The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-22 00:00:00

advisers may find that a very dangerous experi-
ment has been attempted. When Crown and
Parliament are in direct opposition—when the
one raises the standard of despotic authority and
the other of constitutional law, we may readily con-
ceive that an easy victory cannot be achieved over
those who have the sympathies of the nation in
their favour.

At present we must be contented to watch the
contest in silence, neither interfering ourselves nor
allowing others to interfere. The Spanish people
have a right to select their own form of govern-
ment. That is a privilege which NAPOLEON can-
not refuse, inasmuch as it is the basis on which 1
his own title to the Imperial Throne entirely rests.
It must also be borne in mind that there has been
no attempt on the part of the People against the
existing state of affairs. It is the QUEEN that has
assailed the Constitution to which she owes her
power, and the Cortes and the nation are fully
justified in resisting to the utmost the unjustifiable
and impolitic attempt.

Notwithstanding the opposition with which he
was greeted from all sides of the House, the
country will sympathise with the Hon. Gentle-
man the member for Bridport in the just indig-
nation which he manifested with respect to the
undue favouritism manifested towards the Ger-
man mercenaries. In every instance those who
did not behold a single shot fired in anger, who
only shed the blood of those by whom they have
been fed and supported, have been preferred
before our own most gallant troops. The furni-
ture supplied to the German officers at Shorn-

cliffe and Aldershot, but denied to British officers,
may, per se, be a matter of comparatively trivial
importance ; but it is part of a highly-objection-

able system. 'Like the straw flung up, it indi.
- -

cates the direction of the wind ; and when we
couple it with the free passage to, and
grants of land in the colonies, while the
English and Irish militiamen are stripped of their
clothes, deprived of the bounty to which they
were fairly entitled, and turned loose on the
world to beg or plunder, we cannot feel sur-
prised that a deep feeling of indignation should
be excited against those through, whose presumed
influence this untoward state of affairs is pro-
duced.

Nor can we be astonished that the parties
;hus petted should presume on the indulgence, and

think that they too can display hauteur and in-
solence towards the mere English, whom they are
taught to regard as an inferior race, unable to
govern or protect themselves without German
assistance. We may easily judge of the blessing
we have lost in so steadily refusing to accept a
Standing German Legion for garrison and active
duty within the United Kingdom. There can be
no doubt that such a consummation was contem-
plated at the time that the Foreign Enlistment
Bill was so recklessly hurried through both
Houses, and it was only from the tone adopted
in Parliament, and by the Press generally, of
all shades and varieties of political opinion,
that the full development of the project was
averted. Had it been carried out as originally
intended, we should have been justified in in-
quiring " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes," in de-
manding additional protection against the vaga-
ries of these quasi conservators of the public
peace. As it is, we cordially concur with Mr.
Mrar.ouort in thinking that the retention of a
large body of foreign troops during a time of
peace is disgraceful to the Government. We
are convinced that we are speaking the almost
unanimous opinion of the country in de-
manding that they should be despatched
to their place or places of destination
with all possible expedition ; and we ♦enture
also to assert that the departure of other Germans
from our shores would be hailed with unequivo-
cal delight throughout the country. We may,
therefore, paraphrase a toast once proposed at the
Beef Steak Club in Ireland, and which created a
considerable sensation at the time, " The Exports
el England, and may those who would subvert its
Constitution be the first."

SUBSIDIES really seem to be understood much
better by England than INDEMNITIES. The expe-
rience accruing to us from the last war affords
unhappily anything rather than an exceptional
illustration of the remarkable and deplorable fact
here particularised. It is a national characteristic,
or lot us call it at once more correctly a criminal
weakness on the part of the Government—of the
existence of which almost every successive conflict
in which the United Kingdom has become involved
has yielded during reign after reign, during cen-
tury after century, the same wearisome and
monotonous demonstration. It constitutes in
point of fact the key to the annals of our taxa-
tion. It furnishes us with a clue through the
labyrinthine mysteries of that wearily woven and
warily involving Not in which the British Lion
has gradually become entangled—the National
Debt of 800,000,0001.—the Net vainly expected
to be nibbled through, one of these fine days, by
some keen-toothed mouse of a Financier

England, again we say, understands subsidies
much better than indemnities. Her history
proves it. The monetary records of the United
Kingdom domonstrato this more clearly, perhaps,
than they demonstrate anything. They show,
in unmistakeable characters, how readily we can
disburse, but how very unwillingly we contrive
at rarest intervals, in any instance whatever, to
be in the smallest degree reimbursed. The Sycee
silver is a rarer metal in its way, we take it, than
platinum or alluminium; or any other of the strange
materiel known either to the prakised metallurgist
or to those most skilled in the science of numis-
matics. It has been very seldom, indeed, that
we have extorted compensation from the van-
quished as in the instance of the conquered
Chinese. Instead of indemnifying ourselves, we
have subsidised others : and then so prodigally
and systematically, that it becomes no subject
for marvel to those in any way familiar with the
financial statistics of the great war against NAPO-
LEON to find how frequent and enormous were
the loans and subsidies lavished upon Foreign
Powers by the British Government. Sub-
sidies and loans so enormous, that in
1801 they amounted to 690,1141., in 1802 to
285,4511., in 1803 to 212,2751., in 1804 to
103,4231., in 1805 to 35,3411., in 1806 to
595,8471., in 1807 to 859,0821., and in 1808 to
as much as 2,897,873. Increasing so immensely
and rapidly after the opening up of the Peninsular
struggle, that we find these amounting in 1809
to 2,579,0391., in 1810 to 2,110,5431., in 1811
to 2,367,4131., in 1812 to 3,908,5211., in 1813
to 6,786,0221., in 1814 to 8,442,5781., in
1815 to 10,024,6241., and finally in 1816 to
11,035,248 ! Perfectly in keeping with which
extravagant loans and subsidies during the Euro-
pean war of 18004815, we now note a►t the close
of the European war of 1854.1856 a total ab-
sence of anything like the merest semblance of
indemnification. Insomuch that the Crimea is
given up onco more unconditionally to the aggres-
sive Government of the CZAR. Not a single
stronghold is retained by the Allies as a security
for the future good behaviour of the Musco-
vite. England and France, and what is still