The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TI

The German papers have been lately amusing their
leaders with conjectures as to the principal object of
Lord Durham's mission to St. Petersburgh ; and,
assuming that his Lordship's exertions will be chiefly
directed to the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, they assure
us that any effort on his pada() have that Clandestine
compact rescinded,. will be attended with certain fai—
lure. It appears to us a great absurdity to suppose
that our Ambassador' at that Court is authorized to
say a single word 'about the treaty in question, or to .
make the most remote allusion to it. We have acted,
for the last three years, just as if• that transaction had.
had no existence. We have never recognised -it in
any way. We have not admitted it Amongst the in-
ternational laws of Europe. So far as we are con-
cerned it is a mere nonentity, and therefore it signifies
to us literally nothing in what_ light the Emperor
and the Sultan choose - to contemplate it, As be-
tween the two -States. Further, it is now known.,
upon -evidence which cannot be disputed, that several
Russian-ships of war have passed down from-the Black
Sea, through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles,
within the last six months, to the Archipelago. It is -
understood that, should occasion require if, we shall
dispatch a ship or ships of war through the Dardanelles
and the Bosphorus into the Black Sea—possibly to
explore the embouchures of .the Danube—possibly to
ascend that river as far as the bar and the sand-banks
will permit. All delicacy with reference to the passage
of the two Straits by British ships of war has been
removed by the recorded example of Russia. 'We
have no inforaiation as to the main object of Lord
Durham's mission. But the history of events, and
the necessity of the case, tend to persuade us that .
the immediate evacuation of Silistria, and the real
evacuation of the Principalities, will be insisted
upon by his .Lordship in the first instance. Ac- •
cording to the treaties with Turkey, , the Russian
troops ought to have long since quitted Wallachia.
Nevertheless, under the pretence of keeping up the
military communications between the Imperial fron-
tiers and Silistria, there are upwards of five thousand
men cantOned in that Principality at this moment.
With a view,
,we presume, to practice a deception, the
garrison of Silistria has been reduced to about six
thousand men within the last four or five months.
But the fortifications gave in the meantime been ex-
tended, and Materially strengthened. These works can
only have been undertaken with a view to a protracted
possession of that place by the Autocrat—an arrange-
ment which cannot be permitted. We expect that it
will be resisted at any hazard. Nevertheless, when
We speak of hazard, we have no apprehension of a war
with Russia. The Emperor perfectly well knows that
the- Nobles, who are the great landed proprietors in
that country, derive their revenues from the trade with
England., A war with us would pauperize. his Aristo-
cracy—and sooner than submit to such a change of
fortune, to please the ambition of an indiscreet, if not
an insane Sovereign, they would take off his head. It
must be admitted that the British Government, whe-
ther Whig or Tory, has too long suffered the Czar to
prey upon Turkey. The time has arrived, when de-
cisive, steps may and ought to be taken, to enable the
Sultan to re-establish the independence, and secure the
integrity of his dominions. That such measures will
be adopted—indeed, that they are already in progress
we entertain no doubt.—Morning Chronicle.
Reports come crowding on us that Lord Melbourne
begins to see that which every one else in the commu-
nity beyond the misty verge of faction has for many
months been convinced of—namely, that with his pre-
sent associates, and under the embarrassments in which,
at their dictation, he has involved himself, it is impos-
sible for the Noble Viscount to go on, as nominal head
of those of his brother galley-slaves, ridiculously called
"the Government." . Lord Melbourne, as it has been
rumoured for this day or two, flatters himself that he
AN-ill recover Lord Stanley and the Duke of Richmond
to his Ministry ; and in hopes of being able to realize a
prospect so exhilirating, the Noble Viscount has, ac-
cording to the, pedantic phraseology of office, " put
himself in communication," more than once, with
the former of the above noblemen. He is now
on a visit to the latter. If there is in such
" communications" any thing more than a mere
renewal of private intercourse—if Lord Mel-
bourne has been seeking an accession of strength
from such a wholesome quarter, irrefragable proof
will be at once afforded, that the base and pesti-
lential alliance with O'Connell is dissolved ; that Lord
Melbourne is at length recalled to a sense of what he
owes to the British monarchy—of the solemn debt, in
the nature of reparation which he owes to the reformed
'church in which he was educated—of his repeated
pledges as a British Peer, and as the adviser of his
Sovereign, to maintain inviolate the union with Ire-
land, the civil rights and vested properties, and valua-
ble lives of his Protestant fellow-subjects in that coun-
try, attached as they are, heart and soul, to Great
Britain, and beset by millions of barbarous persecu-
tors of their religious creed, and their politicall and so-
cial existence. We certainly shall not -withhold the
due praise from Lord Melbourne and his colleagues,
when it shall be 'proved to us that they really desire a ,
re-union with Lord Stanley and the Duke of Rich-
mond, -on the only terms on which it would be any-
thing but immodest madness in the present Cabinet
to solicit such a junction, or on- which it would be
morally possible for Lord Stanley and the Noble
Duke to accede to it—viz., a total, peremptory, and
final breach with O'Connell and the Romish re-
volutionists of Ireland, including a frank and abso-
lute surrender of that disastrous clause in the Irish
Tithe Bill, or rather forcibly patched upon the measure,
which with its appendages have mainly caused the ra-
pid growth of Popish insolence and outrage in Ireland,
and such terrible bitternesses of feeling, bad blood,
and confusion here. We repeat it emphatically, that
an approximation of Lord Melbourne towards Lord
Stanley and his friends, is war with O'Connell, and
the scabbard flung away. It is a direct sacrifice of
the appropriation, or spoliation, policy, on the very
suggestion of which, in- a far more mitigated form
undercb Lord Grey's Government, Lord Stanley, the
Duke of Richmond, Sir James Graham, &c., resigned.
As for the vile suspicion of any possibility exist-
ing that Lord Stanley and his friends, who gave
up office because of their disgust at the principls
of alienating church property, and their terror at the
prospect of seeing such a principle embodied in a bill,
and forced upon the nation—that they would now suf-
fer themselves to be bribed by a resumption of the
same office, to vote for the principle and measure
which they before repudiated, and to destroy- those
mighty interests for which they then devoted them-
selves, and made a burnt offering of power,—such an
enormity is not worth the shadow of a thought. No—
if Lord Stanley joins the Ministers, he joins them like
a man of honour and a patriot—to save our institu-
tions, not to subvert them. But the rumour must be
altogether unfounded. The " communication to Lord
Stanley and the Duke of Richmond" is merely a
" ruse," to give the hope of an accession of strength to
the wavering ranks of the Ministerialists, who, in-
structed by late ei'ents, begin to look about for loop-
holes of escape. Lord Melbourne dares not quarrel
with O'Connell ; still less does he dare to propose to
Lord Stanley a political junction, while the spoliation
Bill and the resolution which was its foundation are
daily proclaimed as- the rallying sign of his Cabinet
and its principal supporters.—Times.
We seldom recollect any event to have caused such
evident and deep consternation amongat the hangers-
on or dependents of any Ministry, as the result of the
late Northamptonshire election, followed up by the
retreat from Gloucestershire, appears to have done. In
vain do the' Ministerial prints assure them and the pub •
tie that Mr. Maunsell's victory is Wholly to be attri-
buted to the fact, that the loweSt prejudices (:,f the
Northampton hire " clods" had been excited against
Mr. Hanbury's cause, orethat the' majority was coma
posed of distressed farmers, tenants at will, who were
driven to the poll like swine by the whips of their Tory
landlords. The persons alluded -to are far too wise in
their generation, and are much too accurately acquainted]
with the state of things, both in Northamptonshire and
elsewhere, to be gulled by such rubbishing inventions ;
they know the inevitable effect that such an event must
produce in an quarters. - They see in it not only
chance of their patrons being actually defeated early in-
the next Session, but, what is of far more importance,-

that the country at large will know that the King,
Lords, and Commons will learn what the feeling
of the people of this country is with respect to the
Whig-Radical coalition with the big-beggarman of
Ireland, and how decided their opinion is with respect
to the destruction of. the House of Lords, and the
sacrifice of the Protestant Church to its Papist assail-
ants. The fatal resolution (the accursed offspring of
the lowest factious party strife) with_ respect to the
Irish Church, hangs like a millstone round the necks
of the present Ministry ; they know that it prevents
them moving a step towards the settlement of the Irish
Church question ; and they must perceive that it is
a question that the country will not be content to
have left in abeyance for their sole pleasure. They
know that if they bring it forward defeat awaits them
in the one House, if not defection in the other also ;
that such defeat must be attended by very different
consequences from those which followed that at the
close of the last Session. The business of the country
cannot be allowed to stand still ; that there will be
persons both ready and. able to carry on the affairs of
the Government, we doubt not—that, upon a dissolu-
tion, by Sir Robert Peel, supported as he would be,
and freed from the incumbrances of some persons
who were imposed upon him during his late Pre-
miership—upon the questions of the Protestant Church
and the preservation of the House of Lords, we en-
tertain not the slightest fear but that such a majority
would be secured to the Right Hon. Baronet as would
enable him successfully and efficiently to carry out
those measures of .reform, both in Church and State,
which the country has been so long waiting for. We
have often written in support of what is called the cot-
tage-allotment system, which, if it had been generally
adopted, when we first recommended it, would have
tended to check the increase of pauperism, and to re-
store the independence and healthy tone of morals of
the English peasantry, without any of those mischievous
consequences to society which flow from the sudden
revulsion of a long-established system, and which are
now experienced in many parts of England, from the
working of that unwise, unchristian, and precipitate
measure—the Poor Law Amendment Bill of the Whig
Ministry. In our paper of yesterday, we gave a state-
ment respecting the benefits to be derived to society in
point of the actual saving of money by-the general
allotment system, upon the plan of allowing one quarter
of an acre to each of the 744,000 agricultural labourers
in England, and the same quantity to each of the
500,000 labourers who are not agricultural. The value
of the produce of those patches of ground, amounting
to 1-93 part of the cultivateable ground of England, is
calculated at upwards of 6,200,0001., or within less
than a quarter of a million expended for the relief of
the-poor in the year ending March the 25th, 1833.
By this system the poor would not be starved, nor
crammed into poor-house prisons, but a true economy
would be promoted, while their condition, both physi-
cally and morally, would be improved. But the Mal-
thusian Bill afforded a better field for Whig patronage
and jobbing.—Morning Herald.
The first and leading paper in the Polonais, just
published, contains some observations on the relative
position of Russia and Europe, of so shrewd and ju-
dicious a character as to merit a passing notice. The
article is designated " Inquiry into the means of baf-
fling the projects of Russia in the East, without the
disturbance of the peace of Europe." This is a di-
plomatic problem, to which we have ourselves before
adverted, and which yet remains to be solved. If
there were, indeed, no resource for defeating the
avowed ambition of Russia—and if it were demon-
strated, as we think it has been already demonstrated
in this paper, that the actual attitude of Russia towards
free Europe, and this country in particular, is virtu-
ally belligerent ;—if the covert warfare she has thus
been waging, and is still waging; aims a blow at the
vital existence of England, and tends to deteriorate her
commerce, to dry up the sources of her revenue, and
to mulct the purses of our merchants and trades-
men—there is no reflecting person, we apprehend,
who would not concur with- us in opinion, that a de-
clared war would be better than this treacherous peace.
Further, we apprehend they would also concur with
us in the inference that, if war must come, it would be
better to have an early war than a late one—it would-be
better to contend with the enemy in the midst of his
designs, than when he has completed them. It would
be better to oppose him when comparatively weak,
than when he has gained strength by each successive

act of impunity. It would be Getter, in fact, to grap-
ple with the giant in his infancy, than when developed
into the irresistible strength of his mature proportions.
Rut we have never considered that immediate war was
necessary ; and a war which would jeopardy our nu-
merous mercantile vessels—perhaps more than 1,200
in number—which are trafficking with the various ports
of Russia, would, indeed, be a matter of formidable con-
sideration. But we believe that a firm tone on the part
of English diplomacy, supported and backed by well-
organized and anticipative measures of counteraction,
would render so formidable an alternative perfectly
unnecessary. The writer of the paper to which we are
drawing the attention -of our readers, forms an accu-
rate appreciation' of the actual position and inclina-
tions of Russia, when saving, that Russia dreads
war. We belieVe firmly that she dreads war with
England, much more than England dreads a war with
her; although some of our public writers have most
impolitically and falsely hinted to her that England
does so. She has been told we dare not go to war,
whatever she does—she has been told there is our
debt- in the way.• We believe that this paraded blun-
der of self-conceit, stupidity, or malice, has caused
the " bully of -the north" to have assumed a more
swaggering tone towards England, when remon-
strated with on account of her aggressions and op-

pressions, than she otherwise would. In fact, Eng-
land and Russia have long resembled the two un-
willing duellists in Shakspearc's Twelfth Night,
who, with the greatest difficulty are, by their se-
conds, brought to measure swords, and are mu-
tually terrified by the mock semblance of threat
upon each other's brows. Yes, Russia fears war.
There is no occasion to hunt for the argument
of the writer of the Polonais for that inference,
while there is more practical evidence within our
reach. We mean that she fears open war. By that
she has not obtained much. It is secret diplomatic
war, by which she has obtained the greater part of
her latter acquisitions. In fact, her commerce would
be placed in greater jeopardy by an evert act of war
than ours; and her extravagant and semi-barbarous
merchant nobility would soon be in a state of insur-
rection, as they were once before, against their own
Government, when they found a war with Eng-
land draining their money-chests and drying up the
sources of their ostentatious luxury. But it is not the
material in jury of war which Russia only fears. We
have now fortunately her own confession that it is the
moral detriment of war, and especially a war with Eng-
land, which she still more fears. Her confession was, in
fact, not necessary. All her late acts prove beyond
evasion that she trembles at the very idea of a war of
opinion—into which a war with the free States of
Europe, headed by England, would inevitably convert
itself. We believe that the views of Russian diplo-
macy on this point are perspicuous and correct, and
that she fears justly the consequences of combinations
reasoned. Count Bernstoff's
on which she has justly
Memoir, " On the Means of Preserving Interior
Tranquillity in the event of a War with the exterior
of Germany," published in the Portfolio, and in which
the views of Russia are made manifest, describes the
above bugbear of Russian Statesmanship in one em-
phatic sentence :—" There is one contest with bayo-
nets and swords, and one with principles." •We shall
return to the subject.—Morning Advertiser.

Five beautiful specimens of the Bohemian Chatterer
were lately shot by Mr. Smith of Burnup-field, and four of
them placed in the -hands of Mr. Thomas Ellison, of this
town, for preservation.—Tyne Mercury.

The Provost stated, at a special meeting of Coun-
cil, held on Friday, that he had received information, that
there is a serious intention, on the part of some 'Arsons con-
nected with the Government to suppress Marischal Col-
lege as a School of Arts. From what transpired a t the
meeting of Council, and from what we know of the feel-
ings of the inhabitants of Aberdeen, we are convinced that
the contemplated transfer of the Faculty of Arts to Old
Aberdeen, will raise up a spirit of opposition to the Go-
vernment measure, which may, in the end, prove fatal even
to the cause of University Reform itself.—Aberdeen
Herald.