The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-22 00:00:00

04TiminoiUL

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1852.

Altogether, nothing could be more satisfactory than
the discussion which took place on Tuesday evening in
the House of Cornnons in reference to the question of
the Foreign Refugees. Considering that a portion of
the dispatches relating to this important subject had
already been laid upon the table, it was only reason-
able to expect that the rest of the papers not yet
published should be forthwith printed, end more es-
pecially so, bearing in recollection the fact that tht
corres
Pendence referred to hag finally terminated
uetweet, our own
menu.
111,1' own and the Continental Govern-
his acco:tolas. consequently, with more even than
morne e
earnestness that the Noble
„
Lord the representative tAtiv
matter once of Alarylebone brought the
Legislature. possiVer the notice of the Imperial
larly incited by the eT;:: so doing, he was particu-
wynitshtance of the severe disap-
pointment experienced
existing Cabinet to consent to te ihrVied refusal of the
of the desired
documents, notwithstanding th® faiasue
rable assurances
• previously vouchsafed by the r_
%la Honourable
Geontlemai the CetAxcerieea
"' the E
All that Lad DIIPLA7 sivux ICREQUAL
'44°4 ligo4 the

THE

subject was simply ,this—that the dispatcher, which
merely brought the correspondence to the' April
of 1850, shuuld be continued down to their conclusion
on the Ist of last September. It was only natural,
of course, and what might alone have been reason-
ably expected in the matter, that the anxiety felt in
regard to the safety of the refugees from Hungary
at the period when they were prisoners in the
European, and subsequently in the Asiatic do-
minions of the SULTAN—RD anxiety which had
already been somewhat appeased even when those
unfortunate patriots were still in " durance vile"
—should at length be fully satisfied, now that
they have long since rejoiced in the luxuries
of liberation. The most perfect confidence was
felt, moreover, from the outset, that Lord PAL-
MERSTON had acted throughout this remarkable cor-
respondence in a manner becoming alike his ex-
tended popularity and his elevated reputation. Be-
sides which, it was universally believed, that in spite
of all the vain-glorious boasting of the United States,
that the emancipatien of KOSSUTH and bis com-
patriots was attributable,
.in the first place to the
magnanimous remonstrances, to the reiterated de-
mands, to the noble and spontaneous interference in
their behalf, made in the name of the English people on
the part of the British Government. For a variety of
reasons, therefore, it was manifestly most desirable
that the papers requested by the Noble Lord the
Member for Marylebone should as speedily as pos-
sible be laid on the table of the Legislature.
Happily, it will have been observed that towards
the close of the discussion on Tuesday, notwithstand-
ing the original objection expressed by the Ministry
to produce the documents in question, on the score
I that their issue might be distasteful to the Cabinets
of Vienna and St. Petereburgh, the motion of
Lord DUDLEY STUART, seconded by the veteran
representative of Montrose, was at length very grace-
fully and courteously acceded to by the Right Hon.
Gentleman the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER.
The manly and persuasive declarations of Lord PAL-
MERSTON effectually dissipated whatever doubts, as to
the propriety of giving these long withheld communi-
cations to the Parliamentary printer, had induced the
Ministry to decline the responsibility of their publi-
cation. We may now consequently look forward, with
confidence, to the speedy acquisition of docu-
mentary evidence, proving be.) and the possibility of
denial that the policy of Lord PALMER•ITON
was in reference to Turkey what it was in reference
to Greece, that it was in reference to Louis Kos-
MTH what it was in reference to Louis NAPOLEON—
a policy worthy of a liberal and enlightened states-
man, a policy worthy of England and not
unworthy of PALMERSTON. It will then be perceived
that it was in reality the British Government, and
not the Government alone of the United States, that
induced the Sublime Porte to consent at lest to the
liberation of the captives of Kutayab—demonstrating
the assertion of the Noble Lord the Member
for the borough of Marylebone, that the
Mississippi might have remained at the Dardanelles if
it had not been for the energetic representations made
by Viscount PALMERSTON upon this subject, in
the name of the British Government. We can-
not -.but think that the taunt: subsequently
directed against the existing Cabinet, to the
effect that the circumstance of its withholding these
papers appeared to be something like want of gene-
rosity to the late Administration, was, more than
anything else that fell from the lips of Lord DUDLEY
STUART—the preux chevalier of the unfortunate
patriots exiled from Poland and from Hungary—effec-
tual in changing the determination arrived at in this
matter by the members of her MAererv's Govern-
ment. Stung by that unwelcome accusation, the einem -
CELLO& of the EXCHFOUER repudiated in plain terms
any such intention on his own part, or on the part of his
Ministerial colleagues, maintaining that their only
solicitude upon the eulject had been that, by the
publication of these final papers of the correspondence,
the Cabinet might be reviving feelings now happily
long since allayed, and which might, the Right Hon.
Gentleman intimated, provoke anew the acrimonious
sentiments excited between certain Governments.
Fortunately, 93 we have already shown, these im-
pressions were removed from the mind of the leader
of the Miuisterial phalanx in the House
of Commons by the plain-spoken and magnanimous
statements made on Tuesday evening, in that House,
by Viscount PALMERSTON. That the late Foreign
Secretary should have spoken thus caneidly
in regard to his prolonged correspondence
with the Court of Constantinople, was not,
of course, for an instant matter for any de•
glee of astonishment upon a subject which ext-,rted in
his favour even from Lord JOHN RUSSELL the most
fervent and explicit congratulations. " I con •
Sider," said the ex-Peewee, " that it was an
honour to this country to tak the part it did take in
reference to these refugees." That sentence alone
amounted to a virtual panegyric upon the foreign po-
licy of Lord PALMERE.TON, for to Lord PALMERSTON
peculiarly and personally were attributable all those
eernest interpositions between the SULTAN and the
KAISER, or yet more between the SULTAN and the
AUTOCRAT, which conducted Louis KOSSUTH at last
from his confinement at Kutaysh, and enabled him
to step upon the deck of the American steam-ship,
the Mississippi. Before many days have elapsed the
country will be enabled to estimate with greater ac-
curacy, through the assistance of the forthcoming do-
cuments, the value of that enlightened and pa-
triotic policy which has not only shielded
every E. glishman with the exclamation, Civis
Britannic= sum, but has extended the hand of friend-
ship to weakness assailed by despotism, and, while
acting thus boldly, has nevertheless preserved unin.
terrupted peace in the midst of a prolonged series o
revolutions.

There can be no doubt that the man so long
" coming" hag, at length, arrived. Henceforward
Sir FITZROY KELLY will be the Magnus Apollo of
Protection, and DERBY and DISRAELI, aye, even
GEORGE FREDERICK YOUNG himself, must pale their
lesser lights before the superior brilliancy of the
~ewly arisen luminary. The SOLICITOR •GENERAL has
unquestionably exhibited one qualification for the
championship of the cause. He has evinced a degree
of ingenuity in getting rid of the most inconve-
nient matters becoming his nisi prius reputa-
tion. " Them there facts are stubborn things,"
said a worthy Alderman. They might have
been so in the olden times, but they are

" trifles light as air" in the hands of such a master o.
. .

his art as the Hon. Member for Harwich, the candi-
date for East Sussex. Every point admitting of
doubt wilt be disputed to the uttermost, but those re-
4poetitig which there can be no controversy will be
.' confeesed and avoided " in the most artiatical
manner. The Honourable Gentleman, with a can-
dour which does him infinite credit, acknowledges
hat "in the year 1850 we had
imported fully
3,000,000 quarters of corn more than in 1846:'
(this might Appear a damaging admission if proceed-
tilg from another and less adroit advocate. It
would seem to prove that so much more bread found
its way into the cottages of the lets wealthy daises,
by whom any increase in the price of " the staff of
life can only be provided for by a diminution in the
quantity consumed. Sir FITZROY KELLY, however,
with a hardihuod of assertion which must strongly re-
commend him to the sturdy bucolics, boldly la
that if we had imported more, we had produced less,,
and that we had sold in Great Britain anal Ireland
3,000,000 quarters of home-grown core less in 1850
than in 1846—the result being" that the people of this
country have not had one pound weight 9f bread more
to eat in 1850 than when the 3,000,000 quarters of corn
were grown in this country in 1846:' Hear this, ye
labourers, who have, mirabile dictu, had sufficient
bread, albeit of the coarsest description, for your nu-
merous famine., who have been enabled to allow what
our continental neighbours denominate " pain a
discretion" to the curly-headed varlets, and are not
compelled to entrust your careful wives with the im-
portant duty of dividing with nice and discriminating
hands the number of loaves that could be obtained
among the numerous claimants. It is not merely
chat ye have not had " more" bread than in the year
1846 when the price of the quartern loaf was ls.
or upwards, but you have really had less; for
there has, unquestionably, been an increase of popu-
lation in the interim, and if there has not been "
pound of bread more to eat," and the same quantity
was divided among more numerous mouths, it neces-
sarily follovys that each person must have
You are the hest
had couiiderabli less'

LONDON,

and most unexceptionable witnesses, and on such
a point it is to the testimony of the -fri‘ ze-coated

sten, and not of the wearers of broad cloth, that we
should look with interest. Let those persons speak,
and we shall speedily learn whether or not they
have been more scantily provided than in the " dear
year" of 1846.

But the Honourable and Learned Gentleman puts
forward a second and not less startling assertion, that
"it is better that bread should remain at its former
price," better that the labourers should pay tribute to
the farmers, that they should be contented with half
diet, so long as the grandeur of the territorial aristo.
cracy were maintained intact.

But it is only by maintaining the question, which
even Mr. G. F. YOUNG has at length admitted to be
impracticable, that Sir FITZROY KELLY can help the
agriculturists. He will not give any pledge re-
specting the malt tax, nor will he enter into
fiscal matters until after the financial statement. We
have long since pointed out to the farmers that their
real interest was to promote the fiscal and monetary
reforms that would afford true protection to
every description of British industry. They
suffered under unfair taxation—they should
demand an equaliz Ilion of the local burdens ; the
poor-rates should be justly and fairly apportioned; for
there is as solemn an obligation on fundholdere, and
other owners of personal property, to contri-
bute to the relief of their distressed brethren as
there is on the proprietors of real estates. There
is no reason why the entire expense of criminal
proseeutions should fall on the agriculturists. Is
not the man with one thousand sovereigns in his
pocket as likely to be robbed, as the ocecupier
of one thousand acres of lani? What class more loudly
demands an equitable adjustment of the income-tax, tied
the removal of the charge on industry ?;In every re-
spect they must seek fiscal relief. It is absurd to
suppose that they can set up the injustice under
which they are suffering in one respect as a suffi-
cient authority to entitle them to plunder their fel-
low-subjects with impunity.

But there is another point to which they should
even more earnestly direct their attention, and
from which, under , existing circumstances, tl7ey
may obtain important relief without any
great difficulty. We have long and energeti-
cally endeavoured to promote the great cause
of monetary reform, to show that the evils under
which the nation—and more especially the farmers—
so long groaned, were chiefly, if not altogether,
ascribable to the infamous code, which by unduly
appreciating the value of money, and limiting
the amount of the circulating medium, double rivetted
the chains of the debtors, and brought ruin to the
door of many an honest farmer. When the pur-
chasing power of the pound was increased in a two-
fold ratio they felt the change more than any others.
Their rents were practically doubled, their rates and
taxes similarly augmented, while they ignorantly
ascribed the evils under which they were suffering
to the removal of protective imposts, which were
really owing to another and a very different cause.
Let them, then, direct their attention to this
all-important question—let them read the communi-
cation which will be found in another part of this
day's impression, by which they will find the real
change in the value of money ;
and they will see
that their true interests will be promoted by those
who exert themselves on these points, rather than in
endeavouring to keep up the delusion of the possi-
bility of a return to protective imposts.

THE FRENCII REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Constitutionnel of Tuesday had an article main-
taining that the sending of the budget to the Council
of State, instead of the Corps Legislatif is an inva-
sion of the rights of the representatives of the people.
The right of the Government to send the budget to
the Council of State as if it were an ordinary law is
disputed and contested. It is the Corps Legislatif
alone which is entitled to examine the Budget iu every
point of view, whether political, administrative, or
financial, and any interference with this right is boldly
repelled as an act of usurpation and au invasion of
the privileges of the Parliament. By seudi ig the
budget to the Council of State, and so treating it as
an ordinary law, it is, according to the Constitutionnel,
taken out of the hands of the Minister of Finance,
who is precluded from drawing up the exposé des
motifs, which is, in fact, a general view of the ex n-
ci of the ditTertnt service,,, and of the expenses set
dered incumbent by the general political situation of
the Government. Be it says—
Let us now follow the budget to the Corps Legieatif
Who is to furnish tee nemazary explanations to the
committee named by the ATsenibl ? Who will sustain
Vie debate heture the Chamber? A deputation of some
members of the Council of State. But is not this calcu-
lated, in fact, to render all do,cussiun in some degree
illusory ? flow can these Councillors of State answer
all the questions that should necessarily arias.? Can
they proclaim the principles which guide the Govern-
ment in its foreign and domesde Vibe),? Can they give
information as to the economical doctrines by which our
industrial and commercial interests are to be managed?
Can they be possibly so well acquainted with the nature
and particulars of our public services as to be able to re-
fute the objections of all kids that might arise as to
their organiz.tion? Evidently not. The Council of
State, which not preparing the budget itself, but receiv-
ing it ready made from the hands of Government itself,
could not by possibility sustain the discussion. The re-
mission of the budget to the Council of State is there-
fore to be regretted. It tends to take that body from its
natural sphere, to launch it into invasions of power, and
to render null the debate on the financial law, by con-
fiding its defence to those who have not prepared it—
who bavo not been initiated into the political, economi-
cal, and financial principles according to which it has
been regulated by the Government, alone responsible.
It is the more unfortunate btcause the matter shows
forgetfulue:s of the feelings of the country, which are
peculiarly susceptible with regard to questions of
money."
In reply to this, we may call it " opposition" arti-
cle, the Patrie of that evening published the follow-
ing " communicated" note

"The Constitationne/, after having at great length
established (tt thing which is incontestable) that the
Legislative Body beg the right of discussing and voting,
article by article, the budget of expenses, maintains that
the Council of State cannot be called on to examine
either the budget or the amendments which may be pro-
posed to it by the Legislative Body. The Constitutionna
reasons on old Parliamentary tiaditiont, and fn'ms an
erroneous opinion of the actual chariot -r of the Council
of State. Why should it be interdicted to the Presi-
dent of the Republic, after having provisionally decided
on the receipts and expenses with his Ministers, to
consult the Council of S ate h.forn sending the Bill on
the finances to the Legislative Body? This preliminary
examination of the Council of State is justified by the
double motive that the budget is to be supported by com-
missions chosen from the Council of State, and that
Article 40 of the Constitution submits to it all amt nd-
ments presented by the Legislative Body without ex-
ception."

The budget for 1853 is to be presented in a short
time. It shows, it is said, notable economies, amount.
ing to nearly thirty millions over the budget of 1852,
thus establishing a real equilibrium.
The Journal des Dibats attacks the last circular
of the Mini:der of Police. Certainly the functions
of the Corps Legislay would be approximated to
z---re, by the new police system, as explained by M.
DE MAtir.as. The police inPpectors would become
the intermediate representatives between the execu-
tive and the people. The Debats says :
" We will only make one remark on this circular.
The necessity which the superior authority for such
frequent instructions to these new functionaries seems
to Justify the little favour this institution has met with
at the hands or the public. In seeing this new ma.
chintry work so plainly, may not one rationally con-
clude that it has no natural end useful place to fill in
our administrative institulons ? Such an opinion
would probably be confirmed ny a close examination of
the attributions of those agents as defined by the new
Ministerial circular. Would it not be better than to
abandon an institution which creates such embarrass-
ments in the way of the general march of the adminis-
tration, and whose utility it so problematical ? Such is
the question naturally suggested by the new circular,
but which we have not the pretension to solve."
The Charivari has (says the Pattie) received an
official warning from the Minister of Police.
which is at present occupied with
project
d ireiaroiln t
from Rheims to the Belgian
connect the French lines with
a The
frontier,Commission,
those of that country, were on Monday presented to
the ParscE PRESIDENT, by the deputies of the Arden-
nes and the Aisne. After listening attentively to the
observations of the Commission and the deputies, the
PRESIDENT admitted the importance of the question,
and gave them hopes that it would be favourably at-
tended to.
The distribution of the eagles is postponed to the
15th, to give time to the National Guards to be pre-
pared for the ceremony.
The mortal remains of Prince PAUL of Wurtem-
berg were on
Madeleine, and a funeral service took place on the
Tuesday deposited in the vaults of the
occasion.

"It seems positive," says the Public, " that a
camp of 0,000 men is to be established at Compiegne.
It is to be commanded by the PRESIDENT in person,
and grand manoeuvres are to be executed there."
The Presse says
" It appears that the negotiations relative to the rati-
fication of the treaty oncluded sy reds by the interns-