The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-09 00:00:00

PUBLIC DEBT OF SPAIN.

At the present moment the following details respect-
ing the liabilities of the Spanish Government may be ac-
ceptable to a large portion of our readers ;
Domestic debt, bearing interest up to 1834 £ 9,130,000
Without interest, same date

Together
47,560,000

....-- ----
Foreign debt £25.440,000
Cortes loans

Together 42,040,000

In 1834 the unliquidated claims on the Spanish Go-
vernment amounted to 277,000,0001.

The arrears of interest in 1834 on 14,000,000/
Cortes Bomig, since November, 1823, are about
7,000,0001.

In 1834 the estimated amount required to discharge
the interest on the acknowledged debt was 3,400,0001.
annually, while the expenditure, including the amount
due for interest on the debt, exceeded' 9,000,000/.
annually.
The Spanish securities which have been introduced
into the London market are as under :

SPANISH CONSOLIDATED FIVE PER CENTS. (Ac-
TzvE.)--In 1834 a loan of 4,000,0001. was raised in
London and Paris for the Spanish Government, at 60
per cent., and at the same time the old Cortes loans of
1821 and 1823 were recognised, two-thirds being con-
verted into active debt and consolidated with this
loan. The dividends are payable on the st of May
and the Ist of November, in London, Paris, and Ma-
drid. The bonds are for sums of 421. 10s., 851., 1701.,
2551., 3401., 5101., and 1,0201., respectively. • No di-
vidends have been paid on these for some time.
DEFERRED DEBT.—At the period of the conversion
of the Cortes Bonds in 1834 the arrears of interest
amounted to 55 per Cent., no dividend having been re-
ceived for eleven years. In exchange for the Coupons
the holders received Deferred Bonds, which were to be
gradually converted into Active Debt, commencing on
she 2nd of May, 1838, when one-twelfth of the Deferred
Debt was converted into Active, the bonds to be de-
termined by lot ; to be continued on the same day in
each successive year, until the 2d of May, 1849. No
interest has, we are informed, ever been paid on these
bonds.

PASSIVE.—This arose from the conversion of the
Cortes Bonds in 1834, when two-thirds became Active
and one-third Passive. It was arranged that sufficient
Passive Debt should be converted annually to replace
the amount of Active cancelled by the Sinking Fund,
to commence on the 2d May, 1836 ; but no conversion
has yet taken place, nor have any dividends been paid.
THREE PER CENTS.—Originated in 1831, by the
conversion of about 4,000,0001. Cortei Bonds. The
dividends were payable on the Ist of April and the Ist
of October, but there are several now unpaid. •

INDEMNITY BONDS, FIVE PER CENTS.—These
bonds were issued in 1828, to liquidate certain claims
made upon Spain by British merchants and others.
The amount is about 600,0001., and the loan is liable to
redemption, at 60 per cent., at the pleasure of the
Spanish Government. The dividends are payable on
the Ist March and the Ist September. Since 1837 no
dividends have been paid.

We are indebted for some of these particulars to a little
work published some time since by a member of the
Stock Exchange, to which have added the result of our
own inquiries.—Observer.

THE FRENCH, INSTEAD OF
MARCHING AT THE HEAD OF CIVILIZA-
TION, MARCH AT THE HEAD OF INCAR-
CERATION,

(From the Charivari.)

There was a time when France was great, glorious,
and powerful ; at least, so I have learned from my an.
cestors.

At that epoch France was proclaimed Queen of the
World. In the time of war she swayed foreign nations
by the ascendancy of her arms, and in the time of
peace she rendered ztliese very nations tributary to her
arts, her industry, and her literature. But, above all,
our country had the honour of being named as a centre
of noble, generous, and independent ideas, as a beacon
destined to enlighten the universe, and to guide it
through the paths of liberty and emancipation. Thus
sang our Beranger

" Cent peuples divers
Chantaient en brisant leurs fers :
Honneur aux enfans de la France !"

Such was France formerly. Well, now, do you know
how France at the present time recommends herself to
the admiration of foreign nations? In what she serves
as a model ? What are the glorious lessons she vouch-
safes to give to the world ? Only guess. France boasts
of being the country where they imprison the hest.
This is, alas ! the principal claim to glory of a people
once called the freest in the universe, and what is more,
France awes this glorious superiority in bolts, gratings,
and dungeons to a government which sprung from a
revolution nndertaken to secure the triumph of liberty.
This superiority is one of the consequences of the three
days of July, which had the piquant merit of being at the
same time original and unexpected.
Hence France at present, instead of diffusing every-
where her literary chefs-dteuvre, circulates her prison ca-
lendars and her treatises on perfected incarceration. As
for conquests, she only endeavours to gain the approba-
tion of the gaolers of Europe ; and as for setting the fa-
shions, she only tries to procure the adoption of modes
de cachet. It is no more her tri-coloured flag, but her
theory of incarceration, that will, it seems, make the
tour of the world.

Her mural crown is composed of four dark, filthy,
stinking walls, grated at every aperture. Her trophies
are a heap of manacles. Her golden sceptre has been
changed for an ignoble bunch of keys.
In the place of her old patron the Great St. Denis,
modern France invokes St. Pierre-es-liens.
For this proud position France is indebted to her
system of August, 1830. Our official Atkinkirooffs
arc anxious for no other glory than that of being called
the gentlest of catch-poles, the most ingenious turnkeys
of the known world.

Just read the following notice lately published in a
tone of triumph by a Government organ, the Journal
des hebats

" His Majesty the King of Sardinia, who has adopted
in his territory the penitentiary system set forth by
M. C. Lucas, in his work Theorie de r Emprisonne-
ment, has lately caused a golden medal to be struck,
dedicated to that author,and inscribed—' Carolo Lucas
in Theorica Pcenarum eximio.' The Governor of
Savoy has, in the name of the King, sent this medal to
M. C. Lucas, on his passage to Chainbery, where he had
arrived by post from Geneva, whence he was going to
Grenoble to continue his tour of inspection. M. Lucas
will return to Turin in September, with the authority
of the French Government to survey in person his own
penitentiary system in Piedmont."

Only hear ! What a fine subject for national pride !
Even the King of Sardinia, who has for his neighbour
the Emperor of Austria, that inventer of the carcere
duro and the horrible oubliettes* of the Spielberg, ac-
knowledges that in France, the classic land of liberty,
people are imprisoned far more pleasantly.
The King strikes a medal in honour of M. C. Lucas,
one of those liberal enthusiasts of 15 years who have
used their old doctrines of progress to bring to perfec-
tion the art of imprisoning their fellow-creatures—one
of those philanthropists of the official school who, very
different from St. Vincent-de-Paule, who studied to
break the chains of the unfortunate prisoners, only think
how they shall cram as many people as possible in a
bolted dungeon.
Then, observe the eagerness with which the French
Government has authorised their learned professor of
the art of imprisonment, M. C. Lucas, not only to ac-
cept the honourable medal, but also ,to go to Piedmont
t? survey in person the application of his captivating in-
ventions. Ah, our system is neither jealous nor ego-
tistical on this point, but, on the contrary, burns with so
ardent a zeal for the propagation of prisons, that it
would diffuse the benefits of incarceration among the
whole human race ; indeed, it is on this point that it
especially prides itself. Napoleon wished to make
France a great nation, par excellence—the system, on
the contrary, only wishes to make her the first country
in the world for imprisonment. Thus, the last of
August is directed to the enlargement of the territo-
ries of incarceration ; and, consequently, for self-satis-
faction, it is necessary to turn the attention of foreign
countries, for the new Alexander of the prison list finds
genius too much confined by mere native prisons.
Formerly foreign nations were seen asking France for
commanders-in-chief, and even for kings—now she is
flattered another way, for they ask her for gaolers.
However, we must confess, that, thanks to her liberal
system and to the philanthropic incarcerators of the
stamp of M. C. Lucas, France, as she now is, well me-
rits this distinction. She possesses a number of means
of imprisonment utterly unknown before the present
time ; she is adorned with thousands of gaols and dun-
geons adapted for citizens of every age, sex, and condi-
tion ; she has a complete set of penitentiaries for child-
ren—central houses of correction—prisons for debt—
the political prisons of St. Michel, Clairvaux, and Doul-
I 0133--bagnest for those condemned by the Peers—with-
out reckoning her gloomy violons.t, and her corps-de-
garde, surrounded by casemates which are enough to
raise ;he envy of our fortifications on the frontiers, now
nearly dismantled.
If we do not carry our arms any more among foreign
nations, what matter ? We carry our manacles. "If I
were King of France," said Frederick the Great, I
would not allow a gun to be fired in Europe without my
permission." Our system, which has other views of
French influence, Says, " I will not allow a bolt to be
drawn in any prison in Europe without having a finger
in the pie."