The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-25 00:00:00

sation in Paris on Saturday. The despatch con-
tained only the following brief ,-rouncemcnt

" MADRID, Nov. 18.—A decree of the Queen-
Regent orders the dissolution of the Cortes. Madrid
is quite tranquil."

The tranquillity of Madrid was supposed to be
owing to the presence of a large military force in
and near that capital. So long as the Constitution
of 1837 is made the pass-word of the army, the
Government can rely upon the fidelity of the troops.
In the meantime the cry against the payment of
taxes, unless sanctioned by the Cortes, was re-
echoed from province to province throughout Spain.
This will place the Government in a most dangerous
predicament, as the new Cortes will unquestionably
call to severe account any Minister daring to violate
the solemn resolution of their predecessors, and we do
not see in what way the Cabinet can provide for the
expenses of the Crown without taxes. No intelli-
gence of any moment had been received from Las
Parras, the head-quarters of General ESPARTERO.
That officer was awaiting the arrival of supplies be-
fore commencing active operations. His army was
suffering greatly from want of provisions.

It will excite some surprise here that the French
Government, who only a few weeks ago expressed
such a determination to maintain the integrity of
Spain by insisting upon the speedy evacuation of
Passages by the English, is at this very moment
about to seize upon Minorca by one of those devices
which succeeded so admirably in Africa. True,
the real design of the Government is not yet
avowed ; but of the fact no doubt can be enter-
tained from the following announcement, which we
copy from a well-informed Paris Paper :

"The long• contemplated establishment of a military
hospital at Mahon is definitively to take place, and is,
we understand, in progress of execution. In conse-
quence of this measure, the passage between France
and Africa, which is now 135 marine leagues, will be
reduced to less than one half, and the sick may be
hereafter conveyed first to that hospital, and, when
able to continue the journey without danger, again
shipped for France. With that view iron bedsteads
belonging to the War Administration, have been em-
barked in the Rainier steamer, Captain Fournier, which
was to have left Toulon on the 17th with the corres-
pondence for Algiers. This vessel was to put into
Mahon, and deposit the articles necessary for the open.
ing of that hospital.
"This institution would have beenlongsince in opera-
tion if England had not thrown difficulties in the way
of its establishment."

We should like to know by what process the
". difficulties" of our Government in this affair
were at last overcome. It is not surely intended to
make the Mediterranean in reality a French lake.

The Oriental question was considered as good as
settled in Paris. According to the current rumour,
MEHEMET ALI is to be left the hereditary sove-
reignty of Egypt and Syria, with the enjoyment for
life of the Government of Candia, which at his
death is to revert to the dominion of the Porte.

The despotical tendencies of the French Go-
vernment, and the avidity with which it seizes upon
every occasion to arrest the progress of the very
principles which gave it an existence, are indig-
nantly denounced in a very sensible article in the
Commerce of Friday. Hardly had LOUIS PHI-
LIPPE ascended a throne, purchased by a glorious
revolution, when France was made to turn her back
upon struggling Poland, prostrate Italy, and the con-
stitutionalists of Germ Any, who were severally handed
over to the tender mercies of Russia, Prussia, and
Austria. Switzerland was next trampled under
foot ; and since the commencement of the unfor-
tunate war in Spain, everything has been done to
render unavailing the noble efforts and free aspira-
tions of the Constitutional party. The same Jour-
nal assures us that since the ridiculous and fulsome
eulogium pronounced by Sir ROBERT PEEL in the
House of Commons, upon the system of Louis
PHILIPPE, whom he affected to compare in greatness
with NAPOLEON, the English Tories have become
prodigious favourites at the Tuileries. But in what
terms do the organs of that faction in France speak
of the Orleans dynasty ? How do they receive the
complaisant advances of King Louis PHILIPPE ?
We have seen with what fOrce the French inde-
pendent Liberal press condemn the retrogade policy
of the Court. Now mark the scorn with which
the high Chinch-and-King, the abolutist organ,
the Quotidienne, speaks of Louis PHILPPE'S
darling system :
" France must not be surprised if, in the height of

its miseries, the Government offers no remedy. It does
not consider these miseries as worthy of its attention. ,
Bread is dear, but that is nothing. In one arrondisse-
ment of Paris there are 16,000 paupers—that is no-
thing ; the Tuileries are guarded like !I fortress of the
middle ages—that is nothing ; the entire system of so-
cial order is endangered by public demoralisation—
that is nothing. Ministers belonging to a party soi.
disant favourable to liberty, and instructed by the
Chambers to take an opposite course to that of the
Court Cabinet which they overturned, allow them-
selves to be led even more captive than their pre-
decessors, at the same time showing their own
weakness and their affected contempt for their for.
mer opinions—but this is nothing—less than nothing.
Taxes are imposed by ordonnance without the concurrence

of the Chambers or the authority of the law—that is
nothing. Peers are made from all that is obscure, as if
it was intended to destroy this institution—that is no-
thing. Our army in Africa, by the neglect of the Ali-
nistry, are dying of suff'erino's and hunger—that is no-
thing. Public offices are the prey of men of incapacity
or bad reputation—that is nothing. The budget, al-
ready so overwhelming, is augmented—that is nothing.
Spain, more ravaged than ever by fire and sword—
England and:Russia united in insulting France (the only
point on which they are agreed)—our commercial inte-
rests sacrificed by sea and land—without an ally in
Europe—an equivocal and discreditable attitude in the
East, where the Ambassadors of the other Powers act
independently of France—all this is to be ranged in the
class of the greatest trifles in the world."

The French Journals of Friday and Saturday have
all been duly received. The most important news
they bring is the dissolution of the Cortes by the
Queen of SPAIN—a measure of which the details
will be found in another article. In answer to the
repeated remonstrances of the Commerce on the
subject of the unfortunate French exiles in Siberia,
the Moniteur publishes the following official ar-
ticle :

" A journal demands in the most vehement
terms an explanation from the Ministry, respecting
the truth of the reports which have been lately cir-
culated of the unhappy situation of between 2,000
and 3,000 French prisoners, who, it says, are still
detained in captivity in Siberia.
" A plain statement of facts will be a sufficient
answer to these assertions, which are made use of
to excite public opinion in the most delicate and
sensitive point.

,c The steps which the French Legation at St. 1
Perurgh took on several occasions, between 1816 1
and
in order to ascertain whether the Rus-
sianernment did in fact retain in servitude
et
is Bb3oo
Government
some remnants of our ancient armies, had
instantly
producedunhappy
the formal assurance of that
Government, that there was not a single French-
man detained against his will in the dominions of
the Emperor.
" Marshal INIAtsoN in 1834, and Baron BA-
RANTR in 1836, returned the same answer to the
new instructions which were successively sent to
those Ambassadors, to inquire with the utmost
care into the truth of the assertions of a Frenchman
who affirmed that he had escaped by flight from the
hardships of the
captivitystandards. which
endured in
Russia, ever since the
our
he had
the fortune of war had sepa-
rated them from
i, The Russian Government ordered the Gover-
nors of Siberia to send •in an
official report on the
French prisoners of war who might be in the
provinces under their administration.
The reports
of these Governors were corn •
municated to our A in-
bassa,:!;.lr. It appeared from them that there WE re
in Siberia only slime Frenchmen who
had be, n
condemned to hard labour for assassination.
" It will be acknowledged that the department of
1 Foreign Affairs had reason to think itself SUM-