The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

•

• The doubts respecting that course of policy which the
principal members of the French Government might be
disposed to adopt, upon the great question of Spain and
Portugal, have been gradually clearing away since the
first commotion produced by the message of the King of
England. The declarations of the French Ministers—the
open support given to the diplomatic efforts of Mr. Lamb
at Madrid, by the French envoy, Count de Beaurepaire,
whose fiank and upright character forms a noble contrast
to that of his jesuitical predecessor—the Cabinet order
issued from the Tuileries on Wednesday last, the 3d inst.,
for the recall of the French, or rather Swiss, troops from
the duty which has hitherto devolved upon them, of guard-
ing the Court and sacred person of King Ferdinand—
and, finally, the marked coldness and discountenance ex-
hibited by Charles X. to the Spanish Ambassador at his
recent levee,' are circumstances quite decisive us to the
temperate and pacific course which the Government of
France has considered it right to avow on behalf of the
great country for which it is officially acting. That there
may be many who deny or dispute the real harmony be=
tween the feelings of the Court of France and its profes-
sions, is not a matter to be much surprised at, or worthy
of much uneasiness. The ostensible policy of States, we
admit, ought, in most cases, to be judged sincere, or other-
wise, according to the known interest of those who
avowedly adopt it; and if a measure be plainly adverse to
than there can be no confidence more rash and dangerous
that, his who calculates on the bona fide execution of
such a measure. This reasoning, however, proves no-
thing against the prudence of giving credit to the French
Government for an effectual conformitye' between its de-
clarations and intentions. The bulk of the French na-
tion, and all the most enlightened leaders of public opinion
throughout the country, have recognized the wisdom and
justice of the policy proclaimed by the Ministers. A
war for the Jesuits, the Inquisition, and the Serviles,vvould
be the abhorrence of every reasonable Frenchman; and
as England has abstained most conscientiously from
stepping, an inch beyond the line prescribed to her at
once by positive treaty, and by a regard for equity and
luniversal liberty, there is not a shadow of motive in
national pride, manly spirit, or any other praiseworthy
and honourable spring of human action, for the French
as d Government and people not indulging to its full ex-
tent that sentiment of sympathy with the conduct of
our Ministers which is common to every inhabitant of
Great Britain. What interest any clear-sighted French-
man can propose to himself from reducing Spain to a con-',
dition more degraded than that of Turkey, we have never
yet heard described, On the other hand, there is no
' State except England, a close commercial intercourse
with which would be half so beneficial to France as
would the Peninsula. Let Spain rise to ever such a
pitch of prosperity, France is invulnerable as regards
Iher efforts at molestation, On the contrary, while Spain
continues poor and barbarous, what profit can a rich, a
ilcivilized, and industrious kingdom derive from so con-
temptible a neighbour ? What consequences are destined
to result from the joint representations of France and
England at the Court of Ferdinand, it may not be easy
at the present moment to anticipate. If that ill-advised,
and we fear not well. intentioned Prince, conceives that
the instances of France are mere demonstrations, and that
let what will happen in the progress of hostilities with
Portugal, his couam of Bourbon will be sure at last to
interpose, and save hiin from his justly exasperated ene-
mies, the- evident duty as well as declared principles of
Charles X. ought to teach hit, less reliance on such a
visionary prospect. The French Government has pro-
nounced in a formal manner, that an unjust war, end the
fruits-of that war, will be left to fall upon the shoulders
of Ferdinand himself; and if France should retract or
violate such a pledge, which was meant not merely for
the ears of Ferdinand, but for those of Great Britain and
Portugal, the allies and friends of France, she commits a
manifest breach of faith towards the people of England,
and becomes an accomplice with the offending party,
though it be at the eleventh hour. We at present un-
doubtedly see no ground for apprehending any connivance
whatever, on the part of his Most Christian Majesty, at
those criminal and faithless projects which we feel indeed
not the slightest scruple in still attributing to his unworthy
brother. It is rumoured that the small force of 8,000
men, which has been publicly ordered by the Court of
Madrid to the Portuguese frontiers, is a mere blind, but
that the real force destined for that service is nearly double
that number. Where does Elie money come from?—Times.
It is, we believe, understood that the Duke of Wel-
lington is to be placed at the bead of the army, the Duke
of _Cambridge, wisely, perhaps, preferring the tranquillity
he enjoys in Hanover to a situation of great influence in
this country no doubt, but one also of great responsibility,
and demanci;og 'considerable labour. It would be pre-
sumptuous in a .Ipurnalist to give any opinion of his own
with respect to the ability of the Duke of Wellington. Ile
can only repeat the opinhnts of professional men, and their
opinions with respect to his Gime are unanimous. But,
unfortunately; there is a suspicion that in another impor-
tant respect his Grace will be objectionable. " The bare
idea," says a contemporary (The Examinee) " of the
Duke of Wellington's being appointed to the Horse
Guards, filled military men with dismay, for they antici-
pated, in this event, a reign of favouritism, his Greee be-
ing extremely addicted to creatures." May the conduct
of his Grace tranquillize the apprehension entertained of
his reign ! Another contemporary (The Globe), noticing
the objections started by The Times and ourselves to the
plan for-putting the office of Commander-in-Chief in Corn-
misaion, on the ground that the patronage would be much
more likely, tinder such an arrangement, to be distributed
for Miniitarial or Parliamentary purposes, than under a re-
sponsiblehead not immediately connected with the Cabi-
net, Obseeves—c“fhis is true; but the impartiality with
which the army Patrot4e has been distributed has, we
fear, had some pernicious consequences; it has contributed
to disarm.that attention. which ;should have been directed
against the increase- of army expenditure." There is, we
suppose, little difference in opinion between our contem-
porary and ourselves, with respect to the policy of garri-
soning so many different points of the globe with our ea-
diers, and the system of division pursued in Ireland, which
renders the presence of a large army constantly necessary
there; to keep down the population. We have no wish to
see the country oppressed by a large army.. At the same
time, we apprehend, any addition of vigilance on the part
of Members of Parliament, acquired by a less impartial
' distribution of the army patronage, would be a very frail
security indeed against the increase of army expenditure.
On the other hand, injustice to numerous individuals, who
have been so unfortunate to choose the most dependent
of all professions as a means of subsistence, is in itself
a great evil, even if there were no danger of an
increase of expenditure from its efficiency being impaired,
and
particularly .at head-quarters ; the consequence of
which would bitilsrthe deficiency in the quality of troops
would have to be nerd,
p by far as the safety of tlais :co ry uni additional numbers. As
external attack is
concerned, soldiers may-be
almost
from
most entirely dispensed
with. But the state of the mount ey is very different now
from What it was when the •q non respecting standing
armies used: to be agitated. W
a require soldiere now,
not to protect us` against foreign enemies, but to protect
the possessors of property- against theree
We have a large and a growing Population who have none.i
in large towns, of which a great number arper.vatei.s
population, congregated
employment, and exposed to all Manner of without
I twin; At
from a
this time; for instances as our readers may Re e
extrae: we have elseaere given from a Carlisle paper, s'n
cial order, can with difficulty be maintained in that neigh-
bourhood. No' man can lay his head on his pillow inse-
curity. In several of, the other manufacturing districts,
Pillage and robbery prevail to a fearful extent. It is only
the knowledge that there is an armed force spread over
the country, that prevents the collection of the criminal
and_ *suffering in masses, which would act with fearful
eu t'Hattlis true that, with the return of full employ-
ment,this evil will in a good Measure cease, and that trade
begins to wear
a more favourable appearance. But we

must prepare ourselves for frequent returns of distress from
want of occupation, and for the discontent arising from an
inadequate remuneration for labour. We may toil and
labour, and boast of our manufactures and our exports, and
our national glory, and so forth, •as much as we please;
we may tamper with our currency; pass Restriction Acts
one year, and repeal them in another; but no proposition
in Euclid can be truer than this, that if the food of any
given country does not increase in the ratio of the ine
crease of the population, a smaller share of it must fall to
the share of individuals. Now, we apprehend no man will
contend that the increase of food in this country has kept
pace with the increase of the population; so that our ex-
tension of manufacturing industry merely means that the
landholder shall have two pots or pans instead of one for
the same quantity of food, and that the labourer shall work
longer and fare worse than he did before. But however
this be, it is certain that the circumstances which render
force more and more necessary for the preservation of or-
der in this country are acquiring every day additional
strength. The peace of the country can only be main-
tained by the bayonet.—Moriting Chronicle.

When Mr. O'Connell charges the liberal .Press of
London with " gross ignorance," he ought to have proved
himself qualified to enlighten it by superior knowledge.
We have often taken the trouble to set Mr. O'Connell
right on points of history, with which, as a lawyer and po-
litical leader, he ought to have a more familiar acquaintance
than his speeches .evince. It is only a few days since Mr.
O'Connell took occasion to lecture the Press of London,
and the Morning Herald in particular, on the ground of
being in a state of lamentable darkness with respect to the
important fact, that " all concessions which had been
made by the British Government to the Roman Catholics
since the enactment of the Penal Laws had been made in
times of war." This is an assertion often made by the
Roman Catholic declaimers; and those who are in the
habit of gathering their historical information from the de-
bates in the Corn Exchange as firmly believe it, as
they do the infallibility of the Pope. It has even been
repeated by more than one of their Irish advocates in Par-
liament, and we wonder its untruth has not been exposed.
The reason of Mr. O'Connell and his party insisting so
much on this point at present, is to justify themselves for
the inhuman exultation with which they contemplated
the prospect of a new European war, which would have
deluged countries, now only recovering from the ravages
of recent and most desolating conflict, with torrents
of blood. If, then, Mr. O'Connell had even read
the history of the Roman Catholic claims correctly,
his statement would not excuse the extravagant joy
which he and others expressed, in the Catholic Asso-
ciation, on hearing of the circumstances which had oc-
curred on the Continent, and which afforded to their
imaginations, the assurance of immediate hostilities.
His argument would only show that the members
of the Association preferred their own selfish inte-

rests to all other human considerations. What else could
account for the cheers with which the harangue of
Mr. Shiel was received, who, amonf other things,
said that " that the cannon's opening roar ' was heard on
the banks of the Tagus, as only the prelude to scenes of which
the Rhine and Danube would be the bloody witnesses."—
What man of Christian feeling—nay, who possessing the
common instincts of humanity, would, in pronouncing
such a sentence, rejoice over the picture of wholesale mi-
sery and destruction which it presented to the mind ?
The people who were thus to perish on the banks of the
Rhine and the Danube, had no part in legislating against
the Roman Catholic claims, and therefore it was very
like gratuitous cruelty to riot in the anticipation of the
victims that were there to be mowed down by the " ca-
lamitous scythe of war." The announcement of such
proceedings in the Roman Catholic Association has pro-
duced; as might have been expected, astonishment and
disgust in England. Hence it is,that Mr. O'Connell comes
forward to attempt to justify the feeling so expressed, by
declaring that no concession was ever made by the British
Government to the Roman Catholics, but when they
were extorted from its fears at some alarming crisis of
hostilities. To substantiate this position, he refers to the
grant of the'elective franchise to the Roman Catholics of
Ireland, in the year 1793, after the declaration of war
against France. Now it happens, unfortunately for his
argument, that this was not the beginning of concession,
but the following up a spirit of toleration which had com-
menced some time before. It was in the year 1791, when
England was at peace with all Europe, that the great
Act to correct the severities of the Penal Code was passed
—that Act, the 31st Geo. 111., which has been called the
" Toleration Act of the Roman Catholics." By this sta-
tute it was provided, that all Roman Catholics who quali-
fied themselves by making a certain declaration, and taking
a prescribed oath against the temporal authority of the
Pope, the doctrine of not keeping faith with heretics,
and of deposing and murdering Princes excommu-
nicated by the See of Rome—should not be prose-
cuted for being Papists, nor for attending or performing
mass or other ceremonies of the Church of Rome. It was
also provided, that if any person should disturb a Roman
Catholic congregation, he, as in the case of disturbing a
meeting of Protestant Dissenters, should be bound over to
the next Sessions, and on conviction there forfeit 20/. No
Roman Catholic qualified under this Act could be prose-
cuted for, instructing youth, or summoned to take the oaths
of supremacy and the declaration against transubstantia-
tion ; neither could a Roman Catholic Peer so qualified
he punished for coming into the presence of the King or
Qoeen. There were other concessions made by this
Act, but those enumerated were the most important.
All persons who are aware of the extreme rigour of
the Penal Laws which were passed from the time
that the JesUits endeavoured to subvert the Go-
vernment in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, through the
troubled reign of the ,Stuarts, down to the assassination
plot in the time of King William, can at once perceive'
What a vast advance the spirit of a more humane policy
had made, as exemplified by the provisions of this Act.
But the first relaxation of the Code had been made in the
eighteenth year of his late Majesty, or the year 1778, and
the King and his Ministers were so opposed, in the libe-
rality of their principles to the spirit of the nationat the time,
that the remedial 4et of that period led to the dreadful
riots of London in 1780. When these ameliorations were
proposed, there was.no spouting club under thesname of a
Roman Catholic Association, either in England or Ireland,
raising the war-whoop of. popular excitement against the,
,Admmistration, and threatening the British State with the
vengeance of seven millions of exasperated slaves. No,
there was then nothing of the-kind ; the Roman Catholics
were then indeed really oppressed—they were liable to
penalties that laid them continually at the mercy of that
most detestable class of mankind, the common informers;
they might.be punished for instructing youth—for attend-
ing mass—and on many other grounds; their landed pro-
perty could be divested from them by the most distant re-
lation who chose to turn Protestant ; yet under all these
grievances and grinding oppressions the Roman Catholics
were mute and submissive. The first relaxations of this
frightful Code were not extorted by violent declaimers,
from the fears of the British people, but were the spon-
taneous emanation of 4e Royal will, acting under advice,
that did credit to the wisdom and humanity of the British
Councils.—Morning Herald.
We gave, yesterday, a statement of the Revenue. Some
of cur contemporaries say, that every shilling that could be
squeezed into the account was squeezed in. This is not
improbable—for the Parliament will soon meet again, and
the Minister would wish to present as favourable a state-
ment as he could, not only to please the Parliament and
the people of Great Britain, but also to show the world,
particularly France and the rest of the Holy Alliance, as
i•favourable a state of our affairs as possible. The Revenue,
however, has not a very pleasing appearance ; for the year
1823, the sum total was about 48i millions—the last year
it Was. 461 millions. There is, therefore, a falling off of
two millions. This may be accounted for by the taxation
on many things having been lessened. At the same time,
we remember it' was said, that though the taxes were to
, he taken off many things, yet that the Revenue would not
I be diminished, and that in consequence of greater cheap-

ness, the consumption would be increased, and the Revenue
would remain still the same, or even be increased. The
late returns of Revenue, however, do not bear out these
assertions, built on hopes. But to revert to the statement.
The Revenue for 1826 appears to be about forty-six mil-
lions and a half, to which may be added about three mil-
lions and a half for extra revenue of one sort or other, and
we may add about two millions, arising from the dead
weight hocus pocus of Mr. Vansittart. The account will
stand thus if we be correct :

REVENUE OR INCOIIR. Millions.
Ad per statement 464
Extra of one sort or other Si
Mr. Vansittart's delusive contrivance, in order to
keep up appearances

Revenue or Income..

. 52

Here we have fifty-two millions of Revenue or Income.
The next thing to be considered is the Expenditure.
First we have the Debt, the interest of which, in round
numbers, including the interest on what are called the
Funded and Unfunded Debts is about thirty millions. The
Government expenditure, we well know, has been, since
the peace, as near twenty millions a year, on the average,
as may be. Here we have; therefore, in expenditure :
EXPENDITURE. Millions.
Interest of Funded and Unfunded Debt
Government 2O

Expenditure 5O
The expenditure, therefore, of the ordinary nature, is pro-
bably fifty millions, while the income amounts, probably,to
fifty-two millions. Under such circumstances, therefore,
there is a surplus of income beyond expenditure of two
millions. This we should call the Sinking Fund. But
then our readers should bear in mind, that if it had not been
for Mr. Vansittart's dead weight delusion of two millions,
there would, for this, last year, have been no surplus of
income beyond expenditure, or Sinking Fund of two mil-
lions. However, an appearance of two millions of Sinking
Fund is better than nothing ; but, when we consider that
the expenditure to Portugal will cost at least two millions,
away goes the Sinking Fund, and all our hopes of ever
getting rid of the Debt of 800 millions, except by Act of
Parliament, which Act of Parliament will as surely come
some of those days, reducing the interest—first, half per
cent. then three-fourths per cent., then one per cent., and
so on—as that we write. Well, that would be only like
all other things, a nine day's wonder. The interest of the
Debt was created by Act of Parliament, and the taxes to
pay the interest were created by Act of Parliament ; and
whenever the time arrives, and it will one of these days
arrive, when the taxation will not meet the interest of the
Debt and the Government expenses, then will an Act of
Parliament be passed to the effect that the Fundholders
must take less interest. Certainly, a Property Tax would
meet such an exigency, but there is not virtue enough in
the country to agree to a Property Tax ; in preference,
therefore, the universal cry will be—let the Fundholders,
the weaker vessel of the two, go to the
We stated some weeks since, that the King of France
had caused it to be communicated to our Government,
that he had formally apprised Ferdinand of his determi-
nation to recal the Swiss troops, if he persisted in a course
of conduct towards Portugal, such as England and France
must equally disapprove of. The policy of Ferdinand,
subsequently to receiving that inti:nation, has certainly
not been conformable to the just expectations of the two
Powers above-named ; and it followed, as a matter of
course, that what was threatened would be executed. It
need not surprise us, therefore, to learn, that positive
orders have been sent to Madrid, for the return of the
Swiss troops immediately; or that Ferdinand, prepared
for such order, has calculated, we will not say with what
prudence, upon the consequences. It is evident he con-
siders himself strong enough to set both England and
France at defiance; while every step he takes in the des-
perate path of resistance, will only render future adjust-
ment more difficult or more humiliating. Does he fear his
own subjects, if he yields; or is he sustained by assu-
rances of foreign support ? The explanations given by the
Count de Villa Real in the Portuguese-Chamber of Peers,
of the part acted by some of the Diplomatic Body at
Madrid, justify the latter supposition. In discussing this
question, we must not lose sight of one fact, that it in-
velves, if not an avowed, certainly a secret, struggle be-
tween ultra-legitimate and moderately constitutional, doc-
trines. By some of the zealots of the former sect, Mr.
Canning has been proclaimed " the first Jacobin in
Europe ;" and there are those who would consider the
defeat of Mr. Canning's policy as the triumph of sound
monarchical principle. The present is the first occasion
that has arisen of practically trying the strength of the
t►co parties. At Laybach and at Verona, England kept
herself aloof, satisfied with merely protesting against the
assumption of a right, to the exercise of which she would
not become a party. The Peninsula, then, is the arena ,
where this struggle will be carried on, and where the oc-
cupation of Piedmont and Naples by Austria, and that of
Spain by France, will be, retrospectively as it were,
brought to a solemn decision. We deceive ourselves if
we believe, that, in the proud and fearless course which
England is pursuing, she leads the rest of Europe willing
spectators of, or participators in, her great achievement.
—There are well-understood reasons why a tacit acquies-
cence is preferred to open resistance; but let what may
be considered the fit opportunity for the latter present
itself, and the genius of the Holy Alliance will not silently
take her flight from the councils of the Continental So-
vereigns.—New Times.