The Sun.
London, England, 1837-06-16 00:00:00

fairness and justice he well knew—there were but few ex-
amples in the history of war. During last year it had been
the fashion to tell them that the course of the war was so de-
moralizing that the men engageq. in it would return altoge-
ther unfit for the usages of civilized society. He had not, how-
ever, found that such had been the effect of the war amongst
them ; and he should be enabled to show, from documents,
that the war had produced no such results; but, before he read
the statement of an officer to that effect, be it remembered,
whilst they were told so frequently that the Legion had dis-
graced themselves, they did nut hear one word of him who
was the real author of all the atrocities that had been com-
mitted ; and who, when he put his name to those bar-
barous orders that had been issued, brought no disgrace on
himself. No ! all the disgrace must be attached to those
who were the sufferers under those orders. But the Noble
Lord had said that the gallant men who had defended
Irun had fallen on the bayonets of the British Legion, even
after the town had been surrendered ; and he therefore
thought it due to the brave men of that force to read
first a passage from the official report of Lord John
Hay, in which he said that " that important place surren-
dered on the 18th instant, and it had afforded him the
greatest satisfaction to witness the respect which had been
paid to the persons and property of the inhabitants of the
town and its vicinity by her Catholic Majesty's troops." In
a private letter accompanying that dispatch, after describing
the gallantry with which the town had been carried, Lord
John Hay observed " that every possible respect had been
shown to the persons and property of the inhabitants. Irun
had suffered ; but not a man had been killed after the
town was surrendered."—(Hear, hear.) It was indeed
wonderful that the officers were enabled to keep the
troops so well, when it was remembered that the day before
they left Hcrnani five of their men had been taken by
the Carlists and shot, and that a Carlist Governor had shot
fourteen men last year.—(Cheers.) If he wanted further
evidence in support of his position, he would venture to
refer to the testimony borne by the garrison of Irun to Don
Carlos, in which they said that 700 of the people who
owed the lives of their relations to the forbearance of the
troops on that occasion, and called, in zealous terms, upon
their cruel and barbarous Sovereign to repeal the disgrace-
ful orders which he had issued.—(Cheers.) Then he did
think it was too much, after the provocations which that
force had received, and the barbarity to which it had been
subjected, for Noble Lords to come down to that House
and to tell them that such was the cruel course of the war
that it disgraced—whom ? not the Spaniards, but the Bri-
tish troops.—(Cheers.) He would not then trouble their
Lordships by going into any other topics connected with
that subject.
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY, in reply, wished
only to say a few words. When the Noble Lord opposite
referred to the commission of atrocities by the Carlists,
did he suppose that the Noble Lords on their side of the
House did not view with abhorrence such a state of
things ? But he must beg to deny the position of the
Noble Lord that Don Carlos was the real author of such
cruelties. He would assert that Don Carlos had been
driven, despite himself and his own disposition, by the
manner in which Christino Generals had commenced the
war, to adopt the measures condemned. But what was
the reason that those miseries had continued? Was it
not because his Majesty's Government had not exercised
that authority which the position of this country was calcu-
lated to afford, and had not employed their influence with
the Spanish Government by setting an example which he
was confident would be immediately followed by all those,
who had only opposed cruelty to cruelty ?—(Hear, hear,
hear.) The Noble Viscount had appeared extremely
tenacious as to the conduct of the British Legion.
He might have an opinion as to the despatches ;
and, in reference to one particular instance, there was
no one who would not admit that if it had not been for the
interposition of the gallant seamen who were engaged a very
different result might have been produced.—(Hear, hear.)
Let them remember when the gun-boats came up ; and let
them look to the details of the last action, and compare
them with the dispatches which had been formerly seen of
the events that occurred in action. By the last dispatch
he saw that the columns of the British Legion had been in
confusion ; and all military men knew that that was a posi-
tion in which a force became perfectly useless.
The Earl of MINTO explained. He had not accused
Noble Lords opposite of approving of the cruelties -com-
mitted ; he had only said that they had not heard that loud
condemnation of the cruelty of one party which had been
bestowed on the other.
The Earl of CARNARVON explained.
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY then gave notice
that on a future day he should move for any instructions
which may have been delivered by the Govern.nent to Co-
lonel Wylde on the subject of the British Legion.
Their Lordships then adjourned.

AMERICAN PAPERS.

NEW ORLEANS, MAY 13.—The True American says :

" Oa the opening of the doors of the recusant banks, on
Saturday morning, the rush for specie was considerable.
The State Bank, foreseeing the storm, refused the redemp-
tion of any of her paper—such being the decision of the
authorities at eight o'clock in the morning-. It would have
been more magnanimous in her to have joined the six de-
clarers on the previous evening. The Union had the teme-
rity during the morning to refuse the acceptance of the non-
specie paying paper in payment of" United States bonds, but
by one o'clock they saw the false step they had taken, and
backed out in time. The Consolidation Association soon
found that the cement which bound them together was not
of that adhesive nature, as, in their pride and vanity, they
had led themselves to believe, for they ended by paying
only fives and tens.
" The citizens, canal, and merchants—the latter, by the
way, is a mere agent of' the United States Bank—continued
throughout the day to pay all descriptions of their notes
presented. We must state here, that the Gas Light Bank,
from its exceedingly limited circulation, and its intimate
connection with Mr. Biddle's " dead monster," and the as-
sistance of the St. Charles Theatre, Arcade and Arcade
Baths Company, was enabled to pay all demands against it."
NEW ORLEANS, MAY 17.—The Citizens, Gas-light,
Consolidated, and Merchants' Banks continued yesterday to
redeem notes of all denominations presented at their coun-
ters. The call for specie upon them has considerably dc-
creased since Saturday, from the fact being well ascertained
in the community, that they are disposed and competent to
redeem every note they have out with the specie. Their
notes are now considered as good as silver or gold, and will
command, if they do not so already, a premium os er non-
specie paying banks. This is an inevitable consequence, and
might have been easily foreseen.
The amount redeemedin specie yesterday is as follows :
Citizens Bank
Gaslight
Consolidated
Merchants
We have not received the returns from the two last
banks, but their, payments were doubtless in proportion.
The following banks also continued to redeem their 5 dol-
lar and 10 dollar notes, to wit, the Louisiana State Bank,
Union Bank, Commercial Bank, and Improvement Bank.
The Mechanics and Traders, Canal, Carrollton, Atchafeyla,
Louisiana, and Orleans Banks refuse altogether to redeem
any of their notes with the specie, and the most of them
will not issue smaller notes in exchange for larger ones.
The Orleans Bank being authorized by a clause in its char-
ter, has emitted notes from 1 to 5 dollars, for the purpose
of making change.
Gavernor Ritner, of Pennsylvania, has made a proclama-
tion, in which he refuses to call the Legislature together,
as has been requested :
" Because the evils under which the good people of this
commonwealth labour have not been produced by the ac-
tion of the government of this state, but mainly by the un-
necessary and unauthorised interference of the general go-
vernment with the currency and monied transactions of the
country
; and, therefore, the constituted authorities of Penn-
sylvania cannot, now, by any active measures, arrest or ma-
terially mitigate. the misfortune, relief from which must
come from the same source with the injury.
" Because all the measures which have been proposed to
be adopted by the State Legislature, to meet the emer-
gency, would, in my opinion, rather increase than diminish
the real difficulties of our condition."
The three objects for which the Legislature could be
assembled, he sets forth as,ist—
" Authority to the banks to issue notes of denomina-
tions less than five dollars, would be the infliction of a
great permanent evil, to alleviate a temporary embarrass-
ment, and would only be the substitution of' the lower de-
nominations of a circulating medium for the higher deno-
minations of the same, without withdrawing any of the
latter from circulation, or giving to any one stronger claims
on public confidence than the other, thereby increasing the
aggregate amount of bank notes, without increasing the
amount of specie or prop,lrty represented, and thus inevit-
ably depreciating the actual value of the existing representa-
tive currency.
" The passage rf a law to save thcfoifeiture Vibe char-
ters, to which the banks will become subject by continuine-
to refuse specie for their notes, would only increase and
render more lasting the mischief. The instant result would,
in all probability, be a vast and ruinous increase of the
bank-note circulation—a correspondent diminution of its
real value—a dangerous facility of obtaining bank loans—a
sudden rise in the nominal value of all kinds of property—a
further increase of the mad spirit of speculation—and,
finally, the incurring of a real amount of debt, which must
afterwards be paid in hard money, dollar for dollar, to the
ruin of thousands.

" The passage of a law for the stay of execution in case
of debt, besides aggravating the evils just named, would ac-
custom our citizens to a diregard for the obligations of
law, and for punctuality in their dealings, and would beget