The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-09 00:00:00

411.
blitinn
4

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1844.

The sympathy of Europe is never more acutely
touched and awakened than when it is appealed
to by the efforts of Greece to consolidate
the new position she has assumed among the
fdtnilg of morlern nations. ller ancient glory,
._....naatch7(ess al'ate in science and philosophy, in
arts and arms,—attained its true perfection in the
extent and elra:24.er of that refining influence which
her.exampllo exercised upon all other civilised States,
not only in the ages of her own pre-eminence,
but (in a le as or a greater degree) through all
succeeding tin 3e. Her sufferings and her wrongs,
y period of eighteen hurl,
protracted thro sigh g, storm
dyed years, tc' the close of the first quarter
given her additional claims of the present ceiltigy,:hid

son the generous assistance of European States, who
owed her, already, so large a debt of gratitude for the
intelligence, the learning, the wisdom, which her
noblest children had bequeathed to the most distant
posterity. Alternately betrayed by the policy of the
Emperors of Germany—excited or deserted by the
perfidy of Russia—she had reaped, from her many
gallant efforts to shake off the intolerable thraldom
of Turkey—since the closing years of the career of Soni-
Esxi and MEHZMED—little other but the bitter fruits
of unavailing conflict with organised power, and with
hopeless physical and numerical superiority. Twenty
years, only, remove us from that memorable stage of
her eventful story in which she first successfully
made head and rallied her resources—scanty as those
were—against her Moslem masters. Following up
those efforts with incredible pertinacity and resolu-
tion, at an awful sacrifice of Greek blood and Greek
establishments, she rapidly achieved her way to a
political position in which she became the subject of
protective negotiations between some of the first-rate
powers of Europe and the Sultan. From the cha-
racter of a supplicating appellant for protection
against the mere brute violence and exter-
minating fanaticism of her oppressors, she has
now advanced, by degrees which must be
fresh in the recollections of our readers, to the
rank of an independent monarchy. The noble con-
duct of the Greek Ministers and the people of Athens,
in the revolution of the 15th of September last, was
an exhibition of temperate decision, of an inherent
genuine love of national liberty, and of a moral power
of abstinence, in the moment of their triumph,lfrom all
that could sully its lustre or impede its onward pro-
gress, worthy of the best days of their best patriots
and heroes.
But it was not to be expected that a weak Prince

like King arrio, although some notorious evil coun-
cillors were then carefully removed from about his
person, would be able to redeem, in all sincerity and
strictness, the spirit of the pledge he at that time
gave to his people, to accept and abide by the bases of
a Constitutional Charter forthwith to be prepared for
his adoption. There was but too much reason to ap-
prehend that—whatever might be the disposition of

King Orno (on finding that his opposition to the
great national movement in question had proved
altogether fruitless, and might, if persisted in, involve
him in personal danger) to act up to the engage-
ment he had frankly given to his subjects—the agents
of cirtain Foreign Powers would not, without a
determined, though secret struggle, permit the esta-
blishment of a state of things—the formation of a
constitutional Government—which must inevitably
prove fatal to the influence of the Crowns they re-
represented, and to the further success of those Crowns
in discouraging the principle of representative go-
vernment.

We have been well pleased to record 'the arrival
in this country of a copy of the Constitutional
Charter of Greece, consisting of 107 articles, " de-
finitively settled by the National Assembly, and
finally adopted by King OTSIO. The intelligent cor-
respondent of the Morning Post, in a letter dated
" Athens, March 20," has forwarded a graphic and
interesting account of some transactions which hare
attended the consummation of this great national
manifesto. They are calculated to produce a mingled
feeling of pity and of anger in respect of the young
'Orr •

King of GREECE. Oriio seems tempted to merit
the biting censure upon the now excluded section of
the Bourbons, conveyed in that reflection of the late
M. DE TALLErit AND, that "they have learned nothing ;
and—they have forgotten nothing." Thus, says the
correspondent alluded to, " when the Charter,
after all the protracted discussions upon it, and
the intense anx:ety thereby created in the
public mind, was, at last, sent to the KING
for his ratification, to the surprise and dis-

may of most people, his MAJESTY returned it
with so many alterations, that the Assembly had to
take the matter again into serious consideration. It
cannot be denied that, by such conduct, the KING
placed. in the utmost jeopardy the popularity he had
been gaining during the last six months."

In this and other matters, the infatuated yoling
man had not only acted " aginst the Ildvice of the
repres.en'atives of England and Franc(-, but also that
of MivaoconnATo, COLETI i, and the other Greek
Ministers, to whom he only communicated a par: of his

obje-ctions, and added a great many more without con
suiting. them at all, one of whi,2ll was, that political of

fences should not be tried by jury. Fortunately-, how

ever, the wisdom of the Assembly afforded a great eon
trust to the folly of the KING, as it was at once de,

cided that, as debates were likely to ar;so, whit.;
very open mention would be made of the KING an,

his proceedings, it would be proper to have the sit
tings secret while such discussions continued. Ac
cordingly, for three days the Assembly deliberated
with closed doors, at the end of which period it was
announced that ten of the KING'S alterations were
accepted, and sixteen or seventeen rejected, the
Assembly being unanimous on all points. It is
notorious that the KING was placed in this false
position by having been induced to follow the advice
of the Prussian Minister, Mons. BR...ICIER DE ST.

SimoN, and that of Mons. PRIVILEGIO—a positia

nearly as critical as that of the 15th of September ;
but, providentially, his MAJESTY seems to have
been suddenly convinced of the error ho had been led
into, and. within an hour of receiving the final de-

cision of the Assembly, sent down a message to say
he adopted the Constitutional Charter as it now stood.
The message was received with great acclamation by
the Assembly, and the populace went under the Palace
windows and cheered, when his MAJESTY appeared
at the balcony, and bowed in acknowledgment."
This is an ominous indication of the continuous ten-
dency of "Prussian principles," which, from the per-
sonal character of his Prussian MAJESTY, we regard
rather with disappointment and regret than with sur-
prise. It suggests matter, too, for some observations
on the singularly marked course of Russian counsels
in their new delegated channels of Prussian interven-

ion, to which we shall hereafter call the serious

attention of our readers.

Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Home Secretary of State,
and consequently one of the most important Members
of the Cabinet,—who is, or should be, the Premier's
right-hand man—has just been refused that post
which, by all accounts, he so much coveted—namely,
the Lord-Lieutenancy of the county of Cumberland.
Notwithstanding his claims upon that county, backed
by his obseqious andunblushing Toryism, Sir ROBERT
PEEL has discreetly decided against the "renegade
Whig," and has resolved to continue the post
in the family of LONSDALE, who have held it
for so many years, We cannot say that we are
seriously afflicted at the idea of Sir JAMES GRA-
HAM'S disappointment. On the contrary, we
are strongly—some may perhaps say wickedly—
disposed to rejoice at it, as furnishing an impressive
proof of the declining influence of one of the most
notorious political apostates of his day. Had the
Netherby Baronet remained constant to the opinions
he once held, he would, with the talents which he
undoubtedly possesses, but of which he makes so ill a
use, have been one of the most influential men in
Parliament, and-exercised no slight ascendancy over
the minds of his countrymen ; but he preferred the
slippery, tortuous path, to the broad, straightforward
one, caring little about consistency, provided he could
only put himself in the way of getting a snug birth in
Downing-street, under the auspices of a Minister who
bid fair to maintain his post for some length of time.
Well, he has gained the great of ject of his ambition ;
he is installed in office under the powerful Tories in-
stead of under the feeble 'Whigs ; and wl;at is tire conse-
quence of this realisation of his most cherished hopes ?
Why, just this—that at the present moment, not-
withstanding the high post he occupies in the Cabi-
net, he has less moral influence with the country than
who held the same distin-
guishedany man ever possessed,
position in the Government. His party, it is
true, still pay a sort of forced and interested deference
to him, because they know him to be possessed of all the
useful qualities of a Tory tool ; but no really inch-
pendent Member cares two straws for what he says,
or places the slightest confidenee in his political prin-
ciples. As a Minister he has shown himself, during
the whole period of his connection with the PEE,
Cabinet, as little better than a mere bungler. Who
forgets the pitiable figure he cut with his Factory
Education Bill last year, which he was compelled to
abandon in breathless haste, because he refused to
allow the arrogant pretensions of the Church
to be one jot abated ? There were some
good. points in this faulty measure,
mentioned at' the time, but the Home Secretary
was afraid.to carry therh out, because he knew well

as we

that the party with whom he acted would not permit
the just claims of the Dissenters to be received with
the slightest attention. Then look at his famous
Twelve Hours' Bill, his bungling management of
which—exhibiting, as it does, feebleness on the right,
and vigour on the wrong side of the question—has
given the Government a shock from which it will be
slow—very slow to recover Poor Sir JAMES
GRAHAM He is a species of political Mar-
plot, and adroitly contrives to mismanage and
jeopardise every question which he takes in
hand. As regards the Lord-Lieutenancy of Cum-
berland, we are heartily glad that his claims
have been rejected in favour of those of the Earl of
LONSDALE ; for though the Noble Earl is a Tory—
and our admiration of Toryism is by no means ex-
cessive, but stops considerably short on this side
idolatry—yet he is at any rate a manly and con-
sistent one ; he has never adopted one set
of principles today, and another set to-
morrow, but has maintained throughout his
public career a steady, open, undeviating course
of policy. Besides, he is known to be a punctual, re-
solute, intelligent man of business ; when he held the
Woods and Forests none were more liked by those
with whom he was brought into official contact ; and
as Postmaster-General, he is confessedly one of the
best that we have had for many a long year.

The Morning Herald has put forth the first (we
presume) of a series of articles intended to
rebut certain fallacies which it declares are
" echoed and re-echoed by the Anti-Corn-
law League agitators and free-traders." These
fallacies it assumes to be the allegations indulged in
by such parties, " that if the United Kingdom took
freely and without restriction the agricultural
produce of other countries, they would, with equal
certainty and liberality, take her manufactures in

return." And again, that "no country can be great or
powerful, or wealthy, prosperous, and happy, but a
manufacturing country, and that it is, consequently,
the duty of legislators and legislation to attend to ma-
nufactures alone."

With regard to the first of these propositions (neither
of which is stated, by the bye, with much regard of
fairness, or much care to avoid exaggeration in the
terms of their statement), the Herald remarks that
careful examination of the whole of our imports would
show "that we take scarcely anything else ex-
cept agricultural produce," meaning, by agricul-
tural produce, everything that is the produce of the
soil cultivated by the labour of man. To this
definition we shall presently crave attention.
The Herald is indignant that it should yet be
commonly imagined, and " loudly repeated, that this
country either takes no, or but very little, agricultu-
ral produce from foreign nations." 'With regard to
the second proposition, the Herald threatens to re-
turn to it more at length in a day or two. We shall,
therefore, await, with swine curiosity, the more elaborate
argument which our Contemporary promises on so
curious a topic. It adds, "We shall show this point

bears upon our commerce with the United States es-
pecial;y, and also the value of agricultural property
and produce in this country, as compared to that in
trade and manufactures. We propose also to show
the same things as regards the United States of Ame-
rica, where the contrast in every part will be shown

to be equally striking in the vast preponderance of
agricultural over foreign trade and manufactures.
Yet no one will gainsay the fact that the United
States is a great country."
In the meantime we beg to remark, that, if the Anti-

Corn-law Leaguers hold that other countries, " if we
would import freely their agricultural produce,
would, with equal readiness, take our manufactures in
return ;"—they do not assuredly mean to say that this
either would, or could happen, without previous mo-
difications of our own antiquated and mischievouS
fiscal system. Even the boon that we should extend
to the foreigner, by taking his corn off his hands,
uncharged with the existing monopoly tax upon it,
would not indemnify him for all the disadvantages of
general trade with a country that overwhelms the fo-
reign customer by " customs'" duties, on so many of
his commodities, that seem to have been imposed with
no other purpose but to effect their virtual exclusion
from our ports. So much for the first of the " falla-
cies" denounced by the Herald. As for the second,
our Contemporary seems to overlook the fact, that, be-
fore he can establish a negative to it,—even in the ex-
ample he cites, subsequently, of the United States,—
he must show that the manufacturing interest does not
supply the largest, but are, indeed, the indispensable
market for the agricultural produce of a country. If
it be true that that market, or consumption, is pro-
vided by that interest, what the Herald terms " a fal-

icy" remains—like the League itself,—" a great fact

But in perusing theremainder of the article from which
we are quoting, we are reminded of its definition of

" agricultural produce." We promised to recur to
this, and here it is :—" The following are the articles,
the produce of the soil—agricultural produce—
which this country takes from foreign nations."
Well, what, among other products, do we find
enumerated under this very comjrehensive heading,
embracing, it seems, "everything that is the produce
if the soil, cultivated by the labour of man ?" Why,
actually these :—" Spelter! quicksilver ! iron !" In
what country these "oracles " of Arabian tales, these
ferriferous and argentiferous lands, cropped alter-
nately with sugar-canes and several ores, "in situ,"