The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The news from Greece—now, we fear,placed
beyond all dotibt of its authenticity, by the va-
rious and independent quarters from which it
proceeds—is most disastrous and afflicting ;we
must add, not a little provoking also. It seems
as if the famed and boasted negotiations among
the European Powers on behalf of Greece, had
been so measured in respect of their rate of tra-
velling, as just to reach the end of their journey
when the object of the journey itself was no
more. The Morea was conquered, and Misso-
longhi taken after a- cruel slaughter of the
Christian garrison. Athens is besieged, and the
Acropolis now, as a matter of necessity, falls to
the infidels, or is blown to pieces by its brave de-
fenders, hopeless of human succour. The
noblest monuments of the most illustrious ages
of antiquity are annihilated by Greek despair or
Turkish barbarity. The flower of the Christian
warriors perishes, the land becomes one field of
desolation, no longer a prize worth winning at the
cost of human blood ; and we shall next be
presented with a pompous exhibition of the
results of liberal diplomacy, acting upon the
councils of every Court in Europe, after the
evil has ceased to admit of cure,—after the
population of Greece shall have been wasted,
—when there are none to be rescued, none
left to enjoy the triumph of " diplomacy," or to
taste the sweets of liberty—when the barbarians of
Asia Minor and of Egypt shall have wreaked their
sweeping vengeance upon all that has life from Crete
to Thessaly, and cast away the vile inanimate re-
fuse as an offal unworthy to be retained;—then it is,
we say, that the diplomatic magnates of Europe will
come forward, vaunting of the provisions which they
have made for futurity—what pledges they have re-
ceived from Turkey—what prospective rights they
have secured for Greece ! Alas ! they come but to
attend her obsequies: what has been Greece is gone
for ever ! The Turks, it is pretty evident, have
been acting, while 'England was negociating. Feu-
dinand of Spain, another sort of Hottentot, has been
acting, while England fancied he was negociating
with her. Diplomacy is a mighty 'fine thing, and
so is physic; but it seldom does good to physic a
patient after he is dead and buried; or to make trea.
ties, however binding, for the protection of States
and Constitutions already extinct. Alas ! poor
Greece, and wretched Portugal, how have ye both
been shuffled with !—Timea.

We have first to notice, on the important
subject which now interests the country—the fate
of the late Corn Bill—that there was no mate-
rial increase beyond that last noticed in the
markets yesterday. This, we believe, has been
in a great degree owing to the intimation given
by us, that his Majesty's Ministers had the
courage to apply a remedy to the unexpected
evil which had occurred ; and the proceedings
of the House of Commons last night prove that
our conjectnre was not unfounded, though we
did not point out the precise remedy which
would be first applied. The resolution propo-
sed by Mr. Canning is to the following effect :
'—" That any and eve!), description of corn, the
produce of foreign countries, which was either
now in warehouie*, or should be reported to be
in warehouse before the Ist of July next, should
be admitted for use at any time prior to
the Ist of May, 1828, upon the payment
of duty at the rate, and subject to the
scale, set forth in the Bill lately withdrawn
in consequence of the Amendment of the
House of Lords." We think it will be allowed,
that this new measure, which was indeed ap-
proved of and supported by Mr. Pee], has one
at least recommendation—namely, that there is
no indication of pique in its composition. It
gives no facilities for pouring foreign corn into
British warehouses, for it limits the season of its
admission there to the Ist of next month ; so
that no fresh orders can be sent out : and then,
by extending the period at which bonded corn
may be sold till the Ist of next May, it prevents
a sudden glut in the market ; a', the longer the
period is during which bonded corn (of which
there is a definite quantity to begin with), may
be sold, the less will be sold in any given portion
of that period. The proposed measure is therefore
of a merely protective nature: it protects the wheat
which has been bonded, or shall be bonded up to
the Ist of July next, under a conviction that the
Bill would pass : it admits 'of bringing that
wheat to market 'till next May, but only on the
terms to which the importers thought that they
should be liable when they imported it—that is, only
1 according to the scale of the Bill which has been
list. But that which we would more particularly
recommend to attention, or, shall we not rather say,
that which will attract attention without any recom-
mendation ?—in the debate of last night, is the cor-
respondence between the Duke of 'Wellington and
Mr. Huskisson on the subject of the well-known
clause; which correspondence was read in the
House by the latter. Never were two things more
distinct confounded by any man, than the thing
contained in the Duke's clause, and the thing
I allowed in Mr. Huskisscin's letter. The Duke's
clause is a direct contravention of LOrd Liver-
pool's measure, in which his Grace, as one of
the Cabinet, had acquiesced, and according
to which 625. imperial measure was to b
the centre point of admission. Mr. Huskiseon's
concession (only half conceded) made no change
whatever in the grand principle that 625. should be
the centre point at which foreign corn might be sold
with a 20s. duty attached; but merely restrained
corn bonded after the passing of the Bill from coming
into the market, unless the price previously mounted
! up to above 665., which price being attained or stir-
passed, it was then upon the same footing with corn
bonded before the passing of the Bill. His Grace,
with great 'naivete, and bona fide, seems to have
thought the two things the same. We are not sure,
however, that some kick would not in any case haul.
been given to Lord Liverpool's measure, when it
fell to the lot of Mr. Canning and his present col-
leagues to carry it into effect. Mr. Canning's reso,
lution, it will be seen, was carried by a triumphant
majority ; there being for Mr. Western's motion 52,
for Mr. Canning's 238, giving a majority of 186.

We observe that two petitions were presented
to Parliament on Saturday, praying that thq
practice of burning widows in our East Jr,aia
territories might be abolished. As to the pro.
priety of putting an end to a custom so inhuman
and revolting, there can be, we imagine, but one
opinion, but the mode of doing it is another
question. There are persons who think we
ought not to interfere with the usages of the
native Indians, however barbarous they may be,
when those usages do not militate against
the power or security of our Indian govern-
ment. But all such reasoners must look upon
power as a thing to be held only for the advantage
of those whogovern, and not for the improvement
and happiness of the governed. There are two ways
of governing nations—by force, and by intelli-
gence. The one rules mankind by encouraging
their vices, the other by enlightening their minds.
It is certain that, although our dominion in India
was obtained by military power, it is not the in-
terest, and cannot be the wish of our Grn
ove-
ment, to continue to rule a hundred millions of
people by that alone. Why, then, it may be
asked, do the horrible practices of self-immola-
tion to the idol Juggernaut, and the burning of
widows, coal= 19 disgrace a sal over which

a people professing the mild doctrines of Chris-
tianity have, for so many years, exercised even
despotic empire ? The advocates of the present
system will say that the prejudices of the people
are enlisted against us on those subjects, and that
to oppose those prejudices would be to excite
disaffection, and to endanger the - stability of
our power. The danger of resistance from
the natives is, however, not regarded as an argu-
ment worth consideration, whenever it is thought
proper to make new accessions of territory to
our Eastern dominions—but it is always relied on
.when the question is about the civilization of the
vast and most ignorant and degraded masses of
people which they contain.- Again, it is said that
the natives have a right to enjoy their religious ob-
Eervances, as well as ourselves, and that the dread-
ful sacrifices to which we allude are the result of
self-devotion on the part of the sufferers, who,
whether they are crushed to death beneath the
wheels of an immense machine, surmounted by a
beastly idol, or are burnt alive amid the shouts of
their kindred, are the voluntary, and even enthusi-
astic, victims of this sort of martyrdom. It is true
people have a right to believe in any speculative ab-
surdities that they please; but no system of priestcraft
—under the name of religion, is entitled to toleration
which sheds human blood and tramples on the first and
best instincts of our nature. Such priestcraft is
not religion in any sense of the word, but an in-
fernal fanaticism, which those who have the power
ought to suppress, as they would put down a system
of murder, or any other atrocious criminality; and
if they do not, the world will be apt to call them
accessaries to the guilt. Let us not be ashamed to
copy in this respect the policy of a Pagan people—
the ancient Romans—who, though their own system
of worship was founded on an ignorance from which
we are exempt, yet have left us lessons of hu-
manity in this respect which we would do well to
imitate. They made it a point in Africa to put
down the unnatural rites of Moloch, in which chil-
dren were sacrificed by their. parents at the instiga-
tion of the Priests. In Germany they abolished many
barbarous practices connected with superstitious ce-
remonies, and in this very island they had hardly ob-
tained dominion, when they put an end to the human
sacrifices which were in the habit of being offered in
the groves of the Druids; and what was the conse-
quence ? By exterminating this shocking supersti-
tion, they were enabled to civilise the people whom
they conquered in a comparatively short time, and
by identifying them with an enlightened policy, at-
tached them to their empire—so much so, that when
at last the Romans were obliged to withdraw their
forces from this island on account of the inroads of
the northern barbarians on their own territories, the
British people implored them to remain. The vic-
tims of the Druid sacrifices, were like those in India,
chiefly self-devoted beings—the fanatical dupes of a
most atrocious priestcraft. But the Romans did not,
for that argument, tolerate the system. They eman-
cipated the British, as we ought to deliver the na-
tives of Hindostan, from the artful and sanguinary
dominion of their priests, and then the greatest ob-
stacle to that civilising policy which strengthens
every Government that adopts it was at once and for
ever removed.—Morning Herald.

The proceedings in the House of Commons
last night were more than usually interesting. It
was known that Mr. Western was to submit to
the House his peculiar views on the subject of
the trade in Corn ; but Mr. Canning availed
himself of the occasion to move, by way of
Amendment to the Resolution of the Hon.
Member, counter Resolutions, containing the
views entertained by Ministers as to the measures
which they deem it their duty still to propose
this Session. The course which Ministers pro-
pose is, to embody in a new Bill those parts of
the late Corn Bill which have not been objected
to in the House of Lords, leaving the final settle-
ment of the Corn question to next Session. " 1
shall (said the Right }lon. Gentleman) lay down
as a rule to guide us in framing a new Bill, that
it should not, if possible, run counter to any
thing which we have reason to believe will occa-
sion its loss in another place. While, therefore,
on the one hand, I do not wish that we should
yield one tittle of our privileges ; so on the other,
I am not desirous that this period should.pass
without enacting a measure that may produce some
practical good. Agreeably to these principles,
IVIr. Canning proposes to let loose the foreign
corn (supposed to amount to about 560,000
quarters) now in bond, by the operation of the
principles of the late Bill itself, under the re-
erictions and regulations with respect to price
and duty, which would have been in existence
had the Bill passed into a ; and _then to 'let
in the corn 9f Canada, under the same restric-
tion, which has been shipped on the faith of the
Bill. To neither of these propositions was the
smallest opposition made in the House of Lords.
By way of ensuring an early attendance to the sub-
ject next Session, he proposed that the temporary
law should expire on the Ist of May next year, and
he trusted that the very first act of_the Legislature
would he to enter on the consideration of te Corn
Question. So much for the views of Ministers.
Mr. Canning purposely abstained from all allusion
to the very extraordinary conduct of certain per-
sons in another House, not, he said, because he
did not feel the provocation, but because he did
-not think this the most proper time for noticing it.
If.;_le had, however, given vent to the feelings, the
existence of which was indicated by the follow-.
ing senten:."e, the warm reception given to it by
the House might be deemed a sufficient earnest
of their sympathy; " I can conceive (he said)
no schemes of faction more inexcusable, or more
blameable, than that which would make a sub-
ject, touching the interest and involving the pros-
perity of the whole community, a ground for ex,
citing party-feeling, or exasperating political ani-
mosities."— A great deal of meanii:g is conveyed
in these few words. And this brings us to the
more interesting part of the proceedings of the
evening—the masterly exposure of the mixture
of gross stupidity and low cunning (for cunning
is often found in alliance with stupidity) dis-
played by ,Mr: Peel's single-hearted hero, the
Duke of Welioston. A grand moral lesson
was read, we will not say to that distinguished in-
dividual himself--for him we fear all lessons
would be thrown away--bur to the nation, which
cannot fail to' derive an instruCtive warning from
the contemplation of the conduct of his Grace and
the unenviable situation in which it hasplaced him.
To M r.Peel his Grace is indebted for the exposure,
and the country for the instructive lesson. " If
any Gentleman (said Mr. Peel, in a tone which,
if it could be imitated on the stage, would make
the fortune of any one personating the principal
character in a play popular both in France and
England, but peculiarly obnoxious to the Priests
of the former country)—if any Gentleman should
think that the Amendment proposed by my
Noble Friend in the House of Lords was con-
urpose of a political nature, or
meted with any p
still less with any purposes of party faction, I
declare upon my honour that 1 believe such an
impression to be totally erroneous. I believe
that my Noble Friend the Duke of Wellington
having supported his Majesty's Government in
the early stages of the Bill, and having voted'for
- its second reading, when its principle was discussed,
proposed his Amendment with a sincere desire to
promote that which he understood to be the real ob-
ject of the Bill, and to remedy a defect which he
'thought he perceived in-it. I believe that he made

his proposition:on a misconstruction of what had
passed between my Right Hon. Friend and him-
self, and that when he made his suggestion, he
really thought the suggestion was not dissented
from by that Right Hon. Gentleman. I say I
believe this, because if he had intended to have
made that Amendment the means of an opposi-
tion to the Government, I do think that I should
have heard of it previously, and that the first in-
timation I obtained of his intention would not
have been delayed till the morning of the day
after that on which he had proposed and carried
his Amendment." Sir Edward Knatchbull im-
proved upon the Right Hon. Gentleman, for he
declared it " impossible the Noble Duke could
!lave acted from any improper motive ;" and, at
all events, he thought he should be deemed
immaculate on the anniversary of the Battle
of Waterloo. Mr. Baring, after expressing
the absurdity and the mischievous nature of
the Amendment, moved by the Duke of
Wellington—to the sagacious inventors of
which it. had never occurred, that while foreign
corn would have come in at low prices with as
much facility as ever, if, unfortunately, the home
price were to rise to 90s. or 100 s. in conse-
quence of the scarcity resulting from a deficient
harvest, the country would then have found itself
entirely at the mercy of the foreign powers where
the ports were situated in which the corn had
been warehoused, and from which the supply
necessary to our subsistence might in a moment
be cut off—proceeded to compliment Mr. Peel
on the ingenuity of his defence of the sup-
porters of the amendment, which supposed" that
they were wholly ignorant of the mischief it was
intended to produce from their total inability to
understand its bearings and effect." There were
two ways of accounting for the conduct of the
Duke of Wellington and his supporters. He either
knew nothing at all of the subject with which he
interfered, and imagined, bona:fide, that he was im-
proving the Bill, that his Amendment was in ac-
cordance with its principle, and that he had the ac-
cordance of Mr. Baring, and in that case he proved
himself altogether inapt as a politician, in short, a
person requiring imperiously to be placed under co-
ercion by his friends ; or he knew the effect which
his amendment would have, and did not misconceive
the terms of Mr. Huskisson's note, and in that case
he proved himself a fool in attempting to carry a
point by means which would necessarily be soon dis-
closed to the public, and which, on disclosure, could
not fail to cover him with ridicule, and proved him-
self something else which we will not venture to
name. Mr. Peel took the charitable view of his
Noble Friend which we did, and endeavoured to
extricate his honour at the expence of his under-
standing. We do not, therefore, see how, after la-
bouring as he did to show that his single-hearted
friend was also simple-minded in the vulgar acceptation
of the word simple, he should complain of Mr.
Baring adopting in charity his ground of defence of
the Noble Duke, and " occupying his whole speech
with an attempt to turn into ridicule the conduct
of the Noble Duke." But still less can we see
how the Right Hon. Gentleman, after resting his
vindication of his Noble Friend on the ground of his
misconceiving the letter of the Right Hon. Gentle-
man (Mr. Huskisson), could, with decency, after
the lapse of a very few minutes, turn round on Mr.
Huskisson, and transfer the misconception from the
Noble Duke to him. " But why does the Hon.
Gentleman attempt to ridicule my Noble Friend ?
If his ridicule be successful, it applies to my Right
Hon. Friend (Mr. Huskisson) who sits below him,
and not the Noble Duke." Mr. Peel might have
made the discovery before this—but he has not
made it—that obliquity of purpose can with diffi-
culty be effectually concealed in a warm altercation.
Why does Mr. Huskisson always appear to most ad-
vantage when hardest pressed ; and why does Mr.
Peel appear to so much disadvantage when thrown off
his guard? Because Mr. Huskisson is a straight
forward man, who speaks what he really thinks, and
who never looks one way and rows another, to use
a common saying ; and because Mr. Peel has studied
carefully in his closet the part which lie ought to
act, and the real thought will often escape in the
heat of debate instead of the pretexts intended to veil
them. It is obvious, from what fell from Mr. Peel,
that he is completely mixed up with the whole of
the factious proceedings in the House of Lords.
The admission that the Duke, if he had conceived
the Amendment at variance with the principle of
the Bill, would have consulted with him before pro-
posing it, coupled with his apologetic narrative of
the manner of the Duke's having fallen into the mis-
conception, and the manly contradiction afterwards
given by Mr. Huskisson of the only circumstances
admitting of an explanation favourable to a bonajide
interpretation of the proceedings of the faction,
leaves it beyond a doubt that they originated in
motives which will not bear the light of day.
Whether some were dupes, and unaware of the exact
character of the part they were playing, or whether
all were aware of the game they were playing, but
deemed the public would be hoodwinked by the
stale pretext of misconceiving Mr. Huskisson's
Letter, and that an abundance of charity would be
manifested in making allowances for the seeming
blunders of the Hero of Waterloo, must be left to the
revelation of the parties themselves, who probably
will ere long try to shift the odium front each other.
But leaving this subject for the present, and leaving
the defence of Mr. Peel, that " he had not the
slightest doubt that his Noble Friend mistook his
Right Hon. Friend's intention, and proposed his
Amendment under the impression that he was act-
ing on the authority of his Right Hon. Friend,"
and let us leave the admission by Mr. Peel, of
his being the confidant of the Duke, and the sin-
gular coincidence of five Ex-Ministers all in
communication with each other, voting for a
Clause admitted to be at variance with the
principle of a Bill for which they were respon-
sible as Ministers—let us leave all this dirty, dis-
gusting, jesuitical work, and turn to the manly
statement of Mr. Huskisson. Fortunately Mr. Hus-
kisson obtained from the Duke of Wellington a copy
of his note, so that the terms of it are 'placed be-
yond dispute. The correspondence commenced by
a wheedling sort of letter from the Duke to Mr.
Huskisson, professing to be dictated by a desire to
diminish opposition to the Bill, and inclosing • a
clause which one should imagine could only be the
composition of some inmate of Bedlam. The clause
in question will be found in the report of Mr. Hus-
kisson's speech. Good God! that any man suffered
to walk at large should think of making it a condi-
tion of not allowing corn to be entered for home
consumption before the average reached 705., that the
corn previously warehoused should have been entered
for home consumption or exported, or that the con-
sent of the proprietors of the last-mentioned corn
should be obtained under their hand and seal! Mr.
Huskisson, believing the Duke desirous of under-
standing the subject, instantly dispatched the note
so often alluded to. The note will speak for itself.
But Mr. Huskisson did not leave him a shadow of
pretext for the pretended misconception. When he
found that an improper use had been made of his
note, while there was yet time to rectify the error,
he endeavoured to set the Drike right. But what
was the conduct of the Noble Duke, and what the
conduct of his Noble Friends ? Did they acquaint
those whom they had deluded out of their votes on
the pretext of Mr, Huskisson's sanction, with the
mistake which had been made ? No. Did they
acknowledge their own error ? No. They proceed
as if still under the misconception which was as-
signed as the motive for proposing the Clause. Let
the Duke of Wellington enjoy the rewards of his
services to his country; but do not let him think
that any services can screen him and his colleagues
' from the consequences of conduct, which must fill
' every well-constituted mind with inexpressible
loathing and disgust.--Morning Chronicle.
I The debate.m the House of Commons, last
•

night, was of a more interesting and important
character than any that has occured for some
weeks. The resolution of which Mr. Western
had given notice, to bring into operation the
Act of 1822, by repealing so much of it as pro-
hibits the importation of wheat until the average
of the home market shall amount to 80s. gave
rise to another resolution, moved by Mr. Can-
ning, of which the following is the tenour :

"That it is the opinion of this Committee, that any
sort of Corn, Grain, Meal, or Flour, the produce of Foreign
Countries, and now in warehouse in the United Kingdom,
or which may be reported to be warehoused, on or before
the Ist day of July next, shall he admissible for home use,
at any time before the Ist day of May, IS2B, subject to
the duties provided in the Bill now in the Lords."

The Right Hon. Gentleman, in the course of
his speech, explained, that he had been induced
to propose the adoption of a temporary measure,
for a reason of which we are sure every well-
wisher to either House of Parliament will feel
the full force—namely, to avoid all appearance of
contention between the Commons and Lords.—
We have all along stated, and they must have
been ignorant indeed of the usages of the former
House, who did not see it, that the Amendment
of the Duke of Wellington was utterly fatal to
the Bill. We said, indeed, that the Noble
Duke should have moved the third reading of it.
But we said said so from a wish that he and
those who voted with him should act consistently
with their professions, not from any idea that
its ultimate passing was a matter even of
hope. It is nearly as obvious, that to present again
to their Lordships a permanent measure of a similar
nature, to that they had treated so unceremoniously,
would be only renewing a lengthened struggle, of
which the approaching termination of the Session
would not admit. Nothing remained, therefore, but
a temporary measure; and that, from what fell from
Mr. Canning, in the course of last night, we have
every reason to suppose, will pass without much op-
position. Still, the fate of the Corn Bill, though
thus partially atoned for, is deeply to be regretted, as
it leaves this great question still undecided, and com-
pels Parliament, most unnecessarily, to enter once
more on the task of decision, without 41 chance that
it shall go to it with one additional fact, or one ad-
ditional argument. Mr. Canning's resolution was
carried by 238 to 52; a majority far more triumphant
than mere unanimity would have been. Such a
majority will secure the Bill from being un-
necessarily protracted in its progress through
the Commons; for, we can hardly suppose,
the minority will rally to the charge after so
marked a discomfiture. In the Course of the
night, Mr. Huskisson took occasion to vindi-
cate himself from the charge of having con-
sented to the amendment of the Lords. We
know that there are many persons, dull and honest,
who look on Mr. Huskisson, and they do so truly,
as so complete a master of argument, that, for that
very reason, though powerless to reply to his state-
ments, they yet hear them with a certain degree
of distrust. Last night, however, the Right
Honourable Gentleman made use of an argument
which generally carries conviction to the most
sceptical or the most stolid— the argument of
plain unembellished facts. The correspondence
between him and the Duke of Wellington,
which we give in to-day's New Times, placed
the conduct of that noble personage—in lead-
ing and stimulating by his voice, his vote, and his
influence, the opposition, which, in his letter to Mr.
Huskisson, he professes an anxious wish to soften
down—in a light, which, to his best friends, will, we
rather think, be any thing but gratifying.—We can,
however, only allude thus generally to a topic which
requires, and will receive, more deliberate considera-
tion than we have at present time to give it.—New
Times.