The Sun. — 1826-01-13 (London, England)

HORNING HERALD. There is often the same kind of arrogance and self-sufficiency observable in the conduct and demeanour of nations towards each other as we -witness among individuals. The man of rank, as he is called, or the possessor of some College degree, is apt to look down with scorn upon the humble ebttager, as one belonging to an inferior race of beings, though the latter, perhaps, upon examination, turns out to possess and prac. tice the social duties and affections of life with a truth tad tenderness not to be found in the former. So it is with what we deem civilised nations,such as France, Spain, and Englued,who are apt to talk of 64 the Autocrats of Rossi-a," and the " barbarous hordes" they reign over, with a . degree of contempt incompatible with what is due to a knowledge of the frailties of our common nature, and which neither belongs to nor ought to be practised by those who duly appreciate the relative situation of men in society, or societies, as compared with each other. The events which have just transpired in Russia are of a nature, we think, not only to rescue that people, and the family of its Sovereign, from the sneers of civilization, but are calculated to furnish a not unusual lesson to the political states of England, France, and Spain.--The character of ."Alexander has not yet become the impartial subject of History. Whether it has been fairly estimated in this and other coontries, time will show ; but that he has been the benefactor of his own country, and that he is alike honoured, loved, and deplored, both by his people and by his family, there appears to be no doubt. The letters of his Empress to his mother possess a natural pathos seldom equalled, and never surpassed by the feelingsof persons similarly situated in more polished states while his loss seems to be lamented with a sincerity of grief which bears the truest testimony to deserts which even the Princes of civilized States would not disgrace themselves•by rivalling. Nor ought the conduct of his brothers to be overlooked when  contemplating the scenes which are passing in theie regions of supposed barbarity. Fl re we witness no struggle for Empire—no rushing to power, as the sole object of ambition—hut an apparent self.denial and devotion, of which, though the details are as yet but imperfectly known, yet they are sufficiently so to rescue the chief actors in them from that kind of rational opprobrium to which we have alluded. The truth, we suspect, is, that the Russian character has never been truly estimated in this country. One of the most agreeable and accomplished travellers (Dr. Clarke), whose talents, enterprise, and research, can never be too highly ap• pleuritic!, has suffered his valuable work to be tarnished by a jaundiced and resentful view of the people, their country, their Nobles, and Princes, and which work, from the high characier nil authority it so justly bears, must have considerable effect in inoculating its readers with its prejudices in common with its facts. By those w! o decry the character of the Russians, we shall, perhaps, he referred to the murder of Paul, and to other events in their history, which reflect but little credit on their annals. But do those who rely on such instances as these imagine that the present state of Spain, the atrocities which accompanied the French Revolution, or that the riots of 1780, arid the other disgraceful enormities of English mobs, place the civilized countries of Spain, France, and England so much higher in the comparative scale of social advancement as they would have us believe? In fact, the most civilized countries have much more to learn than to boast of. If the arts which administer to refinement and luxury were the harbingers of moral excellence, civilization might well boast of its effects ; but as it is, we are much mistaken if barbarians, as they are called, do not often furnish lessons which those who despise them would be better employed in imitating.