The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The effect of the Treaty for composing the
affairs of Greece, which we alone published yes-
terday morning, it will be perceived by our city
article, was of a pleasing kind in that region of
commercial enterprise. The eastern end of the
Mediterranean is not, indeed, the seat of much
commerce, but we have no doubt that its capa-
bilities will now be enlarged ; and we must say of
the Treaty, that it is calculated to dispel those
apprehensions which existed respecting the de-
signs of Russia. The fifth article says, that
4, the contracting Powers will not seek in these
arrangements any augmentation of territory, any
exclusive influence, any commercial advantage
for their subjects, which the subjects of any
other cation may not equally obtain." Jf Russia
shall be found to have ultimately multiplied her
pacific relations by the operation of this treaty,
we shall rejoice at such a result ; commerce will
only thereby have marked out another high road
between her dominions and England. We
ought, perhaps, to have said a word or two on
those articles of the Treaty which are called
secret, and which we published with the rest.—
It is common, in treaties of this nature, where
Powers mediate upon the principle of chastising
the refractory, and siding with the obedient, to
pass certain secret articles to this effect ; in con-
formity with which usage the condition or con-
tingent articles of this treaty have, indeed, been
called secret ; but it was the intention of the 'con-
tracting Powers that these should be made public
with the rest, and for this obvious and useful
reason,—that they were yet more pacific and
friendly than the articles of the original treaty ;
and their concealment could only have excited
needless apprehensions in the Turks that they
were of a different tenour. For what do the se-
cret and contingent articles say—that if Turkey
refuses submission, her capital shall be battered ?
; but that Consuls—men of a peaceful cha-
racter—shall be placed in the Greek cities.—
That her fleets shall be burnt ? No ; but that
all collision shall be prevented between the con-
tending parties. The secret articles would, there-
fore, have been given to the Turks along with
the rest, whether we had published them or not.
—Times.

The proceedings of the constituted authoii-
ties at Jamaica present but an unsatisfactory
aspect. It appears that the House of Assembly
had passed a resolution in May last, to this omi-
nous effect,—that " the allowances to the British
troops should be stopped in June (now past),
unless the grievance complained of by the imposi-
tion of duties without the consent of the (Ja-
maican) Legislature were fully redressed before
that day." An act or resolution of a Legisla-
tive body must be carried into effect by certain
officers. Those with whom it rested to execute
the order of the House of Assembly are styled
Commissioners of Accounts ; these met on the
18th of slay, and a deliberation, or rather a dis-
cussion, of no very philosophic character, took
place on the propriety of yielding or refusing
obedience to the resolution above recited. But
these Commissioners of Accounts are Members
of the House of Assembly, by whom the resolu-
tion above recited was passed; and how Mr.
Hyslop, the Commissioner of Accounts, could
possibly refuse compliance with the peremptory'
order to stop payment which he had rkeived'
fr.— Mr 4O-4:4 4he House of

Assembly; we cannot imagine. We recollect
that Oliver Cromwell said of John tilburn, the,
puritan, that if there were no other people in the; _ _

world to quarrel with, John wont ; qi;rrel
igilburne, and Lilburne with John. There
however, no such internal-aiseedd in` the body of
Mr. Hyslop, Commissioner of AceOunts, . anal
Member of the Jamaica Parliament, nor in the
bodies of the other persons possessing both those
offices. The Board comes to no resolution ;
whereby it follows, that in this, as in other cases,
it obeys the Legislature ; upon iihieltreettlr,ithe
troops whose allowance is stopped *ill be in no
very placid mood. Oliver's inference from Lil-
hurne s captious temper was, that it was best to
le him alone. We do not precisely recommend
this course to the Government at home: we hope
however, it will consider the pretensions of these
malcontents with the kindest feelings, and grant
them whatever may be granted, with promptitude ;
or refuse with firmness. We do not know, for
our own parts, that it would be a great national
calamity if the whole of the West India Islands
were formed into a federative republic. We
could then trade with them to the degree we
wished, and no further. But can they proteCt
their foreign independence against America, or
their domestic tranquillity against their own black
population ?-Ibid.
- - -

We learn from a letter, which our readers
will find in another column, that the conjecture
hazarded in our remarks on the proceedings of
the Synod of Ulster, in The Chronicle of Tues-
day—that the two individuals who refused to
take the test prescribed by the vote of the Sy-
120t1 would turn out to be connected with rich
congregations, able and inclined to indemnify
them for any sacrifice to which their honesty
might expose thembas not proved correct.
We are sorry to find that, should the vote of
the Synod be followed up by an expulsion of
the two members in question, one of them at
least would be exposed to very great difficulties.
So far from wondering that only two out of 35
or 40 men should avow their real opinions, at
She hazard of depriving themselves of the means
of subsistence, we are only astonished that there
should be found two possessed of tittis degree of
honesty. Human nature is the same in Eng-
land that it is every where else, but the habits of
Englishmen, and the circumstances in which
they are placed, are in a great measure peculiar to
them. The law perpetuates immense masses of
property in a number of families, in whom all
power is centered ; and these families, through
that property, have a monopoly of all offices of
splendour and dignity in Church and State.
The body possessed of this overwhelming in-
fluence is not, however, like many of the old
Aristocracies of the Continent, closed against
fresh entrants ; but is open at all times to wealth.
Hence, in England, independently of the desire
which must exist every where of property, as a
means of commanding the necessaries and en-
joyments of life—as wealth in England leads to
all power and influence, temporal and spiritual,
and the career is open to all—an immense
stimulus is here superadded to the natural desire.
if ever Mammon reigned in a country, it is in
England. Every thing is measured by money,
and the idea of consideration not derived from
money, or the means of making it, is unintel-
ligible. In a provincial town, he who keeps;
a coach will not associate with the person who;
can afford to keep only his gig ; the latter
looks down on the individual who only keeps a
riding horse ; and the person who can keep
neither coach, gig, nor horse, must not aspire to
associate with any of them. All the virtues, andl
,all the amiable qualities that ever centered in one
TiTuld fail tg ensure respect in Lug-

land to straitened circumstances. The moment
the black coat becomes rusty, or any other of the
well-known systems become apparent, friends are
seized with blindness in the streets, and the un-
fortunate is cut—this is a word which could be
translated into no European language. Another
circumstance has great influence in fostering ava-
ricious feelings in the people of this country.
The enormous taxation to which we are subject
has imposed on the great mass of the people
enormous exertions, as the only condition on
which they can at all exist. A man, therefore, in
England, is stimulated to the acquisition of
wealth, not only as the only means of enjoying
consideration, but to secure himself from the ne-
cessity of making those almost superhuman exer-
tions to which we have alluded. The morality
of the people of this country has of course taken
its complexion from these circumstances. There
is no man who will not admit, as a general pro-
position, that no interested considerations should
induce any one to profess an opinion that he
does not really believe.
.But when sincerity is
followed by poverty and contempt, the abandon-
ment of friends, the derision of the multitude, it
requires a stout heart to adhere to principle at
such an expence. Very few men possess that
strength of mind which enables them to remain
indifferent to the manner in which they are
viewed by others. The sympathy of others is
necessary to most men. When, therefore, a pre-
ference of sincerity to interest would be fol-
lowed by neglect and derision, it is expect.
ing too much from frail mortals that they should
hazard the consequences. The Jansenists pub-
lished an account of those Frenchmen who, in
the last century, abandoned their livings, and em-
braced povery and exile rather than renounce
their opinions respecting the propositions con-
demned by the Bull Unigenitus. In the first
half of the eighteenth century, the Record con-
tains an account of about a thousand Martyrs,
among whom were 25 Bishops, and nearly 700
Abbots and other Dignitaries. "It is highly
glorious to our age (says the preface), to have
been the witness of the faith and the courage of
a considerable number of persons, of every con-
dition, and sex, and age, who preferred to suffer
all sorts of injustice, and the most of them the
loss of their liberty, and even their life, rather
than betray their conscience and renounce the
truth." What would be thought of a Bishop in
England, who on any other principle than that
of political calculation (as in the case of the
Nonjuring Jacobites at the Revolution), aban-
doned his living on account of opinion, or who
should avow any opinion calculated to endanger
his retaining his office ? Would not a smile of
derision overspread the countenance of every
man of the world, whenever his name happened
to be mentioned ? When the immediate prede-
cessor of the present King of Prussia subjected
all Theological Candidates to a test of what they
disapproved, they refused compliance, renounced
their pursuits, and the faculties of law and me-
dicine were inundated with uncomplying Di.
vines. What do we learn in this country ? that
the students ,r the Belfast Association conceal
their opinions to have livings. But really the
sacrifice of the French Clergy and German Stu-
dents was by no means so great as a correspond-
jag sacrifice would have been in this country.
Poverty does not deprive a respectable man of
4:onsideratioß in either of the two countries.
Even in the "comparatively luxurious capital of
:eips One or a dozen servants, or whether he
,odges in a garret or in a hotel. Contempt does
act accompany poverty, and wealth does not
.procure that grovelling worship which is always
paid to its possessors in England. During the
Pearly part of the Revolution, it is stated in the
Repoli of a Commissaire of the Government of
the day, that she people of Britanny fed the
ejected clergy is the woods and caverns in which
they were concealed, and behaved towards them
with the most affectionate regard. It is one
thing to be supplied by the sympathy of a people,
and another to become an object of derision.
We are far from contending that the insincerity
of England is in itself proper. We earnestly
wish the morality of the nation were of a more
elevated character. The object of our observa-
tions is merely to account for the prevalence of
the insincerity and hypocrisy in all matters of
opinion, by showing that they are the result of
circumstances with which human frailty can hardly
ever hope successfully to cope. The circumstan-
ces to which we have alluded are but two power-
ful in disposing men to worship wealth. But as
if they were not sufficiently powerful, all manner
of tests have been devised to familiarize men
with equivocation. The attempt to obtain uni-
formity of opinion on points susceptible of dis-
pute, is in itself immoral, for uniformity in all
such cases is an impossibility, and the profession
of it an evidence of insincerity. The arguments
of the Protestants against the Catholics on this
subject are incontrovertible, and it is only to be
regretted that they should forget them in the
divisions among themselves. "It is obvious
(says a celebrated Protestant Divine, in a con-
troversial work against the Catholics), it is ob-
vious that the interpretation of articles of belief
will always be different in the heads of different
men, and that all the Popes and Councils of
the world would he insufficient to determine
every thing; and to cause every thing to enter
into the heads of men in the same way. Each
Church may attempt to have its written confes-
sion. But it gains nothing thereby but the
verbal uniformity of the public formulae, and by
no means the unity of the ideas in the heads of
men. Variety of views in religion is something
natural, unavoidable, and attended with no
danger for truth. It is thence unjust in us to
accuse each other of heresy on that account, and
to endeavour to extort uniformity of belief
through forcible means. It is this force which
alone makes religious opinions dangerous, as it
perpetuates errors, generates fanaticism and
hatred, and prevents the natural development of
the human mind."—Morning Chronicle.
Those whose province it is to record the ac-
tions and intended movements of those who do

not appear to know their own minds, and whose
plans are so unsettled as to change from day to
day, have, it must be admitted, an awkward
task to perform ; and in announcing that to-day,
which they are compelled to contradict to-
morrow, must appear to throw discredit on their
own sources of information, or, in the eyes of
some, as the mere inventors of what they an-
nounce. The chopping and changing, the ar-
rangements, abandoned as soon as projected, of
the present Ministry, are, however, precisely of
this description ; and however, one-half of the
reports with which the public have been inun-
dated may, in the end, have the appearance of
fabrications, we believe that not only nearly
every one of them have been true at the time,
but that the Press has not given currency to one
half the schemes and expedients which have been
projected during the last six months of intrigue
and indecision. We may, we believe, now an
nounce -
confidently that Lord Lansdown's ap-

pointment to the Home Department is actually
made out and determined upon ; and that Lord
Anglesea is as certainly, at this moment, des-
tined to take the Government of Ireland in No-
vember. This latter appointment, however, is
said to rest upon a contingency as to the acces-
sion of the Duke of Gordon to the views of the
Ministry. Great efforts, and every kind of in-
ducement are making, we understand, to obtain
this. Not only would the Duke's personal cha-
racter be a great addition to Mr. Canning's
ranks, but his influence North of the Tweed
would, it is thought, go far to counterbalance
that of Lord Melville, the Duke of Montrose,
and other. Scotch Lairds, who have gone into
exile from the Court. The peculiar and novel
difficulty of Mr. Canning's situation, however,
appears to be this, that though invested with the
nominal Headship of the Government, he has so
many Viceroys over him, that much of the power
and influence of office is entirely out of his reach.
The patronage of the Army and the Navy are
retained by the two first personages in the realm,
and that of the Church and Law by the respec-
tive heads of those two Learned Professions.
With these limits of influence cut off from
the head of the Administration, of course
less deference will be paid to one who
wields a comparatively barren sceptre, than to
his predecessors, who enjoyed the full in-
fluence of power and place. Those who know
the inexhaustible appetite which belongs to the
Parliamentary and other hangers-on of a Ministry
will easily see the truth and force of this ; and
that if Mr. Canning has less to give to the
younger sons of Lords and Gentlemen than his
predecessors, so much the less can he rely upon
their support ; the quid pro quo being more or
less the governing rule of action amongst the
highest, as well as the lowest—among the most
apparently virtuous, as well as the most really
profligate of mankind. This being the case, the
new Minister's friends whisper pretty audibly
that he vv!i have no alternative but to throw
himself upon the people ; that is, by courting
popularity, circumvent and defeat the opposition
of the great parties opposed to him. 'With this
view, we are told, every practicable curtailment
of expense is to be resorted to, and a further
cutting-down of the scanty salaries of clerks,
messengers, and tide-waiters, had recourse to.
Economy—we mean a real economy, is what
every honest and disinterested man must admire,
and feel to be the duty of every Government ;
though, as far as meeting our financial situation
goes, it can amount, at best, we should imagine,
but as to a drop in the ocean. But a petty
economy and a lavish expenditure must be futile,
while practised together ; and to cut down a few
labourers in the dock-yards, while his new Whig
friends are thrusting themselves into comparative
sinecures of large value, is what the good sense
of mankind will easily see through, and not be
gulled with. We have no objection to see Mr.
Canning or any Minister throw himself upon the
people, in its true Constitutional sense. Popular
opinion, in a popular Government, must always
be entitled to the highest influence ; but popular
delusion is not quite so easily practised as it was
an age, or only half an age ago ; and we doubt
exceedingly whether the peopl- have lie: Se.:l.
already such a ready convertibility of principle
among some of those who now lay claim to their
confidence, as may lead them to withhold it from
them, should they even present tbermelves
4.4.--A...••••• de••••••••••••..n."--.....Moog • lierald.

A case occurred at the Mansion-house yPs:-
terday, which seems, very unucce 3:a117. to
excited a vast deal of sympathy tha i:react o
the Lord Mayor and Alderman Lucas,, who
tried it, and in the course of which, if we may
credit a somewhat extended account. which ap.,
peared in an Evening Paper of yestetrday, these
two Magistrates indulged in more remarks upon
the law which they were called on to administer,
than were altogether suitable to the impartiality
of the Bench. The case was this. A person,
respectable enough perhaps, who is a mate of a
Hamburgh vessel, was charged with smuggling
6ilb. of cigars. The penalty is 1001., or five
years' service in one of his Majesty's ships or
war, and either may be inflicted on the convic-
tion of one or more Justices of the Peace. The
Treasury, well aware that to leave to Justices of
the Peace in certain districts the power of modi-
fying the fine or the time of service, might lead
to unpleasant imputations, have reserved that
power in their own hands. We need not say
that they have used it with much considera-
tion and tenderness. This part of the law
has, however, struck the City Magistrates as
wonderfully severe, and as trenching
over-
much On the prerogative of mercy, which
forms so amiable a trait in the character of
the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. The pri-
soner's defence seems also to have produced an
astonishing effect. According to his account he
had bought the cigars for his own private use,
and was carrying them ashore, imagining, as he
pretended, that he was committing no breach of
any existing law. Now, who was the man
that
pled thus ? The mate of a Hamburgh trader,
where it is notorious to all who have inquired
into the subject, that a system of petty smuggling
is carried on, from the Captain to the cabin-boy,
with undeviating regularity. He was, moreover,
a Guernsey man, a native of an island where
smuggling is the only commerce, where there is
not a man, woman, Or child, in the principal
town that is not, directly or indirectly, engaged
in it—where the very kennels smell of Hollands•
n
For such a man, trained to the evasion of them,
b custom-house
birth and bi
laws
spractice,toutterly
ire
be ignorant
And ignorant of
how does his story tell. He brought ashore for
small quan-
tityhis uosfe during,l,4o o
cigars,
an
nf a
allowancew eek, th e o f
only 200
a-day ! We certainly are not disposed to find
fault with any recommendation the Lord Mayor
or Alderricn may see fit to forward on behalf of
any offender, whatever be his degree of guilt ;
but we think they might just as well spare the
laws of the country from censures, which may
bring them into disrepute, but cannot mend
them.—New Times.

The general appearance of the crops in this
neighbourhood is improved, if possible, since our
last. We have heard a complaint of the dolphin
having attacked the peas, but we hope and think
it is only a partial evil. The weather, though it
has been warm, has been, we should say, parti-
cularly favourable to the growth of turnips, and
we see several pieces of Swedes already hoed,
and growing luxuriantly. The white rounds are
just coming up, and we have seen several pieces
out of the way of the fly. The clovers are shoot-
ing again as well as we ever saw them, and
nothing can be finer than the weather has been
for the last week for the wheat, which may be
said to be in full bloom, and at which time the
weather certainly has a great effect on it.—
Brighton Gazette.