The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EV',

In regard to the other topic, the moral character of
the mariner, it is a painful truth that nothing can be
more demoralized than the general condition of the
whaling crews. Constantly upon the seas, and at im-
measurable distances from their native land, they are
bereft of every feeling of patriotism, and are as easily
susceptible of being profitably hired to engage in
hostilities against their own country, as they are of
being employed to defend it. They may he said to
be without a home. Their entire lives are consumed
without being sweetened by any domestic or endear-
ing ties, which tend to develope the best affections
, and elevate the character of man. Whereas, if a
maritime homestead, as it were, were created for
them in the South Pacific Ocean, whence they might
make short voyages in search of the whales, and re-
turn to it with their produce, to be thence exported,
as from a central depot, to the various countries
requiring the same, they would find themselves sur-
rounded by their families, interested in all that
sweetens life, and identified with a civilised and well-
regulated community. Education would be bestowed
upon their offspring, and in a few years we should
find ourselves possessed of a numerous, hardy, and
moral body of seamen, in the place of the wild race
by which the ships of the British whale fisheries are
at present infested.

Madrid papers of the 28th ult. hare arrived. The fol-
lowing is stated to be the list of the New Ministry which
has been laid before her MAJESTY by the Marquis of
GIRONA (CASTRO Y OROSICO) :—The Duke Of SOTO..
MAYOR, Foreign Affairs ; BRAVO MURILLO, Justice;
SaLrea, Interior ; ROCA DE FOQUES, Public Instruction ;
SANTILLANE, Finance; MANSO, War, and BALDASANO,
Marine. Nothing, however, had been officially an..
flounced on the subject.

MADRID BoLsA, JAN. 28.—The Three per Cents.
closed on that day at 32f, the Tire per Cents. at 20i, the
Coupons at 18k.

We have received the Paris papers of Wednesday.
The debate on the Spanish marriage question was
brought to a sudden conclusion on Tuesday by a most
remarkable declaration on the part of M. Guxzerr. At
the conclusion of the speech of M. CRESSIEUI, M.
GuizoT, from his place, said that, " taking into con-
sideration the friendly disposition towards France lately
manifested by certain members of the English Parlia-
ment, alike eminent from their position and their elo-
quence, he could not think of risking any expression
that might tend to weaken that feeling, and, in con-
sequence, he should refrain from entering into any ex-
planations on the subject ;" whereupon TeL DU/AUKS
proposed tire amendment of which he had given notice,
rso.hich was treated by the Minister as a vote of want of
confidence, and, on a division, negatived by a majority
of 242 to 28. This extraordinary conduct on the part
of M. GulzoT is the subject of comment in all the
journals and in all the salons. The Slide says—
" This is a strange denouement, after so much swaggering.
It is a strange denouement, after the speech so recently pro-
nounced in the Chamber of Peers, and stranger still, if we
compare it with the declaration made by M. Guizot on Mon-
day. Then the scruples which restrained the Chamber, at
the moment when it had to manifest its firm confidence as to
the maintenance of peace, were in the eyes of M. Guizot
natural and respectable. But these scruples, he said, would
be removed after his explanations on two grave questions,
which were to be, and should be, discussed. Yesterday he
was quite as emphatic in announcing that he should hold
his tongue. Be it so ; ne sous genes pas, Minister of a
variable but ever grand policy ; your majority will not the
lees vote in your favour. It has, in fact, voted without re-
ceiving your promised explanations."
The Constitutionnel has the following observations on
the line of conduct pursued by M. GUIZOT:—
"M. Guizot, on Monday, promised full and complete ex-
planations on the affair of the Spanish marriages ; he felt,
he said, that the Chamber required the whole of the ques-
tions arising out of them to be discussed before it, in order
that it might be fully acquainted with the matter before voting
upon the paragraph relating to them. Yesterday, M. Guizot,
pressed by several members to give the explanations which
he had acknowledged to be necessary, refused at once to enter
upon the debate. He demanded grace from the Chamber
and from the British Parliament, and, quitting his high tone,
entreated a universal silence. This prayer of the Minister
proved clearly that he had not a word to say either in justi-
fication of his own conduct, or in exposition of the political
principles by which he had been guided in the affair of
the marriages, without adding to all the causes of discontent
and irritation already existing between France and England.
In presence of accusations so serious, which the simple
Perusal of the British documenti casts with so much weight
upon our Cabinet, to be silent is to make confession. Thus
our men who were so triumphant shrink back and hide
themselves, the Ministerial Marseillaiss is no longer sung;
they admit that they are a public danger, and beg to be for-
gotten from fear of aggravating, by their coming forward,
the present state of things, and rendering France still more
profoundly isolated. They make the best escape they can.
God grant that this humble silence may bear some fruits,and
that the durable diasention between the two Governments
may not bring some new check to the honour of France or
to the cause of liberty."

The quid xuncs of the political salons thus account
for this remarkable change of conduct on the part of the
Minister for Foreign Affairs. They say that the KING
sent for M. THIERB on Friday, and requested, as a per-
sonal favour of him, that he would not attack M. GulzoT
on the subject of the Montpensier marriages in the
Chamber. After much pressing, M. TRIERS promised
that if M. GIIIZOT would abstain from delivering in the
Chamber of Deputies the gunpowder oration which he
had delivered in the Chamber of Peers, he (M. Tunas)
would a►stain from speaking on the subject, but he added,
that if M. GulzoT repeated the oration, be should feel it
to be his duty to reply. The conditions were agreed to,
aid the KING, who bad previously severely blamed M.
GnizoT for delivering a speech of such an inflammatory
character before the Chamber of Peers, sent for M.
GcrizoT, and advised him not to speak at all. Hence
the violation on the part of M. Guizor of the pledge
which he had given to the Chamber on Monday to de-
fend fully and satisfactorily his conduct throughout the
negotiations of the Spanish marriages—hence the silence
of the two great orators of the Chamber, MM. GUIZOT
and THIXRS.

The Gazette des Trilunaux has the following on the
subject of the arrests which hare recently taken place
. .... .

in Paris :

" For some days past a vague rumour has been afloat of
arrests having taken place which were suggested by political
considerations. Several names were mentioned which had
been already heard during former trials of the Republican
party. From the information we have procured it appears
that fifteen persons belonging to that fraction of the Repub-
lican party whose understanding has been perverted by Com-
muniste writings, have been arrested on serious charges.
These individuals formed part of t 'Society of Materialists.'
Their object was to carry into effect the principles avowed
in their writings, in which it is proclaimed that all property
is ' the fruit of robbery!' Several of the parties arrested are
accused of theft, and even of more heinous crimes. One of
them, judging his position to be desperate, blew out his
brains at the Prefecture of Police with a pistol which he had
concealed."

A fall in the price of flour took place in the Paris
markets on Tuesday. The average price of the quintal,
which had been 62f. during some days, decreased to
59f. 80c, The stock in the Halle, which a month ago
was only 9,000 quintals, had augmented to 21,777 me-
trical quintals, or 2,177,700 kilogrammes."
The Moniteur announces that the price of wheat had
likewise diminished in several markets from which
Paris derives its supplies. At Chartres, the .diminu•

of the rapid diminution of the British trade have been
indicated with ability by Mr. ENDERBY in his well-
digested pamphlet upon this subject. Apart from this
gentleman's great experience in everything connected
with cetaceous fisheries, we have a somewhat sub-
stantial proof of his competency to form a sound
judgment as to the best mode in which we may re-
sume our superiority in the whaling trade, in the
fact, that the Government have granted to him
and his brothers the Auckland Isles, com-
prising 100,000 acres, which are considered
to be admirably adapted as a central dep6t
for reviving and extending our commerce in whales.
One reason why this trade has been found to be so
precarious as to damp the energies of enterprising
capitalists is the disposition of the whale to migrate.
The monarch of the sea is wild and shy in its na-
ture, and, when disturbed in its accustomed haunt
resorts to distant localities to avoid human pursuit.
Hence it has been ascertained that the efforts of pri-
vate individuals are inadequate for the successful pro-
secution of the trade, in consequence of the number
'of ships requisite to visit the different quarters fre-
quented by the whale, in order that an unprofitable
cruise in one direction may be counterbalanced by a
successful one in another. A system of averages is
the keystone to the stability of this, as of every other
species of trade.

But, setting aside these, and the like interesting
aliments of reflection, and also the national import-
ance of rearing nurseries for hardy mariners, on which
we have formerly expatiated, there are other consi-
derations of incidental and essential interest, which
ought to claim an undivided attention. Of these,
colonisation is one, and the morality of the intrepid
seaman is another. Touching the former, it
is obvious that, with the redundant popula-
tion we possess, we cannot do better than
to stimulate emigration, to every part of the world
where new and prosperous channels of trade can be
legitimately opened. The reciprocal
,benefits which
are felt by the new settlements and the mother-coun-
try, wherever emigration has been judiciously encou-
raged, are too notorious to require more than a
cursory obetr►ation.