The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-10 00:00:00

POST-OFFICE.

Viscount MELBOURNE moved that the Post-office Bi
he real a second time.

The Duke of RICHMOND objected to the Bill on the
ground of the lateness of the Session, which precluded its
Leing referred to a Select Committee fur consideration. The
Noble Duke concluded by moving that it be road a second
time that day three months.
The House then divided—
For the original motion
For the amendment 32
Majority against the seconercading.., —7
The Bil: was then rejected accordingly.
CUSTOMS.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE moved the third reading
of the Customs' Bill.

After a few words from the Duke of Wellington, the Duke
or Richrnond, Viscount Melbourne, Lord Redusdale, Lord
Lyndhurst, and Lord Holland, the Bill was postponed to to-
mcrrc,,w, in order to give the Government
,an opportunity of
:iniendirg it in those parts which relate to the imposition of an
ed valoiesit duty on eri:hable articles, and to the pa,sage of
her Yhjesty's troops toll-free over private bridges,
The House then aejourned at a Quarto- to T‘N CIVC CIOCk.

LIST OF THE MINORITY OF THIRTY-SIX
Who voted against Lord Brougham's Bill, called " The Canada
Government Act Declaratory Bi,,‘"
EARLS.
Ifwelace
minfo
Scarborough
Itu:net
xISCOUNTS.
Falkland
I: snore;
M‘lbourne
BISHOP.
Hereford
LORDS

DUKES.
Argyll
Leinster
Norfolk
!,t;therlorl

roans.
De Mauk•y
Dinoi ben
Glen elg
Howden
I.i ford
Montfort
Mostyn
Plurket
Saye and Sere
Seaford
Sudely
StraitOrd
Vaux

31AaQ1,197.7.9.
Clan, icartle
Heatlfort
Lansdowne

EARLS,
Char!moat
Cowper
Etiinl ham

Barham
Cottenham

PAI

AGAINST TILE BILL.
Hatlierton
A themat le
Leeds
Hamilton
Mei huen
Somerset
Stourton
Petre
Burlington
Sligo
Leitrim
Bc eackilh
Shrewsbury
Errol
lh,hop of Ripon
Suffield
Apeesea. -- -
Bishop of Durham
Lovat.
Portman
Roxburgh
Bateman
Ityron
Segrave
l)ueie
Wrottesley
Care
Meath
Belhaven
Camperdown
Poltimore
Crewe
Uxbridge
Carlisle
Zetland
Essex
Welief ley
Dormer
Rosebery
Kinnaird
Cork
Bishop of Salisbury

FCR TIE BTU.
Bishop of Ox.urd
Canning
BreAnack
Thomond
Skelmersdale
Poulett
I larewootl
Carnarvon
BrowTaow
Beauchamp
Talbot
Galloway
Melville
Kt nyon
Mountcasliel
Rolle
Rutland
Bishop of Carlisle
Sheffield
Orkney
Lothian
Beresford
Moray
Saltoun
Dynevor
ltavensworth
Londonderry
liuccleuch
Eglint un
Aberdeen
Clare
Hereford
Downshire
Ormonde
Macclesfield
Fowls
Mount Edgcumbe
Malmesbury
Selkirk

Leven and Melville
Bradford
Moreton

LORD BROUGHAM'S DECLARA-

TORY BILL.

A Bill, intituled An Act for declaring the true Intent and
Meaning of an Act passed in the present Session of Parlia-
ment, intituled " An Act to make temporary Provision for
the Government of Lower Canada ; and for indemnifying
those who have is ued or acted under a certain Ordinance
made under colour of the said Act."
Whereas an Act was made this present Session of Parlia-
ment, intituled " An Act to make temporary Provision for the
Government of Lower Canada :" And whereas doubts have
arisen touching the meaning of certain parts of the said Act.
Now, for removing such doubts, it is hereby declared and
enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with
the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by
the authority of the same, that nothing in the said Act con-
tained shall be taken to empower the Governor of the Pro-
vince of Lower Canada, or the Governor with the advice and
consent of the Special Council therein authorised to be ap-
pointed, to make any law or ordinance for altering or suspend-
ing the course of the criminal law within the said province in
any particular case or cases, or for attainting, or for subjecting
to any pains and penalties, or otherwise punishing any person
or persons not convicted by due course of law, or for declaring
any person or persons not so convicted to be guilty of any of-
fence for refusing to leave the said province, or for coming
within the same, or for not returning within the same.
2. And whereas a certain law or ordinance bath been made
and published by the Governor of the said province, by and
with the advice and consent of the Special Council, bearing
date the 28th day of June last, intituled " An Ordinance to
provide for the Security of the Province of Lower Canada,"
which ordinance cannot be justified by law, but was so much
for the service of the public that it ought to be justified by Act
of Parliament, and all persons advising or acting under or in
obedience to the same indemnified : he it hereby enacted, that
all personal actions and suits, indictments, informations, and all
prosecutions and proceedings whatsoever which have been or
shall be prosecuted or commenced against any person or persons
for or by reason of any act, matter, or thing advised, commanded,
appointed, or done in relation to the premises, be, are, and shall
be discharged and made void by virtue of this Act ; and that if
any action or suit shall be prosecuted or commenced against
any person or persons for any such act, matter, or thing so
advised, commanded, appointed, or done, he, she, or they may
plead the general issue, and give this Act and the special mat-
ter
evidence ; and if the plaintiff or plaintiffs in any action
i
or suit so to be prosecuted or commenced, except n that part
of Great Britain called Scotland, after the Ist day of October
next, shall become nonsuit, or forbear further prosecution, or
suffer discontinuance; or if a verdict pass against such plain-
tiff or plaintiffs, the defendant or defendants shall recover his,
her, or their double costs, for which he, she, or they shall have
the like remedy as in cases where costs by law are given to
defendants; and if any such action or suit as aforesaid shall
be commenced or prosecuted after the Ist day of October
next in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, the Court
before whom such action or suit shall be commenced or pro-
secuted shall allow to the defender the benefit of the dis-
charge and indemnity hereby provided, and shall further allow
to him his double costs of suit in all such cases as aforesaid.

The Austrian and French Ambassadors and the
Belgian Minister transacted business yesterday at the Foreign Office.
Despatches front the Governors of New Brunswick
and the Canadaa, were received yesterday, at the Colonial Office. Des-
patches were sent off last evening from the Colonial Office, fur Sir Wm.
Nicolay, Governor of the Mauritius.
Despatches, dated the 11th of April, were received
yesterday at the Colonial Department from the Governor of New South
Wales.

Despatches, dated the 31st ult., were received yes-
terday at the Foreign Department from the British Charge d'Allkire3
at Madrid.

The election for Governor to the Spanish and Por-
tuetv2se Jews Enspital took place t►.is week, when Mr. S. Megiu ra, the
son cf the late Gov. ria,r, was duly elected to that utlice. Ile fame in
with 50 votes, The party who opposed him, a Mr. Nathan'cl Diar, had
not a single vote en the occasion. The members of the institut.o.: have
come to a just decision in accepting the con to the situation rf tt. e father,
f.r the many valuable sersicrs rendered by him to the .3 b i9.lllllClit.
he Charity has scarcely disco, erect the great loss susti ine.► by ti,
fu:tuaa'ed d alit of the late Mr. D. Megucra But it is to te hoped, after
the expericnre their present Governor has had am his father's deputy,
that he wi.l till the other with honour, by promoting the bes.t interests of
(las valuUsle institution,

LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 10, 1838

Lord BROUGHAM'S Declaratory Bill concerning the
Canada Act of the present Session was read a second time
in the House of Lords last night, after a division, on which
the Ministers were defeated by 54 to 36. The whole de-
bate was eetremely interesting, and the speeches in parti-
cular of Lord BROUGHAM, the LORD CHANCELLOR, Lord
LYNDHURST, Lord MELBOURNE, and the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON, were worthy of their reputation and character,
and ought to be read. Leaving the debate, however, with-
out further comment, we shall make a few observations on
the probable consequences of Lord BROUGHAM'S success.
It must at once he apparent that it is as serious a blow
to Lord DURHAM'S government as the Peers can inflict.
A motion for an Address to remove him might have been
set down wholly to party malice, and might have affected
only himself ; but for the Lords to declare his acts ille-
gal, to have done that by a Bill of Indemnity going
through all the forms of legislation, vitiates all Lord'
Duarinat's proceedings, and, for all good purposes—in
spirit and in truth—vitiates and nullifies, while it pretends
to confirm them. His ordinances are of themselves illegal.
PAPINEAU might re-enter Canada, and WOLFItED NELSON
return, except for that reprobated expedient an ex post
facto law—should the Bill become a law—passed to make
their banishment legal. The Lords have completely
vitiated, and practically nullified Lord DURHAM'S
proceedings-; but the Bill of Indemnity, a true ex
post facto law, being in its own nature a tainted
and decryed Act, will not establish the authority
of the Lords. Their success shows a weak and
divided power, and is an invitation to the Canadians to
disregard the authority of the Imperial Legislature.
It is also a serious blow to the Ministers. They were
defeated. How will they deal with the Bill in the Com-
mons ? Will they accept it, and acknowledge that Lord
MELBOURNE and his supporters in the Peers were wrong ;
or wi 1 they try their strength, and, if possible, reject it ?
Lord BROUGHAM'S opinions may there probably influence
some of their usual supporters ; all the Tories, it may be
presumed, would go against them, and they
might not
succeed. If they succeed, another point of collision arises
betwixt the Commons and the Lords ; but still the acts of
Lord DURHAM will remain condemned and vitiated by the
high legal authority of two ex-Lord Chancellors and a
deliberate vote of the House of Peers. If they are
defeated, their Ministry and- Lord DURHAM'S Govern-
ment ends. Lord MELBOURNE warned the Peers that the
question was of the deepest consequence to the Empire ;
and we echo that phrase, whether the Ministers decide to
accept or reject the Bill in the House of Commons, and
whether they succeed in getting rid of it there or not.
Great damage must result to the Government, whoever
may administer it, by this renewed conflict of parties, de-
monstrating that it is not only a weak and a divided authority,
but, as it consists of the Executive and Legislative, is com-
posed of conflicting and hostile elements. The last pro-
ceeding of the Session is certainly not the least important.
Nor would the removal of Ministers restore the har-
mony betwixt the Legislative and Executive powers. The
Tories, whatever they may boast of, have not the country
fiall
oaawitheusnrrde
aega trrhee
hatredea t
party,o.t so wl
aAynr sse borne
tottorlh:nveea
interwovenr
mCd b'
es/i
ry).
eto
eNi
theeie ofwo
rtkoi-ndga y
ith creatures
a l lt Aristocracy.hoet
itnhoer
snore reprobated
Aristocracy,
clsaasYsse's there
hoef r
abuses and grievances of which the people complain, in-
aclduddititilognthe Chuhru:hchEontd'
01,4remlaenndt,s,Cahnudrcthh-erates
Corn-laws.demands,
Tories, therefore, whatever a momentary panic might do for
them, would not, and could not, have the Housi. of Coin-
toonhbarremackni;
;uapnadg, again. No
coNlliosioanrtbceatv,n
ebernintghtelmie iw,o The
Tories,
mons with them. It has once broken up their
con-
tinuing,Ministry—
ilitwouosuelsd
the conflict between one branch of the Legislature
and the Executive Governmentwould also continue. It seems
to us as if the Peers, envious of the Commons, had resolved,
as the latter had knocked up the Tories, to knock up the
Whigs. Without considering that the palpable weakness of
the Executive is the natural end necessary consequence of
the present condition of public opinion, which is all abroad
on political mutters, elle Tory Pe( rs have imputed it to
adopted the opinions of their abusive organs, and
the personal character of the Ministers ; they have
a e lost all their habitual respect for the servants of the
Crown. They have hence been led to strike a great blow
canto lotoilke era,: ;
at its authority. Toe Peers a saii the Executive Govern-
ults
meet of the Whigs, because the Commons overturned that
soafn filetls.,d plea-
doubt much beth r they will be agreeable to Lay and
but we
and
particulatly to Spiritual Lords. United with the Execu-
s.
kithl3 Bech
hope, forward ‘\re
live, they are not strong ; and, in hostility to it, there can
they fit;(l. l roteeti,;ri ?
Arid now let us ask what lies coa.e out of those com-
promises and cor.c.:ssions, and of union and harmony be-
tween the parties, of which so much was said in the early
part of the Session. bleu on both sides sacrificed some of
their principles, v‘itli a view to mutual acconimoda-

Lion 2 It is now plain that all these party com-
promises and treaties are at an end. The Duke of
WELLINGTON last night reproached himself for having
aided And supported the Ministers, and the Lords' Amend-
ments to the Irish Municipal Bill were unscrupulously re-
jected by the Commons. The Irish papers say, and we
believe with some truth, as the Lords have rejected all the
clauses of the Tithe Bill for opening the composition, that
it will also be rejected. Nothing then, not even the tech-
nical passing of a Bill which would have been insufficient to
settle the questions in dispute in the country, has been
gained ; but.character has been lost by these attempts at ac-
commodation. Even the union of the two parties cannot ac-
complish the object which their separation and hostility were
alone supposed to render impossible. To succeed next
Session they must consult the dictates of justice rather than
statutes, and the opinions of the living generation, rather
than that of men and times passed away.
Since the above observations were written we have
learned that there is a probability of the two parties entering
into a compromise on the question. Some modifications,
for example, may be made in the Bill in the Committee of
the House of Lords this evening, which may make the
Ministers agree to pass it through the House of Com-
mons. But though that should be the case, the mischief done
by the Lords, condemning the conduct of Lord DURHAM,
and their opening again the door for fresh agitation in
Canada, will not be diminished. The persons in London
who are connected with Canada, are said to regret very
much that any censure should have been thrown on a line
of conduct with which all parties there were pleased, and
which promised the happiest results.

As we yesterday stated would be`the case, the Commons
last night did not adopt the amendments of the Lords to
the Irish Municipal Bill. A conference was held with the
Lords, at which their Lordships stated their reasons for
not agreeing to the Commons' alterations. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL then explained that the Lords had returned the
Bill very nearly in the same state as when it came down
from the Lords before; he could not so accept it, and could
not carry on the controversy any longer, and therefore he
proposed that the consideration of the amendment be post-
poned for three months. The motion was agreed to with-
cut a division ; the two Houses, like bungling apprentices,
having spoiled a great quantity of materials without com-
pleting the work.

We must very briefly call attention to the trials of
COURTENAY'S followers at Maidstone for murder. Two of
them were fount guilty, and immediately sentenced to
death, that the humane Judge might be able, as he said, at
once to assure them that the law would not be carried
into execution. We too much approve of the humanity to
say one word against Lord DENMAN'S sentence, but
we cannot avoid noticing the discrepancy between pro-
nouncing a sentence of death and a pardon in the same
breath. One or the other must be wrong. If the crime
be not worthy of death, why pronounce such a sentence ?
if it be, why remit it ? Such discrepancies—now that all
eyes are fixed on the law, and men weigh it in the balance
of conscience and reason—do not add to the public respect
for the law nor increase its authority.
Similar to this is the case of the boy who was sentenced
to be executed at Lincoln, and whose life has been spared.
His crime was a wilful, deliberate murder, but he is young—
he may repent—he may grow up to be a virtuous and honest
man. If there be the most remote possibility of that, the
most penal of our Coloaies—for we know what vices
they breed—is not a favourable school for him ; and some
persons may possibly think it would be merciful to take his
life, rather than condemn him to so ninny years of unre-
quited toil and suffering.
But besides these two discrepancies between the en-
actments and the execution of the law, the cases of this boy
and of those men are so widely different that another
arises on comparing them. From a motive of revenge,
he committed a deliberate murder —they believed the
words of COURTENAY- Or 1:119M, and were with him when
he committed a revolting murder. They took him for
another Saviour ; and we cannot see that that those who
insist on ;ts being a great merit to believe in the exis-
tence of such a person in past times, are justified is
regarding it as a great demerit in the followers of
Thom in believing him on his own assertions ; bat
whether there be great merit in the one belief, .and great
demerit in the other, or not, the men believed COUR-
TENAY and followed him. They bore no malice against
the man who was killed, they made no attempt on his life ;
they were merely by, when a madman who had deluded
them, committed the murder ; and they are found guilty of
the same crime as the boy, and- sentenced to the sine
punishment. The giit of their offence, according to
the Judge, was concurring in the resistance to law-
ful authority. That it was which in them constituted
their act murder. Now, such a gross generalization
by the law, of such very different acts under the one name
of murder, and such an indiscrim;nate ordaining of penal-
ties for a deliberate act of wickedness and an unhappy de-
lusion, seems to us even a greater discrepancy than that
between the enactments and the execution of the law.

To establish any guilt in these men it is necessary that
they should discriminate between lawful and unlawful au-
thority. The Judge and the Justice and the Constable
assert their authority to be lawful ; THOM asserted his au-
thority to be lawful ; he derived it, according to his state-
ments, from a higher power than man, and his unhappy
followers believed him. Their crime, then, consists in not
discriminating between lawful and unlawful authority ; or
in an erroneous belief ; and if such be a good ground for
sentencing men to death, who amongst us can hope to
escape the gallows ?

The Chronicle of this morning gives the " first" budget
presented, to what may be properly called the " Reformed
Parliament" of Portugal, and pays a well-merited tribute
to "men who have brought her resources into such a fa-
vourable and satisfactory position in so short a time as to
produce the yearly sum of two millions and a half sterling.'
It appears that the revenue for the year 1837-1838 exceeds
the expenditure by 95,0001. a year when trade and corn-
merce were much interrupted by intestine commotions
and a revolutionary Government (so the enemies of BAN-
DEIRA described his Administration) were making the grand
experiment of remodelling the whole Constitution. No
public man was ever more unjustly reviled than this able
Minister. He was described as the tool of clubs and re-
publican foreigners, as the abettor of men hostile
to England, and bent on supplanting her in-
fluence in favour of those called her natural
enemies, and as the reckless innovator who, for the
sake of place and popularity, would sacrifice the rights of
the Crown, destroy the Constitution, and involve the trade
and finances of the country in hopeless ruin. The present
state of Portugal is a sufficient answer to these malignant
charges. The Throne never was so secure as at the present
moment, the Constitution has been reconstructed with a
degree of moderation which does the highest honour to the
Members of the defunct Congress, and the finances have
been managed with a judicious economy hitherto unknown
in Portugal. We concur, therefore, cordially in the eulo-
glum passed by our Contemporary on men who have steered
safely through so many difficulties ; and Englishmen must
feel gratified that a people, with whom they have been so
long intimately allied, have conducted themselves, ever
since the landing of Don PEDRO, in a manner
so honourable to their patriotism, and forming such
a proud contrast to the sanguinary, imbecile, unna-
tural, and apparently endless, warfare, carried on by
their proud neighbours. Spain, with all her boasted pride
and chivalry, is at present the most degraded country in
Europe. A general bargaining for the expulsion of a couple
of functionaries before he fights the enemy—a Court sunk
in indolence, alive only to intrigue, and stealing, mildly
called intercepting, money destined to feed the half-starved
troops—a total want of patriotism, and national bank-
ruptcy, are only a few of the features of a people that look
down upon the Portuguese with insolent contempt. No
two nations, so nearly allied, ever exhibited so great a con-
trast ; and their descendants in the new world faithfully
imitate their example. The English may claim some merit
for the distinction. The close intimacy between the two
countries—the influence of our free institutions, and the
strict honour with which we preserve our national faith,
have not been without effect on our ancient ally ; and we
may congratulate ourselves as well as the Portuguese on the
issue of the arduous struggle, and the noble contrast which
they exhibit to their degenerate neighbours.

There is very little news of any interest in the Paris
papers of Wednesday. M. FAnarcrus, Charge d'Af-
'
fa'res of Holland at the -Court of France, has been recalled,
n consequence of a demand to that effect on the part
of the French Cabinet. One Journal regards the docu-
ments purchased by M. FAuarcrus as true copies of diplo-
papers in the Archives of the Foreign Minister.
In pronouncing them forgeries the Government only acts
as it is its interest to act under such circumstances. It
appears, moreover that M. FABRICIUS was actuated in no
slight degree by personal pique in making use of the
agency of CISALTAS to obtain the papers in question. Se-
veral months ao a robbery was committed at his hotel,
when several of his to papers were stolen. The
thieves were not discovered, cor was touch atten-
tion paid to the matter by the Minister of the Interior.
It subsequently tranvirod that a Ministerial Journal a-;-
pearcd toleraWy well acquainted with the contents of
the
lost documents. M. PABaiclus renewed his complaints,
and threatened to make his suspicions public, but no regard
was paid totiiem. Hence it is presumed originated his
plan of retaliation, which has so disgraCefully recoiled upon
himself:

The advises from Madrid are of the Ist inst, The Mi-
uisterial crisis continues. We learn by letters from Bay-
onae, of the 4th inst., that EsrAwrEtto, after wasting