The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-08 00:00:00

which it was generally actuated ? Had they not
afterwards the whole host of the representatives
of rotten boroughs and nomination Lords to
contend with, and was it not by dint alone of
such perseverance as England had never previ-
ously witnessed on the part of his Majesty s Mi-
nisters, against a corrupt faction, that the Reform
Bill was ultimately carried ? Did not, in fact,
the opposition to the Reform Bill occupy nearly
the whole of the attention of his Majesty's Mi-
nisters, and prevent them from attending to al-
most any other point of national improvement ?
But, sass the author of the article in the
Magazine, the army was augmented ; and so
it was ; but not wilfully for the sake of pa-
tronage and extravagance, but unwillingly, be-
cause the state of Ireland, on the one hand,
and the state of our foreign relations, on the
other, demanded it. But again, it is rejoined,
the taxes on knowledge were not reduced ac-
cording to a long standing pledge of the Whigs
when out of office ; and here we confess " a
hit—an apparently most palpable hit ;" but the
apparent breach of faith in this matter did not
proceed from unwillingness to fulfil former
pledges, but from inability, in consequence,
partly of the opposition of the enemies of the
people, and partly from the time of Parliament
being almost wholly occupied with the Reform
Bill. The general charge of extravagance we
utterly scout and deny. Great reductions have
been made—more are in the course of being
effected ; and if all has not been accomplished
that the public anticipated, it has only to thank
its old friends, the Tories, who, in their cha-
racter of conservatives, exhibited an hostility to
every change which his Majesty's Ministers
were anxious to effect, but had not the means
of surmounting. When the Reform Parliament
meets it will be then or never for the Whigs to
implement their pledges. At present we hold
all accusations against them to be utterly ground-
less and unfounded, if not also malignant.—
Morning Advertiser.
The conflict at Oporto on the 29th ult., judg-
ing merely from the accounts sent to England
by the partizans of Don Pedro, would appear
to have been extremely unfavourable to the rebel
cause, if not fatal to the last lingering hope
cherished by the revolutionary party in France
and England of its final success. It is evident
that the English and French auxiliaries formed
the only part of the rebel army upon which its
leaders could place any reliance, and that the
vagabond Portuguese with whom they had the
misfortune to be associated in arms are, in the
estimation of Don Pedro and his officers, and
even in their own estimation, utterly worthless
as soldiers. How is it possible to account
otherwise for the acknowledged fact that
the French and English were thrust into the
positions where the greatest danger was to be
incurred, and the most vigorous efforts were re-
quired, when every honourable and patriotic feel-
ing imperiously so required that in this national
contest the national force should have occupied
the foremost ranks of glory and of danger ? Dun
Pedro must know that the Portuguese who sur-
round him cannot or will not fight ; and they
must be conscious of the same unsoldierly ina-
bility or reluctance, or he would never have
assigned, as he did, the post of honour to fo-
reigners, nor would they have permitted such an
allocation of his troops as must cover their mili-
tary character with indelible disgrace. The
English and French troops have, however, suf-
ferred so severely in consequence of the favour
so magnanimously shown them by their Por-
tuguese friends that few of them are left,
we imagine, to act, during the next attack
of Don Miguel's army, the convenient part
of a shield to the brave and faithful sub-
jects of Donna Maria. The accounts, partial
as they are to the cause of the invader, inform us
very distinctly that the Officers of the French
and English forces are, with scarcely the excep-
tion of a single man, put hors de combat ; and
as the nature of the operation scarcely admitted
of the Officers being picked out, it seems reason-
able to conclude, notwithstanding every effort to
underrate the total loss, that the rank and file did
not fare much better. The next assault will show
us what the rebel Portuguese are worth when left,
as they must now be, to fight their own battle.
We have no right indeed to complain that
Englishmen who hired themselves out to Don
Pedro as mercenaries have been, however fatally
to themselves, employed as a rampart to his own
cowardly countrymen ; but we cannot suppress
our grief and indignation on finding that British
sailors, in the service of their own Sovereign, and
under the proud flag of England, have been com-
pelled to perform the same unworthy and degrad-
ing office. It will be perceived that we allude to
the atrocious conduct of the Captain of one
of Don Pedro's ships, the Amelia, who after
he had been repeatedly warned off, persisted in
sheltering himself under the lee of a British ship
of war from the hostility of the Miguelites,
which he had especially provoked, thus deciding
the pretended neutrality of this country, and
sporting with the lives of Englishmen. The life
of one of his Majesty's subjects was upon this
;syatt mockoirtahllevr
ioc-
casionnsp
neutrality,
ire . n sacrificedadd
too
thetuor Lordinsolence suot
rl Pct.,
neutrality
lwmbheeiercnsht oi
naturally
than a mockery, the impudent and cowardly Pe-
drite who presumed to seek safety by violating
it thus pertinaciously, and after full and ample
warning, would unquestionably have been blown
out of the water, as he deserved, by order of
the British Officer, whose dignity he had in-
sulted, and the lives of whose crew he had ex-
posed to dangers which could not otherwise be
repelled.—Morning Post.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

Mr. Moore, the proprietor of a van coach, and
James Trusler, his coachman, were summoned be-
fore the LORD MAYOR under the folowing cir-
cumstances :
Clapham, the police-officer, stated that, a few days
ago, a person applied to him to apprehend a sailor,
who had robbed him, and who was at that moment
in the van coach, at the Cross Keys, in Grace-
church-street. Witness went to the coach for the
purpose of doing his duty, the accused having been
pointed out to him, but was prevented by the pe-
remptory order of Mr. Moore to his coachman to
drive on. The coach then went on at a rapid rate
down the hill till it reached the foot of London-
bridge, witness sticking to it as well as he could.
lie then endeavoured to take away the sailor, anti
was assisted by two other officers, named Smith and
King. The coachman, however, continued to whip
away, and in every possible way obstructed them in
the performance of their duty; and persons on the
coach and the mob, which soon gathered together
in formidable numbers, took part with the sailor.
Witness was knocked about, his staff was dashed
from his hand, and, when he stooped for it, ha:r a
dozen fellows leaped upon his back. The sailor in
the mean time escaped.
Smith, the policeman, confirmed the greater part
of the statement. When he interfered to aid his
brother officer the coachman not only whipped the
horses, but whipped him. The officers were most
dangerously circumstanced. The coachman had