The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The rumours of retrenchment are more fre-
quent and stronger. We hope retrenchment .
does not come, as penitence is sometimes said to
affect. its objects, too late. However, even with
respect to penitence, it were better that it should
come late than not at all; for though it may not '
produce reformation, it shows the disposition ;
and something analogous to this may be said of
tardy retrenchment. The horses in each troop
of cavalry are, it is said, to be reduced in num-
ber. Mr. Canning acts wisely to begin with the
horses; they cannot murmur or cabal. He will
have more trouble with -the other brutes, particu-
larly with those who have Parliamentary interest,
and moreparticularly still with those who have
recently quitted office, as several of their ad-
herents remain, who can baffle and perplex re-
trenchment in the detail, as they can even thwart
the policy of Government in its foreign and com-
mercial relations. Why is Sir Henry Wellesley
suffered to remain .at a Court whose counsels
and conduct must have so powerful an
influence at this moment, either for good
or ill, upon the affairs of Portugal? And the
same might be said of certain other during
appointments. Buonaparte thought it necessary
to murder a Bourbon, in order to show his ad-
herents that be was in earnest, and that he had
no mind to-restore the old race, and serve under
them. We doti't recommend mortal slaughter
to IN/Ir. Canning, certainly-; but in something
like the same manner, and without the guilt' of
Buonaparte, he might sacrifice the stiviving place-
men, to prove that he does not cast an eye of
political reconciliation towards those who have
so grievously insulted him and- his Royal Master,
Neither,
.however, do we, mean to say that the
Prime Minister has, been deficient in courage;
or that he has shown any fear of his enemies.
But let him go on. He is confident of the sup-
port of his Royal Master, and, being -sthus
personally favoured by him, he must feel more
strongly the unwbrthy treatment to which his Ma-
jesty has been subjected ;—and subjected by
whom ? Not by Jacobins and levellers, to whom all
sovereignty is odious, but by men loaded with
Royal favour--by men who have pretended that
the Royal will ought not to be disputed, and
who have selected the present Sovereign on
whom to make the first essay of their spleen ;
and have declared, in his detriment, that he was
not competent- to choose his own Minister. For,
be it observed, that they are not angry with Mr.
Canning for accepting of .the place which was
offered to him : they knew that lie could not re-
fuse it without openly deserting his Sovereign.
Any one may refuse to act under Mr. Canning
without disloyalty ; but how could Mr. Canning
refuse to obey the call of the King ? It is against
the King, therefore, in the exercise of his regal
functions, that their indignation and hostility are
directed.—Times.
Mr. Long Wellesley has added a postscript
to the second edition of his letters to the late
Chancellor, which we insert. It is impossible
to deny to the author of these productions the
praise of pertinacity and considerable talent in
fNwroaoyrnEi
the prosecution of his purpose. It is the object
of Mr. Wellesley, in these letters, to clear his
tn, hi
get Le.
ho' IrdoCu shea
gentleman, no cef 111'7 ocr'res decreewl isrwe
ot to sbd e. appealchh oa
or sd e.
that his children should„lose their . caste
bred
dall called
pd
,a,nadnfailnl
reinritoor whatstyle Pofhil..nosuoup, ebnyGboeoindgwilbi
Sectarians , and it would, above all, be abso-
lutely horrible for them .to come in contact with
that-shocking Saint of- Beaufort-buildings, with
whom their aunts correspond.. But from whence
does this evil, if it may not be avoided, spring ?
It is dreadful, in a worldly sense, that-the chil-
dren should have lost such a palace as Wanstead-
house: Mrs. Scott and the Sectarians were hot
the cause of; this. There is one inconsistency,
also, in the letters, which is worth noticing, and
there are many others, if we had time to notice
them. Mr. Wellesley .says in this postscript,
and elsewhere, that the.imposing upon. him the
necessity pf separating himself from Mrs. Bligh
would make a scoundrel of him ; but he forgets
that he had before asserted that he had separated
himself from her, and that it wasthe Lord Chan--

cellor and the suit in his court, which, by obli-
ging him to consult Mrs. 131igh upon dates and
other circumstances, brought about the renewal
of the intercourse.—lbid.

Our readers will have seen, from the letters we

inserted the other day from our Correspondent
at Lisbon, that things are by no means settled
there, and that the Constitution is not such a fa-
vourite with the people of Portugal, as Mr. Can-
ning would fain have made his hearers in the
House of Commons believe, when, at the coma
mericement of the last Session of Parliament, he
let off his famous and furious speech--a speech.
which was cheered so vociferously; and afterwards
praised so much by almost the whole 9f the Press
of the United Kingdom. We, however, did
not exactly yield implicit faith to that fulminating
oration, and very shortly after it was pronotinced,
we sent out a gentleman to. Portugal with in,
structions to let us know the truth, if he possibly
could get at it, with respect to Mr. Canning s
first essay of Constitution-manufacturing. The
letters and accounts we received from that 'gen,
tleman were not; in the first instance, believed';
they were looked upon as 'apocryphal, and
were accused by almost all our . brethren of the
quill of being inimical to what they were pleased
to call the Portuguese Constitutional cause.---.
The letters, however, which we received &obi.
that quarter, and published from time to time,
opened the eyes, in the first instance, of the peo-'
ple at large ; and, secondly, we have every reason
to believe, that even Mr. Canning and. the Mi-
nisters themselves found that they had been im-
posed upon ; for, to the best of our recollection,
during the whole season of the last' Session of

Parliament, from the delivery of the famous ftiri.
ous speech of Mr. Canning (of which he was 9:0
much enamoured, as to hire a young gentle-
man to write it out for him, and get it
printed in the shape of a pamphlet—which
pamphlet was corrected by . Mr. Canning
himself in what is technically called the
proof sheets, before it made its appearance)
—even Mr. Canning never once ventured
to open his lips again on the subject of Por-
tugal, to the very end of the Session ; a silence
which indicates that the Right Honourable Gen-
tleman had found out his mistake, and that, in
spite of so pompous and high-flown an intro,
duction, he dared not resume a subject from the
bare mention of which his genius shrunk. It
would seem, from the last letter of our Corres-
pondent's, that Don Miguel was expected to
proceed to that country to supercede the Princess
Regent in her high functions, but if he did,' we
should think that the Constitution would not
long survive his return, but be set aside in some
easy, statesman-like manner ; and that our troops
would be got rid of, except a certain number, for
a limited time only. That the French mean to
evacuate Spain, we can hardly credit, it being

thing not at all likely; it is not more likely that
they should evacuate Cadiz, than that we should.
Gibraltar ; although we admit. there is this dif-
ference between the .two cases, that our possession
of Gibraltar is recognised by treaties, while the
French occupation of Cadiz .is . not. The
French, English, and Spanish Diplomatists may
bring , about matters so That .we,should evacuate
Portugal, and there may.;be a profession with
respect to the French evacuation of Spain, but
we look upon it that the latter will-be like the
Austrian evacuation. of Naples-that. is, a thing
not to take place except force should accomplish
it. The French have hold of Spain, the Aus-
trians of great part of Italy, and the Russians of
Poland, and we look upon it that these three
States are to retain possession of these respec-
___. .

live countries, whether England is. pleased or

not. Thus it is that weak States ever fall

a prey to their more powerful neighbours,
especially whenever the stream of commerce,
as it may be termed, has left these weaker
States, and travelled into other parts of the
world. Three centuries ago Portugal was

a powerful kingdom, because it was then,
as it were, the emporium of the world,

having large possessions in the East 'lndies, as
well as extensive settlements in South America.

Portugal was then the same sort of mart, only in

a minor degree, that England is now. She "has
since lost most of her possessions in the East
Indies, and in our own.time, those in south Ame-
rica. Fier commerce being therefore crippled,
and comparatively cut off, she ceases to be any
longer., a powerful nation ; but, on the contrary,
she seems to be gradually hastening to -decay ;
and the probability therefore is, that. the French
will evebtually, and with.ease, take possession of
that country, as they did. of .Spain. It is a
strange thing in the .history .of mankind, that
whenever _the high road of commerce leaves a
nation, such.nation gradually sinks into insigni-
ficance, sand, torn by consequent discontent, in-
ternal troubles,and revolutions, falls a prey to its

stronger neighbours; and it is also strange to
observe,- how. for many ages nations will compa-
ratively lie in a dormant state, or indeed in a
most miserable condition, before they again rise.
We have . seen this strongly exemplified in the
countries.whichformerly flourished in the vici-

nity of Persia, Greece, and Egypt. They have
now lain barren, as it were, compared with their
former greatness, for a period of from two to
three thousand years. Even to give falling
countries Constitutions does not prevent their
fall, though it may retard it. So it is with Por-
tugal.. .We do not think that the Constitution
Mr. Canning bestowed upon it, and for which
he was so much extolled and eulogized by his
worshippers, and expectants of good things in
Church and State, will stop her progress to that
insignificance in the scale of nations she seems
in all probability to be inevitably doomed to in
her present comparative dotage.—Morn. Herald.
Most of the public papers have alluded, more
or less, to 'a supposed difference which is'said to
have arisen between Mr. Canning and the Lord
Chancellor ; but none appear to have, as yet, as-
signed any probable reason for it. The facts, as
they are represented to use arise.out of the man-
ner in which the Learned
.Lord endeavoured to
bestow the Archdeaconry and a Prebendal Stall.
in Rochester Cathedral,- and the manner in
which he has disposed of the latter, contrary, it
is said, to Mr. Canning's opinion and remon-
strances. The Archdeaconry in question, with
the Stall annexed, have been held together (it is
said, by patent) for at least 150 years ; and
de
volved, on the death of the late Archdeacon, to
the then Bishop of Rochester, who destined,
them for'hie son ; but, from some accidental cause
or other,. the regular nomination was not made
out, arid on the Bishop's death soon after, both
pieces of preferment lapsed to the Crown. The
Lord Chancellor supposing them both to be in
his gift (and wholly unconscious, probably, of
the accident which had prevented the late 'Bishop
froth bestowing them on his son), offered them
to a gentleman, who, no doubt, to other recom-
mendations, added that ofhavingbeen a warm par-
tizan of Sir John Copley at the Cambridge Election.
Mr. Canning, it is said, on the other hand, claimed
the patronage as his, and was anxious to bestow it
as the late Bishop would have done. The Chan-
cellor, 'howeVer, evinced no disposition to give
way, and, of -course, his nominee had as little ;
but, in the end, it was discovered that the Arch-
deaconry was not the Chancellor's to give,
though 'the Stall, if severed from it, would be.
That severance took place, and the Chancellor's
friend holds the Stall, while Mr. Canning hes
given the•Arehdeaconry (stripped of its valuable
appendage), as they would have both been given
had the health of the late Bishop, on the one
band, or more eagerness on the part of the sort,
on 'the other, for preferment, in preference to at-
tending the 'sick-bed of his father, permitted.
These are the facts, as we have heard them stat-
ed ; but whether they really have, or are of con-
sequence enough to have
.created any coolness
betweeri- the high personages in question, is what
we have no means of knowing. Very trifling
causes often prccluce very important results. It
is not probable, 01 circumstances considered,
that the attachment between the parties can be
either very warm or lasting. But be this as it
may, and leaving to time, the great unra.voner of
State secrets, to show whether there is any fouiiw
dation for the' report in question, it cannot, we
think, be denied that the story, as it is told, tells
most in favour of Mr. Canning.—ibid.
Suppose a simpleton were to run about the
town proclaiming that the Lord Chancellor had
been taken to the watch-house for disorderly
conduct. Every body would laugh at the•sitn-
vleton ; . and he, thereupon, growing irate,'anjealous of his reputation for truth, might
say, " I trust the public will rely upon this as-,
section, until contradicted by the Lord Chancel-
lor himself, whose duty to the King, in whose
service ke is, as well as his ditty to himself,
requires 'th:lt he should, contradict my state-
ment if it is false." Here the laugh-
ter would be prodigious. That we may
not be supposed to have iinagined* an extrava-
gantly absurd case, we quote the 'following pa-
rallel from the columns of a junior partner iii
the firm of Messrs. Bull, Post, and Co., patent
manufacturers of State secrets and Royal con-

versations :
" For the SIXTH TIME, we assert that the Dui OF
WELLINGTON WAS INVITED---THAT THE INYITAT101; WAS
CONVEYED BY LORD RIA RYBOROUGHA ND THAT HIS
GRACE REMAINED TWO HOURS AND A HALF WITH THE
KING !-and we trust that the public will rely upon this
assertion, until contradicted by Lord Maryborougl►, whose
duty to the King, in whose service he is, as well as his duty
to himself, requires that he should contradict our statement,
if it is false."—Wew Tines.
The Morning Post, alluding. to certain ad-
dresses which have been presented to. Mr. Peel,

says—
" The effects which we venture to anticipate from these
addresses, assuming, as we tip, that they will become ge-
neral, are more immediate and direct. Our auguries are
expressly founded upon the knowledge of individual charac-
ter, and the aspect of existing circumstances•"
Lnfortunately for the tempest *bleb our CPU-