The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-28 00:00:00

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LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 28, 1837.

In the House of LOMA, yesterday, petitions were presented
both for and against the Church-rate tax ;in favour of
Municipal Reform in Ireland ; and for a repeal of the Poor
I,aw Amendment Act. The last-named petition came from
Macclesfield, and bm•e souse six thousand signatures.
On the motion of Lord LANG DALE, the House went in-
to Committee on the Bill to Consolidate the Law regarding
Wills.

The Charity Commissioners' Bill, and the Sedition (Scot-
land) Bill, were then read sever4lly a first time.
In the house of Commons, Mr. STANLEY, for Anglesey,
and Lord HILLSBOROUGH, for the county of Down, took
the oaths and their seats. Some conversation and proceed-
ings succeeded, relative to various Railway Bills, and several
Bills of this sort were advanced a stage.
Mr. Sergeant JACKSON called the attention of the House
to a paragraph published by a Morning Contemporary, in
which it was stated that he had been an uncertificatcd
bankrupt. The Learned Sergeant said he should institute
such legal proceedings against the proprietors of the paper
complained ot; as would give them an opportunity of placing
a justification on the record.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER postponed till

Friday next his motion regarding Church-rates.
The Municipal Corporation Act Amendment Bill was
read a third time, and after considerable discussion and
some divisions on amendments, was ultimately passed.
The adjourned debate on Mr. WALTER'S motion for a
A Et; !Ijoiplini!ttpf on the Poor-law Amendment Act was then re-
/oraerk----After some discussion, in the course of which the
crir...
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...‹.-____Orkvalifere. of the EXCHEQUER communicated the readi-
:l-fno, of th— overnment to admit the fullest inquiry into
4.77:1:d ,• .•.-. _L. - •
,143. WA-tea aehinery and administration of the new law,
'''.V4": withdrew his motion. Lord JOHN Rus-
• .:4.--,..z..tie,:l,:vp'
ii. ar s

E 1.1:8 amendment was. accordingly agreed to, and the
Committee nominated. The House shortly afterwards ad-

journed.

Mr. TENNYSON has given notice that he will this evening
in tLe House of Commons bring forward his motion for
the Repeal 2f the Septennial Act. The Right Honour-
able Gentleman's perseverance in keeping this important
question continually before the eyes of the Government
rind the country is highly meritorious. Convinced that the
people can never exercise that wholesome controul over
the Acts of the Legislature, which is necessary to the
permanent existence of good Government, without
returning to the good bid constitutional system 'of
ricnnial Parliaments, we shall never be satisfied till that

measure be obtained. Household Suffrage, Triennial Par-
liaments, and the Ballot, are levers with which the people of
England may easily remove every weight that oppresses
them—and to the obtaining of
.these levers ought all their
energies to be directed. We trust that Mr. TENNYSON
will not 3ichl to any solicitation to postpone his motion in
favour of other Parliamentary business. A question more
important than the Repeal of the Septennial Act cannot
occupy the attention of a Reformed House of Commons.

The wire-drawn discussion on the Poor Law Amendment
Act, has at last, thank Heaven, come to a close. Why
it should have occupied more than the time necessary to
state the original proposition and the amendment, it may
not be easy to discover, unless it were to gratify that lo-
quacious propensity in Honourable Members which, of
late, has increased most enormously, and which, if the
transaction of public business be any part of the duty of a
Member of Parliament, ought to be diminished. Had the
object of the Honourable Member for Berkshire been a
fair inquiry into the administration of the amended law, we
cannot see the necessity of any lengthened debate, or any
debate at all on the subject ; because the Government and
all who wish well to that law are, above all things, desirous
that such an inquiry should take place, knowing, as
they do, that nothing will tend so much to show be-
yond all cavil the important benefits, in a national
point of view, which have resulted from it. But it is but
too evident, from the course pursued by the Hon. Gentle-
man, and indeed this was candidly confessed by the seconder
of his motion, that it was the repeal of the law that was
contemplated. This being the ulterior and openly avowed
object of the proposers of the investigation, it was the duty
of the Government to see that their sinister intentions
should be defeated, and that the Act should have fair play.
Accordingly the Noble Secretary of State for the Home
Department moved an amendment, which, while it left the
principles of the new Act unassailable by any underhand
machinery, allowed a perfectly unlimited range of investi-
gation into its actual working.
Now may it not be asked why Mr. WALTER did not
at once accept the Noble Lord's proposition ? If the new
law has been so barbarously enforced as he and some
others pretend, here was an ample opening to let in all the
evidence they could produce to that effect. But he re-
jected the amendment at first, and accepted it after-
wards, being content to withdraw his motion last night
without one single reason more for doing so than
he had on the first night of the discussion. Wo
cannot help thinking that the Honourable Gentleman has
miscalculated all along, and also that some parts of his
conduct are liable to the charge of unfairness. When the
Poor-law Commissioners applied to him to know what
charges he had to bring against the administration of the
law, that they might inquire into the cases, he refused to grant
them the information required, as if he stood in the position
ofan:advocate who would not be justified in lotting his opponent
into his case, and not of a Legislator anxious to provide a
remedy for an abuse. And as to the excuse given by him
at the close of the debate, that he could not comply with
the request of the Commissioners, because he had not got all
his facts till yesterday morning, what is it but saying that he
I;rnught charges, and called for inquiry without having suffi-
cient grounds to go upon ?

We see nothing in. last night's debate worth particular
comment, except it be an argument advanced by our wor-
thy and Gallant friend Col. SIBTHORP, who said that he
had seen certain statements in a newspaper by a clergy-
man of the name of BULL, reflecting strongly on the
Poor-law and its managers, and that as he had not
seen these statements contradicted they must be true.
This is not good logic. We would put it to the Gal-
lant Member whether, if he were to see it stated in a
newspaper, that an Honourable Member of the House of
Commons looked exactly like an Ourang-Outang, he
would believe it, though he should never see it con-
tradicted ? -

We have received the whole of the Paris Papers of Sun-
day. The Charte of Saturday night contains the following
official intelligence :
" Government has received from Bayonne the following
telegraphic despatch, dated Feb. 23, 8 P. M.:-
" The factions of Valencia and Arragon, to the number
of 3,000 men and 500 horse, under the command of Cabrera,
have entered La Mancha. Madrid was on the 19th in great
agitation, owing to the report that they were at Viana, and to
the inaction of the northern army. That city has few troops,
and is destitute of every thing. General Seoane was about to
proceed to the northern army.'
" On the 22d there was as yet nothing determined upon at
St. Sebastian as to a movement forwards."
We are really at a loss to account for the extreme re-
missness of the QUEEN'S troops on the Ebro. CABRERA
could have been easily prevented from passing that river,
as he had not, when leaving Navarre, one-sixth the number
of troops now reported to be under his command. In
his march he recruited his force by receiving into
it the bands of robbers who infested the public
roads, and all who preferred living by plunder to
the procuring of subsistence by honest industry'. The
QUEEN'S Government must have inspired the inhabitants
of Madrid with little confidence if the temporary success of
such a band of brigands can occasion them any serious
alarm. The terrors of the good people of La Mancha
have, we presume, greatly exaggerated the dangers to be
apprehended from CABRERA'S bands—less numerous by
half than they are here reported.
The Phare de Bayonne of the 22d inst., contains the fol-
lowing curious paragraph, to which we direct attention :
We have given up ascertaining the period at which the ,
grand attack upon the Carlists is to take place. The discus-
sions which have arisen between the Christino Generals, the
rivality of interests, and respecting the command, the ques-
tions of vanity or opinions, have not subsided. EVANS con-
tinue.; at St. Sebastian, ESPARTERO at Bilboa, SAARSFIELD
at Pamplona, the Deputies LUJAN and VALLE go from one to
another, and can settle nothing. Yet the Carlists arc forti-
ing, assembling-, and preparing on all sides to giro a good
reception to their enemy, and the English General, little con-
fident of surprising them, will not take the field unless with
forces more considerable.

" The position, already so critical, of the Queen's Govern-
ment can but be aggravated'by such inconceivable inaction.
But why entrust a foreign General with a decisive attack ?
What cares Evans whether the Carlists be masters of Irun
and Fuentarabia, when for a year past he has been slumbering
at St. Sebastian and Passages ? Is it not impolitic on the
part of the Madrid Government to appear to depend upon a
foreign General, who has been distinguished only by his de-
feat', and that to the detriment of Spanish Chieftains, who, we
now can well conceive, are justly offended at so mortifying a
preference?"

Jealousy, then, of General EVANS, is the main cause of
the delay which is taking place in the grand attack upon the
Carlists. But why should the Spanish Generals be jealous
of EVANS, if it be true that he is " distinguished only by
his defeats ?" To entrust him with the command must be
the most effectual way of exposing his utter incapacity,
and of course, covering him with disgrace. They cannot
be apprehensive that the loss of a battle will endanger the
QUEEN'S cause, after their long experience of such re-
verses of the fortunes of war. There is hardly one
of them who has not been beaten five several times by the
Carlists, without the loss of a kingdom ; and therefore be-
fore thrusting EVANS in the background, it is but fair to
allow him to be beaten twice.. From the jealousy of the
Spanish Generals, it would appear that among them mili-
tary run-a►tiays are drubbed into heroes. If to fly before
an inferior force—if to suffer the country to be pillaged by
marauders within a musket-shot of head-quarters—if to
pursue an enemy with such tact as to allow cities to be
plundered without once exchanging a shot with him—if
these be necessary qualifications for a Commander-in-Chief,
General EVANS must yield to the majority of the Spanish
competitors for the highest military appointment.

The Spanish career of General EVANS, though by no
means so brilliant as we first expected it would become, is
fully as creditable to himself, and has proved as serviceable
to the QUEEN, as that of any other General commanding in
Spain. He had hardly set foot in the country, when, with a
body of half-disciplined troops, he gallantly drove the enemy
from the heights of San Sebastian and Passages, and
would have taken Irun and Fontarabia, but for the treachery