The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-15 00:00:00

OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The Reform Bill has hitherto wrought won-
ders. With a very few exceptions, the elections
have gone in favour of Reformers. A Reformer
is no doubt a comprehensive term, embracing all
the shades, from absolute Conservatism down to
the advocacy of annual Parliaments and univer-
sal suffrage. However, we may venture to speak
more explicitly. We have no hesitation in an-
ticipating, from the character of the gentlemen
hitherto returned, an honest determination on
the part of the great majority of the next Par-
liament to discharge their duty to their consti-
tuents with zeal and diligence, and more espe-
cially to check the besetting sin of the Govern-
ment of this country—a lavish expenditure of
The public money. The Conservatives and
quasi-Conservatives will certainly be in a mi-
nority; and the Government can only be carried
on by yielding to the wishes of those who have
no other object in view than the benefit of the
peoples At a meeting at Chelmsford, on
Friday week, Mr. Western observed, " In every
part of this county, in every part of England,
are not the Conservatives, as they call them-
selves—those Tory dominants—are they not
now exerting every effort and every means that
art—that influence—that authority—that con-
trivance—that chicanery—and that priestcraft can
devise, to subdue that spirit of independence
that shall rise superior to them all ?—(Cheers.)
In my conscience, I say that the spirit of liberty
which has burst forth in Modern times is neither
dead nor dying, and that it will display itself in
the approaching election to the utter confusion
of those creatures. That is my perfect convic-
tion. I tell you they will not succeed ; and I am
satisfied that they who are the advocates of Re
form and Liberty are embued with that sort of
7irit—that energy, which will trample down the
feeble efforts of corruption and its satellites.—
(Cheers.)" When Mr. Western made these
observations, none of the elections had com-
menced ; but the result has completely borne
him out. We trust that his anticipations, with
respect to the northern division of Essex, will
be equally justified by the event. " In the
northern division—to represent which I ven-
ture to aspire—l trust there is that spirit among
the middling classes, that with them no unwor-
thy aristocratical influence can prevail." The
Tories have made everywhere desperate efforts,
but they have made them in vain. The question
will no longer be, whether abuses shall or shall
not be removed—reforms or retrenchments shall
or shall not be made, but the extent to which
abuses shall be removed—reforms and retrench-
ments made. The oligarchy can never hope to
raise their heads again. 'We regard not the
desperate struggle to retain influence in the
counties, and the bribery which has been re-
sorted to in Norwich and several other boroughs.
The Reform Bill has so far extended the con-
stituency, that bribery and influence cannot pos-
sibly command a majority of representatives.
We all know that when a majority of the repre-
sentatives were returned by the oligarchy, the
Government for the time was obliged to pay, in
meal or malt, for the votes of that majority ;
and bribery meant the sharing with the
wretched instruments oftheir ascendancy the plun-
der of the nation 1 But bribery now, how-
ever odious and corrupting, will be merely a
tribute paid by Conservative vanity ; it will be
a. license-duty to exempt Conservatives from the
necessity of behaving with decency to their fel-
low-creatures, and appearing before them with a
claim founded on character and merit to obtain
their suffrages. For a time the vile exclusive
spirit, which our oligarchical system has fostered,
will lead our Conservatives to buy suffrages ra-
ther than to merit them ; and we should not at
all wonder, as the number of venal boroughs has
decreased, while the excluded oligarchs are
many, that there should be more bribery than be-
fore. But this, like many other evils, will exhaust
itself. The source of bribery was the hope of
plunder. With the extinction of that hope,
bribery will gradually wear itself out. The
question now will be the quantum of Reform,
and the time for entering on it. Without
meaning to hold out any excuse for delaying
the good work, we may observe, that any
amount of Reform facilitates farther Reform.
We trust that the representatives of the people
will proceed boldly in the work of Reform and
retrenchment ; hut whatever their success, we will
not despair. The Church of England, hitherto
the great enemy of Reform, the opponent of
instruction, and of all good, will no longer be
suffered to outrage the people. One retrench-
ment will lead to another. At every step the
people will acquire fresh vigour ; while their
enemies will become more and more feeble. We
see abundant reasons for hope, and none for
despair. No Government—no INlinistry can
hereafter deprive the people of the means of
working out their own salvation.--Morn. Chron.
The circular of the new Spanish Minister for
Foreign Affairs, M. Zea Bermudez, addressed
to the diplomatic agents of Spain in foreign
countries, is a most important document, con-
taining, as it does, at the present eventful crisis,
an expose of the principles according to which
it is intended to conduct the policy of that
country both at home and abroad. This docu-
ment at once puts an end to every hope that
may have been formed of a peaceful amelioration
of the political state of Spain, at least while the
existing Administration continues in office. In-
deed, the appointment of "Zea Bermudez to the
high station which he occupies was, in itself, a
fact that afforded no happy augury of the fate
prepared for Spanish freedom, which had pre-
viously found in him a most bitter and unre-
lenting persecutor. The memory of the gallant
and martyred Riego, and of other victims of the
merciless despotism which Bourbon bayonets
and perfidy established on the ruins of Consti-
tutional Government, cannot be thought of
without recalling recollections that cover the
name of Bermudez with anything but glory.
Nothing but a moral miracle could make
such a man the advocate of a generous system
of policy, and certainly his declaration of
political faith gives .us no reason to suspect
that such a miraculous conversion has taken place.
In the outset of his manifesto the Spanish Mi-
nister is exceedingly anxious to have it under-
stood that the amnesty, which the exiled Spa-
niards hoped was but the commencement of a
brighter era, not only for themselves but their
country, is an act of mere despotic grace, which
it would be criminal in them to interpret as a
presage of improvement in the political institu-
tions of Spain. In returning to their native soil
they must not expect to see it purified from the
vices or delivered . from the terrors of absolute
Government. They must not expect to enjoy
the protection of enlightened laws, that exercise
authority over both Princes and people. They
must submit themselves wholly to the capricious
mercy or malevolence of that power which ac-
knowledges not the salutary coercion of consti-
tutiunal restraint. In closing the door upon all

hopes of any real political reform this official do -
cument is explicit enough. After speaking of'
maintaining the religious system of Spain in all
its splendour, with her legitimate Kings enjoying
the plentitude of their authority, it goes on to say
--" Her Majesty, the Queen, adhering to the
bases that the wisdom of the King our master
has laid down as the rules of his Government,
and persuaded that the Spaniards cherish a noble
pride in being at all times faithful to their Sove-
reigns and submissive to the laws, declares her-
self the irreconcilable enemy of every relig,ions
or political innovation that it might be sought to
establish in the kingdom, or to introduce into it
from abroad, to subvert the reigning order of things,
whatever, moreover, might be the pretexts or
the manoeuvres with which party spirit might
endeavour to cover its criminal designs." It is
true that, although all essentials of Government
are to remain the same, M. Bermudez does not
proclaim a spirit of immutability in all the exter-
nal forms b y which absolute power is adminis-
tered ; for he is liberal enough to go the
length of promising that " her Majesty will not
refuse to adopt, in the different branches of the
public administration, the ameliorations that a
sound policy, and the councils of wise men,
really attached to the country, might point out
as useful." He also promises that her Majesty
" will feel no repugnance to revoke or modify
her regulations or decrees, whenever expe-
rience shall have proved the insufficiency
or the danger of them." Thus it is clear that
the wise men, whom the Queen is to consult, are
not intended to be the Constitutional Cortes.
The supreme power is to issue or revoke its de-
crees of its own will, and neither in the making
nor modification of them are the people to have
any share through the interposition of represen-
tatives. The Minister is afraid, it may be ima-
gined, that " Spain has formed an alliance with
revolution." But the convoking of her ancient
Cortes would be so far from a revolutionary
measure, that it would but restore to Spain the
benefit of her old Constitutional system, before
the Emperor Charles V. executed that despotic
revolution that, by its enfeebling and demora-
lizing effects, gradually reduced her from one of
the greatest, the most enterprising, and the most
glorious nations of the earth, to one of the
weakest, the most despised, and most degraded.
This official declaration also shows that the cause
of Don Pedro or his daughter have nothing to
hope from the change which has taken place in
the Cabinet of Madrid. It states that, wiih re-
gard to the contest between the two Princes of
the House of Braganza, a strict and perfect neu-
trality will be observed ; and adds that France
and England have given solemn and reiterated
assurances that they will not infringe the neutra-
lity agreed upon. The announcement of perfect
neutrality on the part of England, France, and
Spain, with regard to the contest for the crown
of Portugal, is in direct contradiction to reports
lately brought from Madrid, stating that the
British Cabinet had addressed a diplomatic note
to all the Courts of Europe, to apprise them of
being about to take an active part in the esta-
blishment of Donna Maria on the throne of
Portugal that an expedition for that purpose is
to be undertaken conjointly with France, and
that Donna Maria is to receive not only a crown,
hut a husband, in the person of the Duke of
Nemours. We thought those reports fabulous
when they first came under our notice, and we
do not believe them the less so now. If Eng-
land could by her good offices restore Donna
Maria to a throne which is her lawful right, it
would be well ; but to interfere by force 9f arms
for that purpose would be an act of folly which,
with the consequences of other absurd interfe-
rence in other people's quarrels before her eyes,
we do not think is likely to be committed. Our
Goverment ought, indeed, to have instantly and
signally punished the insults of Don Miguel to
our flag ; but beyond that she ought not to go
in the employment of force. As to the ambi-
tious Louis Philip, we confess we have seen
enough of him to think British arms and treasure
might be better employed than in aggrandising
him and his family. Our Government will have
enough to do in attending to the internal state
of their own country if they mean to fulfil one
half of the promises which they have given to
the people, of which peace and retrenchment
were two, and the latter cannot be without the
former. If, therefore, the Duke of Nemours
wants a Royal bride and a throne, let him win
them for himself. England has suffered enough
already, both in treasure and blood, for her
Quixotic enterprises on behalf of the selfish and
ungrateful family of Bourhon.—Morn. Herald.

The protracted defence of Antwerp seems
already to have produced in some degree the
usual effect of courage and perseverance when
employed in a just cause in procuring for the
King of the Netherlands, his conduct and his
motives, something more of the decent appear-
ance, at least, of respect and consideration than
a day or two ago it suited the humour, or was
permitted by the instructions of the minions of
the British Administration to afford them. When
we find sheer scurrility and abuse succeeded in
such a quarter by an attempt to reason upon the
merits of the question between the King of the
Netherlands and his assailants, it is impossible
any longer to doubt that the fire of the brave
Chasse has produced one effect equally salutary
and surprising—an effect upon which the friends
of the Dutch nation have much reason to congra-
tulate themselves, since in the war of invective,
considering the talents and practice of their an-
tagonists, the chances were grievously against
them, while in that of argument the triumph in
this instance is sure to be wholly their own.
The Globe of last night contains an elaborate
dissertation, having for its object to prove the
justice and necessity of the war undertaken by
France and England against Holland, upon the
principal points of which we shall offer a few
remarks (and very few are required), in order to
show that it entirely fails to accomplish its purpose.
Our contemporary contends that England and
France acted justly and consistently in enforcing
the last decree of the Conference against Hol-
land, although they had permitted the Belgians
to resist, and finally to overrule, the first decree
issued by the same authority, because there were
intervening facts which materially affected the
question. Now what are the intervening facts
upon_ which our contemporary relies ? The
rejection by Holland of a second project of the
Conference, and the irruption of the Dutch
forces into the Belgian territory. These facts do
not appear to us to affect the question in the
slightest degree, for if the Conference believed its
first decree to be a just one, as must be pre-
sumed, no one of its subsequent decrees, which
differed from it in a manner objectionable to
either of the parties interested, however they
might have been multiplied, could, in the esti-
mation of the Conference, as an impartial umpire,
be equally just. Hence it follows that, on find-
ing no modification could be introduced with the
consent of both parties, the Conference ought to

have reverted absolutely to the precise terms of
its decision, that being evidently the only pos-
sible decision that could ever be forced upon the
two parties with any show or pretence of impar-
tiality. Nor is there any ground for the as-
sumption that by the invasion of Belgium the
King of the Netherlands forfeited any particle of
the claims which, by their first project, the me-
diating Powers had so distinctly acknowledged.
This act was justified fully by the facts that the
cause of the King of the Netherlands had been
prejudiced during the negotiation ; first, by the
elevation of Prince Leopold to the Throne of
Belgium, and, secondly, by his acceptence of an
oath which bound him never to concur in those
conditions of peace upon which the Conference
had already stamped the character of justice by
all the authority of their original decree. The
irruption into the territories of Belgium gave the
Conference no ground of complaint against the
King of the Netherlands, for there existed no
armistice which might not be broken without the
breach of any law or any engagement, upon due
notice; and due notice was given, as perhaps Lord
Palmerston recollects ; but the oath of Prince
Leopold was, in the actual circumstances, not
only an outrage upon the rights of the King of
the Netherlands, but an insult to the authority
of the Conference, whose submission might well
have been taken as a conclusive symptom that
there was no chance of justice or impartiality
towards Holland in any of its future proceedings.
From this moment, had Holland been a powerful
State, she would, no doubt, have refused to have
any further communication with the Conference.
But the great and magnanimous Powers knew,
unfortunately, that Holland was not a powerful
State, and the hopeless negotiations proceeded.
It is then pretended that the Conference were
bound in some way or other to settle the dispute,
whether justly or unjustly, because a war between
the King of the Netherlands and King Leo-
pold might have led to such a disturbance of the
territorial relations of the divisions of the Nether-
lands as would of necessity have been fatal to
the peace of Europe. This argument assumes a
prospective and contingent inconvenience, and
employs it as a sufficient justification of an
immediate and certain wrong. Other reply it
neither requires nor deserves. But we cannot
refrain from observing that this eventual danger
to the peace of Europe must have broken upon
the perception of the Conference suddenly but
late, since it is undeniable that for many months
after it undertook its mediatorial office it conti-
nued to disclaim the intention and the right to
interfere in any circumstances by means of arms,
and that the idea of forcible intervention for the
preservation of the peace of Europe was never
introduced until the family compact between the
King of the French and the new Sovereign of
Belgium had been concluded. Much stress
is laid upon the circumstance that the great
military Monarchies were parties to the pro-
ject of separation which the King of the Ne-
therlands had thought it his duty to his sub-
jects to reject. But injustice is not the less
unjust from the number of participants in the
crime. These Monarchies were parties also to
the original decision, in which the King of the
Netherlands had acquiesced, and to the en-
forcement of which, if any decision was ever to
be enforced by arms, the Conference had given
him an indubitable claim. The Northern Courts
are honourably distinguished from the Govern-
ments of France and England, inasmuch only
as that theme was, it is now plain, a certain point
in the career of iniquity and oppression at which
they were determined to stop short. That some
of the stipulations of the last project which
Holland has rejected were included in the first
which she accepted, and that these particular
articles are now made the ground of complaint,
is alleged as a proof of inconsistency and bad
faith on the part of the King of the Nether-
lands. The cause must, indeed, be desperate
which requires the aid of such an argument. The
first project was, as every project for such a pur-
pose necessarily must be, a mere catalogue of
compromises and equivalents. It was accepted
as a whole, and surely there is but little consis-
tency or good faith in the assumption that,
having accepted it as a whole, the King of the
Netherlands has lost his right to reject and con•
demo any of its separate parts, when incorporated
in another and a different project.-11 Torn. Post.
An evening paper of yesterday states that
" Prince Lieven received despatches from his
Government on Tuesday, of a most warlike and
peremptory nature. It is also said that a courier
has left St. Petersburgh for Paris, with a mani-
festo of the Emperor Nicholas, protesting ill
the strongest terms against the proceedings of
the French in Belgium ; and, it is added, that
upon his arrival at the French capital, the Rus-
sian and Prussian Ambassadors in London, will
immediately make known to Lord Palmerston
the determinations of their respective Govern-
ments." If there be any truth in the above
statement, the enemy of the peace of Europe is
at once unmasked, and a greater traitor to it
assuredly never existed. There is no ground
either for the protest, or for the interference of
the Emperor of Russia in any other way in the
contest which is now waging between the obsti-
nate King of Holland, and that portion of
the five Powers which has determined to
act according to time decisions and resolutions of
the Conference. Nay, should it be the intention
of the Emperor to act in the manner reported to
our contemporary, a greater instance of hypocrisy
and villainy will not be found on record. For
two long years has he been apparently aiding and
assisting the efforts of the other European Powers
to bring about that conclusion of differences on
account of which a French army is now in Bel-
gium ; and yet, if the statement made by our
contemporary is to be relied on, he is the
first to quarrel with his own apparent pro-
ceedings ! It is possible, however, to wish to
do evil, and yet not to have the power of accom-
plishing it ; and such we believe to be the case
with the Autocrat of all the Russias----with the

traitor to the liberties of Poland—the banisher
of her children—the destroyer of her institu-
tions. His treasury is not so full either as he
could wish, or as would enable him to take a
very decided part in the Belgian question ; aHd
what British capitalist, in the present state of
Europe, would trust either him or any other
similarly situated Sovereign with a loan ? An
Evening contemporary states that all the efforts
of his agents in the city have failed to 1110-
cure for him the four millions which he pre-
tends to want in order to render his army, of
100,000 men, in Poland, available—and the
answer of the capitalists, namely—that «as soon
as the Belgian question was settled," they would
be ready to listen to his propositions, ought to
be at least a gentle hint to him that moneyed
men are not always fools, and that persons in his
situation, as well as those in humbler life, re-
quire a certificate of character, and a specifica-
tion of use, before they can be trusted with the
property of others.—Morning Advertiser.

ROLLS' COURT, DEc. 11.

GOSDEN V. DOTTEREL.

His HONOUR. gave judgment in this case, which
was brought before the Court during the last Term,
to obtain a decision on a question arising upon a will.
The testator, at the time of his decease, had 6001.
in the Funds, and, after disposing of his furniture
and other property, he bequeathed a legacy of 1001.
and then added, " I give the rest of my money to my
brother." The question was, whether the brother
rook the 6001. stock under the word money. His
Honour was of opinion that the word money did not
pass stock, unless where it appeared from the con-
text that such was the intention.