The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-25 00:00:00

SPANISH AMERICAN LOANS.

The 'following correspondence on the subject of the Spa-
nish American loans has passed between the Committee of
the holders of those securities and Lord Palmerston :
" 27, Chester-terrace, Regent's Park, July 23.
"My Lord—l had the honour, on the sth instant, to
transmit to your Lordship a copy of resolutions passed at a
numerous meeting of bondholders of the Spanish American
States on the 28th ult., and a statement of the nature and
extent of their claims was subsequently submitted to your
Lordship's consideration by a deputation of the Committee
honoured with a personal interview at the Foreign Office.
" The repeated disappointment and long delay in the
fulfilment of contracts entered into with the several Spa-
nish American States, under circumstances peculiarly
binding on their part by all the obligations of honour
and national faith, and on the part of the creditors,
in accordance with the avowed policy of the British
Government at that period the .flagrant violation of
engagements by which specific revenues have been so-
lemnly pledged to the bondholders and the known
ability of some of the States to fulfil their obliga-
tions, constitute, it is respectfully submitted, sufficient
grounds for a more active and efficient interference on be-
half of a numerous body of British subjects ; and it will
afford me great pleasure to be enabled to communicate to
the parties interested that they may rely on the support and
protection of his Majesty's Government.
I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
" G. R. ROBINSON, Chairman
of the Committee of Spanish American Bondholders."
" To the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Palmerston," &c.

" Foreign Office, Aug. 5.
" Sin,—l am directed by Viscount Palmerston to ac-
knowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23d ult., on
behalf of the bondholders of the Spanish American States,
and I am to acquaint you that, in comdliance with the
wishes of those parties, instructions have been forwarded
to his Majesty's Minister at Mexico, and to his Majesty's
Consul-General at Valparaiso, directing them to call the
serious attention of the Governments of Mexico and Chib
respectively to the grievances of the bondholders, and to
represent the feelings of disappointment and of rising indig-
nation which are manifested in England at the continued
disregard of the formal engagements which those Govern-
ments have contracted.

I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,
" W. FOX STRANGWAYS.
" To. G. R. Robinson, Esq., &c."

" No. 36, Ohl Broad-street, Aug. 10.
"My Lord,—l have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of Mr. Fox Strangway's letter of the sth inst., which
I have communicated to the Committee of holders of Spa-
nish American bonds.

" The Committee desire me to return their grateful ac-
knowledgments to your Lordship for the attention you have
been pleased to pay to their application, so far as regards
the republics of Mexico and Chili. They cannot doubt that
the energetic expression of the sentiments of the British
Government will have its due effect in demonstrating to
those States both the necessity and the justice of their per-
forming their engagements with the bondholders without
further evasion or delay.
" The Committee request me at the same time respect-
fully to state to your Lordship, that the interference of the
British Government is equally called for in the cases of
other Spanish American States—namely, Colombia, Peru,
Buenos Ayres, and Central America.

" Within the last few days advices have been received
from Venezuela, formerly part of the Republic of Colom-
bia, that the Congress of that State had closed its session
without making the slightest provision for the discharge of
the foreign debt ; the reason assigned for which neglect
being, that a treaty which had been concluded between Ve-
nezuela and New Granada, for the apportionment of the
public debt, had not been ratified by the latter State ; but,
whatever difficulty this circumstance may interpose, the
Congress of Venezuela has failed to perform one act for
which that State was in no way dependent upon New
Granada—namely, the making provision for the payment
of the dividends. For this purpose certain revenues were
pledged to the bondholders, which revenues the Govern-
ment appropriates to its own use, on the ground that it has
not completed its arrangements with New Granada.
" Your Lordship will see, therefore, that, with respect
to the States of Venezuela and New Granada (formerly
Colombia), and all the other Spanish American States,
the same degree of interference on the part of the British
Government is equally called for.
" It will be a great satisfaction to the Committee to be
informed that your Lordship will direct in these cases simi-
lar instructions to be given to those which have been given
in the cases of Mexico and Chili.—l have the honour to
be, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient servant,
‘. G. R. ROBINSON.
" To the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, IMP, one of
his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, &c."

" Foreign Office, August 16.

" Sir,—l am directed by Viscount Palmerston to ac-
knowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, in
which you request, on behalf of the South American bond-
holders, that instructions may be sent to his Majesty's Mi-
nisters or Consuls in the States of New Granada, Vene-
zuela, Buenos Ayres, and Central America, similar to
those which you were informed by Mr. Strangways' letter
of the sth instant bad been forwarded to his Majesty's Mi-
nister in Mexico, and to his Majesty's Consul in Chili.
Lord Palmerston directs me to acquaint yon in reply, for
the information of the parties interested, that, in compli-
ance with your request, instructions of the same nature as
those already sent to Mexico and Chili have been addressed
to his Majesty's Ministers at Bogota and Buenos Ayres,
to his Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Caraccas, and to his
Majesty's Consul at St. Salvador, directing them to call the
attention of those Governments respectively to the griev-
ances of the British bondholders.

" I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

" J. BACKHOUSE.
" To G. R. Robinson, Esq., M.P., &c."

By advices from Hamburg the price of gold is
437} per mark, which at the English Mint price of
31. 17s. 10 d. the ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange
of 13.11 f, and the exchange at Hamburg on London at short
being 13.81, it follows that gold is 1-27 per cent. dearer at
Hamburg than in London. The premium on gold at Paris is
10 per mille, which at the English Mint price of 3/. 17s. 10/d.
the ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange of 25 40, and
the exchange at Paris on London at short being 25.221, it
follows that gold is 0.70 per cent. dearer at Paris than in
London. The course of exchange at New York on London
is 1071 per cent., and the par of exchange between England
and America being 109 23-40 per cent., it follows that the
exchange is 2.07 per cent. against England.

ERRORS OF THE PRESS.-There is not a trade or
profession in existence more subject to the casualties of error
than that of the printing business, or more liable to have its
errors blazoned forth to the world. An ordinary sized news-
paper, for instance, such as our own, contains about 326,000
types, and the eye of the corrector must be constantly upon
each of these little fellows, who arc liable not only to go astray
themselves, but to lead their better disposed neighbours into
awkward scrapes, by coming in contact with such " aliens."
It happened some time ago, that when we intended to describe,
in a complimentary way, the internal regulations of a friend's
house, the printer very coolly put it to press " the infernal re-
gulations," &c. But the error which grieves us most in the
mean time, is one lately committed by a provincial paper,
which is calculated to make thinking people call in question
Frig its source,
paanpde r
honestlyallud d t oa,ckinnocwoipeydign
foruormvethraecist a paragraph
makes us state that " a potato was lately dug up in this vici-
ye.otsmTctet,
nity measuring seven feet in diameter I" Our version made it
only seven inches, which we thought in all conscience large
enough for the public swallow. We hope our contemporary
will be more careful in copying from us in future ; for al-
though the error is self-evident, we hi've strong doubts that it
may have passed current in Nithsdale, as we notice that the
Dumfries Courier has not said a word about potatoes of any
kind, since the " seven feet" monster appeared !—Scotsman.

The St. Ronan's Border Club, for the encourage-
ment of gymnastic exercises among the youth of the Scottish
Border, held their tenth annual meeting at Innerleithen on
Thursday.--Berwich Advertiser,

RSDAY. AUGUST 25, 1536

SWITZERLAND.

Switzerland contains somewhat near two millions of in-
habitants, on 855 geographical square miles. The country
is mountainous, therefore poor. The inhabitants are divi-
ded in their languages—German, langue Romano, Italian,
and French ; divided in civilisation, from the lowest degree
of African barbarism and ignorance to the level of Euro-
pean civilisation ; and, lastly, in their political institutions,
which, in the twenty-two cantons of Switzerland, vary from
the most unbounded' democracy to the most circumscribed
aristocratical or monastic oligarchy. In one word, Switzer-
land is an insignificant country ; but since the spring of
1833 till now, we have continually seen heavy armies rush-
, ing on to the boundaries of Switzerland, and stepping back-
ward, in order to get a place on which to stand ; whilst
within its boundaries the high-roads are constantly blocked
up by the eight coaches of the resident Ambassadors going
from Zurich to Berne, and from Bcrnc to Zurich, to say
nothing of the awful quantity of grass and hay which has
been eaten by the post-horses that had the honour to carry
the notes both of the folio and duodecimo Princes of Ger-
many. All Europe is in the deepest anxiety to know in
what those bustling preparations will end.
To speak seriously, Switzerland is certainly a country
which has not much in itself to tempt the ambition of the
mighty. If we are not much mistaken, Switzerland was,
in the time of the Congress of Vienna, confidently offered
by Austria to the Grand Duke of Baden in exchange for
his own country, and the Grand Duke refused it.
The majority of the inhabitants of Switzerland speak
German. The Swiss Confederation, therefore, though

having- a separate existence, as a political body, from the
German Confederation, makes, notwithstanding, part of
Germany as defined by M. Arndt. What we have said of
the Bavarian is equally true of the Swiss—that is to say,

in proportion as the state of public instruction advances in
Switzerland, the inhabitants of Switzerland lose their cha-
racter of a separate nationality, and become Germans.
Lastly, if the comparatively greatest mass of intelligence
concentrates itself in Switzerland, Switzerland will become
the centre of movement for the ideas or intellectual life of

the whole of the German population.
As long as the Diet of Franfort had not risen from its
ridiculous nullity, the anarchy of the German Confedera-
tion rendered a free movement of ideas possible within the
limits of Germany itself. Thus, after the Revolution of
July, we find, at first, a small province of Bavaria, namely,
Rhenish Bavaria on this side of the Rhine, as the centre of
the political agitation of Germany, and the whole attention,
both of the German nations and cabinets, fixed on that little
spot. The cabinets put that movement down, and the
Grand Dukedom of Baden became the comparatively freest
point of Germany. After a few weeks of blaze the flame
was extinguished there too. The movement then, for a mo-
ment, was lingering at Strasburg, in France ; but in the
midst of a German population, Alsace. The French Go-
vernment, in their turn, drove the agitatcrs away, and
public tranquillity reigned all over the Continent ? Not
exactly so ; for the combined measures of all those cabiaets
had no other result than to assemble all those agitators in
one body in Switzerland. We must not forget that the
war which the absolute Powers have pursued for the last
six years is not a war carried on against individuuls, but
one against convictions or honesty, and against logic and in-
tellectual superiority. What was the consequence ? That
amongst those wlib were forced to seek refuge in Switzer-
land, we find a great number of the elite of Germany ;
thence the foundation of two new universities in Zurich and
Berne : and, as professors, men like Dr. Schonkin, deci-
dedly the first professor of clinicks of Germany, and per-
haps the equal of our Edinburgh professor who teaches the
same subject ; and men like Ockcn, who was only hindered
from becoming a second Cuvier by his not being born at
Paris or London. A quantity of new schools, learned and
common, were established the professors and schoolmasters
of which are Germans ; the character of the whole public
press of Switzerland was changed by a number of Ger-
mans, by whom the papers were edited ; in Berne, which
is certainly the most enlightened point of Switzerland, we
see, notwithstandincr, that all the judges there are German
refugees ; in Basil-country (Basil-Landschaft) on the con-
trary, which contained a population of ignorant peasants,
we see a liberal insurrection breaking out against the town
of Basil, and this insurrection mostly conducted by German
refugees—all facts which the Swiss Diet has openly avowed
in the first consideration which accompanies the official de-
cree of expulsion against the German refugees, by saying,
" Within the last few years foreigners have assumed an as-
cendancy in certain cantons which ought never to have
been allowed. They have taken part in our public affairs,
and influenced the public opinion in our journals. They
have perverted our youth with the love of agitation and po-
llitical passions."
Those phrases are declamation, and nothing more. Gs7r-
mans have got hold hold of the schools, press, and public
offices in Switzerland ; and Switzerland, as the Diet ex-
presses it, had lost" its moral independence." That is an
avowal which certainly throws no favourable light on the in-
tellectual state of Switzerland. If to-morrow 7,000 of the
cleverest Germans came into England, they would not pro-
duce the slightest change in public affairs. And why not ?
Because it is very problematic if they would have much to
teach us, and quite certain that they would have very much

.0 learn from us The superioritiof intellect would be in

us, and not in them. It would be unjust, however, to say
that Switzerland, before the emigration of these foreigners,
was barren of intelligence. A country which has produced

a Pestalozzi, Troller, Zschokke, &c., must always have
borne visible traces left by such minds. The ground was
perfectly laboured, and the mass of Germans who crowded
ou a sudden to Switzerland, were only so many germs

. -
thrown into a fertile soil well prepared to receive them.
The consequence was an almost incredibly rapid improve-
ment, which within the last four or five years has taken
place in the schouls, the journals, and the whole intellec-
tual state of the public and private life of Switzerland.
The cause of reform is gained in Switzerland ; for, being
in possession of the three greatest principles of freedom—
the sovereignty of the nation, the freedom of the press, and
that of association, they exhibit now, moreover, the neces-

nary acquirements to make the proper use of them, and to
develop them.
The personal hardships of those foreigners who have
been unjustly deprived of an asylum furnishes ground for
complaint ; but, on the other hand, it is quite as certain
that the fact of foreigners taking the lead in the public
affairs of another country is a grievous anomaly. That
anomaly, however, is still subsisting ; or it is not foreign
Powers at whose injunctions those foreigners have been
expelled from Switzerland. And what was their crime ?
'That they lived i❑ Switzerland and not at home ; that they
were in Switzerland in the full enjoyment of rights and
liberty which they could not have at home. And, if the
soil of Switzerland is cleared from all Germans, and the
question of Switzerland entirely disembarrassed from any
connection with foreigners, what then ? The foreign am-
bassadors will quarrel with the Swiss for their enjoying the
very same institutions. The Diet has very well foreseen
the probability of such an event taking place, and, there-
fore, the official document mentioned above concludes—
" Let us take our stand upon a ground purely Swiss, and
then see who will dare to encroach upon our independence
or our rights. If such encroachment will be ventured on,
Europe will learn what Swiss people can do."
Provided the Diet sticks with manly energy to that
declaration, nothing is lost. They will have for them-
selves, in such a struggle, the sympathies of every freeman
in Europe.

Hastings has this week much increased the number
of its visitants ; and there is every appearance of a very full
season.

The Jews are at this moment out of favour at the
Court of Berlin. An order has been issued by his Majesty,
Frederick William, rendering it compulsory on all Jews hence-
forth to bear such names only as are to be found in the Old
Testament. Since the wars of independence in 1813 and
1815, the Israelites have been robbed of many rights of which
they were then in possession.—Journal du Commerce.
EQUAL itlmiTs.—i was yesterday exceedingly scan-
dalized (writes a Correspondent), by a paltry, yet oppressive
exhibition of the monarchical or anti-popular principle. About
three o'clock in the afternoon, on quitting the Athenmum, my
attention was attracted towards a man of a singularly slender
and fragile form, bearing what appeared to be a heavy bale
of woollen-cloth, and proceeding to the Park by the York
Pillar.—(What a satire on Royal virtue this pillar pre-
sents !) The air at the time was exceedingly sultry and op-
pressive, and the man, whose mien was that of an intelligent
respectable tradesman, appeared ready to drop under the com-
bined effocts of the load he bore, the excessive heat of the sun,
and his own weakly condition. When at the entrance to the
Park which I have just mentioned, respecting the opening of
which such a load of nonsensical panegyric was bestowed upon
his Majesty and his men in office, the almost sinking man was
abruptly commanded by a soldier on duty instantly to turn
back, no person carrying a parcel being permitted to walk
through the Park. The poor fellow, who I learnt wanted to
go to Queen's-row, just by Buckingham Palace—the palace
for which a 'day or two ago so many thousands of pounds were
voted away—for it will never be inhabited—was
thus compelled
to tread back his weary way all along Pall-mall, up St.
James's-street and Piccadilly, down Grosvenor-place, trebling
the distance he would have walked had he been permitted to
have gone through the Park like his betters in pocket. 11
this wanton and ridiculous interference with the free-agency of
the subject poor by the dominant rich be not an illustration of
our much boasted British freedom, what is it? Things have
come to a pretty pass in this land of liberty,
when a poor man
may not even walk on the same ground that the rich man
treads. Just as if the rich did not already enjoy enough of
advantages over the poor, an odious line like this must be drawn.
John Bull certainly has a broad back, or he would not bear all
the oppressive and vexatious acts of tyranny constantly exer-
cised against the people. At this day, notwithstanding all the
clap-traps about " free-born Britons,"
the English people are,
in many respects, as very slaves as any to be found at Con-
stantinople, or in any other part of the globe where despotism
has full sway.