The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-17 00:00:00

sPITITT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.;

Our Paper of Saturday contained an invitation to
a meeting this evening, at the London Tavern, at
six o'clock, to consider of the best means of afford-
ing immediate relief to the suffering Refugees of
Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Of these unfortunate
strangers, no fewer than one thousand are in a state
of extreme destitution; many of them literally with-
out bread. The season of the year, too, adds to the
suffering‘ of these natives of more genial regions
than our own. The plaits unvarnished statement
of the condition of these individttOls, of the best
families in their own countries, who nobly sacrificed
themselves in an attempt to improve the constitu-
tion of their respective nations,. is Safficient to induce
• the people ofEngland.to contribute to their relief,
each individual according to his means. . Many of
them, too, were the companions in arms of British
soldiers, at a time when England summoned the
natives of the Peninsula to make common
cause with her against France, and owe perhaps,
to the lessons then taught them, and the
example constantly before them, the desire of im-
provement which was ultimately the cause of their
ruin. When we reflect on the consequences of our
interference with the Peninsula--that we deprived
the Spaniards of the regeneration which Joseph
meant to have effected for his own security, and let
loose on them Ferdinand and the Priesthood, while
we had familiarised them with notions irreconcile-
able with subjection to their old Government; we
cannot but think it would have become the Govern-
meet to have acted towards the poor exiles with
more liberality. Blit we trust private beneficence
will supply the place of the public aid. Let it not
be said that these unfortunate strangers shall be al-
lowed to perish of hunger in a country the most
powerful and wealthy in Europe—that in a city
where luxury presents itself to the eye wherever we
turn, and an extravagance prevails unexampled in
the history of the world, nothing could be spared for
the discharge of so sacred a claim on our charity.—
No man, whatever may be his political principles,
ought to allowhimself to entertain any other feeling on
such an occasion as the prpsent than that these poor
exiles are in a state of extreme destitution. Even
should lie dieapprove of their attempts to regene-
rate their respective countries, let him remember
that he is himself a fallible being, and that he hopes
in that day when we must all render an account of
our actions 4ustice will be tempered to himself with
mercy. Our own opinion is, that the poor Spaniards
owe their present destitute condition to their huma-
nity and consideration for their opponents. Had
they cut down with an unsparing hand these oppo-
nents, and imitated the energ t;c conduct of the ter-
rorists in France, they might at this day have been
triumphant. When the advocates of liberal opi-
nions in the two Houses of Parliament praised them I
for their magnanimity, we lOoked foorward to the
fate which has befallen them. But their leniency,
though it has stood in the way of their success,
ought not to stand in the-,way-of the compassion
which is due to their wants and their sufferings.
(FROM THE TIMES.)
The inhabitants of London, we have never for a
moment doubted, will not hear unmoved the cries of
misery from these poor Spanish exiles. The hand
of mercy has even now begun to extend itself. The
appeal which necessity has wrung from us on their
behalf melee the hearts of the high and gentle, as
well as the kindred sympathies of those who them-
selves have known what it is to feel the unappeased
gnawings of hunger. The meeting this afternoon
at the London Tavern will, We have reason to be-
lieve and trust; be attended by numbers of humane
individuals, whose example cannot fail to act eaten-
sively.upon the great mass of society. The distin-
guished authorities of the city can never do them-
selves or their stations more honour than by proofs
of their coscurrence in the pious object of the meet-
ing. In tile mean time, we have received more than
50 letters from charitable persons since our last pub-
lscation ; and we earnestly beseech the public atten-
tion to some specific modes which have been pointed
out towards facilitating and realizing the relief which
we supplicate, and which, seeing what we have teen,
even the stones, if they could speak, would join
us in praying for. Ist. -A great and useful principle
to lay down would be that of extending the source
of the ssbseriptidn as far as possible, by bringing
the scale of it within the reach of the greatest num-
ber of charitably disposed individuals, It would on
that account be very desirable to set on foot local
committees of respectable housekeepers in as many
quarters of the metropolis as might be found practi-
cable, the members of which should visit, in parties
of not less than three well, all the houses in success.
sion in their respective districts, and ask such con-
tributions as the residents might be pleased to grant,
not exceeding the sum of ss. This plan, which
would presi heavily on none, has the further advan-
tage of being easily, as no doubt it would be
promptly, imitated in many other populous places
besides London, and the sums so raised might be
remitted to some of those benevolenthanking-houses
in London which we have already mentioned. 2d.
A second and most appropriate method of serving
this deeply interesting object might, in our opinion,
be fitly recommended and intrusted to the chari-
table spirit of the parochial and other clergy
throughout England, each reverend gentleman, whe-
ther of the Established or Dissenting Church, ap-
pointing some one day for his congregation to con-
tribute their alms at the church-door after service,
as in the case of charity-sermons, though we would
not trespass upon the clergy so far as to exact from
them a sermon directed to this especial purpose.--
3d. A third mode of assistance, at this dreary season,
is that of giving old clothes to the half-naked fa-
milies of the exiles.
A letter on the subject, froM
the proprietor of tile London Repository, Gray's-
inn-road, points out one place, which may be fixed
upon as a magazine, Or in any other way turned to
the use of the charity, and where the liberal proprie-
tor states dant the accommodation which he offers
will be gratis.
. some trustworthy persons may, of
course be found by the Committee, even amongst
the Spaniards themselves, who would take charge
of the articles transmitted. Although the Ministry
does not, from some political consideration we pies
sume, think proper to aid these unfortunate victims
of an anti-English despotism from the public funds,
it is not in nature that the chief of that Ministry
should look with any but kind and sympathetic
feelings at the • efforts of public benevolence
to relieve them, when he is not called
upon to share the burden of such benevolence. The
Duke of Wellington must be, personally, a friend to
the Spanish Cortes, and to their constitutional ad-
herents. The noble estate of the Sota di Roma,
which before his Grace became its proprietor had
been one of the finest domains of the Crown, and
reckoned to produce an income of at least
,2,9,01904
per annum, was settled on the Duke of WellingtO
by the Cortes.. Ferdinand had no merit.but that of
not recalling this munificent national donation. The
liberal part. of the Spanish nation, therefore, were so
far his Grace's benefactors. It is difficult to sup-,
pose that this interchange of kindness could exist
without producing, as doubtless it has done in his
Grace,
many cordial sentiments towards the Con-
stitutional Spaniards., Were his Grace's name for
even Si. to
appear at the head of the new subscrip-
tion, what service would it not render, and with
the destitute beings
what blessings from could it
not be received ? It is by wistake that the Portu-
guese are joined to the Spaniards in, the advertise-
ment, as objects of public charity. The subjects of
Don Pedro, refugees in England,. are, fortunately
for themselves and families, enjoying their Sove-
reign's bounty.

A correspondent, who signs himself " An Irish-
man," seems hurt at the comments made in this paper
some ten days ago, upon the relation between land-
lord and tenant in Ireland, and upon the general
character of the former class of his countrymen. We
had suppose,], and our correspondent must pardon us
for still believing., that the opinions which we then
felt it our duty to state had been too well founded
in truth and notoriety, p admit Of any reasonable

objection.. Of the " mass" of Irish landlords, we
repeat,—and there is neither haste, nor passion, nor
ignorance of the subject in this our unqualified re-
proach,—but with reg ird to the mass of Irish land-
lords, it is an established admission by all observant
visiters of their country, and all judicious inquirers
into the state of it, that the system of treatment
pursued towards their tenants has been most im-
politic, most barbarous, and disgraceful. It is ascer-
tained to be a practice throughout the whole south
and central parts of Ireland, for the landlords to
exact from the wretched peasants a price for small
patches of uncultivated land, under the title of
con acres, more than it is possible for the pro-
duce of that land to repay; and when a poor crea-
ture haS, by indefatigable toil, reclaimed the ground
from a state of nature, it is turned over, with simi-
lar adjoining fractions, to the more responsible oc-
cupier of a larger farm, and the original improver
expelled. It is a practice undeniable throughout
every part of Ireland, to let an extensive farm to the
highest and often the most desperate bidder,without
the leaSt consideration for the old family, who may
have held it during 40 or 50 years, and who, in ad
country without commerce, are thus cast out to tit-
ter idleness and misery, or driven, as we sometimes
see them, to the most atrocious projects orrevenge.
It has been since the year 1793 a practice, as is ac-
-1 knowledged, throughout Ireland, to tempt youths
into premature and ruinous marriages, by fixing
them on spots of bog or mountain, upon a rack-rent
lease of some freehold description, that they may
give 40;. votes as their landlords order them, and
so increase the saleable stock on the estate. It is
not-a practice, but an instinct, of the Irish land-
lords, to think of their unhappy peasantry but as
of creatures born to mud-cabins—to dry potato
diet, diversified by an occasional failure of the
potato crop,—to rags, degenerating into frequent
nakedness,—to ignorance and servility, and hope-
lessness of comfort; and then to exclaim that " they
are used to it, and want nothing better." Of these
and similar practices, instincts, and melancholy
abuses of a superiority which ought .to make itself
felt no otherwise than in acts of patriarchal benevo-
lence and protection, the fruits are, what we behold.
The people are alienated from their natural chiefs
who have deserted them. The first political ques-
tion which arises is made an easy topi,l for inflaming
a previous discontent, mite materials of which have
been drawn from the perverted relations of private
life, and, morally speaking, a civil conflict may be
said to rage perpetually from north to south of Ire-
land., If there be landlords who are conscious of
their own exemption from the charges thus brought
against their body, we wish them to enjoy the full
consciousness of such comparative virtue. If our
correspondent be one of the good, as we have no rea-
son to question, since he resents the stigma so feel-
ingly, we are most happy to acquit and honour
him. But still he is one of a very limited number
of exceptions. We recede not from the generalit
of the' accusation.

(FROM THE MORNING HERALD.)
The extraordinary committal, from Bow-street, a
:ew days since, of a man for stealing a manuscript--
itself, probably, a thing of no value, but on which
he had what the lawyers call—an—evident lien--has
excited, we bear, a good deal of animadversion.—
We are as loth as the law is to judge severely of
Magistrates for an error in judgment; but yet where
such want of judgment affects the liberty of a fel-
low-creature, and may perhaps influence his future
destiny, we are neither so candid nor so squeamish
as to think that there is a mantle which ought to
screen even the ermine from the reproach which such
errors bring along with them. But we are, perhaps,
in some degree instrumental in producing the very
faults which we complain of. It has been remarked,
anti we think not untruly, that, ever since the
Press has been in the habit of giving the proceed-
ings before the London Magistrates with the minute-
ness it has of late years done, the Magistrates
themselves seem to have fallen into it, as if it were
a trap that had been set,for them, and are continu-
ally doing, for the sake of effect, that which, if
there were no such effect before them, would be
disregarded, and more substantial matters attended
to. If a Magistrate, instead of attending to the
matter before him, really condescends to think bow
his bad jokes and witticisms will tell in the next
morning's papers, of course he must lose sight of the
merits of the matter before him, and will even per-
sist in an error, rather than the Journals shall convict
him of inconsistency. All this, if it be so, is very
bad; and, if the Press is chargeable with producing
it, the result shows, at the same time, what very
weak minds it has to act upon. The observation
is, unfortunately, too well-grounded as a general
one, to be particularly applicable to any particular
case, or any particular set of Magistrates. Ad-
verting, again, to the particular case which gave rise
to these remarks, we would observe that the facts of
it lay in a nut-shell, though, from the extraneous
matters introduced into it, it has swelled in the re-
port to an unusual length. Those facts are simply
these :—The accused, who appears to be a kind of
literary cobbler, applies to the accuser for a job,
who employs him to botch or to repaira manuscript,
without making any specific agreement for remune-
ration. On returning it, the man of letters requires
a guinea for his labour, which the employer refuses
to pay. Hereupon the literary workman refuses to
give up the article till he is paid. The Magistrates
deem such detention a felony and commit him to
prison for what they are pleased to deem a theft.
The converse of this seems to us too clear to admit
of argument; and we hope to hear that the man,
though committed under a mistake to prison, has
been discharged, and that a remuneration has been
given him for the wrong which appears to have been
done to him ; for, if this be not a wrong, we know
not what is. Even were the demand an enormous
one, it was a matter over which the Magistrates had
no control—but who, we must say, seem to have
assumed At power, which it is fit they should be
taught they do npt and ought not to possess.