The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is a characteriitic otctinnindthit it usually
busies itself about the attainment—of immediate
objects, and by toruous efforts; it is only wis-
dom that employs the instruments of truth and
frankness to comprehensive, durable, and noble
ends. It cannot be denied that on Monday
evening a motion made by the Duke of Wel-
lington, ostensibly in relation to Portugal, was,
in the above sense, ag, cunning" motion, as was
the speech with which be introduced it a cun-
ning discourse. The avowed purpose of the
" old soldier" Duke was the comprehensive and
noble one of recalling the Government of Eng-
land to its most solemn ditties, of correcting the
erroneous policy which it had pursued towards
Portugal, and restraining- its future acts within
those rules prescribed by the law of nations
'which, as his Grace alleged, had been repeatedly
and grossly violated by Lord Grey's Adminis-
tration. But the means adopted by the Duke and
his 79 supporters were not calculated to accom-
plish the end which they professed ; the terms
of the motion did not go directly to its avowed
purpose; they but prayed the King, in a vague
form of expression, to issue such directions as
might be necessary to enforce, on the part of
his Majesty's subjects, the observance of the
-neutrality which the King had declared towards
Portugal. Now, it was distinctly proved by
Lord Grey and the Lord Chancellor, that his
.Majesty bad no power to enforce upon his sub-
jects the same neutrality to which he himself
was bound, because, in fact, no such authority
belonged to the Sovereign, under the law of
of nations, and the Foreign Enlistment Bill was
not capable of being strained into an applica-
tion to any case but that in respect of which it
had been originally enacted. It is clear, there-
fore, that the motion of the Noble Duke pro-
' essed that which it did not really contemplate ;
but it did, on the other hand, meditate, aye,

:grallgpartly execute, that which it did not pro-
. rem. The Noble Duke procured by means
0 i iit .g .majority of Peers (certain Bishops
an, 'Gs them) against that Ministry through
who. se p 0 sot ssion of office he and his partisans
have for so, Is* time been excluded from it, and
effee tea a (ten: wary)
embarrassment of his poli-
wiAch he hoped would become a
41tai cil ppi:Thents%
motive to their in, 'mediate resignation. Now,
we Pi' .1 grapple for a .Ishort spell with this con-
segue nce of the Noble D: ite's manoeuvre, which,
let b im well understand, hears all the features
of sl iort-sighted cunning, ant!
not one apper-
tain. What
tail) ing to genuine sagacity or wisdom.
ultet 'ior object has his Grace in view ? To
becc ,me once more Minister of this grew! country
—if le Tory Minister ! But is the Noble Duke
areal ce ? He has for him a majority of the
tem 9 oral Peers, and a large one (God help
them ,!) of the Bishops. What else has he ?
It is , said, for the Duke, that he flatters himself
the pt, ople are generally with him, because they
},,,,,e 1. ometimes bowed to him in the streets, and
because. • they have learned to dislike the Whig
mi„istel 's,—that therefore, on the dissolution
of the in, esent Parliament, another would supply
its „6„., s ufficiently imbued with the old rotten-
o frough soirit to admit of the Government
cet.
r' g carried on upon the principles of schedule
b
If tliis -be the best result of the Noble
A. .eason. ing faculty, then, indeed, we must

Duke's r„
Trace in the same category with the
put his
Bishops,. and exclaim from the hot-
unfortunate
tlearts, ‘. God help him." Why
torn of our
es popular throughout the
are the Whigs.
k,evledge the fact—than they
country—we ac
I. tat binge the Duke of
have been ? for on
ht
to turn, as un,
r
Wellington's hopes ougi
. ~1 ortuties. The
doubtedly will his Munstem
unpopular beca:lse they
Whig Ministers are unp . _
have disappointed the confidence of independent
and honest men in the amount of practical re-
form with which they have followed up their
great original measure. They have been con
sidered less energetic economists, lest' active
friends of Portuguese and Polish liberty, than the
nation expected ; they have not teduced the most
obnoxious taxes,—they have not completed the
abolition of tithes,—they have striven to eon- .
ciliate the old Conservative grandees,--they have
not thrown themselves with frankness and cur.
diality upon the people, but have in too many
respects applied reform instruments to anti-
reform uses,..—in short, these Whigs, though
with sound and fair intentions, have, in ,
their demeanour, so mucll resembled Tories,
that a portion of that same national hatred
wherewith the Tories themselves are de-
tested has overflowed upon the com-
promising Whigs,—that is the secret of the un.
popularity now attached to the Administration
of Lord Grey, viz., that he is too near being
a Tory to suit the temper of the English nation,
and yet it is on an unpopularity of such a nature
that the Duke of Wellington indulges the chimera
of being permitted to retain the Government of
this emancipated people ! Now, it is not diffi-
cult to conjecture that a scheme so bottomed
must speedily fail ; but it is more than human
intelligence can predict through how much pub-
lic calamity it may be prosecuted, and by what
dreadful consequences to King, and Lords, and
Parliament, and people, it may and must be
OloWed. We tell the Noble Duke, and re-
spectfully we announce to his Royal Master,
that convulsion is on the heels of the formation of
a Wellington Cabinet,—that a Cabinet founded
on the politica! tendencies of the 80 Lords who
voted on the late Cccasion would be a direct war
upon the predominai:t spirit of this age and
country, and can lead to no .
alternative but revo-
lution. But it is impossible— the House of
Commons will interpose at once, ant: save the
Crown-and nation from the danger with which
it is 'threatened. The Duke's Cabinet, should
one be formed, cannot exist a week without dis-
solving Parliament, and what a Parliament will be
returned by the angry and excited nation ! Can
any :Sane man contemplate the result without
emotion ? The Duke, we trust, will pause be-
fore it is too late. The assurance of Lord
Palmerston, in reply to the Noble Member for
Devon, that the policy hitherto observed towards
Portugal will, while Lord Grey remains in office,
undergo no change for the worse, will give uni-
versal satisfaction.— Times.
The discussion on the Portuguese question
in the House of Lords on Monday has acquired
a new interest, not from any new facts alleged,
or any new arguments adduced in support of
one side or other of the question, but from the
extraordinary decision with which the debate
terminated. We have in the foregoing article
alluded to the probable effect of that decision as
a party proceeding; we shall now confine our-
selves to the mere arguments on the case, inde-
pendent of party. The public know that from
the. Bth of July last year, when the expedition
from Terceira lauded at Oporto, a civil war has
been raging in Portugal between the partisans of
two brothers, the elder of whom, being the legi-
timate heir of the Crown of Portugal, had re-
signed in favour of his daughter, who is now