The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP.*lll PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We are pleased' with the right feeling and
good sense of an article which appeared in a
paper (the Sphynx) of last Saturday, on the
subject of the Royal Marines. The Lord High
Admiral has, it must be admitted, said and
done a great deal, even more than might have
been required of him, to distinguish by his cour-
tesies that meritorious but neglected corps. His
Royal Highness has taken the trouble to deliver
very full and authentic narratives of the services
rendered by the Marines to their King and
Country ; but, except in the article of presenting
them with new standards, which are never to be
waved before en enemy, the Lord High Admi-
ral has not, that we can learn, furnished, any in-
dication of the mode in which their serviees—
and,their long and patient sufferings; ought—in
the opinion of his Royal Highness, to be requited
by the Government, of which they: deserve so
well. We agree with the, journal in question,
that it is disgraceful to England, because ungrate-
ful and cruel towards her best defenders, to see
Second Lieutenants (equivalent to Ensigns) of
Marines of eighteen or nineteen years' standing !
On the very principles avowed by Ministers; and
more especially by the official organs of the late
Naval Department, who insisted on the neces-
sity of holding out active promotion as an in-
ducement to men of rank and fortune to enter
his Majesty's service, the Marine corps must
have been deliberately marked out and intended
as a branch of the. general service which gentle-
men ought not to enter : for there a man
can scarcely arrive at the rank of even Cap-
tain, before the meridian of life.has passed, and
the energies of his character been extinguished. It
seems to us, therefore, the duty of every manwhO
feels for the interests and honour of. this nation,
to press upon his Majesty's Government the wis-
dom of revising the whole system under which
the corps of Royal Marines has been adminis-
tered—that somi reasonable portion of profes-
sional reward may henceforth follow the dis-
charge of severe and trying duties--that the
spirit of the young Marine Officer may be sti-
mulated by some more animating example than
that of his older comrades' despair; and that
the specific body of warriors who are exposed to
the double perils of sea and land, shall no longer
feel themselves condemned to a double exclusion
from the fruits of honourable achievement.—
Without at present offering an opinion as to the
expediency of the fourth, in order, of the fol-
lowing propositions, suggested by the journal to
which we have before alluded, as remedies for the
evils of which we unite with it in complaining,
we think it right to insert them here.
" First,—Give the Celonelciee of Marines to the corps
to which they, of right, belong; common justice demands
it ; and the Navy is amply, provided with posts, emolu-
ments, offices, and employments, in other. departments.
Seeondly,—Make seeond: Captains, as in the :Anil-
ley and Engineers; they be small com-
mando. •
" Thirdly,—Allow Lieutenants of Marines of 15 years
standing, to retire, if they please, on the half-pay of
Captain.
" Foarthly,—Allow Officer) of all ranks, properly quali-
fied, to exchange or purchase into the line.
" These, or some simiL regulations, will be of more
permanent benefit to the corps, and flo more honour to its
Commander, the Duke of Clarence, than the presentation
of a hundred stand of colours."— Times.

The intelligence from Constantinople is not
of the most satisfactory nature. There seems
some probable reason to apprehend, that what-
ever pacific sentiments may have actuated the
Porte, a formidable Power in the south-east of
Europe has not pursued with much success the
measures most likely to confirm or to prove
them. The tone of 'many articles which have
been promulgated through certain foreign jour-
nals, and the protection afforded *by Austrian
papers to vessels which were boarded by Sir Ed-
ward Codrington in the act of violating the ar-
mistice concluded with the Turks, are circum- I
stances which throw mote than suspicion upon
the feelings of the Court of Vienna. We cer-
Willy do notgeblame Austria for pursuing what
she no doubt conceives to be a proper object of
her own policy. If Prince Metternich imagines
that by opposing the measures of the alliance he
will succeed better than by promoting them, in
counteracting the schemes of aggrandizement Ml-
putedpretty generally to another Imperial Govern-
ment, • which pressei equally on the Austrian
frontier and on the Turkish, would be silly to
complain or to reproach him. 'But it is stated
on the authority of the last advices, that a dif-
ference has broken out between the Ambassa-
dors of the Court of London and of ,St. Peters-
burgh. In that case it is possible that Turkey
and Austria oat see the expectations which
have led them emporize, already in some de-
gree fulfilled ; for .the consequences of such a
difference, to which no healing hand, we may
assure ourselves, will be applied from without.
It is very difficult to anticipate or to limit.
Greece, it is true, may be set free de facto, by
the squadrons now on the spot ; but if a serious
opposition of policy, on points by which Greece
is not immediately affected, should extend itself
from the two Ministers at Constantinople to the
Powers which they respectively represent, it is
not in the east of Europe only that mankind will
be made sensible of the importance of such a
disunion.—/bid-

We perceive from The Belfast Northern
Whig, which we received y esterday, that the
agitation which the Drapers' Company of
London have caused by their impolitic interfer-
ence with the Presbyterian Church of Ireland,
still continues. It requires no extraordinary wis-
dom to be able to tell that it is peculiarly dan-,
gerous to come into collision with a Church so.
popularly constituted, and so well organized for
acting with effect, as the Synod of Ulster, or
the Church of Scotland. The Dissenters of
England have nothing in commod.with them but
their separation from the Established Church,
and never can act as a body. Even the Esta-
blished Churches of England and Ireland can
hardly bring their strength to bear against either
an internal or an external enemy. Indeed the
powerlessness of the Church was exhibited
conspicuously in the case of Dr. Fry, who,
without discharging his pastotal duties, has been
able to set both his parishioners and his diocesan,
the Bishop of Lincoln, at defiance for a number
of years. A single individual is naturally afraid
of the responsibility of any decided step ; and
hence the timidity with which a Bishop would
act, compared with a General Assembly or
National Synod. In the latter, one keeps ano-
ther in countenance, and the Laity are pledged.
along with the Clergy ; -so that the danger to be
apprehended is rather over-confidence than timi-
dity. The same individual who, in a tumult,
cheered on by others, is bold. as.a lion, is quite
faint-hearted when le% to hims elf. We are
describing what is, without saying that the
matter may not be viewed in various lights,_ . 'l:he
rower cannot be doubted. We have no doubt

th'at the Drapers' Company have been inad-
veilently led into this awkward collision ; and
th4t when they find the Representatives, Clerical
arid Lay, of 900,000 inhabitants, united as one
min in reprobation of their attempt, they will re-
consider the proceedings which have caused the
irritation. We may observe, by the bye, that if
Lord Chief Justice Tenterden's doctrine, that it
is an offence at Common Law to impugn any part
of the Book of Common Prayer, or any pant of
the Establishment of the Church, is to be recog-
nized, an ample field is open for the lawyers. Mr.
Barnet, the Presbyterian Clergyman, whose
notions respecting the Established Church of
Ireland have led to the collision quoted in a
speeCh before the Presbytery several authorities,
some of a very recent date, in which the Church
of 'England is treated with very little ceremony.
Dr. iVl,Crie makes very little distinction between
the Church of England and the Church of
Rqme. - " After rejecting the Head of the
Hibrarchy," he says, "the Reformers of Eng-
land retained its trunk ; and instead of provi-
ding a body of Ministers qualified for taking the
oversight of the flock of God, they burthened
the nation with a Clerical Aristocracy, whose
rank and employments, partly civil and partly
ecclesiastical, withdrew them from the discharge
of their pastoral functions." He does not
scruple to say, that she is open to what " forms
one of the highest charges against the Roman
Anti- christ." Every one recollects that on the
other hand, the antithesis of the Archbishop of
Dublin, of " a Church without a Religion, and
a Religion without a Church ; of which the
latter half was levelled at the Presbyterians.—
And what harm is there in all this, that the law
should be brought to the assistance of either
,party ? • These sallies are no doubt very refresh-
ing to the partisans of the different persuasions ;
and if a Presbyterian feels himself solaced by
being allowed to term the Pope Anti-christ, and
the Church of England a limb of Anti- Christ,
we do not see what great harm can arise from
allowing him the indulgence. Truly the law is
reduced' very low indeed, when it is brought to
regulate the manner in which controversies shall
be conducted, and when its learned pundits are
busied in ascertaining whether an argument is
fair, or is too strongly impregnated with sarcasm
or ridicule.--Morning Chronicle.
The beloved Ferdinand and the Agraviados,
the aggrieved Catholic priesthood, do not appear
yet to have settled their differences. We hope
before he has done with them, that he will get
something from them wherewith to pay the divi-
dends'on the Cortes Bonds, which he ought to
bear in mind, lie guaranteed the validity of. If
he does that, and the citizens should determine
on a monument to his memory, we will certainly
subscribe something towards such monument.
By the bye, if he were to do what we have sug-
dested, and were besides to send his Ambassa-
or with two notaries to our Royal Exchange,
and cancel in the sight of the citizens, a hundred
or two hundred thousand pounds worth of
Bonds, he might the next day negotiate a loan
to the amount of ten millions, with which he
might fit out both fleet and army to reconquer
his South American Colonies. John Bull
would lend him any sum of money, and for any
purpose, provided he could only get good inte-
rest, and have the Cortes' Bonds recognised.
John would not mind the loss of the twenty
millions his countrymen might sustain in conse-
quence of the loans to the South American pa-
triots not being attended to, provided he could
only get a large bonus on a new loan.—Morn-
ing Herald.
We trust that one of the first subjects to en-
gage the serious attention of Parliament will be
the interference of the British Government in
the affairs of Turkey and Greece. Upon what
principles that interference will be. defended, we
are utterly at a loss to guess. We presume they
will turn out:to be some principles of the law of
nations, which it has been reserved for the pre-
sent
improving and enlightened age to discover.,
It is not the principle of " the interference only
which will demand attention, but the manner of-
it also must give rise to the gravest animadver-
sion.
At this moment a powerful naval force
belonging to Great Britain is employed to en-
force what is ridiculously called an Armistice
between the belligerent parties, but what is in
fact a compulsory suspension of hostilities, so
far as one of the parties is concerned, without
any corresponding attempt to compel the other
party to inaction. This, on the face of it, shows
a degree of partiality and injustice, which is ut-
terly incompatible with the character in which the
British Government professes to act, that namely
of an honest mediator. But this is not all, nor
is it the worst which may be alleged against
the manner of our interference ;—the naval
force of England is so exclusively em-
ployed in preventing the Turks from car-
rying on an open and legitimate warfare,
that the Greeks are allowed to carry on not only
war, but unbounded and systematic piracy, with-
out resistance or rebuke. Yesterday, when all
our Ministerial Journals were exulting in what
they called the energy displayed by our Naval
Commander in the cause of the Greeks—when
the exploit of capturing a few Turkish transports,
and immediately releasing them on their being
found to have on board Austrian papers, was
boasted by all the organs of the British Govern-
ment as a . great national triumph—the Mer-
chants of London were cheered and gratified by
the arrival at Lloyd's of a list, containing the
names of no less than eighty-one vessels which
have lately been plundered by the Greek Pirates
—by allies, now for the first time so dear to the
British Government, that on their behalf it is
maintaining an expensive armament, and com-
mitting daily and atrocious violence upon a
Power with which England has no quarrel,
and which has hitherto been the steadfast
friend of England. Facts like these must
create an impression which any comment we
could offer would only be likely to weaken.
But we cannot refrain from a remark or two
on the vaunted energy of our naval operations
before Navarino. If the blockade of that
port be a legitimate blockade, or if the armistice
which the Turkish Commander is said to have
concluded amount to a valid obligation—it
would surely follow that any vessel by which
that blockade and that armistice had been vio-
lated would be lawful prize, notwithstanding the
protection of Austrian papers. Was it an exhi-
bition of energy then, we ask, to release the ves-
sels taken possession of by the British force in
such circumstances ? As the interference from
the first was a novel example of British policy
and justice, this was at least an equally new ex-
hibition of British energy. It is a species of
energy which need only be persevered in to ren-
der the blockade and the armistice alike futile
and ridiculous. If it was the duty of the Bri-
tish Admiral to extend impunity to this first at-
tempt to evade the blockade, to this first viola-

tion of the armistice, his duty must be the same
on a second, a third, and indeed upon all future
occasions of a similar kind. And surely if this
be so, the Turkish Commander must be the
most negligent, the most unskilful, or the most
faithless of leaders, if he fail eventually to land
every soldier on board his fleet at the place of
their original destination.—Morning Post.