The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-26 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1844.

It is exceedingly edifying to see the entire House
of Commons thrown into violent hysterics, as was the
case the other night, by the conduct of an Hon.
Member, whose worst fault seems to be that he is too
apt to be carried away by his prejudices, and to
speak at random, without thought or premeditation.
We have few or no sympathies with Mr. FERRAND
his politics, generally speaking, are our aver-
sion ; we think him coarse rude —rash —and
inconsiderate to a degree ; but we do not believe him
capable of such a crime as that of deliberately and
maliciously slandering the fair fame of a public in-
dividual, merely because he may happen to be op-
posed to him in politics. That the Member for
Knaresborough has given just cause of offence to
Sir JAMES GRAHAM and Mr. HOGG, we are far from
meaning to deny ; but the case is by no means so
aggravated a one as the sensitive delicacy of these gen-
tlemen would induce us to believe it is, and we can
find nothing in the vague, random, indiscreet charge,
brought so unceremoniously against them by Mr.
FERRA'ND, that at all justifies their fierce, though
virtuous, resentment. The common sense of the
House of Commons—a peculiar species of sense, by
the bye, for which the Imperial Senate is by no means
remarkable—has already decided, and warmly too,
in their favour ; and there, we conceive, the matter
should have been allowed to rest. As for the
indignation of uninterested Members, which
showed itself so fiercely on Tuesday night,
we are at no loss to guess the cause in which
it originated. Hon. Gentlemen were anxious to have
the dullness of Parliamentary proceedings enlivened
by the spectacle of a bear-bait ; they had promised
themselves great fun from the exhibition, and the
logs were all ready for a set-to; but unfortunately,
just at the moment when expectation was raised to
the highest pitch, the bear refused to allow
himself to be tied to the stake, but giving
t surly grin of defiance at the dogs, turned tail, and
bolted! This naturally caused great disappointment
imong the lovers of sport, which vented itself in just
such a storm of execrations as was levelled against
the late Monsieur CHABERT, the fire-eater, when he
uncourteously declined allowing himself to be baked
to death in an oven, merely to gratify the humane cu-
riosity of those who had paid their shillings to witness
the pleasing spectacle. Mr. FERRAND has already been
quite sufficiently roasted by the House of Commons
—more especially by Messrs. GRAHAM, ROEBUCK,
And HoGG—and we think they may now rest satisfied
with the agreeable conviction that they have done him
to a turn, like a goose on a kitchen spit. As regards
Sir ROBERT PEEL'S grave proposal of searching for
precedents as to the way in which the House has
been in the habit of acting when Honour-
able Members happen to have made fools of
themselves, never was there anything so sub-
'imely and solemnly absurd ! It reminds us of the
awful gravity and business-like determination of
purpose exhibited by Noodle in Tom Thumb, when
he hears that Doodle has expressed himself irreve-
rently of that immaculate Ministerial functionary,
Lord Grizzle. But, indeed, the whole affair of Mr.
FERRAND appears to us to abound in the elements of
the richest farce, and we do not despair of seeing
't shortly transferred to the boards of the Hay-
market, under the apt title of " Much Ado about
Nothing ; or, a Scene from St. Stephen's." And
three nights have actually been wasted on this absurd
matter, and at a period of the session, too, when every
hour has its value ! How much public business.might
lave been got through within this space of time ! The
great question of the Corn-law might have been dis-
,ussed and settled one way or other, for the season ;
he Factory Regulation Bill, and the changes
in the New Poor-law measure might have
been decided upon ; the Chancellor of the
Exchequer might have brought forward his Budget ;
~.at the Premier might have talked his usual amount
of solemn sophistry on the subject of the Income-tax.
In a few weeks, Ministers will—as they always do
About a month or so after Easter—begin to pre-
thce all their speeches with "at this late period of
the session," &c., in justification of their favourite prac-
tice of shuffling off obnoxious measures ; and yet we
will venture to say nut one of them will take into
consideration that they themselves have helped to
trifle away the time of the llouse, by givingsuch undue
prominence and importance to this absurd squabble
between Messrs. FERRAND, GRAHAM, and HoGG.

Perhaps no country in the world is in such a state
&utter prostration as the Spanish Peninsula. Spain
and Portugal appear to be lost to all sense of honour
and patriotism. They have now undergone an ordeal
if some thirty years for improving their condition ;
they have tried almost every kind of government,
;he representative, the purely monarchical, the des=
potic, and the radical, and under all these they have
exhibited the same characteristic features—restless-
ness, without an object, and constant commotion
without any result. The people, like the besotted
sovereigns that rule them, have become a bye-word
among nations. Though Portugal has been under
the protection of England for more than two centuries,
and has had every opportunity of assimilating her
institutions to those of the country with which
she has been so closely allied, she has not advanced
one.step in social improvement or in strength. Her
national Cortes are regarded by the people as a
mockery, her army is open to the highest bidder, and
At the present moment the small fortress of Almeida,
under the command of BONFIM, denounced as a rebel,
sets the QUEEN, the Government, and the army at
defiance. Spain is in a still more deplorable condi•
tion. In Portugal something like mercy is shown to

nen who, driven to despair, try to benefit their con-
dition, but under Queen CHRISTINA, NARVAEZ,
BRAVO, and Co., butchery is the only instrument of
government. Men even suspected of sedition—that
is of defending their rights or improving the condition
of the country—are arrested, conducted to the
presence of priests, and after due religious ceremonies
are slaughtered like wild beasts. Every vestige of
liberty is swept from that unfortunate country; and,
what is more lamentable, not a voice is raised in
Spain against deeds which are regarded by other
nations with horror. What can be done with such a
people ? 'We have no wish to excuse the policy of
LOUIS PHILIPPE towards Spain. He has taken
advantage of her weakness, her madness, and her
slavish propensities, and has established a despotism
stronger than any, perhaps, that ever existed in that
country, but he is not entirely to blame. If the
people had been faithful to themselves—if they had
shown anything like common patriotism, or resented,
as most other nations would have done, the inter-
ference
ereof a foreign Power, he would not have
CHRISTINA at Paris, and encouraged M.
LESSEPS to stir up Spaniards against ESPARTERO.
He knew the people, and treated them as slaves, and
slaves they have shown themselves. The woman
that has destroyed the Cortes and the Constitution,
that has put down the national guards, and abolished
their municipal institutions, has been welcomed as a
saviour ; and though but two years since all were up
in arms against the most constitutional and liberal Go-
vernment ever known in Spain, not avoice is now raised
against a system of despotism which has no equal
in Europe. Reproaches have been cast on Lord ABER-
DEEN for tacitly admitting such interference. But
what can the English Government, or any Govern-
ment, do with a nation which is regardless of its ho-
nour and its interests ? 'We have enough to do with
our own affairs, without attempting to raise up a
fallen people, or make men free who are determined
to be slaves. On Spaniards alone the blame rests.
They have rejected the aid of the only Power willing

and able to assist them, and they must be left to their
fate.

No apology will be expected by our readers for re-
newing our earnest appeal to their most serious atten-
tion, on the subject of our coldilial policy. Without
participating in the apprehensions expressed by more
than one of our Contemporaries, and their correspon-
dents in Paris, that the Otaheite question—precipitated,
as it has been, by the vapouring and coxcombry of the
French naval commander, Rear-Admiral DePETIT
THOU/kW—may yet be destined to involve this country
in :hostile collision with France, we must admit that
the fast and loose tone of our own diplomatic corres-
pondence in the affair, and the " would and would
not" character of the intervention—half demonstra-
tion, half menace—of our naval officers in those seas,
have not been of a character to sustain the lofty in-
fluence of our national reputation, to vindicate our
moral or political good faith, or to uphold the unsullied
dignity of the British flag. It is impossible to peruse
the State Paper, entitled " Correspondence relative to
the Society Islands, 1843, in continuation of papers
in August that year, presented to both Houses, by
command," at the beginning of the present session,
without coming to two conclusions. The first,
unhappily, is that poor Queen Posteits has been
utterly victimised, "through the influence of
her own fears, and the intrigues of some
of her corrupt chiefs," (such are Lord ABER-
DEEN'S own words,) " in signing a deed so fatal to her
independence" as that by which she placed herself
under the protectorate of the King of the FRENCH.
The second conclusion this correspondence irresistibly
invites is, that the statesmanship exhibited by Lord
ABERDEEN throughout the whole affair, subsequent to
the date of Mr. Consul PRITC EIARD'S first communi-
cation to him. of the possession taken by the French of
three of the Marquesas Islands, and Otaheite and
Eimeo, of the Society Islands—was of the lowest pre-
tensions in point of tact or spirit. The first commu-
nication was dated " Sydney, New South Wales, Bth
December, 1842:- On the 14th June, 1843, Lord
ABERDEEN apprises Mr. PRITCHARD that our Go-
vernment "had already been informed of the pro-
ceedings of the French squadron under DUPETIT
THOUA RS at the Society Islands. Why then, may
we ask, had not instructions been immediately there-
upon sent out to our Consul nearest to the scene of
action as to the distinct course he ought to adopt in
reference to such proceedings ? But Lord ABERDEEN
first admits that the matter had been left to the
chapter of accidents ; and in the next place evidently
labours to show, not so much that it was not our
fluty to interfere on behalf of the unhappy QUEEN, as
that the French had so ably availed themselves of her
own act and deed, obtained in the absence of any
friendly authority upon whose consideration and in-
tervention she could have thrown herself. He,
therefore, intimates that our Government do not in-
tend to call the right assumed by the French into
question. He also relies for a corroboration of this,
his view of the subject, upon two documents which
had been forwarded to him by M. GUIZOT —the one
being an address of congratulation and approval to
the French Rear-Admiral on his recent proceedings,
by the (British) ministers of the Protestant mission,
in the isles of Otaheite and Moorea ; the other, a similar
address of British inhabitants, residents at Otaheite.
These two documents certainly enhance the difficulty
of our Government ; for, as M. GUIZOT writes to the
Count DE ROHAN CHABOT (11th September, 1843),
they amount to an acquiesence on the part of our own
resident subjects in the reality of those alleged
grievances under which French shipping had laboured ,
when visiting Otaheite, and which, as "faits notoires et
evidens," had called, imperatively, for "une energique
intervention 1'

Now we complain that for a state of things which
was almost morally sure to arise out of these " no-
torious and evident facts," no British authorities,
civil or naval, had been sufficiently instructed by their
Government to be prepared. If there had been, the
missionaries and other British residents who would
have addressed it on the point, would never have com-
mitted themselves or this country to two such docu-
ments. Commodore Nico Las acted upon the im-
pulsei so natural to a British sailor, in expressing his
resentment at the bullying and insult offered by
the French authorities to the defenceless QUEEN in
person. They set up a flag which he hauled down,
and a few other vain exhibitions of feeling escaped
him. But he soon proved the danger and difficulty
of acting without orders, and therefore desisted.
The French carried their point and realised their
demands, not merely with impunity, but with the
prestige derived from having done so despite this
desultory and unauthorised opposition. The Earl of
ABERDEEN, we must say, seems to have been be-
wildered by the affair from the first. His dispatches
in this instance have the defect (very unusual in

his papers) of being even illogical, at least when he
writes by the hands of Mr. ADDINGTON. For the

latter (letter to Sir JOHN BARROW, Secretary to the
Admiralty, 11th July, 1843,) writes thus :—" It
certainly would appear, from various reports received
by her MAJESTY'S Government, respecting the trans-
actions which ended in the surrender by the Queen
of TAIuTI of a portion of her sovereign authority to
the French Admiral, that that cession was brought
about partly by intrigue, and partly by intimidation."
Therefore, it would appear, " that this cession or
surrender was NOT voluntary ;" yet Mr. ADDINGTON
proceeds—" But the surrender WAS, notwithstanding,
VOLUNTARILY made, and completed in due form, by
Queen POMARE—under whatever impulsion she may
have acted." That is as much as to say, " her will
was constrained in part, and in part it was violated;
but it was her free will notwithstanding, however
much violated, to whatever extent constrained."
The logic is as unintelligible as the policy of Lord
ABERDEEN'S office.
In his letter of 13th March, 1843, Mr. Consul
PRITCHARD thus writes to Lord ABERDEEN, from the
British Consulate at Otaheite :
On my arrival, I found Queen Pomare about eight
miles from this place, driven from her proper residence
by the continual threats made by the French to fire upon
her. Under the protection of Commodore Nicolas, in her
Majesty's ship Vindictive, Queen Pomare has returned
to her own residence.

Commodore Nicolas and I have endeavoured to act in
accordance with the repeated promises of assistance and
protection made by the British Government to Queen
Pomare. Permit me to refer your Lordship to Mr. Can-
ning's letter, dated March 3, 1827, to the late King of
of Tahiti. " His Majesty, however, commands me to say,
that although the customs of Europe forbid his acceding
to your wishes in this respect (hoisting the British flag),
he will be happy to afford to yourself and your dominions
all such protection as his Majesty can grant to a friendly
Power at so remote a distance from his own kingdom.%
Lord Palmerston's dispatch of the 9th of September,
1841, is of similar import :—" You will assure Queen
Pomare that her Majesty will at all times be ready to
attend to any representations that Queen Pomare may
wish to make, and will always be glad to give the pro-
tection of her good offices to Queen Pomare, in any dif-
ferences which may arise between Queen Pomare and
any other Power." In your Lordship's instructions of
July 30, 1842, the same sentiments are reiterated :
Upon the occasion of your return to your post at Tahiti,
it will be expedient that you should be able to prove to
' the governing authorities in these islands, that her Ma-
jesty s Government continues to take that interest in their
prosperity which has heretofore been professed."
Lord ABERDEEN, in his dispatch of 25th September,
in reply, rebukes Mr. PRITCHARD for having "alto-
gether misinterpreted these passages in the letters of
Mr. CANNING and Lord PALMERSTON ;" and justifies
the non-interference of England in the matter, on the
ground of that illogical fallacy which we have just
exposed.

Her Majesty's Government sincerely deplore the pain
and humiliation inflicted on Queen Pomare. Moreover,
they are willing to do everything in their power to alle-
viate her distresses. But, unfortunately, the letter in
which French protection was solicited, was, by her own
will and act, signed by the Queen ; and the agreement
which followed was equally entered into and completed
by the Queen's own will and act.
However much, therefore, her Majesty's Government
may be disposed to regret the course of conduct by which
the Queen was brought to sign a deed so fatal to her
independence, they are deprived, by her own voluntary
and formal act, of all just and available ground for oppos-
ing the assumption and exercise of the protectorate by
the French.

Her Majesty's Government do not, therefore, intend to
raise any question as to that exercise of authority, nor
as to the legitimacy of tie now flag which the French
have thought proper to substitute for the old Tahitian
flag.

But all this was not the poor woman's "act" or
`' deed:' Lord ABERDIEN himself once more admits
that it was not, when--(to get rid of an ugly case,
illustrating that absence of a forecasting and vigorous,
though unaggressive, policy of which we complain)—
he binds her to the cruel consequences of scandalous
arts which he thus characterises in another part of the
same dispatch. He is giving counsel which we blush
to find ascribed to a British Cabinet Minister. It is