The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PU BLIC JOURNALS.

We differ materially from the Courier, with respect
to the effect of the repeal of the tax on the newspapers
in extending political information. "We do not wish
to deny any class access to political knowledge (says
an evening contemporary): but still less do we wish to
make innovations of which no one can foresee the re-
sult, more especially when they are not called for by
any large portion of the public. Besides, the aboli-
tion of the tax on newspapers will not add one atom to
the public knowledge and information existing in the
country ; but it will add immeasurably to the means
of misrepresenting and vilifying some of our mopt
valuable institutions ; and of undermining that
confidence and feeling of security that are indiO-
pensable not only to national prosperity, but almost
to our existence as an independent state." In
one sense it may be said that the aboli-
tion of the tax on Newspapers will not add to the
political knowledge and information existing in the
country. If there were only five hundred thousand
persons able to read at all in the country, the political
information possessed might be as great as now. But
it will not surely be contended that the repeal of the
tax on Newspapers will not extend the existing stoqk
of knowledge and information to a much larger pro-
portion of the population. No invention of man ever
equalled that of Newspapers for alluring the mass of
mankind to the acquisition of knowledge, and that
the most important of all knowledge. No man can
read, day after day, the reports of proceedings in the
Courts of Law and in -Parliament, to say nothing
of other articles of foreign and domestic intelli-
gence, without having his faculties sharpened,
and his mind stored with knowledge of constant
applicability to the affairs of life. The repeal of the
tax would bring newspapers within the reach of num-
bers who have no access to them at present, and con-
sequently raise them greatly in the social scale. It is
possible, however, that though the mass of the people
must be improved, the tone of newspapers in general
may be something lower than at present. The exist-
ing opinions and prejudices of a lower class, will pro-
bably be taken into consideration by public writers.
This will be so far a deduction from the benefit. We
would fain hope, however, that even here the increas-
ing good sense of the people will soon correct the evil.
It is to be borne in mind that the people will have con-
stant access, through Parliamentary and other reports,
to the arguments on all sides ; and it is impossible to
suppose that these will not be without their effect in
correcting errors and prejudices, and thus destroying
the motives for misleading the people.—Morning
Chronicle.

The few devoted Whig papers which London now
boasts have had the hardihood to deny the coalition
between the Melbourne Ministry and Mr. O'Connell,
while their own columns afford ample testimony, if any
were wanting, to convince every reasonable mind that
a most disgraceful compact exists between the rulers of
the British empire and the Repeal agitator of Ireland.
Scarcely had the existence of such a coalition been
made manifest by the withdrawal of the political clauses
from the Coercion Bill, at the desire of the Agitator,
and by the adoption of his plan for confiscating two-
fifths of the property of the Irish Church, than the
Government papers, more especially that one of which
the protocol-Minister is the inspirer and oracle, be-
gan to defame and vilify the Administration of Lord
Grey, which had been so lately the object of their
unqualified admiration. Coincident with the disCo-
very made by the Whig papers of the errors and
imperfections of Lord Grey's Government, appeared
the history of the " crimes and follies" of his
Lordship's Administration, from the pen of that
accurate, dispassionate, and most impartial his-
torian—Mr. Daniel O'Connell! Never did those
papers breathe a word of the narrowness and insuffi-
ciency of the Grey Cabinet until the success of the
base intrigue which displaced the late Premier and
gave Mr. O'Connell an irresponsible control over the
Councils of Great Britain. Then those servile papers
received the cue to run down the memory of Lord
Grey's Cabinet, and to underrate the value of Lord
Grey's measures. They have done this, to be sure,
with a great show of personal respect for the betrayed
and ousted Premier himself ; but this is only putting,
honey on the poison which treacherous friendship ad-
ministers to the victim of its treachery. But whatever
disgraceful concessions our Whig Ministers may be
prepared to make to the repeal-agitator, the bigotted
adherent of the Papal system, and virulent denouncer
of every thing Protestant, it is gratifying to all English--
men who really regard the religion and the Constitu-
tion
of their country, to find that the Protestants of
Ireland have at length come forward in a manner
worthy of the cause which they have to defend, and cal-
culated to baffle the designs of the enemies of the re-
formed faith and of British connection. In the elo-
quent and argumentative speech of Mr. Mortimer
O'Sullivan, in reply to the vituperative falsities of Mr.
O'Connell, he says " within the last few years 120,000
Protestants have fled from the persecutions that wasted
them here, and they have been suffered to depart with-
out an effort to detain them, and have left no salutary
warning to guard against the further diminution of the
friends of England. Most true it is that the Protes-
tants of Ireland are almost the only inhabitants of that
country who are friends to the connection with this
country. The Popish agitators know that if they can
thin the ranks of the Protestants they so far remove
the obstacle to the separation of the two countries ;
and they also know that the way to effect this
object is by that unceasing agitation which makes life
and property insecure. In this object they are but
too well assisted by the weak and compromising coun-
cils of our rulers, who seem to care nothing even for
the extermination of the Protestant religion, provided,
by that means, they can secure in Parliament the votes
of Mr. O'Connell and " his tail." Therefore do we
rejoice that the Irish Protestants have determined to
put the Government to the test whether there is to be
a Papal ascendancy in Ireland, or a Protestant Con-
stitution.—Morning Herald.
The Courrier Francais speaks of the arrival of a
courier from Constantinople, bearer of the copy of an
official note lately addressed to the Porte by the Bri-
tish Ambassador, relative to Wallachia and Moldavia,
which the Russians were not known to have evacuated
up to the Ist inst. The object of the official note in
question is said to have been that of urging the evacua-
tion of the two principalities by a renewal of .remon-
strances on the part of the Turkish Government to the
Court of Russia. We have reason to think that the
Courrier has fallen into an error as to place when
speaking of Wallachia and Moldavia, and that if any
remonstrances have been deemed necessary, they were
rather directed against the occupation of Silistria,
where the Russians have, for reasons best known to
themselves, thought proper to leave a garrison.
This is not the only proceeding by which the bad
faith of Russia regarding the execution of some of the
most important stipulations of the treaty of Adrianople
has been made apparent. Russia had formally agreed
to cause her troops to be withdrawn from Wallachia
and Moldavia immediately after receiving payment of
the instalment of 1,000,000 of ducats, which was to
be reserved as an indemnity for the commercial losses
incurred by the war. That instalment was paid in
1831 by
.the Porte, who then expressed a hope that
the principalities would be forthwith evacuated. The
Russian troops, however, remained in them full three
years after, giving as their reason the Porte's remiss-
ness in paying the instalment designated as a war-con-
tribution in the treaty, although it is undeniable that
the non-evacuation at the stipulated time fully justified
the Porte's want of punctuality in the fulfilment of
the remainder of its engagements. Shortly after the
return to the principalities of the two Hospodars from
Constantinople, however, the Russian troops withdrew
into Bessarabia, and left the Sultan s nominal
deputies to rule according to the dictates of the
Russian Consuls in Bucharest and Jassy, and the
mandates coming from St. Petersburg!). But Silistria,
an important point on the Bulgarian side of the
Danube, remains garrisoned by Russian soldiers.
There is a strong fortress there, which, quite as much
as Routschiouk, may be regarded as one of the ram-
parts of the Turkish capital, and the key to the prin-
cipalities. So long as such a place remains in the
hands of the Russians, it is a mere farce to make a
parade of the evacuation of the principalities. On
what grounds Russia is prepared to justify so manifest

a breach of 'faith as the proceeding regarding Silistria _
implies, we should be curious to learn. Neither the
treaty of the Bth of July nor the convention entered
into at St. Petersburgh with Achmet Pasha has con-
ceded to Russia the right of maintaining a garrison in
that place. Nor can we possibly conceive that any
neglect on the part of Turkey to fulfil the stipulations
of the treaty of Adrianople could be now made the
ground of so glaring a deviation from it by the Czar.
If the British ambassador has taken up the matter in
the way partly understood by the Courrier Francais,
he has done what he should do so far, to rescue Tur-
key from the state of dependence on Russia, in which
the Sultan and his advisers have lately been doing their
best to place her. 'We find by various extracts from
the German papers that the latter, those at least which
are devoted to Russia, continue to misrepresent the
state of Turkey, the state of Egypt, and the causes
and means of suppression of the late revolt in Syria
above all. The organs of the Cabinet of St. Peters-
burgh are unwilling to perceive that things may be made
to go on in Turkey in a way which would not harmo-
nize with the schemes of Russian policy, and they have
the folly to imagine that all other people will choose to
be as short-sighted as themSelves.—Times.
We know nothing more ineffably disgusting than
the silly cackle of a great portion of the London and
Parisian press, respecting that part of the financial
scheme of the Spanish Minister, De Toreno, which
proposes, on the one hand, to incorporate with the
regular recognized and :national. debt of the country
the various sums borrowed by it, and appropriated to
its use, by the constitutional authorities of Spain ; and,
on the other, not to recognise, or to repay, either the
principal or interest of those loans which are known
by the names of Royal or Legitimate. The resolu-
tion of the Procuradores has, as might naturally have
been expected, given as much satisfaction on the
former, as that respecting the latter has originated
of clamour and discontent—a clamour of " breach of
faith," of " broken honour," and of " national
bankruptcy," and of discontent that what was
most usuriously lent for the promotion of evil pur-
poses, should be likely to follow its original borrower
to the " tomb of all the Capulets." For our part,
however, and we care not though we stand alone in the
opinion, as indeed we are very likely to do, we rejoice
and are gratified that the usurers are likely to be dis-
appointed of their expected prey—that the stranglers
and slayers of a nation's freedom are likely to meet
with their just reward—that the abettors of despotism
are likely to fall into the pit which they had dug for
others—and that the Spanish Government and Spanish
people have had sense enough to discriminate, as they
have done, between just and unjust debts, and courage
and spirit enough to resolve on meting out even-handed
justice to their foes as well as to their friends. "If
there is any thing odious," as is justly observed in
the Observador, a Madrid journal, " about Count
Toreno's plan, it is the placing on the same footing our
friends and our enemies, and in paying in the same way
those who were the objects of English hospitality, but also
those who have been receiving their dividends with im-
pure hands, and those whose claims have hitherto been
annulled. Annulled, did we say ? No, they have
not been, and they are not annulled. In our mind,
never were annulled the rights of those who desired to
contribute to our political regeneration ; in the hearts
of Spaniards never were annulled the claims of the
English, which are the more sacred because they are
English. Appeal to the innumerable victims who
were so cordially assisted, received, and protected, as
soon as they reached the soil of Great Britain. Ap-
peal to sympathy, to national gratitude, and you will
see whether every Spaniard, every Liberal, not only
those who have been their relations, friends, or com-
patriots, find a refuge in that country, does not feel
anxious to do justice to that flee and generous nation
for the liberality it showed at the time of our struggle
for liberty, and for the hospitality it displayed at the
time of our misfortunes. Let every farthing be paid,
without the slightest question,to every Englishman and
Frenchman who endangered their own interests for our
cause. Let those who risked their fortune for an op-
posite cause await their reward until the triumph of
Don Carlos." Aye, truly ; a most admirable plan,
and a just one to boot. The holders of the Cortes
Bonds have waited with great and exemplary patience
until those to whom they lent their money were in a
situation to acknowledge their debt, if not to repay
them ; and why should not the owners of the " Royal
Bonds" also wait for the triumph of Don Carlos, or,
what is equally hopeful, the return of Ferdinand him-
self ? With the payment of these loans, the Cortes
have no more to do than the English Parliament or the
French Chambers. They were not only contracted with-
out their consent, but against, ane in spite of their will
—they were contracted upon the most usurious terms,
and for the purpose of putting down and keeping
down the Liberals of Spain ; and are we to be told at
this time of day that loans thus contracted, and for
such base purposes, ought to be repaid by those who,
in consequence of them, were deprived of their liberty
and property, and sent to starve in exile upon the
bounty of foreigners ? Truly this is carrying gene-
rosity somewhat too far. The French stock-jobbers
knew perfectly well what they were about—they were
perfectly aware of the risks which they ran of never
being repaid—they knew also for what base and
unholy purposes their usurious loans were wanted
—they did nothing in ignorance, but were in every
respect gnari fraudis—and yet they would now
accuse those whose throats they did their utmost
to cut, of a breach of faith, and would call
upon the Constitutional Government of France
to make war, if need be, upon that of Spain, in order
to compel payment of twenty shillings in the pound for
every ten of basely misapplied wealth which they lent
to Ferdinand I Some people can lie with a grace, and
others can bluster and grow impudent in proportion to
the badness of their cause ; but a more matchless,
more inexcusable, or more gross attempt to bolster a
bad cause, and bully a brave people, has never come
before us than that of the French holders of the
Royal Bonds. But as the Observador says,—
" What can that Cabinet do ? Is the affair any
of theirs ? What ! would the French Minister, for the
purpose of defending the interests of four stock-jobbers,
be so mad as to threaten Spain;—for his threats could
not be directed against our Government, inasmuch as
it appertains to the Cortes to vote all matters of finance?
And would French liberalism permit, for the contemp-
tible interests of four exchange intriguers, and gross
usurers, who have made immoderate fortunes, that poor
Spain, who can scarcely raise her head out of the abyss
into which she was plunged by the unjust war of Bo-
naparte, and the unjust war of 1823—poor Spain, we
repeat, reduced to misery by Bonaparte and by the
policy of the Bourbons, both French, should bow
down another time in affliction and misfortune, in order
that the hopes of four intriguers, who bear the name
of Frenchmen, may not be disappointed. If France
were truly liberal—if France were just, she would deal
in a very different manner with Spain ; and as far as
lay in her power, she would indemnify us for the evils
she has caused us. In place of exacting the 8,000,000 f.
which, with so much complacency, she receives for the
expenses of the impious war of 1823, she ought to
consider that it was her unjust aggression that intro-
duced disorder, fraud, and deception, into her treasury.
She ought to consider that she is the sole cause of the
scandalous finance operations of the Bourse at Paris ;
she ought to consider, that in paymemt of the innu-
merable misfortunes which Spain owes to France, it
would be her duty to take on herself the arrangement
of this sacrilegious debt, and to compel, for she has the
individuals in her power, those who have taken
too much, to disgorge their gains, and to in-
demnify those who have received too little." In
these observations we cordially concur. The
French government has nothing to do with the matter,
and if it had, as it has not, a semblance of right to
interfere, it would cover itself with disgrace were it to
attempt it. No, the Royal bond-holders lent their
money to a bad paymaster for the support of a bad
cause with their eyes open—let them get it back the
best way that they can, and let this rule be held uni-
versally applicable to all such transactions, and people
will become more careful, on the one hand, to whom
they lend their money, and, on the other, for what pur-
poses. This view of the matter will not, we are aware,
render us favourites with the Stock-exchange ; but
n'importe—we owe nothing to the gentlemen who
figure there—we never had a professional favour, or a