The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-25 00:00:00

who are, and wish to continue, warm friends of the
institution, successfully to defend it."

The petition to the House of Commons from the
inhabitants of Manchester, praying for the total abo-
lition of Church Rates, has been signed by upwards of
THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND persons. This is, we be-
lieve, the greatest number of signatures ever affixed to
a petition from that town, and it speaks in a language
that cannot be misunderstood, the sentiments of the
manufacturing capital of the British Empire on a great
public question.
The Rate-payers of the Borough of Newport held
a meeting on the 17th instant, at which resolutions
were passed, condemning in the
.strongest terms the
iniquity and impolicy of the Church-rate system, and
petitions to the Legislature praying its immediate
abolition, unanimously adopted. This, be it ob-
served, was a meeting not of Dissenters exclusively,
but of rate-payers publicly convened, and presided over
by the Mayor of the borough. It must therefore
have comprehended many of the supporters of the Es-
tablished Church. Did they hold up their hands
against these resolutions ? No such thing. They con-
ceived that they were acting as the best friends, the
truest supporters of the Church whose worship they ap-
proved, by lending their assistance to do away
with those abuses and unjust privileges, which,
so far from strengthening, decidedly weaken and
undermine the Establishment, by enlisting against it
the feelings and the religious principles of the com-
munity, and thus rendering it an object of disgust as well
as an intolerable grievance. This is the proper view
of the question, and this view, we are delighted to
find, is rapidly extending among churchmen.
A great meeting, having the same excellent object
in view, takes place to-night at Boston. We have
reason to believe that the resolutions against Church-
rates submitted to the people of Boston will be ex-
pressed in language particularly energetic, and that one
of them will contain a declaration pledging the meet-
ing to support no candidate at the next election, who
has not satisfied them as to his opinions and
conduct on this important point—in other words,
that the candidate for their votes must he
a total abolitionist. We highly approve of this
decided conduct on the part of the men of
Boston. It is manly and noble. The Dissenters
possess great political influence, and are they not to
use it in the justest of causes ? Are they, with the
power in their hands to rid themselveS' of a degrading
and intolerable burden, to sit still and bow their necks
to the yoke of bondage ? No ! they hare been
passive too long. They have borne, without
murmuring, the taunts, the scoffs, and the tyrannical
oppression of the state-hound sect, until they have
been accused of apathy. They are now determined
to prove that the accusation is unfounded, and we are
of opinion that those who ventured to prophesy that
the excitement among the Dissenters would be of a
very transitory duration, arc by this time pretty well
convinced of their error.

The extension of the commercial relations of Great
Britain with Russia, however brought about, must be
highly beneficial to the inhabitants of both countries.
The greater advantages must necessarily be on the
side of the country least advanced in civilization ; but
to persuade a people in a semi-barbarous state that their
condition can be at all improved by a commercial in-
tercourse with, foreigners, is to remove one of theligreat-
est impediments to the happiness of mankind.
It is therefore with the sincerest pleasure that we
direct the attention of our readers to the new Russian
Tariff which Lord Durham has succeeded in obtaining
from the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. Of articles of
English
_manufacture, nearly a hundred are now ad-
missible into Russia, subject to a fixed duty, which
hitherto were absolutely prohibited. We grant that
the duty in some cases amounts almost to a prohibi-
tion, so that an extensive trade in certain commodities
now admissible, cannot reasonably be anticipated ;
but we may infer from the nature of this change, as
well as the consequences which must result from it,
that Russia will, by degrees, reduce her scale of prohi-
bitive duties, in order to allow her subjects to derive
a larger share of those advantages, which even now
must accrue to them from a more extensive commer-
cial intercourse with Great Britain. Nations require
but to try the effect of the most partial free-
dom of trade, to be convinced that their true
interest consists in extending it. Russia may
vet prove an exception to this rule ; but that will
not happen before she shall have extended her
territory in the East, so as to possess within herself
whatever may be needful to supply the wants and
wishes of her immense population.

But highly as we approve of the changes that have
been effected in the Russian Tariff, and deeply as we
are sensible of the important services of Lord DURtrAar
at St. Petersburgh, we cannot respond to the sentiments
of a ministerial Morning Contemporary in commenting
upon this document. The attack of the Chronicle upon
the Portfolio will pass for sheer bombast with such
of the English people as know how to appreciate the
services which the Editors of the Portfolio have al-
ready rendered to the cause of liberty in Western
Europe. Mortifying as the fact may be to the Chro-
nicle, we can assure our Contemporary that the articles
in the Portfolio exposing the treacherous designs of
the Russian Cabinet have produced a greater effect upon
the councils of the Autocrat than all he has published
relative to the aggressions of Russia for the last seven
years. The epithets applied by the Portfolio to some
part of the conduct of Lord DURHAM may be unpa-
latable ; and we are happy to state that the writer's
fears of the failure of his Lordship's diplomacy are
daily shown to be groundless ; but there is certainly
nothing so offensive in the Portfolio's strictures upon
his Lordship's acts, as to warrant a wholesale
denunciation of a very useful and very excellent pub-
lication. We make these observations the more readily,
because we have always been as strenuous supporters
of Lord DURHAM as the Chronicle, and because
we are entire strangers to all that regards the Portfolio,
with the sole exception of its powerful effect upon
public opinion in every part of Europe. The Chronicle
sneers at the over-anxiety of the Portfolio, by stating
that—" If the conduct of Russia should be such as to
justify British interference, that, interference will not as-
suredly be withheld." We hope not. But we beg to remind
the Chronicle that it is not quite eight years since the
conduct of Russia did justify British interference, and
that interference was withheld. Lord DURHAM, we
believe, has not yet forgotten this fact ; for it happens
that he was, about the time we speak of, a member of
the Government. The recollection of this ought to
restrain all uncalled for boasts, on the part of certain
over-authoritative Journals.
Were the Russian Tariff twice as favourable as it
really is, we should not relax a jot in our efforts to
expose the usurping policy of that overgroWn Power
in the East. No pecuniary advantages should blind us
to the fact, that treaties have never bound Russia
for an instant longer than it accorded with her interests
to discard them ; and that every advantage which she
now holds out to us, is really intended as a lure to
withdraw our attention from her designs upon Turkey.
As we stated above, the advantages which will flow to
her people from a more extensive commercial trade
with England, must, for a time, open her eyes to her
true interests, and therefore the new arrangement will
be productive of great good : but if she can only con-
trive to make herself mistress of Constantinople—
which is her grand object—she will dispense with any ,
,

extensive trade_ with the Liberal States of Western
Europe.

A gentleman, whose opinions are entitled to great
respect, has addressed a communication to us, in which
he complains that the public mind of England is so
intensely occupied with political questions, that men
who would promote the welfare and the glory of their
country, on grounds higher and purer than those too
often occupied by the leaders of party, are constrained
to remain silent, from an inability to make themselves
heard amidst the incessant din of faction. This com-
plaint is by no means a novel one. It has been re-
peated for centuries, and will be so repeated during the
lifetime of the present generation—if not so long as
society exists. The mind of a free people must be in-
cessantly
occupied with something or other ; and if it'
appear to take too lively an interest in matters of in-
considerable importance, to the apparent forgetfulness
of affairs of greater moment, the blame rests with those
who have the power of directing it. The error of the
public mind is the result of ignorance or misdirection ;
as its activity is the inevitable consequence of necessity.
It cannot be still ; and, therefore, those who reserve
the discovery of their projects till it be entirely disen-
gaged must wait for ever. Their best plan, therefore,
is not to indulge in complaints; but to develope their
ideas, and try what they can do in the way of changing
the current of public opinion. There will be always
some congenial minds prepared to co-operate with them
in any design which they may meditate ; for there will
be always some discontented with the existing state of
things.
The more immediate object which our Correspon-
dent has in view, in the communication which forms
the subject of these remarks, is to rouse the people of
England to a sense of that justice which the nation has
yet to render to the most illustrious names in the an,
nals of the British empire. In imitation of the Irish
patriot, THOMAS STEELE, he would recommend that
our first instalment of this mighty debt should consist
in the erection of a National Monument to Sir ISAAC
NEWTON. We agree with him so far. There is no
name in the annals of England'which we would sooner
place at the head of a list of our illustrious dead than
NEWTON. He stands forth as one of the great bene-
factors of the human race. 'His is a name, whom all
times and climes will unite with us in rendering im-
mortal. But with respect to the monument to be
erected in honour of NEWTON, we prefer the plan of
Mr. STEELE to that proposed by our correspondent.
Mr. STEELE takes as his model for-the work, the cele-
brated chapel of our Lady of Loretto—by which
means the identical house occupied by the great philo-
sopher would be preserved to the latest posterity. This
is i❑ itself, and apart from the other uses of the build-
ing, a splendid conception. But, in addition to this,
Mr. STEELE proposes that the body of the building
should form a grand National Library and Museum of
Science, and that the top of it should be devoted to
the purposes of an observatory, so constructed as to
excel any yet known in Europe. This excellent sug-
gestion .deserves to be followed up in the prosecution
of the whole plan of our correspondent. It is an ad-
mirable improvement upon the laborious, but too often
useless monuments, erected by the ancients to perpe-
tuate the memory of their most distinguished kings,
priests, legislators, and warriors. To make the culti-
vation of the generous sentiment of veneration for the
illustrious dead subservient to the promotion of the in-
tellectual improvement of the living, is to render a most
important service to mankind. This Mr. STEELE pro-
poses to do with respect to the erection of a national
monument to NEWTON ; and it seems to us that the
same proposal is equally appliehble-AO:national
ments to SHAKSPEARE, MILTON, and other great
names in the history of our country. The rearing. of
pillars to great men is the most expensive, ridiculous,
and unmeaning way of doing honour to their memory,.
that could possibly be adopted among a people not of
migratory habits. It is otherwise in the East, where
they serve as landmarks—as lasting memorials of the
covenants of various tribes—as records of acts, the me-
mory of which could not otherwise be preserved in
countries without any established literature. The ne-
cessities, as well as the mythology, of most oriental
nations, suggested the rearing of pillars, the digging of
wells, and the construction of tombs for the reception of
the dead, as the surest way of handing down their
memory to posterity. The genius of the Christian
religion, the social habits of the people of Europe, the
climate, and the forms of Government which prevail in
it, are all opposed to such modes of honouring de-
parted greatness. We know that the ancient Egyptians
rewarded the signal services of their Kings by magni-
ficent tombs, and that ABSALOM reared a pillar to
supply the place of children in preserving his memory
in Israel ; but the Egyptians looked to the grave as
their final habitation, and the Princes of Judah, be-
fore the time of SoLo:►toN, were strangers to any
other mode of rendering their memory immortal among
the Twelve Tribes. The very reasons which might be
urged in justification of most of the ancient monu-
ments, are those which bear most strongly against any
imitation of them in our days. Indeed it may pass for
a maxim that whatever is entirely useless to the living,
is not worthy of being devoted to perpetuate the me-
mory of the dead.
In any project, therefore, for honouring the dead,
let the welfare of the living be carefully attended to.
Halls of science ; extensive public libraries ; museums
of natural curiosities ; galleries filled with the choicest
paintings and . the. ratrest-apecimens of sculpture ; bo-
tanical and, zoological. gardens_; and theatres .for the
gratuitous recreation•of" the 'people at certain seasons
of the year, are the means-by-which we would recom-
mend the nation to testify its veneration for the memory
of the illustrious dead. Mr. STEELE'S unceasing
efforts to rescue the memory of Sir ISAAC NEWTON
from the comparative obscurity into which the apathy
of Englishmen is gradually permitting it to sink, merits
the highest praise ; but what we most value is the prac-
tical utility of his project for so excellent a purpose.
We trust that having associated his name with an
undertaking worthy of the genius of the present age,
and of our common country, he will not relax in his
endeavours till the great work be accomplished. If he
only set about it in real earnest, he will not fail to im-
part a sufficient portion of his own generous enthusiasm
to the public mind of Great Britain and Ireland. As
for our Correspondent, he may rely upon it that the
people are capable of entertaining as many projects for
honouring the dead as he can possibly propose, with-
out for a moment losing sight of the political interests
of the living.

The French Journals of Monday contain no news
of the slightest Political importance, with the exception
of comments upon the liberation of the prisoners at
Strasburg. We have ourselves said all that appears to
us necessary upon this subject. For paragraphs of
news we refer to the subjoined extracts from these
Journals :

We see that M. Duchatel represents the prohibition to
export certain articles on the Pyrenean frontiers as 66-
tremely favourable to the Queen's cause ; and the .Tournal
des Debats, acting on the same system of tactics, talks of
40,000 piastres sent by the Spanish Minister of Finance
'for the Foreign Legion, and expresses its pleasure at " this
justice done to the Legion of Africa, the claims and ser-
vices of which we have long advocated and brought for-
ward." It may, however, be proper to. plaec in juxta posi-
tion with the article of the .Journal des Debcits the following
lines from the Memorial des Pyrenees :
" The Foreign Legion, which no longer consists of any-
thing more than some glorious fragments, evacuates Spain,
and with it is extinguished otar influence on the course of
events, and on the fate of the Peninsula."

The Sentinelle des Pyrenees of the 196 inst. sap, that
on. the preceding days fourteen chests of money, each ccn-

taining 10,000 francs in silver, had been sent to St. Se-
bastian.

A letter from Tolosa, written to the same journal, says
that a French officer in the service of Don Carlos had just
been appointed Brigadier of Artillery. It is affirmed that
many of the inhabitants are preparing to quit that city.—
Journal du Commerce, Jan. 23.
The Pilote des Calados of the 20th has the following ar-
ticle :—" Return and re-establishment of the Jesuits in
France.—A person, whom we have reason to believe well-
informed, assures us that, at the solicitation of M. Guizot,
the Jesuits have just been recalled to France, from which
the revolution of July had caused them to dislodge. The
Jesuits, it is added, would not consent to return till they
had dictated the terms, among which is the payment of
an indemnity for the loss which the revolution of July had
occasioned them. Two provincials have accoritingly been
appointed for France ; one will reside at Lyons, and will
have under his direction the establishments of the South ;
the other will reside at Amiens in the establishment of St.
Acbeul, in which he is on the point of taking up his abode,
if he has not done so already ; the colleges of Jesuits, which
will be founded in the North, will he under him."—Con-
slitutionnel, Jan. 23.

FRENCH FUNDS.-Pests, JAN. 23.
Five per Cents., 109 f. 15c. 10c.
Four and a Half per Cents. 103 f.
Four per Cents., 100 f. 75c.
Three per Cents. 79E 85c. 801. 85c.
Bank Actions, 2,360 f. 2,362 f. 50c.
Rente de Naples, 981 80c.
Roman Five per Cents., 102%%%.
Spanish Actives, 26l %14%.
Spanish Differes, 11%
Spanish Passives, 7U %ki.
Portuguese Three per Cents. 31. E 32 31%
Dutch Two and a half per. Cents., 55.
EXCHANGE ON LONDON.
One month, paper, 25f. 27 ; money, 25f. 27%e.
Three months, paper, 25f. 7%e. ; money, 25E 7%c.
-Court Authentsane.
LAST PRICES.
Five per Cents., 109 f. 20c.
Three per Cents. 79f. 90c.
Bank Actions, 2,362 f. 52c.
• Rente de Naples, 99f. sc.
Roman Five per Cents., 102%.
Belgian Society, 1r3201.
Portuguese Three per Cents., 31%.
Spanish Actives, 26%.
Spanish Passives, 7%.
Spanish Differes, 9.
New Differes, 114.
Dutch Two and a Half per Cents., 55.
Miguelites, 12,

The Madrid Gazette of the 15th inst. denies that
Brigadier-General ALAIX has been appointed Com-
mandant-General of Alava by General ESPARTERO.
We are very glad of this. Such an appointment at
such a time, and under such circumstances, would
have proved very detrimental to the triumph of the
Constitutional cause in the Basques. The falsehood,
which had like to have proved so injurious to the
Government, was concocted without any foundation by
the Espanol, a Madrid opposition journal.
There are still rumours in circulation of a change in
the Cabinet, but we trust they are entirely unfounded.
The retirement of MENDIZABAL would he a serious
loss to Spain at the present juncture.
There are no accounts of any interest from the
North of Spain. The dreadful state of the weather
has prevented any important movement since the 24th
ult., on the part of either Christinos or Carlists.

THE FUNDS.-(THIS DAY.)

CITY, TWELVE O'CLOCK.

We have received New York papers to Jan. 3. The New
York Price Current of the 31st Dec., gives the following
exchanges:—

" There have been some sales of bills on England for the
packet of the Ist at tif to 71 per cent. cash ; on France,
sf. 32-kc. to sf. 35c. ; Holland, 391; Hamburg, 351; Ex-
ports of specie this week, 3,000 dollars. At the close of the
market the exchange on London improved to 74 8."
We have the subjoined news from Texas :

" SAN LOUIS, MEXICO, Nov. 23.—About ten days ago Gen.
Bravo left for Texas ,with 3,000 men. This, with about
1,200 men, in Matamoras, is the whole force, and you are to
understand that Bravo's men are all sweepings of the gaols and
raw recruits ; upwards of 700 desertions between Mexico and
San Louis have taken place.

" The latest accounts from the city of Mexico represent
things in a very low state ; the inhabitants were riveted to the
earth by the heat of the sun, so little animation exists in them."

" NEW YORK CITY NEWS.—Saturday night passed off
without the severe pressure expected in the Money Market ;
but it appears that the merchants had been making their cal-
culations, and were in a great degree prepared to meet
their exigencies; the Banks having now made up their accounts
for Albany, relief is immediately expected.
" The State Legislatures are debating as to the disposition
that should be made of their shares of the Surplus Revenue.
All the States thus far have really accepted the Act of Con-
gress. To divide among the towns seems to be quite a popu-
lar proposition with seine of the States ; but this seems to us
to be frittering the fund away."
We have Montreal papers to the 18th December. Ex-
change at 60 days' Bank, 12 per cent.; Private, 12 per cent.;
Montreal Bank Shares, 20 per cent.; City, $ per cent.; Com-
mercial Bank, l 1 per cent.
" LOWER CANADA.—Last night we had the first regular
fall of snow with an easterly gale. There will be now suffi-
cient snow to form a good winter.
" The composition of the Legislative Council of Upper
Canada is beginning to excite the attention of the Constitu-
tional Press of that province._

" The Courier states that the different classes of the popula-
tion are not fairly represented in the Council ; for instance,
that there are nearly four times more Scotch Members than
English, Irish, or American."

We have received Singapore Papers to the 16th of Sept.
The Penang Gazette of the 27th 9f August gives the follow-
ing commercial remarks :
" OPIUM. —Seven chests were purchased by the Chinese
merchants at 625 dollars, and three chests at 630 dollars cash ;
19 at 660 dollars, 6 at 665 dollars, two at 670 dollars, and one
at 680 dollars, three months, all Benares ; two chests Malwa,
at 530 dollars cash, and 8 chests at 550 dollars, three months.
" CoTToN GOODS.-Bengal piece goods have been a good
deal in demand during the week.
" Benares has been in excellent demand since
our last, and about 30 chests have been sold from 670 to 680
dollars, cash.

". COTTON.—Little in demand, and the market well sup-
plied."
We have likewise received New Brunswick Papers to the
25th December. The Provincial Legislature was opened on
Tuesday. His Excellency's speech is a very brief document,
and contains but little information. It is as follows:

" Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,
" In obedience to the commands of his Majesty's Govern-
ment, I have called you together at this unusual, and, I fear,
to many of you inconvenient, season of the year, in order to
lay before Sou, as I am desired to do, with as little delay as
possible, some important dispatches in answer to the address
of the House of Assembly, respecting the surrender of
the casual and territorial revenues, copies of which shall
be communicated at an early period. The arrangements
proposed by his Majesty's Government and which are
particularly detailed in these despatches, involve questions
m which the welfare of the province is materially con-
cerned; and I therefore have to express my hope that
you will give to the subject that calm consideration which
its importance demands, and that the result of your delibera-
tions may tend to the advancemeat and permanent benefit of
this rising and happy portion of his Majesty's dominions.
"Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,
" I shall direct the Treasurer's accounts, and such other
papers as may be necessary for your information, to be pre-
pared and laid before .you as soon as possible; but as the close
of the year is so near at _hand, it will be perhaps desirable
that they should be made up as usual to that period.
,g Mr. President. and Hon. Gentlemen of the Legislative
Council—

It affords me great satisfaction to observe that the general
prosperity of the province, notwithstanding some temporary
checks which it is feared.it may receive from the deficiency of
the crops during the last season, seems to. be steadily ad-
vancing, and leaves little for me to recommend to your consi-
deration, beyond the providing for the ordinary services of the
province. Some few particulars of minor importance, will be
communicated by message during the session."

THE FUNDS.
Consols opened this morning at 89k 90 for the Account ;
Money, 90; Exchequer Bills, 23 25; India Bonds, 19.
Spanish Active, 251 ; Passive, 61 71; Deferred, 11 i 12 ;
Portuguese, 481; Three per Cents., 301

HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK.

luring the morning there has been very little speculation
in either of the funds. All attention still prevails to the meet-
ing of the Bank Directors to-morrow, to ascertain if any-
thing will come forth respecting the dead weight, Money Stock
being still scarce. Consols maintain the price of 89i. Mo-
ney 89i; Exchequer Bills 20 23 ; India Bonds 17 ; Bank
Stock 204} 205 ; India Stock 258.
In the Foreign Market very little doing—Spanish Active
rather heavy. The speculators are on the qui vine for the re-
sult of the grand attack of the Queen's troops on the Carlist
lines. Spanish 25i; Passive 7i ; Deferred 111 ; Portuguese
41; Three per Cents., 30i ; Dutch Two-and-half per Cents.
53 ; Five per Cents., 1031.
Accounts from the Cape of Good Hope to the 13th Nov.
state that the affairs on the frontier were more favourable.
The murders which had taken place of the farmers have not
prevented others from emigrating. The Secretary of the Go-
vernment had laid before the Council the estimates for the
present year. The revenue was 127,1001., and the antici-
pated expenditure 126,6651. A question had been raised
whether the Legislature or the Home Government were to
provide for She losses occasioned by the Caffre invasion. A
public meeting was to he called praying an inquiry by Govern-
ment into the causes which led to the Caffre war.
Consols for the Account, 894.

THREE O'CLOCK.

Lady Brougham and her daughter, Miss Brougham,
are at present residing at Worthing for the improvement of
the health of the latter. Lady Malct, her Ladyship's daugh-
ter by her first marriage, is with Sir Alexander at the
Hague, where he is Secretary of Legation.