The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-24 00:00:00

FRENCH PAPERS.

(From theMoniteur.)
At nine o'clock last night an estafette arrived at the office
of the Minister of the Interior with dispatches, which were
brought to Oran by the steam-packet Crocodile, which, on
account of bad weather, was obliged to put into Rosas, in
Spain. These dispatches announce that on the 6th inst.
the French army, with the Duke of Orleans and Marshal
Clausel, entered Mascara. It.appears that severe combats
took place at Ghosouf and Habriii before Mascara was
gained. The detailed reports of those battles have been
sent by other vessels, which have not yet been able to reach
the ports of France. The Duke of Orleans was struck
by a ball on the thigh, which gave him a severe contusion.
The Prince suffered from it at first, but he was afterwards
enabled to remount his horse, and continue to march with
the army. General Oudinot received a wound, but hap-
pily it is not dangerous. Abdel Kader has been com-
pletely routed, and is entirely abandoned by his Arabs.
We shall probably have, in a day or two, the prior dis-
patches, giving details of this short aad brilliant expedition.
We have received the following further particulars, which
fully confirm the above account :—" The Crocodile left
Oran on the 10th instant, and reached Roses on
the 16th, not being able to make the French coast, on
account of contrary winds. The Prefect of the Pyrenees
Orientales immediately sent off by the telegraph to the Mi-
nister of the Interior the purport of the despatches brought
by the vessel ; but this intelligence has not yet reached
Paris, on account of the state of the atmosphere.
being foreseen by the Prefect, he expedited by estafette the
letters brought by the Crocodile, which contain the follow-
ing accounts Mascara was taken on the sth, and has
been razed to the ground. The Emir twice gave battle to
the French troops, and was both times defeated. Being at
length abandoned by all the tribes upon whom he relied,
Abdel Kader retired to the mountains. The object of the
expedition has been completely obtained, but not without
a struggle. -We have not, however, any very precise details
of circumstances. Marshal Clausel directed the expedition
with all the skill, judgment, and activity that was to be ex-
pected from him. A contusion on the thigh was also- re-
ceived by the Duke of Orleans. His Royal Highness was
preparing to return to France, was to embark at Mostaga-
nem, and expected to reach Toulon on the 19th. We learn
that Mascara was several times a prey to the rapacity of
the Arabs. It seems that it was pillaged on the arrival of
the news of the first advantage gained by the French, a
second time when Abdel Kader retired with his Arabs, and
again, it is said, the Turks under Ibrahim, who formed the
vanguard of the army, had begun to plunder it, when they
were stopped by an order from head-quarteri to desist. The
most serious engagement was that of Ghosouf, between the
Sig and the town. The Arabs fought with determined resolu-
tion, and only yielded to the superiority of the French artillery
and charges of the cavalry. It was in this contest that the
Duke of Orleans was struck, and Gen. Oudinot wounded.
The operations of the army were for some days impeded by

the weather. The rain fell in torrents, and the roads were
rendered in some places impassable. Nevertheless, the
Marshal took his measures so effectually that the army con-
tinued its progress to Mascara without any greater obstacles
than those which were opposed by the Arabs. In some
places the soldiers were obliged to make a road on purpose
for the artillery, which, however, got on without suffering.
The steam-boat Styx, which was despatched by Marshal
Clausel before the capture of Mascara, with an account of
the battle on the Sig, has not yet arrived. '1 ho store-ship
La Lionne, which brought the news of it, entered Toulon
on the 17th, and consequently has made better way than
the Styr, which it seems has been driven by stress of
weather to the coast of Italy."
A letter of the 6th inst. from Algiers furnishes some
details of the first engagement which took place near the
Sig :—" It appears that a considerable party was assembled
in a species of entrenched camp. Our advanced guard
commenced the attack. The enemy was defeated and the
camp taken ; it consisted of 400 Turkish cavalry, and 200
infantry, 400 cavalry of the tribes of the Douairc and
Semela, and 80 Mozabites, under the orders of Ibrahim
Bey. There were also some Zouaves and African batta-
lions with artillery. Abdel Kader took no part in the
action. His troops are disheartened, and his credit is at a
low ebb. We learn from the crew of the Styr, that
although the Arabs, in consequence of his orders, had
ceased to supply the market of Mostaganem, they have re-
appeared with abundant supplies."

(From the Journal des Debats of Tuesday.) •
THE WARSAW SPEECH.
Order at Paris is the law, and law which is wise and
liberal ; order at St. Petersburgh is the despotic power of
one man, tempered from time to time by armed revolts and
by Court machinations.
We have remarked for some time a strange pretension
on the part of the publicists of the north of Europe.
Russia, according to them, is the sole and only depositary
of European order ; it is from thence that society is to ex-
pect its salvation, for it is there that are preserved, as in
an inviolable sanctuary, all the principles which constitute
and protect society. This pretension was never more
naively put forward than in the Emperor's speech at War-
saw. Despotism has long pretended to be the only safeguard
of nations. To hear it speak, there is no calm, no repose
possible except in its bosom. Because liberty is sometimes
turbulent and agitated, despotism wishes to make us believe
that it alone is always stable and peaceable. History is
there to reply, and even the history of Russia will answer
the pretension. Where is this admirable order—where is
this marvellous stability which Europe ought so much to
envy ? Without going very far back in Russian history,
we find that it was by a conspiracy and a revolt that Cathe-
rine 11. ascended the throne—that it was by a murder that
her son Paul I. descended it, and that it was a revolt
which commenced the reign of Nicholas. And you talk
of stability! The stability of the West, it must be con-
fessed, is quite as good as the stability of the North. Look
at England, where there are laws which combine and which
conciliate order and liberty. What stability and what power
at the same time ! It is not true, that in order to be free a
people must be condemned to be always in a state of agita-
tion. It is not true that to be slaves a nation must always
be stable and tranquil. Liberty can also boast of having
supported order. To reconcile order and liberty is the
problem of political science among civilized nations. To
kill order for the sake of liberty is the plan of a demagogue ;
to kill liberty for the sake of order is the plan of a tyrant.
Both these murders are hateful to us. They seem equally
the work of ignorance and barbarism.
When we remarked upon the speech of the Emperor
Nicholas, we criticised it, we confess, in the name of order,
such as we conceive it in the West, that is to say, in the
name of respect for treaties, in the name of the considera-
tion justly due to the vanquished, in the name of humanity,
in the name •even of the kingly dignity which always de-
grades itself when it gives way to insult and anger. It is in
the name of order such as this, that we blamed the speech
of the Emperor Nicholas. This order of the civilised West,
is, it seems, not the order of Moscow. What can we do,
• then, when we are not Russians, and have no wish to be-
come so ?

However, it is order in the East, as well us in the West,
not to misrepresent the words of any person, or to mutilate
them ; and as the Emperor of Russia pretends that we have
both misrepresented and mutilated his speech, we desire
sincerely to free ourselves from the reproach. Our justifi-
cation will, however, be very simple. We will take the
words which even the St. Petersburg Journal puts into the
mouth of the Emperor.
Observe, first of all, in this edition, the Imperial anger is
singularly softened in form ; and in regard to this, we may
make an observation by the way. It is said that the com-
ments we made upon the Warsaw Speech were the effect of
powerless hatred. We will not deny the hatred—we con-
fess it at once ; but it is a political hatred, an antipathy of
doctrines and of principles. Hatred like this need not be
concealed ; but as regards the inefficacy of comment, we
must contest the point. We think, on the contrary, that
the comments of the French and English Press have been
most efficacious ; and that, without knowing it, or rather
without owning it, the Emperor of Russia has somewhat
given way. The Speech published in the St. Petersburg
Journal differs in several points, from the Speech of War-
saw. Let us see in what the two differ, and in what they
are alike. It is a comparison which it is important to make
for our justification on the one side, and for the instruction
of the European public on the other.
In all that could give offence to Europe,
the Speech of
St. Petersburgh differs from that of Warsaw ; we arc even
too gentle in calling it a difference only—it is a complete
disavowal. In all that could wound Poland, or please the
prejudice and hatred of the Muscovites, the Speech of
St. Petersburg resembles word for word the Speech of
Warsaw.
DIFFERENCES AND DISAVOWALS.—At Warsaw the
Emperor told the Poles not to cherish the dream of in-
dependence and nationality. This was as much as to say,
that it pleased the Emperor Nicholas to annul a former ar-
ticle of the treaty of Vienna. At St. Petersburgh not a
word of this complete union of Poland and Russia, and
of this abolition of the treaties of 1815. There is still
more : at St. Petersburgh care has been taken to add,
"These are the truths which the Emperor and King," &c.
The Emperor and King," that is to say, the Emperor
of Russia and the King of Poland, the titles which the
treaty of Vienna authorised the Emperor of Russia to
bear. Thus at Warsaw the treaty of Vienna is contemned,
but at St. Petersburgh is confessed and recognized. The
Press, when it supports itself upon treaties, when it invokes
the law of nations, is then useful in some degree, and
not quite so inefficacious and so powerless as it is said to
be. The Emperor despises and disdains loudly, but ne-
vertheless obeys in silence. We know not whether, on the
occasion of this Speech, there was an interchange of di-
plomatic notes at London, Paris, and Vienna, but there
were articles in the French and English journals, and a ge-