The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-22 00:00:00

not generosity in the Sovereigns of the Holy
Alliance ?

We are told also that the Dutch question is
to be settled—in other words that Russia,
Prussia, and Austria will disarm (well knowing
that they can, from the nature of their military
organization, return to the war footing at a very
short notice), provided France and England will
compel the Belgians to give advantageous terms
to the King of HOLLAND. But will Lord
GREY or Marshal SOULT be induced to lay
down the mediator for the partisan, and side
with Holland merely for the purpose of gratifying
Russia, Austria, and Prussia ? No. They
have now obtained the vantage ground, and
they will be foolish indeed if they do not main-
tain it.

It appears by the correspondence of a Morning
Paper, that Sir STRATFORD CANNING and
suite had arrived at Madrid on the 9th of this
month. His Excellency was presented to the
KING and QUEEN the same evening; and im-
mediately after he had withdrawn, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs called together the Ambassa-
dors of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and the
Charge d'Affaires of Portugal, and communicated
to them the propositions of which Sir STRAT-
FORD was the bearer.

The nature of these propositions had not
transpired.

We shall probabv, however, learn in a few days
what the scope of Sir STRATFORD CANNING'S
mission really is. The general impression for
some time has been, that a settlement of the
Portuguese question is the principal object, in
which the Government of France cordially
concurs with our own. The recognition of
the South American Republics is another
matter, which, in a commercial point of view,
is considered as desirable for Spain herself as
for other nations. The convalescence of FER-
DINAND, «'ho still entertains his old predilections
in favour of the Apostolicals, rather clouds the
prospects of the liberal party. But much is ex-
pected from the influence of the QUEEN. So
far as Portugal is concerned, FERDINAND is
averse to interference, especially against Don MI-
GUEL . Should Marshal SOLIGNAC, however,
be able to raise the siege of Oporto, and beat
the Usurper's forces in a pitched battle, there is
no doubt that the cause of independence would
soon triumph in both countries. The liberation
of the Peninsula would be of immense and
immediate advantage to our manufacturing and
commercial interests. This alone ought to
prompt our Government to expedite a set-
tlement.

The great City Meeting which took place
yesterday on the subject of those three important
questions, the Ballot, the Repeal of the Septen-
nial Act, and the Assessed Taxes, is such as
cannot fail to have a salutary influence on Mini-
sterial policy. It is a sign of the times—an
earnest of the future—speaking in language
not to be mistaken, that the wishes of the
people, when just a►►d proper, and expressed in a
constitutional spirit, are not to be treated with
indifference even by a Reformed Cabinet. When
Mr. STANLEY made his famous declaration at
Lancaster against the Ballot, and in favour of
the " finality"—the word is not ours, but it is
an expressive one, and may stand—of Reform,
we saw, and warned him at the time, what would
be the consequence. In that declaration we
saw the germs of yesterday's triumphant meet-
ing. We now, for the second time, tell him,
that the effect of his folly will not stop here.
The example of the metropolis will be followed by
the provincial towns, for the Ballot, now that Mr.
STANLEY has thrown down the gauntlet of defi-
ance to the people on the subject, and so dared them
to the combat, will spread like a conflagration
throughout the kingdom. Truly Mr. STANLEY'S
ambition is immeasurable. Not content with being
the Phaeton of Ireland, he must set England
also in a blaze. Already he has been the means
of returning upwards of forty pledged Repealers to
Parliament, and had he but put forth his anti-ballot
manifesto before, instead of after, the elections,
and in the same braggart spirit, he would have
filled the House with the advocates of that
measure. It is fortunate for Government that
Mr. STANLEY did not slip the leash till the
elections were at an end.

The French papers of Sunday have been
received. The Quotidienne states that
the Prussian Ambassador was assiduous
in recommending the proposals of the Dutch
King to the Duke de BROGLIE.
The disarming of Prussia was considered as
a mere farce by well informed persons, though
the Prussian Ambassador was urging the neces-
sity of France giving guarantees for peace !

Mr. COLBURN'S New Monthly Library of
Modern Fiction, we understand, will consist solely of the
works of the mast celebrated of the modern Novelists ; in
short, of those who have been worthy and successful con •
temporaries of Sr WALTER SCOTT. Among them may
he mentioned the authors of " Tremaine," of " Pelham,"
of S tyings and Doings," of " Granby," of " Ma-
tilda," of " Brambletye House," of " Highways and
Bye Ways," of the " O'Hara Tales," and of several others.

Two mechanics were conversing on Friday
night in a public room in Fleet-street, when one of them ob-
served that a youth, whom they were talking about, was
a posthumous child, and would have a large fortune when
he came of age. What do you mean, said the other, by a
posthumous child ? " Why," answered an Irish lshourer,
who was present, " a child that was born before his father
to be sure."

PErtIGRINATIoNs OF A RAT.—One night,
last November, after CHARLES SALT (servant to Mr. J.
FROST, Wirksworth,) with his wife, had retired to rest,._
the candle being extinguished,—a rat came across Mrs.
SALT'S face, ran down her inside garment, ran up inside
her husband's shirt, to the neck, then down the sleeve,
which, being buttoned at the wrist, stopped the Journey.
SALT then seized the rat and killed it. Der //shire
courier.

MIRAGE SEEN BY THE FRENCH IN
EGYPT. —While the French army was marebin; through
the sandy deserts of Lower Egypt they saw various phe-
nomena of unusual refraction, to which they gave the
name of mirage. When the surface of the sand was
heated by the sun, the land seemed to be terminated at a
certain distance by a general inundation. The villages
situated upon eminences appeared to be so many islands in
the middle of a great like, and under each village there
was an invert,cl image of it. As the army approached the
boundary of the apparent inundation, the imaginary lake
withdrew, and the same illusion appeared round the next
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia.