The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT. OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The return of Lord Beresford from Poitugal will re
move one cause at least of jealous and angry feeling to.
wards England, if it effect no othergood. His Lordship's.
keen appetite for irresponsible power, and the eagerness
with which he pressed for an accumulation in his owr
hands, of offices which were no less incompatible witl
each other, than with the-- exercise of a salittary contrcul
by the Constitutional Government over its own agents,
are said to have been the causes of his total rejection by
the native members of the Portuguese Administration, slid
‘i4f his subsequent flight to England. ' It is hoped and be-
lieved by the best informed friends of Portugal in this
country, that although excessive and preposterous autho-
rity has been denied to Lord Beresford, when hits Lord-
ship was supposed to seek it quite as much for personal
aggrandizement or party gratification as from any concern
for the public-Interest, yet a due shire of influence over
the military measures of the Government, anti over those
not strictly military, which bear with a sensible effect
upon the War Department, will be cordially extended
to Sir William Clinton, who, as an individual, is liked
and esteemed for his conciliatory manners and his
untainted character. Without some intimate under-
standing between the British Commander and the
higher departments of the Government in Portugal, it is
obvious that much languor and embarrassment Mel- pervade
the operations of the Allies, at moments when zeal and
energy are most called for. A distinct power of directing
public measures, except merely the movements in the
field, it might not suit with the dignity
.of an independent
State, to solicit from our ally, on
.behalf of any British
subject; but it will be rentierubqed by those who know
the secret history of .the war, beginning with 1808, in
the Peninsula, that 1.1-le Duke of Wellington and Sir
Charles Stitart experienced frepient and considerable
difficulty in enforck,g a prompt concurrence by the Forth-
guest fenctiona;;es with the plans suggested by our dis-
tinguished r
though '
....itsupport eneral in of the common cause, al-
Lord Beresford wasthen the depositary of a Con-
..rated and preponderating power, which he employed
with great vigour in- furtherance of the Duke of Welling-
ton's operations-L—although, besides, there was little or no
distraction of party interests in the nation, the priests and
absolutists being identified with us in their feelings for the
independence of Portugal, and a disputed succession being
as little thought of as a quarrel about the principles
Of Governtrient. We trust, therefore, that to avert the
bad consequences of ill-assorted and uncongenial coun-
ils, where perfect harmony is so indispensable to a suc-
cessful management of affairs, a system of certain and un-
hesitating co-operation will be established from the very
'otits'tt, such as may leave no room for a perverse, luke-
V.'rarm, or timid Portuguese Minister to check the force of
British policy, or to interfere between the adoption of
well-considered measures, and their full and effective exe-
entibtli Should circumstances require the British army
tti be much augmented, and, as on the former occasion, the
native troops of Portugal to be attached to its several di-
visions, it will also be desirable to combine, as far as pos-
sible, the perfect instruction and discipline of the Portu-
guese, with a deference for their national predilections, and
therefore to employ English officers and serjeants for train-
ing them only, but not for assuming the command of them.
The just pride of a respectable nation, which has rejected
from its bosom, the man who formed the army of Portu-
gal a few years ago, chiefly because his harsh and domi-
neering spirit was odious to them, might now be fatally
disgusted and estranged by an attempt to substitute ge-
nerally subjects of the same country which produced Mar-
shal Beresford, for native gentlemen and nobles, in the
cominand of the Portuguese troops. We. are convinced
ibat deference towards the leanings of our allies, mingled
with equanimity, dignity, and decision in the conduct of
our own public officers, may lead the Portuguese Govern-
ment and. people, to the required point, while a dicta-
torial arid overbearing tone. might drive them far away
from it. We find, from all our private letters, that an ef-
ficient reform is wanting among the subalterns of the
Portuguese administration in _almost all its branches.
And who or what is to blame for this ? Undoubtedly
not the Charter, nor he who gave it, nor those who strive
to enforce it. The fault has been in the preceding des-
potism, where no one was responsible, and every one was .
corrupt. In a new Government, where arbitrary power is
to be got rid of, if the King is the liberator, he must
change the great body of his servants—if the people free
themselves, they must, as the sine qud non of their se-
curity, begin by banishing the Monarch. The wretched
ending of the Spanish Cortex was, the fruit of their retain- .
ing Ferdinand and his incurable dynasty on the throne,—
a gangrene in the heart of the Constitution ; and now, un-
less the bureaux, and lower nests of servile prejudice and
corruption be purified, the noble work of Pedro may be
speedily overthrown. To escape the vigilance of a free
Legislature, and their own. consequent responsibility to
the public will, the creatures of the old Court, through
their ntttnberless gradations, will intrigue one and all for
the revival of the golden age of despotism, which gives
impunity to its proper minions, and chastises nobody, but
the bulk of the nation itself. With this reform we rejoice
to hear that the Chambers, as well as the Ministers, are
busied from day to day ; and, sustained and protected
from. the fear of violence by the British troops, there is
little doubt that they will reap a valuable harvest in the
groWing health of their free institutions, and in the acce-
lerated ease and spirit of their actien.—Times.

We stated the other day that the Corporation of North-
ampton had voted One Thousand Pounds of the Corpo-
rate Funds, to defray in part the expences of their can-
didate; since which, the Editor of the Times has com-
municated the particulars of the vote, and made a most
proper comment on this extraordinary transaction; and we
trust the Press throughout the empire will not fail to ex-
pose whatever may be done in this business contrary to
the interest of the community of Northampton. We un-
derstand Mr. Alderman Hols proposed it; but, to the
honour of some of the Corporation, we learn, it was most
strenuously opposed by Messrs. Aldermen Freeman and
Brown; and that a petition is in preparation from the in-
habitants to Parliament, requesting an inquiry, which will
be sent up to the members (Sir George Robinson and
Col. Maberly) urging them to exert themselves for the
interest of the great body of their constituents against
such a breach of trust (as they consider it) on the part of
the Corporation. We congratulate this town most sin-
cerely in having independent and able Members. who can
support (and, we believe, well support) their cause.—
.3forning Chronicle.
We strongly suspect, that by-the time Parliament meets
not a few of those who were driven headlong by Mr. Can-
ning's lEolian breeze, will be exceedingly anxious to back
out of an enterprise, in which, in common with the pro-
jector, they have embarked with too little consideration.
As far as the honour of the country is embarked (foolishly
and unnecessarily enough), so far it must be maintained ;
but that beyoad that we are to be drawn into the adoption
and maintenance of objects in which we have no interest
or concern, is what, we believe, the reflection and good
sense of the country is not likely to connive at. This
Portuguese treaty seems, in Mr. Canning's Bath phra-
seology, to be an " adstriction" which this country has
no great reason to be proud of ; for we are bound by
treaty to furnish assistance to an ally, in the event of
foreign invasion. The case is supposed to arise.—The aid
is furnished with a promptitude unparalleled ; and all that
we hear of in return is, that our troops are not only re-
ceived with. coldness, .but that the very name of an Eng-
iishinail is held in execration by the priest-;ridden people
for whose geliverance we are called bpon to exert dtir-
selves. This may be fulfilling the faith of treatiesl theon ouraid
part; but unless such faith be reciprocal—
u
that is required be really wanted and acceptable, we should
say that it had better have been withheld. The whole of
this matter, if calmly viewed, is not, we fear, calculated
to raise-the character of modern statesmen very high in
the eyes of posterity. A kind of every day, from hand-
to-mouth-policy, is not that which we are accustomed to
expect from those who wield the destiny of empires.

—A Minister who lays claim to the name and 'cha-
racter of a statesman should look beyond the pre-
sent moment—should be indifferent to momentary
censure or applause, and should direct his views
to the grand paramount interests of his country, and
rely for fame, not on the cheers which a fervid and impas-
sioned harangue may excite, but on the judgment which
impartial posterity will pass upon motives and actions
which are too apt to be misconceived and misunderstood
by those who are too near the scene of action to be im-
partial judges. Posterity, we suspect, will say of Mr.
Canning's Portuguese crusade; that it was begot in heat
and brought forth in passion; that the " nec _Deus inter-
sit" had not occurred even to his classical mind ; but
that he was all on a sudden inoculated with an itch for
glory where no glory was to be obtained; and that, at a
moment when the preservation of peace was every thing
to his country, he has gone out of his way to seek a war,
in which nothing but debt and cost is to be obtained. This,
we are inclined to think, is the view which the country
will very soon take of the matter; and if it be so, the
sooner it expresses its opinion the better. The wild en-
thusiasm with which Mr. Canning's flowery harangue in-
spired the House of Commons, has, we suspect, by this
time ve►y materially subsided. The country itself never
\vas so wild upon the subject as its Representatives. The
)ong adjournment of the House, injudicious as it has been
in other respects, has been so far advantageous, that it has
giien time for reflection and infOrmation upon a subject of
so-much importance ; and we shall be greatly deceived if,
when Parliament meets again, we do not find many per-
Sonsinclined to doubt, upon reflection, the propriety of
the too hasty acquiescence which they.fell into, with the
ardent, inconsiderate views of an able but indiscreet Mi-
iiister.—/lforning Herald.

From the commencement of the present state of things
in Portugal, there has never been any doubt, that Ferdi-
nand entertained the strongest hatred towards Don Pedro's
Constitution. This was the necessary result both of the
character and situation of the man : and in secretly pro-
tecting and assisting the Portuguese rebels; he adopted a
course to which he was prompted by all his immediate in-
terests and prevalent feelings. There was, to be sure, the
danger of rousing England into action : but this was a
danger, which, as he must have thougkt, would not pro-
bably be converted into a reality. Our ignorant quid-
nunc:, always loud and solemn, and dogmatic and pre-
sumptuous, in proportion as they sink deeper into stupi-
idity, and plunge further into error, had been busy for
months in teaching the world, that we were in the last
`stage of political decrepitude—that we could scarcely exist
even in peace, and that the mere attempt to exert any
force abroad, would lay us prostrate in helpless imbecility.
The Continental world believed what our own praters told
them : for though the worthlessness of the creatures we
speak of, is notorious at home, th eir character is little known
abroad : and foreigners, who can scarcely conceive that
'good subjects should take a Pleasure in depreciat-
ing their own country, believed that our situation was such
as our own self-lauding oracles had proclaimed it to be.—
They had, apparently, good and conclusive evidence of that
which jealousy and envy would have inclined them to be-
lieve without strict inquiry. Ferdinand would gladly che-
rish the error into which he was thus led; and, under the
influence of it, he and his Apostolical emissaries adopted a
'course which they would probably have shrunk from had
they been aware of the energy which animated the Councils
of Britain, and of the force which those Councils were ready
:to put into immediate action. The course of events—the
struggle which the Portuguese- rebels have been able to
make, even under actual circumstances, is to us" satisfac-
tory proof, that, had our interference been less prompt and
'decided and substantial than it was, Portugal must have
fallen beneath the intrigues of the Apostolicals. Had we
Pnegociated—had we amused ourselves with blustering
!declarations—had we- stopped to threaten on the one hand,
lor to promise on the other, the game would hare been
jet an end—Mr. Canning, with a great confidence in the
spirit and resources of the country, took his resolution
instantly, - and followed up that resolution by imme-
diate action. "On Friday night," said Mr. Can-
ning, in that speech which produced a greater effect
"throughout a wider sphere than any other speech that
was ever delivered—" Qn Friday night the infor-
mation arrived—on Saturday his Majesty's confiden-
tial servants came to a decision—on Sunday that de-
cision received the sanction of his Majesty—on Mon-
day,. it was communicated to Parliament ; and at
this, hour, on Tuesday, the troops are on their march
for embarkation." The promptitude of this policy—
a promptitude unequalled in the history of mingled
diplomacy and war, was any_ thing but what Fer-
dinand had anticipated. It disconcerted schemes,
which, otherwise, in all human probability, must have
succeeded; and Ferdinand has now to regulate his con-
duct according to circumstances very different from those
which were contemplated by his Councillors, when they
first took a part in the intrigues of the Portuguese rebels.
All that the wretched monarch proposed to himself, was,
to deceive England or to afford her a plausible pretext for
affecting to have been deceived. He now finds, that she
will not be deceived, and that what he has now to deter-
mine is—whether he will venture to resist her by force.
Some months ago,- the mere statement of such a question
would have made him start back with terror; but he has
advanced into a situation, between England on the one
hand, and the Apostolical faction on the other, where dan-
ger threatens him on every side, arid desperation has some-
times made cowards bold.--New Times.