The Sun.
London, England, 1828-01-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PtJBLIC JOURNALS.

The Gazette of last night contains the new ap-
pointments, which indicate the change of Ministry.
These matters have been too long discussed to re-
tain the grace of novelty, we therefore dismiss
them, as br. Johnson did his Dictionary, with frigid
tranquillity. It will be remarked, however, by com-
mon observers, that neither the appointments ofLord
Bathurst, Lord Melville, nor Mr. Peel are gazetted. A
rumour was circulated in some of the Evening Papers,
that Lord Gederich was to remain a Cabinet Mi-
/lister, though without any place. Mr. Wallace is
made a Peer ! "We have already more than once
stateei that the Mastership of the Ordnance (with,
we believe, a seat in the Cabinet) was offered to
the Earl of Rosslyn. Some delay has occurred re-
specting the answer, owing to his Lordship's ab-
sence from town, lie, as well as Lord Grey, having
been, it is said, off a fisit to the Duke of Bedford, I
`at -Woburn. An answer, however, has now come,
and it is, We are positively told, a decided refusal of
the office. It is added, that Sir James Scarlett,
though pressed to keep his place of Attorney-
GeMral, liar certainly resigued.—Timcs.
If it were as easy to convey instruction to the
agriculturists as it is desirable for them, on certain
subjects, to receive it, we might venture to recom-
mend to their especial study a letter which appears
in this day's Times, under the signature of "A. R.,"
and the date of Lisbon. It requires nothing more
than unlettered sense—nay, than honest stupidity,
provided always that the stupidity be honest—to
comprehend the very simple proposition which it is
the purpose of our correspondent to support,—
namely, that there exists no earthly means of sup-
plying our country gentlemen with their wines and
foreign luxuries but the sale of British manufactures
in exchange for them; and that the ingenuity of
man cannot imagine an instrument by which to
keep up the price of land, and the rent of it, through-
out England, other than that of maintaining the ma-
nufacturing and commercial interests in their highest
state of active prosperity,—that is, in the fullest ca-
pacity for purchasing the produce of the country
gentlemen's estates. If the manufacturing popula-
tion be diminished, in the same proportion—we ought
to say in still more sensible propertioe—will fall
the price of corn. It is but idle foole :•yto talk of
revising the old prohibitory laws, an dthereby se-
curing to the British . manufacture r the mono-
poly of the -British market. The .sonic market
is already, in a degree quite extensive enough
for general reasoning, secured to the British manu-
facturer. The portion of foreign manufactured
goods consumed in this country is altogether insig-
nificant, when looking at results in.the mass. That
portion, we take upon ourselves to affirm, is far less
than what was effected by smuggling, under the
?prohibitory duties, and in spite of them. But we
must add, as a salutary warning to the country gen-
tleman, that if be persists in his prohibition of fo-
reign corn, he will ere long disable the English ma-
nufacturer from selling even so much of his goods
in foreign markets as may be sufficient to purchase
}:aw materials for the employment of those native
workmen who now buy and consume the country
gentlemen's wheat, or to pay for those luxuries from
foreign soils which have become indispensable to his
habits. No; if the country gentlemen are so un-
fortunate as to be the only members of the commu-
nity who can possess an abundance of animal
com-
forts, without the slightest exercise of care, orl
diti-
-*awe or reason ; and if they are therefore, as a
class, more incrusted with prejudice, and more im-
pervious to knowledge,. than any other body of grown
bipeds in this realm, it is nut an atom the less true,
that for all their luxuries, and more than half' their
rents, they are indebted to the foreign trade of Eng-
land, let them stomach the assertion as they may.—

We find that a good deal of alarm is expressed
?ti .once of the country papers at the recent changes.
Tic Scotsman says, " that his Grace should have
been named Premier even for one day, appears to
16 to be an insult to the good sense and constitu-
tional feeling of the country ; that Lord Dudley and
HtL;kisson and Grant should have taken
onices under Lords Wellington and Bathurst, with
a majority of Ultra-Tory Anti-Catholics in the Ca-
binet, does seem to be degrading. It is so decidedly,
if. they have sacrificed principle to emolument ; and
it is a sacrifice of reputation, even although they
~nay have _become parties to the re-construction of
what is called the Government, from the hope of
doing good. They must have penetration enough to
3e that they are taken in, solely to make the coin-
pound pill not' absolutely unpalatable to the country.

• • . . . We 'do that Mr. Huskis-
son has made stipulations ; but we fear that if the
Administration he continued as announced at pre-
sent, his stipulations' will go for
.nothing." We
have no wish to extenuate the insult offered to the
country in the appointment to the Premiership of a
man notoriously unfit for it ; and what is rather un-
usual, in these days, self-condemned. We are far
from wishing to set bounds to the exercise of the
prerogative. His nties,ty had. certainly the power
to make the Duke of Wellington Premier. But we
cannot help thinking it would notle amiss if •Mo-
narehs were to bear in mind, that the best means
of ensuring the homage of the people, is to exer-
cise their authority in such a way as the people
themselves would wish it to he exercised. At Con-
stantinople,ahe Slave of last year becomes frequently.
the Grand Vizier of this. These exaltations pass
as a matter of course; but the consequence is that
the Slave is not exalted, but the office degraded. In
a civilized nation there should be nothing arbitrary.
Power, even where unrestrained, ought always to
be exercised according to certain laws of propriety.
Every person appointed to offices of trust and re-
sponsibility shOuld be known to possess the qualifi-
cations usually associated with them. The Chan-
cellor should appoint a Master known to the Pro-
fession as possessing the qualifications required in a
Master, and not the first half-pay officer, who does
an act of kindness to him in a perilous conjuncture ;
the King, again, should appoint a Chancellor entitled
to • the confidence of the country as the highest
JUdge. Even in the Church, the ordinary livings of
which are the property of every purehaer, a certain
deference to public opinion and feeling ought to
be manifested in the disposal of the higher dig-
titles. It would be considered improper, for in-
:stance, to reward a Lieutenant who has distinguished
himself in skirmishes with smugglers, with orders,
Ind one of the best of the livings in the gift of the
Chancellor. We -cannot, therefore, wonder that the
country should not have been prepared for this
exercise of the Royal authority. If the Emperor
ff Primee
Paul should have made Suwaro
Mini-
ster, the act would have been supposed in charac-
ter; but George the Fourth has always been sup-
posed tremblingly alive to the suggestions of pro-
priety, and able to distinguish between the claims to
private intimacy and the claims to public confidence.
All things are not surely a farce, if County Meet-.
ilfrs are. Yet what can more resemble a farce than
the elevating to the highest office in the Admini-
stration, a man for whose indiscreet language it has
ff
• more than once been necessary to Offer the apology
that he was unused to speak, and who must enjoy
his dignity, like one of Epicurus 's Gods, and refuse ,
to take any part in the public deliberations of the
Legislature, if he do not mean to compromise his
colleagues and the character of the nation by his
discretions or his solecisms. That any purely military
maw should have a seat ill the Cabinet at all, even
though filling a department connected with military
affairs, as the Ordnance for instance, is a proposition
liable to considerable difficulty. If a soldier in the
Cabinet were to vote only on military affairs, all
would be well ; but the vote of that soldier counts
in the Cabinet for as much as that of .the man who
has made the affairs of the nation the study of his
life. The same sense of his deficiencies which led
his Grace, to proclaim his unfitness for the situation
of Premier a year ago, will probably , lead him to
distrust the sound of his voice, M future; and, there-
fore, it may not be necessary to remind him of the'
Cro}v in the Fable, which was prevailed on by the
Fox to open his mouth, and drop his cheese, But

ancestor first brought Mr. Pitt into Parliament, and
that they have never swerved from his principles; that
Mr. Lanibton's Peerage was originally intended by
the Whigs as a mere matter of pique towards his
father-in-law, Earl Grey ; that he had been the
great opponent of the Lowthers in the successive
Westmoreland elections, furnishing both money and
voters to Mr. Brougham ; and that, as for the
pledge in question, a striking instance of a similar
kind exists, in which it was not found necessary to
keep it; for that in the year 1783, when Mr. Pitt
first came into power, a patent was actually passing
through the offices, raising Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, to
the Peerage; but which was stopped, and never af-
terwards took effect. Having thus mentioned the
report, and the arguments pro. and con. upon the
occasion, we leave the matter as we found it, enve-
loped in some degree of mystery. The Duke of
Wellington, we should think, is much too good a
tactician to serve his enemies at the expellee of his
allies, unless, by an act of generalship, he can neu-
tralize and disarm the former, which, we should not
be surprised to find, may turn out to be the case on
the occasion in question.—lbid.

Don Miguel, we are happy to find by an article
in another part of our paper, continues, while de-
tained by contrary winds, to be received and treated
in the most handsome and becoming manner by all
classes of Englishmen ; and we wish to indulge the
fond hope that he may profit by the lessons Which
have every where been offered to him by persons
of more experience than he has been accustomed to
meet either at home or on his travels. Neither the
soil nor the creed, political and religious, of Portu-
gal or Austria, offers any guarantee to the people for
the good government of their respective Monarchs;
and the events of the last few years give us no bet-
ter promise than we have had before. The more
extensive an individual's acquaintance with the va-
rious habits, manners, and systems of mankind, the
more liberal we may reasonably expect him to be-
come ; but after all, there is so great a power in
early associations and impressions, that it is not with-
out the utmost difficulty they can be battled with
success. We cannot indeed venture to say that the
people of any European State are equally capable of
appreciating or enjoying such a state of freedom as
happily prevails in this Protestant country ; but we
must on the other hand admit, that the state of ser-
vitude in which they have been held for ages, loudly
calls for melioration. The Kings and Governments
of Europe all profess to believe and act upon the
principles of Christianity—but if we take their
deeds and measure them by such a standard, we
shall soon find how widely they have departed from
them. A rapid improvement has taken place in
France with respect to the notions of Government
entertained by the Monarchy and the people—and
in sonic of the minor States, such as Saxony and
Bavaria, the good feelings of the Sovereigns have
eyes gone beyond the fondest expectations of their
people. But in Spain, Portugal, Austria, and
throughout the whole of the Russian Empire—a
rank and mischievous tyranny universally prevails—
which cannot too soon be corrected and re-
formed. We arc nut and never have been
the advocates of rash or hasty change—on the
contrary, we have strenuously supported the
necessity of the principle of preservation in the va-
rious States of Europe as one of the greatest and
best securities for the continuance of general peace ;
but nevertheless we cannot be insensible to the
thraldom and the misery ix which millions of our
fellow men have been so long enchained. We wish
to see the improvement of man's condition, physical
and moral; and as the best means of securing it to
see his education bated upon sound and virtuous
principles. All violent theories and hazardous spe-
culations we leave to . those who assume the ill-ap-
plied epithet of liberal; but we cannot expect any
real or solid melioration until Sovereigns find that
the security of their thrones depends upon the hap-
piness of their people. It would be idle to enter
into any speculations at present upon the course
which Miguel may pursue when he is once more'
placed within the influence of the Priests, and the
Donna, his famous mother; but it would_ be worse
than madness to indulge in any lively expectation
that he will prove himself the zealous supporter of
a free institution. We cannot extract from any
thing, that which is not in it; but still let us not
despair that time and good advice in another quarter
will not be altogether thrown away upon him—
/Moiling Post. .
The improvement of the metropolis is an object
which has always attracted our attention and inte-
rested our feeling's. It is, therefore, with consider-
able gratification that we have to state, that a meet-
ing was held in the Vestry-hall of the parish of
Lambeth, yesterday, at which it was resolved to
support. the erection of a new bridge across the
Thames, from the Palace at Lambeth to the Horse-
ferry, at Westminster. It is impossible for those
who have not accidentally fallen upon the miserable
lanes and tenements which occupy the Surrey bank
of the river from Lambeth Palace to Vauxhall, to
form an idea of the nature of those places, especially
at night, when, from the absence even of parish
lamps, passengers are left to grope their way in per-
fect darkness. The erection of a bridge over the
Thames at that particular spot, would in a few
months produce a complete: change. The lanes and
the hovels would quickly disappear, as they have
done on the other side of Waterloo Bridge, and decent
houses and spacious streets would fill a space which
now more resembles a wretched hamlet on the edge
of a desert than the suburb of a splendid metropolis.
The improved rents and the diminished Psor Rates
_would alone more than repay the expence of the
new bridge :(a suspension one), which are not esti-
mated at more than 120,000/. The line of road is
already formed on both sides of the river, so that
no expence whatever need be incurred, except that
of building and casting the bridge.—New Times.

There is no subject 011 which we are stunned with
more trifling and folly than on the subject of in-
formers. Were the clamours against the Johnsons
and the Byerses confined to the coach proprietors,
the innkeepers, and the pawnbrokers, whom they
keep in due order, by application to the only sen-
sible part of their persons, namely, their pockets, we
could easily bear with them. We could even allow
an Old Bailey attorney, his sensibilities excited by
the warming influence of a fee, to exclaim in set
terms against the nuisance of allowing his clients to
be fleeced by any one but himself. But what may
be tolerated, because it is natural, in the suffering
defendant, and in the hired pleader, is not to be en-
dured in the Magistrate, who sits to administer the
law, wide'' distinctly recognises the informer, and
decrees him a reward. Every day we have reports
of lachrymose wailings from the Bench over some
pawnbroker
or other who has been violating the
law, because, forsooth, tile Magistrate has no
power of passing over the violation ! I\ay, to such
a degree does this tenderness for the offender pre-
vail, that not !unfrequently do we find the Maps•
trate laying aside his dignity, to beseech Mr. John-
son or Mr. Byers, as the case may be, not to press
for ally more convictions. Such tenderness would
be ext,einely amiable, were it exerted on behalf of
any poor thing who had sinned without being con-
scious of the wrong, or who had .been goaded to
wrong by the compelling pressure of overwhelming
distress ; but it is not only ridiculous but detestable, 1
to find a man clothed with authority, sending
without hesitation, a miserable creature to the House
of Correction, because necessity had driven her to
vice ; and then, whining
over the misfortune of a
gin-seller, who keeps his house (ien in defiance of
the linv, for the purpose of making profit by her
vices. Again, xvere the Pawnbrokers' Act, or the
Act for Regulating Coaches or Public-houses, dubi-
ously. expressed, there would be room for compas-
sion ; but all arc so plain, that he that runs may
read; and they are known perfectly by every
one of the delinquents whose conduct they
affect. An article met our eye the other
day, headed—" MethOd by which an honest
tradesman may be ruined." When we pe-
rused it, we found that it was a ease of a pawn-
! broker fined twenty shillings forinot observing the

in the annals of Parliamentary warfare, the struggle
for victory between speech and silence will be at all
events novel. The Duke has 'great command of
features; and having but one expression, he may give
some trouble to his opponents to discover the im-
pression their attacks may make on him. We re-
member, when his famous misconception of Mr.
Huskisson's letter exposed him to some sharp firing,
his countenance remained as immovable throughout
as that of one of the statues in St. Paul's. But his
colleagues may not have the same advantage; and
till use has reconciled them to it, they must feel a
little awkward in answering a question addressed
to his Grace, when they commence with " I am
instructed by his Grace to state, in answer to the
Noble Lord," or " I have it in command from his
Grace to inform the Noble Lord;" or when the Lord
Privy Seal or any other of his colleagues, is
proposing a measure unconnected with his depart-
ment, and properly in the department of the Premier,
commences with acquainting the House that his
Grace.being unacquainted with the subject on which
he is about to address their Lordships, he has been
appointed by his Grace to supply his place. We
quarrel not with his Majesty's inclinations, and are
among the last who should wish to invade his pri-
vacy. The Duke- of Wellington may have many
qualities which justly entitle him to the favour of his
Majesty ; and one is mentioned equally creditable to
both, namely, that of a frankness and sincerity
unusual any where, but least of all among those who
surround Kings. But if favour, independent of
fitness, is to be a recommendation to the highest
official situations, were are we to stop Caligula's
horse was probably an excellent horse, and it was in
high favour with him, but does it follow that he
ought to have made the horse a Consul ? So much
for the Duke of 'Wellington, the appointment of
whom to the Premiership is certainly very proble-
matical, even on the score of policy. It may be
true yet, as it was in the time of the Chancellor
Oxenstiern, that the world is governed by sur-
prisingly little wisdom; but is it prudent to let the
public see that the puppets are moved by wires? As
far, however, as the Country is concerned, we really
do not know that the weakness of the head of •the
Government will render the part of the Admi-
nistration chosen to give character to it less able
to do good. If Mr. Huskisson have stipu-
lated to carry his system into full effect; if, as has
been alleged, it have also been stipulated that farther
concessions are to be made to the Catholics, admit-
ting them to all the privileges of citizens, seats in
Parliament alone excepted, we do not see how either
principle or reputation can have been sacrificed. Mr.
Huskisson acquired his reputation under an Admi-
nistration which he and Mr. Canning chiefly contri-
buted to make liberal, and if he succeed in advanc-
ing the interests of his country, he will add to his
reputation instead of sacrificing it. We speak of
Mr. Huskisson as a public man, and only in so far
as his acts arc before the public; for of the precise
nature of his engagements with his late Colleagues
we are ignorant. One good sign begins already to
manifest itself. Those persons whom Mr. Canning
in his memorable speech in answer to Mr. J. Williams,
described as not a political faction, but rather " as a
sect small in numbers, and powerless might, who
think that all advances towards improvement are
retrogradations towards Jacobinism," begin already,
if we may trust their organ, to feel uneasy at the
prospect of Mr. Huskisson's influence: We wish
we had a better Cabinet; but we would rather have
the present one than run the risk of an experiment
whether it would be practicable to form a worse
Administration, which should still have the suffrages
in Parliament.—Morning Chronicle.
Having long contended for the abolition of the
practice of imprisonment for debt, and having never
wet with any argument to shake our opinion as to
its being a cruel, absurd, and unchristian practice,
we observe with pleasure that a Bill has been
brought into the Senate of the United States to
abolish imprisonment, in Civil cases, on mesne pro-
cess. We are glad of this, not only because it will
put to the test of experience the principles for which
we have contended, but because we are also sure
that the enlightened innovation which the American
Senate will make, by the passing of such a bill,
upon an ancient and barbarous custom, will ope-
rate hereafter as a beneficial example to ourselves.
America derives the principles as well as the greater
part of the practice of her laws from England ; she
took, in the rapid formation of her own society, the
good and the bad together. The principles that
ought to be preserved, as well as the prejudices
which ought to be got rid of, descended to her from
the same parentage. If she is wise enough to ad-
here to that which reason sanctions, and to renounce
whatever has antiquity alone 'and constant usage to
plead in its support, she will do well—she will im-
prove, not impair, those laws which she inhe-
rits from the founders of our own Constitution;
and we will do well to adopt and emulate her ex-
ample. Should even the existing prejudices of timid
and ignorant minds be unable to oppose effectually
the passing of this Bill at present, we know that
such a barrier cannot long be capable of resisting
the progress of enlightened legislation. That such
a Bill should be introduced at all into the Senate of
America, with any chance of success, is, in itself, a
great and satisfactory proof of the advance which
sound understanding has made of late years in the
legislative body of that vast community. It was
long after we began to advocate the abolition of im-
prisonment for debt that a Bill was brought into the
British Parliament to prevent arrest, or, which is
the same thing, to prevent the taking of special bail
in actions on mesne process in all cases where the
original debt amounted to 'less than 201. This
was a very narrow limitation indeed. By a for-
mer law, which had expired, the special bail was
done away as, to all debts (with the exception
of bills of exchange and promissory notes) that
amounted to no more than 15/. ; so that the
new Bill only enlarged the operation of the for-
mer Act by the amount of .5/. This Bill was
brought in by tke present Solicitor-General, and
was opposed most strenuously by the popular Re-
presentative of a popular borough, whose electors
boast more of their patriotism and regard for the
liberty of the subject than, perhaps, any other body
of electors in the kingdom—we mean the city of
Westminster, on behalf of which Mr. Cam Hob-
house resisted the passing of a Bill that only pre-
vented the creditor from having
_the power of throw-
ing the body of his debtor into prison, were the debt
did not amount to 201. The present Attorney-
General, on that occasion, showed that he valued
the " liberty of the subject" at five times mere
than the Representative of the electors of -West-
minster ; for he declared he would have preferred
that the sum on which a debtor could be arrested
had been fixed at 1001. instead of 20/. But our
objection is as to the principle of arrest for debt alto-
gether. The framers of the American Bill have not
copied our 201. legislation ; they have not fixed the
sum at 201. or 1001., below which special bail can-
not be required ; they have made no limitation as
to the amount of the original debt ; and thereby they
itedcredit
byh
very wisely cut up the system of miln
the roots. They have, however,encumbered
measure with some exceptions, which interfere with
the simplicity of the principle. But they have made
a good beginning, and other improvements will no
doubt follow.—Morning Herald.

Among the flying reports of the day is one, that
Lord Lowther—a person, as matters stand, of no
small importance with any Administration—ex-
presses himself much dissatisfied with the new
Premier, because his Grace's first act, on assuming
the reins of Government, should have been the con-
firmation of the Peerage promised to Mr. Lambton
by his predecessors. On his Grace's Part, it is
urged by his advocates as having been unavoidable;
that the King's promise had been obtained, which
could not be violated; and that as the Duke's own
brother, Sir Henry Wellesley, was-Included in the
batch, it would have been a peculiarly ungracious
act in him to' have culled from the number one po-
litical opponent. On the other hand, the advocates
of the Lowthers contend that they are the corner-
stone and founders of modern Toryism ; that their

regulations respecting duplicates ; regulations so
exceedingly simple, that their observance might be
safely entrusted to any person above five years of
age that was not by nature an idiot. We have no
hesitation in saying that there are more honest men
ruined by pawnbrokers in one year in this great city,
than there will be honest pawnbrokers ruined by in-
formers in the course of twenty centuries. A case
may, no doubt, be imagined, and such do some-
times iaccur, in which an informer may harass a
really deserving man ; but are the quirks of law
never employed to harass honest men by any one
but the informer ? Do the poor who pawn never
suffer ? Do the thoughtless who tipple never go to
the watch-house ? Are the passengers in coaches
exempt in all possible cases from trouble ? If a law
be so indiscreetly worded, as to leave occasion for
vexatious prosecutions, by all means let it be altered;
but where the law is clear, and where its enact-
ments are specially directed to the protection of the
poor, the regulation of public morals, and the secu-
rity of the traveller, let not the ministers of the law
interpose to put down the only means by which
those enactments are kept from becoming a dead
letter.—lbid.