The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROX THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.)
(From the Globe.)
The Scotsman, after citing our comments on state-
ments sent us by correspondents respecting Dr. Bow-
ring and the Kirkcaldy election, proceeds as follows :
" Our Contemporary has been deceived by his corre-
spondents ; and it is but justice to Dr. Bowring to
say that we aro able to contradict the statement on
good authority. We believe that Dr. Bowring never
met, or had any communication with Colonel Lind-
say. We are informed that the Doctor and his kr:-
mediate friends kept carefully aloof from intercourse
with the Tories, directly or indirectly, and did not know,
except from rumour, how they would vote." We have
already inserted Dr. Bowring's entire denial of the al-
leged " communications ;" and as we have not been
able to obtain from the source of the statements
we inserted any confirmation of them, we are bound
to believe we were misinformed, and ascribe the
misinformation to the natural readiness of parties
in election contests to accredit any rumours against.
their opponents. We arc certain that the supposed
facts were communicated in good faith to us ;
and they were not so unparalleled by those of some
other recent contests, as to stagger belief. We cannot,
however, hesitate to accept Dr. Bowring's word in the
matter, even without the corroboration of the Scotsman
and its informants. And in the same degree that we
regret having given too much credit to election-news
(which rarely deserve more than bulletins, and for
much the same reasons), we are glad to find that we
are not to rank Dr. Bowring, to that extent, am 000:
those who play a Tory game fir ostensibly Liberal
purposes.
_ _ _

(From the Standard.)
Lord Stanley's motion, relative to the detention of
Mr. M'Leod by the authorities of New York (tiled
for Monday), will involve the discussion of some of
the most important, and also some of the clearest
and best undzrstood principles of international law.
Mr. M'Leed, it is known, is a prisoner in the ;o°l
of Lockport, New York, awaiting his Wul upon a
charge of murder, said to have been committed its
the cutting out of the Caroline, when that piratical
vessel, employed by the pirates of Navy Island, was
seized by the British. The unfortunate gentleman,
who was Deputy-Sneriff of the Niagara district at the
tune of the pirate war in aid of the Canada rebellion,
was not concerned in the cutting out of the Caroline ;
but some Canadian traitors swear that he was ; and
convicted he will be, and executed as a felon he will be,
if the British Government do not vigorously interfere ;
perhaps, indeed, the interposition mty be even now too ,
late. This it is to have a weak and contemptible
Government. At what other period in English history
would any foreign State thus dare to outrage the law
of nations in the person of a British subject ? A
negotiation, it is true, has taken place upon the subject
of Mr. M'Leod's detention and danger, and the British
Minister has spoken with firmness and vigour ; but
what is the worth of negotiation which is not to be fol-
lowed by acts ? The insolent pettifogging of the United
States' Minister's reply is proof that he knows his men,
and that, however conclusively Mr. Fox may reason,
still the ruffians of New York are at liberty to hang
the Englishmen without fear of consequences.
What are Mr. Forsytl.'s arguments ? First, he says
that the affair rests altogether with the State of New
York—that the President has no power given him by
the American Constitution—to interpose between an
independent State of the Union and a f'oreig❑ Power.
Be it so. Then if New York provokes a quarrel
with Great Britain by an act of atrocious outrage,
' New York must fight her own battles. Will the
President consent to this ?—vvil he permit that as
New York will not account to him for its con-
duct, New York shall go to war without his aid ?
No. The law which gives to the Federal Govern-
ment the arrangement of all questions with foreigners
necessarily involves the absolute and exclusive jurisdic-
tion over cases like that of Mr. M'Leod, otherwise any
particular State might indulge itself in the most atrocious
aggressions, without the consent of the Fi deral Govern-
ment, and even against its will, but in full reliance upon
its support. Mankind could not long tolerate a pirati-
cal nuisance like this, and the only consolation would be
that it must soon fall to pieces by its own crimes. The
first principle of international law Is, that a State is to
protect those only whom it can control ; for it can be
justly responsible for the acts only of those whom it can
govern.

(From the Courier.)
Leave has been given, on the application of Mr.
Labouchere, to bring in a Bill for the further regulation
of raikays, as tending to the public safety. This Bill will
be founded on the paper which has been presented
to Parliament, signed by Mr. Porter, Sir F. Smith, and
Mr. Laing, who form the Railway department of the
Board of Trade, to execute the provisions of Lord Sey-
mour's Act. This document is well calculated to impress
Members with the necessity of a new Bill ; and we can
have little doubt but that a large majority of the House
will be prepared to concur in whatever the Government
proposes nn this subject. In the recommendations from
the Itailvray Department, the whole are drawn up so
cautiously, that we have some chffieulty in ascertaining
whether the intention be as advice to the Companies to
save the necessity of legislation, or for insinuating
Government interfl:rence in the most trifling and mi-
nute details. It certainly will be the fault of the
Directors themselves if they allow the experience they
have so lately received to pass unheeded, and without
making such provision for the general conduct of their
lines and the safety of the public, as to render practi-
cally all powers of correction a dead letter. At
the same time, as no exertion on their parts will pre-
vent a Bill of the sort from passing through Parlia-
ment, our advice would be for each Company to send
to the Committee appointed at the Birmingham Con-
ference their opinions in writing on the different clauses
of the Bill, a copy of which will be forwarded to each
of them, so scon as it is printed, and leave the interests
of the t ailways generally to their discretion. As the
Bill is at present proposed, some of the clauses seem
objectionable ; but they will best be met by the con•
centrated opposition of the Committee, aided, if need
be, by the general force of the whole of the railway
interest.

ONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

(FRIDAY EVENING.)
HERA LD.—The Funds arc still drooping, and Con-
sols deciined again to-day, the closing prices being 88i to
89 for Account, and 88i to 4 for Money. The causes as-
signed for the heavy state of the Market to-day were the
confirmation of the unpropitious news in respect of bank-
ing affairs in the United States, as to the United States
Bank at least, and the reported unf9vuurable complexioo
of the estimate which it was expected would be laid before
the House of Commons this evening. It may however be
doubted if the cause do not lie deeper t ban what is here
assigned.

The papers from the United States brought by the
Cambridge were delivered to-day. They contain the ex-
pected statement of the affairs of the United States
Bank, as laid before the Shareholders at the annual
meeting on the 4th ultimo in Philadelphia. This do-
cument is undoubtedly of unusual interev, and m,re-
over of unusual clearness and honesty, although there
are still points of great importance which require to
be made plainer before the real state of the ease can
ever yet be understood. It has been objected here-
tofore on occasion of similar documents, for instance that
the bill account has been presented as a whole, and with-
out classification, as if all good and available. This was
clearly deceptious, and something worse, it' done with an
intent. The fact is proved in the present instance', fur
this account is now separated into two parts, from the ex-
amination of which a vast amount of loss is at once appa-
rent in this single branch alone. The case, it may be ap-
prehended, would be worse still if the bill account had
been classified, as it ought to be, into three parts, instead
of two ; that is, if it had shown not only the " suspended"
bill account, but bad distinguished in the statement of
" active" bills, such proportion of these as were bills re-
newed, and therefore doubtful, from those which were bills
in the regular course of discount and good, Taking the
account as it stands the fcllowing results appear. The first
item of the assets consists of active bills discounted, as-
sumed as good thus:
Total Active
Suspended Bills
eseecurinitsi
It is evident that these " suspended" bills should be es-
timated totalraestpoansiblef
olorssw,
haicsh
Gaveconsisting
lonz of
bn oeslvetnhte
parties ,
and therefore the recovery of the amounts past hope.
The Committee of Inspection appointed at the meet-
ing of stockholders estimate the whole probable losss
upon the " suspended" bill debt and real estate at
something less than 5,000,000 dollars, but upon what
foundation does not appear. For there can be little
doubt, as before said, that the whole 9,799,800 dol-
lars of suspended bills are irrecoverably bad. Of the
" active" bills there will most probably be no incon.
siderable proportion in the shape of renewed bills of no
greater value. The bill account, now certainly stated
with a better approach to precision, but still not suffi-
ciently explicit, has, it will not be forgotten, always been
viewed as a peculiar feature in the bank's accounts most
liable to suspicion, and the event has not only amply justi-
fied the suspicions expressed but leaves doubts behind yet
unexplained. Taking the case as it stands, in this single
bill account an actual amount of loss is exhibited more
than equal to one-fourth of the 35,000,000 dollars, consti-
tuting the original capital of the bank. The consideration
of this fact is quite sufficient to account for the heavy de-
preciation in bank shares immediately consequent on the
publication of the bank report in New York and Philadel-
phia, and before noticed in the scanty advices which came
to hand from the Cambridge when weather bound off Cork.
The consideration of the other portion of this bank state-
ment must be postponed for the present, but will be re-
sumed on another occasion.

SEVEN LIVES LOST.—On the night of Wed-
nesday se'nnight, a boat, with a crew of eight men, left the
shore at Lacken to fish for herrings. Having been very
successful, the unfortunate men were returning about eight
o'clock, when, at the distance cf a hundred yards from the
shore, a wave broke over the boat, which instantly filled
and sunk. Of the eight men who were in it, only one
escaped, hiving Seized an oar, and being a good swimmer,
The expressions of grief uttered by one woman in parti.
cular were truly heartrending she bad to lament the
death of a husband, a fatime, and a brother.—lllayo Con-
stitution.