The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-02 00:00:00

eboening &.,7111tit

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1845.

It is truly astonishing to observe the morbid horror
which modern legislation entertains of general prin-
ciples. To deal with any engrossing question of public
interest, that occupies the attention while it excites the
hopes, or the fears, or the indignation of the million, on
the ordinary rules or tests which determine the lines of
demarcation between right and wrong, in the every-day
business of mankind, would be deemed in Parliament a

species of gaucherie, similar to that innocence of things
as they are" and the practical mi)de of encountering
them, which, at our Universities, is reckoned the certain
characteristic of " freshmen."
The debate in the House of Lords on Lord RADNOR'S
motion, which we read with regret, afforded a curious ex-
emplification of this fact. We had the el-decant intrepid
champion of popular rights and constitutional principles
—the quondam Lord FOLKESTONE, the denouncer of
Marquis WELLEst-Ev's Indian Administration, the sup-
pre:sor;of Colonel WARDLE'S memorable charges against
the late Duke of YORK, the ultra-friend of COBBETT'S
most ultra doctrines touching the necessity of upholding
the common law and charter-granted rights, and pre-
scription-sanctioned customs of the people against all
conflicting pretences of modern-made statutes—bringing
forward a measure to remedy the intolerable abuses of
our Post-office jurisdiction lately exposed in the tam-
perings of Sir JAMES GRAFIAM and his colleagues in her
MAJESTY'S Government, with the inviolability of private
seals and correspondence. In what manner? Not by a
broad proposition to extinguish the power of such viola-
tion in any Government her MAJESTY may hereafter ap-
point, but by making it compulsory. on the Secretary of
State for the Home Department to issue a warrant
giving such authority to break the seals and private
letters in the case of each and every such particular
letter so to be dealt with. This power, this odious
power, it is known, is derived under a clause in an ob-
solete Act of Parliament, passed in the reign of WILLIAM
III.; and such a power the Noble Earl and his friends
contend, to our astonishment, it would be injudicious to
withdraw altogether from the employment, at its discre-
tion, of the Government. The absurdities into which
this compromising method of dealing with a broad and
di,tinct principle has thrown those very Peers of the
Liberal party by whom the outrags practised on M.
MAzalNi's correspondence were at first most vehemently
denounced, are absolutely deplorable. The Lord Chief
Justice seems to think to quibble away his own proposi-
tions into safe, vague, and worthless generalities. He
is now of opinion that, inasmuch as the machinery by
which the Home-office has been brought to bear
on the administrative and executive departments of
the Post-office, would suffice to enable the Home Se-
cretary to grant a specific warrant in each separate case;
therefore there can be no objection that the Government
should retain the power which it has enjoyed for the
last century and a half, to be exercised as emergencies
may arise, but under the guarantee of issuing a sepa
rate warrant for each letter. But it was well shown
that in practice the preparation of the separate warrants
would be impracticable. Then the other inconsistencies
to which this paltry modification of a great principle
would lead are as obvious as they are multitudinous,
Should the Government possess, or should it not, this
irresponsible power of violating at its own pleasure, and
on its own motion, the consecrated privacy of that cor-
respondence which passes through its posts ? If we are
answered in the affirmative, we ask why not to a greater,
if to this limited, extent ? If we are answered in the ne-
gative, we demand why will you concede the limited exer-
cise of a power to which you will not hear of permitting a
more extensive application? The power is in itself good
or bad, proper or improper, to be retained. If it be
wrong, it cannot be convertible into right on demand,
like Sir ROBERT PEEL'S currency notes. If it be right, it
cannot be transmuted into wrong by virtue of a Secre-
tary of State's warrant. Even the flimsy plea of expe-
diency is too palpable to deceive the moral perceptions
of the country, seeing that the blundering manner in
which this power has recently been called into action
has demonstrated its inexpediency. The veil of expe-
diency was rent asunder by the rude conversion of ex-
posure ; and yet it is to the rescue of this demonstrated
deformity—this spy-like, secret, dirty abomination—
darkly created in the obscure councils of by-gone Go-
vernments, and disgracefully and clandestinely resorted
to by the present, that Whig Lords, constitutional
lawyers, and Peers, whose proudest boast it is, that in
the House of Lords they resolutely uphold the rights
and liberties of the Commons of England, rush in ad-
vance even of the unconstitutional Cabinet Ministers,
whether Whig or Tory, who have insulted the spirit of
their age and country, by embarking in such un-English
courses to gratify the political resentments of foreign
Powers. Truly public principle and constitutional con-
sistency are fast becoming among us sonorous abstrac.
tions, without living representative or example.

We have intelligence from Constantinople to the 17th
of May, Athens the 19th, and Alexandria of the same
date. The Russian Embassy had officially announced
to the Porte the intention of the Imperial Prince of
RUSSIA, the Grand Duke, of visiting Constantinople in
the month of June, and the (Jour) ier d' Athenes
contains a paragraph stating that the Russian
steamer Crim6e, which entered the Pircens
some days before from Constantinople, was
the bearer of orders to the commanders of Russian ships
of war in Greece, to sail immediately for the Darda-
nelles, there to await the arrival of the Imperial CROWN
PRINCE, who, after visiting Constantinople, is to take 'a
tour through the Mediterranean. The accounts from
Lebanon are very unsatisfactory. Fresh disturbances
between the Druscs and Maronites had broken out, in
which several lives had been lost, and it is said the
Maronites were ultimately defeated by Turkish
troops, who took part with their enemies. These
disturbances had attracted the notice of the Foreign Am-
bassadors, who held a conference on the subject, and