The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-24 00:00:00

means inclined to idolize. As to the conditions which in
the very distant event of a Repeal of the Stamp Duty, he
proposes to attach to it, namely, protection of copy-right,
this, however good in essence, has little more to do
with a cheap Press than with a dear one ; indeed, of
the two, one would suppose that the latter most needed
protection. But the truth is, the whole discussion
was a mere subterfuge ; and Mr. SPRING RICE has
certainly not consulted the interests of the Ministry to
which he belongs, by giving a shock to public
opinion at the very time when it was most essential
that he should have strained every nerve to conciliate
it. Before we conclude, we must not omit to notice
the very brief and. unsatisfactory way in which those
among our contemporaries who are averse to the Re-
peal of the Stamp Duties treated the discussion. They
did not content themselves with abridging, but abso-
lutely burked it. One Journal, in particular, dis-
missed it in three quarters of a column !

The speech of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in the House
of Commons, on Friday night, harmonizing as it did
with the manly tone assumed by the leading men of the
party which speaks the sentiments of the country, has
occasioned a mortal alarm among the Tories of all
ranks and descriptions. The stoppage of the Sup-
plies had never once entered into their calcula-
tions. The thought had never even crossed the brain
of the subtlest and most far-reaching of their politi-
cians. Their majorities in the House of Lords were
overwhelming—so much so that Lord BROUGHAM
remarked on one occasion that he should as soon think
of carrying the House, their Lordships and all, on his
back across the Thames, as of dividing on an amend-
ment. The absence of some of the liberal Peers—
arising from the known hopelessness of the issue of a
contest in which the argument was on one side
and the numbers on the other—the excitement pro-
duced upon the feeble minds of their Lordships by the
extravagant antics of the Knight-errant of Toryism at
their bar, and the delusions which they so greedily
swallowed from the mouths of the disinterested town-
clerks—all these things begot 'in their noble noddles a
most fatal hallucination that they were to have it all
their own way. They had it indeed all their own way
in their own house. There they lorded it without control,
and their imaginations wandered not beyond its pre-
cincts. They had neither eves to see, ears to hear, nor
hearts to understand what was going on out of
doors. While the country was rousing itself—while
the people, indignant no less at the disappointment
of their hopes, than at the insult offered to their re-
presentatives, were assembling all over the kingdom
in numbers, and with a promptitude, of which there is
no example,-except in the agitation which cowed the
usurpers of their rights into the passing of the Reform
Bill—they in their lordly wisdom were slashing away,
hatchet in hand, at a Bill hardly less entrenched in po-
pular favour than was that great measure.
They are now beginning to awake from their dream
of delusion. They now begin to see that they have a
second time subjected themselves to the humiliating
necessity of yielding to a power which they sought to
subdue—of surrendering against their will that which
they ought io have conceded with a good grace. Their
leader, their chosen champion, the renegade whom
they have set in the front of the battle, is now, it is
said, going about asking his friends—if such a man
can be said to have a friend—sshether he his not gone
•
too,far? He asks the question too late. He and the,
anti-nat onal ju7na, of which he is at present the misera-
rable tool, have gone too far—not for the safety of, the
Biil—for that is beyond the reach of their enmity—
but for their own. They now read in the ind:g-
nant remonstrances, or, which is to them a still mote
alarming sign of the times, in the ineffable contempt of
the people, the doom which awaits them, and which,
out for their obstinate folly, they might have averted.
The people now feel that their only hope is in their
own exertions, manifested through their Representa-
tives. Upon the manner in which the men whom
they have entrusted with the guardianship of their
rights now act, it will depend whether we are to
enjoy a peaceful renovation of our ancient institu-
tions, so as to adapt them to the circumstances of
the times, or collision with those who represent only
themselves, the path of improvement will be clear
and open ; national amelioration will advance with a
steady pace, and will develope itself in the increased
happiness of the social body. Should the Lords
prevail, their triumph would be the signal for
the commencement of a struggle, the consequences of
a convulsion which must endanger and may over-
throw them. On the decision of the House
of Commons, we say, this most important of all ques-
tions depends. If the representatives of the people
are firm in the support of the people's will—as
we doubt not they will be—in the approaching
which, whatever the issue might he—and that is not
doubtful—all good men must deplore.

We have received the whole of the Paris papers of
Friday and Saturday. Letters from Madrid to the
17th inst. were received in that capital on Saturday
morning, in which it was stated that the Spanish Ca-
binet had unanimously resolved to demand from France
a prompt armed intervention, in fulfilment of the Qua-
druple treaty.' Despatches from TORENo were also re-
ceived by the Duke de FRIAs, the purport of which
were believed to be the same as that of the private let-
ters addressed to particular members of the French Go-
vernment. It is reported that the events in Catalonia
and Saragossa have produced such a sensation at Ma-
drid, that almost:all the Grandees of Spain, the princi-
pal functionaries, both civil and military, have resolved,
in case France rffuses to intervene, to join the party
of Don CARLOs. Now all good patriots know, on
the contrary, that the true remedy in the midst of all
these events can be no other than the convocation of
the Extraordinary Cortes, and the adoption of the
measur.s which they may propose. M. MENDIzA-
BEL is ininatiently expected, because 11,1 is known to
much in favour of this measure. The minister, Don G A It-
CIA lIERREROS, is said to participate in this opinion.
On Saturday at noon Lord GRANVILLE, the Duke
DE FRIAS, and some other diplomatists, bad a pretty
long conference with the Duke DE BROGLIE at the
Foreign-office. M. GUIZOT was present.

The Foreign Legion left Palma on the 15th, for
Tarragona.
M. MENDIZABEL arrived at Bordeaux on Monday
evening. On the 18th a steam-boat conveyed him to
Pauillac, where the Meteore was waiting for him.
The Spanish Consul accompanied the Minister to
Pauillac, where every thing was prepared to receive
him in a manner suited to his rank.

On Friday and Saturday several petitions were pre-
sented to the Chamber of Deputies against the pro-
ject of law for abolishing the liberty of the Press. The
general impression is that they will have no effect
upon the Chamber, which scruples not to set public
opinion at defiance. By one of the amendments pro-
posed by the Committee, and adopted by the Chamber,
no daily journal can appear before the proprietors have
lodged
.the sum of eight thousand pounds of ready
money in the I,4intla) the Government, as a sectrity