The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The political horizon certainly enthrones, if we
may Anglicize an Italian word—it becomes dusky,
if not dark. Neither in Portugal nor in the East of
Europe, can the politician see his way, or point out
the probable march of affairs. Prince Miguel is.pro-
bably fulfilling the instructions of the Austrian Ca-
binet, as well as acting up to hia own wishes, rather
than his engagements, in counter revolutionizing his
country; for the more we are. perplexed and occu-
pied in the West of Europe, the less likely shall we
be to pay attention to the opposite extremity,--to
the concerns of Greece, Russia, and Turkey. -How-
ever, we shall say once for all, much as we may re-
itret the internal troubles of Portugal, they are not
our business. Our duty only extended to protect-
ing the country from foreign aggression, and that
duty we have performed. But this subject will be
taken up in another part. The affairs of Turkey are
drawing to their crisis. It is certain that at the last
moment she showed symptoms of fear, probably, ra-
ther than of contrition, when contrition was unavail-
ing; though she was at the same time endeavour-
ing to operate a diversion in her favour, by trying
to stir up Persia to break the peace with Rus-
sia. This latter country is separated from the
triple alliance by declaring herself a belligerent,
for private grievances against one of the Powers be-
tween which it was the object of the alliance to me-
diate ; but having already declared for the indepen;
dence of Greece, she cannot, and would not, be al-
lowed to swallow up that country in her triumphs
over Turkey. France we believe, is extremely de-
irons to move with promptitude and energy in the
protection of Greece. We are perplexed, and would
protract, probably, leaving Greece to assure her own
:independence as her tyrant sinks under the arms of
Russia. But in the mean time Ibrahim Paella is
ravaging the Morea. Is this to be suffered ? And
besides, the third clause of the last, 01 one secret
article of the Treaty of London, stipulates, that if
the Greeks and Turks will not come to an accom-
modation, the high contracting parties shall " con-
tinue to prosecute the work of pacification; and in
consequence they authorise their representatives in
London to discuss anti determine the-ulterior mea-
sures to which it way become necessary to resort."
—France may call upon iis---she roes call upon
us—to adopt the ulterior measures threatened, the
chatsse-born battle of Navarin having failed of ren-
/tering the Turks tractable. We really think that
our best way would be to recall Ibrahim from
Greece, as Scipio drew Hannibal from Italy, by
landing, in the Carthaginians' own country, and
Leave it to France if she will have it so' to establish
the independence of pre.tia Proper. Were we to
menace or take' possession of Alexandria, we pre-
sume it )rotild not be Jong ere,the Egyptian army
quitted the Morea. We have' reason to believe
that the British Ministry are -greatly embarrassed
between their just and commendable love Of.peace,
their desire to establish the independence of Greees,
and the calls of France for that purpose. There are
various matters of minor interest in themselves, but,
as vast effects'sometimes, spring from slight causes,
deserving notice, and which we are therefore de-
sirous of stringing. ogether. A dispute is said to
have sprung up between the official Nobleman who is
stow at the head of the army, and a very high au-
thority indeed, on the appointment to the vacant re-
giment. The high authority Would name Lord
Glenlymi, the son of the Duke of Athol!, who
has eternized his name and fame by his exploits
at the battle of Utopia, who gallantly led on his
troops in person into the open breach at the
siege of Nusquamia, and who captured the mili-
tary stores of Ouden. It were a shame, in such
a dearth of military talent and prowess in the
British army, that such a hero should not be re-
warded. The official person is said to entertain a
weak prejudice in favour Of some of the faits:weather
officers, who amused themselves along with him
under pretence of fighting in the Peninsula, in
France, and at 'Waterloo. A correspondent requests
xis, in consequence of the appointment of Dr.
Philpotts to the Deanery of Chester, to look at the
extreme scurrility with which he treats the late Mr.
Canning. The Dean who makes way for him treats
nobody with scurrility in his writings, either theolo-
gical or of any other kind. Besides, a Dean may be
allowed to he more abusive than a Bishop. We re-
collect Dean Swift called Dr. Ratcliffe a son of a
: we dare not write it out. The Finance
Committee, we learn, is still upon the army. As
well as curtailing expenses, which they must do,
whether we have war or peace., they may at least
make peculation a fearful experiniant, by attacking
defaulters, of whom we believe there ore six or
,seven.—Times.

We stated some time ago,.that strong suspicions
were eotertained by both Austria and England, that
the Frenci and Russian Governments were in an
understanding. respecting Turkey. Several circum-
stances have since been communicated to us, which
leads us to believe that these suspicions were by no
means ill founded. The French, it will be remarked,
are fitting out extensive atautnents for the Mediter-
ranean. The Journals express their ignorance as to
the destination of this force ; but we have heard that
the discovery has been made by some of the Diplo-
matists interested in drawing aside the veil, that tiro
(destination is Egypt, and that the communication of
thie discovery to our Ministy has very much em-
barrassed them, and. led to freq9o34 Cabinet Colin-
, d of late. The French Journals say, they know
not whether the destination of the force be. Algiers
or the Morea, or sone station near the mouth of the
Dardanelles. The Joarwal des Debats observer,
" the part of France in tha crisis which is pc- '
paring is so Rthordinate to events, and susceptible
of so many modifications, that it w0:,,1d perhaps
be Imprudent to subject it to conjeetur,c.,s ne-
cessarily so variable. Her allies have proclaimeil
their disinterestedness. As long as they shall
be sincere, _Prance will not yield to them in political
honesty. On the day on which these combinations
shall pass the object which they themselves have
fixed, we are willing to believe they will find bee
powerful and worthy of herself." Is not this some- I
thing like saving—Gentlemen, if you take posses-
sion of the Principalities and Thrace, &c., we shall
take possession of Egypt ; and when you make re-
stieutioo of the former, we shall restore the latter?
But in this age of intellect, France must have
reasons as well as motives. It has been_ observed,
that the use of understanding is not to &int men
to what is right, hut to enable them to give geed
reasons for what is wr4ng. Let ns try to anticipate
what the reasons of Ro,ce may be for landing
troops in Egypt. It is but a konjecture, and. there
Pan be no harm-in a conjecture who it is given out
for no mere than such. Russia has a separate cause
of quarrel with Turkey; and without oon,,ulting
with her Allies under the Treaty of London, ,
she orders her troops to cross the Pruth. Has
France no separate cause of quarrel with Tur-
hey ? Is not Algiers a part of the Turkish EMP
pire ; and did not the Algerines, Tunisians, &c,
when summoned by the Sultan,approve themselves
good Mussulmen, and faithful vassals of the Porte,
lw sending fleets to ea;operate with the other naval
fOrces against the Greeks? The Grand Seignior,
then, is answerable for the cotuinet of •the Alge
'
tines. Now, the Algerines have compelled `the
French to fit out armaments against them, and at
this momenta French force is blockading their port,
But the French may
say, Algiers is too *strong to be
entered with such a force as we are able to fit out,
and, at all events, we could not gain possession of
that place without subjecting ourselves to an et.
pence of men and money greater than we are willing
so put ourselves to. But Algiers being part of an
empire, that empire is responsible for it ; and 'it is
riot enough for the Government to say, we are unable
to compel this part of our possessions either to be-
have correctly towards strangers, or- to compensate
them for wrongs received : the wrongs done by a
part of the Empire are the wrongs of the ivholf ;
and the injured party is not obliged to do itself jus-
tice by selecting for the object of hostilities the part
from which the injury was received, but may se-
lect the point of attack best suited to. its own re-

sources. If the Island of. Jamaica were to invade
the Danish Island of St. Thomas's, and England
refused satisfaction, the Danes might find it more
convenient to attack one of the Shetland Islands,
than to attack Jamaica. In like manner, the French
may choose to resent the wrongs committed by the
Turks in Algiers, by an attack on the Turks is
Egypt. When the Russians shall have been indem-
nified by the for the expense of occupying the
Principalities and Thrace, and shall evacuate that
country, the French will probably be equally ready to
abandon' Egypt on the same terms. Should Egypt
be the destination of the French force, this will be a
bitter pill for us to swallow. Having already put
ourselves to a heavy expense of men and treasure to
drive the French from that country, the re-occupa-
tion will seem like a re-conquering it, and a triumph
lover us; and in proportion as the vanity of the
French may be gratified, in the same proportion will
Ministers dread the feeling of the people of this
country. But let us suppose the French landed in
Egypt, and the forces of the Pacha—weakened as
they must have been by the late heavy drains on
them—beaten; would a Ministry be justified in
deeming this a ground for hostilities ? We
Place the matter in the most unfavourable as-
pect. We trust this question will not be rashly an-
swered. What is the distance from London, Paris,
or Brussels, at which the line shall be drawn between
the territories which may be invaded without chal-
lenge from European Powers and those which may
not ? In Asia, we invade large empires when we
choose, without communicating the reasons for so
doing to any European Power, and take possession
of as much, or as little of the territories invaded, as
may suit Lir. The French may say we choose
Africa as the scene of our operations, instead of
Asia ; and having a claim on Turkey, we will ac-
cept of Egypt as an indemnification, with the view
of trying a colonial speculation with it. That the
occupation of Egypt would be a popular measure in
France, we are inclined to believe. Pozzo de Borgo,
and a certain Lady famous for her beauty and her
talents for political intrigue, and who is supposed to
have had as much share in breaking up our late
Ministry as any other person, are named as having
been mainly instrumental in bringing about the turn
which matters have lately taken.—Morning Chrott.
We understand from authority, that the division
in Convocation at Oxford, on Thursday, 13th ult.,
was--for the Petition against the Catholics, G 0;
against it, 34; and that the Minority included five
Heads of Houses, besides the Chemical Professor.
--Ibid.

Such of our readers as have kept their eye upon
the subject, will give us credit for having been the
first to draw the public attention to the goings-on
which we presumed to denominate encroachments
in St. James's Park. Public feeling was attempted
to be first counteracted, and then soothed and set at
rest, by calling these spoliations improvements; and
a mighty pretty pictorial representation was and is
handed about, to gull and to appease John Bull
upon the occasion. But we beg any man of com-
mon sense and discernment to walk into the Park at
this moment, and ask himself whether what we
called encroachment is any thing else ; and whether
converting the Canal into a serpentine duck-pond,
and the grass plot into a private parterre, is any sort
of compensation to the public in general for having
two of the public malls totally cut off from their fu-
ture use and enjoyment. As a further proof how little
the public convenience is regarded, we are now
told that the late Duke of York's house could not
be disposed of till a considerable slice of the Green
Park and of the late outer Mall of. St. James's Park
were added to the gardens; so that what a revered
member of the Royal Family we,uld not have asked
or expected, an influential Nobleman obtains with
apparent ease. And is there no Member of Parlia-
ment who has the honesty or the courage to say a
word upon this subject ? Is there no deputation
from Birmingham, with the forged compliments of
some supposed partisan, to call into action the dor-
mant patriotism of some of the mighty professing
champions of popular rights ? The Parks are in
Westminster. Where are the men of the people—
Westminster'spride and England's glory—upon such
an occasion ? Are their sons looking to fresh com-
missions, or their brothers to East India Directorships,
which must not be interfered with by indiscreet
clamour on occasions when the objects of party can
gain nothing ? These, however, in our apprehen-
sion, are the occasions, when the principles of would-
he patriots are put to the test ; and the absolute
babble and moonshine of such patriots cannot be
more clearly exemplified and established than by
their silence, and the cunning selfishness with which
they avoid all interference in such matters. Give
them a Huskisson or a Herries to run down—give
rite:,:, in short, any party or personal object to pur-
sue, and our patriots are trumpet-tongued in the
pursuit; but let the public rights and convenience
be the sole object, and their patriotism, like Acres'
courage, " oozes out at their fingers' ends," espe-
cially if its exercise is likely to bring them in con-
tact with that lute which smelts the ore of patriotism
into the base metal of.whieh it is but too frequently
composed.—lforning Herald.

The CorporatiOn awl Test Acts Repeal Bill has
been treated by Ministers in a way which was not
anticipated either by its friends or its enemies. Last
night Mr. :.:Reretary Peel moved an instruction to
the Committee, to insort in the Bill a clause render-
ing it imperative on all DissenterA accepting of office
under its provisions, to take oath, or to make a de,
pljration, if their religious tenets disenabled them
from }aping an oath, that they would not use the
power which the (ace conferred, for the purpose
of injuring the Established Church of England
and Ireland, or the Kirk of Scotland. The in-
troduced clauses are in fact the very same as. those
which were inserted in Mr. Grattan's famous Roman
Catholic Bill of 1813. We are almost led to pre-
surne, in consequence of this borrowing from a
Roman Catholic Bill, that that measure also, when
next pressed, will be met in the same way. Why
more should be required of the Roman Catholics
um; the Unitarians it would puzzle a casuist to
discover. if the former do not, as has been alleged,
keep faith with heretics, the latter, so far as
Christianity goes, hate no faith to keep, for they
profess none. We must, however, we suppose, be
content to take the Bill as it is, for the hope which
we entertained that a stand for the Establishment
would be made in the Lords must be abandoned,
after the assurance given by Mr. Peel, when
rounselling the acceptance of his instruction to the
Committee. There is one point of view in which
the present ;krr.k.'ngpment can be defended, and but
one; namely, that it in-4s been made with the ap-
probation of the Church .liersetf. Mr, Peel, by his
representing the University of Oxford, as well as by
his office, must have best access to the sentiments of
the Clergy on that and on other points, and there-
fore the -presumption is, that last night he spke
their language. We hope that neither the Church
nor her defender will have reason to repent of their
bbel'gty, and with this wish we quit the
New Times.

DESTRUCTION OF THE TENNIS-COURT) IN
THE HAYMA RK ET. —On Monday night, between 11 and
'l2 o'clock, the inhabitants of the Haymarket were thrown
into a state of alarm by a dreadful crash. It was soon
discovered that the whole of the gable end of the Tennis-
court, on the side next the Haymarket, had fallen to the
ground, which was about 50 feet wide, and near 60 feet in
height. The accident, it appears, was occasioned by the
digging of a foundation on the site of where the premises
of Messrs. HASTINGS, the chemists, stood, which has been
pulled down, and a b•tnking-liouse was about to be erected
for Messrs BOUVERIE and ANTRoans, of Craven-street,
Strand. It is most fortunate that the accident did not occur
during the working-hours at the foundation, or the whole
of the workmen would have inevitably been buried in the
ruins. The front wall of the Tennis-court, in James-street,
was considered to be in such a dangerous state yesterday,
that it was forced to be shored up, and barriers were placed
entirely across the end of the street near the Haymarket,
and also at the corner of Oxendon-street, so as to exclude
entirely the approach of passengers. The Tennis-court,
it appears, has been erected about 160 years, and it is
expected that it must be taken down.