The Sun.
London, England, 1821-04-27 00:00:00

NEW

Public curiosity seems much alive to the part
which will be taken by the Emperors ef,Russia and
Austria relative to the affairsof Spain. Most deeply
shall we r,,gret the necessity -for their interference,
if such necessity should exist ; but when we turn
our eyes to the state of that distracted country,
we hardly know what shape to give our reason-
able wishes. History is- Philosophy teaching by
example ; and the history of our own days has
held up an example iu the French Revolution,
which nothing but the extreme of folly can mis-
understand, and nothing but the' extreme of
wickedness can dissemble. The FrenCh Revolu-
tionists began by the seizure of Church Property.
Hoc fonte derivata Clades
In patriam populumque ruit.
=The Spanish Revolutionists—servile 'imitators
of the Madmen of 1790—haVe rigorously-copied
this injustice; the Portuguese Cortes are now
treading in. the same path ; and The Morning
Chronicle says, i‘ this is going to work the
right way."—Let us coolly ask .ourselves whe-
ther such- conduct,. and the avowal of. such
principles, be not calculated to force all
Established Governments into a commonleague
against the revolutionary faction, wherever it
exists ? Is it not in the nature of a reproach
to. our 'GoVer,nment for its firm adherence to, the
pystem of Neutrality? " No funds," says The
Morning Chronicle, " can with more prOP,riefy
be-made available to the relief of a people from
taxation, than those of an overgrown Church
Establishment." Now we cannot forget that the

'seditious Addresses to the Queen, the still more
seditious Answers to those Addresses, the in-
flammatory harangues of the Mob-Orators Hume
and Moore, and the columns of the -Chronicle
itself, have repeatedly held up the establishment
of the Church of Ens land to public obloquy
as " an overgrown Church Establishment"—
The plain English, therefore, of the passages
which we have qnoted is, this—" The trench,
Revolutionists. did right in plundering their
Church : the Spaniards and Portuguese are cluing
right in plundering theirs—and we shall do right
to plunder ours."—Now, we address ourselves ,
to the Whigs of England : is this a Whig prin-
ciple ?—it is a COnstitutional principle ?—is it
a principle 'compatible with the existences of
any established Government whatever ? Pro-.
perty is altogether the creature of law, and the
same law which protects the Churchman in his
tithe, his glebe, his dues, offerings, and fees—
the very same is the law which secures to the
landlord his rent, the farmer his market price,and
the labourer his hire. Violate this law in any one
point, and you become a robber: break down the
dyke at any one spot, and the revolutionary-flood
will rush in, sweeping away property, liberty-, and
life.—What ! then, it may be said, are there no
bounds to, the growth of a Church Establish-
ment ? None retrospective, whatever there may
be of a prospective,. nature. The question is
exactly the same with every species of property.
It is a possible case that there may be overgrown
land-ownerships, as well as overgrown Church
Establishments; neither evil, however, can come
on all at once ; and wise laws may always be
made (like the Mortmain Statutes of our ances-
tors) in time to guard against the evil. We will
go a step further, and , fairly admit, that if
Church property, or any other species of pro-
perty, has, in fact, outgrown its reasonable limits,
it may be gradually and cautiously brought
within those limits again. But Revolutionists, do
nothing gradually and cautiously ; partly from
the hungry nature of their passions, and partly
from the dullness of their intellects. ,The
knaves are too rapacious, the fools too stupid,
to make nice distinctions, and separate right
from wrong, according to the peculiar circum-
stances of every case.

[THE TIMES.
Spanish papers and private letters from Madrid,
bring intelligence that the public mind, both in
the capital and at a distance from it, is in a state
of much uneasiness and agitation. At Barcelona,
the Bishop, with the ex-Inquisitor, and two
other ecclesiastics of high rank, as also five general
officers, one of whom bears the name of Campbell,
and another that of Saaisfield, were ordered- by
the Captain General and Junta to be shipped off
for Mahon. No specification has yet reached us
of the crime of which these official persons were
accused ; nor are we told whether any
thing but the dread of popular violence
was alleged by the Captain General as his
motive for arresting them. We trust that
no Spaniard in the exercise of authority would
be so forgetful of his obligations, both to justice
land to liberty, as to sacrifice any number of his
fellow subjects to paltry personal fears. In
France it was the disgrace of Robespierre and his
ruffians that they took men prisoners on suspicion,
and cut their heads off as a measure of precaution :
one of the reports to the Committee of Public
Safety stated that 44 certain aristocrats had been
taken up, on suspicion of being suspected
persons!" But the downfall of that faction was
near at hand. On considering, therefore, the mo-
deration, prudence, and integrity which have mark-
ed the conduct of the Constitutional Government
and its functionaries, we are led to apprehend that
some treasonable schemes must have been de-
tected at Barcelona, which it was a matter of
necessity to baffle by the sudden removal of their
instruments. For serious dangers to the Consti-
tution we were prepared at its outset, from the
comparative insignificance to which it consigned
the grandees, and from the loss of revenue,
as well as power, with which it threatened the
Church. The apparent sense of the nation
and of the Cortes would, of course, keep down
such natural enemies of the Constitution, except
when circumstances might be presumed to offer a
favourable moment to subvert it. The ruin of

the public cause amongst the Italians was pre-
cisely such an opportunity as would encourage
the diSaffected Spaniards. The Spanish quarrel
itself was at stake in Italy ; for both nations
were menaced with the same fate,-from the same
source; and from the like motives. Thig then
was a conjecture at which it would be reasonable
to look for symptoms of exultation on one side,
and of anxiety and vigilance on the other.—
We hear, accordingly, that in the Cortes on the
10th inst. a project of law was read and debated,
for rendering the ill-disposed who attempt to
subvert the constitution amenable to a less
dilatory legal process than before. NI. Martinez
de la Rosa proposed that the rules of proceeding
in the Cortes should be adapted to the urgency
of the case ; that the bill should be read a
third time within four days ; and that the dis-
cussion once begun, should terminate only with
the passing of the measure. The third reading
was fixed for the 14th following.—A private
letter, dated from Madrid on the 12th, enfers
into the state of parties within the legislative
body, and announces the multiplication of secret
societies throughout the kingdom at large.

ATTEMPTED StiectnE.—A housemaid in a gen-
tleman's family in Sloane-street attempted to
destroy herself, yesterday morning, in a water
closet in the house. She was discovered sus-
pended from a beam by a fellow-servant, and
fortunately she was cut down in time to restore
suspended animation. Pregnapcy was the cause
of the rash act.

DROWNING.-Yesterday morning a gentleman
was bathing in the,Serpentine Itiver,-Hyde Park,
when unfortunately he was setzed with the cramp,
and immediately sunk. Some persons near the
spot, Witnes.sing the circumstance; made an in-
stant alarm; and after several endeavours to save
the gentleman's life, they succeeded in getting him
out" of the water. Medical assistance was pro-
cured, but he was quite. dead. The body was
carried to the Bricklayers' Arms,in Mount-street,
Berkeley.square,.for the:Coroner's Inquest.- •