The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We insert to-day a r,ro; ir.od:2t article from the
Fran.gbrt Journal, on the cause that has led to the
suspension of diplomatic intercourse on the part of our
Goveriun;mt with the Archth*e of Modena. Otir
luarrel with that _,rest. Potentate arose fr,un
sal to
.apologize for a series of articles full of ti:e inost
offensive observation; upon the British nation. As

in Modena the censor: bin enforced, whatever
appears in the journals, especially in the official jour-
nal of that State, the " Voce della Verita" must in
fact betaken to be sanctioned by the Government it-
self—it .was incumbent, therefore, upon our Se(Tetary
of State for Foreign _Affairs to demand an apology for
such authorized libels ; and this being refused; the
mispension of intereorme necessarily followed. 'Where-
uriion the Frani:Jim" „rolzrnal takes up the question,
and argues that there
, ,can be no equality of position
between constitutional overnments, and those of
strictly monarchical States, unless, in the former,
the • Press be absolutely prohibited from making
any allusion to the persons of foreign Sovereigns.
This suggestion, adds the writer, is made by ana-
logy to the changes which have lately taken place
in the laws for regulating the Press in France. Wc
hive been amongst those film resisted those altera-
tions in the French laws, especially as to the prohi-
bition to make any 'allusions to the person of the
Kiln long as he continued to preside in his own
Cabinet, and to share in its deliberations. In a con-
stitutional country, the person of the King ought to
be, as it is with us, perfectly imiolable ; but it is so
only so long as he assumes no responsibility. In
France, the pretext for the alteration is indefensible
enough ; but in countries where no Constitution exists,
whew every thing is done by the Sovereign himself,
where his will is law, and where, by putting his
to an ukase, he may confiscate, as - has been
done in Poland, the property of a whole nation, it is
indeed the thought of " a fool" to suppose it possible,
for one moment, that the acts of such an authority
should not be freely canvassed wherever a free preSs is
established. Nothing can be more pre-eminently silly
than the sort of excuse which the Frankfort scribe—
the Secretary, perhaps, of the Russian Embassy
in that place—derives from the absence of such a
prohibition in England, for the conduct of his
•worthy ally of Modena. All the world knows
that there is, in fact, no such thing as an official Press
in this countri, and that our Government can be no
more responsinte-for what appears in any of our jour-
nals, than a. person living at the antipodes. Neverthe-
less, the Frankfort writer has the calm assurance to
contend—for that is the drift of his argument, though
he does not unfold it in so' many words—that because
the Press of England sometimes attacks foreign 'Sove-
reigns, therefore the Archduke of Modena, and of
course the Emperor of Russia, are at liberty to libel
the character, and to insult the honour of the whole
• British people. 'We have no objection to see this ar-
gument put to the test of experience. Let the Russian
*bribe begin as soon as he pleases to follow the example
of his Modenese champion. We presume that he and
his Imperial master are prepared for the consequences.
In one sense the Frankfort article affords us unmiti-
gated satisfaction. It shows pretty clearly that the
animadversions of the British Press upon the Warsaw
oration; have provoked the bile pf the Autocrat.—
Morning Chronicle.
How far Lord Melbourne has acted. the" part of
fugleman and drill-serjeant to the recent anti-peerage
parades must have been
.made sufficiently plain, we
think, by the extracts from the orderly-book shown up
by Eneas IVlacdonnell. A single false manoeuvre, or
hostile attitude, on the part of the noble official, we
should have attached•no other importance to, than as
indicating his deficiency in the -discretion and self-
government which are usually desideratcd for the proper
government of others. In that case, a momentary
ebullition of temper might fairly have been made re-
sponsible for what his sober reason would condemn.
But when we see his signs and utterances repeated-by
his immediate subalterns ; responded to by the recruits
whom he is sworn and paid to discipline 'Ka constitu-
tional allegiance ; chronicled in black-letter ; expressed
by sun-rise ; couriered in the evening, and telegraphed
to the utmost limits of the globe, without being dis-
claimed, retracted, or explained away, except by such
indefinite verbiage, and indirect agency, as may mean
anything or nothing—we may justly conclude, not only
that he has conveniently placed himself at the head of
a conspiracy against the Lords, with the view 'of
frightening them into a surrender, recoiled from equally
by their sounder judgment and in4endent privileges,
"it that the countenance which he and his Cabinet-
staff have given to that conspiracy is, after all, entitled
to the supreme contempt of their own wretched'dupes,
as well as their opponents, just because there is not
one particle of sincerity about it—it being nothing
more than a despicable political feint—an artful ex-
periment upon public feeling for a temporary pur-
pose—an insolent defiance, which never was meant to
be realized—a tricky Taunt, which, while implying
such levity and looseness of political principle as must
incur the reprobation of every honest mind, was only
intended to gull their followers with a show .of move-
ment, to be afterward shrunk from with their instinc-
tive selfishness and timidity. Nor can we get rid o!
the suspicion pressed upon us of late by various de•
velopments, that this double treachery to their par,

. .
sans and the Constitution is traceable in some other
of their manoeuvres, besides their menaces against the
Peers. The whole course of their proccdure• in re-
ference to the Irish Church Appropriation Clause, is,
in our opinion, an apt illustration of this. Wheti the
subject-matter of that clause was first broached in Lord
Grey's Cabinet, there is now much reason to suspect
j that it was contended for and won by the office-loving.
portion of the then Ministry, not as a bona
.fide object
. • on which they honestly wished to found any practical
measure, but as a convenient matter which they might
keep in reserve to make a concession of afterwards, if
I such a. concession were found necessary to their steddy
1 maintenance -in power. Accordingly, at the discus-
sion on Mr. Ward's motion, when the Government
felt themselves so strong as to be under no necessity

li' of making the concession for die sake of purchasing
..1 Popish and Radical support, their answer to Mr.
• : :• Ward's proposal was, that they concurred in its princi-
,..,ple, but that as the Commissioners on the Irish Church
' I. I,lpot concluded their inquiries and given in their Re-
'.k port;--it was inexpedient to encourage expeetationr,,
-1 by . asAtitio an abstract principle Which might lead
'.to no ' t?
1"ls;:tical result. Bottling up the principle,
therefore,for after use, if need were, they went quietly
on with a tt..v unimportant changes among them-
, seives, defYing',O'Counell with their majorities, until
his Majesty, ant!.. toting the wishes of the Country,
gave them their ve at Brighton. Things w.!re
thus altered with them, d not at all to their mind.
1 Being thrown into oppositt and crippled ill power
• by the strength of the Consefimive Government,
they soon discovered that, as the Papi?, and Destruc-
. tives formed a tiers parti, without w e alliance
their game
was hopeless, now was the tini‘ for un-
cmking, and decanting the principle, as svplying
ii
materials for a tempting booze, over whic they
might settle their former feuds, and enter into' terms
of confederacy. The obstacles they had .faiinerly
pleaded against the broaching of that principle, thpugh
still existing at the time, were made no account of.
Forth came Lord John RusSell's out-pouring, which
was swallowed by a majority ; and Lord Melbourre's
reconstructed Government being again voted into ofae,
by parties whose terms could neither be fully sstisied
without incurring national resentment, nor wholly
disregarded without Ministerial ruin, were thug by
their own deed brought into a dilemma that nothingcould get them out of but the cunning and unprin-
cipled policy which, when necessary for their nininte-
'ranee in power, they have never hesitated to pursue.
With a view of self-extrication, therefore, the expedient
hit upon was, that they should prepare the Irish ChOrch
Appropriation Bill ; blind the Papists and Radicals
frith a good deal of blustering in its favour ; pA it
through the Commons, and carry it up to the Lorils;
: - but , all the while taking good, care to be really indl re-
reili about its success—an artifice which they knew wo Id
t
serve all their purpose as long as their duped support-
ers would take the will for the deed, and accept of a
mere show of zeal, instead of its substantial proofs. ' if
they had been made to feel by the voice of the country,
as well as by their Popish-Radical allies, that the abso-
lute carrying of that Bill was as indispensable to their