The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. Baring last night alluded forcibly to a circumstance
with which the public have been much occupied of late,
namely, the anarchical state of the Ministry. If there
were the.slightest chance of the restoration of Lord Liver-
pool to such a degree of vigour as would allow him to
place himself once more at the head of affairs, the delay in
naming a successor to him would be intelligible. But the
faintest hope is not entertained by any one. In the mean
time no one seems to trouble himself about the business
of the nation. The several Ministers are either intriguing-
for themselves or for their friends, and of course exclu-
sively occupied with what to them is much more deeply
interesting than public business. The King can do no
wrong, and of course we do not mean to say that there is
le
▪ any thing wrong in his keeping the nation without a re-
sponsible Ministry. But there can be no question that
ta., those who gave the very foolish advice to his Majesty,
• which has led him to delay so long the exercise of his pre-
• rog-ative, are very much to blame, and some Member of
influence ought, as Mr. Baring suggests, to endeavour to
undeceive his Majesty with respect to the nature of the
advice under which he has acted, and to move an Address
for the nomination of a responsible Premier. A feeling of
pity to Ministers would prescribe the extricating them as
soon as possible from their painful state of suspension, and
from the lengthened indulgence of envy and all uncha-
ritableness towards each other.—Morning Chronicle.
We could not but admire the Lord Chancellor the other
evening, in his place in the House of Lords, when a peti-
tion was brought up from some of the Catholics in Ireland,
in which the name of the Bishop of Waterford was men-
tioned. The Lord Chancellor said, he knew nothing of a
Bishop of Waterford other than the Protestant Bishop of
Waterford. He did not acknowledge two Bishops of the
same diocese. On a rejoinder being put in to his Lord-
ship's observations, that the King, when he was in Ireland,
received the whole of the Catholic Bishops in their canoni-
cals, his Lordship observed, that he knew not what the
King did when he was in Ireland—what was stated might
11 be true enough ; but that for his part, while he sat in
that House as the King's representative, he would acknow-
ledge no other Bishops but those acknowledged by the
law. We hare not been for a long time so well pleased
-with any thing of a public nature as this ; it reminded us
of the spirit of the Judge who committed Henry the Fifth
to prison, when Henry was but Prince of Wales. On the
same principle the Catholics might have their Archbishops
of York and Canterbury, and Bishops of London, Chester,
&c. Question whether, if the Catholic claims were con-
ceded, should we have a creation of Catholic Archbishops
and Bishops of the dioceses we have named ? Because, if
so, it would be rather curious, in giving an account of the
speeches of the Prelacy in the House of Lords, were we
to state—His Grace the Protestant Archbishop of Can-
terbury said so and so, against a proposition for granting
a provision for the Catholic Clergy ; and his Grace the
Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury said so and so in fa-
vour of a proposition for increasing the taxation of the
country, that the Catholic Clergy might be paid fi y the
State, instead of as heretofore, being paid by their own
flocks. If Lord Eldon were Speaker of the House of
Lords under such circumstances, his Lordship would not
be a little puzzled to know how to decide between their
Protestant and Catholic Graces of Canterbury. But. we
do not think that the time will ever arrive when Ca-
tholic Prelates will sit by the side of Protestant Prelates
in the House of Lords, and that John Bull will have to
eontrive the means of paying an additional number of pas-
tors.—slforning Herald.
Our readers will give us credit for having, from the
first, opposed ourselves, by every means in our power, to
the adoption of Mr. Canning's Portuguese Expedition.
Tc ourselves this might be considered, in the outset, al-
most
a service of danger; for such was the general enthu-
siasm and delusion which the Minister's eloquence threw
over his project, that every one who refused to sail with
-the tide, or to breast its progress, stood a chance of being
run down and scuttled in the attempt. Extremes, how-
ever, are seldom lasting; and on this subject the good
sense of the public seems to be righting itself, with even
more rapidity than could have been expected. Every
account which reaches us from the seat of warfare showe
more clearly the complete fallacy and deception under
which the public mind, and that of its most accomplished
Statesman, have been misled. The reception our troops
have met with in Portugal has been mortifying enough—
widely different, indeed, from that which they were en-
titled to expect, as deliverers, among a nation burning to
be free; but when the mask is still further withdrawn,
and, instead of a nation burning to be free, our ancient
Allies are much more inclined to hug their chains, and
despite their would-be deliverers, we are lost in asto-
nishment at the total want of common information,
which must have fallen to the lot of those who
could be the egregious dupes of the most barefaced and
palpable imposition which 3 as ever been practised upon
the credulity of a nation. Such facts as this Portuguese
affair is every day furnishing are damning proofs, unfor-
tunately, of that race of little minds upon which we
have unfortunately fallen. Of what sort of materials
must those Statesmen be formed, who can thus
suffer themselves to be the dupes of a barefaced
imposture; and who, in their turn, madden, as it were,
the country with the fruits of their own dupery ? Unfor-
tunately, no party in the country is exempt from this op-
probrium ; for not only do the Ministers, one and all,
adopt the tone and assumed facts of their leader, but the
igacious, wily Opposition fall into the same snare, and
join, like false hounds, in following this artificial scent.—
In the mean time, the nation at large sees itself involved
in an expensive contest which may he interminable; its
choicest troops embarked on a project in which they can,
Ai yet appears, neither hope to reap honour nor fame.—
Parliament, at the same time, seems ashamed and astound-
ed at its own credulity. Like a drunken man, who dreads
in the morning to, ask the particulars of his over-night's
excess, a rigid dilence seems to be observed in the quarter
from which alone the views of Government can correctly
be elicited. The illness of the leading Minister in each
House may be some reason for this ; but much as such a
double calamity is to be regretted, on all accounts, it is
not to our minds at least, a sufficient reason why the pul-
eic affairs should stand still, or why the Representatives
of the people should, refrain from inquiring in what state
this new war, the offspring of their own mistaken enthu-
siasm, really stands. le is a pity that Mr. Canning, hav-
ing so little health and strength to spare, and having such
large demands upon it in his own department, should have
suffered it to be drawn upon and exhausted by the Corn
Jaws or the Catholics. But if he has taken those matters
• for his colleagues, his colleagues in return must work
for ho ; the more so, as it becomes absolutely necessary
that no ne,":.re time should be lost in letting the country
know what its real prospects and situation are on a subject
of so much doubt and difficulty as that upon which its
judgment has been so eYiclently misled.—lbid.
The dignifesd ecclesiastics in Portugal, have either sub-
mitted quietly to the Constitution, or have been active
promoters of its success. But, from the admonitions,
which the Ministry at Lisbon have thought it necessary
to issue to the Clergy, and from the measures of vigilance
and precaution, which have been ordered to be adopted
towards them, it appeared evident, that the lower orders
of the Priests have been most active in misleading the
peasantry of Tras-os-Montes, and Beira, into rebellion ;
and that even in districts, where open rebellion could not
be executed, they have endeavoured to create dissatisfac-
tion with the new order of things. We do not disguise
from ourselves, that this is a circumstance which will
throw great obstacles in the way of the Constitution's
taking firm root in the habits and affections of the people.
Ecclesiastics, who come into daily contact with the lower
...enters of the people, have always a great influence over
the public mind : but, in a country like Portueal, long
sunk in the deepest darkness and bigotry of Popish su-
perstition, they are omnipotent. Their enmity is greatly
to be lamented, and the more so, that we see no means
by- which their friendship can be conciliated. Their power