The Sun.
London, England, 1828-09-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF MR LONDON JOURNALS,

- city- letter- intiny 'interesting- en-
cumstances relative to the fall of Madeira. It
appears that there was literally no fighting at all,
but that previous to the landing and advance of
a detachment of Cagadores, not exceeding `.50
men, a convenient panic had seized the party
which assumed and eventually disgraced the
name of " Constitutional," ..vho fled from the
contest with great alacrity, leaving their com-
manding officer to take care of himself, and the
island to the mercy of the enemy. The knowledge
of Lord Aberdeen's recognition of a blockade
which every other Power indignantly rejected,
had doubtless reached them ; and the spirit of
Madeira, like that of Oporto, underwent an in-
curable paralysis. This conies of ignorance and
imbecility, operating upon despotic sympathies
and evil dispositions. There is no shutting one's
eyes to the fact, that whatever favour the British
Government, since the accession of the Dul:e
Wellington and his civil Aide-de-Camp, Lotd
Aberdeen, to office, may have sought (and
mayhap they have not jinend much favutir)
with foreign Courts, both the Government and
the country have lost severely in reputation
with the people of civilized Europe, and of
America. England is no longer the rallying
point for broken spirits-the resting-place.
for scattered hopes—the guide to wandering
though uptight counsels. If an example
were at this late period wanting of risk
awaiting any man who has in one important held
of action achieved a brilliant character, from the.
transfer of his efforts, late in life, to a depart-
ment of public affairs in which he has noto-
riously not the slightest experience,—to which
he brings, by his own recorded confi:,sssion of
little more than a twelvemonth's standing, no
degree or kind of capability whatsoe'ier,-14e
think we could point out the instance with
precision which all mankind would admit
What has been meant to pass for snug and close
discretion in the administration of English po-
licy during the year 1828, would turn ont, wr.
fear, if judiciously scrutinized, to be nothing
better than pure want of plan,—tham pasbjvc
waiting for the word of command from conii-
gencies, which contingencies it is left in the'
power of other Governments to produce and
controul at pleasure : a system this, or absents
of system, which gives to foreign states, at
second-hand, the faculty of dictating on various
international questions of great importance what
course Great Britain shall pursue. The want
of self-dependence in this Govennnent has been
felt in more ways than one. We du nut Huy.
refer to the Portuguese subject, with regard to
which it way be said with truth that the
solid iuteresfr, as well as honour, of tw,•
Allied Kingdoms have been sacrificed for
a pedantic adherence to the • letter of
law, the spirit of which, to any MinhAf,,
capable of comprehending it, would have
suggested a far different reading: In our rel.-
dons with France what has happened ?
Minister ought to have known his own mind .
but did he ? A sagacious statesman would not
have resisted, when lie knew that he must ulti-

mately bend. • He would not in the first instance
have gone to the verge, of a quarrel with a neigh
bowing state, and even subjected himself to the
indignity of a . sharp " ultimatum," exacting
from him
.an immediate consent to the very war-
like measures which he had long been deine-
cating.i.md thwarting, unless he had resolved to
go manfully through, and set the " ultimatum"
at defiance. So with regard to Russia, our lan-
guage should have been either that of frank ac-
quiescence, or peremptory resistance, when the
invasion of Turkey, precipitated beyond all
doubt by the last change of the British Ministry,
was the hinge of diplomatic altercation. Nor is
it only in foreign affairs that we remark the total
want of premeditative spirit. Look to Ireland,
and her fierce distractions, now ripened to the
very bursting point of a civil and most sanguinary
war. Either there must be a design in the Ca-
binet to interfere by policy and restore peace to
that nation, or not to interfere until the sword
shall have been drawn, in which case it will be
physically impossible to interpose otherwise than
as an ally of one of the belligerents, and thus to
become a party to
.the civil conflict, which it is
the tendency of such a scheme directly to encourage
and exasperate. Whichever of the above courses
has been resolved upon by his Majesty's Prime
Minister, we state broadly that it ought to be,
if not announced in form, at least communi-
cated through a respectable . channel, and in a
manner so unequivocal as to be acted upon with
confidence by the people of Ireland, • who will
thereby know what they have to look fora If
the
anti .
organs.
Governmentsatiaetory leteissmitoracnocieiciblieatgeiveiug
i tshormoeph acific
aone
o
Like oil upon the deep, one
uls;
word of peace would calm this dreadful comic-
ifi.
tion, the Association would become a dead let-
ter, and the whole army of demagogues,' priests,
dw on ue l.; le
rb
ten ao sv
endi u
uc
sh: foirr-t
frreoi
ti
tt
es ,n and
a s toht
oh
ue
gr
l aid theyjn et
w
is, we repeat, the bonuden and most sacred duty
olive-branch .from this moment.
of the Minister, if he means peace, to show the
His failing to
do so—his silent observation of the tempest,
( ' r, though silent, he cannot be unobservant ofin
•
ph iomena so tremendous)—his silence, we
it.l
what 1 '
'se it break upon the country : with hu ti
late expectations we dare not here surmise.
Let this subject conic home to tine breasts of
ti, say exposes him to the suspicion of wishing to
e is t.mt au hour
gtheir consummatioli
to lose ; eyents are flying ','Ministers, we pray them.
to lller
with the rapidity
of a comet when nearest to the
sun.— Times.

:voiotliioslprlaetssesaiolyr
agtooticlies,Caathl oar:•esshoafrleleof
and goods,
to beliOe that the
i,l,:e powere
Oofithtfisc island,co unti
could. near •
now seven than six
millions, and to possess, ill • lands, beneficial
without military.
leases, mortgages,
sis.,l7oPutPeriisti''i; Protestants of Ireland,
landV, itihenou'gv,,he,escsoldrtheitdoaeiiribie
tholics in districTtsheopyeeirly stores, and without
backed by the overwhelm-
insurrection.
t.omtuhleiiirtudesci.ftlie
could
lay
waste the country, would only add to
their einhairassment ' .
We will go further, and
admit that 'f humanity ' ICvbac;
1 were to be disregarded,
and military execution done upon the Catholic
Peasantry, their spirit might toga tiaie-be broken
and the present ebullitions be succeeded by the
tranquillity of despair. We arc reminded by a
contemporary (the Standard), " that in 1650,
or thereabout, cameflie avenging sword of Crom-
well. His was no conciliating . GoVerninent ;
and 'under that'', iron scourge and - torturing
hour,' Ireland lay still." No doubt
; and' under
another Cromwell, . with his avenging sword,
Ireland might again be forced to lie still. Scot-
, land was also forced to lie still by Cromwell,
whose moveable columns were the terror of LID:
Highlanders. The military executions in Scot..
laud under Charles the Second and his bucces-