The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-20 00:00:00

cavilling Statesmen, perhaps the 44 mighty
mother" to whom Pope dedicates an Epic, which
makes them Marplots even of their own best-
laid schemes. At the very moment they would
throw discredit upon the Ministry which has
superseded them in office, they disgust the na-
tion. One amongst them expresses his disap-
pointment at the absence from a negotiation, in-
volving the freedom of a young country in which
we are so much interested, of the Power which
has just struck that bold stroke of bad policy
against the liberties of Germany which has ex-
cited the astonishment and indignation of the
whole people of England. It is but a few
days since that another of them has had the cha-
racteristic perverseness to eulogise the execrated
destroyer of Poland ! Thus do those men un-
consciously expose the deformity of their prin-
ciples—the cloven foot is revealed beneath the
clumsy disguise of assumed patriotism ;—they at
once save us from a world of investigation and
expenditure of credulity, and effectually vin-
dicate the ways of G od to man."—Morn. Herald.

The restoration of Poland to a state of sove.
reign independence, and her elevation to one o
constitutional freedom, would have afforded
Europe advantages of a twofold character, the
extent of which it is hardly possible to appre-
ciate. The first class would have comprehended
a great and striking moral retribution in the tri-
umphant, though tardy, struggle of the sufferer
against the wrong-doer, under circumstances and
through difficulties the most unfavourable that
could be imagined, to a vindication of the right-
ful cause by a summary appeal to arms. Farther,
the establishment in Poland, not of national
sovereignty alone, but of political and civil free-
, dom, would have been (and may yet become) a
standard and rallying point for these blessings,
throughout a portion of Europe, where now the
prospects of mankind appear signally dark and
hopeless. A Polish nation, enjoying equal laws
and substantial liberty, would, by progressive but
irresistible advances, have eaten into the very
heart of Russian despotism, and scattered
over the rude soil of serfs and tyrants that
sense of right and love of justice, which are the
only seeds that can ever ripen into real, valuable,
and trustworthy civilization. Poland free, would
have moralized the east of Europe, not excluding
Russia. Free Poland would have ensured to
the west of Europe the solid military good of
forming its impregnable defence and barrier
against the ambition of the Autocrat, until that
much-desired—however distant—day on which
he might cease to be a barbarian. These advan-
tages, moral and military, have now become ob-
jects rather of romantic hope, than of sober or
definite effort, and the calculator of European
interests is compelled to call up from another
source more complex materials of security to the
repose of nations—to their rights and well-be-
ing. Germany is the central grand division of
the Continent, and hardly any extensive dis-
turbance of European relations can take place,
to which some of the German Governments
must not be parties, or for which some of her
territory must not provide a theatre. To rave
that great country from being embroiled, either
as principal or accessory, in quarrels occasioned
by restless and encroaching neighbours, and to
render at the same time her condition an obsta-
cle, rather than a facility, to the commencement
of wars by certain grasping and predatory pow-
ers on her confines, it would be essential to
constitute some respectable State, founded
rather on antipathy to the military des-
potisms, than on any principle of sympathy
or concurrence with them,—either eastwards,
towards Russia, or towards France upon the
west. The feelings of all Europe, but of the
bayonet-Courts, would have aided in the forma-
tion of Poland into such a Power. The country
from the Dnieper to the Vistula would then
have been a neutral and sacred soil. It would
have served as a cushion between the iron sur-
faces of Russia and the two great German trio-
narchies,—to prevent their friction,—and, did
any one of them budge, for aggressive purposes,
Poland, supported by the pacific and commercial
policy of Great Britain, would have instantly in-
terposed, and put down the attempted violence.
That chance being lost, is there no second
arrow in the quiver ? Surely the public weal
of Europe is not altogether so desperate. if
the battle has gone against her between the
Vistula and the Dnieper, can nothing be effect-
ed on the Elbe, the Upper Danube, or the
Rhine ? Yes, a protective power has already
ripened into existence, not beyond the German
frontier, as in the case of Poland, but within
it, and composed of elements which are intrinsi-
cally and exclusively German ; which, if rightly
adjusted and employed, would execute the same
functions between France and the two great German
States, as Poland would have done between the
latter and the Czar of Muscovy. The small
States of Germany compose that inva-
luable power. They would, if well coml•.
selled and directed, if governed by one paramount
motive, and forgetting every thing but their own
common cause, constitute a balancing and me-
diating commonwealth, which, with the support
of England or France, or both, might break
down the most formidable schemes of the cut-
throat monarchies, north, south, and east.
France would then have no shadow of pretence
for meddling, uninvited, with the affairs of Ger-
many, while, if called upon, she might do so
with an effect which nothing could frustrate, and
with the applause and good wishes of mankind.
The obvious tendency of such a defensive league
as that which we have already hinted at in two
preceding numbers, would be to alleviate the
pressure of force upon right in all directions—
to discourage those ruffian appeals to the sword,
in which the late Metternich Manifesto ofthe Diet
abounds, so disgracefully to its authors, and to
promote, as all leagues against injustice and op-
pression will, for their own sakes, the interests of
knowledge, liberty, and peace. Suspicions have
been thrown out by some of our contemporaries,
that the French Government at least is not averse to
the iniquitous objects of the Frankfort Diet. If
so, the French Government has not long to live.
But the assumption is wholly inconceivable, as
relates to the policy either of a French or British
Cabinet. Whatever power attempts to raise
it
sif
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only one conservative principle, against the fierce
encroachments of lawless tyranny and systematic
wrong. Such a measure, if accomplished, or
even in its progress towards completion, would
he almost an equivalent for the failure on the
side of PolAnd,—nay, would furnish the most
reasonable hope of redeeming that failure, and
still recovering Poland to the world. We are
convinced that there is not an association or
i
communion of freetnen n any part of the British