The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-16 00:00:00

ette 1 Ntin c ': -PP-.- tilt

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1848.

Absolutism has its avowed organs in London. We
say this as much in pity for our Contemporaries as in
inflignation at the course which they have not blushed
to pursue towards a class of men who ought assuredly
to nave been saved from the assaults of the journalist

1)y the exquisite poignancy of their misfortunes.
We mean the unfortunate refugees from Russian-

l'oland. The calamities which have driven these
;Aitical outcasts to England are lamentable from a

t vofold consideration—firstly, because they originate

• a great national catastrophe ; and secondly, be-
-use they result in the personal miseries of
nury and expatriation. Against these chil-
dren of misfortune we are distressed to see

tl-,at several of our most influential con-
temporaries have raised a hand as stern and pitiless
as it is unhappily powerful. Under all circumstances
it is painful to witness the exercise of strength over
xteskness—whether it be in the ungenerous scorn
expressed by a victorious foe over a fallen antagonist,
or in the bludgeoning of the blind man and the
c:ipple, by a strong and ruffianly assailant. Such
a spectacle has been recently witnessed in the blows
levelled against the Polish refugees by the Times
e,wspaper and others of our Contemporaries. We
do aver, with our whole heart, that a proceeding
more disgraceful to the English press than the
me. to which we are here making reference
has seldom, if ever, been observed since journalism
:Int began to exercise its authority under the patron-
age of Lord BIIILLEIGLI, or under the auspices of Sir
ROGIIt L'ESTRANCB. It is an occurrence such as
cannot fail to derogate very materially from the repu-
tation of those so-called organs of public opinion in

the British capital ; especially when the powerless

position of the Polish refugees is contrasted with the
enormous influence of our great moaning Contem-
porary.
It will be well for the public to remark, however,
that the depi.eciation of the charities in behalf of
some hundreds of destitute foreigners, is merely
one out of a thousand examples of the principles
of Absolutism which the Conservative members
of the daily press of London are endeavouring
by everytpossiblp and impossible means to propagate.
We are here—let it be distinctly understood—re-

f_eering not only to the Times, but to the Morning
!"',t and the Morning Chronicle. Those journals
have latterly broken through all the bounds of de-
cent y in regard to continental politics, and have de-
graded the dignity of the journalism of England by
their malignant misrepresentation of the struggling
nationalities of Christendom.ti
the cause of retrogrestsiont ha Their enthusiasm in
carried them to extre-
mities so marvellous hthey have at last, without
blushing for such a totalsco abnegation of self-respect,
acorn at the
pointed the finger ofunfortunate refu-
pe3 from. Poland! We should have been
aeommon sense of manliness had notamazed that
prevented
most indecorous and disgraceful proceeding,
d this
-,N4J were prepared even for such extravag extravagant that that
4.ous of subserviency to the cause of Absolutism,elb by
ihe sentiments already enunciated upon the affairs of
t
the Continent by these among our morning Contem,
poraries. We had long observed that what was desig-
nated Conservatism in England was synonymous with
lOW is called Autocracy upon the Continent. The
ympathy evinced for everything despotic or repres-
-ive, whether in Austria or in Prussia, or else-
where, was altogether too glaring not to have
been recognised. We had seen the grossest
and meanest slanders that ever emanated from the
calninnious imagina4 of M. ExlLa DB GIRABDTN
repeated, and corrobortted, and bolstered up, and re-
tailed, and paraded with extraordinary gusto in the
cokinns of one journal. In another we had listened
to the echoed sophisms, of the odious and obsolete
potiey of statesmen such as GUIZOT and MBTTEIRMICII.
Wianrscrwaasz battered down the walls of
Vienna, if Milan was delivered up to the pillage of
th Croatians, if Prague was given to the flames, if
IJungary was ravaged by barbarian cohorts led
on by a eondottieri like (JKLLAculcu, if the
d
population of Posen was decimated by the excru-
ciating brutality of the Prussian soldiers—there was
loud cry of exultation at once audible among the
C4a,ervative journals of London. Wherever a tyrant
Pc3rjared himseif by s coup d'etat—wherever his
forces butchered the people in cold blood, there be
',lire were the hearts and the exulting Corres-
pondents of our Conservative Contemporaries. The
sinister influenoes of the AUTOCRAT were, in this
instance,
all powerful. The Tory journals
of London have rejoiced upon every
occasion
calculated to afford satisfaction to the Russian
Despot, and have lamented every circumstance, how-