The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

i

It will have been observed that one great pre-
tence of the violent abuse which the people of
Paris, both in society and in the journals, are
pouring forth against the new French Ministry,
is the supposed influence of the English Go-
vernment over the Court of the Tuilleries. It
is broadly stated, and seems to be generally be-
lieved, that the Duke of Wellington is in inti-
mate correspondence with the King of France.
Our own confident belief is, that there is not
the slightest foundation of truth in the rumour,
—that it is a mere liberal, or more probably
Russian, story, fabricated for a purpose which it
is not difficult to divine. We do not believe
that the Duke of Wellington has written a single
syllable to his most Christian Majesty since the
latter has sat upon the throne of France, upon any
subject whatever, much less upon a subject so
essentially French as the appointment of his
Ministry. But though our Government has of
courae abstained from any impertinent meddling
with the internal government of France, it is not
improbable nor unreasonable that a Ministerwho
like M. Polignac, is known to befriendly to Eng-
land, and to entertain the same honest an] rat
onal wishe3 for the maintenance of a general peace,
should be agreeable to the English Administra,
tion,—at least till his policy shall appear to en-
danger those objects which it is equally the inte-
rest of France arid England to attain. We do
not presume—indeed it would be great presump-
tion—to advise the French nation, but we may
venture to hint that, even with respect to the
obnoxious members of the new Cabinet, Boor-
mont and La Bourdonnaye, it seems but coin..
!non justice to wait till they have committed
some act in their ministerial capacity which may
afford some show of reason for the extraordinary
virulence with which they are assailed. The
circumstance of so respectable and unobjection-
a man as Admiral de Him declining to become
a member of the Cabinet is unfortunate, but his
refusal is, we have good reason to believe, en-
tirely founded on private and domestic consi-
derations. lie is known to be the firm political
friend of the new Ministry. It is also under-
stood, on good authority, that the Premier re-
ceives daily assurances of support, which inspires
him with a resolute determination to face, and a
reasonable hope of weathering, the storm. With-
out going minutely into details, we suspect the
French writers are very much mistaken ea to the
real influence which led to the appointment of
Bourmont. Suppose the suggestion came from
a quarter usually deemed " liberal ?"—Times.
Mr. Buchanan, recently a British commer-
cial functionary in the United States of America,
has suggested a plan whereby he conceives the
British provinces of Canada would be consider-
ably enriched and strengthened,—namely, the
opening of the navigation of the St. Lawrence
to the trade of the United States. At a time
when narrow jealousy of other nationa has ceased,
with us at least, to be a fundamental principle
of political economy,—when the removal of all
obstacles to the free scope of trade is justly con-
sidered to be consonant with the wisest policy,
—and when we are actually searching for means
of improving the condition and resources of our
American territories, such a proposition as this
possesses a strong claim upon the attention of
Government, especially since it is offered as the
result of local experience and observation: The
prodigious advantages which have accrued ti 7 the
western states of the American Union from the
free navigation of the Mississippi, notwithstand-
ing the efforts of the Atlantic states., by means of
canals and rail-roads, to draw off a part of that
commerce, seem to demonstrate the policy of the
measure proposed. The St. Lawrence and the
lakes with which it is connected present a navi-
gation of about four thousand miles, running
into the western states, and reaching towards the
Rocky Mountains. The states in the west,

however, are not the only parts of the Union
which would be interested in this great measure
those of New York and Pennsylvania, by their
canals, would be enabled to participate in the
benefits of a free navigation of the British river.
In a political point of view, it is an object of
great importance to possess such a hold upon
the commercial interests of the American people.
" It cannot be understood by any but such as
have been resident in the United States," says
Mr. Buchanan, " what an amazing influence a
small interest, cast by a judicious policy into the
scale of any party, can produce on the public
measures of the Republic." The commercial
advantages on the side of British America are
many. In the first place, the transit of such an
extensive traffic as would take place in the

event of the Americans possessing such an

outlet must enrich Canada.

The —concession

may also naturally be expected to lead to

a corresponding arrangement on the part
of the United States, in opening the canals
of the Union to British boats, whereby a new
channel of intercourse, by means of the Erie
Canal, would be gained between Canada and
the West Indies. Flax seed for Ireland, which
could be raised in large quantities in Upper
Canada, and for which 150,0001. is now an-
nually paid to the United States, could be sent
by the same route; the late period at which the

St. Lawrence is free from ice precluding the ship-
ment of that article from Canada at present,
until a season too far advanced for sowing in
Ireland. It might be hastily imagined that the
balance of advantages in this measure would,
however, be on the side of the United States ;
and that the Americans would compete with our
merchants, and introduce French and China

goods into Canada, and that a contraband trade
would grow up to a ruinous extent. These ap-
prehensions the proposer considers to be entirely
groundless. As to the admission of American
produce into Canada, this he thinks a chimerical
notion, inasmuch as the American manufacturers

deem the protecting duties and charges on Bri-
tish goods, amounting to 50 per cent., inade-
quate to enable them to compete with the Bri-
tish merchant : " in fact, there is no article of
consumption in the Canadas that may not be af-
forded by the British much lower that by the Ame-
rican manufacturer." The opening of the naviga-
tion in question would, therefore, create really an
tauY
reensu
intot6 r
the
we introduction uocft i ot
hnesoo,ki:f
aßinltilrteileitrciirsahsientieansie: manufac-
tures Iu
regard to a contraband traffic, Mr. Buchanan
t to
to, either
treohftriehlpilreaYargictet:lsPnasesialticidittdaiel v:reeetyodi:rPaolri)d'eeuvt siseceane:prevent
countriesv: sfsoerl s
it firso
anm carry
privilege by
g
of, and the supplies
essen-
tial part of his plan that the:Americans should
be confined to carry to the sea the produce of
their own soil only, and to bring up such articles
only as: are to be landed in their own ports;
tßorictoisiliivevyestsoeltsh being, eii,ioigrt,s like
iu t umnaiitienders,
tpeaternsisitutecicli
articles only as are supplied by Canada. By throw-
ing open the India and China trade to the Ca-
nadian merchants, and by making Quebec a re-

gulated free port, all fears as to the illicit intro-
duction of tea and India manufactures would be
obviated, and the market of Canada would, in
reality, become to the United States what those
States were, till lately, to the colonies,—a mart
for the supply of Eastern products. Objec-
tions, of which we are not aware, may be started
to this project by persons who possess local in-
formation ; but it appears to us to deserve at
least consideration.—lbid.

.The French liberal Journals continue their
bitter invectives against the new Ministry ; and

if we may judge from the extracts from pro-
vincial Papers which they give, the Editors of

the latter are determined not to be outdone by

their brethren of the capital. Literary men, too,
who are seldom overstocked with money, refuse

even to be pensioned by the Ministers. It is a
proverb, that lookers on see most of the game ;
but we suspect an Englishman, whatever atten-
tion he bestows on the game now playing in
France, is not likely to understand it. The
bitterness of the Papers supposes a general con-

viction that the present change is in fact the
harbinger of a revolution. The Journals are in a
state of feverish excitement, which seems un

favourable to us, who cannot appreciate their

grounds of apprehension. Oiie thing is
certain, that those to whom the Journalists

aultdress themselves in such warm language,
must share their apprehensions. The great
point is, how will all this affect the Mi-
nistry ? Will the latter, by remaining passive
during the effervescence of national feeling (for
violent excitement is necessarily of short dura-
tion), after the fury has exhausted itself, be
enabled to make head against their opponents ?
We all know the fable of the boy and the wolf;

and it is possible that this early alarm sounded
go perseveringly through the country, if not jus-
tified by any overt acts on the part of the Minis-
ters, may be in time followed by an apathy fa-
vourable for the appearance of the wolf in the
scene. But as we know neither the extent of
the means of the Ministers, nor the extent of

those which the Opposition can bring to bear
against them, it would be idle in us to indulge
in farther conjecture. The Constitutionnel,
with the characteristic ignorance of all Frenchmen
of the state of our Empire in India, repeats the
old tale of. the danger to be apprehended from
the Russians in that quarter. This is about as
formidable a danger as that to which, according
to an article imputed to Mr. Barrow, in the
Quarterly Review, the United States of North
America were exposed from an invasion from
the Russian settlements in America.—Morning
Chronicle.

'We have never shared the apprehensions of
those who see in the present operations of the
Russians the probability of such an accession of
power as to make them dangerous to their western
neighbours. In the Foreign Quarterly Review,
No. 8, just published, there is an able article
on the Russian conquests on the Black Sea and
the Caucasus, which, to those who wish for in-
formation oFt this subject, conveys some curious
matter, derived from the recent publications of"
the Chevalier Ganiba, Colonel Rothers, and M.

Klaproth. That the Government of the Rus
sians, with all its defects, appears to great ad
vantage, when compared with the Governmen
of her Mahomedan neighbours, is pretty wel
evinced by the eagerness of the Armenians to be
placed under the sway of Russia. " The Cara-
vanserais," says the Reviewer, " and other im-
provements to which M. Gamba refers, were not
begun till the year 1820. In the year following,
a complete freedom of trade was granted to Tiflis
by an Imperial Ukase, and every day the popu-
lation of the place is increased by the arrival of
Armenians, who seek refuge there from the
tyranny of the Turks, and the vexations of the
Persian Government. The Armenians, so cu-
riously distinguished among Asiatic nations by
their pacific temper and patient industry, are na-
turally rejoiced at the extension of the Russian
power, which substitutes security and pei feet to-
leration for anarchy and extortion. They are the
most valuable subjects of the Caucasian Pro-
vinces ; and when we consider how numerous
they are on the frontiers of Russia, Persia, and
Turkey, we need feel little surprise at the rapid
increase of the former power at the expence of
the two latter, while the Armenians fly daily to
the protection of the Russians, and carrying with
them all their wealth, industry, and intelligence,
leave to the brutal government they desert nothing
but depopulated provinces." The sentiments
of the people of the frontier provinces of
Persia and Turkey are generally favourable to
Russian rule, to which they look forward as a
relief. But the acquisitions, however gratifying,
to the ambition of Russia, are a source of weak-
ness rather than of strength. The tribes of the
Caucasus are savage and restless, and their sub-
jection to any Government is merely nominal.
" the number of troops usually stationed in the
Caucasian Provinces is 60,000, almost all Cos-
sacks ; but at present it is probable that the army
on the frontiers is much increased. In order to
maintain so large a force in a country so ill culti-
vated that, with all the gifts of nature in profu-
sion, it affords but a precarious supply, provisions
are obliged to be sent across the mountains ; and
as the revenues of those countries are by no
means adequate to meet their expellees, Russia
is obliged to remit on their account about eight
millions of francs per annum." We are not of
the number of those who would perpetuate op-
pression, and prevent the progress of civilization,
from an apprehension of Russian greatness. We
do not advocate a right to Russia of encroach-
incre, on the territories of her neighbours on ac-
count of the qualities of her Government. To
lay it down as a rule that a State might, with a
view to introduce ameliorations, invade its
neighbours, would be santioning a very danger-
ous doctrine. But there is a material difference
between encroachments on savages or half savages,
and encroachments on civilized States. The
Americans, and even our Government, are con-
stantly encroaching on the Red natives. We
make no scruple of seizing the lands over which
the Black natives of New Holland and Van
Diennan's land have roamed for ages. The en-
croachments of Russia towards the East are
somewhat akin to the above. They are hailed
• by the natives, to whom any sort of settled Go-
vernment is a blessing. Under such circum-
stances, the nations of the West of Europe
ought not to be too forward in opposing them-
selves to the designs of Russia. The only intel-
ligible ground of interference is a regard to self-
reservation. But what have the States of the
est to fear from any access of power to Russia
from her conquests ? " Throughout all tile
Southern provinces of Russia (says the Re-
viewer) travellers are obliged to carry with them
their bed furniture and provisions ; the accommo-
dations of innsand public conveyances are still un-
known. There is nothing more remarkable (says
M. Gamba) than the contrast in this respect
which is offered by two new countries—the

United States of America and Southern Rus-

sia. In America, as soon as a tract of country

is cleared and occupied by the colonist, inns and
public vehicles are immediately established, and
travellers are relieved from the necessity of bring-
ing with them a►► expensive and troublesome
equipage. In Russia, after twenty years of
settlement, we find no such facilities—no means

of lightening the expellee or relieving the fatigues
of travelling. It cannot be concealed that this
difference proceeds in a great measure from the
circumstance, that in one country the colonists arc
emigrants from a nation which has reached the
highest degree of civilization ; while settlers in
Southern Russia are either drawn from Russia

itself, where the habits and tastes of nomadic
life are still predominant, or they are men broken
by misfortune, and forced, by their distresses, to
quit Germany ; or, in fine, they are merchants
and agriculturists, who coming only with the in-
tention of a temporary abode, trouble themselves
little with improvements which do not promise
immediate profit. I may add, among the circum-
stances which oppose the amelioration of which
this country is susceptible, the want of support
in the local Administrations. Thus, while the
greater number of the Governors-General and
the Heads of Departments are distinguished by
their upright character and their zeal for the ser-
vice—while the Sovereigns of this vast empire
neglect no means of preventing every abuse of
power, the underlings of office, in the thirteenth
and fourteenth-- degrees, abuse unceasingly the
atom of authority with which they are entrusted.
These vexations are incessant, in proportion as

they are obscure ; and, from their Covert nature,
completely elude detection." Alas ! if the de-
velopment of society is to depend on the aid ol
Administrations, how distant must be its con-
summation. Such a stimulus to enterprise and

industry is never dreamt of on the banks of the
Ohio or the Missouri. But in Russia, as M.

Gamba well knows, whatever does not proceed
from the Government itself, is looked on with
suspicious eyes. Jealous of its patriarchal cha-
racter, it allows no man to think for himself ; and
those impertinent interferences with private spe-
culation, of which M. Gamba complains, are not
to be ascribed so much to the incidental faults of

inferior officers, as to the nature of autocracy,
itself. The spirit of industry is damped under a
Government which is careful to engross all praise
and all profit. An Empire so constituted, how-
ever great may be the virtues of its chief, is but
an ill-judged Promethean experiment, in which
the vital spark is confined to the head, and
hardly gives animation to the limbs. Though,
therefore, the Russian Government gives a de-
gree of security unknown in Turkey or Persia, it
is still but a very imperfect instrument. So far
from dreading the development of resources from
her accessions of territory, our only regret is that.
it will not be greater. The people of England
are but too apt to confound the capability of
Turkey in their own hands and in the hands of
the Russians. Even the French, enlightened as

they are, languish under that system orcentraliza-
don, which is the curse of Continental States.
Delegated authority must be abused. When
Prefects, Sub-Prefects, and all their subordi-
nates, are invested with powers of suppressing
exertions, industry must labour under great dis-
advantages. England has no cause to dread
Russian greatness, whether Russia keeps within
her old frontiers or extends them.—Mid.

It is time that the vending of poison in this
country should be put under some salutary re-
strictions. The facility with which the most
deadly drugs can be procured at the shops of
chemists and apothecaries affords too easy an
opportunity of carrying into effect the most
guilty intentions. The dark, malignant, and
cowardly crime of assassination by poison is
more heard of in this country of late years than
it used to be. This crime, which is more diffi-
cult to guard against than any other aiming at
the life of man, ought to have as much impedi-
ment thrown in its way as possible by making the
means of destruction so difficult to be obtained
that the exertions necessary to procure them
might operate in some degree as a prevention.
At present, any person who conceives the horrid
design of destroying another by poison has only
to go to a chemist's shop and make use of the
stale pretence of wanting arsenic to kill rats, and
he is at once supplied with the means of effect-
ing his diabolical purpose. The chemist, indeed,
who sold poison to Stratford, the murderer, made
it a practice to require a witness to come
with the person wanting to purchase the de-
leterious article—even this precaution few or
no other chemists adopt ; but this is a very in-
sufficient measure. It is rather of use to es-
tablish evidence of the fact than to operate in
any way to prevent the criminal intention from
being carried into execution. In our opinion,
no poison should be permitted to be sold to any
individual without the precautionary step of the
purchaser going before a Magistrate, and ob-
taining a certificate, enabling him to purchase,
the granting of this certificate would depend upon
his satisfying the Magistrate of the innocence of
the object for which the poison was required.
The vender should also be compelled to keep a
book, in which should be entered the names of
those so purchasing deadly drugs, with the date
of the transaction, and the exact quantity sold.
The interrogation before the Magistrate, and the
difficulties of the proceeding, might serve to
awaken reflection where the mind was not
thoroughly depraved, and thus a locus penitentice
be afforded to those who, though they might
have hardihood enough to rush into sudden
crime, might not be so desperately infatuated as
to be capable of persevering in the guilty design,
where the first step was calculated to rouse the
conscience, or awaken the mind to the enormity
of the act, and a sense of its consequences.—
Morning Herald.
Though we give all the credit which is so
justly their due to those arrangements by which,
on the opening of the new Post-office, additional
conveniences are to be afforded to the public,
yet we cannot but express a hope that, on the
other hand, these are not to be accompanied by
ally curtailment of those which at present exist.
We have heard, for instance, that the present
number of receiving houses is to be diminished,
and the collection of letters by the bellman to be
abolished. Neither of these reports we hope is
true, as they would greatly diminish, if not in
fact overbalance, the advantage likely to be de-
rived in other respects from the more late recep-
tion of letters than at present at the new sorting
houses. These latter must, of necessity, be in
some degree local in their advantages. An in-
habitant of the Regent's Park or Paddington,
for instance, will gain very little by letters
being received an hour later in Vere-street,
or those in Slmine-street or Pimlico by a similar
arrangement at Charing-cross : but the certainty
that up to the usual time letters will still be re.
I ceived at the usual places, and that, on pay-

meut of a penny a letter, even an hour after
that, may be given to the batman at the door,
are great and acknowledged conveniences, of
which, we trust, it will not be found necessary to
deprive the public. 'We would take this oppor-
tunity too of saying another word in behalf of
our poor half-starred, slip-shod friends, the two-
penny post-men, many of whom appear to have
no flesh upon their bones, or clothes to cover
them. As servants of a great public department
their appearance is a public disgrace, and, from
its being so general, must, we should imagine,
arise from the inadequacy of the remuneration
which they receive. Surely a livery like that
(riven to the General Postmen might be
,be-
stowed upon them, were it only for appearance
sake ; though we should rather say that, upon
the principle of the lhourer being worthy of his
hire, these persons, who labour so hard, ought
to be adequately paid. The truth is, the Post-
office has always been looked to too much as a
mere source of revenue ; while, in fact, that ob-
ject ought to be subsidiary, first, to the conve-
nience of the public in every possible way, and

;hen, among other things, to a just remunera-
ion to those who are engaged in carrying its
iseful details into effect.—lbid.

The permission which has at length been
granted by the East India Company to English
residents, to hold lands in their own right for
various agricultural purposes, is a most impor-
tant step towards the improvement of that
highly favoured and extensive region. Much,
we readily allow, has been done by the Com•
pany in various ways, to ameliorate the condi-
tion of its peaceably disposed and industrious
inhabitants. The administration of justice has
been greatly improved—the possession of pro-
perty rendered more secure—protection afforded
against foreign violence, and, in a word, the
peace and tranquillity of all secured in a manner
so much superior and so much more satisfactory
in every way to any thing previously experienced
in any part of India, that its most intelligent
inhabitants would think once and again, before
they lent themselves to the furtherance of any
scheme which had the overthrow of the Eng-
lish governnent of India for its basis. Still,
it must be owned, that while the Company
refused permission to Europeans to hold
land in their own right, one great mean of
improving the country and spreading know-
ledge and the arts of civilization more ex-
tensively was withheld. Those who went to
India repaired there for the purpose of making
their fortunes, and afterwards returning to
spend them in their own country.—Their in-
terest in India and its inhabitants was equally
limited. Landed property could not be held in
it, and one great motive for residing in, and im-
proving, it, was not only in consequence with
drawn ; but the country, its inhabitants, and its
resources, viewed simply as the means of con-
tributing to one great, but individual object.
Now, however, that prejudice has given way to
reason, and mistaken notions to a wise and be-
nevolent policy, we may confidently expect to
witness not only a great improvement through-
our every pat tof India to which Englishmen and
English capital have access, but a manifestation
of greater benevolence to its inhabitants, and a
more cordial intercourse between them and their

protectors than has hitherto taken place. The
former have many vices of character, but they
are vices superinduced by bad government, and
which will readily give way under the influence
of kind treatment and judicious management.—
Morning Advertiser.