The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

If journalism be what the French authorities
would represent it,—the grand curse of civilization,
and enemy of social order in their country,—it is a
matter of curiosity, at least, that M. Villele should
so often find occasion to employ as an especial in-
strument for his own purposes, this unwholesome
power of which lie so bitterly complains. It is to be
suspected, indeed, that M. de Villele would not en-
courage such violent attacks upon the nature of
" journalism," if lie could only prescribe to it the
exact direction which suited him; because there are
some of the French journals which his Excellency
forbears to visit with marks of his hostility or dis-
pleasure, while the Constitutionnel and J 021121411 des
Debats, for instance, are picked out as examples of
this new species of enormity. The " journalism"
of the Moniteur and Gazette de France is resorted
to by the same ingenious Minister, as the organ
through which their own profession arid privileges
are held up to alternate fear and scorn. Journalism, it
appears, in the eyes of M. de Villele, ought to re-
semble Irish reciprocity, and free speaking is (what
King James thought scratching) " too great a luxury
for subjects." There is in the Moniteur of Tues-
day last an amusing specimen of the real importance
attached by the French Minister to this tutelary
power, which, since he could not silence, he has
never ceased loudly to reprobate. An article, in-
defatigably laboured, occupies two columns of that
official newspaper, and seems designed for a
supplementary manoeuvre to those which, in the
hands of the prefects and other agents, were so sig-
nally unsuccessful at the late elections, by wheedling
a majority after threats and corrupt overtures had
failed. The aim of this composing draught is, to
exhibit to the French nation peace abroad, and pros-
perity at home ; as, in the first place, no longer sub-
ject to any reasonable chance of disturbance; and,
in the second, as resulting exclusively from the pro-
vidential wisdom of M. de Villele. As in former
cases, this display of Ministerial journalism begins
with the East of Europe, and finishes with the
West,insisting that the battle of Navarin has settled
the business of one extremity of the continent, and
that the return of Don Miguel to Lisbon has gua-
ranteed the repose as well as the independence of
the Peninsula. But there are one or two assevera-
tions which we may remark upon briefly. It is said
that the " relations between the Porte and the
Allied Ministers have been replaced upon their an-
cient footing," and that the Divan is engaged in
discussing with them the means of terminating as
well the misfortunes of Greece, as the embarrass-
ments which the war with that country has entailed
upon Turkey herself since the year 1821. If this
be fact, and if on Monday evening last it was known
at Paris to be the fact, it is lamentable that some
portion of the cheering light has not yet been suf-
fered to escape through official channels equally
open to the British Government, for the relief of
that profound uneasiness to which all classes of
Bnglishmen heve been exposed, from their total ig-
norance of the progress of the negotiation', and of
the re-establishment of the " ancient footing be-
tween the Porte and the Allied Ministers. On this
point we may be pardoned for considering the re-
serve of our own Government as an authority less to
he distrusted than the apparent frankness of the
Moniteur, though instructed by M. de Villele.
Next we are told, that the success of the allied di-
plomacy (which is a second time taken for granted)
restores a barrier (the Turkish frontier we suppose)
which concession alone could have preserved, and
prevents those " extreme determinations" (of Rus-
sia?) " which " resistance" (on the part of Turkey)
" would have rendered unavoidable." We rejoice
to hear all this, arid only venture to ask two ques-
tions, viz. Has the Porte yielded ? and has Russia
indeed pledged herself to forbear ? The Moniteur
proceeds with the assurance that " This was pre-
cisely what it had predicted—that the' conservatory
spirit' protects Europe, and that no part of that
existing order over which it watches with so much
'igilance, will it suffer to be disturbed." This is all
extremely comfortable, and creditable also to the
prophetic faculties of the Moniteur,—as well
as quite consistent with the abstraction of
Greece from the ancient sway of Turkey.—
Then follows a great deal of edifying self-gra-
tulation, with regard to Prince Miguel, and Por-
tugal and Spain. Here, too, all was foreseen and
provided for; that is to say, the Moniteur, which
about two months ago insisted with such eagerness
on the fact that Don Pedro had relinquished all right
and interest in Portugal, of which Don Miguel, in-
dependent of his brother, was thenceforth legitimate
'Sovereign, foresaw, the whole time, that Pedro
wosild still assert and exercise the power of limiting,
while he delegated the subaltern commission of his
own " Lieutenant" to the younger Prince, and that
the latter, though rightful Sovereign of the kingdom,
would with alacrity accept it ! After hinting to
England that she must now withdraw her troops,
promising that the King of France will do the same,
and libelling the Royal Ferdinand by an assertion,
for which lie would little thank the Moniteur, that
?Miguel's return to maintain the free institutions of
Portugal is looked upon by the Spanish Govern-
ment as a sufficient guarantee for its own safety, the
=tick closes with a flourish upon the state of France
—of the press and of the parties in the Chambers;
for which latter it is pretty evident that the whole
dissertation was written. .Looking at the position
of M. de Villele, we sift justified in construing
whatever doctrines he circulates, not with reference
to their intrinsic truth or falsehood, but to their cor-
respondence with his personal emergencies at the
moment. This article, therefore, is just no more
than a " puff preliminary" to the meeting of the
Chambers—or a programme of the approaching en-1
tertaininent wherewith their senses are to be occu-
pied and amused.—Tisnes.
It is remarked by one of the most celebrated phi-
losophers of modern times, that " the more civilized
men are, the more they are actors : they assume the
semblance of inclination, respect for others, modesty,
disintereeteelness, without thereby deceiving any
one ; as drere is a general understanding among
them that it is not sincerely meant." As it there-
fore denotes the want of civilization to speak the
truth, it must be highly gratifying to reflecting per-
sons in this country to find that, tried by this test,
we are very highly civilized indeed. No nation
of Europe will, in the present day, venture for a
moment to contest our claims. We have been led
ro make these observations from a wish to set our
Irish brethrors right, with respect to some objections
they are constantly making to the established order
of things among us. The Dublin. Evening Post of
Tuesday last,
for instance, wonders that all the fry
of, poor Clergymen of the Establishment and the
Sectaries should shut their eyes to the gross and
glaring abuses in that establishment, and employ all
their zeal and industry in blackening the poor Ca-
tholics. But in a civilized age men do not speak
what is true, isut what is expedient; and it is expe-
dient for very few persons in this country to say any
thing against the Establishment. In a rude age
there are martyrs for what is conceived to be the
truth. But in a civilized age men do not run their
heads against posts. The most beautiful feature in
modern times is that admiration and power
are always found together, and that the loss
of power always ensures the loss of reputation. The
Churches of England and Ireland are far more
full of rank abuses than the churches of any other
Country. But they are powerful. They are iden-
tified with the aristocracy of this country, who
keenly resent any hostility to them. These churches
contain Numberless enemies within their own bo-
soms, the poor drudges who have been fools enough
to enter a profession in which they are doomed to
"in on .the wages of journeymen carpenters. But
these men are taught by common prudence to con-
ceal their sentiments with regard to the abuses from
which they andca toh aliffeeet au strongch hatred
only
the abuses in the
means of their aequirin asown. th e oTnhye
gt :read in trheiPr
EvenizT P
yuhltu-o=t says to the abettors of the
sewed reformation,
olhuwould save yourselves
ion, the consequence .vvYh,
must inevitably flow

from the existing state of things, a Bishop must no
longer be allowed to consider his diocese as a patri-
,
mony for his sons and daughters, his nephews and
nieces, or his first and second cousins, male and
female." Alas ! alas ! This sort of reformation re-
minds us of the Greek Calends ! Why do men wish
to possess Bishoprics ? For religion's sake ? Yes,
for that religion which enables them to provide for
themselves, their sons and daughters, their nephews
and nieces. Religion, as Lord Plunkett observed,
is only respected in our times as a means of making
money. The Dublin Evening Post may, therefore,
preach against the. Bishop of Dromore giving
1,5001. a year, the best living in his diocese, to his
son, a young parson, and against the Chapter 0.11
Dromore being induced to present him for the va-
cant Archdeaconry to the Lord Lieutenant—against
the diocese of Derry being peopled with Kno.res—
and against the liberality of Bishop Elrington to
his own family. A reformation in these matters is
very different from the second reformation.—Morn-
big Chronicle.

A statement of a .Meeting of the late Ministers
Appeared in a Morning Paper of yesterday, which
latter was said to have taken place at the house of
the Earl of Eldon, in Hamilton-place, on Thursday.
This statement we believe to be incorrect, for we
understand the persons whose names were mention-
ed were Pearly all absent from London at the time,
particularly Mr. Peel, who left town last Tuesday,
for Maresfield, in Sussex, the seat of Sir John
Shelley.—Morning Herald.

There have been few periods, probably, when a
firm and vigorous Government was more called for
than at the present; yet the present crisis is
one when the Administration is unfortunately almost
without a head, and when the rest of the Members
are employed in struggling who shall be the head for
the future. Nothing probably is so formidable a foe
to political energy as political intrigue; and when
jealousy, distrust, indecision, and want of self-con-
itidence, reign where one great object should alone
;prevail, the bark of the State is not very likely to
sail as it should do through intricate shallows and
,breakers, while those at the helm are at their own
look-out instead of her's. In saying this, we feel it
,necessary again to repeat that we do so with no view
of promoting the objects of any one particular party,
or thwarting those of another. Our party is that
:of the country ; and if that object be but faith-
fully, fearlessly, viprously, and unitedly pursued by
the Administration upon sound principles, to that
Administration, be it composed of who it may, we
,Are ready to give our full ',and disinterested support.
Even were we actuated by mere selfish views, we
Mould say that the patronage of the public is of ten
times greater value to a public Journal than any
party ; and one great advantage of that patronage
is, that it leaves those who enjoy it to the free exer-
cise of their own judgment on great public ques-
tions, which those who have to dovetail their opi-
nions to the changeable views and circumstances of
party never can enjoy. Carrying cur recollection
back, and that of our readers, to a period of some
fifteen months ago, nothing at that time was more
'obviously the policy of this country than to be at
peace with all the world. At that period such ob-
jects were apparently not more obvious than feasible.
A mania, however, seized the Government—first, as
regarded Portugal, and then as regarded Greece—
and from a fair prospect of peace, the country finds
herself by degrees plunged in foreign war, without
any truly British object ; and from which she is suf-
fering, and must suffer, an aggravation of those
burdens from which, under a contrary policy, she
had a fair prospect of experiencing some alleviation.
From the Portuguese dilemma she stands a chance
of beimg extricated by the chapter of accidents,
rather than by the wisdom of Ministers. How the
other crusade may end, no one can as yet prognosti-
cate; but, be the result of one or both as favourable
as the most sanguine among us can predicate, in a
financial point of view, and as far as the ge-
neral interests of the country are concerned,
we see at least nothing but an increase of ex-
pence, without any adequate return or remuneration.
Unavoidable misfortunes are what no reasonable man
will, either in public or private life, repine at; but
when they are, as they appear to us to be, the re-
sult of want of judgment, either the community, or
the individuals which are to be affected, have a'right
to exclaim against those who judge no better than
to involve them in, unnecessary consequence.. Vibram

we contend is, that this country has no legitimate
cause of war at this moment with any country, and
chat she ought not to have a soldier or a sailor em-
ployed on any coast or territory but her own ; and
this being, as we believe it is, a very general feel-
ing throughout the country, we cannot wonder that
any Administration which has adopted so opposite a
course should shrink from the responsibility of its
own measures, and, now that Parliament is about
to assemble, virtually exclaim, " How can we face
a country to which we have done so much wrong ?"
It is never too late, however, to repair errors ; and
surely it would be a more manly course in those who
have committed the errors to repair them themselves,
than to ran away in a fright as the hour of investi-
gation approaches. At any rate it is most essential
that the Government should not be occupied in per-
sonal details and minor cabals at a moment so im-
portant as the present ; and we trust, therefore,
that, whatever may be the ultimate result of the pre-
sent unsettled state of the Ministry, those who'com-
Tose it will, as long as they hold office, look to the
one great object of the public interest and safety, un-
distracted by objects which must ever attend a di-
vided and unsettled state of things.—lbid.
It was stated in a Paper of yesterday, that the
present distracted state of the Ministry had caused a
" conclave, consisting of Lord Eldon, Lord Melville.
Lord Westmorland, and Mr. Peel, to be held at
Lord Eldon's house on Thursday last." This as-
sertion, which could have been put forth only in the
hope that it might be suffered to pass unnoticed
from the noble and distinguished persons mentioned
deeming it unworthy of contradiction, we are
enabled most positively and unequivocally to state,
is utterly void of foundation. Those eminent States-
men have by the mathier of their retiring from
Office, shown their disinterestedness too clearly to
be in common fairness suspected of the conduct so
basely insinuated by the Prime Ministerial Organ.
But to put the matter beyond even the cavil of their
malignant oppouewts, it is only necessary for us to
state the well known fact, that Lord Melville is in
Scotland, the Earl of Westmorland is in Suffolk,
and Mr. Peel in Sussex ; and that not one of them
has been in London for some time past.—Morning
Post.

To those who consider the kind of materials of
which the present Administration is composed, it
can excite no surprise that his Majesty, on receiving
the resignation of Lord Goderich, should have re-
sorted to any course whatever in preference to that
of appointing any one of the Colleagues of that
Noble Lord as his successor. The course actually
pursued, taken as evidence of the estimation in which
the existing Cabinet is held, is most pregnant and
unequivocal. It presents them as a body—to the
view of the nation such as we have often described
them, but now illustrated by testimony much more
'valuable and conclusive than ours—as a body—
feeble, incompetent, unworthy of trust. If means
had been studiously sought to convince the nation
of the absolute nothingness of the present Adminis-
tration, none more effectual could have been devised
than the attempt to allure Lord Harrowby from the
shade of a voluntary retirement for the purpose of
placing him at its head. We mean no dispa-
ragement to Lord Harrowby, who is without
doubt a very worthy and respectable man ;
but all the world must recollect that he was
one of the most unimportant Members of the late
Administration, and must deduce the inference
which is unavoidable from the fact of his being
deemed alone worthy to fill the most important sta-
tion in the present. We may venture to say that
the present is the first Administration ever known in
England, of which an individual who, during a long
official life, had given no more striking proofs of ta-
lent and capacity than Lord Harrowby has given,

would have been-deemed a suitable head. But so,
it is. The effect of an Administration, formed by a
coalition from which the most able and honourable
men of all parties think it due to their own charac-
ters to keep aloof, is to reduce the Sovereign of
England to the humiliating necessity of seeking out
and soliciting a person like Lord Harrowby to be-
come his pr►me Minister, and to subject our gracious
Monarch even to the additional mortification of having
sought out and solicited such a person in vain. It is no
reproach surely to Lord Harrowby to say, that the
Ministry which can concede to him the unques-
tioned pre-eminence, is an incompetent Ministry, if
the concession has arisen from any notion of his su-
periority; while, on the other hand, it is evident, if
without any such notion of superiority the King of
England has been permitted or advised to seek him
out, and solicit his services, for the sake merely of
allaying or preventing jealousies or animosities
among his actual servants, that the existing Mini-
stry is a dishonest and dishonourable one. Let them
adopt whichever of these alternatives they prefer.
Whether Lord Harrowby considered the offer
to himself of the chief place in the Ministry as a
proof of the incapacity of its present Members, or
as a proof only of their mutual jealousy and ran-
cour, lie has in either case done wisely to reject the
proffered elevation. He knew that a Ministry
which upon either supposition required his assist-
ance, could not be a Ministry in England for any
considerable period ; that a provisional Premier oc-
cupies a post which is neither safe, dignified, nor
easy ; and that the instrument of intrigue is very
likely to prove in the end its dupe and its victim.
The refusal of Lord Harrowby to place himself in
this situation, of which the dignity would in his
person have been a farce, and the responsibility a
fraud, would in all probability have dissolved the
Administration, had not Lord Goderich been pre-
vailed on to remain nominally in office for a few
weeks longer, and thus to afford it certain pre-
carious chances of prolonging its ricketty and fe-
verisl► existence. How long Lord Goderich may
consent to lend himself to the present Administra-
tion, or rather how long the affairs of the nation can
be carried on by an Administration which is under
the necessity of borrowing for itself a temporary
head, remains to be seen. That the Administration
will venture, in its present state, to meet Parlia-
ment, is certainly not very probable. If it should
I however do so, we can have no doubt that it will
speedily learn under the severe instruction of the
Legislature, that the English nation deserves, and
that the interests and Constitution of England re-
quire a body of Ministers, capable at least in some
degree of understanding and trusting each other,
and of which the most considerable members do not
retain office as a matter merely of temporary ac-
commodation. The discussion in Parliament must
be unusually feeble if they stiffer a fugacious Mi-
nister to linger in his flight, or a conflicting Mi-
nistry long to postpone its dissolution.—/bid.
The arrivals from the Continent yesterday were
few in number, but not without interest or import-
ance. A note is said to have been drawn up, under
the eyes of the Emperor Nicholas, and transmitted
to the Foreign Ministers at the Russian court, as-
suring their respective Sovereigns that he has no
desire of aggrandizing his territory at the expence of
any of his neighbours, but that he is determined to
prosecute the plan agreed upon with his Allies for
the pacification of the East ; and if the Porte
should continue to refuse reasonable conditions, he
will have recourse to effectual means to attain the
proposed object. What those means would be
is explained in an article from Berlin, which
states, that notwithstanding the advanced season
of the year, the Russian army would not only
cross the Pruth and occupy the Principalities,
but would penetrate as far as possible into the in-
terior of Turkey itself, in order to take the Mussul-
men by surprise before they could be ready to meet
and repel invasion. In all former wars between
Russia and the Porte, the forces of the former have
been delayed months and years by the fortresses on
the Danube, the system of warfare at that time re-
quiring that regular sieges should be carried on, and
every thing in the shape of a fortification reduced,
before an army should venture to proceed. But
since the campaign in France, when the Allies left
all the strong places behind them, without investing,
and sometimes without even observing them, a new
,naathod .has - - -

been adopted. Armies dash forward,
secure that if they attain their object—the occupa-
tion of the capital, and peace is not immediately
dictated—all the fortresses in the rear must submit
whenever it may be thought proper to attack them.
A few corps of observation may he left en echelons
to maintain a free passage, and protect the line of
communications with the Pruth, but nothing more
is required on the part of the Russians in the way
of precaution, and they may rapidly march forward
with such a mass of force, as to render it impossible
to prevent their arrival before the walls of Constan-
tinople. Letters from Odessa state, that before
adopting this decisive course the Emperor of Russia
has given fair warning of his intention to the Sultan,
having caused a message to be transmitted to the
Divan, in which he declared that if certain conditions
were not fulfilled, General Wittgenstein, the very
Commander who led the Russians to the barriers of
Paris, would invade Turkey Proper with an army of
one hundred and twenty thousand, and would not
stop till he reached the walls of the Seraglio.--
Meanwhile, every preparation had been made for
communcing hostilities, and the pontoons necessary
for crossing the Danube had been sent from Odessa,
under convoy of three frigates. The annihilation
of the Turkish Navy having left the navigation of the
Black Sea entirely free, the Russians would be able
to follow the movements of their army along the
coast with a fleet of little more than transports, and
to supply it all the way with provisions, so as to pre-
vent the necessity of a single day's delay in its
march to Constantinople. It is affirmed, that the
preliminaries of peace have been signed between
Russia and Persia, so that the undivided force of the
former may be at liberty to act against her present
enemy, whose strength is evidently unequal to the
conflict.—New Times.

A BOUNCER.—A few days ago a Canadian
woman, at Chambly, while making an omelet for some
persons who were to breakfast with her, opened an egg for
the purpose, and, to her surprise, found it contained a live
snake, about two inches in length, and resembling, in al-
most every particular, the common grass snake, with the
exception of the head being unusually large and flat.
When liberated, it crawled about in the frying-pan with
much avidity. Several of the neighbours were witnesses
of the fact. The hen that laid the egg was immediately
killed, and a number of soft eggs were taken out of her,
each of which, on being broken, was found to contain a
snake, in size and perfection proportioned to those of the
egg containing it.—Leeds Intelligences.

•
MISERIES OF A CHANCERY SUIT.-.A very
respectable man, whose name we are not disposed to men-
tion, was brought into one of the watch-houses a few
nights since, in a state of extreme exhaustion and wretched-
ness, and having lingered for, a short time, he breathed his
last. From some memorandums found in tie pocket, his
name was ascertained, and it was discovered, on inquiry,
that his family MS most respectable, and that a property
which lie claimed as a right, was in controversy fir some
years in the Court of Chancery. An application was
afterwards made in the proper quarter by his sister, who
presented a miserable picture of penury and distress,
for means to bury him, and the receiver in the cause was
directed to dedicate a sum of ten pounds to that pur-
pose. He, however, not being in funds from the estate,
declined paying the sum required; but humanely ad-
vaneed five pounds for the expenses of his interment. The
matter would, in all probability, have remained a secret,
were it not that a charge was brought by the sister, who
as.esrted that a portion of this money bad been converted
by the watchmen to their own use, in consequence of
which an investigation took place, and the parties were
completely exculpated. The misery of this poor creature's
appearance defies description, yet, notwithstanding, her
mode of expression, she evinced education and gentility.
The suit to which we allude has been- carrying on for some
years, in the course of which period one of the parties, as
we have stated, expired through mere want, in a common
us:
clit,hoesut.44
watch-house, and the Wretched survivor remains an inani-
retleterofhouu.r—..citSty:4 I,37;na.l_,Ntoeigssu.sztaci7t,cro.r a roof to