The Sun.
London, England, 1827-09-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT •OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The failure of the Mexican Government to
provide for its engagements to the public credi-
tor has produced for some days past an extrerne
agitation in the speculative money-market, and a
panic and distress among those individuals who
had made investments designed to be permanent
in that stock, which are certainly much to be
lamented. Nothing, however, can be more pre-
posterous than to insist on any interference of the
British Government, with a view to redress the
evil. If the holders of IVlexican stock find that
they have got hold of a ticklish article they and
others after them will have received a wholesome
lesson for the future management of their pro-
perty : if the Mexican Republic, either through
improvidence, or neglect, or want of principle,
fail to pay their debts, they will lose their credit ;
and thus the proper remedy is administered
through the natural course of things, without the
violent and impolitic intermeddling of a third
agent between borrower and lender. There is
another Government—namely) that of Spain—
which feels with tolerable soreness the same ope-
ration of cause and consequence in its actual
pecuniary condition. The base roguery of Fer-
dinand, not merely in withholding the interest
of loans, on the proceeds of which he and his
family subsisted, and with which he bribed the
public servants of his own Government to betray
their trusts to the state, but in disavowing the
debts themselves, which were contracted on the
authority of his name and signature, is obviously
a much stronger case than that of either Mexico
or Colombia; but even there, a direct interposi-
tion by the King's Government would be ill-
advised and inadmissible. If the State were to
be called upon for succour whenever an impru-
dent speculation is disappointed, one of two
things must happen. Should the foreign Go-
vernment (as is most likely) turn a deaf ear to
the remonstrances of Ministers, they must give
up the point, and bring the country into ridicule ;
or persisting in their interference to extremity, it
will be, at any time, in the power of a city loan-
contractor and his customers to involve the king-
dom in a foreign war.—Times.

A case at Bow-street, on Saturday, affords a
striking illustration of the difficulty of guarding
by any degree of caution against liability to
quarrel. Captain Smith and General Barry were
passengers in one of the steam-packets from Ire-
land to this country, and while at dinner, the
Captain asked the General to take wine with
him, which the other declined, as when at sea
wine and spirits made him ill. This was con-
strued by the other party into an affront, which
required an explanation, or the alternative of
meeting. So much depends on the manner of
doing a thing, that it is very difficult for a
person not present at an occurrence like the one
in question to say how far the mode of refusal
was or was not calculated to hurt the feelings of
the other party. Perhaps, if the Captain had
been a Commander-in-Chief, it might have oc-
curred to the General, that it is very common in
society for gentlemen, to whom wine is inter-
dicted, to accept the pledge in water. But, when
a man is in momentary expectation of sea sick-
xtess, if he have it not already, there is an excuse
for the want of this presence of mind, especially
when there is no particular motive for calling it
into exercise ; and when we have only a plank
between us and the briny deep, a Hydrophobia
is almost as excusable as an Oinophobia. Very few
men are over and above polite when attending to
the state of their stomachs at sea ; and for our
parts we should esteem it no slight achievement
if, at such a conjuncture, we steered clear of all
positive aggression. When a man has retired
within himself, like a snail within his shell, it is
exceedingly trying to the temper to be called
forth to participate in the courtesies of social
life. So much for the incident which might, but
for the good sense of General Barry, have led to
a loss of human life. To an Englishman it is
difficult to imagine how any man should con-
ceive such an incident, on the most unfavourable
supposition, afforded him the slightest ground
for personal quarrel. He might feel mor-
tified, or piqued, but he would never dream
that he was called upon to cut down all
whose demeanour did not come exactly up
to his idea of propriety. He would never
think of proceeding to the extremity of
taking away the life of another, or risking his
own, without a ground of justification, with
which he could satisfy his own conscience. The
difference between the man of civilized society
and the savage is, that the former, from the con-
stant discipline to which lie has been subjected
from infancy, acquires a certain mastery over his
impulses, and endeavours to square his actions
with the opinions of society. Mr. Harriot, in
his amusing " Struggles through Life," ob-
serves that the savages, with, whom he lived,
possessed not the slightest controul over any of
their impulses, and that whatever passed through
their minds received immediate effect in some
act, so that it was- impossible for any man to
count one minute on personal safety in their so-
ciety. M. Von Buch, in his description of the
Fair of Christiania, in Norway, notices the con-
nexion between self-controul and civilization, as
displayed in the inhabitants of the different pro-
vinces of that extensive country.—" The natives
of Oevre Tellemarken," he says, " alone con-
tinue to wear the broad northern girdle round
the waist, and in this girdle they fix a largeknife,
like the Italians. Every step and movement of
these men is characteristic and definite. They
have only one object in view, and nothing which
surrounds them can deaden the eagerness with
which they pursue ti object. The Boor of
Foadloreg and Moss is far from hawing this
distinct character. Nearer to the town Ins bu-
siness is also morevarious, and lie looks around
him with attention and caution to discover any
little advantages which spay bring him easier and
more securely to his end. If Sir Jonah Bar-
rington were to be taken as an authority, we
should suppose that our Irish brethren, notwith-
standing their alleged Milesian antiquity, have
yet many of the signs of national juvenility, and
among others that insensibility to the value of
life which is characteristic of youth. But they
have probably acquired more of the virtues:of age
since the time of Sir Jonah, and we trust that
the good sense displayed by General Barry,
whose name leads to the presumption of an
Hibernian origin, will have more admirers among
them than the unreflecting impetuosity of Cap-
tain Smith.—Morning Chronicle.
We have lately, on more than one occasion,
called the attention of our readers to the ques-
tion of Foreign Loans ; and though we have not
been fortunate enough to lead our contempora-
ries to the consideration of this important sub-
ject, we have the satisfaction of knowing that
what we said has not been thrown away, but that
on the contrary it ban excited the attention of
the public in no inconsiderable degree. That
the public should be interested this question
_ll ....nrisinz. esneciallv when we enn.