The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-26 00:00:00

THE FOREIGN PRESS.

England has been the parent of the Press. She
it is that cherished, developed, and protected that
new and mighty power which, yet young, might so
easily have been crushed, and was crushed in all other
countries, by the too natural jealousy of those in
power. ow ungrateful is the offspring to the mother
which nurtured. There is not at this moment a fo-
reign press, liberated from the hands of the censor-
ship, which has not taken for its daily task to revile
and calumniate England, and preach the necessity of
eternal enmity and war towards her. The French
press speaks for itself, near enough for us to hear it :
all its parties, alike monarchic, aristocratic, sacerdotal,
constitutional, republican, Jacobin, uniting in one
theme : the necessity of knocking old England on the
head, previous to each setting about the fulfilment and
enjoyment of their peculiar schemes.
If from France we fly off in disgust to America,
we see the self-same task performed by the press, with
equal recklessness and less ability. An intelligent
correspondent of the Times, the " Genevese Tra-
veller," informs us that the American press has in-
formed its public, not only that England is labouring
to destroy slavery in Mexico and Texas, solely for the
purpose of dissolving the American Union, but that
England has also supplied a large amount of money
to the ultra-Liberals, in order to defeat the tariff
people in the new elections. Thus the amiable press
of America represents us at the same time as in-
triguing with the American Whigs for the destruc-
tion of slavery in the south, and with the American
Locofocos for the destruction of the tariff. There is
no limit to our Machiavelism or our money. We are

the great primum mobile of all ill, in Amenca as in
France ; bribing M. Guizot and Mr. Webster, Gene-
ral Jackson and Abd-el-I(ader. And, to avenge all
these imaginary misdeeds, Frenchmen of all parties
and Americans of all shades threaten us with war and
annihilation.

Perhaps, however, it is merely France and America
that are mad in their estimation of us. Is there not
some one free country that does us justice, especially
amongst the countries that we have freed and consti-
tutionalised ? There are three kingdoms which we
have so favoured, Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
What is public opinion in all three with regard to
England? What saith their press with regard to
England ? They all speak the same language ; de-
nouncing the English as the most insolent, avaricious,
treacherous, tyrannical, base set of people on the face
of the earth. It is not the Spanish Carlist, but the
Moderado Spanish Liberal who will tell you this, and
who will print it, and who wiil be believed. Even
the poor Greek has, like a parrot, taken up the same
tune, and hoots Senhor Mavrocordato as a wretch
worthy of the bow-string, for harbouring English
ideas!

What are we to think of this heap of injustice and
insanity ? Has the press been intended to be not a
shedder of light, but of more monstrous and more
baleful ignorance than darkness and slavery together
could have engendered ? Is it not to be an instru-
ment of peace, but of war ? Judging by what we
see, could we suppose the freedom of the press ex-
tended to all countries, the inevitable consequences
would be, not better understanding or enlightenment,
but all Europe converted into an arena of wild beasts
devouring one another.
Upon reflection, however, we are inclined to con-
clude that freedom, and civilisation, and peace, and
fairness are still great and powerful principles, which
will not allow themselves to be stifled by the madness
or corruptness of the press ; and that the press itself,
and its freedom, will be more likely to be sacrificed
than any of those principles. Hitherto the aims of
Governments which have controlled the press have
been directed, as in France, to the preventing its
being seditious, or libellous, and disturbant of do-
mestic peace. The French press, for example, is
most completely fettered and tied up in this respect,
and accordingly it has turned all its fury and irra-
tionality to foreign topics. Not being allowed to
rxeite sedition, it has turned to stir what was next

to ••-••••-• er,.:n fnllnarq rid •• •••.•1, :••• ••••11,4
France. The military rulers, who would not permit
a journal to discuss the merits of a judge, favour in-
ternational calumny and abuse. Hence in all those
countries the Liberal party has been converted into a
war faction.

We fear much that, as upon the Continent the
press has always been gagged when its freedom be-
came incompatible, or was thought incompatible, with
public tranquillity, so we fear its freedom is likely to
incur danger and curtailment as soon as it is found
incompatible with European peace. Most certainly
the freedom of the press, as at present understood and
practised in France and Spain, may be a useful ally of
despotism, or anarchy, or war; but has ceased to have
any connexion whatever with liberalism, or progress,
or peace.—Examiner.

THE UGLIONIANS.—There is a public-house in the
neighbourhood of the Theatre Royal, where a set of
creatures, enjoying the euphonious title of " The Ugli-
onians," meet nightly, to have what they are pleased to
call a lark. One of the clique seats himself in the bar,
and, on the entrance of a stranger whom he thinks he can
delude, commences talking about weights, and offers a
small wager that the new comer is not so heavy as he
states himself to be. When a bet is effected, the party
is conducted into another room, where he is informed he
can be weighed. He is. then placed on a machine, so
constructed as to bring his hands under the influence of
a galvanic apparatus, so powerful in its effects that,
when the scaleboard is removed from under him, he is
left suspended for a time, to suffer the most excru-
ciating tortures, and, not unfrequently, the most
severe convulsions ; and many young men have, upon
being liberated, dropped down almost insensible. While
their victim is in this exhausted state, they easily extort
from him his name, if they do not already know it,
which is entered in a book kept for the purpose, and he
is then allowed to depart, amidst the Satanic laughter of
these wretches, who inform him that he is duly initiated
in the mysteries of " The Ugly Club."—Correspondent
of the Liverpool Mercury.
We understand that her Majesty has been graciously
pleased to confer the Garter vacant by the death of the
late Duke of Grafton upon the Earl of Powis.—Evening
Paper.