The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Sir Walter Scott, the greatest genius and most
popular writer of his nation and his age, expired
at Abbotsford on Friday last,—a man, not more
admired or admirable for the inventive powers of
his mind than beloved and respected for the
kindness of his disposition and the manly sim-
plicity of his character. After an absence of
some months in Italy and other parts of the
continent, which, it was fondly but vainly
imagined by his friends, might restore his health,
—broken down by excess of mental labour,—
he returned about Midsummer last, with an in-
stinct of patriotism, to lay his bones in his na-
tive land. On his way home, in descending the
Rhine to embark for England, he suffered at
Niineguen, in Holland, a third time, a paralytic
attack, which, but for the surgical skill and
promptitude of his servant, must have been in-
stantly fatal,— and from which he never recovered
sufficiently to be sensible of that zealous admira-
tion with which a grateful country was desirous
of honouring his name, and paying homage to
his setting star. It is almost needless to say,
that though the death of this illustrious man has
been long expected, no loss could be more deeply
felt over the whole republic of letters, and none
could excite more general or unmixed regret. His
name and works are not onlyßritish but European,
—not only European but universal ; for wherever
there is a reading public,—a literature,—or a
printing press, in any part of the world, Sir
Walter must be regarded as a familiar household
word, and gratefully admitted as a contributor
to intellectual enjoyment. Of a man so univer-
sally known and admired—of a writer, who by
works of imagination, both in prose and verse,
has added so much to the stores of intellectual
instruction and delight—of an author who, in
his own time, has compelled, by the force of his
genius, and the extent of his literary benefac•
tions, a unanimity of grateful applause which
generally only death (the destroyer of envy) can
ensure—it would be superfluous, and perhaps
impertinent in us, to speak in this short an-
nouncement, as critics, or biographers. The
illustrious author of Waverley, and twenty
other historical romances displaying the spirit of
Waverley, of The Lay of the Last Min-
strel, and six other greater lays than ever an-
cient minstrel sung—has latterly been exempted
from the proverbial injustice inflicted on con-
temporary genius ;

" - et sua riserunt semis Alteonidem,"

and has been able to realize the most ample
visions of posthumous celebrity. He does not,
therefore, require any vindication of his fame,
or any display of his literary merits, at our
hands. Our object in alluding to his death
and character is of a higher kind than
that of literary criticism. Our object is to
speak of him as a tolerant, candid, and
kind-hearted member of that great republic of
letters, of which he would willingly have been
elected President had that republic acquired a
settled organization—to recommend his personal
simplicity of character and total absence of lite-
rary affectation, to the imitation of those who,
though they cannot pretend to his genius, think
themselves exempted,—on the ground of their
inferior powers,—from the common restraints
and customs of society, to which he always
submitted, and to bestow its due meed of praise
on that noble and manly spirit of independence
which led him to the immense labours of the last
years of his life, that he might disengage himself
from debts and difficulties under which a less re-
solute mind must have sunk, or from which a
less honest one would have sought relief by
leaning on those friends and patrons who would
have been proud to have offered their aid. The
republication of his novels, with notes and illus-
trations, was perhaps one of the greatest literary
enterprises known in this country ; and the
success of the work, if it has not enabled
him to leave much to his children, has at least
satisfied the demands of his creditors. His
indifference to the attacks of envy and ma-
lignity with which he was assailed in the earlier
part of his career was as remarkable as his can-
did appreciation of the merits, and his zealous
desire to promote the fame, of his friends. The
garland which he threw on the grave of Byron,
and the zeal with which he defended his personal
character, when it evinced some courage to re-
but the charges brought against his memory,
will never be forgotten by the admirers of mis-
guided genius. Though Sir Walter Scott was
an unflinching Tory all his life, his politics never
degenerated into faction, nor did they ever inter-
fere with his literary candour or his private
friendships. Indeed, his party principles seemed
to have been rather formed from his early con-
nections or his poetical predilections, than
adopted for ambitious objects, or even selected
after mature examination. But one distinguish-
ing characteristic of this great author's mind and
feelings deserves, even in the shortest allusion to
his memory, to be mentioned as having given a
colour to all his works—we mean his love of
country—his devoted attachment to the land of
his birth and the scenes of his youth—his
warm sympathy in every thing that interested
his nation, and the unceasing application of
his industry and imagination to illustrate its
history, or to celebrate its exploits. From
the Lay of the Last Minstrel, or the border
ballads, to the last lines which he wrote,
he showed a complete and entire devotion to
his country. His works, both of poetry and
prose, are impregnated with this feeling, and are
marked by the celebration of successive portions
of its wild scenery, or of separate periods of its
romantic annals. Hence his friends could
often trace his residence, or the course of his
reading, for periods anterior to the publication
of his most popular works, in the pages of his
glowing narrative or graphic description. Hence
the Lady ,of the Lake sent crowds of visiters to
the mountains of Scotland, who would never
have thought of such a pilgrimage unless led by
the desire to compare the scenery with the
poem. No poet or author since the days of
Homer was ever so completely a domestic ob-
server, or a national writer, and probably none
has ever conferred more lasting celebrity on the
scenes which he describes. The border wars,—
the lawless violence of the Highland chns—the
romantic superstitions of the dark ages, with
their lingering remains in Scotland,—the state
of manners at every period of his country's
annals,--the scence of any remarkable event, are
all to be found in his pages,—and scarcely a
mountain or promontory " rears its head un-
sung" from Tweed to John o'Groat's. In
short, we may apply to him what Cicero so hap-
pily says of the great poet to whom in this re-
spect we have compared him. Qua' reazo2
quer ora2 qui locus Gracia' (Scotix)? quce
species formce ? quce pugna 2 quce acies? quid
remigiztnz? qui motus animorunz? qui je-
rarunz, non ita exptctus est, ut quce ipse
non viderit, nos ut videremus efficerit ?
The patriotism of Sir Walter Scott, though
sometimes tinged with party, was always as warm
as such poetical feelings could render it. Hence

two or three of the most spirited of his lyrical
pieces were written on the threatened invasion
,by Napoleon, and we need not cite his enthu-
siastic sympathy in the fame of his country,
,evinced in Waterloo and Don Roderick. His
mind disdained that pretended enlargement, but
real narrowness of spirit, which affects to consi-
der all lands as alike, and would be ashamed to
show any predilections for home. But, as our
object is not either criticism or biography, we
;must conclude these hasty remarks by referring
for an account of Sir Walter Scott's publications
to the short article which we have extracted
,from the Globe. He had abandoned for nearly
,twenty years the cultivation of poetry, in which
he was first distinguished, for the composition
of his historical novels ; he had left thus a most
respectable property on Parnassus to descend
into a more fertile spot below. Thence he has
given to the world twenty works which will
communicate delight, and extend his fame to all
ages. The enchanter's wand is now broken, and
his " magic garment plucked off;" but the spi-
rits which this Prospero of romance has "called
up," and placed in these noble productions, will
last as long as the language in which they ex-
press themselves.— Times.
Notwithstanding appearances are somewhat
threatening at present, we do not believe that
there will be a general war. We do not see what
any of the great nations could gain by war ; and
we can see that-all of them would be more or
less injured by it. We do not believe that
France and England would have ventured to
coerce the King of Holland, had they not had
a good assurance that Austria and Prussia would
remain passive. We hear it said, indeed, that
Prussia has protested against the step about to
be taken by England and France. This may or
may not have been the case ; but still we return
to our position, there will be no war. Our con-
temporary (the Standard) had an article last
night in the high tragic vein, breathing nothing
but war and devastation. " The blow," says
our contemporary, " has been at length struck.
The war of which no man can foretel the end,
but which even the simplest must see can bring
nothing but misery to Europe, and weakness
and disgrace to England—the Whig continental
war is on the eve of its commencement." The
consequences stated by our contemporary as
likely to result from the war are these :—" Is there
any man out of the Ministry, in all England, so
stupid as not to see that if this war be permitted
to commence, and if England engages in it, the
ruin of this Empire—the speedy ruin of this
Empire—is perfectly inevitable ? England, if
she engages in this war, embarks as the ally of
a revolutionary state in the cause of revolution.
Admitting for a moment the monstrous hypothe-
sis, that the revolutionist allies, England and
France, succeed against the whole banded power
of the European Sovereigns, fighting not merely
for the integrity of their dominions, but per-
sonally engaged for the Crowns they wear, and
the very preservation of their lives and the lives
of their families—admitting, we say, that fickle
France and half-disinclined England persevere
in prosecuting to a successful issue a contest
against a confederacy so tremendously sincere,
what are we next to expect ? France, we may
suppose, has resumed Belgium, and Italy, and
Holland, and it may be Hanover, and perhaps
the States on the Rhine ; and from the plunder
of her ally, England may have recovered their
Spice Islands." It is here supposed that the
war on the part of the European Sovereigns
will be for the Crowns they wear, and the
preservation of their lives and the lives of their
families." Now, before a Sovereign embarks in a
war which maybe attended with such serious con-
sequences, it is natural that he should ask himself
why he should incursuch a risk? Itdoes not strike
us that the reasons assigned by our contemporary
why they should encounter such a risk are at all
conclusive. " If (he says) the Sovereigns of
Europe have a care for their subjects—for their
several States—for their own station in the world,
and the prospects of their children—for their
own lives, and the lives of their families—they must
make common cause with the King of Holland.
The war against that Monarch is (it can never
be too often repeated) a war of propagandism—
a war in vindication of the abstract right of re-
bellion ; and, as such (indeed the English
Whigs are at no pains to conceal it), it is a war
against every Throne in Europe. What, then,
are the chances that the Sovereigns of Europe
will allow advantage to this war—will allow the
work of conspiracy to make way for it into their
very capitals, by farther submission and delay ?
Let them lose another season and they lose an
ally ; and how much they lose in that, the expe-
rience of the first revolution war cannot fail to
teach them." We had imagined that there was
no question about principles or propagandism—
that England and France did not differ from the
other Powers with respect to the conditions of
arrangement in the case of Holland and Bel-
gium ; that the question respecting which there
could be any difference was not the terms of the
arrangement, but the mode in which effect should
be given to it. The separation of Holland
and Belgium is a fact ; and if there is propa-
gandism and rebellion in the case, the Five
Powers have sanctioned propagandism and
the abstract right of rebellion in prescribing the
terms of the arrangement. Our contemporary
libels the Powers of Prussia, Austria, and Rus-
sia, by his mode of arguing ; for we must infer
from his language, that in prescribing terms of
arrangement they were insincere, and that they
knew all the while the King of Holland would
hold out. Charity requires that we should
suppose the Conference acted bona fide, and in
that case they must have set at defiance the
danger from propagandism, and from appearing
to vindicate the abstract right of rebellion. It is
to be regretted that the King of Holland drove
the Belgians to revolt, because the expenses of
Government would have fallen much lighter on
the kingdom of the Netherlands than on Holland
and Belgium separately. But after what has
passed, the two countries cannot be united ex-
cept by forcible means. It will be no easy matter
to prevent Belgium from being one day annexed
to France. A small Republic has its inconve-
niences, but a small Monarchy is a downright nui-
sance ; and it will be no easy matter to convince
the Belgians that they can derive from inde-
pendence any compensation for the heavy bur-
dens which their Monarchy entails on them. How-
ever let us have the best settlement that can be
obtained in the meantime, and if Belgium must
be a bone of contention some day or other,
it is as well to put off that day as long as we
possibly can. It is quite clear that France, un-
der Louis Philip, is not disposed to aggression.
Austria and Prussia know that so long as he is
King of the French, they have nothing to fear
from France. Why, then, should we suppose
them so foolish as to go to war with France and
England, merely because they are determined to
make the arrangements of the Conference com-
pulsory on Holland ? The issue of a contest
with two such counples is one which may or may ,

not be favourable, but the contest is sure to be
both tedious and expensive. We can see no
motives for their incurring such a risk. They
may have been insincere in the Conference ; but
they will hardly have the assurance to proclaim
to the world that they were insincere by making
war against two Powers for giving effect to their
own declared views. We loathe war; and if we
thought that Ministers were about to plunge the
country in war, we should be the first to con-
demn them. But we have a better opinion of
them than to suppose that they would take the
course they are now pursuing, if they were not
assured that the interests of this country will not
be compromised by it.—Morning Chronicle.
It was always our opinion from the commence-
ment of the silly interference of our Govern-
ment in the affairs of Holland and Belgium that
those two States ought to have been allowed to
settle their own disputes between themselves.
If they had, the question of the evacuation of
the citadel of Antwerp—of the free navigation
of the Scheldt—of the capitalisation of the
debt, and others of a minor nature, would have
been all decided long ago, and the general peace
of Europe need not have been disturbed. If
our Government had had wisdom enough to
avoid entangling itself in the protocol negotia-
tions, as we recommended from the beginning, it
would have been free to act according as circum-
stances might demand, in the event of Prussia
on the one side, or France on the other, giving
the aid of their armies to the Dutch or the Bel-
gians. The interference of England under
such circumstances would have been an
interference for the purpose of guarding her own
interests against the ambitious encroachments
of other Powers, and against any thing in the
nature of a war of conquest and aggrandisement.
By standing clear of all the absurd complexity
of engagements in which she has been involved
by treading the endless mazes of the protocol
labyrinth, she could have awaited the opportu-
nity to use with effect the great means which her
maritime power confers upon her, in defence of
her own interests, if the necessity arose. But
from the moment when our liberal Government
abandoned the vantage-ground of neutrality, and
leagued itself with the Holy Alliance, in making
decrees never to be enforced, and treaties never
to be ratified—from that moment England was
placed in a position in which she must either sa-
crifice her honour and her interest to keep
on good terms with treacherous and circum-
venting Allies, or, if stung by repeated in-
sults and acts of bad faith into war, it would
be a war created by the intermeddling
folly of her own Government, and not one
forced upon her by inevitable necessity. Our
Government, by its unwise interference, has not
only mixed itself up in the Belgic quarrel, but
it has placed the Belgic nation and those who
rule it in a most awkward predicament. It has
been Lord Palmerston's policy to induce the
Belgian Government to make various conces-
sions, on the assurance that England would use
its power in coercing the King of Holland, if he
should be " mad enough" to resist all milder
modes of persuasion. The farce was carried so
far, that even an English fleet was once sent out
to the coast of Holland to carry the threat of
coercion into effect. The King of Holland was
inflexible—he prepared Flushing and other for-
tified sea-ports for our reception—but "the
meteor-flag of England" was only seen in the
offing—seen like a meteor, to disappear in
darkness. The flag of the Nile and of Tra-
falgar drooped in humiliation as it was waft-
ed back to our shores, and the countrymen
of Van Tromp had revenge for the vic-
tories of Blake. As to the present movement
of the French troops, it is possible, as our Paris
Correspondent surmises, that it may be but a
coup de theatre, for the purpose of recovering
some popularity for Louis Philip, whose despotic
tendencies have reduced him to a miserable state
of destitution in regard to reputable fame. The
author of the Ancona trick may find imitators in
a Cabinet moulded by himself. Yet should the
King of Holland deem himself strong enough
to take the field, it will not be possible to pre-
vent the French troops from crossing the Belgic
frontier, for the national feeling will be stronger
than the policy of Louis Philip, in which case we
do not think Prussia will look on with indif-
ference, while a Monarch combating for the
same principles as herself is beaten by revolu-
tionary France. As to the statement made at
this crisis, of the Prussian army being about to
be reduced to the peace establishment, it is a
fabrication too absurd to require serious contra-
diction.—Morning Herald.

WAR WITH HOLLAND.—It is affirmed and
generally believed that Earl Grey's Administra-
tion has involved this country in hostilities
against its ancient and most faithful Ally, Hob.
land. We wait, the official acknowledgment of
a step so fearful in its mighty consequences;
trusting with confidence to the honest and just
feelings of the people of England for the course
which they will take upon a measure fraught with
certain infamy and inevitable ruin.—Morning
Post.

There are few things too foolish or too mis-
chievous to be credited when alleged against the
men who at the present moment govern the
councils of this country, yet we find it impossi-
ble to refuse our concurrence to the remark of
the French Journal Le Temps, that the block-
ade of the ports of Holland by a British fleet is
one of those events that cannot be believed till
seen. The good sense, the love of justice, the
grateful recollection of past services, of the Bri-
tish people would instinctively revolt from the
spectacle of England at war with Holland upon
any such pretences as existing circumstances
afford ; nor would the feeling of disgust and in-
dignation naturally arising from such a state of
affairs against its authors be in any degree miti-
gated by the fact that this war had been under-
taken by England against Holland, not in pursuit
of any British interest or in vindication of anyßri-
tish right, but simply because the Government of
England has recently taught itself to consider
the alliance of France as the prime and para-
mount object of its foreign policy. It cannot
surely be that the present Administration will
risk the popularity it loves so dearly upon such
a venture. What has Holland done that Eng-
land should go to war with her ? She has been
obstinate forsooth. She has chosen to have a
voice in the arrangement of affairs which strictly
and properly are her own domestic and internal
affairs, the navigation of her waters, the adjust-
ment of her boundaries, the provision for her
debt. What more has she done ? She has had
the insolence to refer back to the Conference of
the Great Powers which have taken upon them-
selves the settlement of her affairs, to their first
final and irrevocable decree, in which, without
admitting its justice, she had at once and for
the love of peace acquiesced, when she ought
to have submitted, according to her ene-
mies, to each one in succession of the thirty
or forty final And irrevocable decrees

(we protest we forget the precise number)
which have gradually oozed out from the same
pure and authoritative source. What more ?
She hesitates to enter into direct negotiations
upon the point in dispute with the Revolutionary
Monarch, for whom a kingdom has been carved
out of her former territory—out of a territory
guaranteed to her by solemn treaty on the part
of every one of the Powers whom she thus
offends, seeing no fairness or equality in a nego-
tiation which must of necessity imply from its
commencement a recognition which may be de-
trimental to her, and must be highly advantageous
to him. These are the offences for which Holland
is threatened with war by the combined forces
of England and France. The threat must
be a vain one. There can be no such
infatuation, as the fulfilment of this threat
would manifest, even in a Whig Cabinet. That
matters have been brought to a point in which
England, in conjunction with France, is seen
to assume a menacing attitude towards Hol-
land, affords indeed a new and very remarkable
illustration of the dexterity, perseverence, and
success with which the present French Govern-
ment cleaves to the ancient policy of the Bour-
bons in respect to foreign affairs. Whatever
other revolutions may have taken place, it is
plain enough that there is no revolution here.
The old object of excluding England from all
influence and power on the Continent was never
more steadily or more skilfully pursued ; and
certainly never since the first moment when it
became a fixed and permanent characteristic of
French policy did it assume so favourable an
aspect as under the sedulous and skilful manage-
ment of that revolutionary Government of which
Earl Grey is so devoted an admirer. It will
scarcely be denied that Holland and the two
kingdoms of the Peninsula were the strong
holds of British influence upon the Continent of
Europe which have always excited the jealousy
of France when at peace with England, and
crippled her means or diverted their application
when at war. What has now become of these
ancient outposts of British power ? Is it probable
that we shall ever regain that ascendancy in Por-
tugal which we once enjoyed, let the termination
of the present contest be what it may? What are
we more than France, whichever party may be
finally triumphant ? Have we earned less than
that power of the resentment of Miguel, or
more of the gratitude of Pedro ? Shall we not
find ourselves at the end of the affray precisely
upon that level of equality to which it has for
ages been the anxious desire of France to reduce
us ? And with respect to Spain is not the case
precisely similar ? Have we not conjointly and
equally with France assailed the independence of
the Spanish Monarchy, by forcing upon it a neu-
trality alien to its feelings, irreconcileable with its
interests, repugnant to all the principles of policy
and justice which have been universally held to
justify the intervention of neighbouring States
in the internal affairs of each other ? And to
complete the destruction of the ancient influence
of Great Britain among the Continental nations,
we are seen at length threatening Holland with
war—a war in which the forces of France and
England are to be combined against the domi-
nions of the representative of the House of
Nassau, upon pretences the most futile and
absurd—a war the very mention of which can
scarcely fail to alienate from this country the con-
fidence and affection of the most loyal and pa-
triotic people in Europe for a century to come.
It is very fine, no doubt, to talk of the commu-
nity of free institutions and liberal sentiments by
which the Governments of France and England
are knit together. But it is a most unfortunate
and most suspicious circumstance attending this
new alliance, that all its practical results, without
a single exception, are eminently favourable to
the anterior objects of one of the parties, and
utterly destructive of some of the most important
pre-existing interests of the other.--Morning
Post.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

Yesterday the City Solicitor appeared at the
Justice-room, by direction of the Commissioners of
Sewers, to prosecute for a most dangerous and
alarming nuisance now in the Poultry.

The City Solicitor stated that the Commissioners
of Sewers having had reason to apprehend that some
persons were meddling with the great sewer which
passes along the Poultry and Cheapside, ordered
that, for the protection of the public, an investiga-
tion should take place. After considerable trouble,
it was ascertained that% nuisance was in a state of
operation, and that if it was not at once checked, the
greatest inconvenience would result to the inhabi-
tants, at the same time that the lives and limbs of
his Majesty's subjects would be endangered.
Mr. Truentan, of No. 10, in the Poultry, and Mr.
Gould, of No. 94. Cheapside, were then separately
accused of having unlawfully excavated the ground,
and made drains into the public sewer.
The evidence of Mr. Acton, the Surveyor em-
ployed by the Commissioners of Sewers, was as
follows :—The pavement had been observed to
sink suddenly before No. 11, in the Poultry, and it
was suspected that a drain was forming by stealth.
Witness caused the ground to be excavated, and
found a drain fifteen inches in diameter, and only
four in thickness. It had been recently made, and
without the leave of the Court of Commissioners.
The great sewer was broken into and injured, and all
the ground above was loosened, and rendered unfit
to support the pavement. It had also been ascer-
tained that Mr. Gould, of 94, Cheapside, had not
only made a drain through the empty house adjoin-
ing, but also had broken the new sewer in Law-
rence-lane, and inserted a drain nine inches in
diameter, turned in half a brick, and that a quantity
of rubbish had been thrown into the sewer.
Mr. Trueman said he was not the proprietor of
the house under which the work had been going for-
ward, but he attended on the presumption that he
was responsible as the present resident. Mr. Har-
rison, of Lymington, in Hampshire, was the owner,
and that gentleman was absent on a shooting excur-
sion. Witness had not employed men to interfere
with the great sewer, and never had issued instruc-
tions to that effect.

-- William Sadler, inspector under the Commission.
ers of Sewers, in obedience to the order he had re-
ceived, had excavated the ground to the depth of
sixteen feet, and found a drain made in cement on
the premises. It was perfectly recent. The drain
was made apparently in consequence of the building
being converted into public water closets. The
public sewer was so constructed that such an inno-
vation could not at all be allowed, and must in a
little time prove a most annoying and intolerable
nuisance to the public. _

Mr. Trueman was authorised by his principal to
say that he would make good any injury which
might have been done to the public sewer.
Mr. Deputy Brook said it was more necessary, in
so serious a case, to make an example for the pro-
tection of the public.
The LORD MAYOR observed, that the offence was
one of a most serious nature, and that the discovery
would probably have the effect of preventing a great
deal of mischief in the most populous neighbour-
hoods. His Lordship then wished to know whether
the Commissioners would prosecute for penalties,
or by indictment ?
The City Solicitor intended to proceed by indict..
ment, as the public would be less liable to danger-
ous experiments of the sort, if example were made.
Mr. Truman, who is a mere agent in thislmatter,

was then inforrnedby the City Solicitor that his own
recognizance would be sufficient.

Mr. Gould's case was somewhat similar, but not
calculated to produce so much mischief. He del
Glared that the sewer was interfered with when he
was in the country, and quite in ignorance. He
was perfectly at the disposal of the Commissioners,
and would at once pay all the expenses of remedy-
ing the evil which had been done, although by no
means a conscious party to it.
The City Solicitor said that both cases should
stand over for a week, in order that the Commis-
sioners of Sewers might make other inquiries.
Some idea may be formed of the excavation,
from the fact that a waggon sunk in the pavement
to the depth of several inches.