The Sun.
London, England, 1833-09-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The continental journals seem to busy them-
selves exceedingly with the late meetings at Top-
litz between the King of Prussia and the Em-
peror of Austria, accompanied by their respec-
tive Ministers; and with the still more
important meetings which are announced be-
tween the same Monarchs and their brother
the Emperor Nicholas, who had left his capital
for the interview towards the end of last month.
It is stated in the late arrivals from Hamburgh,
that his Imperial Majesty was expected on the
30th or 31st ult. to land at Schwedt, shither
the Crown Prince and all the Royal Family of
Prussia had gone to welcome him on his arrival.
The German journals add, that the Czar pur-
poses to be absent from his states for a month,
in order to set our poor erring portion of Europe
to rights ; and there can be no doubt that his
journey is intended for something more than a
mere pleasure excursion, though even that would
be justifiable in escaping from a country like
Russia. After his Majesty has visited his
relatives at the Court of Berlin, he proceeds
to his intended interview with the Emperor
of Austria, accompanied by his father in
law the King of Prussia. The place fixed
upon for the meeting of this Royal and Im-
perial triumvirate is stated to be a small town
on the frontier of Bohemia ; so selected and
honoured because it is small, and thus easily
defended against the intrusion of strangers. We
pretend to no knowledge, and entertain no alarm
on the subject of this Holy Alliance tete-a-tete,
though some of our foreign contemporaries have
laid down the subjects of its discussion in specific
detail, and, in drawing its horoscope, have found
Mars in the ascendant. At the same time it
would be ridiculous to deny that the present
situation of Europe, and the known disposition
of the great arbitrary Courts of the Continent,
may let into the secrets of its deliberation every
person who has eyes to see, and ears to hear,
what is passing in the political world. Ever
since the revolution of 1830 in France, and the
accession of a Reform Ministry in England, the
Governments of the Holy Alliance have only
been restrained from actively interfering with
the progress of freedom by their fears of spread-
ing still more widely the contagion, and not by
their acquiescence in its harmless character.
They have viewed with as much alarm as hatred
the diffusion of liber..l opinions, and the extension
or consolidation of liberal institutions. They have
even looked to every civil tumult or petty insur-
rection with a kind of hope that it would be the
commencement of that species of disturbance or
anarchy which might warrant the application of
their steel regimen, and justify their notions of
the benefits of an orderly despotism. It would
be needless to mention the proofs of this feel-
ing; it would be superfluous to describe the
infinite pains taken by Russia, for example, to
prevent any settlement of those questions which
might leave a door open for future intervention,
the encouragement which she has given at every
Court to the party hostile to freedom, and her
expressed disposition to support every species
of arbitrary authority. How is the Emperor
Nicholas known in Germany, in Spain, or in
Italy, but as the enemy of constitutional liberty,
the patron of aristocratic privileges, and the prop
of tyrannical factions ? Why, except for evil, is
he known in the Peninsula or in Germany at all?
What community is there, or ought there to be,
between a barbarian Autocrat and the head of a
civilized Government in the south of Europe ?
If the relations of trade exist between his em-
pire and them, let him appoint consuls to pro-
tect or forward the interests of his subjects in
their ports, but he has no more object in accre-
diting an ambassador to Madrid, Lisbon, or

to Switzerland, except for the purpose of in-
trigue or embroilment, than he has to send political
agents to Madras or Calcutta. Yet we find in
the time of the Emperor Alexander, his bro-
ther, and continued during his own reign, spies
employed in the dfferent States of Europe, to
give information to the Court of St. Petersburgh
on the condition of public feeling and the pro-
gress of (what are called) revolutionary doc-
trines ! The hatred of the Autocrat against
Liberal Governments must be aggravated by a
recollection of their remonstrances in favour of
the persecuted Poles, of the enthusiasm with
which the accounts of their heroic actions were
celebrated, and the ready asylum opened every
where for their reception after their defeat. The

two other Monarchs of the Alliance may be less
exasperated at the general indignation expressed
against despotic Governments, but, corning
nearer the scene of political disputes, and re-
solved not to change their own system, they
have greater cause for apprehension and eneasi-
ness. Their counsels may, therefore, be as
violent as those of the Northern Autocrat,
though from a different cause. Austria must
be disquieted about her dominion in Italy,
should the Italians learn to strike like freemen
for the independence of their country. Prussia
must dread time spread of Constitutional ideas
in Germany ; and both must feel an anxiety
about the situation of Switzerland, and

the state of their Polish provinces. The
recent overthrow of their pet usurper in
Portugal,—the precarious condition of the
Spanish monarchy (threatened with a war of

succession, in which the two parties must fight
under different political colours).—the cou-
rageous discussions in the Chambers of the
smaller German Princes,—and the alliance every
day consolidating between France and England,
must give them abundant cause of uneasiness,
and supply fertile subjects of deliberation. The
wish of the triple Holy Alliance must, therefore,
be to crush constitutional freedom, or to repress
free discussion, wherever they can ; and could
they command an avalanche to descend on the
alarming union of the two great constitutional
states of the west, that union would soon be
overwhelmed. It will therefore easily be ad-
mitted that our suspicions of a conspiracy against
national rights is justified when we see such no-
torious conspirators meeting in secret conclave
with so many motives and materials for a des-
potic plot—when we see them dismissing their
usual attendants—deserting the usual haunts of
political discussion—appointing guards at the
door of their bureau, and shutting themselves up
in their retirement with the key in their pocket ;
—it need not, we repeat, be doubtful that the
meetings of Toplitz and Friedland are not in-
tended for idle talk, but for what else ?
Can they do any harm that could not
otherwise be accomplished ? Whatever they
may do, if they consult their own in-
terests, we can see little reason for apprehen-
Their meeting will not put them in
- of more wisdom or more force
lore; it will not enable them to
their plans of attack or defence
Minis-
T's lave done through their
Courts ; and though their
;ements may be secret, their
In cannot be concealed from
'. They cannot devour Con-

SlOll.

stitutional charters at their royal and imperial
breakfasts ; they cannot whisper away national
independence at a secret interview, and cannot
make military preparations, or move forward
armies, with the silence and privacy of a game
at chess. They have only told all the world,
by an additional example, what they knew before
—that they are willing to declare against the
extension of liberty, or the progress of civiliza-
tion, had they the means of crushing them ; but
the meeting of three very ordinary personages at
what may be called a political palaver is not
likely to invigorate their combinations, or to
increase their resources, so as to make them.
more formidable. But though we see no reason
for apprehending any warlike demonstration
against France, or any other constitutional state,
from the meeting of the two Emperors and his
Prussian Majesty in Germany, and though we
see no chance of their commencing a war of
opinion in the present situation of Europe,
there has been enough in their conduct in taking
this step to excite suspicion and to demand vi-
gilance.— Times.
The Standard, like Sir Robert Peel, is much
perplexed by the expiring condition of the Tory
party. Our contemporary is equally at a loss
with the stock-taking baronet to calculate the
odds ; and his dissertations on politics are now
of a very contradictory and ambiguous nature.
The Standard inflicts the most severe stripes
on the " Conservatives," and indulges occa-
sionally in caustic reflections on the stupidity of
Toryism. Our contemporary has flourished too
late, and should have been born when the Tory
power was in its zenith, and the Catholic ques-
tion the barrier of parties. His acuteness and
sagacity are ill adapted to the " revolutionary"
state of public opinion ; hence that occasional
_ _

appearance of inconsistency of his logic, which
he vainly endeavours to reconcile with his Con-
servative professionß, or to render palatable to
his High Church clergy. Indeed we have great
hopes of our contemporary, and that his conver-
sion to liberalism is at hand, unless, like all
zealots, he should pass from one extreme to an-
other—to pure republicanism ! In a commen.
tary yesterday on our supplement to the pamphlet
entitled, " The Reform Ministry and the Re-
formed Parliament," the Standard makes
some curious admissions. He takes credit

to himself for having foreseen and pre-
dicted the certain consequences of Parliamentary
Reform which some of his contemporaries (not
ourselves of the number) previously denied. After
the usual attempt by the hobgoblin argument to
alarm the King that his Majesty will follow
Charles I. or Louis Capet to the block or the
guillotine, our contemporary repeats the stale
reflections on the regicide periods of European
history, omitting, however, to state the indis-
putable historic fact that the bad advisers of the
unfortunate Monarchs, and the misrule of their
Royal predecessors, were the original and ex-
clusive cause of the bloody revolutions and the
capital punishment of the Monarchs. Thus, if

the Duke of Wellington in May, 1832, had
succeeded in deluding William IV., the throne
would have been undermined, and instead of a
simple reformation in the House of Commons,
and the preservation of the British Constitution,
we should have had a premature Democracy
cast in the mould of social disorder and poli-
tical terrorism. We give the Tory press and
its Court patrons full credit for their intentions
and labours as alarmists, but fortunately they
have not succeeded in their industrious voca-

tion, the good sense of the Sovereign having
hitherto preserved his dynasty and his subjects
from violent revolution. Whether a junction of

the Ultra Tories and Ultra Radicalsl—and the
courtship is palpable—will be more successful
remains to be seen ; but we estimate the real
conservative power of the country, and the cha-
racter of the new constituency, too highly,
to apprehend the dreadful results which
haunt the repose of our affrighted Con-
temporary. We can readily account for the
phlegm of the Tories exhibited against the Re-
formed House of Commons. Unfulfilled pro-
phecies, and exploded predictions, always op-
press the conscience and mortify the pride of
false prophets. The Tories foretold that the
Reformed Parliament would display a mob of
Destructives and a majority of political gladia-
tors. The event has not justified the prediction—
an occasional disappointment to prophecy-
mongers. Our new Parliament—the Lower
House—is, therefore, loaded with every contu-
melous reproach for their alleged " subserviency
to the Minister." Verily this is a revolution ;
in the Tory style of writing, comparing that of the
Conservative Journals of the present day with
the old style of the past year. The Standard
admits that our Laws and Judicial Establish-
ments require the broom of reform. We are
gratified by his confession, however repugnant it
may be to that Anti-Catholic and legal Anti-
quary, the Earl Eldon, or to the dyspeptic law
reformer, Lord Wynford, and however obnoxious
the admission to the patriotic and disinterested
Baron Lyndhurst. The Standard also ingenu-
ously confesses that he has "no objection to
subscribe publicly to the suggestion of the fur-

ler reform of the House of Commons," and

that " under any system of parliamentary repre-
sentation the most stringent precautions ought
to be taken against treating, bribery, and cor-
ruption." Such a signal conversion is an ample
atonement for all sacrifices on the altar of the
Idol of Conservatism, and constitutes a com-
plete qualification for the Cartwright Club. Our
contemporary, however, being a novice in our
political opinions, labours under a grievous mis-
take in his bold assertion that " The attempt
to guard against these practices, by an exten-
sion of franchise up to the point that it has been
extended, has proved a total failure—the most
extensive constituency, in towns, being generally
the most corrupt." In which of the populous
new boroughs created by the Reform Bill has
bribery or any extensive system of treating pre-
vailed—in the Metropolitan boroughs, in Man-
chester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, or any
other populous community ? What returns in
Schedules C or D were petitioned against or
disputed in election committees ? We defy the
Standard to support his assertions. Liverpool,
Bristol, Norwich, through their corrupt freemen
habituated to political corruption—the Universal
Suffrage under the peculiar protection of the
Fortes—we admit relapsed into their old habits
of venality and debauchery seduced by the
money of Tory candidates, although the two
latter constituencies escaped detection. No, the
tact is that Education the dreaded enemy of
l'oryism, and Knowledge the parent of power,
have extinguished the Tory misrule in our large
towns whose inhabitants were quickened in their
political illumination by the disgrace of non-
representation
.and through the insulting refusal
of their enfranchisement by the Duke of
Wellington and " his man Friday" Sir
Robert Peel. The large towns also, by the
all powerful action of public opinion, forced
Parliamentary Reform down the throats of the

Tories. This operation will never be forgotten
or forgiven ; and now that the violent action of
Political Unions is notoriously subsiding with
the causes which created it, the Conservatives
cannot endure the signal miscarriage of their
other prophecies that Jacobin Clubs would rule
the country when the King's assent was given
to the Reform Acts. The Standard having
discovered the value of " Tenants without will"
and without Ballot, and duly perceiving that the
only hold of the Tories exists in the agricultural
districts, and in the influence of the large primo-
geniture estates, has turned Radical Reformer,
and joined us an enemy of class voting. " The
true remedy," we are gravely forewarned, " will
be found in a fairer adjustment of the proportion
of the agricultural to the municipal representa-
tion !" Doubtless when the Duke of Wellington
and Sir Robert Peel succeed Lord Grey, we
shall have a new Reform Bill, and the Tories
will try to place Manchester, Birmingham,
Leeds and Glasgow, in a new schedule A ! This
would he a very comical revolution, and an event
equally as improbable as the fulfilment of the
remaining dubious prophecies of the Con-
servatives. The Tories having now lost, with
the extinction of the nomination boroughs their
former means of packing election committees, and
of thereby affording protection to bribers and ho-
roughmongers, admit " honesty to be the best
policy," and abjure election corruption. On
this singular revolution of Tory opinion the
Standard observes, " Just now, it is more par-
ticularly the interest of the Conservative party
to press this reform ; because they have proof
that, in their case, the attempt to bribe or cor-
rupt will be abortive—seeing that they have not
a corrupt House of Commons to bear them
through, consequently they can gain nothing ;
while, if any foolish, miscalculating Lord makes
the attempt, it is certain to recoil in obloquy
and disgrace upon the whole party—a danger
from which the Whigs, in their ascendant posi-
tion, are altogether secure." This notable dis-
covery has been made " just now," when libe-
ral principles, predominant in the Reformed
House of Commons, have secured the detection
and punishment of venal electors, and elec-
tioneering Lords. Our contemporary now con-
tends that a punishment " rather infamous than
pecuniary" would deter corruptors, and which
new process we presume would consign the Earl
of Warwick, and the Noble Boroughmongers of
Hertford and Newark (if proved guilty), to the
parish stocks or to the market pillory, with the
concomitants of rotten eggs and offensive mis-
siles ! Also, our new convert ably advocates
Parliaments " fresh and fresh." "We have
already admitted that such Parliaments as the
Reform Bill is calculated to give cannot be
changed too often, consequently the return to
triennial Parliaments, or, to proceed gradatim,
say quinquennial Parliaments, might be tried
with advantage. However, before seeing any
other change, we should like to see the person-
nel of the present House of Commons changed."
Thus we gratefully discover that the reform of
the representation has exceeded our most san-
guine expectations, and more than realized our
predictions of its salutary effects by the conver-
sion of the Tories to Radicalism. The Con-
servatives are either stricken with despair, and
giving up the Ghost, or they are endeavouring
to put salt on the tails of the Reformers.—
Morning Chronicle.
The Tory Journals, in their rotatory course of
writing, are now industriously occupied in re-
viling the Lord Chancellor, and indulging in
vulgar personalities and false reflections on his
personal habits. The public reputation of Lord
Brougham, and the charm of his plebeian name,
will rise proportionably to the abuse of his na-
tural political enemies. When the Conservatives
and the Members of the Carlton Club were de-
ceiving themselves, or attempting to delude the
public, by rumours of divisions in the Cabinet--
changes of Court countenance—and the early ad-
vent of a Tory Cabinet, they cultivated the notion
and propagated the news that Lord Brougham and
Mr. Stanley would be willing traitors to their
Whig colleagues. Such imputations, whether
sincerely indulged or conveniently circulated,
were no compliment to the Lord Chancellor, but
depreciated his political influence by encou-
raging the suspicion that he was to be seduced
by vanity or the love of power. We never sus-
pected that Lord Brougham would turn his back
on his old opinions, but were confident that,
notwithstanding any possible political coquetry
with Tories, he would be far more likely to pro-
ceed in that advance of public principle which
marked his lead in so many successive political
questions. His real friends are therefore gra-
tified to see the former courtesy of the 'Tory
journals suspended ; and their tirades and vulgar
reflections on his Lordship will relieve the public
mind from much uneasiness. How far the al-
tered tone of the " Conservative " writers—in-
fluenced by a certain comptroller of the press—.
tends to elevate the influence and character of
the press is for their own consideration and cal-
culation. As far as regards the Lord Chancellor,
we wish them to persevere.—Alorn. Chronicle.
The affairs of the East are slurred over in
the Ministerial manifesto as scarcely worthy of
notice. They cannot, indeed, be noticed
without reflecting shame upon the policy which
has made the Russian eagle float triumphant on
the Bosphorus, and reduced the Ottoman em-
pire to a Pachalick of the Autocrat. We may
revile the weak and pusillanimous Sultan for
throwing himself at the feet of the crafty and
insidious Power whose friendship will have more
fatal effects than the most successful efforts of
its hostility—we may abuse the Sultan for this,
but who drove him to it ? Who left him with-
out any alternative but to surrender his sceptre
to the rebel Ibrahim at the gates of Constanti-
nople, or to hold it at the will of the Emperor
of Russiat Our Ministers, who refused his
supplication for assistance previously to his
making a similar request of the Czar. The
Sultan did not, in
the first instance, act as
foolishly as our Government. It was the mutual
interest of England and Turkey to maintain an
intimate alliance, not only on account of the
commercial benefits derivable from it, but for its
political advantages, as serving to check the
encroaching ambition of Russia towards the East.
The Sultan, weak as lie is, understood his own
interest well enough to prefer an alliance with Eng-
land to one with Russia. The English Govern-
ment rejected his advances. Repulsed by our Mi-
nistry in his hour of desperate need, and hotly
pressed upon by victorious Ibralion, he had no-
thing to fly to but Russian protection, which was
no sooner asked than it was eagerly afforded.
The Porte, delivered from the terror of the
Egyptian rebel's sword, found itself in the grasp
of the military and naval talons of Russia. As
much operated upon probably by fear as grati-
tude, the Sultan signed the treaty by which he
got rid of the immediate presence of the Mus-
covite armies, but assigned over the custody of
his empire to the Czar; thus purchasing a tem-
porary deliverance from his protectors at the

price of perpetual enslavement. If, then, the
Turkish dominions must exist henceforth only as
dependencies of the colossal Power of the North,
and if the Sultan be the turbanned vassal of the
Autocrat, it is the policy of England which has
done all this. The incapacity of our Foreign
Office has been more destructive to the interests
of England in the East, than the adroit and
indefatigable activity of the diplomatic agents of
St. Petersburgh. One of the great objects
which the Russian Cabinet had in view, while
it played the protracted game of diplomacy on
the Belgico-Dutch question, has been accom-
plished. The Russian Government, foresee-
ing the crisis which was coming on in the East,
and, for ought we know, having instigated Me-
hemet Ali to rebellion, while it pretended to
denounce his treason, worked the diplomatic
machinery of the Belgico-Dutch question so as
to keep the vision of a "speedy settlement" per-
petually (lancing before the eyes of Lord Pal-
merston. " Speedy settlement" was the cry of
the Treasury Journals, sharing in his Lordship's
credulity and infatuation, week after week, month
after month, and year after year. No " settle-
ment" of Belgic affairs came ; and why ? The
Russian Cabinet was all the time preparing to
" settle" the affairs of Turkey—and well has it
settled them for its own sdvantage, while our
ingenious Secretary of the Foreign department
has been engaged in endless chace after the
ignis 'him's policy of the Conference through
the swamps of the Netherlands. The Russian
Government must have been not a little pleased
at seeing us inveigled into the foolish project of
sending out a fleet of vessels of war at great ex-
pense, and without any rational object, to the
coast of Holland, in the month of November,
for the Russian Government knew that by this
wanton and absurd misapplication of our naval
strength we wasted those resources which, if we
knew our own interest, ought to have been
available at that very crisis, for the succour
of our old ally the Sultan. It was t►ot
upon such a " wildgoose chase" that the
Russian fleet was sent to the Bosphorus.
It did not sail there in idle display to sail
!,,ick again in derision. The fact is, Russia has
befooled our Government all through the Con-
tinental negotiations for some years past, and
yet the sycophants of the Treasury would make
it matter of praise to their employers that the
general peace of Europe has not been broken
up. We say that when a great nation like Eng-
land endeavours to maintain peace by the viola-

Lion of her faith and the sacrifice of her interests

to an arrogant Power like Russia, she but pro-
vokes war. We see that the insolence of Russia
grows in proportion with the cowardice of our
policy, and the abjectness of our concessions.
An energetic declaration would have saved Poland
without a war, and a little foresight and activity
would have preserved Turkey from the calami-
tous connection which has sealed its doom. The
sycophants of Ministers talk loudly now of the
spirit displayed by the recognition of the Queen
of Portugal. But what great credit do they de-
serve for acknowledging those rights which the
Duke of Wellington had already recognised ?
The Duke of Wellington made the recognition
when the young Queen had not a foot of ground-
in Portugal ? Our present Ministers send an ac-
credited agent, but not until the fleet and capi-
tal of " the usurper" had fallen into the power
of the lawful Sovereign.—Morning Herald.

The circular addressed to the half-pay officers
of the army, which we published last week, has,
we understand, excited a general feeling of dis-
may, not unmingled with indignation, among
the very meritorious class of persons of whose
rights and interests it disposes so unceremo-
niously. In referring to this subject, it may be
necessary to refresh the memory of our civilian
readers as to the precise terms of the official docu-
ment. Upon the minds of military men the im-
pression they at once made is, we know, indelible.
Every half-pay officer, then, is required by this
order, issued from the Horse Guards, and
signed " Fitzroy Somerset," to state, for Lord
Hill's information, whether he is prepared to
serve on full pay, as, in the event of his not
being so prepared, he will be required to com-
mute, receiving such sum as his services may be
considered to entitle him to, " it not being pos-
sible for his Lordship to allow" such officer " to
remain upon half-pay." This order is ex-
plained in the Ministerial papers as being
connected with certain measures of economy
and retrenchment on the part of Government,
which implies still more clearly, what is indeed
but too clearly conveyed in the terms of the
communication itself, that the commutation thus
to be forced on the half-pay list is to be a pro-
fitable commutation for Government, and a
disadvantageous one for the old soldier, as in-
deed any commutation must be in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred, which falls short of a
sum sufficient to purchase an annuity for the life
of the party interested fully equal to his half-pay
in amount. The officers of tile army and navy
receive, we will admit, their half-pay, upon the
condition that they shall be ready to serve,
whenever their country requires their services,
And if the country really required their ser-
vices, those officers who still retain the ability,
and who should refuse to obey her call, would
justly forfeit that provision. We object to
this proceeding, because it makes a sham
call for services which the country does not
require, for the undisguised purpose for
the mere fraudulent purpose—of extorting
a forfeit which will not have been justly
incurred. It was never contemplated either by
the Legislature which granted the half pay, or
by the officers who received it, that the latter
were to hold it under the liability of having a
vexatious and fraudulent test of this description
applied to them whenever an economising and
retrenching Administration should come into
power. It is not such a test as that which an
honest Government would be called upon to
apply to the half pay at the commencement of a
war. It is a test conceived in the spirit of
nieanness and fraud, for the purpose of extorting
a partial or total surrender of a provision made
by a grateful country, and for this purpose ex-
clusively. An officer called from his retirement,
or from the avocation which he might have
or from the family ties and connections
which
'I(I°P adopted,
might have clustered around him during a
long period of peace, because his country
required once more the exertion of his
prowess or Ins skill in her defence, would re-
enter upon the active duties of his pro-
fession with a tolerable assurance that he
would have fair play from a Government
—not sordid, not base, not fraudulent, not
inimical to him, or to the noble profession of
which he is proud to be a member. But what
fair play in his future career of service can an
Officer expect who says in reply to such an order
as that just issued, the object of which lie must
well know is not to obtain his services, but to
filch from him his pittance of half-pay, " I will
serve rather than submit to have my country's
bounty thus filched from me ?" Can he hope

that the Government capable of resorting to so
mean an artifice will prove itself incapable of
cherishing resentment against those who do all
that depends upon them to expose and defeat
it ? The test now applied is indeed of a cha-
racter quite different to that, for shrinking from
which the forfeiture of half-pay would be the
suitable punishment. It is pleasing to us to
remark that the words of the circular have been
carefully chosen, so as plainly to intimate to the
service that the authorities at the Horse Guards
have had nothing to do with the contrivance of
this contemptible stratagem.—Morning Post.

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