The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-27 00:00:00

rIifORNING CIIRONICLE.I

The Francis Freeling Packet arrived on gator.
day from Brazil, in 44 days, having touched at
Lisbon on her way home, no doubt, for the pur-
pose of landing dispatches from the Brazilian
Government and Sir Charles Stuart. The ad.
vices brought by her from Rid are up to the
28th of October, only a few days later than
those already received from the same quarter,
which we have previously published. Since the
12th, the Emperor's birth day, nothing material
had occurred in the Brazilian capital, except the
arrival of official news from Baron de Laguna, at
Montevideo, giving the details of a rencontre
with the Orientals, as published in eur Paper of
Saturday. By the packet came an English mes.
server to our Government from Sir Charles
Stuart, and also M. Bento Lisboa, with dispatches
to the Brazilian Embassy at ,our Court. We
have every reason to believe that both were
bearers of the new Treaty concluded be-
tween Great Britain and the Emperor of
Brazil, and we have no doubt the object of the
packet touching at Lisbon, on her way home, was
to leave another copy of the Treaty there. The
formation of this Treaty may be considered as a
necessary consequence of the one previously con-
cluded between Brazil and Portugal, sanctioning
the separation and acknowledging the independ-
ence of the former. With both, whilst united
under the same Crown, we were connected by a
treaty of friendship,alliance, commerce and navi-
gation, signed at Rio de Janeiro on the 19th
Feb. 1810, and usually called Lord Strangford's
Treaty. Although according to the 32d article
of the above treaty, it was stipulated, " that its
provisions should be unlimited in point of dura-
tion, the obligations and conditions thereof perpe-
tual and immutable, and that they should not be
changed or affected in any manner, in case the
King of Portugal should re-establish the seat of
the Portuguese Monarchy within the European
dominions of that Crown ;" it was nevertheless
agreed that the same should be formally renewed
at a stated period, and this expired some time
ago. The new relative situation, however, in
which both Portugal and Brazil are at present
placed, required entirely new treaties with us,
many provisions of the old one having become
obsolete as well as inconsistent. As far as regards
Brazil, our manufacturers will, no doubt, be ad-
mitted on the same basis as those of Portugal,
whose subjects are equally considered in the
light of foreigners, that is, on the payment
of 15 per cent. duties. The introduction of
some clause for the protection of British property
end subjects may further be deemed necessary ;
but many of the other provisions, extending in
all to 32 Articles, are rendered useless by the
establishment of an independent Government, on
a liberal and constitutional basis. Most pro-
bably, the new treaties with Portugal and Brazil
will not he made known to the public until they
are laid before Parliament at the ensuing Session,
and then, it is to be hoped, they will be found
more concise, explicit, and, we may add, more I
mutually satisfactory,.than the former one.

[THE PUBLIC LEDGER.]
The Continental Journals that have reached us
since our last, contain accounts which must con-
vince the most sceptical that the Emperor Alex-
ander came to his death by natural means. We
dwell upon this point the more strenuously, be-
cause the event is, in all conscience, important
enough of itself, without the addition of vio-
lence; and we suspect that the latter rumour was
put forth with the view alone of diverting the
public mind from a calm consideration of the
consequences likely to Row from an occurrence,
as momentary as it wa's•unexpected. Both the
Hamburgh and Paris Papers contain advises

from St. Petersbargh of the 9th inst., whore the
melancholy intelligence was received the day
before, and where it is said to have plunged
the inhabitants of all ranks into the deepest
affliction. As soon as the news reached that ca-
pital, there was a meeting of the members of the
Imperial Family, of the Council of State and
Ministers, at which it was resolved to proclaim
Constantine, as Emperor and Autocrat, without
any delay—an additional proof, if such were
wanting, of the gratuitous malignity on one side,
and of the inexcusable credulity On the other, in
which the pretended assassination originated.—
The Empress Mother, whose attachment to the
late Emperor was well known, and which was
only matched by the unremitting attentions she
had never ceased to receive at his hands—was
present at this meeting; and, at its breaking up,
the Grand Duke Nicholas was the first to
take the oaths to the new Sovereign. His
example was immediately followed by the
troops who form the garrison of the capital, and
who compose a corps d'elite, amounting to about
50,000 men of all arms. Thus no demonstration
has been exhibited as yet of that resistance, or
rather aversion, to the rights of Constantine, of
which we have heard so much of late ; and, if the
exact truth were known, it would perhaps be
found that it has occasioned more joy than grief
or consternation, particularly as far as the senti-
ments are concerned. The pacific policy of
Alexander, however it might have met the
wishes of the enlightened portion of the Russian
nation, could not have been very acceptable to a
body of men, to whom war is a trade, and rapid
promotion the grandest object of their desires.
The martial ardour of their new Sovereign will
reconcile them at least to his authority : and, to
shew his gratitude, he will probably lose as little
time as possible to gratify their ruling passion.

[NEW TIMES.]
The country papers are full of ►►otices, issued
by Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Traders, declaring
their confidence in particularTßanks. The effect
of these notices has been highly beneficial ; they
have checked a panic which threatened the most
disastrous consequences ; they have stopped runs
which had begun on several substantial firms; and
they have restored tranquillity to the alarmed
mind, and security to the intercourse of commerce.
The Journal which, above all others,was active in
creating the panic, and to which, above every
other cause, the sufferers feel that they owe their
own ruin, now turns round, and, with an odious
hypocrisy, sheds crocodile tears over its victims.
It talks of " compassion for the thousands of
poor, credulous, and unoffending persons, who,
with their families, are consigned to destruction,
by the failure of any extensive Bank. " How
many poor tradesmen's bills (says the writer) are
left unpaid, by the extinction of deposits, which
had been left for the discharge of them ! How
many small farmers thrown upon the parish by
the swallowing up of the sums laid by for their
rent day ! What numbers of small annuitants,
and of industrious shopkeepers, all whose savings
had been locked up in the neighbouring bank !"
True—too true. But who is the cause of all this
misery ? Who alarmed the whole country with
a false and fabricated conversation between the
Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor
of the Bank ? Who whispered away the credit
of houses that could command millions ? Who la-
boured to defeat the means adopted for restoring
confidence ? As Nathan said unto David, "`Thou
art the man."

[BRITISH PRESS.]
When the protection of our manufactures, by
prohibitory duties, began to be denounced as im-
politic, and laws were enacted which should lay
them open, under certain regulations, to foreign
competition, it was easy to foretell that the agri-
culturists could not long escape the operation of
the same principles of free trade, and that the
manufacturers, in their turn, would call for the
abolition of the Corn Laws. They would say,
naturally enough, " If you are to have manufac-
tured goods cheaper, let us have provisions
lower; that if we were to reduce—as we must—
the wages of our workmen, they may be enabled
to live cheaper, in proportion to the fall in the
price of their labour." And in this there is nothing
unfair, for if the principles of free trade are to be
acted upon, they must be acted upon impartially,
and the husbandman must be put upon a level
with the manufacturer. They must both stand
or fall together. A more momentous subject, or
one in which the whole kingdom is more vitally

interested never came befor;Parliament than the
abolition of the Corn Laws. All the great
branches of our national industry are linked in-
separably with the prosperous state of agricul-
ture—all the great sources of our wealth and
power low from it, as from the parent spring.
No error can be more fatal than that which re-
presents the manufacturing and the landed inte-
rest as opposed to each other. This subject pre-
sents a wide field of discussion; we have consi-
dered it fully, and in all its bearing, hut we shall
not at present enter upon it. The County Meet-
ings that have already begun to assemble will press
it soon enough upon ourattention. In the meantime
we would remark, that the divisions of opinion,
which unhappily prevail upon this great question,
require that so far as the daily Press takes part
in the argument, a journal, if it furnishes nothing
in the way of reason and sound argument, would
do well' to abstain, at least, from abuse and irri-
tation. We say this with reference to the Times,
which opens the discussion by observing that " The
landed men are actually beginning their machiria-
tions fora continuence of the monopoly in bread."
Such language may excite the lower classes to acts
of insult and outrage, but as to any good effect, it
can have none. It may generate vindictive feel-
ings, but it can afford no useful information ; as
applied to the Agriculturists as a class in the
state, it is unmanly and invidious. The subject
involves in itself enough of disunion, and the less
inflammatory matter that is introduced into it the
better.

[MORNING HERA f.D.]
The trustees of of the Kensington-road are ad.
vertising, we see, for a loan of 5,0001. Now as
this money, if raised, as well as the interest, most

be repaid out of the pockets of the public, we
think there would be no great harm if these gen-
tlemen were kind enough to let us know for
what purpose this or any other loan can pos-
sibly be wanted. We are aware that these good
people, like many others 44 dressed in a little
brief authority," are rather grand i❑ their no-
tions, and somewhat touchy in their temperament;
and that, like Falstaff, though reasons were
as thick as blackberries, they will give none
44 upon compulsion ;" and as we have no disposi-
tion to raise their ire, or power to compel the
production of their reasons, we will merely,argue
this matter with them on the ground of precedent

and the reasonableness of the thing. There is no
principle more clearly inherent in the spirit of
our free Constitution than this, that no money
shall be raised upon the subject without a full
knowledge on his part of the purposes for which
it is wanted, and the objects to which it
is applied. Parliament happily retains this
principle unimpaired ; and it is, unfortu-
nately, local, petty authorities, like those
to which we are now alluding, which assume and
exercise a power unknown to the King himself,
or to any department in the State. Thus we have
Vestries, and other mean and incongruous bodies,
who raise money without limit and without ac-
counting for it; and Turnpike Trusts which
not only tax us by tolls for the repairs of
the roads, but with the payment of heavy
loans and interest, the necessity and appropria-
tion of which are only known to themselves.
Now, though we dare say the Kensington
Trustees have abundant and substantial reasons

for borrowing money, the necessity of such pro-
ceedings is not so obvious as to preclude the ne-
cessity of any information being given. In the
first place, from the largeness of the tolls, and
the immense traffic on the Great Western Road,
there may be people ignorant enough to imagine,
that so far from having occasion to borrow money,
the tolls themselves ought to be lowered ; and
we go still farther than this, and actually think
there should be no such Trust as this Kensington
one in existence, but that it and every other so near
the metropolis ought to be abolished altogether.
To be sure, when we consider the snug pick-
ings and the load of patronage and consequence
our principles tend to overthrow, we are some-
times half-inclined to relent; but still we cannot
persuade ourselves that it is not just as fit that we
should have turnpike gates in Cheapside and the
Strand, as between Sloane-street and Piccadilly.
But, besides the enormous amount of the tolls
collected on this road, it is to be remembered

that on the recent removal of the gate at Hyde-
Park-corner to its present very objectionable
situation at Knightsbride, the trustees contrived
to exempt themselves from the repair of so much
of the road as lies between the sites of the old
and new gates, being above half a mile in length,
and that the worst and most expensive half mile
on the road, and amounting, we should suppose,
to one-tenth of the whole. Now, in private life,
when a man's expences diminish, and he has
fewer calls upon his income, he necessarily be-
comes the richer, and of course has less occasion
to borrow: So, we think, it ought to he
with the trustees ; and as their borrowing
at a moment when Parliament, it is t& be hoped,
has it in agitation to cut short their existence, may
have the appearance of endeavouring to keep
themselves and their powers alive by fictitiotis
means, we trust they will either at once give
good reasons for the step they are taking, or post-
pone its adoption till the sense of Parliament on
the general question of continuing their's and the
other gates round London has been 4scertaitied.