The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-27 00:00:00

TOE SUN, LONDON. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1839.

s watched by the police, and obliged, perhaps, as
we have been before now, on the Continent, to rise
in the night to answer the interrogatories of gen-
d'armes. Every unknown man is regarded as a spy,
and suspicion and dread lurk in every heart. The
jurors begin to be afraid, as in Ireland, which is
very natural; and even convivial parlours have sub-
stituted distrust for mirth and joviality. This is a
sad alteration, indeed, but will it be confined
to one neighbourhood ? What the Chartists
have:done at Merthyr Tydvil and Monmouth,—they
may easily accomplish in London, Liverpool, and
Glasgow. If by meeting in groups, these holiday-
times, with a menacing or scornful air, they can ob-
tain no advantage for themselves—they may have
the pleasure, if it be one, to make others more
miserable than they are. But what a condition of
society does the very suspicion that the working
classes can feel pleasure in making others miserable
indicate ? What terrible demon has been at work
to pervert the friendly and kindly nature of man ?
We answer, the law-maker, the tax-imposer, the ar-
rogant, ambitious man,who stints the supply of food,
and dooms the labourer to want and woe. If the
lower classes were comfortable their minds would
never conceive such a malignant desire. Their
recklessness is the offspring of their wretchedness ;
and for the safety, security, and happiness of others,
it is indispensable that they should have justice
done them and be made contented.

For their present condition—for all the evij
which that causes—for such scenes as those at
Newport, Merthyr Tydril, and Glasgow, the land-
lords are to blame. One House of Parliament is
composed exclusively of them, and in the other they
have a majority. The Reform Act made no
alteration in the relative superiority except somewhat
to increase it. They therefore are, and have been,
the law-makers; and unless legislation and Govern-
ment be altogether a humbug and mockery, they
are answerable to the well-disposed and peaceable
inhabitants of the community for their present ap-
prehensions. We are not even convinced that the
condition on which we have supposed they might es-
cape can be sustained. If Government and legislation
be a mere mockery, they are answerable for cheating
the community by acting and talking as if they
believed that Government and legislation could ef-
fect infinite benefits. At any rate they have had
the power in their hands, they have called, and still
call, on the community to sumbit to their ordinances
—they have had the fashioning of society as far
as that can be accomplished by the skill of the
legislator, and are responsible both to GOD and
man for the present condition, both moral and
physical, of the people.

The Tory fanatics not mean to suffer Sir R.
PEEL, and other Toxy politicians, to brand them
with having agitated the country for no religious or
practical object. They persist in demanding the
repeal of the Emancipation Act ; and they de-
nounce as cowards the respectable Tory politicians
who will not give legal force to the principle of
Protestant ascendancy.
I rejoice, (said Mr. M'Neile, at a meeting
held at Market Drayton, on Thursday week,) in
the assurance that Englishmen, in every direction, are
beginning to see who are their real friends, and to
appreciate aright the dishonesty of those who have been
seeking treacherously to undermine ; the cold, coward
carelessness of those who have been consenting basely
to betray ; and the noble boldness of those who have
been standing forward determinedly to defend their
Protestant citadel.—(Cheers.) Of course, in propor-
tion as our testimony becomes successful in arousing
the dormant, but far from extinguished, Protestantism
of the country, it stings the enemies of England to
madness. For a time they affected to despise us as in-
significant ; they laughed at the utter absurdity of at-
tempting
to revive the " No Popery" cry, and flattered
themselves into an assurance that the Emancipation
Bill, to which your Lordship has referred, and then
the Reform Bill, had prostrated for ever the noble edifice
of Protestant ascendancy.

The principle of Protestant ascendancy lives, ac-
cording to Mr. M'NEILE, i❑ the minds and hearts
of the nation ; and as it certainly does not live in
the minds and hearts of the Catholics and Liberals,
Mr. M'NEILE must believe it to pervade thes`whOle'
of the Tories. He describes the conduct of the
Tory politicians as " cold, coward careleSsness,"
and implies that the Emancipation Act is to be
made a complete dead letter of by the " noble bold.:

ness " of those who have been getting up the No-
Popery cry. He and his friends, therefore, will
not submit to be branded as unthinking zealots, as
hot-headed enthusiasts, as hair-brained orators by
the Times and Sir ROBERT PEEL. They stand
up for Protestant ascendancy, and justify Mr
O'CONNELL in calling on the whole united
Catholic population to rally round him, by
declaring, that they " will not have Popish
Members, will not have pro-Popery Members,"
and will exclude Papists from every office of public
trust. At any and at every risk the fanatics are
determined to re-establish Protestant ascendancy,
and as they are now informed that Sir R. PEEL will
not and cannot do their work, they cast him off as
the chief of those whose cowardly carelessness has
ruined and betrayed their bigot cause.

In another part of The Sun will be found an
excellent letter on the law of High Treason, which
contains a most appropriate anecdote which ought
to be now impressed on the minds of Jurors. The
public will find it stated in that letter, and distinctly
and clearly proved, that the Rev.lMr. O'QUIGLEY
was in 1798 falsely and most unjustly found guilty
of high treason, on what it appeared to be a distinct
proof of an overt act of treason. Mr. O'QUIGLEY
was immediately thereafter hanged, and so the
Kentish jurors and the law officers of that
day have his blood to answer for. We are,
however, sure that the Jurors, Law Officers, and
Judges of our day will not pursue the men
now accused of high treason with the
same unrelenting rigour as the Rev. Mr.
O'QUIGLEY andjhis friends were pursued with ; at
the same time the anecdote is extremely
well timed. We regret to differ from our Cor-
respondent on the subject of Mr. MUNTZ, as jwe
have supported Mr. STURGE.

The French Journals of Wednesday bring un-
fourable news from Africa. Hostilities were re-
ported to have commenced in the vicinity of Oran.
The following telegraphic despatch, announcing
this disagreeable intelligence appears in the official
columns of the Moniteur:—

" TOULON, DEC. 22.
THE MARITIME PREFECT TO THE MINISTER OF

MARINE.

" According to the report of the Captain of the Nep-
tune, it was rumoured in Algiers that on the 17th the
column commanded by General Rulhieres, whilst pro-
ceeding with provisions to the camp of Koleah, had
had, near Mahelma, a serious engagement in which the
Arabs had been again defeated.

" The same report states that a vessel which arrived
from Oran on the 18th had brought intelligence of
the resumption of hostilities in the west. The Chief
of the Garabas had been killed in an affair against our
troops."

The preparation which the French Government
are making to repel the aggressions of the Arabs
are most extensive. According to the Eclaireur
of Toulon, between the Ist of November and 20th
of December, 5,761 men, provided with all the ne-
cessary camp equipage, sailed from France to rein-
force the army in Africa. There remained ready
for embarkation at a moment's notice 6,838 destined
to join the Ist, 26th, and 62d regiments of
the line, four battalions of artillery, four com-
panies of engineers, two companies of workmen,
twelve detachments taken from the 7th, Bth,
9th, and 19th military divisions to the number
of 300 men from each regiment, to be embodied
with the corps now forming in Africa. Camp
equipage to the weight of 1,200 tons, is to be sent
to Toulon to be embarked for Algiers. The twelve
squadrons
ad
throen of cavalry are to embark from Marseilles,
a
13th regiment of Light Infantry, and the

4th battalion of the Foreign Legion are to proceed
to Port Vendres, where two corvettes and as many
steamers were to carry them to Aljers. After some
other unimportant details the Eclaireur concludes
with the following observations, which are suffi-
ciently significant :—" Our first expedition to Africa
in 1830 consisted of 28,000, with the correspond.
ing materiel. In 1840, after ten years' possession,
we are obliged to undertake a new expedition, infe-
rior in force by only one-third, in order to keep our
ground in our establishments. This simple state-
ment is the bitterest condemnation of the system of
administration adopted by our Government."
The Moniteur Parisien publishes the following
details of the engagements in Africa, alluded to in
the previous telegraphic despatch from Marshal
VALLEE :

On the 14th, at the moment when the moveable
column, composed of the 2d and 17th light infantry,
400 cavalry, and four pieces of artillery, was leaving
Mered for Blidah, it perceived the enemy in the plain.
The cavalry fell upon them, and our chasseurs attacked
the Arab infanty with the sabre, and drove them into
a ravine. The infantry completed the dispersion of the
enemy. A great number of bodies were left on the
ground by the fugitives. Several Arabs, at the moment
when our soldiers fell on them, cried out " Grace!"
They were Zouave ;, who had passed over to the
enemy ; our cavalry showed them no pity. Dur-
ing this combat about SOO Arab horsemen were
endeavouring to manoeuvre on our rear, and 100
chasseurs, who formed the rearguard, received
orders to attack them vigorously. The Arabs
were overthrown at the first shock, and, after
having lost a great number of men and horses, fled in
all directions. At six o'clock in the morning of the
15th, while a convoy was proceeding from the camp to
the town of Blidah, the 2d light infantry, supported by
the artillery, marched against the Arabs, who have
shown themselves at the loot of the Atlas, between the
town and the Chiffa. The regular infantry of Abd-el.
Kader was again dispersed, and experienced, still
greater losses than on the preceding day.
A Correspondent at Bona writes to the froulonnais—
" The aria cativa is making frightful ravages here. One
half of the garrison is in th hospital, and in a few days
we shall not have men enough to do duty at the several
posts. The people are also suffering, but in a less
proportion. The prevalence of sickness among the
military is partly to be accounted for by the small quan-
tity and bad quality of the food allowed them."

Madrid papers of the 18th inst. have arrived.
They merely announce that the QUEEN REGENT
had applied to the wife of ESPARTERO to write to
her husband, in order to prevail upon him either to
embrace the policy of the Cabinet or to resign the
command of the army. We trust that ESPAR-
TERO has too much regard for the welfare o
Spain to accept either alternative. He will best
consult the welfare of his country by remaining
where he is, and kicking out, which he can
easily do, the political knaves who have already so
far succeeded in abusing the confidence of the
QUEEN REGENT as to estrange from her the af-
fections of the Spanish, and even to jeopardise the
throne of ISABELLA 11.

The latest intelligence from the theatre of
war in Spain is contained in the following tele-
graphic despatch copied from the Moniteur of
Wednesday :

•" BAYONNE, DEC. 23.

" Cabrera had gone to Mora and Flix on the 12th,
to hasten the completion of the fortifications of those
places ; he returned to Zurita on the 15th. The Car-
lists attacked Berga on the 15th, but without success.
The third division marched from Alcoriza, and drove
them from the village."

The domestic intelligence in the French Journals
of Wednesday is not of much importance. M
SAUZET was on Tuesday re-elected President of
the Chamber of Deputies by a majority of 78 votes.
There was hardly any opposition, M. O'DILLON
BARROT having declared himself indifferent to the
result. He obtained, however, 94 votes, whereas
only four votes were given for the ex-President
M. DUPIN, and one each for MM. LAMARTINE
and GAUGIER, the only other candidates. The
nine Bureaux, or Standing Committees of the
Chamber, were likewise appointed. Of the first it
was proposed that M. THIERS should be Presi-
dent ; but the casting vote of his old friend M.
DUFAITHE was given for M. LEFEBRE, one of
the supporters of the MOLE Cabinet. This inci-
dent is noticed with great asperity in the Constitu-
tionnel of Wednesday—M. THxEßs's organ.
The Chamber of Peers met likewise on Tuesday,
and appointed its Committee and Secretaries.
Count D'ALTON SHEE made a powerful and sar-
sastic attack on the Cabinet for having " picked
up without dignity the wounded in electoral con-
tests," and appointed them Members of that As-
sembly. The creation of the last batch of Peers
was weakly defended by M. VILLEMAIN, who
complained of the unfairness of attacking the new
Peers in their absence. This was at once admitted
by Count D'ALTON SIIEE, and the conversation
was suffered to drop.

The Moniteur announces that Chevalier de Koss,
the Danish Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary, has delivered to Louis Philippe, in a private
audience, the letters announcing the death of King
Frederick VI., and at the same time M. de Koss pre-
sented his new credentials. A Court mourning of 21
days is ordered, to expire on the 18th of January, save
and except on Dec. 31, and the Ist, 3d, and sth of
January, the French Court levees on the new year.
BOURSE.—PAkIs, TUESDAY, DEn. 24.

t first Highest Lowest Last
Price Prier. Price. Price.
French 5 per Cents ll2 10 ... 112 15 ... 112 10 ... 112 15
4% per Cents lO7 ... 107 ... 107 ... 107
4 per Cents lO2 50 ... 102 50 ... 102 50 ... 102 50
3 per Cents BO 50 ... 80 50 ... 80 35 ... 'BO 40
Bank of erance 2997 s'l ...2997 50 ...2997 50 ...5997 50
Laffitte Bank I,ooof. Sh 1077 50 ...1077 50 ...1077 50 ...l. 77 50
5,000 f. Sh 5225 ...5225 ...5225 ...5225
Belgian 5 per Cents 1013,i ... 10134 ... 10.% ... 10134
3 per Cents 23y ... 234 ... 234 ... 234
Bank Bl5 ... 845 ... 840 ... 815
Coupons ...... .......
Spanish Ac..ive
Passive 6% ... 6 ... 6% . 63'
.. is
Portuguese 3 per Cents 23;4 ... 23% ... 23% ... 23
Neapolitan
Roman lOl ... 101 ... 101 ... 101
RAILWAY SHARES.
St. Germain
Versailles, R. B 5OO ... 500 ... 500 ... 500
L.B. 322 50 ... 325 ... 322 10 ... 328
Orleans . . 447 50 ... 447 50 ... 447 50 ... 447 50
Strasburg to Bale 315 ... 325 .. 313 ... 317 5(1
ASPHALTES AND BITUMENS.
Yarn (Maberly's)

The defendants denied the charge, and having no Wit=
ncs, to call,

Mr. HALL ordered the defendant, Lincoln, to pay
40s. for the assault, or go to prison for three weeks, and
his companion a similar penalty, or a like imprison-
meat.