The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

One of the discussions of last night in the
House of Lords is amusing. An application is
made for certain papers belonging to the Foreign
Office, tending to affix, as it is thought,- or pro-
fessed to be thought, the- crime of prodigality to
the late Chief of that department ; and we are
sure that in the present circumstances of the
country prodigality is a crime, both in, him who
dispenses and in him who clamours for the public
money without. sufficient cause. The return of
the papers shows none of the prodigality in-
sinuated—none of the criminality of the first
kind ; but in the mean time the knowledge of a
certain fact creeps out, Which (in our opinion,
at least, though certainly not in that of, the pre-
sent Lord Londonderry) shows considerable cri-
minality of the second kind—criminality in at-
tempting to compass the public money ; for an
application 'for a pension is found, to which
Lord Liverpool with his own hand had affixed
the defamatory description " This is too bad."
Our opinion, as we have said, coincides with that
of the eminent Lord Liverpool as to the merits
or the application. But why should the appli-
cant himself say, that the circumstances have
been published " for the purpose of making a wanton
" personal attack upon him ?"—for if .the applies-,
tion were just, the public would sympathise with its
author, and blame Lord Liverpool for thus stigma-
tizing the claim. Indeed, how can Lord London-
derry 113 e Certain that the fact has notbeen published
by some friend of his own, in order to show the,
public how infamously a man of his Lordship's
dis-
tinguished talents, remarkable good conduct, and
vast services, has been treated by his ungrateful.
country, or its callous-hearted Ministers ? How is,
Lord Londonderry certain that the nation, instead
of reprobating his application, may not rise to de-
fend it---insist upon his having the pension he has
modestly asked for-=or tax themselves, by a volun• •
tary act, to alloy it him ?—Timer.

h‘ Non omnia possumus omnes" was a sound'
and valid quotation of the • learned Mr. Par-
tridge ; and it really might be of public as well as
private service if other great men would now and,
then transfer it to their own personal use. Not a
day has passed since the Duke of Wellington re-
tired from the Horse-Guards, and since Lord
Grey emerged from tilt obseurityln which, with
an apparent disgust townds Parliament, he had
spent many of the latter years of his life, that
the Noble Duke has not exhibited himself like
one fretting under a load of insupportable idle-
ness—and the Noble Earl like one bursting with
impatient self-importance. Could the ilhistrious
Commander condescend to follow the ex.ampile
of another mighty conqueror, and even take les-
sons from some Omphale on the distaff; he'
would do less to " blur" the majesty of his
warlike name Oats by this wild caprice of reading,
lessons to statesmen on the principles and ecod
nomy of complex laws for regulating the national li
subsistence. Ftir Lord Grey, it is a pity that,:
in respect of what he has been, or has been I
thought by the public, he should not have yeti
made up hismind upon a question which, to us,
appears an easy one, viz.—why he is' a Lord ?
Any Peer, who talks about his " order" must,
we suppose, imagine himself a- Peer of Ofd
France, or a Spanish Grandee under Philip 11.
In France there have been, and in Spain there
are, what may be properly termed political orders
of men—privileged orders, for whom there 'exist
a separate code of laws, a superior class of rights,l
a different system of disgraces and perils, an;
extended catalogue of pretensions and infirmities.
beyond and apart from those whicirinure-sts-thes,
less distinguished members of society: Now of
all the men in England who at a time within
our memory, when the privileges recognized in{
other states were most the subject of discussion'
here—of all the men who showed least respect for
the principle on which the privileged orders arel'
founded, and least sympathy with those indivi-'
duals whose history and misfortunes brought the'
essence of that principle into general and promisi
nent notice—Lord Grey was, perhaps, the per-I
son who would occur to the surviving observers"
of that period as one among the ,ehief. The!
Noble Earl, though far from an ig,noble speci-
menl
of a British Gentleman and a Peer of thel
Realm, is the latter for the sake of the realm--1
not for his own. It is to discharge duties of a
very solemn and substantial kind, not to enjoy
an exemption from them, that the Noble Lord
and his " order" have been created. In respect,
of their peerage, they are functionaries, not idols.'
They hold property by the same titles as theirl
fellow-subjects—they derive from it the self-samel
advantages—they are liable to lose it through thei
same casualties or transgressions—they cssnnot!
,disobey a law by which they co-operate with the
other branches of the Legislature in binding the
poorest Englishman. It is for our use that they
are judges also—and to us, or our representa-
tives, that they are amenable, for all their public!
acts. Lord Grey, and such men, lofty thoughl
they hold themselves, are but the upper servants
of the nation, with which they must fall'in spite,
of themselves'—without which they cannot stand.!
It gives us pleasure gill to remark the eagerness
which both Lord. Grey and his illustrious coadju-
tor have manifested to clear themselves before the
people, of certain imputations offiction and ma-,1
lignity, arising out ott their vote and spe.eches on!
the Corn Bill, which had begun to render these'
Noble personages extremely' unpopular though-:
out the kingdom. Lord Grey is a man whom'
we would believe on' his assurance, though lies
did not pledge ,c the honour of a Peer," and'
we at once believe the simple word of the.
Duke of Wellington, that neither of them!
entertained any party views in the course which!
they adopted on this measssre ; but we canned
credit either of them, or anyman who would
persuade us—and it is sufficiently wonderful!
that they have persuaded themselves, indirect
defiance of fact and common sense--tl:at the Bil
which Lord Vverpool's Cabinet introduced was not
in principle different from that into which the Duke
of Wellington's famous amendment metamorphosed
it. A Bill which admitted all corn on the paymenti
of a grouatint duty, does seem to. our apprehen.i
sion rathe; 'fferent from that which would hav
description —namely, bonded. co
excluded one
by a reference to Om. alone,
hssid, putting duty ou
seed, or cranium
of the question. Again, hi t
of the Duke of Wellington, preoheibitionmeans th
same thing with protection ; but, according to ou
view of the matter, there is this essential differene
between them—that it is the price of corn at
.home;
which gives force to a prohibitory law ; but it is the_ ,
-price of corn abrOad, which, combined with the ,
duty, makes or unmakes protection. Again, saYe!
the Duke of Wellington, the present law for ti{
convertibility of the now warehoused corn to use
no matter what the price of British corn, but sub
jest to the duties prescribed h Lord Liverpool'
Bill—is the same in " principle' as an amendmen
which excluded the same warehoused corn from th
market, until British corn should reach the price o
665. FOr any man but him who' confounds prohi.:
bition with protection, we should ray, that th 4
confounding of the Duke's amendment with this
new law was altogether impossible, Again, and
lastly, says the Duke of Wellingtop, my meaning
was Bo like Mr.Huskilson's meaning, that they
4
was no telling the difference bititreen them. Theri
it is precisely the same thing to enact a permanent

preference in favour of corn warehoused abroad,
against that warehoused in England, and to enact a
temporary preference of corn already warehoused in
England over corn which must be imported from
abroad before it can be warehoused in England !
Any corporal in a marching regiment would muster
on this occasion more logic than his Grace.—lbid.

We are not a little astonished that a man of
Earl Grey's. quickness of perception should be
unable to perceive any difference between the
present Corn Bill and the one improved •by the
Duke of Wellington's Amendment. " There is
nothing," said his Lordship, " in this Bill, in-
consistent with what that Amendment proposed.
Yet it was given out that this Bill was rendered
necessary, in consequence of the passing of that
Amendment in this House. . . . I wish it
to be known that I support it because there is no
part of its provisions inconsistent with that
Amendment." His Lordship repeats the above
assertion two or three times, as if amplification
and confident language could supply the place of
proof. The object of the Duke of Wellington's
Amendment was to prevent both the corn at pre-
sent in bond, and that which might be bonded
after the passing of the Bill, from being taken
out till the price was 665. The present Bill
places the corn at present in bond on the footing
of the corn imported under it. They who can-
not see this difference are either very blind, or de-
termined not to open their eyes. We have never
questioned the high honour and incorruptible in-
tegrity of Earl Grey ; and we have never, in-
deed, heard the purity of his motives impeached
in any quarter. But a man should attend a little
to his temper as well as his principles. We think
we never saw a stronger exemplification of the
influence of the temper on the judgment than in
the Noble Earl's speech of Monday night. A
more splenetic effusion never was delivered in the
House of Peers; and what would be amusing, if
the frailties of such a man could ever allow en-
trance to mirthful feelings, while he has been
ever since the recent changes discharging his gall
on Mr. Canning, he complains bitterly of the
want of temper of the Right Hon. Gentleman.
" I must say, that besides- the disadvantage in
other matters to which the calamity that has be-
fallen a Noble Lord (Lord Liverpool) has sub-
jected us, it is not the least of those disadvan-
tages that his Majesty's Councils should not be
marked by the same discretion, and the same
temper, which distinguished them, when he pre-
sided over them." Mr. Canning is evidently
not a phlegmatic man, and, judging from his,
temperament, we should be inclined to think
that he was not insensible to the abuse which '
was poured out against him, night after night,
in the House of Lords, and which Earl Grey
listened to with so -much patience, if not with
satisfaction. But if Mr. Canning has mastered
his feelings—if he has allowed, at all events, few
indications of them to appear in his speeches,
but treated the abuse of his opponents with con-
tempt, his warmth of temper makes his conduct
the mole meritorious. Earl Grey displayed an
unaccountable degree of animosity towards him,
for lie even descended to the pecking at detached
sentences, gleaned from the speeches and State
Papers of a period of considerable duration. He
can make no allowance for Mr. Canning ; he has
no sympathy for him ; it was quite proper that
he should have been assailed, and that almost in
the language of Billingsgate, by Lords London-
derry and Ellenborough ; but when the gross ig-
norance of the Duke of Wellington (displayed
in the never-to-be-forgotten clause first submitted
-by him to Mr.-1-Luskimon),--and hi, zinguld.i
conception of the meaning of Mr. Huskisson's
letter, and his supposition that the destruction of
the Warehousing System was not inconsistent
with the Resolutions, to which as Minister he
had given his assent,—when we say this became
the subject of deserved animadversion, his Lord-
ship is quite indignant at the treatment of the
Noble Duke, between whom and himself, by the
bye, there can be no community of opinion, ex-
cepting with respect to the merits of Mr. Can-
ning, and the necessity for high-priced corn.
"The Noble Duke's Amendment (he said), and
the opinions of the 'President of the Board of
Trade, had been calumniously mis-stated, and the
consequences of that Amendment exaggerated, by
persons who owed their very existence to the Noble
Duke, he spoke not now of his great military services,
'but of services of a different kind." And the Noble
Lord who condescends to use these personalities
complains of Mr. Canning's want of temper ! If
blind passion produce the same effects on 'conduct as
Want of principle, we do not see on what ground
it ought to be spared. Earl Grey, must surely, to
be at all consistent with himself, conceive the prin-
ciples of Administration composed of Mr. Canning
and his Friends, the Marquis of Lansdown and Mr.
Tierney, &c. to be better calculated to promote the
well-being of the Empire, though they be favourable
to a trade in corn, than the principles of men, who
have avowed them Selves High Tories, who, conse-
quently, hate popular rights, and Who would retain
the population of . Ireland in perpetual thraldom.
And yet he dOei not scruple from pique and irrita-
tion, to exert himself r,s effectually to injure the Ad-
ministration, as if he were entirely opposed to the
principles, on which it acts. If a man cannot see
any thing wrong' in this, he must take the conse-
quence. Let Earl Grey listen to the voice of those
who have long been his warmest admirers, and he
wilt hear but one voice from John o'Groat's House
to the Land's End, with respect to his conduct in
Parliament, ever since the Ministerial arrangements
were formed. Without concert, the language of
every, independent journal throughout the kingdom
has been the same, disapproving and bitterly la-
menting the perverse course which he has allowed
himself to pursue. It does not follow that a man is
wrong when all the world but himself thinks he is ;
but there is so strong a presumption in favour of the
general voice, that it furnishes, at all events, a pow-
erful motive for cool and dispassionate self-examina-
tion.—Morning Chronicle.
Nothing can be more triumphant and com-
plete than the Duke of Wellington's explanation'
of his conduct relative to the Corn Bill. Whe-
ther his Grace's views upon this subject be cor-
rect or not, is
,oan question ; but that his motives
throughout have been most pure and honourable,
and wholly divested of the factious soirit im-
puted to them, is beyond doubt. It is now.
admitted by Mr. Flusiasson himself, that it was'
his obscurity of expression which led to the
whole affair ; and as Mr. Canning, it is to be
supposed, mint
late
have known what was passing
between his
and present colleague, it is
difficult to account for the indiscreet warmth

which he exhibited upon the subject, but from a
soreness of a more extensive nature. To be
sure, it is curious and amusing enough, to see
Mr. Huskisson, the bosom friend and most
favourite colleague of Mr. Canning, 4‘ My-dear-
duking" his Grace, almost at the very same mo-
ment that the Prime Minister himself is taunting
the Duke as the tool and instrument of faction.
Without meaning to use any ludicrous play upon
words,
we think that the country will now dis-
cover that the Corn Bill has been lost rather by
fractiousness than faction ; and that Ministers
would have acted more wisely, had they adopted
the Bill by way
of experiment, such as the
Lords left,it, than have pouted like angry school-
boy") who sometimes refuse an apple merely be-

cause it is not the one _they have chosen, though
similar to it in size and flavour. This is the
more obvious, as it now appears from the lumi-
nous statement of Lord Grey, that the measure
which they are now passing is precisely the same in
effect, as fir as it goes, with that which they chose
to abandon. This speech of Lord Grey's, by. the
bye, must be another mortifying blow .to Mr. Can-
ning. Independently of the sound and Statesman-
like views which it discloses, it presents a fresh
irresistible barrier to any junction between this head
of the Whig party, and the seceders froth that party
who have, with so little credit to themselves, joined
the ranks of their hitherto most inveterate oppo-
nents. Lord Grey must be prepared for fresh and
renewed attacks from Mr. Canning's part of the
Press, violent in proportion to the formidable front
which he has again opposed to their new Chief.
The country at large, however, will li:tle heed the
bitterness of disappointment which these angry
effusions present; and will not fail to mark with
their, approbation every remaining token of self-
' denial and consistency among public men, at a mo-
1' ment when so great a share of those qualities have
been shipwrecked in an unseemly struggle for the
mere emoluments of office.—Morning Herald.
We have been not a tittle surprised to observe
from the country papers, and particularly those
from the manufacturing' districts, that so little
has been said of the rejection of the late Corn
Bill, especially since some of our London
Papers; noted for the manufacturing of alarm,
prognosticated, upon the rection of the Bill,
that the whole country would be thrown into a
state of effervescence, and they anticipated. that
there would be public meetings; and even dis-
turbances in various parts of the kingdom. Now
these alarm prints have prognosticated that which
has not come to pass. There has been scarcely
a meeting held, and little or no grumbling. But
the fact is, that the people in the country, espe-
cially in the manufacturing districts, know
as well, if not better, than we do, that
the late Corn Bill would not have been of the
least use in lowering the price of .bread. A ma-
nufacturer would reason thus-Ist. We will take
the prime cost of wheat as low as 355., to which we
will add 20s. for ditty, and 15s. for freight, profits,
and a great variety of expenses, all which together
bring up the price to 70s. The manufacturer would
then say, after reading the cant of the papers in the
interest of Mr. Canning, respecting his genius, &c.
" Why, all that these men have written is fudge,
and nobody ought to pay the least attention to it."
We have no doubt that the Birmingham, Manches-
ter, Glasgow, and other manufacturers, have reasoned
in this way. There never was a more complete hoax
attempted to be palmed on the people of England
than this late Bill, which Bill was said to have been
enacted for the relief of the people of England, but
we think that we have demonstrated that it would
have afforded no relief at all.—lbid.

We give to-day an elaborate report of a very
curious and important trial before the Admiralty
Court, the pleadings on which terminated yester-
day. Lord Stowell will, probably, deliver judg-
ment in a day or two. It involves slave property
to a very great amount, and has been watched in
its progress by the Agents of the West India
Colonies, with the most intense interest. The
particulars of the case are given at large in the
Report, and we only very briefly recapitu-
late them. In 1822, Mrs. Allen, of Antigua,
came to England, bringing with her a black fe-
male slave, named Grace. The latter resided
with her mistress here, until 1823, when she re-
turned to Antigua. In 1825, she was seined'
by the Crown as a manumitted slave ; and in
1826, the proceedings, which are now so near
a close, were commenced. The grounds on
eclarinE_Grace to be ma-
r.-.

L9_ . in

numitted; are simply' _ _
sident in England, where the acquisition of freedom
has been acknowledged ever since the famous case
of Somerset, to be the necessary consequence of a
slave's merely touching the soil. It was stated, in
the course of the trial, that the number of cases in
the West Indies, similar to that of Grace, was al-
most incredible ; in fact, that there was not an estate
of any magnitude in which one or more might' not
be found.—New Times.

FROM LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE.

Whitehall, Juue 25.

The King has been pleased to grant unto the Reverend
Walker King, M. A. the Archdeaconry of Rochester, void
by the death of Doctor John Law.