The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUISLIC JOURNALS.

We this day present the public with a very
anions document. It is an enumeration, by
the Turkish Government, of all its grievances on
the subject of the Greek insurrection ; and at
the same time an objurgatory exposition of the
conduct of the other Powers of Europe, in re-
ference to that affair. The Turk argues the
matter well, beginning " ab. ovo," i. e. from the
principles of civil society ; and he adopts the
maxim of all the governing States of Christian
Europe,—namely, that the governed are under
infinite obligations to their masters, and owe
them no other debt than that of affection for their
paternal care : revolt, therefore, is the blackest
treachery and ingratitude ; and they .who foster
revolt are the patrons of crime. Thee governed,.
however, may probably take a different view of
their own obligations ; and if the dominion under
which they lived were paternal, their attempt to
cast it off would not be ungrateful only, it would
mark insensibility and idiotism. Thissdocument
liscloses some most singular facts. It states,—
and we believe the Mussulman statement, though
we may not be converts to the Mussulman rea-
oning,—that at the breaking out of the revolt
in Greece, some of the great European
Powers, through their Ministers resident at
Constantinople—(it cannot be that England
should have been one, under the Castle.
reagh Administration,—under that Administra-,
tion, the relics of which are demanding tEe
Government of this country, as if it were theirs
by reversion, and the Sovereign had no choice
it cannot be that England should have been one
we trust) :--but it is certain that some of the
great Powers offered to assist Turkeyin punish-
ing—(" punish " is
..the word)—in. punishing
the audacious Christian slaves, who had risen
against their kind, and gentle, and beneficent
masters ; and that Turkey declined the offer, be-
cause she could not allow of foreign interference
in settling her domestic troubles. Nor is this
all : it is moreover certain, that the Ambassa;
dor of one of those Powers did, vn the oceapion
of the Congress of 'Verona, explain himself iii
the frankest manner to the Ottoman Minister,
on the subject of the aid which it was pro-
posed to afford Turkey in subduing the Greeks ;
and that the Minister of the Sublime Porte (in-
finitely superior to the base renegade who made
the treacherous proposition) -did again and again
refuse to accept it, upon principles and motives
national and religious ! Now, we do entreat one
moment's consideration of the relative conduct
and character of these two Ministers—the Maho-
metan and the Christian. The Christian,
reckless of his own creed and those who profess
it, offers to assist the Mahometan in destroying
Christians. The Mahometan, from various
causes, among which respect for the Mussulman
faith is predominant, declines the proffered aid,.
and protects his revolted Christian subjects from
ofvvening
the more dreadful interference of their Christian-
brethren. We do not say that Lord Castlereagh
is the person alluded to,—he, in fact, had de-
stroyedbbi
sefosruebsttihtue
tea: actual
mthaign—of
The Congress : we. do not say that the Duke
himselfton,. tmheee
indeed, it is pretty clear, that the specific
individual was some Minister at Constanti-
nople : but we do assert, without the fear of
contradiction,' that this was the system, and these
were the principles, in which Lord Castlereagh
'and the Duke of Wellington participated, and
which it is the effect of Mr. Canning's more
liberal policy to overthrow. Under the Castle-
reagh Administration, (for his principles still
prevailed), it was proposed at Verona, by several
of the Powers of Europe, to assist the Turks in
destroying .the Greeks. The project failed—
only because it was rejected by the Turks them-
selves. Under the Canning Administration, the.
Powers of Europe have concluded a treaty with
each other, to protect both Greeks and Turks
from endless mutual slaughter.—Times.

The Ministerial Papers of yesterday inform
their readers, that an address has just been pre-
sented to Mr. Peel, from a few of the inhabi-
tants of Birmingham, expressive of their high
sense of the value of his official services, of their
regret that the country has lost them for the
present, and of their anxious wishes that those
services may speedily be restored to the nation.
One of those Journals, the most conspicuous
and important of them, attempts to be jocular
upon the occasion, but there is evidently an op-
pression upon its spirits which altogether mars
its efforts at pleasantry. It is a loss to know why
this Address should have been presented now,
four months having elapsed since the event to
which it refers. We think it our duty to cor-
rect its wilful inaccuracies of statement, as well
as to enlighten it upon that part of the subject
with respect to which it appears to be plunged in
involuntary darkness. The Address was not
from a few of the inhabitants of Birmingham ;
it was, as we stated yesterday, subscribed by more
than 2,000 persons, all, without exception (for
no others were permitted to sign it), men emi-
nent for wealth, and for social importance and
respectability. It is thus we correct the wilful
inaccuracy of statement. Then in order to en-
lighten the involuntary darkness of the friends of
the present Ministry as to the motives to an
Address of this description, four months after
the Statesman to whom it is offered has retired
en
from office, we have only to inform them,
tpheaet tbhee
appreciated. longer
contrast
rint ino power,f
cha-
racter
the
more
a requiresn4 h,gwhellytlimwas Mr.
understood.eto beill such mdisTtinhe popu-
larity distinctly per-
ceived
of Mr. Peel rests upon unblemished
integrity, which is a quality that prover-
bially wears well. IN hat claims the present
Administration possess to permanent popularity
it is difficult to guess—lntegrity certainly is not
one of them. This is .the whole secret, which
we are not surprised that our contemporaries
have failed to discover. It has to do with ma-
terials with which neither they nor their patrons
are habitually conversant. We derive great sa-
tisfaction from perceiving ,that the Coalition
Ministry and their advocates are so terrified at
the very mention of the name of Peel. Their
terror is obvious, and their efforts to disguise it
ludicrous. To them the character of Mr. Peel
o: forbeari
. and is a standing rebuke. He is to them what the
ghost of Caesar was to Brutus.
to
Therealrm
a
appears in any political scene, they are tin own
eaca n n
gnuilsitP
Whenever he
into an ague fit of consternation and dismay.
They anticipate, not without reason, that their
Evil Genius will meet them at Phil
are some remarkable circumstances connected
withie ae r thisto
circumstances the, Address,
mention, now that we have been compelled to
s u b j e
may be calculated t, whichwhatever w
to pro-
duce among the Ministerial ranks. The respec-
rtleou
table individual who was deputed to convey to
Mr. Peel the sentiments of his fellow townsmen,
had the honour of being invited to a Banquet
by that Right Hon. Gentleman. The Banquet
given expressly upon this, which we think we

may venture to call an important occasion, was
graced by the presence of _ his_ Grace the Duke
of Wellington, and also (if the statement pub-
lished in most of the Papers be correct) by the
presence of an Officer now holding a situation
by the express and personal appointment of the
King, and a Gentleman moreover the frequency
of 'whose recent visits to Windsor has excited
considerable attention.-11/lorning Post:
We return, according to promise, It the
charge of Lord Chief Justice Best to the Wilt-
shire Grand Jury. Hit Lordship eloquently
observed, that " a country may truly be said to
be great, when the mass of the people are in
the enjoyment of comfortable and easy circum-
stances—a state in 'Which alone they can always
be expected to be virtuous—and he is the great-
est benefactor who tends his aid to introduce
such . a state among them.;" and he justly attri-
buted the extension of crime and vice among the
peasantry—no longer their country's pride—to
their poverty arid state of dependence. " There
can no greater curse befal a country (he said)
than that it should be reduced to a state in which
the _virtue of the peasantry is undermined by-the
destruction of that self-esteem, and that honest,
industriolis, manly pride, which makes a peasant
prefer his vwn exertions to any other mode of
obtaining a subsistence." No greater curse can
befal a country, according to his Lordship, than
to be in the situation -in which this country is
unfortunately placed ; and- -if the object of go-
vernment be the greatest happiness of the great-
est number, that country in whiCh the greatest
number_ is vicious and criminal, because degra-
ded and dependent, is truly suffering under
a heavy curse. " The greatness of the country
does not 'consist in the extent of its empire,"
nor, he might have added, in the number of great
Lords with large rent-rolls. But is it possible to
remove the great curse 'which has befallen the
country ? and, if possible, how'? We observed
on Wednesday, that his LardshiP did not seem
to us to know the cause of the poverty and de-
pendence which he so feelingly lamented ; and
not knowing the causes, it is not to he Wandered
at that he should be equally at a loss with regard
to the remedy. He allows that religion can
only act with effect on a full belly, and that, con-
sequently, the Clergy are for the present power-
less. • So far so good. But how are the peasantry
to be eleVated to a Clergyable condition.? " Both
the eltiquence and example of the Clergy will, I
fer, have but little effect, unless those who use
thin are assisted.by other causes. The first of
these, I think, may be found in giving the
peasantry such a rate of wages as shall render 1
them independent of the assistance afforded by
poor laws. • You must better their condition, in
order to teach them that manly and proper
pride that formerly distinguished them. You must
then reserve,' for the accidents and infirmities of
age, to which all, even the most prudent, are liable,
that' relief which was at first intended only for
those whom natural causeshad rendered incapable
of providing for themselves; and you must cease
to practise that system of making up the wages
of the . peasantry from the contributions of the
poor rates—a system which destroys all pits=
dence 'and foresight, which weakens the self-
esteem of the peasant, which annihilates all sti-
mulus to active exertion, and which can be pro-
ductive of no consequences that are not alike
-injurious to the individual and the community."
His Lordship imagines that the Wiltshire
'Squires have only to will the raising of the
wages of the peasantry to a sum sufficient for
their maintenance, without aid from the poor
rates, to have that object effected, with as much
ease as a man in full health and activity raises his
foot or his hand by-Merely willing it, by an inex-
plicable connection between the will and the body
operated on by it. ". You must better their
condition," you must raise their wages. But if
the bettering the condition has always been in
the power -of the 'Squires, they are, if we know
any thing of logies necessarily the cause of the
vice and ' crime of the peisintrythe cause
of the accursed state .into which the coun-
try has fallen. If :it depends on them to
remove the evil, they are. the cause of the conti-
nuance of the evil. But thaugli,we are no great
admirers of Aristocracy, and so far from thinking,
with Sir Francis Burdett, that it is'the glory of
this country, we firmly believe that it is the rotten
part of our system—that it is to the union between
the Crown and the People that England was in-
debted for all that advantageously distinguishes
it from other nations, and that the stupidity of
the Stuarts threw the people into the jaws of
their 'natural enemies,' the _Aristocracy, who ope-
rate like a drag-chain: on the wheel's of national
activity, and who, froM the profligate expenditure
necessary to satisfy. their insatiate maw, have
pauperized and demoralized the great mass
of the population in a frightful degree ; though,
we say, we are fully sensible' of the injury
the country sustains froni the Aristocracy, we
'will not do 'Them the_ injustice to maintain that
they have only to wish to raise wages to a given
amount, to be able to effect that object. Wages
cannot,- as Chief Justice Best seems to think, be
either arbitrarily raised or arbitrarily lowered. Why
is it that the American labourer has his 65., or
at. least a &Mir a day, the Wiltshire labourer
six shillings or seven shillings a week, and the
Irish labourer only fourpence a day ? If the
Wiltshire 'Squires can raise the labourers' wages
to two shillings and sixpence a day, so may the
Irish 'Squire. In the Glasgow Chronicle, which
we received yesterday, it is stated " that on Sun-
day' last, four steam-boats arrived at' the. Bromic-
law, from Ireland, each of which brought about
one hundred passengers of the same destitute
class who have been arriving in such numbers
during the-last four or five weeks; and another,
which. arrived in the ..course of the day, added
another hundred to. the number. .
Such was the state of misery and destitution
which. they exhibited, that they were refused
lodgings by: many of their own c.optrymen.
This evil, so far from diminishingos increasing
to an extent which; We have repeatedly pointed
out, threatens the most ,gerious consequences to
the population of the whole of the West of Scot-
land." Now here is matter for illustration. The
people of Ireland being too 'numerous for the
work-for them, compete with each other till their
Misery becomes so extreme that they emigrate in
shoals to this' country. The population of this
Island, already excessive, is' every day augmented
by these shoals olif Irish, - who necessarily reduce
the wages of the British labourers. The British
labourers must and -will inevitably be brought to
the leVel• of the Irish labourers ; for it is as im-
possible that where a passage can be effected for
threepence or fourpence, there can be perma-
nently two conditions of the labouring classes,
as it is for water not to find its level. As long
as there is an excess of labourers in the market,
wages will necessarily be low ; the Magistrates
cannot raise them : if circumstances were such
as to admit of a .rise -of wages, the labourers
would thenisellieslaiic_thent, without the aid of
farmers or Magistrates. All, that can be done,
is to tax property. in =aid of wages, which, by

destroying the connection between labour and
its reward, adds to the evil, by destroying all
prudential habits in the laboitrer, aria also de-
grading and deMoraliiing him. England mist
folk* the fate of Ireland, and the cure of
the misgovernment which her nobles and
great men have sanctioned-will press the English
.people to the. earth: It ts, indeed, no such easy
matter as Chief Justice Best suppo'ses to remedy
the evil. Eight millions of uncivilized beings
are at our.door, in circumstances which we have
neither the courage nor the wisdom to grapple
with. As to our Legislators, they have not even
enough of sense to know that there is any bene-
tit in inquiry and deliberation. What is to be
expected from the Legislature, when even men
of the best talents in the House of Lords can
declare that they never bestow a moment's care
on inquiries connected with what influences the
happiness or misery of a nation ? How low,
how despicably low must the morality of that
body be, in which its leading Members, notwith-
standing the heavy responsibility which attaches
to the trust reposed in them, of providing for the
~velfare of the people, can yet declare with non-
uha/ance, that they never thought of devoting
a moment to the subject ! That men should
reconcile this indolence with their conscience is

intelligible—that they should repose undisturbed
on their pillow is intelligible—but that they
,hould make the avowal is strange, passing
•strange. Does any man wish for the data fbr
the understanding of his real situation ?-Itforn-

Chronick.
The charge of the Chief Justice of the. Com-

mon Pleas to the- Grand Jury at Salisbury has
made, as it is well calculated to do, a strong im-
pression throughout the country ; and, to say
nothing of its eloquence, a quality of which the
learned person engrosses nearly all that is to be
found on the Bench, shows a liberal, enlightened,
,ind truly British spirit, more accordant with the
.spirit of the age than any thing of the kind
which the country has long since witnessed. The
Wiltshire Gentlemen, to whom it was addressed,
seem to have been quite overpowered with rap-
tures _by it, and in eliciting from the Learned
Judge a per Mission to have it printed, have, un-
.!onsciously no doubt, obtained a great point for
the Press, in a tacit acknowledgement from so
high and peculiar an authority that there is at
least one description of ex-parte proceedings in
criminal justice which it is no sin to promulgate.
We were particularly struck with the force and
justice of that part of the charge in which Sir
William Best points out, both in theory and
practice, the demoralizing effects of the lament-
able—we might say dishonest and criminal, prac-
tice of paying the labourer out of the Poor-rates
—a practice more rife, we believe, in the county
of Wilts than almost any other in the kingdom.
The valuable remarks of the Learned Judge on
this subject, addressed to a body of Magistrates,
in the hearing of many more, as well as of a
great proportion of the yeomanry of the county,
cannot fail to produce a strong, and, we trust,
useful impression. Such an address as this
sinks much deeper, and has a much more wide
and lasting effect in the prOvinces, than if deli-
vered in the metropolis, where new topics are
every day arising tq wipe out the impression of
the last. Where there. is so much to admire,
and so wide a scope of observation com-
prised, we are unwilling to appear to com-
plain of any omission ; yet we do wish that
it had occurred to the Learned Judge to recol-
lect that he was delivering this address to the
Grand Jury of a county in which one over-ruling
source of demoralization, the Game Laws, was

m more than ordinary activity, and that he was
addressing persons, some of whom, no doubt,
had themselves been instrumental in thronging
the gaols ; and we may add, therefore, in mann-
facturing many of the very criminals on whose
crimes they were then about to sit themselves in
judgment. We wish' most heartily that the
Learned Judge had handled this part of the
subject in the same powerful way he has the rest;
and had included these abominable laws in that
extention of judicial reform to which he has so no-
bly lent the sanction of his name and office. Ge-
nerally speaking, it would be well for the coun-
try, and much to the honour of the Judges, were
addresses of this sort more common than they
are. The Circuits of the Judges afford an ex-
cellent opportunity of promulgating sound ideas
upon most topics of general interest, and of ren-
dering Grand Inquests (which is the more cor-
,rect term 'than that of Grand Juries), as they are
intended to be, something more than mere
tinders and throwers-out of indictments. We
cannot part with this subject without remarking,
•that in the metropolis these bodies are rendered
of the least value, in some measure, by the omis-
sion of any such addresses as the above to them
(except it be to the term Grand Jury), by their
`being generally composed of lower grades of per-
' sons than are to be found composing them in
other counties ; and principally froth a want of
that subdivision of their labours, which exists
every where else, except in those places where,
from the multiplicity of business, it is most re-
1-ph:ed.—Morning Herald.

As the new Administration of last Session
postponed all the real business (money grants
excepted) till the next Session, on the ground,
that at such period they should be more conso-
lidated in their places, and consequently ketter
prepared to carry their ameliorating and reform-
ing views into effect, it is to be hoped that time
may not have the effect of injuring their memo-
ries, especially if they should find themselves
somewhat firmly seated in office. Amongst nu-
merous reforms that have been indirectly pro-

....,..,..
mised,... there are few that exceed in importance
the monstrous charges connected with the con-
duct .of .the. private business of Parliament—
'namely, the enormous costs, in the shape of offi-
cial fees, on the passing of bills connected with
Roads, Trusts, Enclosures, &c. Our attention
has been attracted to this subject, in consequence
of. a Return, just printed by order of the House
:of Commons, of the expenses in the shape of
House fees, &c., for that one branch of the Le-
'gislature, on the renewal of Road or other Pri-
vate Bills. The hardship presseS peculiarly in
such cases ; for, though it might operate as a
judicious controul on new undertakings and pro-
jects, it will require all Mr. Canning and Mr.
: Brougham's eloquence to show that people ought
to be put to 2001. expense for the Commons'
fees and charges alone, on the renewal of a Bill
that had been found to be useful. There are,
afterwards, the Lords' fees and charges ; and all
these are independent of lawyer, surveyor, and
agents' charges for bringing in .and conducting
such Bills. So that even a trifling bill for the
renewal of some local Act seldom costs less than
6001., or 800/., often 1,200/. if those bills ori-
ginated in a " rage" for ~legislation, any means
that- would check the prevailing influenza on
such subject would be a national benefit ; but
when there is too much reason to fear that the
Parliamentary privilege of charging enormous
costs alongside such prodigal fees, and when

even Parliamentary- clerks act as agents for con-
Pucting Private Bills through their own Houses,
pr as solicitors to Noblemen, ice., is it not to he
'itpprehended that the said privilege of charging
-wavily, and almost endlessly, in reality encou-
rages
ijobbers, attorneys, and surveyors, to be
!cterna ly looking out for pretexts to bring in new
t .
,private bills, or for the renewals of old ones
rake away the large, and therefore tempting re-
wards attendant upon such jobs, and the neces-
!shy for so many bills would wonderfully dimi-
nish ; Consolidations of Acts by the score would
'then take place ; or a new Act would embrace
Italia county, instead of the halves of two or
three lanes, as is now too often the case.—lbid.
Our contemporaries, and the Merchants in
the City, we see have been speculating on the
cause of the advance in the public funds, and
different theories are of course put forth by dif-
ferent parties. By some it is asserted to be
connected with a superabundant currency. We
could have wished, in the first instance, that the
fact of the superabundance had been clearlyrnade
,out, for to us it seems extremely dubious. There
are no symptoms of depreciation either from the
market prices of bullion, or the rate of the
exchanges. One of our contemporaries argues,
that as the interest would be paid in the same
depreciated medium, a superabundant currency,
of itself, could not affect a rise. We think it
could for a time. If more currency be poured
into circulation than the ordinary business of the
community can fairly absorb, what is to be done
with it if we do not invest it in Government
securities ? And will not the funds rise in pro-
portion to the demand for them, in the same way
as every thing else ? When, however, the
superabundance of currency had produced its
natural effect—a corresponding rise of nominal
prices—then it would cease to influence the
funds, because, in fact, it would then cease to be
superabundant. It seems, however, unnecessary to
discuss a case, of which, as we have said, the facts
are not admitted. The-Times, which generally
deals in the lugubrious, seems to, think that
we are on the verge of destruction from the
rise of Consols, and has found out, that
though the rise might have gladdened the
heart of Lord Bexley, it must have a very diffe-
rent effect on Mr. Canning. There is one fact
opposed to our contemporary's gloomy forebo-
dings, namely, that during peace, when it must
be admitted that commerce is -exposed to fewer
impediments, and, in the nature of things, more
profitable than during war, the funds are inva-
riably highest. A rise in the funds per se, is
not, therefore indicative of any difficulty of pro-
, fitably investing capital in traffic. And, conse-
quently, it by no means necessarily follows that
the late rise has been produced by such a cause
as the Times seems to imagine. We must in-
deed shut our eyes and stop our ears, not to be
sensible that the Trade and Commerce of the
country is in a more prosperous state at present
than at this time last year ; when, if the theory
of the Times held good, Consols would have
been higher than they are now. Although,
therefore, at first sight it seems a necessary con-
sequence, that when the profits of Commerce
fall, men should invest their capital in Govern-
ment Securities, and that the decline of the one
should invariably be accompanied by the rise of
the other, we see that no such consequence is
observable in fact. And the plain rea-
son we take to be, is this, that a losing
trade and a diminishing capital are the same
'thing, and that he who finds it difficult to
ay his bills, will be generally more inclined to
sell stock, if he have any, than to buy. We do
not find fault with a political economist talking
about transfers of capital, for he speaks only of
ultimate results, but, when our contemporary
talks in the same strain in respect to td occur-
rences of a week or a month, it woul o well
to recollect that a merchant, or manufacturer,
cannot convert. his spinning-mills, his ships, or
his bale goods, into Three per Cents. with the
same ease that he can shift his purse from one
waistcoat pocket to the other. But there is
another fact which seems generally to escape the
notice of those who treat of the funds, namely,
that buying and selling of stock constitutes in
itself a trade, and no unimportant' one, and that
the quantum of capital vested in that trade has
very little reference to the dividend. There is,
indeed, a part of the funds, and that no small
one, which is seldom touched—we mean that
belonging to annuitants, but these are merely
sleeping.partners. The capital in the funds, on
which their rise or fall depends, circulates as ra-
pidly as the capital in other branches of trade.—
Netv Times.