The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-12 00:00:00

THE NEGOCIATION WITH ENGLAND.

(From the New York Evening Post, Jan. 14.)
Two or three days since we copied from the Port-
land Argus a letter on the subject of the recovery of
the West India trade, written by some person at
Washington. The writer, it will be recollected,
spoke with the utmost confidence of the prospect of
regaining that trade, mentioning as his author►ty let-
ters, received at the seat of Government from per-
sons in E,ngland, who were in a situation to form a
correct judgment of the matter. We have, however,
the best reasons for believing that the language of the
letter in the Argus is much stronger than is warranted
by thereal state of the case. That there exists a pros-
pect of recovering the West India trade for this
country we believe to be true; but it is true also,
that the difficulties in its way are very great, and it
ought not to be matter of disappointment should
they eventually prevent the success of the negociation.
The feeling which at the present moment prevails
in England towards the United States, is not such
as to favour a frank discussion, or an amicable settle-
ment of difference between the two countries. The
feeling of cordiality towards our nation, which were
springing up among the British people and States-
men, has not only been checked, but turned into a
principle of and bitterness. Whether justly or
not, the policy pursued by our late Administrat►on
has, as we learn from a source on which we place
implicit reliance, been regarded as decidedly and
purposely hostile to Great Britain, and as having its
cause in a deep-seated enmity on the part of our
nation. The circumstance that we had elected for
our President a man who had, while Secretary of
State, publicly denounced England in a 4th of July
oration,--the tone of his messages, and of the
other papers of his Cabinet,—the cautious, distrust-
ful, and temporizing policy (for so they term it)
of his negociations,—and finally, the adoption
of the late tariff, by the Legislature of the
nation, have created a settled prejudice against
us, and an entire conviction of our animosity
towards them. On the subject of the tariff,
in particular, a great irritation is manifested. It
is looked upon, in Great Britain, as a measure
which, whatever may be its ultimate effect, was
taken with a direct view of injuring their interests,
and which put the seal of the national approbation
upon the hostile policy of the late Cabinet. Thus,
the old feeling of antipathy, to which our revolution
gave rise, has, in some measure, revived, and there
is a general disposition to question the sincerity of
any friendly professions on our part. The nation is
disposed, by this state of public opinion, to ac-
quiesce in any ungracious reception with which the
Ministry may meet our overtures for negociation,
without inquiring whether they were likely to prove
for the advantage of Britain or otherwise.
The obstacles which such a state of things op-
poses to a sincere and successful negociation
are evident. It is exceedingly fortunate, under
these circumstances, that Mr. M'Lane has been ap-
pointed a Minister at the Court of St. James. The
noble frankness and sincerity of his character, the
evidence of which is borne i❑ his whole deportment,
his clear good sense, and his utter disdain of low
cunning, inspire respect and attract confidence
wherever he appears. Only such a man could do
any thing to remove the suspicion and distrust which
stand in the way of a successful negociation with
England. We learn that he has already made a
highly favourable impression in that country, and
that he has done much to remove the prejudices
against us. We want no better representative of
our national character, whether considered in a
moral or intellectual point of view, at any Court in
the world than Mr. M‘Lane. In the hands of al-
most any body else, the negociation would most
certainly have failed. In his, if the prospect of
success be not so certain as we could wish, it is
not at least hopeless.

The water in the river Catn, in consequence
of the sudden breaking up of the frost, has risen to a
greater height than remembered for some years. On
Monday and Tuesday last nearly all the meadows and
gardens, as well as several of the College walks, in the
immediate vicinity of the river, were inundated.—Cam-
bridge Chronicle.
AUTHENTIC ANECDOTE OF THE LATE
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.-Many anecdotes have
been related of this distinguished character, and some not
the most advantageous to his principles or economy in pri-
vate life. The following, however, places his parental
feelings in the most amiable point of view, and may be de-
pended on as a fact, having been witnessed by the gentle-
man from whom it was obtained. It is well known that
Mr. SHERIDAN was never overburdened with money, and
at the period we are now alluding to suffered much from
pecuniary inconvenience about the year 1806 and 1807.
It was at this period the relator chanced to enter a
china warehouse, to make sols 2 purchases, at the cor-
ner of Pall-mall, when ?Yin SHERIDAN entered, and
desired the master of the shop to hand him his account
and he would settle it. After turning over his books the
shopkeeper stated the amount of the debt to be 191. odd,
and requested to know if he should include his son's ac-
count with it. Mr. SHERIDAN appeared taken by sur-
prise, and asked if his son had incurred any bill there.
He then, after a little pause, said be wished to be informed
of the amount, and was told that Mr. T. SHERIDAN had
been on the books for a considerable time, and that the
bill amounted to between 30/. and 40/. After a short
silence, Mr. SHERIDAN desired his son's account to be
given to him, and immediately paid it ; but saying th it it
not being convenient at the moment to settle both, lie
would for the present leave his own, and take an early
opportunity of settling it.
CRUEL SUPERSTITIONS OF A PHYSICAL
NATURE.—China is tolerably free from direct cruelty in
her religious superstitions; at least, she allows nothing at
all that can compare with llindoo Suttees, except her
horrible infanticide—which, by the way, is not induced by
religious superstition, but by hard-hearted scepticism, and
the visionary dreams of political economy, which
says the young stranger has no right to the board
of privileged fathers, and therefore must begone.
But China has her Authoronophagi-medici ; those
who, for medical purposes, feed on various parts of
the human body. The murder of a young lad at Macao,
three years ago, was occasioned by the misbelief that a
portion of human flesh would restore a dying man ; and
the executioner of ten thousand, mentioned in the Canton
Register, exhibited for sale, the other day, the gall-bladder
of a man he had cut to pieces, in which grains of rice
were steeped, to be eaten daily, in specified numbers. On
turning to the Penal Code, it appears that a man of the
Hoong-shan district, named LAW, was on a former occa-
sion brought to justice for procuring a portion of human
gall, at the price of 120 taals of silver. And about the
year 1811, a man in Che Kaang, named CHANG, was con-
victed, who had, in the course of 16 years, caused the
death of 11 young girls, that he might drink certain fluids
to add vigour to his constitution. The twelfth victim to
his cannibalism escaped to be a witness against him; and
the " man in form, but brute in nature," as the official
document characterises the atrocious criminal, was put to
death by a slow and ignominious punishment. The wretch,
when he died, was about 70 years of age. Sixteen fami-
lies who had suffered by his horrible propensity were sum-
' mooned to attend his execution, that of being cut to pieces.

We have done what we thought right upon the
subject of Lord Graves's destruction : we have pro-
fessed what we believed. We have some know-
ledge of the public sentiment, and we think it neces-
sary to inform the family, that the public does not
go with us. They will do what they think proper!
A correspondent suggests a remedy.—Times.
The recently arrived Papers from the United
States contain matter of some importance to the
commerce and shipping interests of this country.
All expeetation that the tariff would be modified
into a shape less unfavourable to the introduction of
British manufactured goods, appears to be dis-
couraged by the report of the committee of Con-
gress on that subject, which maintains the absolute
inexpediency at present of meddling in any way
with the regulations of the tariff. The chief 1
grounds alleged in defence of this opinion are-Ist.
That the tariff being now the law of the land,
" the faith and honour of the Government are
pledged to its rigid execution." But according
to such an argument, a measure, bad in itself and
iiijurious to society, ought to be upheld for no.
other reason than that the Goverment has pledged
its honour to commit a certain portion of public
wrong. 2d. That some interests having derived
but little benefit from the tariff, and others more,
and the great fears entertained respecting the effi-
ciency of some of its provisions having been re-
alized in practice, while the causes of their failure
are still to be ascertained, it would be premature
to undertake an alteration of it. 3d. That the
tariff being approved by a great majority of the
nation, any effort to alter it would be fruitless.
The acknowledged impossibility of a thing is no
doubt a good reason for not attempting it.-4th.
The fears entertained by manufacturers that the
tariff would be altered, have, it seems, deterred
some persons from embarking in, and others from
carrying to the full extent, various walks of in-
dustry, which depended for their success on the
stability of the existing regulations. Any measure
which served to justify such fears, would there-
fore but aggravate the above mentioned evils.-
sth. So long as any hope is encouraged of alter-
ing the regulations of the tariff, foreign manufac-
turers will continue to throw in their articles upon
the United States, " be the losses and sacrifices
ever so great ;"—that is to say, that the Ameri-
can consumer will profit by the competition be-
tween foreign fabrics and those of the United
States : therefore, by all means, argues the re-
port, let us crush every chance of such competi-
tion, and secure the home monopoly unmolested.
With the addition of one or two remarks about
smuggling, which it appears that the tariff has by
no means effectually obviated, we have now given
the substance of this interesting report. It does
not, undoubtedly, belong to England to declaim
with much violence against any "protection," as
it is called, of native industry in the United
States. Nor, if it be true, as insisted on by the
editor of the American Evening Post, in an article
on the " negotiations with England," that the
tariff has occasioned a great national animosity here
against America, because of the notion entertained
that the measure originated in feelings of hatred
to Great Britain, can such animosity be too soon
got rid of, as a most silly, groundless, and unworthy
sentiment. We do not believe one word of the
assertion that the tariff arose out of any dislike to
England, but merely and simply out of that dispo-
sition which actuates most nations, and none more
than England herself, to prefer what they conceive
to be their own interest to those of foreigners. Nay,
were not the several classes of merchants, manufac-
turers, and land-owners, in the United States,
themselves as much possessed by that rival selfish-
ness, and upon the very subject of the tariff too,
as were the advocates of American, in opposition
to British manufacture ? And what right have we
to quarrel with Americans for establishing a mono-
poly in their own favour to the exclusion of English
goods ? Do we attribute the furious spirit of mo-
nopoly evinced by our own silk manufacturers, our
glovers, our iron-masters, our wool-growers, our
ship-owners, our agriculturists, to hatred of all
classes of us their countrymen, whom they would
tax,—nay, whom some among them would starve,—
to serve themselves and their own individual pro-
fits ? No, it is all all self-love in America, as in
England ; there is, we believe, notwithstanding a
little occasinal growl between John Bull and Jona-
than, an infinitely stronger disposition towards solid
friendship and fraternity between them than between
any two other nations under Heaven. So far from
this moment being, according to the American edi-
tor, (who wishes to enhance the merit of General
Jackson's Government as compared with that of his
predecessor), unfavourable to the success of a ne-
gotiation with England on behalf of the United
States, we think we can affirm, from a pretty ex-
tensive observation of the feeling of this country
towards our trans-Atlantic brethren, that old annoy-
ances are hourly wearing out, and that there never
did exist a time when impartial justice might be
arrived at between the two Governments with less
risk of interruption from national prejudices here.
At the same time let us add, that neither now, nor
at any period, do we consider it likely that America
will obtain from this country, unless its negotiations
be conducted in absolute secrecy, and by incapable
or dishonest agents, the concession of advantage,
which can only be yielded to the injury of some im-
portant British interest or object. Mr. Machines
doubtless, is as likely as any other individual to ob-
tain for America whatever she can rightfully solicit :

he is a courteous gentleman, shrewd, dexterous,
and persevering; but we doubt whether he will suc-
ceed, because we are inclined to think he ought not,
in wresting the exclusive supply of our West India
colonies from the North American provinces of Eng-
land, and in transferring it to the United State. A
vast portion of the prosperity of the Canadas de-
pends on their enjoying this traffic, and we hope
that it will not, by any act of the Duke of Welling-
ton's Administration, be taken away from them, af-
ter the confident prospects of its stability held out
to the empire by Mr. Canning.—lbid.
We are curious to see under what heads, and to
what amount, Ministers intend to propose to dimi-
nish the public expenditure. A considerable reduc-
tion of the army is said to be one—and that the
principal. One of the advantages which the country
was taught to believe would flow from Catholic
Emancipation, would be the setting frPe. and ren-
dering useless, a great part of the enormous military
force with which it has so long been found neces-
sary to garrison Ireland; and the time is now come
when either the consequences should follow, or the
falsehood of the augury be acknowledged. But on
this head of military reduction it is right that the
public should bear in mind that there is much fallacy
in the apparent saving, after all ; for, though 10,000
men be reduced, the whole of their pay is not saved
to the country, great part of them falling immedi-
ately upon the Dead Weight, besides the whole, or
nearly the whole, being returned to the parishes
from whence they originally came, to swell, unhap-
pily in the present state of things, the ranks of pau-
perism, and increase that heavy rate which, in ano-
ther shape of taxation, bears down the productive
classes. On this head, however, great deductions
in the public expenditure doubtless will be made,
and might have been already made, had Parliament
been called together, as it ought to have been, three
months ago. What the proposed reductions in the

The East Retford discussion commenced last
night. There can be no question that it would be
much better to have Birmingham or Manchester re-
presented than either East Retford or the Hundred
of Bassetlaw. Lord Howick asked, " Did any
man suppose that corruption would be stopped by
an occasional disfranchisement ?—(Hear, hear.)—
If four Sessions were supposed to be usefully em-
ployed in the consideration of a.e propriety of dis-
franchising East Retford, surely they could not be
better employed than in devoting a portion of their
time to a consideration of the whole state of the
Representation. He feared, however, that the
motives of the supporters of even the partial reform
were very different, and that they were disposes to
punish the clumsiness of the criminals, not to put
an end to the system which made them guilty.—
(Hear.)—He feared that it was little more than a
device to distract the attention, and to guard and
keep from the light of day all the vices of the
system, which they were afraid to see exposed.—
(Hear.)"—There is, we think, much force in this.
East Retford differs from the rest of the places
possessing the franchise (with a few exceptions),
not in being more corrupt, but more clumsily cor-
rupt ; and there is this difference between the openly
venal places and the places which belong to patrons,
that the latter rivet the chains of the people, where-
as the former may be bought by independent
and upright men. But the great objection
to these petty attempts is the waste of that time
which is due to matters of more consequence. Mr.
O'Connell, indeed, opposed to the Noble Lord a
supposition. " Suppose," said he," during the late
heavy snows a number of wolves (say a hundred
and fifty) had rushed from the Pyrennees into the
south of France, and that one of them had been so
clumsy and inactive as to allaw himself to be wound-
ed, driven up into a corner, and taken, what would
have been thought of the man who should have start-
ed forward and exclaimed, ' 0 don't kill this wolf,
for there are a hundred arid forty-nine wolves who
have escaped ?'—(Hear, bear, and a laugh.) Si-
milar to this, however, was the recommendation
of the Noble Lord." Not, precisely similar, Mr.
O'Connell. We think we could improve the
supposition. Suppose the cattle of a village
to be unprotected ; that 150 wolves made an at-
tack on them ; that the villagers succeeded in driv-
ing them off, and observing one more clumsy than
the rest, that in the hope of destroying. it, they
spent that time in the pursuit of it which ought to
have been employed in an endeavour to secure their
cattle, and that the 149 wolves, impelled by hun-
ger, returned in the night to the attack, when the
villagers, wearied with the pursuit of the clumsy
wolf, were buried in slumber. The danger from
119 Iwelves was not less than from 150, and the
pursuit and destruction of one was without result,
while the time employed in the pursuit might have
been beneficially employed in securing the cattle.
Mr. Peel's speech was exceedingly amusing. " Now,
Sir (said the Right Honourable Gentleman), with
respect to the alleged preponderance of a Landed
Aristocracy in this House, I beg Honourable Ge
tlemen to examine it the landed interest really be
preponderant. For observe, my Right Honourable
Friend objects to the introduction of even one Re-
presentative of a particular branch of the landed in-
terest; and he wished me to remove one Honour-
able Member for Yorkshire (Mr. Stuart Wortley),
who is a landed proprietor, and to place upon it the
other Member (Mr. Marshall), who is a commer-
cial man—(Hear, hear)—instead of the almost
single Representative of the landed interest.—
(Hear, hear.)" Why there is no question here
between landed and commercial interests; and how
an inference can be drawn one way or another as to
preponderance, puzzles us extremely. The reason
for naming commercial men, was not to thwart the
country gentlemen, who have as strong an interest
in the extension of the commerce of the country as

:he rest of the community, but to communicate to
the Committee the skill in commercial subjects
necessary to the conducting the inquiry in a satis-
factory way. If we were to hear that from a
Select Committee to inquire into the policy of our
Corn Legislation the Country Gentlemen were de-
signedly excluded, we should then begin to think
that the Landholders did not predominate in Par-
liament. Without wishing to question the purity
of Mr. Peel's constituents of Westbury, and having
every disposition to believe that it was only after
satisfying themselves by a painful and most conscien-
tious inquiry into the conduct of the Right Hon.
Gentleman that his constituents arrived at the con-
clusion that their interests might be safely confided
to him, who would be so much alive to the great
stake they possessed in the country, still it is asking
ton much from us to infer from the purity of West-
bury the purity of other cities and boroughs, even
though he was " quite sure that the Members
for Cities and Boroughs would never consent to
having so great a stigma cast upon their constiu-
ents without proof." They till, no doubt, re-
present honestly enough the interests which place
them in the Honourable House. It may be a
calumny that Boroughs are bought and sold. Mr,
Peel may believe that, with the exception of the two
or three places, which, like Mr. O'Connell's clumsy
wolves have been caught, no Boroughs have ever
been sold. Mrs. Simony, in the play, says the dear
Doctor, her husband, was no schoolmaster—he not
only believed the 39 articles, but would readily believe
nine times as many. We quarrel not with Mr. Peel's
faith. But the people of England have begun to
think that they ought to have some share in return-
ing those who vote away their money. The people
of Westbury may be very worthy and incorrupt ; but
it would be curious what proportion the property of
the inhabitants of Westbury bears to the share of
the taxes of this country, corresponding to their
share of the representation. But the question is
perfectly understood ; and when the time comes, the
merits of Westbury and the other cities and boroughs
bearing a resemblance to it, will be adjusted without
much difficulty.—.llfornirig Chronicle.

THE MANNERS Or THE DAY.—" It was a
bold attempt in the author of this new novel of Fashion-
able Life" says a contemporary critic, "to construct an
eventually happy marriage out of a union between a man
of forty, placed at the summit of worldly wealth and am-
bition, and a gay, giddy, and ill-educated girl of eighteen,
of surpassing personal beauty and bred in the country;
yet the success of the attempt is complete. Altogether
this work farms a moving panorama of the manners of
the day, which it is impossible to contemplate without
an accession to our stores of knowledge acquired through
the medium of unfailing amusement, and which will
doubtless obtain for the author a place among the first no-
velists of the day."

We are informed that the rents of house
property in this city and its vicinity are rather higher than
at the same period last year, which, i■ some degree, shows
an improvement of the times --Edinburgh Advertiser.

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