The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1836.

this crisis that the letter of Mr. O'CONNELL appears I
—a letter which will rouse all the best feelings of.
Englishmen, and agitate Ireland from one extremity to
the other. Deeply, however, as we may regret this
agitation, one thin; must be borne in mind, namely,
that it is the House of Lords that has occasioned it.
They are the real agitators. But for them Ireland
would be perfectly tranquil ; but they must interfere
in matters of which they know little or nothing—for
what does Lord LYNDHURST know of the internal
state of the sister-kingdom ?—and must, therefore, be
prepared to pay the penalty of their head-long
officiousness. We hazard little in predicting that the
hurricane is brewing which will soon shake the Upper
House to its foundations. The debate of last night
in the Commons is full of angry omens. We see by
that, that Ministers will silnd firm to their reso-
lution of rendering " equal justice" to Ireland ; and
that they will be supported by a large and pledged
majority of Reformers. On this point, the manly
speeches of Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Mr.
SPRING RICE leave us nothing to wish for. What
then remains for the House of Lords, but submission ?
But they will not submit. So much the better, for
then they will bring to an immediate settlement a
question whiCh might otherwise have been put off for
years. Sir G. SINCLAIR, we perceive, was singularly
verbose last night in his praises of their Lordships
which is a thou Sand pities, for he never shows to such
advantage as when he is holding his tongue. His
speech, from the first sentence to the last, was a mere
farrago of pert common-places, got together with ma-
nifest difficulty, and smelling strongly of the lamp. He
assured us, forsooth, that we should find the House of
Lords " unflinching and invincible ;" but forgot to
remind us that the people were equally stubborn, and, as
late experience has shown, "invincible," when once
they have directed their energies to the accomplishment
of a particular duty. Sir JAMES GRAHAM, as might
have been expected, expressed himself in that jesuiti-
cal strain, so characteristic of the Guard of the Derby
Dilly. He would, and he would not, stand up -for
Reform. He would, and he would not, endeavour to
effect a compromise between the Lords and the Com-
mons. And this he called, doing his duty ! This
trimming, huckstering, policy, he considered worthy of
a statesman at a crisis like the present Out upon
such double-tongued, Janus-faced politicians, who stand
coquetting and vacillating between two sets of motives,
like a certain animal between two bundles of hay. If
Sir JArvIES desires to stand well with the people, let
him at once hoist the colours, either of Whig or Tory,
but not set sail under a neutral flag. Meantime, we
advise. his Comitituents to keep a sharp look-out on
tim ; and the same advice we would extend to the
whole elective body, for the times are such as to de-•
land the exercise of all their energies.

To a question put by Lord STRANGFORD last
night, in the House of Lords, respecting the Timber
Duties, Lord GL ENELG, replied that Government did
not intend to propo:ie,,any alteration in these Duties
this session of Parliament. - The Noble Lord also de-
nied that any engagement had been entered into with
Foreign Powers which would in the least interfere with
the free discussion of the question, when it should
come under the review of Parliament ; but stated that
the measurement of deals was under consideration.

We had, in consequence of what fell from the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER some time ago,
indulged the hope that some diminution of the enor-
mous duty now levied on European timber would have
been effected this year. The duty on Canadian tim-
ber is, we believe, 10s. per load ; that on Baltic tim-
ber, 555. ; and the benefit which the British public
derive from this state of things is, that they are
obliged to pay a high price for a very inferior quality
of an article of universal consumption, and have at
the same time the gratification of seeing their manu-
factures excluded from the whole of the north of
Europe, while those of their rivals are admitted.

We have advices from Bayonne to the 15th inst.
CORDOVA has entered Mondragon, and made him-
self master of Onate—so long the Head-quarters of
Don CARLOS. This town is very insignificant, and
was not defended by the Carlists, who fled at the ap-
proach of the enemy. The Vanguard of the QUEEN'S
army has taken possession of Bergara, another Carlist
garrison. Don CARLOS is at Villa Franca, where he
is assembling his troops, with the intention, it is said,
of giving battle to CORDOVA. There will certainly
be some fighting in a few days, as CORDOVA cannot
remain longer inactive without perilling the command
of the army. Nor is inaction less terrible to the PEE-
TENDER, whose troops already begin to murmur, and
some of his corps have actually mutinied, rending the
air with shouts of " ISABELLA for ever I" His only
staunch followers are the battalions of Biscay and Gui-
puscoa—hardy mountaineers, who will stick by him to
the last. The rest are mere mercenaries or robbers—
fellows who care for nothing beyond the privilege of
plundering, and committing all manner of depredations
with impunity.
Lord JOHN HAY is resolved not to miss any
sport within reach of a gun-boat. Accordingly he
has ordered the fleet from Santander to Berme°, where
it will be nearer the theatre of war. He will thus be
enabled to render prompt assistance to Bilboa and St.
Sebastian, and likewise to co-operate with the Chris-
tinos in their attack upon Palencia and Lequietio—
now in the hands of the Carlists.

MENDIZABAL has remitted to Bilboa eight millions
of francs for the support of the army in the North ;
one million to General MINA, for the troops under his
command ; and a like sum to the Spanish Ambassador
at Paris, for the expenses of recruits to join the French
Foreign Legion. This well-timed supply will greatly
contribute to allay that spirit of discontent so dange-
rous in the ranks of an army which may be hourly
summoned to meet the enemy. The QUEEN'S army
in the North is now estimated at 90,000 men, all well
armed, and in a tolerable state of discipline. From
such a force, we are- justified in expecting great mili-
tary achievements.

The Bill for abolishing private lotteries in France
was carried in the Chamber of Deputies before the
close of Monday's sitting by a majority of two hun-
dred and twenty-eight to twenty-one. This important
measure will afford nearly as much protection to the
people, as a law for closing the gambling-houses of
Paris. Some objection was made to the heavy penal-
ties attached to breaches of the law ; birt the Members
who supported the Biil well observed that private lot-
teries differed in • nothing but the name from
robbery without violence, and, therefore, it was the
duty of the Legislature to put them down effectually.
We quite agree with the majority of the Chamber in
this view of the case. The profits derived from pri-
vate lotteries would enable those who carry them on
to pay moderate penalties, which would operate merely
as a heavy license, whereas the infliction of penalties
proportioned to the whole value of the offender's pro-
pel ty must always act as the most effectual engine for
the repression of crime. Of course, we are not here
confounding laws for the repression of lotteries with
excise enactments. In general we believe that nothing
can be worse than the protection of any branch of ex-
cise duties by very heavy penalties, as they defeat the
very object they were intended to attain; but then be
it remembered that the offence was created by the law
Not so in the case of lotteries. They are in them-