The Sun.
London, England, 1832-06-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We rejoice to see that Lord Durham has con-
sented to go oo a special mission to the Court
of St. Petersburgh. Hard as the service and
irksome at the undertaking and journey must he
to him—under the pressure of ill health, and his
recent family afflictions—we are yet satisfied at
perceiving the possibility of inducing men of
acknowledged talents and popular feelings to re-
present at foreign Courts, at whatever personal
sacrifices to themselves, the principles which
have been applied— so much to the honour of
the present Administration—to the improve-
ment of the institutions of their own country.
In saying this, we beg to be understood as not
advocating the absurd doctrine of pressing those
those
principles obnoxiously and inconsiderately on
foreign States, with whose institutions they are
incompatible—or of interfering in, or intertned-
dling with every collision, or revolution, which a
conflict of principles may occasion on the Con-
tinent. The two great objects of our foreign
policy should be—the enforcement of a
respect for the independence of nations,
whether great or small, and the mainte-
nance of that attitude between nations enjoy-
ing liberal institutions on the one hand,
and the monstrous armed coalitions of arbitrary
Powers on the other, which may be best
adapted to conciliate the good-will, and to com-
mand the respect of both—to remove or miti-
gate the causes of distrusts, jealousies, and ap-
prehension on either side—and to preserve the
general peace (if that be yet practicable) in the
present critical and complicated state of Euro-
pean politics. With such objects, and at such
a moment, the mission of Lord Durham must
he of the greatest importance. His situation as
a Cabinet Minister—his near connexion with
Lord Grey—the efficient and decided part lie
has taken in the preparation and final accom-
plishment of the Reform Bill—the firmness and
consistency of his character, and the popularity
he enjoys, from the general impression that the
people owe much, in the victory they have won,
to his steadfastness and perseverance, and the
beneficial influence of the exercise of these qua-
lities on his colleagues, during the struggle, give
an interest to, and excite an expectation that,
the most advantageous consequences may result
from his appointment to the cause of peace and
liberty, both in this country and on the Con-
tinent. We need not reenter upon the general
field of foreign politics, or again advert to those
details to which we have so often lately directed
the attention of our readers, and which we have
urged as imperatively requiring an alteration in
the whole system and machinery of our diplo-
macy. We suppose the particular and primary
object of Lord Durham's mission is the long
protracted Belgian negotiation. The Russian
Court has been accused (whether justly or un
justly we will not say) of encouraging the King
of Holland in his resistance to the Conference.
The intimate family connexion between the
Courts no doubt accounts, in some degree, for
the partiality shown towards Holland. At the
same time, sound policy and national interests
cannot be sacrificed to personal ties ; and there
is no power in Europe to whom the preservation
of peace and the maintenance of a close alliance
with this country ought to be of more importance
than Russia. But this subject—all-important as
it is—is not, we trust, the only one which Lord
Durham will have to press on the attention of the
Emperor of Russia. The whole internal state of
Europe is most critical ; and it solely depends upon
the decision of the great leading Powers, whether,
by judicious concessions and wise ameliorations
of the condition of their subjects, general tran-
quillity can be preserved ; or by a blind adher-
ence to despotic principles, to be enforced by
military means, a sanguinary and suicidal strug-
gle shall be commenced, the progress of which
may involve in one general ruin the free and
the enslaved—liberal institutions and despotic
monarchies. It is in order to prevent these dis-
astrous consequences, that England should
come forward, and, availing herself of her ele-
vated situation, exert herself to stay the coming
storm. She has but to point to her own power,
arising from the moral force of her enlightened
population, to exhibit the advantages of civili-
zation, and timely reformation, as evinced in
the bloodless improvement effected in her own
internal situation, in order to induce other
Powers to follow in the same noble course.
That these will be the points urged on the attention
of the Russian Court, we have no means of
ascertaining ; but we know they ought to be.
We are sure that no one—if we may judge from
the whole tenour of his public life—is more im-
pressed with their importance than Lord Durham ;
and we feel confident, that he never would have
consented to undertake this embassy, if the ob-
jects for which lie went to negotiate had not
been such as were of the highest importance to
the general cause of freedom. We are gratified
also, in seeing from this appointment, that Lord
Palmerston has at last discovered the policy of
breaking through the absurd rule of confiding
the most important negotiations of a liberal Ca-
binet to the exclusive management of diplo-
matists of an illiberal school, whose only merit—
as a set-off to their utter disqualification, from
their attachment and adherence to the principles
of Castlereagh and Metternich—consists in some
acquaintance with, and practice in, the mysteries
and forms of diplomatic etiquette. We under-
stand that Lord Durham goes only on a special
occasion—retaining his seat in the Cabinet—and
with the intention of returning as soon as the
objects of his mission are accomplished ; but lie
must have no Lord Heyteaburys, or Sir C.
Bagots for his successors, to remove the
wholesome impressions which we trust may be
made on the Russian Court by a manly and open
explanation of the views of this Government, and
by what we hope must enter into these views—an
expression of deep sympathy in the wrongs of
Poland, and an endeavour (to the extent at least
to which our interference is justifiable by exist-
ing treaties) to obtain some mitigation of the
sufferings and oppressions of her virtuous and
unfortunate population. We will not on this
occasion re-open the discussion respecting the
expediency of removing other emplogs, who
are still, for reasons best known to the Foreign
Office—but which are incomprehensible to die
public—left in situations where the cooperation
of more enlightened and willing agents in the
cause of freedom is essentially necessary. We
believe Lord Palnkerston to mean well. We
approve of the principles on which his foreign
policy is founded ; but we cannot desist from
—and we shall return hereafter, on fitting oc-
casions, to a free discussion both of the public
caharacters and qualifications of these diplo-
matic functionaries, to whom the public money
is paid for misrepresenting the feelings and
opinions of the Government and people of this
country at foreign Courts, alluding to the absurd
system which is supposed to oblige Governments
to employ any imbecile and dolt upon whose
education, in the ancient philosophy of diplo-
macy, the public money has been squandered, to

the exclusion of liberal and able men, whose
only disqualification consists in' not having had
that advantage inflicted upon them.—Morning
Chronicle.

We have received some notices from corre-
spondents respecting the character and proceedings
of the present meeting of scientific men at Ox-
ford. In an age like the present, when mental
communication is so easy and expeditious by
means of the press and the post-office, when tra-
velling is so commodious, so rapid, and so cheap,
we see very little use in such ambulatory associ-
ations as that which met last year at York, and
which is now assembled amid the venerable esta-
blishments of Oxford. In Germany (whence
the idea of the association was borrowed) society
is more divided by political barriers, and the fa-
cilities of correspondence alluded to are less ex-
tensive than in England. Hence it may be ex-
oedient, or even necessary, in that country to
appoint periodical meetings of men, who, though
living in different states, speak the same lan-
guage, indulge in the same tastes, and occupy
themselves with the same pursuits ; but it seems
as unreasonable to us that our philosophers
should be dependent on an assemblage like that
at Oxford, as that our booksellers should meet
to transact their business at a fair like that of
Leipsic. Indeed, on the same ground on which
we have repeatedly exposed the inutility of those
periodical exhibitions of industry and mechanical
ingenuity which have been common in France,
and which have been introduced from France
into other continental States, we might show the
total uselessness of the present scientific con-
gress. The members who compose it do not
come to make discoveries, but to exhibit the dis-
coveries which they have already made, and
every person interested in knowing their nature
or extent has already been made acquainted
with them by some of the scientific journals. It
is true, that some of the more striking results
may be exhibited, for the amusement of ladies
and children, but the same exhibition might be
made by a popular lecturer, without degrading
the dignity of science, by a mere unexplained
display of philosophical toys. But, abandoning
all reasoning a priori on such a subject, we may
say, that even in the opinion of some of the
wisest members of the association, the scheme
has not " worked well." The members, we
understand, are as much addicted to lavish lau-
datory effusions on each other as the 40 wise
men in the French Academy. In the next place,
the geological and natural history professors some-
times forget that they lecture in the presence of
ladies, and may do as much harm by the
freedom of their language, as they do good by
the display of their knowledge. In the third
place, the ambition of gaining eclat at such
periodical meetings must tend to divert the
mind from profound studies, the results of which
cannot so easily be exhibited, to superficial ac-
quirements which command immediate applause.
But though we thus venture to doubt the
general utility of such associations, and even to
find fault with one or two features of the present
meeting at Oxford, we are not insensible to the
collateral good which it has effected by being
convoked in that great seat of learning. The
handsome manner in which degrees were con-
ferred on Mr. Dalton and Mr. Farraday, for
their scientific merits and great discoveries, will
long reflect honour on the University itself.—
Times.

Mr. Cutlar Fergusson, we hope and trust, will
be effectually supported in his motion of this
evening, upon the conduct observed, and to be
observed, as well by the Russian Government,
as indeed by that of England, France, and other
Powers, towards the gallant Polish nation. It
is not enough, we are ready to acknowledge,
that every noble and generous feeling of hu-
manity should range itself on the side of Po-
land. It is not enough to adjure one state by
all that is most endearing or affecting, to take up
arms in defence of an oppressed and injured
neighbour. That the Poles have a claim upon
the heart of all mankind, beyond what any
people, ancient or modern, could establish,—a
claim founded on services to Europe,—on
wrongs received from Europe,—and on suffer-
ings not paralleled in the history of atrocious
crime,—we need not now stop to asseverate.
But what may be far better worth notice from the
rulers of nations, in their character of provident
and upright statesmen, is, the question whe-
ther Poland has not legal claims upon the
active assistance of the Great Powers of Europe.
and claims of urgent and admitted policy upon
the Kings of France and of Great Britain, which
cannot be set aside upon any plea of their having
no more practical source than that of high moral
sentiment. The question at this moment is,
whether the parties to the peace of Vienna are
not bound by positive engagement as they are
indisputably by unanswerable considerations of a
sound and independent foresight, to interfere at
once, and vindicate, if not the entire liberty, at
all events the distinct form and existence of con-
stitutional Poland, with a view to limit the en-
croachments of Russia towards the west, and to
preserve inviolate, for the security of all, the main
barriers and boundaries of modern Europe.
There can be no doubt in the mind of any
rational being, that Russia had, by her op-
pressive government of Poland—in itself the true
cause and justification of the late revolt—out-
raged the grand compact Ishicli held forth a
constitution to the Poles as the price of their
voluntary submission to the sway of Alexander.
The revolt was the work of Russian tyranny.
It never can, with any regard to truth, be repre-
sented as an excuse for the aggravation of that
tyranny. If Mr. Cutlar Fergusson proposes a
recourse to strong measures, in conjuncion with
France, for the maintenance of solemn engage-
ments, for the protection, at once, of national
rights, and of the federal compact by which
Europe ought to be poised and held together,
we anticipate, on the part of Lords Palmerston
and Althorp, no unworthy evasion of so great
a pledge—but, on the contrary, a frank assurance
to Parliament that the faith of treaties shall be
maintained ; that the equilibrium of Europe
shall not be broken up by the horrible extinction
of an ancient and glorious people ; and that
England herself shall no longer be set at defiance
with impunity.—Times.
Lord Durham has been announced for a spe-
cial mission to St. Pctersburgh. Whether this
mission has reference, as an evening Paper inti-
mates, to the course of Russian Policy towards
Poland, or whether it is intended to elicit an
explanation respecting the immense military pre-
parations in which Russia is and has long been
engaged, or whether it relates to both those ob-
jects, we know not ; but we do know that if
Lord Durham conducts his mission in no better
spirit, and with no greater ability, than Lord
Palmerston has evinced in the management of
our foreign affairs, the public may as well be
saved the expense of his journey ; for in that
case, instead of being a check on the ambitious
and dangerous designs of the Russian Cabinet,
he will be but a tool in the hands of the Pout.)

di Borgos, the Or!offs, and the other crafty
,ind clever politicians who have so long befouled
our Government in the ridiculous business of the
Belgic protocols, in the no less interminable
" settlement" of the affairs of Greece, and in other
matters wherein Russia has availed herself of the
peculiar abilities that preside over our foreign
department, to confirm and extend her barbarous
ascendancy in Europe. As to the fate of Poland,
it might have been averted long ago if the English
and French Governments had only adopted that
energetic and dicisive tone with the Czar which a
true sense of the interests of their respective
countries, as well as the solemn obligation of the
treaty by which they guaranteed the indepen-
dence of Poland, ought to have dictated. Pre
viously to the invasion of Poland, a word from
England and France could have stopped Russia,
where an army might not be able to stop her
now. England and France, as parties to the
treaty of Vienna, were bound to have interposed
to prevent the armed subjugation and final ex-
tinction of that kingdom. The manifesto of
the Polish Diet contained charges against Russia
which not only justified the revolution of War-
saw, but made resistance a sacred duty. The
English and French Governments were at least
bound to inquire into the truth of those charges,
and should not have allowed Russia to take ad-
vantage of the resistance, which her outrages
provoked, to consummate the crime which she
had long meditated of the total extinction of the
nationality of Poland. What a case of atrocious
wrong and systematic perfidy was made out
against the Russian Government in the state-
ment of " a Member of the Diet" relative to
the Polish provinces incorporated with
Russia, which we published on Tuesday !
What acts of atrocious tyranny and intolerable
barbarism are there not detailed in the able
little work called the Autocracu and the Con-
stitution of Poland, of which we have since
copied several extracts! With a cause so
strong in its own justice, and one which it was
so much the interest of England and France
to advocate, what had the Governments of
those two greatest nations of Europe to fear
from Russia, comparatively crippled and en-
feebled as she was by the first successes of the
Polish revolution ? Not only did those Go-
vernments exercise no good offices in favour of
Poland, but their influence was in some mea-
sure enlisted on the side of the despotic oppres-
sor All civilized Europe heard with horror the
words uttered by Sebastiani, the French Mi-
nister for Foreign Affairs, who, in a moment of
inadvertent exultation, let out the secret feeling
of his soul, when, on announcing the murderous
capture of the capital of Poland, he exclaimed,
as if he were the paid Minister of the Czar,
" Order reigns in Warsaw !" The Poles dis-
tinctly charge the Government of the late Casi-
mir Perier with having perfidiously cajoled and
deliberately betrayed them—with having paraly-
sed the exertions of their General-in-Chief by
assurances of securing the independence of Po-
land through negotiation, and without further
bloodshed, by which means the treacherous
plots of the Russian agents were allowed
to ripen, the invading forces, that might
have been cut up in detail, were allowed
to accumulate—the moral influence of the
previous victories of the Poles died away, and
the result was the fall of Warsaw, and the dis-
honour of France. Then, as to the conduct
of our liberal English Government, who was its
representative at the Court of St. Petersburgh?
Lord Heytesbury—a man whose name had been
previously associated with events which led to
the destruction of Constitutional liberty in more
than one of the ancient kingdoms of Europe.
In this we acted like the French Government,
who continued at the Court of Russia the ultra-
Royalist representative of the Bourbon Court.
But our Ministry went further than this in giving
countenance to the Autocrat. If really averse
to the invasion of Poland, our Government
might, to a certain extent, have stopped the
supplies. Instead of acting so, what did our
Government do ? It actually paid large sums
of money to Russia under the pretended obliga-
tion of a treaty relative to what was called the
Russo-Dutch loan, but which treaty had ceased
and determined on the severance of Belgium and
Holland, an event which, by the express words
of the stipulation was to put an end to the contract
whenever it should occur. In the memorable de-
bate upon this question, when it was found that
the House did not place much reliance upon the
opinion of the law officers of the Crown, a hint
was thrown out that the payments had, at all
events, the effect of inducing Russia to ob-
serve a pacific policy. This was as much as to
admit that England had fallen into that state of
servile abasement which made it necessary for
her to purchase the forbearance of the insolent
barbarians of the North by tributary gold ! It
was easy to foresee that, if the ambition of Rus-
sia was dangerous to the peace of Europe before
the conquest of Poland, it would be a great deal
more dangerous afterwards. It was also easy to
foresee that, if the insolence of Russia was great
from her former successes, it would become still
greater on finding that England trembled at her
nod, and was tributary to her power. We have
not failed to warn our Government of the con-
sequences of its undignified and truckling policy
towards the Holy Alliance in general, and to-
wards Russia in particular, ever since Lord
Palmerston commenced with the Plenipotentia-
ries of despotism the diplomatic farce of the pro-
tocols, which we shall be glad to find has not a
tragical denouement. For a long time the Minis-
terial papers could see nothing but profound
wisdom, as well as consumate integrity, in the
part which Lord Palmerston pursued. It was
in their eyes either criminal or absurd to impute
designs against freedom to the Holy Alliance,
and it was regarded almost like treason to ques-
tion the " honourable intentions" of Russia.
difficulties Wes
for
still went on warning our Ministers of the
thm whiche s
ee. we had r
theirl s
was
creating
de-
motic powers.
inti-
mations
of W
the friendly
exhorted
Goofv
Government
eli
to look more to acts than professions, as it was
better to show a little foresight than a great deal
of After-knowledge. With regard to the con-
duct of Lord klmerston, who was about to
crownigo his
t,t heotherdiplomaticday,
fame
y,toßbuy
ssia,sendingwefinSdir
thatC hartliel
the
Ministeral papers, with the exception of one,
have come round to our opinions ; and as to the
conduct and intentions of Russia, we have the
satisfaction of seeing that some of them go quite
prettya as far n
asi g
done,eve r did,
denouncingnowwt
which
h t lsitteah
stands
sp mischiefrfooprofligate
io.tah
tii
ess
ambition of that barbarous power. Whetherb
Lord Durham's mission relates to Poland or
not, we trust that Mr. Cutlairil-lf.a. et regdu spseoonp will
pro
motion,ol and
da
people—
and Yd
retehed
iaattise to that
he will n
endeavour to ascertain, for the
,atisfaction of the country, what are really the
intentions of Government, both with regard to
the late kingdom of Poland, and the provinces
incorporated with Russia.—Morning Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MARLBORO UGH-STREET.

Yesterday a man of respectable appe,,rance, wit()
aye the name of Boyer, was brought before H. M.
DYER, Esq., from the police station, charged with
creating a disturbance at Apsley-house, on the pre-
ceding night.
According to the statement of one of the police
constables of the C division, who was on duty at
Apsley-house, his attention was drawn to the pri-
soner's proceedings shortly after the arrival of their
Majesties, in consequence of his uttering very bad
language concerning the Duke of Wellington.
Among other violent expressions, he said with an
oath, "let us pull down the house while the
Duke is in it." He requested the defendant several
times to walk away, and it was not until he refused
to do so that he took him into custody.
Mr. DYER—Do you suppose he was under the
influence of liquor ?
The constable replied that the man appeared to
be sober.

A gentleman, named Lefroy, came forward and
stated that he believed, from the defendant's expres-
sions and gestures, that he was exciting the populace
to pull down Apsley-house. He also was of opinion
that the defendant was sober.

The defendant, in reply to the charge, disclaimed
having had any malicious intention in uttering the
r.xpressions imputed to him. He was much in
liquor at the time, and he was unconscious of having
acted in the mariner described.
Mr. DYER ordered the defendant to be detained
until he found bail, observing that the offence with
which he was charged was indictable.
The defendant, who was said to be a tailor, was
then locked up.