The Sun.
London, England, 1825-01-19 00:00:00

[TIIE PUBLIC
_LEDGER.]

An express was received yesterday from Liver-
pool, announcing the arrival at that port of the
Flora, from Buenos Ayres, with important dis-
patches. She sailed on the 14th of November ;
but on the same day a boat was dispatched after
her, requesting the Captain to stop, as, since his
departure, important news had been received
from Peru, which would be transcribed as soon
as possible, and sent to him on board. Such is
the introductory part of the intelligence, by
which no slight sensation was excited yester-
day in the City ; and we cannot help observing
a striking coincidence between it and a former
account, which had been received in a similar
way, after the departure of the vessel, by which
it was brought to this country, and which proved,
in the sequel, to be false. We now come to the
substance of the intelligence, in which it is stated,
that a decisive engagement had been fought be-
tween Canterac and Bolivar, in the plains of
Xauxa, of which the result was, the entire de-
feat of Canterac, with time toss of 6000 men. The
entire defeat is a cold mode of expressing such a
disaster; and utter annihilation would have been
much better, particularly as the highest recent
computation had not given Canterac more than
the number we are now told, was put hors de
combat. The baffle must, therefore, hare been
one of the most sanguinary recorded in the annals
of warfare, and far more obstinately contest-
ed, than any engagement in modern times.—
The loss sustained by the victor, which is esti-
mated as high as 4000 men, supports our opinion ;
and it was this dreadful carnage, no doubt, which
had so much bewildered the writer of the origi-
nal dispatch, that he omitted affixing to it a date !
In consequence of this grave omission, we are
ignorant of the day on which time action was
fought ; and the uncertainty unavoidably arising
from this circumstance, is increased on the whole
by the place where, it is said, the battle has
taken place. Xauxa is more than 100 miles
to the north of Huanta, from which Bolivar's
last dispatches are dated, and consequently
he must have fallen back this distance, with
all the disadvantages attending a retreating
army, instead of engaging the enemy when he
first presented himself. This is so utterly incon-
sistent with the military character of Bolivar,
which, if it has a defect, is not that of caution,
hut rather of excessive confidence, that we cannot
help being struck at the apparent discrepancy.—
At the same time it varies who:illy front what we
had been led to believe by all preceding accounts,
in which the Colombian General is represented
as greatly an over-match for his adversaries, par-
ticularly in point of numbers. Therefore, to re-
concile these striking contradictions with the
claims to a victory, we can only suppose that
there are two places in Peru, which go by the
name of Xauxa ; but even this supposition
would not relieve our doubts. In the first

place, we observe that the present intelligence is
almost the echo of that which we gave a month since
from a Baltimore Paper ; and since then, several
versions of it have appeared in other American
Papers. Moreover, Buenos Ayres is so cir-
cuitous a- route, and so liable to obstruction, par-
ticularly as Olaneta's dilision is interposed be-
tween the frontiers and Bolivar's forces, that it is
impossible to think we should receive the first
account of so very important an event through
this channel. Should the account, however, be
confirmed, we are convinced that the name of
the place is given inaccurately ; and, if the legi-
timate cause has been annihilated in Peru, it is
not in the plains of Xauxa, or we egregiously err,
that a monument sill be raised to coc►unemorate
its extinction.

[monsiso cnaomer.E.]
We have received Paris Papers of Sunday, and
the Etoile dated Monday. The Courier Francais
contains a paragraph, stating that valuable infor-
mation has been collected in France, by several
Members of Parliament, on the subject of the
interference of the French Jesuitical Party in the
affairs of the Catholic Association ; and that docu-
ments of great importance, seized in Ireland, will
be produced to the two Chambers when the question
respecting Catholic Emancipation shall be renewed.
We are somewhat incredulous as to the discovery of
these documents of great importance, which are
to he laid before Parliament. That the Royal
Pandly of France, and the bona fide Catholics,

are anxious to make converts of us, is extremely
natural, and that they give all the support in
their power to the Jesuits, who are now bestir-
ring themselves with great zeal in the endeavour
to gain converts, both in Ireland and England, is
no very wonderful discovery ; and we presume
this is the whole amount of the Jesuital in-
trigues. A: sincere Catholic, who believes that
all who are not Catholics must be damned, will
naturally exert himself to the utmost to rescue his
fellow-creatures from such a dreadful fate. All Ca-
tholics are not equally zealous for the conversion of
their neighbours, because Catholics as well as
Protestants may be little under the influence of
their religion. We have no right to complain of
the exercise of this zeal on the part of the French
Government. Are we not every day ourselves
circulating bibles with the utmost industry in all
parts of the Continent ; and do not our Societies
boast that, notwithstanding the strict prohibition
of the Austrian Government, they have succeeded
in pouring in many thousands of Bibles into the
Austrian dominions ? It seems at first sight sin-
gular that at the present moment the Li-1
beral Papers of France should be enlisted
on the side of the English Government,
while those of this country are defending
the Catholics. But the circumstance is
easily accounted for—the liberal party in France
are acquainted only with Catholic intolerance,
and are not aware that there are Jesuits who do
not acknowledge the Pope's supremacy. The
liberal Journals in England, on the other hand,
see in the Catholics only the victims of oppression
and impolitic laws, and, knowing that the Pro-
testants have a great superiority, both of num-
bers and wealth, on their side, they cannot
comprehend why it should be necessary for them
to arm themselves with laws at variance
with every principle of justice ; neither can
they understand how such laws can benefit
them. So far from benefiting the Protestants,
this injustice is injurious to them in the extreme.
Does it not. serve to divide Protestants, and to
enlist the sympathies of many of them on tl►e
side of those who are tl►e victims of the injustice?
En the case of the Bar, for instance, who does not
feel for the men who have been tempted to fol-
low that profession, and who are subject to the
mortification of witnessing every day others in-
ferior to themselves in talents, and less successful
with regard to practice, enabled by the profes-
sional honours from which they are debarred, to
leave them behind ? The odium of this injustice,
the pretext for which is tl►e support of Protest-
antism, is naturally thrown on the professors of
that religion.

['MORNING HERALD.]
The Lord Chancellor favours the Pitt Club
with an annual or triennial speech, we forget
which ; and Lord Liverpool and Mr. Canning
have just conferred a similar honour upon the
Corporation of Bristol. These latter orations
the political quidnuncs have seized upon as con-
taining much important matter, not recollecting
that the objects of public men, upon such occa-
sions, it to use a certain number of words, with
es little meaning as possible. To say what no
one can understaud or misunderstand, is the
acme of this species of eloquence, and of which
these distinguished Statesmen seem to have
been fully aware.—The Premier's speech is
plain and uusophistical—The Foreign Secre-
tary possesses more of tact and of finesse.—
Each contrived to round his periods so as to
leave the ear gratified, and the mind filled with
an ample field for conjecture and inquiry. Mr.
Canning, we believe, is a new convert to this
species of tavern eloquence. There was a period
(at least previous to his representing Liverpool)
that he held it in sovereign contempt. It is re-
lated of the Right Hon. Gentleman, that on one
occasion, when a large party of his admirers had
drunk his health at a public meeting, and were
making the walls resound with their subsequent
cheers and huzzas, the orator quietly escaped
during time hubbub, and whew the expected
speech was looked for, the bird had flown. This
was at the time when the Right Honourable
Gentleman's aristocratic notions were higher than
they are at present ; when he thought that
popular favour was beneath the notice of a
man of high connection. He has since, very
wisely, profited from experience, and has disco-
vered, that under a popular Government the fa-
vour of the people is not quite so despicable a.
thing as he had imagined it. He has become the
popular Minister of England, and now pays
grateful homage to that power which maintains
him in his seat. We are little inclined to quarrel
with him for any thing, and least of all for
this. In fact, we admire the Whigisto of
the Tories much more than we do the Toryism
of the Whigs. However, Mr. Canning's ora-
tory at Bristol amounts to very little. Con-
scious, perhaps, that he was on the spot where
even the eloquence of Burke himself had been
unavailing, he seems to have indulged in mere
common places, which, though vastly edifying, no
b übt, to the eager listeners at the time, upon
reflection, furnish but little information, or even
subject for remark. The Right Hon. Gentle-
man's concluding idea, that " this country is be-
ginning a course of national prosperity which
shall exceed all that has gone before, as much as
the present exceeds all past expectation," is a
happy illustration of the prevailing nothingness
which necessarily pervades the species of ora-
tory in which he was indulging—we mean
the oratory of humbug. We pity public men
who cannot go to Bath to recruit their health
against the commencement of the Parliamentary
campaign, without being obliged to eat and talk
for public amusement, at the same time that we
exclaim, happy country! where Statesmen are
citizens, and where the mystery of Government
is within the reach of every one, and where the
highest station seeks and bows to the best sinew
of all just and free government—public opinion.

[MORNING POST.]
So many dreadful accidents occur in Coal Pits,
from the combined negligence of the workmen,
their overseers, and the proprietors, that as
guardian of the community, we think Government
justified in adopting some plan to prevent such
fatal results in future. It was fondly imagined,

when Sir Humphrey Davy's excellent invention,
the safety lamp, first came into use, that the
public would be afflicted no more by the heart-
rending effects of explosiOns. Speaking, how-
ever, without any precise data to guide our con-
clusion, and merely depending upon vague recol-
lection of the accidents which have since taken
place in collieries, we believe neither in number
nor horror have they much, if at all di-
minished. Indeed, from the habits of the
workmen, this might have been expected,
rather than the opposite. Before safety
lamps were used, the life .or death of
the colliers depended solely upon the state of the
atmosphere under ground, and they could pretty
well conclude, from its effects on their lights,
those symptoms of danger which rendered flight
and a subsequent purification of the air impera-
tive. This constant state of fear and precaution
the employment of safety lamps has, we imagine,
much deadened ; and the consequence is, that
the quantity of fire damp is usually allowed to
accumulate until the most trivial circumstance
capable of igniting so combustible a mass oc-
curs ; and then explosion, with all its ap-
palling effects, plunges perhaps hundreds of
persons into irretrievable misery. Now, in our
opinion, the Legislature is equally bound to put
a stop to the negligence from which such dire
evils to society palpably spring, as it is bound in
any other case to protect the lives and happiness
of his Majesty's subjeCts. The only question,
indeed, to be decided is one which must be an-
swered in favour of our position, viz. Can the or-
dinary accidents in coal-pits from explosions of
fire damp be prevented ? It is notorious that
they can. The safety lamp, in its present im-
proved construction, is perfectly adequate to en-
able colliers to work in an atmosphere otherwise
dangerous in the extreme. But in reality it is
practicable in most pits to preserve the air so pure
as not to be capable of explosion ; and it is the
duty of those concerned to keep it in that
state of purity. The object of the safety lamp
is, not that coal workers should labour always
in foul air with impunity, but that any sudden
increase of fire (lamp, which without the protec-
tion of the lamp would cause explosion, might
not be attended with that shocking event. The
great point therefore to aim at is, that by proper
inspection and the application of proper means,
the general state of the air in coal pits shall
be incapable of ignition without safety lamps ;
and also that should fortuitous circumstances
occasion a dangerous accession of fire damp,
that the condition of the mine in all ra-
spects shall be such as to render the safety lamp
an effectual protection. That the owners, over-
seers, and workers of coal pits, might order things
exactly in this manner, we are quite sensible ;
but the melancholy details which we have so
frequently to record, of the loss of lives in-
curred from those persons neglecting their duty
to themselves and society, warrants us in pro-
posing, and Parliament in enacting, that the griev-
ance be otherwise redressed. The appointment of
a competent surveyor to each coal district of
a certain extent, with some appropriate provisons
to enable him to discharge the functions of this
office effectively, would probably correct the
evil. He should of course have access to the
mines at proper times, and his directions for
avoiding explosions should be imperative, while
he himself was responsible for his whole
conduct. The owners and overseers of mines
should likewise be amenable for neglect or vio-
lation of the Inspector's instructions to a Justice
of the Peace. We are not, however, so vastly
enamoured of this scheme as to believe that others
as good, or much better, could not be devised.—
What we wish is simply to have a great and
glaring defect remedied ; and provided that be
accomplished, we shall not stickle about the
means by which Parliament may accomplish the
desired end.