The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-19 00:00:00

INUNDATION AT BALTIMORE.

(From New York papers received to the 26th ult.)
By far the most destructive calamity with which the city
of Baltimore has ever been visited has just occurred. The
heavy showers of rain which recently descended caused a
sudden and extraordinary rise of the waters of Jones's Falls,
tearing up the mill-dams and wooden bridges which cross the
upper parts of that stream, and bringing them down against
the stone bridges within the city limits. The arches of the
latter being thus obstructed and rapidly choked IT by the
timber, plank, and other wooden fragments swept away from
above the waters, rose with a fearful rapidity about one o'clock
in the morning, spreading over a large space of the lower
parts of the city to a greater or less height, and doing most
extensive injury, as well to those districts as to the im-
proved property building on each side of the Falls. The
loss was not, we regret to say, confined to property only ;
number of lives were also lost, including, among other cases,
a whole family of five persons—father, mother, and three
children—who were awakened from their sleep at a mo-
ment's warning-to meet a simultaneous death. They were a
German family named Weist. The first bridge of any con-
sequence over the Falls is about two miles from the city,
where the road crosses the stream at the first turnpike-
gate. The gate-keeper, roused by the noise of the waters,
left his house with his family and immediately awakened
the occupants of three frame dwellings adjoining his own.
He had scarcely succeded in getting all the families out
before the bridge was swept off, carrying with it the four
dwellings. At the Lanvale cotton factory much damage
was done by the rise of the water, and the mill-dam swept
away.' At Centre-street the falls take a somewhat abrupt
turn, and here the work of devastation began to assume
its most serious aspect. The large wooden bridge recently
erected here was swept off entirely. The torrent here left its
accustomed.bed, and coming down in a direct line over the.
wall which ordinarily confines it, forced its way through
some small tenements on the north side of Centre-street,
and thence directly across the street into the distillery pre-
mises of Messrs. White and Sons. Considerable damage was
done to the works, and some of the numerous buildings
were prostrated, 'but the greatest items of loss, we learn,
are in the live stock, no less than thirty to forty valuable
horses, and fifty to sixty cows, having been drowned. The

waters rose to
.the floors of the second stories, and in the
Falls the flood was here about twenty feet above its bed.
The waters from Centre-street spread themselves over the
low grounds as far west as Calvert-street, inundating all
that part of Cie city. North-street was under water front
Centre-street to very near Lexington-street. Holliday-
street was inundated from , Centre-street to near Orange-
alley. Bath-street was under water from Calvert-street to
the Falls. The bridge at this point was curled away, and
the banks of both sides swept. In Bath-street, near Holli-
day, a large mass of lumber, &c., collected, which caused
the water to sweep away the fronts of the houses adjacent.
At the corner of Bath and North streets the water•was six
or seven feet high. The bridge at Pleasant-street was car-
ried away. In Harrison-street the water was about eight
feet deep, and swept along with resistless fury. An im-
mense quantity of timber and fragments of bridges, which
came down the stream, collected at Baltimore-street bridge,
and so choked up the arches that the water rose to within a
few feet of the pavement. About four o'clock the accumu-
lation became so great that the structure was unable to
resist the tremendous pressure against it, and a portion
of the upper side of the centre pier gave way and fell.
into the distance of six or eight feet from the edge, carrying
away the whole of the stone parapet and iron railing.
The foot-bridge leading from the • Bazaar in Harrisson-
street, across the Falls to front-street, was swept away in
the early part of the freshet. Most of the benches, blocks,
&c., in the market-house were carried off. On both sides
of Market space all the stores were tilled with water, and
large quantities of merchandise injured. In Second-street
from Frederick-street to the Falls all the cellars and stores
were inundated, and much injury done. The stein: bridge
at Pratt-street, being below all The wooden structures
which were carried away, and being composed of three
arches, intercepted everything brought down by the cur-
rent, until an immense mass, consisting of fragments of
mill-dams, bridges, fences, sheds, &c., was piled up arminst
it. Like the stone bridge above it could not resist din im-
mense pressure, and nearly one-half of the structure gave
way and fell. Un the eastern side of the Falls, except on
the immediate margin of the stream, but comparatively
little damage was sustained. A number of instance of
providential escapes are related, which we have not now
time to insert—one of them was the case of a boy, five
Years of age, who was discovered floating on a bow, cud
was rescued from the flood.

The steward of lotloax,
ihroorrnouwgiliiiciAl
almfiese-cheoottrityL.7. bas
s
taken. onlyt ornwehich the animal weighed 1401bs. Imo► American
Paper.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our Evening Contemporary the Courier, evidently
well-informed on the affairs of Hanover, gives the fol-
lowing account of the Constitution of that country :
" One of our Contemporaries, but the assertion is in-
tended for an excuse, describes the Constitution of Hanover
as only a few days old ; while the fact is, that it has been
in existence since 1831, and was then but a tardy fulfilment
of the pledges which were given to Hanover, in common
with all the German States, when the people rushed to the
conflict with Napoleon, and restored the ancient Sovereigns
to their hereditary territories. At that time the previous
Electorate of Hanover was rounded by the additions of
various large territories, such as the Catholic bishopric of
Hildesheim, and the Protestant (almost republic) East
Friezland ; and over all the territories which were then
added to the Crown of Hanover the present King has no
hereditary rights whatever: He enters into possession by
virtue of the Treaty of Vienna, and an inquiry, which we
shall not now enter into, would probably show that he for-
feits his right to at least the new dominions of Hanover by
departing from the principles on which his family received
them. It is a mistake to suppose that even his hereditary
dominions had no rights but what were dependent on the
will of the Crown, and which he might at his pleasure set
aside. The several provinces, such as Calenburg and Lune-
burg, of which the Electorate was composed, had each its
Constitution, its little Parliament, and the Elector could no
more abrogate that Constitution than the King of England
could, by one stroke of his pen, abolish the Houses of Lords
and Commons. When the Duke of Cambridge assumed the
Government, after the expulsion of Bonaparte from Germany,
be published in 1814 a proclamation in which, in the name
of the Prince Regent, he called a solemn Diet, to consist of
an assembly of the states of all the provinces, old and new,
and they met at Hanover on the 15th December, 1814,
furnished with full powers, from the electors?—no, but from
their constituents. On that day the Duke of Cambridge
opened the proceedings in form, and concluded his speech
as follows :

" If some privileges must be sacrificed to form a bater
internal order, remember that the Prince Regent gives up
rights which others consider as an essential part of the
Royal dignity, by assembling you here. Be to Liai here
what the Parliament is in the sister kingdom, Great Britain,
the high council of the nation.'
" On October 18, 1813, Count Munster met these states
as the representative of the Prince Regent, and he said that
when the new provinces were incorporated, he would cause
a plan to be drawn up for the representation of the whole
kingdom.' Now the Constitution, so unceremoniously set
aside by the Tory King of Hanover, was but the tardy and
incomplete fulfilment of the promises made by George the
Fourth, and was nothing more than a consolidation of the
rights and privileges of the several separate pi ovincial states
into one general assem dy or the states. if such a solemn
compact or I.lw may b; set aside by the mere word of the
King, there is not a public treaty in Europe, not a single
institution in any state, which may not he overthrown, on
no better ground than that it does not comport with the
royal wishes."

Our Contemporary justly adds, " that such a pro-
ceeding strikes at the root of ad public law as well as
of all liberty, and is alike dangerous to the stability
of cvcry throne, as well as to the security of every
people. It teaches tri wh tt we may expect shou!d the
Orange party, of which the despotic King of Hane-
ver is yet Grand Master, should the Tor; party,
yet looks up :o 111 n as its chid' and is identi-
Ld with him, for his :;,1.11:: appears in ail
the House of Lords on the:r side, ever azain obtain
power in England." Our French Contemporary, the
Temps, contains in its number of Sunday last a long
and elaborate article on the question to which the
despotic proceedings of the King of Hanover has
given r;s:-. It appears that King Ernest has placed
himself in the wrong, not merely with reference to his
own subjects, but also with reference to the German
t

" The Duke of Cumberlend" says our French Contem-
porary, appears to have entirely foreotten that in 18:37
a tribunal was appointed of arbitrators chosen jointly by
t'ae Sovereigns and Chambers, a tribune' destined to ja4ie
and determine in all differences arising between the Princes
and their Legislatures as to whether they could come to
an arrangement. The choice of these arbitrators was
made by all the states of the Germanic Confederation ;
and the Chambers of Hanover and the King of England
,both presented theirs to the Diet. The installation of this
tribunal was, it is true, a measure destined to place the
Chambers of all Germany at the mercy of the Sovereign's
of whom the delegates forme:) the majority in this tri-
bunal, and had at the sanie time for its object to place
the Constitutional Princes in a humiliating dependance
on Austria and Prussia ; for the delegates of these two
powers had become the judges of the Constitutional So-
vereigns, while Prussia and Austria, being both without
Chambers, can never be subjected to the arbitration
of the other Sovereigns ; but this arm directed against
the people will now be turned against the King of
Hanover. The Diet, wishing only to protect Sove-
reigns against the Democratic encroachments of the
German Chembere, could not foresee that it would
he called on to decide the question, whether a King, on
ascending the throne, can arbitrarily free himself from the
engagements which his predecessors entered into towards
his subjects ; and whether he can entirely overturn a Con-
stitution recognized by the Diet. The representatives of
Hanover may therefore force all the German Sovereigns to
pronounce their opinion before the whole nation, without
circumlocution and without subterfuge, on one of the
gravest questions of German public law. The case here
is the more grave, as the Constitution which has just been
abolished was by no means a charter emmnating from the
mere good pleasure of the sovereign (charte oetroyee); it
was the result of the solemn discussions between the Mi-
nistry of King William and the Estates of the country duly
convoked. The mutual engagements between that Prince
and the country were, besides, rendered necessary by the
insurrections of the town of Gottingen and the population
of the Harz in 1830. Had it not been for the conces-
sions made by the King and the Ilanoverian aristocracy to
the citizens and country people these insurrections might
have been general, and led to a foreign occupation of the
country, and in some way or other overthrown the
reigning family. This truth was even on one occasion
publicly proclaimed in the Chambers of Hanover. When
a prosecution was instituted against Doctor Koenig, who
was one of the instigators of the insurrectionary movement
of 1830, the Deputy Christiani called on the Ministry
to be indulgent towards a man to whom they were in
the main indebted for the fortunate reforms which they
were discussing. If, therefore, the Duke of Cumber-
land was enabled to take peaceable possession of his
kingdom, he owes this to a charter which terminated the
troubles of the country."

The Temps adverts also to the utter impossibility,
in a country like Hanover, which is an aggregate of
various territories possessing their separate constitu-
tional rights and laws, of determining the original con-
stitution to which the King can revert :
" No country during the last forty years has gone
through so many revolutions. The titles, the rights, and
the value of property have been changed. The kingdom
of Westphalia in 1808 abolished all feudal rights ; the
restoration of the reigning family re-established them,
without regard to the purchases and the changes made
during the French domination. The laws passed in the
Chambers since 1831 have created a number of new rela-
tions. With the abolition of the constitution, with the re-
establishment of the ancient institutions, these special
laws, the result of the deliberations of the Chambers, dis-
appear ; everything is once more set afloat, and it is said
that the King is employed in overturning the whole exist-
ingadministration?'

If this were- the act of an individual of whom no-
tt o hin was known, it might be possible for the Tories
disown him. But the Duke of Cumberland, though
long detested by
•
ously h
the nation on many accounts, has
been studiously held up by the Tories and Orange-
men as a Chief every way worthy of their highest re-
gard. Again and
again has the Standard told us
that he was the favourite son of George the Third,
who in all respects most resembled his father, and
that he had the most sacorsetd claims on the affection and
esteem of the Tories. The disclosure of his attempts to
obtain surreptitiously the command of the army did not
in the least diminish the reverence
ot
bof the Tories for
n
this bold bad man. There can
a(eltuetstion that
he was encouraged to make the coup d,a
Han-
over by the Tories, by way cf determining fromon Han-
result how far they might venture to follow u)i the
blow in England. Fiat experimentum irz ccrpore
viii, is a maxim which, though it implies no ,reat
compliment to the Hanoverians and other Germans,
it was thought might be particularly apposite here.
If the King of Hanover could succeed in brush-
ing away all the Liberal innovations in that country,
the Tories might flatter themselves they could get
rid of the changes introduced hero by the Reform end
Municipal Bills with equal ease. At all events, the
result in Hanover might serve to guide them in Eng-
land; it would determine whether the Reform Nil might
best be destroyed by sapping or storm. The Times,
which till yeiterday was cautiously silent—watching,
no doubt, the impression made by this coup detat on
the people of England before it broke silence—began
yesterday, for the first time, to manifest doubts wltc-

ther it would abet the Duke or disapprove of his des-
potism. We are told by it that the " act" is, "on
the face (2f it" " very startling." But, then, quoth
the Times, " we will not pronounce upon an incom-
plete case." The Times has assigned the _gallows to
many a man in this country as a reward for his deeds,
of whose case it knew a great deal less. But the
Duke of Cumberland must not be judged of by the
result. There can be no doubt of his having acted by
the advice and with the concurrence of the leading To-
ries, in whose councils he was deep and with whose
feelings he is identified. Whatever be the fate of the
man whom the Times in its better days used to desig-
nate as a monster, if the Tories were to profit by his
success they must be bound by his failure. The To-
ries aimed at England through Hanover.—Morning
Chronicle.

The Ministerial papers go on as they began, falsely
and profligately involving the Conservative leaders of
this country in that act of the King of Hanover, by
which, at the commencement of his reign, he has
(whatever may be his ultimate intentions) certainly
startled all reasonable minds, and most of all, we have
strong ground to be convinced, the very class of states-
men who are accused by their political calumniators of
participating or approving his designs. We repeat,
what we said yesterday, that we do not yet understand
what are the real objects of the King of Hanover : a
few days will, no doubt, throw full light on the case.
Meantime it may be useful to state that the present
Constitution of Hanover, if it yet exist, was not recog-
nized by George IV. It was established in 1833, and
of the twenty-one Constitutions which have been adop-
ted in different States of Germany since 1814, it is the
most recent. A Royal patent, dated Dec. 7, 1819,
regulated the constitutional system of the States ; but
the present constitutional law, which is dated Sept. 26,
1833, was not octroyed, but the result of the delibera-
tions of a General Assembly of the States. The follow-
ing article of the Constitution has reference to the pre-
unt state of affairs :—" Section 13. The King will make
known his accession by the publication of a patent,
whereupon, afterthe communication of the corresponding
precepts to the whole kingdom, the doing of homage
(oath of allegiance) will take place. In the patent, which
in the original under the King's hand and seal is depo-
sited in the archives of the States, the King assures,
on his royal word, the inviclable maintenance of the
Constitution." It appears, howerer, on the face of
the patent, that the King does not merely mean to re-
vert to the Constitution of 1819, but to go back to
the state of things which existed before 1814. The
ancient Hanoverian Constitution, though aristocratic,
imposed considerable limitations on the authority of
the Prince. Having thus explained some of the facts
of the case, we again express our inability to under-
stand the exact purpose of the Sovereign of Hanover :
but, whatever may be the act, or whatever its motives
or consequences, for neither one nor the other are
the Conservatives of England, or any portion of them,
in, the slightest degree answerable. We can aver, on
the best authority, that to no one member the Con-
savative party, most assuredly to none with whose
name v'e arc acquanited, or whose rank or character
confers upon him the lest title to distinction, did
the Duke of Cumberland or King of It:newer com-
municate any particle of his intentions respecting the
government of that kingdom—far less did he receive
from any such Conservative one syllable of advice or
eneouragenrnt tending to the curtaihnent of popular
privileges. The villainous slanders of the revolutionaly
press upon this subject are designed to work upon an
election rabble), and will no doubt be persevered in with
the more stubborn malignity, because they are devoid
of truth. But it is our business to deprive them of all
credit with the commmunity, and with this charge of
falsehood flung in their teeth, we leave them to the
exercise of their vocation.--Times.

The formal dissolution of Parliament has served to
deepen the interest with which the impending elec-
tions arc regarded. They are now the all-absorb-
ing subject from one extremity of the empire to the
other. And it is right they should ; for they involve
issues of iurinite importance to England. It cannot
be too often or too earnestly impressed on tlu electoral
body, that on the result of the approaching contest de-
pend the rights and liberties of this great country. The
question will then be solved, whether freedom or des-
potism is henceforth to be the portion of the people of
England. A more deadly struggle between these two
antagonist principles has not taken place for the last
century and a half. Since the Revolution of 1668,
no crisis approaching the present in importance has oc-
curred in the vicissitudeS of these realms. The issues
of all intermediate struggles between the friends of free
institutions, and the advocates of tyranny, were never
expected by either party to be other than temporary.
The results of the present conflict will be permanent. If
the supporters of liberal principles achieve the victory,
the Tories will be crushed for ever ; but if, unhappily,
the Tories should triumph, then we foresee in the page
of England's future history deeds of the blackest and ,
most despotic kind. The Tories knoW that the exist-
ing struggle is one of life or death for them. That is
the reason why they are moving heaven and earth to
vanquish -the friends of the Queen and of the people.
They have determined on acting like desperate men ;
they have made up their minds that if they are to die
it shall be in the last ditch. We have no objection to
their dying there—a ditch is the fittest place for them ;
all that we are concerned for is that the people of Eng-
land should so acquit themselves in this momentous
struggle as to insure the annihilation of the faction.
All that the Reformers want to achieve their triumph is
that they rouse themselves with becoming energy for
the occasion. Their resources are most ample, if they
be only brought into proper action. All that we have
to fear is supineness arising from undue security. We
have the Queen in our favour ; there breathes not a
more sincere and decided Reformer than her Majesty.
We have Ministers with us, and we are fighting for a
glorioust cause. What more could we wish ? Are not
these enough to encourage and cheer us on to the
combat e Are not our prospects brilliant ? Is not,
indeed,
our triumph as certain as it will be glorious, if
we are only true to ourselves ? A responsibility of
awful magnitude attaches to every individual possessed
of the elective franchise. No one can tell how much
may depend on a sine-le vote in the existing state of
parties, and he who votes against his conscience, or
who refuses to vote at all, will incur a responsibility,
the bare contemplation of which may well appal the
stoutest heart. We are thus earnest in our warnings
and admonitions to the electoral body of the United
Kingdom, because we are thoroughly impressed with
the conviction that on the issues of the impending
struggle will depend the future happiness or misery of
our country. Should the Tories triumph, the people of
England, before six months elapse, will have to groan
under as absolute a despotism as ever cursed a
country. This is no rash assertion ; we speak most
advisedly when we give utterance to it. Does
any one question its truth ? Look at the state of
Hanover at this moment. Where is its free Consti-
tution now ? In the dust ;it virtually exists no
longer. In a few weeks it will not exist even nomi-
nally. And who are the authors of the substitution
of despotism for a free Constitution in that country ?
The very men who arG now opposed to us in this great
contest. The evil genius which prompted the over-
throw of the Hanoverian Constitution is guiding at
this moment the proceedings of the Tories in this
country. Cumberland, though physically absent, is
morally present in England. He has a kindred spirit,
or rather a part of his own nature in him " to whom
God has
given great talents, but which have hitherto
been under the direction of the Devil." Let but the
councils of this instrument of Satan once obtain the
ascendancy in the Government, and the very first act
of the party will be to do for Great Britain what
Cumberland has done for Hanover. While we bless
Providence that we have escaped the infliction of this
moral pestilence as our Sovereign, let its strain every
nerve to avert the calamity of being subjected to the
supremacy of the kindred spirits he has left behind
hitn.—lllerning Advertise
While the public are
occupied, and deeply inte-
rested, as indeed they well may be, by the personal
proceedings of a Sovereign, whose
tnoe sesv
eartyt a el
thing
:ess
she does,
iing
it,like the
becomes
c
charm aor youth
uco.ltfil:
duty
l.adtnotriotlenona:leitilclidi
to public of matters of graver import---mat'ters fraught
with consequences which must be deeply felt by °the
people, after the excitement of a new reign shall have

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY

passed away. The ornament and the brilliancy of
Government are to be found at Court, but the practical
affairs, whose good or evil management produces an
instant effect throughout the vast circuit of an empire
—these affairs must be disposed of in the House of
Commons. The serious business, then, at the pre-
sent important period, of all who take an interest in
public affairs, should be directed to the House of
Commons. Every one who regards the public insti-
tutions of his country must bear in mind that the dis-
positions of the Court, with respect to them, is, after
all, not the first thing to be considered. It is the sa-
cred duty of the Sovereign to protect those institutions,
and we doubt not that our present Sovereign will
endeavour faithfully to discharge her duty towards
them ; but the power to do so effectually and firmly
must depend upon the preponderance of sentiment in
the House of Commons. If, in that House, a party
pledged to revolutionary changes, and an Administra-
tion weakly struggling in the toils which revolutionists
have cast upon it, should still prevail over the friends
of steady, cautious, constitutional improvement, the
wishes of a youthful Sovereign will form but a slight
barrier against our persevering foes. 'Well may we call
them persevering foes, for they never cease to press for-
ward in pursuit of their objects, nor hesitate to take
any shape of hypocrisy that the circumstances of the
time may appear to render expedient. The foes to
whom we allude are the Papists of Ireland, with their
numerous settlements in the towns of Great Britain,
and the dissenting democrats whose agents are at work
even in our country villages. This mass, in every other
respect discordant, acknowledges the common object of
overthrowing the Constitution of Great Britain in
Church and State. The time has gone by for that bold
rebellion which made its appeal in arms, and decided its
fate upon the field of battle. We are now in an era when
such modes of deciding political controversy arc not the
fashion, but the contest going on is not the less real ; it is
to be decided, where it can only be decided, in the divi-
sions of the House of Commons. Of this the papists and
the democrats are well aware, but it is not their inte-
rest that this should he seen by the people. They
know that by their machinations the proper business
of the House of Commons has been suspended, and
it has become little better than the arena, upon which
a continual conflict goes on for the overthrow on the
one side, and the protection on the other, of the Con-
stitution. Sometimes all the forces are arrayed on
each side, and a vital point, after three or four nights'
speeches, is decided upon. For the most part, how-
ever, the Parliamentary business consists of a series
of skirmishes, but the character of the conflict is' still
the same ; it is regarding points which involve Consti-
tutional principles. These, which ought to repose in
lofty supremacy, and ought not to be brought into dis-
cussion except upon the gravest and mast important
occasions, are discussed night after night by a crowd of
smattcrers, and all this time the business which the
House of Commons ought to attend to is neglected.
Nothing is so easy as for the partisans of the Ministry
to cry out, that theirs is the " Liberal" cause, and
that the electors who love libcry should vote with their
fiiends ; hut if the people of England are of opinion
that their own business should be attended to in the
House of Commons, they will choose representatives
who, being satisfied with the British Constitution as it
now is, in Church and State, will apply themselves to
the improvement of the working of that Constitution in
its practical details. In other words, if the people do
not prefer the objects of Irish Papists and Dissenting
democrats to trul:, practical and British objects, they
will vote for Membsrs who, preserving the principles
upon which institutions are based, will see that these
principles are honestly and extensively applied ; who,
instead of voting a separation of Church and State, will
vote foe increased efficiency of the Church, and for the
purification of tire state machine, by the abolition of
useless places and jobbing Commissions ; who, instead
of voting that the lands of the Church be taken into the
hands of Wing Commissioners to traffic with them, and
pay the Church-rates out of the profit, will vote that
Church-rates shall be more efficiently collectedand more
economically applied, who, instead of voting local Par-
liaments for the passing of Papist supplies in Ireland,
will vote for some system by %hid' the suffering poor
may be relieved, and political impostors may be punish-
ed ; in fine, if practical and British objects are to be
attended to, men must be elected who will labour to
improve the laws, and not waste their time in attacks
upon the organic institutions in which the power of
making and amending our laws is placed. It is per-
fectly absurd that the House of Commons should con-
tinue to be what it has been for the last two years, or
that a system of Government should continue which
is an object of contempt both to the leaders of faction,
who make use of it, and the Conservative leaders,
who, in pity for its weakness, preserve it every now
and then from the rough contact of its revolutionary
friends. The people of England, who desire to give
to their new Sovereign the means of being powerful,
and to relieve her from the necessity of abandoning
that which it is her duty to maintain so long as she
can, will, we are persuaded, use their best endeavours
to elect an honest and constitutional House of Com-
mons. They will exert themselves to disappoint the
factious, whose pretended loyalty, divested as it is of
every principle upon which reasonable loyalty depends,
can deceive no one, and they will put forth their
strength in support of those whose object is the up-
holding of the institutions on which the Queen depends
for her political sovereignty and her personal safety.—
Morning Herald.
The Morning Chronicle, in its yesterday's review
of our telegraphic despatch of the previous day, ar-
nouncing the approach of Don Carlos to Valencia,
seems to have overlooked one very important point in
the express from Narbonne of the 14th of July. The
Chronicle says, " From the movements of tile Barham
it would seem that Murviedro and Castellon de la
Plana are both menaced." The despatch says ex-
pressly, " The suburbs of Castellon de la Plana have
been carried by the insurgents, who were besieging that
place with four battalions"—a very serious aspect of
affairs, deserving of a somewhat stronger epithet than
menaced." Again, our Contemporary assures us,
that " Espartero intended to join the division at Te-
ruel." (His friends in the Cortes say, that he has
paved and. ruined Spain, with his good inten-
tions !) It continues—" The letter of our own corres-
pondent, who is with General Beurens, informs us that
the division under that officer was scarcely two days
march from Teruel" (which is just ninety miles,
across the mountains from Valencia, as a bird flies) ;
and concludes—" With such a disposition, or rather
concentration, of the constitutional army, within so
short a distance of Valencia, it is impossible that this
populous and liberal city can have ever been invested."
'This is strongly illogical ! It is a perfect illustration
of the predicament " Knowing a little, presuming a
Great deal, and jumping to a conclusion." Let us ex-
amine a moment into the impossibilities. Espartero,
with double the amount of his present forces, and
within half the distance he is now from the Carlist
army, could not prevent the investment of Bilboa.
He " intended' to approach and raise the siege of
that town for a full month before he could succeed
in arriving within sight of it ; and when he at last
was able (by the aid of reinforcements which
placed him at the head of treble the amount of
troops now under his command) to commence opera-
tions within view of Bilboa he expended another
month before " a concentration" of hail, rain, snow,
wind, darkness, and a mutiny of British manufacture,
carried the day, or rather carried the night, against
the Carlists, and in fine carried Espartero out of bed
into Bilboa. Now, we shall, perhaps, astonish our
Contemporary by the confession that we have stronger
grounds for believing that the capture of Valencia is
a much more probable event than that of Bilboa was
last year—grounds which probably will make all the
mere martinets who happen to read this elevate their
eyebrows somewhat incredulously. The Carlists in
the Valentian expedition are without artillery. They
• have no time to spare—no incendiary bombs, as
they had at Bilboa : they have nobody at their
head proud of his skill in the art of approaChes and
parallels, covert ways, mines, and bombardments,
whose taste might lead him to play at warfare.
They have no scaling-ladders, nor do they carry fas-
eines, as they did at the assault on Bilboa (and which,
by-the-bye, they were glad to throw away long ere
they arrived at the fusses, and clamber through eat-
, brazures by the help of each other's stuck bayonets)
on the night of the 26th of astober. They must now