The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-18 00:00:00

it is nearly powerless to alter them. There are, in
truth, no means of effecting alteration ; and this
statu quo of the laws is called' by the Tories the
predominancy of Conservatism.
We should join in their approbation of this,
if, while the laws were unaltered, society were
standing still. There is undoubtedly an example
in China of a people so regulated and re-
strained—se bound down and hemmed in on all
sides by laws, that they move not, and society moves
not, or so slowly that the motion is scarcely per-
ceptible ; but ours is not such a society. Large
and ever growing branches of it, every new trade,
every new art, every new town or county
population, every budding opinion, every ma-
turing science, carries society beyond the
existing regulations and statutes, and makes the
predominancy of Conservatism, as above explained
—the impossibility of moving the Legislature in a
right direction—a serious evil at present, while it is
certain to be the parent of great calamities. The
Ministers appear to be of this way of thinking, for
they have introduced a great number of useful mea-
sures, which they have been obliged to give up,
and have made many valuable attempts, which
they have been obligel to forego. For these last
two or three years they have succeeded in passing very
few of the measures they have proposed, and the pre-
dominancy of Conservatismhas caused an'e ver-widen-
ing discrepancy between the statutes and the con-
dition of society, between the state of the law and the
state of our manners and opinions, between the
distribution of political and of physical power.
This is the triumph of Conservatism, but it is the
herald of revolution. It gratifies the selfish arro-
gance of the priests and the Tories, but it is pre-
paring the way for the overthrow of the Constitu-
tion and the ruin of the State. To have no Go-
vernment, in the sense of there being no will and
no power to improve the laws, which has been
brought about by the exertions of the Tories,
though they already weep over their own victory,
threatens, we admit, great calamities for the
country.

To-day every Liberal Member will be in his
place in the House of Commons to support Mr.
GRom's motion for leave to bring in a Bill to
establish the Ballot. We have not expatiated on
what has of late formed a theme for much con-
gratulation to the Whig Journals, and for much
mockery to the Tory Journals, namely the making
the Ballot an open question. We shall wait
to see the effects of the question being made
an open one on the Votes before we shall
consider it a theme for much praise. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, we preSume, cannot go from his recently
recorded opinions, and we shall not have his vote.
Now we are afraid that several other gentlemen
who have voted against the Ballot, though they
have neither spoken nor written against it, may think
it inconsistent with their former conduct to vote at
present in its favour. They have been so long com-
pelled to go in one direction, that they will, per-
haps, from the mere force of habit, keep in the
same track. Should such be the case, the gain on the
side of the Ballot will not be much. We will hope,
however, for the best. The constituencies in general
are eager to have the Ballot ; on them it would confer
great advantages ; and many Representatives, what-
ever may be their own opinions, must vote in obe-
dience to the wishes of their constituencies. The
only reason why the Ballot should be a party ques-
tion is, because one party gains and the other loses
by corruption and intimidation. We can easily
conceive that many honest politicians on both sides
may not approve of the Ballot ; but if a great party
make resistance to it a watchword—if the Tories
shall, almost to a man, vote against it, we may be
quite sure that they gain by corruption and intimi-
dation, and desire, therefore, to keep the means of
corrupting and intimidating in their hands.

New York Papers to the 26th ult., inclusive, have
been received by the American ship Silvio de Grasse,
bound to Havre, which touched at Falmouth to land
passengers on Sunday evening. The Silvie sailed from
New York on the 26th, and made the pessage in twenty-
one days. From the lateness of the hour at which
these Papers have reached us, we can only make room
for the following extracts. We have observed, how-
ever, that the contents of the Journals appear to be of
no political interest :

( From the New York Morning Herald, May 25.)
Canada is in a bad way. The peaceable are fast leaving
the colony, and coming to the United States. Sir George
Arthur is returning to England, and the whole province
seems to have lost their senses. Their last outrage was on
a United States vessel, that touched at Brockville. The
16,000 British regulars can hardly keep them in order.
FROM TEXAS.
The Colombia steam packet, Captain Windle, arrived
last night, in thirty-six hours from Galveston, brings dates
from that place to the 12th.
TIIE FRENCH FLEET. —The Galveston Gazette of the
10th inst. has the following :—The French frigate Nereid,
64 guns, the steamship Phaeton, and the Crusader, an
18-gun b:ig, arrived on Tuesday, and are now (Tuesday
evening) lying off this pert. They are a part of the
blockading squadron from Vera Cruz, and brought up
Admiral Baudin, who is now at Houston, having lauded
at Velasco, and gone to the capital by land. Salutes have
been exchanged between these vessels, and the Texian
steam-ship Z walla, the fort, and Navy-yard. The Zavalla
and the steam-packet New York have been alongside the
Phaeton and exchanged friendly salutations with her
officers. The President, among others, has been on
board.

" The Galrcstonian contains various particulars of the
arrival of the rare visitants. The Nereid, in entering the
port, got aground, and was towed off by the Zavalla. The
commander of the Phaeton had been on board the Texian
steam-ship, and expressed himself highly pleased with the
vessel and her arrangements. Formal visits had also been
exchanged between the officers of the Nereid and the
Zavalla.

President Lamer arrived in Galveston on the 7th, and de-
parted the same day on his return to Houston, through cour-
tesy to Admiral Baudin, who had gone to the latter city.—
New York Evening Post, May 23.
MONEY MARKET,
FRIDAY, MAY 24, 6 P.M.
There has been a fair business done in sterling ex
change to-day ; some of the leading drawers ask 10 per
cent., but sales have generally been made at 91 to 01
per cent., the United States Bank drawing at
the former rate. The English news which reached
us yesterday, although presenting no material change
from the last advices, has been used by the bears
at the Stock Exchange to produca a fall. It will, there-
fore, be perceived that small amounts only have been sold
at receding prices. Bank of Commerce fell off per
cent. ; Delaware and Hudson, + per cent. ; Farmers'
Trust, per cent. ; Mohawk, per cent. ; Paterson,
per cent. ; Stonington, I.+ per cent. ; Harlem, 1:1,- per
cent. ; but little is doing in Wail-street generally. Silver
continues to command a premium, from its comparative
scarcity, although gold is plenty. The former metal con-
tinues to arrive at New Orleans from Mexico in sums of
various amounts. The schooner Watchman arrived here
on the 16th from Matamoras with 21.587 dollars in specie
to different firms. Iu domestic exchange we notice no
material difference in rates since the last week.

Except the Oriental question, there is no subject of
any interest discussed in the Paris journals of Sunday•
All the miscellaneous news they contain are included in
the annexed extracts :

M. Duchatel, the Minister of the Interior, has presented
to the Chamber of Deputies a project of law for purchasing
M. Daguerre's discoveries (Diorama), by the aid of con-
centrated rats of light, of copying drawings, &c., so that
the objects preserve mathematically their form in the
smallest details. M. Daguerre is to receive an annual pen-
sion of 6,000 f., and his partner, M. Nicpce, jun., 4 000 f. ;
half of which pensionl are to go to their wives should they
survive their husbands. M. Daguerre communicates to the
Government his plan.
M. Emmanuel de Grouchy, the French Charge
d'Affaires to the Sardinian Court, has died at Turin, to
which place the Marquis de Rumigny has departed, to
resume his post as Ambassador, although it had been ru-
moured that he was to succeed M. de Ferenzac, the French
Ambas2ader in Madrid. Baron Lacour, Marechal-de-
Camp and Commandant of the Legion of Honour, has just
died in Paris.

MALTA, JUNE 5. —The Italian States have just adopted
a measure which indicates their hatred of the liberty of the
press ; they have prohited the importation of all the Mal-
tese journals, which they had hitherto admitted, and yet it
is observed that the tone of these journals has hitherto
been very moderate. " You will soon see Clot Bey, whose
time of quarantine will be ended on the 12th of this month,
and he will certainly sail for Marseilles on the 16th. His
health has been much better since he left Egypt. He has
boen visited in the Lazaretto by several persons distin-
guished by their learning and their rank, and he will cer-
tainly be well received when he lands at Malta. The
English fleet was Malta on the 3d June. Admiral Stop-
ford was induced to sail on the following day with five ships
of the line and two frigates, but it was for the coast of Sicily.
off which some of their ships of the line had lately been on
a cruise, in the course of which, having anchored at Ca-
tania and Syracuse, they had met with a reception for which
they were indebted chiefly to the circumstance that the
English flag reminded the people of the constitution of
1812. These frequent visits of the English fleet to the
coasts of Sicily, considered together with the agitation that
prevails in that island, may have some meaning (une cer-
tainc signification.)—Le Commerce.
On the second of this month, in the morning, a battalion
of the 54th Regiment, on its march from Mergieres to
Wessenburg, was overtaken between Mouzon and Stenay
by so violent a storm, with such torrents of rain, that for
some minutes it could not advance a step. Several claps
of thunder were heard, and the lightning appears to have
struck at the same time all the eight companies of which
the battalion was composed. Nearly 200 men were thrown
down, and when they rose the blood issued from the mouth,
nose, and ears ; an insufferable sulphureous stench rendered
their situation still more distressing ; however, only two
men, a grenadier and a voltigeur, fell victims to this terri-
ble tempest; they were killed on the spot. Their com-