The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-13 00:00:00

BOMBAY PAPERS.

By the Lintin, arrived at Liverpool, papers have been
received from Bothbay to the 4th of July, and letters to
the 6th. From inquiries by the Bombay Chamber of Com-
merce into the amount of damage sustained by the shipping
during the late gale, it resulted that three lacs (about
80,00010 was the extent falling on the merchants and
underwriters there, and 43,0001. on account of the under-
writers here. This was independent of the loss to the East
India Company in the Aurora, the Hastings, and the two
steamers, estimated at another lac, and the loss in cargo,
shore-boats, and goods on board, at about 50,000 rupees.
It is stated that the unfavourable accounts of the money-
market in this country, received in Bombay by the over-
-land April mail, had rendered the merchants cautious about
withdrawing any portion of their capital from England.
These circumstances had brought about an " unprece-
dented" fall in the rate of exchange, which was not reckoned
at less than 20 per cent. Within a few days previously to
the departure of the Lintin, bills at six months' sight had
been sold at Is. 9d. the rupee. There was no want
of money, which it is said was never more abundant.
The Atalanta steamer was out of dock, and in readi-
ness, but her destination was stated to be dependent
on orders daily expected from Calcutta, which it was
hoped would be fur the Red Sea. The Hugh Lindsay
steamer, in addition to necessary repairs, was to be
lengthened, which it was thought might be of advantage
with respect to speed ; but this would take her out of em-
ploy for three months, and the boilers of the Berenice
were also out of order, so that she would be unfit for ser-
vice for some time to come. Accounts had been re-
ceived from Mocha of the 4th of June, that the Palinurus
was lying there, waiting for the May mail. Complaints
were made of the neglect and detention of the overland
mails by the Red Sea. The Mecca, which arrived at
Bombay on the 18th of June, did not leave Mocha for the
space of 20 days after the arrival out of the overland des-
patch, and about the time of her departure, or shortly
after, another overland mail "had reached Mocha. One
of these mails, it is stated, had been 30 days on its passage
from Suez to Juddab, being detained there 5 days, and 15
more elapsed before its arrival at Mocha. These deten-
tions were not ascribable to unfavourable winds, but to
the indifference of the masters of the native vessels em-
ployed in carryiug the mails.
By this conveyance advice& have been received from
Calcutta to the 20th of June. The heat is represented to
be extreme and unprecedented, the thermometer in the
shade ranging generally at 98 and 100 deg., and it was
found necessary to open the offices for business at dawn,
and close at I I in the morning. The cholera was raging
among the native population, and many Europeans had also
fallen victims to it.

FRENCH and ENGLISH ELECTORAL

SYSTEMS.

(From the Connie,. Francais.)
" Great Britain, once so servilely imitated by the Doc-
trinaires, has for this some time past fallen into complete
disgrace with the clever gentlemen of that coterie. The
example of England recurs no more to their mouths, ex-
cept as the drunken slave whom the Spartans pointed out
to their children to make them blush. They display with
infinite complacency all the defects of the English Consti-
tution—defects which have been so carefully avoided in the
French Charter.
i
Liberty, say they, cannot consist n the number of elec-
tors. Nothing can be more free than French elections,
where the venality of the English does not exist.
" To this it may be observed, that increasing the num•
ber of electors has never been announced as sufficient to
guarantee the freedom and the morality of the suffrage. It
forms not all, but merely one, of the conditions of a fair
representation. The Government ought to be in accor-
dance with the wishes of the majority, which can never be
the case if the electoral body be but a mere oligarchy. No
doubt the instincts of the multitude, coarse though sure,
ought not to be allowed to prevail over that force of intel-
ligence which ought to form the Government. But it is
indispensable that the mere force of Government should not
turn the country as it lists, and oppress it, as administrative
chiefs, or as wielding the military force.
" In England a million of electors participate in the
exercise of sovereignty. Is it the number that renders the
English elections corrupted ? Were they more or less so
before Lord Grey's reform ? Is not the contrary the ad-
mitted truth ? We would wish for France, however, that
the representative machine was as pure in France as it is
in England. But truth forces us to admit that in sifting
and diminishing the number of electors we have obtained
neither more independence nor more dignity in them. If
of the 200,000 political magistrates called electors all
were subtracted who failed in their duty, we fear the moral
balance would not be on our side, or unfavourable to the
English. It is the misfortune of the time. Our habits are
no more innocent than our law. Corruption with us holds
open market, the same as in England, except that the pur-
chasers and the form of the vile contract are different. And
what takes place there in the streets and taverns is done
with us more decently in saloons. In Great Britain corruption
assumes a rude form, but for that reason less dangerous.
A vote is bought with a sum, or with an ad libitum portion
of beer. This is the infancy as well as the dotage of the
art of corruption, invented by the, aristocracy before Wal-
pole or Villele came to render the said art perfect. In
France the Government, the sole buyer possible of venal
consciences, is more adroit in its election manoeuvres. It
does not offer money. The secret funds would not suffice.
The same result is reached, however. The Minister has the
power of making every elector a functionary ; for the
Finance Minister alone has 200,000 places in his gift. But
the Government is not reduced to the bribing of each elec-
tor individually. Instead of bribing them in detail, as
English candidates must, the Minister buys up at once a
district or a town by the grant of a road, a canal, a railroad,
a college, and sometimes even by a cavalry garrison to raise
the price of hay. It is thus the majority of the Chamber
is changed ; it is thus that there never has been a Ministry
which might not procure a majority for itself. We are
really at a loss to choose between the two modes of cor-
ruption. In England, however, the shame and the crime
are confined to individuals, whilst in France it is the Go-
vernment which is guilty." -