The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-29 00:00:00

THE FOREIGN PRESS.

England has been the parent of the Press. She
it is that cherished, developed, and protected that
new and mighty power which, yet young, might so
easily have been crushed, and was crushed in all other
countries, by the too natural jealousy of those in
power. How ungrateful is the offspring to the mother
which nurtured. There is not at this moment a fo-
reign press, liberated from the hands of the censor-
ship, which has not taken for its daily task to revile
and calumniate England, and preach the necessity of
eternal enmity and war towards her. The French
press speaks for itself, near enough for us to hear it :
all its parties, alike monarchic, aristocratic, sacerdotal,
constitutional, republican, Jacobin, uniting in one
theme : the necessity of knocking old England on the
head, previous to each setting about the fulfilment and
enjoyment of their peculiar schemes.
If from France we fly off in disgust to America,
we see the self-same task performed by the press, with
equal recklessness and less ability. An intelligent
correspondent of the Times, the " Genevese Tra-
veller," informs us that the American press has in-
formed its public, not only that England is labouring
to destroy slavery in Mexico and Texa., solely for the
purpose of dissolving the American Union, but that
England has also supplied a large amount of money
to the ultra-Liberals, in order to defeat the tariff
people in the new elections. Thus the amiable press
of America represents us at the same time as in-
triguing with the American Whigs for the destruc-
tion of slavery in the south, and with the American
Locofocos for the destruction of the tariff. There is
no limit to our Machiavelism or our money. We are
the great primum mobile of all ill, in America as in
France ; bribing M. Guizot and Mr. Webster, Gene-
ral Jackson and Abd-el-Kader. And, to avenge all
these imaginary misdeeds, Frenchmen of all parties
and Americans of all shades threaten us with war and
annihilation.

Perhaps, however, it is merely France and America
that are mad in their estimation of us. Is there not
some one free country that does us justice, epecially
amongst the countries that we have freed and consti-
tutionalised ? There are three kingdoms which we
have so favoured, Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
What is public opinion in all three with regard to
England ? What saith their press with regard to
England ? They all speak the same language ; de-
nouncing the English as the most insolent, avaricious,
treacherous, tyrannical, base set of people on the face
of the earth. It is not the Spanish Carlist, but the
Moderado Spanish Liberal who will tell you this, and
who will print it, and who will be believed. Even
the poor Greek has, like a parrot, taken up the same
tune, and hoots Senhor Mavrocordato as a wretch
worthy of the bow-string, for harbouring English
ideas!

What are we to think of this heap of injustice and
insanity? Has the press been intended to be not a
shedder of light, but of more monstrous and more
baleful ignorance than darkness and slavery together
could have engendered ? Is it not to be an instru-
ment of peace, but of war ? Judging by what we
see, could we suppose the freedom of the press ex-
tended to all countries, the inevitable consequences
would be, not better understanding or enlightenment,
but all Europe converted into an arena of wild beasts
devouring one another.
Upon reflection, however, we are inclined to con-
clude that freedom, and civilisation, and peace, and
fairness are still great and powerful principles, which
will not allow themselves to be stifled by the madness
or corruptness of the press ; and that the press itself,
and its freedom, will be more likely to be sacrificed
than any of those principles. Hitherto the aims of
Governments which have controlled the press have
been directed, as in France, to the preventing its
being seditious, or libellous, and disturbant of do-
mestic peace. The French press, for example, is
most completely fettered and tied up in this respect,
and accordingly it has turned all its fury and irra-
tionality to foreign topics. Not being allowed to
excite sedition, it has turned to stir what was next
to it—war. Spain follows, as usual, in the wake of
France. The military rulers, who would not permit
a journal to di-cuss the merits of a judge, favour in-
ternational calumny and abuse. Hence in all those
countries the Liberal party has been converted into a
war faction.

We fear much that, as upon the Continent the
press has always been gagged when its freedom be-
came incompatible, or was thought incompatible, with
public tranquillity, so we fear its freedom is likely to
incur danger and curtailment as soon as it is found
incompatible with European peace. Most certainly
the freedom of the press, as at present understood and
practised in France and Spain, may be a useful ally of
despotism, or anarchy, or war; but has ceased to have
any connexion whatever with liberalism, or progress,
or peace.—Examiner.

HER MAJESTY'S SHIP GORGON.
The following extract of a letter from an officer on
board will be read with interest :

" Aground at Monte Video, July 25.
" It is now nearly three months since I wrote to you,
when we were driven on shore. We have every hope of
getting off without any considerable delay, and all on
board have written home to prevent their letters from
being directed here. Some say we will be able to float
again in a fortnight ; but, if I may be allowed an
opinion, I would say with the next high tide ; at all
events we cannot get off before the next high tide. We
are making great efforts towards getting afloat, and it
requires the strength of a horse to stand the labour,
which is continued by night as well as day, almost with-
out intermission. If we bad not gone on shore here we
wculd have gone to a worse place—the coast of Africa.
Whenever we have a high tide we heave taut on the
cables : the last time we hove she righted upright,
which was all that we could desire. At present we are
getting large boats and boilers under her bottom, for the
purpose of floating her up. This operation is carried
on in the following manner :—The boats are filled with
water, and then bags of sand are put on the top of them
to sink them ; when they are sunk, they are lashed, and
the water is pumped out of them, and the bags are taken
away. I need give you no more particulars, as, long
before you receive this letter, we will, I hope, be floating
in the harbour of Monte Video."

We are sorry to announce that the Sub-Dean of
Lincoln is suffering from very severe indisposition.
TERRIBLE FLOOD.—Never in the recollection of
the oldest man living in the neighbourhood was the
river of Ayle, above Westport, so swollen as it was last
week, occasioned by the late continued heavy fall of
r ain. In the immediate vicinity of the beautifully pic-
t: iresque and truly magnificent subterraneous passage,
e Ktending from behind the church at Ayle to Bally-
irke, a distance of about two miles, the mountain flood
h: wl risen to a height of more than 80 feet from the ordi-
na .ry level of the river, carrying everything before it ;
to rf, hay, oats, and even cabins, have been swept away
11 the mighty torrent. The men labouring in the fields
w aich cover this subterraneous water-course describe
tb.e noise of the moving torrent embowelled in the earth
tieneath them as the booming of many cannons, or re-
sembling the sound of the loudest thunder.--Cast/ebar
Telegraph.
An attorney in Dublin having died exceedingly
_poor, 'a shilling subscription was set on foot to pay the
,expenses of his funeral. Most of the attorneys and
barristers having subscribed, one of them applied to
'Toler, afterwards Lord Chief Justice Norbury, express-
ing his hope that he would also subscribe his shilling.
Only a shilling," said Toler, " only a shilling to bury
an attorney ? Here is a guinea : go and bury one-and-
,twenty of them."