The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The news from Lisbon yesterday may excite pain,
hut will give. little surprise. It is to the effect that
revolutionary movements, in favour of absolute mo-
narchy, and against constitutional liberty, had taken
place and been suppressed. But they who assert their
suppression, were of course hostile to the movements,
Their evidence, therefore, must be received with cau-
tion. 'We are friends to constitutional liberty ; yet
should we be very cautious-of asserting, .very back-
ward in believing, that it can be establiehed without
oppooition, in a country which has been long enslaved
by that which is worse than the power of Kings.—by
the tyranny of superstition.---We have a squadron in
the Tagus, to which the busy politicians of Paris
would aasign the task of imposing the new Constitus
thin, We shall, therefore, declare frankly, that, in
our opinion, the duty of a British squadron in such a
situation should only be to prevent unnecessary vio-
lence frah any party, and to 'afford a refuge to the dis-
tressed of each. Let the Portuguese settle their own
quarrels: if the cause of liberty be worth supporting,
its partisans should be the most numerous or the most
powerful: if, on the contrary, the advocates of arbi-
trary away and superstition are the strongest, then is
Portugal
,unworthy of free constitution ; neither is it
in our power to give her one.—Times.
The Meetillg of. Greek bondholders, yesterday, was
altogether: a curious exhibition. It was intended by
the Committee of Inquiry to withhold a correspondence
throwing light on the causes of the delay from the
knowledge of the:publie, on the ground, that by such
publicity the interests of Greece might be endangered.
But Mr. Robertson, who had seceded from the Com-
mittee, and differed with it on this subject, read the
correspondence in question, and boldly contended,
that the Deputies, Messrs Luriottin and Orlando, had
done
.their duty, and that Messrs Burdett, Ilobliouse,
and Ellice, had failed to do theirs.
"Jf the facts he should state, (he :said) should Lave the effect
of tricking them think that blame was attributable to some high
be`should regret the circumstance but the fault would
be With those who had acted so as to deserve censure, and not
with hint for having made their conduct known to the public.—
If they were patriots, or wonki.be patriots, .and if such persons
undertook ditties for which they were in any way unfit, and failed
in performing what they had made people expect from them, the
blarne,must rest with themselves. . . . Ills complaint was,,
that Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Ilobbouse should have under-
taken the task of exercising their controni, when one of them had
gone to Franco for the Summer, and the other had quitted this
country, to be present at the Coronation at Moscow."
We fear it will be difficult, for the Gentlemen in
question to offer a very satisfactory vindication of their
conduct. They seemed to have had no suspicion that
there is any one thingfor which an. Englieli Gentle-
men is unfit, mid to have presumed, that, as he is a
master of the science of Legislation without study,
and the model of Magistrates without a knowledge
of he might, with equal ease, prepare the ar-
maments for fieeing enslaved nations from their
oppressors without a knowledge of the matter, or
the fatigue of personal attention. Who has not heard
the anecdote of a country gentleman, who, on being
asked if' he could play on the fiddle, answered he did not
know, for lie had never tried. It is curious enough
?hat a class of men, often most • estimable, no doubt,
but precluded, from the circumstances in Which they
are pl'skeed, from the necessity of mental or bodily la-
bour, am! yvho in nine eases out of ten, are ridden by
their own stewards, should so often have received cre-
dit for knoWledSSe of -the affairs of the World. This
torctlit has operated. very unfortunately 'iii many caber
cases then that of the aft.tirs or Greece, rot the bar-
barous state of our legislation at this, day but top will
proves. The defence set up by Colonel Jones, for
Sir Francis, and Mr. flobliouse, and Mr. Ellice (Mr.
Ellice is n men of business), is unique in its kind.
" Unfortunately (said he) the volubility of speech which
enabled men to stand forward and take leading stations in public
life, was too often considered no the sole' requisite for the dis-
charge of public duties. . . , In this manner business was fre-
quently thrown upon persons wholly unfit for it. From the bot-
tom of his soul, he admired the ardent patriotism of his friend,
Sir Francis Burdett, with whom he bad lived and fought—he
lawsuit at his elections--(a lutigh)---and he trusted would fight
again in the causu of liberty. Mr. Ilobltoutte be had known
since a boy; and Mr. Ellice moved'in the stone circles with hini-
self. fle respected them all highly, but he sincerely believed they
were the mord unfit men in the world for the bosiness to which
they bad been appointed. As to Sir F. Burdett, lie knew him
to be in the habit of keeping fitters of moment to his personal
friends, unopened for six or seven months, in his pocket. The.
Hue. Baronet was perfectly unfit for the business which had, in
fact, been forced on him. But, as the advocate of the liberties of
his country in the House of Commons, he was immediately re-
cognized as tire friend. of the people, who confidently and justly
placed their trust in him."
Colonel Jones, by the b) c, gives a curious wins
plifiCation of the unfitness of the Greek Deputies for
their office, from their having been unused to deal
with such honest people as we are 'I hey were so
akenstonied to pes.ndy (he says), that they knew not
how to put faith in tiw friends they met with in Eng-
land. they were ionm ssurrcninded by a set of stock-
jobbers, who bad 'palmed ten thousand stories oil
them, in order to.raise and tosser the finds at plea-
sure." We suppose the deception Tractised on theta
by those who surrounded them, is to be taken as a
reason for condemning them for want of faith in Eng-
lish?lhonesty.—Mormq Chronicle.
The present almost unlimited power which a•plain-
tiff or defendant has of serving subpoenas on mdivi-
dm+) and of bringing them into Court as witneisses,
is ofteti r productive of great 'andtinnecessary inconveni-
ence. however paltry the action, or obscure the in-
dividuals, they are allowed to give a sort of import-
ale:e to their disputes, by bringing on the scene pen-
sties of tank and character, who may have had the
niisfse toile to mix even in the smallest degree in their
petty quarrels; To many persons scarcely any thing
can be more tosnoyine than to be obliged to attend,
day after &ty, as esitnesses inn Cot rt of Justice—to
have uoinst, in.;inuatic.;ns thrown out by the opposite
Counsels—to be. erose-e.ssimined, and made, without
any just grounds, to appeass as siding with one or
other of the parties. Yet, however harassing such a
situation must be, however desirable it is that no ono
should be obliged to attend whose evidence is not ma-
terial, we cannot see that any alteratism of the law
weal be productive of good. We rather think that
the best means of checking such abuses are already in
the hands of those fittest to correct them. We mean
a respectable Jury, and to them we think it peculiarly
belongs to show by their verdict that the domestic
comfort and private business of any nian are not to be
interfered with on trivial occasions. 'll wo cases quiteiii
, . day, A ctions
,oint appeareu lit our paper of Saar
e .
for libel were brought in the Court of
King s Bench
against the publishers of several. London Papers. Ac-
cording to the showing of the plaintiff, the actions were
brought because they had circulated in their papers a
letter, charging hint as the author of an ationyinous
letter, whale he had been the very first
_person to e.
vitae nits anoniimous letter, and while lie
knew that it - ttg.ts calculated to throw a severe
imputation on a prolimsional man with whom he
had once been in habits of intimacy. On this
besitinnediately bringo on Action: A Conmigi Jury