The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-12 00:00:00

war on British property, to say nothing of out-
rages against persons. These merchants natu-
rally enough think, that had Ministers exerted
themselves energetically, the contest would have
ended long ago ; and it will be difficult to per-
suade them that Ministers ought not to bestir
themselves to terminate a contest without delay,

which is so ruinous to British interests. Besides,

Miguel, by his unjustifiable conduct towards Bri-
tish subjects, had furnished Ministers with a
valid ground for interference, without violating
international law. They might have carried off
his fleet as a means of securing an indemnity
for British claims; and we need not say that
such a step would have alone had the most es-
sential influence on the warfare. So long as exist-

ing treaties between Portugal and England were
respected, we certainly would have no right to
interfere with the domestic broils of the House

of Braganza, or to concern ourselves whether a
Pedro or a Miguel was on the Throne, if these
broils did not tend to produce a general war,
in which England, by treaty, would have been
bound to have taken a part. But from the hour
that existing treaties were broken, the security
and protection of British subjects outraged, it
became the duty of the British Government to
interpose its authority, and, if requisite, to enforce
and re-establish that order of things which would
secure to us all the protection to which we are en-
titled. It is difficult to understand the motives of

the policy towards Portugal for the last two years
the Tories were in office ; it is still more difficult to
comprehend the motives which induce the present
Ministers to adhere to it; for they cannot plead, as
an excuse for doing nothing, the state in which
the affairs of Portugal were involved when they
came into office. Abundance of events have
since occurred to justify open interference
in the affairs of Portugal, but none for admittin,g,
of the extensive armaments which have been per-
mitted to leave our shores for the invasion of

Portugal. The Standard of Thursday night,
with regard to Holland, says, " Had the flag of
England been insulted, or any of her treaties
violated, they would have been justified in de-
manding redress, and avenging the wrong with-
out the delay of a moment." So say we with
regard to Portugal. The flag of England has
been repeatedly and grossly insulted, the blood
of her unoffending and innocent tars has been
spilt, her merchants have been unjustly impri-
soned and despoiled of their property, injury
after injury has been heaped upon cruelty
and oppression, redress has publicly been
demanded by our Government, but con-
temptuously and indignantly refused. There is
something extremely unaccountable and very un-
satisfactory in permitting of all this. It is a
manifest compromise of the best interests of the
nation. Let us, however, hope better for the
future. We most anxiously and fervently en-
treat of Ministers to adopt some measures that
will instantly secure British merchants from the
ruin with which they are at the present moment
threatened. We can hardly believe that Minis-
ters will longer hesitate as to the course they
should pursue with regard to Portugal. The
interests of England and the interests of Portu-
gal equally demand that a stop should be put to
the contest in the latter country.—Morning
Chronicle.

The general belief is that Holland, notwith-
standing all that has taken place, will yield, and
that the application to Prussia to mediate is
merely a course adopted to save appearances a
little. We never believed that Prussia would
fly in the face of the arrangements sanctioned by
herself and the remaining Powers ; and it would
be little less than madness on the part of Hol-
land to engage in hostilities which could have
no earthly object. Holland may hold out a
longer or a shorter period, but submit she must
at lasr.—Morning Chronicle.
We are not aware that we are specially
called upon, by the necessity of the case, to en-
ter at any length into the spirit and matter of a
pamphlet which has just been published by
Ridgway, and is entitled " Whig Government,
or Two Years' Retrospect;" but it may, never-
theless, be useful at the present moment,—
when the Conservative faction is making such
desperate efforts to regain its power over the
country, by procuring the return of a majority
of Conservative Members to the ensuing Par-

!lament, and thwarting that of those who
stood so nobly forward in the people's
cause, when that cause was considered to be
hopeless,—to glance briefly at a few of those
useful measures which have been accomplished
during the last two years, and at those of
whose speedy attainment a rational expectation
may be entertained. When Lord Grey accepted
office in November, 1830, he did so, as an-
nounced by himself, on certain conditions, the
very announcement of which maybe said to have
electrified the country, and by their moral in-
fluence to have checked those dreadful conflagra-
tions which raged from one end of the kingdom
to the other. They were Reform,Retrenchment,
Peace. How amply the first of these pledges has
been redeemed, considering the opposition which
his Majesty's Ministers had to encounter—
how strenuously they battled it, night after
night, with the enemies of all Reform—how
readily they consented to sacrifice power and
emolument rather than be even the apparent
abettors of alterations in the, Bill,
which would have destroyed its efficiency—it is not
necessary for us to repeat. Never, in the annals
of the country, was such a battle fought—never
was such a struggle so ably, maintained—never
was a more glorious victory obtained than when
the King, through the firmness of his Ministers,
was persuaded to put his hand and seal to the
new Charter of the people's rights. Had Lord
Grey's Cabinet done nothing more, they might
safely have demitted the power entrusted to them,
and challenged posterity to grant them that im-
perishable remembrance which will be the por-
tion of the names of Grey, Althorp, and Russell,
—but they did not stop here—they did not
merely content themselves with giving to the
people the means of obtaining a real, instead of
a sham, representation—they also proceeded to
confer benefits upon it of a more practical cha-
racter, by reducing with one hand the expendi-
ture of the country, and repealing with the other
many of those taxes which pressed most heavily
upon the industry and comforts of the poor.
lhe amount of reduction in thelatter is no less
than two millions and a quarter, as will be seen
from the following statement :
Thus the duty on Seaborne Coals has been remitted,
amounting to £900,000
Also on Candles, to the amount of
And on Printed Cottons, ditto
Also on 200 Articles, chiefly used for manufacturing
purposesTl-ie
y on Hemp has been reduced 40 per cent., af
fording a relief of

Making a Total of 2,271,000

" It is true," as observed by the author of the pam-
phlet, " that a slight duty was imposed on Raw Cotton,
but this was more than counterbalanced by the benefit the
trade received, by the remission of all the duties on printed
cotton, for though these have just been stated at 650,000/. ,
yet the gross amount of the duties on printed Cottons, both
for the home and foreign market, reached two millions,