The Sun.
London, England, 1826-09-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We indulged our readers on Monday last with a descrip-
tion, such as has been circulated about town, of the new
Palace building at the bottom of the Green Park for' his
Majesty. We feel, in common with most loyal subjecti,
that the King of England is entitled to a convenient and
suitable habitation. He ought to have the means of do-
mestic comfort for himself, and of decorous reception for
his own subjects, as well as for distinguished strangers.
These two points being sufficiently provided for, due re-
spect ought then to be had to' other important considera-
tions. It is one of the characteristics of a despotic Go-
vernment.' that every thing ;risible or tangible throughout
its dominions—above all, that every thing conspicuous
and admirable in these works of art which obtrude them-
selves on public attention, should stand in some direct
and intimate relation to the Monarch. All that is beauti-
ful, or costly, or difficult of execution, is among the mono-
polies of a barbarous and despotic Sovereign. " This is
mine," forms the natural exultation of that whole class of
Royal reasoners, who see no perversion of the ends of
civil policy, in the maxim that millions are made for them,
and not they for the millions who seek protection from
them. A despotic monarchy may be adorned with what-
ever the most polished and artificial exterior can contri-
bute to gild the chain of subjection; but that state of so-
ciety which permits, whether through the medium of in-
stitutions or manners, the whole magnificence of a nation
to be absorbed by the Court, is in reality a barbarous and
unimproved condition. What is true in the total, is pro-
portionably true in the degree. An excess of gaudiness
and physical grandeur about the person of the Sovereign
is, in a tree country, not consistent with the essential
spirit of the eneummity, nor with the severer dignity
of the Crown. Regiments of bedizened Mode* and
overgrown palaces, with acres of gingerbread galleries and
ball-rooms, might answer well for a King of Spain, whose
only greatness is that of possessing the bulkiest and most
gorgeous edifices of the kind in Europe;' or they might
have been in character for Louis XIV., concentrating in
his own person the whole substance of the French Mo-
narchy. For indeed, it may be said of Versailles and of
the Louvre, that, contrasted with the hovels in their neigh-
bourhood, and with the general poverty from whose plun-
der they originated, their, construction or decoration was
in itself a disgraceful commentary on the genius of abso-
lute power. But in England it is a mistake of the Sove-
reign or his advisers to stake his dignity on such paltry
appendages to rink. There is no wish, in any respect-
able quarter, that George IV. should be found in an ill-
furnished apartment, sitting with a pair of tallow candles
before him, as has been related of a transmarine Pre-
sident, by some writer., of modern travels. On the other
band, with every wish to see a gentlemanlike and noble
accommodation for his Majesty, we take the liberty to
remark, that. the taste for palace building may just now
be carried to a mischievous perfection. The dimensions
of the Buckingham-house palace are unquestionably ample
in the extreme; and to what purpose ? We are assured,
ex cathedra, that the Royal fancy is in favour of compact
and moderate-sized rooms—rooms appropriated to small
and select parties—to chosen companions, or to solitary
anti pleasing meditation, and all the other modest enjoy-
ments of secluded and sequestered life. We admire the
taste as one which marks a refined and delicate disposition
in our Sovereign, ut the same time one which might have
been indulged with equal complaisance to his Majesty, and
usefulness to a declining and impoverished revenue. If it
• be said that ball-rooms, and presence-chambers, and anti-

chambers without end, are fitting accompaniments to a

fine palace, it ought to be answered, that within a very
few years, that want bus been supplied in St. James s
Palace, where a suite of Royal reception-rooms have been
completed—with abundant space—and splendid furniture,
not inferior in point of courtly accommodation, aa the
Court Newsman frequently informed us, to any state
apartments in Virope. Now it is but a step from Buck-
ingham-holm ,to St. James's. Oeore 111. of blessed me-
mory, always look the truablo of movittir from the Queen's
house to St. James's, to welcome his -faithful subjects in
their dutiful attention to himself and his good Queen, and
their illustrious family. This, too, was before any repairs
or improvements were added to the old rooms in St.
James's Palace. The upshot of the whole is, that at pre-
sent we could wish our Wyattvilles and other artists to
display their accomplishments with a more direct regard
to the King's Henna comfort, by finishing in the most per-
fect manner possible, and with the utmost expedition, that
small suite of private rooms which are destined for his per-
sonal use, and to delay until better times the establishment
of the huge range of State apartments, running Heaven
knows how many hundred feet north and south, as they
can only serve for purposes of ostentation, which His Ma-
jesty notoriously despises, or of extravagance, with which
the people would willingly dispense. To the repairs and
improvements of Windsor Castle we should feel somewhat
less objection than to any town undertakings. Windsor
is a national property, of great beauty and interest, and was
far gone to decay. There we should merely hint at sober-
woo in the extent of the works, and solidity in the nature
of them But it is most desirable that the expense of all
the new etkestructions should be laid at once before Parlia-
nient.—Times.
..
These who reeellert tho Duke of Portland's celebrated
Letter in 1801, and its iiijnrious effects upon the prices of
the first necessaries o 1 life, w"11 agree with us in thinking
that there is no subject on which Covernment should exer-
cise more caution than in sounding any thing like an alarm
on the subject of any presumed scarcity (if provisions. To
ascertain by due inquiry the real state of things, and act
upon the knowledge so obtained with promptitude and ef-
fect, is their bounden duty; and in ting view there fan be
no doubt but that the failure of the oat and pulse crops
have been such as fully to justify the opening of the ports,
as authorised by the Proclamation in Friday Gazette.—
What we find fault with in that Proclamation is the state-
ment of presumed scarcity which it contains, which seems
to,have been introduced by Ministers as their vindication
for the measure, where none was wanting; and may have
the effect of enhancing prices and extending alarm beyond
what circumitances really justify: It was not necessary,
for instance, to state that the potatoesrophad failed ; first,
because that fact cannot yet be accurately ascertained, and
because the mere announcement of it tends to enhance
the price in the hands of the krower, without increasing
the supply. In short, an apprehended scarcity (in which
we do not, on the present occasion, put implicit faith), is
rums of those subjects in which caution, amounting nearly
to silence, should be used, and in Which prompt and vigo-
rous acting should supply the place of much discourse. It
would have been sufficient, We think, for the Government
to have opened the ports upon their own responsibility,
and have reserved their reasons till the meeting of. Parli-
ament. If the Government is really convinced that a defi-
ciency of food is likely to exist, there are various modes
of precaution which might be adopted of full as much, if
not of more value than the imeortation of foreign oats
'
and pulse. One of the most obvious, and the nearest at
hand, would be the stoppage of the use of grain of all
India and Ame-
,kinds in the distilleries. Another, the immediate importa.,
quantities, both from
ti.
lon of rice in large
to the mbli
is a, .A third, a recommendation. . 1 ato
use less
rnew and fancy bread, by the discontinuance of which e
prodigious: Wing
pro in the consumption of wheat flour would
ourselves say that the
irel-nediately ensue. We do not
the
contrar
we so
cautions are necessary ; on
Pre • 1 t we have heard and seen, that
cline& to think, from all t iii
ect is over-rated. But what
the gloominess of,thc
i I?r"sPh Government credit, as we
we would infer is, folly t e I
are bound to do, for the best sources of information,
flowing they are not doing
that, upon their own , .
t.: whole mi,for.
enough. We observe that, as usual, the
the seasons, The same
tune,,,if it exists at all, is laid to
are not
'lips which talk of the bounties of Providenced
tt ibuting
backWitfil hn artaigning its dispensations, iln
rat lr wider,
to it all3ll' itkurNieghilut if they look a i
,t e
do
the `ter t Irt kkhifir that man has something. to
' '4' *lvor as well psi ProYidence.
wt , p?
Aitt,
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