The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-29 00:00:00

ett Carta

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1849.

Another example has just been afforded to the ab-
surdity of attempting to legislate for the diffusion of
abstract morality. The Anti-Sunday-Trading move-
ment and the Anti-Sunday- Travelling movement were
extravagant enough in themselves; but the Bill
recently introduced into the House of Commons
under the auspices of Mr. SPOONER, a Bill which
originally emanated from the House of Peers, and
received the approval of the Lord Chief Baron, cer-
tainly strikes us as being an example of the very acme
of morbid delicacy and religious sentimentalism.
With all our hearts we respect those who
conscientiously abstain from unnecessary labour
on the Sunday; and our respect is not one jot less
profound and sincere for those who, by affording at
once the precepts and the practice of chastity, aid in
the diminution of such illicit habits of concupiscence
AS tend so materially to the propagation of vice and
wretchedness in a populous community. At the
same time, we cannot but regard the ust.stion
of
the law for the maintenance of the sanctity of the
Sunday, and for the suppression, or rather for the
gradual extinction of prostitution, as an effort re-
quiring the most discriminative caution in
its employment. The line of demarcation
between the Divine and Human codes is so
strong and visible in theory, and so feeble
and almost imperceptible in fact, that it is necessary
to exercise the most continual and vigilant circum-
spection to prevent the infringement of the one by
the other. It is from our solicitude to witness no
glaring interference with the ecclesiastical polity,
and from our knowledge of the extreme liability of a
political legislature to outstep its rightful limits when
touching upon these delicate subjects, that we are
averse to that indiscriminate interposition with
matters properly belonging to those appointed
to the exercise of spiritual authority, and
not to those in whose hands are confided
the rt. ponsibilities of temporal jurisdiction.
There is no greater fallacy abroad than the notion
that a nation may be rendered moral by Acts of Par-
liament. Depravity flourishes not so much in the
market-place as in the haunts of obscurity. Men are
habit of gratifying their evil pas-
not usually in the
sions under the nose of public scrutiny. To employ a
vulgar but expres,ive phrase, the thief is only a thief
on the sly : the forger is only a forger on the sly :
even murder is done on the sly, and adultery, and all
those heinous offences which cry aloud to heaven for
vengeance. So long as this secrecy is the instinct
of licentiousness so long will it be vain on the past
of the Legislature to attempt to enforce morality by
punishment.

comprehended by the originators and supporters of
that very decorous but very impracticable measure
called the Bill for the Protection of Women. As to
the motive out of which the Bill has emanate no-
thing could be more pure, more noble, more generous
or more entitled to our respect. Still that purity,
that nobleness, and that generosity fail to render the
measure one atom the more practicable. And for
this reason, together with the goodness of the motive,
we are compelled to recognize the fact that the senti-
ment of the thing is of the most morbid
description. Not only have all the law Lords dis-
countenanced the project as one whose good conse-
quences are altogether chimerical, but the Bill has
been exposed, in all its deformity and extravagance,
by the keen and analytic remarks of the ATTORNEY..
GENERAL. Besides the condemnatory observations of
Sir JOHN JERYIS, the measure has called forth the
energetic opposition of Sir GEORGE GREY, of Mr.
HUME, of Mr. MILNER GIBSON, and of other distin-
guished representatives. They do not fail to per-
ceive the futility of any such efforts to necessitate
the practice of virtue. Wishing, as sincerely as Mr.
SPOONER himself could wish, to decrease the number
of the unfortunate women whose lives of misery are
the disgrace of Civilization and the defiance of Chris-
tianity, we must nevertheless confess that we sym-
pathise in no respect in the present endeavour of the
Hon. Gentleman the Member for North Warwick-
shire. For it is clear to us that scarcely anything
can result from the Bill, in the event of its being
called into operation, beyond the enhancement of the
wretchedness of lives which are already sufficiently
miserable and debased. Should the scheme be ac-
tually passed into an Act of Parliament, we shall
witness, among many other circumstances equally
intolerable, the accumulation of annoyances round the
more respectable portions of the population. Many
an informant will be invited to come forward like
Master ELBOW—thus : " I say, Sir, I will detest my-
self also as well as she, that this house, if it be not a
bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty
house." And we shrewdly suspect that there would
be found much truth in that declaration of
POMPEY BUM—" If you head and hang all that
offend that way for ten year together, you'll be glad
to give out a commission for more heads : if this law
hold in Vienna [or in London much more] ten year,
I'll rent the fairest house in it after threepence."
We cannot conceive to ourselves, however, the pos-
sibility of such an egregious mass of blunders and
puerilities passing through the House of Commons,
or at any rate passing through Committee, without
extraordinary emendation. Should the Bill ulti-
mately receive the Royal Sanction, we cer-
tainly shall expect to see in it a glaring
resemblance to the boat that was patched and patched
in all directions, until there remained not one particle
of the original material—leaving the opinion of logi-
cians and philosophers divided as to whether it were
the same boat or another ! Unless some such course
be adopted, we assuredly do not anticipate for one
moment the chance of the Bill passing into an Act of
Parliament. Upon the subject, therefore, of the
projected emendations in Committee, we trust that
the Hon. Gentleman, the representative of North
Warwickshire, will be somewhat more explicit, on
the occasion of the adjourned debate on the second
reading, which will be resumed next Wednesday.
Otherwise the Commons will be fully justified in
abruptly rejecting the measure without further
consideration.

Nothing of all this, however, appears to have been

whatever may be the result, will carry with it its
own rich reward, in the approving hearts and
approving consciences of those by whom the
movement has been originated and promoted.

TEE 41REN CH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The Moniteur publishes the following dispatch from
General OUDINOT

" Santucci, June 20.

" Monsieur le Ministre,—l have the honour to address
to you a continuation of the resume of the besieging
operations:—
" From the 17th to the 18th of June.—The third
parallel has been carried on the left, to a road which
has already been the limit of the preceding works. On
the left of this road, which leads from the country to
the city, the ground rapidly descends; and there is a
passage which is not only difficult to cross, but is ex-
posed to the fire of the left flank of bastion 8, which is
armed with two howitzers, keeping up a continual fire.
During the night the fire of the place and that of the
trenches was almost null. The principal work was the
construction of the breaching batteries. Batteries No.
7 and 8 have been terminated. Battery No. 9 has been
commenced in the approaches not yet enlarged; the ob-
ject of it is to open the bastion No. 7; it is placed at 60
metres from the face to be battered, and it will be im-
mediately armed.
"From the 18th to the 19th.—During the night we
debouched to the right and left of the breaching-battery
opposite the curtain. The approaches were directed
against the walls of the old demi-lune which covered it.
The approach of the right is 60 metres in length, and
that of the lett 26. The latter has been turned to the
right, and directed on a gabion made by the enemy, but
evacuated. We have made the gabion useful as a cover
from the curtain, and at one of its angles we have made
a construction to protect the work from the fire of bas-
tion 6. During the day we enlarged the approaches of
the right, and actively occupied ourselves in forming
steps in the third parallel. Battery No. 7, directed
against the curtain, terminated its embrasures during
the night, and opened its fire about nine o'clock. Bat-
tery No. 8, directed against bastion 6, was entirely ter-
minated at about eight o'clock. It began to fire at about
half-past nine. We cannot yet well appreciate the re-
sult of the day. Battery No. 9 was only terminated at
nine o'clock in the morning. The firing immediately
commenced. Two mortars fire on bastion 6, and two
others on bastion 7. Their fire is well directed. The
battery S. Pancrazio has been a good deal advanced
during the day. It will be easily terminated during the
night. Our loss may be estimated at about 4 killed and
26 wounded. Captain Rochebonet, of the artillery, has
received a contusion in the hand from a ball, and M.
Gouy, first lieutenant, has been wounded by a ball behind
the neck.

(Signed) " OUDINOT DE REGGIO."
It is rumoured in Paris that the Government have
received information of the defeat of General
OUDINOT by the Romans. According to one ac-
count the Romans had entrenched themselves so
strongly behind the breach that the French had
failed both in a direct attack and in an attempt to
carry the position, and had, consequently, been com-
pelled to retreat. Another rumour was that the Ro-
mans had sprung a mine, which had destroyed a con-
siderable portion of the French forces, and compelled
OUDINOT to withdraw to a distance from Rome,
whilst another rumour stated that a force of 3,000
men had been permitted by the Romans to penetrate
into the city, and that when they had become en-
tangled in the narrow streets they bad been attacked,
and cut off to a man. Certain it is, that up to the
evening of the 23d, OUDINOT had not entered the city.
A letter from Marseilles gives the following as the
latest news from Rome :
" In the Trenches, June 22, Four A.M.

" A second wall of considerable thick:iess has b en
discovered within the rampart, and distant about 1,400
feet. This wall has been lately thrown up, and is made
of stone, bricks, and ancient monuments, &c. &c. It is
said that the French will find more difficulty in destroy-
ing this wall than in the opening of the breaches on the
rampart."

MM. Mole, de Purat, Le Lanayrac, Callet, Ba-
roche, Fleustier, Emile Leroux, Combaret de Leyval,
Dauste, Pidoux, Nettement, de Riancey, Mathieu,
(de la Redorte) and Chaupot, have been appointed
members of the Committee to report on the new law
relating to the press, proposed by M. ODILON
BARROT—a law which has not even the merit of
originality, being a servile copy of the laws of Sep-
tember, which, under LOUIS PHILIPPE, he never
tired in denouncing.
The Credit has the following admirable observa-
tions on the anomalous position occupied by MM.
ODILON BARROT and DUTAURE, as members of a
reactionary Ministry
" Let M. de Fallout seek to bring back the human
mind to the sterility which marks those countries where
his opinions have for ages prevailed; let him dream of
restoring at once the temporal power of the Pope, and of
restoring in France the power of the Church over public
instruction; let him order the bombardment of Rome,
that the bishop may enter the Vatican as a King; and
let him bombard the university, that the children may
flee the colleges to take shelter in the seminaries; in
tine, whether he be Ultramontane, Jesuit, or inquisitor,
wt.) raumprihmal 'LULL Oi. 1 Ilearrot, thew mem 04
law and liberty, remaking, correcting, and considerably
augmenting the laws of September! But M. Dutaure,
the accomplished debater, preventing the public
discussion of public interests, and prohibiting a
whole people from debating their ordinary concerns!
But M. de Tocqueville, the successor of Lafayette in
the work of holding up Republican America to the ad-
miration of ,France—he chaining this France to Kings
in order to smother Republican sentiment in Europe!
These are, indeed, unexpected, surprising, startling
events, which draw tears from our eyes, but will make
others burst with laughter. And this deplorable spec-
tacle ends with a petty farce, that of M. Lacrosse, pro-
posing to finish the old and unfinishable palace of the
Kings of France in the midst of cholera, of suspension
of work, on the morrow of the 13th of June, and in the
face of misery and insurrection, preying on the vitals of
the sovereign people, in rags and dens of filth ! Has
France lost all hest, spirit, and good sense ? Is it pos-
sible that she can support much longer such a spectacle?
What! not a new sentiment to refresh her soul, not an
idea for the future, no acts but of a negative or re-
pressive kind, or a miserable plagiarism from the worst
days of despotism, and such plagiarisms as bad as those
of anarchy."
It is said that M. DE LAMARTINE is certain to be
returned for Charente Inferieure, in the room of the
late Marshal BUGEAUD.

The Corporation of the City of London is acting
in a manner worthy of its high positiun as the first
municipal body in the world, and of the exalted
liberality for which it has been distinguished during
so many successive ages. It is prepared to assume
the initiative in the measures to be adopted for the
relief of their Irish brethren, and the elevation in the
social scale of that magnificent but much neglected
country. If bright spots are to be found amid the
all but universal gloom that prevails throughout the
island—if " oases" are to be discovered, sprinkled
throughout the desert—they must be sought for in
the estates of the Great Companies of the City of
London. These influential bodies have ever more
sedulously endeavoured to discharge the duties
than to enforce the rights incidental to
possession of property. They have afforded a wise
and salutary encouragement to the deserving and
improving occupiers. of tho_ aniL Th. 1:m1;46-masa and
prosperity of their tenantry has ever been regarded
as their chief object, and mere pecuniary consider-
ations have been but of secondary importance. Un-
der their control and management the occupier was
certain of receiving full justice. If he expended his
labour or his capital in the permanent amelioration of
his holding, he knew that himself or his family
would reap the full benefit thereof; that he would
not be ejected from the lands he had improved, or
have his rent unduly increased beyond a fair amount
to provide for the incumbrances of an embarrassed
landlord, or to gratify the cupidity of a greedy agent,
who would receive a handsome douceur for permitting
a stranger to reap the benefits of another man's
industry and enterprise. The natural result fol-
' lowed ; while other estates were deteriorated in value
and suffered to become comparatively barren and un-
productive, those of the London Companies were
brought into the highest state of cultivation, their na-
tural capabilities were fully and completely deve-
loped, and might challenge comparison with the best
managed properties in this happy nation. The
tenants were thriving and prosperous, the labourers
happy and contented, with constant employment at
fair and remunerative prices. " A fair day's work"
was given in return for " a fair day's wages," and all
classes were benefited by the humane and benevolent,
and at the same time wise and politic rules adopted
by the London Companies on their estates in
the "black north." There it was that the principle
of " tenant right" was first established, and there it
has invariably been acted upon with the strictest equity.
An unwritten code has started into existence mu-
tually beneficial to all parties concerned—to landlords
as well as to tenants, and its provisions have never
been in the slightest degree infringed by the livery-
men of the city of London.
A. deep debt of gratitude is due to the distinguished
gentleman who so admirably discharges the impor-
tant duties of first magistrate of this great metropolis,
for having convened the meeting which assembled
at the Mansion-house on Friday last, and to Mr.
DAVID WILLIAMS WIRE and the other members of
the Corporation, who so enthusiastically responded to
the invitation issued by the LORD MAYOR. If any of the
plans suggested by Mr. WIRE should be carried into
execution a great step would be taken in the right
direction towards the achievement of the social re-
generation of the Sister Kingdom and the establish-
ment of peace, order, and prosperity therein ; the
first great want of the country would be supplied in
the best manner, and capital would be introduced ,
under the most propitious and favourable circum-
stances. As a mere pecuniary speculation nothing
mouldbe more productive than the purchase of Irish
es
t present ',per
oi cre
thirty
r tLs ayneda
rs
st
,h
pa
ut
rfeo
hr
ams
ee r
al yr e c
no
or n
mantled w-
or if forced into the markets,
practically unsaleable, or
the nominal pro-
prietors,t‘r fourteen years'bame been
owing to the embarrassnift,u,
must be sold at twelve
purchase, less than one-half of what colds
obtained in better times, or what, we venture to .„.3„,
will be obtained in future years, when remedial measnr.e
that have been enacted, and those which will un-
doubtedly still be submitted to the Legislature, shall
have received a fair and reasonable trial. But the
Corporation of London are animated by still higher
motives than any respecting the profits that might be
realised from their transactions. Their object is to
ameliorate the condition of their suffering fellow•
creatures, to enable those who are now enduring all
the evils attendant on the deepest poverty to obtain
THE APPROACHING ROYAL VISIT TO IRELAND.—
prosperity and comparative of pence by their own
%V understand that an official intimation of the in-
honest industry and good conduct ; to set an example
ten tion of the Queen to honour her Irish subjects
which, if extensively followed, as it most probably will with a visit has been already conveyed to his Excel.
be, will raise the Irish nation to a level with this lency the Earl of Clarendon, and the Sovereign is
country, and render her the right arm and strongest
expected to arrive in Dublin about the second wee
support of England, in place of being an incumbrance k
late Duke of Kent, was created by
and heavy drain upon the national resources. In the 'n August. Her Majesty's illustrGioeuosrgFe aththeeTr,htihrde
Earl of Dublin, which title became extinct at his
beautiful language of Sir ROBERT PEEL, " It will not
demise. Her Majesty will be attended by one of the
seek to expel the natives from the soil Secretaries of State, probably Sir George Grey, and
It will seek to elevate their character—to encourage it is expected that Parliament will be prorogued three
their industry—to find for them permanent employ- weeks earlier than last year.
Lieut.-Colonel English, commanding the Royal
raent—to instil the principles of order—of respect
Engineers at Woolwich, is seriously indisposed; he was
for the laws—of submission to authority." "Such recovering from the effects of the accident he met with
will be the glorious effort of the City of London," a short time since, but symptoms have exhibited them-
said the Right lion. Baronet, and the community in selves which are calculated to occasion alarm to his
friends.
general, must fully assent to the justice of the obser- Sir John Pelly had an interview with Earl Grey
vation. It is, indeed, a glorious undertaking, which yesterday at the Colonial-office.

The Credit alludes to the note published in the
Zkfoniteur of the blockade of Ancona, and of the ob-
ject of Austria in so doing being to restore the
POPE. The fact of the publication of the note of the
French Government appears to the Credit to involve
a joint responsibility on its part with Austria, in
the endeavour to effect the re-establishment of the
Soverign
_PONTIFF. The Credit, after declaring
this, says—
" The Government has not yet said that it intervenes
for this object; but after the notification that it has
received from Austria, and published, it cannot
dis-
pense with positively declaring if it proposes to
itself tho same object in order that no one may be
ignorant if it acts with Austria or with England,
and especially in order that France may know for whose
interest it is that she spends the blood of our soldiers.
If the Government thinks that the publication of the
Austrian note is a sufficient declaration of adhesion to
Austrian policy, and consequently a sufficient rectifica-
tion for the country and for Europe of the adoption by
it of a similar policy of Papal restoration, it deceives it-
self—the thing is worth the trouble of being positively
explained."
The Roman expedition has become so unpopular
that the various members of the Government are en-
deavouring each to shirk the responsibility. The
PRESIDENT of the Republic declares that he ordered
the expedition to proceed to Civita Vecchia, but that
he gave no orders for the advance upon Rome. M.
ODILON BARROT equally declares that he never
ordered the advance upon Rome, the whole responsi-
bility of which rests upon the shoulders of M. DE
FALLOUX.
PARIS BOURSE—THURSDAY, JUNE 28.

THREE o'CLocs..—There was very little business
done at the Bourse to-day, but the Funds were rather
more firm than yesterday. In the absence of any cer-
tain information from Rome, there were plenty of
ramours afloat. It was said that the French troops had
again assaulted the walls of Rome, and with more suc-
cess than on the first occasion; but there appeared to
be no real ground for that or any other reports. The
Railways were also firm. Exchange on London (30
days), 25 37f; ditto (90 days), 25 27k.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS -AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE. JUNE 28. _

Boulogne and Amiens, 71,x—Luxembourg, 2—Namur and
Liege, 7 LA—Northern of France, 10—Orleans and Bordeaux,
WA—Rouen and Havre, 10%.

of the 23d have arrived
It was supposed tavdt
Madrid 3ou SPAIN.
. rn.i
afn cl that the
the Tariff
day
;mild pass
that
the Chamber of Deputies ‘,..
Cortes would be prorogued about ..t.,a 2ayd:
h
Queen CHRISTINA Was convalescent. July.
MADRID BOLSA, JUNB 23.—Three pwe Cents.
25i; Five per Cents., 14 paper. Exchange on Lon.
don 50 50.

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