of equipment. Her float-
ing batteries, as we may call her first-rates, may be
considered as almost doubled in number by the
facility with which, by the help of steamers,
they may he transported from place to place.
Her railroads and her canals permit all her military
to be assembled in any one spot which may be
threatened, in an incredibly short time ; while her
numerous steam-vessels would not only effectually
protect her own coast, but catry desolation over the
neighbouring coast of France. Her resources and
strength are undoubted. Never had Great Britain
more ample means of safety and security from
foreign aggression, and it adds very much to the
beauty of our people's distaste for war, that it is
accompanied by a proud consciousness of power.
The only set off to our mechanical and material
strength is the discontent of our lower classes, and
religious differences, which makes Ireland a weak
point. But formidable as we admit them to be,
all the other nations by which we are likely to be
assailed have internal evils that are equally danger-
ous to them. Russia is an assembly of hetero-
genous and conflicting nations or tribes, many of
which would, on any opportunity, rise in revolt,
while a sentiment of human dignity has reached
even her native serfs, and made them long for free-
dom. The desire of reform is not unknown in
Russia, and is as formidable, we believe, to the CZAR
as Chartism is to the Government of England.
France is obviously as much divided into conflicting
pariies as England, and there are probably as
many who dread the consequences of war as there
are who desire it. The interest of the Govern

meat is that of peace, and, supported by all
those who are averse from revolution, it is pro-
bably equal, if not superior to the war party.
In France there are vet many friends and ful-
!ewers of the elder Bourbons, and many Bona-
partists, many Republicans, and much political
discontent. The Government there no more reigns
over a united people than the Government of
England, and whatever may be the weakness
of the latter from internal dissensions, it
is at least equalled by the weakness of the
former, and of most other States, from the same

cause. In these circumstances we see good reasons

why the Governments of the different States should

keep the peace with one another, but see nothin,

in the political disputes which divide us, or in the
political discontent of our people, to make us dread 1,,

war more than our utighbouis.

It must not be supposed the French war faction, I
should it prevail and force on a war, would find '
friends in all the countries of Europe, as the French
found on the first breaking out of their Revolution.
The Chartists, and the bulk of our discontented la-
bourers are for peace, and have nothing whatever
in common with that portion of the French who de-
mand war. At the breaking out of the first Revolution
there were many persons in England, seduced by its
promises, who were willing to make common cause
with the Republicans. Experience has dissipated
whatever there was of delusion in their views, and
our people arc now sensible that they must achieve
freedom for themselves. In the same manner, the
industrious, peaceable manufacturers of Belgium,
Switzerland, and the Germans on the Rhine, at
least the Lower Rhine, whatever discontent they may
feel with their respective institutions and Gove►n-
ments, have nothing in common with the warriors of
France, and would never ask or expect redress at
their hands. The French may still suppose, be-
cause they were welcomed as deliverers at the burst-
ing forth of their first Revolution, before its conse-
quences were known, that they will now be received
in the several neighbouring States in the same ca-
pacity. But their tradition or their memory de-
ceives them, and whenever they begin a war,
they will find every neighbouring nation armed,
ready to defend its own neutrality. They would
have not merely the Kings but all the people
of Europe for their enemies.
They might throw themselves heart and soul
into a naval war ; they might bring all their re.
, sources, and all their energies, to bear on that sin-
gle point ; but that is a war which can only be
cart ied on by the help of machines and machinery,
in which England has almost an immeasurable su-
periority. Our trade might be at first interrupted,
but- very soon the whole military power of France
would be required to protect her coasts from our
vengeance, and cur steam-boats. We are strenuous
advocates of peace, because we consider peace to
be most favourable for the development of civili-
lization, and because war is only another name for the
union of all possible offences against morality ; but
at the same time we are thoroughly convinced that
there never was a period when Great Britain was
so completely a match as now for any State by
which she is likely to be assailed.

The indignant, universal, and still increasing
feeling on the cruel case of Captain REYNOLDS,
arises from a concurrence of causes which never
possibly occurred in any other trial. The conduct
of Lo:d CARDIGAN, as commander of a regiment,
bad as it is, forms but a very small portion of the
grievances against which the public voice is raised.
The great weight of popular indignation is directed
against the Commander of the Forces, the Mini-
sters of the Crown, and, to a certain extent, the
Crov►n itself, to whom is entrusted the management
of the army maintained at the people's expense, and
for the people's good. Military discipline, and even
occasional severity, all admit to be necessary in admi-
nistering the affairs of a vast body of men; but military
discipline never can be maintained in defiance of jus-
tice and common sense, and these have been sig-
nally violated in every one step taken by the Hotse
Guards on the CARDIGAN affairs. The dispute
with the first Captain REYNOLDS, about the black
bottle, was a private affair. Lord CARDIGAN had

no right to interfere, he was the aggressor ; yet his

conduct is praised by the representative of Lord
HILL, General SLEIGH, and the insulted officer
is doomed to silence and bitter reproof. This
was the first act of injustice. The next com-
menced with the appointment of the Court-
martial on Captain R. A. REYNOLDS. That
also was a private quarrel, which in the words
of the Duke of WELLINGTON, alluding to a simi•
far case, " had as little connection with the public
service, and with the discipline and subordination
of the army as any that had ever come under his
notice ;" yet on this a Court-martial is appointed to
deliberate, composed of ten staff-officers, and only
four captains. We will not call this an act of injus-
tice, though the public, on ascertaining the fact, said
he was not to be tried by his Peers, and his fate was
sealed. Contrary to military precedent, independent,
too, of the eternal law of justice, inherent in the hu-
man breast, Captain REYNOLDS was not allowed to

adduce proofs of provocation, in extenuation of the
offence. This was the second act of injustice ; the
third was that, in passing sentence, previous good
character was disregarded ; and the fourth, the rude
insult offered to gentlemen of long-standing in the
army, who, judging by the conduct of the Duke of

YORK and the Duke of WELLINGTON considered

that provocation might be pleaded in mitigation ;
and the last and most glaring act of injustice was
contained in the notorious memorandum of Sir
JOHN MACDONALD, which left no doubt that want
of moderation, temper, and discretion on the part of
Lord CARDIGAN had been the source of all the mis-
chief; yet he escni,ed flee, and Capt.REYNoLDs was
made the solitary victim. After such a complication
of partiality, injustice, severity, and inconsistency,

can there be any wonder that the cry for justice to

the oppressed is universal, and that the public look
with absolute horror on the secret proceedings of
the Horse Guards when they find acts at which
the mind revolts thus publicly sanctioned ? They

have the more reason, too, to
.cry out for justice,
because the conduct of Lord HILL is at direct
variance with long established practice. On a
former occasion a Correspondent furnished us with

four or five cases in which the Duke of YORK

mitigated or annulled the sentence o❑ account of
provocation. The Duke of WELLINGTON on
many occasions followed this example, but the fol-
lowing instance is the most memorable, and, as it arose
out of a private quarrel, like that between Lord
CARDIGAN and Capt. IL A. REYNOLDS, we give
it at full length. It is copied from the Dublin
Morning Register, and W2S furnished to that
Journal by " an Irish Barrister," accompanied by
some sound remarks on civil and military law. " I
reply," says the writer, " to this uncalled-for record
(the censure on the witnesses) by transcribing from
the 6th Volume of " General Orders" (France)
which is before me, the proceedings of a Court-
martial, and the honourable and just commentary
indulged in by the great warrior of his age upon
the transaction

ADJUTANT GENERALS OFFICE.
St. Jean de Luz, 11th Jan , 1814.
(Copy) Horse Guards, 13th December, 1813.
MY LoaD—Having laid before the Prince Regent
the proceedings of th general Court-martial held at
Oyarzun, on the 10th of September, 1813, and con-
tinued by adjournments to the 24th of the same month,
for the trial of Lieutenant de Ingersleben, of the sth
battalion 60th Regiment, who was arraigned upon the
under mentioned charges, viz. :

" Ist—For disobedience of orders on or about the
31st August, 1813, in refusing to withdraw his animals
from the stables of Lieutenant Wynne of the same re-
giment, his superior officer, after having been ordered
to do so by the said Lieutenant Wynne.
" 2d—For scandalous and infamous conduct, unbe-
coming the character of an officer and a gentleman, in
openly resisting the authority of his superior officer, the
said Lieutenant Wynne, and for using opprobrious and
disgraceful language to him, and striking him, and fur-
ther threatening to repeat that insult to the prejudice
of good order and military discipline."
Upon which charges the Court came to the following
decision :

The court having maturely and deliberately weighed
and considered the evidence that has been produced in
support of the prosecution, together with what the pri-
soner Lieutenant de Ingersleben has offered in his de-
fence, and the evidence thereon, are of opinion that he