The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

The principal topic,p hap the n confession of
THEer TIME
is.)
Ministers and supplication for forgiveness, is, that
" they have left undone arose, things which they
ought to have done." But let not the public ima-
gine that the quantity of positive mischief is less, or
its effects less destructive, because it springs from
mere inaction. Ireland is kept in a state of agitation
the most fearful that can be imagined, because Mi-
nisters, and particularly the chief of them, will nei•
Cher do nor say any. thing to tranquilize that coun-
try. The Lord Lieutenant acts, indeed, and he acts
wisely, up to the extent.of the Vice-Regal powers ;
but still the agitators know that there. is an authority
beyond his, to which. the_ country must, look for a
permanent settlement : and ._if meanwhile a tempo-
rary tranquillity prevails, it is. owing to the people
themselves, and. to the ex-official ex-constitutional
rulers to whom they have devoted their fealty.—
Thus, indeed, is Ireland governed ! she has
taken herself out of the hands of the King and

his )11inisters, and governs herself, ad interim,
by a power of which the law knows nothing.—
Next; with respect to foreign policy,—what do Mi-
nisters do ? Nothing. They have " given an opi-
nion," indeed, with respect to the operation of au
illegal blockade upon the commercial interests of the
country ; but was there ever an occasion before,
when a belligerent would have interdicted more than
1,000 miles of coast to the mercantile marine of

England, and expected submission from its Govern-
ment to the monstrous edict ? The hired defenders

of Ministers—for they now can hardly be said to
have any adherents from principle in the state—
charge the country with wishing its Government to
take part in the contests which are now carrying on
in the Levant and in Portugal. The very contrary,
the absolute reverse of this, is the truth. The coun-
try wishes not to take, or at least not to bear and
steer a part in the contests which are carrying on.
Do we bear and suffer nothing in having our com-
merce with the whole of the Black Sea suspended,

upon pretence of excluding provisions from a city
which ►s' not besieged, and which a hostile force has
not approached, and cannot approach, for months—
perhaps for years to come ? We assert that in this
contest we are made to bear a most onerous, afilic-

tive, and disgraceful part ; and if the blockade be
broken, it will probably be by our naval officers upon
the station themselves, who like the victor at Na-
varin, have not yet learned to lower their courage
to the level of the pusillanimous councils at home.
Again, do we bear or suffer no part in the distress-
ing contests in Portugal, where our fellow-subjects
are imprisoned without cause, and sent to mock-
trials ; and from whence they are expelled by un-
just decrees, being obliged to leave behind them the
establishments which they had formed, and the pro-
perty which they bad accumulated on the faith of
ages of unbroken friendship with that State ? Is
this taking or bearing no part in the Portuguese
contest ? Let the people of England speak for
themselves on the subject. Are they not conven-.
ing meetings throughout the country " to implore"
—(we copy the words of one of their resolutions)—
to implore immediate protection for the persons and
property of British residents in the kingdom of Por-
tugal ?" Was there ever a time - known before,
when the people at home and the officers abroad
were thus obliged, as it were, to take the Govern-
ment out of the hands of the King's Ministers, and
prescribe a policy, and adopt measures for hem-
selves ? It is said that the Duke of Wellington is
not a statesman. He said so himself in 1827, and
was then taken at his word. The truth of his con-
fession we now feel most sensibly, and do verily be-
lieve that he does nothing, for no other reason than
because, as not being a statesman, he does not know
what to dO : he holds but little communication
with his colleagues, and under his system of
inaction , this is natural, for what has he to
communicate ? Or what have they, as a body,
to talk about ? Nothing. Ireland is in com-
motion ! " Well ; what , then ?—Nothing." The
Dardanelles are blockaded. " What then ?—No-
thing !" British subjects are treated as enemies in
Portugal. Oporto is converted into a second Ver-
dun ! Mighty well ! What' are we Ministers to do
on this occasion ?—Nothing!" The deliberation
ends as soon as the fact is stated. But the Parlia-
vnent must meet ; we suspect not till after Christ-

.
mas : but yet it must meet. What will the Duke
of Wellington say then ?—Nothing! he is no talker!
But Ireland may be then in flames I And then—
aye, then—he can draw the sword, of which if he had
but sliewn one inch from the scabbard to the Rus-
sians, and to that animal, Don Miguel, the naviga-
tion of the Levant would have been free as that of
the Atlantic, and our commercial relations with Por-
tugal as flourishing as before the French troops first
entered the Peninsula in 1808. His Grace but
seldom goes to Windsor, and then, we are assured,
only when he is forced. But why should lie go
thither ? The events of the world and the occur-
rences at home, his Maiesty will best learn from the
public papers, and his Ministers have nothing to do
with them ; they take no steps upon them ; they
bring them about by no antecedent measures. Their
"opinions" of the probable result of those events,
and their effects upon the subjects of these realms,
are theoretic, like " opinions" on the tides or the
orbit of a comet : they do not sway the movements.