Star.
London, England, 1829-09-21 00:00:00

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PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE IN THE EAST.

Intelligence has this day been received in town stating
that the preliminaries of peace between Russia and
Turkey were signed at Adrianople the 29th of August,
and that the Treaty was ratified in two days there-

Dispatches were this day received at the Foreign
Office from his Excellency Lord STUART DE ROTIIS AY,
the British Minister at Paris. The dispatches are of
great importance, and are said to contain official intelli-
gence of the conclusion of peace between Russia and
Turkey. _ _ .

Dispatches were also received this day at the Foreign
Office from his Excellency Sir CHARLES BAOOTT, at
Brussels.

In accordance with the intimation which we gave on
Saturday, we have some remarks to make on the question
between the Duke of WELLINGTON and the Standard.
It was our intention to have dissected the obnoxious
article in all its members ; and to have developed, as we
proceeded, our own opinions and commentaries—step by
step—in the order in which we took the paragraphs.
But it will be sufficient for the purpose of this exposition,
to present the prosecuted portion only ; and we prefer to
dispatch it thus summarily, because—unlike its brilliant
rhodowontades in general—we consider the passage
altogether as a most infelicitous sample of the
efforts of that talented Tory Journal. The purity
of the principles which distinguish this Paper, and
its inflexible popular and constitutional attitude, make
it unnecessary to stop on the threshold of this
examination, either with an apology or an explana-
tion of our motives. The cause is not of the Standard
only—it is the cause of the PRESS or ENGLAND.
In the Standard, then, of Monday, July 20, will be
found a long and rancorous party-etiusion, which em-
bodies the alleged libel now prosecuted by the gallant
Premier : here it is—in purissimis naturalibus—divested
of all unnecessary context :
" If his Grace now wants character and the public confidence,
in what regard does he want them ?—in what particulars is he
suspected ?—chiefly in then—he is suspected of indifference to the
interests of the Established Church ;—he is suspected of wishing to
govern in an imperious and engrossing spirit—of wishing to be not
merely the prime but the sole Minister. He is suspected, too [and
the suspicion is not confined to a few or to ill-informed persons]
of wishing to perpetuate his power by dangerous designs connected
with the succession to the Crown. These are the suspicions under
which he labours."

It is not easy to conceive an imputation more un-
substantial, or a libel more inapprehensible than this :
we will dispose of it sentence by sentence. "If his
Grace now wants character and the public confidence,
in what regard does he want them; in what particulars
is he suspected ?" At least, it will not be contended
that these questions are impertinent, directed—as they
are—at a Prime Minister, whose very nomination was
opposed equally to popular feeling and constitutional pre-
cedent : but let us hear the answer.

" Chiefly in these"—that is, in these regards : " He
is suspected of indifference to the interests of the Esta-
blished Church." What, if he be suspected ? Suspicion
does not amount to charge.

" He is suspected of wishing to govern in an imperious
and engrossing spirit." Yes, and very capital grounds
for that same suspicion there are—but suspicion does not

amount to charge.
" Of wishing to be not merely the prime but the sole
Minister." Yes, he is suspected of all these—but still
suspicion does not amount to charge. Besides, can any
thing be more preposterous—let alone tyrannical—than
the attempt to make it unlawful, to suspect what a Minis-
ter wishes? To make our involuntary mental operations
a punishable crime? But we must go on to the gravamen of
the passage. "He is suspected too—and the suspicion is
not confined to a few, or to ill-informed persons—of wish-

ing to perpetuate his power by dangerous designs con-
nected with the succession to the Crown. These are the
suspicions under which he labours."
Gad-a-mercy ! here is suspicion enough in all con-
science ; but for the love of all that is intelligible,
do let us examine it a little. In the first place,
his Grace the Duke of NVrLLINGTON i 3 suspected :
come—now—that's a clear case; but what is he
suspected of ? Why, his Grace the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON is suspected of wishing to perpetuate his
power : a very natural wish, in any Minister; but
one—we should imagine—peculiarly dominant, in his
ambitious and despotic mind. Aye, but to perpetuate it
by dangerous designs connected with the succession to
Me Crown. Well! he may be suspected of all that,
and be really guilty of the wish ; but to suffer the incon-
sequential operation of wishing is not harbouring a de-
sign to overturn—is not aiming and plotting against—
the succession. But nobody said that he did" wish" that :
it was only affirmed that he was suspected of wishing.
Really, this is too puerile : and on such galimathias
RS the foregoing, GRA ND Juao It s can be found, who
by their verdict would place the Press in jeopardy !
They ought to have remembered--when they were im-
pannelled to sit on this nonsensical passage—that - the
RIGHT of every Englishman to express his free
political opinion, is paramount to all consideration
cf individual annoyance, which its exercise may inciden-
tally entail: that it is the spirit of our Constitution
to tolerate the remote liability to private wrong, rather
than weaken by rash and particular enactments
the uninfringible tenure, by which it secures to
the people that Palladium of their civil liberties : and
above all, that when a Minister prosecutes the PaEss,
it is a prinui facie proof of his disposition to tyrannic
power.
Let it not be imagined, because we have said
so much, that we admire the taste—or would en-
courage the style —of such articles as that
in question : regarded even as party-writings, their
extravagance defeats their aim. Nor should we have
thought it worth the trouble to analyse such au ab-
surd farrago, except to notice the greater and more
dangerous absurdity displayed by Government, in
making it the subject of a criminal attack.
What is it—after all—which is said in it of the
Noble Duke, which can be twisted by the most refined
ingenuity into a tangible accusation ? Qu'il est
soupconne d'iltre suspect ! This, in the old French
revolutionary phraseology, is the whole gravamen. Now,
we can tell his Grace very roundly, that we suspect him
of much more than being suspicious ; and that his
extraordinary and simultaneous occupation of the
military and civil heights of the kingdom—not alone
considered with reference to his demeanour at home, but
to his foreign transactions also—might justify more intel-
ligible imputations, than are conveyed in the wild enig-
mas of our contemporary. Nay, we tax the Noble Duke
—here, overtly—with incapacity in his high ministerial
office, and an inclination to intimidate and overawe the
country, by demonstrations of a coercive naure. Wo tax
him with being a party to the despotic forms which are main-
tained in Europe, in despite of its tendencies to constitu-
tionalise ; with secret understandings with M. DE Po-
LIG NAC, inimical to the popular liberties of both coun-
tries—especially as concerns the Press—and with the
sacrifice of English interests by the policy which he has
adopted in the East.
If our business were with the general vituperations of
our contemporary, which he hes poured out so unspa-
ringly in the article which we are now considering, not
against the Noble Duke only, but against the " Whigs"
who have so unnaturally coalesced with him, we would
transcribe copiously from the context of the preceding
passage : but it sufficiently illustrates itself. While we
rise up, then, in jealousy against such a prosecution, it is
well understood that we do not fraternise with the pro-
secuted Paper. We onlv vindicate for it the right which
belongs to us all in common, and which is now daringly
and systematically invaded—as well in Ireland as in this
metropolis—by the government of the Noble Premier.
Hardly fewer than twenty indictments are at this mo-
ment pending at the instigation of Ministers, against
the Press ! Is it not, then, time for those connected
with it to enter into a compact for their common preser-
vation, and concert measures to repel, in a body, such
ugly and unconstitutional aggressions ? Will it be
politic in the PRESS or Lox Dos—we will not talk of
more charitable • feelings—to suffer any of its members
to be overwhelmed by official vengeance, no matter by
what views and principles they may be divided among
each other ? On the contrary, would it not argue equal
cowardice and impolicy to stand aloof, while the Ministerial
gag is fitted between the teeth of public opinion, and
its expression is made a matter of social and civil for-
feiture ? Resistance to such outrageous despotism is
not merely justified—it is enjoined by the Constitution.
But what are we to say of the ATTORN EY
GENERAL, who counsels and conducts these po-
pular oppressions ? Who is he, that the people may
know him henceforward, and set their mark upon him ?
Was he not lifted into office by Mr. CANNING, because
of his professed liberalities ? Did he not cleave, through
the change that followed, to that great patriot's
unequal—though pure—successor, with still the ap-
pearance of consistency, till the tide of patronage

rolled refluent, and principle was overborne by power :
and making believe to go out with Lord LANSDOWNE
only the more effectually to barter afterwards, and betray
his liberal adherences—

Damns doll turpte Dues convenient., redivit?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL under three masters—but only
deceiving two, for the gallant Duke knows how to
appreciate a deserter—it is at least consolatory to re •
fleet from what a tarnished satellite this unnatural
stab is directed at our dearest privilege. But
we are not surprised at the Right Hon. and Learned
apostate, on whom our opinion is not now for the first
time recorded, as a certain MEMORANDUM CAD bear us
witness : a traitor to his principles cannot be expected
to be true to his country.
Our affair, however, in these prosecutions, is not with
the tools of tyranny, but with tyranny itself; and once more,
we conjure the Noble Duke to pause. The state of the
country is critical and insecure enough, without the
provocation of this flagrant experiment against the
PREss, to lash its guiding minds into an-
tagoristic energy. For it holds the key of
the people's hearts, and can suscitate as it lists
their stormy passions, which rise and sink as it plays
upon them, like spirits before a wizard's wand. Let him
not goad it to the perilous excorcism.

In our preceding columns will be found an official re-
port of the occupation of Adrianople by the Russians; and
of their further progress towards the capital of Turkey.
In addition to these important facts, we now submit ex-
tracts from the continental Papers received this day by
the Dutch and Hamburgh mails. On these it is only