The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-27 00:00:00

o' an inv -ation to the -Tory party to contest t ese
vole; over agda in the Registration Court is I el nd.
We suppose this to be -a fahrie'ation, because we do not
see how vc.tes which are upon the register could be thus
c, nested under the provisions of the I,sh Reform Act.
The Ir:sh Act is this respeA d fferent from the Eng:ish.
Suuns'zig, Lowe er, tist.t s telt a rep'ated invest :060n
ere with n the Ludt of le_4al pos.si.nl ty. what it avail ?
Tne same intr. pidity of sts caring wit:eh sufficed io
the Reg.stration Court to lut the fraudulent votes
upon the rei;isteclvould, in the same Court. suffice to keep
theta there. In such a district. as Long'ord, where the con-
s,•iences of the people. are in the keeping of the Romanist
conspirators, under the much-abused name of Catholic
Illiests, the crieltnee wlich depends upon swearing is no-
thing better than S frightful mockery. The sixteenth
canon of the Council of Lateran says that " oaths arc cot
to be esteemed filch, which are adverse to the interests of
:Le Church." The oaths which men take iu the Reglsra-
tion Court are to tell tlie truth as to the nature of their
quallicafon for voting. But to tell truth in this case
would be, as the Roatani,t conspirators teach, " adverse to
the int, rest of the Church ; therefore, the oaths are not
est.,etned as such, and the untruth, although givAi (ac-
cording to British law)upon oath, is (according to Roinatist
dogma) no more than a simple ordinary lie, which are set-
tled for by the bus :el-full on going to confession half-
yearly, and paying the sum or eighteenpener., be the seine
more or less. Let us hear no more of the nonsense about
challenging tho/I'uii s to investigation in the Registration
Courts of the Romanist districts in Ireland. In t.:.ese‘
Courts the Romanist conspirators make the witnesses, and
of late they have made the Judges too, for the " Assistant
B.,rristers" who pres:de in these Courts are nornin.,ted by
the Government, and the Government is that of Daniel
O'Connell.—Mori.i.qg Post.

The news tom Caned t, which we published in a second
edition yesterday, went to show, we are sorry to say, that
the insurrection is spreaeine, and has already assumed a
formidable appeerence. The fighting that had taken place
between the Brltish detechments under Colonels Gore and
Wetherell,- at St. Denis and St. Charles, is admitted to
have been very fierce awl bloody. We have no doubt that
in both instailees, though we could wish it othereise, the
loss of the British troops has been much greater than what
is stated in the Government press. If Colonel Gore bad
lost so few men at St. Denis, as the Government accounts
assert, the enemy, who poured their fire upon them arum
loop-hele.l walls and houses, must have been miserable
merksinen, or so alarmed at the sound of their own
musketry, as to point- at anything but their assailants.
If that were so, why di.i Colonel Gore and his divi-
sion retreat, leaving two pieces of artillery behind them ?
Why' was it necessary to send out some more corn-
penies with artillery from Sorel, to cover their retreat ?
And why did they make no further attempt to dislodge
the enemy from St. Dsnis? In the commencement of an
insurrection, when a tumultuary horde like that which
usually constitutes a rebel force taking the field for the first
time, not only stands the file of regular troops. but com-
pels them to retreat, the moral effect in giving confidence
mid strength to the rebel cause, is incalculable. A judi-
cious blow, effectually struck by the governing power at the
beginning of a rebellion is worth twenty struck afterwards
—while the disastrous consequences of. an abortive attempt
to crush the rebellion extend fai beyond what can be esti-
mated by the actual loss in battle. It was so doubt with the
intention of crushing the rebellion in the outset that the late
expeditious along the banks of the Richelieu river were un-
dertaken—the one from Sorel upon St. Denis—the other
from. Chambly upon St. Charles. The plan of attacking
the enemy in their two principal positions before they were
prepared to undertake offensive operations, by directing
against them separate divisions of troops, which from
two opposite points were to fall rapidly upon them by
combined flank movements, appears to hive been in itself
a judicious one. Its success would, probably, have struck
a fatal blow to the incipient rebellion ; but its failure—for
a failure it most certainly has been, whether from want of
sufficient force or want of skill, we know not—has, we fear,
given a confidence to the insurrectionary cause, which will
greatly augment its force and embolden its operations. Let
us give our reasons for saying why we think the plan which
was to have been executed by the troops under the com-
mand of Colouels Gore and Wetherell was a -failure. It
appears, from the accounts which we have published, that
Colonel Gore set out from Sorel to attack St. Donis at
the same time that Colonel Wetherell marched from
Chambly to attack St. Charles, which was on the night
of Wednesday, the 22d instant. The unfortunate Lieu-
tenant Weir, who was afterwards taken by the rebels,
and said to have been put to death, was the bearer
Of the orders fsom Sorel to Colonel Wetherell at
Chambly, upon which he acted in endeavouring to
carry into effect his part of the concerted movement. It
was obviously intended that these two divisions, setting out
under cover of the night and marching rapidly from oppo-
site directions upon the two strongholds of the rebels,•
should put the enemy as we have said, between two fires,
and exterminate or disperse the insurgent force in St. Denis
and St. Charles, which are but a few miles apart. Of
these two places Denis lies nearer to Sorel, and St.
Charles to Caembly. It is ed eitted that the attack upon
St. Denis ended, after severe fighting, in the repulse and
retreat of the British troops ; but is also said by the Go-
vernment journals, and the evening organ of the Ministry
officially announced that alleged fact last night, that
Colonel Wes' esti s attack upon St. Charles was com-
pletely successful, and that the loss of the enemy was
very great. As the Government paper did not publish the
despatches themselves, we have not had the opportunity
of examining their contents and seeing how far they
bear out that statement of 't complete success." There
are undisputed facts, however, from which inferences
may be drawn tending to throw light on the real state of the
case. It is admitted, for instance, tint Colonel Wetherell,
soon after whnt is said to be his complete success at St.
Charles, was at Ronvide, which is six or seven mites nearer
to Cliambly, and to Montreal than St. Charles is, and that
he afterwards drew back to Chambly, having had an affair
with a body of the rebels, 1,000 strong, on his way. Ac-
cording to some accounts, be had actually retreated to
Montreal, but the official statement as described, not given
in the Globe, left him at Chambly. Let us take it so.
Noss, supposing that Colonel Wetherell had been cam-
pletely successful at St. Charles, he must have taken
the lea, and the rebels, wlea had taken up a position
there, must have been destroyed, or taken, or dispersed.
if the place was worth tieing it was worth keeping
possessiou of—but how are we surprised to find that,
immediately after what is called the complete success
of the British troops at St. Charles, the victor eva-
cuates the fort, and the beaten rebels are once more in
postessioe of it, while Colonel Wetherell, instead of ad-
vancing to fallew up his blow, by attackine St. Denis with
his victorious troops, and repairing the disaster which the
British arms had sustained at that place, retrogrades to
Itonville and subsequently to Chambly, thereby making it
necessary to perform the same expedition over again, if it
be of importan,e to the loyal cause that the rebels should
be dislodged fr,,m St. Cherles, where, by the latest ac-
counts, they were still assembled in great force, that place
being only about 35 milss from Montreal, where it appears
an attack by the insurgents was daily apprehended ; but
a e pregame they would prefer attempting the reduction of
the city by blockade, while winter renders the St. Lawrence
inaccessible to succours from the sea. It would seem also
that Colonel Wetherell's retrograde mermen:, was not made
too soon ; for, es lie had a collision with the rebels on his
w..y back to Cliambly, it is clear that a body of the insurgents
had throe n themselves in his rear—tit it is, his rear wllle his
face was nowards St. Charles ; but in his front as he
counter-marched to Chainbly. This fact shows that the
rebels in that quarter are very numerous as well as d wing.;
and it alste.accennts for the delay whielt occurred in re-
ceiving di p itchrs at Montreal, (rem Col. Wether..ll, snitch
lel at f;rst to run,ours of a greater disaster th in we mire
;Lad to feel has t:. ;en p!tece. The truth seems to bs that
Colonel Wetherell at first gained advantages at St.
Charles, which, in consequence of reinforcemeets received
try the reb_ls, he was hot able to follow up, either by
deztroying ter d'spersaig the enemy at that place, or by
proceeding onwards to St. Denis to retrieve the cen-
s-quences of the &feet whieb Cul. G:'re had sustained.
Arc we not justified in looking with suspicion and
'listrust upon even what are called the official statements
of government, %then we recollect what a false itnpres-
sian has been tuade through the same channel as to the
actual strength of the Pepineeu faction, which has been
incompetent to cope with the
by force, and when we remember also that Sir
r 6 PoirteLnintee'nl t
George Grey, last as rieiculoutely
Friday night, in the face of the House
of Commons and the public, and in unblush'ng emit. ad.e-
tien of ti.e published tweeemts of battle and bloodshed,
eith the defeat of at least °tie divi.lun of the Qesiett's
troops,(:ca ion,
lialdvitlilitee liteorditilitojo4d;inoit-oths:ifiolldves
ntioedasstehrattl;:ts,rdi:l%,e.-
e.
el that a single Bri:iik soldier-had fallen tOn that
o
M:nist. rs h td, up to that time, rem:4;4 any official
information of the bseaking out of the rebellioa—
a fact trestle known, through the columns of this
journal, five days heloeeeeshe was obliged to admit
that despatches had been sent house by lerd
ford, at various times, since the communication of
the Parii4mentary resolatiohs :tied the stoppage of the sup-
plies, which ought to have feseeiesned the M Misters that
a rebellion was preparing. Why, then, did not Ministers
make preparations to meet it with effect, by sending out
setsh :a number of troops as would have enabled Sir John
Conmsne, tenjes a very inefficient officer indeed, which,
we believe, he Is not, to eiecivally pseteel• the
habitants, and at the same time dispatch an overwhelming
force to crush the rebellion wherever it displayed itself in
strength, instead of there being scarcely 4,000 troops in
the whelp province, at a season when they cannot be rein-
forced from home, anti even-if they could, gro4t • reqt