The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-26 00:00:00

SPRIT OP TU PUBLIC jOURNALS.

.4, highly interesting detail of some important
operations between the Russian and Persian
troops on the Araxes, will be found in a letter
trom the seat of war, dated September 7. It
appears from this statement, that we had not, on

a former occasion, much erred in our judgment
of the difficulties encountered by the invading

army, or of the *slow and doubtful nature of

their successes.

Nevertheless, whatever, partial

advantage rimight, fromtime to time, be obtained
by troops so "constituted and commanded as those
of Persia, it would be silly to expect from
them a steady and victorious resistance to such
an army as that of Russia, on an extended scale
of movement, or in close and deliberate attack.
The half disciplined, ill provided, and loosely
directed soldiers of Abbas -Mirza, besides being
unequal to a pitched battle in the open field,
must be quite as little qualified to form regular
sieges, or under very trying circumstances; to
repel them. We accordingly are by no means
surprised to learn, that Abbas Mirza did not
succeed in capturing the fortified convent of
Etchmiadzine, the neighbourhood of which, it
will be recollected, was the Scene of a gallant
action and defeat of a Russian Corps ; or that
Hassan Khan was compelled, after a severe at-
tack, to surrender the fortress of Erivan, ill
adapted, from its defective 'works, to sustain a
siege conducted by European science, though
doubtless important from its position, and from
the extreme. rarity of 'posts even so far defensible,
svithin the Persian territor-, The real strength, 1,
however, of that kingdom is not in the discipline
of its troops, but.in the extent and desolation
Lts provinces. Abbas ifir.ra, if he knows hi:,
game, will limit the efforts of his desultory but
active troops to a system of menacing anti tor-
rather than of adventurous and deci-
sive, wag fare: He ought to leave the Russian
forces idthout a loaf of bread, or a pound of
meat, or a truss of horse provender, but what
they bring from within their own frontier; and as
there are no strong places in the country, and
nest to none where capital and Civilization is ac-
cumulated, the Russian commander will find at
last that he can neither alarm -his enemy for 'ir-
removable riches, nor secure an inch of the
ground that he has gained, but by covering it
with armed soldiers. Our correspondent alludes
to certain overtures of negociation, rendered
aborthe by the 'extravnarg demands of Rnssia
upon the Persian Governttienf. Persia was re-
quired, it seems, to cede, not merely Erivan,
but the. whole course of the Araxes eastward,
together with the two provinces of Mogaun and
Talish on the west shore of the Caspjan, thereby
interposing betwen that coast. and the Persian
capital ; .and, finally, the Russian General in-
sisted on 700;000 tomauns to defray the ex-
..

penses of the, war. It is well that such A, cata-
logue of requisitions was made at a period when
they could be refused without immediate ill con-
sequences ; and it is not unlucky that Russia has
displayed so soon a spirit of hardy.and undis-
guised extortion, that if the King of Persia has
any friend on whom to rest for counsel or for
succour, that friend may 'be able to see 'in time
the nature of the danger to be averted.—Times.

.Mr. O'Connell at the Catholic Association o
Wedrsesday, stated, as a Lawyer, that the Law
against &is-letting had placed large classes entirely
out of the protection of the law ; that as no
person who held a lease for a shorter term than
ninety-nine years, could, if he snb-let without
the consent of his Landlord, recover by distress,
all those
.who in towns let off part of their house,
or kept lodgings, were completely' at
.the'mercy
of their tenants or lodgers. It would be Odd,
~ndeed, if Parliament were to pass a law, not
drawn up in a bungling manner. Mr. O'Connell
continues to raise his voice against the depopu-
',sting system, which he, oddly enough, connects
with the Maithusian doctrines. - If Mr. O'Con-
nell will go back to the good old Catholic times,
he will find the Landholders and Churchmen
deeply imbued with the 2,lalthusian doctrines,
Sbr our Kings were obliged to resist their
at-
tempts to get rid of the human beings on their
lands for the sake of sheep. The principle of
sacrificine. the people of a country for money is
diabolical', and when Mr. O'Connell raises his
voice against it, he will find universal sympathy.
How far the Duke. of Leinster may be the worst
landlord in Ireland, and whether his operations
deserve the character given of them, are points on
which we will not enter ; but the system of
d e tn.' ding a wretched population without pro-
viding for them,
deserves all the reprobation that
can be expressed against it. The political
economy that would steel the heart against the
first principles of justices namely, the right of the
people to exist, and which would slaughter them
with .as little concern as so many sheep or
hullockS, for the sake of a little additional nett
profit, is a bad political economy. Political eco-
nomy cannot be-taken by itself. Whoever would
shake the principles of justice for a supposed eco-
nomical advantage, would cut up economy by
the roots", because it is on the inviolability of
die principles- of justice and equity, that
society possesses the Security which favours
Production and accumulation. It is, therefore,
taking a very narrow view of things indeed to set
at nought the grand principle of the saluspopill.
for the sake of an immediate increase of nett pro-
its. But Mr. O'Connell, not content with de...
trouncing,_ a system at variance with every prin-
ciple of, justice ; not content with denouncing
she .cold-blooded proscription of masses of hu-
man beings—will persist in determining a ques-
tion of science, perfectly distinct, and- -on very
.odd grounds. A. people cannot,
,according to
siim, be too numerous or increase too fast—and
why ? Because the theory is opposed to the
ordinances of the Deity. The process is vey
conwriient ; he makes ordinances for the Deity.
and then the views which
to suit his own views,
differ from his own are opposed to the ordinances
sf the Deity. But would it not be a better was
to take the ordinances of the Deity from the
laws according to which the universe is regulated
shah from the ipse dixit of Mr. O'Connell
Now, all history and experience teaches us that
the power to multiply in man is limited by the
means of subsistence ; that the means of sub-
sistence in any given country have their limit,
mid consequently that when the population at-
tains that limit, it cannot be further increased.
Nature herself knows none of the refinements 01
morality. Those whom Montesquieu calls the
founders of the English Constitution, if we take
the Salic Laws and the earlier Capitularies as
an evidence of their habits, lived pretty much a
We as is passed in a dog-kennel, for even under
Pepin the praetice,of sons cohabiting with their
mothers, with the mother and sisters at the same
time, and with all kinds of relations, is described
in these laws as.common.
-the universe and the laws is The physical laws of
,morality and religion
finite distinct, an it will not do to take the

ormer from the latter. The. Catholics, when it
fsuits them, avail themselves of the nalthusian
doctrines freely enough. Thus in a work by a Baron
de Storck, a converted Catholic, which lately made
a great sensation on the Continent, the wrker,
who had 'a dispensation from the Pope for conc,eal-
hisconversiondustifies the celibacyofthe priest-
hood on the principles of Malthus. ‘.‘ In several
countries (he says) marriage is impeded or even
prohibited, not only among those employed by
the Government, but -even to young Men of the
labouring- classes, if they have not a capital of
two or three hundred florins. It is my opinion
that the abolition of the law of Celibacy of the
Priests, particularly in our times, would be very
imprudent, because. our Clergy is at present so
stripped, distressed, and narrowed in their cir-
cumstances, that it would be absurd to exact'of
a man, embarrassed how to provide •a livelihood
for himself, to maintain out of it a wife and 'fa-

milt'." What great advantage then would the
,State gain by 'this ? The English writer,
Malthus, has published an excellent work on the
conditions and consequences of an increase of
population ; he proves .that it should. absolutely
be in proportion with the means of subsistence ;
And that in general a great population does not,
in itself, form the happiness of the country, as the
economists fancied. When all those great per-
sonages, Bucer Zuingle, (Ecolampadius, &c.
took wives, the satirical Erasmus said, " This is

the way they mortify themselves ! The Refor-
mation seems to have no other object but to
transform monks and nuns into bridegrooms and
brides and this grand tragedy will end like a
comedy, where every body is married in the last
act." But if the Church find it convenient to
set aside the ordinances of God in the case of
Priests, will Mr. O'Connell say that the recom-
mendation of celibacy, for prudential reasons, in
other cases, is " against the doctrine of Redemp-
tion," is ,‘ as false as it is atrocious." Let him
remember, that if there are ordinances, there are
no exceptions in them fbr Priests; and that if
the doctrine of the Redemption makes it impe-
perative that the business of begetting. children
should never be relaxed, every able-bodied priest
should perform his part of the duty.--=Morning
Chronicle.

The new Act, allowing . common bail to. be
filed in actions for the recovery of debts under
201. having come into operation, has already
produced a sensible diminution in the number
of commitments. It is stated that the number
of persons rendered to the Fleet Prison during
the first week of the present Term, compared
with the first week of the last Term, is but as
57 to 111, or scarcely more than one-half. So
far this Bill has been effective in preventing a
great deal of human misery, which would have
resulted from immuring a great many persons in
priSon for small debts, and thereby depriving
them of the means of that employment which
might enable them to pay such debts—or, at
least, to earn a subsistence for themselves and
families. This enactment will also have another
very salutary operation—and one which, we
think, if possible, of still more advantage to
society—and that is the repression of the vicious
system of credit, which induces persons.of small
means to exceed their incomes, and too often
brings them to a prison or the work-house. 'lt
has been too much the. practice of shopkeepers
and tradespeople to tempt the working classes,
and others of moderate income, by facility
of credit, to indulge in expences, which, if they
had to pay at the instant, 'they would have
avoided ; but thus being enticed into debt, and
involved in embarrassment, the power of arrest has
been resorted to for the purpose of terrifying
them into payment. Though it frequently hap-
pened that the shopkeeper or tradesman lost the
whole of the. sum.for which he had so easily
given credit, yet so blind are men sometimes to
their own interest, that the Act for preventing
arrests for debt under '2Ol. was. opposed last
Session by petitions from.persons in retail busi-
ness ; and Mr. Cam Hobliouse, in compliance
with the instructions of his constituents, made
same spetsshes, which, notwithstanding the " li-
beral principles" of Westminster,. showed that
a mistaken sense of self-interest was much
stronger than any patriotic solicitude* for the
" liberty of the subject." We are convinced,
however, that the shopkeepers. and tradesmen of
Westminster will eventually find that they will
be gainers instead of losers by this law ;. for it
was not the persons who gave the credit so pro-
fusely that *ere benefited by the power of arrest-
ing debtors
.for small sums; but the Sheriff's
officers and attorneys, who had fees upon the
process of arrest, and justifying and opposing
bail, &c. which frequently swalled up more money
than the unfortunate creditor could obtain
by putting the machinery of law in motion.
All the fault which we find- with the present Act
is, that it is far too circumscribed in its opera-
tion by the sum' under which arrest becomes
il-
leggal, being fixed at so low an amount as 201.
We should have much preferred that it had been
fixed at the sum which the skttorney,Generalsin
an excellent speech which he made on the sub-
ject, suggested—namely, 1001. We say we
would have preferred this sum to the other, con-
fident as we are that very extensive benefit to
creditors as well as debtors would have been the
consequence of- it, by restraining .the profuse
credit of the former, and making it more ne-
cessary for the latter to live within their means;
but, indeed, if our principles were to be carried
into effect, the arrest for debt on mesne process
would be done away. altogether ; and we cannot
see the advantage of it, even Under process of
execution. We Jolt since called the public at-
tention to the practice, as cruel, absurd, and' un-
christian. We would have imprisonment re-
served for criminals, and think it unjust and un-
reasonable that debtors should be treated in the
same way as malefactors. If a man his property,
whether landed or personal, let. it be attached,
to answer his debts; and, if he has none, of
what use is it to throw his body into prison, and
deprive him of the means of acquiring any—un-
' less it be to gratify vindictive feeling, which
the laws of a civilised country ought never to
encourage ? We are not without hope that the
Legislature will, in course of tune, enlarge its
views upon this stibjeSt, and abolish the Law of
Arrest on Civil Process altogether.—Morning
Herald.

•
At this awful moment, when the future wel-
fare of England, by the profligate and absurd
mismanagement of her Administration, has been
made to depend upon the yet unknown decision
of the Ottoman Porte, upon the question whe-
ther it shall resist or submit to the arbitrary man-
dates and the unjust aggression of other Powers ;
we think it right to retrace the arguments and to
review the principles upon which throughout the
proceedings that have led to the present melan-
choly posture of affairs, the conduct of the

British Government has appeared to us to merit
unqualified reprobation. So long as the dispute
related only to the liberation of, Greece, and no
other interests were involved in it than those of
Turkey on the one hand, and of Greece on tht,
other, we did not disguise our wishes ; they were
sincere and ardent for the triumph of the latter•
But, no sooner was the Treaty of the 6th of
July concluded, than we perceived that the
character of the dispute was entirely changed ;
that it no longer tended to the results, theore-
tical or practical, which we in common with
the .rest of mankind had contemplated with sa-
tisfaction ; that the principal parties engaged in
it before had in fact ceased to be so. We now

felt our wishes for the liberation of Greece, su-
perseded by our deeper' regard for the interest,
and particularly for that highest interest of all,
the character of England ; and we felt also that
the liberation of Greece, was put entirely out of
the question, that • unfortunate country being
destined, not by the terms, but by the _obvious
import of the Treaty, to a foreign master—des-
tined to be the unhappy subject of a fierce, per-
haps protracted struggle between the Powers of
Russia and of Turkey, and eventually to fall
under the tyranny of a Czar, at -the moment she
should be rescued- from the oppreSsions of a
Sultan. From the first we reprobated the
treaty, as injurious to the interests and a
foul stain upon the character -of England,
as repugnant to the • first and clearest
principles of, international as a pre-
cedent most dangerous in its tendency to the se-
entity of nations, and to the tranquillity of the
world. To these opinions, however the present
crisis may terminate, we steadfastly adhere.
There is no doctrine more strongly enforced by
all the writers of authority upon,the law of na-
tions, or more explicitly and uniformly .recog-
nized in the public acts, of all civilized- States,
than that which forbids -the interference of any
Sovereign or Sovereigns in the disputes which
may arise between any other Sovereign and his
subjects. This is the general law. That there.
may be cases of exception, is admitted ; but the
monstrous_and revolting ,nature of the instances
adduced by the most celebrated jurisconsults to
illustrate the exception; plainly • shew that in
their. judgment no general law can be more in •
flexible. Grotius cites the case of Busiris,
King of Egypt, who is said to
.have been in the
habit of sacrificing to Jupiter all the foreigners
who entered his dominions,--of Phalaris, the ty-
rant of Sicily, who was so celebrated for cruelty
that he is said to have eaten his-own son—and
of Diorned, of Thrace, of whom it is re-
corded, that he nourished his horses with human
flesh. We contend that the case of Turkey and
Greece cannot be considered' by the other Eu-
ropean States as an exception to the general
law, without invalidating that law altogether.
Turkey has possessed the dominion over Greece
for fourcenturies,with the universal acquiescence
of the European Powers.. Its rule, we know,
has been a harsh one, but not more harsh than

that of Russia over her own subjects. The for-
bearance of four centuries is conclusive evidence
surely against the interference of the present
year, unless it can be shown that the practices
and character of the Turkish Government, in
relation to its Greek subjects, had recently as-
sumed some new feature of oppression or
atrocity, so as to goad the latter into revolt.
In this case it might have been pretended, with
some show of reason, that the general law
of nations was inapplicable to the new cir-
cumstances which had arisen. But the, very re-
verse of this is the fact. It is notorious and un-
deniable, that the Turkish Government, so far
from having become worse, has become better ;
that under the sway of the reigning Sultan, its
policy has become more enlightened, and its
temper, consequently, milder .than under that of
any of his predecessors .; that it promised to the
rest of Europe, and threatened in the rapacious
eye of Russia, to assume the character of energy
and wisdom Within its proper boundarjes, which
would have promoted the happiness of all
subjects, and might have rendered it ere long
invulnerable to external attack. It is certainly a
most suspicious circumstance that the treaty for
the violation of Turkey, should have's° quickly
followed the dissolution of the Janissaries—of a
body to whose existence the past excesses, and
the past weakness too of the Turkish Government
are mainly to be ascribed. Humanity and policy
concurred—the policy ofevery Power, except Rus-
sia, required that the .Government of Turkey
should not be deprived of the opportunity to fol-
low up the important step it had already taken
to redeem its character and to consolidate its
strength. The injustice of the Treaty of Inter-
vention is conclusively established, by reference
to the principles which have actuated the con-
duct of all the Powers who are parties to it Bur-
ring a period of four centuries. But when
.we
reflect upon the more recent conduct of two of
those Powers, England and France, dUring.the
five years that the struggle between the Ottoman
Government and its Greek subjects has been-con-
tinued, the charges of gross folly and inconsis-
tency must he superadded to that of injustice.
The claim of the Greeks upon England and
France to sympathy and aid on the grounds
of religion and humanity, were at least as strong
at the commencement of this struggle as they are
at the present moment. We maintain that they
were stronger. Their cause then bore its highest
aspect. Their Chiefs had not shown themselves
as they have since done, without an exception,
insensible to the feelings of patriotism and re-
gardful Qnly of'the petty projects of personal am-
bition or of a low and contemptible avarice.
Piracy had not then assumed the dimensions of
a national crime. By an earlier interference,
Turkey moreover would have been spared the
exhaustion of a protracted conflict, and the-mor-
tification of being deprived of the fruits of final
success when the moment of gathering them was
evidently near. But darmg these five years of
fierce and doubtful conflict, England has pro-
fessed and maintained so rigorous a neutrality,
that her own Greek subjects of the lonian
Isles have been coerced with much difficulty
and with much, 'we do not say with improper
severity, into the suppression of their natural
sympathies in favoiir of their struggling and suf-
fering countrymen. France also has professed
neutrality, and if her practise has deviated from
her professions, it has been exclusively in favour
of Trk e y The Pacha of Egypt, the tributary
of the Porte, and the most effective of its Com-
manders, has been permitted to fit out vessels of
war in French ports, and French Military Of-
ficers have been not only allowed but encouraged
to enter into his service. The policy of Russia,
unjust as it is, has at least the merit of being in-
telligible and
That consistent. It is the policy of am-
bition. of England and France is equally
unjust towards Turkey ; but it has the addi-
tional faults of being base, truckling, disinge-
nuous towards Russia, unutterably degrading to
the characters, and directly hostile even to the
real interests of the two great nations whose Go-
vernments have adopted it. Morning post.