The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-22 00:00:00

object, in raising such a clamour, is that they may be
enabled to rob the Post-office, and consequently the public.
What is there at present to prevent them from making the
Bathing.
exorbitant demand for the conveyance of the mails ?
Bathing. As we have said already, the Post-office and
the public are completely at their mercy. Is it not
altogether ridiculous to suppose either that this was
the intention of the Legislature in passing the rail-
way Bills, or that it did or could divest itself of the
right and duty of interposing its authority for re-
gulating the enormous powers which it conferred on
the Companies, when it deemed such interposition called
for ? Was it necessary to insert in every railway Bill a
clause reserving to the British Parliament a right to alter
and amend it ? We are certainly come to a fine pass if
Kings, Lords, and Commons must higgle with private in-
dividuals about the terms on which laws are to
be made ! Yet this was the argument put forward
by the opponent of the Bill. " You may," says he
" make what terms you please with future applicants
for such powers as we have got, but with us you
cannot meddle—we have got our Bill—our purpose is
served, and now we turn round and snap our fingers in your
face." This is now the language of those who a little
while ago came forward with cap in hand, praying to
be allowed, solely for the public good, to seize upon
the property of hundreds and thousands of persons
against their wills, and professing their willingness
to submit to any conditions, rather than not be per-
mitted to serve the public. They have monopolized
the public communications of the country, and now they
deny the right of the public to break their monopoly.
But how, it is asked, can railways be called a monopoly ?
There are the old roads still—if you don't like our regula-
tions or our charges, you may travel by coach. So indeed,
you may, if 3ou can afford it ; but where are the coaches
and the horses to he had ? Not along the road. The
coach proprietors have put down their establishments.
One of the first and most necessary consequences of
opening a railway is the extinction of coach travelling
on the same line. Here then is a virtual monopoly in fa-
vour of the railways ; and as it is created by the Legisla-
ture—whether directly or indirectly is of no moment—
it is the duty of the Legislature to see, not merely that it
does not operate injuriousily to the public, but that the
Ipublic shall derive from it the greatest possible amount of
benefit.

It surely never can he supposed that the public are to
be curtailed of any of the advantages which they now pos-
sess, by the substitution of railways for other roads. It
is the duty of the railway Companies to afford every
facility in their power to those who use the new
mode of communication. On what decent pretence,
for instanc', can a carriage unaccompanied by a train,
be refused to any one whose business requires extra-
ordinary expedition, and who is willing to pay for the extra
accommodation ? Yet this, to our certain knowledge, has
been done by some Companies. Such conduct we hold to
be unjustifiable. It is also highly impolitic, for it is obvi-
ously the interest of those who embark their property in
Railways, to make them popular, and that is not to be
done by anything savouring of illiberality and inattention
to the convenience of individuals.

The Bill in question confines the interference of the Le-
gislature to one branch of the public service, the Post-office,
and it leaves it optional with the head of that de-
partment either to use the engines and carriages of the
railway Companies, or engines belonging to the Post-
office, due compensation being allowed—and that too by
the fairest possible mode of adjustment—arbitration in
either case. It has occurred to us that it might, per-
haps, be as well not to give the POSTMASTER-GENE-
RAL the unqualified power of placing other engines,
&c., than those of the Company whose road is used on
any railway. We think it might produce confusion if two
sets of engines, servants, &c. were employed at the same
time, acting under different authorities. There would al-
most necessarily arise some degree of jealousy between
the agents of the two parties ; and collisions unfavourable
to the public service, perhaps not unattended with danger,
might be the consequence. That clause of the Bill, there-
fore, might perhaps, without injury to the measure, be
modified, so that the consent of some higher authority than
the Postmaster-General should be requisite before that
functionary should have power to use any other engines
and carriages than thos- of the Company concerned in a
railway. Should any obstruction or difficulty arise in the
conveyance of the mails by the Company's carriages, then
the other mode might be adopted, and, in the meantime, the
dread of its adoption, in the last resort, would act as a salu-
tary check Lyon their agents and servants.

We have received the whole of the Paris Journals of
Wednesday. The Chamber of Peers had entered upon
the discussion of the Five per Cents. Bill on Tuesday, but
the debate was uninteresting. The Bills for granting a
pension to the Ex-queen of Nart.cs, and defraying the
expemes of the annual celebration of the July fetes, were
adopted without any opposition. On Wednesday morning
the Duke of NEMOURS set out for London, to assist at the
Coronation of Queen VICTCRIA.

Reports were current that France was resolved to fol-
low up the blockade of Mexico by a descent o❑ the coast,
in the event of her claims being resisted any longer by the

atithorities.

The following are the only extracts of any interest con.
tained in these journals :

The Journal de la Guienne has the following article:—
" A letter written from Perpignan, on the 10th June, by a Spaniard
devoted to the revolution, says—

" Sin, —At this moment, 11 o'clock in the morning, we have learned
the following news;—ln the general order of tt e army of Catalonia, of
the sth of June, notice was given to the troops that we have exPrn-
enced a reverse in the Campo of Tarragona, but that our loss (that of the
Christinos) is only 1,500 men, and that notwithstanding this misfortune
the free men crust not lose their courage, and that more fortunate events
will make up for this disaster. This is what has been said to the army,
but per.ons who havearrired at Barce:cna, from Tarragona,
say that Ca-
firers and Larch de Copons hare completely beaten the Baron de Meer
,who
escaped with a few men at the passage of the Ebro. All this may be said
without feat of contradiction. According to the Paz Meer entered Tarra-
gona on the 26th May; he left it on the 2Sth, and proceeded to Reuss,
where he caused the gates of the town to be closed on his arrival, and
disarmed three battalions of the National Guards. Meer was still at
Reuss on the 2d of dune, re-crganising the National Guard."—Le Ga-
zette de France.

When the Vile de Lyons packet left New York on the 2tith of Stay,
it was reporied that General Inginac, who next to the President Boyer
had the greatest influence in the Government of Haiti, had been assi-
nated. A letter from Port au Prince of the sth of May received by
one of the principal houses at Havre, confirms this unfortunate
news. The assasin came to him at two in the morning, pre-
tending to have an important dispatch to deliver to him. While
the General was reading, the assasin rested his pistol on the shoul-
der of a young man who he'd the candle, and fired. Ihe ball en-
tered below the jaw, and issued at the mouth, carrying three or
four teeth. The wound is said not to be mortal.-Journal du Havre.
FRENCH FUNDS.-Paats, JUNE 211.
Five per Cents., 110 f. Sec. 60c. 70c.
Four and a Half ner Cents. 106 f.
Four per Cents., 102 f. 40c.
Three per Cents., 80f. 20c. 25c.
Bank Actions, 2,755 f. 5Cc.
Rente de Naples, 98f. 00c. ClCc. 90c.
Roman Five per Cents., 101 y,.
Spanish Actives, 22.
Spanish Passives, 4%.
Belgian Loan, 102%.
Belgian Bank, 1,445 f.
Portuguese Loan, Three per Cents. 24%.
Haytian Loan, 360 f. 355 E
excnancus on LONDON.
One month, paper, 25f. 42yic.; money, 25f. 40e.
Three months, paper, -1. ; money, 23f. 32}(0.
LATEST PRICES,
Five per Cents. 110 f. 75c.
Three per Cents., fglf. 3Cc.
Bank Actions, 2,757 f. 30c.
Romans, 101.
Belgian Loan, 10214.
Belgian Bank, 1,4451.
Spanish Actives, 22.
Spanish Passives,

Brussels and German Papers have been received this
morni❑g, from which the following are extracts :

....
BRUSSELS, JUNE 20.—The average prices of wheat and rye, in the
week ending on Saturday the I6th were—Wheat, 20f. 30c. ; rye,
1 If. 90e. per Hectolitre. Wheat is therefore exempt from import
duty, and that on rye remains at 21f. 50c. per 100 Kilogrames.
Baron O'Sullivan de Grass, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Ple-
nipotentiary from the King of the Belgians, on a special mission to
the Ottoman Porte, arrived at Therapia on the 15th May. On the
following day the Baron sent his Dragoman to notify his arrival to
Redsched Pacha, Minister for Foreign Affairs. On the 19th a dis.
tinguished functionary of the Porte came to compliment him on his ar-
rival, and on the 30th he had an audience of Redschecl Pacha.
The Marquis de Bassano, First Secretary to the French Legation, at
Brussels, who is to be present at the coronation of Queen Victoria, is
gone to London to join the Duke of Dalmatia, the Ambassador extra-
ordinary ; Prince Paul Kolschubry, General in the Prussian Service,
has arrived at Ghent.
A letter from Aix la Chapelle, of the 10th June says :--" Count
Seekendorff, Prussian Charge d'Affaires in Belgium, whose arrival we
announced yesterday, has this morning had a long conference with one
of the influential Members of the German Diet ; who has come hither
in order to obtain information respecting the actual state of things in
Belgium.
Prince William of Prussia alighted at the Hotel du Grand-Monarque,
where the civil and military authorities, the Catholic and Protestant
Clergy, were ready to receive him. He invited these gentlemen to
dinner, where his Excellency the Duke of Aremburg was also present.
This morning, at seven o'clock, he inspected the troops of the gar-
rison, whose good appearance he admired, and then s-,t, out for Juliers.
STOCKHOLM, JUNE s.—His Majesty's steam-boat Gylfe, Capt. Iljilm,
set out to-clay with Lieut.-General Count Axel Marner, and Count Fr.
Piper, who are commissioned by his Majesty to go and meet his Imperial
Highness the Crown Prince of Russia, who is expected here this evening ,