The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-24 00:00:00

[NEW TIMEs.I.,

The various advices which have been received
by different conveyances from Brazil afford but
little ground for conjecture as to the ultimate
views of the Emperor in the late forcible mea-
sures whicli he has adopted. It appears that the
Cortes of Rio Janeiro bed provoked their own
diszo4ution by a violent debate on occasion of a
fietty quarrel between two obscure
On.this occasion, it is said, " the public lost all
resjieCt for the House, and mingled with the
W./embers," &C. &c.--in other words, the early
scenes of the French Revolution were beginning
to be played over, when the people in the Galle-
ries of the . National Assembly applauded or
hooted down the Members of the Legislature.—
iewas high time that some authority should
interpose, for which the public had not yet" lost
;!il respect." But 'whether in his interposition
ti t':,nperor was guided by a desire to establish
the independence of Brazil on a more secure
bask, or whether he meditates taking shelter
un!h,r the protection of Portugal, is a question
we hitherto possess not the means of re-

solving.

LgOIUILNG lIERALII.-1
The [louse of /Assembly of Jamaica appears to
be in a state of open warfare with his Majesty's
Ministers, on the subject of some recent Sta-
tutes and regulations for bettering the .condition
of slaves. A memorial, or rather a remonstrance,
was resolved, and actually prepared, to be ad-
dressed to his Majesty. It is difficult to con-
ceive how the letter of Lord Bathurst to the
Governor of Demerara, which has provoked
s!ich resentments, could produce in that colony
the effects that are ascribed to it—no less than
the discontent and rebellion of the Negroes,
there, 'and the danger of similar consequences
in other islands. Upon reference to the letter,
it will be found that the 'Noble Lord merely
directs that the punishment of flogging shall
no longer be inflicted on female slaves, and
that the whip shall be rather more sparingly
used the men—if, indeed, a slave can be called
a I nan. The colonists complain, with vehemence
and indignation, that persons at a distance from
the scene should treat their affairs with confi-
dence and assumption—and, naturally enough,
claim to be them Selves heard- in preference, be-

cause they are on ,the spot and have great in
terests at stake. This, however, may be the
best reason for receiving their views with cau-
tion, and their representations with distrust.—
Objects may be too near, as well as tolCdiStant,
for accurate observation. The quest,i'on on the
showing of the colonists is one of the most me-
lancholy. The sum and substance of their ob-
jections amounts to this—that every step made in
improving the condition of the slaves, by protect-
ing their persons, or developing their mental fa•
culties, is a step to rebellion. But how dreadful
the alternative !—that of breaking down and
brutalizing them, in order to preserve their obe-
dience. Perhaps it may,,be an unreasonable sup-
position, that a greater advance in knowledge,
and generally in the scale of human being, would
make the slave more tractable and contented. It
can hardiy be denied that the elements of know-
ledge, and the habits of thinking, which the ne-
groes have derived from the zealous efforts used
to make them acquainted with, and believers in,
the principles of Christianity, have made them
more susceptible of excitement—more easily mis-
led by others, or deluded by themselves. But it
is not at all improbable that a further advance in
civilization would be an advance from turbulence
to tranquillity.

[BRITISH PR ESS:II
Harnburgh papers to the 17th contain the new
' proscriptive tariff of the Russian Autocrat, evi-
dently levelled at our commerce. This is the
grateful return made to this country for all its
monstrous subsidies, and its late loans. This De.
tree raises the duties,, on some articles near
fifty, and, on others more than twenty4ve
per cent.; the increase in some instances amounts
in fact to a prohibition. The duty on porter by
the hogshead is increased ten silver rubles (more
than twenty shillings) ; the duty on our West
Indian produce, rum, is raised twenty-five per
cent.; raw sugars are, to pay a silver ruble per
pood in addition ; coffee, two rubles; a number of
other articles in the same proportion follow. Any
loss our commerce may sustain by this new proscrip-
tion of the grateful Alexander, will be more
than compensated by our intercourse with Greece,
should its people (as there can now be little
doubt) establish their liberties. Russia will
suffer infinitely more than our merchants by this
oppressive system; it will reduce the demand
for her produce, and lessen considerably the re-
venues of her Nobles, who derive their resources
from such a commerce. In proportion as Russia
diminishes her demand for our produce and
merchandize, her own exportation will be
lessened, and her revenue curtailed : she is
yet, with her vast dominions, semi-barbarous,
and incapable of supplying, from domestic
sources, those articles of luxury and manu-
facture proscribed by the Autocrat's tariff. The
preamble to the Decree states its purpose to be,
" to dimish the importation and consumption of
44 certain foreign articles, tending principally to
" the encouragement of luxury and the prejudice
44 of Russian industry." But where wealth exists
luxury will follow. The Russian Court was
long the most luxurious and depraved in Europe ;
and this Decree, therefore, will not exclude these
articles ; they will be smuggled into the Auto-
crat's dominions, and the trade in them be con.
traband. We know the dissimulation and false-
hood of the Russian character—how prompt it is '
at invention, and how prone to shifts and false-
hood ; and this Decree will only be a new in.
centive to the exertions of the Russian dealers
and merchants : but it unmasks more strongly
the amicable feelings of Alexander towards this
country, and is impotent in its effects to any
amount against our commerce, new outlets to
which, in the east and west, are now each day
rising up, and presenting unbounded sources of
speculation and industry to our manufacturers
and merchants,

[THE TIMES.]
The Ministers of the Emperor Alexander have,
it seems, made a considerable addition to the im-
port duties on foreign manufactures and TJroduce.
In other words, they have been throwing fresh
difficulties in the way of Russian exports to fee.
reign countries. To what extent the English
trade may suffer from the the adoption by Alex-
ander of these fiscal barbarisms, already worn
out and condemned by the discerning nation
against whose interests he would now direct them,
it is easy to guess. Russia cannot injure• Great
Britain by means which are calculated to re-
press the rising industry of Russia herself,
but to rouse the enterprise of Englishmen into
a search after new paths of commerce, and
into a cultivation of resources before untried,
only because the want of theta had not been
hitherto experienced. We have little to dread
from a rival armed with those very weapons
which we have ourselves cast aside as unser-
viceable. The war of prohibitions is disastrous
to none so completely as to him who wages it ;
and the Russian Government, by this gross blun-
der, proves against itself an absence of political
civilization, no less remarkable than that moral
and social rudeness which has long been a re-
proach to its subjects. Sugar, coffee, porter,
cotton, woollens, in their several stages of manu-
facture, are all affected by the tariff now
published at St. Petersburgh. But will the
prohibitions, as rather, perhaps, the diminished
sales, thus intended, be real ? We apprehend
not. The Russian manufacturer will, it is fair to
presume, be as little benefitted by the mono-
poly, as the State by the duty. The smuggler
will trick them both ; and of foreign commodi-
ties just as much is likely to be consumed in spate
of this bastard continental system (indeed more)
as in defiance of the legitimate one, raised into
life by Buonaparte. But should this indiscretion
on the part of Russia produce to England the
evils which it is possible were anticipated by
some of its authors, what follows ?—Why, that
England must of necessity cling with increased
force to those advantages which she holds inde-
pendent of the of Russia, that she must strengthen
the ties which connect her with other nations,
and improve those resources which their friend-
ship
and their markets offer. If Russia had
perceived in the British Government, for ex•.
ample, a stupid indifference to the blessings of

which the freedom and prosperity of the Ame-
rican continent, its final dismemberment from
the continent of Europe, and intimate union
with Great Britain 'herself, might be rendered
productive to this commercial Empire if,
seeing this blindness of the British Govern-
ment to its most obvious interests and duties, the
Imperial Cabinet had sought the means of rous-
ing our Ministers to a sense of them, we know
not of any more masterly expedient for awaken-
ing their stupidity, or compelling their repui-
nance, than this, which proves that the countries
of Europe, the most abundant in raw material,
and least advanced in art, are henceforth to
be nothing to the English merchant ; and
therefore, that he can have no dependance kit
upon regions in another hemisphere, which
are, like Russia, rich in produce, and un-
skilled in manufacture, but which do not unwisely
and perversely, like her, seek to transpose the
natural relations of communities suffering under
opposite wants, and formed for reciprocal ac-
commodations. The Princes of the continent
appear to us—no less by their mercantile than
their political system—to have agreed upon tying
this country to a stake, and forcing her into an
alliance with every thing American, for the de-
feat and mortification of the monarchical prin-
ciple in Europe.