The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Paris Papers of Thursday and Friday,
which arrived last night, contain long extracts
from the Belgic Journals, expressing alarm at
the new project of law on the press, and utter-
ing loud complaints against the general conduct
of the Government. The grounds of the violent
opposition now offered in the Netherlands, to
°tie of the most enlightened Sovereigns and one
of the mildest Administrations in Europe, it is
more easy to explain than to justify. The King
is a Protestant, and therefore obnoxious to the
same fanatical clergy who resisted the reforms of
the Emperor Joseph—the King is a Dutchman,
and therefore an object of aversion with those
who are jealous of the influence of Holland, and
desirous of a union with France. The bigotted
clergy and the factious Liberals,- therefore,
though opposed to each other in every other
respect as much as light to darkness, or fanati-
cism to infidelity, cordially join in one thing—
their dislike to their present political rulers, and
to their present national alliance. So long as
France remained under the influence of the Je-
suits, whose entrance into Belgium was resisted
by the King of the Netherlands, so long the
cause of the Liberals was separated from that of
the Priests ; but no sooner were the two coun-
tries assimilated in respect to the expulsion of
the hated sect, than the old attachment of the
former for a French connexion returned. Jaco-
binical Frenchmen established in Brussels, and
in possession of a large share of the public press,
eagerly mingled in this scene of strife, and en-
deavoured to blow every spark of Belgic jealousy
or dissatisfaction into a flame of hatred against
their Dutch fellow-subjects. Add to this, that
not only the language, the habits, and the reli-
gion of the two people are different, but that their
commercial and manufacturing interests appear
often directly opposed, and we shall find the
cause of that imperfect union which the en-
joyment for fifteen years of a common Govern-
ment has not been able to consolidate. Nor are the
Belgians without some real and justifiable causes
of dissatisfaction and complaint. By their union
with Holland, and their separation Custom-
houses from France, they have surrendered a
larger market for a smaller,—an alliance of which
they were proud, for one at which they feel humi-
liated. The repulsive force of the feeling which
this state of things naturally inspires can only be
provided against by expensive fortresses, and a
standing army disproportioned to the resources
of the country. Thus the hostile feeling which
opposition of interest creates is increased by the
means adopted for its repression, and the two
sections of the kingdom are mutually burdened
that they may be kept together by the common
weight which presses upon both. The attempt
made five or six years ago to dispense with these
artificial means of cohesion by compelling the
adoption of a common language different
from the French, had a tendency rather to exas-
perate than to allay existing discontents. It
was impossible, without great oppression, to
change in a few years the tongue of a whole
people, whatever political necessity might exist
for the change ; and accordingly the Govern-
ment has had to bear all the odium of the
undertaking without deriving any safety from its
success. So little progress has been made in
the change, that in the States-General the two
languages are still spoken, and it is no uncom-
mon thing to hear a Dutch speech answered by
a Belgian in French.—Times.

The simultaneous attempts to shackle the
freedom of the press upon political subjects,
which are making in three of the principal
States of Europe—France, England, and the
Netherlands—is equally ominous and extraordi-
nary. In the Netherlands the object is openly
avowed, which in this country and in France has
hitherto been only covertly acted upon—viz.
that of screening the acts of the public servants
of the Government under the same indemnity
which has, by common consent, been allowed to
extend to the Regal Office itself. Leaving the
subjects of other countries to look alter their
own rights, we cannot, as far as our own is con-
cerned, but express our surprise that there should
be any such extreme sensibility as we have wit-
nessed of late, in any part of an English Ad-
ministration. as to the public remarks which are
passed upon their conduct. Singular enough,
with the persons who betray this sensibility, the
Press is at once the object of their love and
of their hate. Though they cannot exist but
within its atmosphere, and some of them owe
their very tiolical existence to it, no sooner
does it wound their vanity or self-love than they
spurn the'much admired cup from their lips, and
would, if they were able, paralyze the hand
which furnishes the wholesome draught. Ail
this betrays a narrow littleness of mind, which is
quite below what ought to belong to a British
Statesman. No man's foibles, it is said, are so
well known to any body as to his valet de
chambre ; and there is a domestic pettishness in
all this animosity to the Press which a great
mind ought not to allow itself to exhibit when
dressed in action before dm, world. We do not
deny that there may be occasions when the Press
runs riot ; but there is a controul—viz. that of
public opinion and patronage, which will always,
if left to themselves to act, check any material
exuberances of the kind. The pub!ic at large
are much more just towards public men than they
are aware of; nor is any injustice towards them,
ho-wever it may appear to be caught at, sanctioned
in the end, or even for a time, to any thingl;.'ke the
extent their too nervous sensibility leads them to
imagine. While the Press:is free and unshackled,
an unjust accusation or assertion is soon an-
swered, refuted, and consigned to oblivion ; while
the measures which are taken to ruin and pu-
nish the author often give to real calumny the
only weight and importance it could possibly
receive. But this is taking the matter in the
strongest light against the Press ; and we feel en-
titled to take a much higher ground. No man ever;
dreaded the Press who had no occasion to do so;
and as for public men, their acts are public pro-
perty ; they decide the fate of empires and of
their fellow-citizens, who are entitled to vi `,w
them, and have them viewed, in whatever light
they please. In this country we do nGt mean to
put the power and influence of the Press upon a
par with the valour of its fleets and armies, or
with the spirit of its commercial enterprise; but,
next these, we would fearlessly assert that there
is nothing under Heaven to which it is more in-
debted for its welfare at home and its eminent.e
abroad, than to that unbending principle of free
discussion by which it has long been distin-
guished an all subjects of foreign or domestic
interest; and by, means of which a new, a
wholesome, and powerful check has been fur-.
nished on tho acts os those who, either from
mistake or design, might compromise the general
safety or well-being. Compared to its blessings
and advantages in every point of view, the de-
merits of the Press are but as a feather in the
scale; and that Statesman must ill appreciate his
own fame, or the lasting benefit which the full

and fearless discussion of his own actions can
ever produce, who would, to gratify a momentary
spleen, or shield a questionable transaction, de-
stroy one 'particle of that freedom of' opinion
which gives td the political, as the breath does
to the animarinachine, its-very life and power of
existence:—Morning Herald.
It is now generally allowed that the Govern-
ments which are in most danger of Revolution,
are those in- which the fewest checks arc im-
posed on men in power. The Emperor Nicho-
las is much younger, and therefore, we presume,
more robust than George the Fourth ; but the
nerves of the latter would hardly be discomposed
by an unusual noise in the room next to that in
which he slept, nor would it ever occur to him
that any such noise was connected with an at-
tempt to deprive him of life. A Constitutional
Government—that is, a Government in which
the people exercise a controul more or less per-
fect over the Executive through their Represen-
tatives, and under which abuses are from time
to time remedied—is necessarily much less ex-
posed to a violent revolution, than a Govern-
inent in which the influence of the people is not
brought to bear. A despotic Sovereign never
can know correctly the sentiments of the people ;
and from the pains taken to prevent the truth
from reaching his ear, the first intimation he re-
ceives of his error is the sight of the steel which
terminates his existence. In this country, where
there are comparatively feeble motives for keeping
any one individual in the dark, it is now known
that certain publications were occasionally kept
from the late King, by the dexterous manage-
ment of members of his family ; and we may
thence form an idea of the difficulty of conveying
truth to the ears of Autocrats. But as Repre-
sentative Governments may be any thing rather
Than what they pretend to be, and have little or
no sympathy with the people, the grand preser-
vative against violence is a free press. If the
press be free, the opinions and feelings of the
public are revealed, and an opportunity is thus
afforded for profiting by. them in time ; so that
the changes demanded by the public may be
made, and the danger avoided of having the
action of a Government in collision with the
wishes of the people. It has sometimes been
said that the unjust and wasteful wars of the last
and beginning of the present century, and other
wicked and ill-judged measures ofthe Government,
were sanctioned by the great body of the people.
lowever this may be, it is pretty clear that
popular opinion has now taken a different direc-
tion. In the forthcoming number of the
Westminster Review, with an early copy of
which we have been furnished, there is an article
on the Provincial Newspaper Press, which* con-
tains some valuable information on the changes
in public opinion, as indicated by the most un-
erring of all tests—the circulation of Newspapers
—which our rulers would do well to attend to.
The Newspapers of the country are becoming
every day more and more liberal ; where new
Papers are established, they are almost uni-
formly liberal, and of the established Papers of
great circulation, which are rather neutral than
not liberal, the circumstance is to be accounted
for from their having been commenced " under
Administrations which encouraged every kind
of tyranny in the " duly constituted authorities,"
from the office of the Secretary of State for the
.Home Department, to the Constable of a Hamlet,
when the expression of liberal opinions would
have been attended with danger to the pecuniary
interests, if not to the persons of those who
%tumid utter them," in towns " requiring some
public means of announcing the mercantile
changes and wants of the population." f' Several
of the most extensively circulated country Papere,"
adds the writer, " had this kind of origin ; and
in every town where the improved ideas and
principles of the last four years have made rapid
progress, the reading and reasoning part of the in-
habitants are satisfied to tolerate a local print
which is either a mere medium for advertise-
ments, or the political opinions of which do not
represent their own." The difficulties in the
way of establishing newspapers are much greater
in the country than in the metropolis. " There
are few towns (it is observed) in which a printer
is to be found with sufficient materials for print-
ing a newspaper, unless he has already one of
hie own, consequently a large outlay of capital
becomes necessary. Then the literary engage-
ments must be at least for one year, for no man
of talent and experience in newspapers would ac-
cept aim engagement on a new provincial print
for a shorter term. Agents must be appointed
over the whole diArict, and a variety of expene.es
must be incurred, of which nothing is known in
the setting up of a London weekly newspaper.
Considering all these, and, next, the great difli.
culty of obtaining subscribers and advertisements
in towns or districts where prejudices and Witte
are much stronger than in the metropolis—
where, in short, every thing new, however excel-
lent, is regarded with distrust—the surpriee that
there should be so few liberal papers in some
places will yield to astonishment that the march
of intellect' should have induced so many per-
sons to risk their capital in this way in others.
As we proceed we shalt endeavour toi show the
extent to which this enterprising spirit has already
Been carried ; and it does not require the spirit
of prophecy to foretell that, unless some extraor-
dinary and unexpected circumstances should oc,
ur to prevent so desirable a result, new papers,
conducted with the spirit and liberality which so
eminently characterise many of the provincial
newspapers, will soon appear in places which
!nave now either only a mere advertisement sheet,
with a column or so of accidents and offences,
or a print devoted to the interests of percons of
the old Tory school, teho contrive, amid the
fondness for what is ancient ainong Englishmen,
to maintain a certain degree of influence in so-
ciety." The encouragement afforded to news-
papers, by the public, has raised the qualihea.,
tions of the conductors. " The chief thing,"
observes the writer, " worthy of notice in the pro-
vincial newspapers is the skill and talent with
which they are conducted, as compared with whet
was witnessed thirty years ago. At that time,
scarcely one-third of the provincial papers had
editors who were capable of writing what are
called leading articles : they were chiefly printers,
many of whom had no knowledge of any other
editorial duties than the paste and scissoee pert
of the process of putting a newspaper together;
and the original articles were written by gentlemen
connected with the London press, by whom
they were sent down to the country. A few
years ago, it was by no means unusual to see
advertisements in the London newspapers,
Wanted an Eakin for a provincial newspaper,
who understands, the business of reporting and
can work,at 'case,' thus coenbining the duties of
an editors reporter, and compositor; and we
inweleard of one instance in which a gentleman
svas offered M. per annum to compile a paper,
write an original leader, report the proceedings be-
fore the magistrates, compose two columns of the
paper, and assist in the evening in serving in the shop

of the proprietor, who was a stationer. We have
also heard of the proprietor of a paper in the
North of England, who was a printer and pub-
lican, dismissing his editor because that gentle-
man would not undertake to teach the children
of his employer to read, and thus economise the
expence of schooling—but these things are now
past, or are of very rare occurrence. Two- •
thirds at least of the provincial Newspapers arc
now in the hands of wealthy and well-educated
persons, who are able to appreciate and willing
to reward talent ; and the consequence is, that
the Editors of Country Papers, generally speak-
ing, are men of good literary attainments and
liberal principles. With the mechanical im-
provement of the Provincial Press, mental im-
provement has more than kept pace ; and we
may read in the local prints of Liverpool,
Manchester,. Leeds, and other towns, as
well-written and well-imagined productions
as in the columns of the best of the Lon-
don newspapers." We have stated that the
increased circulation is almost uniformly
on the liberal side. Even the Tory Papers of
great towns partake in the improvement of the
age. Thus, for instance, it is observed by the
writer—" It may be well to state, for the infor-

mation of those readers who do not see the
Liverpool Papers, that most of them (even the
Live, pool Courier, to a certain extent) advo-
cate free trade principles. This fact, we think,
is a very powerful answer to the assertions of
one or two London Journals, that the principal
merchants in Great Britain are opposed to a
system of free trade, and fully convinced of its
fallacy." In nearly all the towns where there is
more than one newspaper, at least two-thirds of
the circulation is 'liberal, and this is a circum-
stance which ought to have its weight with men
in power. It has been well observed by Hume,
that every Government must rest on opinion.—
The most arbitrary Monarch must have the
good opinion of those who enable him to exercise
his sway. In this country, wherever the people
are untrammelled, they show, by the papers they
read, the opinions to which they are inclined.—
With the increasing knowledge, we may count
confidently on increasing liberality. If these
signs of the times are attended to ;if the Go-
vernment accommodate itself to the opinions of
the nation, and those changes in our institutions
are conceded which the people demand as essen-
tial to their security against misgovernment and
oppression, all will go on well ; but if, on the

other hand, Parliament should be so infatuated
as to resist the ameliorations which are so loudly
demanded, the consequences may be foreseen
without much difficulty. Let it never be for-
gotten, that in matters of improvement and civi-
lization th:2rc is no retrograding. When the
views have become enlarged, and the desires to
which they lead have been formed, it is too late
to inspire the people with a love of their former ig-
norance and prostration of mind.—Morn.Chron.
We have no disposition either to underrate
the importance of the subject which excites at
►he present moment so much discussion
throughout the country—the repeal or mitiga-
tion of the Malt and Beer Duties—or to in►-
pute selfish or factious motives to the majority
of those who exert themselves to direct the at-
tention of Government, by means of popular
meetings and petitions, to the peculiar evils of
this particular mode of taxation. What we
have said in adverting to this subject on a for-
mer occasion, is merely that every particular
mode of taxation has its peculiar evils, and that
whenever it may be possible to surrender any
portion of the national revenue, consistently
with the security and the indispensable obliga-
tions of the State, the Government will be en-

abled to take a view more comprehensive ant'
minute, and therefore more likely to be aecu.

rate, of the comparative inconveniences and dis
___

advantages incident to each, and will therefore
be better qualified to select the most beneficial
mode of reduction, than any popular meeting,
or any conceivable number of popular meetings,
can reasonably be thought. There is not, how-
ever, we apprehend, in this reasoning, any thing
derogatory to the importance of public meetings,
which must always be considered highly valu-
able and beneficial, when properly conducted,
from their tendency to keep alive the public
spirit of the country, and to prevent that indo-
lence, indifference, or corruption, into which,
without their vivifying and purifying influence,
Government might be liable to fall, no less than
from the probability that upon many subjects
and occasions their suggestions may be right,
and the claim these suggestions unquestionably
possess to the regard, and we had almost said
the implicit obedience, of Government, when.
ever they are not decisively overruled by impe-
rious considerations of State necessity or expe-
diency. The reduction of the Malt and Beer
Duties, if not the very first, ought no doubt to
be one of the earliest objects of the attention of
Government, whenever the actual income and
necessary expenditure of the State assume such
a relation to each other as will permit the reduc-
tion of taxes to be taken into consideration as a
practical question. The interests of agriculture,
and those still more important and general inte-
rests of .:very State, the health and morals of the
people, ate deeply implicated in this inquiry, and
plainly point to the taxes now under considera-
tion as entitled to the preference over most
others, whenever the gratifying duty may
devolve upon Government of selecting which
of our multifarious taxes shall be first
abolished or reduced, Having made this
general,. ample, and cheerful admission,
we think it right at the same time to point
out one or two mistakes, exaggerations, or
inconsistencies, into which some of the most
zeaions and urgent advocates of the repeal of
these taxes have permitted themselves to be be-
trayed, which have a tendency to weaken and dis-
eredit their cause, and which expose them to the
reproub of being the lovers of good and cheap
beer, more than the lovers of truth. That the
beer tax operates unequally is true, since it falls
only upon those who drink brewers' beer, while
the man that brews 'at home is exempt. But it
is false aud invidious to assert that the class
which falls under the operation of the tax is ex-
clusively or even generally the poor, and that
the exempted ,plass is exclusively or even gene-
rally the rich. The classification would be more
emirate, and would also be le.Frs likely to pro-
duce feelings of irritation and discontent, if the
sufferers from the tax were described as the in-
habitants of large tow-nc, and those who escape
it ais the dwellers in the country. The fact is,
that the occupier of the meanest cottage in thp
country, supposing him capable of ordinary ma-
nagement And economy, enjoye greater facili-
ties for the domestic manufacture of beer than
the Nobleman who lives in Grosvenor-square,
or the most opulent shopkeeper in Fleet-
street or Cheauside. We have admitted that
this is not a , good tax, in acknowledging it
to be an unequal one ; but it is a redeeming
circumstance connected with this inevality, that

it presents to the lower orders of our rural popu-
lation one additional inducement to keep aloof
from the alehouse, by putting it completely out
of the power of the village Boniface to offer
them nearly so good or so cheap a beverage as
they can provide for themselveS at home. With
the same class of reasoners who habitually in-
dulge in the misrepresentation we have just ex-
posed, the licensing system, or, as they usually
term it, the brewer's monopoly, is a frequent sub-
ject of severe animadversion. Neither have we
any objection to severity upon this latter mis-
chief— for mischief no doubt it is, since it fet-
ters the freedom of individual action, without
the least necessity or the least advantage, except
with a view to the interests it has itself created.
But although we have never yet heard a good
reason why the trade in beer should not be as
free as any other trade, yet even upon this the
most absurd perhaps of all existing anomalies,
we should wish severity to be confined within
the limits of justice and reason ; and in the
abuse which is daily lavished upon Members of
Parliament, and Justices of the Peace, and
great Brewers, we can see no ether tendency,
and it requires all our charity to give credit
for any other intention, than to exasperate
and mislead the public. There can be no
doubt in the mind of any man who can-
didly examines the subject, that the licen-
sing system, however anomalous, absurd, or
mischievous it may now appear, had its origin
exclusively in the anxiety of the Legislature to
protect the public morals, or that it was well cal-
culated to attain its end in such a state of so-
ciety as that to which it was at first applied. As
little doubt can any calm and impartial observer
entertain that the real strength of the system now
consists in that tenderness towards vested pro-
perty, which—whatever improvements it may
impede, or whatever abuses it may prolong—we
sincerely hope may always characterise a British
Legislature. The property embarked under this
system, and which its overthrow would at once
annihilate, is immense. We do not here allude
only to the capitals embarked by great brewers
in the leases or freeholds of public-houses, to
which the possession of licenses has given an
artificial value, although it would be difficult to
show that this kind of property, which has been
called into existence by the Legislature, ought to
be disregarded by the Legislature. The kind
of property to which we would more par-
ticularly advert is that of a much lower order of
men, invested in what is called the good-will of
public-houses. This class of men, the public-
house keepers, is a very numerous one, as
every body knows. In many instances, pro-
bably the majority, they have embarked their all
in this description of property, which the sudden
and total repeal of the licensing system would at
once and completely destroy. We should pro-
bably be within the mark if we were to compute
the aggregate amount so invested in the Metro-
polis alone at a million of pounds sterling.
Here in truth is the real difficulty of any change
of system ; and to declaim against the system
that exists, without noticing this difficulty, or at-
tempting to suggest any means of overcoming it,
is worse than idle. We would recommend the
opponents of the licensing system, therefore, in-
stead of abusing Members of Parliament, Justices,
and Brewers, to turn their attention to the less
easy task of devising the practical means by
which the increase of this difficulty, which grows
of course with the grouth of the population,
may be prevented ; and to the task still more
arduous and necessary, of contriving how the
difficulty, as it is, may be overcome.--Morn-
ing Post.

Not a day passes that we do not receive from
some quarter or other a confirmation of IN haL
we have so frequently observed respecting the
mischief's which have resulted from the change
in the currency, and the necessity of a return to
that in which the country contracted to pay the
taxes, and the greater part of engagements sub-
sisting between individuals at present were made.
Nor are we without hopes that such a return
will at length be made. The information which
reached us some time ago, and which we com-
municated to our readers, went the length of
asserting that the currency had formed part of
the deliberations of the Cabinet, and that
it was understood that the Duke of Wellington
had determined on permitting a re-issue of the
one-pound notes ; and in the Sheffield Courant
of last week we find the information confirmed,
with some modification.

" learn," says it, " on the authority of an in-
dividual extensively connected with the operations of
the niol:ey market, and to whom the leading men
that interest are accustomed to look with a great
degree of respect, in consequence (f his profound
knowledge in matters connected with the currency,
that, at this time, the Bank of England has two
millions of one and two pound notes ready to be
issued the moment that the sanction of Parliament
is obtained for that purpose.
" It would seem from this, that Ministers have
determined to recommend the restitution of the
small note currency. The fact that the Directors
of the Bank of England have recently had several
interviews with the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
strengthens our belief in this report. It has not
transpired, whether the privilege of issuing one and
two pound notes is to be confined to the Bank of
England, or to be extended to the country Banks.
To us, however, the issues of the country banks
appear most desirable. They would find their
way more instantaneously and beneficially into the
pockets of the suffering farmers, manufacturers, and
shopkeepers, who are scattered over extensive dis-
tricts, beyond the influence of the Bank of England.
Under the present system, Bankers have no induce-
ment to accommodate the trading interests of the
country with loans. Their advances during the
war did more than any other cause to stimulate in-
dustry and augment the national wealth. That they
mat have this effect at all times might be easily
demonstrated. When money is scarce, and
borrowed with difficulty, business of all kinds
will be extensively diminished. The credit of
individuals becomes tainted. This is succeeded by
general suspicion and distrust. He who has gold
and silver to go into the market can alone hope for
success. A man may have talent, ingenuity, and
industry on his side, but the want of money will be
an insuperable obstacle to their pH fitable develope-
'pent. Nor is the scarcity of money more deplo-
rably manifested than by the ruinous sales
into which traders are forced, to meet the exigen-
cies of a day. These are some of the evils of a con-
tracted metallic currency; but there are others. The
great bulk of the national debt was incurred in de-
preciated paper. The interest of that debt has been
fearfully augmented by the adoption of gold; but
upon this subject we shall for the present content
ourselves with a remark pf Mr. 'Western, the Mem-
ber of Parliament for Essex. `f Our difficulties,"
says that gentleman, " now arise from the same
cause as in 1522; they do not arise from any of the
cernmottly Oleged causes; it is neither surplus pro-
duction not surplus population, nor is it the effects
of machinery, nor the want of markets, nor corn
laws, nor tithes, nor taxes, which have produced
them. It is the violent and sudden change made
by our statesmen upon all our money obligations
which has caused the entire evil. The tremendous
effects of legislation upon the currency of a country,
the influence derivable therefrom upon the fate of
nations, and on the property and happiness of indi.

viduals, is not at all,: understood; but -search th
history of things, and of every other country closely
and it will be made apparent. It is. in the power cd
a supreme government of a country,by an operation
upon the currency, to make or to unmake the for.
tune of thousands by one apparently simple mea-
sure ; and I feel no fears or doubts when I assert
that that one Act of 1819,
.commonly called Peel's
Bill, did so operate. upon thousands that. it efec-
tually doubled the debt and taxes of the nation, and
of every debtor in it ; not, indeed, to the full benefit
of the creditor, but to the full loss of the debtor."
We may not, perhaps, go all the length with Mr.
\Vestein. It is not altogether necessary that we
should recur to a depreciated currency. An en-
larged paper money, however, is indispensable, to
enable the country to discharge its obligations to
the fundlioldpr, and to continue its foreign and do-
mestic trade."
In those opinions, we need scarcely add, that
we cordially concur. "An enlarged paper
mony is, indispensably necessary" to a revival of
the drooping energies of the country ; and that
paper money must find its issue through the me-
dium of the country banks, to the partners of
which the situation of the farmers, merchants,
and manufacturers in the neighbourheod is
better known than it can possibly be to the branch
banks of the Bank of England, and who, acting
on their own responsibility, would have more
sympathy with, and administer more largely to
their distresses. This is the only mode of miti-
gating the present distressed state of the country;
for as to remedies, they' must be of a higher
order.— Morning Advertiser.