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

publics of Spanish America, after offering her
:he honour and the advantage of the first
move.— Times.

We call the attention of our readers to a
communication from a correspondent, in another
column, on the subject of our crown colonies.
This is a question of more importance to the
people of this country than is generally ima-
gined. That the colonies can only protect
themselves from ahrises by means of local assem-
blies, will hardly be doubted in the present day.
It is quite impossible that functionaries in remote
quarters of the globe should ever be kept in
check by the authorities here. It is remarked
by the great historian of British India, Mr. Mill,
that the trial of Warren Hastings made it evi-
dent that whatever the conduct of a functionary
in any of our colonies, he might count upon
impunity wtth the utmost confidence here. But
the people of our colonies are not the only
sufferers by the abuse of power in them. It
must always be borne in mind that in proportion
to the mis-government is the expense entailed
on the people of England. A host of rapacious
functionaries provided for in the colonies, and
carrying with them from this country all the
extravagance of London fashionable life, create,
of course, discontent ; but this discontent is
not alone felt by the colonies—the people
of England must now pay large sums to
coerce the disaffected. Thus the evil acts and
re-acts. Our colonies are in fact kept up for the
' sake of the abuses—for the sake of furnishing
incomes for the connections and toad-eaters of

the nobility, who cannot be disposed of at home
The greater the abuse in the colonies, the
heavier the expense to England ; and the
heavier the expense to England, the greater
the abuse in the colonies ; for the two are
identical. There must be a power to correct
the evil on the spot, otherwise it will go on
augmenting. Rapacity is the never-failing ac-
companiment of British rule. The moment we
obtain a colony from the Dutch, Spaniards, or
French, salaries are decupled, and fees are
in-
creased in the same proportion. This is a
monstrous evil, and can only be controlled by
giving to the influential men of the different
colonies a control over their local expenditure.
We have no hesitation in saying, that we should
look on a determination to withhold charters
from the colonies as a determination to mis-
govern. But we will not presume so ill of
Ministers as to suppose that they would in the
colonies belie those principles to which they
have given effect at home.
" We have lately had occasion to call the attention of
our readers to an article which appeared in our columns of
the sth uh., on the question of giving charters to the
Crown Colonies, now that the great point of Em incipa•
lion 11.. s been carried. We thought then, with the
writer of this article, that the time was come for this
boon on the part of the conqueror.
" It would, perhaps, be invidious to make any selec-
tion or distinction in this respect—those Colonies who
had possessed something like an independent Constitution,
or House of Assembly, under the present Government, so
as to regulate the revenue and expenditure, would most
probably be satisfied with the restitution of tho.e powers
founded upon the ancient principles, but accommodated
to pre,tent circumstances. Indeed, we do not see
how Government could safely go further. We would
not be understood to mean that there was
absolute danger in conceding more. While the
question of slavery or non-slavery was pending, great
excitement naturally prevailed, and must have been most
loudly expressed where there was the greatest freedom ;
therefore the chartered colonies naturally took the lead.
That perturbed spirit, it is to be hoped, is now at lest,
and the opposition has evaporated harmlessly through the
safety valve of their Constituent Assemblies.
" We shall return to this subject soon, but we are glad
to perceive, from the late communications from the Mau-
ritius, that there was no foundation for the reports which
gave rise to the Governor's proclamation, respecting the
secret depots of arms in that colony, though we do not
blame his precaution.
" Indeed all our accounts from the Crown colonies in
general lead us to believe that they will, by their conduct
in the great change now to be made in their social relations
and institutions, under the authority of Parliament, show
that they are worthy to be intrusted with their own inter-
nal regulations and economy in some simple form of local
legislation."—Morning Chronicle.
There are those, we are aware, who would
persuade us that the contest which has been
going on in Portugal is one which need but
little interest the people of this or of other
countries. Such persons must, however, be very
shallow reasoners, and still shallower observers
of the signs of the times. If the contest were
merely one between the two brothers, Pedro
and Miguel as to which should hold the crown
upon the same terms, then, indeed the issue
might be one of' little, if any, interest to the rest
of Europe ; but, connected as it is on the one
side with the cause of universal despotism, and
on the other side with the existence of free in-
stitutions in countries which have, and which
have not hitherto enjoyed them, the success of
the Queen's cause, and the expulsion of Miguel
from the seat of his usurped authority, is an affair
which must come home to the hearts and wishes
of all those who inhabit that cradle of freedom,
which Great Britain happily still is, except, in-
deed, that small part of the British people, who,
with motives and with notions which it is diffi-
cult to fathom or to reconcile with any principles
of right feeling or common sense, profess to
see in the march of freedom a degree of dangcr
which unhappily that of despotism does not pre-
sent to their view. The evident union of ob-
jects which exists between the great Nor-
thern Powers of Europe, the Carlists of
France and Spain, and a small party in this
country to whom we have alluded, leaves no
doubt on which side in the Portuguese contest
the friends of freedom must range themselves ;
or if any doubt could exist, the very fact that
Bourmont and La Rochejacquelin are to be
found in the ranks of the Portuguese despot,
would furnish undeniable evidence that on the
soil of Portugal, at this moment, the liberties
or the chains of great part of the civilized world
are contending for. Nor can it be other than a
mortifying reflection to every Englishman that,
in this conspiracy against public freedom, some
names are to be unquestionably found enrolled,
which, to be found in such an association,
carries with it a degrading mortification, which
every honest mind would be happy to escape
from. In private life it is said, with truth, that
every man's honour is in his own keeping—in
public life, there are men whose character and
whose honour belong to their country, and
whose reputation cannot be tarnished without
that country, and the very page of history,
partaking of the stain. We are not so ena-
moured of Whig Government, as to wish to
see its reign perpetual. We would much
rather see an extinction of all parties, or
rather au amalgamation of them for the public
Eot
uo da•
hßatil
almost
i(f)syttollweepr
unparalleled,ar ty
tar i careerved
to
ofd drop
p-
the reins of
per-
petual exclusion from would confirm their
offic(e)i.
doing
could not
tsothan by
take more effectual means
siding with the cause of despotilin
or wherever else it is to be found. The Portugal,i d
scribable infatuation of this is such,
'that nit ei:
necessary to live in the times in which the scenes

are acting to give credence to the mortifying fact
that the one great name which has, by its unex-
ampled prowess, laid prostrate the most gigantic
despotism which the later ages of the world
have ever witnessed, would assist in establishing
another, the success of which, were it possible,
would crush the very germs of liberty wherever
they exist, and bring back again to benighted
Europe a long age of darkness. Such, then,
being the issue at stake, it is in vain to tell us
that any feature of such a contest can be for a
moment a matter of indifference to the people
of any part of Europe, least of all to any portion
of the British nation. The success of Miguel
in Portugal would, it is clear, be the triumph
of the enemies of freedom every where, as his
defeat will, we trust, prove the overthrow of the
hopes and expectations of those whose insane
and unnatural object it appears to be that the
world should retrograde and not advance ; and
whose mad ambition it is to throw back man-
kind into that state of mental and corporeal vas-
salage which it has been the work of ages to
rescue them from.—Morning Herald.
We fully expected that the Ministerial jour-
nalist who could so far sport with the feelings
of the public as sneeringly to say on Monday
evening that " we had become extremely scep-
tical on the subject of Bourmont, but that he
had no objection to anybody's spinning hypo-
thetical cobwebs," would last night have consi-
dered himself bound to produce same confirma-
tion of the several facts which he had asserted,
viz., Bourmont's secession, and his departure,
as well as that of the Infante Don Carlos, for
Spain, and also the proclamation of the latter in
Toledo. These four facts the Globe asserted
on Monday evening, and there are accounts in
town from Madrid to the 29th ult. at night.
Now we ask him, has he or any one else in
London received a confirmation of any one of
the abcve four assertions ? We have made
careful inquiries at both ends of the town, and
know of a few letters from Madrid, of the late
date above mentioned, and yet not one of them
even hints either at Bourmont's withdrawal from
the King of Portugal's service, or any movement
on the part of the Spanish Infante. Under
date of the 24th, and in some of the Lisbon
letters brought by the African, mention is,
we have before acknowledged, made of Bour-
mont's withdrawal ; and other letters, equally
entitled to credit, add that the origin of the re-
port was British, meaning that it arose out of a
certain intercourse which some British naval
officers had with the Miguelites, and this cir-
cumstance is also repeated in letters written on
board of one of the British ships of war ; but if
this story rests merely on an on dit, or on the
fact of the Count de San Lourenqo having
opened a letter addressed to Marshal Bourmont,
which letter, it was well known, related to the
embarkation of certain wounded French officers
in a British packet, we very strongly suspect that
those who first spread the report in Lisbon have
been hoaxed. The communications in question
with the British officers took place at Sacavem,
about five miles above Lisbon, whither the for-
mer went in their boats. Bourmont, from the
12th, had fixed himself at Campo Grande,
where he attended to nothing but the organiza-
tion and exercising of the troops ; and Campo
Grande is not more than three miles from Lis-
bon, a little inland, and not on the water's edge.
Lumiar, where the King had his quarters, is a
mile nearer to Sacavem, and the Count de
San Louren'o, the War Minister, was conse-
quently with him ; and to them it is therefore pre-
sumable that any correspondence from Lord
W. Russell or Admiral Parker would be re-
ferred and more quickly answered. As to the
assertion of the Infante Don Carlos' departure
for Spain, it rests on authority equally slender.
Abrantes, where his Royal Highness has been
for some time past, is twenty-two and a half long
leagues from Lisbon. By what privileged con-
veyance, then, could our contemporary know any
such circumstance ? As to the Infante s Pro-
clamation in Toledo being known in London on
Monday the idea in itself is ridiculous, unless
the ceremony took place before his brother's de-
mise. Toledo is twelve and a half leagues south
of Madrid, and it would take some time for the
news of the King's death to get thither and
back, independent of the preparations for the
ceremony. Toledo is supposed to be favourable
to the claims of the Infante Don Carlos, and on
this account that ancient city was, perhaps, men-
tioned ; but does our contemporary suppose that
the Spanish Government, better informed upon
these points than he or his monitors can be in
London, had not taken their precautions on that
particular spot ? We think that when our con-
temporary comes to reflect a little, and consults
his geography, he will see that it is he who has
been spinning hypothetical cobwebs rather than
ourselves. We are not unmindful, we repeat,
that the circumstance of Bourmont's with-
drawal is mentioned in English letters of great
weight and authority, which makes us, in the
absence of details, the more cautious in giving a
positive denial to the fact ; but the authorities
alluded to are not infallible. We have openly
stated our reasons why we disbelieved the as-
sertion, and argued the point in the face of
nearly the whole of the London Press, and we
now assert that the grounds of our disbelief are
materially strengthened by the silence of Madrid
letters of the 27th, 28th, and 29th on so im-
portant a point as the withdrawal of the French
officers. The Courier, however, outstrips the
Globe. Our zealous contemporary last evening
' expresses himself thus :—" We have to day
heard, on good authority, one fact which we
did not previously know, confirmatory of part of
the news brought by the African steamer. When
the African called off Villa Franca several French
officers who had left Don Miguel's army made
applications for a passage on board that vessel
to England. The applications were refused."
So far our contemporary ; but where, in the
name of heaven ! does he imagine Villa Franca is
situated, when the African could call off there
on her way to England ? Villa Franca, our con-
temporary will find, if lie turns to his map,
stands on the Tagus, six leagues above Lisbon ;
and was that the route which the African took
on her way to Falmouth ? The idea is as ori-
ginal as that of a French man of war ascending
the Tagus with a view to bombard Elvas !
Really if poor Bourmont's secession is to rest
on such flimsy grounds as those adduced by
either the Globe or the Courier, his friends and
ishers may be perfectly at ease. As to
the fact mentioned by the Courier, in the para-
graph above quoted, we are enabled to set him
right from information of rather a more positive
kind than any we have relating to the French
officers, subsequent to the 20th. A passage in a
British packet was never refused to any of them,
sick or wounded, who applied. Quite the re-
verse. In the action of the sth two or three
French officers were wounded, and there might
be a few others who had suffered fiom the
climate, and found it necessary to come to

England or France for medical aid. On
their behalf Bourmont applied direct to Ad-

miral Parker, and we have every reason to

believe that in the most handsome man-

ner the latter arranged the matter with
the Pedroite authorities. The Captain of
the packet in such a case, therefore, would
scarcely make an objection. We do know
that on the strength of the arrangement so
made one wounded French officer proceeded
direct to Lisbon. At the lines he was met by
two Pedroite officers, and by them politely and
considerately conducted to the Caes de Sodre, or
Black Horse-square Stairs, where he was put
into a boat and went on board of either an
English or French vessel, and, if he did not
come in the packet, it was not because the
Captain refused to receive him. He did not
take boat at either Sacavem or Villa Franca. If
we mistake not, the negotiations (exclusively
English) which took place respecting the embarka-
tion of a few sick or wounded French officers,
gave rise to the whole story of Bourmont's seces-
sion, in like manner as the overtures or advice
conveyed by Colonel Hare to the Royalists led
to the report that the latter had offered terms to
the holders of Lisbon. This matter, however,
will soon be cleared up by the arrival of another
packet ; but, in the meanwhile, we most sin-
cerely hope that the Royalists will not be so
squeamish as they have hitherto been. They
now know the views of their enemies in their
fullest extent. They have had specimens of
their delicacy. Why, then, not lay before the
world Colonel Hare's overtures, Capt. Napier's
correspondence, and the negotiations regarding
the embarkation of a few wounded and sick
French officers ? These papers would make
pretty pendants to the " intercepted letters," of
which we have heard and seen so much. Capt.
Napier's letters would, perhaps, be the brightest
gems in the whole collection, if what we have
heard of them is true ; therefore it would be well
to produce them.—Morning Post.
We give insertion, in another part of this
day's paper, to two letters on the subject of the
associations which are now forming, or in the
progress of formation, to resist the direct pay-
ment of the assessed taxes—or rather upon
an article of ours upon the subject some time
ago. The one comes from Mr. Savage—the
other from a well-known and valued correspon-
dent. Both are criminatory of the opinions
which we have expressed on the subject ; but
both also, we think, have totally mistaken their
spirit and object. That spirit was that it was
more just, proper, and agreeable to the Consti-
tution of the country to obtain the repeal of the
obnoxious assessed taxes by legal and consti-
tutional proceedings, in due time and at a proper
season, than to resist their payment when their
levy had been authorised by the constitutional
authorities of the country, and there existed no
ground to hope that their immediate repeal
could be effected—and not assuredly, as appears
to have been imagined by our correspondents,
that we deemed associations for obtaining their
repeal to be either illegal or improper, or un-
called-for. Associations of all kinds, whatever
may be their objects, are, in every case, a species
of ultima ratio, to which recourse is only had by
reasonable people when all other means of ob-
taining redress have failed—they are only to be
encouraged, and patronized, and supported,
when there exists such constitutional ground for
their formation ; for what, in fact, are all associa-
tions, having for their object the promotion of
arrangements in opposition to the views of the
Legislature and of the executive, but a sort of
imperium in imperio—an under species of go-
vernment, which would control the proceedings
of that to which the powers of the state have been
delegated. Now we are prepared to contend that
although it may be, and is, perfectly lawful, and
Just, and proper, on the part of the people, to
obtain the repeal of the assessed or of any other
taxes that may be obnoxious to them, either by
petitions or by associations—and that when
these have utterly failed, they may, with equal
justice and propriety, resist their payment—yet
that no case has been made out to justify, in
our opinion, the adoption of the ultima ratio—
the refusal to pay the taxes. A portion of these
taxes is, unquestionably, most oppressive and
most injurious; and another portion is most
unequally levied ; but we put it again to both
our correspondents, whether the appeals hitherto
made to the Government and the Legislature
have been so frequent, so numerous, and
so utterly hopeless as to the result, as to
justify the adoption of resolutions, whose
object is disobedience to the laws of the
country—whose example is pregnant with
danger—and whose fruits may be employed
for the vilest purposes ? Let the repeal of
the taxes be obtained, if they be obnoxious, and
let associations be formed for that purpose, if it
seem meet to those who pay them, for there is
nothing in such conduct which is not strictly
constitutional ; but the determination not to pay
taxes which have been so long submitted to
with comparatively little murmuring whose
collection has been sanctioned by the Legisla-
ture, and whose repeal cannot be obtained until
Parliament has again assembled for thedespatch
of business, is a very different thing, and does
not, by any means, appear to us to be war-
ranted by the circumstances of the case.
What is there in the character of the pre-
sent Government to induce us to despair
of obtaining the repeal of these taxes ?
Nothing that we are aware of. It may not
have marched to the redress of grievances
and the abolition of unjust taxes, with all the
alacrity and rapidity which could have been
desired ; but, on the other hand, have not all
its measures in both respects had the good and
the relief of the people at heart ? What other
Government that is known to any of us, has
done so much for the cause of popular right
and popular relief, as that which we now possess?
With all its errors and failings, it is the best.
We owe to it the Reform Bill—a boon which
ought to make some atonement for errors in
other respects—and we owe to it a greater reduc-
tion of unnecessary places and uncalled-for taxes
than we have ever been indebted for to any other
body of men. What reason, then, is there
cominge to the conclusion, that resistance to
the nt of the assessed taxes is the only mode
forof
obtaining their abolition ? Is not the cha-
racter of the Government itself, evidenced as
it is by the most satisfactory experience, a suf-
ficient guarantee that the wishes of the public
will be complied with as soon as the meeting of
have
given to his Majesty's
unity of submitting to it
Parliament
the shall al
opportunity
)ort
the propriety of the repeal of the taxes in ques-
tion ?--Since writing the above, we have received
reports of various meetings in different parts
of the metropolis, in all of which a resolution
of passive resistance has been agreed to. We
miniter
s have read them with pain and regret ; and we
cannot but deplore the consequences which
their example as a precedent, must entail upon