The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, I.OIiTDON. WEDNE4',SDAY, DECEMBER 18, P 939.

spite of their opinion. they must be kept down by
the sword. The other part of society must be re.;
solved either to govern them with the most iron
despotism or do them justice.
They may, perhaps, be satisfied by the Legisla-
ture, as now constituted, acting conscientiously to-
wards them. Whether it would satisfy them,
and put an end to the demand for more
extensive changes or not, it is the duty of the
Legislature to do justice to the people, and so re-
move a great cause and a great pretext for attack-
ing the Government, and so put the masses in the
wrong. For example, the Legislature should re-
peal the Corn-laws, and set trade free. It should
abolish the monopoly now given to the produce of
our \Vest India colonies, and alter the timber
duties. It should reduce the taxes on the articles
consumed by the labourers, reduce or abolish
pensions, salaries, and allowances, and evince
a regard for the welfare of the unrepresented—
not merely a desire to rule over them.
If a conviction can be generated that the Legisla-
ture, as now constituted, regards their interests with
kindness and justice, there may be no necessity to
extend the franchise ; but unless that can be done,
or the franchise can be extePded, the unenfran-
chised classes will refuse to submit to the law. The
outrage at Newport is but the beginning, we are
afraid, of a series of attacks more or less skilfully
planned, and more or less extensive in their com-
bination, to achieve by
force what is denied to
reason. The assailants may be unsuccessful ; each
attack may only add to the mutual exasperation, till
some terrible vengeance will be taken by the suc-
cessful party ; but that will consummate the ruin of
the country.

The Liverpool Mail has published a long letter
from the Mauritius, dated the 19th of September,
detailing with tedious minutess a supposed inten-
tional insult offered to the British flag by a French
vessel in the harbour of Port Louis, which threat-
ened to lead to the most serious consequences. The
facts may be stated in a few words :—A French
armed transport, the L'lsere, and the Lancier, a 16-
gun brig, had been undergoing repairs in the har-
bour of Port Louis. On the 7th of September,
during the absence of the commanding officers of
the French vessels, the L'lsere displayed her colours,
and, whether accidentally or by design, the British
ensign was placed at the bottom, sweeping the
deck. This was observed by Captain DRIVER,
commanding the Greenlow, who, without consult-
ing with any person, or communicating with the
Governor, as he ought to have done, retaliated by
displaying the tricoloured flag under the bows of
his vessel. The French officers, on being made
acquainted with this circumstance, ordered the re-
moval of the flag, which was resisted by Captain
DRIVER, till he received directions to that effect
from the Governor. He was next called upon for
an apology, and this he likewise refused to make
in terms satisfactory to the French officers.
They in consequence refused to salute the British
flag, upon which the Governor, Major-General
NICOLAY, threated to compel them, and fixed an
hour, previous to which, if they did not display the
Union" at their mast-heads, and salute in the
usual way, he would fire upon them. The French con-
tinned refractory, when, after a very foolish display of
warlike preparations, the Governor contented him-
self with cutting off their communication with the
shore, and after a squabble of eleven days' duration,
the two French vessels sailed on the night of the
18th of September, without any other hostile de-
monstration on either side.

Our Tory Contemporaries, whose " voices are
still for war," discover in this petty broil ample
grounds for a quarrel between England and France.
The rulers of both countries have, we trust, too
much good sense to listen for an instant to such in-
sinuations. It would be the excess of absurdity to
assume our national honour stained by the blunder-
ing act of some drunken French sub-officer, in one
'Of our own ports; and the very fact of no remon-
strance having been addressed to the crew of
the L'lsere (for, as we stated above, the superior
officers were not on board), previous to the delibe-
rate insult offered to the French flag by Captain
DRIVER, throws the blame in a great measure
:upon the English officer. In presuming on his
own responsibility to vindicate the national honour
in a British harbour, and under the shelter of Bri-
tish guns, the representative of her MAJESTY
being there present, Captain DRIVER was guilty
of a very serious offence, unrelieved by any very
marked display of chivalrous courage. Neither can
we say much for the sagacity displayed by Major-
General NICOLA Y, who might well have spared
himself the ostentatious display of military force for
the capture of a disabled 16-gun brig, and a tran-
sport of six guns, the one being without a bow-
sprit and the other wanting a rudder.
The frequent recurrence of late of such squab-
bles as the above between English and French Ni.-
val Officers, ought to impress upon the Govern-
ments of the two countries the necessity of check-
ing in their subordinates the petty jealousies in
which they originate. Both nations are too
powerful, and their power respectively is too well
known to each other and to the world, to call for a
constant display of porcupine irritability on the
part of the merely executive defenders of their
safety.

The Madrid Papers, received on the 9th inst.,
announce that a hardly-contested municipal elec-
tion in the capital terminated, on the Bth, in the
return of 35 out of 37 anti-Ministerial candidates.
Out of the sixteen parishes into which Madrid is
divided the Government gained only two, and even
these were not obtained without extensive bribery.
The same triumph of the Ultra-Liberal party s4;-
nalized the municipal elections for Seville and
Murcia. Five per Cent. Actives 27i for cash,
and little or no demand.

The Paris Journals of Monday continue to pub-
lish disastrous intelligence from Algiers, though
not of a later date than the 7th instant. Our
readers will find in another column a translation of
one of these communications, upon which we shall
abstain from offering any comment, as the French
Journals are feverishly irritable upon the subject)
and we have no wish to say anything which may
have the effect of weakening the friendly relations
now so happily subsisting between the
two countries. The presence of the Duke
of BORDEAUX at Rome is another thorn
in the side of the French Government, from which
it knows not well how to relieve itself. As for the
Bonapartist plot, the Capttole states distinctly that
Ministers will not dare to make any use of Prince
NAPOLEON LOUIS correspondence; and the cor-
respondent of a Morning Contemporary affirms that
Russia has espoused the cause of the Prince, and
the Revolutionists of Paris.
.chnThe Chamber of Peers met as
that Russian and Bonapartist
men goldt haswas b eneen p
ver esnutri --
difficulties than it is at present.
roundedfl un yfCOURT
t distributed
French
greateraea
a Court of Justice on Monday, fot the purpose of de-
ciding as to the trial of the remaining persons now in
custody for the affair of the 12th and 13th of May.
The Court was to adjourn the trial to the second fort-
night in January. Of the 400 persons who were origi-
nally in prison, 361 have been set at liberty provision-
ally, subject to the confirmation of this decision by the
Court this day. The Court decided as to the persons
against whom warrants have been issued, but who have
not been captured.
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.—The Count de Lostange,
gerant of the Qztotiazenne, was found guilty on Saturday,
by the Court of Assizes, of having published an article
on the occasion of the corn riot at Le Mans, contain-
ing expressions calculated to excite hatred and con—
tempt for the King's government. M. de Lostange
was defended with great eloquence by M. Berryer,