The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-27 00:00:00

SPAIN-BASQUE PRIVILEGES

GUERNICA, DEC. 12.
According to the fueros of Biscay, the inhabitants
claim the following exclusive privileges :-
1. The Queen of Spain is not recognised by the title
of Queen, but Senora, or Lady of the Lordship of
Biscay; nor are her orders obeyed, except approved
of by the Deputado or Syndico then in office. The
only officer of the Crown whose appointment is vested
in the Clown of Castile is the Corregidor, who presides
at the Junta General, although without power to con-
trol their proceedings.
2. The Lordship of Biscay is excluded from the
quinto, or conscription of recruits for the royal army
of Spain ; but in time of war must furnish an army to
protect their own province from invasion, except in ex-
traordinary cases. The generals of the royal army
cannot order the Biscayans out of their own province
for a longer period than three months. These troops
are paid and clothed by the province, not by the
Queen's Government.

.3. Total exemption from taxation or contributions
of any description. No custom-house or revenue officers
of the Spanish Government recognised in the province.
This fuero gives the Biscayan his salt, tobacco, cloth, and
foreign manufactured goods, at one-half the price paid
by the Castilians for the same articles. It must be
observed, however, that more than ten times the quan-
tity required for the consumption of the province is
yearly imported into Bilbao and other ports, which sur-
plus is smuggled across the Ebro into other parts of
Spain. The Biscayans, in virtue of this fuero, claim
exemption from the payment of stamp duties.
4. Self-government ; the election of their officers by
the Junta General, to which assembly alone the exe-
cutive of the province is responsible.
5. The Biscayans do not recognise any right of the
King of Castile to demand contributions. "We receive
nothing, not even protection ; therefore, if we do now
and then pay, it is to be looked upon as a donative or
gift, not as a right."
These may be said to be the more important of the
exemptions claimed by the Biscayans, in virtue of their
ancient fueros. It is not, therefore to be wondered at
that the Biscayans, whether Carlists or Christines, are so
enthusiastic and unanimous about the conservation of
the fueros which secure to them so many privileges, and
separate their interests from those of the rest of Spain.
—Morning Chronicle.

LYNN ADDRESS To HER MAJESTY,

The following Answer was returned to the Address
from Lynn, which we noticed in our Journal some time
ago :

" WHITEHALL, DECEMBER 21, 1839.
Sir.—l have had the honour to lay before the Queen
the loyal and dutiful Address of a numerous body of the
inhabitants of King's Lynn, which accompanied your
letter of the 18th instant.

" And I have to inform you the same was very gra.
ciously received by Her Majesty.
" I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your obedient Servant,
" NORMANBY.
" John Tweedale, Esq., M.D., &c., Lynn."
The so-called Loyal and Constitutional Address, got
up by the Tories, we understand, is shelved, and will.
most likely, from the small number of signatures at.
tached to it, remain in deserved obscurity.

MR. STURGE AND THE BRITISH AND
FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.—This gentleman
returned to Birmingham on Saturday evening. He
has been engaged during the past fortnight in visiting
the active friends of the Anti-Slavery cause in the north.
We are happy to learn, that at Kendal, Carlisle, New-
castle-upon-Tyne, Shields, Darlington, Stockton, York,
Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Barnsley, and Sheffield,
Mr. Sturge was received by numerous parties, convened
for the most part by circular, and comprising many
of the most influential persons of various denomina-
tions. The principal object of these meetings was
to give information on the present system of
slavery and the slave trade, as carried on by other
nations ; and in every instance resolutions were
adopted expressive of readiness to co-operate with the
British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society recently
formed in London. It appears that there arc not less
than 6,000,000 of slaves (Africans and their de-
scendants) in the United States of America, in Cuba,
the Brazils, &c., and that to supply the waste of
human life which the system produces, there are con-
tinually being imported from Africa, notwithstanding
the efforts of British cruizers, an annual average of
slaves from 120,000 to 150,000 in number. In procuring
these victims, it is estimated that not less than 250,000
more are sacrificed, either in the internal wars in Africa,
the march to the coast, or the horrors of the middle pas.
sage. The British Government now seeks to destroy this
system by maintaining cruizers on the coast of Africa at
a great expense, but this plan is wholly ineffectual. Mr.
Sturge and his coadjutors seek to subvert the slave trade
of Africa by destroying the slavery of America ; and
this they propose to effect by purely moral and peaceable
means. Already there are upwards of 1,600 Anti-slavery
Societies in the United States of America, ready to co-
operate with those in Britain ; and a number have been
formed in the West Indies, where the abolition of slavery
has greatly increased the consumption of British manu-
factures. To discuss the momentous questions arising
from this subject, a general conference of the friends
of freedom will be held in London, in June, and in all
the places which Mr. Sturge has visited, resolutions
were adopted to secure the attendance of Delegates at
this Convention. Many Anti-Slavery Societies in other
parts of the kingdom have already come to the same de-
termination, so that the Delegates who may attend on
this important occasion from France, America, the West
Indies, and elsewhere, may confidently rely upon a warm
anc cordial reception from a numerous company of
British Abolitionists. This great movement must be
considered by all as fraught with the most important con-
sequence no less to the cause of humanity than the in-
terests of commerce.

The Earl and Countess of Wilton arrived on
Tuesday, at their house in Grosvenor-square, frotn
Marseilles.