The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Among several very unfounded charges brought
in the House of Lords on the first night of the ses-
sion, against the adminis ration of our foreign po-
licy, perhaps the most baseless and visionary of all
was that which imputed the present unsatisfactory
state of Turkey to our neglect of Turkish interests,
and ascribed to our blameable supineness, or apathy,
the exposure of its independence, either to the in-
roads of the Pacha of Egypt, or to the more dan-
gerous protection of the Russian Autocrat. It has
been said that immediately upon the breaking out
of the rebellion of Mehemet Ali against the Sultan,
his master, we ought to have interfered in favour
of the latter, and to have sent a squadron to the
Archipelago or to the coast of Syria, to have en-
forced the submission of the former. And it has
been argued, that if such had been our conduct, we
might have prevented the victorious approach of
Ibrahim towards the Turkish capital, and thus have
rendered unnecessary a course of policy which has
brought the Russians, as allies, into the heart of
a metropolis which they are so anxious to ob-
tain as conquerors. Perhaps no statement or argu-
ment was ever more erroneous or sophistical. The
quarrel between the Viceroy of Egypt and the
Sultan assumed first the character of a rupture be-
tween the Viceroy and Abdoullah, Pacha of Acre,
one of the provincial governors of Syria. In that
early stage of the contest, both of the contending
parties pretended to own equally the same allegiance
to the throne of Constantinople, and the Powers of
Europe could scarcely foresee a distant necessity of
interfering between them. Even after the six first
months of the war, when the Riche of Egypt had
overpo‘sered his weaker antagonist, had overrun
Syria with his victorious arms, had been declared a
rebel by the Sultan, and had seen all the Turkish
army prepared for punislrng his revolt, there was
still no call for English intervention. As long as
the dispute was limited to the demand of additional
territory on one side, and attempts at spolia-
tion or plunder on the other, it was but natural
that the British Government should consider it
as one of those thousand-and-one struggles be-
tween the Porte and its vassals which have lately
distinguished the anarchical annals of the Ottoman
empire. The Sultans of the north of Europe have
I:kevvise sometimes their quarrels with their suhjec s
—the dispute being sometimes between the Sove-
reign and his Senate, on matters of administration,
and sometimes between the people and their rulers.
nhout free institutions, as in Germany, where the
Governments endeavour to control their subjects;
but nobody ever dreamt of setting in motion fleets
or armies on the contingency of a danger to the
balance of European power from such a cause. It
was only therefore after the conquest of Syria, after
the march of the Egyptians across the Taurus, and
ott the advance of Ibrahim Pacha towards Constanti-
nople in consequence of the overthrew of the Turkish
army in the decisive battle of Koniah, that the
British Government was really required to interfere.
Had we been able earlier to procure for Mehemet Ali
the concession from the Sultan of all his demands
on Syria, we might have stopped the progress of his
arms before the important engagement to which we
have alluded. The Viceroy even offered, we be-
lieve, to retire in the autumn of 1832, provided
Great Britain would interfere as a mediator, and
guarantee his Syrian conquests; but as the Sultan
still considered his ultimate success against his reb I
subject as certain, and as the experience which we
bad acquired of his obstinate character in the nego-
tiations about Greece forbad us to hope that he
would became reasonable till he became unfortunate.
t must have appeared unwise on our part to require
toncessiotts so important before his defeat. But
when the advance of Ibrahim threatened the safety
of the Turkish capital, and perhaps the throne or
life of the Sultan himself, the remonstrances of the
British Government to Mehemet Ali became ne-
cessary, and certainly had the effect not only of
stopping the onward march of his army, but
even of causing him to abandon his claims
upon Adana, one of the most important provinces
of Northern Syria, and essential, from its exten-
sive forests, to the formation of his navy. It is
true this district was afterwards conceded to him
by the goodwill of the Sultan, or gained by the in-
trigues of his friends in the Divan ; but its conces-
sion had ceased to be essential to the retirement of
his troops or to the establishment of pea Ce. Had
Mehemet Ali been encouraged to proceed to extre-
mitiea by England, as it has been alleged, his army
could have been on the shore- of the Bosphorus long
before the arrival of the Russian auxiliaries of the
Sultan; and then the Turkish fleet and army, toge-
ther with every Osmanli at Constantinople (a few
Russianstipendiaries about the person of his Highness
excepted), would have drawn the cimeter to make
common cause with Ibrahim to accomplish the re-
generation of their country, aid to preserve it from
the withering embrace of its northern protectors.
Another prevalent mistake on this subject deserves
to be corrected. Mehemet Ali is no doubt a powerful
Monarch, and exercises almost independent sway in
the dominions which he has long possessed; but
the occupation of the Pachalics of Syria does not
render him less a vassal or tributary of the Porte
than lie had formerly been. He is nominated an-
nually to the various Governments which he
holds, like the other Pachas of the Ottoman em-
pire, arid his tribute to his sovereign Lord at Con-
stantinople is not only more regularly paid than
theirs, but will amount to a larger sum than has
hitherto been delivered into the coffers of the Sultan
by any of his predecessors. The statement which
we have just given, and the correction of the mis-
takes which a e have just pointed out, should pro-
duce an additional caution both in and out of Par-
liament in discussions on our diplomatic transactions
or foreign policy. It is enough that our Govern-
ment has bad to struggle against autocratic preten-
tions in the East—it ought not to be subjected to
domestic misrepresentation in our Parliamentary
speeches.—Times.
In the Court of Exchequer, on Monday last, was
presented another beautiful instance of the opera-
tion of our English law of libel. It was the case
of a newsvender sued by an attorney—and for
what ?—for publishing a libel on the said attorney,
by sell ng, in the way of his trade, a newspaper.
The Judge declared tha , as the law at present
stood, any party, whether newsvender or coffee-
house keeper, or any other sort of publisher, was
bound to know whether the publications he put forth
to the .‘oild contained libels or not ; and that, if he
did not take care to " ascertain the fact," he was
equally liable with the au her! There is a precious
law for you! Why, good God ! was such rank
nonsense as this ever before sanctioned by any
civilized legislature ? Here we find it expressly laid
down by sit able and excellent Judge, who is un-
qeestionably correct in his law, that every hotel-
keeper is bound " to ascertain" that the morning
or evening journals which lie on the tables of his
coffee-atom, for the entertainment of the geode-
men aho breakfast or dine there, contain no li-
bels against the Government, or egainst any mate
woman, or child, in the kingdom, before he can
venture to bring them into !vs house, on pain of
possible prosecution or action for libel ! But the
case on Monday was that of a newsvender. What
then is a newsvender? Somebody, we presume,
who tray be, in some way or other, concerned in
the writing, arranging, or. printing of a published
work ? No such thing. He is a tradesman of a
totally different calling. He is one who buys
journals by the hundred at a wholesale price, and
distributes them again by sale or hire for a moderate
profit amongst a crowd of customers, without ever
having a moment's time to look into the contents of
any one of such journals berme he so distributes them.
He is a mere common carrier of articles of the na-
ture of a hich he is wholly himself unconscious; the
only object to which he pays, or can pay, the least
attention, being the names of the journals which he
sells, and the Humber which he purchases, and from
the supply bt rt.? those who do read them
be itziakea—Eris ...oree4ty.. profits. How then is it
conceivable by being that such a man
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