The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-28 00:00:00

published till after the Report of the Committee.
Several Members spoke on this suggestion, and
all agreed that libellous petitions were
frequently presented to the House, wits a view
to have them printed. In general, it Aremed to
be agreed that every Member should use his
own discretion about moving for the printing
of petitions, and the usual Sessional Order was
passed without alteration.

We should apprehend that in the eye of the
law the sending a libellous petition to the House
of Commons was equivalent to a publication,
and we cannot see what useful privilege would be
violated, by making the parties who send such
petitions, whether printed or not, responsible to
the law for their contents. Why should the
House of Commons throw its shield over a
slanderer ? If individuals were as liable to prose-
cution,for publishing libels in that mode as pub-
lishing them in any other, they would soon be
cautious, and the House of Commons would not
be insulted by being made the instrument for
disseminating libels on private character.
Mr. BROTHERTON moved his usual resolution,
that no new business, objected to by five Mem-
bers, should be brought on after twelve o'clock.

Mr. EWART and Mr. O'CONNELL supported
the motion. Lord JOHN RUSSELL opposed it.
Mr. HUME suggested that no debate should be
adjourned more than one day. On a division,
Mr. BROTHERTON'S motion was lost by 130 to
31. We can believe that such an order might
be at times an inconvenience, but the public will
expect that laws should not be made when ho-
nest men are asleep.

Mr. EWART supplied the public with another
example of the purity of those who are to make
all others pure, by pointing out that Members
who had local interests were placed on all Colin-
mittees on private Bills, so that the Committees
were divided into partizans, and contests were
prolonged greatly to the injury of the petition-
ing parties. If the Committees were properly
constituted, it is the opinion of a skilful Parlia-
mentary agent, a bad cause would be frequently
dropped. To remedy the evil, Mr. EWART pro-
posed that the Committee of Selection should
choose the Members of Committees amongst
those Gentlemen who were personally and lo-
cally the least interested.
Sir G. GREY, Mr. LABOUCHERE, and others,
hoped the Hon. Member would not press his mo-
tion to a division, and would wait to see the re-
sult of an improvement already made.
Mr. GOULBURN denied that Committees were
purely judicial tribunals, and advocated the prin-
ciple of composing them of Members locally
interested.

Mr. AGLIONBY, Mr. WARBURTON, Mr. HUME,
and others, supported the motion, which, on a
division, was lost by 22 to 24, and the Commit-
tees are to be composed, as heretofore, of local
jobbers.

Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD moved for leave to
bring in a Bill to amend the law of Copyright;
but Mr. WARBURTON strenuously opposing the
motion, the Hon. and Learned Gentleman post-
poned it to Friday.

Mr. HoDGEs obtained leave to bring in a Bill
for the better regulation of the Constabulary in
England and Wales.

At Eight o'clock the. House adjourned.

There was one very remarkable, and for us ex-
emely pleasant,feature manifested in the debate
on Tuesday evening to which we must call public
attention. Lord BROUGHAM spoke of the French
being "jealous of honour, sudden and quick in
quarrel," prone to take offence, and he made
their disposition_ a ground for framing and adapt-
ing to it the policy of England. Viscount MEL-
BOURNE alluded also to their sensitiveness, and
no doubt regarded it as a reason for caution,
though he said it was not to dictate the policy of
other nations. The Duke of WELLINGTON pro-
fessed the greatest respect for France, and de-
clared that he had done more than any man to
sustain her honour and integrity, and keep her
in her place in the councils of Europe. That
Mr. GROTE and Mr. HUME should refer
to the feelings of the French as an ele-
ment worthy of consideration in our na-
tional policy, is not to be wondered at;
but they professed not a greater deference to
those feelings than Sir ROBERT PEEL, whose
chief cause for blaming the Ministers was, that
they had not sufficiently considered nor con-
sulted the feelings of the French. Now, this al-
most universal deference in Parliament to the
feelings of a foreign nation, as an important
element in national policy, strikes us as some-
thing novel, and certainly it is for us something
very pleasing.
But if so much deference is to be paid to the
feelings of the French,—if their sensitiveness to
insult, their love of honour, their spirit of inde-
pendence are to be so much attended to,—if
Tory statesmen profess that, why are the feel-
ings of the people of England and Ire-
land to be set at nought and outraged
by Tory statesmen,
,as if they were so
many dogs? Their policy proceeds on the prin-
ciple of disregarding the feelings of our people,
and of coercing them into submission. They
profess not to take them into account. They
will not assist the Grand Turk against a vassal
without the greatest precaution, lest the feelings
of the French be hurt ; but they will exclude
millions from the franchise in England and Ire-
land, and vex those they admit to it by new re-
gistration laws, in open and avowed defiance of
the feelings of the people of England and
Ireland. Abroad they consult the feelings of the
people in their policy ; at home they despise
them, and claim• great credit to themselves for
magnanimity in doing so.
What is the source of this difference ? Is it
that our statesmen regard the French as a nation
on an equality with them, which they know they
cannot and dare not outrage with impunity,
while they regard the people of England and
Ireland as servants, or slaves, whom they
may treat in any manner which suits their pur-
poses or their policy? We know no othersolution
of the difficulty. And hence your Sir ROBERT
INGLISES, your Lord STANLEYS, and the whole
rabble of ultra-Protestant, and ultra-coercive le-
gislators, pursue their own peculiar policy, ut-
terly regardless of the feelings of the Irish
Catholics, the English Dissenters, and the great
bulk of the working classes. Indignant remon-
strances, or humble petitions, alike go for nothing;
because the religious and political tyrants of the
people, enshrouded in a kind of prescriptive sanc-
tity, know, or fancy, that the irritated multitude
will not strike at them, while they do know that the
French, having no respect for them, will take no
insult at their hands, and will pay injury with in-
Jury, and outrage with outrage. The gentlemen
who rely on the forbearance of the people to
make in security the iniquitous laws which serve
their own narrow and selfish party purposes,
seem, then, to be cowardly as well as tyrannical,
and only strike, and only plunder, where they feel
confident they will meet with no resistance.
Marking these things, we are not surprised
that Mr. O'CoNsELL—though we do not approve
of his policy—should stir up his countrymen to
agitate for a repeal of the Union, that they may,
like the French, have an independent national
existence, be treated on an equality, and be
saved from the insults and the injuries which
are now heaped on them by Protestant legis-
lators in the name of religion, and by despotic
politicians in the name of the public welfare.
Neither are we surprised that the working classes
or the Chartists require a Parliament of their
own. If theyeannot be protected from a wrong
by an independent national existence, with
which' to confront the aristocracy, it seems na-
iteucrtatlothina
jtutriheesy shoulda n d ns
tssh
dnr
eos
s ed longerup into
tbhee s us
ob-
..
lemn warb of lersHatioi,

The whole of the
Sudi a diserepauey strepgthens le;:qson 1110-e reached us.
which similar events have long impressed on the I the jourhati3 oil the
people. Those who submit to injury will tion of forged letter
always be trampled on; those who repel the French. These

it will have their rights respected. If th(
Irish mean to enforce on the Protestant ma-
jority of the House of Commons a respect foi
their rights, and mean to. scare my Lord STAN-
LEY, Mr. EMERSON TENNENT, and Co. from in-
flicting a wrong on them by means of an insi-
dious enactment, they must use strong lan-
guage, and give them to understand that th(
Irish are no more to be insulted and injured foi
the sake ofa Protestant policy than the Frencl
for the sak6 of a Turkish policy. If the workinE
classes or Chartists desire to make the bread-
taxing aristocracy abstain from plundering them
they must convince the aristocracy that thei,
feelings and their rights must be respected lik(
those of the gentlemen on the other side of the
Channel. It is impossible for our statesmen tt,
profess respect for the feelings of the French, and
go on despising those of the Irish, and tramplin&
those of the English regardlessly under foot.

With Marshal SOULT'S Fortifications' Bill or
the table of the Chamber of Deputies, the ex-
Ministers can safely taunt the opponents of tha.
arbitrary and, to liberal France, ruinous mea-
sure, with not proceeding against them by im-
peachinent. As was well observed by M. DI.
LASIARTINE, in the debate on Thursday, SOULT't
Bill is a bill of indemnity for the Cabinet of the
Ist of March. Not that we for an instant sup-
pose that, had the illustrious Marshal not brought
forward his Bill, an impeachment of M. TRIER:,
and his colleagues could be successfully moved
in the Chamber of Deputies. The popular and
monarchical rage for walls is too strong for even
the attempt to be made with impunity. So tho-
roughly has M. THIERS succeeded in mystifying
and deluding the bulk of the French people, that.
forgetful of every lesson which history has taught
them, and blind to the most glaring consequences
of an adherence to the system which they arE
now supporting, they really feel persuaded that
nothing but walls can save France from danger:
which neither exist, nor can exist, save in the
crazed imaginations of a people drunk with poli-
tical excitement. France will yet wake to a so-
ber sense of what she will have to expect from
the fortification of the capital ; but we much fear
it will only be when her ears are saluted with the
bursting of shells in the faubourgs of Paris.
Then indeed will she learn the value of the le-
gacy which M. TRIERS has left her. Then will she
be in a condition to judge of the profundity
of his Oriental policy; if, indeed, his Oriental
policy was not from the commencement a
maturely designed prelude to the fortification
of the capital. More than once has this idea
occurred to us, nor on examination will it ap-
pear so improbable as at a first glance it may
seem to many of our readers. The fortifications
of Paris has been one of the darling objects of
Louis PHILIPPE'S policy since his accession to
the throne. The works would have been begun
on an extensive scale in 1832 had not the people
appeared alarmed at the prospect of the esta_
blishment of a military despotism. A pretext
Was wanted to undertake them with the po-
pular sympathies enlisted in their favour, and M.
THIERS, by a course of trickery on the Oriental
question, has produced it. By first isolating
France, he made her appear as insulted in

the eyes of unreflecting Frenchmen; and by
next raising immense armaments, or rather
pretending to raise them, he compelled the
States threatened by him to arm in self-defence,
and thus produced in France the impression that
the country was threatened by a coalition as
powerful and as hostile to France as that
which broke the imperial sceptre of NAPOLEON.
When the public alarm was at its height, he sud-
denly dropped his bullying menaces about
marching on the Rhine, and all at once brought
forward his plan for fortifying Paris. A general
shout for walls and fortresses followed, and by
his manoeuvring he has contrived to keep up the
popular excitement.

But if anything could immediately open the
eyes of the French people to the real object of
the fortification of the capital, it would be the
speech delivered to the Chambers on Friday by
Marshal SCULT. The gallant Marshal declared
frankly that it was detached forts, not walls, that
he wanted ; but that rather than lose the forts
he would take them cumbered with the wallt•
The walls are useless in a struggle between the
Government and the Parisian mobs, and there-
fore the Marshal cares nothing about them. On
this occasion the gallant Marshal's precipitancy
well nigh ruined the schemes of the ex-President
of the Council. M. TRIERS became alarmed that
the truth would out ; the gallant Marshal was
again brought before the Committee which had
sanctioned the Report upon which the Bill was
based, and when properly schooled in his part, M.
TRIERS announced in his name that the walls
would materially add to the security of Paris.
The Marshal has a little too much of the honest
frankness of a soldier about him to be altogether
left to himself in the management of such a deep-
laid plot against liberty. But in M. TRIERS he
finds a prompter of whom Satan himself might
be proud.

We greatly regret the omission of any allusion
to our relations with France in her MAJESTY'S
Speech from the Throne. Our Government is
not unacquainted with the indignation excited in
France by such silence on two former occasions.
If the navigation of the Douro was deemed of
sufficient importance to occupy a paragraph in
the Speech, an equal extent of space might at
least have been allowed to the expression of
regret that France did not concur in our Levan-
tine policy, but that relying upon the justice and
the moderation of the French KING and Cabinet,
her MAJESTY felt confident that the peace /of
Europe would not be disturbed, and that, after
the execution of the Treaty of July, the Govern-
ment would not be wanting in the support of any
measures likely to increase the harmony between
England and France. Such a paragraph would
add greatly to the strength of M. GUIZOT and
the peace party, and go far towards softening the
feeling of acerbity which exists in the popular
mind of France against England.

The last Report made by the Directors of the
London and Brighton Railway, together with
the explanations made by Mr. HARMAN', the
Chairman, give a favourable view of the progress

and cost of this important line. The works have
been carried on with such spirit and success that
the line to Hayward's Heath will be opened by
Midsummer, and throughout the whole extent
by the following Autumn. It is satisfactory also
to find that the money required to complete the
works will not be more than two-thirds of the
sum anticipated at the last meeting, namely,
400,0001., in place of 600,000/. The Company,
on the opening of the line, will start eighty car-

riages, with twenty-two engines, and at the same
time be prepared to lay down more if wanted to
accommodate the numerous visitors that will
flock to this favourite watering-place, not only
from London, but from the heart of the king-
dom. A journey from Birmingham to Brighton
may then be accomplished in about the time now
occupied in going from London, and, consider-
ing the vast population residing in the interior of
the country, within the same distance, it may be
safely calculated that the traffic in that direction
will be greatly increased. We confidently trust
the misunderstanding with Mr. GOLDSMID, as to
the Shoreham Line, will be arranged without

legal proceedings, as we cannot see on what
principle of equity or justice, he can come for-
ward and object to any species of traffic what-
ever, after the price for the site of the station
had been accepted. He might as well make an
exception to Chartists, Repealers,
or any political
or religious sect not of his way of thinking, pa&-
ing near his property.

French Journals of Tties(lav
['hey notice the seizure of
previous day for the publiea-
s attributed to the King of
J9Uniab will. be prosecuted,