The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-17 00:00:00

I,iat they might thidivkiedly pm sue their chase after
Universal Suffrage ; it described our efforts to make
them prefer the former to the latter, as aiding
die dishonest purposes of the Whigs, and it con-
tributed to make the Chartists suspect our mo-
tives ; and in December the consistent journal in-
sinuates that those who followed its September
advice want boti Principle and common sense. In
September the Spectator knew that the Corn-last
agitation was not the child of the Ministers, and yet
it asserted it was ; in December it sneers at those who
prefer the Suffrage to the abolition of the Corn-laws,
and at the same time asserts that it has continuously
and consistently held the same language and pursued
the same object. We have heard a good deal of the
calumnies of the Pulpit and the slanders of the Bar,
but they are quite equalled by the recklessness and im-
pudence of quasi patriotic Journalists, who claim
public approbation for monstrous inconsistencies and
for labouring to injure what they avow to be a good
cause, when that serves some petty or personal purpose.
As to what the Spectator says of ourselves, we beg
to submit to its " habit of analysis" that our conduc'
could not be both silly and base ; unless it be silly to
express an honest conviction. We admit the silliness
of observing that the Spectator depreciated the agita-
tion of the Corn-law question in September, and re•
commended Universal Suffrage, and deprecated Uni-
versal Suffrage and recommended Corn law agitation
in December, but we cannot admit that there was any
baseness in reminding our Contemporary of his vacilla-
tion, and of setting our conduct in September right
with his friends and followers by his authority in De-
cember. In truth, it was neither the " silliness" not
the " baseness" of the " hack" which affected our
Contemporary, but the correctness of our remarks. As
our Contemporary is now re-converted to our Sep-
tember views we can only regret that the necessity of
setting ourselves right with the public and his friends,
the Chartists, should have compelled us to pierce
through " his mail of self conceit," and plant a rank
ling barb in his arrogant and self-sufficient heart.

The parties opposed to a Sunday delivery of letters
in the metropolis urge, as one of their great arguments,
the tendency of such a practice to increase business on
the Lord's Day. If one house, they say, were to
take advantage of the change, others would be com-
pelled to follow the example in self-defence. The
Sabbath would be blotted out of the days of the week,
and the whole country would soon relapse into Pagan-
ism. They urge this in defiance of the well-known
fact that this practice in Scotland is coeval with the
establishment of the Post-office, and that the people
of that country are, nevertheless, the most religious,
Sabbath-observing people in the world. But if their
argument is good for anything, possibly they may
soon find that they must go a great deal farther,
and not only prevent the delivery of letters,
but put a stop to steam-carriages and every
other means of conveyance on a Sunday. What
is to prevent a Liverpool or London house, or number
of houses, sending an agent to either place on a Sun-
day morning with advices to their correspondents, and
thereby get the start of the rest by twenty-four hours ?
And do they imagine if any great advantage could be
gained by this, that the Hebrews, who disregard the
Sunday, would not have discovered the secret, and put
the system in practice long ago ? We feel just as much
alarm for the one result as the other—that is no alarm
at all, because one fact is worth a thousand theories ;
but there is good ground for alarm, that when railroads
shall have intersected every part of the empire, the pro-
prietors of some of them, indulging in their morbid feel-
ings, may come to a resolution to stop all travelling on
their line.during the Sunday. When towards the close
of the last Session the Government claimed certain
privileges for the Post-office, some of the Railway
Companies resisted, on the ground that railways were
private property, and if the Legislature interfered with
their management in any way not warranted by the
original Acts, that the rights of property were gone.
The Government yielded for the time—hut what has
occurred since ?—and the bigotted notions which cer-
tain of these proprietors entertain respecting the ob-
servance of the Sabbath, will force Ministers to intro-
duce, without delay, some comprehensive measure
%chid' shall apply to all railroads. Most other Go-
vernments have provided amply for the security of the
public against railway monopolists, and we, therefore,
recommend to the attention of Ministers, and also to
some of these Companies, the regulations made by
what the Tories call the paternal Government of
Austria. By a late order of the Austrian
Government, projectors of railroads are allowed the
profits of the undertaking (not to exceed 15 per cent.)
for fifty years, and the line then reverts to the State.
The carriage of the mail is provided for, and in every
urchase or contract made by the proprietors, a Go-
% ernment Commissioner is a necessary party. Prussia
has also made provision for public convenience in a
similar spirit. The Government lately published forty-
iiine heads of regulations against speculation and job-
iing, and among other things it expressly provides
Lhat the State shall have the right, after thirty years, of
!;urchasing any particular line, on paying twenty-five
times the amount of the average annual dividend during
:he last five years of the thirty, and that three years
after a line is formed other Companies may acquire
Icon; the State the right of conveying passengers and
inerchandize by the same line, on paying the original
Company a fixed rate of compensation. The last
clause is not the least important, and declares that
:he law is applicable to all railioads made as well as
those to come.

Letters and papers from Madrid of the Bth instant
have reached us. After various ineffectual attempts to
form a Cabinet, the following appointments have been
made :
The Duke DE FRlAs—President of the Council.
General A LA IX—War.
Senor PITA PIZA RRO—Finance.
Senor VOLGORNERA—Grace and Justice.
Ruiz DE LA VEGA—lnterior.

It was doubted in Madrid whether such a Ministry
could maintain its position for a week. In our opinion
it cannot stand half that time. There is no fresh in-
telligence from the theatre of war.

By the arrival at Liverpool, on Saturday, of
the packet-ship Roscius, in nineteen days, from New
York, we have received a file of New York Papers to
the 27th ult. inclusive. The news they bring from
the Canadas is more interesting than important, ex-
cept in c 9 far as it tends to remove all apprehension
of any further sattempt of the rebels to take the field
this winter. It wii: be seen by a reference to our ex-
tracts from the New Yot'1:: Papers that M'KENZIE,
having utterly failed to get any
of success. number of vagabonds
t:o join the rebel standard in New
'ark, has removed
tits quarters to Washington, with still few:.
r chances
Such servants of the Government at-
tended the
meetings of the " sympathisers" have been
dismissed, by order
oefxPtinregsuidiseinletdV. AN BUREN. The
rebellion is virtually

By advices from Port oe7th instant, we
learn that the interior of that country continues in a
sad state of social disorganization and distraction.
Under the guise of Miguelites, bands of armed ruffians
continue to plunder the villages in every direction.

we have received the whole of the Paris Papers of
Friday and Saturday, in which we find no news of
general interest. They indulge in a variety of conjec-