The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-21 00:00:00

and willing that offences should be expiated as much as pos-
sible by confinement and labour, rather than the infliction of
eorporal punishment. Should any plan for the improvement
of our prison discipline be proposed, I shall feel it my bounden
duty to do all in my power to promote the wishes of your Ex-
cellency, and her Majesty's Government.
" In respect to the Clerk of the Peace having a doubloon
for each conviction. I bog to state, that from the parishes of
St. Catharine and St. John, he receives a yearly salary, St.
Dorothy alone paying on each indictment brought -before
Quarter Sessions.

" I cannot in justice to myself allow this opportunity to pass
without assuring your Excellency, that I feel the situation I
hold as Custos of the precinct of St. Catherine becoming every
day more irksome and painful to me, particularly as I feel that
in the present discontented and distracted state of the Colony,
I cannot on every occasion give satisfaction to the community
in which I live, and at the same time fulfil my duty towards
the Government I serve.
" I have, &c. &c.
(Signed) " PETER WILKIE.
" Lieut. General Sir Lionel Smith, K. C. 8., &c. &C.
" Governor of Jamaica."

We have received by Express from Liverpool a re-
port—published in our columns of this day—of the
proceedings at a Public Meeting held there yesterday,
for the immediate Abolition of Slavery in the West
Indies. We have likewise the pleasure to announce
that a numerous and respectable meeting, having the
same righteous object in view, has been held in Glas-
gow ; and that similar meetings are to be convened
throughout the whole of the North of England, and
the West of Scotland. These are indeed tidings of
great joy : but we have not to-day either time of
space to dwell upon them.

LORD DURHAM has postponed his departure from
London till Monday.

. The Tories are to have a great gathering in honour
of Sir ROBERT PEEL, when they mean to profit, it
is said, by their assembled forces, to strike another
blow at the Ministers. The Baronet is goaded sorely
against his better jndgment to do the work of the Cum-
berlanders, and the alternative is offered him to begin a
war to the knife against Ministers, or resign the leader-
ship of the Tories. jhe Reformers will learn their duty
from the announcement of the intention of the Tories,
and be in town the first day Parliament re-assembles.

We copy from the Morning Chronicle a very
proper castigation which that Journal bestows on the
Orange faction, for an audacious attempt made by their
organ, the Evening Mail, to debar her MAJESTY from
visiting Ireland. It is not enough for them to hint to
her MAJESTY that she will not be welcome—that
they %yin not attend her Court—that they object to
her peaceful and graceful presence ; they invoke
their allies in England to throw themselves in her
path, and not allow her to visit that part of her
dominions. Her MAJESTY is to be placed under
constraint by the Ultra Protestants of England
that her Catholic subjects in Ireland may not he
assured by herself that she is the QUEEN of the whole
prople, and not like her predecessors, the Chief of a
faction. The object of the Orangemen is to make her,
and make the Sovereign Power, subservient to their
avarice and their ambition, and failing to do that, they
arc ready to slight, thwart, and reject her MAJESTY.
the despotic CUMBERLAND is their proper Chief,
and as they have no chance of getting him hither, they
cannot do better than quit Ireland for Hanover, and
carry their homage from Dublin Castle to Herren-
hausen. He will gain some devoted subjects, who
may be of great use to him in quelling the resistance
with which he is threatened by the Hanoverians ; and
Ireland will get rid of those who have been a greater
curse to her than were the plagues to Egypt.

Madrid Journals of the 11th instant state, that al-
though the Carlist Chief, BASILIO, had occupied
Almaden for some hours, he failed to destroy the fur-
naces, or flood the mines, as was at first reported.
Ills rage at finding not quite two pounds sterling in
the treasury, was so excessive, that he threatened to
shoot the Alcalde, and the Treasurer, and his son upon
• the spot. The former however was ransomed for
60,000 reals, and the latter were carried away prison-
ers. The following official announcement of the
safety of the mines is from the Madrid Gazelle of the
9,h instant

• "GENERAL DIRECTION OF THE MINES.
" I am not able to lay before your Excellency in extenso
the intelligence received from Almaden, but hasten to inform
you that the mines, the furnaces, and the quicksilver stores
have not suffered any damage in consequence of the occupa-
tion of the town by Basilio. The mines are dry, and ill so
good a condition, that on the 20th ultimo, the works and the
extraction of the quicksilver were resumed with the usual ac-
tivity, and only suspended during two days, according to the
intelligence I have therefrom, under date the 30th ult.
" Madrid, April 8, 1838. "RAFA E L CAVANILL AS..
In the Eco of the 11th we find a despatch from
General FLINTER, announcing that he had defeated
PALILLOS, and liberated most of the prisoners carried
from Almaden by BASILIO. General PA RDINOS
was then preparing for an engagement with BASILIO,
having, as he stated to the Government, drawn the
Carlist Chief into an ambuscade, where he could not
avoid fighting. One report stated that PAItDINOS
had actually engaged and defeated BASILIO, who lost
all the prisoners he had made, and the plunder he had
collected during the expedition.

Letters from St. Petersburg, of the 3d inst., state
that, in order to encourage the colonization of the
Caucasus by Russians, the Government has signified
to the owners of serfs, that for every full-brown male
settled beyond the Kuban 250 rubles will be given ;
for every woman in good health 100 rubles ; for every
boy 125 rubles ; and for a girl 50 rubles. What a
picture of Russian civilization have we not in this
brief paragraph I

The Paris Journals of Thursday continue
to be
filled with the debates upon the question of the Five
per Cents. Interest Reduction Bill. On Wednesday,
the Minister of Finance opposed the project, not on
the ground of any injustice in the principle, but be-
cause the time was ill chosen. The holders of the
Rentes were persons in moderate circumstances, and
were the scheme of conversion pressed upon them now,
they would hazard their all in some Railway bubble,
and in a few months find themselves plunged into irre-
trievable ruin. He would wait for the subsiding of the
panic in America, and the mania of speculation at
home, before perilling the interests of a most neces-
sitous but meritorious class of public creditors. The
debate was not concluded up to three o'clock on
Thursday.
Marshal SoULT has been put in good humour by
being appointed Ambassador Extraordinary at the
Coronation of her Majesty QUEEN VICTORIA.
The Archbishop of ST. JAGO, in the Island of
Cuba, was arrested some days ago on the French fron-
tier, as he was on his way to Estella, to fill the post
of Prime Minister at the Court of the Pretender, DON
CARLOS. His influence In Spain is reported to be
very considerable.
The Correo, Madrid journal says—" A Commission com-
posed of a staff officer,
.and an officeer of every dereription of
troops in the division of General Flinter, which left 'Aeries
on the 6th of this month, has arrived at Madrid ; it is to lay
before her Majesty the condition of those troops, who are
i
unable to find subsistence, t being Basilio's practise to de-
stroy all that his troops cannot consume." "In some places,"
says the Castellane," he caused the corn to be thrown into
the river, and the wine and oil to be poured out in the streets."
In another article the journal argues RE if Madrid were on
the point of being blockaded. It says ;
, We do not think that ohatever may happen, there is any
reason to fear at Madrid a scarcity of the moat necessary ar-
ticles of subsistence. Private interest spurred on by circum-
stances, has already provided,. and will continue to provide, for
all the wants of the population of this capital.
" Last year on the approach of the rebels all the produce
whieb had been gathered in within a distance of twenty
lei,gues round Madrid was brought into the city. For some
months past Madrid has been the market where corn has
been brought for the supply of other districts. In a moment
of trial and embarrw.sment the prices will doubtless increase;