The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-22 00:00:00

THE SPIRIT OF DESPOTISM.

"Despotism," says the Marquis de Custine, in his
JLRussia," " is never so much to be feared as when it
is pretending to do good ;" for despots sometimes,
among their other freaks, determine to he reformers,
and to civilise, educate, and improve the people and
the institutions of the country over which they
have power. Good men have had a fancy of this
kind, and when they have written upon the subject,
despots have read and received them with pleasure.
They perhaps wished the people to be improved; but
then it must be after their fashion.

Fenelon, in his " Telemachus," gives instruction to
the Bourbon Princes how to rule and make a nation
happy. Nothing was to emanate from the people
themselves ; all was to be the work of the Prince.
Fenelon was perhaps the first who put this notion
into the heads of Princes, and Kings, and Emperors,
and strange as it may be, of Pashaws, But all Fene-
lon's men and women resemble the pictures drawn by
poets of smiling maids and piping shepherds so faith-
fully copied in the last age by the pencil of Bartalozzi.
These shepherds, however, are not of this world, nor
ever had existence except in poets' and painters' dreams.
The Bourbons certainly attempted to carry some of
Fenelon's notions into effect, and so late as the reign
of Lou is XVI. and Marie Antoinette it is easy to
trace in the arrangements of " little Trianon" an af-
fection for simplicity and a country life. Frederick
of Prussia was of a sturdier race, and under the influ-
ence of philosophy ; but all his efforts to improve the
condition of the people were attended with real tor-
ments to them without advancing them in the least
degree.
Later still, we have seen Mehemet Ali, whose as-
sumed " amelioration" and aggrandizement of Egypt
have steeped the people in blood and tears, whilst he
was flattered in Europe as the regenerator of a
Something of the same kind has been going on
ever since the reign of Peter the Great in Russia, and
is still carried on. The Emperor Nicholas wishes
perhaps the people of his empire to be the greatest,
wisest, and most civilized people on the earth. He
has, with this view, founded seminaries and colleges
in every considerable town in the country. He
patronises the arts, and encourages learning ; but
everything, even to the cutting of a moustache,
must be done according to the Imperial
rule : all must square with his notions, as if he
were a God, and could form the mind of
man as easily as he can clothe his army in a
peculiar garb. But the mind of man, though plastic
enough at times, is formed of other than Imperial
stuff, and men will think for themselves in the end ;
and when they begin to think it is not long before
they proceed to action. It is "impossible to teach
ignorance, for the light that pervades, and illustrates,
at the same time dispels darkness." The truth seems
to be, that Russia must become European—she
cannot remain Oriental, nor for many centuries
despotic. The light of European civilisation will
penetrate even that dark region. The attempt to
bring up the people in darkness and to educate them
at the same time has been often tried and has always
failed. The revival of classical learning was fatal to
the ignorant bigotry of the middle ages. The
principles of Greek freedom survived that glorious
people, and burst forth with original vigour the
moment they were known and transplanted to
Europe. The proud bearing of haughty independence
that breathes through every line of Plutarch has
exercised a far greater influence over the revival of
freedom than is often supposed. Luther did not
labour with more zeal or success to arouse the dor-
mant faculties of man in the north, than did the re-
fined Leo X. in his Pontifical chair. Both, though
in different ways and with different views, were ex-
tending the mental and intellectual powers of man.
The same operations are still going on—dark-
ness is continually driven back, and the light is
daily extending its bounds. Fenelons and Bour-
bons, Fredericks and Mehemet Alis, Emperors and
Churches, may assist the people to rise from
mental prostration, but are apt, when they
rise, to be angry because they will no longer sub-
mit to the dicta of their rulers, who would give the
right of private judgment, but with the condition
that that private judgment must always be in accord-
ance with their own -views—or be treated as a sin
and a crime. But, wherever real education pre-
vails, men will think for themselves, and it is seldom
they will think with despots, whether at Moscow or
Venice. Emperors who undertake the task of
educating and civilizing their subjects are engaged
in the same way as Frankenstein, but with this dif-
ference ; instead of raising up a monster of darkness,
they give being to the noblest of all beings—good
and intellectual men.—Briaton Herald.

RATHER PARADOXICAL.—On Saturday last, as the
bellman was parading the streets of Huddersfield, an-
nouncing to the inhabitants that, in consequence of the
continued drought and scarcity of water, they would, in
future, be limited to two days supply per week, the
rain fell in torrents, and literally drenched the pool
bellman !—Leeds Times.

At Blaendare forge a very curious accident oc-
curred last week. About six years ago the anvil, a usual
piece of ordnance on such occasions, had been used to fire
some charges of powder to give eclat to a wedding ; ever
since it has been in constant use, but last Saturday,

whilst a man was holding, and a boy hammering, a red
hot piece of iron upon it, an explosion from the powder
which had remained for such a length of time concealed in
the cavity, took place.. A beam over the anvil was shi-
vered, and the boy's hand severely lacerated. The man
escaped unhurt. Providentially there were no other per-
sons in the forge, or, from the force of the explosion se-
rious consequences might have occurred.—Merlin.
Goon NEWS FOR THE LADIES.—At Winchester

Assizes, on Friday last, in a case of manslaughter, the Learned
Judge (Wightman) decided that for a man to beat his wife
with a small stick was an illegal act.
HORRIBLE CHARGE AGAINST A CLERGYMAN.—
Considerable excitement has prevailed in Stockport (and
particularly amongst the congregation worshipping at St.
Peter's church) during the last week, in consequence of a
report being currently circulated that the Rev. R. 11. Cres-
well, incumbent of St. Peter's church, had been guilty of a
most horrible and unnatural offence. This report, we are
sorry to say, is not without foundation, the rev. delinquent
having been apprehended on the charge under a warrant
issued by the sitting magistrates on Wednesday last. Cir-
cumstances attending the charge having previously come to
the knowledge of Mr. Sadler, superintendent of police, he
instituted inquiries into the circumstances from a youth
named James Booth, about fifteen years of age, a servant of
Mr. Cresswell's, from the clerk of the church, and other per-
sons, who corroborated the statement made by Booth, and
left no doubt in the superintendent's mind of the truth of the
report. He accordingly represented the circumstances to the
town clerk, who made them known to the magistrates on
Wednesday, who thereupon granted a warrant for Mr. Cress-
well's apprehension. On the same afternoon Mr. Sadler, in
company with police-officer Walters, went to the parsonage-
house near St. Peter's church, and executed the warrant.
Mr. Cresswell being ill in bed, and Mr. Downs, his surgeon,
certifying that he was labouring under an affection of the
brain, and not in a lit state to be removed, police-officer Wal-
ters was left in the house to take charge of him. Subse-
quently, however, bail to the amount of 1,0001. was accepted
for his appearance to answer the charge at the Court-house
on Wednesday next. Mr. Cresswell, we understand, has a
wife and seven children, who reside with him at the parson-
age.—Times.
ROBBERY AT WINDSOR CASTLE.—WINDSOR, SUN-
DAY.—The lion. Charles Augustus Murray, the Master of
the Household, having on the part of the Crown, in order to
prevent a lengthened imprisonment of the accused before trial,
consented to the prisoner charged with stealing a solid silver
scroll (part of a table which was presented to William 111. by
the corporation of the-City of London) taking her trial at the
Borough Quarter Sessions, the prisoner, Elizabeth Blandy,
whose examination appeared in our paper of Saturday, was
yesterday tried for the offence before the Honourable John
C. Talbot, the Recorder of the Borough. It will be recol-
lected it was stated in our report of the examination of the
prisoner before the Windsor Magistrates, that Mr. Voules,
the Crown solicitor, prayed that the prisoner might be re-
manded over the sessions, in order that the person who tied
up the property stolen in the paper parcel, and affixed it to
the leg of the table to which it belonged, might be ascer-
tained and produced. The evidence to fix the offence upon the
prisoner was of a precisely similar character to that which
was adduced -before the Magistrates upon her committal for
trial, and which we gave on Saturday. Upon the conclusion
of the evidence a powerful address was made to the jury on
behalf of the prisoner by her counsel, dwelling principally
on the fact of her previous good character, and that no evi-
dence had been produced to prove that the paper parcel which
was affixed to the silver table in the stores at the tirae the
prisoner was engaged in March last in scouring out the room
contained the identical piece of silver found in the prisoner's
possession, and which she still maintained she had found in
the streets of Windsor. Mr. Williams, after alluding
to the circumstance that while she was employed in scrub-
bing the room, from which the piece of silver had been ab-
stracted, several persons were in and out, concluded by
earnestly praying the jury to give his client the benefit of
any doubt which might remain upon their minds as to her
guilt or innocence; for, notwithstanding there might appear
to be a clear case of strong suspicion, yet there was not a
tittle of evidence to show that she had become guiltily pos-
sessed of the property. The Recorder, who summed up at
great length, dwelt particularly upon the absence of any evi-
dence to prove that the parcel which was affixed to the silver
table in the stores in March last (at the time the prisoner
was employed in scouring out the room) contained the same:
piece of silver named in the indictment. If, sAid the Learned
Recorder, the person who tied up the piece of silver in the
paper could be produced, to prove that it was the same piece
the prisoner is charged with stealing, and also prove that it
was safe in the room on the day the prisoner was employed
at the stores, then it would clearly contradict the statement
made by the accused that she had found it in Thames-street
as long since as December or January last. The jury, after
having consulted together for several minutes, returned a
verdict of Acquittal, and the prisoner was discharged. The
Court was extremely crowded during the trial. The Hon.
Mr. Murray sat on the bench on the right of the Recorder.
HER MAJESTY.—The apartment selected for the
accoucheme;zt of her Majesty at Windsor Castle is in the
Augusta Tower, situate between the Victoria Tower (in which
are the suite of rooms appropriated fur the nursery of the in-
fant Royal Family) and the York Tower, and commands a
beautiful prospect to the southward, extending over the
Long Walk, Windsor Forest, and the Great Park, and
bounded by the richly-wooded scenery of the Surrey hills.
A deputation from the Society for the Employ-
ment of the Distressed Needlewomen in London, consisting
of Lord Aslaley, M.P., Mr. Alderman Farebrother, and other
gentlemen, attended by Mr. Roper, the hon. secretary, had
an interview with Sir James Graham, at the Home-office on
Saturday last, upon the subject of the low prices which work
is taken in at the various prisons and other establishments,
to the great detriment of the industrious poor ; when the
Home Secretary was pleased to express his anxious desire to
afford all possible attention and assistance to remedy the evil
complained of.