The Sun.
London, England, 1828-06-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Questions, which we expected, were asked last
night in both Houses of Parliament respecting
the blockade of Oporto, and were answered also in
the way that was to be expected. There is no
doubt that our duty and interest unite in acknow-
ledging blockades; but we also think that there is
that in the present blockade which exempts it from
the ordinary rules, and would give Great Britain, or
any other maritime Power, a right to remove it.
Blockades are declared only by belligerent inde-
pendent States against each other, which neutrals
are bound to respect. But is Portugal a belli-
gerent state now against any other State ? If she
be, where is her declaration of war? Where her
manifesto, by which neutrals were to be adver-
tised of the fact ? Both these should, by the
practice of Europe, have been antecedent to the
right of declaring a blockade. Or should we, if the
Pedro or Constitutional party had declared the bar
of Lisbon in a state of blockade, have respected that
blockade ? We again say, that Miguel was in no
condition to announce to us, as neutrals, the blockade
of the bar of Oporto ; nor has he se announced it ;
and that our Government was therefore entitled to
remove all obstructions to free trade with an amica-
ble country. However, it is agreeable, in the midst
of Qiis error, to find it announced by Ministers, that
they do not consider their acquiescence in Miguel's
blockade as any acknowledgment of that usurped
power under which he institutes it.—Times.
If a sacrifice be at this moment called for by the
interests of the Catholic cause in Ireland, we hare
already stated the regret we feel that Mr. Vesey
Fitzgerald, the steady supporter of that cause for
more than 20 years in Parliament, should be the
allotted victim. There is no injustice more
monstrous in itself, or generally more fatal to its
authors, than that which substitutes a penalty for a
well-merited premium, and which, as applied to
polities, tends in a free country to render men indif-
ferent how they act, by showing them that by the
most upright and enlightened course of action, they
' obtain no bold over the approbation of their country-
men, and awake in their own behalf no sentiment of
gratitude or honour. How much more severely,
let us ask, would it have been possible for the
Catholics to visit the renegade fury with which
old Duigenan had for years assailed them, or
1 the animal abhorrence manifested against them

and their cause by the bitterest of the Beres-
fords, Hills, or Forsters, than they have in this case
threatened to chastise the consistency and liberality
of Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald in their favour? They could
but have thrown their enemies out of Parliament—
they could but deprive Lord George Beresford of
his seat for Waterford. The loss of his election was

the boasted punishment inflicted on that noble anti-
Catholic for his votes against emancipation; and
now—to put his Lordship more at ease, we presume,
the otjects of his hatred are anxious to show him
that they can forget services, if not injuries, and
teach their benefactors that there is just us little to
be gained by kindness towards the Catholics as
there is to be lost by their persecution. It was not
merely in the House of Commons, we believe, that
Mr. Fitzgerald performed the thankless office
of recommending and enforcing the Catholic
cause. In every instance where, -by his active
interposition as a Magistrate, a grand juror, or
a country gentleman, he could bring the interests of
that portion of his fellow-subjects before the eye of
Parliament as candidates for its justice, the Right
Hon. Gentleman was to be found at his post. We
tell Mr. O'Connell and his associates, therefore, that

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nion,—if they deliberately sacrifice that portion of
their strength which springs from the sympathy with
which they have for years been regarded, they will
become impotent in the same degree in which they
render themselves odious; and, once forfeiting their
political estimation as citizens of high and conscien-
tious honour, we can assure them that there is no-
thing in their sectarian character to redeem
The large space occupied by the report of the
Anniversary of the Lice►►sed Victuallers' School
yesterday, almost relieves us from the necessity of
saying any thing respecting it. We cannot, how-
ever, help remark►ng on the satisfactory conduct of
the Chairman, and the progressive success of the In-
stitution►. Mr. Booth discharged his duties—we
will not say in a highly laudable manner—but in a
way which alone commanded the respect of the com-
pany, and elicited its best feelings. The subscrip-
tions, before the Meeting terminated, exceeded
SOO/. ; and we doubt not that when our report has
been read, a much larger addition will be made to it.
In the mean time, the patronage of his Royal High-
ness the Duke of Clarence must prove of the great-
est service, as evidencing at once the utility of the
Institution, and the praiseworthy mode in which it
is conducted,-11Iorfi►r& Advertiser.