The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Despatches were yesterday received at the
Foreign Office from Mr. Stratford Canning, by
the ti-ay,al Vienna, sent by the Austrian Inter-
nuncio to Sir H. Wellesley, which bring intelli-
. gence to the sth instant. Our communications
froni Navarin to Constantinople preceded'the
official accounts received by the Turks a day or
two. Negotiations were going on between the
members of the three Allied Powers and the
Porte, but nothing was concluded. Up to'the
sth, every thing • was tranquil ; and thus the
gloomy forebodings of those who anticipated
massacre and destruction on the Franks at Pera
have- been contradicted by the result. It is.
obvious, from the above intelligence, that nothing
. has been lost by the infliction on the Turkish
power of a punishment which its officers so abun-
dantly provoked, and which the authors of their
instructions so richly merited. On the contrary,
the advantages gained by it have been, that the
maritime force, from which alone Greece had to
fear any serious danger, has been demolished ;
that the confidence of the Porte in its own
physical means of resistance, has been sensibly
mortified and abated ; and that Austria has,
at length, afforded to the Allies that cordial
and strenuous co-operation, the want of which
.during the earlier periods of their diplomatic dis-
cussion with the Porte was regarded as a circum-
stance of all others the most unfavourable to the
object for which they were contending. We
now, indeed feel ourselves justified in expressing
a sanguine anticipation that all will go right at
Constantinople, that the Turkish Government
will submit to the reasonable and even protecting
conditions required of it, and that we shall, ere
long,, have to announce the conclusion of an ar-
mistice, not merely de facto the work of direct
and forcible restraint imposed by the Allied
squadrons on Ibrahim Pacha and his colleagues,
but an armistice confirmed and guaranteed by
the solemn concurrenre of the Porte itself, and
avowedly established as the basis o those further
.provisions on behalf of Greece which have long.
been meditated by .the Christian Powers of
Europe. from these cheering prosrcta in the
East, if we turn to the opposite extremity of the
.Continent, the• lights of the picture are still mare'
brilliant, and the interest it excites in us, as
Englishmen and freemen, becomes at once more
'familiar and profound. It is impossible to be-
hold the manly and generous effort at this mo-
ment making 'by that •• fine
.body of citizens, the
electors of the 'Chamber of Deputies in France,
without feeling all that the mighty cause of civil
liberty—of equal law—olc national independence
—Of useful knowledge—of oeial improvement
contrasted with the degeneracy and final barba-
' rism---of religion contrastedl with the irarious
abuses of bigotry, •superstition, or dera.•
ved hypocrisy—owes to this magnificent 'il-
lustration of the power inherent. in a great
people, when compelled by a series of inju-
ries and insults to rebuke and punish their
oppressors. If there be, in the spirit which
has animated the elective body of France on
this occasion, every thing to call forth the respect
ant] gratitude, not of the French nation only, but
of all other nations to whom the blessings of li-
berty are known, and by whom its loss can be
appreciated ; so, in the almost certain success of
that great enterprise—the consequent downfal of
a system of duplicity and tyranny under the
name of Government—and the restoration of
France to the enjoyment of those benefits which
were promised by her Charter, and which, under
the Charter and in defiance of the Charter have
been wrested from her piecemeal—do :We find
materials of future happiness for other races of
men besides the French, beyond what any other
event in the whole range of political contingen.,
cies could have. furnished. The bad Govern-
ment into which that of the House of Bourbon
has been ripening, from the first day of its res-
toration to'the throne of France, was not con-
tented with reducing France herself_ to slavery.
Freedom reigned for a season beyond the Py-
renees; but if Ferdinand, in his conscious
weakness, hasrwrought within the last twelve-
months, by machinations in which fraud
predominated over force, to overturn the •
free Government of Portugal, so did the
French Bourbons, in the' insolence of power,
subvert the free institutions of Spain, by a crime
of which the violence outweighed a little the
treachery. The national spirit, however, now
displayed by Frenchmen, re-opens the book of
history for Spain. It would be impossible, un-
der any local circumstances, for the. Peninsula to
remain in thraldom, while France enjoyed the
happiness of a really representative Government.
The French nation, having now the chance of
being heard respectfully by whoever may be its
rulers, would reject with mingled scorn and
shame the atrocious policy of which French sol-
diers have been made the instruments against
the rights of their imoffending neighbours. And
this abandonment of an odious system is already
facilitated for the friends of liberty in France,
who will henceforth have no more to do than
merely abstain from repeating the former agres,
sign. We rejoice to say that, in full accordance
with the sentiments of the more enlightened and
honourable of the French people, of all honest
Enalishmen, and all Spaniards except the parti-
sans of the Inquisition and of absolute power,
the whole of Spain Will almost immediately he
evacuated by the French troops. Of course
the British regiments would have qttitted Por-
tugal the very moment that her Government was
secure against invasion from, without ; and Sir
William Clinton, with his divisou, will shortly.
leave that kingdom, not from any regard what-
ever to the continuance of the army of France
upon the Spanish territory, or their departure
from it, but in virtue of those distinct and ac-
knOwledged principles which originally justified
our expedition. In the mean time, orders are
punitively issued for the homeward march of the
Catalonian division of French troops ; and we
have good grounds for affirming, that those quar-
tered in the more southern provinces of Spain
will very quickly follow. Thus are the two great
objects of European policy, which engrossed so
much of the care and labour of Mr. Canning,
so
about to be accomplished, just late as to rob
that able Minister of every reward but the honour
of having zealously pursued them. That dis-
tinction, indeed, cannot be separated frOm Mr.
Canning's memory ; we dare hardly murmur that
' it was not permitted to cheer the last moments of
his life !

Our readers will see, from Pour Chancery Re-
port, that the Lord Chancellor has set aside the
verdict of the Jury under the Commission de In-
vatic° iuguirendo, in the case of the Rev. Air.
Holmes, an aged Clergyman of Nottingham-
shire, the particulars of which we laid before
them lately. It
seemed conclusion .to comeseemed to us at the time a
had to, that because, age
impaired a man's memory (and what old
man -does not feel his °memory impaired ?) he
should be deprived of the 'management of his
property, and placed under the controul ofthose

whd have an interest in his death. We obserVed
at the time that there might be hardship in the ease
as far as branches-of his family having an interest
in the succession were concerned, because,where
. man's memory is impaired, unfair advantages may
be taken of his weakness by those who are about
' him, and thus his property may be dilapidated
to the detriment of the parties in question. But
still the principle that
.the usual concomitants, of
age should place a man possessed of property in
a worse situation absolutely than if he had none,
by making him act as a victim for those who
have an interest in removing him out of the way
as a bar to their own enjoyment, is calculated to
revolt every person of any feeling. The rela-
tions of the aged poor man may or may not be
kindly disposed towards him ; but, at all events,
avarice does not come to the aid of unkindness,
and convert carelessness into cruelty and oppres-
sion. We are glad to find that the Lord Chan-
cellor disapproved of the principle involved in
the verdict. It did not follow, his Lordship ob-
served, that, a man was of unsound mind be-
cause he was afflicted with paralysis and a defect
of memory through old age ; and it was a rule
in claw, that if the premises do not necessarily
lead to the conclusion, the conclusion ought not
to be adopted independent of the premises.--
" A man's memory (he added) might be im-
paired—he might he afflicted with the inconve-
niences of old age, yet not necessarily of unsound
mind. It might be, that by means of paralysis,
and in consequence of old age, the party be
of unsoimd.mind. This finding would not be
quite a correct one perhaps, but it would be
more argumentative and conclusive than the pre-
sent one." A fresh Commission must issue, the
expense of which, and of the former, will,' we
should suppose, make a tolerable inroad into'the
estate of the aged Clergyman. It is no light
matter to assemble on the banks of the Trent,
Metropolitan Physicians, versed in insanitynot
to mention the expense of other witnesses.—
Morning Chronicle.
The conduct of the French Ministry is not
easily reconcileable . with any principle which
men of ordinary understandings can compre-
hend. When the Opposition Journals were first
set free, and could tell their tale of the petty and
vexatious oppressions suffered by them during
the Censorship, we observed that it seemed as
if the Ministry were anxious to be beaten, and
wished, under the mask of hostility to liberal
measures, to strengthen the democracy. Men
who contemplate the subversion of Constitutions,
and the transference of power froin one body to,
another, generally go to work in a more covert
manner, and endeavour to disarm opposition by
the plausibility of their pretexts. M. de Vil-
lele has universally the reputation of a clever
man, but there is little cleverness apparent in the.
course he has pursued of late. The Govern-
ment was either strong or it was not. 'lf it was
then why not remain satisfied with things
as thet'y
Press, ? Why attempt fresh restrictions
on the
.trl to excite the apprehensions of
the people for the .1.(4s of the immunities they
enjoyed ? On the other hand, if the Govern-
menta was not sufficiently strong', why, as a pre-
paration for the struggle for additOlal power,
inflame the public with hatred of the ExeC!ltive
by not merely depriving the people of a source
of gratification and instruction to which they
had been accustomed, and the want of which it
was impossible that they should not feel, but
exercising the powers assumed in so odious and
tyrannical a manner as necessarily to produce an
universal conviction, that if the Government were
stronger it would be more oppressive and tyran-
nical ? If we could credit the countrymen of
M. Villele, the restrictions on the Press and the
Elections, during the excitement produced by
them, were all pest of is clomp -igarriei Which that
Minister has been playing. The French are
fond of discovering fine-spun motives for con-
duct, and would at all times believe any thing
rather than that a politician should go straight
forward. There may be great policy in Made
Villele allowing the Government to be defeated,
but we confess we are unable to see it. Which-
ever way the elections terminate, we trust re-
course will not be had:te violent measures. The
triumphs which most benefit a nation, are the
triumphs of reason and knowledge over preju-
dice. Should Europe remain at peace, and free
from political convulsions, every day must add
to the conquests of knowledge, and give addi-
tional strength to the people. There never,
therefore, can be ground for despair of ameliora-
tion and improvement ; and the friends of good
government ought to be cautious how they ha-
zard rashly what they have, from' an impatience
to enjoy the greatest possible amount of good.—

We pointed out some time ago the evil conse-
quences of " farming the poor" of parishes, in-
stead of providing them work or subsistence in
the regular way, under their ownjparochial guar-
dians or overseers. We stated, at that ttme,
that as a contract to " farm the poor" must allow
of a profit to the contractor upon all that they
consumed, or else he would not undertake it, such
a contract would either be a job by which the
parish was to suffer in its funds, if the con-
tractor was well paid, or a job by which the
poor were to suffer in their pay or their food, if
the contractor was ill paid. A case which illus-
trates our argument on that subject came the
other day under the consideration of the Magi-
strates' Chamber, at Aylesbury. It appears,
from the report of that case, that three paupers
of Prince's Risborough complained against a Mr.
Polly, who farms the poor of that parish, for
" sconsing" them, as they called it, of a whole
day's work, because they came a little too late to
labour in the morning. It seems that the pau-
pers had come tt work a quarter of an hour later
than their time in the morning of the day in
question, and Mr. Polly had thought fit to de-
duct for that quarter of an hour a whole day's
pay ! The Magistrates were of opinion that
Polly had acted wrong, and that he had no right
to anp a whole day's pay from the paupers be-
cause they had been a quarter of an hour beyond
time. How did the " Farmer of the poor" at-
tempt to justify himself ? Was it by disputing
the facts ? No ; for the facts were admitted.
But he adopted the following very extraordinary
mode of defending the propriety of committing
this act of injustice. He said he had under-
taken to keep all the poor, and pay all the la-
bourers of the parish, according to a certain fixed
scale, fbr the sum of 1,6001., a-year, when the
parish before had paid 2,000/., and urged the
inconvenience of his being obliged to stay at
home all day to note the time when each pauper
came to work, and that he should be a consider-.
able loser if he conducted his business in that
way. In answer to this the Magistrates very
properly said, that if the contractor had made
an improvident bargain with the parish officers it
was his own fault--or if the overseers had un-
dertaken to invest him with authority, or to give
him advantages over the paupers which they
themselves did not possess, he must look to them

for the recompense. While we claim the right of im-
partially canvassing the conduct of Magistrates; for
the benefit ofthe public, we are always better pleased
to have reason to speak of their conduct in terms
of approbation than of censure. In the preseiit
instance nothing could be more sound or judi-
cious than the decisiOn of the Magistrates. We
give it all the publicity that we can, in order
that, as far as it is known, it may.have the effect
of correcting the unjust sort of proceeding which
was the subject of the complaint, and which we
have no doubt is not confined to the parish of
Prince's Risborough, or to the county of Buck-
ingham. The defence set up by the contractor
in this case, being grounded on a real or supposed
improvidence of contract on his part with the
overseers, exemplifies, as we have said, our
former argument on the subject of " farming the
poor." It shows that where the contractor is
ill :paid,
,or supposes himself ill-paid, for his bar-
gain, he will attempt to remunerate himself by
depriving the poor of a part of that little to
which they are entitled ; and we have no doubt
that some contractors make bargains at low
terms, on the calculation of reimbursing them-
selves by taking advantages which the law does
not allow of the paupers intrusted to their charge.
In every view of it, this " farming of the poor
is an impolitic and mischievous practice, and
ought not to be tolerated in a Christian country.
—Morning Herald.

We have never been amongst those who have
unnecessarily stepped out of our way in order to
censure the general policy of our Rulers; but we
think few will be inclined to doubt the impro-
priety of the intended great delay of the meeting
of Parliament. The longest period .usually as-
signed to the duration of the Session has been
often found insufficient, and how much more so
must it be felt when both Houses next meet ?
The most pressing business of the last Session
was deferred to that which is to come ; so that
Parliament will have double work to encounter ;
and in what manner 'it will be slurred over needs
no gift of prophecy to foretel. The financial
business of the nation will necessarily occupy a
great portion of the time of Parliament. The an-
nual farces too are to be played off—Reform and
theCatholicQuestion each produced very lengthen-
ed debates; but the previous question never fails to
put an extinguisher upon them. Acts upon Acts
of Parliament are confusedly multiplied, of which
perhaps the one-half will be either repealed or
modified in the next Session ; and we are only
left to regret, that while this rage for Legislation
does little public good, it serves scarce any other
purpose than that of furnishing a source of liti-
gation and consequent profit to the lawyers of
high and low degree. True, we are promised a
Finance Cornmitee ; but what good is to re-
sult from its labours we have yet to learn. We
expect little or nothing from it—for while our
present establishments are kept up, *taxes must
be continued, and the interest of the pub,
lie debt provided for. We were also pro-
mised that every possible reduction should be
effected in the Army ; and yet, strange to say,
we have thousands of men ingloriously. loitering
away their tiine, and fruitlessly expending Bri-
tish money in Portugal ! Our Navy too must
be increased in consequence of the glorious ac-
tion at Navarin ; and thus will all our victories,
under our present happy system, be productive
only of increased ,expenditure. Our wise policy
of late has obtained for us the character of un-
just meddlds in the affairs of other States ; and
we bid fair to experience the common fate of all
impertinent busy, bodies—that of [wing dep,rly
for our interference. We say these thingamore
in sorrow than in anger ; and happy shall we
be to be afforded an opportunity of applauding
a different course on the part •of Ministers.—
.114-own;.3zix
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