The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNAL 2.

We publish a long letter on the stateo!eeret
system of the Bank of England. The proceed-
ings at the last meeting of Bank Proprietors,
already commented on by this journal, are re-
traced by our correspondent, and arguments
ad pudorem addressed to the Governor, with
the innocent hope of making that worthy get;-
amen ashamed (a Governor ashamed !) hi:
uncandid answers to the propositions of Ho-
nourable Proprietors, who were anxious to leaan.
on official authority, " what had been done.
with their own." It is obvious enough that
more nonsense never has been talked than that
for which Governors of the Bank of England
have within these few years pleaded the irmnea
morial usage of their predecessors as a. sanction
and cover for their own absurdities. When they.
tell the Proprietors that the same mysterious
silence has been observed for 125 years, (luting
till which time the Bank has been a flourishing
corporation, do they mean that it is because of
such hermetical sealing up of the lips of those
servants to whom the Bank Proprietors Lave
annually entrusted their affairs, the interests of
the Bank itself have so conspicuously Vourished ?
If not, they mean nothing. But we can say a
little more ; for it is on record, that if the trans-
actions of the Bank with the Government had
been fairly and honestly at all times disclosed
to the Proprietors, the most imminent risk that
ever was incurred by a trading company would
have been escaped by this, and the most
humiliating and contemptible device for avert-
ing danger that ever was resorted to
would not have been necessary to save the
Bank of England from destruction. The corre-
spondence between the Bank Dirictors and Mr.
Pitt in 1796 and 1797 has long since been laid
before the country,—that is, so far as the Di-
rectors found it unavoidable to publish their
own disgrace. Now, even from that lame and
garbled correspondence, is it not manifest what
a miserable set of time-serving, Pitt-ridden, sub-
servient creatures, the Bank Directors were in
1797 ?—how they went on from month to
month, half-bullied, half-puzzled, by that over-
bearing and dexterous Nlinister;—how he one
day shook his whip over them, and the next put
his finger in their eye, refusing, on the pretence
of public necessity, to pay off the debts which
lie had contracted with them, and, instead of
complying with their supplications for the dis-
charge of sums which he had already borrowed,
actually extorting more and more, until at last,
when they had no money to lend, and were
pressed by the holders of Bank-notes to pay those
in specie, the whole bubble burst at once ; and,
by a farcical perversion of language, an order in
council was served upon the Bank, restraining
the Directors frOm doing that which they had
neither any notion nor • any means of perpetrat-
ing,—viz., paying off their notes in ready money?
If, then, the Bank Proprietors had, in the early
part
cota.cllu7a9ifi,
ntead
dnwitown
tlhthtooselNelanirich, 17
htrras 97,
snl en.tbee n
si:
which the successive extortions of Mr. Pitt were
likely to plunge their concern, does any mart be-
lieve that they would have been intimidated
into a progressive compromise of then- own
property by Mr. Pitt's big words, or soften.,
eel by his mendicant applications ? Can it bn
imagined, that when the body of Proprietors, or
a portion of them, might any day in any given
week have called a Court, and demanded from
their servants, the Directors, an explicit account
of their pecuniary transactions with the Mini-
ster ;—is it, we say, possible, that such transaes
tions could ever have been whirled onward to
that tremendous crisis which ended in the Bank
Restriction Act ? Here, then, is a clear proof
of a positive calamity, the most fatal that ever
overwhelmed a banking-house, being the natu7al
result of that very system which your Govern .s
and Directors are perpetually identifying with the
great prosperity of the corporation. But the
truth is, that the evil is not in the Directors,
who of course will take as many unjust preroga-
tives, and exercise as many mischievous privis
leges, as others are foolish enough to confide to
them. The fault is with the Bank Proprietors
themselves. Why do they not attend the Court
in such numbers, and armed with such deterani-
nation, as to overpower the hole-and-corner faca
tion of the Directors ? One or two class.
headed and independent men may go on until
doomsday asking questions to which evasive re-
plies are given, and moving resolutions which
are never passed ; but unless the majority of the
Bank Proprietors have wisdom, and energy, and
regard for their own interest, sufficient to make

them support a plan of reform by their personal
support of those who come forward in defence
of the common welfare, no one need blame the
Governor or his allies for treating the friends of
publicity and fair-dealing with contem
The complaint of the City Functionaries, that
the Nev Police drove all the thieies and dis-
orderly people into the city, is exceedingly amus,
ing. We shall have the Court of Ahkrni
next inquiring how it happens that rivers nc,t
run up mountains. Thieves, we apprehond, are
actuated by the principles which actuate all other
men—they love ease and enjoyment, and only,
work in their vocation becaw:e they cannot have
enjoyment without effort. They betake them-
selves as na:urally to the place where they can
live best, as a heavy body descends. If they
were more comfortable out of the city than in it,
the worshipful functionaries may be assured that
all the police in the world would not drive them
into the city. The inclination of the thieves
themselves forms an essential clement in the
matter. They know when they are civilly used
as well as Aldermen and Deputies. We shall
hear next of there being a conspiracy to drive
Scotchmen into the Direction of the East India
Company, or one of the Lord Johns to the
Governorship of a Colony. If the City people
raise their own police to a state superior to that
elsewhere, we will answer for it that the nets.
police will fail in driving thieves into the city.
Let them improve their police then ; if they beat
Mr. Peel, the public will be a gainer, bccathe it
will force a correspondent improvement on the
west end. This would be a manly attempt. Let
them drive the thieves back again if they can,
'Tire more the thieves are driven backwards and

forwards, the worse the trade of thieving wirt (Jo,
1 Mr. Peel has respected the City privileges—ho
has left the citizens in the undisturbed enjoyment
of their municipal advantages. If the improve.
meats west of Temple-bar rrpose additional
mands sacrifices. A
ex-
ertions on the City functionaries, we trust they
oithinttle)ertei(rl:awittillatlibert:,nk°
ir. Peel
will resign themselyes manfully to their fate, con-
soling,evviriryb,
cotitlih7elirlsgeoillvoue,risr,
ycvtlte•
them in their
operations.--Morning Chronicle.

The conditions imposed- b 7 Count Diebitsch
upon the Sultan ire certainly more severe than
Ise have been lecho anticipate. The- published
accounts are sul4tantially accurate, but they omit
certain incidental ttipulationa which mark • a

waseiousness of irresistible—superiority on the
part of the victor, and of something, at leait,
approaching to hopeless despondency on that of
the vanquished. We allude particularly to the
pecuniary indemnity, on which it will be neces-
sary to dwell at some length. The sum stipu-
lated to be paid is•ten millions of golden ducats,
exclusive of one million and a half on account
of the merchants' losses. Of the first named
sum, a million and a half is to be what is called
prompt payment ; but this expression is not to
to be understood in a literal mercantile accepta-
tion. In the present instance, it is to be di.
vided into three equal i►►stalments : the first to
be made good before the Russians give up the
possession of Adrianople ; the second previous
to their repassing the Balka►► ; and the third on
their arrival at, and crossing the Danube. Si-
listria is to remain in the hands of Russia until
the whole amount of the indemnity is paid ; and
the four Asiatic fortresses mentioned in the pub-
lished accounts are to be ceded in perpetuity.—
When, in addition to these humiliating conces-
sions, are added the throwing open of the Bos-
phorus and Dardanelles—not to merchant ships
only, but to men of war—the absolute abandon-
ment of direct dominion over Greece, taken in
all its ancient extent—(on this part of the sub-
ject we shall have occasion to enlarge)—and the
probable loss of Egypt, which is an event sup-
posed inevitable by persons the best acquainted
with the subject—it ►s scarcely too much to say
that the Ottoman sway has ceased to exist. To
these severe conditions the British Ambassador
at Constantinople was in no way a party, nor
have they the sanction of his approval ; at the
same time it is perfectly well understood, that
from the previous course of events he had no
means of prevention without involving the na-
tion which he represents as a principal in the
war. The Prince Metternich, the Austrian
Prime Minisrer, has been heard to declare that
the preliminaries of Adrianople, if followed up
by a definitive Treaty on the same conditions,
may be considered as the death-blow to the Ot-
toinan Empire.—lbid.

In addition to the facts communicated in our
impression of yesterday, on the subject of the
recent seizure in France, we have been put in
possession of some authentic particulars, which
will give our readers a pretty accurate notion of
the present position of the parties implicated in
that mysterious affair. So far back as July last,
the British Ambassador, in contemplation of
the return of Lady Stuart de Rothsay to Eng-
land, had given orders to his London tradesmen
to send over some Imperials and trunks which
were necessary for the conveyance of luggage ;
the order was complied with, but on the arrival
of the cases at Calais, their unusual weight at-
tracted the notice of the Custom-house officers,
who reported the circumstance to the heads of
their department in Paris. The French audio-
ritiea, learning that the consignment bore the
address of the British Ambassador, made the
circumstance known to him, and his Lordship
instantly declared his utter ignorance of their
eontents, and desired that they might forthwith
be opened and inspected ; the inspection took
place accordingly, and the packages were found
to contain a large quantity of cotton twist, leather
and other articles, either prohibited altogether, or
subject to heavy duties. On this discovery, the
French authorities, probably from an unwilling-
ness to adopt towards an Ambassador any step
which might be construed disrespectfully, pro-
posed that the obnoxious consignment should be
xe-exported, instead of being confiscated, as
would, under ordinary circumstances, have been
its fate : to this proposal Lord Stuart assented,
and the articles are now in England, where a
rigid scrutiny has been instituted, and will be
futio:ved up as it ought. From what we have
said, it is clear that of the clandestine introduc-
tion of forbidden articles of commerce the
Ambassador was, as we said yesterday, absolutely
ignorant ; but his acceding to the proposal to
send back the obnoxious consignment uncon-
fiscated was, we must be excused for thinking, a
hasty and not well-advised determination, more
particularly with a precedent before his eyes,
PIPED, upon a similar discovery, the then British
Arnba*sodor insisted that the contraband articles
sabould be rigorously dealt with, according to the
lawn of the nation against which the offence was
coma Cited ; and we would suggest to those in
whose hands the matter now rests, upon clear
proof of illegality (of which we apprehend there
can be no quotion), to remit to the French
authorities the whole consignment, to be dealt
with in whatever way the circumstances may be
thought to require.—lbith
Much of the inconvenience now felt in many
parts of die country arrises from the rain efforts
of men to oppose themselves to the changes which
time, the great innovator, renders inevitable. Mr.
Loudon, alluding to the distress he observed in
different parts of the country, says-- h e low
pcce of corn and wool, the increase of paupers
and 0.. c poor rates, and executions for rent and
for asse:sed taxes, were almost the only sub-
jects that we beard talked of either by farmers or
tradesmen ; aria .
the influence of these evils we
saw every where obv:.
ous both in the landowners
and their gardeners. . The landlord
deeply in debt, and the tenant. with a long lease
and an inexorable landlord, vaigit unavoidably
suffer sooner or later." He remais, how dif-
ferently situated the landlord is who has not
mortgaged his estate, and who can thus afford
not to ruin his tenants. Mortgaging land is in
a great measure the result of a Law of Succes-
sion, which originated in feudal times. The
estate descends nominally to one, but parents
must provide for their children, and hence the
estate is biirthened. If we may credit Sir James
Graham, the nominal owners of land in England
do not at this day possess more than one-tenth
put of the clear rental. This shows the incon-
venience resulting from any attempt to perpetuate
in one family the occupation of estates. It would
be much better were land, like other ehattles,
regularly circulated, than that it should he kept
in nominal ownership, with mortgages fettering
the judicious occupation of it. In a commercial
age every thing is measured by money. Money
• leads to the highest honours, as is evinced by
half the House of Lords having been ere,-
at, d since the commencement of Mr. Pitt's
:'Mini `try, from parvenus of Hebrew and Chris-
tian blood. Family passes in such an age for
nothing. The younger sons of a gentleman de-
Emended from one of the Norman conquerors,
rank in public eztimation no higher than the son
of a butcher or tailor, who gives as good din,
ners, keeps as many servants, or wears as good a
coat. Hence the necessity of making decent
provisions for
,childeen, and dui abandonment,
according to Mr. Humphrey, of the notion of
making estates. The Catlnliic Religion seams
adapted for the perpetuation-of families in coun-
triesin which there is lifietcororneme and in-
dustry. Religious Cortions, by holding a
large share of -the land such countries, atlord
an asylum to the childret 91 the INublvise, and

enable one son to take the family estate. But
there can be no feudalism for a length of time in
a Protestant and commercial country. The at-
tempt to provide for younger children at the ex-
pence of the public will not do, for the increase
of burdens bring on a crisis by which the owners
of estates are sharers of the common ruin. Mr.
Cobbett often laughs at the estates passing from
the old Gentry to the Jews and Jobbers. But
these Jews and Jobbers, after becomine Gentle.
men, have their estates taken by new men in
turn. And why not ? What is it to the coun-
try who holds the estate, provided it is benefici-
ally cultivated, and the fruits of the earth are
properly distributed through the country ? If
the attempt to bolster up an Aristocracy by re-
strictive laws and mortgages be mischievous, and
fetter the profitable occupation of the land, the
sooner the estates get into other hands the better.
The sun rises and sets. It is in the order of
things that the high should become low, and
that the low should become high,— /bid.
The Times of yesterday, in observing upon
the proceedings in Newark, affected to be ex-
ceedingly indignant with the Duke of Newcastle
for ejecting his refractory tenants at will, to pre-
vent his influence in the borough being totally
destroyed. We have stated our objection to the
system of close boroughs, which is founded upon
a usurpation of the people's rights, and is in op-
position to the spirit and letter of the British
Constitution. It matters not to us whether that
usurped power be exercised by the Duke of
Newcastle or by his Grace of Bedford, it is
equally opposed to the principle of free repre-
sentation, and ought to be abolished. The
Journal in question, however, while upholding all
that is base and rotten in Whig politics, pretends
to be utterly astonished at a Tory Member of
the House of Lords exercising an influence in
returning Members to Parliament. The Times
has actually discovered that aristocratic authority
has something to do in the selection of the Re-
presentatives of the people. Such a discovery
will, no doubt, go down to future times as an era
in political science. In the vehemence of its
" honest indignation," it asks what will Parlia-
ment say to this. We ask, in return, what will Sir
James Mackintosh say to it ? What will Mr.
Tierney say to it ? What will Mr. Brougham
' say to it ? What will Mr. Macdonald say to it ?
What will Sir James Scarlett say to it ? What
will many other Whig Representatives of the
close borough system say to the exercise of Tory
influence in the election of Members of Parlia-
ment ? Should such a case be brought before
them next Session they will be at a loss for words
to express their sense of the novel and porten-
tous evil. They will hardly believe it credible
that the " purity of election" has suffered such
grievous violation at any period of our Parlia-
mentary history ! The Times also feels indig-
nant that the " traffic in boroughs" should em-
barrass Ministers. Indeed ! Who, then, repre-
sents Westbury ? Did it embarrass Ministers
that, when Oxford was lost, there was such a
thing as a " traffic in boroughs" to console the
disappointed candidate ? Have Government no
boroughs at their disposal? Is the purity of" elec-
tion" a rule of political faith in the politics of the
Treasury ? Away with this nonsense ! Is it not
upon the records of Parliament that the sale of seats
in the House of Commons is " as notorious as
the sun at noon-day ?" The affected prudery of
the Paper to which we have adverted is directed,
not against the sin itself, but against the person
committing it. Sir James Mackintosh escapes,
but Mr. Sadler is branded. The Marquis of
Lansdowne is honoured, but the Duke of New-
castle is denounced. We say let the system of
close boroughs, whether in Whig or Tory hands,
be done away with, and let the people be fairly
represented. If there had been a fair represen-
tation of the people in the last Session of Par-
liament, their petitions would not have been
treated with the contumely and disdain which
they experienced. The nominees of Whig Lords
then called the people " boors," and laughed at
the notion of their forming an opinion upon po-
litical subjects. Yes ! persons in the class of
the freeholders of English counties were morally
disqualified by the opinions of Whig Senators
and " Liberal" philosophers of the Press. Had
the people been fairly represented, neither their
intelligence would have been questioned nor
Itheir petitions laughed to scorn.—Morn. Herald.

We know not precisely what degree of credit
ought to be attached to the various versions
which are given of the proceedings which are
said to have taken place previous to the signa-
ture of the treaty of peace between Russia and
Turkey ; but if the fact be as stated, that the
Sultan not only threw himself on the generosity
of the Emperor of Russia, but actually solicited
General Diebitseh to come to his aid, and re-
lease him from the importunities of the French,
Austrian, and English Ambassadors, he must
have been very sadly used indeed by his pre-
tended Allies—and, we fear, that when the
whole particulars of the transaction have come to
light, that it will be found that those who insti-
gated the Sultan to hold out to the last, and on
whose support he relied when matters came to
the worst, that some of them were, on the one
hand, the first to desert him, and others so dila-
tory in their proceedings, as rather to have in-
jured than benefitted his cause. In the former
class Austria stands first and foremost, and in
the latter, we fear that we must, in justice,
include both France and England. That
the Duke of Wellington was sincere in his
wish to support the Sultan there can be no
question ; but the English Ambassador appears
pot to have been furnished with sufficient powers
to act according as circumstances might dictate,
or General Diebitsch to have outrun the calcula-
tions of the Premier—and the English force and
the English troops in the Archipelago might, in
consequence, have as well been nearer home, for
any use that they appear to have been to the
cause which they were intended to support. But
the affairs of the East are not yet ended ; and
while it is impossible not to perceive that the
basis of a future war is laid between Russia and
Turkey 4/ the conditions of the present peace,
we cannot help thipking, at the same time, that
theie conditions are of th4t nature which neither
France nor England will ultimately agree to
sanction. The attempt on the part of Russia, if
the fa,et be true, to dictate to the Porte respect-
ing the boundaries of Greece, without asking
the consent of her two Allies, without whom,
be it recollected, she had no right to treat on
the subject, is a tojFrable sample of the cavalier
manner in which she wane to act, as well as of
her intention to make use of 6weege as a
tool for the annoyance of Turkey ; but every
other feature in the treaty which is said to have
been concluded, bears the most evident marks of
the most insidious and unprincipled ambition.
If ratified, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia,
will in future be Russian provinces—the coml.:
try between the panube and the Balkan open to
invasion at all times—and Constantinople itself
exposed to attack at any moment that the Autc?

crat of Russia may will it ! And can this be
termed a peace ? But, as we have already ob-
served, we cannot believe that the Government
of this country has acceded to it, or will under-
take to guarantee it, and until we know officially
that it has done so, we shall not believe it. The
Premier might, indeed, as well yield our naval
supremacy at once, and permit a complete dis-
memberment of the Turkish empire, as agree to
a treaty which paves the way so fairly for the
destruction of the one, and the complete attain•
merit of the other.—Morning Advertiser.
The view taken by some of our Contempo-
raries of the conduct pursued by the Duke of
Newcastle towards his tenants in the Borough

of Newark amounts simply to this—that the
power possessed by his Grace, and the manner
in which he has exercised it, is a new proof of
the necessity of Parliamentary Reform. We
are decidedly of opinion—in common we believe
with a great majority of the intelligent and re-
flecting part of the community—that the Con-
stitution as it is works well upon the whole ; and
therefore, although we were to admit that the
Duke of Newcastle had acted the part of an op-
pressive and tyrannical landlord, we should not
thence conclude that the Constitution ought to
be subverted. Individual misconduct can be
alleged as a reason for altering the system of
government in a country only by men who are
the predetermined friends of innovation, and
would scarcely be insisted upon even by these
unless they felt themselves miserably destitute of
arguments of a more general character. We
cannot but rejoice, however, that our Contem-
poraries have taken this ground, since they
thereby distinctly admit that their censure of the
Duke of Newcastle is inseparably connected
with their desire to alter the Constitution of Par-

liament, and that if they thought the established
system of government in England a good one,
and a political revolution unnecessary, they could
no longer see in his Grace's conduct any thing
to condemn. To this ground indeed they must
have been compelled to resort, for they could
not long have maintained an absurdity so pal-
pable, or asserted a contradiction so direct, as
would have been involved in the propositions
that the existence of a certain kind of influence
or power is legal and beneficial, but that its
exercise in every particular case is tyrannical and
mischievous. .The Duke of Newcastle, if we
adopt implicitly all the statements even of his
bitterest antagonists, has only done what every
man who exercises an influence upon the state
of the representation by means of his property
may at any time be called upon to do—what
men of all parties have done before, and what
there is no doubt whatever every man of every
party would do in the same circumstances, ra-
ther than submit to the overthrow of that in-
fluence which he and others have been hitherto
accustomed to consider an inseparable appendage
to his property. It is disingenuous and absurd
in the highest degree to consider it as a hard-
ship upon the tenants of the Noble Duke to be
ejected from their houses or farms, in conse-
quence of their having acted in opposition to
the political principles of their landlord. This
view of the case can be taken only for the pur-
pose of promoting the objects of a hostile party,
and of exciting popular odium against an indi-
vidual whom it suits the momentary purposes of
faction to depreciate. It is no hardship upon
any man to fulfil the stipulations into which he
voluntarily enters, whether those stipulations
are of a nature to be fully expressed, or are only
distinctly and unequivocally understood. Why do
Members of Parliament accept the Chiltern Hun-
dreds when they no longer choose to vote in Par-
liament, in pursuance of the implied compact
under which they obtained their seats ? Why,
but that in the estimation of society, and in
their own opinion, they would become infamous
if they retained their seats, refusing at the same
time to fulfil the condition by which they are
held ? The tenants of the Duke of Newcastle

have not the power of retaining possession of his
houses and farms, and at the same time of voting
in opposition to the tacit, but if we may judge
from their own assertions, well understood con-
ditions upon which they have always held them.
But is it to be thought a hardship upon an in-
dividual that he has not the power to do that,
the mere attempt to do which, in the estimation
of all just and honourable men, would be infa-
mous ? Patriotism disdains the alliance of per-
fidy and baseness. If the political influence of
borough proprietors can be shewn to be mis-
chievoui, let it be manfully and honestly attacked
upon general and consistent principles. Let the
same measure of correction be applied to Whig
and Tory proprietors. But let us be no longer
disgusted with lamentations for the fate of men
who only complain because they cannot desert a
system, and at the same time retain the personal
advantages it yielded them, or who more proba-
bly declaim against corruption only because they
are prevented from reaping personal advantages
from two opposite parties at once.—Morn. Post.

INVASION OF MEXICO.

(From the American Papers).

" THE SPANISH EXPEDITION.—We have at length
news of the landing of the rash and misguided Bar-
radas on the coast of Mexico. Captain Ssrgeant,
of the brig Magnolia, arrived at Charleston from
Havannah, with papers and price currents to the
23t1 ult., reports that a Spanish frigate, a gun-brig,
and two transports, the Robin Hood and Triton,
part of the expedition against Mexico, arrived at
Havannah on the 22d ult., having landed the troops
30 miles south of Tampico, on their way to that city.
(From the Baltimore American, Sept. 7.)