The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It would appear hot,' our city arliek.t, that
monied men feel no apprehension of the apps-
tile for Government .-kultuities, under the recept
act, becoming keen enough to induce so general
an investment of money in the purchase of them
as could lead to any immediate and inconvenient
increase of the national expenditure. When we
alluded to this subject some day since, we re-
collect throwing out as a contingent and possible
consequence, that taking for granted the libe-
rality of the conditions offered by the Act of
Parliament, large sums of money, it is true,
might be handed ever to the Commissien2rs for
reducing the Debt, and thereby 'a large reduc-
tion night be made in the principal of the debt ;
but at the same time, and through the same
means, an enormous annual payment of annui-
ties might be incurred, to the grievous aggravation
of our present burdens, although to the eventual
relief of those who come after us. Were the
empire circumstanced like the United Stater; of
America, where the national debt is but slnall,
and the amount of taxation greatly within
the means of the people) We might adopt
without scruple the plan of the United
ZStafvs, and submit to the establishment
of such a sinking fund as would in a few
years absorb the sum total of the debt. But,
situated as we are, it is at least a question whe-
titter the counqy be capable of so severe an
effort, and it must occur to us as a considera-
tion primafacie deserving notice, that any and
every plan for converting debt into annuity, is
one for the relief of future ages at the expellee
of this. It is, however, satisfactory to learn,
that no apprehensions nee:l be entertained of
practical embarrassment from the scheme which
is now in progress ; albeit, we do not quite un-
derstand the reason Alleged for such security.—
The City Authorities state that no large amount
pf stock can be transferred to the Commis-
sinners, because so much more than a moiety of
the public funds is held by corporations, trus-
tees, &e., who are not empowered to convert
their capital into income. Now this argument
stands good so far as the annuities are pur-
ehaseable by a transfer of stock, but it does not
bold against the purchase of Government an-
unities by money. We are satisfied, neverthe-
less, to take the opinion of the men of capital
es we find it, and to watch with due patience
the progressive working of the measure.—Titnes.
We insert a Letter under the signature of
" A Common Place Moralist," in which the
writer confounds things perfectly distinct—
namely, Reform with Revolution, and the em-
barking in a revolution with the mode of carrying
it through. The difference between Reform and
Revolution is as distinct as the difference between
repairing an edifice and pulling down an edifice
to replace it by another. In almost all the
countmics of Europe changes of one kind or
other are constantly taking place, of more or
less importance. Without adverting to the in-
novations gradually effected by time—such for
instance, as the conversion of villains into free
men, and the growth of a numerous and wealthy
middle class—numberless changes •of import-
ance have been and are continually effected by
the constituted authorities. Such a change was
the destruction of Heritable Jurisdiction in

Scotland, and of Clanships on the extinction o
the rebellion of 1715—such was the abolition a
the Test and Corporation Acts—such the grea
measure of last year, which placed Catholics and
Protestants on a level in civil matters. The
Austrian Government, by the mode in which it
effected its bankruptcy, beggared the middle
class, the most important in every country
and cniabled landho!ders to rid themselves
of their mortgages for a small fractional part
uf the orig;nal amount. lii this country .the
Bank Restriction Act transferred a large part of the
property of creditors to debtors, while the repeal
transferred a large part of the property of debtors
to creditors, the fluctuations producing, among
other important results, the deceiving landhol-
ders into family arrangements and debts, calcu-
lated according to a depreciated currency, and
the substitution of a new set of proprietors to
the old. But something more than this is meant'
by Revolution. Revolution implies a change
effected, not through the constituted authorities,
but by a power superior to them. A revolution
always carries with it its own justification, for it
never can take place in any country in which the
duties of Government are at all adequately dis-
charged. A man must haze observed society to
very little purpose who has not discovered that
so long as men arc protected in their properties,
all who possess property, which is another ex-
pression for the great bulk of the people, take a
deep interest in the maintenance of order, and
when any attempt is made to disturb it range
themselves on the side of power. If any insur-
. rectiouary movement were to be attempted in
this metropolis, for instance, or in any other
• town of the kingdom, there is not a man not in
desperate circumstances who would not cheerfully
aid in an endeavour to:put it down. A revolution
supposes a Government which has alienated
time great body of those on whose support a
Government can alone securely exist, and a
people placed in circumstances in which they
are driven, as the lesser of two evils, to endea-
vour by violent means to effect a change in the
Government. No man with sufficient sense to
allow him to he left at large, would think of ad-
vocating a Revolution any more than he would
think of advocating a fever ; but both Revolu-
tions and fevers take place, nevertheless—Revo-
lutions when the machinery of the State will no
longer work, and fevers when a derangement of
the animal system takes place. Were the Go-
vernment of this country to apply a sponge to
the National Debt, and-to derange the affairs of
the country in such a manner as to produce dis-
- tress and alarm throughout society, a persuasion
might take possession of men's minds that, to
avoid greater evils, the desperate expedient of
violence ought to be resorted to. But as, in
this country at least, no Government will ever
be so foolish as to have recourse to such despe-
rate measures, the equally desperate conse-
quences will not follow. We have always
looked with horror on changes of Government
effected by violence, and have felt thankful that
our lot has been cast in a country in which we
were not called upon to choose between the sup-
port of a Government so bad as to drive the
people to a revolution, and the endeavour to put
it down. Even, under the most favourable cir-
cumstances, the putting the masses of the people
in motion to overturn the authorities of a coun-
try, must lead to much suffering L.:l much
ermine. The abuses which can only be remedied
by revolution, and which, in spite of the natural
aversion of mankind to changes, produce a re-
volution, suppose great corruption and depravity
in the possessors of power. Men in such cases
do not relinquish the advantages they enjoy, or
seem to enjoy, with good will, but consider all
those who seek to wrest power out of their hands
as mortal enemies. All revolutions exhibit to