The Sun.
London, England, 1826-12-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Only yesterday we thought it worth while to notice
those dreams of the ultra-servile party at Madrid, Paris,
and other points of Europe, which fed their imagine-
tions with the hope that England was now in a condi-
tion to be bearded with impunity. By a curious coin-
cidence, the next mail has brought us an illustration
of the folly which we were just exposing, in a passage
from the Allgemeirie Zeitung, where the editor speaks
of the present crisis in Portuguese affairs. This Ger-
man illumine begins by discovering, in one short sen-
tence, an extreme ignorance of fact, and a gross error
of judgment. He tells us that "by the armed inter-
vention of Great Britain in the present internal dissen-
sions in Portugal, it cannot be denied that the titmice
of war may he kindled in the Peninsula." Now it is
pretty plain, as we conceive, that England has armed
for any thing but to interned& in the " internal dis-
sensions" of Portugal ; having studiously disavowed
all regard whatever to the civil broils of the Portuguese
among themselves, and directed her power to the single
end of repelling a foreign invasion. Nor is the
Akgenreine Zeitung, •as it seems to us, more fortu-
nate in his opinions than in his facts. He represents
the military interference of this country as likely
to " kindle the flames of war in the Peninsula ;"
whereas the flames having been already kindled by the
monks of France and Spain, we defy the most ingeni.
ous man living to suggest an expedient better calcu-
lated to put out the fire than this same prompt, and
vigorous, and well-timed movement on the part of the
British nation. But "it must be remembered," we
are told, "that of all the countries of Europe, Great
Britain perhaps more than any other, needs the pre-
serration of peace, as well to heal the wounds which it
has sustained in its finances by more than 20 years'
war, as to gain time to conjure the storms of internal
discord, especially in Ireland." All states, he it re-
collected by the Aligemeine Zeitung, can be consi-
dered as feeble or powerful only, first, in comparison
with themselves at some former period ; or second,
when they are compared with other communities.
And is it now a question with any journalist who
pretends to speculate on the history of the last thirty
years,. whether England possesses now, in 1826, more
or less capacity for supporting an extensive war than
when she was forced into that of the French Re-
volution ? Look at the population of the United
Kingdom, increased from 14,000,000 to more than
21,000,000 of men. To those who talk of the
discontents of Ireland, we answer that a single
vote of Parliament would allay at once all such dis-
contents as
,can affect the application of our military.
power: and the enemies of British glory and great-
ness may assure themselves, that were a serious war
to break out, the party (for it is no more) which re-
sists the claims of our Catholic countrymen, would
seen he deprived of the influence which now enable,*
them to flatter the envy and hatred of foreigners with
hopes of our disunion as a people. For those, again,
who argue from the debt of England, to the certain
exhaustion of the country which sustains it, we say
that our funded debt of 800,000,000/. hears 140
higher interest per cent. than when it amounted to
only one-third of the money ; this proves that the
credit of the Government is quite as good as in
1793,----far better than that of any other kingdom
in the world ; for no where has a loan of 5,000,000/.
been raised on terms at all comparable to those
for which England has procured a credit of more
than 800,000,000/. But this is of little sign&
cation. Look at the general progress of the
Empire in the materials -of wealth and power, sine*
the beginning of the war in 1793. Her commerce
trebled, her means of productive industry qua-
dimpled, her works of defence and of communication, by
land and water, her concentration of available riches, bar
immense acquisitions of exterior strength, which give her
the keys of three qiierters of the Ivorld, and more espe-
cially the absolute command over all the direct maritime
intercourse which can be carried on by the nations of the
north, of central and southern Europe, whether through
the road of the 'Mediterranean or• of the Atlantic, with
Africa or with the eastern hemisphere. The fleets of
England were never so predominant as at the hour at which
We now describe them, over those of every actual or pos-
sible rival. The elements, and frame, and spirit of the
army never so well arrayed or constituted. Her arsenals
are provided for more than ten years of war; but above all,
and paramount, stands that strength, which consists in the
just and defensive diameter of British policy, inspiring the
great body of nations With confidence, and the members of
their several Governments with respect. With whatever
warmth of language those Englishmen whose duty and go-
nius lead them to conduct the discussions of our national
interests, may happen to express their feeling of a public
wrong, or their solicitude for a remedy, it may bring fo-
reigners into an unlucky predicament, if they venture on
such grounds to build my hope of protitting by our appa-
rent quarrels with each other. In free countries, where
opinion is the great mover of the commonwealth, it is un-
avoidable to paint grievances in strong colours, that they
may catch the eye and fix the public attention ; but we re-
peat that the power which fancies that because Englisn-
men remonstrate boldly with their public timetiettaries,
where they feel that some partial defect in the political
system might be repaired, they will not, therefore, make
common cause with their Government against the intru-
sions or designs of strangers, will find itself in a very un-
fortunate mistake, and exposed to perils which it would
be wise to avoid by timely abstinence from provocation.—
Times.

Mr. Canning's speech, which begins by many even
of its admirers to be considered as little better than a
mere flash in the pan, is fast acquiring its proper level ;
and so short-lived is popular applause, that that which
only a few days since was hailed with deafening cheers
in the Senate, and with enthusiasm by the unreflecting
part of the community, is now looked upon by many
as a very puerile, and by others as a very mischievous
and 'indiscreet production. Its very author has already
disclaimed no small part of it ; and we are greatly rain*
taken if the country will not very soon have occasion to
rue the whole, as involving them in matters in which
they have little or no concern, on behalf of those who
will feel no gratitude for the interest which we axe
taking in their affairs ; and 'all this at the price of a
total disregard of our own
and may domestic difficulties, which
were much more worthy of the attention of a British
Statesman. It is rumoured among those who pick up,
perhaps ahnost be said to live upon, the on
du., of the day, that one of his colleagues has beau
heard to say of this speech of Mr. Canning, that,
the fervour of its delivery, it was very
ZiPi!tead withlenla
ted to entrap the applause of a number of
young men just come from Eton ; but that taken to
pikes, it amounts in fact to nothing. We do net
vouch for the genuineness of this criticism, though we
are very much inclined to subscribe to its truth. 'To'
Mr. Canning's classical mind it will convey the very
sentiment contained in the well-known line of the
Roman Satirist, and assigns to his speech at) other
merits but

" Ut puede plum, et deelmatio SW'
lut if this too celebrated harangue could be treated
rarely as a matter of taste, we ehould gladly yield to
,s admirers any class f oweellonice which they may

chiise to'lasStgn to it. ; hut when we consider that it
may be the prelude to .a long and unnecessary contest,
in which the blood and treasure of the country may 'be
expended- in a useless andsuncalled-for crusade, we are
anxious, as .we have been from the first; to strip it of
its poetry and. its sophistry, and' to recall the good
senseof tite:tountty to that standard from which mere
eloquence ought not In have the power to move it:
It seep, to,us that it would luive been just as easy for
the Cingentuty of Mr. Canning to have shown that
iltere',was,no ground- for. Portugal. to call upon us for
assistance; as that there was any. The real state of
thinga,in that country amounts, at most, but to anag-
gravatedt. state of civili war ; and the irruption from
Spain. might eesilyltave been considered and repre-
sented as nothing more than a few. deeradoes em-
barking at Boulogne, and landing .at Dover; which
would not, of necessity,: be, considered a hostile act of
the French Government .towards us. But what if
Ferdinand, from fear, from shame, or inability, retracts
all that ; he May: be supposed to have done, and the
British ~troops, .when landed in Portugal, find no fo-
reign 'invasion, and nothing but internal discord pre-
vailing. Are they to stay there to settle the affairs of
that country ; eir are. they immediately to return home ?
It' the former, then there is an end of all ground of
complaint for the occupation of Spain by French troops,
Bition this country will then be doing the very same thing
iii Portugal. We confess. we should like to know a
little more than we do about the real history of the Por-
tuguese Constitution. We should like to know where
it was manufactured—or if not manufactured, from whose
bureau or pigeon holes the hints and ground-work were
furnished. If it was of British origin (at which, no doubt,
our patriots would be vastly proud), no wonder that so
nitio anxiety should be felt here at its success. But we
sappos'e that there is still calm good sense enough left
to pause and to inquire what this country can
isiAsibly have to, do with making Constitutions for other
countries, still lets; what right we can have to enforce
theitodoption at Alm point of the bayonet. These sugges-
tioas.:may,he very unpalateable to those whom Mr. Can-
ning:7s eloquence has set all agog
.for war and liberty, and
all the rhodottiontade, notions which such kind of tempo'.
rary excitement is sure to produce. Put again, we say that
the good sense of this country has, anti ought to have, very
ditiereut ohjecti to fix its attention upon ; anti the time,
We had hoped, had gone by, when 'foreign connections anti
concerns could engross the attention, and the energies and
resonreesoir the country, to the exclusion of the much
more pressing and important situation of affairs at home.
The interests: of nations are never, better understood or
reasoned titan by Afisimilating them to those of individuals;
and we would tuilc any man, NVerP iii®: private concerns in
such <a state, comparatively, as thoite of this Country are,
,
whether he would think it wise or prudent to involve hltn-
self 16 'snob kind Of disputes and consequences, in private
life, as Mr. Canning's policy towards Portngal is involving
treat Britain in ?-11forning Heraid.

The efforts which the Pope is at present making to
re..ol,t4iiiisli the Feudal System in his immediate terri-
tEn ins;
iS;ioperfoct:accordance with what we long since
predicted. Every (lay makes it more certain that it is
the great object of,the: Romish Priesthood to re-pro-
duce all the superstitiono cif:the dark agesin short, to
force back the human mind upon a gate Of barbarism
favoltiable for religious imposture, and create a 'collo-
tetureformation.. The task of eeversing the civilization
of successive .ages, would he too , absurd fizz any power.
short of iadlibility to speculate upon—but how far.
the decrees (Idle Pope and the miracles of the Church
may,earry it, we cannot tell. Our readers saw in the
heneh news,,whieh ,wo gave yosterday, that a luta
been published in Rome, which re-constitutes es a
perpetual feif the great estate of Conca, in fervour of
the most Holy Congregation of the Inquisition. The
same privileges have been also granted to the Chapter
of St, Peter :in Vatican, by investing it with the
equally ' great estate known by the name of Campo.
Motto, with exclusive civil and criminal jurisdiction.
To this jurisdiction is attached the right of 'asylum,
and all crintinale who fly thither born the hands Of
justice are. protected. What can we thinks of the head
of.the, ltomish Church, who in the nineteenth century
casts his eye back to the institutions of the fifteenth,
to take examples of legislation ? These franchises of
civil and criminal jurisdiction, conferred upon eccle-
siastical bodies in former times, tended more to barbs-
rise society and to impede the civilising influence of
ChriStianityttliatt any other inventions of an ambitious
Church. The Itonusim Clergt-L•rfroM the era when the
pure light of the Christian religion was over-Shadowed,
fOr. a time, by the corruptions of a political system that
assumed its name—claimed an exemption from all se-
cillar jurisdiction. Wherever this claim was allowed,
it may be said to have, disjointed the whole frame of
aoeio4y, by the licentious violation of law and morals
which it produced. In England, the enormities prise-
tised.by the (logy had arisen to such a scandaloua
exceiii, on Acuount, of this impunity which the Nests
enjoyedjrorkteroporal tribunals, that history informs
u not less than one hundred murders were committed
by liosonsifi holy orders, in the early part of Henry
the seetuid's reign—none of the perpetrators of which
suffered for their crimes. 'That Monarch,
th 0,40 a mombev Of the Romlsit Church, was by no
«Letitia a devoted oti,server of its dogmas, resolved' to
put an end to this disgraceful state of Things. Ile
seized the occasion of an act of peculiar Orocrity which
tine of the sacred body committed to carry his design
into execution. Time holy culprit, who had inflicted
thslastinjury on a young woman, and then murdered
her, father„ to remove the chance. of natural vengeance,
conanotJAlay the popular indignation which time dis-
covery: ofhis crimes excited. The King insisted that
he, shwa& be tried bythe Civil Magistrate. 'rime pions
clmdnied the:usual, exemption, and nut of this
incident , arose that, celebrated innovation on the
usurped Atithility (if the. Church, which is known by
time title of the " Constitutions of Clarendon." It is
remdrkahle, too, that, Ileeket, then Archbishop of Can-
whiny, had signed those regutations, whereby it weir
enacted that Clergraell ae9used of any ,critne should
be tried in the Civil Court, and that laymen should
not be vied, in the Spiritual Courts, hut Ly legal and,
, ,nYnetototrveibrylpidectichetat, ,itylioomwoaisi
reptitable witnesses.
ufterWards canonised,
Pope, Alexander, condemned And rejected these
very regulations, than he disclaimed Ins signature, .
opposed the King, . behaved with the Writ hies,
- &hie insolence to , his Royal bencilictor, . atia
kindled. . those • disturbances in the realm which
ended only by his own destruction. What a condi-
tian' the kingdoms of Europe would be in if such eccle-
Kiastienl jurrsdietions and their claims of exemption
and sanctuary were again to be set up in them, we may
judge from the instructive recollections of history (for it
i in thii:waythat history becomes truly valaahle, when it
gives us_ the .heneftt of other men's experience, stud teaches
vas .to avoid the, errors and vices Which have led empire*
and individuals into miifortune and ruin). The two cle-
rical tribunals which the Pope has just now restored and
"idled, have privilege of sanctuary, as well as the earlier
authorities of this sort—and what the effect will be on a
popoli4lori so demoralized as that of Rome already is, may
lie store easily imagined than described. A rutrum who
s Man of his property, and afterwards cuts his throat
the street, has only to run into one of these holy Itsy.