The Sun.
London, England, 1821-12-14 00:00:00

PRESS.]

We find in a German Paper a report that the
lonian Government has been compelled to issue
orders for disarming the inhabitants throughout
all the islands, in consequence of the tendency
they have in general evinced to revolt. We
hope sincerely that the system of government
pursued by the British authorities in -the lonian
Islands will not eventually become a reproach to
this country. It is notorious that the Governor
whom we have placed over them has succeeded in
rendering himself singularly unpopular with the
lonians, and the dislike entertained personally
towards the representative of the British Govern-
ment may, by a natural and easy transition, be
extended to the whole British people. The
mode of exacting an unpopular duty not long
since, threw the whole island of Santa Maura
into open revolt, and the supposed' partiality
of the 'British Government towards the bar-!
barous oppressors of the Greeks, excited the
people of Zante more recently to display
their indignation by an attack upon our troops.
We are •now told that the spirit of revolt
pervades the whole of the islands. It is not sur-
prising that the flame raging on, the neighboving
continent should spread its influence rapidly over

a PPople who •'believe 'that they lave Causes of 1
complaint egainsi.their present Government; and
it is very certain that should this feeling drive
them to open insurrection, a military occupation
of the islands by our Government cannot prove,
either creditable to our character or serviceable
to our interests. A dispassionate imitlirs:,b3l Par.-
liarnent into .the true nature of our Government
in the lonian Islands:may save this country from
[no small share of injury and disgrace.

[MORNING HERALD.]

We believe it is now the wish of the most en-
ightened and disinterested among those who are
called 44 The Constitutional Association," that
they had never taken upon themselves the bu-
siness of Prosecutors-General. Their interference
has been merely officious, their labour and ex-
pence nugatory, and their characters have come
out of the eng-agement—if indeed they are out of
it—with a rather abundant aspersion of public
odium and public ridicule. Yet we readily
believe that many even of those who have been
active in recruiting rich contributors and needy
scribes (for there has been, it is said; a re-
gular beat of drums for the latter), had for their
object the preservation of public morals, tran-
quillity, and order. Whatever may wbe the re-
sult of the trials of this day and to-morrow, we
hope --the- " Association" will have the good
sense to abandon the pursuit. If they suc7
ceed •• in .obtaining verdicts they may retire
with some credit ; but if they fail, they will
almost-• of: .necessity retreat with some der--
shm. We forbear any observation. tending to
bias opinion upon the specific cases now pend-
ing ; but what do these prosecutions, generally
taken, do ? They give notoriety and permanence
to something so fugitive and obscure, that, with-
out the publicity and importance of a political
trial, it Would have been seen but by few, and
by even those few have been the next moment
forgotten. Suppose it to be the fugitive rhetoric
of the newspaper press. Really .the spectacle of
an association of grave men (we speak of those
only who gain nothing in the business), in pursuit
of an ordinary, flying. sheet of. a radical politi-
cian or caricaturist, is as ludicrous as the late
Sir Joseph Bankes's pursuit of the butterfly.—
If they shonld even-catchttiteir prey, and cut off
its wings, with better. success than Sir Joseph,
they must leate behind- diem a naked, disabled,
pitiful, figure, which does no credit to their hu-
manity. These prosecntions have in reality
brought iMputations of iMptinity upon their:au-
thors, and stimulated the commission of the very
offence.