The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The despatchealast received from our Ambassador
at Constantinople, which come down to the 29th
ult. inclusive, are said to be of great importance.
So much of their contents as has been rumoured
among the friends of Ministers, goes to exhibit the
conduct of the Turk in colours of the most unchang-
ing and inexorable obduracy. No one point, it is
believed, has yet been conceded to the demands of
the allied negotiatorS, nor have their representations
been received in any better spirit than that of indif-
ference, if not of scorn. Under these circumstances,
and with such prospects, tbe Ambassadors .on the
28th ult. required their pas Sports from the Reis Ef-
fendi, and made every preparation for a speedy de-
parture from the Turkish capital. Mr. Stratford
Canning, it is said, had written to Corfu .to an-
nounce his intention of immediately repairing thi-
ther. In the mean time, the Reis Effendi is reported
to have sent on the 29th a proposition of a trifling
and useless nature to the Allies, which -was construed
no otherwise than as a proof that there ei.isted
some wish to procrastinate on the part of Ttir-
y . A Divan was to sit the same evening, and
its resolves the Ambassadors supposed that the
question of peace or war was in all likelihood to turn.
While this appears to have been ,the impression
upon the minds of our countrymen at Constanti-
nople, as it is undoubtedly of well-informed persons
here, we'ought not to lose sight of the fact attested
by all experience, of the character and policy of
these infidels—viz. that there is positively no as-
surance one hour of what they will do the next.
If they see that the cordiality of the Allied Govern-
ments still continues, and that the insinuations arid
assurances of a certain Court are not in a train to be
realized, there still remains a hope that at the last
hour the Porte may recover its scattered senses,
and see what all Europe has long been convinced of,
'namely, that the sole chance of escape from dismem7
berment is 'in immediate submission. To the last
we shall not absolutely despair of peace, confessing
all the while that every indication is at present war-
like. The Turkish.preparations for active war are
pressed with the utmost ardour and alacrity. This,
with a sober and calculating Government, might
lead to no conclusion but that it meant to negociate
the more freely; but in Turkey, as they act appa-
rently from impulse, we must not trust our judg-
ruent to reasoning upon interests so much as to an
observation of the passions.--Tinter.
Three facts, of some importance to the adminis-
tration of affairs in this country, have been stated
by the Timer within the last ten days—first, that
Lord Goderich had resigned the office of Prime
Minister; 2d, that the succession to the office had
been pressed by the competent authority on Lord
Ilafrowby "; 3d, that Lord Harrowby having refused,
Lord Goderich was prevailed upon to continue in
the Cabinet until an arrangement could be made in-
dependent of his Lordship's services. To these
three facts it is no otherwise incumbent on us to fe-
call the attention of our political readers, than be-
cause our information and veracity were questioned
'when we.affirmed them, and lvcai:se Cast

imputed to us an untruth, now, admitting. the false-
hod of their own contradiction, think fit to impeach
our motives. We re-assert every thing that we al-
leged, in its full extent, and with all its circum-
stances. An effort is made to separate the at length
acknowledged resignation of Lord Goderich from
the causes to which we had ascribed it; and to such
a pitch has the spirit of shaing been carried, that
the whole importance of the question is withdrawn
from the main fact of the resignation itself, and
transferred to the motives of the resigning Minister.
The poor unfortunate tool that was desired to
swear black into white, attempts to scramble
out of its mortification by alleging that "we
knew the cause •to be unfounded, and therefore
"we denied the effect." Now we broadly re-
allicm both one and the other. In what language
was our first annunciation of that occurrence con-
tradicted ? These, if we remember right, were the
words—" No resignation has taken place, and none
is contemplated!" Ia there a syllable here about
Lord Goderich's reasons for resigning, or any thing
shined at, but a positive denial of the fast, and even
of the intention to retire ? It is not in political con-
troversy very lawful or wise to volunteer the impu-
tation of unworthy motives to the particular acts of
those with whom we differ. Expressions indicative
of general character may nevertheless be fairly em-
ployed ; and when we affirm that. the evening print
whose offensive and vulgar petulance towards our-

selves has extorted from u; this repugnant notice,
has long, amidst the whole press of England, been a
by-word for whatever is most ignorant, stupid, and
contemptible, we are well borne out by the approv-
ing voice ‘of the whole political world. When
that print is so very liberal in its assignment of
"moth'es" to the Times, it ought to be told thgit
he who genies the truth has most need to be
ashamed of his motives.—lbid.
An article in the Second Number of The Foreign
Review, lately published, on Catholicism in Silesia,.
may be read wale considerable benefit, as it contains
much information with respect to matters which are
very little known in this country. We agree with
the writer, that nothing .is more wanted.in England
than a knowledge of the pursuits of the people of
other countries. " Nte English (he justly observes)
live far too much in a world of our own—we have
too high ideas'of the importance of every thing done
in England, and are too apt to undervalue the pro-
ceedings of other countries. It need not be said,
that we know almost nothing of the literature of
other countries. A fen; poets, historians, and scien-
tific writers come over to us—but of the mass of
%ivritihgs on the great and important subjects of Re-
ligion, Reformation, and of Change in Opinions on
the Continent, we absolutely know nothing, however
offensive the assertion may be to the reading public,
who are persuaded they know every thing." The
Writer of this article is evidently possessed of a good
stock of information on the subject of which he
treats. He will not be the less unacceptable too to
a very large class of readers in this country, for being
without any principles himself that we can dis-
cover. He does not, like a good Catholic, bow
to the authority of the Church ; and though he de-
lights in expatiating on the abuses of the Church of
Rome, he seems to bold in abhorrence the principle
laid down by the Protestants, of free inquiry. He
has no substitute for authority or inquiry, hut his own
likings and dislikings. in appealing to the Catholics
on the subject of the abuses in their church, some

test- must be proposed to them, by whit they may
ascertain whether the alleged abuses are real or itzna-
ginavy. It is not enough to° accuse the Catholics
of blindness, of superstition, of having corrupted the
discipline and doctrines of the quirch: How are
the Catholics to distinguish between religion and
superstition ? If they listen to the German Pro-
testants, the latter will tell them—" In a Church
that lays claim to infallibility, error is eternal, and
excommunication and punishment establish it as in-
disputable truth. Hence the Roman Church is in
constant collision with the progress of science, and
the social union. It cannot keep pace with the
evangelical, but must either sink in the stream of
time, or endeavour to re-establish the times of the
middle ages in which it had its origin, by a violent
prevention 'of the development of humanity. This
is indeed.the object which the Romish Priesthood

in our days are obviously aiming to effect, but which
they can no more accomplish than they could make

Alan of mature_age into a child, Our public con-
fesbitms are therefore not creeds, but mere evidences

of thee nittztner in which our forefathers interpreted
the deerine o'fihe Scriptures at the One of the Re-
formation. We 04.11 remedy therefore any error we

- - ... .
may b
ave committed, 4,..\d unite the advantage,* nf
increasing knowledge
o wit,. the truths of Christianity.'
Were I to
should say,thinerre humanity 'vi.t4 a growing child, I
belie which rnik'-velngelical Churcua- Yv;th its freedom. of
is like an arbour or zeirrictions to depo:ill ou reasons,
growth of the child, Tg trees, which gror: with the
upward-, till tilt), loße branches the youth qains
form
% fri d
,who seeks repose in 1
r sie,nadly arch over the ing.o
Church, with her iMMUtabilit.. me 4; while the Romish •
d infallible and per. t

petual creeds, is like an arbour of dead wood,
fashioned by the carpenter for a child, against which
the youth soon knocks his head, and which the man
abandons and removes as a nuisance.r—(Brett
Schneider.)—This is the general language of the
German Protestants—they say, your reason must
first satisfy you with respect to the. authority if the
Scriptures, and your reason must
_guide you in the
interpretation of the Scriptures. You must be con-
stantly prepared to give a reason for the faith that is
in you. But this Pseudo-Protestant, in appealing
to the Catholics, shrinks from the principles of the
Reformation. He dreads the German Protestants
more than he hates the abuses of the Catholics.
"'We go on (he says) to make another remark on the
author, and other German Catholics, who, like him, are
anxious for reform. As good Protestants, we must wish
them success, while their endeavours do not carry them
too far. But they are hi a dangerous neighbourhood : and
the propensity of human nature to pass from ono eraser/il
to another, is but too likely to lead them to a very unde-
served admiration of the liberal Protestants of Germany.—
We earnestly hope for their own sake, and for the sake of
the cause they have in hand, that they will he on their
guard—that they will keep the faith'—.that they will he
Christians in snore than name—and that they will not
draw the people from the depths of superstition, to plunge
them into the yet fouler abyss of infidelity."
And in another part, he says—
" 'What we have produced will be enough to show the
spirit which •is awakened in Germany. What are the
views of the supporters of the Papal See with respect to
this spirit, whether they hope to stifle it, or whether they
think it may be passed over with contempt, we know not ;
but in either case we cannot doubt that they err most egre-
giously. It is obviously yet only in its infancy, but it is a
growing and thriving child, and he who casts his eye over
the catalogues of every succeeding year, and observes the
increase of works by Catholics on the subject of reform,
will feel quite confident that ere long the bantling will,
unless its nurses interfere and do mischief, feel itself strong
enough to throw off its mother's leading-strings, and read
her a lesson of a nature not
‘likely to prove pleasant to her
feelings. Again then we say to the reforming Catholics,
beware of liberal Protestants and of their spirit. Your
cause will prosper of itself; it has religion and sense for
it, and it rests with you whether it shall succeed or
not. If you connect yourselves with those- destitute of
Christianity, you will furnish your adversaries with a just
and an unanswerable argument. The state of Protestantism
in Germany has filled the Roman Catholic Church with
numerous converts,* and the argument which will' bring
Protestant into the bosom of a Church, still retaining the
forms of a true Church, though corrupted in many points,
will apply with tenfold force to the unhappy people who
are already Roman Catholics, and are persusuled by their
reforming Priests to quit the shelter of such a Church, for
the cold and comfortless doctrines of Socinianisru, or mere
nominal Christianity."
Would it not be better. to allow these Catholics,
if they must not be guided by reason, to be guided
by the Church,-rather than to be left in the uncer-
tainty in which you would plunge them ? You stig-
matise the German Protestants as infidels, and tell
them to beware of following their example; but you
place before. them no means of ascertaining how far
they ought to go. You obviously mean that they
ought not to rely on their reasen ; but you do not
tell them on what they ought to rely. How are
they to distinguish between Protestants and P%

testants ? You say the German Protestants go
too far, and you mean by this to say that you just
go the proper length of way; but how are they to
decide between you and the Germans ? We hate
and detest this unprincipled, dishonest, and highly
moral mode of writing. It easy to brand a class of
men as heretics, and infidels, and what not. An-
swer these men; proVe by argument that they have
mistaken their way, that your interpretation of the
Scriptures is the more porrect one; but do not use
terms of reproach. Do not hold up any class of men
to odium on account of their principles, without
showing wherein they are culpable. A German
may be wrong as well as an Englishman, with the
best intentions; while an Englishman, as well as a
German, may have arrived at right conclusions by
the wrong cowl. 01 this there can be no doubt,
that a Protestant who calls upon a Catholic to exer-
cise leis reason, and then him that he must re-
nounce his reason, is in a 'Mr; g way.—Morn. CAron.
Those who assert that the state of Lord Gode-
rich's health has had nailing to do with ,his medi-
tated retirement from office, are, we believe, as
much in error as those who attribute it solely to that
cause. We are informed, by those who have pretty
good reason for knowing it, that at the time his

Lordship was induced to assume the helm of public
affairs, he was distinctly apprized by his medical

attendant that the state of his genet:al health—or,
n•e might, perhaps, say, his general constitution—

was such as-to make his doing so at least hazardous,
and therefore not prudent. These who witnessed
the effects which his Lordship's exertions in the
House of Peers seemed to produce on the few
nights of the last Session when there may be said
to have been anything like a contest to maintain,

must have seen confirmed the truth of the physi-
cian's opinion. Now the last Session, as every one
knows, was, from peculiar circumstances, by a kind
of general consent, one of Parliamentary forbear-
ance. In the Lords especially—if we except the
Corn Bill--there was scarcely a debate which kept
the House sitting beyond the usual hour of dinner.
if a tranquil campaign like this were too much
for the new Peer and Premier's mental and corporeal
energies, how much less likely are they to stand
against the vigorous, and determined, and incessant
warfare which the aspect of affairs necessarily be-

speaks as certain to characterise the approaching
hostilities !. And though we are far from imagining
that physical causes alone have led to his Lordship's
anxiety to quit his present post, it is equally in vain.
to deny, as some of our contemporaries have done,
that the state of his Lordship's health has had no-
thing to do with the matter. We are far frommean-

ng to be thought to trifle with human infirmities. 11l
health is itself too severe a calamity for ridicule—
the more especially affecting, as we all know it does,
and often rendering in a great measure inert, the best
powers of the mind. But it certainly is an extra-

ordinary circumstance that sickness should have be-
come so much more prevalent among statesmen of
late years than ever used to be the case. Scarcely a
week has lately- passed, during the sitting of Par-
liament, when one or the other House has not been
obliged to adjourn, or some business of moment be
postponed, •on account of " the lamented indisposi-
_

_
ion" of this or that Noble Lord or Right Ho-
loprable Gentleman. Surely there is no change of
limate to cause this, though there may be some of
lie double-enlendrr • folks who may declare that

modern statesmen are a more puny, or, at all events,
not so robust a race as those of past times, or even
of the last reign. There was a time when our sus-
pirious forefathers would have said that the enemy
had got into Ministers' kitchens; and though French
cookery may Piave something to do with the matter,
if people of rank are poiscne4 by it, is clearly by
their own choice, and from none but its own natural

* " Our. readers are doubtless aware of the zeal with
which the Roman Catholic Church is proselytizing in Ger-
many, and the =messes it We gained. The Jesuits are
now especially active in the work or conversion. The fol-
lowing anecdote is current in Germany at present, and
:hough it is not safe to vouch for any private anecdote, we
have reason to believe the account correct :—The Duke
any PPeloiss of Anhalt-Cothen hare been lately converted,
and they Mt to work most vigorously on converting the
Court, which very dutifully yielded to the strong argu-
ments of the Sovereign, eTtept (mg maid of honour, who
held most resolutely to her Protestant principles. After
some time a young gentleman arrived from Vienna at
Anhalt Cothen to make some stay there, and an attachment
ensued between him and the young lady in question ; but
yrt marriage was spoken of he declared, that as he was a
Roman Catholic, he could not in conscience unite himself
to a heretic. After many struggles, the unfortunateyoung
woman yielded to. love what ;he had denied to argument.
We are informed; however, that her ser4plea were still so
strpng, that she fainted both in making her recantation, and
at the brat procession she was compelled to attend: When
all was over, the lover came to congratulate her on her
better mind, and to assure het that he had paid his ad-
dresses to her for the good of her soul, marriage being out
of the question, as he was a Priest and a Jesuit fart of
which lie convinced her, by taking off a smart wig. he
wore, and, showing her the tonsure ! If this story be false, 1
the Roman Catholics should contradict it as soon as pos-
sible, Their bitterest enemy cannot wish suchinfamy true."