The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-29 00:00:00

LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 29, 1838.

In our columns of this day will be found a mass of
highly important intelligence from India, confirmatory
of the opinion which we expressed on Saturday relative
to the probability of a war between Great Britain and
Russia. We might speak with certainty of such an
event in the case of any Power in the world but that
of Russia ; whereas, knowing that she never strikes,
if she can avoid it, till she has got her enemy at some
disadvantage, we regard nothing as more probable
than that she will seek to compromise matters
for the present—now that she really finds Eng-
land prepared to assert the stability of her empire
in the East. The prompt and manly policy of
Lord AUCKLAND, to which we may yet have to ac-
knowledge ourselves indebted for preventing the CZAR
from obtaining possession of Herat, under the nominal
sovereignty of MAHOMED SCHAH, may possibly im-
press the Cabinet of St. Petersburg with a conviction
that the time has not yet arrived for stripping Great
Britain of her Indian Empire. In that case, Russia
will not hesitate an instant to declare that she has ever
been among the most faithful of our allies--that her
dearest interests accord with the friendly promotion of
those of Great Britain both in the East and West—
and that as a proof of her sincerity she is ready to dis-
miss such of her agents as can be proved to have taken
any share in disturbing our friendly relations with the
Persian Monarch. She sees that by a succession of
occurrences, for which, notwithstanding her diplomatic
superiority, she was not prepared, that England has
all at once arrived at a position which will enaVe her,
by one bold stroke, to regain all the ground which she
has lost, through the inefficiency of her Foreign policy,
since the death of Mr. CANNING. But will
our Government be gulled with professions which
it must know will be only made to gain time ?
Will Lord PALMERSTON so far forget what is due
to the security of the British empire, and the peace of
the world, as to rest content with professions, for the
truth of which the discharge of a few spies is to be
his only security ? Or rather will he not take advan-
tage of his commanding position to open the naviga-
tion of the Black Sea, and thus provide effectually
against the future machinations of Russia in the
East ? The question of peace or war is, therefore,
likely to be left to the solution of our Government :
and notwithstanding the difficulties in which our
Ministers are placed by the state of affairs in Canada,
we do think it probable that they may at last be
brought to adopt a course which will restore England
to her high moral and political position, both in
Europe and Asia. Should Russia, however, drop the
mask, our Government must not dream of acting,
purely on the defensive, as suggested by a Minis-
terial Morning Contemporary. Such a course
would be as dangerous as disgraceful. To give free-
dom to Poland—to render the Porte independent—
to open the navigation of the Black Sea—to restrain,
by our alliances with the Princes of Persia, the Asiatic
extension of the Russian empire, should be the crown-
ing objects of such a struggle. To remain much
longer passive spectators of the Oriental aggres-
sions of -Russia is clearly impossible, unless we are
prepared to yield up to her the undisputed possession
of our immense territories in the East. This is so
well expressed in a pamphlet which has just appeared
entitled " India, Great Britain, and Russia," that we
have pleasure in quoting the paragraph :
The truth must not be concealed that the British and the
Russian nations are rivals for the possession of India—that the
one ardently covets what the other holds, and has been long
working by sap and mine to dislodge her enemy, and vault
into the vacant seat. India will not, in the days of any living
man, be independent—she will remain as she is, or she will
from the mild and gentle rule of England under the
pass
eitvy and galling yoke of the Russian Autocrat. England may
be supine, but Russia will most assuredly be active and unre-
mitting in her watchfulness and her labours. She will gloat
in silence over the slumber of England, and abide in per-
fert resignation the brief delay which must intervene be-
fore her object can be avowed, which will not be till resist.
ance on the part of her opponent is vain, and success on her
own part certain. She will attach herself to every Court
which approaches the British dominions, and thus draw
round them a net through which escape will be impossible.
If fortune favour her in the south the great rivers of Asia and
the Persian Gulph may enable her to aid her views on India
by a naval force. Russia never strikes till she has made sure ;
and when she acquires confidence enough to relinquish dissi-
mulation, her victim may be regarded as lost. Shall Russia,
then, carry on her designs against our Indian possessions to
this point, or shall her arm be arrested while the probability of
averting it yet remains? Shall we abandon India to the
mercies of the spoiler of Poland?

The answers to these questions given by Lord
AUCKLAND, are all that the writer could desire.
The march of 30,000 troops, to be augmented by a
force of k:stween 40,000 and 50,000 'of the subjects
of one t;f the most powerful of our Indian allies, is no
dul:/:.;us answer to the concluding question of the above
There is much in the advices from India,
paragraph.
which we publish in another part of The Sun, to arrest
the attention of the British people ; but being pressed
for space, in consequence of the arrivals from New
York and the Canadas, we are obliged to defer further
comment upon them till to-morrow.

The painful howl of the Times this morning against
the Meath meeting and the Marquis of HEADFORT,
is an infallible sign of great suffering. The Irish
Church is emphatically the " raw" of the Tories, and
the Meath meeting has applied the lash to the sore
place. How happy would they be, if the people
would only, according to the directions of the Times,
" crucify their depraved reason and affections," and,
resting satisfied with the Parsons' assertions, believe at
once that the Church of Ireland is as divine and useful!
as Mess•s. M'GHEE and O'SucLtvAN describe it.
But the starving, ili-treated people car; nenthei be I
scolded
-nor bayonetted into blindness and submission ;

and the Meath meeting, at which Protestant landlords
have united with C-4itholic tenants to demand the total
abolition of tithes, is the precursor of a more determined
assault on the temporalities of the Church than they
have yet sustained. We should be glad to see the
landlords taking this part, if we were convinced that
they would not be allowed to put the tithes into their
own pockets, and at the same time maintain the Corn-
laws. We know that they neither can nor will con-
tinue to pay tithes, or rent charge in lieu of tithes,
when the Corn-laws are abolished ; and we therefore
have frequently thought that it might perhaps be ad-
vantageous to enter into a compromise with them, and
release their lands from the tithe tax on the one hand,
and on the other completely abolish the Corn-
laws. They might then make the most and the
best they could of their land, and the Clergy
would, no doubt, find an ample support, as the
Apostles, of whom they are the successors, did, from
the voluntary contributions of their faithful flocks.
The Catholic priests in Ireland, by relying on the
voluntary principle are powerful and opulent. We
would not object, even for the sake of getting the
whole trade in corn perfectly free, and for the sake of
relieving the land from an odious tax, to• burden the
Consolidated Fund with a small stipend, if necessary,
for each living and working clergyman till the end of
his days ; but we are clearly of opinion that it would
be an immense public advantage to get rid both of
the Tithes and the Corn-laws. At present
there are large masses of people in Ireland living
on the worst kind of potatoes, which, taken alone, are
the worst kind of fool ; and the whole nation would
revolt at the idea of allowing the landlords to have
the tithes, and at the. same time to retain the power,
by the Corn-laws, of keeping the Irish peasantry in
the lowest state of poverty. Most injudiciously and
most unjustly, indeed, the Legislature did last Session
sacrifice one-fourth of the tithes to the Irish landlords,
while it resisted every attempt to modify the Corn-laws.
If that fourth part have only whetted the appetite
of the landlords for the whole, we should scarcely ob-
ject to allowing them to swallow the tithe on the
condition of abolishing the starvation laws.

Madrid Journals of the 20th instant have reached
us, but, as usual, their contents are of very little im-
portance. Rumours wcrc afloat of a new modification
of the Cabinet, but no accounts of a recent date had
been received from the theatre of war. General SANZ
was spoken of as the latest candidate for the War
Department.

By the American packet ship the George Washing-
ton, which arrived at Liverpool on Saturday, we have
received New York journals of the 9th, and Canadian
papers of the 7th inst., from which extracts will be
found in another part of The Sun.

We have received the whole of the Paris Journals of
Friday and Saturday. The following extracts from
them contain all the news they communicate of the
slightest political interest :
.6 MARRIAGE OF DON CARLOS. —Obeying the impulsions
of my paternal love for the people whom the Divine Provi-
dence has deigned to confide to my care—desiring their feli-
city, and at the same time that of my family—deeply pene-
trated with the sublime virtues, the heroic conduct during the
present circumstances, and the maternal care for the education
of my beloved children (since the day the Most High called to
him my cherished wife Donna Maria Francisca de Asia,
Q.E. E. G.) by my very dear niece the Infanta Donna Maria
Teresa de Braganza of Bourbon, Princess de la Beira,
daughter of the King and Queen of Portugal, my august
cousin and brother-in-law Don John VI., of Braganza, and
Donna Maria Carlota de B ,urbon, my beloved sister, and
widow of the Infante of Spain, Don Pedro de Bourbon,--and
after having obtained from the holy see the necessary dispensa-
tion, I decided on contracting an alliance with the Infanta, my
truly beloved niece. The marriage ceremony having taken place
on the 2d of February last, in the city of Salsbourg. where I
was represented by the Lord in service, the Marquis de
Obando, who, for that purpose had received my procuration,
my beloved wife having happily arrived in these loyal and
heroic provinces, I this day had ratified the canonical confir-
mation of my marriage, my sovereign desire being that the
solemn act, which will fill the hearts of my subjects with joy,
should be published with all the formality the circumstances
and the times permit.

"';Given at the Royal Head-quarters of Azcoitia this 20th
day of October, 1838. " ' I, THE KING.

To the Very Rev. the Bishop of Lean.' "
ENGLAND AND AUSTRIA.—The Courrier Francais views
the commercial treaty concluded between England and Aus-
tria in the light of a political alliance, of which that treaty is
the prelude, and is of opinion that the 4th article, which as-
similates the harbours on the Danube, including Galacz, to
Austrian harbours, implicitly stipulates the liberty of the
navigation of that river, which the Russians pretend to have
a right to open or close at their pleasure. The Whig Mi-
nistry, according to the Courrier, has made every sacrifice to
attain that end. "If it did not appoint a Consul to Cracow,
if it remained an impassible spectator of the spoliation and
oppression of Poland, it was merely through courtesy
towards Austria, the accomplice of Russia in the viola-
tion of the treaty of Vienna, and to prevent her again form-
ing► with the latter an alliance on the point of being broken
off. The Courrier calls the Danube an " Austrian" river
and the great artery of that empire, and thinks that " the
natural course of events must ultimately bring about its settle-
ment between the lan, the Adriatic, and the Black Sea; that
the treaty which places the free navigation of the Da-
nube under the protection of England and Austria birds
the latter to adopt a new policy in respect of it ; that
the moment the Austrian navy shall assume some impor-
tance in the Black Sea. the liberty of the Danube will not
satisfy her, but she must have its possession ; that so impor-
tant a river, which serves as a medium for the trade of a hun-
dred provinces and 30,000,000 of inhabitants, cannot remain
in the hands of two rival Powers ; that the navy of Austria in
the Black Sea can never be a match for that of Russia, and
that in order to dispute with advantage the liberty of the
Black Sea, England, in virtue of the treaty, must lend her
the aid of her fleets—a circumstance which must be productive
of incommensurable consequences."
MEXICAN BLOCKADE.—" We can positively state, that the
Government has received accounts' from the coast of Mexico,
which they refrain from publishing, because the news is of the
most disastrous character. The yellow fever has made the
most frightful ravages among the crews of the blockading
squadron. Several officers, a surgeon-major, and upwards of
one-third of the men, have fallen victims to the scourge. If
is painful for us to alarm families who have relatives on board
our vessels, but the Government must explain itself and pub-
lish the whole truth. It has already confidentially communi-
cated the death of a young officer carried off by the f. pidem y.
This, however, is not enough ; every family has a right to the
same attention, and all arc a prey to the nest lively anxiety."
—National.

The Moniteur thus replies to the statement of the Na-
tional :

" The public will be able to appreciate the correctness of
the National when they peruse the following details, extrhaco-f
ted from the reports of Captain Bezoche, up to the 30th
August. The total number of sick in the division has amountedidshi-
to 236, of whom we have lost one lieutenant,
men, one cadet, and two sailors, making six in.tawllo
Coat
were quickly cured. The lieutenant allude
the sick very few only were attacked with vodtruotinfi.aLmndAe Among
thede SparienvtaiHlinaogufeenv,ers.o nkcnoinosreerifureonmt
Consequently, those
thanff7tdttmigiluieesin wfhroosme
may rea,suine
bosoms alarm has been so imprudently excite
their confidence. All who have sustained a loss havebee
made acquainted with it, and the rest will learn with
although
satisfac-
tion that the unhealthy season has passed, and that,
nothing
their relatives may have some risks to run, they have
more to fear from the climate."
The following news from Mexico is communicated to the
Constitutionnel by its correspondent at Sacriticios, who writes
on August 16th i--" Tee blockading squadron has been rein-
forced by the brigs Volt;genr, and Dupetit Thouars, and the
Astree frigate, from Martinique. Although the Governor of
Martinique authorized Captain Bazoche, our commander, to
retain the frigate, she is, nevertheless, about to return, show-
ing that all intentions of a serious attack are abandoned, at
least for the present. The periodical northern gales will pro-
bably compel us to relinquish the blockade, for every one is of
opinion that so numerous a squadron cannot be left for more
than three weeks or a month upon such a dangerous ccast as
this. We cannot expert ,ink new proposals from the Mexican.,
as they are impatiently looking forward to the approaching
bad weather.
Extract of a letter of the 6th August from an officer of
La Perouse, off Taninico, and received on the 25th inst. at
Brest:—On the 1 zith July an American corvette, with
ishich we had communicated on the 17th, infoi mcd us
that she had learned at 1 ampico that a sciconer was
landing her cargo on the coast, at ten leagues' distance
from the town, and that during the night some boats
went from the bar to the place where she was at anchor,
and returned without cur being aware of their movements.
We accordingly set out in the evening, and the next morning
perceived a schooner and a gnat, which were endeavouring to
make their escape ; but finding this impracticable, as a last
resource they made for the coat, from which they thought we
should be unable to dislodge them, as there was a heavy sea.
We then got out our boats and hoig-boat. and, when the were
T went into the one, another officer into the other.
( Ti rn
rr
near the ~,rC.
bleu dispersed the individuals as-em- '',eatd.. y
arriving
l 1
with a fe+l ' !S, and then sent some men
,n
to burn the schooner, I kept off the Mexicans who at,
approach. Asit was found impossible to burn the
tempted to