The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It might almost be thought, from the tone assumed by
the Tory papers, if people were not aware that those jour-
nals could know nothing' about the matter, that the diminu-
tion of the expense of the projected coronation was directly
opposed to the wishes of her Majesty, when in fact every
arrangement upon the subject has met with her entire con-
currence. The Queen was from the first anxious that only
such an expenditure of the public money as could not be
avoided should be made, and that her subjects should not be
called upon to pay a vast sum for a mere show, full of an
tiquated absurdity and feudal nonsense, the vain pageantry
of which, as we said on a former day, in no way contri-
butes to the solemnity of the occasion. For this conside-
rateness and forbearance we are confident the people feel
duly grateful, more particularly when they reflect that our
Queen is at an age when a display of splendour and royal
magnificence might not unreasonably be expected to
have their attractions for a youthful mind. It affords
additional proof of the strength of Her Majesty's under-
standing, and is eminently consisteet with the whole course
of her conduct since she came to the throne, and with the
excellent principles instilled into her mind by education
under the anxious superintendence of her illustrious parent.
The reason why the Tories are so disconcerted at the
whole affair is obvious enough. Setting aside their vexa-
tion and disappointment at not being permitted to have any
hand in the nomination of the new Peers, they do not for-
get, nor will the natiou, that they were at the head of
affairs when nearly 250,000/. were expended upon the
coronation of George IV. ; whereas the Whigs were in
office when only about one-tenth of that sum was laid out
upon the coronation of William IV., and the Whigs will be
in office when something like the same amount will be re-
quired for the coronation of Queen Victoria. The
Tories cannot endure the contrast ; the Whigs have
" a daily beauty in their lives" as public men,
which snakes the Tories " ugly," and therefore the
cry has been raised that "needless and unbecoming par-
simony" has " shorn the coronation of its accustomed
splendours," &c. How is such parsimony " needless" at
the very moment when the Tories are chuckling that the
revenue this quarter is deficient, or how is it " unbecom-
ing" when the Queen herself has expressly enjoined that
the public purse shall not be called upon to contribute
more than is necessary for the due performance of the so-
lemn rite ? Can anything be more contemptible, more
paltry, or more pitiful than the conduct of the Tories ?
They would cramp the service of the state by withholding
a few hundreds out of personal spite to an exalted No-
Fbleman, dispatched on perhaps the most important
Mission ever entrusted to an individual ; and yet, for
he sake of ingratiating themselves, as they foolishly
imagine, with certain persons about the Court, and
for the sake of accusing the Ministers of the Queen
of " needless and unbecoming parsimony," they affect
(for all time world knows it to be mere affectation)
be anxious that a quarter of a million, derived
om the pockets of the people, should be lavished
upon an empty spectacle. We have called this con-
duct contemptible, paltry, and pitiful: the terms are
o mild : it is nothing short of base and disgusting
hypocrisy. The tone assumed by some of our Contempo-
ram ies is amusing enough. Hear the Morning Post—the
gazette of the se;vants' hall and the boudoir—the butler's
oracle and lady's-maid's delight—how it pretends to be ac-
quainted with the notions and sentiments of the higher and
educated orders. " From the opportunities we enjoy
(quoth the Post) of estimating the predominant opinions
and feelings of various classes of society in Great Britain,
we have no hesitation-to declare that of all the unpopular
acts committed by the present Administration, the in-
tended curtailment of the ceremonies which belong by an-
cient usage to the coronation of her Majesty is the most
repugnant to the feelings and taste of the nation at
large." Take it so, strange as such language may seem
in the mouth of a Contemporary alio has always been
accusing the present Ministry of hunting after popu-
larity to the sacrifice of the great interests of the
State ; if this he such an " unpopular act," surely
Lord Melbourne and his colleagues deserve credit
for making a bold sacrifice of popularity for the sake
of discharging their duty to the nation in avoiding, under
the express directions of her Majesty, any unnecessary ex-
penditure of the public money. But the Post knows that
it is talking utter nonsense when it advances any such
statement ; and what really grieves our Contemporary is,
that Ministers by this course have secured to themselves
not merely the approbation of the Queen, but the sincere
good-will and entire confidence of the great body of her
subjects. If Ministers had actually incurred general cen-
sure for thus saving more than 200,000/. to the people, the
Post would have been vastly too much delighted to be
angry. The Post would persuade the world that it " enjoys
the opportunity of estimating the predominant feelings and
opinions" of the great body of the nation, and the Herald
e ould make its readers (no very incredulous class of per-
sons) believe that it is quite in the secret of the Court
as to the usual creation of Peers at a Corona-
tion. " Among the names we observe" such and
such, says Grandinamma, concluding that the mai-
den aunts and governautes she addresses will, of
course, take it for granted that she speaks from scarcely less
ant hority than that of the porter's wife's sister's cousin at St.
James's. Then, after the usual complaint against " Whig
economy," Grandinamma very naturally takes up the cause
of her sex, laments that " the age of chivalry is past," and
that the Queen is not to be allowed a champion, at a time
when she has a champion in every man in her dominions.
Whatever may be the fact with the age of chivalry, hap-
pily the age of wanton expenditure is past, and will not re-
turn unless the Tories return to power ; and it is just
worth noting that the mere hire of the charger for the
champion of George IV. cost the country 1181. This is
what Grandmamnia calls prescrviug " old institutions of
ancestral glory," and then she talks very learnedly, as if
they had some !emote connection with the subject, about
Cressy and Poictiers. We do not wonder she omitted
A gin-court, into which we must suppose the cid lady had
been wandering, in order to account for her senile and in-
coherent garrulity.—Morning Chronicle.
A variety of tcpics, none of them of grave importance,
but all des era ing- a passing allusion as indicative of the
state and spirit of the time, at present claim our attention.
We shall dismiss them with a foie words, for to the think-
ing and intelligent they scarcely need commentary, and to
the unthinking, the factious, or the prejudiced, it would
require more time and space than the subjects merit or the
conversion of such readers would be worth, to enter upon
their full exposition. Foremost amongst these second-rate
topics stands the procession of the Trades, which, as we
had previously noticed, took place yesterday, and which we
are rejoiced to say passed off without any disturbance ; not
that we apprehended any disturbance from those taking
. part in the procession, hut, as we before stated, we cer-
tainly had misgivings, lest evil-disposed persons should en-
deavour to interrupt the order of the procession, or excite
confusion, in order to facilitate the purposes of plunder or
violence. Our fears in this regard were proved groundless
by the result, but our opinion as to the futility and im-
policy of the procession itself was but too fully verified.
Intemperate, or self-interested persons may vilify and
abuse us for the frank and fair expression of our
opinions, because, forsooth, these opinions tend more
to the elevation of the general condition of the
working classes than to the gratification of the paltry
ambition, or still more paltry vanity of those who would ar-
rogate an exclusive right of dictating to these classes their
most politic course of action under all varieties of circum-
stances ; but this shall not deter us from the fearless per-
formance of a great and solemn public duty. We repeat,
that the procession of yesterday was injudicious, uncalled
for, has proved to be ineffective, and that the Trades should
reserve the exhibition of their strength for more important
purposes than merely to grace the violent and inflated de-
clamationof a few retailers of clap-trap, who strut and fret
their little hour as heroes of the scene, luxuriate in the
excess of their own importance, and provided they can get
a few of their less loquacious, but more rational fellow-
tradesmen, to listen to their cut-and-dry pieces of oratory,
fancy they may abuse all who, desirous only of the popular
good, would limit these displays to fitting occasions, and
riot encourage them for the mere purpose of theatrical de-
clamation. We care not for such abuse—friends are often
abused for the best advice ; but we ask the trades to dis-
miss all prejudice from their minds, and consulting only that
`1
ood sense and reason for which they are distinguished,
hat good have they effected by their procession- of yes-
rday ? Would they not have been more suitably en-
ged, enjoying the comforts of their own firesides, or even
he amusements of Greenwich fair, than in making a fool-
h, objectless procession ? We pause for a reply. The
' other topics which we intended to embrace in our present
commentary, are the proceedings of the Marylebone ves-
try, in reference to maintaining the power of imprisonment
for debt in the local courts ; a power which the parties
desirous of retaining strangely pronounced to be unjust and
tyrannical, yet contended for, as necessary to the security
Of the creditor ; the rabid anxiety of the Aldermen of Lon-
on to treat her Majesty to a dinner at her Coronation,
*thous which they appear to consider that ceremony in-
tete mp ; and the mountainous throes of the Times to
ring about hostilities between this country and the United
tates ; but these we may safely leave to the ridicule and
Contempt which an examination of the circumstances cannot
fail to excite in the minds of all rational men.—Morning
Advertiser.

At the risk of disturbing some settled opinions—and,
Tories as we are, we love settled opinions in the general—
we must express our conviction that the Whigs do not emi-
nently succeed in being pleasant, and witty, and all that
sort of thing, upon political subjects. Now, we know that
they think, and have-long thought, that they do, but they
may take our word for it (though perhaps they wont)
hat they do not. In the old days of the Morning Chro-

aide and the Edinburgh Review there was to be sure some
:un among them. When Byron was alive, and Moore was
young, and Sydney Smith was poor, and Brougham was
fresh ; and before Popery and Benthamism had diffused
over the party a vile spirit of craft, and a cold brittle crust
of self-conceit, there was imagination and mirthfulness in
their villainy. But these times have gone, and for any-
thing that at present appears there is no chance of their
return. Before the Examiner turned into a mere toady of
the Melbourne Government there was a good deal of sharp
wit in it, which has now degenerated into small puns, and
other such dish-water of literary pleasantry—mere wash-
ings, as it were, of the vessel where good things have been.
But in the best days of its witty Radicalism, the Examiner
lacked humour, and especially good humour. It had not
that which Persius so delicately ascribes to Horace---

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, et admissus, eircum prcordia ludit,
Callidus excusso populum suspendere naso ;"
Thus translated with matchless felicity by old Gifford, who
so long wielded the editorial sceptre of the Quarterly Re-
view, and smote therewith many a Whig Thersites till he
howled again—
Arch Horace, while he strove to mend,
Probed all the follies of his smiling friend;
Play'd lightly round and round the peccant part,
And won unfelt an entrance to the heart ;
Well skilled the follies of the crowd to trace,
And sneer with gay good-humour in his face."
This, the Examiner could not do in its best days, and now
—ugh ! let us say no more about it. Of all disgusting
things the hireling servility of genius is the most loathsome.
Perhaps our readers will ask whither do these observations
tend ? It is in truth time to tell them, for our purpose in be-
ginning this article was to say a few words about the attempt-
ed pleasantries of the Chronicle of this day, or to speak
more "by the card," of yesterday, morning. Eheu! quan-
to mutatus ab illo ! Was ever a newspaper so changed?
Perry's Chronicle was chronicled champagne, but the Chro-
nicle of these days is indeed " chronicled small beer," and
nothing better. Sour small beer—there is acid, but only a
little, and no sparkling carbon—no mounting alcohol. It is
most flat. If it provoke a smile it is at the absurdity, and
not at the wit. Let our readers only suppose a small
flourish of Whig trumpets—an opening sentence indicating
—" we mean to be very witty and pleasant this morning"
—and then imagine such manufacture as the following :
" Never, perhaps, since the world began was there such a
set of discontented people as the Tories. Nothing can satisfy
them. They are resolved not to be pleased, though there are
abundant reasons for satisfaction."

The beauty of this pleasantry as ap?lied to a party
whose characteristic is resistance to political change, and
by a party who are unceasingly proclaiming their discontent
with established institutions, and trying to alter them—the
beauty, we say, and peculiar applicability of this pleasantry
must be quite obvious. But let us read a little further in
this same witty article, and we find•it set down thus :
" We own we cannot wonder at the state of mind in which
the Tory party now find themselves. They have a right to
be most thoroughly out of humour with everything."
Putting these two passages together, it appears that
though the Tories have abundant reasons for satisfaction,
yet they hare a right to be most thoroughly out of humour ;
and though they are the most discontented people that
ever were in the world, yet there is no wonder at the state
of mind in which they find themselves. All this, we grant,
is nonsense, but all nonsense is not pleasantry. On the
contrary, there is such a thing as dull nonsense, and as
stupid nonsense ; and we think the above composite ac-
count of the state of the Tories must be admitted to belong
to the latter class. Here is another specimen of the wit of
the Morning Chronicle :--
" There is a soul of goodness in things evil, observes a great
authority; but they (the Tories) cannot find out even this
soul. They are not only political immaterialists, but they deny
the very existence of the soul."
Immaterialists denying the existence of the soul! Here
we must confets that the erudition and the wit are about
equal to one another. Alas, poor Chronicle! Our wit—
Whig-Radical wit, be it observed—then proceeds to in-
dulge in the following pleasant paroxysm or paroxysm of
pleasure—for it is obviously intended to appear to be both .
" They (the Tories) are delighted to observe that the ac-
counts both of the whole year and of the last quarter, are
somewhat unfavourable, and show a decrease in the income of
the country."
Well, we proceed onwards, and presently we learn from
the same authority that these same Tories see
" Our commerce thriving, our manufactures flourishing, our
agriculture prosperous, and our revenues, though temporarily
(I:pressed, gradually improving ./.,-
When the Tories were in office the Whigs often in-
sisted that they wore intoxicated with power—now that
they are not in office it is only insinuated that they see
double as to the state of the country, just as they are per-
mitted to feel double with regard to their own position.
They have " abundant reason for satisfaction," and yet
have " a right to be out of humour with everything"—
they are delighted to " observe" the bad state of the re-
-1 venue, and yet they " see' that everything is in a favour-
' able condition! But the best hit of all is that they see at
one and the same time the public revenues temporarily de-
I pressed and gradually improving. There the Chronicle out-
did itself—let the ingenious writer stick to that, and he'd
win to a positive certainty.—Morning Post.

According to letters from Valparaiso, it appears
that when the ports of Chili were blockaded by the Peruvian
vessels, as formerly noticrd, the Chilian Goverment had also
laid an embargo on their side en all vessels in harbour. This
embargo, it seems, was wantonly continued, to the great da-
mage of commerce and shipping, after the motive fur it had
ceased, by the departure of the enema's cruisers, probably
under the pretence of preparing another expedition against
Peru. On the 22(1 of December the captain of the port of
Valparaiso refused leave for the sailing of the British brig-
packet, hound for Cobija. Captain Sullivan, Commodore on
the station, demanded an explanation, but all satisfaction
being refused him, he instructed the commander of the brig
to put to sea ; upon which the authorities dispatched after the
packet a Chilian sloop of war, called the Colocolo, and the
Commodore, on his part, sent the Rover for protection.
Whether actual hostilities ensued does not appear. A misun-
derstanding had also been provoked with the French Consul,
on account of peremptory orders having been given to M.
Hubert for his instant departure, without cause assigned,
against which the Consul entered a formal protest—Morning
Paper.
AYLESBURY, APRIL 10.—At the Bucks S2ssions,
which were held last week at Aylesbury, before Sir Thomas
Aubrey, Bart., Chairman, and a full bench of M igistratev,
Dr. Lea. L. L. D., of Hartnell-house, brought forward his pro.
mised motion respecting the removal of the assizes from Buck-
ingham, and in an elaborate speech stated the inconvenience
and disadvantage arising to the county from holding the assizes
at Buckingham. The expense to the county would be dimi-
nished, and the safety of the prisoners secured, and some of
the jurors, witnesses, &c., would be saved the trouble of tra-
velling about fifty miles to the summer assizes. The learned
doctor concluded by moving for a Committee to inquire into
the expediency of removing the summer assizes from Ducking,
ham to Aylesbury. Mr. R. Barker seconded the motion.
Mr. Comington, of Missenden, considered the question of
great importance to the interests of the county, and in an elo-
quent speech supported the motion. Sir T. Fremantle and
Sir T. Chetwode opposed it ; and after some discussion the
Court divided—for the motion, 10 ; against it 14.
A letter of the 15th ult. from Palermo informs us
that the rain fell with such force and abundance, from the sth
to the 12th, that the environs of the city have been completely
inundated, and several small towns and villages have sustained
serious damage. At Mezzojoso 120 houses have been de-
stroyed by the earth giving way. At Saint Joseph delle Mor-
telle, 18 miles off, a fall of tho superincumbent earth took
place in the morning of the 11th, and between six and nine
o'clock four-fifths of the buildings were overwhelmed. The
inhabitants, 5,000 in number, had time to fly, and found refuge
in the neighbouring villages ; but all their property was lost.
The amount of damage is immense, as they had recently be-
come very prosperous, and had 20,000 tons of wine in the
bonding warehouse.

We find in the Castellano of Madrid the following
particulars of the career of Basilic) Garcia :—" Basilio Garcia,
after having been a soldier, a corporal, and a sergeant during
the War of Independence, was promoted in 1815 to the rank
of Lieutenant of a regiment of African infantry, and from that
after the affair of the 21st July, at Castalla, passed in 1912 to
a regiment of the Crown. His physical force, and the rough-
ness of his character, caused him to be chosen to fill the situa-
tion of Adjutant-major, and he occupied this rank till the
time when the expedition of Nlorillo for America was orga-
nised. He returned from America in 1824 with the title of
Colonel, and was appointed Commandant of Arms at San
Lucar, and afterwards at Segovia, in 1828. He next obtained
the administration of the commandary of Log,reno, and it was
there that he declared for the party of Don Carlos, and
organised a band in his service. Basilio is at present fifty-
seven years old, his height five feet six inches; his health
has always been robust, his character blunt, and he is totally
without education.

GREENACRE OUTDONE.—Accounts from Bag-
neres (Hantes Pyrenees) the 25th of March, state that the
arrondissement of Bagneres de Bigoire, has just been the
theatre of an atrocious crime. A man has been murdered,
first, by means of a heavy mallet for splitting wood ; then
bled from the throat ; and, finally, dispatched by repeated
blows of a hatchet. The limbs were then separated from
the trunk, the trunk enclosed in a charcoal sack, and the
whole, after being carried across precipices the highest of
the mountain, thrown into a deep hole of the depth of 150 feet.
The unhappy victim lived with his wife, a young woman of
22, and his mother-in-law, in a dilapidated cottage, situated
in the wildest part of the common, called the Hante Nortez.
He had for some time lived on bad terms with these two
women, on the subject of some disputes about property, in-
termixed with some jealousy of another female ; and they ap-
pear to have determined with the most deliberate preme-
ditation, to get rid of him by violence. Both assert their
I claims to the largest share in the murder. Both with un-
precedented gang froid have detailed all the frightful minutiae
of the event, which surpass in horror all that has been re-
corded of similar deeds of blood. These two women are at
present under the hands of justice in the prison of Bagneres.
The unhappy victim of their revengeful atrocity was a Spaniard.
—Consstituttonnel,

ELECTION COMMITTEE.
(YESTERDAY.)

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1838.

HULL.
The Committee assembled this morning,* at ten o'clock,
pursuant to adjournment, but on the names being called over,
one was absent.
Sir GRORGE STRICKLAND, the Chairman, then addressed
the Counsel and agents, and informed them that he had re-
ceived a letter from Mr. Frederick Dundas, apologising for
his absence, which was occasioned by the illness of his mo-
ther, Lady Caroline Dundas, at Brightog. The Hon.
Member had taken the precaution to inclose/the medical cer-
tificate of the professional men attending Lady Dundas, which
he ( Sir George Strickland) would read for the satisfaction
of all parties. The certificate went to say that Lady Caro-
line Dundas had been attacked with an alarming affection of
the head, and it was regularly signed by a physician anda
surgeon. Under these circumstances the Chairman said
there was no other alternative left but to adjourn until the
sitting of the House, then to make a report to the Speaker,
but he was not satisfied whether they should meet on the day
of assembling of Parliament, or the one after. His impression
was that they should meet him on the same day ; if he was in
error, Counsel would set him right on the point.
Mr. RUSHTON apprehended, from the 43d section of the
Act, the Committee were bound to report to the House the
Absence of any one of their Members before proceeding to
business, otherwise their acts would be invalid. In his read-
ing of the case, the report should be made immediately on the
sitting of the House.
Mr. HILL said that was exactly the law of the case, as
stated by his Learned Friend. The- Committee, however,
was bound to sit an hour, unless the parties on both sides
agreed to dispense with it.
Mr. TIMIGIR remarked that the course they had to take
was quite clear. In the absence of an Honourable Member
the Committee could only sit for one hour after, until a report
was duly made to the House, when the Speaker would be at
liberty to order them to proceed in the absence of that Mem-
ber. Therefore nothing remained but to adjourn over to
Wednesday, the 25th, then to report, and afterwards to pro-
ceed as directed. As respected the sitting of an hour, he did
not see the necessity of it, and he would on the :part of his
clients consent to an immediate adjournment.
Sir W. You:so—lt is quite plain that we cannot sit in the
absence of a member without reporting to the House. Even
should it so happen that Mr. F. Dundas was able to attend
before the meeting of the House, the Committee could not
procred to business without, in the first instance, reporting
what had cccurred. It only, then, remains to say to which
day we shall adjourn. Ido not think we can exceed Wed-
nesday, the 25th.
1 Several members directed that the room should be cleared,
! and the Counsel remained with the Committee in consultation.

On the door being opened,
The CITAIRXIAN said—This Committee stands adjourned to
Wednesday, the 23th instant, at three o'ckek, then to sit for
an hour previous to making a report to the House.
The parties then separated.